Cromwell’s Head

The story of Oliver Cromwell’s head is perhaps the most bizarre, yet least well known, of all tales from English history. From regal burial to exhumation and decapitation, this relic of our only non-royal ruler has travelled a most peculiar path. It has been a gruesome warning to traitors, a secret prize for a soldier, an attraction at an 18th-century peep show, and an object of veneration and derision until it was finally laid to rest in a secret ceremony. CROMWELL’S HEAD, is a one-hour documentary, telling the full story of this extraordinary artifact. CROMWELL’S HEAD unravels a mystery and brings to light a variety of strange tales. By looking at the passions, public and private, aroused by Cromwell and his head, it illuminates how British attitudes to monarchy, democracy and radicalism were formed – and how they have changed, since our civil war over 350 years ago

• oliver cromwell