Wargamers on Video

Wargames from Jessica Bishopp on Vimeo.


Not sure what the point the film maker is trying to make about the link between the effect on soldiers of combat experience and historical wargaming using figures, but there's some nice footage of a game in progress with lovely painted figures and scenery.

The European Politico-Monarchical Situation During the Napoleonic Period

Borodino 2012 - Russian Documentary

I found this gem while doing a little digging on the net for an image of the battlefield of Borodino for the previous post. It's an English language piece for the Russian RT network presented by a likeable chap by the name of James Brown (no, not THAT James Brown!).

He takes us through the whole event, talking to all sorts, from camp followers to the Great Man himself! It also features a couple of Englishmen from the XV Hussars of which there is a squadron here in Victoria (see the link in the sidebar).

The Boffin, the Builder and the Bombadier

For those of you in Australia who haven't caught up with this show yet, you need to! It's a brilliantly funny, but instructive look at historical technology (mainly military), with a focus (so far) on Australian inventions.

The eponymous boffin, builder and bombadier take a military invention, like the periscope rifle and recreate it from existing images, descriptions and plans where available. Historical controversies, such as effective range in this instance, are settled by this highly entertaining practical historical investigation.

Think Mythbusters with a particularly historical/military focus.

Other gadgets investigated are the ancient Chinese wheelbarrow mounted, rocket-propelled spear launcher, and the time-delay Scurry rifle, which allowed the Turks to believe that the trenches were still occupied while the ANZAC forces evacuated the Gallipoli trenches.

This little ripper of a show is on ABC1 at 8:15pm Sunday nights, right after Dr.Who. Sorry to all you international followers; you'll just have to wait until it comes to a TV station near you, or someone illegally uploads the episodes on to Youtube!

Docuwatch

Thanks to Der Feldmarschall for putting me on to this one. Docuwatch is a website with hundreds of hours of documentaries on subjects like art, science and societies but also war. And in a sub-category of war is the Napoleonic Wars including one of my favourites, Richard Holmes' biographical series on the Duke of Wellington, The Iron Duke

At the moment our Interwebs service has a kink in the hosepipe that supplies us with mega-giga-hooziwhatsits and we're only getting one of them when we're supposed to get 6 of them per minute (or some such bally boffin speak). We'll be getting an interwebs plumber out to use his digital plunger to free the blockage, but until then watching videos.....is a very.....frustrating.....business as the......video feed......is very consti......pated!

Horrible Histories 2

Not exactly relevant to anything in this blog, but these 2 clips are my favourite HH songs; MC Charles II and the Restoration Posse singing about the King of Bling, and the long, long list of British rulers from William the Conqueror to our own beloved queen, Lizzie no.2 sung in music hall style.

Again, enjoy!

Horrible Histories

One of the funniest shows on telly at the moment is the BBC kids' show "Horrible Histories" (showing in Australia on ABC3 at 6:30pm weekdays), based on the popular series of kids' books. The anachronistic use of historical figures acting in modern ways not only engages the kids, but is extremely funny! From the "...but wait! There's more!" adds for slaves and servants, to mock interviews and newscasts, the format of the show jumps around all over the place historically (and hysterically!). The funniest segments IMHO are the songs that adhere to the standard pop-music video format with singing and dancing routines.

Below are 2 clips that fall (roughly) into the period that this blog covers; The Georgian period of British history. The premise is that the 4 Georges are a boy-band in the vein of Westlife, or Take-that, here singing a soppy ballad, while giving a quick run-down of the history of the House of Hanover.

The second clip is George IV starting his solo career!

Enjoy!