television reviews
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Blood of the Clans
BBC1 Scotland, Blood of the Clans, Charles “III”, Charles I, Clan Campbell, Clan Graham, Clan MacDonald, Clan MacGregor, clans, Culloden, Derby, Earls of Argyll, Earls of Montrose, executions, Flora MacDonald, George I, George II, Jacobite rebellions, James “VIII/III”, Killiecrankie, Neil Oliver, Prestonpans, Rise of the Clans, Rob Roy MacGregor, siege of Aberdeen, Simon Fraser Lord Lovat, Viscount Claverhouse, War of the Three KingdomsNeil Oliver has been back on our screens, BBC1 Scotland at least, with another short series. Following on from his 2018 Rise of the Clans, which detailed tribal influence over events such as the ascent of Robert I and subsequently the Stewarts to Mary’s troublesome reign and deposition, Blood of the Clans deals with Scottish…
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Oh, indeed, as Captain Bertorelli would have said, “What a mistake-a to make-a!” I certainly made one when I turned to the PBS America channel on TV, and they were showing Who Killed the Princes in the Tower? Well, it might contain one voice of reason (John Ashdown-Hilll) but it also has much more…
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Last night I watched an episode of In Search of Medieval Britain presented by Dr Alixe Bovey. The series concerns journeys that follow the famous Gough Map of medieval Britain and is very interesting and enlightening. The episode I watched concerned ‘London and the South East’, and I learned a few things I…
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Last night I cheered myself up by watching the PBS documentary The Mystery of the Black Death. No, that opening sentence was facetious, because I have to say that the programme was actually very interesting. And rather uncanny in that it was stated the pestilence started in Italy, then Spain, and then gradually spread through…
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Britain’s Lost Battlefields (with Rob Bell)
“Tudor” era, 5Select., arquebus, Bannockburn, Battle of Hastings, battlefields, Boudicca, Channel Five, Charles I, Colchester Castle, Edward II, English Civil War, handguns, Harold II, Iceni, Kett Rebellion, Maurice, Mousehold Heath, muskets, Naseby, Nero, Norwich, Oliver Cromwell, Parliamentary army, Rob Bell, Robert I, Robert Kett, Roman Empire, Rupert, Sir thomas Fairfax, Watling Street, William I, WymondhamChannel Five’s reputation for history programmes has risen greatly over the past few years. At the heart of this, first in a Great Fire of London series with Suzannah Lipscomb and the ubiquitous Dan Jones, has been the “engineering historian” Rob Bell, who has toured bridges, ships, buildings and lost railways in his own amiable,…
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Well, impressed as I am, all I can say is “rather him than me”! Go up there? Never! I hate heights. But for those you who are made of sterner stuff, this BBC South video of the nooks, crannies and heights of Salisbury Cathedral is well worth watching.
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No words are needed, I think! Except to say that I doubt if Starkey and Schama ever see themselves in this light!
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I have just watched the first episode of Bone Detectives: Britain’s Buried Secrets, featuring Dr Tori Herridge and the delightful Raksha Dave, whom I remember from Time Team, but who is now much in TV evidence. In this new series we’re promised episodes from different periods and different places all over Britain, but this first…
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“…Imagine knowing the entire list of British monarchs by heart at age 10. Imagine knowing about cavemen courting rituals or what soldiers ate during World War I. Imagine becoming so invested in the life of the infamous King Richard III of England that you joined the Richard III Society, a group dedicated to finding his…
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