Original version

BBC Four

BBC 4

The Romantics

Sam Hobkinson

Chris Granlund

Nicholas Shaw

Blake Ritson

Joseph Millson

The Romantics: Episode 3: Eternity

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Episode 3

Episode 3: Eternity

Eternity

BBC Four - The Romantics, Eternity

How the radical way Byron, Keats and Shelley lived their short lives changed the world.

Series presented by Peter Ackroyd about a group of visionary writers. Byron, Keats and Shelley lived short lives but the radical way they lived them would change the world.

Byron, Keats and Shelley lived short lives, but the radical way they lived them would change the world. At 19, Shelley wrote The Necessity of Atheism - it was banned and burned, but it freed the Romantics from religion. Through their search for meaning in a world without God, they pioneered the notions of free love, celebrity and secular idolatry that are at the centre of modern Western culture.

For them poetry became the new religion, a way of reaching eternity. Their words are brought to life by Nicholas Shaw, Blake Ritson and Joseph Millson.

Knowledge, arts, music and culture from the UK and the world.

BBC Four reflects arts, music and culture with an ambitious range of intellectually and culturally enriching programmes, taking an expert and in-depth approach to its subjects.

Peter Ackroyd looks at a group of visionary writers who changed the way we see the world

Peter Ackroyd looks at a group of visionary writers who changed the way we see the world - the Romantics - and examines stories of bloodshed, political upheaval and poetry

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Romantics

Episode 3: Eternity

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Series

BBC Four

About BBC Four