Empire

[MaMattoo]

Watching with eyes glued...as a history graduate from an ex colony I am keen to see what version is told, and am impressed so far.

I've enjoyed it but coldn't get the free map. We used to live in Egypt and I always wondered why we did games at the Gazira club and now I know.

I read Paxo's book The English which went on and on about what a dreadful people we are. He tried to pull it round in the last chapter with a grudging "they're not so bad after all".
I'm guessing that this series will go the same way. He will spend four and a half episodes telling us how awful the British Empire was and then sugar coat the last half episode. I will, and have, stopped watching long before then.
I'm not saying that I cannot accept criticism but I don't like Paxo's line of only seeing the bad side. You might even think he was loking for a fight or cheap publicity by means of antagonism but that would be so unlike him.[deeply sarcastic emoticon] I saw a trailer where someone from India was saying something vaguely nice about the Empire and Paxman cut her short with "that's not PC". Talk about pushing only one side of the arguement!

I don't think this show was one sided as he barely mentioned any of the atrocites the Empire got up to. Maybe that will be a second series.

I enjoyed last nights programme. Thought Paxo was his usual cynical self and sometimes determined to see the worst but to be fair a lot of the angle was quite positive.

I didn't see last night's episode. I sat through the first one and saw which way the wind was blowing, so didn't intend to watch the rest of the series.
Has he compared the British Empire to any others of the same period? You can't really judge people then by today's standards, it is fairer to compare them to their contemporaries. It was interesting to contrast it, a few days later, with Melvyn Bragg on In Our Time talking about Benjamin Franklin who was very pro the Empire. Well, prior to the Revolution that is.

Hind sight is not always the best way of looking at things. Paxman is cynical but not gushing like others who did similar programs. I think he might do a sugary lay episode. Some good photography and unusual music. A lot of things did to well post empire according to me - language, post system, the worlds largest train network...yes quite a few things. I wonder i he shall come to such things eventually. The empire was not good (putting it mildly) but it left a legacy that lives on...and that's history you live with!