Geography's Loss is This Blog's Gain...

I know NOTHING of this.

Everything I know about the events of the 20^th Century comes from opting for GCSE History when I was fourteen. For two years I studied World War One, the Wall Street Crash, Prohibition, World War Two, Indian Independence, and Vietnam. I did not - as those who chose Geography did - learn about lakes, rocks, eco-systems and habitats. And who knows who had the more valuable learning experience? It’s a judgement call. One that I'm sure will settle squarely on the fence.

My entire second paragraph,
pithily summed up here.

What I do know, is there're people* who didn’t study the rise of fascism after a financial crisis and who aren’t seeing the warning signs when they’re all around them. There are people who didn’t study the partitioning of India, and so don’t see how a divided country, becoming more and more entrenched within its own side, doesn’t end well for hundreds of thousands of ordinary people. Studying history means the present makes more sense because precedents are understood and recognised when they reappear. It's impossible to learn everything that's gone before. But some stories should be passed on to generation after generation. 

Peter Jackson transformed footage
 like this, by adding colour and sound. 

I was thinking about this around Remembrance Sunday a couple of weeks ago. Blackadder Goes Forth was repeated on TV. The ending of which remains one of the more poignant finales to a laugh-out-loud comedy series. Then, at the same time, I downloaded Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old.** I kept it on the planner for a week or so before I got round to bothering. I think my general view was that I'd seen everything there was to see about World War One and life in the trenches from school, so this was just going to be more of the same. Yeah, I know. I couldn't have been more wrong. Ever before seen footage of the horrors of war had been colourised, lip-read, with accurate dubbing added. Narrated over that, were eye-witness accounts, adding a warts-and-all commentary to the experiences at the Western Front. It was a million times more informative, and graphic than anything I'd seen through school work. The film made me feel like I was there, not just reading about it from the safety of a hundred years in the future. It gave the clearest understanding of the experiences that thousands of soldiers had. The surviving soldiers that were alive when I was born. The soldiers that died out nine years ago. 

But as powerful as it was, I'm not sure it was particularly child-friendly. The technicolour horrors of war were hard to watch, and the close-up footage of trench foot and gangrene meant I had to press pause so I could finish my tea. On reflection it's probably better for an adult audience - teenaged at least. And yet historical events that shape our present, are not stories to hide from children. They just need to be presented in an age-appropriate way. 

I really like it too, Jodie!

Which brings us back to the latest series of Doctor Who. Last month I wrote - in a slightly tongue in cheek manner - that I was now a Whovian, what with my recent embracing of Doctor Who in all her female-bodied revolutionariness. It wasn't a lie. I've really enjoyed watching the show - a show I had, until recent times, mentally dismissed as being sci-fi nonsense*** for children, not for me. Because of the very recent nature of my conversion, I can't speak with authority about previous series or incarnations of the Doctor. I'm sure they were great, but I've no idea. What I can say is how marvellously educational I've found this current set of episodes to be.

First of all, there’s a whole generation of kids that are watching a multi-ethnic, multi-generational, time-travelling team led by a gender-fluid Doctor. That’s brilliant all on its own. But alongside that, amidst aliens and inter-galactic scenes, there’s real history being told, in a really accessible way. 

Honestly, this episode was superb. The viewer 
was on the bus. The tension was palpable.

Rosa told the story of Rosa Parks' activism that kicked off the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955. It outlined the injustice and unfairness of the society of the time, alongside conversations between modern-day Yas and Ryan about the ways they continue to encounter racism today. The subplot with the alien trying to disrupt the timeline of history, was a nice touch. It added an extra dimension to the story without detracting from the factual events as they unfolded. It also provided the most gut-wrenching of moments when Bradley Walsh realised he'd become the white passenger to whom Rosa Parks was told to give up her seat.**** He couldn't change history by behaving any differently, but the expression on his face was so painful to watch. The whole episode conveyed the realities of being on that bus at the time. It was visceral. How bloody brilliant for young viewers today to feel that historical injustice so clearly. And all as they watched a kids' entertainment programme, too. No history book could do better. 

Then, a few weeks later it was the turn of Demons of the Punjab. This episode of Doctor Who depicted the pain of Muslim and Hindu families in India in 1947, forced to choose between their loved ones or their politics. It reminded the younger generation of characters (and viewers) that their grandparents had once been young, with whole lives lived before their grandchildren knew them. It showed the reality of a nation of people that had fought with the UK in WW2, yet whose country was being divided up by those same UK powers, just a few years later. The bare facts of the situation were, once again, undiminished by the alien sub-plot. In fact, the out-of-this-world nature of the show could have been applied to the unfairness of the policy that forced families to split up in such a devastating way. The reality of a historical situation was clearly presented for a younger audience. It was incredibly powerful.

Good television can be lovely escapism after a long day. Sometimes you just want a double bill of the American Office*****, or a random episode of Friends to watch as you wind down. But Lordy, there's something exhilarating about getting swept up in a story and feeling like you're in it. And when that story is a real-life historical event, it's even more potent. It's the dream of teachers everywhere to make something potentially abstract feel so relevant and understood. So whether it's the partition line that's been drawn through your property, the bus you're sitting on where a brave women makes a stand, or the water-filled trench you're sharing with rats and fleas, television and film are essential in conveying that reality. And yes, there's many a film that doesn't quite manage it (Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, I'm looking at you!) but there's many more that do. 

I started this ramble by explaining I know some stuff about 20th Century events, because I did GCSE History. But you know what? That's not it at all. At least, not in some dry, academic way. My history teacher (shout out to Miss Duffy!) was the person that encouraged my class to watch The Untouchables, Escape from Sobibor, Gandhi, Schindler's List, Platoon, Testament of Youth, and yes, Blackadder Goes Forth. There's nothing new about my sudden realisation that TV can educate. Good teachers have known this for years. And when episodes of a popular children's programme present lessons from history so perfectly, it makes me wish that I still had a class of minds to mould.****** Some of the time, anyway. 

But enough of all this remembering and revisiting the past. It's worth spending a moment or two imaging the stories from today that will be eventually immortalised on film. My money's on series 84 of Doctor Who, depicting what happened with Brexit, as forces led by an old-fashioned looking, inconsequential back-bencher and a self-interested bore with white-blonde messy hair attempt to destroy the tardis in order to achieve their self-serving goals. Or something.

Have a lovely week, folks.

* #notallgeographers  (Don't @me.)

**They Shall not Grow Old was available on BBC iPlayer for just a week before being removed. A cursory online search informs me there is a 'outcry' about this from Daily Mail readers, and they are 'begging' the BBC to bring it back. *Side-eye* We'll see.

***Apologies to sci-fi fans. I don't mean it's nonsense in terms of a valid genre. It isn't. It's marvellous. But it's marvellous for people who enjoy sci-fi. I do not, and have always struggled with the more extra-terrestrial/supernatural aspects of fiction. Back to the Future remains the one example of the genre that I LOVE, and that's because I view it as a high school/coming of age/family dynamics movie first. (And in this exploration of the film, the Sci-finess of it all isn't even mentioned.) Anyway, as you were.

****I know. The addition of Bradley Walsh's name in a sentence about the injustice of segregated buses, does seem highly comedic. But fair play to the guy. He played a blinder in that scene.

*****The recent weeknightly double bills of The American Office on Comedy Central are currently the best part of my day. It's not dumbing down or tuning out because it's quality writing, acting, and directing. So I am NOT slagging off The American Office one tiny bit. However, I do feel it's a fair point to say it's not the same as watching a WW1 documentary. (Once again, don't @me.)

******I'm channelling Jack Black from School of Rock there, obvs. But the basic sentiment is true.