BBC - King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons (2013) Part 1 Alfred of Wessex

Series in which Michael Wood examines the careers of three Anglo-Saxon rulers. Michael Wood argues that the most important and influential British kings were a father, son and grandson who lived over a thousand years ago during the age of the Vikings.

Part 1: Alfred of Wessex

Michael Wood tells the story of King Alfred the Great and his children and grandson, arguing that they were the most important rulers in the history of England - shaping the nation itself, founding cities, establishing law and government and reviving the language and literature that still define the English today. And all this was achieved while waging a life and death struggle against the Vikings. In the first episode Alfred fights a desperate guerrilla war in the marshes of Somerset - burning the cakes on the way- before his decisive victory at Edington. Creating towns, trade and coinage, reviving learning and literacy, Alfred then laid the foundations of a single kingdom of 'all the English'. Filmed on location from Reading to Rome, using original texts read in Old English, and interviews with leading scholars, Michael Wood describes a man who was 'not just the greatest Briton, but one of the greatest rulers of any time or place'.

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