television reviews
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The Sun newspaper has provided a list of productions that are are featured in Britbox’s February listings. If you go to the link and then to February 18, you’ll see that Richard III gets a look-in: “….Richard III: The Burial of the King (2015) The extraordinary journey of Richard III, from car park to cathedral, culminates…
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Even more “Britain’s Most Historic Towns”
America, Armada, banking, Battle of Lincoln, body snatching, Charles II, Corn Laws, Drake, Edinburgh, Engels, executions, Glasgow, Horatio Nelson, industry, Lincoln, London, Manchester, Marx, medicine, Nicola de la Haie, Osborne House, overdrafts, Plymouth, Portsmouth, rapid expansion, Royal Society, Sir Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkins, Sir Walter Raleigh, theatre, William Burke, William HareAlice Roberts has been back on our screens with a third series of the above. This time, she visited (Mediaeval) Lincoln, (Restoration) London, (Naval) Portsmouth, (Elizabethan) Plymouth, (Steam Age) Glasgow, (Georgian) Edinburgh and (Industrial Revolution) Manchester, albeit not in chronological order like the two previous series. There was a focus on Nicola de la Haye…
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I have just watched an episode (series 1, episode 5) of the Mysteries of the Missing documentary series. Half of this one dealt with the mysterious sunstones of the Vikings, by which they are believed to have navigated the Atlantic. They also used wooden sundials (hand-held) that worked when the sun was out, but…
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While idling through the guide of Amazon Prime TV, I came upon a 2010 documentary series called Mystery Files. It was the first series, and episode four was entitled Royal Murders. Yes, it was the boys in the Tower. Well, I debated about watching it, fearing another yawn loaded against Richard, but no! It was…
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In a UKTV History (now Yesterday) programme My Famous Family, presented by Bill Oddie, the nurse Rachael Corfield was revealed to be of Plantagenet descent, via Margaret Countess of Salisbury, whose great-granddaughter Catherine Hastings married Henry Clinton, the second Earl of Lincoln. She was, therefore, shown to be a cousin of Queen Victoria.
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“Bone Detectives” come to Ipswich …
A9, Amesbury, Bath, Beaker Folk, Beeston Castle, body snatching, Bristol, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Caithness, Canon William Dutton, Cheshire, curses, dissection, Dutton family, Egypt, Fifth Crusade, Great Budworth, Ipswich waterfront, John de Lacy, jousting, Minerva, Norton Priory, Paget’s disease, post-mortem damage, Raksha Dave, Ranulf Earl of Chester, Roman Britain, Runcorn, Scotland, Sir Geoffrey Dutton, St. Augustines, St. George’s Concert Hall, Stoke Quay, Tori Herridge, wounds… and other venues, with Tori Herridge and Raksha Dave. This Channel Four series, which consists of five episodes, begins at Stoke Quay on the town’s Waterfront where a long-forgotten (St. Augustine’s) burial ground was fully explored before some new buildings were constructed. Three bodies in particular were examined: 1) A wealthy man buried in…
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A pleasant surprise
“Princes”, Avon-Kennet Canal, Birmingham, Bristol, Brunel, canals, centurions, Channel Five, Coventry, Crimewatch, Dan Jones, Edward II, Endeavour Morse, Grand Union Canal, Lancashire towns, Lancaster, Leeds-Liverpool Canal, Liverpool, London, Oxford, Oxford Canal, ports, rainfall, red hot poker, Richard III, Roman roads, The Wench is Dead, trade, transport, YorkshireIn recent years, Dan Jones’ posing and fanciful Crimewatch-style re-enactments, together with Starkeyesque conclusions formed before he started, has marred quite a few series on mediaeval history. Now he seems to have changed tack completely with this series, covering canal building from the middle of the eighteenth century and – yes – I rather enjoyed…
The New Murrey and Blue blog 