Empire's Children

Richard Armitage narrated a documentary series about the British Empire on Channel 4 in July and August 2007.

Empire's Children is a six part series about some of the people who lived in various parts of the British Empire. It was made by Wall to Wall for Channel 4 and tells the stories of six British celebrities with connections to the empire. Three of them come from families who moved to Britain from countries of the empire, while the other three were born to British parents living abroad in the empire.

The first programme tells the story of actress Diana Rigg, who grew up in India during the last years of British rule. The second programme is about actress Shobna Gulati, whose parents emigrated from Bombay to Oldham.

In the third programme, David Steel, former leader of the Liberal Party, discovers how his father, a Presbyterian minister in Kenya, spoke out against the way the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s was handled by the colonial government. Actor Chris Bisson's story is told in programme four - his family came to England from Trinidad, but had originated in India.

Jenny Eclair returns to Malaysia in the fifth programme. She was born there while her father was serving in the British Army during the Malay Emergency. The final programme tells how actor Adrian Lester's family came to Britain from Jamaica.

Further details of the series and the stories it tells, as well as information about the British Empire and help in tracing family connections in the countries of the empire, can be found on the programme's website. A book of the series is available at Amazon UK.

Links

Empire's Children website at Channel 4
Wall to Wall