Radio Times

Review by:

David Butcher

Have you ever seen a beetling mill? Although one stars only briefly in Michael Wood’s account of the Industrial Revolution, it’s a great sequence that will leave you wanting more. Beetling was the process of pounding linen with mallets to flatten it, and when mechanised it resembles a giant, rippling barrel organ, driven by water – rather beautiful.

Somehow Wood takes in this and dozens of other elements in the making of the first industrial nation and whips through two centuries’ worth in an hour: the Lunar Society, Cornish miners, Welsh smelters, Midlands canals and the first Luddites with their imaginary leader, the wonderfully named Captain Swing.

About this programme

7/8. Michael Wood explores the many ways in which the Industrial Revolution transformed society during the 19th century, as towns and cities grew while the rural population shrank and Britain became the world's first industrial power. He discovers how this economic shift affected workers, visiting communities in Dorset and Wiltshire, as well as the site of a former slum in Manchester, and investigates the roles of slavery and colonialism in driving British expansion. He also travels to mines and factories that thrived during the period, and learns how the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers revolutionised the way people viewed the world.

Cast and crew

Cast

Presenter

Michael Wood

Crew

Series Producer

Rebecca Dobbs

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