The Waterloo Collection: Hougoumont and D'Erlon's Attack

An insider’s look into the gritty reality of building the local live music scene, Rock This Town brings to life the exciting history of rock music concerts in KW from the 1960s & ‘70s. Rock stars come and go but live music is here to stay!

After defeating France and imprisoning Napoleon on Elba, ending two decades of war, Europe is shocked to find Napoleon has escaped and has caused the French Army to defect from the King back to him. The best of the British generals, the Duke of Wellington, beat Napolean's best generals in Spain and Portugal, but now must beat Napoleon himself with an Anglo Allied army.

In 1800, as Napoleon Bonaparte rises to power in France, a rivalry erupts between Armand and Gabriel, two lieutenants in the French Army, over a perceived insult. For over a decade, they engage in a series of duels amidst larger conflicts, including the failed French invasion of Russia in 1812, and shifts in the political and social systems of Europe.

In David Grubin's NAPOLEON watch Napoleon's rise from obscurity to victories that made him a hero to the French people and convinced him he was destined for greatness. Learn of his love for Josephine Beauharnais, and his rise to Emperor. Witness his extraordinary achievements and ultimately his fall, his final battles, his exile to Elba, and his defeat at Waterloo. For nearly two decades he strode the world stage like a colossus - loved and despised, venerated and feared. From his birth on the rugged island of Corsica to his final exile on the godforsaken island of St. Helena, NAPOLEON brings this extraordinary figure to life.

Dealing heavily with perceptions of time, Aeon documents the urban cityscape as Wellington transforms through a zen-influenced eternal cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth within a 24-hour period.

Based on the novel by Bernard Cornwell, "Sharpe's Waterloo" brings maverick British officer Lt. Col. Richard Sharpe to his last fight against the French, in June of 1815.

This fascinating 60s tour catches London's South Bank in the middle of a cultural metamorphosis.

Following on from Hougoumont and D'Erlon's Attack, Part III starts just as the great battle reaches its crisis point. Marshal Ney launched thousands of France's finest heavy cavalry against Wellington's thinning lines who had already taken a terrible battering on the Mont St Jean Ridge. Wave after wave of armoured horsemen broke against the steady squares of British, Dutch/Belgian and German troops. The crisis, however, took a further turn for the worse as the key bastion in Wellington's centre, the fortified farm of La Haie Sainte, fell to the French onslaught. The way to Brussels was now open and Wellington muttered, 'Give me Blucher or give me night'. With the situation looking bleaker by the second for Wellington and his troops, Napoleon fatefully hesitated to complete the coup de grace as the Prussians had closed in on his right flank at the Village of Plancenoit. Would the Young Guard be able to hold Blucher's men? There was all still to play for.

After the victory at Salamanca Wellington's Army had mixed fortunes and by the the winter of 1812/3 was back in Portugal. Wellington took advantage of the winter to re-equip and retrain his army for his final master stroke in Spain. In June 1813 Wellington launched his whole army in a rapid push NW towards the Spanish/French border outflanking the French. At Vittoria he beat the main French Army on 21st June and pushed the remainder into the Pyrenees on The French border. He was now able to prepare for the invasion of France. In all these actions and leading the Army were the Light Division containing the 3 Battalions of the 95th Rifles. It was during this period that they had some of their toughest and bloodiest actions that showed them to be an elite formation.

Passionate romance, brutal treachery, and selfless nobility are set against the background of Napoleon’s 1810 invasion of Portugal.

During the Napoleonic Wars the British Army realised that it needed skirmishers, as a result it raised 2 Rifle Regiments both armed with the icon Baker Rifle. This programme explains how the Riflemen of the 95th Rifles were dressed and equipped. It is an ideal accompaniment to our Series on the 95th Rifles.