television reviews
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A cursed title?
BBC, Bendor Grosvenor, Britain’s lost Masterpieces, CABAL, Charles I, Charles II, Dukes of Buckingham, Edward of Buckingham, George Villiers Duke of Buckingham, Glasgow, Grenvilles, Henry of Buckingham, Henry VIII, high treason, Humphrey Duke of Buckingham, James VI/I, Kelvinside, Leicestershire, Northampton, portraits, Richard III, Rubens, Sheffields, titlesThis very informative BBC documentary, presented by Dr. Bendor Grosvenor, showed how a portrait, presently on display in Glasgow, was proved to be an original Rubens. George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, was a courtier and soldier, serving under both James VI/I and Charles I as well as being a possible partner of the former.…
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I always admired Bernard Hepton, who could be guaranteed to bring Class, capital “C”, to any production. His voice was smooth and creamy, and his understated approach always seemed to fit his role to perfection. I remember him in various historical roles, particularly Cranmer. But I didn’t know he was renowned for arranging film fights,…
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Versailles
Carlos II, confusion, Eustache Dauger, executions, fictionalisation, George Blagden, Henry Pole the Younger, Henry VIII, Ian Mortimer, Inside Versailles, James IV, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kate Williams, Kathryn Warner, l’affaire des poisons, la Voisin, Louis XII, Louis XIII, Louis XIV, Man in the Iron Mask, Margaret “Tudor”, Maria Theresa, Marie Louise d’ Orleans, Mary “Tudor”, poison, VersaillesThree series of this Canale Plus production, showing a charismatic Louis XIV (George Blagden) decreeing a new palace outside Paris, have now been shown in the UK and it seems that a fourth will not now be made. It has much in common with “The Tudors ” in that it has been enjoyable from a…
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Yet another case
Audley case, BBC2, Bontems, Canale Plus, denialists, Duc de St. Simon, Edward IV, Elizabeth Wydeville, Fontainebleau, France, Harlay Archbishop of Paris, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, John Ashdown-Hill, Lady Eleanor Talbot, Louis XIV, Marquise de Maintenon, marriage law, morganatic marriage, Pere la Chaise, Richard Earl Rivers, Royal Marriage Secrets, Saudi Arabia, secret marriage, VersaillesThis year’s third series of “Versailles” reminded me of a further instance of secret marriage, even though some people maintain that nobody ever married in secret despite this case, that spawned two whole books, this one and this just decades ago, let alone Edward IV and Elizabeth Wydeville or her parents. In 1683 or 1684,…
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This is Stratford Johns, who featured heavily in Z-Cars and Softly, Softly. In spring 1976, with his co-star Frank Windsor, their characters appeared in Second Verdict, investigating six mysteries, of which the “Princes” were the second. It should be possible to locate a recording of this programme.
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Michael K. Jones‘ latest investigation, into Edward the Black Prince, was featured on BBC1’s “Inside Out” South-East, a half-hour regional magazine programme consisting of three reports of which this was the last one. As Jones explained, the neutron blaster is not a weapon used at the 1356 battle of Poitiers but for present day scientific…
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Britain’s most historic towns
“Tudors”, Alice Roberts, Battle of Bosworth, Belfast, canary, Channel Four, Cheltenham, Chester, ducking stool, Earl of Oxford, Edward VI, Elizabeth I, executions, fools, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Francis Kett, Henry VII, Henry VIII, heresy, Jasper “Tudor”, justice, Kett Rebellion, Lollards’ Pit, Lord Chamberlain’s Men, Low Countries, Mary I, medieval clothes, Morris dancing, Mousehold Heath, Norwich, Norwich Guildhall, pubs, punishments, Reformation, refugees, Robert Kett, Shakespeare, sumptuary laws, weavers, Wensum, Will Kemp, Winchester, YorkThis excellent Channel Four series reached part four on 28th April as Dr. Alice Roberts came to Norwich, showing streets, civic buildings and even a pub that I have previously visited, describing it as Britain’s most “Tudor” town. She began by describing Henry VII as “violently seizing” the English throne (or at least watching whilst…
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There are few television programmes so long-running that participation in an early show is of interest in itself but the Antiques Roadshow is one of them. On April 29, the experts came to the majestic Georgian structure of Floors Castle, home of the Duke of Roxburghe and from which the ruins of Roxburgh Castle are…
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Lucy Worsley can always been relied upon t)o be entertaining, and her latest documentary – BBC – Lucy Worsley’s Fireworks for a Tudor Queen (2018 – is well up to standard. As the title suggests, she was going to reproduce the sort of amazing fireworks display that might have been created for Elizabeth I. In…
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I have been asked for an opinion about Dan Jones and the Templars, and so have delved around for an impression of Jones’ thoughts on the subject. I know nothing about him, and so started from scratch, so to speak. What follows is an assessment from someone who was considering acquiring the book. A YouTube…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 