What I do like about the BBC is the way they put out these documentaries. It's what the BBC does best. I wonder how many people actually watch them. We have just finished catching up on Michael Palin's 'New Europe' and Michael Wood's 'History of India'. The Michaels get programmes with their names in, which even David Attenborough doesn't for his latest (which isn't for me, but Jimmy is watching it and I'm glad the Beeb is showing it). I loved Palin, and thought Wood was worthy. But very irritating, especially when he put on a pretend-Peter-Sellars-Indian accent when talking to Indians (other than academics).
I am sure that I read somewhere that these presenter-centred documentaries are the ultimate in dumb-downing. Well, they're not. I found Wood quite impenetrable and difficult to follow at times. As for Monty Don and his gardens - well, I thought he was nothing but a sidekick to the ghastly Titmarsh, but it turns out he's in a totally different class. I am not certain that I necessarily like all the gardens he has selected but it is teaching me stuff. About plants, about which I know very little, and about the countries in which the gardens are in, and about the culture and societies of those countries.
I have only watched one of the Art in Spain so far, about the Moorish invasion and occupation of what we now know as Andalusia.
Interestingly, I have found a common link between the programmes. That link is Islam. In their different ways, they are showing an insight into aspects of Islamic history which rarely gets an outing in more conventional discussions. and probably isn't known to the average jihadist, or even the nutters in the inner city mosques, in Europe, throughout the Middle East and into the sub-continent. We have been able to see the similarities in the design of Al-Hambra and Taj Mahal, and understand how Moslems peacefully co-existed with Christians and Jews in Al-Andalus and Former Yugoslavia and Albania, and how the Mughals, despite being Moslem, took on many aspects of the existing Hindu culture.
What is obvious in both India and Spain is how it was all ruined by the Christians. Christian armies of occupation or colonials looking for trading opportunities insisted on Christianity being the dominant - only - religion. And we wonder why the world is in such a mess today.
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