Originally broadcast by the BBC.

"Filmed on location at British and French historical sites, this three-part series delves into the art, literature, and politics of 18th- and 19th-century Europe--telling the tumultuous story of Romanticism and its reshaping of Western culture"--Container.

Music, Simon Fisher Turner ; photography, Neil Harvey ; editor, Jan Cholawo ; executive producer, Kim Thomas.

Dudley Sutton (William Blake), Joseph Millson (Lord Byron), Rafe Spall (John Clare), Martin Savage (Samuel Taylor Coleridge), Nicholas Shaw (John Keats), Blake Ritson (Percy Bysshe Shelley), David Threlfall (William Wordsworth), Jason Watkins, David Tennant, Stuart Milligan, Dudley Sutton, Richard Henders, Trevor Martin.

Part 1: Examining the birth of Romanticism through the lenses of art and uprising, this program illustrates the political and cultural roots of the movement. The film begins by describing the significance of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his influence on the French Revolution, and his belief that civilization and governmental systems suppress the individual human spirit. Linking Rousseau's philosophy to the emergence of New World political ideals and the American struggle for independence, the program also studies the writings and illustrations of William Blake, the collaboration of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and the notions of freedom advanced by all three poets.

Part 2: After the chaos of the French Revolution, the concept of liberty became associated with nature rather than political events. This program analyzes the Romantic fascination and identification with the power of the natural world. Shedding light on William Blake's early childhood experiences in the countryside, the film also explores the work of John Clare--conveying how both poets revered the sublime power of the earth's environment and exalted a rural way of life rapidly yielding to urbanization and the Industrial Revolution. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is also featured--highlighting its cautions against science, technology, and the exploitation of nature's wild innocence.

Part 3: Viewing life in strictly corporeal terms was abhorrent to Romantic sensibility. This program examines attempts by Romantic poets to transcend the physical world and expand the limits of human imagination--presaging 20th-century notions of the unconscious. Illustrating how the idea of transcendence effectively became the religion of Romanticism, the film reflects on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's opium-inspired composition of "Kubla Kahn," Lord Byron's defiance of social and sexual mores in pursuit of inner truth, John Keats' worldly fragility and literary immortality, and Percy Shelley's legendary incarnation, in death, as the ultimate Romantic symbol--a disembodied heart.

DVD.

Closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.

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