History's Greatest Scandals

Ranking history

About the show

Latest episodes

• The swashbuckling escapades of a cross-dressing celebrity spy

  September 15, 2025 · 36 min

  Professor Hannah Greig and Ellie Cawthorne revisit the remarkable life of the Chevalier D’Eon – whose extraordinary adventures and identity captured the imagination of Georgian Britain As a celebrity, spy, diplomat and fencing champion…

• A murderous insurance scam that exposed slavery’s horrors

  September 8, 2025 · 35 min

  Professor Hannah Greig and Ellie Cawthorne examine the story of the Zong massacre, in which more than 130 enslaved people were murdered – and their deaths claimed on insurance  In the 1780s, an extraordinary insurance claim made its way…

• The crash the bankrupted Britain

  September 1, 2025 · 35 min

  Professor Hannah Greig and Ellie Cawthorne revisit the world’s first major financial crash: the South Sea Bubble of 1720 In 1720, would-be speculators were in a frenzy over an irresistible new investment opportunity. Everyone from…

• High society’s most dangerous liaison

  August 25, 2025 · 37 min

  Professor Hannah Greig and Ellie Cawthorne share the story of an illicit romance with royal connections that kicked off one of the messiest divorce cases of the Georgian age In a tavern in 1769, aristocrat Henrietta Grosvenor was…

• The forgers who faked a fortune

  August 18, 2025 · 41 min

  Professor Hannah Greig and Ellie Cawthorne follow on the trail of a trio of scammers who fooled Georgian high society using fake bonds In 1775, a respectable lady, a mild-mannered apothecary and his fast-living identical twin stood…

• History's Greatest Scandals Returns!

  August 12, 2025 · 1 min

  Join us for series two of History’s Greatest Scandals, where Ellie Cawthorne and Professor Hannah Greig are uncovering the secrets of the Georgian era. They’ll be following on the trail of forgers, exposing illicit liaisons, meeting…

• Corruption down the coalmines

  February 4, 2025 · 43 min

  In 1840, an investigation was launched to inspect conditions in Britain’s coalmines. But what the inspectors found down the mines would soon become a national scandal. In this first series of History’s Greatest Scandals, Professor Rosalind…

• The dark heart of Victorian London

  January 28, 2025 · 41 min

  In July 1885, the Pall Mall Gazette ran an exposé so shocking that ‘squeamish’ readers were encouraged not to read it. It followed undercover journalist WT Stead on a mission to expose child exploitation in London – and, as it turned out…