Victor Hugo took Ego Hugo as his motto - and lived up to it. Titanic, gargantuan, explosive - in life, painting, writing and love. A man who was never moderate, treated as a god in his own lifetime - the last of the giants. His books are dramatic, grotesque, full of his love of liberty and his championship of the underdog. In scenes and images both realistic and fantastic the programme paints a portrait of Hugo as a character invented by himself.