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To Kill a King

Episode 4 of 8

A splintering of politics and religion in the British Isles under the Stuart kings leads to more questioning art, new science and architecture.

Architect Amanda Levete climbs the Tulip Stairs in the Queen鈥檚 House, Greenwich, and reassesses Inigo Jones鈥 elegant and innovative design, while portrait artist Tai Shan Schierenberg encounters Van Dyck鈥檚 monumental portrait of the Earl of Pembroke鈥檚 family and finds signs of the dysfunction and tensions which point to the civil war to come.

This was a war that would be waged across three kingdoms, and artist Rita Duffy explores some of the poisonous propaganda it created in Wenceslas Hollar鈥檚 Teares of Ireland woodcuts, while photographer Platon examines the Puritan aesthetic through Samuel Cooper鈥檚 鈥榳arts and all鈥 miniature of Oliver Cromwell.

The battle between royalist and parliamentary forces brought bloodshed but ultimately the rise of a more questioning culture. Actor Anton Lesser performs excerpts of John Milton鈥檚 daring Paradise Lost, which laments the fall of the republic through the figure of a charismatic Satan rebelling against God, the king.

The restoration of the monarchy saw a new creative flourishing in works by playwright Aphra Behn and the intricate baroque carvings of Grinling Gibbons. But it is in the rise of a more scientific mindset that creativity would find greatest expression: artist Angela Palmer marvels at the artistry of Robert Hooke鈥檚 Micrographia, and sculptor Thomas Heatherwick reveals the brilliant architectural deceptions in Christopher Wren鈥檚 dome of St Paul鈥檚.

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59 minutes

Signed Audio described

Music Played

  • Pink Floyd

    Shine On You Crazy Diamond

  • Massive Attack

    Teardrop

  • Robert Fripp

    1988

  • David Holmes

    The Story Of The Ink

  • B膬l膬nescu Quartet

    Want Me

  • Mogwai

    I Am Not Batman

  • 脫lafur Arnalds

    Til Enda

  • David Holmes

    Birth

  • J贸hann J贸hannsson

    Melodia (II)

  • Nils Frahm

    Says

  • Nils Frahm

    Kaleidoscope

  • Kraftwerk

    Radioactivity

  • Mogwai

    How To Be A Werewolf

  • Poppy Ackroyd

    Luna

  • Clannad

    The Fairy Queen

  • ABBA

    Dancing Queen

  • ABBA

    Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

  • Spiritualized, Roddy Lorimer, J. Spaceman, John Coxon, Kate Radley, Sean Cook, B.J. Cole, The London Community Gospel Choir

    I Think I'm In Love

  • Pink Floyd

    Echoes

Credits

Role Contributor
Narrator David Threlfall
Director Duncan Singh
Producer Ewan Roxburgh
Series Producer Melanie Fall
Executive Producer Michael Jackson
Executive Producer Denys Blakeway
Production Company ClearStory Ltd

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