Secrets of Great British Castles

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.

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.

Too much stories (as I am not historian, I will not judge accuracy), too little technical details... The buildings serve as the background for historical stories .. yes, perhaps related to the castle, but still.. the presenter is going too far on a tangent by my opinion..

Would prefer less emotions, more "dry" technical stuff.

..removing 1 * for the idiotic tattoos of the "historian".. what a childish thing to do ..and forcing us to watch.. ;-)

item 1. The curator of the Lancaster Castle artefacts suggested the main reason for inflicting the tongue restriction device was for "Fighting in the street" when in fact the device was specifically designed to punish those accused of slander or malicious gossip.

item 2. Henry V111 never renounced Catholicism, he was born a catholic and died a Catholic. He did renounce the authority of Rome and the Pope, making himself the head of the Catholic Church in England. He was never a champion of Protestism and Catholics were not executed for just being Catholics, they were executed for refusing to acknowledge him as head of the Catholic church in England. When making documentary films that are usually received as fact, it's imperative that published information is impartial and accurate.

I hope to visit the UK in the next year or so. I thought this series might help me to decide which castles to visit. I'm not sure why this series goes so seriously off the rails. Each episode is a deep-dive history lesson, with a castle in the backdrop. Few interiors are shown, and when they are, just for a few seconds. The episodes go into the history of the kings, nobles, and wars associated with each one. Exterior shots are shown, so I'm not sure if filming rights weren't in place or what the issue is. Warwick castle and Leeds castle are decent episodes for those wanting to actually see castles. The rest are about the kings, wars, murders associated with the area and the castle.