The second half of Vikings Season 4 begins right where we left off last spring, with Ragnar (Travis Fimmel) returning to Kattegat after an 8-year absence, and challenging each of his sons: “Who wants to be king?” As it turns out, nobody does. Well, maybe Ivar. But none of them really wants to challenge Ragnar. […]
Vikings: The Story So Far
As Vikings returns to our screens, Patricia Bracewell recaps the first four seasons. The very first episode of the television drama Vikings began in the year 793 A.D. on a corpse-strewn battlefield somewhere in the Eastern Baltic. Two warriors, filthy and bloody, slaughtered the last of their enemies before our eyes while, on a distant hill, […]
The Crown: Netflix’s Royal Affair
‘Prepare to be welcomed into the coveted world of power and privilege….the leaders of an empire await,’ states the blurb on Netflix about The Crown. Whether or not you subscribe to the streaming service you will doubtless be aware of the eagerly anticipated new series about the reign of Elizabeth II from Peter Morgan, (of […]
Close to the Enemy: Episode One
Close to the Enemy (Episode 1/7, BBC Two, 10 November), written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff, confronts, over seven episodes, important historical issues concerning the way we handle political evil. Set in Britain in 1947, the drama centres around two opposing forces among the victors of WWII: those who are investigating German nationals for alleged […]
Desert Island Books: Lesley Downer
If I were stranded on a desert island I’d want to have five enormously long books, all worth reading, so gripping that I’d stop worrying about whether I’d be rescued, books that would cheer me up if I felt depressed about being stranded and that I’d want to read again and again. I’ve often thought […]
Desert Island Books: Sara Sheridan
These choices probably depend on the island. I’m being positive and imagining somewhere temperate with regular rainfall, plentiful fruit and vegetables and places it’s possible to catch fish. In this scenario, my worst problem is loneliness. But if it’s a polar island (a frozen desert) or a traditional desert island – all baking sun and […]
The need to fact-check is strangling my creative mind!
Dear Dr Darwin, I know we have to get the facts right, or risk the reader not buying into their side of the contract of fiction, but I do get so fed up with having to fact-check the whole time. When I sit down to write, I have stacks of books and files of images, […]
Victorian Slum: Episode One
In the jungle that is broadcast television different genres often exhibit quite different relationships with the truth. Top of the truthfulness table must be ‘reality shows’, Big Brother and its successors. BB surveilled its contestants 24/7 and it really did show people doing what they purported to be doing. No lies there, all falsity was […]