Paxman to front British Empire series

The BBC has announced that Jeremy Paxman is to front a new series on BBC One in the autumn telling the remarkable story of the British Empire.

Titled Empire, the five-part series will trace how the British Empire rose to become the largest in history with influence throughout the globe, as well as its eventual fall.

Paxman will explore how the Empire started as a pirates' treasure hunt but became the biggest financial network the world had ever known, stretching from Europe to India to the Far East.

He will delve into the Empire's impact on the modern world, including its political, technological and social legacy, such as the massive expansion of British sport.

Empire was commissioned by BBC commissioning editor Mark Bell and will be produced in-house at BBC Vision. The programme, which follows Paxman's 2009 series The Victorians, will be broadcast later in the year.

"Jeremy Paxman is a brilliant and distinguished broadcaster - who better to weigh up the complexities of the British Empire? Its glories, its tragedies, the winners and the losers, its triumph and its curse," said Bell.

"We hope that this series will bring to life the people and the chain of events that made it such a powerful institution, as well as shed new light on its consequences."