In the series opener, historian Tristram Hunt uncovers how a debate about religion in 16th-century Germany sparked a political revolution. From the bloody battlefields of medieval Germany, to the civil wars of the 1640s in Britain, Protestantism unleashed a series of revolutions and wars that rippled across Europe.

The Protestant Revolution transformed people's experiences of sex, love, family life and the relationship between men and women. In the second episode, Tristram uncovers how Protestantism replaced the Catholic veneration of celibacy with a devotion to family life. The programme shows how Luther became the loving husband and father, and how the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury gave us our modern idea of marriage.

Tristram explores how Protestantism has come to shape modern western art, literature and science, in the penultimate episode of Protestant Revolution. In 16th-century Britain, radical Protestants triggered one of the greatest acts of vandalism in British history, wiping out Catholic monasteries, churches and artwork. But the cultural revolution inspired by this religious movement went far further than the shattered statues of 16th-century Britain.

The legacy of the Protestant Revolution lies unseen around us. Tristram follows a trail that leads from the monasteries of Catholic England to modern art galleries and explores how Protestantism lay at the heart of one of our greatest art forms – the novel.

Capitalism and an increasingly active anti-global movement are two of the most powerful forces on the planet, and Tristram reveals how both phenomena developed out of Protestantism, in the final episode of The Protestant Revolution. The journey begins with Jean Calvin who, desperate for a sign of God's favour, found it in the world of work and money. Tristram explores how Puritans, anxious to worship God at every opportunity, introduced the world of the ticking clock and shaped the architecture of the working week.