The historian and novelist LJ Trafford, who knows the seedier, scurrilous side of Roman history as well as anyone does, reviews the BBC’s repeat of the 1976 series I, Claudius and finds that it’s still “brilliant”. There’s this thing that happens whenever movies and TV get their hands on ancient Rome: they just can’t resist […]
The history of history on television
Television – especially BBC TV – used to be an integral part of a family Christmas, with the nation (theoretically) gathered round the telly to watch the big film or the Queen’s Speech. All that’s history now. But what about the history of the Beeb itself in this, its 100th year, we asked the former […]
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 […]
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 […]
Manda Scott watches Peaky Blinders
Warning: contains spoilers! If you’re old enough to remember Last of the Mohicans – the first, amazing, black-and-white-but-blood-red-scarlet-on-the-inside, Philip Madoc version in which he learned the Mohawk language to play the part, not the ghastly, plastic Daniel Day Lewis vehicle – will know that once in a while, the BBC steps beyond its comfort zone […]