The Film
This six part world history series commissioned by Channel 4 for the Millennium looks at how technology evolves and why it transforms some parts of the world and not others. Why for example did China, with its great history of inventions, not develop before the West? Why did Japan abandon the wheel? And why did our own rain-swept island off the coast of mainland Europe become the hub of a technological revolution that would change the world?
This landmark series on the origins of the Industrial Revolution challenges traditional views of one of the most dramatic periods in human history. Five historians try and solve the fundamental mystery of the Industrial Revolution: Why Britain and why then? They travel further back in time with each episode - from a single day in September 1830 to the very roots of the Industrial Revolution 10,000 years ago.
The series was nominated for an RTS award for Best Documentary Series in 2001.