Either the writer Peter Moffat knows very little of his history, or this is yet another deliberate distortion of history by the BBC. The Telegraph's TV critic Ben Lawrence knows no better either; "This was drama as history where the past is definitely another country" he writes this morning. Dickhead.
This isn't petty picking at minor problems of costume or props - a Sam Browne worn the wrong way, or a car not yet in production - the whole thing is so fundamentally flawed, so historically dishonest as to do real harm to the memory of the harshness of pre-Great War rural life. So, in place of this sanitised, plastic BBC history I offer you two good alternatives;
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| washing the corpse - from das Weisse Band |
The second of course is Peter Hall's 1974 film 'Akenfield' - still available on DVD, but this clip gives a flavour. With horses.
11 comments:
I saw a trailer for 'young Morse' [set in 1960's I think] on telly, I think I heard a copper shout "policeman down" or some such - Americanisms like that took another 40 years to reach our new gendarmerie.
Even though the plot was preposterous, Foyle was very nearly quite well done, at least they made the effort. Upon watching two minutes of Costner's attempt at Mediaeval England the other day - it was too much pain.
As to farming of yore - the horse was the most important member of the family but people helped each other when they could and the bonds of community were in most cases so strong, enveloped and given succour in the local church and parish. In which, ties to the land and next to God were welded - through life, it was a trial, an ordeal and man died young.
It could be said, the further from the land we drift, the farthest from God we become.
On a theme.
Meandering down, to attend a lunchtime Mass the other day, I was struck once more on how so few young people attend and yet whence one steps out of the doors of the Cathedral - youngsters abound.
They're all around, shopping, pubbing, gossiping and displaying [mostly] happy countenances, some thugs but too many hollow, vacant eyed stares.
Yes - they're missing something in life but whose fault is that? Does it not shame all of our society - that, they learn habits from their elders, betters, fathers and mothers and the example set since the sixties has been indeed: a very poor and Godless one and we indoctrinated but did not enrich and help them.
Glory be, for a Catholic, much to my Ma's chagrin and for its wonderfully crafted, succinct and pure English do I dearly love the King James version:
Galatians 6:7
King James Version (KJV)
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
When the left and others, spout on about "community" they know not of what they utter.
It is true, that - the only communities now in the UK, are those of the immigrant ghetto and I do wistfully respect that, if not their ideologies.
Actually, it is very, very difficult to get "the past" right ...
I've seen clips of "Call the Midwife" (Don't have a TV, remember) & the buildings are CLEAN & there isn't any smog, and no-one has a grotty 'orrible 'alf-smoked "woodbine/cravenA" in their marf, etc, ad nauseam.
I take your point on horses, etc.
So, they should have tried harder.
Anachronisms, even physical ones, are very hard to avoid.
Meanwhile ... Anon
Well, you can stuff the RC church, 2000 years of blood-saked lies & blackmail, for a start!
No "god" (even if supposedly existing) is detectable (either directly or indirectly) ...
& is therefore 150% irrelevant.
Now piss off.
I suspect the reason the BBC is incapable of historical accuracy is because they favour 'youf' and employ too many twenty year olds in senior positions.
Piss off?
Oh dear, is that the best you can do?
Sad, very sad, sad and inarticulate.
The thing that got to me in the end was the applause for the army volunteers as they marched down the village street.
Hand-clapping didn't occur in this type of situation (nor in church at weddings) before the current dispensation (post-1980 I guess) and only really got going during and after the beatification of Princess Di.
Cheering, yes; flag-waving, yes; applause (except at a concert), no.
Heimat? Picked up a couple of bits of this, highly coloured tosh based on 21st Century notions. As for baths, one used municipal baths in the 1940's and very good they were too. But there were about half a dozen locations only in a city of 250,000 with around five more in a county with around 500,000 population and none at all in villages or even small townships. This was comparatively generous. Also, you got ten minutes or so before the knock on the door because of those waiting.
Anon
I can't be bothered with ignorant believers in BigSkyFairy, they are just tiresome, when they aren't out nurdering & blackmailing people.
A few observations...
For a BBC re-hash of history in living memory that PC-emotes cravenly and runs fast and loose with the facts - look no further than "How We Won The War" - thank goodness for iPlayer - so I can stop the flow of revisionist bilge or whopping lies to recover before masochistically returning to see what other travesties they've perpetrated.
S'funny that Al Habibi-See want to revisit WW1 when the Napoleonic period has far more resonance with the present - think about it....
I keep picking up William Cobbett's Rural Rides and looking about... Another PeterLoo anybody?
Murdering and blackmailing,not how I'd describe the activities of my family and friends, you need to get out and mix more.
Aah, Akenfield! We remember it coming out and thoroughly enjoying it!
'Went and looked for work in Newmaaaarket; walked forty miles there and forty miles back'!
Thanks for the tip about the DVD!
G Tingey
If you cant be bothered then why is it that you continue to post on the issue.
DP111
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