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Documentary
Ian Hislop rescues the reputation of the maverick 'Do-Gooders' who he believes fixed the 19th century's version of 'broken Britain' in this new history series. Irresistibly easy to mock, these busy bodies are highly unfashionable today. But they are heroes to Ian - extraordinary…
Ian calls William Wilberforce 'the godfather of the Do-Gooders'. Hedonistic man-about-town turned crusader, Wilberforce kick-started a multi-faceted moral revolution which reverberated throughout the 19th century, of which his successful campaign to abolish slavery was just one element. In this first programme, Ian also tells the story of Robert Owen and his model mill town at New Lanark in Scotland; Thomas Wakley, founder of The Lancet, who exposed the fatal consequences of cronyism in the surgical profession; and George Dawson, inventor of the civic gospel which inspired a generation of Brummies to take responsibility for their city. Ian also looks back on the impact of Charles Trevelyan, who battled to make the civil service a meritocracy and Octavia Hill, a pioneer of social housing, despite her opposition to cash hand-outs or anything that might create a dependency culture. Contributors to the film include Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, author AN Wilson, head of the civil service Sir Gus O'Donnell, and Lancet editor Dr Richard Horton.
Ian Hislop continues his celebration of the dynamic and eccentric Victorian reformers who brought about the most remarkable period of social change in British history. Here Ian looks at the do-gooders' dramatic struggle to give youngsters a proper childhood, sending them to school instead of up chimneys, helping rather than hanging juvenile delinquents and raising the age of consent. Dr Barnardo founded one of the most famous charities of his era. But his methods were decidedly dodgy: he was guilty of misleading advertising, photo-fakery and even child abduction. Yet, we owe our own concept of child protection - that children have rights independently from their parents - to Thomas Barnardo. Indefatigable Bristol spinster Mary Carpenter's radical approach to helping young offenders was years ahead of its time. But even her patience ran out with some of the errant teenage girls at her pioneering reformatory school. Maverick newspaper editor WT Stead shocked the nation with his lurid expose of child prostitution - an exclusive which involved him buying a 13-year-old virgin for five pounds. His style and methods make today's tabloid newspapers seem tame. Stead managed to get the age of consent raised to 16, where it remains to this day. Thanks to the Earl of Shaftesbury, children as young as five stopped being sent down mines. His lifetime's work for children is celebrated in the famous monument at Piccadilly Circus - not actually Eros (sexual love) but Anteros (selfless love).Charles Kingsley's best-selling The Water Babies was crucial in banning the practice of sending small boys up chimneys. To him children were innocent, not tainted with original sin. Yet after him, Victorians sentimentalized children to a degree which we today find hard to stomach. Ian discovers how these Victorian do-gooders' ideas might have something to offer us today, with the help of Kids' Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh, Barnardo's boss Martin Narey and the current Lord Shaftesbury, 30-year-old former DJ Nicholas Ashley Cooper.
The pleasures and perils of booze and sex are the focus for the final episode of Ian Hislop's series about Victorian reformers, campaigners and philanthropists. In attempting to wean Britons off alcohol and away from vice, Ian wonders whether the 'Do-Gooders', despite their extraordinary energy and success in transforming every other aspect of 19th century society, had finally bitten off more than they could chew.
Self - Presenter
Victorian Pharmacy is a historical documentary TV series in four parts, first shown on BBC Two in July 2010. It was made for the BBC by independent production company Lion Television. It was filmed at Blists Hill Victorian Town in Shropshire. It is a historical documentary that looks at life in the 19th Century and how people attempted to cure common ailments. Since some of the ingredients of Victorian remedies are now either illegal or known to be dangerous, Nick Barber often uses his modern pharmaceutical knowledge to produce similar products without those ingredients. The other main presenters are Tom Quick, a PhD student, and Ruth Goodman, a domestic historian who also appeared in Tales from the Green Valley, Victorian Farm and Edwardian Farm.
Around the World in 80 Days is an animated television series that lasted one season of sixteen episodes, broadcast during the 1972-1973 season by NBC. It was the first Australian-produced cartoon to be shown on American network television. Leif Gram directed all sixteen episodes, and the stories were loosely adapted by Chester "Chet" Stover from the novel by Jules Verne.
This series travels the length and breadth of Britain to find out how the Victorians built Britain. It uncovers the incredible and surprising stories behind iconic landmarks; discovers the hidden heroes behind the epic constructions; and finds out how the incredible advances made by the Victorians forged the world we live in today.
Recounts the story of the extended royal family that once ruled the whole of Europe. Told through the eyes of Queen Victoria’s granddaughters, the series will combine premium scripted drama with a host of expert historians to tell the tale of one of the most compelling, powerful yet dysfunctional families in history.
Dickens is a 2002 three-part docudrama presented by Peter Ackroyd, on whose biography of Dickens it was based. An unorthodox style is taken: actors play various individuals in Dickens' life (as well as Dickens himself), interviewed as if appearing in a contemporary documentary. Their words are from actual letters and journals of the individuals involved, and serve to illuminate the hardships and successes in Dickens' life, and the way his experiences found their way into his works.
Horticulture lecturer Peter Thoday and Harry Dodson present this series demonstrating how simple and exotic flowers were cultivated in the Victorian era. Re-enactments are used to explain how the head gardener would supply the lady of the house with the blooms she required, in addition to decorating the dining and mansion rooms and sometimes conservatories with suitable flowers. Harry also recreates the displays which would have been used for decorating Victorian weddings, musicals and funerals.
