Sport and the British

Prog. 15 A Bit Of A Flutter Clare Balding looks at the role gambling has played in our relationship with sport as she continues her exploration into how Britain made sport and sport made Britain.

Prog. 14 Women Between the Wars Clare Balding discovers how working women finally got their sporting chance, through the leisure activities offered by many major employers, at the turn of the twentieth century.

Prog. 13 Fighting Back Clare Balding looks at the relationship between boxing and Britain's ethnic minorities.She visits the Lynn Boxing Club in South London.

Prog. 12 Tennis and Golf in Suburbia Clare Balding continues to explore the history of sport in Britain and visits one of the oldest tennis clubs in the country in Leamington Spa. In Victorian Britain, lawn tennis took off thanks to the growing numbers of the middle class.

Prog. 11 Rugby's Great Split As Clare Balding continues to explore the unique relationship Britain has had with sport, she tells a tale of civil-war within a sport: rugby.

Prog. 10 Exporting Football CLARE BALDING charts how Britain spread the passion for football around the world. She particularly looks at South America where the game is central to their way of life.

Prog. 9 The Dawn of Professional Football CLARE BALDING tells the story of how football went from an amateur pasttime to big business and it all started in the Lancashire mill town of Preston.

Prog. 8 The Formal Empire CLARE BALDING explains how sport became a way of transmitting British values around the globe; it was a connection to the mother country and a means of educating the Empire's native subjects.

Prog. 7 The Corinthian Ideal Clare Balding examines the era when footballers were expected to be gentlemen,both on and off the pitch.

Prog 6; Playing Like Ladies CLARE BALDING discovers that the freedoms Victorian public school girls found on the sports field were a precursor to the political and social freedoms that would change British society forever.

Prog. 5 The Making of Men As CLARE BALDING continues to chart the way the British have shaped sport and sport has shaped Britain, she visits Rugby to discover how the visionary headmaster, Thomas Arnold, ensured games lay at the heart of school life, producing men ready to rule.

Prog.4 The unsporting side of sport CLARE BALDING watches all sections of society gather on Epsom Downs to watch the Derby, the biggest day of the flat racing year. In her exploration of the way Britain has shaped sport and sport has shaped the British, Clare looks at the socially unifying power of the race course and the way sport and gambling have become inextricably linked.

Prog. 3 The Bare Fists of Boxing CLARE BALDING explores the way the British have shaped sport and sport has shaped Britain. An ability to box defined the 19th century alpha male. No gloves or weapons, pugilism was pure, painful and deeply patriotic.

Prog. 2 A Level Playing Field CLARE BALDING explores how the British shaped sport and sport shaped Britain. If the French had played cricket, would they have prevented the revolution? Clare visits Broadhalfpenny Down in Hampshire, the original home of Hambledon Cricket Club, that's widely regarded as the birthplace of modern cricket.

Sport and The British Prog. 1 The Rise of Olympism CLARE BALDING charts how Britain has shaped sport and sport has shaped the British.In this thirty part narrative history series with the help of the academic team from the International Centre for Sport History and Culture at De Montfort University, Clare looks at the unique and vital role sport has played, and continues to play, in our national life. As we gear up for the 2012 games, in this first programme she looks at the birth of the modern olympics movement.