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Private Notes
Matt has not passed his tenth birthday and he is working half-time in Grimshaw's mill. He is promptly sacked since it is illegal to employ children under the age of 10. In contrast Sarah spends her day in a leisurely fashion: a lie-in followed by entertaining Alderman Grimshaw to tea.
The Hodgkins family lives in a new suburb of a Yorkshire manufacturing town. Arthur, a railwayman, is buying the semi-detached house on a mortgage, having moved from rented accommodation in a terrace during the building boom of the early 'thirties. His wife, Mabel, devotes herself to the home and their family of four children, Jimmy (14), Patricia (12), Avril (8), and Edward (2).
Freddy and Holly have travelled back through time to experience the life of poor farm labourers. It’s 1587 and Holly’s family are making their way to London in search of work. They lodge with Freddy’s family but bring sickness with them. As the children struggle to master the many skills involved in running a Tudor household, Freddy’s father becomes ill with ‘the sweats’. He is bled by an apothecary. The children seek advice from a herbalist to help Holly’s family, but despite their best efforts one of them dies.
Phil, Josh and Michaela join the household of a yeoman farmer. Phil, the oldest son, learns the skills he will need to run the farm while his younger brother, Josh, will go to the grammar school to receive an education. Michaela, a servant’s daughter, is being trained by her elders in household tasks. Each of the children finds their lot hard. Phil, struggling with the backbreaking work of picking stones and tending the stock, envies his brother who goes to school. But Josh finds learning hard and cannot master his work, despite the ever-present threat of a flogging. Michaela sees life as a servant mapped out before her and recognises that she will have little say in her future.
Looks at the lifestyle of a middle-class family in Tudor times. Children have an opportunity to compare the lives of rich and poor and look at differences in diet, work and entertainment. It is 1587. In Spain, Philip II is preparing to launch his great armada. In Sussex, modern schoolchildren Nell and Greg have joined the household of the local bailiff. Nell is his daughter and Greg is the son of the bailiff’s servants. There is plenty for them to do as the household prepares a feast to celebrate the betrothal of the bailiff’s oldest son. But as the day passes by Greg becomes increasingly conscious of the contrast between his life as a servant and that of Nell, the bailiff’s daughter.
Tony Robinson and his team visit Cookstown in Northern Ireland, where they trace the history of farming from its beginnings in Neolithic times through to the Irish potato famine. They visit Wellbrook Beetling Mill to find out how linen was processed.
In the nineteenth century, Ebbw Vale in Wales became a centre for the coal and steel industries. Tony Robinson, with the help of local experts and children from a primary school, finds out why the two industries developed here. They explore the lives of the people who worked in the coal mines and steelworks and hear about their fight for improved working conditions.
The city of Perth, in Scotland, lies at the heart of a great communications network, which includes roads, railways and flight paths. Tony Robinson, together with children from local schools, investigates the ways in which road and river crossings have influenced the development of the city.
Tony Robinson visits Portsmouth in the south of England to discover why it has such strong defences. He learns from local experts about the life of the seamen on Henry VIII's ship, the Mary Rose, and Nelson's flagship, the Victory, and uses census material to discover more about the women of Victorian Portsmouth. Finally, he and his team of primary school investigators listen to the experiences of Portsmouth people who lived through the bombing during the Second World War.
In this episode we discover that Giovanni Belzoni travelled to London from his native Italy in search of adventure. He met his wife, Sarah and together they fulfilled his ambition to travel to Egypt to aid the Egyptian farmers with ideas for improved irrigation. Belzoni’s engineering ideas were seen as a threat but their fortunes turned when they happened upon the Swiss Egyptologist, Mr Burckhardt.
This programme follows the journeys of Belzoni as he goes in search of further treasures. His route takes him south to Abu Simbel where he makes the astonishing discovery of a temple. From here he travels north to the Pyramids, this time with Sarah. Together they find the hidden entrance to the second Pyramid, only to find the tomb void of its treasures. Disappointed, Belzoni writes his name on the tomb walls. Back in London, it’s the year 1862. Sarah takes Antonia to the British Museum to see some of the riches that Giovanni had transported back. She draws Antonia’s attention to the significance of another artefact, the Rosetta Stone, inscribed with hieroglyphs, demotic script and Greek. It wasn’t until 1822 that a Frenchman, Jean François Champollion, translated the Rosetta Stone and led the way to decipher hieroglyphic writing. But this was after the work of the Belzonis who could only guess at what the strange symbols meant.
After the hope and excitement of Belzoni’s original discoveries, this programme takes on a more sombre note, reflecting on the deteriorating health of Burckhardt. We see Sarah nursing Burckhardt whilst Belzoni explores the Valley of the Kings and discovers the beautifully illustrated tomb of Pharaoh Seti I. After his latest discovery and following Burckhart’s death, Giovanni returns to London with his wife, determined to make a living by recreating the tomb of Seti I for discerning members of Victorian society. However, curiosity about the exhibit is short-lived, leaving the Belzonis with no work and little money. Giovanni leaves in search of treasures in other parts of Africa, and Sarah never sees him again, for he contracts dysentary and dies. Her wish in life has always been to keep the memory of her husband’s work alive. This she does through Antonia and her little shabti figure.
