BBC 'medieval' season

[fifty5]

First is the music for the trailers: the intro to Hendrix' Purple Haze done on strings (plus a single drum) - Ace!

Next is content. Tonight's offerings were about the medieval church's attitude to sex - you really shouldn't! (with details about strap-ons and buggery) - and the crusades - killing Jews and Moslems was penance enough, while 3 out of 4 crusaders died, mostly of starvation or thirst.

Anyone else seen any of this - and had thoughts?

 

[matriarch]

Been watching episodes on and off, have quite a few recorded to watch when I'm in the mood.

Terry Jones' take on everyday medieval life is rather refreshing, it was he who did the one on the Crusades. How many of us knew that hundreds and hundreds of ordinary folks just dropped what they were doing, literally, after hearing the thundering propoganda of the church telling them it was their duty to kill the heathens, and just walked to the holy land, but on the way ransacking towns to take food.....a particularly shameful piece of history, and one that kind of set the tone for the future.

I particularly enjoyed the programme Stephen Fry did on the Guttenberg printing press. Fascinating Stuff.

In fact, this is the kind of stuff that BBC does best, and I wish they did more of it.

see clips of some of the programmes here.