Kim Siddorn

What must it have been like to live and work for a Tyrant like Macbeth? Cormac is Macbeth’s most trusted warrior. In the ultimate test of loyalty, King Macbeth sends Cormac on a mission to kill a rebel leader. Cormac must choose between his ambition and his honour.

In this hour-long documentary, Oxford academic Janina Ramirez tours the country in search of Anglo-Saxon art treasures. Her basic thesis - and it is a plausible one - is that we should not look upon their era as a "dark age" as compared, for example, to Roman times, but rather celebrate it as an age in which creativity flowered, especially in terms of artistic design as well as symbolism. She shows plenty of good examples, ranging from the Franks Casket to the Staffordshire Hoard, and the Lindisfarne Gospels.