The Adventure of English

Season 1

In this eight part series, Melvyn Bragg, explores the development of the English Language over the last 1500 years. The first four programmes explain how this insignificant German dialect has evolved into a global language now spoken and understood by more people than any other in the world. The remaining four programmes visit various countries around the world to show the differences in modern English.

Where to Watch The Adventure of English • Season 1

8 Episodes

Birth of a Language
E1
Birth of a LanguageWe are going to delve down to the roots of the language and deduce its history - and in that one sentence we hear words from four different sources; delve from Dark Age Anglo-Saxon, root from Danish invaders, language from medieval French, and deduce from Renaissance Latin; four of the main - but not all - contributors to the richness of modern English.
English Goes Underground
E2
English Goes UndergroundWe see how England was ruled for three centuries after the Conquest by a French-speaking king and court which used Latin for their official business. English was the language of the peasants; a third-class tongue in its own country.
The Battle for the Language of the Bible
E3
The Battle for the Language of the BibleThis is the story of how English became the battleground in the fight for men's souls. The medieval church establishment kept the Bible in Latin, while those possessing an English translation risked death. We see the impact of printing on the English language, and how that fixed many of the anomalies of spelling and grammar that still make English so difficult for students to learn.
This Earth, This Realm, This England
E4
This Earth, This Realm, This EnglandVisiting the England of Queen Elizabeth the First shows how naval enterprise and foreign trade brought scores of new words into the language. Scholars were bringing new Latin terms into the language, and there was a movement to stop this and keep English 'pure'. Shakespeare combined the languages of the common people and the aristocracy to take English to new heights and to invent so many memorable words and phrases.
English in America
E5
English in AmericaFollowing the English language on its journey overseas and tracing the story of how the language of the British Isles became a language for the world - the most widely spoken and understood vernacular in history. In America the language of a small group of seventeenth-century English immigrants only survived through the most unlikely coincidence – but America was to develop a vigorous new vocabulary, and to spread it around the globe.
Speaking Proper
E6
Speaking ProperIn eighteenth century Britain, the first English dictionary was produced. A cohort of grammarians imposed new rules on the language. English continued to change and develop and the way people talked and the words they used became a badge of class and breeding and social death could result from dropping an ‘h’ or using an inappropriate word.
The Language of Empire
E7
The Language of EmpireIn India, scholar William Jones finds some English words already present in Sanskrit. Convicts land in Australia, blending London criminal slang and Aboriginal words into a new dialect. Jamaicans reclaim patois.
Many Tongues Called English, One World Language
E8
Many Tongues Called English, One World LanguageThe concluding episode looks at how in the 20th century the rise of America as an industrial power has made it the driving force behind the global spread of English. The English language is now used by more people than ever before in history. As cultural influences affect the way people use English and new words come into everyday use, how does the Oxford English dictionary – the greatest repository of the language – keep up with developments.