BBC Normans 2

Such an imaginative title to follow on from my first post on the BBC series whose central plank is Prof. Rob Bartlett’s three episode extravaganza. However, I’ll also compare Dr. Stephen Baxter’s single programme on Domesday Book.

Firstly it’s interesting to note the fairly substantial overlaps between the two. Both focus in the main on post-Conquest England, with Domesday playing a large role in both. However, the difference in presentation partly explain why I much prefer Bartlett’s version to Baxter’s, even though Baxter’s argument for the purpose of Domesday sounded good (once gesta had explained some extra details). The key, to me, is the way that Bartlett continuously and consistently interleaves the narrative and explicit examples with the more abstract, broader themes. In contrast, Baxter spent an excessive amount of time on the explicit examples, pounding it in to the viewer that, to the Anglo-Saxons, the Norman reign wasn’t a Good Thing. The final 10 minutes which finally got to Baxter’s detailed argument about the purpose of Domesday (not just the money, unlike Bartlett’s brief explanation) was very interesting, but felt completely disconnected from the other excellent 10 minute section on the physical construction of the book. On the other hand, with its description of PASE and the detailed arguments at the end, Baxter’s programme felt more like “real” research at the cutting edge – incomplete and messy, but interesting in part for that.

Bartlett’s second episode is much more wide ranging than just Domesday, without containing anything like the detail of Baxter’s programme. In a way it felt like an inversion of the first episode. In the first episode the broader Norman history is focused towards William and also England, and then focused towards 1066 and the battle. In the second the focus starts with William, steadily broadening out as the Normans consolidate England (the Harrying of the North, Domesday) and then on to Wales, Scotland and Ireland. By steadily broadening the focus the death of William doesn’t slow the interest; in fact I found the later sections on Wales and Ireland the best parts.  In many ways this episode with its broad sweep and big themes is more satisfying and interesting than the first, although slower to get going.

As a somewhat separate point, it’s interesting to note one particular difference between the programmes in this series and similar recent popular science series. Notably, in the Normans series you only see and hear one voice, and the argument is presented from a single viewpoint. In the popular science series there seems to be an obsession with getting as many scientists on the screen as possible, each covering a small section of the argument. In many ways the single viewpoint seems to work better, but I wonder why there is this distinction between current popular science and history (gesta points out that Timewatch follows the multiple viewpoints presentation; combined with its Nazis or pyramids obsession, that might explain why it’s gone downhill). I don’t believe that scientists are necessarily more collaborative or sociable (based on conference tales); methinks stereotypes are at work.

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