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Revolution of the Dead

Episode 2 of 8

From the chaos of the Black Death comes creative renewal - survivors finding their voice through satire and a revived literature in English, including breakthrough works by women.

An alternative history of the Black Death of the Middle Ages and its bitter – but profoundly creative – aftermath. Contemporary artists and performers, alongside historians and curators, reveal how a century of creative renewal emerged from the chaos of plague as survivors found their voice, questioning authority and challenging status and class. Above all, writing in English was revived by works including Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, William Langland’s angry satire The Vision of Piers Plowman and breakthrough works by women like the spirited pilgrim Margery Kempe.

Poet laureate Simon Armitage reflects on the poem of loss, Pearl, as a window into the medieval mind, and artist Sarah Maple shines a light on the subversive Lincoln Cathedral misericords, carved in the wake of plague. Meanwhile, writer Maria Fusco explores how the profound faith of female mystic Julian of Norwich is unshaken by illness.

As tensions rose over taxes on the plague’s survivors, the Peasants’ Revolt triggered a counter-reaction from an insecure king, Richard II. Royal photographer Chris Levine dissects the first portrait of a living English king, and artist Marc Quinn explores the beautiful but enigmatic Wilton Diptych, which Richard used to project his divine right to rule. We discover how this was also a moment of new imagination and new opportunities in cathedral-building and music as people increasingly sought their fortunes and patrons in towns and cities. Sarah Brown of the York Glaziers Trust shows us the magnificent, recently restored Great East Window at York Minster, a pinnacle of European stained glass art, and Rory McCleery and the Marian Consort perform John Dunstaple’s Veni Sancte Spiritus, a game changer for medieval music.

Available now

59 minutes

Signed Audio described

Music Played

  • Massive Attack

    Angel (feat. Horace Andy)

  • The Breeders

    Cannonball

  • Bonobo

    Kiara

  • Blur

    Out Of Time

  • Amy Winehouse

    You Know I'm No Good

  • Aphex Twin

    Disk Prep Calrec2 Barn Dance (Slo)

  • Four Tet

    This Unfolds

  • Clark

    Winter Linn

  • Nils Frahm

    Sunson

  • Woodkid

    Iron With Arpegios At End

  • Clark

    Aftermath

  • JΓ³hann JΓ³hannsson

    Fordlandia - Aerial View

  • Poppy Ackroyd

    Resolve

  • Ghostpoet

    Run Run Run

  • Fever Ray

    Concrete Walls

  • Pulp

    This Is Hardcore

  • Poppy Ackroyd

    Paper

  • Sons of Kemet

    My Queen Is Albertina Sisulu

  • Spiritualized

    Cool Waves

Credits

Role Contributor
Narrator David Threlfall
Director Russell Barnes
Series Producer Melanie Fall
Executive Producer Michael Jackson
Executive Producer Denys Blakeway
Production Company ClearStory Ltd

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