Alan explores Cragside, a unique estate in Northumberland masterminded and landscaped by the Victorian inventor and pioneering industrialist Lord William Armstrong and filled with the most advanced technical advances of his day. Peter Purves visits Castle Drogo on Dartmoor, Miriam O'Reilly walks through the vast Cragside woodland and Angela Rippon visits the Red House in Bexleyheath, home of William Morris.

Alan visits Castle Ward in Northern Ireland, the setting of Winterfell in Game of Thrones. He learns why the 18th-century mansion was designed in two completely different styles - Palladian on one side and gothic on the other, learns the history of its warring owners and uncovers stories of lunacy, attempted murder, groundbreaking science and tragedy.

Alan is in North Wales, discovering the unique story of Erddig, a grand mansion where the servants and the Yorke family, who owned it for many years, enjoyed a very close relationship. At Powis Castle, Nigel Havers checks out some magnificent topiary, and Miriam O'Reilly learns how servants were kept very firmly in their place at Calke Abbey, Derbyshire.