Claire Grant
Unregistered
Hi all,
My name is Claire I work for Sky Vision a television production company.
We are starting production on a brand new history series for UKTV’s Yesterday Channel. In it we would like to tell the story of famous battles in history through living historians and battle re-enactors. The idea is that rather than telling the story through General’s memoirs or academic historians we tell the story from the soldier’s point of view.
As we all know re-enactors and living-historians go to great pains to ensure accuracy in battle re-enactments - you wear the same clothes, carry the same weapons and eat from the same plates – so who better to tell the story!
I wanted to enquire as to whether your group would be taking part in any event portraying Roman battles this year and wouldn’t mind being filmed at the event. If you have any questions about the series please contact us on 01923 286 886 or email back with your details and we will be in touch to talk you through the show. We are determined that each of the episodes shall represent the biggest, loudest and most authentic battle re-enactment of all time and for that we need your cooperation!
Kind regards
Claire Grant
Researcher
Sky Vision
British Sky Broadcasting
(t):01923 286886 (m): 07843803343
www.sky.com/skyvision
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You might also consider posting this on the Facebook Roman Army Talk.
Richard Campbell
Legio XX - Alexandria, Virginia
RAT member #6?
Ok boys, Hollywood is calling. Let’s hope the battle scenes in this documentary series are better than the standard 10 men and a tent.
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I would be on board with this but my group lives in Texas. Its good to know that your production company is trying to do something right. The History Channel had guys in 5th century Britain running around in 1st century kit. I remember a dolabra being presented as an intermediate range weapon on the warrior versus warrior series.
I hope you get a good response on this and all goes well.
Hi there,
I'm from a TV production company called Sky Vision, my colleague Claire Grant posted a week or 2 ago who is working on the same programme but just to reiterate; we are starting production on a brand new history series for UKTV’s Yesterday Channel. In it we would like to tell the story of famous battles in history through living historians and battle re-enactors. The idea is that rather than telling the story through General’s memoirs or academic historians we tell the story from the soldier’s point of view.
I came across your website while looking into Roman re-enactment and thought I’d get in touch. We are looking for Roman battle re-enactment events and have had difficulty finding any in the UK. A re-enactor I have spoken to today pointed me towards Europe to find these type of events. Does anyone know of any within the UK? Also, can anyone help me in terms of finding the biggest and best Roman battle re-enactments within Europe?
I would appreciate your help!
Thanks
Alex Booth
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Dear Mr. Booth,
Over the last 10 years I have found documentaries produced in the UK to be of higher quality than American documentaries in multiple regards. I really can't speak to groups in the UK, but Legion XX, Legion VI Fre, Legion XIII Gemina, Legion X and Legion VI Victrix are the best in the US.
If you are not able to gather enough reenactors I encourage you to retain a knowledgeable reenactor that can advise you on how to equip actors that you might hire. Hollywood is really a lost cause when it comes to historical accuracy and documentaries have suffered greatly in the authenticity department.
Good luck on your project. I can't wait to see it.
Respectfully,
Marcus Aquilo Lignum
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Legio VI Victrix in California is doing a shoot now I think.
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Hello Alex.
As far as I know most Roman groups in the UK give demonstrations of Roman drill, tactics and weaponry rather than what might be termed battle re-enactments. This is due in part to the fact that they all carry metal weapons. Even if the swords are not edged they could still cause injury and the shafted weapons such as the
pila could certainly not be thrown at anyone. Instead the groups often provide training displays where participants practice with wooden weapons.
However if you wanted to watch a demonstration you could go to the website of 'The Ermine Street Guard' for example for further details.
http://www.erminestreetguard.co.uk/Membership.htm
Over the years the ESG have participated in numerous television documentaries.
Graham.
"Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe.
"Every brush-stroke is torn from my body" The Rebel, Tony Hancock.
"..I sweated in that damn dirty armor....TWENTY YEARS!', Charlton Heston, The Warlord.
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As usual the Re-enactors shown are a total mix. Snipets of bits of film all thrown together. The ESG and II AVG are in this one. Look for the swirls on the shields from the Arc of Orange for II AVG, very different from the Thunderbolt of the ESG.
Kevin.
Kevin
