television reviews
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London: 2000 years of history (channel 5)
Admiralty Arch, Aldwych, Alfred the Great, ampitheatres, Anderson shelters, Anglo-Saxons, Black Death, Blitz, Boudicca, bridges, Brunel, Channel Five, Charles Booth, Charles I, cholera, City of London, Commonwealth immigration, coronations, Covent Garden, Crossrail, Dan Jones, Docklands, Edward VII, Elizabeth I, Ethelred II, Euston, expansion, glass, Golden Hind, Great Fire of London, Great War, Green Belt, Guido Fawkes, GWR, Hampstead, Harold II, Henry III, Henry IV, Henry VIII, hills, industrialisation, Jack the Ripper, Joseph Bazalgette, Kent, Lamb Street Teenager, land reclaimed, Londinium, London, Londonburgh, Londonwich, Metroland, Metropolitan Line, MI5 building, Norman stone, Normans, Northern Line, Old London Bridge, Paddington, pottery, railways, rebellions, Richard II, Richard Whittington, Rob Bell, Roman walls, Romans, Royal Ordnance factories, Samuel Pepys, Savoy, Selfridges, sewage system, shipping containers, Shoreditch, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Francis Drake, Spanish ‘flu, Spitalfields, St. Paul’s, stone, Suffragettes, Suzannah Lipscomb, Thames, Thomas Wolsey, Tower of London, trials, Underground, Viking raids, War Office, Westminster, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Hall, White Tower, Whitechapel, Whitehall Palace, William I, William Wallace, ZeppelinsWho let Dan Jones out? At least, as in his last outing, he is accompanied both by a historian (Suzannah Lipscomb) and an engineer (Rob Bell), narrating and illustrating almost two millennia of the city’s past. In the first episode, we were taken through the walled city of “Londinium” being built and rebuilt after Boudicca’s…
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In this article, Fiona Watson discusses the main points and the errata in the series The Outlaw King, about Robert I’s accession and reign. It deals with issues such as Robert I’s lineage, Wallace’s execution, the killing of Comyn and his encounter with Edward II at Bannockburn, although the latter wasn’t active at Loudoun Hill in…
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Next month, David Starkey will be talking about Henry VIII on television again (1). However, in this Telegraph interview, he is compared to Henry in several ways, even suggesting that he is that King’s reincarnation. Sadly, the interviewer seems not to understand which of Henry’s marriage ceremonies were valid, or the difference between divorce and…
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On a previous occasion, we posted a case of a quiz show host who really should have known the details of the Wars of the Roses better. Now it has happened again. The second contestant on this episode of Mastermind took Richard III as her specialist subject and did well in a close heat. One…
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Dyer or Dire?
Anthony Adolph, BBC1, Berkeley Castle, Buckingham Palace, Catherine Cromwell, Chris Given-Wilson, codpieces, coinage, dancing, Danny Dyer, Danny Dyer’s Right Royal Family, Denmark, direct descent, Dover Castle, Dukes of Normandy, dyeing, Edward II, Edward III, Elizabeth Norton, fencing, France, Helmingham Hall, Henry II, Henry Percy, Henry VIII, Historyonics, horses, Hugh le Despenser, Isabella de Valois, Jane Seymour, jousting, Leeds Castle, Louis IX, Nick Knowles, Norway, Piers Gaveston, Ray Winstone, red hot poker, Roger Mortimer, Rollo the Viking, saints, Shrewsbury, Sir John Seymour, St. Margaret of Wessex, sugar banquet, Sweden, Thomas Becket, Tobias Capwell, Tower of London, Tracy Borman, West Ham, Who do you think you are?, William I, Wolf HallMany of you will remember the episode of “Who do you think you are” in which Danny Dyer was revealed as a descendant of Edward III. In this new two part series, he “meets” a few prominent ancestors, some even more distant. The first episode began with Rollo, ancestor of the Dukes of Normandy, which…
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The Rise of the Clans
A History of Scotland, Alexander III, assassination, BBC1 Scotland, BBC4, Clan Hepburn, Clan Lennox Stuart, Clan MacDonald, Clan Stewart, clans, Douglas clan, Dukes of Albany, Dukes of Norfolk, Earls of Arundel, Edward II, England, executions, exile, Fitzalan, Fitzalans, Fotheringhay, Henry Lord Darnley, House of Stewart, Howards, James Earl of Bothwell, James Earl of Morton, James I, James Stewart Earl of Moray, Joan “Beaufort”, John Balliol, John Knox, Kirk o’Fields, Lancastrians, Lords of the Isles, Margaret of Norway, Mary Stuart, Neil Oliver, Perth, Red Comyn, Richard III, Robert I, Robert II, Robert III, Scottish Reformation, Walter Earl of AthollNeil Oliver‘s latest history series has been shown through December on Monday evenings (BBC1 Scotland) and twenty-four hours later on BBC4. The first part, of three, showed how the power vacuum caused by the sudden deaths of Alexander III and his granddaughter was resolved through the clan system and John Balliol’s abdication so that alliances…
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I have just watched a fascinating BBC documentary from 2013, concerning the amazing hoard of 17th-Century (and earlier) jewels that was found in Cheapside at the beginning of the 20th Century. The documentary is called Secret Knowledge: The Hidden Jewels of the Cheapside Hoard, and was presented by modern jeweller, Shaun Leane. You can see…
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Channel 5’s “Inside the Tower of London”
“Princes”, Anne Boleyn, Beefeaters, bigamy, Catherine of Aragon, Ceremony of the Lilies and Roses, Channel Five, Charles II, coins, Colonel Blood, Colonel Thomas Blood, Constable of the Tower, crown jewels, Domenico Mancini, Duke of Wellington, Eton, executions, exhibitions, Germany, Guido Fawkes, Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes, Henry III, Henry VI, Henry VIII, illegitimacy, James VI/I, Jason Watkins, Josef Jacobs, King’s College Cambridge, Kray twins, Leonora Cohen, Long Cross Penny, More, Peasants’ Revolt, pre-contract, ravens, Richard III, Royal Marriage Secrets, Royal Mint, Rudolf Hess, Simon of Sudbury, Sir Walter Raleigh, St. Gregory’s, Tower of London, Tracy Borman, Westminster Abbey, William IThis four-part series is narrated by Jason Watkins and heavily features Tracy Borman, Joint Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces. The first part dealt with the Peasants’ Revolt, which resulted in Simon of Sudbury‘s beheading and Borman travelled to St. Gregory’s in his home town to view the preserved head. She spoke about the animals…
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Many of us watched the TV version of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, showing a nicely unsanitised view of the Tudor world. Wolf Hall itself, of course, is the grand manor where Henry met his third wife, Jane Seymour–the one often described as ‘mousy’ but the ‘only one Henry loved’ (because she gave him a living…
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