Plot Synopsis

In this three-part series Lucy Worsley will delve into the history of romance to uncover the forces shaping our very British happily ever after. The series reveals how even our most intimate thoughts and feelings have been affected by social, political and cultural ideas.

In this first episode, Lucy Worsley's exploration of three centuries of love's rituals begins in the Georgian age, when the rules of courtship were being rewritten. Traditionally marriage had been as much about business as love. Lucy examines how women in the 18th century started to have an unprecedented degree of romantic freedom, partly due to the cult of 'sensibility' -- a fashionable vogue for more emotionally-heightened living. Lucy will then explore the glamorisation of romantic love that followed the emergence of the romantic novel in the 18th century. Lucy will consider whether the work of Samuel Richardson, Fanny Burney and Jane Austen, as well as providing escapism, provoked readers to seek out in their own lives the feelings and emotions they found in the novels -- so having a profound effect on the desires and aspirations of the entire age.

In the second installment, Lucy Worsley delves into the history of romance to reveal how even our most intimate thoughts and feelings have been affected by social, political and cultural ideas. In this second episode, Lucy reaches into the Victorian age to uncover the forces shaping our very British happily-ever-after. Lucy explores the romantic gestures which emerged in the Victorian age and remain today, such as performing romantic songs and sending flowers. In 1840, the arrival of the 'penny post' made it affordable to send a written expression of love, and by the 19th century Valentine's cards were being produced in factories, cementing this as a customary romantic gesture. Lucy learns the complicated Victorian language of flowers, where each flower represented a particular idea or emotion, allowing lovers to communicate through their choice of bouquet. She also looks at how medieval chivalry shaped Victorian courtship, defining the roles that men and women had to play in romance. Throughout the episode Lucy dips into popular novels of the time such as Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, East Lynne by Mrs Henry Wood and Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells, discovering that the passion explored in fiction was translating into real life desires.

Lucy Worsley concludes her series on British romance by exploring the period with the most dramatic transformation of romance yet -- the 20th century. Lucy looks at the impact of World War I on the romantic fortunes of the British. With the death of hundreds of thousands of men from one generation, many women were to be left without hope of marriage. Emerging from the tragedy was a racier species of romantic lover and a hedonistic 1920s era with more permissive attitudes. Lucy will consider the new ways of dating, such as dining out for two and a visit to the cinema, and how these were affecting romance by allowing couples to get to know one another without a chaperone. Lucy will chart the gay rights movement in the 20th century - showing that as the importance of romance increased, society would begin to take a 'human rights' based approach to romantic love. Throughout the episode Lucy will explore the popular literature of the time, such as The Sheik and Lady Chatterley's Lover, and discover that romance and sex were becoming more clearly intertwined ideals for those who wanted to be true soulmates.

A VERY BRITISH ROMANCE WITH LUCY WORSLEY had its U.S. premiere on Sunday, February 9, 2020 at 8pm on PBS (check local listings).