What happens
In medieval England, a peasant named Wat Tyler and the priest John Ball lead a revolt against serfdom and a poll tax. The series We Came This Way presents this chapter, part of a historical program on NBC's University of the Air, first broadcast on October 13, 1944. The story opens with a tax collector at a farmhouse and follows the growing anger of the common people as the young King Richard II struggles to raise money for a war with France. Tyler and his followers gather in the countryside and march toward London, where the king must decide how to respond to their demands.
England in 1381, during the feudal period, with scenes in a village, at Mateston jail, at the royal court, at Blackheath, and in London.
Characters: Wat Tyler, John Ball, Richard II, Earl of Salisbury, Sir Robert Hales, John Leg, Jack Straw
Listen for: The poll tax proclamation read on the village green, and Wat Tyler's exchange with King Richard at Mile End.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.