03: War | Suez: A Very British Crisis

01: Why Britain? | Empire: How Britain Made The Modern World

In this programme we learn about the origins of the British empire in the 17th century and how its foundations w...

06: Age of Empire | Seven Ages of Britain

David Dimbleby travels through Britain, America and India, tracing the British Empire from 1750 to 1900.

06: Empire for Sale | Empire: How Britain Made The Modern World

The fall of the British empire is usually attributed to nationalist groups fighting for independence, yet as ...

04: Heaven's Breed | Empire: How Britain Made The Modern World

In this programme we discover how a few thousand British people ruled over India, a country of more than 250 m...

06: Behind the Mask | Hidden Empire

It's 1896 and Oba Ovronramwen, the divine ruler of the independent West African kingdom of Benin, fears for his nation's future when he m...

Episode 1 | My Family, Partition and Me: India 1947

Anita Rani marks the 70th anniversary of the Partition of India by exploring its impact on four British families, includi...

03: The Mission | Empire: How Britain Made The Modern World

Following the religious revival that started in the late 18th century, missionaries began working in Africa and I...

S03E03: The Empire of Good Intentions | A History of Britain by Simon Schama

How the liberal politics and free-market economics of the British Empire unravelled, leading to ...

02: White Plague | Empire: How Britain Made The Modern World

The concept of 'plantation' is explored in this programme, referring not to crops but the settlement of British ...

Episode 2 | My Family, Partition and Me: India 1947

Anita Rani and her mother Lucky become the first members of their family to return to what is now Pakistan since the Part...

01: Cutty Sark | Clydebuilt: The Ships That Made the Commonwealth

David Hayman travels to Australia to uncover the links Cutty Sark forged with this Commonwealth country, an...

02: On trial | The Compass

Ken Saro Wiwa and Ledum Mittee come face to face with the power of the Nigerian state.

03: The Two Nations | Union with David Olusoga

The 19th-century union appears secure, but beneath the surface run deep divisions, leading to the emergence of a new working-c...

Coolies - How Britain Re-invented Slavery

A documentary revealing a form of slavery - Indian indentured labour - that continued well into the 20th century with the support o...

Empire Christmas Pudding | Hairy Bikers' Best of British

Ivan Day explains a version of Christmas Pudding called the Empire Christmas Pudding that featured many ingredients ...

India's Tea Trade | Victoria Wood's Nice Cup of Tea

Victoria Wood investigates the history of the tea trade in India.

Joint-Stock Companies | Empire with David Olusoga

This clip discusses the joint-stock companies set up under Elizabeth I.

S03E05: The Independence of India | Days That Shook the World

The story of the Independence of India.

01: Betrayal | Suez: A Very British Crisis

Archive material, interviews, and dramatisations provide an insight into to the Suez crisis of 1956; the Egyptian uprising that br...

03: Lady Constance Lytton | Shoulder to Shoulder

1908: Constance Lytton: daughter of the Viceroy of India, she came from one of the leading families in the land. Almost any ...