Helen Castor

Helen Castor presents an in depth and insightful series covering England's early Queens, from the High Middle Ages with Eleanor and get daughter-in-law Eleanor of Aquitane, through the Late Middle Ages with Isabella of France and Margaret of Anjou and finishing with Lady Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

Writer and historian Dr Helen Castor explores the life - and death - of Joan of Arc. Joan was an extraordinary figure - a female warrior in an age that believed women couldn't fight, let alone lead an army. But Joan was driven by faith and today, more than ever, we are acutely aware of the power of faith to drive actions for good or ill. Since her death, Joan has become an icon for almost everyone: the left and the right, Catholics and Protestants, traditionalists and feminists. But where, in all of this, is the real Joan - the experiences of a teenage peasant girl who achieved the seemingly impossible? Through an astonishing manuscript, we can hear Joan's own words at her trial and, as Helen unpicks Joan's story and places her back in the world that she inhabited, the real human Joan emerges.

As BBC Two premieres its lavish new drama set in the sumptuous surroundings of Versailles, Lucy Worsley and Helen Castor tell the real-life stories behind one of the world's grandest buildings. They reveal the colourful world of sex, drama and intrigue that Louis XIV and his courtiers inhabited. Lucy untangles Louis's complex world of court etiquette, fashion and feasting, while Helen delves into the archives and unpicks the Machiavellian world of court politics that Louis created. We meet the people behind the on-screen characters and discover what drove Louis to glorify his reign on a scale unmatched by any previous monarch, examine the tension between Louis and his brother Philippe, a battle hero and overt homosexual, and they meet the coterie of women who competed for Louis's attention. We see that Louis was ruthless in his pursuit of glory and succeeded in defeating his enemies. In his record-breaking 72-year reign, France became renowned for its culture and sophistication.

In Medieval Lives: Birth, Marriage, Death, historian and author Dr. Helen Castor (She-Wolves: England's Early Queens) examines how the people of the Middle Ages handled three of life's great rites of passage birth, marriage, and death. Why were physicians of no help to women enduring the pains of labor and the dangers of childbirth? Why were newly married couples "put to bed" by the priest on their wedding night? What did it mean to "die well" and why was death such a communal affair, both before and after it happened?

Helen Castor introduces a film about Thomas More's daughter Margaret, showing her revolutionary intellectual spirit and how the ideas that shaped her education changed the cultural life of England forever.

Historian Dr. Helen Castor explores the mysteries surrounding Shakespeare’s burial place. Will the first- ever scientific investigation discover why his tombstone's only inscription is a curse against any man who ‘moves my bones’? - PBS

Secret History was a long-running British television documentary series. Shown on Channel 4, the Secret History brandname was used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual documentaries can still be found on US cable channels without the branding. It can be seen as Channel 4's answer to the BBC's Timewatch.

Historian Dr Helen Castor explores the lives of seven English queens who challenged male power, the fierce reactions they provoked and whether the term 'she-wolves' was deserved.