Seven Ages of Britain (BBC TV series)

Seven Ages of Britain
The title card of Seven Ages of Britain
Genre	Documentary
Written by	David Dimbleby
Directed by	Jonty Claypole
Presented by	David Dimbleby
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	7 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Jonty Claypole
Running time	60 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC One BBC HD
Picture format	PAL (576i) HDTV (1080i)
Original release	31 January – 21 March 2010
External links
Website
Production website

Seven Ages of Britain is a BBC television documentary series written and presented by David Dimbleby. The seven part series was first aired on Sunday nights at 9:00pm on BBC One starting on 31 January 2010.

The series covers the history of Britain's greatest art and artefacts over the past 2000 years. Each episode covers a different period in British history. In Australia, all seven episodes aired on ABC1 each Tuesday at 8:30pm from 7 September 2010.

Production

Originally the series was to air in late 2009, but was later re-scheduled to early 2010. The HD edition of the show aired on BBC HD and repeats aired on BBC Two.

In Summer 2009 artist Nathaniel Mellors was commissioned by the BBC to make a short "work of modern art" to introduce the final episode of the series. The resultant work The Seven Ages of Britain Teaser features Dimbleby voicing a silicon mask cast from his own face, alongside actors Gwendoline Christie ( as 'The Operator') and Johnny Vivash (as 'Kadmus').

Episodes

Episode number	Title	Period covered	Airdate	Viewers
1	"Age of Conquest"	AD 43 – 1066	31 January 2010	4.2 million (16%)
2	"Age of Worship"	1170–1400	7 February 2010	4.3 million (16%)
3	"Age of Power"	1509–1609	14 February 2010	4.5 million (17.1%)
4	"Age of Revolution"	1603–1708	28 February 2010	4.4 million (16.5%)
5	"Age of Money"	1700–1805	7 March 2010	3.82 million (14.2%)
6	"Age of Empire"	1770–1911	14 March 2010	3.72 million (14.6%)
7	"Age of Ambition"	1914 – Now	21 March 2010	3.347 million (12.6%)

2003 Channel 4 series by the same title

Channel 4 had previously aired a series by the same title but covering a broader time period in 2003, presented by Bettany Hughes. The series has since been picked up by the Discovery Channel.

External links

• Seven Ages of Britain at BBC Online
• Seven Ages of Britain at the Open University