The Century That Made Us - a new season focusing on the 18th Century for 大象传媒 FOUR
Introduction
In the 18th century, Britain became a modern nation. For the first time, Britons began to inhabit a world in which the present day is recognisable.
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From high ideals to low life - from lofty concepts of human
perfectibility and democracy to the everyday enjoyments of gourmet cookbooks
and men's fashion - 18th century people shared many of the grand visions
and everyday pleasures to which we still aspire and enjoy today.
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In the new season - The Century That Made Us -
大象传媒 FOUR investigates, interrogates and celebrates the richness and excitement
of this extraordinary, world-changing century.
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Discover how a handful of Scottish thinkers changed forever the way people thought about what it was to be human; about the scientists mapping the new frontiers of knowledge; and about the squabbling artists at war with each other over the creation of a truly British way of painting.
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The season includes some of the century's best known names
from Samuel Johnson to Beau Brummell, but uncovers lesser known figures
too.
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The Century That Made Us kicks off with An Age of Genius - a drama documentary
investigating the Scottish Enlightenment presented by Andrew
Marr.
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This was
an extraordinary period in the 18th century when one of the poorest countries
in Europe was taking the lead in intellectual life, turning concepts of
society, religion and deference on their head, laying the mental foundations
for the modern world.
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Another key documentary takes viewers to the moment when two opposing visions of Britain's potential future faced each other across a great political divide.
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On the one side stood Bonnie Prince Charlie, a Stuart, a
Catholic, a doomed romantic defender of an ancient way of life. Ranged
against him was the Hanoverian Duke of Cumberland, emblem of a modernising
Protestant world whose methods were as brutal as his success was inevitable.
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The Battle That Made Britain takes a fresh look at these
two reputations, and at the Jacobite struggle itself, exploring its legacy
not just for those whose lives were changed forever by it, but also for
two modern nations, Scotland and England, whose contemporary perceptions
of each other are still shaped by its consequences.
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Other highlights of the season include:
- Princes
of the East End in which presenter Dan Cruickshank explores
the lavish houses of the new merchant class making their presence felt in the
18th century
- a portrait of Hannah Glasse presented by the roving gourmande Clarissa
Dickinson-Wright
- The Battle For British
Art in which Andrew
Graham Dixon discusses the battle of wills involved in the founding
of London's Royal Academy
- Historian Ben
Woolley's exploration of the attitudes to science and experimentation
through the paintings of Joseph Wright in Bird
in the Air Pump
- Castrati in
which the mystical status and anatomical mysteries surrounding
the emasculated 'third sex' singers are explored
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bbc.co.uk/bbcfour
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The Century That Made Us on bbc.co.uk/bbcfour will include
video highlights from many of the programmes, a guide to the season and
interviews with key contributors and presenters.
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There will be quizzes and competitions to complement the
output as well as images from some of the shows.
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Further links will enhance
the themes raised by the programmes and reactions to the output
will be available to read via Have Your Say.
Printable version