The Celts

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This article is about the television series. For the European people, see Celt. For the 1987 album by Enya, see The Celts (album).

The Celts is the title of a 1986 documentary series produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation, written and presented by Frank Delaney. Delaney also wrote an accompanying book.

Broadcast over the course of six, one-hour episodes, The Celts examined the origins, growth and influence of Celtic culture in Great Britain and throughout Europe. The series was released on DVD in Europe and North America 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.
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 Bretoners 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 singer Enya. Enya, formerly a member of the Celtic band, Clannad, was commissioned 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 videos 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 notoriety by including bonus interviews and musical performances.)

The soundtrack album for The Celts was first released in 1987 by BBC Records under the title Enya. It was later reissued in North America by Atlantic Records. In 1992, Reprise Records, 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 for 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 and Mario Winans.

This mini-series also paid tribute to the 1960s series, The Prisoner by filming scenes in Portmeirion, Wales (the setting for the series) and parodying the earlier show's opening credits.

[edit] Unreleased music

The Enya-titled soundtrack album contains only 36 minutes worth of the music composed by Enya for the series, with an unknown amount of material as yet unreleased. To date the only "lost track" to see the light of day is "Spaghetti Western Theme from The Celts" which appears on some editions of the 2005 CD single for "Amarantine".