Five programmes written and presented by Michael Wood 3: The Town
When the Normans conquered England in 1066, they inherited the richest land in Europe, a land already bustling with towns. Michael Wood journeys through England, and finds the Middle Ages in the shadow of St Paul's
Cathedral, London, in the great market at Salisbury and in the rich medieval wool towns of East Anglia. On the Welsh borders he discovers the Norman frontier towns that died and looks for the exuberant town life of Totnes in the 18th century, and Manchester in the 19th, a town then described as being 'as great a human exploit as Athens'. But towns rise and towns fall. Why? As the industrial dream of our great Victorian cities fades, is there a future for towns at all? Photography HENRY FARRAR Film editor AMANDA SMITH
Executive producer BRUCE NORMAN Producer SANDRA GREGORY