The parliamentary roads to war

Sir Edward Grey (1862-1933)

"The lamps are going out all over Europe" declared British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey on the evening of August 3rd 1914.

To commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of World War One, BBC Parliament's Mark D'Arcy presents "To War", a look at Sir Edward's Parliamentary speech and political manoeuvrings which led Britain to war.

That August day he had told a packed House of Commons that Britain was honour-bound to support Belgium and France against any aggression by Germany.

It was mere weeks after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo - but the momentum for conflict had been building for years. Could the Liberal government have done more to prevent the conflict or was it distracted by its long battle over Irish Home Rule?

His speech set out the events which had led to the tragic collapse of all his efforts to secure peace in Europe over the previous decade. One and a quarter hours later at the end of his speech his world lay in ashes around him and Britain went to war the following day..

Some of the speech extracts are read by his great great nephew Adrian Graves, while historians and Grey's biographer contribute to the programme.

The documentary forms part of a night of programmes,

Here's what else we have in store:

20:50 BOOKtalk: Mark D'Arcy talks to Mark Bostridge about his book "The Fateful Year: England 1914"

21:10 Vernon Bogdanor Lecture: a lecture on Sir Edward Grey

22:20 BOOKtalk: Mark D'Arcy talks to Lord Owen about his book "The Hidden Perspective: The Military Conversations of 1906-1914"

22:40 Rowan Williams Lecture: a lecture on German theology and the First World War.

Watch To War, from 8pm on Sunday 3 August 2014, on BBC Parliament.