Empire
Genre	Documentary
Written by	Jeremy Paxman
Directed by	John Hay Roger Parsons Robin Dashwood David Vincent
Presented by	Jeremy Paxman
Theme music composer	Chris Nicolaides
Composer	Chris Nicolaides
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of episodes	5
Production
Executive producers	Basil Comely (BBC) Catherine McCarthy (Open University)
Producer	Julian Birkett
Cinematography	Mike Garner
Editor	Andrea Carnevali
Running time	55–60 minutes
Production companies	The Open University, BBC productions CoProduction
Original release
Network	BBC
Release	27 February (2012-02-27) – 26 March 2012 (2012-03-26)

Empire is a 2012 BBC and Open University co-production, written and presented by Jeremy Paxman, charting the rise of the British Empire from the trading companies of India to the rule over a quarter of the world's population and its legacy in the modern world.^[1]

Media

A book, Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British, and a region 2 DVD Empire accompany the series.^{[citation needed]}

Reception

The series was criticised by some for its handling of controversial material while trying to avoid offense to numerous stakeholders and audiences. Associate editor of The Guardian, Michael White, said that "the structure of the programme was ramshackle" and he found the narrative to be "episodic and superficial". He said that Paxman "was diffident charm itself", as opposed to treating "the former subjects of empire with his customary ... abrasiveness". While White also found "the photography pretty as always", he concluded that "the overall effect was curiously patronising, serving to reinforce the impression that the great man was basically on a jolly and going through the motions".^[2]

Stuart Jeffries, also for The Guardian, offered similar views, concluding that "Jeremy Paxman fails to argue strongly enough".^[3]