Empire's Children

Season 1 - Empire's Children

• Season 1 Episode 6: Adrian Lester Actor Adrian Lester visits Jamaica to retrace his grandfather's journey in the 1950s from the West Indies to Britain. He's upset to discover his elderly relative ill in hospital and must complete the trip alone as he explores what caused his family to emigrate and settle in Birmingham. Last in series
• Season 1 Episode 5: Jenny Eclair Comedian Jenny Eclair recounts how as a child she found graphic photographs her father had kept of dead Chinese communist terrorists in Malaya in the 1950s, and travels to Malaysia to discover why he had them, and what he was doing in the country more than 50 years earlier
• Season 1 Episode 4: Chris Bisson Actor Chris Bisson, best known for his roles in East Is East, Shameless and Coronation Street, follows in his Indian great-grandfather's footsteps to Trinidad, where he was shipped as cheap labour. In a rags-to-riches story, Chris's grandfather Harry built up a successful business empire, but felt the Caribbean island's independence from Britain would be detrimental to his future and decided to gamble on a new life in the UK
• Season 1 Episode 3: David Steel The conflict that arose when the colonists of the British Empire settled in Kenya and took over the country's fertile lands for their own purposes. Liberal Democrat peer David Steel describes the rise of the African secret society, Mau Mau, and the role his father, a Presbyterian minister, played while trying to bring an end to the violence
• Season 1 Episode 2: Shobna Gulati Shobna Gulati discusses her parents' emigration from India to Oldham and how her mother learnt English by watching Coronation Street - the show in which her daughter would eventually go on to appear. The actress also visits Mumbai, where she learns how her grandfather benefited from the end of the Raj and discovers her father's role in bolstering the fledgling NHS
• Season 1 Episode 1: Dame Diana Rigg Exploring how the dismantlement and legacy of the British Empire impacts the nation in the current day and how the experiences of post-Imperial colonists shaped Britain's future in the second half of the 20th century. The first programme follows actress Diana Rigg from her early childhood in India, living a wealthy lifestyle in the last days of the Raj, to the UK still facing rationing and unemployment in the wake of World War Two