Simon Schama's Shakespeare and Us
This England
S1 E1:
How many 17th-century English playwrights can you name? Chances are there’s just the one. But why has the work of Shakespeare endured? Historian Simon Schama argues that the England he portrayed is the vision of the nation that we still revel in today. Not just monarchs, but ordinary men and women from all walks of life: royalty rub shoulders with rabble-rousers to create a complete world.