A Cloud in a Paper Bag

This drama-documentary by biographer Richard Holmes tells the story of the first decades of ballooning in the early 1800s.

Today's sport was then a scientific revolution underwritten with poetry. Getting up and staying aloft was a huge challenge, and what the pioneer balloonists saw from their baskets changed the way we think about the world. In the race to be the first across the Channel, the age old rivalry between Britain and France was renewed.

With Nicky Henson, John Lightbody, Peter Marinker and Eleanor Tremain.