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Join presenter Andrew White and his team of dedicated walkers as they lead a series of walks throughout Britain. In this episode Andrew walks through the stunning Silverdale Glen on the Isle of Man and takes a winter walk around Elter Water in the Lake District.
The Victorians have had a terrible press. We think of them as a pompous, prudish, buttoned-up bunch of moralising do-gooders. But they were in fact a romantic, adventurous, creative and inventive people who made this country the richest and most powerful nation on earth. Now they have a passionate advocate in the form of Jeremy Paxman - a former sceptic who grew up filled with disdain for the era, but who has recently come to see it as the glorious pinnacle of our culture. Part 3 of 4.
The first months of the war on the Western Front were mobile, fast and dangerous. Casualty rates were higher than with later trench warfare. The Germans were halted by the Allies at the Battle of the Marne, fell back to high ground and dug in. The Allies followed suit. The resulting line of trenches stretched from the Channel to Switzerland. Now 11 million French and Belgian civilians were under occupation. German brutality was no myth. Resistance was ruthlessly surpressed. Part 2 of 10.
The lost pyramid city of Túcume is the biggest single collection of pyramids in South America – 26 colossal structures built around a sacred mountain on the north coast of Peru. Until recent excavations, no-one knew why this extraordinary site had been built, who had lived here, or why it had been abandoned. Bloody scenes of human sacrifice took place at Tucume, culminating in a frenzy of bloodshed that led to the purging and abandonment of the city. Part 2 of 3.
Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of medieval illuminated manuscripts and shows how they gave power to the king and united the kingdom in an age of plague, warfare and rebellion. She discovers that Edward III used the manuscripts he read as a boy to prepare him for his great victory at the battle of Crecy. She reveals how a vigorous new national identity bloomed during the Hundred Years' War with France (1340-1453). And in the British Library’s Royal Manuscripts collection she finds out that magnificent manuscripts such as the Bedford Hours were adapted for the education of English princes. Part 2 of 3.
Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of illuminated manuscripts that were custom-made for kings, and explores the medieval world they reveal. In this episode, the story of the British Library’s Royal Manuscripts collection reaches its end with the last great flowering of illumination, in the magnificent courts of the Tudors. She investigates astrological texts and unwraps Henry VII’s will - still in its original, extravagantly-decorated velvet cover. She hears music written for Henry VIII; and reads love notes between the king and Anne Boleyn, written in the margins of a prayer book. Part 3 of 3.
War for Europe meant war for the world. The global conflict sucked in Africans, Chinese and Indians to serve in France. Meanwhile the war in Africa exploited its people and left behind a wasteland, but sowed the seeds of self-determination. Part 3 of 10.
From their capital, the Hittites ruled a mighty empire. But, two and a half thousand years ago, their civilisation disappeared and their capital city, Hattusha, was lost to history. Only the marvels of 20th century archaeology have led to its rediscovery. Part 3 of 3.
