Poor old Charles II. These days he’s playing second fiddle to almost everything. If it’s not last week’s 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London, it’s Gemma Arterton’s recent portrayal of his famous mistress Nell Gwynn. Jasper Britton brings our most debauched monarch wonderfully to life in Stephen Jeffrey’s The Libertine, but poor Charlie […]
Watching History
Like your history on stage or screen? Our team reviews film, theatre and TV drama with a historical slant.
Poldark: BBC’s Crowd-Pleaser is Back with a Bang
We last saw Ross Poldark (Aiden Turner) atop a windswept cliff, arrested for looting a wrecked ship, inciting a riot and murdering his rival’s cousin. Season two opens without missing a beat (there’s a story so far preview available on BBC iPlayer if you want to jog your memory) as Ross is dragged away from […]
Victoria: ITV’s New Flagship Drama
It is every teenager’s dream. At the age of 18 you break free of the Muggles who have been controlling your life since childhood and at the same time you are granted a miraculous power, which means that everybody has to do what you say. Even Harry Potter didn’t manage the last part but in […]
On the Trail of the Vikings
On a recent visit to County Wicklow, Ireland, I checked into a B&B just a few miles from where the History Channel’s Vikings series is filming at Lough Tay. I was hoping that I might catch a glimpse of Ragnar and Co. Or better yet, I might have a jolly sit-down with series creator/writer Michael […]
The Somme 1916 – From Both Sides of the Wire
About two thirds of the way through the first episode of The Somme 1916 – From Both Sides of the Wire (BBC2; six parts starting 18 July; prod/dir: Alastair Laurence) there is a sequence which could stand as a paradigm of what can be done with history on television. Peter Barton stands in the field […]
Upstart Crow: The New Blackadder?
Another one of those compelling BBC historical drama series has just finished. But don’t worry, a new series has already been commissioned along with a Christmas special. It may seem strange to mention Ben Elton’s latest comedy about William Shakespeare’s early career in the same genre as War and Peace and Wolf Hall. But historical […]
The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses
William Shakespeare might have been the world’s greatest playwright but he was not the world’s greatest historian, so it would be a mistake to watch this adaptation of Henry VI Parts I, II & III and Richard III in order to discover exactly what went on in the Wars of the Roses. Shakespeare wrote to […]
Versailles: Gripping Drama or a Hall of Mirrors?
Versailles (BBC2, 1 June) follows, over 10 weeks, the transformation of Louis XIV (George Blagden) from weak king in a troubled realm to one of history’s top despots and seventeenth-century style icon. The first episode sees Louis making the key decision to move France’s entire machinery of the government to his father’s old hunting lodge […]