Random Historical Goodness

[thisbluespirit]

Since I have spent most of the last few posts moaning about The White Princess (it's all right; I'm done now, but srsly, if you want to do historical feminism, you might want to consider what you do with the women, because being useless or committing multiple murders which they didn't actually commit plus bonus unhistorical rape is not really the way to go in my book, even without the horror of the costumes *coughs*), here are some much better historical things of various kinds!


1. In almost insulting contrast to TWP in how to do it right, I've been watching Suffragette (2015), which my Mum kindly sent me because I had missed it on the TV and she hadn't, and she'd liked it so much she watched it twice in a row. And then I had a mystery parcel from Amazon, and now I have also sort of watched it twice, as I watched it once and then watched it again for the commentary. (Both because I was curious about things and also because I remembered Abi Morgan, the writer, being interesting from The Hour.)


2. A clever, haunting ficlet about Catherine of Aragon Seven Sevens (which I fell over and was delighted by both because it was clever, and also because it happens to use the chess scene from Shadow of the Tower as a launching point).


3. For those who don't already have a paid account and might find it of use: Ancestry are offering free access to UK and Irish records for the upcoming weekend.


4. And another excellent historical fic (which incidentally wound up making me a new flister, which is always a happy outcome *waves happily*), from the Chocolate Box exchange, for the sadly short-lived WWII ITV show, The Halcyon: Lex Talionis (Richard Garland & Lady Hamilton).

Comments

[persiflage_1]

I'm glad you finished with the terribly unhistorical TWP!

Did you know Nicola Walker's back on the Beeb right now playing a lesbian vicar in 'Collateral'? It's a David Hare-penned 'state of the nation' four episode show. It also stars Doctor Who alums Carey Mulligan (the lead cop), John Simm (Labour politician) and Billie Piper (Simm's ex-wife and mother of his daughter). It also stars Saskia Reeve among others.

[thisbluespirit]

Me too!

And, yes! I haven't watched any of it yet, but I have recorded it. I was pretty amused at the cast of Who-related people, too! (It's a thriller, so we'll see how it goes, but at least I'll wait till I have all of it to watch!)

[persiflage_1]

I watched the first episode this morning - it was really good.

I look forward to seeing the rest!

[thisbluespirit]

Good! That sounds hopeful! :-)

[philomytha]

Thanks for the rec!

Oh yes, Suffragette was fantastic, definitely how to do it right when it comes to historical feminism.

And agh, I've just found that Enemy at the Door is not available from CinemaParadiso, which is where I get all my watching these days. They're normally very good at DVDs of older series. Ah well, perhaps I can put in a request.

[thisbluespirit]

My pleasure! And, yes, I was very impressed with Suffragette! (Of course, to be fair, since I've been wildly grumbling about TWP, not that there's anything wrong with historical inaccuracy in fiction sometimes - but it does depend what you do with it!) Suffragette was a great relief to turn to instead!

And agh, I've just found that Enemy at the Door is not available from CinemaParadiso, which is where I get all my watching these days. They're normally very good at DVDs of older series. Ah well, perhaps I can put in a request.

Oh, that's a shame, but I suppose the DVD release was a good few years ago now. Do let me know if you want a YT link if all else fails.

[nostalgia]

I think Ancestry is the one where my dad told me to get a free trial month which I then forgot to cancel so they charged me £80 D: (Luckily my dad said it was his fault and gave me money to replace it.)

[thisbluespirit]

Probably! They all tend to do that; you have to say NOPE, no more to them. It's very easy to do. That was good of your Dad, though.

(That would mean you probably already have an account if you wanted to look at it for free over the weekend, though, as it's not a free trial thingy.)

[nostalgia]

My dad is very into that sort of thing for some reason.

(Ooh!)

[thisbluespirit]

(And btw, in case it wasn't clear in that comment, I meant it is far too easy to accidentally forget to cancel things like that, and I have done it myself with a different one, and not, it's really easy to cancel it etc. /o\)

Aw.

[nostalgia]

:D It is a bugger, yeah. I thought I would remember and then I did not oops.

[thisbluespirit]

I did one where I thought I had cancelled it properly and was all smug and then NO, apparently it wanted me to save something extra somewhere. (Luckily it was £15, not £80, though.) It's like they want your cash or something!

[nostalgia]

Urgh!

[shannonsequitur]

Speaking of films, I keep meaning to ask you if you've seen Love and Friendship. I think you'd really like it.

[thisbluespirit]

I have! And you're right, I really did! But thank you, because I miss things really easily and that is definitely the sort of thing I would want to know about.

[scripsi]

if you want to do historical feminism, you might want to consider what you do with the women, because being useless or committing multiple murders which they didn't actually commit plus bonus unhistorical rape is not really the way to go

Yes, yes and yes!

[thisbluespirit]

:-D