The Suez crisis in the 1950s signalled the end of Britain's history as a power that could act alone on the world stage.
This documentary tells the story of Suez using dramatic reconstructions and interviews with participants and witnesses to the crisis.
Part 1: BETRAYAL
The Suez Canal in Egypt was a symbol of western dominance.
France and Britain were the major shareholders in the company that ran the canal and British troops occupied its banks.
When Gamal Abdul Nasser came to power in 1954, his main objective was to remove the British from Egypt.
The British Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, did not understand that the world had changed.
In the first programme, friends and intimates of both Nasser and Eden recall the events that put them on a collision path.
For Eden, Nasser was a threat to peace in the Middle East. For Nasser, Eden was standing in the way of securing his country's future.
When Britain and America refused to help Nasser to finance his ambitious project to build the Aswan Dam, it was the last straw.
In a bold move of defiance, he nationalised the Suez Canal Company to pay for the construction of the dam.