I should have been meaning to write about this for a while but kept forgetting.
There is a wonderful programme which is currently being repeated on BBC4 called The Mark Steel Lectures. In it he takes a sideways look at some of the great figures from the past, on their influence and what probably influenced them. Don’t stop reading; this isn’t some boring history programme, even though it is done in conjunction with the Open University. If you remember the OU programmes of the past you are in for a very pleasant surprise! The programme is funny and accessible; conveying passion and excitement while getting to grips with the thoughts of great individuals. Unfortunately it is being shown in the early hours of Sunday morning - but well worth recording, if you are already in bed, or too busy partying! (If you have teleport it is on there.)
In the programmes he travels to the areas where these people lived and, with the help of actors, takes some of their quirks and shows them in a whole new light. The programmes could probably best be described as caricatures, there is no attempt to try and change history, just bring it to us in a new and amusing way.
Here is Mark’s own introduction to it from the BBC website:
Having read about Sigmund Freud, two things stayed in my memory above all else. The first was that Freud was terrified of the number 62. He became convinced it was following him around, and that this meant he would die at the age of 62. As a result he refused to stay in a hotel if it had more than 61 rooms. The other thought to occur was the implausibility of his theory that men have a desire to sleep with their mothers. Because even if there WAS an attraction, your mum would ruin it by saying “well alright then – but only if you tidy your room first.”
This isn’t to deny that Freud, like the other characters in this series, was a genius who changed the world. But they were all wonderfully flawed and magnificently human. So the series is an attempt to portray just that, as well as the only way to show Lord Byron as Joe Strummer, Isaac Newton as Carol Vorderman and Darwin as the man who goes mad in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
The next character is Ludwig Van Beethoven at 12:45am early this coming Sunday. If you don’t at least crack a smile and learn one thing I will be astonished!
