Dominic Sandbrook

And Muhammad grew up as the absolutely classic textbook, anxious, shy, reserved son of an overbearing, terrifying military father.

So very, very Alexis and Peter the Great for people who remember that series.

And Mohammed was sent off to a Swiss boarding school.

He became a massive Francophile at the school, which he remained all his life.

And in fact, because he associates Iran with his father and because he goes off to boarding school in the West, he is always something of a moderniser and a westerniser and indeed a seculariser, which, as we will see, is something of a problem.

Which we'll feature later in this show.

Well, how should I put this?

He likes French courtesans.

I think it's the best way of putting it.

So in 1941, Persia, which his father Reza has renamed, or he has basically asked people abroad, stop calling it Persia, please.

We don't call it Persia.

We call it the land of the Aryans, its ancient name, which is Iran.

So Persia, or Iran...

is occupied once again by the British and the Soviets to stop the Nazis getting its oil.

And the British thought that Reza Pahlavi was too pro-German and they made him abdicate in favour of his son, who's now 21.

They do.

It's very flattering for us because whenever anything happens, the Iranians assume that the British are controlling everything.

So it's notoriety way above our station now.

Completely.

We're punching above our weight in the Iranian imagination.