''Heroes and Villains'' is a 2007–2008

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

series looking at key moments in the lives and reputations of some of the greatest warriors of history. Each hour-long episode features a different historical figure, including

Napoleon I of France Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

Attila the Hun Attila (, ; ), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. He was also the leader of a tribal empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, Alans, and Bulgars, among others, in Central and Ea ...

Spartacus Spartacus ( el, Σπάρτακος '; la, Spartacus; c. 103–71 BC) was a Thracian gladiator who, along with Crixus, Gannicus, Castus, and Oenomaus, was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising ...

Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca (; ; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish ''conquistador'' who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of w ...

Richard I of England Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was ...

, and

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

. The statements at the beginning of each episode read: "This film depicts real events and real characters. It is based on the accounts of writers of the time. It has been written with the advice of modern historians." In the United States the show was aired on

The Military Channel American Heroes Channel (formerly Military Channel and originally Discovery Wings Channel) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. The network carries prog ...

and was called ''Warriors''.

Production

The series was filmed by BBC Factual department in 720p high definition with the Panasonic DVCPRO HD cameras. The greenscreen scenes were filmed with handheld AG-HVX200 cameras.

Episodes

The numbering of the six episodes that make up the series is debatable due to them being listed differently on different sources. The DVD release has them listed in the order of Spartacus, Attila the Hun, Shogun, Richard the Lionheart, Cortes, and Napoleon; while the BBC website guide has them listed as Napoleon 1/6, Cortes 2/6, Attila the Hun 3/6, Shogun 4/6, Spartacus 5/6, and Richard the Lionheart 6/6. However they are listed here by their airdate according to the BBC website.

Media information

DVD release

The series was released as a two disc set on Region 2 DVD by

BBC Video 2 Entertain (stylized as 2 , entertain) is a British video and music publisher founded in September 2004 by the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International in 2004. Under CEO Richard Green, the company operated as a joint venture b ...

on 24 March 2008. It was marketed and sold in the United States in April 2009 as "''Warriors''". The USA release included a third disc containing two

Edward Bazalgette Edward Bazalgette is a British television director and former musician. Biography Bazalgette was the lead guitarist in the 1980s rock group The Vapors, whose hit "Turning Japanese" remains a popular one-hit wonder. He later became a film edit ...

documentaries,

Hannibal Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Puni ...

and ''Genghis Khan''.

Companion book

Amazon.com Heroes and Villains: Inside the Minds of the Greatest Warriors in History
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References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Heroes And Villains (Tv Series) 2000s British drama television series 2007 British television series debuts 2008 British television series endings BBC television dramas American Heroes Channel original programming British military television series Heroes and Villains: Shogun BBC television documentaries about prehistoric and ancient history BBC television documentaries about history during the 16th and 17th centuries BBC television documentaries about history during the 18th and 19th centuries Television series set in the Pre-Columbian era Television series set in the Roman Empire