BBC Birmingham is to produce three 60-minute documentaries for BBC2 marking the 60th anniversary of the British Raj. Britain's colonial rule over its Indian Empire ended with independence for India in 1947 and partition into separate countries of India and East and West Pakistan.
Called The Raj, this is designed to be a landmark series and will feature previously unseen testimonials from people who experienced the Raj. Using dramatic reconstruction as well as testimony, the series promises to create a real sense of what it was like to live under, or to be part of the British Raj.
The series will address both India and British perspectives and it will document the experiences of a generation of Indians who were the backbone of the Indian Civil Service and the Indian Army, as well as revealing something of the rather more opulent life led by the Maharajahs.
Production is centred in BBC Birmingham's Mailbox Centre, but filming will be done in India. The series has been commissioned by BBC 2.