Shakespeare's Restless World
Channel Details
Shakespeare's Restless World
Making a selection of objects from the British Museum and collections across the UK, Neil MacGregor uncovers the stories they tell about Shakespeare's world.
Recent Episodes
20 episodes20. Shakespeare Goes Global
The publication of the First Folio of Shakespeare's collected plays in 1623 began the process of turning an early modern playwright into a global phen...
19. The Theatres of Cruelty
A human eyeball in a silver setting provides a striking insight to the theatre of cruelty in Elizabethan and Jacobean Britain.
Object-based his...
18. London Becomes Rome
A set of designs for the Coronation Procession of James I reveals the extent of classical knowledge amongst Shakespeare's audience.
Object-based...
17. Plague and the Playhouse
May 1603 saw not only a new king but the worst plague outbreak since the Black Death. Its impact and reach is told through a series of early seventeen...
16. A Time of Change, a Change of Time
A rare domestic clock with an equally rare minute hand and quarter-hour chimes reveals the changing relationship Shakespeare's audiences had to time.<...
15. The Flag That Failed
The problems in uniting Scotland and England and in creating a Great Britain are encapsulated in a set of designs for a common flag.
Object-bas...
14. Disguise and Deception
Deception and religion, cross-dressing and travelling salesmen are all unpacked via a pedlar's trunk.
Object-based history series presented by...
13. From London to Marrakech
Sunken gold from West Africa sheds light on the complex relationship Elizabethan England had with the Moors of the Mediterranean.
Object-based...
12. Sex and the City
A delicate glass goblet reveals the twin seductions of Venice: its sought after luxuries and its equally sought after lecherous women.
Object-b...
11. Treason and Plots
A tabloid history of Shakespeare's England, told through a collection of contemporary accounts of plots to murder Elizabeth I and James I.
Obje...
10. Toil and Trouble
The differences between Scottish and English witches are revealed by a model ship, made to be hung in a church.
Object-based history series pre...
9. New Science, Old Magic
Dr Dee's Mirror was actually a highly polished disk of black obsidian from Mexico but it reflects the Elizabethan fascination with the new sciences of...
8. City Life, Urban Strife
The life of London's apprentices and Shakespeare's groundlings told through a rare woollen cap.
Object-based history series presented by Neil M...
7. Ireland: Failures in the Present
A rare woodcut offers a equally rare visual impression of the troubles and tragedies of Elizabethan Ireland.
Object-based history series present...
6. Europe: Triumphs of the Past
As a tourist attraction in Westminster Abbey, Henry V's instruments of battle reflect the view of English history as depicted on the Elizabeth stage.<...
5. Swordplay and Swagger
The essential accoutrements of any self-respecting gentleman - the rapier and the dagger- show us the extent of violence in Elizabethan London - both...
4. Life without Elizabeth
A portrait was painted in 1571 to justify and celebrate Elizabeth I's position in the Tudor succession.
Yet by the 1590s, with no direct Tudor h...
3. Snacking Through Shakespeare
Object-based history series presented by Neil MacGregor, former Director of the British Museum.
Taking artefacts from William Shakespeare's time...
2. Communion and Conscience
The Stratford Chalice. The communion cup that Shakespeare may well have used, sheds light on the dramatic religious changes that came in the aftermath...
1. England Goes Global
How Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the globe changed the way Shakespeare's audiences viewed the world and their country's place on it.
...