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British History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

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Factual: History

How British history is a concoction of stories manipulated by whoever was in power.

Lucy Worsley explores how British history is a concoction of fibs and stories manipulated by whoever was in power at the time.

Series 1

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Until 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales (analogue) was known simply as BBC Two Wales. BBC Two Wales (digital) was BBC 2W. From 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales schedules on both analogue and digital became identical

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Lucy Worsley

Eleanor Scoones

Nick Gillam-Smith

Chris Granlund

British History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley: Series 1: Episode 1: The Wars of the Roses

The Wars of the Roses

Episode 1

Episode 1: The Wars of the Roses

BBC Four - British History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley, Series 1, The Wars of the Roses

Lucy debunks the foundation myth of one of our favourite royal dynasties, the Tudors.

Lucy explores British history as a concoction of fibs and stories manipulated by whoever was in power. This episode debunks the foundation myth of the Tudors.

Lucy debunks the foundation myth of one of our favourite royal dynasties, the Tudors.
 
According to the history books, after 30 years of bloody battles between the white-rosed Yorkists and the red-rosed Lancastrians, Henry Tudor rid us of civil war and the evil king Richard III. But Lucy reveals how the Tudors invented the story of the 'Wars of the Roses' after they came to power to justify their rule.
 
She shows how Henry and his historians fabricated the scale of the conflict, forged Richard's monstrous persona and even conjured up the image of competing roses. When our greatest storyteller William Shakespeare got in on the act and added his own spin, Tudor fiction was cemented as historical fact.
 
Taking the story right up to date, with the discovery of Richard III's bones in a Leicester car park, Lucy discovers how 15th-century fibs remain as compelling as they were over 500 years ago.  As one colleague tells Lucy: 'Never believe an historian!

British History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley: Series 1

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British History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley

Series 1

Episode 1: The Wars of the Roses

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