Secrets of Great British Castles

I was eager to watch this as I've always been a castle and history enthusiast. And it has introduced me to some interesting castles that I knew little about. But frankly I was left quite disappointed by most of the episodes.

The main problem with the series is the presenter. Dan Jones is probably a perfectly good historian, but he is absolutely laughable as a tv presenter. His presentation style is so awkward and uncharismatic that you often wonder if you're watching an episode of Alan Partridge. It's genuinely quite cringe-inducing to watch him saunter about in this leather jacket he never seems to take off, standing in awkwardly staged poses with endless closeups of his gormless face staring "dramatically" at walls while he tries very hard (and again, awkwardly fails) to deliver his script in an engaging fashion. Needless to say, whatever the quality of the documentary content, this constant distraction subtracts quite a lot.

And sadly, the documenary side of things is quite lacking as well. For a show called Secrets of British Castles, the episodes often say remarkably little about the actual castles themselves. Instead what you mostly get is a very surface-level introduction to a few disconnected kings or nobles that lived in them and a few key events in their history. Nothing wrong with that per se but it just doesn't go far enough to get a real sense of the places.

This series is great! The initial description leaves out one of the most famous castles of all time though. Lets NOT forget Edinburgh Castle!! That particular episode is very well done as is each episode aired.

After the horrendous time we've had the last few years semi imprisoned in our houses, what would be better than a really long holiday at home without the bother of vaccine passports, quarantines, or PCR tests. Where to go? Why not visit Dan Jones's great British castles. He gave me an appetite to visit them all. Steeped in history, mostly violent but not all, I learned a lot about my own heritage. One nice touch was the experts, some of whom were just the right side of eccentric. All very well done. Looking forward to a continuation of the series.

In looking for documentaries on Netflix, I came across this series. I've always felt a little light in my knowledge of British castles, so I started watching this series.

This show is not dense with information; however, it also doesn't come across as fluff. There are actors reenacting historical events and people, many of whom are in multiple episodes (because how many kings or queens did Britain have?).

The narrator kind of goes off the rails from time to time trying to make the series more dramatic than it should be. Aside from that, it is a fun watch with some breath-taking views of castles and the surrounding areas.

This show is not about castles. It's about some of the people that lived in them, or had them build. While it goes on and on about these people, it has sweeping views of a castle.

I wish after watching this show I could say I now know about the castles but unfortunately, not.