Terror! Robespierre and the French Revolution

In 1794, French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre produced the world's first defense of "state terror" - claiming that the road to virtue lay through political violence. This film combines drama, archive and documentary interviews to examine Robespierre's year in charge of the Committee Of Public Safety - the powerful state machine at the heart of Revolutionary France. Contesting Robespierre's legacy is Slavoj Zizek, who argues that terror in the cause of virtue is justifiable, and Simon Schama, who believes the road from Robespierre ran straight to the gulag and the 20th-century concentration camp. The drama, based on original sources, follows the life-and-death politics of the Committee during "Year Two" of the new Republic.

Cast

Jan Pearson

Narrator (voice)

Stephen Hogan

Maximillian Robespierre

Ed Stoppard

Herault

Brian Pettifer

Couthon

David Andress

Self - Author 'The Terror'

Martin Hancock

Collot

Colin Jones

Self - Author 'The Great Nation'

Jonny Phillips

Carnot

Slavoj Žižek

Self - Author - 'In Defence of Lost Causes'

Simon Schama

Self - Author - 'Citizens'