Lucy Worsley Returns to PBS with ‘Keys to the Castle’
Lucy Worsley's back, and this time she's brought the 'Keys to the Castle' with her.
PBS is bringing Lucy Worsley back for the holidays, but this time she’s not deep-diving into fictional detectives, but buildings. Her newest series, commissioned for BBC Two and now crossing the pond to the U.S., is Lucy Worsley’s Keys to the Castle, and sees her poking around four of Europe’s most famous oversized living spaces, and hopefully wearing a few appropriate outfits along the way.
The series focuses on famous castles in the U.K. and across the continent, including the Doge’s Palace in Venice, the Palace of Versailles in France, Britain’s Blenheim Palace, and Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany.
Her trip to the spectacular Palace of Versailles promises to go beyond the ostentatious state rooms and into the private quarters of its most notorious resident, Marie Antoinette. At the Doge’s Palace in Venice, she’ll uncover darker corners that hint at the brutality meted out to enemies of the state inside one of the city’s most ornate buildings. In Germany, the fairytale rooms of Neuschwanstein Castle — the inspiration for the iconic Disney castle — will reveal the tragic story of the handsome young king who built it. Finally, in the Cotswolds town of Woodstock, she’ll visit Blenheim Palace to uncover how the invention of the corridor and a stolen head helped wartime leader Winston Churchill fulfill his destiny.
“This is my dream project,” says Worsley. “I’ve had years of being behind the scenes at various castles and palaces and know how much fun it can be, and I can’t wait to share that with viewers.”
After more than two decades as Chief Curator of Britain’s Historic Palaces, historian Lucy Worsley knows her way around a castle. Now, armed with the keys to four iconic palaces, Worsley leads viewers behind the velvet ropes into hidden rooms, sealed archives and private spaces, uncovering stories of obsession, heroic escapades, stolen treasure and the secret life of a notorious queen.
Over four episodes, Worsley guides viewers through the architecture, design, art, personal treasures, and artifacts found in spaces the public rarely gets to see, using the castles to offer a fascinating take on some of history’s most important events and the people who lived them. From Marie Antoinette to Winston Churchill, the doges of Venice to “Mad” King Ludwig, the residents of these palaces not only shaped these castles but were shaped by them.
Here’s the episode order:
- Episode 1: “Versailles” (Sunday, December 6)
- Episode 2: “Doge’s Palace”
- Episode 3: “Blenheim Palace”
- Episode 4: “Neuschwanstein Castle”
Historian Lucy Worsley once again wrote all four episodes and stars in the series, headed up by series producer Victoria Bell. The Executive Producer is Amanda Lyon, with Zara Frankel as the Executive in Charge for PBS.
Lucy Worsley’s Keys to the Castle will debut on PBS on Sunday, December 6, 2026, at 8 p.m. on most local PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Documentary Prime Video Channel. The series will run one episode a week through the end of the year.
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