Monday 18 June 2012

A Growing List.

I’ve railed before against the poor quality of TV documentaries. Well, I’m going to do it again.

I just watched fifteen minutes of a documentary on the Battle of Waterloo. Despite having strong anti-war sensibilities, I can’t help being fascinated by the psychology and techniques of a battle scenario. It was why I was a member of The Sealed Knot once, and played my part in a few re-enactments.

So, having read several books on the Battle of Waterloo and seen the Rod Steiger film, I decided to give the documentary a go. It was as bad as the rest – full of mutually exclusive statements, unanswered questions, and constant commentary from so-called academics who seemed more concerned with the projection of cheap drama than the dissemination of useful detail. When the first commercial break came along, I switched it off.

I have a growing list of TV documentaries which I can cite to justify my poor opinion of them. This one just got added.

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