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  1. Blackleaf

    The Bible tops 'most influential' book survey

    The Bible has been named the world's most influential book in a nationwide survey for the Folio Society. The YouGov poll asked people to rank books from a list of 30 works chosen by The Folio Society, according to their significance in today's world. The Bible topped the poll, with 37% of...
  2. Blackleaf

    Teenage Tommies

    In this moving tribute to the teenage heroes of the Great War, BBC News Foreign Correspondent Fergal Keane unearths the most powerful stories of Britain's boy soldiers. With as many as 250,000 boys under the age of 18 having served in the British Army during World War I (the youngest British...
  3. Blackleaf

    13-year-old cadet, Harry Hayes, plants the last of the Tower's 888,246 poppies

    The final ceramic poppy has been planted at the Tower of London this morning, as the nation paid tribute to the millions of British servicemen who have died in conflict since the start of the First World War. The 888,246th poppy - representing the life of the 888,246th soldier who died in the...
  4. Blackleaf

    The teenage soldiers of World War One

    As many as 250,000 boys under the age of 18 served in the British Army during World War One. Fergal Keane - whose documentary on the subject, Teenage Tommies, is to be broadcast on BBC Two tonight - remembers the sacrifice they made. The teenage soldiers of World War One BBC News 11...
  5. Blackleaf

    Brian Cox: Space, Time & Videotape

    A good science-related chat with Professor Brian Cox, shown on the brilliant BBC Four last night: Professor Brian Cox, fresh from hosting his latest TV series, Human Universe, is joined by two of his heroes, the actor Brian Blessed and Professor Alice Roberts, the anatomist...
  6. Blackleaf

    Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance 2014

    Shown last night on BBC1: In the presence of Her Majesty the Queen and members of the royal family, Huw Edwards presents the Royal British Legion's annual Festival of Remembrance, which pays tribute to all victims of war and conflict, from its usual venue at London's Royal Albert Hall...
  7. Blackleaf

    Bolt falls off London's Cheesegrater

    A bolt has fallen off London's new Cheesegrater skyscraper. No-one was injured but an area around the 47-storey Leadenhall Building in the City has been cordoned off. It fell from the fifth floor to the ground at the side of the building - and another bolt also broke off but was contained...
  8. Blackleaf

    The Real Da Vinci Code with Tony Robinson

    In this one-off Channel 4 documentary, former Blackadder star Tony "Baldrick" Robinson, now an amateur historian and Labour Party activist, sets out to discover the facts about the Holy Grail and cut through the thicket of mystery that surrounds the sacred subject. The Real Da Vinci Code with...
  9. Blackleaf

    Bizarre marks in historic house were to protect James I from witches and demons

    Archaeologists have discovered bizarre marks known as witchmarks which were carved into a room in a historic house in preparation for a visit from King James I. The carvings were made in the early 17th Century to protect the monarch - who was James VI in Scotland - from spirits and demons...
  10. Blackleaf

    Guy Fawkes Night: Town of Lewes to burn effigy of Alex Salmond

    Tonight is Guy Fawkes Night and all across the land fireworks are being set off (I can hear lots outside right now) and bonfires are lit as revellers gather round in the freezing night air eating treacle toffee and black peas in vinegar to celebrate the thwarting of a Catholic plot to blow up...
  11. Blackleaf

    The soldiers of Stonehenge

    Poignant footage of First World War soldiers will be projected on to Stonehenge as part of a new English Heritage exhibition telling the story of how one million men trained on Salisbury Plain during the conflict. The footage of the soldiers marching is being beamed onto the ancient stones at...
  12. Blackleaf

    Frankenstein and the Vampyre: A Dark and Stormy Night

    In 1816, a group of young English writers - Percy Shelley, Mary Godwin (who would soon become Mary Shelley upon her marriage to Percy), Lord Byron and John William Polidori - met at a villa on the shores of Lake Geneva, spending their time writing, boating on the lake and talking late into the...
  13. Blackleaf

    "Rugby is wild": How the US reacted to their side's rugby thrashing by New Zealand

    "Rugby is wild": How the US reacted to their side's rugby thrashing by New Zealand The USA rugby union team came up against the mighty New Zealand All Blacks at Soldier's Field in Chicago on Saturday - and were, not surprisingly, thrashed 74-6 by the greatest rugby union nation on Earth. But...
  14. Blackleaf

    Spider House

    I plucked up the courage to watch this brilliant 90-minute BBC documentary on BBC Four last night. Britain has around 650 species of spider and, in this Halloween special, several of these species are given a whole house to themselves! Alice Roberts (the anatomist, osteoarchaeologist...