Crown and Country

Edward Windsor chooses Tower Hill and the Pool of London as his starting point for the series, and tells us why this is where the story of London really began. Travelling east on a River Police launch we learn about the origins of the force, which celebrated its 200th anniversary in 1998. See the glories of Greenwich, the Isle of Dogs and return for an insiders guide to the Tower of London.

Travelling west from the Tower, Edward Windsor has the Royal Watermen as guides on a voyage that passes some of the English capital's famous landmarks. We visit the city's first amusement park, visit the Royal Hospital at Chelsea with the Duke of Edinburgh, and hear how a Lord tried to cheat the Chelsea pensioners out of a fortune.

Why did King William, the Conqueror of England, build castles in these towns on opposite sides of London? Edward Windsor explores this and some of the other historic links the towns have. We visit a magnificent garden that was given away by the Crown, and hear about the death of the country's most adored Princess in the 19th Century.

This episode tells the odd tale of two towns and two very different but equally fascinating women; Queen Elizabeth who learned she was Queen of England while in a garden at Hatfield House, and Lady Caroline Lamb whose strange antics enlivened proceedings at nearby Brockett Hall! Edward Windsor also reveals how the Cathedral at St. Albans brought a new word into the English vocabulary.

Edward Windsor visits the two Palaces at the very heart of the Crown's power. One where the sovereign is crowned and the other where the sovereign rules: Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster. What is the origin of the Royal pomp and ceremony, and what symbolic significance do the various artefacts have.

Buckingham Palace is probably London's most famous building, but how did it come to fulfil its current role? Edward Windsor, no stranger to the corridors of the palace, takes us behind the scenes at "BP". We also discover London's great "missing Palace", and find out the unexpected connection between France's Versailles and the English capital.