The archetypal television historian

Above: Victoria Wood tutting her way through the British Empire.

On the subject of Victoria Wood, I watched her new television series Victoria’s Empire on Sunday - a sort of history-travelogue where she goes to former British territories and talks to people about any lingering British influences, fussing over the interviewees like a mother hen. It was quite well filmed, but the content was idiosyncratic and had no real depth (it was disquieting to see an intelligent woman pretending to be slightly dim). The Guardian reviewer yesterday (Lucy Mangan) said she preferred this mumsy approach rather than the rigours of AJP Taylor methodology, which is a depressing endorsement of the drift towards dumbing down.

History programmes are a popular genre on television (making media stars of a number of academics). The presenters of these programmes range from the buttoned-up repression of David Starkey (scowling at the camera and furiously spitting out his opinions) to the body fascism of Betony Hughes, almost bursting out of her over-tight jeans (following in a fashion first set by Michael Wood) as she describes the sexual behaviour of the ancient Greeks. In Time Team the presenter Tony Robinson runs towards the camera in a frenzy of over-excitement while the resident professor Mick Aston (who is actually quite witty, as well as being very competent) parodies himself in an ever-changing parade of multi-coloured striped jumpers (“wear something bright so it shows up well on television” the director probably told him).

And I am always disappointed with archaeologist Francis Pryor whose dubious television work on the Anglo-Saxons (lots of unsubstantiated claims and conclusions – absence of evidence is not evidence of absence as the cliché goes) is in contrast with the outstanding excavation he has done at Flag Fen (one of my all-time favourite archaeological sites).



Above: Lawrence Westgath – his style was relaxed and easy-going as he coaxed people to talk about unspeakable things.

One of the most impressive historical programmes I have seen recently was Lawrence Westgath’s examination of the legacy of slavery (repeated twice about three weeks ago). Dealing with powerfully emotive and controversial issues, his style was candid and polite, full of intuitive questions. Don’t know who Lawrence Westgath is (a Google search produces a blank) but you feel as if you want to see him tackle other subjects (Lawrence Westgath on the history of the Northern Ireland conflict, or the decline of the motor industry in the Midlands, or even the legacy of Jane Austen – almost any subject would benefit from his fresh approach).

But for me the archetypal television historian has to be Catherine Hills from Cambridge University who presented a series on archaeological continuity during the early 1990s. This programme has never been repeated (as far as I know). Probably if I saw it again I would be disappointed, but it lives in my memory as filled with revelations and original insights, so that I felt every word was worth listening to (the programme opened each week with Catherine Hills standing beside a blazing bonfire at night-time, like Eustacia Vye in the opening scenes of Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native).

Oh, and I’d definitely clear my viewing schedule to watch an avatar of AJP Taylor presenting the Origins of the Second World War.