In July 1980 at the age of 39 John Lennon was sailing to Jamaica when his boat hit a storm. With the crew crippled by sea sickness it was John who had hardly ever sailed before who took the helm for six hours. Great Britons s1e3: John Lennon, Alan Davies
They occupied the top five slots of the American charts. ibid.
The year is 1640. A gentleman farmer in East Anglia has so far lived his life in obscurity. But now at the age of 40 he is on the verge of greatness. Great Britons s1e4: Cromwell, Richard Holmes
To the horror of Charles I parliament began making assertions and pushing for a series of measures that challenged the authority of the King and the established Church. But Charles wouldn’t back down. ibid.
The two armies drew up on either side of this low valley ... Here in the middle there were more than 10,000 men shooting and stabbing at each other. ibid.
The army was increasingly mistrustful of parliament ... They published demands for liberty, justice and freedom from tyranny. ibid.
Once again England descended into civil war, and Cromwell gave up the complexities of politics to return to the simple loyalties of battle. He won a series of victories and emerged even more convinced that God was on his side. ibid.
On 20th January 1649 King Charles I was put on trial in Westminster Hall. ibid.
Early on 30th January 1649 King Charles I walked through the Banqueting House at Whitehall and stepped through a first floor window on to a great scaffold. ibid.
Cromwell’s lasting reputation as a butcher here in Ireland rests on his wholesale killing of the garrison and also on the charge that he ordered the murder of unarmed civilians. The story about the civilians is a myth ... But there’s no doubt about the slaughter of the garrison. ibid.
On 16th December he accepted a new title – Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. ibid.
In the summer of 1693 Isaac Newton was having a catastrophic nervous breakdown. He had always suffered intense bouts of depression and mania. Great Britons s1e5: Isaac Newton, Tristram Hunt
When he was still a young boy his mother left him ... Isaac had to stay behind at Woolsthorpe. He was effectively abandoned. ibid.
His favourite book was The Mysteries of Nature & Art. ibid.
A lonely schoolboy was laying the foundations of modern science. ibid.
He then drew up a list entitled Some Problems in Philosophy. Under forty-five different headings he identified what he saw as the great unanswered questions of science. ibid.
The image of the lone scientist in his garden unlocking the mysteries of the universe resonates through history ... Rather than developing a full theory of Gravity he put it to one side and rather focused his mind on a completely different branch of science: Optics. ibid.
Knowledge to him was something sacred and solitary ... He made the world’s first reflecting telescope. ibid.
His sense of betrayal and injustice was overwhelming. ibid.
Instead became obsessed with the Bible. It seems an extraordinary chance of tack. ibid.
Unknown to others he had been consumed by alchemy ... The Lucasian Professor had become the sorcerer’s apprentice ... He wrote over a million words on alchemy. ibid.
He decided to write a definite guide to the workings of the universe ... At a stroke Newton had changed everything: the cosmos had become knowable, mathematical; it was a staggering achievement. ibid.
Philosophae Naturalis Principia Mathematica ... One such first edition was recently sold at auction for £2,000,000. ibid.
He was concerned with motion ... Newton was able to devise the three laws of motion. ibid.
He left us ideas, ideas that allow us to control the forces of Nature and change our world. Ideas that will always be with us wherever we go. ibid.
At the time when Darwin was setting out on his travels, it was generally believed that God had created the world in 4,004 B.C. on Sunday October 23rd, and that all species were created by him fully formed and unchangeable. Great Britons s1e6: Darwin, Andrew Marr
Eventually of course Darwin had his eureka moment when everything came together and he suddenly thought, Yes, that’s it! ibid.
Of all the great books of scientific breakthrough none is half as immediately compelling and beautifully written than Origin of Species. ibid.
There was one Bishop in particular, Samuel Wilberforce of Oxford, who became Darwin’s most relentless and persuasive enemy. ibid.
More than a hundred and fifty years on, Darwin’s instincts are triumphantly borne out with the mapping of the Human Genome. Among the human races there are no significant molecular differences at all. It’s not arrogance Darwin teaches but modesty and respect. ibid.
He died with his head cradled in Emma’s arms at four o’clock on the afternoon of the 19th April 1882. Darwin’s legacy, his gift to us all, helped us to understand ourselves and the planet we live on ... More than that, Darwin teaches us that we are part of Nature and that to thrive and survive we need to work inside it. ibid.
Nelson was the first of his kind. He was an inspiring commander who forged a new more personal style of leadership risking his own life alongside his men he died fighting to defend his king and country. Great Britons s1e7: Horatio Nelson, Lucy Moore
Horatio Nelson was born in 1758 in the village of Burnham Thorpe, two miles from the coast of Norfolk. ibid.
Nelson was one of the first spin doctors of his own destiny. He was a master of self-promotion. ibid.
The French fleet was trapped in a pincer movement ... The battle began with a vengeance. ibid.
Back in Britain Nelson’s victory at the Nile was being celebrated. ibid.
Britain was still at war with France, and the kingdom of Naples was a neutral power ... Sir William Hamilton and Nelson persuaded the king and queen to ally themselves with England. This was effectively a declaration of war. ibid.
It is hard to overestimate the fear of a French invasion at this time. ibid.
Nelson was hit by a sniper just after one o’clock; the bullet entered his shoulder, went through his lung and severed his spine. ibid.
Nelson’s appeal endures because he combined courage with compassion; fated for his successes he never forgot the key to his glory was the loyalty of his men. He was superman and every man. The first and his kind and the prototype for all our heroes to come. ibid.
He always felt it was his destiny to lead the nation to victory. And at the most dangerous moment in history his leadership was making the greatest Briton of all time. Great Britons s1e8, Churchill, Mo Mowlam
He was kept out of his parents’ way and packed off to boarding school ... He was a small and sickly child. ibid.
She [mother] was a New York heiress ... She was cold and distant to him ... He [father] would go for months on end without seeing his children. ibid.
The British opened fire and ten thousand [Sudan] dervishes were killed. ibid.
He didn’t really care about party politics. ibid.
He fought for better labour conditions, trade union rights, old age pensions and prison reforms. He even wanted to get rid of the House of Lords. ibid.
He wasn’t keen on women having the vote, and he strongly disapproved of the suffragettes’ aggressive protests. It was Churchill who sent in the vicious Black and Tans ... His brutality came to the fore when he was Home Secretary ... He behaved like the general he always wanted to be. ibid.
Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty ... The solution he believed was a naval attack on Turkey ... Seven hundred men were killed ... It was an unmitigated disaster. Churchill was removed from the Admiralty. ibid.
He had always been prone to bouts of depression: he called them his black dog. And now he fell into his worst depression ever. ibid.
He insisted that surrender wasn’t an option. The Battle of Britain was about to begin. Churchill gave a call for arms. ibid.
Against all the odds our spitfires fended off invasion. But it wasn’t over yet – the Germans started launching bombing raids on our cities. ibid.
Hitler accused Churchill of being an alcoholic. ibid.
The famous victory at El Alamein was a turning point in the war. ibid.
The very soldiers who had fought for him were not convinced he was the right man to rebuild Britain. ibid.
Elizabeth I of England was impossible. She flirted outrageously with her courtiers, she threw tantrums, vacillated, changed her mind and was absurdly vain. But I believe Elizabeth made England what it is: she fought against English fanaticism, had founded our tradition of tolerance. She beat off the Spanish Armada and won this island the respect afforded to great powers. Great Britons s1e9: Elizabeth I, Michael Portillo
Elizabeth loathed religious bigotry ... She refused to enforce anti-Catholic laws pushed forward by parliament. ibid.
When Dudley’s wife died in suspicious circumstances the scandal blew around Elizabeth and Dudley with hurricane force. ibid.
The Pope excommunicated her and declared that to kill her would be a lawful and holy act. ibid.
For thirty years Elizabeth kept England out of wars. ibid.