A series of ten programmes presenting the history and development of the firearm.
1: The Great Leveller
Introduced by Christopher Roads
Until the splitting of the atom in this century no single invention has had such a profound effect on history and society as the gun. It changed not only the pattern of warfare and destroyed the old concept of chivalry, but altered every aspect of life, law and the boundaries of empires. From obscure and mysterious origins in China via the writings of an English monk, gunpowder took only a century to change itself from a source of wonder and amusement into real gunpowder with all that that implied and for the gun to emerge as a device sufficiently important to exercise even the mind of Leonardo da Vinci. Narrated by DUNCAN CARSE
Film editor DICK ALLEN Producer RAY SUTCLIFFE