Empire
4.8/5
Critic Rating
4.0/5
Listener Rating
How do empires rise? Why do they fall? And how have they shaped the world around us today?William Dalrymple and Anita Anand explore the stories, personalities and events of empire over the course of history.
Critic Reviews
Score: 5
Radhika Seth • Vogue • Sep 26, 2023
"...always fascinating series, which combines epic tales of battles and invasions with more intimate explorations of overlooked historical figures. There’s also a clear effort to link these stories to our turbulent present...This is living, breathing history."
Score: 4.5
Ximena Smith • Stuff NZ • Oct 11, 2022
"Hosts William Dalrymple (a historian) and Anita Anand (a broadcaster) have natural rapport that’s engaging and interesting to listen to...While Dalrymple and Anand do a commendable job of making Empire as entertaining and accessible as possible, I do think some knowledge about Britain’s colonisation of India is needed to enjoy this first season, otherwise you might find yourself a little lost in some of the detail."
Score: 5
Patricia Nicol • The Times UK • Aug 28, 2022
"This show offers vividly fascinating, erudite, historic storytelling. As a listening experience, this is akin to attending a memorably brilliant lecture series with a skilful chair. This is chastening, inglorious history."
Listener Reviews
Score: 4
Stevie R. • Nov 19, 2022
"Informative and enjoyable, even if the interaction between Dalrymple and Anand is forced at times and might have benefited from more editorial oversight. The lazy (re)use of "Merchant-Ivory films" to mean any picturesque film focusing on white people in white dress with white parasols in the dead-calm of the colonial Edwardian (or later) afternoon is beneath this serious level of investigation. Merchant Ivory productions, as opposed to "Merchant-Ivory films", were often explicitly and highly critical of the power structures that propped up empires and other othering systems (e.g. Maurice). Actually some "Merchant-Ivory films" did that too (e.g. A Passage to India, perhaps?, even if we hope never to see another browned-up actor -- an understandably uncomfortable Alec Guinness -- on our screens)."
