Decoded: Dan Brown's Lost Symbol

Dan Brown's latest blockbuster, The Lost Symbol, once again has dashing Professor Robert Langdon on a frantic quest to solve impossible riddles, pursued by a mysterious elite of all-knowing and all-powerful men. This time it's the masters of secrecy and ritual, the Freemasons in Washington DC. Brown is as keen as ever for readers to know that "all the organisations in this novel exist; all the rituals, science, artwork and monuments in this book are real". In this sequel to 2005's programme The Real Da Vinci Code, Tony Robinson sets off to find the truth behind these claims and the novel's plot. Tony must grapple with a world of impenetrable symbols and untangle the Freemasons' strange involvement in the creation of the USA. He criss-crosses the Atlantic as he digs deeper and deeper to answer key questions thrown up by this complex novel.