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Knights of the Road: The Highwayman's Story
Series charting the age of the outlaw begins with the arrival of a new breed of gentleman criminal out of the ashes of the Civil War.
Few figures in British history have captured the popular imagination as much as the outlaw. From gentleman highwaymen, via swashbuckling pirates to elusive urban thieves and rogues, the brazen escapades and the flamboyance of the outlaw made them the antihero of their time - feared by the rich, admired by the poor and celebrated by writers and artists.
In this three-part series, historian Dr Sam Willis travels the open roads, the high seas and urban alleyways to explore Britain's 17th- and 18th-century underworld of highwaymen, pirates and rogues, bringing the great age of the British outlaw vividly to life.
Sam shows that, far from being 'outsiders', outlaws were very much a product of their time, shaped by powerful national events. In each episode, he focuses not just on a particular type of outlaw, but a particular era - the series as a whole offers a chronological portrait of the changing face of crime in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Sam begins with the arrival of a new breed of gentleman criminal out of the ashes of the English Civil War - the highwayman. Heavily romanticised in literature, these glamorous gangsters became a social menace on the roads and a political thorn in the side of the creaking British state - threatening to steal our wallets and our hearts. But underneath the dashing image of stylish robbers on horseback lay a far darker reality.
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See all episodes from Britain's Outlaws: Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues
Clips
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Rise of the Highwayman
Duration: 00:54
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Will the real Dick Turpin please stand up?
Duration: 01:34
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Highwaymen didn't get everything their own way
Duration: 00:28
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The Highwayman's manual
Duration: 01:52
Music Played
Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes
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00:02
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
Martha's Dream
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00:16
Dustin O'Halloran, Maurizio Borgna
Snow + Light
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00:18
Plastic Bertrand
Ca Plane Pour Moi
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00:34
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
The Proposition #3
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00:41
The Who
The Seeker (Glastonbury 2015)
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00:41
Link Wray
Rumble
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00:45
Julia Kent
Only Child
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00:57
Michael Price, Rael Jones
In Pursuit of Immortality
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Sam Willis |
Producer | Andy Hall |
Director | Andy Hall |
Series Producer | William Naylor |
Executive Producer | Michael Poole |
Assistant Producer | Christopher Boreham |
Production Coordinator | Emily Casstles |
Broadcasts
- Mon 23 Nov 2015 21:00
- Tue 24 Nov 2015 02:35
- Wed 25 Nov 2015 00:00
- Sat 28 Nov 2015 20:00
- Sat 11 Mar 2017 19:00
- Fri 17 Mar 2017 00:30
- Thu 31 Aug 2017 20:00
- Fri 1 Sep 2017 03:00
- Tue 20 Mar 2018 23:00
- Wed 21 Mar 2018 03:00
- Sun 17 Feb 2019 19:00
- Mon 18 Feb 2019 01:30
- Sun 23 Feb 2020 23:00
- Mon 20 Apr 2020 22:50
- Sat 8 Jan 2022 19:10
- Mon 10 Jan 2022 02:25
- Sat 4 Nov 2023 20:00
- Sun 5 Nov 2023 02:35
Featured in...
Britain's Outlaws
Swashbuckling series in which Dr Sam Willis charts the great age of the British outlaw.
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