Sunday Feature: Tolstoy in the Cotswolds

Marking the 100th anniversary of Leo Tolstoy's death, historian Mike Berlin visits the Gloucestershire village of Whiteway, which was founded on the principles of the great Russian writer. Mike is shown around by residents of what is the only remaining British community of its kind, including one 86-year-old, whose memories stretch back to a time when the place provided a haven for anarchists, refugees from the Spanish Civil War and conscientious objectors from the Second World War. He hears how utopian communities generally collapse because of disagreements over three key issues - sex, money and who does (or does not do) the washing up, and he explores how Whiteway has managed to survive. Beyond the Cotswolds, Mike talks with scholars about the reasons why, far more than Russia, Britain offered fertile soil for the planting of Tolstoyan ideas and how these continue to flourish in unexpected ways today