The Celts is a 1986 documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 series produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation, written and presented by Frank Delaney

Frank Delaney

Frank Delaney is an Irish novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He's the author of New York Times best-seller "Ireland", the non-fiction book "Simple Courage: A True Story of Peril on the Sea", and many other works of fiction, non-fiction and collections...

. Delaney also wrote an accompanying book. The series was directed by David Richardson who was also responsible for "The Shock of the New".

Broadcast over the course of six, one-hour episodes, The Celts examined the origins, growth and influence of Celt

Celt

The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....

ic culture in Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 and throughout Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. The series was released on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 in Europe and North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 in 2004. Delaney also wrote a six-chapter companion book, extended with 4 Irish mythology legends.

The six episodes:

1. The Man with the Golden Shoes covers the archeological and historical evidences for the Celts and the extent of their civilization across the European continent, including the two core periods of Celtic Culture (i.e. Hallstatt culture
   Hallstatt culture
   The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Central European culture from the 8th to 6th centuries BC , developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC and followed in much of Central Europe by the La Tène culture.By the 6th century BC, the Hallstatt culture extended for some...
   
    and La Tène culture
   La Tène culture
   The La Tène culture was a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland, where a rich cache of artifacts was discovered by Hansli Kopp in 1857....
   
   ).
2. The Birth of Nations shows the formation of the modern Celtic nations from the ashes of the Roman conquest and fall.
3. A Pagan Trinity discusses Celtic mythology, legend, and belief, and then the introduction of Christian faith to the Irish and Scots.
4. The Open-Ended Curve presents the distinctive physical art of the Celts, both ancient and modern.
5. The Final Conflict returns to history, presenting the conquest of the modern Celtic nations by neighboring England and France, with a detailed review of the attempted destruction of the Welsh language, the Irish resistance and revolution, and the immigration of the Irish and others to North America.
6. The Legacy is a discussion on the degree to which modern people may view themselves as Celts, with examples of modern Celtic-inspired practices like military discipline and warfare, the Welsh Eisteddfod, modern Irish music and art, and the efforts of the Bretons and Cape Breton
   Cape Breton Island
   Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....
   
   ers to preserve their native languages in the face of societal assimilation by their ruling nations.

The series is best known for introducing mainstream audiences to the music of Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 singer Enya

Enya

Enya is an Irish singer, instrumentalist and songwriter. Enya is an approximate transliteration of how Eithne is pronounced in the Donegal dialect of the Irish language, her native tongue.She began her musical career in 1980, when she briefly joined her family band Clannad before leaving to...

. Enya, formerly a member of the Celtic

Celtic music

Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...

 band Clannad

Clannad

Clannad are an Irish musical group, from Gaoth Dobhair, County Donegal. Their music has been variously described as bordering on folk and folk rock, Irish, Celtic and New Age, often incorporating elements of an even broader spectrum of smooth jazz and Gregorian chant...

, was commissioned by David Richardson to compose the score for this series. In addition, Enya is shown performing the theme song, "The Celts" at the start of each episode, and two episodes also include music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

s of her performing the songs "I Want Tomorrow" and "Aldebaran." The performance of "I Want Tomorrow" is notable for the out-of-character way in which Enya is presented: she appears clad in leather biker gear in one sequence and shooting fire from her fingertips in another. (The DVD release capitalizes upon Enya's fame by including bonus interviews and musical performances.)

The soundtrack album for The Celts was first released in 1987 by BBC Records

BBC Records

BBC Records is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation founded in the 1960s to exploit the corporation's audio archive for both educational and commercial purposes....

 under the title Enya

Enya (album)

Enya is a soundtrack album by Irish singer Enya, released in 1987 , accompanying the BBC documentary The Celts.-Background:...

. It was later reissued in North America by Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records

Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...

. In 1992, Reprise Records

Reprise Records

Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...

, the licensees of Enya's subsequent popular recordings such as "Orinoco Flow", obtained the rights to the Enya album and it was remastered and reissued under the title The Celts. Aside from the remastering, the release substituted one track with an identical piece of music with a longer running time. Also, Enya appeared in a new music video to promote the title song, and a CD-single of the theme song was released.

The song "Boadicea" from the soundtrack has been sampled by a number of artists, including The Fugees

The Fugees

Fugees were a Haitian American hip hop group who rose to fame in the mid-1990s. Their repertoire included elements of Hip hop, soul and Caribbean music, particularly reggae. The members of the group were rapper/singer/producer Wyclef Jean, rapper/singer/producer Lauryn Hill, and rapper Pras Michel...

 and Mario Winans

Mario Winans

Mario Winans is an American R&B singer, songwriter, music producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Born Mario Brown, he is the son of gospel recording artist Vickie Winans and her first husband, Bishop Ronald Brown. He is also the stepson of his mother's second husband, gospel singer, Pastor Marvin...

.

This mini-series also paid tribute to the 1960s series The Prisoner

The Prisoner

The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...

by filming scenes in Portmeirion

Portmeirion

Portmeirion is a popular tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village and is now owned by a charitable trust....

, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 (the setting for the series) and parodying the earlier show's opening credits.

Additional series of this title

At least two additional documentary series have been broadcast entitled The Celts.

The first of these, also on the subject of Celtic culture, was broadcast in the mid-1990s, much to the confusion of Enya fans hoping to see the original series.

Another documentary series, also entitled The Celts, was broadcast on the UK's Channel 4

Channel 4

Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

in February 2006, and looked at the origins of Celtic culture.

External links

• Companion book UK edition: ISBN 0-586-20349-4