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After the House of Lords blocks voting reform, unrest spills out onto the streets. Read by Adrian Scarborough. From May 2013.

'The struggle for the Great Reform Bill of 1832 took place a the crossroads of English history.' - so says Antonia Fraser in her lively and insightful account of the political change took take place during this period.

Times were in flux. The Industrial Revolution was underway. The reverberations of the French Revolution were still being felt. And the country would be ruled by a new monarch, William IV.

And political change, who and how we would vote, was now in the spotlight. Put there mainly by the
Whigs - led by Earl Grey.

Age-old corruption, rotten boroughs, even hereditary peers would feel these winds of change. But how would the Bill be made law? Bumpily and dramatically, as it turned out, and its path is followed in five episodes, which are abridged by Katrin Williams:

4. Reform of Parliament is stalling, the Bill cannot get through. So the Mob is on the streets of Sherbourne and Bristol. In fact, unrest seems likely everywhere..

Reader Adrian Scarborough
Producer Duncan Minshull.

15 minutes

Credits

Role Contributor
Author Antonia Fraser
Producer Duncan Minshull
Abridger Katrin Williams
Reader Adrian Scarborough

Broadcasts

  • Thu 16 May 2013 09:45
  • Fri 17 May 2013 00:30
  • Thu 15 Mar 2018 14:45
  • Fri 16 Mar 2018 02:45

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