12 episodes · 15th January 1987
Peter France presents three films which reflect the extent to which codes of 'honour', allegiance' and 'behaviour' have had their effect on British history. 1: Christopher Andrew examines the demise of duelling 100 years ago. 2: Ian Dear tells the story of the duplicity behind the victories which kept the America's Cup in New York for 130 years. 3: Phillip Knightley shows the process by which British Intelligence secrets have been leaked steadily since the end of the Second World War.
Views of Oliver Cromwell vary as much today as when Parliament asked him to become King in 1657: a tyrant, a repressed religious bigot who murdered a king; a patriot, civilised with a tremendous sense of humour, and conscience in matters of state and religion. How do modern historians view the parliamentarian who some have called the greatest Englishman?
Two stories showing how previous generations have dealt with the problems of pollution and disease: DEVONSHIRE COLIC: In Georgian times, a crippling illness struck thousands of cider drinkers in the west of England, who found mysterious relief only by taking the waters at Bath Spa. In Victorian England, prostitutes, seen as carriers of venereal disease, were forcibly detained and treated in hospitals until they were considered unlikely to infect the male population - particularly the lower ranks of the Army and Royal Navy.
Mary Queen of Scots has come down to us as a tragic heroine - but what kind of respect does she command as a 16th-century ruler? Anne Boleyn is usually seen either as a scheming predator or as a pathetic figure executed because she failed to produce a male heir for Henry VIII. Historians Jenny Wormald and Eric Ives set out to show that the popular images of Mary and Anne have to be radically reassessed, and Peter France sets their tragic stories into the context of the religious turmoil of the 16th century.
1: The last attempt by central government to impose educational benchmarks on the majority of British schools. 2: Disinherited Londoners recall the community spirit of a Notting Hill street torn down for redevelopment 25 years ago. 3: Cambridge don David Cannadine explores current attitudes toward British history.
Christopher Andrew and Gabriel Ronay investigate two political mysteries. THE ZINOVIEV LETTER led to the defeat of the first Labour Government in 1924. Was it genuine - or was it an early attempt to use 'red scare' tactics to bring down a democratically elected government? And if so, who sent it? THE PRINCE OF TRANSYLVANIA received a pension from Charles II and a magnificent burial in Rochester Cathedral. But was he a prince or a con-man - and why was he so hideously murdered?
What really happened in Russia in October 1917? How far can we rely on the vivid films from the period to give us a true picture of the Revolution and, of incidents such as the storming of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg? Christopher Andrew, in a critical examination of documentary evidence and the memories of Russian emigres who were eyewitnesses to the events of 1917, steers a path through the propaganda, censorship, carelessness and sheer misunderstanding that have distorted the historical record in Russia and the West for the past 70 years.
Two films examine the reality behind the ideal. When MANFRED VON RICHTHOFEN died in 1918 he had become a figure of myth; a knight of the air with 80 victories to his credit. But the legend of the Red Baron hid a quiet, aloof man whose aristocratic sense of honour drove him to his death. WILLIAM MARSHAL, 700 years earlier, was described as the greatest knight in the world. He was loyal, generous, and the champion of many battles. He used his reputation to drag himself up from obscure origins to become Regent of England and Protector of Henry III.
Explores the trial of Nazi officer Adolph Eichmann through a controversial book, 'Eichmann in Jerusalem' by Hannah Arendt. Many Jews read her reports from Jerusalem with a sense of deep hurt and outrage as she questioned the legality and political purpose of the trial, portraying Eichmann as 'banal rather than evil', and making sweeping comments on Jewish resistance and cooperation. Using archive film of the trial and interviews with friends, historians, and survivors of the camps in New York and Jerusalem, this documentary pieces together the different reactions to Arendt's arguments, and to the painful process of turning the Holocaust into history.
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