Ian Hislop is to examine the dramatic cultural revolution that Britain underwent in the 19th century in The Do-Gooders (working title), a new series for BBC Two focusing on influential Victorian reformers.
The three-part series will examine one of the most remarkable periods of social change in our history, exploring attitudes to children, sex, alcohol and institutional morality, reclaiming the achievements of those high-minded men and women who Ian believes left us a Britain worth living in.
The series will be packed with extraordinary characters, fascinating vignettes and contemporary resonances. I n uncovering these stories, the series will attempt to relocate those values which the Victorians bequeathed to us and which, though they're easily mocked, have made us much of who we are.
Ian Hislop says: "Victorian do-goodery is easy to mock and tends to be presented nowadays merely as hypocrisy. In fact its extraordinary energy rescued a society in turmoil and gave it many of the moral bearings we still rely on today. The Do-Gooders in their way were as much the engineers of modern Britain as Brunel or Stephenson – they looked at their equivalent of "broken Britain" and had the conviction and energy to try to fix it."
Executive producer for the BBC is Cassian Harrison. For Wingspan, the Series Producer is Deborah Lee and the Executive Producer is Archie Baron.
Archie says: "We've hugely enjoyed working with Ian in the last three years on single documentaries for the BBC like Scouting For Boys, Off The Rails – BBC Four's highest rating factual programme ever – and Changing of the Bard. Now in this series Ian lends his unique combination of wit and wisdom to a much bigger subject with incredible resonance today."
