Channel 4 - Fortress Britain (2022)

Presented by Professor Alice Roberts, Dr Onyeka Nubia and Professor Dan George, Fortress Britain looks at key moments in British history where the country has been under threat of foreign invasion, and identifies the physical reminders that remain to this day.
From the Normans to the Nazis, the island nation of Britain has been constantly threatened by invasion. Some invaders were successful, others never quite made it. All have left their mark. Alice Roberts and her fellow historians explore Britain's long-standing obsession with invasion, by examining the physical reminders that are still here today.
While some invaders succeeded, others failed; some didn't ever get near British soil, but nearly every threat has left its mark. From mighty Tudor forts on the South coast and giant WWII tank traps hiding in plain sight behind a leisure centre in Guildford to Norman castles that have stood for a thousand years and the giant network of tunnels outside Fife intended to help the nation survive a nuclear attack, the physical reminders of the threats posed to Britain over the centuries pepper our towns and countryside.
Each episode unpick the threats from a different would-be force of invaders, looking at who, what, how, why and when. Alice Roberts is based at the Fortress Britain hub in Walmer Castle, where she is joined by leading experts who'll set the scene for each period, introduce the key historical players and showcase some extraordinary historical artefacts. Onyeka Nubia and Dan George are travelling the UK visiting the buildings, battlefields and ruins that tell the story of Britain's struggle against invasion. How much has invasion shaped the British nation?

Series Producer / Director: Dominic Bowles ; Produced by IWC Media with Brainchild Productions and Brightshade Media for Channel 4

Part 1: Henry VIII - Going It Alone
The story of Henry VIII's fear of Catholic Europe, told via his castles, cannons and spies.
The first episode examines the surviving traces of Henry VIII's fear of invasion from Catholic Europe through physical reminders, including mighty castles and cannons, that survive to this day. At her headquarter in Walmer Castle, built in 1540 in Kent to defend the town against a French invasion, Alice gets her hands on a vast hoard of Tudor coins and a 500-year-old jousting scorecard, as she learns how Henry's greed and ambition led him to bankrupt the nation and lay the foundations for the modern secret service. Danielle visits Henry's mighty castle at Deal and witnesses the awesome power of the cannons built to defend England, while Onyeka gets within touching distance of the iconic Mary Rose.

Part 2: Halting Hitler
How Britain planned for a Nazi invasion - from tank traps and sticky bombs, to the Home Guard and tragic story of heroism.
Alice Roberts looks for visible traces of Britain's rearmament in preparation for a German invasion. How did the Home Guard come about and what was the role of women in the offensive defense? We meet Indian-American Noor Inayat Khan, a special agent who worked with sabotage activities in German-occupied France, and hear her tragic story as one of the war's forgotten heroines. Alice learns about the deployment of the Home Guard, and Danielle travels to the Channel Islands, the only part of the British Isles under German control, to visit the only concentration camp built on British soil in Alderney. She explores life under occupation and visits the underground hospital Festung Guernsey.

Part 3: Avoiding Armageddon
Tales of Cold War Britain, from nuclear threat to upper-class spies, eerie ghost bunkers and our very own Chernobyl.
In Cold War military buildup Britain constructed bunkers for the civilian population and created its own nuclear missile defense. Professor Alice Roberts explores the UK's response to the threat of nuclear attack during the early years of the Cold War in the 1950s, when a network of upper-class spies began merrily sharing British military secrets with the Soviet Union. We also visit a nuclear-bomb-proof command center and inspect the legendary Avro Vulcan jet bomber.

Part 4: The Norman Takeover
From battlefields and ancient swords to mighty castles and Durham cathedral, the rich, brutal story of William the Conqueror's journey from invader to ruler of England.
Alice Roberts discovers who the Normans really were, tests a nearly thousand-year-old sword from William the Conqueror's time and wonders why there are so few women depicted in art from the time. Plus, Danielle George gets a brutal lesson in medieval 11th-century battlefield combat techniques, and Onyeka learns how William's coronation turned into a PR disaster.