SOURCE: Times Online
11-9-09
comments powered by Disqus
11-9-09
Pulling hair and calling names, historians disagree about Scotland
Historians in the News
BBC Scotland has been castigated by one of the nation’s distinguished academic historians over its showpiece documentary series about the country’s past, which he characterised as “a mediocre B-movie”.
According to Professor Tom Devine the scripts of A History of Scotland are “lame, boring and flaccid” and its “hapless, long-haired presenter”, Neil Oliver, suffers from “a sad lack of personal authority or presence”.
The series, Professor Devine claimed, is fatally imbalanced, with only three of its ten programmes devoted to the making of modern Scotland, while some of the most important issues — the Enlightenment and the Scottish diaspora — are, he said, almost entirely ignored.
Aside from these shortcomings — and with the proviso that the series has a predictable narrative style — the documentaries “could not have been more timely”, said Professor Devine, who is head of the school of history, classics and archaeology at the University of Edinburgh.
Professor Devine based his remarks, made in a television review, on episodes from the documentary’s first five-part series, and the opening episode of series two, which he had been sent on DVD by the BBC, along with production notes for forthcoming episodes.
The result, he concluded, was “a profound disappointment and a missed opportunity”.
Oliver, who has a 2:1 in archaeology from the University of Glasgow, did not pull his punches as he hit back at his august critic, characterising Professor Devine as “a silly old fool”, though he denied he had been upset by the personal tone of the attack...
Read entire article at Times Online
According to Professor Tom Devine the scripts of A History of Scotland are “lame, boring and flaccid” and its “hapless, long-haired presenter”, Neil Oliver, suffers from “a sad lack of personal authority or presence”.
The series, Professor Devine claimed, is fatally imbalanced, with only three of its ten programmes devoted to the making of modern Scotland, while some of the most important issues — the Enlightenment and the Scottish diaspora — are, he said, almost entirely ignored.
Aside from these shortcomings — and with the proviso that the series has a predictable narrative style — the documentaries “could not have been more timely”, said Professor Devine, who is head of the school of history, classics and archaeology at the University of Edinburgh.
Professor Devine based his remarks, made in a television review, on episodes from the documentary’s first five-part series, and the opening episode of series two, which he had been sent on DVD by the BBC, along with production notes for forthcoming episodes.
The result, he concluded, was “a profound disappointment and a missed opportunity”.
Oliver, who has a 2:1 in archaeology from the University of Glasgow, did not pull his punches as he hit back at his august critic, characterising Professor Devine as “a silly old fool”, though he denied he had been upset by the personal tone of the attack...
comments powered by Disqus
News
- Hank Aaron's Lasting Impact is Measured in More than Home Runs
- Hank Aaron's 715th, Called by Vin Scully
- Washington Must Treat White Supremacist Terrorism as a Transnational Threat
- Charlottesville Inspired Biden to Run. Now It Has a Message for Him
- Biden Revokes Trump Report Promoting "Patriotic Education"
- How Tuskegee Airmen Fought Military Segregation With Nonviolent Action
- What the History of the Ku Klux Klan Can Teach Us about the Capitol Riot
- Reconstruction Era Expert On Why Politicians Use Terms Unity And Healing
- The COVID-19 Vaccination Drive May be Slow—But it’s Already Faster than Any in History
- Operation Desert Shirt