Gandhi - Season 1

In the first of three programmes examining the life and legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, journalist and newsreader Mishal Husain journeys through Gandhi's early years in India to the end of his controversial career in South Africa. Along the way, she confronts accusations of racism and hypocrisy levelled against Gandhi in this period, and discovers how London played a vital role in the development of the Indian Messiah.

In the second part of the series, Mishal Husain traces Gandhi's transformation from obscure lawyer to father of the nation and discovers a more complicated and intriguing man than the saintly Hollywood version. Gandhi had to face unpopularity, political failure and British jails. But in 1930 he triumphs - launching the most astute campaign of the age - the 240-mile Salt March that succeeded in humiliating the British Raj.

In the final episode, Mishal Husain explores the dramatic last years of Gandhi's life, which culminated in his death by an assassin's bullet. She gets to the bottom of an enduring mystery - why is Gandhi revered as Father of the Nation, when India turned its back on Gandhi's blueprint for the country?

Mishal retraces Gandhi's visit to England in 1931 and uncovers evidence that Gandhi may have unwittingly contributed to the eventual partition of India. Newsreel footage from the time captures Gandhi meeting the people of Lancashire and London's East End, and Tony Benn recalls meeting him as a six-year-old boy. Sixteen years later India is free, but by then Gandhi is a broken man: sidelined from the centre of power and devastated by partition and the horrific violence that independence brings. But it is Gandhi's darkest hour that finally brings his greatest triumph.