Monthly Archives: June 2012

“Sixteenth-century girl’s love for Tudor Suffolk”

June 29, 2012

Steven Russell interviewed me for today’s East Anglian Daily Times about why history is the new rock ‘n’ roll:

I wish Henham Park were my second home!

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The Book Show Royal Special

June 9, 2012

It was a real treat to spend a morning filming at Blenheim Palace, the setting of films like Young Victoria, for The Book Show Royal Special. The film aired just before the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, on 31 May 3012 (and is still, at the time of writing, available on Sky On Demand).

I was giving my take on representations of the royalty on screen and page. How have films and novels shaped our ideas of the royalty? If, as I suspect, quite a lot, do they have a responsibility to be accurate? Does it matter if they’re not?

An illustrious panel, made up of historians Andrew Roberts, Kate Williams and Andrew Marr, along with The Book Show host Mariella Frostrup, went on to discuss these issues in greater depth.

It was particularly nice to discover that the Handel’s grand Zadok the Priest was my musical accompaniment.

 

 

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Thames Jubilee Pageant

June 4, 2012

It was a pleasure and a privilege to spend Sunday 3 June 2012 commentating on the Thames Jubilee River Pageant.

I spent the morning on BBC Radio 5 Live as a presenter’s friend to Jane Garvey and Sam Walker on Double Take. We were on location in Battersea Park, close to where the flotilla was gathering, to discuss what it means to be British, and how it has changed over the last 60 years of the Queen’s reign.

Then in the afternoon, I joined James Whale on LBC 97.3FM for four hours at Westminster Tower, from where we had a bird’s eye view on the unfolding river pageant.

From our perspective, the continual wall of boats, against the backdrop of the Palace of Westminster, looked like a modern-day Canaletto.

This impressive pageant seemed a fitting tribute with which to celebrate the long, glorious and historic reign of Her Majesty the Queen.

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Time Team

June 2, 2012

In the last month, I’ve had tremendous fun being part of two Time Team digs in Suffolk and Hertfordshire. We’ve been searching for lost Tudor manor houses, one belonging to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and one to Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk.

I made a couple of little videos for the Time Team blog.

I’m looking forward to joining the Team again later in the year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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