Royal Progress

Griff Rhys Jones goes on a Tudor adventure as he retraces the route that Queen Elizabeth I took through the Cotswolds and into the West Country on what was one of her regular 'progresses' through her realm. Winding through the heart of some of England's most stunning countryside he tracks her journey from Windsor to Bristol. Griff reconstructs the enormous baggage train the queen took with her; he tries out some Elizabethan forms of transport, and visits some of the stunning castles and stately homes she visited. He discovers what the queen ate, how she slept and what amused her in a trip that was as much about politics as it was about leisure. Unearthing gems of Tudor architecture that she would have seen, recreating a sense of the landscape she would have enjoyed, and digging up actual accounts of her visits to the towns, Griff gets a sense of the nation's love and adulation for the great queen, and the excitement, expense and logistics that lay behind this early royal walkabout.