1066 and all that…

It was with some trepidation that I sat down with a cup of tea and a bourbon to watch Channel 4′s drama 1066: The Battle for Middle Earth. On the one hand I was amazed that something about Anglo-Saxons that didn’t include Tony Robinson and Time Team had managed to get airtime but on the other, the way it was previewed with its Tolkien hat-tips had me worried.

I am glad I waited until I’d seen it all before writing this because I have to say I enjoyed the second night, which included the Battle of Hastings itself, far more than the first. I felt that the second half had succeeded in involving me in the story of the ordinary folk as part of the larger picture whereas on the first night the larger picture was a bit missing. I think not seeing the kings properly was a mistake. Despite the armies in certain battles sometimes being smaller than is commonly imagined surely Fulford Ditch and Stamford Bridge involved more than 5 people.

The budget seemed to be about £2.50. A lot of the supporting actors looked like what they were: living history enthusiasts. I believe it was the Regia Anglorum. Now I am the last person to criticise such enthusiasm. I am a big fan of the Angelcynn at West Stow and these interesting and interested people certainly helped fire my imagination when I was writing the Rune of Ing. But they are not professional actors or even extras and IMO it showed. Perhaps the fault lay with the direction which I felt was poor.

On the previous evening I had seen Samantha Morton’s drama ‘The Unloved’ based on her experiences in the care system. I thought it was a triumph of grim poetic storytelling. Grim and poetic was what 1066 should have been but wasn’t. Having said that the Battle of Hastings itself was good and I would have thought a bit like rolling off a log for the Regia Anglorum.

A few other carps: too much unnecessary Tolkien hat-tipping, intrusive narration by Ian Holm - I realise it was meant to be the small boy from Crowhurst recalling the events but it made it seem too much like a ‘docu-drama’. Narrative fiction can effectively switch modes of telling and showing and often the modes are combined without being obvious. Much harder in film IMO.

Intrusive ‘blackboard’  explanations of Anglo-Saxon stuff that the characters had already made clear. One in particular annoyed me. ‘Enigmata – A Riddle’. I think most people awake enough to be watching must have been perfectly well aware what a riddle is. Why not call a riddle a riddle? Also seeing as ‘Enigma’ is from a Greek root whereas ‘Riddle’ is from Old English I failed to see the purpose. Use of the compound ‘wife-man’ I also felt was unfortunate. At times it made the characters sound like Geordies. As in, ‘Where’s your wife, man?’ It made me think of  ‘Our Friends in the North’ when Toska says to Mary, ‘There is no other woman, man!’ After all both ‘wife’ and ‘woman’ are from Old English. Let them stand. The fact that the Anglo-Saxons may have used the phrase is not really the point.

Another interesting thing was the scene at the Viking camp. The setting off in the long boats was excellent but the scene was spoilt a bit by the young wise woman who, in addition to throwing bits and pieces on the fire, felt the need to cross her eyes when she searched the middle distance for a prophecy. She also warned her brother to bring back her lover safely at least ten times. I don’t know about you but I got it the second time.

Having said all that it had some fine and moving moments. The return of the former cowardly farmer and the young married man (sorry forgotten the names) to a desolate Crowhurst, the Battle of Hastings itself and the aftermath, the scene of Harold’s lover Edith Swan Neck at his grave, scenes of the women in the priory, the role of the woman ‘seer’ as part of an army’s weaponry, and the reuniting of the young married couple.

In short a pretty entertaining attempt that stuck reasonably close to the historical consensus. I thought they could have made more of the Pope’s involvement in backing William. It was after all the beginnings of that autocratic Catholic hegemony, following the Great Schism, which nearly 500 years later would give rise to the Reformation.

How history turns on a penny…