Lucy Worsley's Best Series: Just a Historian Who Wandered into TV

Popular historian Lucy Worsley’s first TV appearance was in 2009 for the documentary Inside the Body of Henry VIII, joining a medical doctor and a biographer in a special that examined the king’s physical condition on the 500th anniversary of his ascension to the throne. Worsley commented that the highlight of the show was squashing a pig to reconstruct Henry’s jousting accident in 1536.

Since then, she’s gone from strength to strength, charming, challenging, and amusing audiences worldwide. Her enthusiasm extends to dressing up and joining the action, whispering an erudite and witty commentary from beneath a mobcap or helmet as the scene plays out. But don’t be fooled. She is a serious historian whose knowledge is breathtakingly vast, and if it takes a daft costume to catch her audience’s attention, she’ll lace herself into one. She has created programs on the Romanovs, the histories of opera and dance, Mozart’s London debut, the development of Tudor choral music, horse ballet or “manage” (the topic of her doctoral thesis), the Women’s Institute, romance through the ages, food history, antiques, the Regency, and the King James Bible.

Worsley has also written several books, including some for young adults. Her day job is as Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces, caring for six unoccupied royal palaces in the UK: The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace (State Apartments and Orangery), The Banqueting House, Whitehall, Kew Palace with Queen Charlotte’s Cottage, and Hillsborough Castle, Northern Ireland.