Inside the Tower of London Season 5 Episode 2 - Episode 2

Airdate: 2022-Nov-03

Episode summary:

It's March 2022 and the Tower is continuing work on its most ambitious installation ever — the transformation of the moat into a huge floral display to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Known as Superbloom, the installation has been three years in the planning and is the most complex operation the Tower has ever undertaken. As the team digs down into the moat, there's a rare opportunity for archaeologists to search for ancient treasures that have been discarded in the moat decades and centuries ago. This isn't the first time there's been a search for buried treasure in the Tower — yeoman sergeant Clive Towell discovers how diarist Samuel Pepys went digging in the Tower's cellars after a corrupt constable of the Tower was rumoured to have hidden gold in the Tower's grounds in the 1650s. Yeoman warder Lawrence Watts gives new recruit Tam Reilly a tour of the Tower of the places the tourists rarely see, including Sir Thomas More's cell behind a hidden door in the Queen's House, and the toilet built for Adolf Hitler when it was thought he could be imprisoned at the Tower after WWII. Historic Royal Palaces chief curator Tracy Borman uncovers a Catholic plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I, masterminded by Italian banker Roberto Ridolfi with one of the stupidest noblemen in history, Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk. The queen had Norfolk arrested and he eventually met a grisly end as he was executed on Tower Hill. Horticultural expert Prof Nigel Dunnett has designed the planting scheme for Superbloom. He and his team have to scatter 20 million seeds across the moat's 14,000 square metres to grow and flower in time for the Platinum Jubilee weekend in June. As if that wasn't hard enough, there's a new challenge — discouraging the Tower's greedy pigeons, who see Nigel's seed-sowing efforts as a giant buffet.

About Inside the Tower of London series:

The Tower of London opens up for an access all areas look at one of the most incredible historical sites in the world.