Channel 4 - Walking Through History with Tony Robinson (2013)

Tony Robinson embarks on spectacular walks through some of Britain's most historic landscapes in search of the richest stories from the country's past. In each episode, Tony follows a bespoke route that allows him to explore the history of a particularly colourful period or event, as well as the spectacular landscape in which those events unfolded. Alongside experts he meets on the way, Tony reveals places and hidden stories that ordinary walkers and ramblers might otherwise miss.

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Part 1: The Birth of Industry
Tony Robinson embarks on expeditions through some of Britain's most historic landscapes in search of the richest stories from the nation's past. He begins with a 40-mile walk along the Derwent Valley in the Peak District, where the world's industrial revolution was born. En route he visits the sleepy village of Cromford to find out about the work of entrepreneur Richard Arkwright, and stops off at a 900-year-old stately home that has been used as the location for three Jane Eyre films. Brian Blessed also introduces Tony to the joys - and the significance - of the Cromford canal, before ending this leg of his journey in Derby.


Part 2: Frontline Dorset
Tony embarks on an expedition along Dorset's Jurassic coast to explore the county's hidden Second World War story. Starting beside the defences on Chesil Beach, his five-day walk encompasses stunning scenery and uncovers wartime acts of ingenuity and bravery as he heads east to finish in Swanage and Studland Bay. He discovers the crucial part a swannery played in developing a secret weapon and reveals the role of Dorset in protecting Britain from invasion during the conflict.


Part 3: The Tudor Way
Tony Robinson sets off on a 45-mile hike through the countryside of the Weald in Kent and the Downs of East Sussex to discover the area's rich and surprising Tudor heritage. At Penshurst Place, author Philippa Gregory helps him relish the fate of the Grand Duke of Buckingham at the hands of the young Henry VIII. From there, he travels up what used to be secret paths to Hever Castle and finds out how the monarch's reign brought not just fame and disaster to the women who caught his eye, but also wrought huge social, political and industrial change. He ends this leg of his journey in Lewes, where he relives one of the more brutal monastic dissolutions.


Part 4: Battle in the Glens
Tony Robinson goes on a four-day trek through the Kintail region of the north-western Highlands, examining the story of the Jacobite uprisings of the early 1700s along the way. He starts by visiting Iron Age dwellings in Shiel Bridge, and heads to the rebuilt castle on Eilean Donan, the original of which was destroyed after invading Spanish troops landed there and were attacked by British warships. Tony ends in Glen Shiel, the site of a climactic battle in 1719 where royalist troops defeated the rebels.