Episode 2

Available for over a year

Dr Thomas presents this omnibus edition of his history about the changing meaning and experience of friendship over the centuries He explores working class Friendly Societies - pre-Welfare State, grassroots insurance schemes - in the 18th and 19th centuries; children's friendships and the invention of the idea of the best friend; the idea of dogs being "man's best friend"; the Victorian borderland between platonic and homosexual love; and the tragic impact of the First World War on male friendships. Producer: Beaty Rubens.