This Sceptred Isle

The story of Britain from the arrival of Julius Caesar in 55BC to the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, specially written for BBC Radio 4 by Christopher Lee, narrated by Anna Massey and featuring extracts from Sir Winston Churchill's A History of the English-speaking Peoples read by Paul Eddington.

2. The Making of the Nation - 1087-1327

William the Conqueror famously acquired for himself the throne of England but there were to be many struggles before truly national government would be established. Henry the Second, the first of the Plantagenets, did more than any of his predecessors to bring the country together but his reign was overshadowed by the dramatic and tragic murder of Thomas Becket. Eventually, he was succeeded by his sons - first Richard the Lionheart and then King John.

This was a period of Crusades, of civil wars and of wars between the English and the Scots led by William Wallace and Robert the Bruce; but it also witnessed the setting of some primitive foundations that would eventually form the basis of a modern state: Magna Carta and the calling of the first parliament by Simon de Montfort.