Programme 2. Egypt

Available for over a year

2019 is a year of potentially momentous change for the United Kingdom, and in a new series of five programmes, Neil MacGregor visits five different countries to talk to leading political, business and cultural figures to find out how they, as individuals and as members of their broader communities, see Britain. In this programme he is in Cairo to explore the extent to which the relationship between Egypt and Britain can be traced back to such key events as the Battle of the Nile or the Suez Crisis or whether there are other events and cultural influences that have a greater impact on the nature that relationship today. Writer Ahdaf Soueif and political historian Said Sadek are among those revealing what they learnt about Britain at school, how their first encounters with Britain and British institutions had the greatest impact in shaping their perception of Britain today. Producer: Simon Elmes