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In recent times, several historians have taken to producing their own documentaries on the British Empire.
One useful, if very sympathetic, series is the one by Harvard Professor Niall Ferguson.
The six-part series is an adaptation of his controversial book Empire: How Britain Changed the World. Especially tantalising is his proposition that the origins of the Empire can be traced to, among others, the murky world of pirates.
EMPIRE: HOW BRITAIN CHANGED THE WORLD
Episode One: Why Britain
Episode Two: White Plague
BBC DOCUMENTARY ON THE BRITISH EMPIRE
This series was written and produced by the well known journalist Jeremy Paxman.
Not a supporter of empire by any measure, Paxman in fact set out to document the empire as a negative force, a culprit in abuse, exploitation and violence. What he found all over the ex-colonies, were sentiments much more complex, intricate and even mystifying.
Episode Two: Making Ourselves At Home
Episode Four: Making a Fortune
Episode Five: Doing Good
END OF EMPIRE
This documentary series (1985) traces the process of decolonisation through the decades following the Second World War. It is based on the book of the same name, End of Empire, by Brian Lapping.
This was a book I picked up and read while an undergraduate in Vancouver. It helped me a little in understanding the sudden surge of immigration from the then British colony of Hong Kong, virtually on the eve of the handover back to China.
Episode 1: The Beginning of the End
Episode 2: India, Engine of War
Episode 3: India, the Muslim Card
Episode 4: Divide and Quit
Episode 6: Palestine
Episode 7: Iran
Episode 8: Egypt
Episode 9: Aden
Episode 10: Cyprus
Episode 11: The Gold Coast
Episode 12: Kenya
Episode 13: The Rider and the Horse
Episode 14: Rhodesia
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