Fighting Them on the Beaches

Peter Snow is an interesting presenter - smart, on the viewer's side and a somewhat manic, enthusiastic, bringer of 'the fun' presenter you don't get that often these days. His 'D Day As It Happens' (Channel 4), a two-parter over June 5th and 6th in 'real-time' was a fine example of making History interesting, relevant and contemporary. Assisted by the TV Friendly ex- Colonel Tim Collins and War Camerawoman Lorna Ward, Snow 'followed' the progress of six men and one woman for over this, the Greatest Day. We are so used to the 'Band of Brothers' WWII format of story-telling now that we see battles and crucial events as involving heroic and not so heroic individuals rather than forces of History (which also apply). The format worked because the time-line was re-constructed so accurately; we knew what Soldier X or Y was doing at 10.43 due to painstaking research of the photographic and other archives. D Day was an incredible turning point in World History and it is right that it be remembered so often, and in this instance, so well. Allied mistakes were highlighted as was Hitler's cause of eventual downfall - hubris and a gross overestimation of his military intelligence (falling for the feint 'Operation Fortitude' while 'Overlord' kicked into action). Good History and very watchable Television.

I'm a 21st Century Time Traveller, Get Me Out Of Here!

'Groan!', 'thetvreviewguy' hears you say...'not another TV History Programme about Queen Elizabeth's 1st's Reign!' Dr Ian Mortimer's new series, 'The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England' (BBC2) is a cut above the rest (although, worryingly, produced by arch-Tory David Starkey). A simple conceit (based on a best-selling book) - imagine you're a Time Traveller in this distant epoch - what do you encounter, what are the customs, how are they different from today? It has to be said that Elizabethan England was a pretty vile, sadistic, backward, superstitious and frightening place to live. Forget Shakespeare, here was a land where sadism reigned - from bull baiting through to domestic violence through to capital punishment. Thank Fuck for the Enlightenment, is all this time traveller can think when confronted with a country where you could be put do death in a cruel and unusual manner for not believing in God, being a Witch, being a Catholic, robbing a Chicken or being a vagrant. Prisons were mere holding pens until execution. This was a bad place to be alive and to be poor (or a woman from any social background)  - really grim, not cool at all. Elizabeth and the Court were a bunch of blood-sucking leeches that relied on terror and violence to maintain their status. A horrible Age brought to life by Dr Mortimer.