Episode list

(AD 43-1066) - For a thousand years, from Emperor Claudius to William the Conqueror, the British Isles were defined by invasion, each successive wave bringing something new to the mix. The Romans brought figurative art, the Anglo-Saxons epic poetry, the Normans monumental architecture. David Dimbleby travels throughout Britain and beyond - to France, Italy and Turkey - in search of the greatest creations of the age.

(1170-1400) - In the Middle Ages, Britain was caught in a power struggle between the Crown and the Church. The two were reconciled in the code of chivalry which ordered devotion to one's king as well as God: a story revealed in the fabulous objects left in Britain's cathedrals and castles, or safeguarded in museums. David Dimbleby also re-assesses the reign of Richard II, arguing that under his rule England experienced a superb cultural renaissance, and travels to Munich in search of Britain's only preserved medieval crown.

From the Henry VIII's accession in 1509 to the last play of Shakespeare's Henry VIII, the Tudors dynasty used reformation, art, seamanship, and propaganda to the most powerful World empire.

In the 17th century, the people of Britain learnt to question everything. The result was Civil War, in which everyone, including artists, had to take sides. But out of it came a re-invented monarchy, a scientific revolution and, ultimately, the great Cathedral of St Paul's. Highlights include the courtly portraits of Rubens, Van Dyck and Peter Lely, and the fabulous creations of the Royal Society. Programme includes: Charles I's execution shirt and painting of Charles with his head sewn back on (Museum of London); Rubens' Apotheosis of James I (Banqueting House); Van Dyck portraits (Tate Britain); Puritan tracts; Civil War re-enactment; Verney family tomb (Claydon House); Thomason Collection (British Library); portraits of Cromwell (National Portrait Gallery); Grinling Gibbons' golden statue of Charles I (Royal Hospital Chelsea); Peter Lely's Windsor Beauties (Hampton Court); Royal Observatory (Greenwich); Hooke's microscope and Micrographia (Science Museum); Wren's plan for London; St Paul's Cathedral.

In the 1700's, the age of Commerce produced a new 'middle' class with new ant-puritan pleasure and novelty, a Golden Age in painting, and hero burial of Horatio Nelson, a commoner, at the St Paul's Cathedral.

British Empire from 1750 to 1900 from America and India traces the descent from adventure and inspiration into moral bankruptcy as the Empire became a self-serving bureaucratic machine.

Modern Britain from WWI to the 21st century, the empire gone, but ambition/pride of new scientific age stills make Great Britain one of the greatest powers and influences in the world.