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the universities by historians. Today the academics
worry that television history will become the
dominant force in our memories. They fear that
television itself will create history. The big academic
bogeyman is that TV is shaping collective cultural
memory in the
media age. Well
they may have a
point, after all it
certainly did with
the American
Mafia who didn’t
start wearing
sharp suits and,
well, acting like
Mafiosi until
they’d seen how
it was done in the Godfather movies. They really are
telly dons! But will, for example, the hugely popular
Horrible Histories
mean children will henceforth
only be interested in the gory bits of history? Well
the
London Dungeon
was opened way back in 1974
by a mother only too aware that her two young sons
were endlessly and only fascinated by the blood and
guts of history, so probably not.
It’s worth remembering that there’s still not really
a level playing field for a truly rational debate about
television history programmes. We still live in a
society where it is tempting to demonstrate our
social superiority by saying “I don’t watch much
television”. It’s a curious stand given that we really
do have the best television programming in the
world and there is such a wealth of fantastically
educational and inspirational television available.
I suspect that this sniffy attitude comes from the
same root that causes some people in bird watching
hides to whisper. They don’t whisper to avoid
frightening the birds. They whisper in case they
identify the wrong bird. You know who you are!
In this new satellite age there are now whole channels
dedicated to history. If I am ever in a friend’s house
who has the big telly with a million channels which is
always on I amuse myself playing the
Find the Nazi
game while they put the kettle on. The game is
basically this. How long does it take flicking the brick
sized remote control to find a programme about WWII
and the Nazis? Not long is the answer. You can play a
similar game with the Titanic for that matter. Indeed
The History Channel
shows a programme
called Nazi Titanic. But
you can also find Wood
and Starkey and Schama
and Clark and Worsley
and Hughes and my
goodness the list goes on
and on. We all have our
favourites and I suspect
we all have our pet hates too. In the end it comes down
to who best holds our attention and who most
successfully fires our imagination.
Superficially you could say that the main difference
between a historian presenting history on the telly and
anyone else doing the same is that historians tend to
use the words
probably
and
suggests
and the phrases
I think
and
in all likelihood
rather more. To my mind
a good television history programme is just like a good
guided tour. At its best it is erudite and entertaining
history - loyal to the facts, generous with different
points of view
but without the boring bits.
Academics can make dreadfully dull and dumbed
down history programmes just as the so-called
amateurs can make spellbinding scholarly works that
you want to watch again and again. And vice versa.
There are great tour guides and there are not so great
tour guides. The problem doesn’t appear to be with
history itself. When imaginatively presented, it can
draw people in by the coach-load.