History on TV

[MadBusLady]

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.

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.

[IKnowItsMyFaultBut]

The vast majority of archaeological sites will at some point have a JCB on them! Removing the overburden (topsoil etc) by hand would take forever.

[LineRunner]

I don't get Discovery, I only have Freeview.

[LineRunner]

Most of the Time Team sites haven't needed digging up, though.

Turkdean villa was a classic - they were all so disappointed because they didn't find a bloody great mosaic, despite the fact that the site was actually otherwise fascinating.

[alcibiades]

I've just added a Neil Oliver DVD - A History of Ancient Briton - to my Amazon wish list.

I liked the early series of Time Team, but the more recent ones don't seem to have as much scientific content and seem to be going more for the wow factor. I think the show does have some value, though, because TV money pays for explorations that couldn't otherwise be afforded.

There's a series being repeated currently (probably for the umpteenth time) on Discovery History about the American Civil War. There's a lot of content in that, and it was that series that first got me interested in the history of the USA.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Ooh, yes, please, let's be allowed to diss TV history! DH won't let me because I interrupt the telly too much.

silly - I heard the same about Bones and forensic anthropology (though from a very patronizing lad who was sneering that all these silly women had signed up to do it assuming they'd meet David Boreanaz-type men).

[SillyBeardyDaddyman]

Time team made archaeology fashionable and meant there was an influx of students onto courses at universities who just saw it as a way of getting into the media...

[MadBusLady]

He has THE coolest name though. I suspect he is actually a medieval knight and has fallen through a hole in the space-time continuum of some kind.

[MadBusLady]

(I have to go and buy jeans now, bane. of. life., but back later)

[LineRunner]

I would love to discuss Time Team. The whole 'three days to dig up the goodies' seems so at odds with the ethics of responsible excavation.

And Guy de la Bedoyere is not a real archaeologist, surely?

[MadBusLady]

As Eddie Izzard has, YOU'VE GOT FIFTEEN MINUTES TO FIND THE CITEEEEE! LET'S GOOOOO!

Well, on the one hand they're getting people interested in archaeology etc etc and so on and so forth, and also they do a very limited number of keyholey trenches so it's usually "only" a bit of 18th century broken china in a few spots they're destroying.

But on the other hand, yes.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I loved the BBC series on the Royal Manuscripts.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0192nrg

Sadly, no especially dishy blokes.

[SillyBeardyDaddyman]

Is it safe to bitch about time team? I hate anyone who brings a jcb to an archaeological excavation!