Channel 4 - Fortress Britain (2022) Part 3 Avoiding Armageddon

Presented by Professor Alice Roberts, Dr Onyeka Nubia and Professor Dan George, Fortress Britain looks at key moments in British history where the country has been under threat of foreign invasion, and identifies the physical reminders that remain to this day. From the Normans to the Nazis, the island nation of Britain has been constantly threatened by invasion. Some invaders were successful, others never quite made it. All have left their mark. Alice Roberts and her fellow historians explore Britain's long-standing obsession with invasion, by examining the physical reminders that are still here today. While some invaders succeeded, others failed; some didn't ever get near British soil, but nearly every threat has left its mark. From mighty Tudor forts on the South coast and giant WWII tank traps hiding in plain sight behind a leisure centre in Guildford to Norman castles that have stood for a thousand years and the giant network of tunnels outside Fife intended to help the nation survive a nuclear attack, the physical reminders of the threats posed to Britain over the centuries pepper our towns and countryside. Each episode unpick the threats from a different would-be force of invaders, looking at who, what, how, why and when. Alice Roberts is based at the Fortress Britain hub in Walmer Castle, where she is joined by leading experts who'll set the scene for each period, introduce the key historical players and showcase some extraordinary historical artefacts. Onyeka Nubia and Dan George are travelling the UK visiting the buildings, battlefields and ruins that tell the story of Britain's struggle against invasion. How much has invasion shaped the British nation?

Part 3 Avoiding Armageddon

Tales of Cold War Britain, from nuclear threat to upper-class spies, eerie ghost bunkers and our very own Chernobyl. In Cold War military buildup Britain constructed bunkers for the civilian population and created its own nuclear missile defense. Professor Alice Roberts explores the UK's response to the threat of nuclear attack during the early years of the Cold War in the 1950s, when a network of upper-class spies began merrily sharing British military secrets with the Soviet Union. We also visit a nuclear-bomb-proof command center and inspect the legendary Avro Vulcan jet bomber.

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