After four years reviewing all the kings and queens of England from Alfred the Great to Elizabeth II we have reached the end - the Grand Final. The three contenders for the Rex Factor crown are Alfred the Great (the founding father), Henry II (the...

We're almost at the end - the Semi-Finals feature 9 of the 18 Rex Factor winning monarchs but after this just three will make it through to the Grand Final. Listen now to find out who is still standing, with sword held aloft, on the Rex Factor...

In the third and final semi-final, our very first monarch, Alfred the Great, is up against the two Edwards - grandfather and grandson, Edward I and Edward III. But who deserves a place in the final? Will it be Alfred for saving Anglo-Saxon England from...

Semi-Final B sees a fascinating mix of characters: the pious, all-conquering Saxon and first king of all England, Athelstan; the relentless, zealous, French-conquering hero of Agincourt, Henry V, and the vibrant splendour of a Tudor golden age in...

Things are hotting up now in the play-offs as we move on to the semi-finals. Semi-Final A is a real humdinger, with the top scoring monarch in Henry II up against two of the most iconic figures in Henry VIII and Queen Victoria. This time only one will...

Things get real in the play-offs as 9 of the 18 Rex Factor winners are eliminated from the competition. The results are revealed for Groups A, B and C in the first round - the scores from Ali, Graham and the combined votes of the public at large will...

In the last of the first round ties, Group C is a fascinating battle between medieval (William the Conqueror, Edward III & Henry V) vs. the modern (William IV, Victoria & George V). William conquered England after the Battle of Hastings, while ...

Group B is a heavyweight affair of empires and conquerors. Cnut, a Viking, is one of a very small number of leaders to have conquered England, as well as presiding over a North Sea Empire, Henry II established the Angevin Empire (England and the '...

So the play-offs finally begin. There are three rounds and in the opening round we have three groups of six, which for Group A consists of Alfred the Great, Athelstan, Henry I, Edward IV, Henry VIII & Charles II. In this episode, we look at all the...

After 67 episodes, three and a half years and numerous broken bones (all belonging to Ali) we have reviewed all the Kings and Queens of England from Alfred the Great to Elizabeth II. We were left with 18 monarchs standing tall and proud atop the Rex...

After three years we finally complete the journey "From Alfred the Great to Elizabeth the Second" as in this episode we review the reign of Elizabeth II. Given that the Queen is still reigning, these are effectively provisional scores as we d...

The Queen was just 27 years old when she was crowned in 1953 and in this episode we look at her life and reign from 1953 to the present day - history becomes the present! This episode takes us from the glitz and glamour of the 1950s and her tour of the...

From Alfred the Great to Elizabeth II - as Rex Factor's journey through the monarchs of England reaches its close, we finally come to THE Queen! In the first of three episodes, we examine the biography of Princess Elizabeth up to and including her...

While Ali continues to recuperate from his bicycle injury, some Rex Factor fans have provided something to fill the audio void: History According to Ali. Trawling through every episode of Rex Factor, they have picked out some of Ali's best moments...

Unfortunately a nasty bike accident for Ali means that there's a bit of a delay in reviewing Queen Elizabeth II.I'm sure you'll all want to wish Ali well and if you want to send him a message then you can contact us in the following ways...

This week on Rex Factor we put right what once went wrong and step back 1,000 years in history to review England's first Viking ruler, Sweyn Forkbeard. Sweyn was the father of the legendary Cnut and the first Viking to be acknowledged as full king...

Having covered his life and reign, this week on Rex Factor we review George VI. Hear of his exploits serving in the battle of Jutland, doing his bit in the Second World War and stoically keeping calm and carrying on through speech impediment, ill...

After the shock of the Abdication Crisis in 1936, George VI came to the throne in less than ideal circumstances. And with a history of ill health, a stammer and an aversion to the limelight, George was perhaps less than the ideal future monarch....

In 1936, a very different character came to the throne in the shape of Edward VIII. He was handsome, charismatic and a modern man with modern interests. Unfortunately, he was also in love with a twice-divorced American, Wallis Simpson, at a time when...

George V came to the throne in 1910 in the midst of a constitutional crisis and from that point on things didn't really get any easier. As monarch, George faced hung Parliaments, social upheaval, the Great Depression and the horrors of the First W...

After the epic reign of Victoria, Edward VII (known as Bertie) had a lot to live up to. Lacking in academic rigour, romping and making scandal like his Hanoverian forefathers, Bertie was a source of anxiety for both his parents and the country at...

After four episodes, we finally review Queen Victoria in full. From the spirited young girl who resisted Conroy's Kensington System to the dumpy old lady celebrating her Diamond Jubilee, Victoria had her fair show of up's and downs. Some woul...

This week we look at Victoria's Prime Ministers following the death of Lord Palmerston in 1865. Victoria was heavily into mourning Prince Albert, but the efforts of Lord John Russell and the Earl of Derby to introduce electoral reform started to c...

Having looked at Victoria's personal life, we now look at the events of her reign through her Prime Ministers. In this first of two episodes, we encounter the first six of her ten leaders. Her first PM, Melbourne, was an old-school Whig with a pen...

Following the death of her beloved husband, Albert, Victoria plunged into mourning, wearing black for the rest of her life and refusing to perform her duties in public. Her reclusive habits saw her popularity plunge and the spectre of republicanism...