Historical Television

I attended a lecture by Greg Jenner, historian for Horrible Histories and many other things, on 'History and TV', at York University.

The main discussion revolved around the difference between the representation of history in Documentaries, Drama and Comedy. I found it fascinating, making me think a lot more about the representation of history in the media. I especially found the struggle for documentaries to truly show the debate-heavy nature of history very interesting.

Documentaries.

History Documentaries aren't really documentaries, as they aren't really documenting anything. Everything that they are discussing has already happened. History in general is an 'intellectual pursuit' that involves a large element of debate, and this is something that is hard to convey through documentaries, as ultimately the format asks for an answer. The fact there 'is no real answer' often doesn't sit well. Debate isn't the best TV.

There is seemingly a difference between the sort of documentaries on each channel. (There are certain historical periods, such as the tudors, victorians and WW1 and 2 that are quite frequent, seen as the 'popular' times).

As the BBC has a legal mandate, it's documentaries, especially on BBC 4 are there to cover all bases and educate, with a limited bias.
Channels such as C5 however, have 'scoopy history', 'tabloid news' style history, which is historically problematic as it teases.

A lot of Documentaries are created from independent companies, who pitch to these bigger channels. They have tiny budgets and a team can consist of 3 people. This is something I found really surprising.

The lecture also discussed the different style of historical documentary that seems to be ripe in the US which follow a 'journey narrative' and relays heavily on cgi and wow-factor instead of the actual information.

Drama

In contrast to Documentaries, a Drama's main concern is the drama, rather than the facts. It shouldn't necessarily be accurate. Rival companies of films etc, have been known to pay historians to slag off opposing films for their lack of accuracy.

The lecture further describes the different types of history drama that there can be. (See video)

Comedy

Comedy uses the language of the past to create jokes and divide characters, as seen in Black Adder and Horrible Histories. Horrible history uses modern ideas and analogies with the historical characters to make them more relatable and situation understandable, and funny, to their audience.
The 'Timetravel device' in which characters are self aware of how they are portrayed in the future etc, is an interesting tool. Comedy is allowed to play with these forms and twists easily and it is accepted by the audience.

(Here is the full lecture:)