The Story of India: Synopsis & Praise
Broadcasters: BBC2 & PBS
A Michael Wood History Series
Duration
6 x 60minBBC/PBS co-production
Awards
Winner - Accolade Award of Excellence, TV Mini-series
Winner - Accolade Honorable Mention, Cinematography
Winner - Accolade Honorable Mention, Editing
Praise
Week 1
“This is how it should have been done in the first place – you’ll be hooked from the start”
The Sunday Times
This week’s most awesome documentary Michael Wood marvels at ancient origins in a history of India
The Times Online
“Heady and fascinating stuff”
The Mail on Sunday
(The story of India with) “the knowledgeable,enthusiastic and eternally boyish Michael Wood…this one stands out as a superior product”
The Daily Mail
“Michael wood has a brilliant knack of bringing history to life … well worth watching”
The Observer
“Wood knows his stuff”
The Daily Mail
“A fascinating start to Michael wood’s energetic six part look at India …..he delivers a gripping history”
The Telegraph
“Plenty to be awestruck about”
Paul Hoggart’s TV Choice, The Times
"Michael Wood loves India. When he starts to tell you about its 10,000-year history, the excitement and passion in his voice is undeniable."
The Daily Mirror
"With characteristic gusto, Wood explores the incomparable continuity embodied in Indian tradition."
The Daily Telegraph
"Wood delivers a gripping history"
The Daily Telegraph
“At least, in contrast to some other, celeb-led programmes in the season, Wood knows his stuff.”
The Daily Mail
“India’s pre-Raj history is largely unknown in the West, and it falls to the historian Michael Wood to tell it in this fascinating six-parter.”
The Independent
“An exuberant, plush and poetic geography-biography...A heady, humbling film.”
The Guardian
“It is a visual feast packed with extraordinary information.”
The Times
Week 2
“Wood tells the story of India’s pursuit of ideas with a wide-eyed boyishness that can’t help but draw you in.”
Seven Magazine (The Telegraph)
“Wood has great enthusiasm for his material. He has four programmes left and I do recommend that you watch them.”
The Observer
“It’s a big rambling story, but Wood holds it together.”
The Sunday Times
"This is a cut above BBC2’s other recent Friday night offering, Ganges.”
The Daily Telegraph
“This is a terrific series, a visual feast that boldly sketches overviews of vast tracts of history...”
The Times
“...it’s a genuine delight to watch one presented by a historian. Wood shows colour and exoticism without being patronising, and without resorting to ingratiating gurning at the camera – for him, facts come before ego.”
The Independent
"Michael Wood presents with gusto, the first of all populist TV historians and still the best, in spite of the effortfully matey gesticulators who followed. Fascinating."
The Financial Times
"Michael Wood's series is a colourful highlight."
The independent
Week 3
“Jeremy Jeff’s photography is so sumptuous, so languorous and so downright hypnotic, you’ll be totally transfixed by the ravishing visuals.”
Radio Times
“The sumptuous visuals almost detract from the erudite Michael Wood’s enthusiastic commentary in this superb documentary about India’s spice and silk routes.”
Radio Times
“Energetic, enthusiastic presenter Michael Wood supplies a clear historical perspective accompanied by an uncomplicated narrative...unmissable.”
The Observer
“Excellent series.”
The Telegraph
“Michael Wood’s enlightening series.”
The Independent
Week 4
“Michael Wood continues to charm with his fascinating take on the history of Indian civilization, although the sumptuous photography still threatens to steal his thunder.”
Radio Times
“This has become my visual treat of the week. There’s shot after glorious shot...”
Jane Rackham, Radio Times
“Fabulous television – fascinating and beautifully filmed.”
Weekend, Daily Mail
“As ever, a seductive blend of stunning visuals and intelligent, illuminating commentary.”
Weekend, Daily Mail
“...there is a wealth of material in this opulent and exotic series that deserves to be treated with awe.”
The Knowledge, The Times
Week 5
“It’s impossible not to be swept up by his descriptions – Wood is a terrific storyteller.”
Radio Times
“The penultimate episode of Michael Wood’s visually stunning, intellectually stimulating series...”
Weekend Daily Mail
“The penultimate episode of Michael Wood’s brilliant series is perhaps the most visually beautiful yet, as the indefatigable historian explores the wonders of the Moghul Empire...”
Weekend Daily Mail
“Yesteryear’s history heartthrob Michael Wood walks and talks around the subcontinent.”
The Guide
“Michael Wood continues his infectiously enthusiastic portrait of India’s cultural history.”
Time Out
"Wood doesn’t dominate the programme with his pieces to camera but rather lets India illustrate the story itself; the beauty and diversity of this vast land has rarely come over so clearly.”
Time Out
Synopsis
The world's largest democracy and a rising economic giant, India is now as well known across the globe for its mastery of computer technology as it is for its many-armed gods and its famous spiritual traditions. But India is also the world's most ancient surviving civilisation, with unbroken continuity back into prehistory.
Like other great civilisations - Greece or Egypt for example, over the millennia it has enjoyed not just one but several brilliant golden ages in art and culture. Its great thinkers and religious leaders have permanently changed the face of the globe. But while the glories of Rome, Egypt, and Greece, have all been the subject of TV portraits, as yet there has been no television story of India on our screens. This series sets out for the first time to do that: to show a world audience the wonders of India; the incredible richness and diversity of its peoples, cultures and landscapes; and the intense drama of its past, including some of the most momentous, exciting and moving events in world history.
India's history is a five thousand year epic. For half of that time, over two millennia, India has been at the centre of world history. It has seen successive invasions from Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan to Tamburlaine and the British, all of whom left their mark but all of whom succumbed, in the end, to India herself. For all that time India has been famous for its spiritual traditions; it gave birth to two world religions, one of which -Buddhism- had a profound impact on all of East Asia, China, Japan and Korea, and in modern times has found root even in the US and Europe. The subcontinent is home to one of the world's greatest -and least understood- artistic traditions and to an extraordinary spectrum of music, dance and literature. India was also, and still is, a great centre for technology and science, inventing —for example— the decimal system with absolute zero, which is the basis of all modern science, mathematics and economics. India gave birth to some of the most remarkable characters in world history, including the Buddha, the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, and the Moghul emperor Akbar the Great, not to mention the likes of Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi.
Now, in the era of globalization, India has once again become a leading player in the world. Home to more than one billion people it is a land of amazing contrasts: it contains both the high tech brilliance of Bangalore's Silicon Valley and the archaic splendour of the Kumbh Mela festival, where 25 million pilgrims come to bathe in the sacred river Ganges on a single night. While moving at high speed into the 3rd millennium, India alone, of all the civilisations on the face of the earth, is still in touch with her ancient past.
In this landmark six-part series for PBS and the BBC, Michael Wood will embark on a dazzling and exciting journey through today's India, 'seeking in the present for clues to her past, and in the past for clues to her future'. 
Shot on HD with 5.1 Surround Sound