Medieval Lives

Peasant's revolt 1381 is also called Wat Tyler's Rebellion turns out to be more complex than first thought. An excellent view of medieval lives presented by Terry Jones is not a bunch of sound bites and redundant information from obscure experts. They get right down to the bone. The 1349 Black Death plague is also spotted.

Then there is the monk. We learn the truth about monkhood. Most of the monks look like Terry Jones. We see that prayers became a commodity. We learn about bare bottom piety. There is a competition to have the best relics. There was the 1327 rebellion against a monastery; it was a preliminary to 1381.

Now consider the Damsel. It also looks like Terry Jones. The archetype of the passive female. Nicola de la Haye pushing 70; she was aided by William Marshal. We get the real story with the use of puppets to keep this PG13. We have stories of women abducting men. We follow women's fashion. 1429 Joan of Arc story is told; her real crime was that she wore men's clothing.

Would you believe the Minstrel? In 1066 At the Battle of Hastings, Taillefer recited the Chanson de Roland to the Norman troops while juggling with his sword. They tell of troubadours that tell stories in the vernacular. He mentions Geoffrey Chaucer who mysteriously disappears; dispatching is suspected.

A knight to remember. William Marshal returns as the subject in an interesting story of his life and how he became a knight. We see them train horses to kick shields. We learn about the order of the garter founded in 1348.

Shall we consider the philosopher? A medieval scientist and possibly doctor. We get a look at a field where they grew all the herbs needed for medicine. We get pictures of experiments with newer medicines. We even found anesthetics. We find Washington Irving is responsible for making us think that they thought the world is flat. Nobody ever thought the world is flat. We also get to see an astronomical clock. All to display our ignorance of our own past.

Stand and deliver. Not midwives but the outlaw. Terry asks "Did outlaws never wear trousers?" We learn about "The Folvilles" (John De Folville 1312 - 1363 and his sons.) Among other gangs. 1150 trial by jury, but not as we know it. We get to see unique ways of execution and/or mutilation. We learn that outlaws are part of the heart of what makes England.

Midlevel kings divided into the good, the bad, and the ugly. We cover three Richards. We get a spot of Richard the third form Shakespeare. He tells of the King of England that on one has ever heard of.

This show is great, you can learn a lot of fun facts from it (even if you have knowledge of the time period already you still find out some interesting stuff from time to time) and the Mony Pythonish way all is brought is hilarious, especially the multiple characters Terry Jones portrayals, from monk to knight to...damsel LOL, but even so you don't want to learn it's still good to watch for the sheer fun factor of it all. truly on of the more interesting docu's you'll find out there if you like this also check out Ancient lives (also Terry Jones here) who i have seen so far (dont know if there are more) Roman life, and Egyptian life.

Terry Jones, tells the public how the myths really were. That Robin H. wasn't as nice as he seemed to be, and that history is really told by the winner.

He has taken the python-esquire way of display, and it works out great. The graphics the humor and the sometimes very detailed look at things that happened.

Every program consists of one subject which will be analyzed and put against the way of life today.... No, not much change if you watch carefully.

If you are interested in history, but you don't want to be lectured, than this is a series for you!

Would be great BTW, if Terry Jones took a look at the rest of Europe/the world this way :)

I was totally entranced by this (ironically) ancient-seeming series from Terry Jones about different roles in medieval society. It's got this wildly intense energy about it and is saturated with these sub-Gilliamesque animations of bewildering complexity. In fact, he physically darts location every few minutes, it's dizzying. That being said there's a really refreshingly consistent mission to 'blame the Historian' here that feels quite timeless. The prism through which we see history is our own flawed interpretation and reality (much as it is now) is a lot more complex. Like this show. It's infused with a pleasingly nostalgic early 00s warmth and old Tez is still chirpy so I really found it tremendously charming.

I was a little put off by the other commenter when they spoke of the playful nature of this series because I generally prefer my facts to be undiluted. Unfortunately comedic documentaries tend to blur the line between fact and fiction to the point where the more extreme facts seem doubtful and certainly wouldn't hold up in conversation.

However, this series does a fantastic job of keeping the subject light hearted while still being dense with facts. The general structure of each episode is a brief introduction to the "stereotype" and then the rest of the episode focuses on deconstructing that stereotype, sometimes even showing where the misconception came from.