Britain's Fascist Thread, Episode 1

Description

Historian Camilla Schofield explores a century of British fascism.

From the formation of the British Fascisti in 1923, through the BUF, the National Front and the BNP, the history of fascism in Britain is, in a sense, an unbroken thread.

But if the politics – or anti-politics – has remained more-or-less consistent, with a lineage of hatreds, pseudo-science, failed leaders and tactics, the means by which fascism is calibrated and communicated in the 21st century has fundamentally changed.

In this first programme in the series we revisit the rally staged by the British Union of Fascists at Olympia in 1934, as an opening onto the character of fascism in the wider inter-war period.

Featuring:

Julie Gottlieb, professor in Modern History at the University of Sheffield and author of Feminine Fascism
Liam Liburd, lecturer at King's College, London
Martin Pugh. author of Hurrah for the Blackshirts!

WIth thanks to Francis Beckett, Daniel Jones and Joe Mulhall.

Producer: Martin Williams