Sport and the British

Prog. 30 –The State of Play Clare Balding, with Professors Richard Holt, Tony Collins and Mike Cronin explores the cultural importance of the great triviality that is sport.

Prog. 29 – The Globalisation of the Game Clare Balding explores the way global television has changed our relationship with sport forever.

Prog. 28 – Rugby’s Big Bang Clare Balding explores why Rugby Union tried to stand firm against the encroaching tide of professionalism and in August 1995, lost.

Prog. 27 – Golden Girls Clare Balding looks at the female British athletes of the 1960's who finally took centre stage on the podium and in the press.

Prog. 26 – Sport for All Clare Balding asks why and when did the British government get involved in sport. How did sport become part of politics, in a country which had always prided itself on keeping them apart?

Prog. 25 – Beating us at our own game Clare Balding takes a look at Britain's most successful export ever - football. Yet in giving it to others, the British lost control of the game they had created and crafted.

Prog. 24 – The Gentleman Amateur Clare Balding's at Lords Cricket ground in London to explore the demise of the amateur gentleman and the rise of the professional player, as the 1960's saw the beginning of a new, more egalitarian era, in British sport.

Prog 23 –Driving Innovation Clare Balding discovers how horse racing may be the sport of kings but the princes, playboys and plutocrats of the modern era have preferred motor racing and the British have been at the wheel throughout.

Prog 22: Broadcasting to the Nation Clare Balding discovers how the birth of broadcasting changed British sport for ever.

Prog 21: War Games: Clare Balding visits The Imperial War Museum to discover the vital role sport has played, both on the battle field and on the home front, during both World Wars.

Prog. 20 Ireland: North of the Border While sport is endlessly talked of as a force for unity, today Clare Balding's in Belfast on the Falls Road, where sport was just another arena to reinforce divisions that rent the community in two.

Prog. 19 Ireland: Politics on the Pitch Clare Balding visits Croke Park in Dublin, to discover the story behind the formation of the Gaelic Athletic Association and it's founder Michael Cusack.

Prog. 18 Welsh Rugby and its National Heroes Clare Balding's at Cardiff Arms Park looking at the vital role rugby has played in shaping Welsh identity: the stadium was built to be an emblem of national pride, a fortress for Welsh sport in its capital city.

Prog. 17 Anyone But England Clare Balding is at Hampden Park in Glasgow, examining the part football has played in shaping Scotland's national identity and its changing relationship with England.

Prog. 16 Cricket And The English Hero If there's one sport that embodies Englishness, it's cricket. Clare Balding looks at how and why W.G.Grace, in the nineteenth century and Jack Hobbs, in the twentieth, became the opitome of a national sporting hero.