Stuff the British Stole

Over 200 years ago, a team led by Lord Elgin removed various pieces of the Parthenon. Now housed in the British Museum, Greece wants the ‘Elgin Marbles’ returned. Comedian Stephen Fry joins Marc Fennell on a gripping adventure, from the pinnacle of the Acropolis to a secluded robotics lab high in the Tuscan mountains, to a shipwreck under the Aegean Sea, to tell the story of these artefacts.

How did the mummified head of a child come to be in the library of Grafton High School in New South Wales, Australia? Marc Fennell travels to the Pyramids of Giza, down the Nile and to the very heart of the British Empire to try an unravel this mystery. Using a combination of science and detective work, Marc tries to discover the identity of the remains.

The world watched on as, in 2023, King Charles III was crowned. But the coronation was marred with controversy. The Cullinan diamond, part of the Crown Jewels, has ties to British colonialism. Marc Fennell delves into South Africa's first diamond mine and the opulent realms of London to uncover the intriguing tale of how the largest gem-quality diamond reached the British royal family.

In 2022, a tattered black doll was sent from Britain to the First Nations people of Lutruwita (Tasmania). It had been discovered languishing in the archives of a Derbyshire museum. The doll carried with it a devastating story of a stolen child and almost unimaginable cruelty. Marc Fennell unravels this tale of heartbreak and injustice and the campaign to return the doll to its rightful place.

Charles Byrne was born in the north of Ireland in 1761. Standing at 2.3 meters tall, he moved to London and became a celebrity. Marc Fennell unpicks the twisting history of Charles Byrne, the Irish Giant. It is a story of betrayal, exploitation, bodysnatching and the brutal reality of the medical industry. Centuries after his death, the battle over Byrne’s remains continues to rage.

The African nation of Kenya gained its independence from Britain in December 1963. But before the British left, they ensured that certain incriminating documents had to be removed from the country. From the bustling streets of Nairobi to a secluded royal retreat in the Kenyan mountains, Marc Fennell is on the hunt for secret documents that reveal a brutal history of war and a crumbling empire.

Rubber is everywhere now, but it wasn't always this way. And like many valuable commodities, it has a dark history. Marc Fennell heads to the Amazon to help unravel an elaborate botanical heist that changed the world. Brazil was the center of the rubber world. But Britain and its empire wanted to dominate the market. Soon an audacious plan, involving a venerable British institution, was hatched.

The British Museum in London contains a sphinx that looks almost identical to those from Egypt. But it’s not from Egypt. It’s actually from Haida Gwaii, a stunning archipelago on Canada’s west coast, carved by the Indigenous people there. Marc Fennell travels to Egypt, Canada and London to try and unravel the mystery of how and why the sphinx was created and what brought it to Britain.