Amanda Vickery's stories from the Old Bailey made history come alive, while 5 Live was on top form for the Olympic countdown
Voices from the Old Bailey: Riots (R4) | iPlayer
British, More or Less (R4) | iPlayer
I am so happy that Amanda Vickery is a presenter. Every time I see her on TV, having a laugh with her interviewees, or using her iPad to make a point, I think: look, a normal person. A normal, clever person who tells us things we don't know, in a non-patronising, enthusiastic, useful way.
Vickery's specialist subject is ordinary British people in modern history, from the 17th century onwards. She made the excellent 30-part Radio 4 series, A History of Private Life, in 2009 (you can still get it on CD), and this week saw the return of Voices from the Old Bailey, which looks at Old Bailey court cases from the 18th century. This series reminds me, a little, of Jonathan Freedland's The Long View. Vickery, though a historian, is contemporarily minded, so keeps mentioning the present in her links ? at one point, on Wednesday's programme, about riots, she said: "Obviously they can't be on mobile phones to each other saying, We're moving on now to Fortnum and Mason's" ? and much of the programme is recorded on location.
The riots were put into context by other historians and, from time to time, actors read out real people's words, from Old Bailey transcripts. There's not many of these drama bits, which means the actors get rather fruity (not much to do, want to make an impression), when actually, just reading the words plainly would be interesting enough. But that's a niggle, really. I learnt a lot from this programme, including the fact that the Riot Act did actually have to be read to rioters by a magistrate in order to take effect. And that the Gordon Riots of 1780, which started as anti-Catholic persecution and ended as attacks on the establishment, were the largest episode of civil unrest in British history. Fifteen thousand troops were called into London to quell them, and 285 rioters were shot dead. Which rather puts today's mild insurrections into context.
Also on Wednesday, British, More Or Less looked at advances in DNA sequencing with reference to our nation's mongrel history. Soon we will be able to directly compare the differences between English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish people, see if we are all genetically different. Judging from the reactions of the Celts in the programme, many non-English people will be disappointed if we aren't.
BBC 5 Live made a big fuss about the Olympic countdown this week. One year to go, hooray! So 5 Live Breakfast came from the Olympic Park. Shelagh Fogarty was at the Aquatic Centre and Drive's Peter Allen and Aasmah Mir spoke to 2012 hopefuls from Trafalgar Square. All very jolly too, but it does beg the question: why is 5 Live moving to Salford in 2012?
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/jul/31/voices-from-the-old-bailey-review
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