1760 - 1792, The Age of Revolutions

The award-winning story of Britain, from the arrival of Julius Caesar in 55BC to the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, specially written for BBC Radio 4 by Christopher Lee, narrated by Anna Massey and featuring extracts from Sir Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples read by Peter Jeffrey.In 1760, at the age of 22, George III succeeded his grandfather as Britain's third Hanoverian monarch. The country was still at war with the French and his first decade was to be a time of political instability as Parliament and the stubborn, conscientious king tussled to establish the constitutional monarchy.Meanwhile, the frontiers of the known world were expanding in philosophy and religion, science and technology, literature and the arts.And this wealth of new ideas showed itself in practical ways. British society was changed forever by the growing industrial revolution, the map of the world was also changed forever as revolution in America resulted in the birth of a new nation and, much closer to home, revolution in France was to change the face of Europe.