Alan visits Hardwick Hall, the magnificent Derbyshire home of Bess of Hardwick, to tell the story of how she rose from humble beginnings to become the secondmost powerful woman in Elizabethan England. Continuing the family history, Miriam O'Reilly visits nearby Stainsby Mill, Jenni Bond travels to the copper mines at Ecton and Peter Peter Purves visits Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, where Bess once held Mary, Queen of Scots, in custody.

Alan visits Stowe in Buckinghamshire, the most magnificent landscape garden of late 18th-century Britain and the site of a well-known public school. Pete Waterman discovers the link between Stowe and the Beatles, Dan Jones abseils down Lord Cobham's Pillar at Stowe and Suzannah Lipscomb visits a Norfolk stone masonry to help re-create some of Stowe's iconic statues.

On a visit to Waddesdon, Alan uncovers the story of Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, famed for his lavish lifestyle, notable guests and the parties he threw at his French Renaissance-style château in the heart of the Buckinghamshire countryside. Alison Hammond heads to Polesden Lacey to party 1900s-style, architecture enthusiast Clive Aslet visits another grand design on the Waddesdon estate, and writer and presenter Oz Clarke travels to Kent to see one of Baron Ferdinand’s most prized possessions as it undergoes essential restoration.

In this episode, the working lives of people in the 19th and 20th centuries are investigated. Alan uncovers the stories of the Victorian poor who found themselves living in harsh conditions at The Workhouse in Southwell – now the most complete remaining workhouse in the country. Elsewhere, Angellica Bell uncovers the contrasting environment of a Tudor-era town house that was taken over by squatters during the 1980s, while Nigel Havers explores the Back to Back terraced houses in Birmingham, where conditions were only marginally better than life in a workhouse.

Cragside was the home of William Armstrong, a Victorian industrialist, scientist and philanthropist who came to be known as the ‘Modern Magician’. Join Alan as he explores the world’s first ‘eco home’ – lit by hydroelectric power and brimming with Armstrong’s ingenious inventions that intrigued even royalty. In Cragside’s Pinetum, Miriam O’Reilly tests her head for heights as she scales one of its towering trees, while Angela Rippon heads to William Morris’s home near London to learn about another of Armstrong’s passions: the Arts and Crafts movement.

Join Alan to discover a house of split personalities that bore witness to lunacy, attempted murder and later the ground-breaking work of pioneering 19th-century scientist, Mary Ward. The drama doesn’t end there, as historian Suzannah Lipscombe learns about Castle Ward’s starring role in the TV adaptation of Game of Thrones and gets hands-on making swords with the show’s resident armourer. 20 miles away, Nina Wadia meets the team at Murlough National Nature Reserve to lend a hand with some vital conservation work and joins the search for butterfly larvae.