0:00:05 > 0:00:08'Some of my earliest memories are of games.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12'I come from a big, boisterous farming family,
0:00:12 > 0:00:14'and during times of festive captivity,
0:00:14 > 0:00:16'card and board games were seen as a way of
0:00:16 > 0:00:21'diverting restless energies and restoring a little domestic harmony.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23'It didn't always work out.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26'There was the time my angelic little brother,
0:00:26 > 0:00:27'barely eight years old,
0:00:27 > 0:00:30'called our aged aunt the C-word
0:00:30 > 0:00:33'for taking a card off him in Racing Demon.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35'And there were always epic arguments
0:00:35 > 0:00:38over who would be the racing car
0:00:38 > 0:00:41'and who would end up getting the boot in Monopoly.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45'But gathered there, in the warmth of the living room,
0:00:45 > 0:00:48'squatting on the carpet like worshippers in a temple,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51'the fire throwing warmth and light onto the scene -
0:00:51 > 0:00:54'in that precious moment, there was always a hope
0:00:54 > 0:00:57'that we would get through the game without having a row.
0:00:57 > 0:00:59'That luck would bless us, and if not,
0:00:59 > 0:01:04'well, we would all know it was just a game.'
0:01:04 > 0:01:06My name's Benjamin Woolley.
0:01:06 > 0:01:10I'm a biographer and historian, and in the books that I write
0:01:10 > 0:01:15it's the rich and famous who usually take centre stage.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19But there's another history. One in which WE are the players.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22It's both intimate and epic.
0:01:22 > 0:01:27It casts new light into the hidden corners of our past.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31It's the history of the games we play.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46'Games Britannia is a 2,000-year romp
0:01:46 > 0:01:49'that tells the story of these islands through its games.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52'Games that are played for fun, for friendship,
0:01:52 > 0:01:57'for intellectual challenge, for education and often for money.
0:01:57 > 0:02:01'They're played everywhere. In pubs, living rooms, schools, casinos -
0:02:01 > 0:02:02'even churches.
0:02:02 > 0:02:04'With stones in the sand,
0:02:04 > 0:02:08'and on high definition consoles and screens.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24'Today's state-of-the-art games use technology NASA would be proud of.
0:02:24 > 0:02:25'They offer a vision
0:02:25 > 0:02:28'of an amazing, exciting,
0:02:28 > 0:02:29'scary future.
0:02:32 > 0:02:34'But there's nothing new in this.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41'Games are not just fun, but fundamental.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44'This is a journey that takes us into the information age,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48'but begins 2,000 years ago in the Iron Age.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05'In 1996, here at the Stanway sand and gravel quarry
0:03:05 > 0:03:07'just off the A12 to Colchester,
0:03:07 > 0:03:11'an archaeological team began a series of excavations.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13'This area of East Anglia
0:03:13 > 0:03:16'is littered with Iron Age and early Roman sites,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19'and aerial photographs had revealed the outline
0:03:19 > 0:03:22'of five ancient ditched enclosures
0:03:22 > 0:03:24'in the line of the advancing quarry face.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28'What the archaeologists uncovered took their breath away.'
0:03:29 > 0:03:32Somewhere round here, they found a grave
0:03:32 > 0:03:36dating back to the time of the Roman invasion in AD43.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39It was packed full of precious relics,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42what appeared to be a set of divining rods,
0:03:42 > 0:03:43an amulet or brooch
0:03:43 > 0:03:47and one of the best-preserved ancient surgical kits
0:03:47 > 0:03:48found anywhere.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50That alone was enough to make it
0:03:50 > 0:03:54one of the most exciting Iron Age findings of recent times.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56But there was something else.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00Something the archaeologists had never seen before.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04Right in the middle, laid out like a sacred relic,
0:04:04 > 0:04:08was a set of beautifully preserved glass gaming pieces.
0:04:08 > 0:04:13It was a board game, frozen in the midst of play.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18'It was the earliest complete gaming set
0:04:18 > 0:04:23'ever to be discovered in Britain, but it posed quite a puzzle.
0:04:24 > 0:04:26'Here was a game trapped in time,
0:04:26 > 0:04:31'its owner challenging us to make a move after 2,000 years -
0:04:31 > 0:04:33'but what were the rules?
0:04:35 > 0:04:37'There's a chance that if we can figure them out,
0:04:37 > 0:04:40'we might not only bring the game back to life,
0:04:40 > 0:04:44'but get a glimpse of the long-lost world in which it was played.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54'So, my first mission is to take a replica of the board
0:04:54 > 0:04:57'to a master of the games universe and curator of games
0:04:57 > 0:05:01'here at the British Museum, Dr Irving Finkel.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03'He has devoted a lifetime
0:05:03 > 0:05:06'to trying to figure out how ancient games work.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09'And so I want to see if he can unravel the mystery
0:05:09 > 0:05:11'surrounding the game in the quarry,
0:05:11 > 0:05:14'and what its discovery means for Games Britannia.'
0:05:16 > 0:05:18In my view it's one of the criteria
0:05:18 > 0:05:22whereby you can really say this is homo sapiens, in a way.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24You know, monkeys play with twigs
0:05:24 > 0:05:27but not board games - they don't have an abstraction
0:05:27 > 0:05:30where an army is reduced to miniature
0:05:30 > 0:05:32and you have a strategy, and dice.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34In the animal kingdom
0:05:34 > 0:05:36you get play, but you don't get games.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40And games, I think, really are one of the sort of boxes to tick
0:05:40 > 0:05:43when you're saying these are human beings like us.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45So what kind of games were there?
0:05:45 > 0:05:47Well, you can have a war game,
0:05:47 > 0:05:50the family of which chess is like the highest version,
0:05:50 > 0:05:52where you have two armies competing
0:05:52 > 0:05:55and they try to kill one another or take one another.
0:05:55 > 0:05:57This is probably that sort of thing.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00Yes, but it seems to have two groups ranged against each other.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04Absolutely. If it's not led by dice, then it must be a strategy game
0:06:04 > 0:06:09whereby there's an innate system here whereby blue can take white.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15'The similarity of the "Stanway game" to a Roman strategy game
0:06:15 > 0:06:17'led many experts to believe
0:06:17 > 0:06:20'that both the game and its owner were Roman.
0:06:20 > 0:06:25'But there was a particular anomaly that I wanted to put to Dr Finkel.'
0:06:25 > 0:06:29Right in the middle there was the discovery of a little...
0:06:29 > 0:06:32The odd thing is it's actually smaller than the main beads.
0:06:32 > 0:06:33It was found in the middle.
0:06:33 > 0:06:37That's right. There's evidence from early British sources
0:06:37 > 0:06:41that there was a group of games which are sometimes called Tablut.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45You have unequal sides in this kind of tradition,
0:06:45 > 0:06:47and it does suggest to me
0:06:47 > 0:06:52that one probably has to discard looking for a Roman precedent
0:06:52 > 0:06:58and see this as more likely to be a pre-Roman British game, if you like,
0:06:58 > 0:07:00which was still being played.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04'This is an intriguing finding.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08'The game's sophistication suggests the ancient Britons who played it
0:07:08 > 0:07:11'were far more advanced than was previously thought.
0:07:11 > 0:07:15'It also lays down a marker for the origins of Games Britannia.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30'So far, we know that the game in the grave was British,
0:07:30 > 0:07:32'but not why it was there.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35'Perhaps the identity of the owner might help.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39'Was he a champion of some sort with the board as his trophy?
0:07:39 > 0:07:41'Was the game simply a form of entertainment
0:07:41 > 0:07:43'to amuse him in the afterlife?
0:07:43 > 0:07:46'Was he expecting eternity to be dull?
0:07:46 > 0:07:47'To delve deeper,
0:07:47 > 0:07:52'I've arranged to examine the other contents of the grave.'
0:07:52 > 0:07:54The pieces were laid out ready to play,
0:07:54 > 0:07:57and then they put his remains on the board.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01That's a statement about the significance of the board,
0:08:01 > 0:08:03the role of this board in this man's life.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06Then the divining rods, the surgical equipment,
0:08:06 > 0:08:10the rings, whatever they were, were laid on and around it.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12But underneath it all is the board.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17In combination all these things add up to somebody who had ritual power,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20who had possibly divinatory power.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22This is somebody who is more of a priest,
0:08:22 > 0:08:25and for want of a better word is probably a druid.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31'If he was that most enigmatic of ancient Britons, a druid,
0:08:31 > 0:08:34'then it's likely that the game would have been used
0:08:34 > 0:08:38'as part of his priestly practices, for prophecy or divination.'
0:08:39 > 0:08:43So, imagining a scenario, maybe he could have played
0:08:43 > 0:08:44the king at the game
0:08:44 > 0:08:48to see whether the king would win or lose a forthcoming battle...?
0:08:48 > 0:08:53Exactly that, or the future successions, say, of a chief.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57Decisions that affected the course of early British history
0:08:57 > 0:08:59could have been taken on this game board.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04'At the time of the game's entombment,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07'this area was the last stronghold of a tribe of Britons
0:09:07 > 0:09:09'called the Catuvellauni,
0:09:09 > 0:09:13'under siege from legions of marauding Roman invaders.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16'In this era of great military upheaval,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19'could the configuration of pieces on the board
0:09:19 > 0:09:24'represent the unfolding story of one such momentous engagement,
0:09:24 > 0:09:26'trapped in time?'
0:09:28 > 0:09:29It's a great story -
0:09:29 > 0:09:33impossible to verify, of course, but it tells us something crucial
0:09:33 > 0:09:35about the history of Games Britannia.
0:09:35 > 0:09:40We keep being told as kids, "It's just a game" -
0:09:40 > 0:09:44when it's not just a game, it's hardly ever just a game.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46At least for the ancients,
0:09:46 > 0:09:52it was a way of exploring ourselves, our world...even our destiny.
0:09:54 > 0:09:58'As a farm boy brought up in rural Sussex,
0:09:58 > 0:10:01'I hadn't had much experience of city life or the wider world.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04'You could say I was bit of a bumpkin.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08'I knew that London's Mayfair was smarter than Whitechapel Road.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12'I knew that Irkutsk and Kamchatka were in eastern Russia,
0:10:12 > 0:10:16'and that if Napoleon and Hitler had played Risk as I had,
0:10:16 > 0:10:19'they'd have realised the folly of invading Russia
0:10:19 > 0:10:21'while engaged in western Europe.
0:10:21 > 0:10:23'I also knew from a board game
0:10:23 > 0:10:27'that diplomacy and deceit go hand in hand,
0:10:27 > 0:10:30'and I knew that swanky houses had libraries and billiard rooms.
0:10:32 > 0:10:36'Today, teenage boys play video games.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40'Just like board games, they're a way of opening up a wider world
0:10:40 > 0:10:44'to simulate events, play out scenarios and scenes
0:10:44 > 0:10:46'beyond our immediate experience.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50'In a cutting-edge game like Grand Theft Auto,
0:10:50 > 0:10:53'the young Londoner can go joyriding,
0:10:53 > 0:10:55'or fly a helicopter over New York.'
0:10:56 > 0:10:59When I fly I go round the whole city,
0:10:59 > 0:11:01and just look at everything.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05The Statue of Liberty...
0:11:06 > 0:11:08It's based around New York,
0:11:08 > 0:11:13and you can land anywhere within the little city and cause havoc.
0:11:13 > 0:11:14RAPID GUNSHOTS
0:11:16 > 0:11:18- GAME CHARACTER:- Stay down.
0:11:21 > 0:11:26'Games have always been a sort of laboratory to investigate the world,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29'the universe, ourselves -
0:11:29 > 0:11:30'even 1,000 years ago,
0:11:30 > 0:11:33'when the knowledge available to the games master
0:11:33 > 0:11:35'came solely from the Bible.'
0:11:35 > 0:11:38You may not even have heard of King Athelstan.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41His 15-year reign in the middle of the tenth century
0:11:41 > 0:11:46never acquired the legendary status that his grandfather Alfred managed
0:11:46 > 0:11:48by burning some cakes.
0:11:48 > 0:11:53But this man was the first king of all Britain since the Romans.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57He was also a generous patron of the arts and scholarship.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00'And for tenth-century Athelstan,
0:12:00 > 0:12:03'games were as vital to his court
0:12:03 > 0:12:07'as Grand Theft Auto is to a modern teenager.'
0:12:09 > 0:12:12These beautifully illuminated gospels
0:12:12 > 0:12:15shine a brilliant light into this extraordinary period of history.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20It's an early Bible, if you like, it's Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22And as one leafs through these,
0:12:24 > 0:12:29another page appears and we get this.
0:12:32 > 0:12:36It's like a mystical, magical, medieval code.
0:12:39 > 0:12:43"Alea evangelii, the game of the Gospels.
0:12:44 > 0:12:50"Taken from England from the Court of Athelstan,
0:12:50 > 0:12:52"King of the English."
0:12:52 > 0:12:54Here we have the game,
0:12:54 > 0:12:58set out with all the pieces in various different places...
0:13:01 > 0:13:02This board game
0:13:03 > 0:13:05was like a map of a religion.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22'With the help of medieval historian Dr David Howlett,
0:13:22 > 0:13:25'we're going to try to get to grips with this game,
0:13:25 > 0:13:30'by playing a simplified version of Alea evangelii.'
0:13:30 > 0:13:35- OK, so these are the defenders... and who's he?- He's the king.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39His job is to get from the centre of the board
0:13:39 > 0:13:41to any one of the four corners,
0:13:41 > 0:13:46and he'll be attacked by twice as many men as he has defenders.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48A piece is captured
0:13:48 > 0:13:51by being surrounded on two sides.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54OK, if this piece was here...
0:13:54 > 0:13:57right, and then that happens,
0:13:57 > 0:14:00then this piece would go. Right.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02That's ancient Tafl.
0:14:02 > 0:14:03What we see in this game
0:14:03 > 0:14:08is the imposition of a quite complicated intellectual system
0:14:08 > 0:14:11on to an already existing board game.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13You say quite complicated -
0:14:13 > 0:14:16we're talking about astonishingly complicated.
0:14:16 > 0:14:18I mean, we're talking about
0:14:18 > 0:14:22hundreds and hundreds of correspondences in the Gospels.
0:14:22 > 0:14:23I mean, it's almost like,
0:14:23 > 0:14:26I don't know, taking a draughts board and using it
0:14:26 > 0:14:28to understand the periodic table.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Well, periodic "table" - Tafl. It's the same.
0:14:31 > 0:14:36It's a visual means of aiding abstract thought.
0:14:36 > 0:14:41- Right.- You'll see this sign over here that says,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44"Signifiat haec figura."
0:14:44 > 0:14:47This figure should signify on the game board the Passion of Christ.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51- BELL RINGS - OK. So, as the bell tolls...
0:14:51 > 0:14:54let play commence.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02'In this game, I'm playing red,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05'attempting to escort the king to the safety of the corners.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12'But within minutes, David has my king almost surrounded.'
0:15:15 > 0:15:17Oh, hemmed in...
0:15:17 > 0:15:20'The four corners represent the four evangelists,
0:15:20 > 0:15:22'Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25'And I began to wonder if the game was somehow symbolic
0:15:25 > 0:15:27'of good versus evil,
0:15:27 > 0:15:31'the journey of the king, like the safe passage of a soul to heaven.'
0:15:32 > 0:15:34It's such a different game, isn't it,
0:15:34 > 0:15:37because you each have a unique role.
0:15:37 > 0:15:42I don't think there's another board game quite like it in modern times.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44Is there? Sorry...
0:15:45 > 0:15:47OK. Er...
0:15:49 > 0:15:51So, let's get this one out.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56One of the things that strikes me about...I mean, all of this,
0:15:56 > 0:15:58and the game and everything,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02is that there's an extraordinary sort of numerical abstract
0:16:02 > 0:16:03way of thinking
0:16:03 > 0:16:07that one doesn't necessarily associate with the medieval mind.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10That's a defect in OUR understanding of them.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14Number was absolutely central for them.
0:16:16 > 0:16:23Rather like the DNA chain for us. That beautiful, elegant double helix
0:16:23 > 0:16:28gives us a mental picture of the structure of the universe.
0:16:28 > 0:16:30And for them, number did that.
0:16:31 > 0:16:36So, a game that involves learning how to manipulate 650 numbers
0:16:36 > 0:16:41on a little board that has 18 squares a side and 72 players -
0:16:41 > 0:16:42that fits.
0:16:46 > 0:16:51'Whilst I was distracted by the intricacies of medieval numerology,
0:16:51 > 0:16:55'David sneaked in a move that caught me off guard.'
0:16:56 > 0:16:58Did he get both of them?
0:16:58 > 0:16:59Surrounded.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04'Let's see that again. Did he really take two pieces in one move?
0:17:06 > 0:17:08'OK, I'll let him have that one.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15'But despite David's dexterity, within a few moves
0:17:15 > 0:17:19'I had not only managed to extricate my king from his clutches
0:17:19 > 0:17:22'but was making a dash towards the safety of St Luke.'
0:17:22 > 0:17:24- You can't land on there.- No.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27I think I might have done something there.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34- I have a horrible suspicion... - No.
0:17:35 > 0:17:36I thought I had it there!
0:17:42 > 0:17:46'As we became increasingly absorbed by the game,
0:17:46 > 0:17:50'I began to get a glimpse of how the medieval mind might have worked,
0:17:50 > 0:17:54'each move resonating with some divine correspondence.
0:17:54 > 0:17:56'As I stared at the board, I could imagine the patterns
0:17:56 > 0:17:59'that related the game to the forces of nature -
0:17:59 > 0:18:03'the movement of the stars, the shapes of the clouds,
0:18:03 > 0:18:04'the ticking of a clock.
0:18:04 > 0:18:09'In that moment, I no longer had any thoughts of winning or losing -
0:18:09 > 0:18:11'I was now in the zone.'
0:18:12 > 0:18:15Yeah - no, I've got it.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19Ah! So you can do...
0:18:19 > 0:18:20And he goes into the corner.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24- If I had done that I'd have taken the two.- Exactly.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26That's...
0:18:27 > 0:18:29- Anyway, thank you.- Thank you.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36'Despite its complex numerological and spiritual underpinnings,
0:18:36 > 0:18:41'I found Alea evangelii surprisingly exciting to play.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45'But by the end of the 13th century, it had been overtaken by an influx
0:18:45 > 0:18:49'of secular newcomers that have stayed with us to this day.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52'This is when chess, draughts and backgammon
0:18:52 > 0:18:55'made their way into Games Britannia.
0:18:56 > 0:19:02'They came via an extraordinary illuminated tome completed in 1282
0:19:02 > 0:19:07'called Libro de los juegos, The Book Of Games.
0:19:07 > 0:19:09'It was compiled by the Spanish king, Alfonso X.
0:19:09 > 0:19:14'But the games he described weren't European in origin -
0:19:14 > 0:19:16'they came from the east.'
0:19:16 > 0:19:21This is part of a wider transmission of Arabic literature,
0:19:21 > 0:19:22or Arabic translations,
0:19:22 > 0:19:26into the European consciousness, which applies with medicine
0:19:26 > 0:19:30and other sorts of disciplines. It's part of that kind of world.
0:19:36 > 0:19:41'Alfonso began his book with a parable about an Indian king
0:19:41 > 0:19:45'who was discussing with three wise men the nature of things.'
0:19:45 > 0:19:49And in particular, whether it was a person's luck or wits
0:19:49 > 0:19:53that was most important in shaping their life.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57In answering this riddle, they used different games
0:19:57 > 0:20:00to represent opposing philosophical positions.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04The first wise man argued for games of chance, like dice,
0:20:04 > 0:20:07because we live in a pre-ordained universe
0:20:07 > 0:20:09and should trust our destiny to luck.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12We would call him a fatalist.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14Why would something...
0:20:14 > 0:20:16having a luck factor make it a good game?
0:20:18 > 0:20:21Isn't the ultimate game one that is pure skill?
0:20:21 > 0:20:25'The second argued for games of skill like chess
0:20:25 > 0:20:28'because life was there to be lived, purely according to our wits.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31'He believed that we were blessed with free will.'
0:20:31 > 0:20:35Yes, but I mean, life is full of luck as well as skill.
0:20:35 > 0:20:37It reflects that aspect of it.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41'The third said that the best game
0:20:42 > 0:20:45'was one that was a perfect balance of luck and skill.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48'So a game that used both the chance element of dice
0:20:48 > 0:20:52'and the strategic movement of pieces like chess
0:20:52 > 0:20:54'was the perfect analogy for life itself.'
0:20:54 > 0:20:57The game always speed up around this point, as well.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00'The game he proposed was backgammon.'
0:21:00 > 0:21:03There is an element of risk. Am I going to take it? I've got to.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05Double six wins it.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08It's on the last...
0:21:08 > 0:21:10It's on the last one. I wonder if I'll get it?
0:21:10 > 0:21:13- Get it in one.- Oh, yes.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15Thank you very much. There was a great game.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17- No, it wasn't.- It was for me.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23So far, the story of Games Britannia has been all about working out
0:21:23 > 0:21:25the meaning of life in the universe,
0:21:25 > 0:21:30but isn't there something else about games, something a bit more obvious?
0:21:30 > 0:21:33Games are something fun to play.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37They're also a great way of wasting time.
0:21:39 > 0:21:43A few pebbles, put a crossing on a stone or on the earth itself,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46and you could play the game very happily.
0:21:46 > 0:21:51Some form of game exists in every culture and every era because humans
0:21:51 > 0:21:54have one weakness that animals, as far as we know, don't.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57The propensity to get bored.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00This instinct to play games simply to pass the time
0:22:00 > 0:22:04is deeply ingrained in Games Britannia.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07We also know that during the 14th century
0:22:07 > 0:22:10this happened in the least likely of places.
0:22:13 > 0:22:17Our great medieval cathedrals have many architectural wonders in common
0:22:17 > 0:22:19but they share something else,
0:22:19 > 0:22:23the secret marvel that lies not overhead,
0:22:23 > 0:22:24but underfoot.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26What have we got?
0:22:27 > 0:22:31'In Norwich, Canterbury, Gloucester, Westminster Abbey...'
0:22:31 > 0:22:32Oh, there we are.
0:22:32 > 0:22:33'..and here in Salisbury,
0:22:33 > 0:22:35'someone's been playing games.'
0:22:35 > 0:22:37Just the faintest outline.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40We seem to have another one...yeah.
0:22:40 > 0:22:41The characteristic outline there
0:22:41 > 0:22:44although the lines in it make it rather indistinct.
0:22:44 > 0:22:49There's just an enormous variety, it's a medieval Monte Carlo in here.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56In the cloisters people would have been waiting a long time,
0:22:56 > 0:23:01in some cases, to see the Bishop or the hierarchy of one kind or another
0:23:01 > 0:23:04with disputes, all sorts of things.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07Church played a very important part in the life of the people.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09I mean, this one's extraordinary.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13It's a bit mysterious, it looks like a draughts board.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16It's got these diagonal lines and these points here.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19I mean, nobody really knows what game that is.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23These would be games that they would do while they were waiting.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27Otherwise, you'd have a riot on your hands! They've got to do something.
0:23:27 > 0:23:32This is perhaps the most popular of them.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36You see this one more than any other and it's called Nine Men's Morris,
0:23:36 > 0:23:41very clearly identifiable by these squares within squares.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44There are various versions of it.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47This seems to have been the most popular game.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51The principle behind Nine Men's Morris is one we all know.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53It's essentially noughts and crosses
0:23:53 > 0:23:57and the basic aim is to get three counters in a row.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01It's literary true that you can find that game anywhere.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04I should think almost anywhere.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07A rock in the middle of the Atlantic will have this damn game on it.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09So my own feeling is,
0:24:09 > 0:24:12that the occurrence of the grid for Nine Men's Morris,
0:24:12 > 0:24:16in its distribution, is to be explained by the fact
0:24:16 > 0:24:18that this is a natural thing to happen.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21You have a square and you put cross lines or diagonal lines in it
0:24:21 > 0:24:23to make it more interesting.
0:24:23 > 0:24:25It seems to me the sort of procedure
0:24:25 > 0:24:28that could spontaneously happen in many different places.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31In other words, if it was found on the moon, I wouldn't bat an eyelid.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37Church historian David Sherratt has even discovered
0:24:37 > 0:24:40a game grid carved on to a tomb inside the church.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43Very feint and shallow scratching.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47That of St Osmund, the 11th-century Bishop of Salisbury
0:24:47 > 0:24:49and Lord Chancellor of England, no less.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Now this might seem sacrilegious, but what the hell, let's play.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58A bit like noughts and crosses,
0:24:58 > 0:25:00we try and get an alignment of three pieces.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03Once I have got three pieces in alignment,
0:25:03 > 0:25:05I can take one of your pieces off.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08So you start and let's see what this is like.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11Right, OK.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16All right, so I've obviously got to put one there
0:25:16 > 0:25:17to stop you getting a line.
0:25:17 > 0:25:19It's a fast game, Ben.
0:25:19 > 0:25:20OK, I'll speed up a bit.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23I managed to distract you there.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27I've got a line and I can now take one of your pieces off.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30So I'll take that piece off.
0:25:30 > 0:25:32The Church's attitude to these Games,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35I mean, the sheer quantity suggests that they weren't really banned
0:25:35 > 0:25:39or that there was a fairly loose attitude towards them, doesn't it?
0:25:39 > 0:25:44Well, at a guess, I would suspect, pretty tolerant, but do remember
0:25:44 > 0:25:47that the medieval Church had feast days.
0:25:49 > 0:25:54And we have All Fools, the ceremonies of the Boy Bishop,
0:25:54 > 0:25:56they were up to all sorts of things.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00There was leisure and they were playing these games
0:26:00 > 0:26:04as part and parcel of a rather pleasant life.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06A picture at odds with what many people would think
0:26:06 > 0:26:08about medieval life.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11It suggests that there was quite a lot of playfulness going on here.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13They certainly enjoyed themselves.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16I mean, life was very short for most of them.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19- And these games provided some sort of relief.- Yes.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22So, if I move there...
0:26:22 > 0:26:24I think you're trapped.
0:26:24 > 0:26:29Well, in the words of the profits, I am benighted. Thou hast won.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31Thank you you very much. Thank you for the game.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33It was very exciting.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38Nine Men's Morris was a bit like a medieval Game Boy.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42A game designed to help pass the time harmlessly enough.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45I'll have a pint, please.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49It reveals the diverting, sometimes enlightening,
0:26:49 > 0:26:53often challenging, but essentially benign influence
0:26:53 > 0:26:56of games over the lives of our ancestors.
0:26:56 > 0:26:58But there was another game.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03A game Chaucer described as being played in the devil's temples.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06It was said that it was the making of a man
0:27:06 > 0:27:09or it undid him in the twinkling of an eye
0:27:09 > 0:27:11and they called it hazard.
0:27:17 > 0:27:18In the 14th century,
0:27:18 > 0:27:23the word we now use to denote danger of any kind meant this game.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29Like chess, hazard seems to have been an import from the East,
0:27:29 > 0:27:33perhaps brought by Crusaders returning from Palestine.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35My name will be seven.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39'Whatever the route, once it had arrived, it wreaked havoc.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43'Luring players, as one of Chaucer's characters put it,
0:27:43 > 0:27:45'to do service for the devil.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48'So, what was so dangerous about it?
0:27:48 > 0:27:51'Simple, gambling.'
0:27:51 > 0:27:55Lots of people have always thought that dice were the work of the devil.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57Dice are wonderful for cheats,
0:27:57 > 0:28:02with lead loaded in and corners shaved and all these sorts of things.
0:28:02 > 0:28:04Even archaeologically, there was little bag of dice
0:28:04 > 0:28:07that came out of the Thames where most of them are loaded.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11Obviously, some trickster was caught and then threw them in the river.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15I think many people associate dicing with decline, ruin,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18and all sorts of other things like that.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22Lost! Bad luck.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25I'm here with a bunch of local reprobates who have
0:28:25 > 0:28:29agreed to come along and test out this game to see what it's like.
0:28:29 > 0:28:32There's your main and chance.
0:28:32 > 0:28:33It's quite a complicated game,
0:28:33 > 0:28:36but we are starting to get a feel for what it's like.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38Our friend Nev has done extremely well.
0:28:38 > 0:28:39It's your go.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41Have a go for five.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45'Players gamble on the outcome of throws of the dice.'
0:28:45 > 0:28:47Right, OK, so 10 is your chance...
0:28:47 > 0:28:50- And five is my main. - Five is your main.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52Chance is what you want.
0:28:52 > 0:28:55- You don't want your five. - You want your ten.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58'With each round, you have to bet more and more to stay in the game.'
0:28:58 > 0:29:00Put some more money in.
0:29:00 > 0:29:04'The bigger the pot grows, the more difficult it is to pull out
0:29:04 > 0:29:09'until eventually everything hangs on a single throw.'
0:29:09 > 0:29:10Five!
0:29:10 > 0:29:11He's lost, OK, we get the money.
0:29:11 > 0:29:13OK.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18'Hazard was condemned by the Church.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22'Not just because it attracted low-life and scoundrels
0:29:22 > 0:29:23'but because here was a game
0:29:23 > 0:29:28'that was not simply about passing the time or intellectual challenge.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33'Throwing dice was a deadly serious business for the Church,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36'a bit like the Stanway game for the Druids,
0:29:36 > 0:29:39'a way of working out your fate.'
0:29:39 > 0:29:44In biblical terms, lots are cast to determine the will of God.
0:29:44 > 0:29:49And for doing something as trivial as gaming,
0:29:49 > 0:29:53that is not an appropriate use of trying to determine the will of God.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58The way in which they fall determines who gets the benefit,
0:29:58 > 0:30:02who gets the advantage and therefore whom fate or God favours.
0:30:02 > 0:30:08In the Bible, you find that lots are used to decide who does what.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12And that is a serious matter - to find out who should be responsible
0:30:12 > 0:30:15for doing something or who should be sacrificed.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18But just to find out who's going to win a few pence
0:30:18 > 0:30:22by rolling a few dice seems too trivial a thing to be
0:30:22 > 0:30:24calling on the will of God to determine.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26That's nine, three each, please, gentlemen.
0:30:27 > 0:30:28My seven.
0:30:28 > 0:30:32- I believe I have lost. - You have indeed.
0:30:34 > 0:30:35It's been very nice playing with you.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39I hope you enjoyed it. You think it's a good game? Good game?
0:30:39 > 0:30:43As I've discovered it's a very good way of losing some money.
0:30:43 > 0:30:45You did it very graciously.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52By the 18th century, the problem of gambling had become
0:30:52 > 0:30:57one of the most important social and political issues of the day.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01In 1784, a pamphlet appeared on the streets of London
0:31:01 > 0:31:05urging its readers to lay an axe to the root of gambling.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09To this dreadful vice could the loss of America be ascribed.
0:31:09 > 0:31:12To this dreadful vice could all the misfortunes
0:31:12 > 0:31:15that had lately fallen on this country be attributed.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20Seems a bit tough.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23Britain had just lost the American War Of Independence.
0:31:23 > 0:31:24Something had led
0:31:24 > 0:31:29to one of the great humiliations of British imperial history.
0:31:29 > 0:31:30But gambling?
0:31:33 > 0:31:35It's hard to imagine the mania for speculation
0:31:35 > 0:31:38that gripped the country in the second half of the 18th century.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42It was as though everything was up for grabs.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45Fortunes were made overnight on shares
0:31:45 > 0:31:48traded in the East India and South Sea companies.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51Fortunes were also lost on the turn of a card
0:31:51 > 0:31:53as the gaming tables of London
0:31:53 > 0:31:58were laden with the huge inheritances of aristocrats.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02This club, Crockfords, was at they epicentre
0:32:02 > 0:32:05of the speculative mania gripping Britain.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08It was London's leading gambling hell,
0:32:08 > 0:32:10to use a popular term at the time.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13Its members were fabulously wealthy and powerful.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17People like the Duke of Wellington and Benjamin Disraeli.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20I'm about to play the game that more than any other
0:32:20 > 0:32:25proved to be the most dangerous and alluring - faro.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30Toffs love gambling because they are already born lucky.
0:32:30 > 0:32:35They're not born into a life containing an awful lot of risk.
0:32:35 > 0:32:37That's my theory anyway.
0:32:37 > 0:32:38I've started off.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42'Faro is a game of pure chance,
0:32:42 > 0:32:45'but even simpler than roulette.
0:32:45 > 0:32:47'13 cards, ace to king,
0:32:47 > 0:32:49'are pasted onto the table
0:32:49 > 0:32:50'and the players bet
0:32:50 > 0:32:52'on however many cards they like.
0:32:52 > 0:32:57'The bank then deals from another full deck of cards.'
0:32:57 > 0:32:59The banker will turn over one card to their right
0:32:59 > 0:33:02which is the losing card for players,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05the winning card for the bank. And one card to the left,
0:33:05 > 0:33:07which is the winning card for the players.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11I'm noticing immediately that the house seems to be offering us
0:33:11 > 0:33:14a completely clean 50/50, no edge,
0:33:14 > 0:33:16which makes me think I wish casinos offered it now.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19I'd play it all the time. It's absolute madness.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21I'm afraid you lost two, but you also won two on the second card.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25Excellent. OK. So I'll leave that there, I think.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28'With such attractive odds for the gambler,
0:33:28 > 0:33:30'winning could be as dangerous as losing,
0:33:30 > 0:33:34'a very astute strategy by the casinos.'
0:33:35 > 0:33:39Obviously what they will be relying on is that you, a sick gambler,
0:33:39 > 0:33:41having won your bet, will then stick it on more numbers
0:33:41 > 0:33:44- and sit there until you lose. - Which I'm tempted to do.
0:33:44 > 0:33:45That will be the night you go home
0:33:45 > 0:33:47and tell your wife you signed the house away.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52And that's exactly what happened to those who became addicted to faro
0:33:52 > 0:33:54in the Georgian era.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, lost her entire fortune
0:33:58 > 0:34:01and had to flee to France to escape her creditors.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03You've confessed in your blog
0:34:03 > 0:34:05that you've actually had a run of bad luck.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08I'd been on a losing streak. Of course, mathematically,
0:34:08 > 0:34:11something can only be a losing streak in retrospect.
0:34:11 > 0:34:13There's no such thing as a phase of bad luck.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16- It doesn't lie ahead of you. - Of course it doesn't.
0:34:16 > 0:34:18- Scientifically. - You look back and it is one.
0:34:18 > 0:34:23Whilst the aristocratic parliamentarian Charles James Fox
0:34:23 > 0:34:25was bankrupted twice at the tables,
0:34:25 > 0:34:29he famously said that winning was the greatest pleasure in life
0:34:29 > 0:34:31and losing was the second greatest.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35There's a nine. I had my money there.
0:34:35 > 0:34:36Ah, there we go.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41So you won in that one card more than I think I've staked so far.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44There you go. What are you going to do with it?
0:34:44 > 0:34:47When you're winning you've got to press up.
0:34:47 > 0:34:49There we go. Plenty more jacks to come.
0:34:49 > 0:34:50So, the upshot of that...
0:34:50 > 0:34:51Well, if we compare piles,
0:34:51 > 0:34:54I think it's fairly obvious what the upshot of that is.
0:34:55 > 0:34:57- I got lucky.- You got lucky.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02By the beginning of the 19th century,
0:35:02 > 0:35:03it wasn't just the Church
0:35:03 > 0:35:07but the emerging middle classes who had gambling in their sights.
0:35:08 > 0:35:12The middle classes will look to... you know, up and down to disapprove.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15They'll look to the upper classes and think they're louche,
0:35:15 > 0:35:17the lower classes and think they're common.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21Since both sides gamble, it's just absolutely ripe for people,
0:35:21 > 0:35:22who make their living
0:35:22 > 0:35:26writing little pen sheets to be handed out in coffee houses
0:35:26 > 0:35:28or tabloid newspapers, to tut.
0:35:30 > 0:35:35Work was the way to make money, gambling was for degenerates.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38Games Britannia was changed forever
0:35:38 > 0:35:43when a sensational trial opened in 1823 which ignited moral panic.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46In the dock was one James Thirtle
0:35:46 > 0:35:51who stood accused of murder most foul motivated by gaming.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57On the evening of 24th October 1823,
0:35:57 > 0:36:02Thirtle, the son of the mayor of Norwich and a compulsive gambler,
0:36:02 > 0:36:05drove out of London with one William Weir,
0:36:05 > 0:36:08a gambling associate, for a weekend of playing games and shooting
0:36:08 > 0:36:10in the Hertfordshire countryside.
0:36:10 > 0:36:12In the back, Thirtle
0:36:12 > 0:36:15had packed his shotgun and a backgammon board.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20When they reached a quiet country lane, Thirtle came to a stop.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29He pulled a gun and shot Weir point blank in the face.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37Thirtle was arrested a few days later
0:36:37 > 0:36:39and charged with Weir's murder.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42As the details emerged in the court,
0:36:42 > 0:36:45the case aroused unprecedented interest.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48Thirtle had not only shot his victim but slit his throat
0:36:48 > 0:36:53and rammed the barrel of his gun into Weir's face to finish him off.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56But worst of all, the blood-curdling attack
0:36:56 > 0:36:59was the result of a £300 gambling debt.
0:36:59 > 0:37:04Thirtle was found guilty and hanged on 9th January 1824.
0:37:09 > 0:37:13The public reaction to Thirtle's execution was extraordinary.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16While his warm body was still being dissected
0:37:16 > 0:37:18at the Royal College Of Surgeons,
0:37:18 > 0:37:19London's West End theatres
0:37:19 > 0:37:22rushed plays about the crime into production,
0:37:22 > 0:37:24with titles like The Gambler
0:37:24 > 0:37:29and The Hertfordshire Tragedy or The Victims Of Gaming.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33Hundreds of thousands of pamphlets sold on the city streets
0:37:33 > 0:37:36helped stir up a sense of terror and outrage
0:37:36 > 0:37:41which culminated with the passing of the Gaming Act in 1845.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45This was to regulate gambling for the next century and a half.
0:37:46 > 0:37:51In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, Britain's moral compass
0:37:51 > 0:37:54was reset according to the emerging values of Middle England.
0:37:59 > 0:38:04The poet Oliver Goldsmith wrote a poem called The Deserted Village
0:38:04 > 0:38:06rhapsodising on a rural world
0:38:06 > 0:38:10about to be swept away by the Industrial Revolution.
0:38:10 > 0:38:14"Times are altered, trade's unfeeling train
0:38:14 > 0:38:17"usurp the land and dispossess the swain
0:38:17 > 0:38:21"Along the lawn where scattered hamlets rose
0:38:21 > 0:38:26"unwieldy wealth and cumbrous pomp repose."
0:38:27 > 0:38:30He reminisces about the more domestic pleasures
0:38:30 > 0:38:33of the village life he saw disappearing.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37"The whitewashed wall, the nicely sanded floor
0:38:37 > 0:38:40"the varnished clock that clicked behind the door
0:38:40 > 0:38:43"The pictures placed for ornament and use
0:38:43 > 0:38:47"The twelve good rules the royal game of goose."
0:38:47 > 0:38:49Five.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52One, two, three, four, five.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56England and most of Great Britain had become Protestant.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58And the ideas...
0:38:58 > 0:39:02coming down through the Puritans and the non-conformists
0:39:02 > 0:39:07of the 17th century were still very, very prominent.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09They worked hard to get their money,
0:39:09 > 0:39:12looked after their families and so on.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15It was all very much that way of life.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18So the game fitted in brilliantly.
0:39:18 > 0:39:20You could just do this,
0:39:20 > 0:39:24you could pinpoint exactly what was bad and what was good.
0:39:25 > 0:39:26The game of goose
0:39:26 > 0:39:29was the quintessential Victorian parlour game,
0:39:29 > 0:39:31fit for the whole family.
0:39:31 > 0:39:32Oh, got a goose!
0:39:32 > 0:39:34We've got 12 counters each here
0:39:34 > 0:39:37and we need to put about six into the central pool.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41So why are we using this spinning top?
0:39:41 > 0:39:43It's a replacement for dice
0:39:43 > 0:39:48because during the 18th and early part of the 19th century
0:39:48 > 0:39:51dice were considered evil things for children to play with.
0:39:51 > 0:39:56So they were issued with this, which has the numbers round the outside.
0:39:56 > 0:39:58It's no different, is it?
0:39:58 > 0:40:00- Of course.- It's pure chance.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03It's just chance.
0:40:03 > 0:40:06Five. So, this is a picture of a sailor.
0:40:06 > 0:40:11They were designed to teach basic behaviour and being nice.
0:40:11 > 0:40:15- One...which means I've landed on the tavern.- Yes.
0:40:15 > 0:40:17It sounds a good thing but actually it's a bad thing
0:40:17 > 0:40:19- because I have to pay...- Pay.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22Pay a token and apparently I miss two go's.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25The goal of the game is a state of virtue
0:40:25 > 0:40:29and there's all the temptations put in your path.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33The big ones are greed and just doing naughty things generally.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37The virtues are very much more difficult because, you know,
0:40:37 > 0:40:41being nice to people and so on, is not necessarily a human trait.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44I've landed in the labyrinth. This means you get lost.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47Lost in the wilderness and all of the rest of it,
0:40:47 > 0:40:49both morally lost as well as maybe...
0:40:49 > 0:40:52- So, losing your way in life.- Yes. - And you have to go all the way back.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54- All the way back to 30. - To 30.- Oh, dear!
0:40:54 > 0:40:57Well, you're still ahead of me so you've not done too badly.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01So you've got, usually a board of about 63 squares,
0:41:01 > 0:41:05which in themselves could represent a lifespan of a person.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07One, two, three...
0:41:07 > 0:41:09- I have landed in prison.- Oh, dear.
0:41:09 > 0:41:13- What does that mean?- If you went to jail, you had to miss two turns,
0:41:13 > 0:41:14you often had to pay extra.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18So there were all sorts of penalties that you had to go through,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21plus a few rewards to get to the end.
0:41:21 > 0:41:241, 2, 3...
0:41:24 > 0:41:25..4.
0:41:25 > 0:41:29Thank you. But, it's entirely luck. I mean, I haven't done anything.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33It's not like I've led my life in a particularly virtuous way.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36All I've done is managed to throw the right sequence of numbers.
0:41:36 > 0:41:41At the end of the day, by playing this game and others of this type,
0:41:41 > 0:41:45you are expected to learn that there are right ways and wrong ways.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48On this occasion, fortune has favoured me.
0:41:48 > 0:41:49So, thank you very much.
0:41:54 > 0:41:59The pictures placed for ornament and use. The 12 Good Rules.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02The Royal Game of Goose.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05In Goldsmith's hands,
0:42:05 > 0:42:10the game had become the swansong of a forgotten way of life.
0:42:10 > 0:42:14But ironically, while the game looked back to a lost era,
0:42:14 > 0:42:18its publishers were looking forward to the modern age.
0:42:18 > 0:42:23This was the goose that laid the golden egg.
0:42:23 > 0:42:28As the industrial revolution surged ahead during the 19th century
0:42:28 > 0:42:32and the British Empire thrived, a procession of imitators appeared.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35Copying not only the race game mechanics,
0:42:35 > 0:42:38but also at the Game of Goose's self-righteous tone.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40These laid the way
0:42:40 > 0:42:44for the birth of the world's first commercial games industry.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48Sensing an opportunity, companies began to produce
0:42:48 > 0:42:52all sorts of variations on the Game of Goose formula.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54Producing games like this one called,
0:42:54 > 0:42:58Historical Pastime or a New Game of the History of England
0:42:58 > 0:43:01from the Conquest to the Accession of George III.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04Here's one which picks up
0:43:04 > 0:43:07on the enthusiasm for everything to do with exploration.
0:43:07 > 0:43:12Wallis' New Game of Wanderers in the Wilderness.
0:43:12 > 0:43:15And the one that perhaps best exemplifies
0:43:15 > 0:43:19the patriotic theme of these games is this one.
0:43:19 > 0:43:23A Tour Through the British Colonies and Foreign Possessions,
0:43:23 > 0:43:25by one John Betts.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28Manufacturers found that the colonies
0:43:28 > 0:43:31were a rich source of new ideas for games.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34Including one of the most enduring and popular of all.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49We've raided my games cupboard and found this.
0:43:51 > 0:43:53Good old Snakes And Ladders.
0:43:53 > 0:43:55I never really understood what snakes
0:43:55 > 0:43:57were supposed to have to do with ladders.
0:43:57 > 0:44:01But it was simple, fun, and apparently meaningless.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05So, who would have thought that it was inspired by something
0:44:05 > 0:44:12as beautiful, elaborate, and unworldly as this.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14Gyan Chapoor,
0:44:14 > 0:44:16the Hindi game of knowledge.
0:44:21 > 0:44:23It's from India. Probably, Nagpur.
0:44:23 > 0:44:27And was presented by a British army officer in 1831
0:44:27 > 0:44:29to the Royal Asiatic Society.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32Where it has remained to this day.
0:44:32 > 0:44:36This sets out, not just a journey from start to finish,
0:44:36 > 0:44:40but a quest from a state of nothingness to enlightenment.
0:44:40 > 0:44:46In this case, on square 124, deliverance into the Supreme Brahma.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50The Indians have a unique combination of qualities.
0:44:50 > 0:44:54They are incredibly interested in metaphysical speculation
0:44:54 > 0:44:57and they also have a genius for mathematics,
0:44:57 > 0:45:01computation and they also have a huge genius for art and design.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04And somehow it all comes together in this games book.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07Hindu expert, Dr Andrew Topsfield,
0:45:07 > 0:45:12is going to be my guide and companion on the journey to nirvana.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15- Let the playing commence. - May the best man win.
0:45:16 > 0:45:18So that's eight.
0:45:18 > 0:45:21I am back here.
0:45:21 > 0:45:22Eight.
0:45:22 > 0:45:24You've reached the Kshatriya class.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27You're a member of the warrior caste.
0:45:27 > 0:45:31It was definitely, Snakes And Ladders, but not as we know it.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34Here was another map of a religion.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37- Knowledge of righteousness. - 'Only this time, Hinduism.'
0:45:37 > 0:45:40Eight, is that what I think it is, which is, that I've...
0:45:40 > 0:45:44- It's a drinker of spirits which is very bad indeed.- Right, OK.
0:45:44 > 0:45:48And you keep going up and down and ultimately, you should be
0:45:48 > 0:45:49pushing further up the board,
0:45:49 > 0:45:52to union with Vishnu and the ultimate end of the game.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55So there is a definite single aim.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59This is interesting.
0:45:59 > 0:46:01I think you're reborn as a monkey.
0:46:01 > 0:46:05I've acquired spiritual merits so naturally I ascend.
0:46:05 > 0:46:09So naturally you ascend, and you ascend up the ladder...
0:46:09 > 0:46:13- Up, really quite a long way. - I'm a Brahmin.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16You are in a rather bad place.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18Desire for this world's enjoyments.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20- OK, I've got...- You've got a long way up the board,
0:46:20 > 0:46:22but now you slip back a long way.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25And down I go all the way back to...
0:46:25 > 0:46:29This is a king. A king is naturally attached to worldly things,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32which is why, coming down the snake you become a king again.
0:46:32 > 0:46:37A king is pretty nice in material terms, but in spiritual terms,
0:46:37 > 0:46:39there are all sorts of attachments.
0:46:39 > 0:46:44It seems odd enough that I was being punished for being a king.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48But Andrew was about to be trapped for the rest of the game,
0:46:48 > 0:46:50in paradise of all places.
0:46:50 > 0:46:52I am in the endless heavenly realm, aren't I?
0:46:52 > 0:46:55Oh, you are. Yes, you are.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58So, that's that.
0:46:58 > 0:47:00Well that's me, but I am happy to circulate for a bit.
0:47:00 > 0:47:02Yeah, see how you do in there and I'll...
0:47:02 > 0:47:07'As Andrew pottered around in paradise and I surged ahead,
0:47:07 > 0:47:10'it occurred to me that competition was not the point of this game.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13'Nor was fun, if I'm honest.
0:47:13 > 0:47:14'It was about enlightenment.'
0:47:14 > 0:47:17The ladder of sudden disappearing query.
0:47:17 > 0:47:19One, two, three...
0:47:19 > 0:47:22'But just as I was about to attain enlightenment by finishing the game,
0:47:22 > 0:47:26'the gods decided to toy with me.'
0:47:26 > 0:47:30- One, two, three, four, five... - This could take a long time.
0:47:30 > 0:47:32We're going to have to do it to the bitter end.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35I have been there before, but not there.
0:47:35 > 0:47:38One, two, three, four. I'm in the void.
0:47:38 > 0:47:40'I had actually gone beyond tedium.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43'I was now experiencing bad karma.'
0:47:43 > 0:47:45These games do get a little tiresome.
0:47:45 > 0:47:51I haven't attained whatever state of mind is required to just enjoy this.
0:47:51 > 0:47:53Frankly your attitude is all wrong.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02The thing is, in India, there is a different sense of time.
0:48:02 > 0:48:04Four, five, six, erm...
0:48:04 > 0:48:08Eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10No, I'm back in the void again.
0:48:12 > 0:48:14One, two, three, four, five, six.
0:48:14 > 0:48:16- What is happening with this? - Hang on.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18The winning square. Yes.
0:48:18 > 0:48:20I think I'm in the winning square.
0:48:20 > 0:48:21HE READS FROM BOOK
0:48:21 > 0:48:24TRANSLATION: Deliverance into the Supreme Brahma.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27You have reached the finishing square.
0:48:27 > 0:48:29You are enlightened, you are at one with God.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32That perfectly expresses how I feel.
0:48:32 > 0:48:33Thank you very much indeed.
0:48:33 > 0:48:34How about another one?
0:48:47 > 0:48:50This is the first English, Snakes And Ladders board.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52And it's a circle. I don't know why.
0:48:52 > 0:48:58And when they first launched this on the world, they preened out of it,
0:48:58 > 0:49:00straightaway, the moral element.
0:49:00 > 0:49:05This is the game of Ludo. OK, it was originally called Pachisi.
0:49:05 > 0:49:08And this, as far as I know, is an example
0:49:08 > 0:49:11of the first British commercial version of this game.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15Hot-foot from India. And when they first produced it.
0:49:15 > 0:49:17The arms are 3 x 8 squares.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20And that is how the game is in India,
0:49:20 > 0:49:23but when you buy a modern Ludo board, it's only 3 x 5.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26And that is symptomatic of something dreadful,
0:49:26 > 0:49:30because these manufacturers, they first produce the game as it was
0:49:30 > 0:49:33played in India, which is a proper, complicated,
0:49:33 > 0:49:35adult board game, played on cloth boards.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37You have to think, count and predict,
0:49:37 > 0:49:39it's a really wonderful game
0:49:39 > 0:49:43and they sacrificed all the things which made it a durative
0:49:43 > 0:49:47and wonderful game in India, but it was hugely successful.
0:49:47 > 0:49:49Both Ludo and Snakes And Ladders
0:49:49 > 0:49:53went on to sell around the world in their millions.
0:49:53 > 0:49:57In terms of commercial exploitation, anything from the colonies was seen
0:49:57 > 0:50:03as fair game for a nation that saw itself at the centre of the world.
0:50:04 > 0:50:09The slightly smug note of imperial self-satisfaction that
0:50:09 > 0:50:13pervaded Victorian game-playing wasn't just jingoism.
0:50:13 > 0:50:17At the time, London really was at the centre of the world.
0:50:17 > 0:50:22In fact, in 1851, this area was at the centre of the world.
0:50:22 > 0:50:27A great glittering palace rising up over there, showcasing Britain's
0:50:27 > 0:50:33emergence as the leading power in the new industrial world order.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38This was the Great Exhibition.
0:50:38 > 0:50:42On display was the best of British engineering and culture,
0:50:42 > 0:50:45alongside exhibits from around the world.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49It wasn't just industrial and economic supremacy
0:50:49 > 0:50:52that the Great Exhibition flaunted.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56In 1851, the hyperactive journalist and part-time
0:50:56 > 0:51:00Shakespearean actor Howard Staunton decided to use it
0:51:00 > 0:51:03as a platform to establish British domination
0:51:03 > 0:51:06of another area of modern life. Game-playing.
0:51:06 > 0:51:12In particular, the playing of one game, THE game. The game of games.
0:51:12 > 0:51:16The game that more than any other embodies the competition for power,
0:51:16 > 0:51:21the struggle for domination, the crushing of an opponent.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23Chess.
0:51:28 > 0:51:32Chess is the highest-evolved example of a board game
0:51:32 > 0:51:34produced by the human race.
0:51:36 > 0:51:38Because there is no nonsense in it.
0:51:38 > 0:51:43There is no artifice. It's a really abstract game of immense depth.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47Chess originated in India around the 8th century.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50It became a part of Games Britannia in the Middle Ages
0:51:50 > 0:51:53in the form of the famous Lewis chessmen.
0:51:53 > 0:51:56One of the earliest surviving European incarnations of the game.
0:51:56 > 0:51:58For 1,000 years,
0:51:58 > 0:52:03chess was played around the world with different rules and pieces.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06Staunton changed all that.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09He organised the world's first international tournament
0:52:09 > 0:52:13at the Great Exhibition with a single set of rules
0:52:13 > 0:52:15and standardised pieces.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18This proved to be a huge landmark in Games Britannia,
0:52:18 > 0:52:22and his version of the game went on to rule the world.
0:52:22 > 0:52:24And to this day,
0:52:24 > 0:52:29the British champion is awarded an official set of Staunton chessmen.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33These are actually some of the presentation pieces
0:52:33 > 0:52:38that were made by the original makers of the Staunton set.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40Tell us about the sort of impact
0:52:40 > 0:52:42that the Staunton set had on the chess world.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45It standardised the way the game was played.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49Because the chess world was coming together,
0:52:49 > 0:52:52countries were saying we're all playing the same game
0:52:52 > 0:52:54let's do it, but the pieces were different.
0:52:55 > 0:52:59What Staunton did was to get the pieces looking standardised.
0:52:59 > 0:53:01If you go to a chess tournament these days,
0:53:01 > 0:53:04you will see that these are the pieces that are used.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07The Staunton set is perhaps one of the greatest,
0:53:07 > 0:53:12if least appreciated, design icons of the Victorian age.
0:53:12 > 0:53:14Right up there with the Houses of Parliament
0:53:14 > 0:53:16or the Queen's head on a stamp.
0:53:16 > 0:53:21And the Great Exhibition provided the perfect platform to launch it.
0:53:21 > 0:53:26And so the stage was set for a great gaming contest.
0:53:26 > 0:53:29A tournament that not only acted as a model
0:53:29 > 0:53:31for chess competitions to come,
0:53:31 > 0:53:32but provided the setting
0:53:32 > 0:53:35for one of the most famous matches of all time.
0:53:35 > 0:53:38One so bold and dazzling in its play
0:53:38 > 0:53:41that it became known as "The Immortal Game".
0:53:43 > 0:53:49Adolf Anderssen was probably the world's greatest player at the time.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53Staunton lured him to London by promising to reimburse him,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56even if he lost. He played white.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00Lionel Kieseritzky was one of the greatest players in France
0:54:00 > 0:54:02and declared himself a chess Messiah.
0:54:02 > 0:54:06He played black. So I start off.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09The game begins conventionally enough.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12Anderssen kicks off with an exchange of pawns.
0:54:12 > 0:54:14The bishop next to the king
0:54:14 > 0:54:17has to come two squares adjacent to the white pawn.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20This is actually the weakest point in any side's position.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23You expose yourself to my most powerful piece,
0:54:23 > 0:54:24and put you in check.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31We know that chess was always a game of war.
0:54:31 > 0:54:36There is a theory that chess evolved from a principle whereby
0:54:36 > 0:54:38pieces, which represented the army,
0:54:38 > 0:54:42were used on the floor to teach battle principle.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46So you have pawns which are dispensable, foot soldiers,
0:54:46 > 0:54:49powerful things to use them at the right moment.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51Kings gang up together, and so forth.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55So it was maybe a kind of teaching medium
0:54:55 > 0:54:56for young knights and so forth.
0:54:56 > 0:55:00Over the years there was conflict between countries
0:55:00 > 0:55:01for chess dominance.
0:55:01 > 0:55:05Particularly in the Soviet Union, the Bolsheviks really took to chess.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08That's when it began to heat up, in a way.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11Because as the Soviet Union used chess as a form of propaganda,
0:55:11 > 0:55:14they found something cheap that could be mass produced
0:55:14 > 0:55:16and could raise the cultural level.
0:55:16 > 0:55:20They had people playing in factories, at home,
0:55:20 > 0:55:23and then it reached the kind of apotheosis
0:55:23 > 0:55:26when Fischer played Spassky. That is the match everyone knows about.
0:55:26 > 0:55:31You have the Soviet Union and the USA locked in tense, slow,
0:55:31 > 0:55:35lingering combat which is essentially what the Cold War was.
0:55:37 > 0:55:41Both players continued with wave after wave of rapid attack.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44By 21st century standards it looks like beginners are playing,
0:55:44 > 0:55:47but at the time this was the romantic era,
0:55:47 > 0:55:49so all they are doing is going threat by threat
0:55:49 > 0:55:50through the whole game.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52OK. Oh, I see,
0:55:52 > 0:55:55so there is not a huge amount of strategy.
0:55:55 > 0:55:58No, it is all crisis-management, really.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01So this move is to stop that.
0:56:01 > 0:56:03The game is like a language.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05There are idioms and patterns
0:56:05 > 0:56:07of play that we become familiar with.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11- But the rules are simple.- The rules are simple, so anyone can learn.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13The game is not difficult to play, it is difficult to master.
0:56:13 > 0:56:16It is associated a lot with intelligence.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19If you're capable of playing chess at grand master level,
0:56:19 > 0:56:21you must be extremely intelligent.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24On the other hand, it's not an intelligence that
0:56:24 > 0:56:28would explain why your girlfriend left you last week or why you find
0:56:28 > 0:56:32it difficult to cope with things that are happening in the news.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35So what sort of intelligence is it?
0:56:35 > 0:56:38It's an exquisite interplay of simple and complex.
0:56:38 > 0:56:42But it is deep, and it is wonderful because of its depth.
0:56:42 > 0:56:45It is much more about loving the way things make sense
0:56:45 > 0:56:48and how they connect than just how their surface appearance appeals.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53Black is many pieces ahead.
0:56:53 > 0:56:57But white has coordinated his strategy
0:56:57 > 0:56:58and his control of the board.
0:56:58 > 0:57:03This is where the game really becomes immortal.
0:57:03 > 0:57:05It seems the white has reached a dead end.
0:57:05 > 0:57:07The queen, that was lying in wait for so long,
0:57:07 > 0:57:09finally has her clowning glory.
0:57:09 > 0:57:11She gives herself up for her whole army.
0:57:11 > 0:57:12Forward, forward,
0:57:12 > 0:57:16right into the arms of the knight, who is waiting to take her.
0:57:16 > 0:57:18But because it has to take the queen,
0:57:18 > 0:57:20there is no control of this one any more.
0:57:20 > 0:57:23So the bishop, and I'll let you play that, can give checkmate.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28- That's checkmate.- That's checkmate.
0:57:28 > 0:57:30And that is where the game ends.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33That's checkmate. OK.
0:57:33 > 0:57:34Thank you very much.
0:57:37 > 0:57:39Staunton's version of chess
0:57:39 > 0:57:42went on to become the flagship of Games Britannia.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45Like so many other games we play today,
0:57:45 > 0:57:48it was derived from a game that came from the Orient.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52As with Snakes And Ladders and Ludo, it was the British that turned
0:57:52 > 0:57:56ancient games into commercial world beaters.
0:57:56 > 0:58:01But that journey to market came at a cost.
0:58:01 > 0:58:04It is almost as though the sacred energy that since the time
0:58:04 > 0:58:07of the Druids had made games both magical
0:58:07 > 0:58:10and dangerous was draining away.
0:58:10 > 0:58:15The struggle for spiritual or intellectual mastery
0:58:15 > 0:58:19became a more personal quest for self-advancement.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23A journey that will continue as Games Britannia
0:58:23 > 0:58:26takes a detour across the Atlantic.
0:58:26 > 0:58:29APPLAUSE
0:58:52 > 0:58:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:55 > 0:58:59E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk