The Adventure of English - Season 1

The Adventure of English - Season 1

Season 1

Network
DatesNov 6, 2003 - Nov 27, 2003

Episodes

Birth of a Language
Season 1Episode 165 min

Birth of a Language

We are going to delve down to the roots of the language and deduce its history - and in that one sentence we hear words from four different sources; delve from Dark Age Anglo-Saxon, root from Danish invaders, language from medieval French, and deduce from Renaissance Latin; four of the main - but not all - contributors to the richness of modern English.
Nov 6, 2003
English Goes Underground
Season 1Episode 265 min

English Goes Underground

We see how England was ruled for three centuries after the Conquest by a French-speaking king and court which used Latin for their official business. English was the language of the peasants; a third-class tongue in its own country.
Nov 6, 2003
The Battle for the Language of the Bible
Season 1Episode 365 min

The Battle for the Language of the Bible

This is the story of how English became the battleground in the fight for men's souls. The medieval church establishment kept the Bible in Latin, while those possessing an English translation risked death. We see the impact of printing on the English language, and how that fixed many of the anomalies of spelling and grammar that still make English so difficult for students to learn.
Nov 13, 2003
This Earth, This Realm, This England
Season 1Episode 465 min

This Earth, This Realm, This England

Visiting the England of Queen Elizabeth the First shows how naval enterprise and foreign trade brought scores of new words into the language. Scholars were bringing new Latin terms into the language, and there was a movement to stop this and keep English 'pure'. Shakespeare combined the languages of the common people and the aristocracy to take English to new heights and to invent so many memorable words and phrases.
Nov 13, 2003
English in America
Season 1Episode 565 min

English in America

Following the English language on its journey overseas and tracing the story of how the language of the British Isles became a language for the world - the most widely spoken and understood vernacular in history. In America the language of a small group of seventeenth-century English immigrants only survived through the most unlikely coincidence – but America was to develop a vigorous new vocabulary, and to spread it around the globe.
Nov 20, 2003
Speaking Proper
Season 1Episode 665 min

Speaking Proper

In eighteenth century Britain, the first English dictionary was produced. A cohort of grammarians imposed new rules on the language. English continued to change and develop and the way people talked and the words they used became a badge of class and breeding and social death could result from dropping an ‘h’ or using an inappropriate word.
Nov 20, 2003
The Language of Empire
Season 1Episode 765 min

The Language of Empire

Travelling to parts of the former British Empire, we see how English met other cultures and other languages, and was enriched by them. We travel to India to see how English began as the language of a few hundred pioneer merchants and became the force that unified an Empire of a thousand tongues. In the Caribbean Bragg discovers how a whole flock of new English dialects grew out of a mix of European and African influences, and in Australia he traces how the slang of transported convicts grew in confidence and finally escaped from the shadow of Standard English.
Nov 27, 2003
Many Tongues Called English, One World Language
Season 1Episode 865 min

Many Tongues Called English, One World Language

The concluding episode looks at how in the 20th century the rise of America as an industrial power has made it the driving force behind the global spread of English. The English language is now used by more people than ever before in history. As cultural influences affect the way people use English and new words come into everyday use, how does the Oxford English dictionary – the greatest repository of the language – keep up with developments.
Nov 27, 2003

Recently Updated Shows

Recently updated shows that might be of your interest.
Saturday Night Live
Running

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is an Emmy Award-winning late-night comedy showcase.

Since its inception in 1975, "SNL" has launched the careers of many of the brightest comedy performers of their generation. As The New York Times noted on the occasion of the show's Emmy-winning 25th Anniversary special in 1999, "in defiance of both time and show business convention, 'SNL' is still the most pervasive influence on the art of comedy in contemporary culture." At the close of the century, "Saturday Night Live" placed seventh on Entertainment Weekly's list of the Top 100 Entertainers of the past fifty years.

GenreComedy, Music
The Amazing Race
Running

The Amazing Race

From athletes and actors to tattoo artists, social workers and musicians - a diverse mix of teams will need to utilize their street smarts and savvy know-how to compete in the race of their lifetime.

GenreAction, Adventure, Family
The Sex Lives of College Girls
Running

The Sex Lives of College Girls

The Sex Lives of College Girls follows four lovably chaotic suite mates on a mission to grow into their truest, freest selves while attending Vermont's prestigious Essex College.

GenreComedy
Bookie
Running

Bookie

A veteran bookie struggles to survive the impending legalization of sports gambling, increasingly unstable clients, family, co-workers, and a lifestyle that bounces him around every corner of Los Angeles, high and low.

GenreComedy
The Madame Blanc Mysteries
Running

The Madame Blanc Mysteries

Jean White is an antiques dealer who runs a successful business with her husband, Rory. But when he suddenly dies and leaves her nearly penniless, Jean relocates to their one remaining asset - a cottage in French antiques hub Saint Victoire - and begins investigating Rory's mysterious death.

GenreDrama, Thriller