1990 VHS • Touring the British Isles Collection 60 FPS

About

A multi-part documentary collection narrated in a warm, literary style, covering England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland across approximately three hours. The England section traces the island's history from Celtic and Roman Britain through Viking invasions, the Norman Conquest of 1066, and the Channel Tunnel (described as sparking endless English debate). London receives the most detailed treatment: Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral (Christopher Wren buried inside, chosen for Prince Charles' wedding), Houses of Parliament and Guy Fawkes, Westminster Abbey including the Coronation Chair and Poets' Corner, Samuel Johnson's house, Robert Browning's Wimpole Street courtship of Elizabeth Barrett, Oscar Wilde in Chelsea, Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard, Trafalgar Square, the Bank of England, the British Museum, Madame Tussauds (originating with Marie Antoinette's guillotined head), and the Jack the Ripper East End. Beyond London: Oxford (John Wesley's Methodism, Lewis Carroll), Blenheim Palace and Winston Churchill's American blood and Iroquois ancestry, Stratford-upon-Avon and Shakespeare's life, Warwick Castle, and Coventry's bombed and rebuilt cathedral.

The Ireland section covers the Republic's history from prehistoric Newgrange and the Celtic high kings of Tara through St. Patrick's 432 AD mission, Viking founding of Dublin and other cities, Strongbow the Norman, Oliver Cromwell's massacres, and Daniel O'Connell the Liberator. Regions visited include the Ring of Kerry, Blarney Stone at Cork, Wexford (Kennedy ancestral home), Bunratty Castle, the Cliffs of Moher, Limerick, and Dublin. Wales is introduced as an ancient Celtic kingdom of poetry and coracle boats. Scotland covers the Highlands, Loch Ness, the whisky distilleries, Aberdeen, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and a sustained narrative on Mary Queen of Scots -- from her birth at Linlithgow in 1542 through her coronation at Stirling, her years at Holyrood, the murder of David Rizzio, her imprisonment and escape from Loch Lavin, and her execution after 19 years of English imprisonment. Edinburgh closes the documentary: the Royal Mile, Edinburgh Castle and the Scottish Crown Jewels, Princes Street Gardens, the Georgian New Town, the Edinburgh International Festival, and the city's medical and scientific heritage including Alexander Graham Bell and James Simpson's discovery of chloroform.

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Archive

Internet Archive, in The VHS Vault

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Credit

The Vista Group®

Language

English

Subtitles

English (automatic)

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Teens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed