General Chat

about historical inaccuracy?!

i was watching "Are You Smarter Than a Ten Year Old" a couple of weeks ago. and they asked the question:

"what religion was Mary I?" now at the bottom of the screen they had a pop up which read " Mary I was also known as Mary Queen of scots."

it really gets to me when they feed children the wrong information. i work in a library and the number of books with silly mistakes is ridiculous.

Is it just me this annoys?!

Inaccuracy in books does aggravate. just read a book where they had somebody drinking and using a pen in a record office.

ann
glos

I read a review in a travel magazine where the writer referred to the 'brightly lit Dartmouth Ferry on.....the River Fal in Cornwall'...not just the wrong river but the wrong county as well...its just laziness on the part of the writer

oh i can't stnd it. it's things like "Elizabeth I defeated the armada" neglecting to say the first armarda or even that there were later ones.

or even Henry VIII's wives mixed up in pictures. Anne f Cleves is so distinctive in her German clothes and they got her mixed up with Anne Boleyn. such a silly thing to do.

if you're going to teach children about something-Do it right!

OMG, I totally concur, has anyone seen the Tudors. As pretty as Jonathan Rhys Meyers is, he's nothing like Henry VIII and then the inaccuracies in the story...I lasted 15 minutes and had to turn over lol.

I have noticed all these historical programmes and films have people with perfect teeth .
Mac , my Dad gets mad at that too..
xxx

LOL at Ann! You forgot to mention the biscuits too!

Hi Summer

Totally agree - the whole series was a farce....filmed for the American market....pretty 'yes'....accurate - 'no way'.

Christine

Christine, I couldn't even watch it for the pretty and I do like JRM so much, but yes, definitely americanised.

That's why I couldn't watch that drama about the Tudors. Although Mary Queen of Scots was Mary I if you're Scottish:))

What annoyed me about the Tudors was the title of the series! It didn't do what it said on the tin.

I thought we were in for a big Tudor extavaganza from Henry VII to Elizabeth I. Boy was I disappointed! lol (apart from JRM's bod!)

They are probably planning about 20 series Jeanette:)

I know there are more series planned. They'll drag it out for as long as he reigned lol.

Mac, I agree, although when he was 18 he was apparently quite the catch. No where near on JRM's level though.

*hands Jeanette a fan for the hot flushes* oh I concur, such a pretty boy.

I sympathise with Mac, seeing a Griffon engined (4 bladed prop) Spitfire in the Battle of Britain simply shows they've skimped on their research.
Or naval terms used out of context to try to add an air of authenticity.
Maddening.

Cheers Summer!

I haven't got anything against the Tudors but I have seen quite alot of films, series and documentries about them. I'd like to see something about the Plantagenets for a change

I was watching a DVD once and my brother wanted to know what I was muttering about at one point, I said it said 11th century Europe or something like that at the front didn't it? So they can not have been in a potatoe field, a turnip field would have been fine but a potatoe field no way. Cause then my brother tried to tell me that I was being over the top seeing as the film was about dragons hatching out of meteor (sp) eggs and terrosing the locals.

Michelle

OH gets tired of me muttering and usually asks 'does it really matter'? I say yes - if they are going to portray histroy then please research it properly - as a book I read a few weeks ago set in N.Ireland in 70's - had an IRA boarding house set in Malone Road, Belfast. No way - as pricey private housing as you can get there!!!!!!

lmao Chris... they obviously looked at a map and picked a street to situate it on.

Michelle, I sort of agree with your brother on that one. lol.

Lol Sunshine, it's the principle of it, if you are going to make it look authenic (or at least to what Hollywood thinks authenic is) at least get the important facts right.

Michelle

Its not just books and TV/films but what about some of the sanitised museums...There is one in Birmingham that is housed in the last of the city's back to back terraced houses and is supposed to depict working class Birmingham...in one of the houses the table is set for dinner with matching china, full cutlery, serving dishes and silver candlesticks.....not like the one I spent my ealy years in which was clean but short on luxuries...The musuem attracts coach loads of children who go away with a very rosy view of what living in a two up two down terrace was like.