Season 1

Written Britain could historically be said to begin in the North of England. The first history of the country was written – by a monk, the Venerable Bede - in the early years of the eighth century, in the monastery that used to stand at Jarrow, on the river Tyne in North-East England. The journey continues to Hadrian’s Wall and across to the Lakes taking in Basil Bunting, pitman poet Joseph Skipsey, Wordsworth, Catherine Cookson and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. And, alongside ex-miners and steel workers, stone masons and a dry-stone waller, the North of England is shown to be rich in writings. The earliest surviving writings in Britain were found at the Vindolanda Dig, situated to the South of Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, where thousands of Roman stone and wooden tablets made by Roman soldiers were unearthed. Dating back to the first century AD, the British Museum has declared them the most important single domestic find ever, giving an insight into their everyday life. Contributors include: The Bishop of Durham, Robson Green, Tim Healy, Keith Barron, Hunter Davies, Chris Bonington.

A journey through London examining the street slang of Shakespeare's day and the language of the foul-mouthed Thames boatmen. Plus, the Victorian view on the squalor of the East End and a look at Britain's seafaring tradition in Gravesend. With contributions from Stephen Fry, Boris Johnson, Tracey Emin and Ken Livingstone

Examining the literary heritage of the Midlands, from John Clare's poetic vision of the Northamptonshire countryside to George Eliot's Middlemarch. The presenter explores a landscaped park at Hagley Hall and the village of Bourneville, designed to be a worker's paradise, before taking in Shakespeare's Stratford by way of Ambridge. Contributions from Simon Russell Beale, Christopher Lee and Meera Syal

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