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(©LucyWorsley)
For those of us who were charmed by her TV performance in If Walls Could Talk which was broadcast on BBC4 earlier in the year, there is good news: Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator of the Royal Historical Palaces, has been filming a series of three programmes about The Prince Regent and his era again for BBC4, to be broadcast later in the year.
This is how she describes it on her blog:
Let me fill you in on this Regency project – it’s in three parts, for brilliant BBC4 once again (yes, the brainy channel). The Prince Regent officially became ‘acting king’ in 1811, two hundred years ago, and the series is probably going to be called Elegance and Decadence (two lovely words which seem to sum up his nine-years reign as Regent before he properly became King George IV in 1820). When all is edited I think we’ll have an hour on the corpulent Prince of Whales himself, beginning of course at our beautiful Kew Palace where he grew up, great events and great artists (Lawrence and Turner) and the Battle of Waterloo. Episode Two is planned to be about architecture, Brighton Pavilion, Windsor Castle, the property market and the middle classes, and there’s a bit of my all-time favourite Regency person Jane Austen. We finish with an hour of sedition, violent protest, the Peterloo Massacre, industrialisation, royal divorce and dissent. Fun, huh?
Fun, indeed.
Over the past few months, while filming the series, she has been dandying about with Ian Kelly, author of a really good biography of Beau Brummel, The Ultimate Dandy, delving into the correspondence of Lady Caroline Lamb, flying in hot air balloons over Bath (how horrifying!) and dancing with tons( excuse the pun) of Regency dancers.
(©LucyWorsley)
I’m so looking forward to this series, because, as you all know, Jane Austen is my all time favourite Regency person too. I will, of course, keep you informed of broadcasting times and other developments 
.
Professor Amanda Vickery’s splendid BBC Radio 4 series, Voices from the Old Bailey is back, and is on excellent form.
The first programme in the new, second series of four programmes was first broadcast last Wednesday at 9 a.m., but can be accessed here to “listen again” via the BBC Website. This week’s episode concentrates on riots during the 18th century, and the section on the Gordon Riots, an uprising of terrible anti- Catholic violence put down with equal harshness by the army, and which occurred in London and the surrounding district in 1780, is absolutely riveting.
But does this have anything to do with Jane Austen, I hear you cry ? Most definitely, yes. In Northanger Abbey it is surely the folk memories of the Gordon Riots that cause Eleanor Tilney to be very easily alarmed upon misunderstanding an innocent remark made by Catherine Morland in Chapter 14:
Delighted with her progress, and fearful of wearying her with too much wisdom at once, Henry suffered the subject to decline, and by an easy transition from a piece of rocky fragment and the withered oak which he had placed near its summit, to oaks in general, to forests, the enclosure of them, waste lands, crown lands and government, he shortly found himself arrived at politics; and from politics, it was an easy step to silence. The general pause which succeeded his short disquisition on the state of the nation was put an end to by Catherine, who, in rather a solemn tone of voice, uttered these words, “I have heard that something very shocking indeed will soon come out in London.”
Miss Tilney, to whom this was chiefly addressed, was startled, and hastily replied, “Indeed! And of what nature?”
“That I do not know, nor who is the author. I have only heard that it is to be more horrible than anything we have met with yet.”
“Good heaven! Where could you hear of such a thing?”
“A particular friend of mine had an account of it in a letter from London yesterday. It is to be uncommonly dreadful. I shall expect murder and everything of the kind.”
Of course, Catherine is talking of nothing more serious than of the publication of one of her horrid books, but Eleanor Tilney, the better informed of the two and with an emotional interest in any potential public unrest that might have to be put down by her elder brother, who is serving in the Twelfth Light Dragoons, leaps to some serious conclusions. Henry Tilney has to set matters aright in a very Mr Bennet-ish fashion( and not in a manner of which I approve, to be brutally honest with you, despise me if you dare):
“My dear Eleanor, the riot is only in your own brain. The confusion there is scandalous. Miss Morland has been talking of nothing more dreadful than a new publication which is shortly to come out, in three duodecimo volumes, two hundred and seventy–six pages in each, with a frontispiece to the first, of two tombstones and a lantern — do you understand? And you, Miss Morland — my stupid sister has mistaken all your clearest expressions. You talked of expected horrors in London — and instead of instantly conceiving, as any rational creature would have done, that such words could relate only to a circulating library, she immediately pictured to herself a mob of three thousand men assembling in St. George’s Fields, the Bank attacked, the Tower threatened, the streets of London flowing with blood, a detachment of the Twelfth Light Dragoons (the hopes of the nation) called up from Northampton to quell the insurgents, and the gallant Captain Frederick Tilney, in the moment of charging at the head of his troop, knocked off his horse by a brickbat from an upper window. Forgive her stupidity. The fears of the sister have added to the weakness of the woman; but she is by no means a simpleton in general.”
This weeks programme features one of my favourite historians, Professor Peter King, whose books, Crime, Justice, and Discretion in England 1740-1820 and Crime and Law in England, 1750-1840 are two of my most favourite books on the subject. Go read them now if you possibly can. Completing the discussion panel are Dr. Katrina Navickas and Professor Tim Hitchcock, co-founder of the fabulous on-line archive, Old Bailey Online.
Amanda is currently filming for her BBC TV Special on Sense and Sensibility, which will air sometime in December. She recently sent me this picture of her being filmed examining The Watsons manuscript at Sotheby’s,which of course was recently sold for nearly £1 million. I thought you would like to see it, so here it is:
We have investigated the links between Maria Edgeworth and Jane Austen before on this site, and so when I heard today’s Woman’s Hour programme, which contained a discussion of the two, I though you might like the opportunity to share it.
The programme was a discussion of the merits of the two authors, and included a comparison of their respective fame during their own lifetimes
In the early 19th century Jane Austen was certainly less famous,and less well-connected to the Romantic literary world than The Great Maria, but now that position has changed totally , with Maria Edgeworth being relatively unknown.
A new edition of Maris Edgeworth’s book Patronage, edited by Professor John Mullan was published on the 4th July and the discussion marked that event. John Mullan is a Professor of English at University College London,and we have heard him take part in Amanda Vickery’s Voices from the Old Bailey programmes last year. He hosts the Guardian Book Club, and contributes regularly to the Newsnight Review, LRB and the New Statesman. Patronage is a novel that is of interest to Janeites as it is considered that it may have influenced Jane Austen when she was writing Persuasion.
If you go here you can listen again to the programme -the piece on Jane Austen and Maria Edgeworth began approximately 30 minutes into the broadcast. Scroll almost to the bottom of the page to see the details. You can download a podcast of the programme, or simply “listen again” to it if you go here; it will be available from tomorrow for seven days, I think, and will of course be dated the 7th July.
Do enjoy it, as I think you will find it interesting.
In our last post we talked about the exteriors of the Old Rectory at Teigh in Rutland, used as the Hunsford Parsonage in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
Today, let’s take a look at the interiors.
The Hall is a room we see mainly when Charlotte and Mr Collins are leaving ,with Maria to yet another scintillating evening at Rosings in the company of Lady Catherine.
Poor Elizabeth is glad to see them go so she can throughly make herself miserable by re-reading all Jane’s letters to her, for she is now, coourtesy of Colonel Fitzwilliam, in possession of the knowledge that Darcy did intervene to prevent Bingley from forming too strong an attachment to her sister. Badly done Darcy.
This is the most beautiful room, currently used by its owner as a guest dining room
In the adaptation it was painted grey but Mrs Owen has since painted it a more cheerful yellow.
The plaster work is stunning,and sets this room apart architecturally from the rest of the house.
The ceiling is amazingly detailed
The Staircase Hall again has some beautiful plasterwork decoration
with plaster pilasters, which boast wonderful Corinthian capitals,which flank the arched window.
If we go up another flight of stairs we come to the room that was used as Elizabeth Bennet’s Bedroom.
And which looks out onto the church to the side of the house
The bed is in a slightly different position,as you can see….
But one original feature still remains…..the corner closet
which had been so thoughtfully kitted out by Lady Catherine with…
…shelves…
What an orginal thinker she was….
Sadly, the shelves are not normally kept in the closet for it is used as a wardrobe..but you can see where they would have been…
And finally , down one flight of stairs, to the sitting room on the first floor, which was backwards, and used by Mrs Collins to insulate her from the irritations of her husband’s company…..
where she could receive welcome guests, such as Colonel Fitzwilliam…
and where Lizzy would receive, rather awkwardly, less than welcome ones…
who made insulting proposals of marriage while the clock on the mantle was stuck at 18:17….;)
This room is a delightful sitting room, used by guests to the Rectory.
It is still decorated in the same wallpaper, which makes the room so instantly recognisable to admirers of this adaptation.
It is very easy to reenact that dreadful proposal scenes in one’s head as you sit in the room…
..so vividly did that scenes impress itself on one’s memory.
And that ends our tour of the interiors…but fans of that adaptation will be pleased to note that you can actually stay at the Old Rectory for Victoria runs it as a thriving Bed and Breakfast business. If you go here you can access her website and make your booking. It is only 20 miles from Belton House, which was used as Rosings, and 16 miles from Stamford, the setting for Meryton in the other Pride and Prejudice, of 2005 with Matthew McFaddeyn and Keria Knightley. A perfect base for doing some adaptation based sight seeing;)
Last week I was lucky enough to be granted permission to photograph The Old Rectory in the village of Teigh in Rutland,which served as Mr Collins’ Rectory in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
Today we shall look at the exteriors, and in the next post, the interiors.
We first see the Rectory in the adaptation when Elizabeth, Sir William Lucas and Maria Lucas visit the Collins’ in their home.
The gravelled drive sees the first meeting of Elizabeth Bennet and Charlotte since her ruthlessly sensible marriage to Mr Collins.
And, it is, of course, the back ground to Fitzwilliam Darcy’s hasty retreat after his disastrous marriage proposal to Elizabeth, which was so roundly rejected.
It is interesting to note that while the church used as Mr Collins church was, in reality, on the Belton estate, the Belton parish church of St Peter and St Paul…
…the parish church and the Old Rectory at Teigh are nearly 20 miles away. Luckily, the church has a tower that is very similar to the church at Belton and as you can see, it is very difficult to spot the difference, especially during the small amounts of screen time either church was given.
This was, of course, one of the main reasons the production team chose the Old Rectory to serve as Hunsford Rectory. The owner, Victoria Owen confided to me that the reasons they chose her home was because of the church, the house was of the right period, and because it does have a parlour that faces “backwards” like Charlotte’s favoured room at Hunsford.
Elizabeth was thankful to find that they did not see more of her cousin by the alteration, for the chief of the time between breakfast and dinner was now passed by him either at work in the garden, or in reading and writing, and looking out of window in his own book-room, which fronted the road. The room in which the ladies sat was backwards. Elizabeth at first had rather wondered that Charlotte should not prefer the dining-parlour for common use; it was a better sized room, and had a pleasanter aspect; but she soon saw that her friend had an excellent reason for what she did, for Mr. Collins would undoubtedly have been much less in his own apartment had they sat in one equally lively; and she gave Charlotte credit for the arrangement.
Chapter 30.
More on that in the next post.
Teigh is a tiny, beautifully peaceful village in Rutland, England ’s smallest county, set in some fabulously serene countryside. This is the view from the church over the surrounding fields…
The parish church at Teigh, Holy Trinity, is ancient, but the interior, very suitably, dates from 1782. I have not taken any photographs of the interior, for it didn’t appear in the adaptation, but if you go here you can see just how stunning this rare survivor of a church interior of the Georgian era truly is.
The church is very close to the Rectory as you can see from this photograph.
Perfect for filming.When I visited sheep were safely grazing in the churchyard, amid the ancient headstones…
and this delightfully friendly lamb made my acquaintance. Idyllic.
Next, the interesting interiors.
The BBC FOUR TV series, If Walls Could Talk concluded last night with a fascinating episode on the development of the kitchen throughout history.
I’ve not mentioned this programme to you before, because it is not primarily concerned with the era in which Jane Austen lived, being a general over-view of the development of key rooms in the house: the Living Room, the Bedroom, the Bathroom and in last night’s episode, the Kitchen.
The Kitchen, of course, developed apace during the 18th century and so I think you might like to see the interpretation of its history as it applies to our era, from last night’s show.
The series is presented by the rather endearing Dr Lucy Worsley who is the Chief Curator of the Historic Royal Palaces. She has come in for quite a lot of criticism for her presenting style, in particular for her habit of donning historic dress in every episode. Having now seen all the episodes I feel that when she did this in the company of other historical reenactors it made sense. She would look out of place in the swanky Victorian kitchen at Shugborough Hall, black leading the grate in modern dress when all about her were in pink maids uniforms and flounced aprons. But then I didn’t understand the need to dress up in a Georgian sack dress, when she was in the company of other experts, such as Professor Amanda Vickery, who were sporting modern dress. Ah, well….to Georgian Kitchens.
The great technological developments in our era, cast iron ovens raised from the ground fueled by the more efficient coal were considered. Dr Worsley experienced the hot and hard work of being a turnspit (dressed as a boy) in the Tudor kitchen at Hampton Court, and then the programme jumped to our era to consider one of the most intriguing labour-saving devices of the 18th century, the turnspit dog.
In West Street Lacock ( or Meryton or Highbury, given your choice of favourite adaptation!) in Wiltshire there still exists a public house , the George Inn,
which has retained a working turnspit which was once powered by the special turnspit dog, a breed of dog now extinct, shown below:
During the 18th century and until the early years of the 19th century this special breed of dogs were used, particularly in Bath, to turn the spit to roast meat, while running on a wheel attached to a wall, a subject that I’ve written about previously here. I wonder if any of the houses in which Jane Austen lived while in Bath had a similar contraption in their kitchens? I’ll bet they did….there is still one at Number 1 Royal Crescent.
Ivan Day, our friend of Historic Foods, was in charge of the operation. The dog they used to replace the turnspit was a modern border terrier, Coco.
She was placed in the wheel, shown above on the side of the chimney in the pub, and fed sausages hidden on the ledges in the wheel. Needless to day,Ivan Day’s doubts, that as Coco was not bred to the job and had longer legs than the original breed of dog, did prevail and she did not perform the job at all efficiently.
Dr Worsely, had to take over the job of turning the spit by hand via the wheel.
( And do let me rush to confirm and assure you that no dogs were hurt at all by the filming process: Coco was fed rather a lot of spit roasted mutton as payment for her valiant and good natured attempts to turn the wheel by Ivan who is a very lovely man and a confirmed dog lover!).
The next part of the programme took us up to Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire,
Robert Adams’ stern confection of a house built for Lord and Lady Scarsdale in the 1760s. Here we met with the fabulous food historian Peter Brears, who explained that the layout of this grand , up-to-the-minute country house was so designed that no cooking smells would ever permeate the rest of the house from the kitchen.Heaven forfend that aristocratic nostrils should be assaulted by cooking smells, like lesser motals who lived among their cooking pots !
If you look at the floor plan of Kedleston, below, you can see that
©The National Trust
it was first envisaged that the house would have a central block with four pavilions connected to the house by gently curved corridors, rather like the design for Holkham House in Norfolk.
Sadly only two pavilion wings were built.And you can see from the plan that the pavilion to the right housed the kitchen. This is now the National Trust tea room and in the programme though nearly everything tea room related had been cleared, you can just make out one of the large vending machines which was obviously plumbed-in in some way and could not be removed.
The kitchen with its stern warning shot to the staff, above,
and its high ceilings and modern ventilation, above, was physically sufficiently far away from the dining room to prevent food odours from seeping into the other parts of the house.
The state dining room was decorated not with tapestries and carpets which would retain food odours, but with plain stuccoed walls and in the 18th century there would have been an oil cloth covering the floor. No aristocrat of this era wanted to be confronted with food smells unless the food was actually on his rather grand table.
And Robert Adam thoughtfully provided incense and pastille burners in the dining room to further cleanse the room of any lingering food smells.
Of course , it is a widely held belief that kitchens thus separated from dining rooms could only serve luke warm food at best.
Dr Worsley encouraged Mr Beares to run, while holding a tureen full of that Georgian staple, hot Pea Soup, along a route from the kitchen on the ground floor upstairs to the state dining room ( see the route above on the annotated plan) in order for him to prove that the food would not have arrived cold. Quite a sight to see….
He speed up the stairs with a determined vigour and Dr Worsley served herself some still warm soup from the silver tureen.
This episode was one of the best of this series of four programmes. I’ve warmed to Dr Worsley’s presenting style as the series progressed, and hope you watch the four installments on series link on the BBC I player, linked above in the first paragraph, if you have missed it. Or look out for the DVD, which is sure to come. There is a book to accompany the series but I cannot comment on it as I’ve not read it, but do bear in mind that it covers periods before and after that in which we are interested if you have a mind to buy it.
Like this:
featured last night on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow programme.
This was the second programme filmed in Winchester Cathedral, and of course, it is in Winchester Cathedral that Jane Austen is buried.
Last night the programme’s presenter, Fiona Bruce, made mention of the pilgrimages that centre on Winchester. People still flock to the cathedral to see the shrines of ancient kings and saints,
but also to pay special literary pilgrimages to Jane Austen’s memorial plaque and window, above, and her tomb, below.
She gave a brief overview of Jane Austen’s life and works and then led us to the house in College Street, just outside the cathedral close…
where Jane Austen died in 1817.
Unexpectedly, we were then taken inside the house, to the room on the first floor where Jane Austen died.
This is the first time I have seen inside this house and it quite took me aback, I freely confess.
It is of course a private house at the moment and is not open to the public, so this was an extraordinary thing to have seen.
During the programme, Louise West, Curator of the Jane Austen’s House Museum bought Martha Lloyd’s cookery book to the Roadshow for an expert, in this case, Justin Croft, to appreciate and to value. Martha Lloyd was, of course, a lifelong friend of the Austen ladies and was sister to James Austen’s second wife, Mary. She eventually married Jane Austen’s brother, Frank Austen, in 1828.
We were shown some glimpses of some of the pages in the book..The Table of Contents with recipes for Pound Cake and White Custard,
and A Good Salve for Sore Lips
Louise pointed out that while it was not written by Jane Austen, its association could not have been closer , for these were the recipes she ate nearly every day at Chawton Cottage, during the last eight years of he life, and while Martha was in the kitchen making ink from this recipe in her book, below,
Jane was using it, writing and revising her books in the dining room of the same house, on the writing table we can still see there today.
The book was eventually valued at between £15-20,000 but as Louise rightly pointed out, it was priceless to the Museum and would never be sold. Oh, for a facsimile edition!
The programme is available to view for the next six days on the BBC I Player, or if you go here. I do hope you enjoy this fascinating part of the programme.
Those of you who have not yet been lucky enough to have seen this wonderful series, written and presented by Professor Amanda Vickery,( shown above with two of her favourite characters, Lord and Lady Shelbourne) and which is SO relevant to understanding the era in which Jane Austen lived, will now have the opportunity to purchase the DVD. It has just been released by the BBC and is now available to buy in all the usual outlets, shops or online.
If you are not familiar with it then do read my detailed reviews of the series, Episode One here, Episode Two here , and Episode Three here . As you can probably tell, I loved the series, particular Episode Two, A Woman’s Touch. You can also read my interview with Amanda Vickery about the series here and my interview with Neil Crombie, one of the directors, here
If you live outside the UK and want to see the series this may be your only way of doing it, for, as far as I am aware, the series has not been brought by any overseas broadcasters. So its time to fire up those multi-region DVD players…;)
Sadly, there are no extra features on the DVD, but there is much to savour and enjoy in the programmes themselves. The three programmes in the series were fabulously produced, directed and filmed last summer on location throughout England and Wales, at some of our most interesting buildings, from the very sumptuous to the much less so. Written and presented by Amanda Vickery the series is based on her book, Behind Closed Doors, and is a wonderful companion piece to it. So, go to it , you will not regret it
Like this:
I thought you might enjoy a serendipitous collaboration between the BBC and the National Trust.
The National Trust has created a city skyline walk around Bath, and this week the BBC Radio 4 Programme Ramblings, now presented by the amiable Stuart Maconie, recorded him walking along the route in the company of some local police officers. The area covered in the walk is indicated in the section from John Cary’s map of Bath and its Environs (1812) above. It covers Claverton Down, Widecombe,and passes by Ralph Allen’s Prior Park: the landscape garden there is also a National Trust property.
The walk is a circular one of about 6 miles in length,and has marvellous views across the city, and if you are in Bath you might consider doing it for yourself.
However, wherever you are in the world, if you have a look at the National Trust’s map-which you can see here -while listening to the programme, you can easily follow the route and imagine the views that Jane Austen took on her walks to Widecombe and Beechen Cliff while she lived in Bath.
It’s a jolly programme, -accessible here- and is only 23 minutes long. I’m sure,with the additional aid of the map, you will have a great idea of the terrain as they walk the path.
Some events at the Foundling Museum have just been announced, and as they are being held in conjunction with the famed Threads of Feeling exhibition, I thought you might like to know about them.
First, a talk on the subject of Bonds of Love and Affection at the London Foundling Hospital in the Eighteenth-century by Dr Alysa Levene:
In conjunction with Threads of Feeling, Dr Alysa Levene explores the emotional experiences of the children left at the Foundling Hospital. Over 18,000 babies and young children were left at the Foundling Hospital between its opening in 1741 and the end of the eighteenth century. We know almost nothing about the emotional experiences of any of them .
However, we can tease out something of the emotional bonds that existed between these children and their parents by examining the letters and tokens left with them. Very few of these children were ever taken back by their families, but this was not the end of their experiences of family life. Most were sent to be wet nursed in foster homes in the countryside, and here too, we can see some evidence of their experiences via the letters written by the inspectors of nurses back to the hospital. Not all of these experiences were happy, but this talk will illustrate how much the Foundling Hospital records can tell us about mothering, nurture and the model of childhood in the eighteenth century.
Dr Alysa Levene is a Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and author of Childcare, health and mortality at the London Foundling Hospital, 1741-1800: ‘left to the mercy of the world’ (Manchester University Press, 2007). She was also the general editor Narratives of the Poor in Eighteenth-Century England (Pickering and Chatto, 2006).
This talk will be held on Tuesday 25 January, 7pm- 8.30pm (doors 6.30pm, includes pay bar) Tickets will cost £12, concessions: £10.
On the 16th February renowned costume designer and historian Jenny Tiramani will give a talk on how Georgian women dressed. Here are the detials:
Here are some details of Jenny Tiramani’s work to entice you….
She was the Director of Theatre Design at Shakespeare’s Globe, London until 2005. She received the 2003 Olivier Award for her costume designs of TWELFTH NIGHT with that company. From 1979 – 1997 she was Associate Designer at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, London. Jenny Tiramani has worked with director Mark Rylance and composer Claire van Kampen since 1991 – starting with their Phœbus’ Cart company production of THE TEMPEST at the Rollright Stone Circle, Corfe Castle and on the foundations of Shakespeare’s Globe. During Mark Rylance’s period as Artistic Director at the Globe, Jenny Tiramani worked with him researching into the original practices of Shakespeare’s actors, their clothing, properties and the possible decoration of the theatre itself.
Jenny Tiramani is currently completing an academic book on Elizabethan costume and is visiting professor at the University of Nottingham.
It sounds a tremendous evening…..I’m considering going, very seriosuly…but will the never-ending snow permit? Here is the link to the Foundling Museum should you want to contact them to buy tickets.
BBC World News has produced a beautiful and moving film of the exhibit, which I wrote about here . The film included footage of the remains of teh hospital in Brunswick Square and details the history of the Foundling Hospital.
Interviews with Professor John Styles and Lars Tharpp are inlcuded and there is the very moving and sad story of a recent inmate.
Go here to acess it ( hopefully all over the world).And above are some photographs of the exhibition that I’ve not published here before.
Amanda Vickery very kindly agreed to let me interview her about her BBC TV series At Home with the Georgians,which is enjoying such great success on BBC2 presently. I thought you might like to read her fascinating replies to my mundane questions before the last episode of the series airs on BBC2 on Thursday evening…so here it is.
*****************************************************************************************************************************
The series is based on your book, “Behind Closed Doors” which I loved. Obviously you could not include all your real life characters in the 3 hour series so, when you were writing the series, what were your criteria for including a person’s story from the book?
The first challenge was to boil Behind Closed Doors (at a doorstopper 140,000 words) down to three one hour programmes. We carved it up into three big themes: Making Homes, Filling Homes & Protecting Homes. My key aim was to give each programme a strong over-arching theme. I had lots of meetings with Liz Hartford the series producer and Ross Wilson the executive producer from Matchlight films chewing over what would be the clearest thought-line – legible enough for non experts to enjoy without head scratching, but not so simplified as to do violence to the subtleties of history. However much I loved my characters if they didn’t serve the argument they didn’t make the cut. I especially regretted the loss of the rebellious Duchess of Grafton who strove to retain her standing in London as a separated wife. Alas. Another issue which governed our choices was whether there was enough visual material to support a TV case study. It is highly unusual for house, manuscripts and portraits to survive for individuals below the level of the greater gentry. Neil Crombie, the director of programme one ‘A Man’s Place’, was dismayed at first by the lack of beautiful well-preserved interiors in which to film. (John Courtney’s Beverly town house is no more; Wivenhoe is now a conference centre; Gertrude Savile’s Rufford Hall is a ruin etc etc.) But Neil and the wonderful researcher Eleanor Scoones were ingenious at finding ways around the absence.
They searched out the paintings hidden away in private collections of a mature Gibbs and Ryder – which I had never seen and encountered for the first time on camera. We went back to the manuscripts, the archives and I swanned about the surviving Georgian streets of Beverley and Exeter, Spitalfields and the Inns of Court. The dramatic reconstructions gave us visual diversity and a bit of relief from me talking to camera!
What was your favourite of all the stories you featured in the series and why?
For excruciating humour it has to be Dudley Ryder. We had over an hour of film of me pouring over the diary and responding to his ambivalences. I think barely 3 minutes were left in. As a feminist as well as a historian, and as a lover of realist novels, I have always felt it was important to understand the full humanity of men as well as women. Very few of the gents I have researched were the cardboard patriarchs of older theories. In fact, as bachelors they seem so self-conscious, gauche and half-baked it’s a wonder they ever headed up households.
Ryder went on to become solicitor general, but you would never have foreseen this from reading the diary he wrote in code aged 24. But I adore John Courtney too. In my mind’s eye he was something of a Mr Collins – deaf to female signals, desperate to be debonair and facing eight rejections with undiminished astonishment: “I was thunderstruck”.
What audience were you trying to reach with this series? Were you trying to reach people who are history nuts and have read your book or a completely new audience- for example, people who are fans of adaptations of Austen/Bronte/Gaskell novels not necessarily readers of the novel or indeed of serious history books?
I was asked to do the series by Janice Hadlow head of BBC2, who is writing her own 18th century history and who liked Behind Closed Doors as well as my first book The Gentleman’s Daughter. She enjoys characters, stories, details and arguments and thought viewers might too. The head of history at the BBC Martin Davidson hoped that I could make a series which would unlock a new audience for history programmes. All the surveys reveal that the current audience for history is predominantly male and middle-aged. Why should this be when women are the key audience for costume drama? Somehow a bifurcation of history has emerged on TV: putting it crudely, bonnets for the women and bombers for the men. I would love to reach an audience that wants to see a different sort of history (neither war nor Kings and Queens). I’m interested in producing documentaries which reflect what the history profession itself actually researches and teaches now. In BBC TV land, there is a vogue for “authoritative history” – i.e. history programmes written and presented by experts, rather than fronted by celebrities drafted in to go on a historical ‘journey’ of discovery or read a script written by the producer derived from textbooks. I was delighted to catch this wave.
Producers at radio 4 and BBC4 assume that the audience is keen on history. At BBC2 you can’t take that for granted. You simply cannot make programmes aimed just at 20,000 experts who have done all the background reading. The goal is entertainment and to draw a wide and varied audience into another world with colour and character, wit and pathos – all undergirded with a single driving argument. The BBC are thrilled with the result, as their investment in trailers testifies. What the audience makes of it is another matter of course. We have our fingers crossed that history refusniks as well as history buffs will switch on to discover that there’s more to history than tanks and tiaras. I am committed to a holistic history that embraces everywoman as well as everyman. I still sympathize with Catherine Morland. “Real solemn history I cannot be interested in… the quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences in every page; the men all so good for nothing and hardly any women at all.”
How pleased were you with the end result?
I am delighted with three programmes – each reflects a collaboration with a different director, each with their own style and tone – ‘A Man’s Place’ with the theatrical and brilliant Neil Crombie (who shared my sense of humour), ‘A Woman’s Touch’ with the searching documentary maker Iain Scollay (who tried to catch me at my most honest and unguarded) and ‘Safe as Houses?’ with the stylish Phil Cairney (whose direction combined the formality of Neil’s and the observation of Iain’s). I also learnt a lot from the director of photography Dirk Nel, who had worked with several different history presenters. He instilled great confidence in me – which is half the battle – while training me to hit my mark. I will never forget him chanting “FIND the light, Amanda, FIND the light” before I set off on one of my rambles down a murky corridor. Almost everything was ad libbed to camera, so I am relieved that I came out with some coherent sentences. The aim of Dirk and all the directors was to capture my personality on camera. My friends say I am recognizably myself so in one key respect they have succeeded.
How much influence did you have in the choice of actors, locations and music?
The locations were driven by my research and availability, the actors were chosen by a casting director, Eleanor Scoones the researcher, Liz Hartford, the series director and Neil Crombie (who directed the reconstructions). All of them had read my book very closely – in the end I trusted to them. In an ideal world I would have directed the dramatic reconstructions myself! But even a control-freak diva has her moments of sanity and insight. The music was largely chosen by the directors, but I made my suggestions and had right of veto. Writing is a solitary process over which you exert total control, whereas TV is a collaboration with an army. You have to respect the talents and advice of your collaborators and accept that you are producing something which reflects them as well as you. Given my intellectual life (teaching apart) is quite hermetic, I loved working with a quick-witted and highly skilled production team. I am a gregarious person and relished the camaraderie. I also loved learning a new trade from them.
You allocated a whole chapter to Jane Austen in “Behind Closed Doors”. Do you consider her to have been an accurate recorder of late 18th early /19th century life? Did you find any of her plots/characters reflected in any of your real diarists’ lives?
I tried not to treat Austen’s work simply as descriptive evidence from which I could cherry pick juicy quotes to back up my arguments. Literary scholars are always accusing historians of simplistic cut and paste. But it is clear that Austen assumed that her readers were sensitive to the implications of taste and interior decoration. She relied on them to take domestic details (like Darcy’s gift of a piano to his sister, or General Tilney’s over-bearing choices of breakfast cups) as reliable signs of character. Even silly little tables had meaning.
Austen also relied on the social, economic and emotional importance her readers would attach to the drama of setting up home. When it comes to history, I hope my readers will make the same leap, and agree that domesticity is a universal subject, not a frivolous topic to be dismissed and patronized.
As for characters on TV, I rather enjoyed inserting Jane Austen herself into the narrative. She appears first as an anonymous spinster, living in what historians call a ‘spinster cluster’ in a small grace and favour cottage hard by the main road. Austen lovers will instantly recognize Chawton, but plenty of editors at the BBC were surprised when we revealed the impoverished sister to be none other than Austen herself. I wanted to show that however mocked by satire, the spinster’s life is no less heroic and productive than that of the smug marrieds.
Do you have another TV or radio project in the pipeline? If yes, can you tell us anything about it?
I am working on another Voices of the Old Bailey series with Elizabeth Burke of Loftus to be broadcast next summer on BBC radio 4, and we have been commissioned to produce a six part history of men and masculinity from the Medieval knight to the modern salary man. I am also working with BBC2 to develop longer span series which still aim to bring the Catherine Morlands of this world to an enjoyment of history. Floreat Clio!
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Floreat Clio indeed, and may I add Floreat Amanda because I really do think our understanding of the lives Jane Austen chronicled would be considerably impoverished were it not for her scholarly endeavours. I should like to thank her for her patience and kindness in supplying me with such fabulous replies to my questions,even though at one point our computers stubbornly refused to talk to each other!
The final episode of At Home With The Georgians Airs on BBC2 Thursday 16th December at 9 p.m. I will be watching as usual and posting my review on Friday. Do watch it if you can. If you would like to embark on a reading project based around the programmes, Professor Vickery has kindly produced a short reading list, go here to see it (Do note many of the books will already be familiar to readers of this site!)
I do hope a DVD will soon be available, in the meantime enjoy: the series will remain available to “view again” for another week.
A confession. I do have to say from the outset that I truly adored this week’s episode. The series really came alive for me, Professor Vickery totally at home with some of her most interesting material, which she clearly relishes and she is obviously and authoritatively in complete command of all the intricate detail.
The episode dealt with the new concept of taste, an idea imported from France, and how women’s interpretation of that sometimes dangerous conceit influenced the interiors of homes rich and poor.
We began at Parham House in Sussex contrasting the Elizabethan, masculine Great Hall
with the 18th century feminised Drawing Room complete with harp. Mary Crawford would no doubt have approved.
The woman whose diaries provided Professor Vickery with much of her inspiration for this programme was Sophia, Lady Shelburne of Bowood House in Wiltshire and chatelaine of the most splendid town house, Shelburne House in Berkeley Square (now the Lansdowne Club)
In Professor Vickery’s words, Sophia was “a swot”, an intelligent, educated woman who became enamoured of the new fashion for neo-classicism
In search of inspiration in order to keep up with this new fashion, her diary entries show she visited the Duke of Northumberland’s home, Syon House originally an Elizabethan building, but one that was completely overhauled by the newly fashionable architect, Robert Adam…
to become a temple to the new taste….
incorporating detials from the evacuations at Pompei and Herculaneum in an impressive and sometimes exquisitely feminine manner.
When it came to designing their own town house/palace, the Shelburne’s commissioned Adam to design their dream home,a place suitably impressive for the politically ambitious Whig, Lord Shelburne,where he could entertain and impress supporters and government members alike.
We had a small trip to the architect, Sir John Soanes House Museum, full of its wonderful neoclassical collections(though it was not flagged up as Sir John’s house and it might have helped viewers unfamiliar with it,had it been…)
The consumerism of the 18th century one of Professor Vickery’s favourite topics-was examined. Matthew Boulton (my hero!)
and his genius for producing desirable goods for both the aristocracy and the middling classes was celebrated and we visited his home at Soho House in Birmingham.
He was shown to be a smooth operator when it came to selling and recognised that tapping into the female psyche guaranteed profits and full order books.
Chippendale and his revolutionary Gentleman’s and Cabinetmakers Directory, the forerunner of catalogue selling was examined….
And his innovative designs for male and female pieces of furniture,thereby guaranteeing double sales, was admired.
The ingenious nature of Georgian metamorphic furniture, as in this cabinet bed at Temple Newsam near Leeds was discussed
And the trusty Ipad was used to great effect when looking at 18th century adverts for
furniture polish (again there is nothing new in this world)
And it was also used to illustrate the dangers that awaited someone overwhelmed by the new taste ,who didn’t know when to stop: incorporating neo-classicism,Gothic, Ionic Orders and Chinoiserie in their suburban villas was a sure way to ridicule.
One of my favourite chapters in Behind Closed Doors dealt with the Georgians use of wallpaper and how accurate a barometer it was for interior design and taste. We visited Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath (the home of Lord Mansfield)
to see the wonderful collection of delicate fragments of 18th century wallpaper
including this scrap in the newly fashionable colour, yellow
and readers of Behind Closed Doors will recognise this fragment….
We saw Diana Spurlings women “doing it for themselves” on the Ipad
and visited Coles Wallpaper Manufactory where hand blocked and flocked papers are still made in the traditional manner, (a place I used to walk past on my way to catch the train to the office when I lived in London and used to peep through their open doors in the summer to see the magical process at work)
The new consumerism changed people’s social habits taking tea, for example, where you could show off your new china and furnishings, became all the rage,a subject Professor Vickery deals with in detail in The Gentleman’s Daughter. Jane Austen knew this feeling well, especially when she was ordering her own and her brother’s Wedgwod china….
Lady Stanley, a sad case whose husband denied her decorating and visiting rights showed the other side of this Georgian coin…..poor lady,played very sensitively in this programme.
Women’s own efforts to decorate their homes was covered,and Professor Vickery visited the marvellous Quilts exhibit at the Victoria and Albert museum which I also visited earlier this year and wrote about here
The amazing work of a ten year old, above, was lauded…..
We visited one of my favourite eccentric houses ,the home of the spinster Parminter cousins,A La Ronde and saw its totally feminine design and decoration, a miraculous survivor into the 21st century
And made a moving visit to the billet books of the Foundling hospital, which I’ve written at length about here,where in this case, a woman’s patchwork was her link to her child( and this story and a happy ending for once)
Finally, we revisited Lady Shelburne’s magically feminine Robert Adam designed drawing room which is now installed in the Richard Rogers post modern Lloyds Building in the City of London. A lasting monument to the taste of the Georgians.
There has been some adverse comment on Professors Vickery’s style in the press and on the internet over the past week,especially regarding her raw reaction to seeing a portrait of her hero, Dr George Gibbs . This was, in fact, a very funny part of last week’s programme, for having built him up to be her ultimate “hero” in her mind, when he was revealed to be a rather ordinary looking chap, jowly jawed and all, Professor Vickery was rather loud in her disappointment, failing to notice what the cameraman did, that Dr Gibbs’ descendant, who was showing the portrait , bore an amazing resemblance to his great grandfather how many times removed. *snort* In this week’s programme we get the impression that Professor Vickery became very attached to two of her lady diarists, and in particular to Lady Shelburne. For myself, I love to witness this aspect of Professor Vickery’s presenting technique, for I think it is this honest sympathy for her sources which enables Professor Vickery to fully understand them and to bring them to life for us. She is also not “too cool for school” an attitude I embrace myself and this is I think, a refreshing change from some of our more staid presenters.
Go here to watch episode two on series link at the BBC. Next week is the last in the series. I shall be bereft.
Some of you may remember the BBC Radio 4 programme, Jane Austen’s iPod which was broadcast earlier in the year. A series has now been commissioned using the same idea- taking a well known historical personality and playing music they knew or had written about them while talking about their lives with experts in the field.
Last week’s episode was concerned with Dickens (Shh!!- don’t mention him too loudly! I think we got away with it!). But today’s epiosde was of more interest to us as it featured Emma Hamilton’s iPod. Emma Hamilton was of course the mistress of Horatio Nelson,under whom Francis Austen
served ,though to his chagrin, he missed being on duty at the Battle of Trafalagar where Nelson was killed in action.
Quintin Colville , Curator of Naval History at the National Maritime Museum and Emma Hamilton’s biographer Kate Williams talk to the musician David Owen Norris about her fantastical life, and Rachel Cowgill talks about Emma’s musical ability and her taste in music, looking at her music books which are now in the Maritime Museum’s collection. Fascinating stuff including details of her job as a “Goddess” in the Temple of Health where the infamous Celestial Bed, supposed cure for infertility was in constant demand, her marriage to Sir William Hamilton, her famous classical “Attitudes” and scandalous life including her manage a trois with Sir William and Nelson,and her meeting with Hayden. Fascinating. I’d like to have heard a little more about Nelson’s poor, real and neglected wife, Fanny, but I suppose she would have been out of place in this programme about mistresses.
The Programme was recorded at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwhich, near to the Greenwich Naval Hospital which was of course where Nelson ‘s body laid in state before he was taken down the river Thames to be buried according to the rites of a State Funeral at St Pauls Cathedral. I rather like the sound of the new gallery to be devoted to Nelson, Emma and the 18th century at the Maritime museum…I’ll keep an eye out for any more news of that, and will report back.
In the meantime, here is a link to today’s programme which is available to Listen Again for the next seven days.
Today BBC Radio 4′s redoubtable Woman’s Hour programme gave us a tour around Brighton to disocver details of its past (some of it relating to the Georgian and Regency eras) and some of its notable women. Louise Hume, a lecturer, devised the walking tour of Brighton for Herstoria magazine.
We visit the grave of Martha Gunn, the famous dipper, depicted below by Robert Deighton
We then visit the Theatre Royal. This is how it looked in 1805:
And the Royal Pavilion, the seaside palace of the Prince Regent, where we visit the exuberantly beautiful music room seen below:
The Pavilion was the home of Caroline of Brunswick, shown below, for a while, while her husband the Prince dallied with his mistress, Lady Jersey.
And we visit Marine Parade, home of Harriette Wilson, the mistress of Lord Carven, where we hear of her exploits,
as recorded in her memoirs:
Go here to access the programme which is available to listen again for another 7 days from today.
You can access the revlevant section of th programme approximately 20 minutes in. As Lydia Bennet wailed in the BBCs 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice,“I Want to Go to Brighton!“(In fact ,I am going there next year!) Enjoy!
Neil Crombie ,the distinguished TV director, producer and writer, who has been involved with making some of the most interesting documentaries of the past ten years, such as the riveting documentary on Grayson Perry, Why Men Wear Frocks and one of my husband’s favourites series, Philosophy: a Guide to Happiness, recently very kindly consented to give me his thoughts on producing At Home with the Georgians and on working with Amanda Vickery. My questions(in bold) and his replies are set out below. I do hope you enjoy reading them. The second episode of the series, A Woman’s Touch, concerned with the 18th century concept of good and bad taste, airs on BBC2 tonight- don’t miss it! And to whet your appetite, here is a link to the the trailer for episode two.
1) You were the producer and director of “At Home With The Georgians”. What made you want to work with Amanda Vickery on this series?
I’d actually interviewed Amanda once before, for a documentary where she was one of the “talking heads”, so I knew she’d be an exciting person to work with. But it was reading her book that really clinched it for me. I just thought it was magical the way she’d use often quite dry and dusty scraps of information – non-famous people’s account books and letters and diaries -and from them conjure up real living breathin people, whose stories, dilemmas and conflicts – sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking – I could really relate to. I thought: this is a historian with a real novelist’s eye.
So many of the stories she tells reminded made me of little 18th century novels in miniature – the vivacious young woman who has to outwit the dragonish mother-in-law; the hapless young law student who dreams of a wife. As television material, it struck me as gold dust. So I very quickly realised that it’s be a rewarding challenge to help Amanda try to bring these people back to life.
2) What audience were you trying to reach?
Well, two of the bankers of British television schedules are the Sunday night costume drama (and obviously I’m thinking particularly of those Jane Austenadaptations we all love), and the property show. And one of the ways to think about Amanda’s book is as an explanation of why that should be so. So we hoped we’d get as many of these genres’ audiences as possible. But also at the back of everyone’s minds on the series was the perception that history programmes on television are often very male in their language and focus. It’s always kings and wars and empires and weaponry and military derring-do. One of the things the Controller of BBC2, Janice Hadlow, who commissioned the series, was very clear about from the outset was that she hoped in some measure to redress that balance, and to see whether a more female audience might also be brought to history programmes. So it’ll be interesting to see whether that’s what happens. But certainly in my opinion it’s long overdue. It’s not just that Amanda is a bit different in her approach to the big male beasts of history television, the Starkeys and the Schamas. It’s more that the kinds of things she’s talking about – marriage, love, home, family, feelings, domestic politics, all the things Jane Austen talks about - are a vital part of our history too.
3) One of the means by which this series is sightly different from the norm is in its use of actors to re-enact the lives of some of Amanda’s diarists from her book, “Behind Closed Doors”, and not just employing voice- overs. I
think it works well as a device and makes their stories more immediate. Who was responsible for this decision? Was the casting of the actors difficult?
Before I’d come on board, the production company who made the series, Matchlight, had made the case to the BBC that there needed to be some sort of dramatisation. It just really helps you connect emotionally with the characters Amanda is talking about. But we all felt it was really crucial that we didn’t invent a single word – it had to be the unvarnished words of the diarists and letter writers she’d discovered.
And I hope your readers will agree that there’s a magic in seeing and hearing these ordinary people speak again in their own words from across the centuries. The difficulty in finding the actors wasn’t so much in casting people who could do it, but I was very aware that Amanda had lived with these people during her years of research and had very strong ideas of what they must have been like. And when you add to that the fact that Amanda’s husband, John Styles, is a distinguished costume historian, I did feel quite a lot of pressure to make sure of the historical verisimilitude of everything! But I think everyone’s risen to the challenge.
4) The locations used in the series are stunning- from the grand houses like Syon to the recreated workhouse. How did you choose which locations to include or exclude?
The choice of locations was very much led by the historical characters Amanda wanted to talk about. So yes, she does indeed take us into some amazing houses, but Amanda’s genius is to be able to relate them to the feelings and values and experiences of the people who lived there – and that’s what we’re all interested in.
But all of the dramatisations were in fact shot in four locations: two beautiful old early Georgian Huguenot weavers’ houses in Spitalfields, London, a little bit in Syon House, and also at Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire (which sharp-eyed viewers may spot also
served as Buckingham Palace in the film Young Victoria).
5) For potential viewers in the US, Australasia, Europe and the rest of the world who haven’t yet had the opportunity to see the programme, how would you sell it to them?Are there any plans to sell the series abroad? Are there
any plans to release a DVD of the series in the UK?
That’s really a question for the production company, Matchlight, but I’m sure they’ll be very keen to sell the series internationally, and it’s great to hear that you think there’s an appetite for programmes like this beyond Britain. So watch this space and we’ll keep you informed as and when we hear more.
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I should like to thank Neil for his patience with my mundane and pedestrian manner of questioning( Journalist- in- Training Daughter shakes her head at my efforts)and for his generosity and kindness in answering the questions so fully, with such delicious detail. I do hope you enjoyed this different take on the series and how it was made.
Like this:
Last night the first of the three episodes of Amanda Vickery’s new BBC TV series, At Home with the Georgians was aired on BBC 2. I will admit that I approached it with some trepidation. I loved her book, Behind Closed Doors, upon which the series is based, and admire Professor Vickery tremendously, clearly therefore, I didn’t want it to fail. So… was I disappointed? I am glad to say, not for one moment.
Professor Vickery took us on an engaging and thought-provoking journey around Georgian England, visiting houses grand and small to discover what it meant for a Georgian man or woman to set up a home. The answer? The goal of a establishing a home meant everything to them.
We were shown archive stacks, diaries, lodgings in the Middle Temple (below), remote Westmoreland farmhouses and grand houses in Essex and Staffordshire and one in Nottinghamshire that became a prison for that unlucky person who was not to be the mistress of all she surveyed. Professor Vickery argues that the evidence to be found in the outpourings of 18th century diaries confirms that what an 18th century man wanted above all was a home and a capable wife. He certainly did not want a silly, pretty empty-headed porcelain doll sitting quietly on an elegant sofa a la Lady Bertram, despite the teachings of the conduct books aimed at females. He needed a capable, active intelligent woman who could act as his deputy in his absence and bring all her talents to the fore, running a tasteful comfortable home, ready to take every advantage of the new consumerism. No wonder Darcy showed no interest in the sickly Anne de Bourgh, whatever his aunt might have wished. The lively and intelligent Elizabeth Bennet was truly the one for him. The 18th century middling sort of man also did not really want a carousing, dissolute way of life, for only with respectability came a place in society and a chance to establish a home and attract a wife.
Charlotte Lucas’ dilemma is set out before us in a very, very clear and unvarnished manner. As an unwanted poor, spinster living on the charity of her not charitably minded-brothers she would have necessarily been unwanted and eventually unloved. The mentally tormented Gertrude Saville of Rufford Hall in Nottinghamshire, whose unhappiness clearly manifested itself not only in the words but in the crossings out of her tortured diary, was a spinster in her brother’s home, without dowry and any prospects of one day finding a home of her own. Her diaries (one page is shown below) clearly reveal her to be a poor ,downtrodden, depressed and oppressed being, seeking comfort in her needlework and her cat, and being at the mercy of her brother’s good graces and the servants spite.*shudder*
Men like George Gibbs of Exeter and Dudley Ryder, a law student of the Middle Temple in London, knew that marriage was the step necessary to provide a home and any prospect of long-lasting happiness. Poor John Courtney of Beverley in Yorkshire who tried to woo ladies ,indeed any number of ladies, in the Assembly Rooms in York, shown below, felt a complete failure when he failed to attract a wife despite having a fine home and income to call his home. No Life, Without Wife, indeed.
We dipped our toes into the consumerism of the 18th century-Professor Vickery managed to visit the Lawrence of Crewkherne’s auction of Georgian gadgets-below is a tongue scraper(YEACH)in the sale- after first reading about it here…
Jane Austen was referenced copiously within this first episode,as she is in Professor Vickery’s book. As a faithful chronicler of what 18th century people desired above all she was lauded. What they wanted was not necessarily a dashing, romantic life, with heart stoppingly beautiful heroes and heroines finding each other after dramatic( or melodramatic) trials and tribulations, but something quieter, more satisfying; their shared home. Home could be the grand palace, as in Pemberley ,but was more likely to be that which was more attainable ; happiness and contentment could be more readily found in the more in humble surroundings of the personages as at Delaford or Thornton Lacey, Fullerton or, yes, even at Hunsford. Home as the reward of virtue was what Georgian men and women really wanted.
Professor Vickery’s glee at being in certain locations was obvious. Here at the Rectory at Teigh, which was the setting of Hunsford Parsonage in the BBC’s 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice, she did what many of us have wished to so……posing in front of a certain closet….inspecting the shelves…..
Shelves in the Closet? Happy Thought Indeed
At one point when visiting Chawton Cottage Professor Vickery gave Jane Austen’s writing-table a hug. Austen was, of course, an example of a spinster who had a rich, productive, creative existence once her brother Edward stepped up to the plate and offered her Cassandra and Mrs Austen( not forgetting Martha Lloyd) a permanent home in Chawton from 1809 onwards. I can’t help but think it was a virtual hug to the ghost of Jane Austen herself. Who would, l think have, enjoyed this hour in Professor Vickery’s genial, fun but thought-provoking company.
My dear 17 year-old daughter who, inexplicably, does not have the History Appreciation Gene in her DNA, sat with me last night as a penance,bless her, but was converted and enjoyed every second, squealing with delight at spotting Charlotte Lucas’s closets, and making intelligent comments on the fates of the dissolute George Hilton , and the sadly not -at-all handsome George Gibbs.
This was not a was not a trumpeting, loud programme about great battles in history : it was a quiet, fun but serious and intelligent look at some of the most fundamental questions that bothered the Georgians and still haunt us today: will I eventually find a home and someone to love, with whom I can share it? It was in one world, marvellous. And I can’t wait till next week’s episode. I did smile at little at the product placement- the use of an IPad in many scenes. But having had one for some months now I admit is IS a very useful tool when examining painting and engravings in detail and this is how Professor Vickery used it on this programme ( Publishers of art books take note: publishing e-editions on IBooks is the way to go! )
The series is available to watch again-sadly only for those of us in the UK, I think,- on series link,which means there are 20 more days in which it enjoy this first episode. Go here to see it.
Like this:
Professor Vickery , above on the right, has just sent me notice of this- her overview of her series in her own words
It makes very interesting reading, and frankly I cant wait for tomorrow’s first instalment. Enjoy!
The Telegraph today included an interview with Amanda Vickery,as part of the publicity campaign for the tv series At Home With the Georgians which commences on BBC2 on Thursday. It is rather the best of the bunch, and so go here if you’d like to read it.
Go here to see it. Enjoy!
