X-Files History

In 1912, Geological Society of London presented a sensation to the world: The Missing Link, final proof of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Hobby archaeologist Charles Dawson claimed to have found the link between man and ape in a gravel pit in southern England, near Piltdown.

The third episode - The Mystery of the Royal Mummy deals with one of the greatest archaeological hoaxes ever: The discovery of the mummified corpse of a Persian princess from the days of Alexander the Great makes its discoverers heroes overnight. But then first cracks in their story appeared: The mummy turns out to be a fake.

In 1980, two priceless Cranach paintings disappeared from a small-town church in East Germany. The thieves left lots of evidence in the town of Klieken, but none of the clues lead to the arrest of the culprits.

The pilot episode Churchill's Secret Corpse examines one of the most daring espionage operations of WW II: Operation Mincemeat, in which British MI5 agents developed a high-stakes plan to lead the Nazi Wehrmacht astray and distract from the impending Allied invasion of Sicily, using faked documents on a prepared corpse.