Watching History

An excellent series, A History of Scotland, has been playing on BBC Scotland.  The most recent episode, “Bishop Makes King”, dealt with Robert the Bruce, who seemed to enact aspects of the Shakespearean kings in real life.  Like Henry V, he was a fine warrior and a savvy tactician.  Like Macbeth, he slaughtered many in the process of consolidating power. His final years were full of illness and with a conscience sickened by his sins of sacrilege.  A tired old compromised king, like Henry IV.  Those huge heroic statues of him shed their stoniness and became scarred flesh. The king was put into the context of his time, when to unite Scotland he had to get the Church on side.  There is no modern equivalent – the Church was as partisan and ruthless as the Murdoch press but also had the monopoly on propaganda, and bishops could raise their own armed forces. 

A History of Scotland is a first person documentary, with the talking head, Neil Oliver, taking you over battlefields and poring over parchment documents like the Declaration of Arbroath.  There is a little reconstruction, when a couple of bearded fellows pull out swords, but mostly you focus on the presenter's words.  Neil Oliver shows the right amount of serious passion for his subject.  He is not bouncing in and out of helicopters or running around busily, or otherwise distracting you from the material.  The scenery is grand, among the hills or in sun dappled woods or in ruined castles.  It has great atmosphere.

Another history documentary on at present is World War II: Behind Closed Doors.  It is in the third person, that is there’s a narrator on the sound track rather than a talking head.  Actors play characters, e.g. Stalin on the phone, shouting in Russian, sub-titled in English.  There are also interviews with those who actually experienced the events (record them while you still can).  Again, it is a detailed look at what happened, without any thesis to expound.  It’s pretty good, giving you a sense of the cunning and shiftiness of politicians, and with the fear as well for those politicians under dictatorships.  One scene that sticks in my mind is Stalin asking his Cabinet if they should abandon Moscow, speaking to them as if to a group of school children, and when no-one puts up his hand, singling them out in turn.  You can imagine the dread of giving the wrong answer.

These documentaries seem to me to be superior to recent Starkey and Schama series, which each had a thesis.  Schama’s A History of Britain was about the development of liberty and democracy in the UK, Starkey’s Monarchy about the necessity of monarchy, and they seemed  to be obviously marshalling evidence for the defence of their big idea. Also, both Starkey and Schama have become insufferable as personalities.

In another kind of historical documentary you have experts being interviewed for about ten seconds each, as if they were celebrities on Channel 4’s Hundred Greatest Gross Outs.  That style insults the historian and his life’s work, and insults the viewer as well.

Here’s a lazy list of my favourite history documentaries.  As happens in these lazy lists, giants, however ancient, remain in your memory, while small workmanlike programmes are forgotten, unless they are recent.

1. The World at War   I can hear Carl Davis’s score and see those burning photographs in my mind now.  It’s harrowing to watch.
2. The Civil War  Photos, diaries and letters flow together in a haunting and beautiful account of the American Civil War. 
3. A History of Scotland Excellent so far.
4. Battlefield Britain  I found myself rooting for Harold and the English at the Battle of Hastings then for Owain Glyndwr and the Welsh at the Battle for Wales.  Exciting stuff.
5. Christina, A Medieval Woman One I saw recently, which explained ownership of property and the power of church courts in medieval times.   I’ll forget it soon, but it was a neat low-key programme, giving some idea on how history is researched, through church records and the like.