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Post by beverley61 on Jan 11, 2020 20:46:19 GMT
Caught this by accident.
Some interesting developments from Bronze Age Britain like a cave where children's heads were displayed after death and not just their skulls. When their heads were put on racks to be displayed they still had the flesh and hair on them!!! What were the ancient Britons up to!
I don't suppose we'll ever really know.
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Post by vicky on Jan 12, 2020 9:14:57 GMT
It was fascinating....but the problem I always have with this kind of programme is that, when all is said and done the conclusions reached can only be speculation.....and I want to KNOW!!!
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Post by pandaeyes on Jan 12, 2020 9:47:45 GMT
Absolutely fascinating. I agree it's only speculation at the end, unfortunately, until some one invents a time machine, we'll never know. Love programmes about archaeology. Looking forward to next week's offering. Nice to see lady experts too.
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Post by beverley61 on Jan 12, 2020 16:10:05 GMT
I liked how they linked these places as curated shrines to dead people. The explanation of the isle of Thanet etc. Incredibly interesting. I did wonder whether invasion or attack by other tribes might be a possibility, but if they had thought about it they must have discounted it because it wasn't mentioned.
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Post by beverley61 on Jan 18, 2020 23:40:20 GMT
Interesting and very sad tonight.
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Post by vicky on Jan 19, 2020 7:54:15 GMT
It was, wasn't it? Although I learned nothing new about the living and working conditions in the newly industrialised cities, it was still very shocking to be presented with actual physical evidence of how awful peoples' lives were.
Although the programme is a little bit gimmicky (i.e. writing the unfolding evidence on a glass wall) I do like the fact that they are happy to assume we are capable of understanding what is being discovered simply by listening to the experts talking to each other and not by showing awful "re-inactments". I hate those!
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Post by beverley61 on Jan 19, 2020 18:58:58 GMT
Yes it is good that way. I think they're trying to use the wall like an incident wall in the police- it is gimmicky. I didn't learn much either but I always remind myself that it might be the first time watching any kind of history programme for some viewers and from that perspective they have to cover the basics. Very brave of C4 to put it on Saturday night, but also excellent that there is something like this on.
There was only one area that I might have slightly disagreed on, and that was the plight of the poor in the country. They weren't actually living the life of Reilly out there. Traipsing about farms, working 16 hour days with gangmasters keeping them under the cosh, working as indentured 'slaves', making charcoal day and night, hacking out quarries and dying at almost the same rate. If things had been good in the countryside the mill owners would have had to pay much higher wages to tempt them into the cities.
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Post by goodhelenstar on Jan 20, 2020 10:28:43 GMT
I thought so too. I think it first made its on-screen appearance in Waking the Dead where they all gathered round to shout at each other through the glass! I've never seen one in the flesh, so to speak, but assume they do exist.
I also appreciated the lack of re-enactments (cue Lucy Worsley and her dressing-up box, grr!). Another presenting style I don't care for, which they did do, is to have several experts standing around pretending they don't know anything about the subject. On the whole I prefer the old-fashioned way of presenting to camera, but I appreciate that having several presenters makes it more interactive. What I did like was the focus on the scientific evidence, revealed in the skeletons, of the likely course of those people's lives, and then relating it to what is known of the history of the area. That's not new to TV, of course – Alice Roberts has been doing it for years. There's a grey area around what science can prove and what can only be conjecture, and I thought they handled that very well.
Pretty shocking that life expectancy was so low. Over on BBC4 the documentary 'Being the Brontës' made the same point – in Haworth, where the local industry was also textile mills, life expectancy was 25. The Brontës themselves, living a much more comfortable life, all died of TB before the age of 30 apart from Branwell, an alcoholic, who was 31 and Charlotte who died in childbirth at 39. So even for the relatively well-off life was nasty, brutish and short.
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Post by vicky on Jan 20, 2020 16:58:51 GMT
Argh, I missed that! Thanks for mentioning it and bringing it to my attention. I will check to see if it's on iPlayer.
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Post by goodhelenstar on Jan 20, 2020 17:26:08 GMT
It is, Vicky. It's a repeat, first shown March 2016! Gosh, how time flies ... It was the 200th anniversary of Charlotte's birth. I remember there were a number of TV and radio programmes at the time.
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Post by vicky on Jan 20, 2020 19:30:38 GMT
It is, Vicky. It's a repeat, first shown March 2016! Gosh, how time flies ... It was the 200th anniversary of Charlotte's birth. I remember there were a number of TV and radio programmes at the time. Ah, in that case I remember seeing it....but will be very happy to see it again!
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Post by beverley61 on Jan 25, 2020 20:46:47 GMT
This is a bit different. An execution cemetery. I don't think I've seen them do this before even though they have explained that these cemeteries are relatively common.
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Post by pandaeyes on Sept 23, 2020 9:08:26 GMT
Series 2 starts on Saturday (26th) at 8 pm.
A Bristol graveyard has a grisly find. The bodies of 13 people, whose skulls had been cut open. They are linked to a local hospital, a celebrated surgeon, and body snatching. I loved the last series. You have it all, archaeology, history and medical mystery, what's not to like? Looking forward to this.
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Post by beverley61 on Sept 27, 2020 7:15:09 GMT
I missed the middle bit as my son came in, but enjoyed the rest.
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Post by linseed on Sept 27, 2020 8:12:11 GMT
I really enjoyed it too
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