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Anne McElvoy tells the stories of big challenges that have spurred British conservatism to reinvent itself, from the Edwardian era to the permissive society.

Anne McElvoy tells the stories of big challenges that have spurred British conservatism to reinvent itself.

In this omnibus edition of the final five episodes, Anne traces the story of British conservatism from a riot in Birmingham in 1901 to the rise of Mrs Thatcher.

She traces the impact of Irish Home Rule, mass democracy, the spectre of socialist revolution, the welfare state and finally the permissive society.

She visits the old Swan Hunter shipyard in Tyneside and the chapel where the young Mrs Thatcher sat listening to her father preach his sermons.

And in the process she traces how conservatism has transformed itself from an ideology that was focused on the land, paternalist benevolence, traditional social hierarchies and the Church of England, into something rather different.

With: Professor Jon Lawrence, Dr Dan Jackson, Professor Krista Cowman, Professor Martin Pugh, Professor Simon Ball, Dr Eliza Filby, Dominic Sandbrook

Producer: Phil Tinline.

Available now

58 minutes

Last on

Fri 13 Sep 2013 21:00

Broadcast

  • Fri 13 Sep 2013 21:00