Dan Snow on being a ‘history hunk’… ‘I’m needy. It’s flattering’

In the first episode of How the Tudors Lost Their Heads, a new six-part series on National Geographic, we are treated to a lavish dramatisation of Mary, Queen of Scots being led to a makeshift stage, where she is to be executed. Her alleged crime – that she tried to overthrow her second cousin, Queen Elizabeth I – could only ever result in one verdict, and so the floor beneath her will be the last thing she sees before the axe separates head from body. The camera lingers on her as she whispers her final prayers. And all this takes place before the opening credits. It’s quite the spectacle. “Well, there is a lot of attention for eyeballs these days,” says the show’s co-host Dan Snow, citing TV audiences’ appetite for fantasy epics that feature “dwarves and aliens killing each other, and flying dragons”. He adds: “To make a historical programme unfold like a breathless true crime drama, I think, makes for a rather exciting approach.” How the Tudors Lost Their Heads endeavours to re-examine the brutal executions of some of the era’s most misunderstood historical figures, often by using the latest forensic equipment to help us better understand what really happened. It also highlights just what a dangerous time it was to be alive, and how easy to dispose of anyone considered problematical to the Court. Alongside co-host Suzannah Lipscomb, Snow throws himself into the topic with an ebullience that has rather come to define him. He is television’s most enthusiastic historian, and making a show like this was joyful, he tells me from his book-lined study in the New Forest home he shares with his wife Lady Edwina Grosvenor and their three children, Zia, Wolf and Orla. Anne Boleyn addresses the crowd before her execution in a re-enactment in ‘How the Tudors Lost Their Heads’ (Photo: Ashley Morris/Hit Networks/Little Dot Studios) “I’m someone who knows a little bit about a lot of different periods,” he says, “and so to be able to spend a full hour getting to know the nitty-gritty of these extraordinary people, some of whom had made it to the very pinnacle of power at the Tudor Court despite having come from such unpromising beginnings, was just fascinating.” As a general subject, history is enjoying something of a boon right now, with TV programmes and like those by Lucy Worsley (most recently Blitz Spirit) and Alice Roberts’ Digging for Britain, alongside podcasts like The Rest is History encouraging us to take a fresh look at past events. If the narrative arc to these stories once appeared set in stone, then they are increasingly being told from different perspectives, and by voices hitherto overlooked or ignored. Snow says that we are learning more all the time. “We’ve found things in archives that were previously missed, overlooked, or else the metadata was misapplied,” he says, offering up a particularly fascinating example from the series in which Lipscomb examines a letter sent by the aforementioned Queen Mary that was written in code. No one had previously cracked this code until now. And how did Lipscomb manage to translate it when her predecessors hadn’t? “Well, AI has been very helpful,” he says. Really? “Yes! AI is able to read far more effectively than the human eye.” And its decoding is correct? It won’t be contended by future (human) historians? “Well, I do think that decoding in this manner is now a generally accepted thing.” He stops, pauses, and begins slowly to frown. “Actually that’s not true. There are definitely people out there who will disagree. Oh well…” Snow with co-presenter Suzannah Lipscomb at the site of Fotheringhay Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was executed (Photo: Ashley Morris/Hit Networks/Little Dot Studios) But then this is all ultimately grist to the historian’s mill, is it not? He nods. “There was a time in the 90s when people said that history had come to an end, that some of those forces of history were taking a break – even though there were still plenty of wars, of course, and bloodshed. But then after 2008, we saw massive economic dislocation, which changed everything.” Snow argues that we should look to the past to explain why global recessions happen, and what we might learn from them. We could use a similar approach when trying to understand modern day America, where its belligerent president wants to rule the way emperors once did. “There are always parallels,” he enthuses. “You can see it in our leaders, our tech oligarchs. What history ultimately shows us is what can happen when individuals enjoy too much power.” If the nepo-baby principle had been working properly in the case of Dan Snow, then he would have followed his father Peter into television news. But while Peter Snow made a career for himself broadcasting today’s headlines – most famously on election nights, where he presided over the results – his son was far more interested in events already centuries old. “My interest in history, I suppose, was unavoidable, if only because we were fed it with our mother’s milk,” he says. “Every holiday we ever went on, we had to visit castles and battlefields. I suppose I just got Stockholm syndrome…” He began his broadcasting career in 2005, and over the years has made programmes on everything from the Second World War to 1066, The Odyssey to dinosaurs. More recently, he has at least partially pivoted from television into the world of podcasts. His History Hit series gets 10 million downloads a month. “It’s all about trying to reach people, about marrying the skills I’ve learned in broadcasting to make a similar noise on the internet. That poses a challenge, certainly, but it is a lot of fun to do.” Snow inside Hever Castle in Kent, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, holding the Book of Hours (Photo: Edward Moriarty /Hit Networks Little Dot Studios) Snow may have succeeded largely by dint of his aforementioned enthusiasm, but his good looks haven’t hurt, either. If there remains a certain stereotype around historians – pipes, corduroy, wayward beards Father Christmas would spurn – then Snow, who is 6ft 5in, broad-shouldered and chisel-chinned, bucks that trend forcefully. In newspaper articles, he is referred to as TV’s “history hunk”. I ask whether he finds this demeaning, an unserious appellation for such an ultimately scholarly pursuit? The smile that spreads helplessly across his face is all the answer I need. “Well, look, I think I’m probably an extrovert,” he admits. “I’m needy, and I like feedback. I love it when I get feedback from a programme that connects with people, or when a historical event I’ve posted about on Instagram accidentally goes viral. It’s flattering, and exciting.” But it’s also more than that. It’s serious. He sees his ongoing efforts as a necessary public service, urging us all to understand what went on before in order to make sense of the confusion of now. “It’s all about those modern day parallels,” he reasserts. “History is about power, it’s about ambition, lust and jealousy. It’s about older men married to younger women, who feel sexually insecure, about sisters who are jealous of each other, and fathers-in-law who try to take control of the destiny of their daughters-in-law to make sure their grandchildren will sit on the throne. Now, that could be referring to the Tudors, or the Mughals of India, or the Incas, but it could also be about the world today, about us, and about who we are.” ‘How The Tudors Lost Their Heads‘ starts tonight at 8pm on National Geographic. All episodes are streaming on Disney+