Season 1

Via stunning contemporary footage, freshly declassified discoveries, a brilliant script, insights from the greatest historians of the past seventy years and the unforgettable words of the dictator himself and the people who knew him best, we deliver History's Verdict on Stalin.

A skilled journalist and a master spin doctor, Mussolini created immensely powerful myths about himself and his regime. Myths that have endured for over 70 years, baffling both his contemporaries and modern historians in equal measure. Myths that have allowed Il Duce to escape history's definitive verdict...until now.

A magnificent script fuses stunning images of his life and times, newly declassified revelations, testimony from the world's greatest historians and thinkers, and the chilling words of the Fuhrer himself and those of his closest henchmen to deliver History's Verdict on Hitler.

Beginning with the fall of France in the Summer of 1940, and the defence of the island of Britain itself, Churchill's military decisions and simultaneous diplomatic efforts to gather an alliance, are explored. His defiant stand, at home and abroad, are central to his achievement, and his galvanising effect on his people and armed services is shown to be pivotal to British, and world, history

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States, leading America through a time of worldwide economic depression and total war.

Extraordinary images, brilliant writing, the latest declassified information, witnesses from among the greatest historians, and the hitherto unknown words of the Emperor himself deliver History's Verdict on Hirohito.

The infamous SS is also examined in detail. Were they just the machinery of murder? What other duties did they perform to help the Nazi war effort, and what about their sense of pride and code of honour? Writer Graham Birrell

Rarely explored aspects of his life will be uncovered: his childhood as the son of a Bishop and a mother who didn't love him. His near death experiences in the battlefields of the Great War. His campaign against the IRA in the 1920s, which gained him the respect of the Republicans he fought.

The son of a rich, distinguished family, the young Patton loved the Classics and history, was an Olympic athlete and "master of the Sword". But he also had revolutionary ideas about how the US Army should fight modern wars. Ideas he tested against reality in action in Mexico and the Great War.

Charles De Gaulle was the leader of Free France from 1940-1944, and was the dominant figure of France during the Cold War era. His memory continues to influence French Politics.

He was a US Army general who was also the only ever Field Marshal of the Philippine Army, and this symbolizes MacArthur's visionary belief that Asia would dominate the future of the world.

Erwin Rommel has achieved almost legendary status as the German Field Marshall of World war Two? Mainly for his cunning in outwitting and outmanoeuvring his allied enemies he is now known as the desert fox.

Ike's public image is frequently overshadowed by more attention-grabbing colleagues. Cases in point: General Patton, his World War 2 subordinate; and JFK, his successor as President of the United States of America.