Leonardo BBC

Dangerous Liaisons (1x2)

Air date: Apr 27, 2003

Following Leonardo's journey from Milan to Venice in 1500, where he proposes to the Doges a novel form of warfare, a crack team of underwater divers to help sink the invading Turkish fleet. Would such a thing have been possible in the 16th century? Spurned by the Venetians, Leonardo designs war machines for the bloodthirsty tyrant Cesare Borgia before returning to Florence, where his lifelong obsession with flight culminates in the design of a flying machine, which we build and test. But it is in Florence, while painting the Mona Lisa, that he becomes locked in a bitter rivalry with the sculptor Michelangelo, which will end in his undoing.