The Romantics

Latest Episodes

• Season 1 Episode 3: Eternity

  Peter Ackroyd's historical drama concludes with the story of the Romantics' search for meaning in a world without God. Following the revolutions of the late 18th century, people endeavoured to define themselves without regard to the sanctions of religion and the Church. Artists delved into the uncharted depths of the unconscious, emerging with new ways of thinking and of conducting their lives

• Season 1 Episode 2: Nature

  Peter Ackroyd examines how Romantic writers reacted to the Industrial Revolution, exploring the birth of the modern notion of nature. Poet John Clare found freedom in the open countryside, but the shift in cultural attitudes that came with the Enclosure Acts drove him insane, while nature and scientific progress inspired Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - a prophetic novel which is still relevant today

• Season 1 Episode 1: Liberty

  Peter Ackroyd's historical drama tracing the effects of English literature on the past. Set in the 18th century, the programme begins by examining the ideas of philosopher Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the part they played in the development of the French Revolution, as well as their impact on British poetry. David Tennant, Dudley Sutton and David Threlfall star