大象传媒

Rory Bremner asks what diaries can offer to history.

What makes a diary almost as famous as the events it describes? Rory takes polar explorer Pen Hadow to see the extraordinary last diary of Captain Scott, an emotional experience for the adventurer.

A boat trip on the Thames reveals Edwina Currie's passion for another former MP, Samuel Pepys. He wrote in secret and in shorthand, seemingly to prevent anyone ever reading his now-famous journal, but who better than Edwina to appreciate the impact of a political diarist with a colourful private life?

A trip to Kent to visit Jane Clark at Saltwood Castle sees Rory get an exclusive peek at the original Alan Clark diaries.

There's more rummaging through the archives in Sussex when Rory spends time at the biggest collective diary project ever undertaken. Victoria Wood, who he meets there, was inspired by one of the wartime Mass-Observation diarists, Nella Last, to create the Bafta-winning Housewife 49.

Contributors include Claire Tomalin, Craig Brown, Tony Benn, Jonathan Aitken, Ben Saunders, Ion Trewin, Simon Garfield and Gyles Brandreth.