BBC Scotland: Rome\'s Final Frontier

[PhilusEstilius]

I am living so near the edge of Empire I watch Star Trek all the time in fact I can Shuttle out to it in just 15 minutes.

[Nathan Ross]

It is clearly his time-travelling hat (cf 'folding space').

He must be a third-stage Guild Navigator

(to continue the sci-fi theme around here...)

[Flavivs Aetivs]

To get back on topic I am looking forward to this.

[Kegluneq]

Unfortunately it has yet to appear on iPlayer - goodness knows why. To anyone who saw this, what did you think? Is it worthwhile for us Sassenachs to wait for the repeat?

[Nathan Ross]

Did anybody actually watch it then?

If so, was it:

a) interesting and informed

or

b) flimsy and bombastic, featuring lots of wheeling helicopter shots of windblown landscapes and manfully striding presenter-figures, with booming portentous voiceovers talking about 'the ancient Scots' and the terrible crimes of Rome...

?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Well, I managed to miss it last night.... :unsure:

One of the roughnecks caught the last part about Severus and his brats....

[D B Campbell]

Before any of you watch it, I'd like to apologise for bringing it to your notice. I managed to endure 15 minutes before switching over to something infinitely more entertaining.

[Kegluneq]

Before any of you watch it, I'd like to apologise for bringing it to your notice. I managed to endure 15 minutes before switching over to something infinitely more entertaining.

And apparently extremely edited following the radio prank tragedy.

Shame that this was a disappointing program, but it doesn't come as a tremendous shock.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Before any of you watch it, I'd like to apologise for bringing it to your notice. I managed to endure 15 minutes before switching over to something infinitely more entertaining.

It is the BBC after all.....seems there is nothing on the tube about history ever worth watching~!
I'm still waiting to see the 30 seconds of fame from the day we filmed for them in 2006/7

[mcbishop]

seems there is nothing on the tube about history ever worth watching

Not true. Chronicle shows how good it used to be (without lapsing into pointless nostalgia) before the rise of the independent production companies and the restless urge to dumb-down. However good or bad it was (couldn't see it in England and iPlayer isn't carrying it for some reason, but does have several Gaelic programmes which must have a minority audience outwith the Highlands and Islands; go figure) at least it wasn't Channel 4 and their 'we'll tell you what you've seen and what you're about to see' approach at each ad break just in case your attention span won't last three minutes. I get annoyed by frantic striding by presenters (they are not allowed to stand and talk to you), flirting at the camera (Bettany, I mean you), and over-use of re-enactors, but few things ever came quite so close to me burying an axe in the TV as that programme about Severus in Scotland with the repeated slow-motion wolf meme and a mopey-looking Severus imitator. I mean, really (he said, slipping into Victor Meldrew mode)...!

Okay, rant over. Probably just as well I couldn't see this latest offering ;-)

Mike Bishop

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Ha ha! Ok Mike, yes not all....

However, over use of reenactors is not bad, when they use us...and pay us! 8-)

[Ross Cowan]

Unlike Duncan, I stuck with it to the end. It was guff.

The previous programme in the series/strand, about the campaigns of Montrose and MacColla, was much better. It was presented by Prof. Ted Cowan (no relation) of Glasgow Uni, who is even more Scottish than Neil Oliver! He was an engaging and informed presenter. But the weak point was the filler footage of Pike and Shot-type re-enactors.

Some re-enactors look the part. But when a programme cuts to a slow-motion and grainy segment of lamely battling re-enactors who, despite accurate kit, are physically nothing like the young, weather-beaten, fast-marching and hard-fighting historical soldiers the presenter has just been enthusing about, it's more than a little incongruous.

The next episode is Last Battle of the Vikings.

[mcbishop]

Okay, it's now on iPlayer. I'm saving it for tomorrow evening and will watch it with tongue firmly placed in cheek and tellybrick at the ready.

Mike Bishop

[Nathan Ross]

I managed to endure 15 minutes

That would be just up to the point where they mention 'Calgacus, Scotland's first Braveheart' then? :grin:

But actually, to be contrary, I quite enjoyed this one (though maybe just in comparison with the Dan Snow Programme yesterday...). The first twenty minutes or so were the usual melodramatic narrative, but after that it got better, I thought. There were some interesting walkabouts at Ardoch, Inchtuthil and Burnswark, and even the newly-excavated broch near Auchterarder that we talked about last year. Fraser Hunter enthusing over the small-finds collection at the National Museum of Scotland was far more engaging than any amount of soft-focus grainy shots of marching troops. Not quite Mary Beard, but kind of in the same vicinity, at least for a while. Really, the less flash and gimmickry these programmes go for the better they seem to be.

Still, there were annoyances - Hunter constantly talking about 'the Caledonians' around Hadrian's Wall, for one (the Brigantes were the pesky neighbours there, surely?). The interpretation of Burnswark as an actual siege rather than a practice camp will please some people, although the claim that the mounds outside the camp gates were catapult platforms will not. I'm not sure whether cutting to old footage of modern artillery bombardments and landing craft really helped the effect much either, and the constant references to Afghanistan got a bit waring (ah, relevance!)

All in all though, not bad :-) I'd be interested to learn whether Dr Bishop's tellybrick sees a lot of action, or not...

[mcbishop]

All in all though, not bad :-) I'd be interested to learn whether Dr Bishop's tellybrick sees a lot of action, or not...

Tellybrick not deployed. I tend to agree with Nathan. Like the planet Earth in H2G2, it was mostly harmless. I did get a bit annoyed when Fraser went yomping along the top of Hadrian's Wall (seeing celebs do it inspires the regular numpties to have a go and it is not good for the poor old monstrosity), but it seems all docus have to have a requisite number of cliches in them and this was one. Apart from that, I have seen a lot worse on telly... only the other evening, in fact.

Mike Bishop