Melvyn Bragg's Travels in Written Britain

In Episode 1, Melvyn Bragg travels around the north of England. The north-eastern town of Jarrow sets the scene for centuries of diverse writing, from the Venerable Bede to the steelworkers of the Industrial Revolution. The earliest surviving writing in Britain was found nearby, at the Vindolanda dig near Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland. Bragg also travels through the Lake District, inspiration to William Wordsworth and Alfred Wainwright, and the Pennines, backdrop to Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

In Episode 2, Melvyn Bragg examines literary London, from William Wordsworth to Martin Amis. Starting with Wordsworth's celebration of a London dawn, written at Tower Bridge, Bragg travels by river boat and double-decker bus to explore the capital's rich literary history. Novelisy Martin Amis reads from Dickens, and Boris Johnson MP from an 18th-century issue of The Spectator. Bragg also discovers treasures from sources as diverse as the Illustrated London News and detective fiction:

In Episode 3, Melvyn Bragg meanders through the Midlands, from John Clare's Northamptonshire countryside to the Birmingham of the Industrial Revolution.

In the final episode of the series Bragg follows in the footsteps of Scotland's early tourists, including the 18th-century man of letters Samuel Johnson. He travels from Edinburgh to the Trossachs, North Berwick and Stirling experiencing the literature that chronicles the area's turmoils, taking a particular look at the poem by Robert Burns A Man's a Man for Aw That - a contender to be the country's national anthem