The Story of Britain's Royal Builders and Collectors in nine films
Told by Huw Wheldon

He was gifted, wayward and original. He spent a fortune on paintings and palaces. In his youth he loved driving fast carriages, gambling and horse-racing. His affairs scandalised polite society. Prince Regent during the Napoleonic Wars, he gave his title to a street, a park, an age. No monarch has had a sharper eye for works of art. The Brighton Pavilion is a brilliant tour de force, exotic and yet built with the most modern materials.

Sir Huw Wheldon takes us through the private apartments at Windsor Castle and looks at some of the treasures of Sevres china, French furniture and sculpture they contain. Even more in the rebuilding of Windsor Castle George IV left a permanent memorial to the splendid self-confidence that followed the defeat of Napoleon.

Book (same title), £10.00, from bookshops from 2 June.