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4 Episodes 2002 - 2002
Episode 12
59 mins
The French Revolution sent shock-waves through Britain. While some watched transfixed, others were horrified. Simon Schama explores why the British proved immune to the siren call of liberty, equality and fraternity.
Episode 13
59 mins
She began the century that bears her name a princess and ended it as an empress. Queen Victoria ruled one of the most powerful empires in world history during a century of staggering change - for both good and bad. But it was Victorian women who were at the forefront of the fight against its excesses and inequalities, who campaigned for the rights for ordinary people in marriage, education, medicine and the vote.
Episode 14
59 mins
Simon Schama looks at how the liberal politics and free-market economics of the British Empire in the 19th century unraveled, leading to the potato famine in Ireland and mutiny in India. By the early 20th century, nationalist movements around the globe had turned their back on the British 'workshop of the world'.
Episode 15
59 mins
Simon Schama tackles the 20th century through the lives of two men - Winston Churchill and George Orwell. Both men, so very different in almost every way, lived through and wrote about the key moments of British 20th-century life - the Depression, Empire, two world wars and the Cold War. What unites them, argues Schama, is one shared theme - forget history at your peril.