- Radio Times
- Review by:
- Emma Sturgess
What they say about there being space on top of a large waffle for all the famous Belgian people might be true, but Andrew Marr raises a shudder-inducing Belgian name: Leopold II. As part of his survey of the Industrial Revolution, Marr starts with a faintly ridiculous story (about the king of the Belgians trying to big up his status by buying a colony, any colony) and ends with genocide.
It’s the most potent piece of history from a series whose material is, inevitably, getting more familiar and less exciting as it gets more recent, though valiant attempts to contextualise each of the stories go a long way.
About this programme
7/8. The broadcaster considers how the Industrial Revolution helped create the modern world, as aristocratic landowners, serfs and peasant farmers were gradually replaced by machines, cities and capitalists. However, many resisted this sweeping change, leading to bitter battles between the modernisers and those who rejected the new way of life. In Europe, countries competed to create vast empires that spanned the world, sparking intense competition that contributed to the outbreak of the First World War.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Presenter
- Andrew Marr
Crew
- Director
- Robin Dashwood
- Executive Producer
- Chris Granlund
- Producer
- Robin Dashwood
- Series Producer
- Kathryn Taylor
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