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"The invasion of Panama by the U.S in Christmas and New Year of 1989 – when  American troops deposed dictator Manuel Noriega, killing an unknown number of civilians in the process- serves as an excuse to explore how a people remember, transform, and often forget their past in order re-define their identity and become who they are today.

Invasion documents the collective memory utilizing a combination of reenactments and interviews of the 1989 US Invasion. The people's lives were deeply shaken by the invasion: Defense forces who fought symbolic battles, politicians who justify their actions, friends of the church, from civilians to former General Noriega.

Did the “gringos” bring democracy or destruction? Was Noriega a victim or a villain? Was he an anti-Imperialist or a CIA accomplice gone rogue? Was it about drug trafficking or arms dealing, or perhaps neither? Or does it really just boil down to the fact that the U.S. wasn’t ready to relinquish control of the Panama Canal? These questions, many of which go intentionally unanswered, constitute the first Panamanian attempt to reconcile with a national trauma that many Panamanians have been all too eager to forget."

The cultures and religions that have shaped the Spain we know today are revealed over the course of a journey through its key cities – Madrid, Granada, Cordoba, Seville and Cartagena – in the company of historian Simon Sebag Montefiore. It’s a story packed with surprises and includes some of the great civilisations of the ancient world, as well as the most extraordinary characters. From Hannibal to the Caliphate, the Roman emperors Trajan and Hadrian, the Jewish Prime Ministers under Muslim rule to the expulsion of the Jews, the Inquisition and the rise of the Habsburgs: Charles V, Phillip II and empire, the Bourbons, Napoleon and ultimately Franco and beyond. We discover how this is a part of the world where the influence of previous cities and their respective faiths are evident at every turn.

Simon explores Spain's golden age under Philip II through to the Spanish Civil War and dictatorship under Franco, from which Spain has emerged as a modern democratic monarchy.