On October 4, 2026
#3892▼ 50
3892nd by Pulse TV show online3.9PULSEPulse MeterOur daily Pulse Meter measures public activity and popularity signals across the web.How it works →
A History of Britain — The Fate of Empire
#Episode nameAir dateRuntimeRating
01
60mForces of Nature (1780 - 1832)Britain never underwent a revolution comparable to France’s in 1789, yet it came perilously close. This program explores how "the Romantic generation" embraced politics rooted in empathy for ordinary people. Radicals and poets such as Thomas Paine and William Wordsworth transformed nature into a revolutionary concept, and the events unfolding across the Channel after the storming of the Bastille initially suggested a similar path for Britain. However, as the grim truth of the French Revolution eMay 28, 2002May 28, 200260m02
60mVictoria and Her Sisters (1830 - 1910)At just eighteen years old, Queen Victoria ascended the throne, inheriting a nation undergoing a profound and turbulent industrial shift. Predictions of chaos and upheaval had been voiced by both progressive thinkers and those clinging to tradition; yet, surprisingly, family life offered a foundation of stability.
This is how Britain’s women – from the monarch herself to working-class Chartist servants and nurses hailing from the West Indies – navigated this intense period and sought to inspJun 4, 2002Jun 4, 200260m03
60mThe Empire of Good Intentions (1830 - 1925)The British Empire presented itself as a guarantor of peace, stability, and prosperity; yet in Ireland and India, its presence overlapped with periods of intense violence and devastating famine. This programme explores the roots of those enduring sorrows, and investigates how political fairness proved absent from the governing principles of the era.
Though Victorian prime ministers Gladstone and Disraeli championed distinct visions for the Empire, historian Simon Schama notes that even theirJun 11, 2002Jun 11, 200260m04
60mThe Two Winstons (1910 - present)The final programme offers a reflection on how Britain’s past shaped its experience of the twentieth century. Through contrasting perspectives – those of two towering figures, Winston Churchill and George Orwell – it examines the nation’s journey through two world wars, economic depression, and an uneasy peace that followed. The programme considers the legacy of earlier struggles and upheavals, and asks whether the fictional hero of Orwell's *1984*, Winston Smith, anticipated the political realiJun 18, 2002Jun 18, 200260m
