Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: The King Returned

The Essay: The King Returned: Episode 1

Documentaries

Factual: History

Factual: Politics

The King Returned

Episode 1

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, The King Returned, Episode 1Close menu

Jonathan Sawday presents the first of five portraits of Restoration Britain.

The first of five programmes in which Jonathan Sawday paints a picture of Restoration Britain in five essays: the politics, the science, the culture and the philosophy which made this an extraordinary period of history. 

In May 1660 Charles II was invited to return to England and take the throne lost by his beheaded father. A dozen years of Puritan rule were overthrown with a resuming of vigorous cultural life. There was an ebullient outpouring of baroque music, liberated playwriting, scientific progress, stately architecture and courtly entertainment that became known as The Restoration. 

But in the 1660s how much was really "restored" of pre-Cromwellian Britain - and how much was actually newly introduced? How much that was restored had really never gone away? 

Professor Jonathan Sawday attempts to retell the story of the Restoration in a new way - through five essays, each of which provide a shapshot of cultural and intellectual life. 

Caricatured as excessive in today's costume drama, this was a time that was also energetic, experimental and outward looking. From the foundation of the Royal Society, to the construction of St. Paul's, to the new contractual nature of government - this was a period which marks the creation of crucial aspects of modern Britain. 

Producer: Hannah Godfrey and Matthew Dodd.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Jonathan Sawday paints a picture of Restoration Britain, exploring politics and science

Jonathan Sawday paints a picture of Restoration Britain, exploring the politics, the science, the culture and the philosophy which made this an extraordinary period in the country's history

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Essay

The King Returned

Episode 1

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3