Dr Lucy Worsley

As one of television’s best-known historians, Lucy Worsley has pioneered a new kind of storytelling– personal, playful and interrogative. Her training as a professional curator colours her broadcasting, which is characterised by immersion in primary sources and the fabric of day-to-day life.

Female stories have been at the heart of Lucy’s TV work over the last 15 years, and she has reframed historical events through the lens of female experiences which are often neglected in retellings of history. Her biographical documentaries about Jane Austen and Agatha Christie brought those familiar figures vividly alive as women, while her Royal Bodies series and Tales From the Royal Bedchamber took a refreshingly human look at British monarchs through the lens of their health and sexuality. Lucy’s ability to throw herself into the narrative as a master storyteller culminated in the immersive Six Wives with Lucy Worsley, a series which placed her as a character in the heart of the action to reframe the familiar story of Henry VIII’s wives. She used the same immersive technique to bring to life the story of the Suffragettes, a thrilling drama doc which won the BAFTA for Specialist Factual in 2019.

Her many films since then have spanned the genres of History and Arts, and have included A Very British Murder, A Very British Romance, Bitz Spirit, History’s Biggest Fibs, and last year’s Killing Sherlock, a three-part series about Arthur Conan Doyle. In 2023, she turned her hand to quiz mistress and hosted  for Channel 5.

Lucy has written numerous well-received non-fiction books as well as two fiction books for children and most recently published her biography of Agatha Christie. Lucy is also known for her podcast which offers a revisionist feminist perspective on historic female criminals. It was named one of the BBC’s most downloaded podcasts of 2022. Lucy is passionate about making history engaging to the widest possible audience and balances her career as a writer and broadcaster with her continued role at HRP. She was appointed an OBE in 2018 for services to history and heritage.