The Country House Revealed (2011)

The families of six of Britain's greatest private country houses, none open to the public, throw open their doors and release their secrets to historian Dan Cruickshank. Featuring properties never before seen on television, The Country House Revealed is released from BBC DVD on 20th June 2011.

From the Tudor ebullience of South Wraxall Manor to the rigour of Kinross in Scotland; the beauty of Hawksmoor's Easton Neston to the palatial Georgian sweep of Wentworth Woodhouse; the Victorian exuberance of Clandeboye to the Edwardian ingenuity at Marsh Court, the properties exemplify the changing architecture and fortunes of the nation itself.

All are still lived in as family homes. But their owners have agreed to go beyond a few carefully selected highlights, and open the entirety of their homes to Dan Cruickshank. Dan has the run of each estate, roaming the corridors, poking into attics and rummaging in cellars. No hat-box or trunk is unturned as Dan teases out each home's story - who built them, the generations who lived in them, and the families who lost them.

Along the way he has uncovered tales of excess and profligacy, tragedy, comedy, power and ambition. And as these intriguing narratives take shape, Dan shows how the story of each house is indissoluble from the social and economic history of Britain. Each one is built as a wave of economic development crests, or crumbles. Each one's architecture and design is therefore expressive of the aims, strengths and frailties of those who built them, and together they plot the psychological, economic and social route map of our country's ruling class in this rich new telling of our island story.

Please note - Disc special features are subject to change, may differ from format to format and/or may differ from region to region.