Complete and Utter History of Britain poster

Complete and Utter History of Britain (1969)

Comedy

The Complete And Utter History Of Britain was a 1969 television comedy sketch show. It was created and written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones between the two series of Do Not Adjust Your Set. It was produced for and broadcast by London Weekend Television but was not shown in other ITV regions. The idea was to replay history as if television had been around at the time. Sketches included interviews with the vital characters in the dressing-room after the Battle of Hastings, Samuel Pepys presenting a TV chat-show and an estate agent trying to sell Stonehenge to a young couple looking for their first home. Seven programmes were written and produced, but LWT amalgamated the first two episodes into a single "stronger" episode, resulting in a six-part series. For many years the entire series was believed to have been wiped. However, copies of the first two episodes have now been found, as have the complete first two episodes as produced. As of June 2008, none are known to have been repeated on television or released on DVD. Terry Jones has expressed dissatisfaction with the show, complaining after a showing of surviving episodes that the pacing was off and the soundtrack all wrong.

IMDb rating
7.5 (123 votes)
Seasons
1
Streaming (US)
Britbox Apple TV Channel · BritBox · BritBox Amazon Channel
Language
EN
Type
TV series

Ratings refreshed Jul 3, 2026 · 1 season indexed

Cast

Seasons

Season 1 (1969)

7.92 avg 6 episodes 7.1 → 7.8 25 min avg

Ep 1: 7.1 · 23 votesEp 2: 7.6 · 16 votesEp 3: 8.2 · 6 votesEp 4: 8.2 · 7 votesEp 5: 8.6 · 6 votesEp 6: 7.8 · 7 votes
Season 1 episodes — IMDb ratings
#TitleRatingVotes
1From the Dawn of History to the Norman Conquest7.123
2Richard the Lionheart to Robin the Hood7.616
3Edward the First to Richard the Last8.26
4Perkin Warbeck to Bloody Mary8.27
5The Great and Glorious Age of Elizabeth8.66
6James the McFirst to Oliver Cromwell7.87