A Very British Renaissance

Now, in a new series for BBC Two, Dr James Fox looks back at a forgotten British Renaissance, celebrating an age that saw Britain shed its medieval shackles and embrace a world of cutting-edge art, literature, architecture and science. Across three episodes, James reveals the painters, sculptors, poets, thinkers and figures who, he argues, brought a bold and beautiful artistic movement to our shores between the 1500s to the start of the English civil war. In the opening episode, James explores how the Renaissance arrived, with a handful of influential European artists bringing ideas from the continent in the early 16th century - from the inspiration of Torrigiano, who fled Florence after a fist fight with Michelangelo, to Holbein and his influence on painter John Bettes - thought to be the first English Renaissance-trained artist. Although impossible without this foreign stimulus, this renaissance quickly became quintessentially British - and it was gaining momentum

In this episode, he explores the Elizabethans' love of secrecy, codes and complexity, and the cultural revolution sparked by an age of discovery and exploration.

Dr James Fox explores how the tension between two cultures - one courtly, classical and European and the other homegrown, innovative and vital - contributed to England's descent into civil war in the mid-17th century. Concluding episode of the programme celebrating an age that saw Britain embrace a world of cutting-edge art, literature, architecture and science.