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Sport and the British

Lucy Lunt

Sara Conkey

Garth Brameld

Sport and the British: Episode 5: The Making of Men

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The Making of Men

Episode 5

Episode 5: The Making of Men

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Sport and the British, The Making of Men

Clare visits Rugby School to discover why it produced men fit to run the empire.

Clare Balding visits Rugby School to learn why the role sport played turned its pupils into men fit to run the empire.

The Duke of Wellington never said the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton but it could be argued that the might of the British Empire was moulded on the pitches of Rugby School.

As Clare Balding continues to chart the way the British have shaped sport and sport has shaped Britain, she visits Rugby to discover how the visionary headmaster, Thomas Arnold, ensured games lay at the heart of school life, producing men ready to rule. As the school archivist, Rusty MacLean, explains to her, on leaving, these pupils took the games they'd developed at Rugby to all parts of the globe, giving birth to numerous national sporting clubs in Africa and India, as well as developing new games like Aussie Rules and American football.

Readers, Brian Bowles, Stuart McLoughlin and Jack Firth
Producer: Lucy Lunt.

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Clare Balding charts how sport has shaped the British and how Britain has shaped sport

Clare Balding presents a 30-part series charting how sport has shaped the British and how Britain has shaped sport

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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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