What the Stuarts Did for Us

Last updated

What the Stuarts Did for Us
WhatTheStuartsDidForUs.jpg
Genre Documentary
Presented by Adam Hart-Davis
Composer David Mitcham
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes4
Production
Producer Paul King
Editor Maggie Ward
Running time23 minutes
Distributor BBC
Release
Original network BBC Two
Picture format 16:9 576i
Audio format Stereo
Original release21 October (2002-10-21) 
11 November 2002 (2002-11-11)
Chronology
Preceded by What the Tudors Did for Us
Followed by What the Industrial Revolution Did for Us

What the Stuarts Did for Us is a 2002 BBC documentary series that examines the impact of the Stuart period on modern society.

Contents

Episodes

Episode one: Desygner Livinge

In the beginning of the Stuart Period a curious new device appeared, it looks like a church bell but in fact it's an exercise machine. This machine was one of many trendy new ideas that enhanced the life style of the Stuarts. It was the beginning of designer living.

Adam Hart-Davis

Hart-Davis travels around Britain to introduce the idea and inventions of the Stuart Period in architecture and life-style.

Episode two: The Applyance of Science

Before Stuart times the man who really ruled the scientific roost was the Greek philosopher Aristotle, even if he had been dead for 2000 years. But by the 1600s his ideas were becoming discredited and the Stuarts needed a new approach to understanding nature.

Adam Hart-Davis

Hart-Davis travels around Britain to introduce the idea and inventions of the Stuart Period in science and engineering.

Episode three: The Organysed Isle

Travel by coach was all the rage for the Stuarts and once regular public transport had filled the road with traffic, thieves like Moll [Cutpurse] were guaranteed a regular income. She was just one entrepreneur profiting from a Britain that was more organised than ever before.

Adam Hart-Davis

Hart-Davis travels around Britain to introduce the idea and inventions of the Stuart Period in economics and politics.

Episode four: Newe Worldes

In a Dutch spectacle shop a chap called Zacharias Jantzen looked through two lenses at once and got the shock of his life, he was seeing the world in super-close-up. Jantzen had made the first microscope, giving the Stuarts a window into an entirely new miniature world.

Adam Hart-Davis

Hart-Davis travels around Britain to introduce the idea and inventions of the Stuart Period in science and science-fiction.

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