0:00:04 > 0:00:09Victorian Britain was the most powerful nation on earth.
0:00:12 > 0:00:18And Victorian painters caught the spirit of this great national journey.
0:00:21 > 0:00:27They may not be fashionable now, but these pictures show us how the Victorians saw themselves.
0:00:27 > 0:00:32They celebrated Britain's great achievements.
0:00:32 > 0:00:38As the first industrial power, bursting with technological invention.
0:00:38 > 0:00:39WHISTLE BLOWS
0:00:42 > 0:00:44As a commercial superpower,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47revelling in enormous wealth.
0:00:49 > 0:00:54As the mightiest naval and military force the world had ever seen.
0:00:54 > 0:00:59Ruling an Empire four times greater than that of Ancient Rome.
0:01:02 > 0:01:09Britain's enormous strength abroad triggered huge social change at home.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13As power began to shift away from the aristocracy
0:01:13 > 0:01:15towards ordinary people.
0:01:23 > 0:01:28The Victorians were acutely conscious of Britain's position in the world.
0:01:28 > 0:01:33Indeed, many of them came to believe it was their destiny to rule it.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36As one of the greatest of the Empire-builders put it,
0:01:36 > 0:01:44"Remember, you are an Englishman, and consequently have won first prize in the lottery of life."
0:01:44 > 0:01:50They believed theirs was the greatest civilisation in history, and that it would last forever.
0:02:20 > 0:02:26On May 1st 1851, an extraordinary event took place in Hyde Park, London.
0:02:36 > 0:02:42From the earth rose a vast, glittering crystal palace,
0:02:42 > 0:02:45made of glass and cast iron.
0:02:45 > 0:02:50It housed the Great Exhibition, and it took the world's breath away.
0:03:05 > 0:03:11Queen Victoria called the opening ceremony "the greatest day in our history."
0:03:16 > 0:03:20In the space of only five months, six million people,
0:03:20 > 0:03:23that is twice the total population of London at the time,
0:03:23 > 0:03:25visited the Great Exhibition.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28What was it they were so excited about?
0:03:30 > 0:03:34Well, in a nutshell, it was nothing less than a great national beauty pageant,
0:03:34 > 0:03:38showing off Britain and her achievements to the world.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44British painters proudly show British products
0:03:44 > 0:03:47as by far the most impressive things on display.
0:03:47 > 0:03:53Cotton-spinning machines, steam hammers, locomotives, telegraphs,
0:03:53 > 0:03:58steam turbines, printing machines, and scientific instruments.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02The message was loud and clear.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07Britain had the means, the energy, the technology, to bend anything to her will.
0:04:16 > 0:04:21Not all the exhibits would change the world quite so dramatically.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25Queen Victoria was especially taken with a bed that automatically
0:04:25 > 0:04:27tipped you into the bath first thing in the morning.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31For the busy doctor, there was a one-piece suit
0:04:31 > 0:04:33when you got those sudden call-outs in the middle of the night.
0:04:33 > 0:04:39And any woman might be taken with the corset that "opened instantaneously
0:04:39 > 0:04:41"in the event of emergency,"
0:04:41 > 0:04:45Although mercifully, the emergency remained unspecified.
0:04:48 > 0:04:54Even at the time, the Great Exhibition was recognised as a turning point,
0:04:54 > 0:04:56the moment when Britain looked about her,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59and realised the extent of her own power.
0:05:03 > 0:05:08One painting captured the significance of that day.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11In Franz Winterhalter's The First of May 1851,
0:05:11 > 0:05:15the old Duke of Wellington, the victor of Waterloo,
0:05:15 > 0:05:20offers a gift to the baby son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24But what's Albert looking at?
0:05:26 > 0:05:31He's less interested in the hero of the past than in the symbol
0:05:31 > 0:05:35of the future rising behind him, the Crystal Palace.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38Here lies Britain's destiny.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43How had this happened?
0:05:43 > 0:05:48As if to remind the millions of visitors, just inside the entrance to the Exhibition,
0:05:48 > 0:05:53was a gigantic example of what underpinned Britain's extraordinary power.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57A 24-ton lump of coal.
0:06:07 > 0:06:13It was coal that had fired Britain's Industrial Revolution, transforming the country
0:06:13 > 0:06:18into the first and greatest industrialised nation in the world.
0:06:22 > 0:06:27And the heartbeat of the revolution was here in Sheffield.
0:06:28 > 0:06:30Sheffield was Steel City.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34At the time of the Great Exhibition, it manufactured
0:06:34 > 0:06:37half the total quantity of steel produced in the entire world.
0:06:45 > 0:06:51Annual steel production grew from 50,000 tons in 1850,
0:06:51 > 0:06:55to five million tons in 1900.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08The sheer energy of Victorian Britain is summed up in the advice
0:07:08 > 0:07:13of one of Dickens's characters, Mr Panks in Little Dorrit.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16"Keep always at it, and I'll keep you always at it.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19"And you keep somebody else always at it.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23"That is the whole duty of man in a commercial country!"
0:07:39 > 0:07:44Victorian painters knew what made a commercial country rich.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47The title of this painting says it all -
0:07:47 > 0:07:50The Wealth Of England.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53It's a depiction of the revolutionary new process
0:07:53 > 0:07:59that converted tons of iron into steel at an unprecedented speed.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11This painting is proudly subtitled,
0:08:11 > 0:08:17"In The 19th Century The Northumbrians Show The World What Can Be Done With Iron And Coal."
0:08:19 > 0:08:23The scene is the factory shed of Robert Stephenson and Company
0:08:23 > 0:08:28in Newcastle, Britain's first and foremost steam engine manufacturer.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33Stephenson's high-level railway bridge is in the background.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39A coal barge passes by on the river.
0:08:43 > 0:08:48On the docks, a deal is struck between two businessmen.
0:08:48 > 0:08:53In the foreground, a smartly dressed little girl is holding a school arithmetic book.
0:08:55 > 0:09:00At the bottom right is a blueprint for a steam engine.
0:09:02 > 0:09:03Family life.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07Commerce. Industry. Education.
0:09:07 > 0:09:12Victorian values run throughout this terrific picture.
0:09:27 > 0:09:31The steam train was one of the greatest industrial inventions.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35And it was revolutionising the British way of life.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42Queen Victoria and Prince Albert first tried out this new machine in 1842.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45What she made of it, we don't know.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47But Prince Albert's reaction is recorded.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52"Not so fast next time, Mr Conductor, if you please."
0:09:53 > 0:09:58Early passengers were often unnerved by this utterly new experience.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04One woman recalled being in a carriage with an elderly gentleman
0:10:04 > 0:10:07who clearly had no idea how to behave on a train.
0:10:07 > 0:10:12He kept dancing around, jumping up and down to stick his head out of the window,
0:10:12 > 0:10:15gabbling on about the extraordinary light.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19This strange man was the artist JMW Turner.
0:10:21 > 0:10:27Turner recorded his excitement in his painting Rain, Steam And Speed.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34The picture shows the newly opened Great Western Railway.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38The train engine hurtles across a bridge at great speed.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41It's thrilling. It's wonderful.
0:10:42 > 0:10:47The sheer power of this brand new machine bursts out of the canvas.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01What do you like about it? What do you enjoy about driving it?
0:11:01 > 0:11:03It's like riding on a dinosaur.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05It is, honestly.
0:11:05 > 0:11:10It's the nearest thing you can get to a dinosaur that man's made.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14I never tire of this. You can't explain it.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17It's just magic. It's alive.
0:11:18 > 0:11:24- Why are these so much more romantic or interesting than other kinds of locos?- Because they're like women.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26- Go on.- They're fickle.
0:11:26 > 0:11:30- They're like women.- No they're not, it's completely predictable.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34Treat them right, otherwise they'll bite you. They do.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41- HE SOUNDS THE WHISTLE - What fun!
0:11:44 > 0:11:47I've always wanted to be a train driver. It's great!
0:11:53 > 0:11:56Rail travel changed everything.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02For the first time, people who might never have left their home town
0:12:02 > 0:12:07could cross Britain or take a day trip to the seaside.
0:12:10 > 0:12:16The railway carriage thrust people of all backgrounds up against each other for the first time.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21It was a place of chance encounters,
0:12:21 > 0:12:24and all that meant to young lovers.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29This picture caused outrage with its frank portrait
0:12:29 > 0:12:31of a young couple talking to each other
0:12:31 > 0:12:35in an all together much too familiar fashion. How shocking!
0:12:36 > 0:12:39The artist was forced to repaint it,
0:12:39 > 0:12:44moving the girl to a corner while her father chats to the young man.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46Far more acceptable!
0:12:49 > 0:12:53Britain went railway mad!
0:12:53 > 0:12:55Laying track.
0:12:55 > 0:12:56Building engines.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58Making fortunes.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03Britain built railways all over the world.
0:13:04 > 0:13:11From France, Italy and Belgium, to Russia, India and Argentina.
0:13:11 > 0:13:16On British tracks British goods sped around the world.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21One writer saw in the new railways a vision of the future.
0:13:21 > 0:13:29"Coal," he said, "the stored up sunlight of a million years is the grand agent.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31"Liberty lights the fire...
0:13:32 > 0:13:37"..civilisation is the engine, pulling the whole world with it!"
0:14:01 > 0:14:07The money made by industry created a whole new class of the wealthy,
0:14:07 > 0:14:11men whose power would come to challenge the old aristocracy.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21This house in Northumberland is called Cragside.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25It was built by one of the "new rich", the industrialist William Armstrong.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Born the son of a merchant in Newcastle upon Tyne,
0:14:31 > 0:14:37Armstrong was a classic Victorian, both inventor and entrepreneur.
0:14:38 > 0:14:45His factory on the banks of the Tyne became Britain's largest manufacturer of guns and warships.
0:14:52 > 0:14:58With the profits of war, Armstrong built his very own stately home.
0:15:06 > 0:15:11From the outside, it looks like a grand old ancestral house.
0:15:13 > 0:15:17But the interior was another story.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23Inside, the house was a technological marvel.
0:15:23 > 0:15:28Hydraulic power from reservoirs on the estate provided the house with central heating.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30With fire alarms.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33An electric gong.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35A Turkish bath.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38An automatic turnspit.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40A dishwasher.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42And a passenger lift.
0:15:42 > 0:15:45It was the first house in Britain to be lit by electric light,
0:15:45 > 0:15:48the first in the world to use hydro-electricity.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52You can see why they called it the "palace of a modern magician".
0:15:58 > 0:16:05Cragside was Armstrong's shop window, a giant advertisement for his armaments business.
0:16:05 > 0:16:12The world's leaders came here to buy, including the King of Siam and generals from China.
0:16:17 > 0:16:23Part of the trappings of the stately home lifestyle was an art collection.
0:16:23 > 0:16:28But whereas old-fashioned aristos went for the kind of things they'd seen on their travels,
0:16:28 > 0:16:31like Italian or Dutch old masters,
0:16:31 > 0:16:37William Armstrong bought the work of living British artists, often local.
0:16:37 > 0:16:43There are no flies on any self-made men, and Victorian industrialists
0:16:43 > 0:16:46preferred to buy their paintings from living artists.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50That way they got over the danger of buying a supposed old master
0:16:50 > 0:16:53which had actually been knocked up in somebody's garden shed.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57Despite having made much of his fortune from devising ever more sophisticated ways of
0:16:57 > 0:17:00killing people, Armstrong was as sentimental as anybody else.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04He preferred paintings of children and animals.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08And this painting here, for example, features his favourite dog, Silky,
0:17:08 > 0:17:11in a painting titled, Faithful Unto Death,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14next to the dead shepherd, who's died in the snow.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17Silky is also in this painting over here,
0:17:17 > 0:17:19herding a flock of sheep.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23And down here, Silky alone in all his glory.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27It's the sort of stuff that gives chocolate boxes a bad name really.
0:17:35 > 0:17:41Armstrong's success propelled him, like many of the newly rich, into the House of Lords.
0:17:41 > 0:17:46In 1887, he became Baron Armstrong.
0:17:47 > 0:17:51He commissioned a portrait of himself at Cragside,
0:17:51 > 0:17:55the ever-faithful Silky sitting at his feet.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57The painting is deliberately modest.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59"Here I am," it says,
0:17:59 > 0:18:03"an ordinary bloke in slippers, catching up on the news.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07"And it wasn't blue blood that got me this rather nice house."
0:18:12 > 0:18:19Armstrong's peerage was one of about 200 created in the late-19th century, mainly for industrialists
0:18:19 > 0:18:22and for men who'd done well in trades like brewing.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24The toffs sneered at first.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26They called them the "beerage".
0:18:26 > 0:18:32But soon they had to bend to the rising might of industrial Britain.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35GUN SHOTS
0:18:41 > 0:18:44Armstrong would test his guns in the grounds,
0:18:44 > 0:18:50enthusiastically firing rounds off into the valleys surrounding Cragside.
0:18:55 > 0:19:01The invention that made him a legend in the arms business was the Armstrong Gun.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05It's been called the first modern weapon.
0:19:06 > 0:19:13And the only working Armstrong Gun in the UK is here at Fort Nelson on the South Coast.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24LOUD GUN SHOT
0:19:24 > 0:19:28Now the gun itself, this Armstrong Gun, what was it that was revolutionary about it?
0:19:28 > 0:19:32It was a huge improvement on any of the existing service ordinance.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34It was a breech loader.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37That means you don't have to put a cannon ball down from the other end?
0:19:37 > 0:19:42That's right. From the gunner's point of view it was good because you were a lot more protected.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44You didn't have to go to the front of the gun.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46This was a rifle gun, so it had a system of grooves
0:19:46 > 0:19:49running down the barrel, and it fired an elongated shell.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53And this of course meant that you could fire a shell a lot further
0:19:53 > 0:19:57and also a lot more accurately than the old smooth ball cannon ball.
0:19:59 > 0:20:00- Can I have a go?- Certainly.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06LOUD BANG
0:20:10 > 0:20:13Blimey, even with earplugs that's a heck of a bang, isn't it?
0:20:13 > 0:20:16- JEREMY LAUGHS - Good fun!
0:20:16 > 0:20:19I suppose one shouldn't say that really.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27William Armstrong developed his gun as a response to one of
0:20:27 > 0:20:31the great military disasters of the Victorian age.
0:20:33 > 0:20:39The Crimean War was Britain's first major conflict in nearly 40 years,
0:20:39 > 0:20:48a confused, bloody, drawn-out confrontation to keep the Russians away from the Mediterranean.
0:20:48 > 0:20:53But the failings of the British military threatened Britain's position as a world power.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59The war showed up terrible deficiencies in the army.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02The men were badly fed, badly equipped,
0:21:02 > 0:21:04and if the enemy didn't kill them,
0:21:04 > 0:21:06then their military hospitals probably would.
0:21:06 > 0:21:13But the most serious problem of all was one that was both deadly and invisible.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15It was the question of class.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36Ordinary soldiers generally came from the poorest parts of British society.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41Usually illiterate, they often joined as a last resort to avoid
0:21:41 > 0:21:47the workhouse or prison, though living conditions weren't much better.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52The Duke of Wellington called them "the scum of the earth", and they were treated accordingly.
0:21:52 > 0:21:55Their rations were sparse and monotonous.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57A bit of bread, a bit of bread, a bit of rum.
0:21:57 > 0:22:04They could be crammed in, 20 at a time, to sleep in a tiny room, and floggings were routine.
0:22:04 > 0:22:09For the vast majority, there was no prospect of a way out through promotion.
0:22:13 > 0:22:20Their commanders, on the other hand, usually came from the very top drawer of society.
0:22:20 > 0:22:26They had to. Officers paid money for their positions, and they didn't come cheap.
0:22:26 > 0:22:33As the finery in this painting shows, the army had become the plaything of the aristocracy.
0:22:35 > 0:22:40The officers spent as much time fox hunting on their estates,
0:22:40 > 0:22:45yachting at Cowes, or going to balls in London as they did drilling their men.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48The Duke of Cambridge summed it up pretty well when he said,
0:22:48 > 0:22:53"The British officer should be a gentleman first and an officer second."
0:23:04 > 0:23:11The Crimea's most infamous gentleman-officer came from here, Deene Park,
0:23:11 > 0:23:18ancestral home of James Thomas Brudenell, the 7th Earl of Cardigan.
0:23:18 > 0:23:26Cardigan had bought his lieutenant colonelcy for £40,000, a mere £3 million in today's money.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30Lord Cardigan was well-known in Britain, and for all the wrong reasons.
0:23:30 > 0:23:35A notorious womaniser, he was called the "Homicidal Earl"
0:23:35 > 0:23:41for his twin hobbies of duelling with fellow officers, and flogging his men.
0:23:41 > 0:23:46When he left his stately home here, to go to the opera, he was routinely booed.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50And when he got to the Crimea, he acted more like a holidaymaker than a soldier.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54He stayed on his yacht, he drank champagne and he enjoyed
0:23:54 > 0:23:57some rather wonderful food from his rather wonderful French chef.
0:24:00 > 0:24:05It was Cardigan, along with his immediate superiors, Lords Lucan and Raglan,
0:24:05 > 0:24:11who was responsible for one of the most dreadful calamities in British military history.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15The massacre that was the Charge of the Light Brigade.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18It was October 1854.
0:24:18 > 0:24:23The charge happened in a valley outside Balaclava.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27The British were at one end of it, the Russians at the other, and on both sides.
0:24:27 > 0:24:33Lord Raglan, the British army commander, could see from high ground nearby, that the Russians
0:24:33 > 0:24:36had captured and were about to drive off some cannon,
0:24:36 > 0:24:40and he wrote an order saying the Light Brigade were to stop them doing so.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44The order is delivered to Lord Lucan, who's down on the plane.
0:24:44 > 0:24:47Lord Lucan can't see the Russians driving off the cannon up here.
0:24:47 > 0:24:53All he can see is the massed force of Russian guns at the end of the valley.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56He knows this order is suicide.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59But orders are orders and have to be obeyed.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02And he tells Lord Cardigan, who's commanding the Light Brigade
0:25:02 > 0:25:07that he is to attack the Russian guns down the valley.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11Lord Cardigan, who's on his horse, rather bizarrely named Ronald,
0:25:11 > 0:25:19forms up his troops in ranks a hundred yards wide, and turns them to go down the valley.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26Just 600 men charged into the valley
0:25:26 > 0:25:31against 5,000 Russian soldiers and their artillery.
0:25:33 > 0:25:38The result was a massacre that need never have happened.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41Though you wouldn't think so from some of the paintings of the period.
0:25:45 > 0:25:51They show courage, daring, gallantry, all the exhilaration of a cavalry charge.
0:25:56 > 0:26:01Here's Cardigan on his horse Ronald looking as dashing as could be.
0:26:11 > 0:26:17Back in Britain, it would take a while for the unadulterated folly of the Charge to become known.
0:26:17 > 0:26:23For now, the public celebrated the outstanding heroism of the Light Brigade.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28Lord Cardigan survived the Charge, and he returned to England
0:26:28 > 0:26:33to the sound of bands playing, See! The Conquering Hero Comes.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37He, and his horse Ronald, who'd happily also survived the Charge,
0:26:37 > 0:26:44were mobbed by enthusiastic crowds, and Lord Cardigan gave lectures, reliving in detail the Charge.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48The knitted waistcoat that he'd worn in the Crimea to keep himself warm,
0:26:48 > 0:26:51became the must-have fashion accessory of the day.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53The cardigan.
0:26:56 > 0:27:01The Right Hon Marion Brudenell now lives at Deene Park.
0:27:01 > 0:27:05What's it like to be related to such a notorious figure?
0:27:05 > 0:27:07I don't think it makes any difference to us.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09He's just a famous, rather notorious character.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12- And he was notorious, wasn't he? - He was. Absolutely.
0:27:12 > 0:27:18He was a rich, bombastic, arrogant, haughty man.
0:27:18 > 0:27:25And I think the more money he got, and when he became an earl it rather went to his head.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29The Charge of the Light Brigade in a sense completely turned around
0:27:29 > 0:27:32- his reputation, didn't it, for a while?- Yes, for a little while.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35And so he was changed from a villain to a hero.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38Queen Victoria thought he was terrific.
0:27:38 > 0:27:39So this is Ronald, is it?
0:27:39 > 0:27:45Yes, this is the great horse Ronald, who survived the charge and lived for many years.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49And unfortunately when he did die, they chopped him up and they took off his hooves,
0:27:49 > 0:27:52and the head and the tail we've got as well.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55Seems an awful thing to do with a heroic old horse, but still...
0:27:55 > 0:27:58- Well, what else would you do with him?- Bury it, I suppose.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06But Cardigan's standing as a national hero didn't last long.
0:28:06 > 0:28:11When soldiers returned home from the Crimea, they told another story,
0:28:11 > 0:28:15of how the High Command had recklessly ordered hundreds of men
0:28:15 > 0:28:19to gallop into a barrage of cannon fire.
0:28:21 > 0:28:26The Times accused Cardigan of "the falsification of history".
0:28:26 > 0:28:30And the supposed "heroism" of the officer class began to be called into question.
0:28:30 > 0:28:34Public sympathy began to turn towards the ordinary soldiers,
0:28:34 > 0:28:39expected to obey the orders of superiors without question.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41Weren't THEY the real heroes?
0:28:48 > 0:28:54One artist captured the changing public mood better than any other.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57Elizabeth Butler's The Roll Call
0:28:57 > 0:29:03depicts a sergeant ticking off the names of the ordinary soldiers who'd survived a Crimean battle.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11The men are bedraggled and exhausted from fighting.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18One of the soldiers lies dead at the feet of his comrades.
0:29:20 > 0:29:26As Elizabeth Butler said, "I never painted for the glory of war,
0:29:26 > 0:29:30"but to portray its pathos and heroism."
0:29:38 > 0:29:41The Roll Call was a sensation.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44When it went on show in London, they had to put policemen by it
0:29:44 > 0:29:46to hold back the crowds. And then it went on tour.
0:29:46 > 0:29:52In Newcastle, men walked around with sandwich boards proclaiming, "The Roll Call is coming!"
0:29:52 > 0:29:57And in Liverpool, 20,000 people saw it in the space of only three weeks.
0:29:57 > 0:29:59It turned Elizabeth Butler into a star.
0:29:59 > 0:30:05But the question on everybody's lips was, how could this 27-year-old woman
0:30:05 > 0:30:10have arrived at such a profound understanding of the realities of war?
0:30:15 > 0:30:18The answer was that her research was meticulous.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23To paint her stark vision of the Light Brigade returning
0:30:23 > 0:30:26shattered and traumatised from the apocalypse,
0:30:26 > 0:30:29Elizabeth Butler sought out survivors
0:30:29 > 0:30:34and even employed them as models.
0:30:34 > 0:30:38The wild, staring eyes of the central figure
0:30:38 > 0:30:43are those of a cavalryman who went on to become an actor.
0:30:43 > 0:30:48Like The Roll Call, this painting would help convince the authorities
0:30:48 > 0:30:51of the need for military reform.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58The fiasco of the Crimea finished the old way of running the army.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02Flogging was abolished, living conditions were improved
0:31:02 > 0:31:06and, most importantly, officers could no longer buy their position.
0:31:06 > 0:31:12From now on, Britain was to have a professionally run army. And she was going to need it.
0:31:17 > 0:31:23For 200 years, the British had been building the largest Empire the world had ever seen.
0:31:23 > 0:31:27Under the Victorians, the acquisition of land and wealth
0:31:27 > 0:31:31around the world would become more aggressive and ruthless.
0:31:37 > 0:31:38They started with India.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46But it hadn't always been like this.
0:31:46 > 0:31:51The British had once admired Indian culture and customs.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55Here in the Cotswolds, an English gentleman was so in love with India
0:31:55 > 0:31:59that he constructed an Indian palace of his own.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08Sezincote was built in 1807.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13With its minarets, dome and mock Hindu temple,
0:32:13 > 0:32:16this house is an act of homage to India.
0:32:31 > 0:32:36But, by the 1850s, the Victorians were beginning to impose
0:32:36 > 0:32:39their own idea of civilisation on India.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46They tried to convert Indians to Christianity.
0:32:48 > 0:32:50Resentment grew.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53Revolt started amongst the native soldiers
0:32:53 > 0:32:56serving in the British army in India.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01Things came to a head when the story went about that the cartridges for
0:33:01 > 0:33:07the new Enfield rifle were coated in a mixture of beef fat and pork fat.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11Now, to use the cartridge you had to bite the end off like this.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14And tip the gunpowder down the barrel of the gun,
0:33:14 > 0:33:16and drop the bullet in afterwards.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20The fact that the cartridges were coated in fat
0:33:20 > 0:33:23which came from cows which were sacred to Hindus,
0:33:23 > 0:33:27or from pigs which were unclean and abhorrent to Muslims,
0:33:27 > 0:33:29wasn't a smart idea at all.
0:33:29 > 0:33:36It was seen as an attempt by the British to force Indians to defile their own religions.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39The result was rebellion.
0:33:45 > 0:33:50When 85 Indian soldiers refused to bite off their cartridges
0:33:50 > 0:33:55at Meerut on 9th May 1857, mutiny broke out.
0:33:55 > 0:34:00In one night, over 50 British officers were killed.
0:34:00 > 0:34:02The revolt spread across the north west
0:34:02 > 0:34:06and panic spread throughout white India.
0:34:06 > 0:34:11Atrocity stories began to circulate of terrible things done to Europeans.
0:34:11 > 0:34:17At Cawnpore, 197 women and children were said to have been mutilated
0:34:17 > 0:34:21and dumped in a well, some of them still breathing.
0:34:21 > 0:34:25An officer who came on the scene later described "blood on the walls,
0:34:25 > 0:34:29"locks of hair lying about, and a single child's shoe."
0:34:36 > 0:34:41Victorian artists fanned the flames of Britain's anger and outrage.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46In this painting, a group of women clutch
0:34:46 > 0:34:48their children, hiding in a cellar,
0:34:48 > 0:34:52as they await their fate at the hands of the bloodthirsty Indians.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56In the centre, a mother and daughter are praying.
0:34:58 > 0:35:00The mother holds a bible.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05A woman kisses her baby for the last time.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09But they are in luck.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11Rescue is at hand.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14Highland soldiers are descending the steps to the cellar.
0:35:22 > 0:35:27One painting more than any other portrayed the mood for vengeance.
0:35:29 > 0:35:35An impressively beefy Britannia grabs a Bengal tiger by the throat.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41Her sword is drawn back for the kill.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51At the bottom of the painting lie a dead woman and child.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59"Beware, this is what we do when roused,"
0:35:59 > 0:36:01is the message of this picture.
0:36:03 > 0:36:08In reality, the violence perpetrated by the British was pretty horrific.
0:36:08 > 0:36:10Entire villages were burned down.
0:36:10 > 0:36:14Some mutineers were made to lick up the blood of the dead.
0:36:14 > 0:36:17Others smeared in pig fat before execution,
0:36:17 > 0:36:21or tied to the mouth of a cannon and blown apart.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25So much for the so-called "civilising mission".
0:36:35 > 0:36:39The mutiny marked a turning point in British attitudes to Empire.
0:36:41 > 0:36:47The government created the India Office in order to take a firmer grip on the sub-continent.
0:36:47 > 0:36:52The building, now part of the Foreign Office, speaks volumes about
0:36:52 > 0:36:56how the British were coming to see themselves as an imperial nation.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08These chaps dressed as Romans are in fact British
0:37:08 > 0:37:12soldiers of the kind who'd helped to colonise India over the years.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15It's a way of saying to the world, "Look, we're serious.
0:37:15 > 0:37:21"Where once the Roman Empire might have been the greatest on earth, It's now us.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23"And we have much the same ideals.
0:37:23 > 0:37:27"Justice, order, and military might."
0:37:33 > 0:37:37It's an astonishing building, unlike anything else in the world.
0:37:37 > 0:37:40This man spends a lot of time here.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43So, what do you think the building's trying to say?
0:37:43 > 0:37:48I think the building is saying two things. One, think global.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51You can't be in this building without realising
0:37:51 > 0:37:54that this is a country that does have big maps of the world
0:37:54 > 0:37:55with us in the middle of it.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59And I think secondly, it's saying that
0:37:59 > 0:38:02we've got values we want to try and impart around the world.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06It's an explicit comparison with the Roman Empire, isn't it?
0:38:06 > 0:38:10It's an explicit comparison with all greats from history throughout.
0:38:10 > 0:38:15It's got an image of Britain that is the great reconciler,
0:38:15 > 0:38:18but also the great purveyor of the best values.
0:38:18 > 0:38:22And it has no suggestion that interests and values might be different.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26Its view of Africa is not the view of Africa
0:38:26 > 0:38:29that we want to take today.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33What's it like when you first turn up for work in a place like this?
0:38:33 > 0:38:34It's quite intimidating.
0:38:34 > 0:38:40I said on my first week here that I had to pinch myself when I go into my office.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42And at some level you still feel that.
0:38:42 > 0:38:47What's interesting about the other diplomats, kings, presidents
0:38:47 > 0:38:53who come here, is that they're obviously struck by the grandeur of it but they really like it.
0:38:57 > 0:39:04From here at the India Office, Britain was firmly in control of an entire sub-continent.
0:39:04 > 0:39:09So it could afford a little indulgence of Indian sensibilities.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13At one level that meant a degree of formality, even respect.
0:39:13 > 0:39:17This, for example, is the office of Secretary for India.
0:39:17 > 0:39:22It has a fireplace on one wall, and another fireplace on the opposite wall.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25That was so Indian princes could keep warm in the middle of a British winter.
0:39:28 > 0:39:33And there are two doors, so that visiting princes of equal rank
0:39:33 > 0:39:38could enter the room simultaneously without either losing precedence.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49But these were just niceties.
0:39:49 > 0:39:55The outward appearance of a much more marble-hearted attitude to imperial rule.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04The Indians called it "the knife of sugar".
0:40:04 > 0:40:10Kipling described it more forcefully as "knuckle-dusters under kid gloves".
0:40:12 > 0:40:18Queen Victoria embodied this double attitude as much, or more, than anybody else.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22She was devoted to the idea of having colonial subjects.
0:40:22 > 0:40:25She had Indian servants. Indeed, they were her favourite servants.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27She tried to learn Hindu scripts.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30But she was no pacifist.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34"If we are to remain a first-rate power," she wrote,
0:40:34 > 0:40:39"We must be prepared for wars somewhere or other continually."
0:40:39 > 0:40:41And so it turned out.
0:40:41 > 0:40:44British troops would fight over the Empire somewhere in the world
0:40:44 > 0:40:47almost every year for the rest of her reign.
0:40:54 > 0:40:58The paintings of the day tell a rather different story.
0:40:58 > 0:41:00There are no guns or soldiers
0:41:00 > 0:41:07in Thomas Jones Barker's The Secret of England's Greatness.
0:41:07 > 0:41:11Instead, in the Audience Chamber of Windsor Castle,
0:41:11 > 0:41:15Victoria hands a bible to a grateful prince.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20He could be Indian, he could be African.
0:41:20 > 0:41:25His clothes looked more as if they'd come from some theatre's props department.
0:41:26 > 0:41:31But the Victorians did genuinely believe that England's greatness
0:41:31 > 0:41:37lay in bestowing Christianity on what they saw as inferior races.
0:41:58 > 0:42:03This is the Albert Memorial, completed in 1872,
0:42:03 > 0:42:0711 years after the death of the Queen's husband.
0:42:10 > 0:42:15By the 1870s, Britain's superiority to the rest of the world
0:42:15 > 0:42:18had become something of an obsession.
0:42:19 > 0:42:25Surrounding the monument are four sculptures representing the four quarters of the globe.
0:42:29 > 0:42:35Europe is shown leading the way, riding into a civilised future.
0:42:38 > 0:42:43The official guidebook of the time explains that the statue represents
0:42:43 > 0:42:47"the influence Europe has exercised over the other continents".
0:42:47 > 0:42:50There are no prizes for guessing where this is going.
0:42:54 > 0:42:59The statue representing Asia couldn't be more different to Europe.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05Here, a bare-breasted Indian woman sits atop an elephant.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08She wears traditional robes.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12Beside her are a Chinese man holding a porcelain vase,
0:43:12 > 0:43:17a Persian poet, and an Arab merchant.
0:43:19 > 0:43:25The implication is clear - Asia is exotic but not very modern.
0:43:25 > 0:43:29She needs to be awakened, by Britain.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36Africa too lives in the past.
0:43:38 > 0:43:44The Sphinx identifies Africa as the land of the Ancient Egyptians.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48The figure of a black man wears tribal costume.
0:43:50 > 0:43:58The guidebook tells us that the negro is "representative of the uncivilised races of this continent.
0:43:58 > 0:44:03"He is listening to the teachings of a female figure, typifying European civilisation,
0:44:03 > 0:44:08"in allusion to the efforts made by Europe to improve the condition of these races."
0:44:08 > 0:44:10Pretty clear I think.
0:44:17 > 0:44:22There was still a lot of the world left for Britain to conquer.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24And conquer she did.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31One foreign minister described his government's policy in the 1870s
0:44:31 > 0:44:36as "occupy, fortify, grab and brag".
0:44:39 > 0:44:45By the 1890s, the empire contained 400 million people,
0:44:45 > 0:44:49and covered 11 million square miles.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57Britain's tentacles reached around the world.
0:44:58 > 0:45:03But the nation's great power would change everything back at home.
0:45:11 > 0:45:17The wealth of Empire flooded into Britain here in the London docks.
0:45:20 > 0:45:25This was the biggest, busiest port in the world.
0:45:27 > 0:45:33Every year three million tons of cargo could arrive in the London docks.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38Sugar, coffee, tea, spices and luxury goods like silk or ivory.
0:45:40 > 0:45:45Goods that arrived in the docks ended up in shops like this.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54Liberty's on Regent's Street in the capital was opened in 1875,
0:45:54 > 0:45:58to sell goods imported from the Empire,
0:45:58 > 0:46:01including fabrics and rugs from the East.
0:46:05 > 0:46:11Shops like Liberty's catered to the rapidly expanding middle class.
0:46:11 > 0:46:16The wealth of Empire gave them two things in abundance, money and choice.
0:46:16 > 0:46:21Unprecedented numbers of people could now shop for more than the bare necessities of life.
0:46:21 > 0:46:26The middle classes opened their purses and went shopping mad.
0:46:29 > 0:46:34For the first time it wasn't only the gentry who could buy exotic goods.
0:46:35 > 0:46:42The rising middle class could now fill their houses with luxuries once unimaginable.
0:46:42 > 0:46:46Shopping became a favourite pastime.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00Britain was becoming an enormous shop window.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05Advertisements were everywhere.
0:47:07 > 0:47:10This scene at a railway station
0:47:10 > 0:47:13makes you wonder how any Victorian passenger ever found his train.
0:47:17 > 0:47:22Over a million advertising handbills were distributed in London in a single year.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33What were the most popular themes that advertisers chose to exploit?
0:47:33 > 0:47:36A huge range. Obviously, a lot of sentiment,
0:47:36 > 0:47:42children. But also the great images of the Empire of that time.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46Troops, the soldiers, the sailors.
0:47:46 > 0:47:52You wanted to reflect into your product the great power of the nation. I mean,
0:47:52 > 0:47:55here we have Huntley and Palmer's,
0:47:55 > 0:47:58one of the greatest British biscuits of the era.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01A worldwide product.
0:48:01 > 0:48:05And there you have the scene with the Indian elephants.
0:48:05 > 0:48:10Here are people enjoying the biscuits out on safari.
0:48:10 > 0:48:14And that gives you the grandeur of this moment.
0:48:14 > 0:48:16All over the Empire they're
0:48:16 > 0:48:20drinking tea and having Huntley and Palmer biscuits.
0:48:21 > 0:48:25So this is Queen Victoria herself being used to advertise soap.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28Yes. You didn't need permission to get Queen Victoria involved.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30There was the Empire surrounding her,
0:48:30 > 0:48:33and there's St Paul's in the background,
0:48:33 > 0:48:35so you get this huge fervour,
0:48:35 > 0:48:40a dramatic feel of the whole world gathering towards this one image.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43- This fragrant queen!- Very much so.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49Oil paintings by the leading artists of the day
0:48:49 > 0:48:52came in handy to advertise goods.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54Charles Barber's Girl With Dogs
0:48:54 > 0:48:56was used to sell Sunlight soap.
0:49:01 > 0:49:05And most famous of all, John Everett Millais'
0:49:05 > 0:49:10painting of his grandson, called Bubbles, was bought by Pear's soap.
0:49:10 > 0:49:11Here's the painting.
0:49:13 > 0:49:15And here's the ad,
0:49:15 > 0:49:19complete with painted-in bar of Pear's soap.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36But not everyone was having it so good.
0:49:36 > 0:49:41Cheap imports from the Empire left the poor in the countryside out of work.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44And there were large numbers of them.
0:49:50 > 0:49:56Increasingly replaced by machinery, agricultural labourers were driven
0:49:56 > 0:50:01from their homes and forced to tramp the countryside looking for work.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05In Hubert von Herkomer's Hard Times,
0:50:05 > 0:50:09a mother and her two children lie, collapsed from hunger.
0:50:12 > 0:50:17The father's farming instruments lie discarded, unused.
0:50:21 > 0:50:27This was the fate of farmers and farm labourers right across the country. Cheap imports did for them.
0:50:27 > 0:50:30Some found work in the factories in the cities.
0:50:30 > 0:50:35The rest faced a terrible choice, starve or emigrate.
0:50:37 > 0:50:43More than five million people left Britain in the second half of the 19th century.
0:50:43 > 0:50:50Three million for America, the rest to the corners of the Empire.
0:50:50 > 0:50:55This massive social upheaval fascinated Victorian artists.
0:50:57 > 0:51:01Here, a poor rural family bids farewell to their relatives.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07Two children embrace while the grandfather
0:51:07 > 0:51:12says goodbye to his grandchildren, probably for the last time.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20At the quayside came the final separation.
0:51:22 > 0:51:24An old woman sits distraught.
0:51:26 > 0:51:30Two lovers say farewell.
0:51:30 > 0:51:35And the ship overflows with young men leaving the country.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43The couple in Ford Madox Brown's The Last of England
0:51:43 > 0:51:46are squeezed into an emigrant ship.
0:51:46 > 0:51:48They look more anxious than hopeful.
0:51:48 > 0:51:54There's resentment on his face, resignation on hers.
0:51:54 > 0:51:57A tiny hand is all we can see of their baby,
0:51:57 > 0:52:00hidden under the mother's coat.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03The young family seems vulnerable,
0:52:03 > 0:52:09threatened by the grey breakers crashing against the ship.
0:52:09 > 0:52:11Their backs are turned to England.
0:52:11 > 0:52:13They will never return.
0:52:23 > 0:52:29The poor who stayed behind were often left on the scrapheap.
0:52:29 > 0:52:35The London docks may have been the gateway to the wealth of Empire,
0:52:35 > 0:52:38but the men who worked here were some of the poorest in Britain.
0:52:40 > 0:52:46Gustave Dore's prints of the dock workers brought their predicament alive.
0:52:47 > 0:52:50They were paid little, and only by the hour.
0:52:52 > 0:52:58On average, a docker worked just three hours a day.
0:52:58 > 0:53:01Resentment ran high.
0:53:01 > 0:53:04But all this was about to change.
0:53:06 > 0:53:12On August 12th 1889, the London dockers fought back.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15There was an argument about the pay for unloading a ship
0:53:15 > 0:53:19here in the West India Dock, and it rapidly escalated.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23First, the stevedores, the men who loaded the ships, joined the dispute.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27And after them, engineers, carpenters and watchmen.
0:53:27 > 0:53:33Within a week, 30,000 men were on strike and the docks were paralysed.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36The dockers' demands were modest.
0:53:36 > 0:53:42Sixpence an hour instead of five, and a guarantee of four hours' work a day.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46But the bosses refused.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48The strike held.
0:53:50 > 0:53:55This was no mean feat. Striking was rare in Victorian Britain.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58Trade unions were in their infancy.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03For the strikers, the suffering was intense,
0:54:03 > 0:54:08not only for them but for their families too.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12This confrontation between wealth and labour
0:54:12 > 0:54:14was a new drama for artists.
0:54:14 > 0:54:18The resolution necessary if the strike was to hold
0:54:18 > 0:54:22meant want and hunger for the dockers' families.
0:54:25 > 0:54:29The striker crumples his cap in anxiety.
0:54:33 > 0:54:38In London, the dock strike took to the streets.
0:54:38 > 0:54:42Thousands of dockers and their families marched, carrying huge
0:54:42 > 0:54:47banners, their children holding signs saying, "Please feed us".
0:54:49 > 0:54:52The public and press began to sympathise.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55Donations poured in.
0:54:57 > 0:55:02The bosses were under huge pressure to settle and, in the end, they gave in.
0:55:02 > 0:55:03It was a historic moment.
0:55:03 > 0:55:08The classes had squared up to one other, and the underdogs had won.
0:55:08 > 0:55:11Something in Britain had changed for good.
0:55:13 > 0:55:15Workers were on the rise.
0:55:15 > 0:55:21And soon a new society would be forged in which power was shared more fairly.
0:55:22 > 0:55:27But there was to be one last flourish of the Victorian age.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47In 1897, after 60 years on the throne,
0:55:47 > 0:55:54Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee.
0:55:54 > 0:56:00Led by 50,000 troops, the Queen paraded through the centre of London.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05The Daily Mail pronounced it was entirely fitting that
0:56:05 > 0:56:10Queen Victoria ended her procession by coming to St Paul's to give thanks to God, because really
0:56:10 > 0:56:15God was the only being who was more majestic than she was.
0:56:15 > 0:56:17It undoubtedly was a splendid occasion.
0:56:17 > 0:56:23But for those with eyes to see, Britain's national majesty was already on the wane.
0:56:28 > 0:56:34Germany and America were beginning to threaten Britain's industrial supremacy.
0:56:35 > 0:56:41Her place as "the workshop of the world" was no longer secure.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44The Empire was overstretched.
0:56:45 > 0:56:49For how long could so few govern so many?
0:56:52 > 0:56:58The Victorians had liked to see themselves as ancient Romans.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02But now they remembered how Rome too had fallen.
0:57:07 > 0:57:14At home, a social revolution had seen power shift from the aristocracy to the middle class,
0:57:14 > 0:57:18and now it was shifting again to the workers,
0:57:18 > 0:57:22whose labour had made industrial Britain great.
0:57:22 > 0:57:26The people's century was about to begin.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53Next time...
0:57:53 > 0:57:56As the century draws to a close,
0:57:56 > 0:58:00Victorian artists turn their backs on Victorian values,
0:58:00 > 0:58:06preferring to create a world of fantasy and magic,
0:58:06 > 0:58:08sex and death.
0:58:31 > 0:58:34Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:34 > 0:58:37E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk