A History of Britain

A History of Britain

Sep. 30, 2000
Status: Ended

Seasons and episodes

3The Fate of EmpireMay. 28, 2002
2The British WarsMay. 08, 2001
1At the Edge of the World?Sep. 30, 2000

Cast

Simon Schama
Self - Presenter

Synopsis

Stretching from the Stone Age to the year 2000, Simon Schama's Complete History of Britain does not pretend to be a definitive chronicle of the turbulent events which buffeted and shaped the British Isles. What Schama does do, however, is tell the story in vivid and gripping narrative terms, free of the fustiness of traditional academe, personalising key historical events by examining the major characters at the centre of them. Not all historians would approve of the history depicted here as shaped principally by the actions of great men and women rather than by more abstract developments, but Schama's way of telling it is a good deal more enthralling as a result. Schama successfully gives lie to the idea that the history of Britain has been moderate and temperate, passing down the generations as stately as a galleon, taking on board sensible ideas but steering clear of sillier, revolutionary ones. Nonsense. Schama retells British history the way it was--as bloody, convulsive, precarious, hot-blooded and several times within an inch of haring off onto an entirely different course. Schama seems almost to delight in the goriness of history. Themes returned to repeatedly include the wars between the Scots and the Irish and the Catholic/Protestant conflicts--only the Irish question remains unresolved by the new millennium. As Britain becomes a constitutional monarchy, Schama talks less of Kings and Queens but of poets and idea-makers like Orwell. Still, with his pungent, direct manner and against an evocative visual and aural backdrop, Schama makes history seem as though it happened yesterday, the bloodstains not yet dry.

A History of Britain
A History of Britain
Original titleA History of Britain
First air dateSep. 30, 2000
Last air dateJun. 18, 2002
Seasons3
Episodes15
TMDb Rating88 votes

Similar titles

Devoured
100 Days to Indy
Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever
Running for my Truth: Alex Schwazer
Sewer Divers
Ben Fogle
Sleeping With a Killer
The Fatal Attraction Murder
EVOLVE
One Perfect Shot
Blood & Money
Max Verstappen: Anatomy of a Champion