Timewatch on Hadrian\'s Wall

[mcbishop]

BBC2 at 21.00 GMT today. The Radio Times review is a bit rude about it, particularly given that most telly these days consists of Big Brother micro-celebs performing plastic surgery on each other whilst trying to sell their house which they are also redecorating...

Watch it and put names to faces ;-)

Mike Bishop

[Graham Sumner]

Hi Mike

I will certainly be watching.

Are you 'a friendly expert' 'The bearded man with one of those waistcoats' or both?

Graham.

[Tarbicus]

Cheers Mike. I'll record it and watch it with a hangover tomorrow (tough week, and a mate's birthday).

[mcbishop]

I will certainly be watching.

Are you 'a friendly expert' 'The bearded man with one of those waistcoats' or both?

Bishop's Rule No.1: no TV. Ever.

Mike Bishop

[Carus Andiae]

Well, the tutor for my archaeology module of my Museums Studies MA (Lindsay Allason-Jones) was all over it like a rash - and some of the Museum of Antiquities items they featured crop up in my Collections Management assigment!

[Tarbicus]

Just finished watching it, and I thought it was the best documentary on the Romans I've ever seen. Nice one Mike, I'd have missed it otherwise. Nice to see the Birleys and Dr James, especially the latter's theory on why the Wall was built - to keep thousands of soldiers busy to avoid the chance of boredom and mutiny

[Graham Sumner]

Just finished watching it, and I thought it was the best documentary on the Romans I've ever seen. Nice one Mike, I'd have missed it otherwise. Nice to see the Birleys and Dr James, especially the latter's theory on why the Wall was built - to keep thousands of soldiers busy to avoid the chance of boredom and mutiny

They could have added the theory that the stones on the wall were whitewashed as well. That would also have struck a chord with many modern day servicemen who painted stones white on army camps for much the same reasons!

Graham

[mcbishop]

Nice to see the Birleys and Dr James, especially the latter's theory on why the Wall was built - to keep thousands of soldiers busy to avoid the chance of boredom and mutiny

I always welcome another chance to email Dr James and call him a meeja wh*re... ;-)

Seriously though, whilst it may have been a consideration, the whole evolving story of the construction of the Wall shows that speed was of the essence (switch from broad gauge to narrow, completion of the western just-under-half in turf, the leap-frogging building squads... if that's not too bizarre an image...!) but the programme-makers missed a trick in not pointing out the huge mistake the army made in building it in clay-bonded stone; fine as part of a building in a fort, providing it is rendered and not open to the elements, but a disaster waiting to happen in a standing wall (unless if had a dinky little roof like the remains at Chedworth). Graham's point about the whitewashing/rendering is connected with this. The fact that the damn thing kept falling down, had obstacles along the berm, and many other juicy tidbits could have been fitted in that 20 minutes they occupied with the very-definitely pre-Hadrianic Vindolanda tablets.

The whole 'mural controversy' thing has now gone beyond being solved because it looks like it was built by Hadrian and repaired/rebuilt by Severus, so you gets two for the price of one. Personally I'm waiting for some bright spark to suggest it was all Trajan's idea...

Still, it gets this sort of thing in front of The Great Unwashed and was (sorry guys!) mercifully free of prancing re-enactors (programme makers have a tendency to go OTT on that particular aspect; they need to learn that, as in all things, sometimes less is more).

The comment at the end about how the Romans were not JR's favourite people added nothing and was editorially flabby, whilst the RT's point about the breathy flutes was only too accurate.

Liked the rash analogy; I'm sure it will amuse Linds;-)

Mike Bishop

[Tarbicus]

(unless if had a dinky little roof like the remains at Chedworth).

Mike, what kind of tiles would that use? Terracotta, or local materials? One thing that's always puzzled me about walking along the Wall is those hobnails. If the soldiers had problems in Rome with slipping all over the place to the amusement of the locals, and given how much it could have rained in Northern Britain, I keep imagining an alarming number of broken necks :?

[mcbishop]

(unless if had a dinky little roof like the remains at Chedworth).

Mike, what kind of tiles would that use? Terracotta, or local materials?

Well I don't think it was roofed in that way (thatch might have been nice, though ;-) and I tend towards it not only having a flat top, but a breastwork and walkway too. All those who say the Romans never lined up on fortifications but always went out and fought need to read Caesar's account of the manning of the (sorry Duncan) circumvallation and contravallation at Alesia. Weatherproofing a flat top (whether there was a breastwork or not) is a serious challenge to even the best builder, let alone the slap-dash cowboys that were the Roman army.

One thing that's always puzzled me about walking along the Wall is those hobnails. If the soldiers had problems in Rome with slipping all over the place to the amusement of the locals, and given how much it could have rained in Northern Britain, I keep imagining an alarming number of broken necks :?

You walk on the cracks between the slabs - so long as you don't mind the bears getting you (a serious consideration to those of us brought up on A.A. Milne), it soon becomes second nature. Besides, if there was a wall walk, we don't know how it was accomplished (and the reconstruction at Wallsend has a big friendly handrail!).

Mike Bishop

[Carus Andiae]

[ Personally I'm waiting for some bright spark to suggest it was all Trajan's idea...

It was all Trajan's idea... :wink:

[D B Campbell]

All those who say the Romans never lined up on fortifications but always went out and fought need to read Caesar's account of the manning of the (sorry Duncan) circumvallation and contravallation at Alesia.

... or look at Trajan's Column Taf. XXIV (Cast XXXII / Scenes 77-79).

[Kate Gilliver]

Darn it, missed this one. That's what you get for not bothering with the RadioTimes and running off to play in the remaining patches of snow in the Lake District.

Anyone know if Timewatch comes up on NTL's Pick of the Week?
Or anyone got a spare copy going?

[mcbishop]

Darn it, missed this one. That's what you get for not bothering with the RadioTimes and running off to play in the remaining patches of snow in the Lake District.

Anyone know if Timewatch comes up on NTL's Pick of the Week?
Or anyone got a spare copy going?

Give it a month or two and it will be on UKTV History in an endless loop for a week sandwiched between a programme on Nazis and one with David Attenborough cuddling a whale ;-)

Were you building a high-altitude snow-Ro-man, Kate?

Mike Bishop

[Graham Sumner]

I know most of the experts associated with the programme but not the lady from Cardiff. What happened to our Kate?

Graham.