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