Simon Schama's A History of Britain
Encyclopedia
A History of Britain is a BBC documentary series written and presented by Simon Schama
, first transmitted in the United Kingdom from 30 September 2000.
A study of the history of the British Isles
, each of the 15 episodes allows Schama to examine a particular period and tell of its events in his own style. All the programmes are of 59 minutes' duration and were broadcast over three series, ending 18 June 2002.
The series was produced in conjunction with The History Channel
and the executive producer was Martin Davidson. The music was composed by John Harle
, whose work was augmented by vocal soloists such as Emma Kirkby
and Lucie Skeaping. Schama's illustrative presentation was aided by readings from actors, including Lindsay Duncan
, Michael Kitchen
, Christian Rodska
, Samuel West
and David Threlfall
.
Schama explained why, at the time of its making, it was right to produce another historical documentary on Great Britain. At that moment, he argued, Britain was entering a new phase of its relationship with Europe and the rest of the world, and where it ends up depends a great deal on where it's come from. He stated that the stories needed to be told again and again so that future generations can get a sense of their identity. Furthermore, he believed that Britain's history comprised a number of tales worth telling:
village of Skara Brae
, Orkney
. Over the next four thousand years Romans
, Anglo-Saxons
, Viking
s, Danes, and Christian missionaries arrive, fight, settle and leave their mark on what will become the nations of Britain.
raged, everything changed. Anglo-Saxon England became Norman
and, for the next 300 years, its fate was decided by dynasties of Norman rulers.
, this was the drama played out on the stage of British history.
, with a sense of who and what they were, which endures to this day.
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.
, turns into one of the most aggressive proponents of the new Protestant faith.
, the Protestant virgin, and Mary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic mother. It is also the story of the birth of a nation.
of the early seventeenth century would culminate in two events unique to British history; the public execution of a king and the creation of a republic
. Schama tells of the brutal war that tore the country in half and created a new Britain – divided by politics and religion and dominated by the first truly modern army
, fighting for ideology, not individual leaders.
's execution, when Britain was a joyless, kingless republic led by Oliver Cromwell
. His rule became so unpopular that for many it was a relief when the monarchy was restored after his death, but Cromwell was also a man of vision who brought about significant reforms.
came into being through its early settlements—the Caribbean
through the sugar plantations (and helped by slavery
), the land that later became the United States and India through the British East India Company
--and how it eventually came to dominate the world. A story of exploration and daring, but also one of exploitation, conflict, and loss.
generation" also discovered the plight of the common man, turning nature into a revolutionary force.
began, the massive advance of technology and industrialisation
was rapidly reshaping both the landscape and the social structure of the whole country. To a much greater extent than ever before women would take a centre-stage role in shaping society.
and Orwell
(through his 1984
character Winston Smith
) in their different ways exemplify lives spent brooding and acting on that imperial past, and most movingly for us, writing and shaping its history.
format. Its special features include short interviews with Simon Schama, a text-based biography of the historian, and the inaugural BBC History Lecture of Schama's "Television and the Trouble with History".
In Region 1, it was released as A History of Britain: the complete collection on 26 November 2002. A five-disc set, the episodes were presented in full-frame NTSC
format and included various text-based features. It was re-released on 22 July 2008 in a new slim-case version. It was released again in Region 1 on August 17, 2010 in a format nearly identical to the UK version noted above.
Three accompanying books by Simon Schama have been published by BBC Books
. All entitled A History of Britain, they were subtitled as follows:
Simon Schama
Simon Michael Schama, CBE is a British historian and art historian. He is a University Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University. He is best known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC documentary series A History of Britain...
, first transmitted in the United Kingdom from 30 September 2000.
A study of the history of the British Isles
History of the British Isles
The history of the British Isles has witnessed intermittent periods of competition and cooperation between the people that occupy the various parts of Great Britain, Ireland, and the smaller adjacent islands, which together make up the British Isles, as well as with France, Germany, the Low...
, each of the 15 episodes allows Schama to examine a particular period and tell of its events in his own style. All the programmes are of 59 minutes' duration and were broadcast over three series, ending 18 June 2002.
The series was produced in conjunction with The History Channel
The History Channel
History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...
and the executive producer was Martin Davidson. The music was composed by John Harle
John Harle
John Harle is an English saxophonist and composer.-Biography:John Harle - SaxophonistJohn Harle is one of the world’s leading saxophonists, and the most significant performer of the saxophone in the concert hall today...
, whose work was augmented by vocal soloists such as Emma Kirkby
Emma Kirkby
Dame Carolyn Emma Kirkby, DBE is an English soprano singer and one of the world's most renowned early music specialists. She attended Sherborne School For Girls in Dorset and was a classics student at Somerville College, Oxford, and an English teacher before developing a career as a soloist...
and Lucie Skeaping. Schama's illustrative presentation was aided by readings from actors, including Lindsay Duncan
Lindsay Duncan
Lindsay Vere Duncan, CBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actress. On stage she won two Olivier Awards and a Tony Award for her performance in Les Liaisons dangereuses and Private Lives , and she starred in several plays by Harold Pinter. Her most famous roles on television include:...
, Michael Kitchen
Michael Kitchen
Michael Kitchen is an English actor and television producer, best known for his starring role as DCS Foyle in the British TV series Foyle's War.-Early life:...
, Christian Rodska
Christian Rodska
Christian Rodska is an English actor who has appeared in many television and radio series and narrated a number of audiobooks...
, Samuel West
Samuel West
Samuel Alexander Joseph West is an English actor and theatre director. He is perhaps best known for his role in Howards End and his work on stage. He also starred in the award-winning play ENRON...
and David Threlfall
David Threlfall
David Threlfall is an English stage, film and television actor and director best known for playing Frank Gallagher in Channel 4's Manchester-based drama series Shameless. He has also directed several episodes of the show.-Early life:...
.
Background
When Simon Schama was approached by the BBC to make the series, he knew that it would be a big commitment and took a long time to decide if it were something he wanted to do. He surmised that if he was to take it on, he would want to "dive in" and be very involved with the production. Besides writing the scripts, which the historian saw as a "screenplay", he also had an input into other aspects, including the choice of locations. He was concerned that even 15 hour-long programmes would not be enough to tell a story of such magnitude. Accordingly, he and the producers determined that to give each king and queen absolute equal coverage was out of the question: "That way lies madness," he said. Instead, he worked out the essential themes and stories that demanded to be related.Schama explained why, at the time of its making, it was right to produce another historical documentary on Great Britain. At that moment, he argued, Britain was entering a new phase of its relationship with Europe and the rest of the world, and where it ends up depends a great deal on where it's come from. He stated that the stories needed to be told again and again so that future generations can get a sense of their identity. Furthermore, he believed that Britain's history comprised a number of tales worth telling:
"No matter how much you tell them, you never quite know … how compelling and moving they are."
Criticisms
The main criticism of A History of Britain is that it mostly revolves around England and its history, rather than that of the entire British Isles. However, the title is "A History of Britain" rather than "A History of the British Isles", so this explains the exclusion of Ireland. It has been criticised as giving short shrift to the Celtic inhabitants and civilisation of the British Isles, including England. In a BBC interview, Simon Schama stated that rather than designating different periods of screen time to different nations, he focused on the relationships between the different nations, primarily England and Scotland. This appears to be truer in "Nations", "The Body of the Queen" and "Britannia Incorporated" than at times when each of the nations is involved in the same event, such as the two episodes involving the revolutions in the seventeenth century, "The British Wars" and "Revolutions". By the latter episodes, however, all "Three Kingdoms" are parts of the United Kingdom.Episodes
- The following summaries are taken from the BBC DVD.
1. "Beginnings"
Covering the period 3100 BC – 1000 AD. Simon Schama starts his story in the stone ageStone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
village of Skara Brae
Skara Brae
Skara Brae is a large stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. It consists of ten clustered houses, and was occupied from roughly 3180 BCE–2500 BCE...
, Orkney
Orkney Islands
Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...
. Over the next four thousand years Romans
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
, Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
s, Danes, and Christian missionaries arrive, fight, settle and leave their mark on what will become the nations of Britain.
2. "Conquest"
Broadcast 7 October 2000 and covering 1000–1087. 1066 is not the best remembered date in British history for nothing. In the space of nine hours whilst the Battle of HastingsBattle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings occurred on 14 October 1066 during the Norman conquest of England, between the Norman-French army of Duke William II of Normandy and the English army under King Harold II...
raged, everything changed. Anglo-Saxon England became Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
and, for the next 300 years, its fate was decided by dynasties of Norman rulers.
3. "Dynasty"
Broadcast 14 October 2000 and covering 1087–1216. 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 ConquestNorman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
, this was the drama played out on the stage of British history.
4. "Nations"
Broadcast 21 October 2000 and covering 1216–1348, this is the epic account of how the nations of Britain emerged from under the hammer of England's "Longshanks" King Edward IEdward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
, with a sense of who and what they were, which endures to this day.
5. "King death"
Broadcast 28 October 2000 and covering 1348–1500. It took only six years for the plagueBlack Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
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.
6. "Burning convictions"
Broadcast 4 November 2000 and covering 1500–58. Here Simon Schama charts the upheaval caused as a country renowned for its piety, whose king styled himself Defender of the FaithFidei defensor
Fidei defensor is a Latin title which translates to Defender of the Faith in English and Défenseur de la Foi in French...
, turns into one of the most aggressive proponents of the new Protestant faith.
7. "The body of the Queen"
Broadcast 8 November 2000 and covering 1558–1603. This is the story of two queens: Elizabeth I of EnglandElizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
, the Protestant virgin, and Mary, Queen of Scots, the Catholic mother. It is also the story of the birth of a nation.
8. "The British wars"
Broadcast 8 May 2001 and covering 1603–1649. The turbulent civil warsEnglish Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
of the early seventeenth century would culminate in two events unique to British history; the public execution of a king and the creation of a republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
. Schama tells of the brutal war that tore the country in half and created a new Britain – divided by politics and religion and dominated by the first truly modern army
New Model Army
The New Model Army of England was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and was disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration...
, fighting for ideology, not individual leaders.
9. "Revolutions"
Broadcast 15 May 2001 and covering 1649–1689. Political and religious revolutions racked Britain after Charles ICharles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
's execution, when Britain was a joyless, kingless republic led by Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
. His rule became so unpopular that for many it was a relief when the monarchy was restored after his death, but Cromwell was also a man of vision who brought about significant reforms.
10. "Britannia incorporated"
Broadcast 22 May 2001 and covering 1690–1750. As the new century dawned, relations between Scotland and England had never been worse. Yet half a century later the two countries would be making a future together based on profit and interest. The new Britain was based on money, not God.11. "The wrong empire"
Broadcast 29 May 2001 and covering 1750–1800. The exhilarating and terrible story of how the British EmpireBritish Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
came into being through its early settlements—the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
through the sugar plantations (and helped by slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
), the land that later became the United States and India through the British East India Company
British East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
--and how it eventually came to dominate the world. A story of exploration and daring, but also one of exploitation, conflict, and loss.
12. "Forces of nature"
Broadcast 28 May 2002 and covering 1780–1832. Britain never had the kind of revolution experienced by France in 1789, but it did come close. In the mid-1770s the country was intoxicated by a great surge of political energy. Re-discovering England's wildernesses, the intellectuals of the "romanticRomanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
generation" also discovered the plight of the common man, turning nature into a revolutionary force.
13. "Victoria and her sisters"
Broadcast 4 June 2002 and covering 1830–1910. As the Victorian eraVictorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
began, the massive advance of technology and industrialisation
Industrialisation
Industrialization is the process of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one...
was rapidly reshaping both the landscape and the social structure of the whole country. To a much greater extent than ever before women would take a centre-stage role in shaping society.
14. "The empire of good intentions"
Broadcast 11 June 2002 and covering 1830–1925. This episode charts the chequered life of the liberal empire from Ireland to India – the promise of civilisation and material betterment and the delivery of coercion and famine.15. "The two Winstons"
Broadcast 18 June 2002 and covering 1910–1965. In the final episode, Schama examines the overwhelming presence of the past in the British twentieth century and the struggle of leaders to find a way to make a different national future. As towering figures of the twentieth century, ChurchillWinston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
and Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
(through his 1984
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
character Winston Smith
Winston Smith
Winston Smith is a fictional character and the protagonist of George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The character was employed by Orwell as an everyman in the setting of the novel, a "central eye ... [the reader] can readily identify with"...
) in their different ways exemplify lives spent brooding and acting on that imperial past, and most movingly for us, writing and shaping its history.
DVDs and books
The series is available in the UK (Regions 2 and 4) as a six-disc DVD (BBCDVD1127, released 18 November 2002) in widescreen PALPAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
format. Its special features include short interviews with Simon Schama, a text-based biography of the historian, and the inaugural BBC History Lecture of Schama's "Television and the Trouble with History".
In Region 1, it was released as A History of Britain: the complete collection on 26 November 2002. A five-disc set, the episodes were presented in full-frame NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
format and included various text-based features. It was re-released on 22 July 2008 in a new slim-case version. It was released again in Region 1 on August 17, 2010 in a format nearly identical to the UK version noted above.
Three accompanying books by Simon Schama have been published by BBC Books
BBC Books
BBC Books is an imprint majority owned and managed by Random House. The minority shareholder is BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation...
. All entitled A History of Britain, they were subtitled as follows:
- At the edge of the world?: 3000 BC–AD 1603 (ISBN 0-563-38497-2, 19 October 2000)
- The British wars: 1603–1776 (ISBN 0-563-53747-7, 4 October 2001)
- The fate of empire: 1776–2001 (ISBN 0-563-53457-5, 24 October 2002)