Presented by Dr Richard Marks. Why did the industrial revolution happen in Britain? Why not in France or Germany? Britain’s industrial development was due to a number of factors, both political and commercial although the role of the great innovators should never be overlooked. Britain’s first industrial revolution changed everything but has also left some historical myths to unravel.

Dr Richard Marks is an experienced published freelance historian and lecturer. After a career as a system engineer, Richard decided to follow his passion for history. His PhD thesis looked at the impact of railways upon the industrialisation of rural counties in the nineteenth century. Henow works as a freelance historian, writing books, acting as historical consultant to a number of museum exhibitions and television programmes and lecturing in social and industrial history at the University of Oxford.