It was still possible to sell your wife in the early nineteenth century at an auction and legally your husband could use all of his wife’s money and possessions without her permission. She was his possession in law. Children were sent up chimneys and sometimes got stuck. Some individuals tried to alleviate the horrifying aspects of Victorian society; the Philanthropists attempted to help the vulnerable. Meanwhile, Benjamin Disraeli climbed the greasy pole and Cadbury’s bring an ancient currency, chocolate, to the masses.

10 weeks, weekly on Mondays, £230