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Timewatch is the BBC's flagship history show, broadcasting on BBC2 on Friday nights at 9pm. It is watched by over two million people. Timewatch is the longest-running history series in the world. It was the only series to span mankind’s entire past when it was started in 1981 by Tim Gardam, as a magazine programme showing 3 short films, linked by a presenter. That's hard to imagine in these days, when TV History has reached such levels of popularity that there are whole cable channels devoted to it, and it has been described without irony as "television's new black" or "the new cooking".
From the outset Timewatch has been a hit with viewers and critics alike. It has never deviated from its core mission, the classic Reithian ideal of "inform, educate and entertain." But as times change, so has Timewatch. It experimented first with a new "presenter-free" approach under Roy Davies’ editorship in 1985 - a format further developed by Timewatch’s third Editor, Laurence Rees. Each film was now dedicated to a single topic, drawn from any period in recorded history. This proved so popular with viewers that it remains the form of Timewatch today. This new series of Timewatch offers another fascinating selection of programmes.
Timewatch in more depth:
OU on the BBC: Timewatch - About the series
Production team
Timewatch is the BBC's flagship history programme. Find out more about the series. Read more : OU on the BBC: Timewatch - About the series
OU on the BBC: Timewatch - Britain's Forgotten Floods
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Professors Simon Haslett and Ted Bryant have come across evidence for what they believe was a forgotten British tsunami. They think that The Bristol Channel... Read more : OU on the BBC: Timewatch - Britain's Forgotten Floods
OU on the BBC: Timewatch - Last Day of World War One
BBC
Michael Palin joins the Timewatch team to tell the story of the final day of the First World War - the war in which... Read more : OU on the BBC: Timewatch - Last Day of World War One
OU on the BBC: Timewatch - Stonehenge
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Two of Britain’s leading archaeologists and world-renowned experts on Stonehenge, Professor Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainwright, believe they have finally unlocked the mystery of the... Read more : OU on the BBC: Timewatch - Stonehenge
OU on the BBC: Timewatch - Ten Pound Poms
Essential Viewing
Timewatch recalled the time when Australia was so keen to attract immigrants, the state paid for their passage Read more : OU on the BBC: Timewatch - Ten Pound Poms
OU on the BBC: Timewatch - The Boxer Rebellion
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Gruppe 5 - cleared for TV, DVD and internet
The Boxer Rebellion might only be dimly-remembered, but as Timewatch explained, it was pivotal in world history Read more : OU on the BBC: Timewatch - The Boxer Rebellion
OU on the BBC: Timewatch - Young Victoria
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Is the popular image of an austere Queen Victoria fair? Read more : OU on the BBC: Timewatch - Young Victoria
OU on the BBC: Timewatch - More Timewatch programmes
BBC
Watch history as it unfolds: Explore the previous Timewatch series. Read more : OU on the BBC: Timewatch - More Timewatch programmes
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Timewatch
This series is starting up again and I would like to introduce myself. My name is John Kirkaldy and I will be the OU resident academic, coordinating and responding to your views. The first programme is on Friday, 14th. April and is Crusasders' Castles and Saladin. It is on BBC 2, 9 p.m. There's an incredibly varied list for the next five weeks, including some stuff on the Romans, the Battle of Warsaw, an Iron Coffin, the San Francisco Earthquake and a Princess who was a spy! Quite a variety, so let's have your views and feedback to the programmes and keep them coming. Best wishes, John
Time Watch
I would just like to congratulate the BBC on another great series, rounded off with a very moving story from the Second World War 'The Princess Spy' well done to you all.
Re: Time Watch
Oops forgot to say in my last post..In reply to Melter65`s query-Wilhelm Ruppert the sadistic SS guard who murdered Noor, as well as many other inmates at Dachau, including fellow female SOE agents shot along with Noor, was executed for war crimes in May 1946. This was briefly mentioned by a German historian on the programme-easy to have missed. I suppose with such an amazing story and less than an hour to tell it, its hard to cover all the angles with the detail they deserve.
I reccommend the book Spy Princess by Basu Shrabani, it gives detailed descriptions of Noors brief, amazing life & information about SOE, overviews of Indian involvement in WW2 etc.
Of course it would have been impossible to bring people back, but even knowing that Ruppert-an utterly evil excuse for a human being-paid the ultimate price for his crimes, it still hardly seems enough does it?
At least,I suppose,that by knowing the Nazi`s were finally utterly defeated, meant that there was an end to their crimes & Ruppert and his cronies were finally stopped. It is so tragic though that it took such a huge loss of life before this happened.
Re: Time Watch
I heartily agree- a very memorable, moving and inspiring story-excellent programme. I shed a tear ot two as well.
All the SOE operatives were incredibe, brave people, but considering Noor's pacifist Sufi Muslim background and the Nazi`s disgusting racist attitudes, Noor`s noble actions really touched me & many others no doubt. An astonishing person.
Noor met her appalling fate with dignity & unbelievable bravery. The manner of her execution summed up the very evil nature of Nazism, about which the she was "fighting" against. Noor, alongside millions of others died in the struggle to eradicate the Third Reich from Europe. People who gave their tomorrows, so we can live our todays.
Re: Time Watch
Thank you for your kind comments. Although I had no part in the making of the series, I would agree with you! What struck me about the programme on Noor Inayat Khan was her bravery. I am a coward and know that if I was tortured, would tell all I knew with a few seconds, so much does physical pain frighten me. How did these people tortured by the Nazis often never crack? How did they do it? Best wishes, John
Re: Time Watch
I don't know if that makes you a coward John, for i guess we none of us know how we would fare until we are tested. While i think that it takes great courage and that Noor Inayat Khan exemplifies the ability to put a cause or the wellbeing of others before yourself, I imagine that most of us would hope to show similar fortitude if the cause was of sufficient value to us. To protect a loved one perhaps. What is harder to identify with, i suspect, is that someone would/could undergo this for a political cause/allegiance - we do not live in a country or a time where political causes are felt to be of such immediate and personal importance or urgency. While terrible things are happening all around us and as a result of the ways in which we live and our governments behave(on a global and domestic stage), most of us that dwell in the UK are insulated from them. We should be grateful for this, but perhaps it sould make us a bit uncomfortable too.
Re: Time Watch
What is fascinating is that Noor Inayat Khan WAS, like you John, terrified of being tortured. (Her close friend Jean Overton Fuller recounts a conversation she had with Noor in her excellent biography on this very subject). This is what I feel makes her a truly admirable heroine and a real inspiration - to face enormous physical, and pyschological, pain and resist it, whilst being terribly afraid of it at the same time.
And I agree Bravebeard, I don't think any of us can know how we would respond in such a horrific situation. But I believe we should be honoured that such people did face it for us, for the defence of the ideals of liberty and justice.
I feel so glad that Timewatch has aided in bringing this 'forgotton heroine' a little further into the light.
Re: Time Watch
I have just watched this programme and don't mind admitting that I was in tears as the end of the programme revealed the agonies Noor went through prior to her death. It angers me that women and men like Noor were forgotten in the wake of victory. I understand that secrets need to be kept during wartime, but all contributors to victory in 1945 should have been acknowledged, not just frontline troops. It shouldn't take a determined family member and recently released documents to bring these heroes names to the publics attention!
Only one slight flaw in the programme was that, having told us Noors murderers name and shown photos of him, we weren't told of his situation at the end of the war. Judging by some of the photos he looked to be on trial. Was that Nuremburg? What was the mans fate? The programme would have had a more structured finish if we'd been given this information, I think.
Nevertheless, a brilliant programme, one of the best yet!!
Re: Timewatch
Two things really - first a comment on the 'reality' vs 'actuality' discussion. Some of the postings here seem to suggest an intractable 'all history is lost' because sources are somehow irretrievably tainted; by the victors, rulers, etc. That sources were (and still often are) created by those in positions of power is in many cases true. However, I do not subscribe to the pessimistic view that we cannot learn what happened in the past. Although it is true that for places/periods where very few sources for comparison survive (or multiple sources but coming from a small part of society) we will either know less or need to have less faith in what we believe.
Second - I would love to see Timewatch do something on machine breaking (Luddites, Swing riots etc.). I have been reading a lot on these lately; masses of material survive and it really fits in to the above discussion on 'how do we know' re: history, as many of the sources were created by central government.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers, Paul.
Re: Timewatch
Paul said:
"Second - I would love to see Timewatch do something on machine breaking (Luddites, Swing riots etc.). I have been reading a lot on these lately; masses of material survive and it really fits in to the above discussion on 'how do we know' re: history, as many of the sources were created by central government."
I totally agree with you, Paul. My personal interest is in industrial history and archaeology, so your ideas for programme topics would certainly get me watching!
Re: Timewatch
I have nothing whatsoever do with the content of the programmes! I could not agree more with the comment about the victors and the interpretations of history. I have a personal thing here - due to a complete and utter chain of circumstances (largely beyond my control)- I am being recorded for the Weakest Link with Anne Robinson next week (God along knows when it is going out!). Will try and get in a plug for the OU! Best wishes, John
Re: Timewatch
Hang about, John... the last person to appear on The Weaksest Link through circumstances beyond their control would have been Rose in the last-but-one Doctor Who of the last series...
watch out for that Transmat beam...
Re: Timewatch
Will do and Anne Robinson! Best wishes, John
The circumstances of me being on are so bizarre that it would take about an hour to explain!
Re: Timewatch
I think that this program is great.
I am studying medieval history, in particular the crusades and i found this program invaluable.
I think that we need to look at more of history in this way, rather than taking it as afce value.
History is written by the people who win the battles.
Re: Timewatch
What struck me about the first programme was the difference between reality (however that is defined in history) and actuality (again, almost impossible to define completely). So much of our view of the past is coloured by myth, legend, propaganda, half forgotten history lessons and out own prejudices. How did the first programme strike the rest of you? Best wishes, John
Re: Timewatch
It's not just the past that is coloured by those things, John - it's the present as well. You only have to compare Fox News to what actually happens to see that the "first draft" of our history is being distorted already - how can we rely on any of the records of the past. In a literate age, everything is distorted. In a preliterate age, the truth would have been lost.
Re: Timewatch
The Timewatch programmes are marvellous.
Suggestion for a future programme - the history of Bostock and Wombwell's Royal Menagerie, a circus that had up to 1000 animals that toured England in the 1800's and up to 1932.
My Grandad, Arthur Feely was an animal trainer and agent with them and I have many photos of B & W's Menagerie. I'm sure it would create a great deal of interest.
Regards Geoffrey Younger
[Edited by: admin on 16-Apr-2006 18:19]
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