On today's episode Don Hollway takes us back to see 'the Viking's Viking', King Olaf I, in the year when his dramatic story reached its mysterious climax.

Olaf is a heavyweight figure in Norse history. Rising out of obscurity, he travelled widely before experiencing a profound Christian rebirth on the Isles of Scilly. From thereon one of his central motives in life was the conversion of the Norse people to the Christian faith.

There were many battles, of course, along the way. In this episode Hollway looks at the fateful one that took place late in the year 1000. It was at the Battle of Svolder that Olaf vanished, presumed dead.

Find out more about Don Hollway's Hammer of the Gods: King Olaf's Viking Conquest. Read his article about Olaf at Unseen Histories.

Scene One: Early 1000. Olaf marries his third wife.

Scene Two: 1000. The building of Olaf's great dragon ship, the Long Serpent.

Scene Three: 1000. The Battle of Svolder.

Memento: The Long Serpent.

Presenter: Peter Moore

Guest: Don Hollway

Producer: Maria Nolan

Theme music: Firelight by Minka

Partner: ACE Cultural Tours.

Ranking only behind Churchill in the pantheon of Britain's WW2 heroes is Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery or 'Monty'. In this episode the biographer Gary Mead takes us back to 1914 to catch a glimpse of Monty as a young soldier at the start of his first war.

Montgomery, Mead explains, was a complicated character. While admired by his men and celebrated for his great victory at El Alamein in 1942, he was nonetheless loathed by many of those who worked with him. In later years he went to great efforts to distort his personal story, often restorting to brazen falsehoods. Why he did this, Mead elaborates, remains a mystery.

One constant throughout his life was Monty's love of a battle. After a childhood spent in British public schools and distant parts of the Empire, in 1914 his chance for some fighting arrived. Like many in that fateful summer of 1914, he dashed across the Channel to confront the Germans.

Find out more about Gary Mead's Montgomery: Unbeatable, Unbearable.

Scene One: August 1914. Great Scotland Yard Recruiting Office, London.

Scene Two: 23 August 1914. The Battle of Mons.

Scene Three: Christmas Day 1914. The Truce at Neuve Chapelle.

Memento: A brass button from a German uniform.

Presenter: Peter Moore

Guest: Gary Mead

Producer: Maria Nolan

Theme music: Firelight by Minka

Partner: ACE Cultural Tours.

In this episode we head back to the Anglo Saxon Age with Edoardo Albert to meet the 'Father of English History' – the Venerable Bede.

Bede is a beguiling character. He lived just a few generations after the arrival of Christianity in Britain in remote Northumbria, a place that Pope Gregory regarded as being on the very edge of the known world.

But from these outer limits, Bede redefined the world in which he lived. 'It has ever been my delight', he wrote, 'to learn and teach and write'. Throughout his life he produced a steady stream of books on subjects from history to natural philosophy.

Edoardo Albert takes us back to see Bede at the peak of his powers, in the monastery at Jarrow in the year 716. This, as Albert explains, was a pivotal year for Bede as the quiet world in which he lived was disturbed by the departure of a beloved elder.

Find out more about Edoardo Albert's Bede: The Man Who Invented England.

Scene One: 4 June 716. A walk around St Paul's Monastery at Jarrow.

Scene Two: 4 June 716. Abbot Ceolfrith, Bede's friend and mentor, sets off for Rome.

Scene Three: 4 June 716. Bede at work in his cell.

Memento: A copy of the Rule of the monastery at St Paul along with a recording of the monks singing.

Presenter: Peter Moore

Guest: Edoardo Albert

Producer: Maria Nolan

Theme music: Firelight by Minka

Partner: ACE Cultural Tours.