Inside the Tower of London - Season 2

First aired: 8/20/2019 8 episodes

Episodes

1. Episode 1

Aired: 8/20/2019

Raven chicks are born in the tower for the first time in 30 years - but only one of the newborn birds can stay, and ravenmaster Chris faces the tough decision of choosing one to keep and finding suitable homes for all the others. The tower director prepares to retire after 15 years, and takes a moment to enjoy his final gun salute, while AJ Clarke, only the second woman to join the Yeoman warders, embarks on a fitness regime that soon leaves her in need of a new uniform. Plus, a look at the story of the time the future Queen Elizabeth I was imprisoned in the tower for plotting to overthrow her sister, Queen Mary.

2. Episode 2

Aired: 8/27/2019

The chief yeoman warder oversees the tower's celebration of the end of the First World War, and special preparations are made for the tower director's retirement party, involving a military band and a unique farewell as he leaves the tower for the last time. Newly hatched raven George is introduced to the rest of the birds, not all of whom take kindly to newcomers, and historian Tracy Borman unearths the story of Roger Casement, who was executed for treason for supporting Irish independence during the First World War.

3. Episode 3

Aired: 9/3/2019

The new tower director starts work on the same day that Donald Trump visits London, while curator Eleri Lynn goes in search of a recently rediscovered royal treasure - the last surviving dress made for Elizabeth I, which has turned up in a small village church in Herefordshire. Plus, a look at the golden armour of Charles I and the ultimate fate of Henry VIII's imperial crown.

4. Episode 4

Aired: 9/17/2019

The stories behind some of the most dramatic escape attempts from the tower, including Henry Howard, who tried to avoid execution by making his way through the sewage system. In the present day, curator Sally Dixon-Smith deciphers some graffiti by a Tudor mystic who mysteriously disappeared, while Yeoman warder Chris Clawson reveals why the tower is still a spooky place to work in after dark.

5. Episode 5

Aired: 10/1/2019

At the heart of this episode is one of the Tower of London's greatest tragedies — the story of teenage Queen Lady Jane Grey, who was executed at the Tower during the reign of Mary I. Join Historic Royal Palaces curators as they investigate Jane's imprisonment at the Tower, and explore ancient graffiti carved into the walls by her fellow prisoners a reminder of the once-powerful lives that were destroyed here.

6. Episode 6

Aired: 10/8/2019

In episode six, Tracy Borman goes on the hunt for the lost royal palace of Henry VIII. Tracy investigates the changes that Henry made at the Tower for Anne Boleyn, his second Queen. To discover what this lost palace would have been like, Tracy visits Henry's kitchens at Hampton Court Palace to find one of the last tantalising surviving fragments of Henry's great passion for Anne.

7. Episode 7

Aired: 10/15/2019

In episode seven we follow the Tower's Deputy Governor Deborah Whittingham as she leads the preparations for the Constable's Dues. Meanwhile, Tracy Borman investigates the Duke of Wellington and discovers how he reinvented the Tower during his time as Constable. Wellington reformed the Yeoman Body and strengthened the Tower's military stronghold with the Waterloo Block.

8. Episode 8

Aired: 10/22/2019

In this episode we follow the remarkable discovery of the first complete skeletons discovered by archaeologists at the Tower of London. Two skeletons, buried for centuries as visitors walked innocently over their graves. But who are they, and why were they buried right by the entrance to the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula?