Episodes
| Episode | Title | First Broadcast | Repeated | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Admiralty House | 20100502 | 20110105 (R4) | In the first of three programmes showing how places have influenced political events, the leading historian of post-war Britain, Peter Hennessy visits Admiralty House in London. The government building at the north end of Whitehall, close to Trafalgar Square, has frequently been the office and home of post-war prime ministers when 10 Downing Street has needed refurbishment. Peter first recalls the momentous events of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 and reveals that it was from Admiralty House that the dramatic order was given by prime minister Harold Macmillan for Britain's nuclear weapons to be put on standby for imminent launch. He also discusses the remarkable 'Night of the Long Knives' that summer when Macmillan notoriously sacked a third of his Cabinet. Thirty years later, during John Major's premiership, Peter shows how Admiralty House once again became the focus of worldwide political and public attention as the place where the United Kingdom's membership of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (the ERM) finally collapsed in ignominy, causing lasting damage to the reputation and credibility of the recently-elected government. Producer: Simon Coates. Peter Hennessy shows how places shape political events, starting at Admiralty House. Peter Hennessy explores how places influence political events |
| 02 | House Of Commons | 20100509 | 20110112 (R4) | Continuing his series about how places have shaped political events, Peter Hennessy, the leading historian of post-war Britain, visits the Office of the Prime Minister in the House of Commons which has been a little-known cockpit of war planning since 1950. He first discusses what is special about the Office and why it has been so important to successive prime ministers on defence issues. He then considers how prime minister Clement Attlee and his Cabinet decided to handle Anglo-American tensions over the Korean War in 1950 that had been heightened by provocative remarks made by the US general, Douglas MacArthur, on the use of nuclear weapons. Peter goes on to reveal the significance of the Office in the history of Britain's decision to develop the hydrogen bomb and then describes its pivotal role in the 1956 Suez Crisis and the abortive premiership of Conservative leader, Sir Anthony Eden. Finally, we learn about the part played by the Office in the dramatic events of the spring of 1982 as prime minister Margaret Thatcher evaluated with her closest advisers the prospects for re-taking the Falkland Islands following the Argentine invasion. Producer: Simon Coates. Peter Hennessy visits the Office of the Prime Minister in the House of Commons. Peter Hennessy explores how places influence political events |
| 03 | Lancaster House | 20100516 | 20110119 (R4) | In the concluding programme of his series showing how key political events have been shaped by where they took place, Peter Hennessy, the leading historian of post-war Britain, visits Lancaster House in central London. This imposing town house overlooking Green Park has been the venue for successful talks on a range of post-imperial problems, most notably the agreement leading to black majority rule in Rhodesia and the subsequent creation of the independent state of Zimbabwe. But it has also been important in the modern history of Northern Ireland and in the continuing conflict in Afghanistan. The programme traces the history of the Lancaster House Agreement on Rhodesia in 1979 involving in particular Lord Carrington, then British foreign secretary; Ian Smith, then Rhodesian prime minister; and the joint leaders of the Patriotic Front fighting against white minority rule - Robert Mugabe, leader of ZANU and later elected Zimbabwean president - and Joshua Nkomo, founder of ZAPU. Peter Hennessy shows how Lancaster House itself played a decisive part in the final agreement, paving the way for elections in 1980, and how its association with these successful negotiations ensured that it played a part in international diplomacy in subsequent decades. Producer: Simon Coates. Peter Hennessy visits Lancaster House, the location of deals on Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. Peter Hennessy explores how places influence political events |