A History of Britain

- Season 3

(2002)

The French Revolution sent shock-waves through Britain. While some watched transfixed, others were horrified. Simon Schama explores why the British proved immune to the siren call of liberty, equality and fraternity.

She began the century that bears her name a princess and ended it as an empress. Queen Victoria ruled one of the most powerful empires in world history during a century of staggering change - for both good and bad.

Simon Schama looks at how the liberal politics and free-market economics of the British Empire in the 19th century unraveled, leading to the potato famine in Ireland and mutiny in India.

Simon Schama tackles the 20th century through the lives of two men - Winston Churchill and George Orwell. Both men, so very different in almost every way, lived through and wrote about the key moments of British 20th-century life.