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History club

History on TV

88 replies

MadBusLady · 15/09/2012 15:03

Sooo, this comes off the back of this thread about Richard III and then this thread about MN History Club.

I thought it might be good to have a big general thread about any history on TV we are watching/looking forward to/really enjoyed in the past. And I see we are already tackling some of the major themes such as the rugged cheekbones and leather jackets of the presenters on the other thread. Wink

We're currently watching Neil Oliver's Vikings series, which is ace - what I really like about it is he starts out in the first programme in the Scandinavian bronze age/iron age, and showed where the Vikings had come from as a culture.

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LRDtheFeministDragon · 04/10/2012 16:30

Oh dear. 'Gamine'.

Tcha.

You should start referring to Tony Robinson as 'muscular' something. please don't

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LapsedPacifist · 04/10/2012 16:20

Am quite disturbed by DHs little obsession with Ms Worsley. Previously unused-by-him, slightly archaic terms, such as 'fetching', 'gamine' and 'leggy' have passed his lips in connection with the bohemian one. Hmm

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LRDtheFeministDragon · 04/10/2012 15:59

Ooh, I do like a bearded man.

Less perhaps the cagoule-fetishism, but each to their own.

I would love to look like Christopher Robin's bohemian grandmother.

My mum recently told me no matter what job I get (she's at the stage of considering increasingly bizarre alternatives, having lower her expectations substantially in the last few years), she does hope I won't 'wear a corset on TV like that Lucy Worsley'.

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TunipTheVegemal · 04/10/2012 15:55

I don't know LRD. Griff Rhys Jones looks a lot better now he's got the beard. And Nicholas Crane's rolled umbrella and cagoule always do it for me....

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LapsedPacifist · 04/10/2012 15:33

Someone described Lucy Worsley as looking like "Christopher Robin's bohemian godmother" Grin

You can sort of see their point!

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LapsedPacifist · 04/10/2012 15:30

We are watching Amanda Vickery's "At Home with the Georgians" on DVD at the moment - it's based on her book "Behind Closed Doors" about domestic life in Georgian England, which is a set book for one of my history modules.

My specialist areas of study and dissertation topic will all be 18th century social history, and I've got DH all enthused about the subject! He's really enjoying all the stuff David Starkey despises popular feminist female historian-presented telly history programmes that I'm force-feeding encouraging him and DS to watch!

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LRDtheFeministDragon · 04/10/2012 15:24

I've got to admit he doesn't do it for me.

Are there any really foxy TV historians?

I will have to settle for Sue Perkins doing the history bit of Great British Bake Off at this rate.

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tschiffely · 04/10/2012 15:21

habbibu, how very dare you Grin

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habbibu · 04/10/2012 14:18

Neil Oliver? Oh Dear God. The man sounds like a badly programmed robot - weird spacing between words. And he's not a real historian. Huff.

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TunipTheVegemal · 04/10/2012 10:02

Michael Wood is dishier than Neil Oliver IMO, though Oliver's voice is rather lovely.

The servant prog last week was fascinating but I found the presenter a bit monotonous - I longed for the animation of Worsley, Beard, Vickery or Ruth Goodman.

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tschiffely · 04/10/2012 07:32

LRD, ah well, it was worth a try Grin. Neil is lush.

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alcibiades · 03/10/2012 21:45

Re Phil on TT. I read somewhere that the reason he has long fingernails on his right hand is because he plays the guitar. Lots of guitar players prefer to use their nails rather than a plectrum, and paint stuff on their nails to harden them.

I also read that his accent in real life isn't as strongly West Country as on TV, but, if that's so, I don't think it matters. I would guess that the original briefing for TT was to make archeology interesting for the discerning public, and have a few "characters" who could play to the camera while at the same time being experts. After all, being a good university lecturer often involves being something of a performer.

As for Michael Wood - definitely dishy, but also knowledgeable. Thanks to the History Club, I've added a couple of DVDs to my Amazon wish list for my upcoming birthday: Michael Wood's Story of England, and Neil Oliver's A History of Ancient Britain.

(I've also added The Lion in Winter, on the recommendation from elsewhere that only Katharine Hepburn could convincingly play Eleanor of Aquitaine.)

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LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/10/2012 20:17

Grin Sadly, tschiff, he's someone I haven't spoken to since we were about 9!

But I was very chuffed to see him there, all the same.

Otherwise of course, I'm sure he'd be only too delighted to set you up. Wink

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LineRunner · 03/10/2012 20:14

Is Neil Oliver dishy?

I always thought Michael Wood was dishy.

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tschiffely · 03/10/2012 15:59

LDR, any chance you could FB them as see if they have Neil Oliver's number?? Grin

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LRDtheFeministDragon · 03/10/2012 09:13

This is such a ridiculous thing, but I was very excited: I watched the last of the Vikings programmes the other day, and there's someone on there who grew up in my village and went to my primary school! Grin

Maybe there was something in the water ...

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mixedmamameansbusiness · 30/09/2012 17:52

Madbuslady - I think she put it that the mistresses were more hands on in terms of planning, since there was no housekeeper. She showed one mistresses book which had an almost minute by minute breakdown of what the servant would be doing. It struck me as the big house servants at least having a community ad allocated tasks whereas a one household servant was responsible for almost everything, sleeping in the kitchen etc.

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SuperB0F · 29/09/2012 16:11

I was about to recommend the servants thing! I watched it earlier while ironing, and really enjoyed it.

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MadBusLady · 29/09/2012 16:05

Yis, it was great! Thanks for the recommend - missed the first 15 mins, I'm going to catch up with that later.

I thought it was interesting that she concentrated on the servants of the professional classes (doctors, lawyers etc). I know from census records that one or two of my ancestors had servants living in and they were only tradesmen and artisans. I presume the "mistress" would have been more hands-on in those households, and the servant more like we'd think of as a modern au pair. Certainly can't imagine any of my ancestors sitting in drawing rooms!

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mixedmamameansbusiness · 29/09/2012 14:17

Watched Servants last night.

Absolutely watchable.

For thoseinterested in domestic service (history of) I have a fab reading list from Birkbeck.

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wheredidiputit · 28/09/2012 20:02

Madbus

It's on bbc2 at 9pm.

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MadBusLady · 28/09/2012 18:49

Ooh, what channel was the servants thing on freerange? My great grandmother was a servant and had some fantastic stories.

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throckenholt · 28/09/2012 18:46

I think the Farm series (Victorian, Green Valley, Edwardian and now Wartime) are all quite good - and very digestible for children.

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freerangelady · 27/09/2012 20:40

I'm looking forwards to the new series on servants tomorrow night. Should dispel a few downton myths.

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LineRunner · 27/09/2012 17:06

I lived near there.

What were we talking about?!

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