• 2010
  • 1h
Michael Wood's Story of England

Summary In each episode, English historian Michael Woods's team sheds an original light on a major period in British history. However, instead of a merely descriptive approach, they attempt to report as if on the present and stress links with our age. View more details

  • 2010
  • 1h

Michael Wood's Story of England

Directed : Unknown

Written : Unknown

Stars : Michael Wood Carenza Lewis Chris Dryer Bob Holman

All cast & crew

8.1

Details

Genres : Documentary

Release date : Sep 21, 2010

Countries of origin : United Kingdom

Language : English

Filming locations : Kibworth, Leicester, Leicestershire, England, UK

Production companies : Maya Vision International

Summary In each episode, English historian Michael Woods's team sheds an original light on a major period in British history. However, instead of a merely descriptive approach, they attempt to report as if on the present and stress links with our age. View more details

Details

Genres : Documentary

Release date : Sep 21, 2010

Countries of origin : United Kingdom

Language : English

Filming locations : Kibworth, Leicester, Leicestershire, England, UK

Production companies : Maya Vision International

Photos

Michael Wood in Michael Wood's Story of England (2010) Michael Wood in Michael Wood's Story of England (2010)

Episodes

View All Seasons
Episode 1 • Sep 21, 2010
Romans to Normans
Host Michael Wood explores the history of England by looking at the evolution of the town of Kibworth and it's inhabitants. Like most places in the England, Kibworth was first recorded in 1086 in the Domesday Book. Prior to that, archeology provides the necessary information. Evidence indicates a village existed in Kibworth as far back as Roman times and even earlier. Essentially, people had lived there for thousands of years. With the departure of the Romans came the Anglo-Saxons, pagans who worshiped the natural world. Christianity was introduced in the early 7th century and the English language became dominant over several centuries. In the late 9th century, the Vikings invaded and DNA tests reveal that many in Kibworth are their descendants. The Norman invasion of 1066 changed the village considerably with the construction of Norman castles and major shifts in land ownership.
Episode 2 • Sep 28, 2010
Domesday to Magna Carta
Wood's unique portrait moves on to 1066 when the Normans build a castle in Kibworth. He reveals how occupation affected the villagers from the gallows to the alehouse, and shows the medieval open fields in action in the only place where they still survive today. With the help of the residents, he charts events in the village leading to the people's involvement in the Civil War of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. Intertwining the local and national narratives, this is a moving and informative picture of one local community through time.
Episode 3 • Oct 05, 2010
The Great Famine and the Black Death
Wood's fascinating tale reaches the catastrophic 14th century. Kibworth goes through the worst famine in European history, and then, as revealed in the astonishing village archive in Merton College Oxford, two thirds of the people die in the Black Death. Helped by today's villagers - field walking and reading the historical texts - and by the local schoolchildren digging archaeological test pits, Wood follows stories of individual lives through these times, out of which the English idea of community and the English character begin to emerge.
Episode 4 • Oct 12, 2010
Peasants' Revolt to the Tudors
Michael Wood's gripping tale moves on to dramatic battles of conscience in the time of the Hundred Years' War. We see how the people themselves set up the first school for their children. Some villagers join in a rebellion against King Henry V, while others rise to become middle class merchants in the textile town of Coventry. On the horizon is the Protestant Reformation, but the rise of capitalism and individualism sow the seeds of England's future greatness.
Episode 5 • Oct 19, 2010
Henry VIII to the Industrial Revolution
The tale reaches the dramatic events of Henry VIII's Reformation and the battles of the English Civil War. We track Kibworth's 17th century dissenters, travel on the Grand Union Canal and meet an 18th century feminist writer from Kibworth who was a pioneer of children's books. The story of a young highwayman transported to Australia comes alive as his living descendents come back to the village to uncover their roots. Lastly, the Industrial Revolution comes to the village with framework knitting factories, changing the village and its people forever.
Episode 6 • Oct 26, 2010
Victoria to the Present Day
Michael uncovers the secret history of a Victorian village more colourful than even Dickens could have imagined. Recreating their penny concerts of the 1880s, visiting World War I battlefields with the school and recalling the Home Guard, local land girls and the bombing of the village in 1940, the series finally moves into the brave new world of 'homes for heroes' and the villagers come together to leave a reminder of their world for future generations.
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