1 Season
4 Episode
Dominic Sandbrook: Let Us Entertain You - Season 1 Episode 4 Me, Myself and I
The final programme looks at the way in which postwar culture has seen the triumph of an idea that first took hold during the Victorian period: the rise of the individual. Industrialisation may have led to a growth in collective identity, with the emergence of large, unified workforces and powerful unions, but the Victorian period also gave rise to the concept of the individual identity and self-determination. This was, after all, the era of the novel with its first-person narrator and focus on the lives of individual protagonists. It was the age of Samuel Smiles and his emphasis on self-help - 'Every human being has a great mission to perform, noble faculties to cultivate, a vast destiny to accomplish'. These seeds were planted in the Victorian era but reached fruition in the postwar years. Culture, after all, is egalitarian - talent trumps social background or circumstance.
- Year: 2015
- Country: United Kingdom
- Genre:
- Studio: BBC Two
- Keyword:
- Director:
- Cast: Dominic Sandbrook
"
