A History of Britain by Simon Schama - Episode Guide

Simon Schama starts his story in the stone age village of Skara Brae, Orkney. Over the next four thousand years Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Norsemen, Danes, and Christian missionaries arrive, fight, settle and leave their mark on what will become the nations of Britain.

1066 is not the best remembered date in British history for nothing. In the space of nine hours whilst the Battle of Hastings raged, everything changed. Anglo-Saxon England became Norman and, for the next 300 years, its fate was decided by dynasties of Norman rulers.

There is no saga more powerful than that of the warring dynasty – domineering father, beautiful, scheming mother and squabbling, murderous sons and daughters (particularly the nieces). In the years that followed the Norman Conquest, this was the drama played out on the stage of British history.

This is the epic account of how the nations of Britain emerged from under the hammer of England's "Longshanks" King Edward I, with a sense of who and what they were, which endures to this day.

It took only six years for the plague to ravage the British Isles. Its impact was to last for generations. But from the ashes of this trauma an unexpected and unique class of Englishmen emerged.

Simon Schama charts the upheaval caused as a country renowned for its piety, whose king styled himself Defender of the Faith, turns into one of the most aggressive proponents of the new Protestant faith.

This is the story of two queens: Elizabeth I of England, the Protestant virgin, and Mary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic mother. It is also the story of the birth of a nation, Magna Britannia – Great Britain.

Simon Schama looks beyond the romantic stories of Cavaliers and Roundheads to the real story of the English Civil War, in which hundreds of thousands died, countless families were torn apart and the nation was divided. Two events unique within British history resulted: the public execution of the monarch, Charles I, and the creation of a republic.

Simon Schama examines the turbulent years in Britain from 1649 to 1689, from Oliver Cromwell's republic to Charles II's restoration and James II's subsequent pro-Catholic rule from which he was quickly deposed. This is the dramatic story of the revolutionary period after the execution of Charles I, when Cromwell ruled with an iron hand and Charles II attempted to restore the lustre of the monarchy.

Simon Schama's epic history reaches the 18th century and the birth of modern Britain. Due to an economic explosion, the consumer society is born, agriculture becomes big business and London becomes the fastest growing city in Europe. However, many in Scotland are unhappy with the union of the Scottish and English parliaments. When Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite army advance on London, the country's new-found peace and prosperity are threatened.

Simon Schama traces the steps of the empire-makers to tell the extraordinary story of how this small set of islands came to rule an empire that stretched around the globe. How did a trading enterprise based on the idea of liberty become an empire built on the enslavement of millions of Africans? How did Britain lose control of its own colony - America - yet go on to conquer India? On a journey that takes him to Barbados, North America, Canada and India, Schama reveals how Britain came to rule 'the wrong empire'.

The French Revolution sent shockwaves 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. But it was Victorian women who were at the forefront of the fight against its excesses and inequalities, who campaigned for the rights for ordinary people in marriage, education, medicine and the vote.

Simon Schama looks at how the liberal politics and free-market economics of the British Empire in the 19th century unravelled, leading to the potato famine in Ireland and mutiny in India. By the early 20th century, nationalist movements around the globe had turned their back on the British 'workshop of the world'.

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 - the Depression, Empire, two world wars and the Cold War. What unites them, argues Schama, is one shared theme - forget history at your peril.