Vic Reeves has a passion for pirates. He is also something of an expert on the topic - when the comedian appeared on Celebrity Mastermind in 2002, he selected piracy as his specialist subject. In our swashbuckling six part series, he takes to the high seas to tell the stories of some of history’s most malicious maritime marauders, transporting viewers back to the days when plunder, murder and mutiny were all in a day’s work. Vic also looks at the social and historical context of this barbaric behaviour.

In this episode Vic takes a look at a band of ferocious pirates who terrorised the Bristol Channel and its coastal communities - the Barbary Pirates. They struck fear into the hearts of sailors and landlubbers alike and took over a million people as slaves. Vic examines the process by which they managed to create a climate of fear so far away from their own homes.

Vic’s mischievous enthusiasm and love of all things pirate-based combine happily with a huge raft of nautical and historical trivia, enabling us to see our swashbuckling ancestors in an entirely new light.