Ken Burns: The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

A frail, asthmatic young Theodore Roosevelt transforms himself into a champion of the strenuous life, leads men into battle and then rises like a rocket to become the youngest president in American history at 42. Meanwhile, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, brought up as the pampered only child of adoring parents, follows his older cousin's career with fascination.

A seven-part series by Ken Burns concerning one of the most important families in American history. After William McKinley's assassination, Theodore Roosevelt arrives in Washington in 1901 as the youngest President of the United States. He is unwilling to let Congress dictate federal policies and, with industrial production and profits booming, he outlines his opposition to the fact that just a handful of wealthy men control the trusts and reap the benefits.

With his election to the New York State Senate in 1910, Franklin D Roosevelt sets out to make a name for himself in Albany, much as Theodore Roosevelt had done 29 years earlier. He joins forces with reform-minded Democrats to fight against the powerful bosses of their own party and battles for state government and labour reforms.

In the 1920s, memories of Theodore Roosevelt begin to fade. The Great War is over, Woodrow Wilson is ill and the American public is weary of domestic reform and events overseas. The Republican Party nominates Warren G Harding for president, while Democratic nominee James M Cox chooses 38-year-old Franklin D Roosevelt to be his running mate. FDR campaigns with relish and eventually persuades Eleanor to join him as he travels around the country.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal restores people's self-confidence; as the 1930s come to a close, FDR faces two issues -- whether to run for a third term and how to deal with Adolf Hitler.

President Roosevelt prepares the U.S. for its entry into World War II; Eleanor pushes to keep the New Deal reforms alive in wartime; FDR learns that he has congestive heart failure in 1943 but decides to run for a fourth term.