Britain's Best Buildings

Dan Cruickshank travels to Snowdonia where his exploration of famous buildings continues. He visits Harlech Castle, a fortress on the Welsh coast built by Edward I, which was the focus for a number of bitter conflicts between the English and their neighbours.

It was the main residence of English royalty from the middle of the 11th Century until a fire in 1512 caused Henry VIII to relocate. From 1547 the Commons met in what had been the Royal Chapel of St Stephen - all private chapels were abolished at that time. In 1834 the Palace was burned down; only Westminster Hall, the Jewel Tower and the crypt of St Stephen's Chapel and its cloisters were spared. Work on the current Houses of Parliament was started in 1840 by Sir Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Pugin was completed in 18.

Dan Cruickshank explores the history of Derbyshire's Hardwick Hall, the unspoilt Elizabethan manor built in the late 16th century by Bess, Countess of Shrewsbury, who amassed fabulous riches in a series of judicious marriages and survived one of the messiest and most public divorce cases ever seen in Britain.

Dan Cruickshank visits the Georgian city of Bath to explore the Circus, a perfect circle of palatial terraced houses covered in strange symbols and ornamentation. Designed by architect John Wood and admired by Jane Austen, the properties soon ranked among the most fashionable addresses in the country.