Season 1

Jay Blades explores the fascinating history of London's East End, from the Shoreditch site of a theatre where Shakespeare performed to the story of the original Jack the Lad.

Jay reveals the secrets of the East End's Victorian age. He discovers the extraordinary underground engineering beneath the Thames and meets the Pearly King of Mile End.

Jay hears about Sylvia Pankhurst's suffragettes, the melting pot of Canning Town, the Kray twins, and how the East End coped with the Blitz of World War II.