Anteros

Horatio Nelson was Britain's greatest naval hero. He was famed for his dash-and-glory heroics. He was also a prolific letter writer. The letters reveal that Nelson was a very different and more complex man than the hero that Britain created after his death. Using Nelson's letters this drama documentary exposes Nelson's skilful and manipulative use of PR to advance his career, and shows how he was careful in his praise of his rivals - in case they threatened his own prospects. And the letters reveal how his passionate love affair with Emma Hamilton changed his life forever. Highly regarded RSC actor Jonathan Slinger portrays Nelson.

Villa La Falconara also known as Villa Nelson is for sale and stands on a hill overlooking the beautiful bay of Naxos. The Historic Estate was commissioned built in 1780 by Admiral Horatio Nelson. This luxury Sicilian villa is just 500 meters from the historic center of Taormina. The villa is built on three floors, of approximately 11,000 square feet total and is situated in a beautiful park with an area of roughly 10 acres stretching along its entire length of the sea below. Adjacent to the primary residence and park is another structure comprising a garage and home with 3 beds and baths sitting on another 2 acres of gardens that has been zoned for a small luxury hotel. In more recent times, a swimming pool has been constructed adjacent to the house. The property is being sold completely furnished.

In 1794 the dancing and Attitudes, or expressive postures, performed by Emma Hamilton (1761?-1815) were rendered in twelve neoclassical images engraved by Thomas Piroli after drawings by Frederick Rehberg. After the death of her husband Sir William Hamilton in 1803 and that of her lover Admiral Lord Nelson in 1805, Emma Hamilton and her Attitudes were the subject of a second, ‘enlarged’ edition of parodies by James Gillray in 1807 in which her person was dramatically inflated. Emma Hamilton Dancing displays these two editions beside each other for the first time.

Emma Hamilton by Friedrich Rehberg

Emma Hamilton by James Gillray

"Anyone coming here looking for a shrine to Nelson will be disappointed, we have put Nelson back into the context of the navy. We were very anxious to avoid hagiography. We are showing him as a man who made mistakes – but also as a man who learned from his mistakes. He was undoubtedly exceptional, but we have tried to show why."

As far as the curators are concerned, Lieutenant Gabriel Bray, whose inglorious naval career spluttered out in a desk job, is another hero. He seems to have spent most of his time on board sketching, and his vivid watercolours, most on display for the first time, give a unique view of everyday life below decks.

"It is absolutely an icon of British history and I don't think it has a competitor," he said. "It's never been loaned by the NMM before and hasn't left these shores since it returned from Trafalgar with Nelson's body, so, as you can imagine, every possible precaution has been taken."

According to Colville, very few items possess the same transportive power. "Because of the presence of the hole left by the musket ball, it does capture a split-second in time and it takes you straight back to that moment at the heart of an extraordinarily ferocious and all-consuming battle," he said. "Anyone who walks past the uniform is struck by that."

From the defeat of the Armada to the Battle of Trafalgar, the sailor was the most virile poster boy of British manhood. Any boy worth his salt wanted to run away to sea. National wealth rested on maritime trade and it was the sailor who ensured that Britain ruled the waves. The bravest were lionised and none more so than Horatio Nelson.

Professor Vickery begins on location in Nelson's flagship HMS Victory, with Quintin Colville, curator of naval history at the National Maritime Museum. She explores how it was that Nelson became a symbol of the nation, with historian Kathleen Wilson. And there is new research from David Turner, author of a history of disability, about what happened to less famous sailors who were disabled by war. Were they still men?

Sources include songs, 19th century romantic novels, and cinematic representations of Nelson.