In this feature-length Time Team Special , Tony Robinson and the Team make their inimitable contribution to marking the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession to the throne.

In a spectacular and sumptuous film, they discover Henry the architect, designer, sportsman, devout Churchman and European statesman, far from his bad-tempered, murderous and overweight image.

He was the most prolific, and probably the most demanding and talented, palace builder in the history of this nation. Inheriting a handful of draughty medieval castles masquerading as palaces, at the end of his reign he had no fewer than 55 buildings to his name, many of which had been built from scratch or renovated. Some were designed by Henry himself.

Through his desire to copy the finest achievements of the European Renaissance and to surround his monarchy with splendour and pomp, Henry transformed the way the monarchy lived in Britain, forging a pattern that remains largely unchanged today.

The team have unprecedented access behind the scenes at Hampton Court where they search for Henry's famous jousting yard and bowling alley. In Essex, the first palace Henry built for himself is revealed and excavated for the first time. They hunt down the site of the extraordinary temporary palace he built at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in France. A stone's throw from the Vatican in Rome, they discover the Palace that Henry owned, and the one nearby that inspired his greatest feat of building at Nonsuch Palace in Surrey.

As Tony tracks the progress of his great building works, so the story of the man's life comes into focus: his loves and losses, fears and faith.