Orkney's Skara Brae is Europe's best-preserved Neolithic village. A ferocious storm revealed a 5,000-year-old community of stone houses replete with luxuries and necessities. As Simon Schama says, “they were built by people who had culture, who had style.”⁣ ⁣ It's the perfect site for Beginnings, the first episode in Simon Schama's A History of Britain. Available on #BBCiPlayer now, Simon Schama looks back at his epic and now classic series, telling us about his memories of filming and about his

“We see death coming into our midst like foul smoke. A plague, which cuts off the young. A rootless phantom which has no mercy.” The Black Death as described by 14th c. Welsh poet Jeuan Gethin. This was the bubonic plague and likely the earliest recorded pandemic. Simon Schama tracks King Death's journey west and its shattering effects on these islands; a dark period in classic series A History of Britain - all episodes on BBC iPlayer | bbc.in/3XTSFU | BBC Arts