The Romantics and Us with Simon Schama

With contributions from Harriet Walter, Christopher Eccleston, hip-hop artist Testament and French street artist P-Boy, Simon Schama explores the elixir of rebellion and the idea - so powerful in the words and images of William Blake - that imaginative passion can conquer mechanical logic and create an art for the people.

With contributions from Tobias Menzies, Peter Doherty, Piotr Anderszewski and Sir David Attenborough, Simon tells the story of how the romantics - fuelled by the failures of the French Revolution and horrors of the industrial revolution - retreated from the tragic uproar of public life to take a journey into their own minds. Here, long before the invention of modern psychology, they discovered the subconscious, something that would have a profound effect on our modern world.

Simon Schama explores the genesis of modern nationalism - its romantic roots in a new idea of nature and homeland, the 'discovery' of native folklore and above all the part played by music - especially Frederic Chopin's mazurkas - in generating the emotion of national belonging.