Catch up TV

Series 2: 2. George IV and the Regency

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. \n\nThis 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. \n\nTo 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.

Source: BBC 2