How We Built Britain - Season 1

David Dimbleby journeys through Britain, and through 1,000 years of our history, to discover the buildings that have made us who we are.

His journey begins in the east of England, in medieval times the richestplace in Britain, and home to some of our most spectacular buildings. He climbs the tower of Ely Cathedral, explores magnificent castles, learns how to build a medieval barn, goes on a pilgrimage, experiences life in a great hall and learns how the Black Death turned England upside down.

David Dimbleby journeys through Britain, and through 1,000 years of our history, to discover the buildings that have made us who we are.

Dimbleby explores the great country houses of the reign of Elizabeth I. He reveals the exquisite forest of chimneys on the roof of Burghley House, decodes the riddle of the mysterious Triangular Lodge, explores priest holes, knot gardens, a hunting lodge and Shakespeare's schoolroom, ending his journey in a rare Puritan chapel.

David Dimbleby travels Britain and through 1,000 years of history to discover the buildings that have made us who we are. In Scotland he visits Stirling Castle, dramatic symbol of the birth of a new country, and the fairytale tower house of Craigevar. He travels to the crofts of the Outer Hebrides, to the castle that inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula, to the sparkling granite city of Aberdeen and to the tenements of Glasgow - home of Scotland's greatest architect, Charles Rennie Macintosh.

On his architectural tour of Britain, David Dimbleby discovers how the Georgian dream of order and beauty transformed our buildings and cities. Travelling west, he discovers the grandeur of Blenheim Palace, the man-made paradise of Stourhead garden in Wiltshire and the elegance of Bath. He pays tribute to the terraced house, a great British invention, before discovering the tin mines of Cornwall and crossing the mighty Menai Bridge to the Georgian jewel of Dublin.

David Dimbleby's architectural tour of Britain heads north to Newcastle, home of George and Robert Stephenson, and then west to Manchester, where Dimbleby finds warehouses based on Venetian palaces and a stunning town hall. He explores the sewers that changed the lives of the Victorian poor, the model village of Saltaire, and the grand merchant houses and shopping arcades of Leeds. He ends his journey in Blackpool, where Victorian engineering was put to the serious business of having fun.

David Dimbleby completes his journey through Britain, discovering how the nation's history has shaped its buildings, in the south of England, exploring its dramatic transformation in the 20th century. Modern technology opened up new worlds to ordinary people, changing the way they worked, lived and played. He begins in Metroland, part of the suburban explosion of the 20s and 30s, with its 'Tudorbethan' houses and sumptuous cinemas like Moorish palaces; traces the arrival of the bold new modern style at a glorious public swimming pool on the south coast; and sees what effect the war had on what we built - from much-loved prefabs to highrise blocks. And he visits the new temples of money in the City of London - breathtaking towers of steel and glass - and asks how many of them will still be there in a hundred years from now.