What If?
| Series | Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Repeated | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 197B | 01 | 1991 Coup Of Ussr | 19970524 | 19970525 | A four-part series that explores what might have happened if history had followed another course. In the first programme, what if the coup of 1991 in the Soviet Union against Mikhail Gorbachev had been successful? Professor Christopher Andrew rewrites history with Gorbachev's press spokesman Andrei Grachev and professors Archie Brown and Stephen White. |
| 197B | 02 | 1588 - The Spanish Amada | 19970531 | 19970601 | The second of four programmes that explores what might have happened if history had followed another course. 1588: The main reason that England was saved from invasion by the Spanish Armada was because of the way that the wind was blowing. Prof Christopher Andrew asks what might have happened if its direction had been different and foreign troops had landed in Kent. Would there have been heroic resistance or might the defenders have. |
| 197B | 03 | A Male Queen Victoria | 19970607 | 19970608 | The third of four programmes exploring what might have happened if history had followed another course. Professor Christopher Andrew discovers how differently things might have turned out if the baby who grew up to be Queen Victoria had been born male. How would he have got on with Gladstone and Disraeli? And how would he have coped with being both king and ruler of the German province of Hanover at the time? |
| 197B | 04 LAST | 1992 Labour Win | 19970614 | 19970615 | The final programme in the series that explores what might have happened if history had followed another course. 1992: the opinion polls predicted Labour would win the general election. Professor Christopher Andrew asks: what if Neil Kinnock had become prime minister? His deputy, Roy Hattersley, and former Conservative minister and Leader of the Commons, John Biffin, ponder how differently things might have turned out. |
| 198B | 01 | John Smith - Prime Minister | 19980618 | Radio's counterfactual history programme returns with more speculation about the past. 1: In 1994, Labour leader John Smith died suddenly from a heart attack. A personal friend - senior Liberal Democrat MP Menzies Campbell - and Patrick Wintour, political editor of the Observer, join Professor Christopher Andrew to discuss how differently things might have turned out if he had lived. | |
| 198B | 02 | The Battle Of Edgehill | 19980625 | Radio's counterfactual history programme speculates about the past. 2: In 1642, the first set-piece engagement of the English Civil War ended unexpectedly in a draw. But what if either the royalist or parliamentary armies had achieved outright victory at the battle of Edgehill? Presented by Professor Christopher Andrew. | |
| 198B | 03 | No Nhs | 19980702 | Christopher Andrew and his guests, Professor Pat Thane and Baron Butterfield of Stechford, discuss how the history of medicine in Britain could have turned out very differently without the introduction of the NHS. | |
| 198B | 04 LAST | North Sea Oil | 19980709 | Radio's counterfactual history programme speculates about what might have been. 4: Professor Christopher Andrew hears how differently things might have turned out in Britain without the discovery of North Sea oil. With Tony Benn, energy minister in the Labour government when the Forties Field was opened in 1975, and representatives of both the Green lobby and the oil industry. | |
| 199A | 01 | The Fire Of London | 19990311 | The first of four programmes in which Professor Christopher Andrew and his guests re-write history by imagining how events from the past could have been different. 1: The Fire of London. What if someone had put out the fire that began in the early hours of one Sunday morning in 1666 in a bakery in London's Pudding Lane? | |
| 199A | 02 | Alfred The Great | 19990318 | Four programmes in which Professor Christopher Andrew and his guests rewrite history by imagining how past events could have been different. 2: `Alfred the Great'. Alfred the Great's victory over the Vikings at Edington in 878 was a turning point in Briti. | |
| 199A | 03 | Frederick Iii | 19990325 | He ascended the German throne in 1888, though he ruled for only 99 days before dying of cancer. Ten years earlier, his father was shot by a would-be assassin. What if the old Kaiser had died and his son had enjoyed a decade of power with Queen Victoria's eldest daughter at his side? | |
| 199A | 04 LAST | Germ Warfare | 19990401 | Four programmes in which Professor Christopher Andrew rewrites history by imagining how past events could have been different. 4: President Clinton has warned that germ warfare now poses one of the greatest threats to the security of the USA. Guests, including former defence secretary Michael Portillo, examine the history of these terrifying weapons and contemplate the consequences of their use. | |
| 200A | 01 | The French Revolution | 20000323 | A four-part counterfactual history programme showing how differently major events from the past could have turned out. 1: The French Revolution was played out against a backdrop of harvest failure and high bread prices, caused primarily by a freak storm in July 1788. If the weather had been more benign, perhaps a peaceful political solution could have been found. | |
| 200A | 02 | Christianity | 20000330 | A four-part counterfactual history programme showing how differently major events from the past could have turned out. 2: Christianity. What would have happened if the Roman emperor Constantine had not converted to Christianity in the 4th century AD? | |
| 200A | 03 | Farming | 20000406 | A four-part counterfactual history programme showing how differently major events from the past could have turned out. 3: `Farming'. The 1947 Agriculture Act, which guaranteed prices to farmers, ignited a period of huge growth in production. But what if Parliament had followed the advice of Stafford Cripps and decided against it? Professor Christopher Andrew examines how the industry might have developed after the war. | |
| 200A | 04 | Lord Halifax - Prime Minister | 20000413 | The counterfactual history series ends by asking what would have happened if Chamberlain had been succeeded as prime minister not by Churchill but by the man who was actually widely tipped for the job - then foreign secretary Lord Halifax. | |
| 202A | 01 | Mary Tudor And The Counter Reformation | 20020328 | ||
| 202A | 02 | 1095 Crusade | 20020404 | Counterfactual history series with Prof Chris Andrew. If the First Crusade of 1095 had failed to capture Jerusalem, Europe and the US might share a much deeper Islamic heritage. | |
| 202A | 03 | Ww1 - Six Weeks To Defeat France | 20020411 | Counterfactual history series with Prof Chris Andrew. Germany defeated France in six weeks in 1870 and again in 1940. What if the same had happened in 1914? | |
| 202A | 04 LAST | No To The Common Market | 20020418 | In a 1975 referendum, Britons voted to stay in the Common Market, as the EU was then known. But what if they had voted `no'? | |
| 203B | 01 | The Russians Got To The Moon First? | 20030403 | Professor Chris Andrew considers some possible scenarios had the Soviet Union beaten the United States to the moon. | |
| 203B | 02 | Alexander The Great Went West Instead Of East | 20030410 | Counterfactual history series with Prof Chris Andrew. If Alexander the Great had expanded his empire to the West instead of the East, the Roman Empire would not have existed. | |
| 203B | 03 | America Lost The War Of Independence | 20030417 | Counterfactual history series with Professor Chris Andrew. If America had lost the War of Independence, as George III confidently expected, history might have turned out differently. | |
| 203B | 04 LAST | Enigma/ultra | 20030424 | What If the Germans had discovered that the Allies had cracked Enigma during The Second World War? They're known, in Churchill's memorable phrase, as 'the geese that laid the golden eggs, and never cackled' - the thousands of codebreakers at Bletchley Park who kept Churchill and Roosevelt one step ahead of Hitler's game. What's surprising is that the German High Command never twigged that its highly confidential Enigma communications were being monitored. Professor Chris Andrew imagines a very different outcome to the Second World War, one in which the Allies failed to break the code. Arguably the first atomic bomb would have been dropped not on Hiroshima, but in Europe, on Berlin. | |
| 204B | 01 | What If The Nazis Had Occupied Britain In 1940? | 20040405 | The Radio 4 discussion programme which re-writes history returns with Professor Christopher Andrew and guests considering what might have happened if Hitler had successfully implemented his plan for the occupation of Britain in 1940. Would we really have fought them on the beaches? Would there have been an English resistance movement? What would have happened to Britain's Jewish population and how would the Nazis have dealt with the Royal Family and the BBC? | |
| 204B | 02 | What If Elizabeth I Had Married? | 20040412 | Professor Andrew and his guests, Lady Antonia Fraser, John Guy and Derek Wilson, discuss what might have happened if the Virgin Queen had taken a husband. Would a Catholic bridegroom have plunged England into a religious civil war? Would a foreign match have robbed England of Gloriana and the Golden Age over which she reigned? | |
| 204B | 03 | What If The Chinese Authorities Had Not Sent Tanks Into Tiananmen Square? | 20040419 | What If the Chinese Authorities had not sent tanks into Tiananmen Square in June 1989? In this week' edition of the programme that rewrites history, Professor Christopher Andrew and his guests consider how China might look today if the democracy had been allowed to flourish, 14 years ago. With Steve Tsang, Jonathan Mirsky and Humphrey Hawksley. | |
| 204B | 04 LAST | What If The Zulus Had Defeated The British In 1879? | 20040426 | In this week's edition of the programme which rewrites history, Professor Christopher Andrew and his guests imagine the consequences for the British Empire and for Southern Africa of a Zulu victory. With Saul David, Ian Knight and Joanna Lewis. | |
| D-day Had Failed? | 20040605 | In a special D-Day edition of the series which rewrites history, Professor Christopher Andrew and a group of distinguished guests discuss what would have happened if the Allied landings in Normandy had not succeeded. In the Map Room at Southwick House are D-Day veteran John Gritten, who was on board a landing craft moored in nearby Southampton Sound, and historians Professor David Stafford of Edinburgh University; Professor Dennis Showalter from Colorado Liberal Arts College in the United States; Dr Soenke Neitzel of the University of Mainz in Germany; and Dr Gay Sheffield, of Kings College London and the Joint Services Staff College in Shrivenham. |
Updated: 1/6/2013