Dominic Sandbrook

It's the one thing they're absolutely not.

It's very important to Iranians.

They're not an Arab country.

What's also very important, it was the only country in the world that had adopted a particular kind of Islam, Shia or Shiite Islam, as its state religion.

And we will come back to this because this question about Shiism or Shia Islam lies at the centre of the Iranian revolution.

Right, well let's talk about monarchs.

So let's talk about Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

So in his lifetime, I said he was born in 1919, in his lifetime, indeed that of his father, Persia had fallen prey to a series of rival colonial empires, specifically Russia and Britain.

And that was turbocharged in 1908

when the British struck oil.

And that was the moment that created the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which we all know much better as BP.

So in the First World War, Persia was occupied by the Russians and the British.

And after the First World War, it fell into total chaos.

So in 1921, Muhammad's father, Reza Pahlavi, staged a coup with British support, and he ends up becoming Reza Shah.

He takes the throne himself, which means that Muhammad becomes crown prince at the age of just two years old.

Now, Raza Shah is a very, very formidable man.

His son said he was one of the most frightening men he ever met.

And he was definitely not a loving father.

So he supposedly thought that if he was too kind to his son, then it would mean that his son became gay.

So he tried to, he didn't show him too much affection.