George IV and the Regency
Lucy Worsley finds the fibs behind the facade of Georgian elegance and discovers how the story of Regency Britain – from Waterloo to Peterloo – was spun to avoid revolution.
We think of the Regency as genteel and well-ordered: beautiful buildings, Jane Austen's romances and red-coated officers defeating Napoleon at Waterloo. Lucy Worsley digs behind the facade of Georgian elegance to reveal the fibs that helped conceal a darker side to the Regency and suppress rebellion in an age of revolution.
This was the end of the Georgian era, when a mentally ill King George III was forced to hand power to his extravagant son – the prince regent and future King George IV. Both kings lived in the shadow of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon.
To make matters worse for the royals, British radicals were demanding political reform. To stop rebellion, monarchy and government relied on spin, secrets and lies. Lucy reveals how an international victory at Waterloo became distinctly British, why the Peterloo Massacre was airbrushed out of history and how Scotland was dressed up in tartan to support the union.
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Credits
| Role | Contributor |
|---|---|
| Presenter | Lucy Worsley |
| Director | Laura Blount |
| Producer | Laura Blount |
| Executive Producer | Chris Granlund |
Broadcasts
Fri 13 Nov 2020 21:00- Wed 9 Dec 2020 02:00
- Tue 5 Jul 2022 21:00
- Fri 8 Jul 2022 02:30
- Tue 15 Aug 2023 22:00
- Wed 16 Aug 2023 03:00