Bloody Foreigners

Nelson famously signalled the Battle of Trafalgar with the words: 'England expects that every man will do his duty'. But of the 18,000 sailors fighting for King and Country, 1,400 were not British, with 25 different nationalities in all press-ganged into serving the British King. By analysing the records of warship HMS Bellerophon, this fresh and action-packed account of the famous day reveals their fascinating story. Documentary evidence proves the Navy recruited hundreds of black sailors, many of them ex-slaves from the West Indies and America. For many, the Royal Navy was the world's first equal opportunities employer, offering freedom, equal pay, and the chance for life-changing promotion.

This dramatised documentary recounts how, during the most decisive phase of the Battle of the Britain, a single squadron of 34 Polish fighter pilots wreaked havoc on the Luftwaffe, in the process helping to change the course of history and overturning RAF prejudices. From 303 Squadron's bitter struggle for acceptance when they first arrived in the UK, to the crucial part they played in averting the German invasion, and their ultimate betrayal by the Allies, this unknown story is one of the most extraordinary episodes of World War II. Based on a diary kept by the pilots of the squadron, it is a story of increasing frustration on the part of the Poles who had already fought the Luftwaffe and now found themselves having to learn English and the RAF way of doing things.

Everyone knows that the Great Fire of London started at a baker's in Pudding Lane; that it was a terrible accident; and that hardly anyone died. However, many Londoners, reeling from plague and war, and torn apart by sectarian tensions, believed that the fire had been started deliberately by a foreign enemy living within their midst. And they wanted to make sure a foreigner would pay for this crime of the century. For several apocalyptic days and nights, as the city burned, Londoners hunted the foreign fire-starters. The first target was the Dutch, whose cities, navy and empire Britain coveted; the second was the French, our fundamentalist religious enemies. After an orgy of rage and violence, cosmopolitan London had found its incendiary alien - a Frenchman who claimed to have committed this act of terror - and from whom the mob would, quite literally, demand their pound of flesh. But many were left wondering whether the real horrors had been committed by Londoners themselves.

In a mountainous land, at the limit of its influence, the world's only superpower gets bogged down in an asymmetric war against a deadly insurgency. It sounds like a familiar story, but this is history from almost 2,000 years ago. Brought to life with animated sequences based on contemporary Roman sources, this is the extraordinary story of a very bloody foreigner: the little-known Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, an African who seized Rome's Imperial throne in a vicious civil war and then fought a brutal campaign in Britain, transforming the country in his wake. In 207AD, Britain was just a far outpost of the mighty Roman Empire with the north holding out. With a vast army, Severus marched over Hadrian's Wall. Using guerrilla tactics, the Britons attacked isolated Roman patrols, and then melted into the mountains.