Playing the Game

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Description

Guns and bombs may be the chief weapons of imperialism, but never underestimate the power of leisure; a kingdom's worth nothing without it! This program measures the global rise of British rule by tracing the growth of a particularly British type of hero-adventurer, gentleman, amateur sportsman, and decent chap-as well as a decidedly British type of obsession: sport, the empire at play. Viewers are taken to East Africa in the footsteps of Victorian explorers in search of the source of the Nile; to Khartoum, to tell the story of General Gordon, a half-crazed visionary who "played the game" to the hilt; to Hong Kong, where the British indulged their passion for horse racing by building a spectacular race course; and to Jamaica, where the greatest imperial game of all-cricket-became a battleground for racial equality.