Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
31	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	1	2	3	4

BBC - A Picture of Britain [Complete] (2005)

Date: 23 Dec 2009 14:55:09

Take a journey through Britain that explores the beauty and contrasts of scenery that inspired artists, poets, writers and composers. Features the landscapes and seascapes of the North that are linked with Turner and Wordsworth, the landscapes and skies of Constable's Suffolk and the West Country of Conan Doyle.

Episode 1 – The Romantic North
Dimbleby begins his journey in the romantic north of England, an area that has attracted many a renowned painter and scribe. As little as 250 years ago, the Lake District was viewed as an ugly and inhospitable wilderness. Since then, its beauty and diversity has inspired some of our most revered artists. David learns that Wordsworth spent his most productive years at Grasmere, composing such legendary works as Daffodils. The natural beauty of the area also moved JMW Turner to create such fine works as Morning On The Coniston Fells. Of course, no trip to this part of the world would be complete without a visit to Yorkshire and in particular Haworth Moor, the rugged landscape which provided the dramatic backdrop to Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.

Episode 2 – The Flatlands
David Dimbleby explores the flattest areas of eastern England, beginning in Suffolk where John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough grew up and painted their most romantic landscapes. He moves on to examine the work of horse painter George Stubbs at Newmarket, finds out about John Crome and John Sell Cotman in the Norfolk Broads, and ends up on the east coast. Here the remorseless sea, which eats away at the vulnerable coast, has provided inspiration for composers like Benjamin Britten and artists throughout the centuries – from the contemporary artist Maggi Hambling right back to the greatest sea painter of all time, JMW Turner.

Episode 3 – Highlands and Glens
David Dimbleby examines the creative genius that has sprung from Scotland and Ireland, beginning in Edinburgh with a look at the work of painter Alexander Nasmyth. He finds out how Loch Lomond inspired Walter Scott and Edwin Landseer, and visits Fingal’s Cave, which was immortalised in music by Felix Mendelssohn. Moving west to Ireland, he visits poet WB Yeats’s childhood home in Sligo. Finally David visits Alloway in Ayrshire, birthplace of Scotland’s national poet, Robbie Burns, who forged an image of Scotland out of the hard toil of the working man and woman.

Episode 4 – The Heart of England
David Dimbleby seeks out the most inspiring sites in England’s heartland, beginning with the industrial areas of Manchester painted by LS Lowry. He travels through the Peak District to Shropshire, passing the 18th-century Ironbridge on the way, and arrives at Dudley Castle to see the smithies immortalised by Dickens in his novel The Old Curiosity Shop. Last stop is the Malverns, the 20 peaks that rise up out of the Worcestershire plain, which is forever associated with the name of Edward Elgar, Britain’s first great composer of romantic music.

Episode 5 – The Home Front
David Dimbleby investigates areas in the South East that have proved influential for artists, beginning with a visit to the hills which are said to have inspired William Blake’s famous poem Jerusalem. He tours Brighton’s seashore, visits Arundel Castle, which has been immortalised by the likes of Constable and Turner, and finds out what stirred Kipling’s creativity in East Sussex. With the mighty white cliffs of Dover as a backdrop, David meets Dame Vera Lynn to discuss her song, White Cliffs of Dover, the tune that in Britain’s darkest hour during the Second World War became a beacon of hope across the world.

Episode 6 – The Mystical West
David Dimbleby investigates the inspiring landscapes of the West. He begins by chronicling the pictorial battle between Constable and Turner over Stonehenge in Wiltshire, then travels to south Wales to consider Dylan Thomas’s work. Journeying through the south-west’s bleak landscape, which inspired gothic novels such as Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles and Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, he ends in St Ives where sculptress Barbara Hepworth’s artistic community worked in the 1930s.

SCREENSHOT:

Download full movie BBC - A Picture of Britain [Complete] (2005)

Subtitles (from opensubtitles.org)

HDTV Documentary 2000 Biography DVD-Rip