The Adventure of English EPISODE: 1

EPISODE: 1

Melvyn Bragg chronicles how the Pilgrim Fathers brought English to America, revealing that the language survived only through a chance encounter between an immigrant and a Native American who already spoke the language and was able to teach the newcomers to survive in their new environment. The programme examines how English remained largely unchanged until the settlers explored the West, when its vocabulary and way of speaking transformed dramatically, and assesses the language's development within slave communities