Examining the literary heritage of the Midlands, from John Clare's poetic vision of the Northamptonshire countryside to George Eliot's Middlemarch. The presenter explores a landscaped park at Hagley Hall and the village of Bourneville, designed to be a worker's paradise, before taking in Shakespeare's Stratford by way of Ambridge. Contributions from Simon Russell Beale, Christopher Lee and Meera Syal

• Melvyn Bragg