Enlightenment: The Viceroy

Presenting his heritage series Enlightenment from the grounds of a grand Dutch building, historian Dennis Lincoln-Park shows off a potted Viceroy tulip, a variety once worth a small fortune in livestock and goods during the 17th-century tulip craze and long believed extinct. He explains that this lone flower, recently found near Antwerp, is the key to reviving the variety. Mid-sentence he backs off the edge of a stone stairway and tumbles down it, the pot smashes, and a dog bolts away across the lawn, leaving him staring after it in horror.

The presenter's list of what one Viceroy bulb fetched riffs on a real basket of goods recorded for a single Viceroy bulb during the Dutch tulip mania, which included 1,000 pounds of cheese, eight pigs and twelve sheep but ended with a silver drinking cup rather than a commode. Historically, Semper Augustus and the Viceroy were two different prized tulips; the sketch treats them as one.