The Secret to Successful Medieval Movies
When putting the Middle Ages on screen, drama is no substitute for the historical sources.
Against my better judgement, I was persuaded to try King and Conqueror (BBC One). The period covered – the run-up to the Norman Conquest – is much better documented in contemporary narrative sources than any earlier stage in English history. The detailed stories of the reigns of Edward the Confessor and his doomed successor Harold II are replete with political drama of the highest order. But the details are not always compatible: there is still no agreement among historians about much of what was going on. The tensions, contradictions, and gaps left plenty of scope for scriptwriters to develop plausible plot lines. They could not have asked for more suggestive material.
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