Just a little video asking the people of Britain what they consider to be their heritage - so, what is yours?
Friday 31 December 2010
Wednesday 29 December 2010
A return to 165 Eaton Place (and a brief moan about modern TV)
Upstairs, Downstairs returned to our screens this Christmas to revive the beautiful house that is 165 Eaton Place.
The year is 1936 and the era of the Bellamy's has ended yet their legacy (the house) remains. Rose, a former maid of forty years to the Bellamy family, returns to be housekeeper to the Holland's.
Over three consecutive nights the Holland family settled into their new way of life and we, the viewing British public, were allowed to turn back the clock to a time of political upheaval and social change.
Having been a huge fan of the original series I found myself excited at the prospect of its return. I trust the BBC with all of their period dramas and once again they excelled themselves.
The actors were superb, most especially Dame Eileen Atkins as Lady Maud Holland and Jean Marsh as the wonderful Rose Buck. The plots were well thought out and touching and provided a few surprises along the way.
A lot of people would prefer it if period dramas were not commissioned by the like of the BBC anymore. However, I adore watching these interpretations of the past. The majority of modern TV is dark and dangerous and almost always ends badly for the characters involved. However the likes of Larkrise to Candleford are always full of sunshine, flowers and beautiful landscapes with small problems that are always solved within the hour. And what is wrong with that? Enough of reality is depressing, we do not always need it shoved through our television screens as well.
It is also important as a teaching tool. It ignites an interest for the young who are often massive fans of crinolin and whale-bone corsets. As a child I was brought up on the likes of Wives and Daughters and the many Dickens adaptations that have been produced over the years. And I am glad for this. There is nothing wrong with escaping to a comfortable place and if it is possible to do this through period drama then so be it. I have doubtless been influenced through television and drama in my choice of studies and career, so it is a good thing to encourage people to remember the past.
Sometimes I wonder what future we have and what past people will portray of us in dramas thrity, forty, fifty years from now; but then my living my life is not about pleasing writers in half a century's time, it is about being happy, and costume dramas always make me happy.
Congratulations to the BBC for doing an excellent job at broaching the return of a much loved British institution.
The year is 1936 and the era of the Bellamy's has ended yet their legacy (the house) remains. Rose, a former maid of forty years to the Bellamy family, returns to be housekeeper to the Holland's.
Over three consecutive nights the Holland family settled into their new way of life and we, the viewing British public, were allowed to turn back the clock to a time of political upheaval and social change.
Having been a huge fan of the original series I found myself excited at the prospect of its return. I trust the BBC with all of their period dramas and once again they excelled themselves.
The actors were superb, most especially Dame Eileen Atkins as Lady Maud Holland and Jean Marsh as the wonderful Rose Buck. The plots were well thought out and touching and provided a few surprises along the way.
A lot of people would prefer it if period dramas were not commissioned by the like of the BBC anymore. However, I adore watching these interpretations of the past. The majority of modern TV is dark and dangerous and almost always ends badly for the characters involved. However the likes of Larkrise to Candleford are always full of sunshine, flowers and beautiful landscapes with small problems that are always solved within the hour. And what is wrong with that? Enough of reality is depressing, we do not always need it shoved through our television screens as well.
It is also important as a teaching tool. It ignites an interest for the young who are often massive fans of crinolin and whale-bone corsets. As a child I was brought up on the likes of Wives and Daughters and the many Dickens adaptations that have been produced over the years. And I am glad for this. There is nothing wrong with escaping to a comfortable place and if it is possible to do this through period drama then so be it. I have doubtless been influenced through television and drama in my choice of studies and career, so it is a good thing to encourage people to remember the past.
Sometimes I wonder what future we have and what past people will portray of us in dramas thrity, forty, fifty years from now; but then my living my life is not about pleasing writers in half a century's time, it is about being happy, and costume dramas always make me happy.
Congratulations to the BBC for doing an excellent job at broaching the return of a much loved British institution.
Wednesday 15 December 2010
Tuesday 14 December 2010
Heritage mania!!!
Lecture on our blogs, everybody going bonkers with their designing, uploading and following - who said that heritage isn't fun?! :D
Monday 13 December 2010
Heritage and Political Correctness
Lecture today included a piece on presenting a New Zealand heritage source ... And we have to be careful not to use words like 'tribe' or 'savage' when describing the Mauri people in case we are being discrimitory or racist... What utter rubbish, they were tribes and the word 'savage' is a quote from someone being attacked by Mauri's - to take this away just so that people aren't offended would surely destroy the source and be a lie? It is ridiculous that such issues have to be thoroughly consulted before a piece can be put into an exhibition or presentation. The world has gone mad.
Friday 10 December 2010
Blood Antiquities
It is a known fact that in 2001, a man walked into an antique dealers in Europe and attempted to sell thousands of years old artefacts looted from Afghanistan to 'pay for an aeroplane'. Two weeks later the Twin Towers were hit.
In Belgium there is a hidden underground trade of Afghan 'Blood' Antiques living off of the looting of sites of archaeological interest and their sale to wealthy Westerners. This illegal activity is undermined by the governments lack of experienced people to tackle it and carries on everyday with pieces displayed in antique shops and gallerys described as being from legal private collections ... the same pieces which have the inept marks of a spade in their facade and the fresh sand of their desert home covering them.
There are museums in Afghanistan with an abundance of unused space where there should be pieces of the country's heritage which has instead been spread - and lost - across the world.
This leads to detremental damage to the artefacts; their context is lost. As well as this it is unknown what is fake and what is real. And sometimes the pieces are destroyed completely. An unreplacable loss.
But even worse than this is the fact that it is the Taliban who are being funded through all of this. We have our men out there fighting for freedom. And at the same time is Westerners who are funding the people they fight.
Dumb, right?
In Belgium there is a hidden underground trade of Afghan 'Blood' Antiques living off of the looting of sites of archaeological interest and their sale to wealthy Westerners. This illegal activity is undermined by the governments lack of experienced people to tackle it and carries on everyday with pieces displayed in antique shops and gallerys described as being from legal private collections ... the same pieces which have the inept marks of a spade in their facade and the fresh sand of their desert home covering them.
There are museums in Afghanistan with an abundance of unused space where there should be pieces of the country's heritage which has instead been spread - and lost - across the world.
This leads to detremental damage to the artefacts; their context is lost. As well as this it is unknown what is fake and what is real. And sometimes the pieces are destroyed completely. An unreplacable loss.
But even worse than this is the fact that it is the Taliban who are being funded through all of this. We have our men out there fighting for freedom. And at the same time is Westerners who are funding the people they fight.
Dumb, right?
A BIG thank you to Bath Record Office and Bath Central Library
Well today has proved just how important and exciting heritage can be; in a major way!
9.30 saw me at the door of the archives at Bath Records Offices with LM. I had an idea or two in my mind for assessment material but no concrete decisions - and panic was setting in!
Whilst LM was being helped I took a curious look at a book left out for LM's research and found a curious chapter all about an 1851 ticket for a play hosted by Charles Dickens at the Assembly Rooms.
My interest was hooked; this is my kind of heritage!
Four photocopies and a friendly chat with Colin the archivist later and I was at the Bath Central Library asking to see microfiche of 1851 Bath newspapers and the original ticket held in their vaults. And they very kindly agreed!
I was actually shown two of the original tickets and they were breathtaking. The engravings were beautiful and so detailed! The newspapers yielded so much information and so many interesting adverts for the play itself. And the staff of the library couldn't have been more helpful and patient with my requests and questions.
So a huge thank you to both institutes, you've no idea how much I have been helped today! I am so relieved to have found my material - and it is an incredible piece of Dickensian and Bath heritage.
These tickets may not seem important to everyone but to me they are treasured items. As a fan of Dickens and of the theatre, being able to touch, see and research these tickets and reviews, was a real treat and made me realise how important it is that organisations such as our local library keep such items.They are irreplacable.
9.30 saw me at the door of the archives at Bath Records Offices with LM. I had an idea or two in my mind for assessment material but no concrete decisions - and panic was setting in!
Whilst LM was being helped I took a curious look at a book left out for LM's research and found a curious chapter all about an 1851 ticket for a play hosted by Charles Dickens at the Assembly Rooms.
My interest was hooked; this is my kind of heritage!
Four photocopies and a friendly chat with Colin the archivist later and I was at the Bath Central Library asking to see microfiche of 1851 Bath newspapers and the original ticket held in their vaults. And they very kindly agreed!
I was actually shown two of the original tickets and they were breathtaking. The engravings were beautiful and so detailed! The newspapers yielded so much information and so many interesting adverts for the play itself. And the staff of the library couldn't have been more helpful and patient with my requests and questions.
So a huge thank you to both institutes, you've no idea how much I have been helped today! I am so relieved to have found my material - and it is an incredible piece of Dickensian and Bath heritage.
These tickets may not seem important to everyone but to me they are treasured items. As a fan of Dickens and of the theatre, being able to touch, see and research these tickets and reviews, was a real treat and made me realise how important it is that organisations such as our local library keep such items.They are irreplacable.
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