Poor Pikeman bv EDWIN PEARCE
Six hundred years ago this month the brutal enforcement of a Poll Tax, imposed by the advisers of the boy king Richard II, proved the final straw in the burden carried by the bonded peasantry. They rose up in their thousands and marched on London. They were led by Wat Tyler , a retired soldier and known thief. But was he, as history has often supposed, the driving force behind the revolt, or merely the man at the front of the crowd?
Directed by ROGER PINE. BBC Birmingham
(Repeated: Sun 2.30 pm)