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[ Graphical: Channel4 Homepage ]
From the moment that the first Hanoverian king, George I, ascended the throne in 1714, until 1830 when George IV – once the dissolute Prince Regent – breathed his last, England experienced a relatively brief period when society appears to have thrown caution to the winds.
For many, it was a world turned upside down. A common thief – and expert prison escapee – was hailed as a hero all the way to his hanging. A black man fought his way to the very top of British boxing. And there was an explosion of hedonistic sexual encounters and the first stirrings of a distinctly gay culture.