Sean Bean's 2 parter on Waterloo

[Colin_Fraser]

Not sure if this has aired in North America yet as I cancelled History due to all the Pawn, Storage unit scrounger, Ice Road and Croc shows. Anyway......

 

[housecarl]

Excellent find Colin.

 

[smudger1960]

I watched this a couple of weeks ago,I hav'nt seen the 2nd part though

 

[Colin_Fraser]

It's actually a step above what I expected. Recognition is given to the import of the Allies and a good attempt is made to give the lay viewer an understanding of battlefield geography. But I don't get why they used a tank for Plancenoit.

 

[TADATSUGU]

It was a good watch but it only covered much of what had been seen on previous documentaries. I get the feeling that TV companies are more concerned with shock tactics than strategy and tactics. I have seen more footage of ballistic gell than episodes of the Simpsons.
I prefered the recent, three part BBC2, series on Napoleon by Andrew Roberts and the documentary "Waterloo, the aftermath" (History Channel) as both informative and from refreshingly new perspectives.

As a side note; If you want full coverage of the Waterloo campaign I recommend the Pen and Sword DVD series "The Waterloo Collection". These cover Quatre Bras to Wavre in some detail over four DVDs. They are presented by "Guild of Battlefield tour Guides" who are not as polished as professional TV presenters and lacking in charisma but they seem to know their stuff. There is a marked absence of bad CGI sequences and clips of the Waterloo film which haunt other presentations , but the information appeared up to date and rational opinions of individual guides are included rather than just the repeatition of established views. I regularly dip into them when my memory needs a bit of a re-boot.

 

[Karlosfandango]

Great program. Reading a lot on this period at the moment so that was a nice surprise, thanks for sharing.
I presume I could watch the 2nd part on YouTube ?
Thanks very much.
Karl.

 

[Colin_Fraser]

Yes

 

[Graham]

Sean Bean..... I used to read and love the Sharp books years ago when I was war gaming. I was so excited when the TV series came out until Sean Bean ruined my metal image of Sharp that had built up reading the books. I never forgave him and only watched two episodes. However, this documentary was a pleasure to watch. I think I saw a little humility in Bean accepting that he had only played at it but what he was seeing was for real.

It gave, for me, a real feeling for the battlefield. It was disappointing that they hacked a pig to show sword damage when they could have used Mr Bean.... (Sorry! Only joking)

 

[garyhiggins]

Not sure if this has aired in North America yet as I cancelled History due to all the Pawn, Storage unit scrounger, Ice Road and Croc shows. Anyway......

I so agree with you Colin, The History Channel used to be great, now they seem to use it as a dumping ground for anything they can't figure out what to do with with the pathetic excuse of "history in the making"------- WRONG!!!!