An entertaining, shocking and immersive factual series exploring the extraordinary history of our beliefs
Officially we have been Christian for more than 1500 years. But scratch the surface and you’ll find our ancestors believed in far more than Christ and the cross. From kings to commoners, they believed gods, witches, sprites, demons, and evil spirits were all indisputably real — and could intervene in their daily lives with devastating results. This is an relatively unexplored aspect of our past yet it’s crucial to our understanding of life in previous centuries. In this series Tony Robinson delves back through 2,000 years of history to investigate the beliefs of our ancestors. From the brutal human sacrifices of Iron Age Britain, through the stomach–churning supernatural medicine of the middle ages, to the horrifying witch–hunts and exorcisms of the 16th and 17th centuries (and beyond), Tony’s remarkable journey takes him to some of the darkest moments in our past. Each programme follows Tony on a quest to understand a particular belief or superstition. What did people believe? Why did they believe it? And what impact did that belief have, not just on their daily lives, but on the course of history?
