  I briefly review the current status of observations of AGN-powered UV/optical
light, starlight, dust and outflow phenomena in high-redshift powerful radio
galaxies. The existing data are consistent with the hypothesis that powerful
radio galaxies undergo a major episode of star formation at high redshift z>4
during which they form most of their stars, and subsequently evolve
`passively', with the UV continuum emission in the z~1 galaxies being dominated
by AGN-related processes rather than starlight from the underlying, aging
population.
