The British is a British television series produced by Sky Atlantic. [1] It comprises seven fifty-minute episodes. It covers several major events in the history of Britain throughout the years [2] 43 AD [3] to 1953. Including the Norman Conquest, Industrial Revolution and the Queen's Coronation. It stars Russell Brand, Jessie J, and Dame Helen Mirren, [4] and is narrated by Jeremy Irons. [5] It premiered 6 September 2012 on Sky Atlantic. [6]
The episode opens in the year 58 AD, depicting a Roman party being ambushed by Britons in a forest located in Wales. General Gaius Suetonius Paulinus is shown landing on a British coast followed by a Roman fleet. The documentary then displays the reasons for a Roman invasion including the abundance of Cornish tin and its market and a large amount of iron for use in Rome's armies, and other useful metals. It moves on to show the ancient druids inhabiting Anglesey as the largest resistance against the Roman Invasion. The druids are shown training to fight the Roman invasion with men and women both fighting alongside each other. Lindow Man is shown, a preserved male body found in a bog at Lindow Moss, thought to have been a ritual sacrifice made by the druids in order help defeat the Roman forces. The Romans then approach the druids at Anglesey and a battle takes place which resulted in a Roman victory. The documentary then shows the effects of Roman rule in Britain, showing the roads that are built and the settlements along them as well as bathhouses and temples. The arenas are then shown with enslaved gladiators fighting within them. The gladiators are treated as celebrities and have a following. A sale of a gladiator's sweat is made showing the market for sporting merchandise. A gladiatorial battle is shown in which the fate of the loser is decided by the battles host, in this instance, death is desired.
The north of England is explored as a major food source for the Roman empire, and elaborate villas are constructed with central heating and functional sewers. Hadrian's Wall is shown, separating England from Scotland. The Picts attack the Roman soldiers at Hadrian's Wall and are successful. The Roman Empire is challenged throughout Europe, and in the UK, markets slow and no new coins are sent to Britain. Rome then withdraws from Britain. A man is shown burying his wealth, hoping to protect it for the future on the hopes the Roman empire will return to Britain.
The emperor Constantine the Great is shown dying, with his dying wish to be baptised, making the Roman empire a Christian one. A man named Patrick is seen at a coastal settlement, and is kidnapped and enslaved by Irish pirates. He escapes slavery and spreads Christianity throughout Ireland and later becomes Saint Patrick. He and his followers spread Christianity into Great Britain from Ireland. [7]
The episode opens in 1066 with William the Conqueror taking the throne after the death of King Harold. A town in north Yorkshire is shown resisting the new rule, refusing the Normans right to rule. Norman men are sent north to suppress resistance with force if necessary. The inhabitants of the town are slaughtered. 150,000 people died or fled during these slaughters. Their land is torched. Norman influence is shown, with structures such as forts and castles built around Britain. The Normans claim land from Britons, taking it from private owners. To demonstrate ownership and make taxing more efficient, Domesday Book is written recording every person living in Britain and everything they own. Effects of this are seen in investments such as large cathedrals and their architecture is described. Payne Peverel, the third son of a Norman lord, is shown preparing for a war: the Crusades. A battle is shown in Jerusalem where Normans massacre inhabitants in search for personal gain. Payne Peverel is made a baron due to his success as a crusader.
In 1315, one of Britain's worst storm halves crop yield and half a million die as a result. Thus, the price of crops increase driving many to hunt illegally. Two hunters are shown hunting in royal forests, a criminal offence. It is noted that all men must be skilled bowmen ready to fight for their king if called upon. The hunters are shown being chased by the king's foresters and are caught and arrested and spared due to their skills in archery. This sparks the legend of Robin Hood.
A merchant ship is shown carrying black rats carrying the black death on its way to Britain. The village of Titchfield is depicted and is inhabited by these black rats. The black death soon sweeps through the village and three-quarters die within six months. This is seen throughout most villages in Britain. In London, mass graves were used to preserve the dignity of the dead.
Due to the lowered population, there is a food excess which is sold for profit which creates a new middle class and a more prosperous nation. A baker is shown being demanded more tax from their lords and subsequently a resistance occurs; the peasants' revolt. The rebels then prepare to march on London. Robert Hales is shown, treasurer responsible for the new tax, being beheaded by a small party of peasants. Serfdom is ended, but the rebel leaders are executed. Archers are shown preparing to fight French forces whom have double the number of soldiers as the British on the battlefield. The longbow allows the British to become victorious due to the ranged advantage and the high rate of fire. [8]
This episode takes us from the Tudors and the Stuarts right through to the parliamentary revolution. The episode opens in 1539, at Glastonbury Abbey, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England. A lieutenant of Henry VIII of England has arrived to loot and to uncover evidence of high treason, on orders of the King. Instances such as this started happening due to Henry VIII's recent divorce, resulting in England becoming a Protestant country. Henry VIII's outright defiance of the papacy at this time caused outrage in Catholic Europe. This episode explores how technological advancements, such as the Caxton Press defined Henry VIII's reign, and how, ultimately, all this led to the English Civil War and the subsequent downfall of Charles I. [9] This episode featured an appearance from Russell Brand.
This episode explores how money shaped the transformation of modern Britain. The episode opens with historian Jeremy Black explaining the rise of English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries. Beginning in 1666, this is where the upper classes gathered and discussed culture, news and gossip of the day. The beginnings of these coffeehouses ties in with the Great Fire of London, which is also discussed in this episode. A time jump of almost 60 years occurs to the formation of the Bank of England, which brought about British Colonization and the Atlantic slave trade, which leads to the abolition of slavery and the Battle of Trafalgar fought between England and Napoleon Bonaparte's French Empire. [10] This episode features appearances from Frank Lampard, Jeremy Irons and Terry Wogan.
This episode highlights how the British empire expanded by way of exploration, including how colonies were established and developed in Australia. It also highlights how the Industrial Revolution propelled Britain into a new age with technological advancements. Manual processes were replaced with machinery to improve production efficiency, boosting the economy. The episode begins with Captain James Cook coming across the shores of New South Wales but takes a contrasting turn and lands the viewer straight in the middle of the Industrial Revolution. The episode also portrays how these advancements caused devastation when it explores one of the bloodiest conflicts in history, The Crimean War. [11] This episode features multiple guest stars including Tracey Emin, Dougary Scott, Jessie J and Lily Cole.
This episode concentrates on the events of the period from 1851 to 1891. With Queen Victoria on the throne the Empire is ever expanding; however, at home divisions in society are becoming deeper. The wealth and opulence enjoyed by some in society is deeply contrasted with the experiences of those blighted by poverty and crime. Some great reformers emerged in this time, including Charles Dickens and Josephine Butler. London is thriving and The Crystal Palace is constructed to host the Great Exhibition of 1851. On a lighter note the episode takes a look at the rise and popularity of football. [12]
This episode talks about the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II which took place in 1953. Live, on black and white TVs, 27 million British people watched the coronation from their homes. This was the first coronation to be broadcast. This important event took almost twelve months to organise and required extensive negotiations to allow cameras inside the abbey. The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and the cabinet believed that the intrusion of cameras and lights would be an extra discomfort for the Queen and also a threat to the dignity of the ceremony. However, listening to people's desire, Elizabeth II requested that the whole nation could see the coronation. [13]
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe, classical antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the modern era.
Lindow Man, also known as Lindow II and as Pete Marsh, is the preserved bog body of a man discovered in a peat bog at Lindow Moss near Wilmslow in Cheshire, North West England. The remains were found on 1 August 1984 by commercial peat cutters. Lindow Man is not the only bog body to have been found in the moss; Lindow Woman was discovered the year before, and other body parts have also been recovered. The find was described as "one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 1980s" and caused a media sensation. It helped invigorate the study of British bog bodies, which had previously been neglected.
The 18th century lasted from 1 January 1701 to 31 December 1800 (MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the Atlantic Revolutions. Revolutions began to challenge the legitimacy of monarchical and aristocratic power structures. The Industrial Revolution began during mid-century, leading to radical changes in human society and the environment. The European colonization of the Americas and other parts of the world intensified and associated mass migrations of people grew in size as part of the Age of Sail. During the century, slave trading expanded across the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, while declining in Russia and China.
Year 1543 (MDXLIII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. It is one of the years sometimes referred to as an "Annus mirabilis" because of its significant publications in science, considered the start of the Scientific Revolution.
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend Television was its weekend counterpart. Granada's parent company Granada plc later bought several other regional ITV stations and, in 2004, merged with Carlton Communications to form ITV plc.
The Georgian era was a period in British history from 1714 to c. 1830–1837, named after the Hanoverian kings George I, George II, George III and George IV. The definition of the Georgian era is also often extended to include the relatively short reign of William IV, which ended with his death in 1837. The subperiod that is the Regency era is defined by the regency of George IV as Prince of Wales during the illness of his father George III. The transition to the Victorian era was characterized in religion, social values, and the arts by a shift in tone away from rationalism and toward romanticism and mysticism.
The PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize is awarded to the best work of non-fiction of historical content covering a period up to and including World War II, and published in the year of the award. The books are to be of high literary merit, but not primarily academic. The prize is organized by the English PEN. Marjorie Hessell-Tiltman was a member of PEN during the 1960s and 1970s; on her death in 1999 she bequeathed £100,000 to the PEN Literary Foundation to found a prize in her name. Each year's winner receives £2,000.
The history of the British Isles began with its sporadic human habitation during the Palaeolithic from around 900,000 years ago. The British Isles has been continually occupied since the early Holocene, the current geological epoch, which started around 11,700 years ago. Mesolithic hunter-gatherers migrated from the Continent soon afterwards at a time when there was no sea barrier between Britain and Europe, but there was between Britain and Ireland. There were almost complete population replacements by migrations from the Continent at the start of the Neolithic around 4,100 BC and the Bronze Age around 2,500 BC. Later migrations contributed to the political and cultural fabric of the islands and the transition from tribal societies to feudal ones at different times in different regions.
Simon Scarrow is a British writer. Scarrow completed a master's degree at the University of East Anglia after working at the Inland Revenue, and then went into teaching as a lecturer, firstly at East Norfolk Sixth Form College, then at City College Norwich. Simon is a patron of the Bansang Hospital Appeal which supports an outstandingly innovative hospital in The Gambia.
Gladiator is a 2000 historical epic film directed by Ridley Scott and written by David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson. It stars Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Richard Harris, Derek Jacobi, and Djimon Hounsou.
Jeremy Black is a British historian, writer, and former professor of history at the University of Exeter. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.
Robert fitz Martin was a knight from Devon whose father, Martin de Turribus, was the first Norman Lord of Kemes, in what had previously been the Dyfed part of Deheubarth. Fitz Martin inherited the Lordship of Kemes from his father, and founded St Dogmaels Abbey c. 1118. He was the first of the FitzMartin line. His descendants continued to hold lands in England and Wales until the 14th century.
Victoria and Merrie England, billed as a "Grand National Ballet in Eight Tableaux" is an 1897 ballet by the choreographer Carlo Coppi with music by Arthur Sullivan, written to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, commemorating her sixty years on the throne. The ballet became very popular and ran for nearly six months.
Eternal Filena is a fantasy light novel series by Takeshi Shudo which was serialized in Japan in Animage, illustrated by Akemi Takada. The series has been collected into nine volumes published by Tokuma Shoten. An OVA series based on the novels was released from 1992 to 1993. The novel series was also adapted into a role-playing video game released by Tokuma Shoten for the Super Famicom in 1995. It was only released commercially in Japan.
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor and activist. He is known for his roles on stage and screen having won numerous accolades including an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. He is one of the few actors who has achieved the "Triple Crown of Acting" in the US having won Oscar, Emmy, and Tony Awards for Film, Television and Theatre.
Horrible Histories: Gory Games is a children's game show, co-produced by Citrus Television and Lion Television for CBBC, that debuted in 2011. It is a spin-off of hit children's sketch comedy Horrible Histories and is a product of the same creative team.
A druid was a member of the high-ranking priestly class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. While they were reported to have been literate, they are believed to have been prevented by doctrine from recording their knowledge in written form. Their beliefs and practices are attested in some detail by their contemporaries from other cultures, such as the Romans and the Greeks.
Timeline is a 1989 American/British/Spanish/Turkish educational television series that aired on PBS, presenting historical events from the Middle Ages in the style of newscasts. Six episodes of the series were produced.
Britannia is a British historical fantasy drama television series created by Jez Butterworth and Tom Butterworth. The show was the first co-production between Sky UK and Amazon Prime Video and stars Kelly Reilly, David Morrissey, Zoë Wanamaker, Mackenzie Crook, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, and Eleanor Worthington Cox. It first aired on Sky Atlantic in the UK beginning 18 January 2018 and on Amazon Prime Video in the US beginning 26 January 2018. The first series aired on Epix beginning 2 August 2020. Pop songs were used as theme music for the three series to date: Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man", his "Season of the Witch", and "Children of the Revolution" by T. Rex. In March 2023, the series was cancelled after three seasons.