THIS SCEPTRED ISLE  101-110 (BBC7 History) - radioarchive.cc

MP3, 44Khz, 128Kbps, CBR, Stereo 

6. The First British Empire: 1702-1760 

111.   1-111  Jan 22 96   Robert Walpole, the First Prime Minister
112.   1-112  Jan 23 96   The New Hanoverians: Death, Gin and Daniel Defoe
113.   1-113  Jan 24 96   Monarchy, Cabinet and Dirty Taxes at the Crossroads
114.   1-114  Jan 25 96   George II and Turnip Townshend
115.   1-115  Jan 28 96   Queen Caroline and the Emergence of William Pitt
116.   1-116  Jan 29 96   A Bottled Ear, Grog and Rule Britannia
117.   1-117  Jan 30 96   Patronage and the Fall of Robert Walpole
118.   1-118  Jan 31 96   War, Pragmatism and the Final Charge of an English 

Monarch
119.   1-119  Feb  1 96   Bonnie Prince Charlie, Culloden and God Save the King
120.   1-120  Feb  2 96   Hogarth, the Price of Gin and Pitt the Elder



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This Sceptred Isle was created as a series of short 12-14 minute radio 

programmes by the BBC for transmission daily on Radio 4 from 1995 about the 

history of the lands and peoples of the British Isles. The producer was Pete 

Atkin.

Starting in 55 BC with the arrival of Julius Caesar and initially concluding in 

1901 with the death of Queen Victoria, the series was read by Anna Massey and 

included extracts from the book A History of the English-speaking Peoples 

written by Sir Winston Churchill, interwoven into Christopher Lee's main account 

of the history. The extracts were read by Paul Eddington, who died during the 

production and his role was taken by Peter Jeffrey. In total the series 

contained 216 episodes, ran 29 hours, and was first broadcast in daily episodes 

between June 1995 and June 1996.

The series was very successful, being broadcast twice each day in the morning 

and late at night, and in 1999 the BBC extended the programme to cover the 

twentieth century; picking up from where the first series had finished to the 

end of the millennium. This new series was a total of 15.25 hours long and 

although it used the same narrator, the quotations were read by Robert Powell. 

The first episode of this new series was broadcast on August 30 1999 and the 

final episode on December 31 1999.

In 2001 another shorter series entitled This Sceptred Isle: Dynasties was 

produced. This told the stories of the powerful and influential families of 

Britain's history, including the Godwines, the Despensers and the Churchills. 

The series consisted of 10 episodes and was again narrated by Anna Massey.

Over the course of several months in 2005 and 2006 This Sceptred Isle: Empire a 

90-part history of the British Empire was broadcast on Radio 4. Each part was

approximately 15 minutes long. The narrator was Juliet Stevenson and the cast of 

readers of various historical documents--including poems, songs, personal 

letters, and first-hand accounts--included Jack Davenport, Joss Ackland, 

Christopher Eccleston, and Anna Massey among others.

The programme's title is a quotation from act 2 scene 1 of Shakespeare's King 

Richard II, attributed to John of Gaunt: "This royal throne of kings, this 

scepter'd isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars ... This blessed plot, 

this earth, this realm, this England".


BBC7
Categories:
Genre: Factual History
Format: Documentaries