Original version

BBC Two Northern Ireland

BBC HD

BBC Two Scotland

Until 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales (analogue) was known simply as BBC Two Wales. BBC Two Wales (digital) was BBC 2W. From 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales schedules on both analogue and digital became identical

BBC Two Wales

BBC Two England

England

How God Made the English

Diarmaid MacCulloch

Anna Cox

Jean-Claude Bragard

How God Made the English: Episode 2: A Tolerant People?

Documentaries

Factual: History

A Tolerant People?

Episode 2

Episode 2: A Tolerant People?

BBC Two - How God Made the English, A Tolerant People?

Do the English really have a long and glorious tradition of tolerance?

Diarmaid MacCulloch explores what it means to be English. He challenges the commonly held assumption that the English have a long tradition of tolerance.

The second in a three-part series in which Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of Church History at Oxford University, explores both what it means to be English and what has shaped English identity through history.

Professor MacCulloch challenges the commonly held assumption that the English have a long and glorious tradition of tolerance. Rather, history shows that until recently the English were among the least tolerant peoples in the world. In a provocative take on English history, he challenges the fashionable wisdom that it is secular forces and the humanistic values of the Enlightenment that have influenced this English trait. Instead, he argues that the root of English tolerance lies in its Christian history - although it's been a journey of accident rather than design.

BBC Two

Knowledge, drama, comedy and the arts for a broad adult audience.

BBC Two is a lively channel of depth and substance, carrying a range of knowledge-building programming complemented by great drama, comedy and arts.

Historian Diarmaid MacCulloch explores what it means to be English.

Historian Diarmaid MacCulloch explores both what it means to be English and what has shaped English identity, from the Dark Ages, through the Reformation to modern times.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

How God Made the English

Episode 2: A Tolerant People?

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Series

BBC Two Northern Ireland

About BBC Two