Neil Oliver: News, Interviews, History

Latest Episodes:

73 Discovering Dinosaurs, The Jurassic Coast, Dorset Oct 11, 2021

Show notes

In this episode Neil travels to the breathtakingly picturesque seaside side town of Lyme Regis. Sitting on the rugged Jurassic Coast the town was home to a determined, fearless woman called Mary Anning who battled the convention of the day to stake her claim in scientific history. The Jurassic coast is famous for fossil dinosaurs, Ichthyosaurs, Ammonites, Belemnites, and plesiosaurus. Often working in foul weather and precarious locations Mary was a fossil hunter extraordinaire whose great skill and formidable intelligence helped further the scientific understanding of the time.

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72 The Bronte Sisters, Haworth, Yorkshire Oct 04, 2021

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In this episode Neil strides across the beguilingly beautiful, wild Yorkshire moors to meet three sisters whose brilliance would shape and change the world of literature.

Tough, strong-willed survivors, the Bronte sisters laid bare the crippling social conventions of the day with perfect prose. Their own lives were edged with hardship and tragedy, but their imaginations, stubborn genius and dazzling creativity lit up the world. The episode is from the Bronte parsonage in Haworth, west Yorkshire.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

New Videos Every Week plus an archive packed full of History, Comment & Current Affairs.

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Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter

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Neil Oliver YouTube Channel

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71. Saving Lives at Sea, Smalls Lighthouse, Pembrokeshire Sep 27, 2021

Show notes

This week Neil spends time on one of the most notorious lighthouses in the world – a place with a profound sense of isolation and a dark history.

The British Isles are home to an island race, and to survive and thrive its people have depended on a mastery of the seaways and protection from its dangerous coasts. Ever since King Henry VIII Britain have made lighthouses their own. Dotted around the coastline these engineering marvels have become part of the landscape, sentinels and beacons of hope.

In this episode Neil weaves the history of lighthouses, the story of the courageous lighthouse keepers who protect lives at sea, with the tragic events that took place on Smalls Lighthouse, off the Pembrokeshire coast.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

New Videos Every Week and an archive packed full of history, comment and current affairs films.

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Neil Oliver YouTube Channel

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70 Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar, HMS Victory, Portsmouth Sep 20, 2021

Show notes

In this episode we’re stepping aboard a legend. A ship built from 6,000 trees, 27 miles of rigging and 4 acres of sail. She fought in the American and French Revolutionary Wars and came to symbolise the Britain’s dominance of the world-ocean as she battled to keep them free. But it was in 1805, with Admiral Nelson at the helm, that she sailed into the history books. With her 104 guns fully loaded and at the ready she led the Royal Navy into action at the world defining Battle of Trafalgar.

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69 Admiral Nelson, Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk. Sep 13, 2021

Show notes

In this episode we’re walking with a hero of mine, Admiral Nelson – a man with a life full of high drama and adventure, violence and great passion.

He was born near the North Norfolk coast in 1758, in the sleepy village of Burnham Thorpe. His father was the local parson and at the ripe old age of 12 he set off to join the Royal Navy and sail the world’s oceans.

Horatio Nelson was an ambitious and fearless naval commander always in the tick of the action; he lost his right eye during the siege of Calvi on Corsica, and the use of his right arm three years later at the battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. A master of naval warfare, back on dry land he was swept up by a grand romance to Lady Emma Hamilton before sailing to his most famous victory at the battle Trafalgar in 1805.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

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Neil’s Patreon site is packed full of history, comment and current affairs videos.

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

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68. The Highland Clearances, Bettyhill, Sutherland Sep 06, 2021

Show notes

In this episode Neil takes us on an emotional journey that affected hundreds of thousands of people and systematically destroyed an ancient way of life – the Highland Clearances. Driven by greed the aristocratic landowners brutally cleared people from what they claimed as their land and replaced them with sheep in one of the biggest mass movements of people in all of British history.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

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Neil’s Patreon site is packed full of history, comment and current affairs

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

YouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g

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67. Abolition of Slavery, Kingston upon Hull Aug 30, 2021

Show notes

In this episode Neil takes us to walk side by side with William Wilberforce, one of the unwavering bright lights who stove to abolish slavery in the British empire.

Nations throughout history have plagued the world with this abhorrent trade, but the British took it to another level in the C18th, growing fat on the colossal profits to be made from African slaves. As opposition to slavery in this country grew immensely powerful forces battled tooth and nail to defend the trade and the riches it brought them. Amongst the people who fought to end this abhorrent practice was the tireless Member of Parliament for Hull, William Wilberforce.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

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Neil’s Patreon site is pack full of history, comment and current affairs

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

YouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g

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66. The Last invasion of Britain, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire Aug 23, 2021

Show notes

In this episode we join Neil in1796 as a heavily armed French invasion fleet is spotted off Fishguard in south-west Wales.

Seven years earlier revolution had swept across France. Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and a great swath of the French aristocracy found themselves on the sharp end of the guillotine. Europe’s royalty reeled in horror and Britain and others sent forces to try and crush the new French Republic. Now in a well-planned and heavily armed, three-pronged attack France strikes back as soldiers of the Black legion land at Carregwastad Point in what is the last invasion of Britain

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

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Neil’s Patreon site is pack full of history, comment and current affairs

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

YouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g

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65. The Tobacco Lords & the Slave Trade, Merchant City, Glasgow Aug 16, 2021

Show notes

In this episode Neil takes us on a very personal journey around his old stomping ground, the Merchant City district in Glasgow. It was built by the mighty Glaswegian Tobacco Lords, men whose trading fortunes made them the Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates of their time. In the late C17th and into the C18th their trading ships ensured great wealth poured into Glasgow and they built huge warehouses, veritable cathedrals to commerce, to store their goods . But these riches came at a deadly human cost, every pound and dollar was made on the backs of African slaves. The Triangular slave trade transported men, women and children from Africa to the American colonies, then tobacco, cotton and other commodities were brought back to Europe on the return trip.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

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Neil’s Patreon site is pack full of history, comment and current affairs

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

YouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g

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64. The United States of America attacks Britain, Whitehaven, Cumbria Aug 09, 2021

Show notes

In this episode Neil takes us to the beautiful coast of Cumbria as it’s attacked by a warship from the United States of America. Angry and dissatisfied with the punitive taxes and harsh rule of the British monarchy the people of America rise in rebellion. Intent on helping his new adopted country throw off the shackles of colonial rule, John Paul Jones captains an American naval ship of war, and in an audacious move crosses the Atlantic to attack Britain.

Guns primed and at the ready he sails with his crew to the thriving industrial port of Whitehaven on the northwest coast of England, and under the cover of darkness launches his attack. This first shot across the bow caused panic in government and gave a bloody nose to the British King.

To help support this podcast sign up to Neil Oliver on Patreon

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Neil’s Patreon site is pack full of history, comment and current affairs

Instagram account – Neil Oliver Love Letter - https://www.instagram.com/neiloliverloveletter/?hl=en

YouTube Channel is at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnVR-SdKxQeTvXtUSPFCL7g

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.