CALLUM’S CREATURE COMFORTS

The Romantics of 200 years ago pioneered ideas that still resonate today, says Simon Schama in a fascinating new BBC series

Callum Woodhouse’s passion for animals wasn’t sated by filming four series of The Durrells amid a menagerie including lizards and pelicans. ‘I wanted to take home the animals on All Creatures Great And Small, including Sheila the Alsatian,’ says Callum, who plays Tristan Farnon (above) in C5’s reboot. ‘One shot is a close-up of my face being licked by this beautiful dog. Heaven!’

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The very word conjures up images of flouncy-haired drugtakers waffling on about nature and free love. And rightly so, says historian Sir Simon Schama in a fascinating new three-part series about the Romantic movement. But, he argues, there’s much more to it than that.

Nationalism, revolution, selfobsession, environmentalism… ideas that seem so modern are with us thanks to the Romantics. Their focus on emotion and passion, as opposed to the scientific approach of the Age Of Enlightenment, crossed Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries and still shapes us. ‘Romanticism speaks to us now with as much ferocious power as it did then,’ says Simon. ‘The rock star, the comic book visionaries, the feminists and angry young men – they’re all there. Greta Thunberg, who is emotively as well as scientifically committed to the fate of Earth, has much in common with Wordsworth.’

The BBC2 series was born of Simon’s research on nationalism. ‘Discussion of tribal feeling was a Romantic project,’ he says. ‘As I looked at it, in the face of the challenges we have today, I realised there was a direct resonance.’

Nostalgia for your homeland was used by Romantics such as the Scottish poet Robert Burns, who wrote in his native language. The French artist Eugène Delacroix commemorated revolution in his country in paintings such as Liberty Leads The People. And we can easily see the influence of William Blake today. His poem And Did Those Feet In Ancient Time was later set to

How many full-length mystery/ detective novels by Agatha Christie have been published? a) 16 b) 66 c) 166 d) 266

Richard Osman’s House Of Games, weekdays, 6pm, BBC2

Which model has appeared on the cover of British