Wednesday 8 December 2010

Quick bonus post: if you do one thing today

Posted by Tania Kindersley.

I apologise to readers who are abroad or are in any other way unable to get the BBC iPlayer, but if you are in lucky receipt of it, do watch this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00wh6lz/At_Home_with_the_Georgians_A_Mans_Place/

I felt a bit throaty this evening, and settled down on the sofa with the dogs and a very hot toddy, only to find there was nothing amusing on the actual television. So I wandered through the BBC programmes available to replay, and stumbled upon this, quite by chance. It is the most excellent Professor Amanda Vickery, on the Georgian Home. Although I studied history, and am fascinated by the Georgians, I quite often swerve away from this kind of thing on television. It is so often over-presented, with lots of breathy editorialising, or otherwise marred by stupid dramatic reconstructions, often with questionable soft-focus lighting, as if everything was seen through a layer of vaseline in The Old Days. But there was nothing else on, and I felt tired and not that well, so I clicked on the button in a desultory, not-expecting-much sort of way.

It is quite brilliant. It is all Lord Reith ever wanted: informative, educational and entertaining. It is aesthetically rich, historically revelatory, and surprisingly moving. There is a bit about Jane Austen towards the end which actually made me cry.

It is available until 10pm tomorrow, so if you have a moment before then, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

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2 comments:

  1. Dear Tania, I thought it was wonderful. I'm looking forward to episode two at 9pm on Thursday evening xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not my usual thing either, but it was fabulous wasn't it?
    Anne.x
    PS-Cuddly-hugs for the SNOW DOGS

    ReplyDelete

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