What the Victorians Did for Us

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What the Victorians Did for Us
WhatTheVictoriansDidForUs.jpg
GenreDocumentary
Presented byAdam Hart-Davis
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes8
Production
Producers
Editors
  • David Murray
Running time23 minutes
DistributorBBC
Release
Original networkBBC Two
Original release3 September (2001-09-03) –
22 October 2001 (2001-10-22)
Chronology
Preceded byWhat the Romans Did for Us
Followed byWhat the Tudors Did for Us
External links
Website

What the Victorians Did for Us is a 2001 BBC documentary series that examines the impact of the Victorian era on modern society. It concentrates primarily on the scientific and social advances of the era, which bore the Industrial Revolution and set the standards for polite society today.

Episodes[]

Speed Merchants[]

Video on YouTube

Playing God[]

Video on YouTube

Rule Makers[]

Video on YouTube

In 1875, the Bulldog Club defined the perfect British Bulldog, in a booklet that was circulated to breeders everywhere. From dogs to engineering, from sports to space and time, the world was becoming obsessed by standards, and the rules that defined them. This was the world of the Victorians.

— Adam Hart-Davis
  • Victorians standardised the rules for association football, or soccer, based on a range of games already played, such as the Eton wall game.
  • Walter Clopton Wingfield invented the game of lawn tennis, which allowed young men and women to socialise together, and to get more exercise than by playing the sedate game of croquet.
  • Victorians set down rules for formal dining, and invented the fish knife. Mrs Beeton documented recipes and how to run a household.
  • Florence Nightingale recorded extensive details of wounded soldiers in the Crimean War, and used these statistics to demonstrate to a Royal Commission the effectiveness of simple hygiene in reducing unnecessary deaths.
  • In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev formulated the periodic table of the chemical elements, including gaps where as-yet undiscovered elements would fit.
  • Joseph Whitworth devised a series of standards for engineering, and built a rifle with an accurately-rifled barrel.
  • Greenwich Observatory was used to define the official time for the whole country, and the zero line of longitude.

Crime and Punishment[]

Video on YouTube

Social Progress[]

Video on YouTube

Pleasure Seekers[]

Video on YouTube

Making It Big[]

Video on YouTube

Conquerors[]

Video on YouTube

External links[]


Retrieved from ""