Zig Zag: The Vikings
The Vikings is a unit of the BBC Schools TV series Zig Zag from the 1980s, 1990s & 2000s, covering history for primary school pupils.
These three documentary programmes are followed by a two-part Viking drama, The Saga of Gunnar Goldhair.
A programme for teachers about studying the Vikings, nicely named The Saga of Class 2's Project, was shown as part of Teaching Today to accompany the 1989 and 1991 repeats of the unit.
Episode List
Several video clips from this unit are available on the BBC website.
| # | Title | Broadcast | Clips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | The Vikings Are Coming! | 21 Sep 1987 | |
| 2. | A Viking Town | 28 Sep 1987 | |
| 3. | Viking Sailors | 5 Oct 1987 | |
| - | The Saga of Class 2's Project | 18 Sep 1989 |
Broadcasts
| Year | Term | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Channel | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987-88 | Autumn 1987 | Monday, 11:00am | Wednesday, 1:38pm | BBC2 | ||||
| Summer 1988 | Monday, 1:00pm | BBC2 | Subtitle Slot | |||||
| 1989-90 | Autumn 1989 | Monday, 11:00am | Wednesday, 1:40pm | BBC2 | ||||
| 1991-92 | Autumn 1991 | Monday, 11:00am | Wednesday, 1:40pm | BBC2 | ||||
| 1993-94 | Spring 1994 | Monday, 11:00am | Wednesday, 1:40pm | BBC2 | ||||
| 1995-96 | Autumn 1995 | Monday, 11:05am | Wednesday, 1:20pm | BBC2 |
CBBC Channel
Also broadcast on the CBBC Channel 'Class TV' service of schools programmes:
- 2003-04: Autumn 2003
- 2004-05: Autumn 2004
Credits
| Presenter | Paul Coia |
| Story narrator | David March |
| Illustrator | Paul Birkbeck |
| Series Producer | Tom Stanier |
Resources

There were teacher's notes, a project book and BBC Fact Finders book, plus software for Acorn computers and a Video Plus pack.

Links
- BBC Education - Zig Zag - The Vikings (archived 2002)
- BBC Programmes page for The Vikings
- The Vikings on the Internet Movie Database
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