Churchill's People(1974)

2. The Lost Island

1975-01-06

50m

400 AD: Among the splendours of his palace at Eboricum (York), Roman British governor Tiberius Claudius broods on what he believes to be the end of the civilised world.

3. The Coming of the Cross

1975-01-13

49m

654 AD: Two powerful adversaries face each other - Penda, pagan king of Mercia, and Oswy, Christian king of Northumbria.

4. The Great Alfred

1975-01-20

54m

878 AD: King Alfred has suffered another defeat from the Danes and escapes through the Athelrey swamps to the safety of Odda's Hall. Disguised as a minstrel, Alfred enters the headquarters of the Viking invaders but his conversation with Chieftain Guthrum unsettles the Danes.

5. The Saxon Dusk

1975-01-27

53m

1042: Godwin, Earl of Wessex, summons Edward from out of his exile in Normandy to wear the Crown of England. But the apparent security of Godwin's Anglo-Saxan policies is disrupted by Edward's partiality for a French connection and Rome-orientated religious tendencies.

6. The Conquerors

1975-02-03

53m

1066-1070: Forest laws bring about a climax between the Saxons and the Normans.

7. A Sprig of Broom

1975-02-10

53m

1160: In Norman England a man could will his movables to his kin and friends but only the next heir could inherit his land paying the overlord for the privilege. When old William de Secqueville dies he has two heirs - one is his daughter Mabel, by a disolved marriage, and the other is his nephew Richard. Egged on by his wife Maud, Richard pursues a dogged course through the courts of the new King Henry to prove Mabel illegitimate.

8. Silver Giant, Wooden Dwarf

1975-02-17

53m

1191: King John is brought to his knees and signs the Magna Carta.

9. On the Anvil

1975-02-24

53m

1265: A runaway peasant accidentally witnesses a meeting between King Henry III and his chief Baron Simon de Montfort. Their argument indicates that only by a confrontation of arms between the monarch and his noble will their differences be settled. The paths of Earl Simon and Ranulf cross again at the battle of Leves where the King is defeated by Simon's forces.

10. The Wallace

1975-03-03

53m

March 1296: The story of William Wallace, a rough Lanarkshire knight who strikes a blow for Scottish liberty by destroying the town of Lanark and its English Sheriff. The vision and zeal of Wallace rallies the dispirited commons of Scotland and the English are defeated at the battle of Stirling Bridge, but King Edward I takes charge of the retaliation which follows.

11. Shouts & Murmurs

1975-03-10

53m

1381: Revolt in East Anglia when the peasants are pressed beyond endurance by taxes and misgovernment by inexperienced King Richard II. Bishop Henry is sent to quell the risings.

12. A Wilderness of Roses

1975-03-17

53m

1440: When Henry V died, the feudal families of England began to prey upon each other. Royal upstarts succeeded one another until the nation was divided into two factions, the House of York and the House of Lancaster.

13. The Whip of Heaven

1975-03-24

51m

1538: Hugh Goodrest, a Warwickshire Lawyer, returns to his home town of Hales Owen to find the nearby Abbey and its inmates under investigation by the King's Commissioner, Dr. Layton. Rumours of monastic dissolution have reached the townspeople and they are apprehensive because the abbey is the centre of their lives.

14. A Rich & Beautiful Empire

1975-03-31

53m

1603-1618: Sir Walter Raleigh is tried on trumped-up charges of treason and imprisoned in the Tower. For 13 years he languishes in jail, still dreaming of a legendary Peruvian empire, its treasure, and its king. King James is finally forced to release the old man and send him to Guiana to bring back the gold he has so often talked about.

15. America! America!

1975-04-07

51m

1610: A Puritan family in Nottinghamshire, hounded by King James I for their opposition to Anglican orthodoxy, go into unhappy exile in Holland and then decide to try the untried land of America.