BBC4: Digging for Britain

[mbriscoe]

Digging for Britain on BBC4 tonight.

 

Quote

HISTORY DOCUMENTARY: Digging for Britain
On: BBC 4 (Freeview)    
Date: Tuesday 6th December 2016 (starting in 4 hours and 15 minutes)
Time: 21:00 to 22:00 (1 hour long)

West. Series 4, episode 1.
Professor Alice Roberts with the very best in British archaeology 2016 - filmed by the archaeologists themselves, straight from the trenches, so you can see each exciting discovery as it happens. The teams then bring their best finds - from skeletons to treasure - back to the Digging for Britain lab, to examine them with Alice and reveal how they are changing the story of Britain. This episode looks at the west of Britain, and archaeologists are in the lab to look at the new finds and what they mean. Finds include: the lost WWI training trenches on Salisbury Plain; Britain's first 'double henge' - discovered just down the road from Stonehenge - where the evidence suggests our ancestors feasted and made sacred offerings as part of a visit to the ritualistic Stonehenge landscape; and luxury foreign goods discovered at Tintagel, the legendary childhood home of King Arthur.
(New, Stereo, Widescreen, Subtitles, Audio Described, 3 Star)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.tv/?p=1&r=7346

Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.

 

[MikeyH]

Yes, that looks interesting.  Did anyone see the programme last night on BBC2 re. the Britannic, sister ship to the ill fated Titanic.  The Britannic hit a mine whilst serving as a hospital ship heading for Gallipoli, the loss of life limited to around 35.

 

A good programme presented by Kate Humble, available on the BBC Iplayer.

 

Mike.

[Gareth Davies]

There is a thread on it here Mike: 

 

 

[MikeyH]

Gareth,

 

Sorry, didn't spot it.

 

Thanks,

 

Mike.

[Gardenerbill]

Just watched this, in fact it's still on, very good piece on the excavation of the training trenches on Salisbruy plain. Worth a look on Iplayer if you missed it.

[mbriscoe]

41 minutes ago, Gardenerbill said:

Just watched this, in fact it's still on, very good piece on the excavation of the training trenches on Salisbruy plain. Worth a look on Iplayer if you missed it.

 

As they said, it seems to disprove stories of soldiers drilling on the parade ground then being sent off to the front with no further training.  There were three layers of trenches so they could be trained in attacking the front line trenches then using the rear ones in defending against enemy counter-attack.

 

 

[Gardenerbill]

The Somme was a horrific slaughter, however programs like this help to dispel the myth that the army was ill prepared and poorly trained.

[trajan]

On 12/7/2016 at 01:15, Gardenerbill said:

The Somme was a horrific slaughter, however programs like this help to dispel the myth that the army was ill prepared and poorly trained.

 

Worth while, me thinks,to reflect on the matter that not ALL of the new units and new chappies sent over for the west front actually experienced more than a few days training... And it was hardly realistic, to judge from some of the reports of those involved, to the effect of "capturing" villages while strolling into them.

[Gardenerbill]

Trajan,

I agree, a complex issue some well trained some not so well. I suspect the quality of training varied significantly from one Battalion to another.