Present History presents Dark Britain, a podcast that recounts the darkest parts of British history. It’s Historical True Crime, if you will.
Developed by Zachary Peatling (https://twitter.com/zjpeatling) and Chloe Storer (https://twitter.com/chlocake?s=20&t=AFF0g64BRFiDNSIMsBx7TA).
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Mary Carr, a masterful con artist and pickpocket, led the notorious Forty Elephants — an all-female gang known for their daring heists, scams, and blackmail. Carr’s rise was born of necessity. One woman rose to prominence, commanding fear and respect in equal measure: Mary Carr, the formidable leader of the Forty Elephants — one of the most notorious all-female gangs in London’s history. Her story is one of resilience, cunning, and ruthless ambition, shaped by the unforgiving streets of Victorian London.
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17 Oct 2025
Hezekiah Moscow: The Unexpected King of Victorian Boxing
Hezekiah Moscow, a Jamaican immigrant whose journey to the East End was driven by dreams far removed from the blood and grime of the boxing ring. Moscow arrived in London with an unlikely ambition: to become a lion tamer. In the dazzling, dangerous world of Victorian music halls and traveling shows, exotic animal trainers were treated as stars, commanding both fear and admiration. For a man from the West Indies, a career among London’s entertainers promised a path to fame and financial stability - a far cry from the backbreaking labor offered to most immigrants.
Moscow’s rise in the ring was meteoric. By 1882, he was a household name - at least in East London - celebrated not only for his prowess as a lightweight boxer but also for his larger-than-life personality.
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8 Oct 2025
Sugar Goodson: The Most Brutal Boxer in Victorian London
Sugar Goodson was a man who seemed born from the very spirit of Victorian London’s East End - rough, relentless, and utterly unwilling to back down. His life story was a chaotic blend of triumph, violence, and rebellion, embodying the hard-edged world of bare-knuckle boxing where the line between sport and survival was razor-thin. Unlike the polished athletes that would come to define boxing in later decades, Goodson wasn’t a man shaped by training regimes or strategic coaching. He was a fighter forged in the alleys and pubs of the East End, driven by a raw instinct to endure - and win.
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18 Apr 2025
The Devil of Whitechapel: Jack the Ripper
London, 1888.
The city breathes in gaslight and exhales fog. Cobblestones glisten with rain. Somewhere, in the twisting maze of Whitechapel’s alleys, a footstep echoes—measured, patient, unhurried.
A woman—cold, tired, desperate—leans against a brick wall. She doesn’t notice the figure in the shadows. No one ever does, not until it’s too late.
Moments later, silence. Then a whisper of movement… and blood on stone.
By dawn, the city will wake to horror. Again.
The newspapers will scream of slaughter. Politicians will argue. Priests will pray. The police will fumble through the darkness, searching for a phantom.
He has no face. No name. Only a message, scrawled in red ink.
“Yours truly, Jack the Ripper.”
This is the story of Jack the Ripper, the most infamous and mysterious serial killer in history. But this is not just the story of a killer. This is an anatomy of fear - of five women whose names became footnotes, and a city that tried to forget them.
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11 Apr 2025
The Hellfire Club: Secret Society of Satanism and Debauchery
The flickering glow of candlelight danced along the cold stone walls, casting long, twisting shadows that seemed almost alive. The air was thick with the scent of wax and wine, mingled with the faintest trace of something more ancient - something forbidden. Beneath the vaulted ceilings of Medmenham Abbey, men in monk’s robes gathered around an altar, goblets in hand, laughter echoing through the darkness. A woman’s voice - commanding, captivating - intoned a mock blessing. A toast was raised, not to God, but to something far darker.
Deep beneath the English countryside, in the labyrinthine tunnels known as the Hellfire Caves, this secret society thrived. The Hellfire Club, as it was infamously known, was no ordinary gathering of aristocrats. It was a place where the powerful and the privileged indulged in excess, where mockery of religion met whispers of the occult, and where Britain’s elite could engage in pleasures and plots hidden from the prying eyes of the outside world.
For centuries, rumours have swirled around the Hellfire Club - tales of black masses, secret initiations, and even human sacrifice. Was it simply a decadent drinking society, a place for influential men to cast off the constraints of their public lives? Or was there something more sinister lurking in the shadows?
This, is the story of the Hellfire Club - a dark secret society of satanism and sexual debauchery.
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26 Sept 2024
Anne Askew: Determined Faith & Disturbing Torture
This is the story of a woman who was sharp-tongued, quick-witted, a woman who stood firm in her beliefs and convictions, against society and the King’s church, who was tortured to such a degree that she could not hold herself up against the burning pyre. A woman who said, in the face of torment and death: ‘I would rather die than break my faith’. This is the story of Anne Askew, an ardent reformer, a steadfast martyr, and a unique figure in the history of women’s education and involvement in religious debates.
City Ambience by @MichaelGhelfiStudios (https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCDed9jQ1Y1gKeyjvkyFGkCA)
https://michaelghelfistudios.com/ (https://michaelghelfistudios.com/ )
https://dscryb.com/MichaelGhelf i (https://dscryb.com/MichaelGhelf i)
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Music by Kieren Peatling ( @kierenmusic (https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCxlOs0yKryL2Eqxfk_vMMEw) )
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12 Sept 2024
Roman Britain's Pirate King with Dr. Simon Elliott
This is the story of usurping generals, emperors, pirates, mercenaries and kings. It is the story of political and military turmoil. This is the story of Roman Britain's Pirate King.
Simon Elliott:
http://www.simonelliott20.com
https://x.com/simonelliott20
https://www.instagram.com/simonelliott8671?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
Roman Britain's Pirate King Book: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Roman-Britains-Pirate-King-Hardback/p/21384
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12 Dec 2022
The British Cult that Worshiped Hitler
The title sounds like clickbait, but it isn’t. This was a group of men and women that set up a church to worship Hitler as the Second Coming of Christ. They were called the League of Christian Reformers. They worshiped Hitler at their altar, wrote letters to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Chief Rabbi. They even penned their own version of the Bible, called the 'Holy Book of Adolf Hitler'.
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28 Nov 2022
The Most Evil Man in British History with Annie Whitehead
This the story of powerful Mercian families and a man who was once voted one of the most evil men in English history. It’s a tale of treachery, power, betrayal, and, murder. And joining us today to discuss this thrilling part of Britain’s dark history is top Anglo-Saxon historian and best-selling author, Annie Whitehead.
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14 Nov 2022
Charlotte the Harlot: The Murky World of Georgian Britain
In this episode of Dark Britain, Zachary Peatling and Chloe Storer discuss Charlotte the Harlot. All sex workers were not created equal during the Georgian period, and Charlotte embodies the highest highs and the lowest lows of this spectrum. Who was she? How did she traverse the murky, complex, dangerous world of Georgian sex work? Find out more in this episode of Dark Britain. It's historical true crime, and it's criminally accurate.
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5 Nov 2022
The Darker Side of the Gunpowder Plot
This is the story of religious turmoil, a plot to kill a king, and an execution so cruel it would keep the victim from heaven. This is the story of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot.
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31 Oct 2022
Jack the Ripper: Myth and Murder
In this first episode of Dark Britain, Zachary Peatling and Chloe Storer discuss Jack the Ripper. He is one of the most iconic historical figures. He has been investigated for almost 170 years. He has been the focus of books, movies, TV shows, and is the most famous serial killer in history. Who was he? Who were his victims? Should we be shifting the focus away from the Ripper himself, and onto his victims? Find out about all this, and more, in this episode of Dark Britain. It's historical true crime, and its criminally accurate.
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24 Oct 2022
Introducing Dark Britain
Welcome to Dark Britain, the podcast that looks back on, and tells the stories of the darker parts of Britain’s history. It's historical true crime, and it's criminally accurate.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
400,179
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 27 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
6
Social presence
0
YouTube
86
Engagement
32
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Guest appearances
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