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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: CU on Friday 17 June 11 13:11 BST (UK)
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Thursday 23 June BBC 2
History cold case. Remains of 17 people are found in a dry
well in Norwich City. Is this a medieval murder mystery?
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From BBC2 website:
Professor Sue Black and her team use forensic science to shed light on the past.
When the remains of 17 people - men, women and 11 children, one as young as two years old - were discovered in a dry well shaft in Norwich city centre, the local community were keen for answers about who these people were and what happened to them.
Thought to date from the early 1200s, this becomes a case of suspected medieval murder but the final reveal of the identity of these people is an even bigger shock to all involved.
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I don't have access to BBC programming. You have piqued my curiosity. Please let me know what happens. ;D
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I watched the previous (1st?) series and they were very good. Thanks for the heads-up :)
Linda
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Only 4 programmes in this series. Wish they would do a 6 parter far more logical, but I suppose they all have real jobs to do!
Great programme
EDIT: Next weeks' programme is showing as episode 2 at present, so whether they show them in order, or we get episode 1 or 2 remains to be seen.
Typical of the BBC, to think that the whole of the country is really that interested in tennis, we get so few decent history programmes these days. And it is refreshing for a programme not to treat the viewers as stupid.
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I found the first series fascinating ... great to see they are starting anther one.
Paul
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I don't remember the first series, but I've made a note to watch this series. Glad it's on a Thursday, one of my OH's regular nights out so I can watch in peace.
Lizzie
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Thanks CU would have missed it. Have now clicked on 'record the series' wonderful thing my Freeview+ trouble is I have to check I don't have more than two programmes on 'record' at the same time :-\
Jean
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postponed 'till next week due to tennis >:(
Shane
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Or even the week after if tennis overruns again??
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Thanks for the update Shane
Thought my machine had not recorded it. Typical BBC though, don't know why they do not have a dedicated Sport channel. It's not the first time a decent programme has been cancelled because a sport has over-run.
Jean
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aaarrr ;D
Just been blaming OH for deleting Thursday's programme before I got chance to watch it ::)
Went to the BBC site and found nothing about whether it was on or not on Thursday, googled and the answer comes up on Rootschat! ;D ::)
Big apology to OH
Kerry
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That explains it! I read a review of it in the Independent, and then completely failed to find it on i-player.
Phew, haven't missed it then. ;)
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I doubled checked i had put on to record.Checked after & not there.
Thought i was losing my Marbles,till i read this thread.
Phew!!!!!!!!!!!!!
omega ;D
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I thought I missed it the day after it was supposed to be on I spent about half an hour looking for it on the BBC iplayer ;D
C
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This programme should be on tonight at 9pm on BBC2.
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....unless the tennis overruns again :o
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Oh no it wasn't!!! It was this week's episode. When will they play last weeks?
Watching it set me thinking. Probably been mentioned before but we are all related to the people they were investigating (at least if you live or originate from the UK that is). Assuming you have four generations of ancestor every 100 years, you have two parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents etc. Once you get back several generations the number of ancestors you have increases exponentially but I wasn't sure exactly how many you might have.
Go back to the 500 years and you have over 2 million direct ancestors. Go back another 25 years and your ancestors exceed the estimated UK population in the Iron Age.
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When will they play last weeks?
At the end of the series? They're all separate cases so it doesn't matter what order they show them.
Linda
PS Have to say, it seemed a bit more dumbed down than the first series. Why does the narrator have to tell you what the expert just said - usually in the same words ???
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There were also too any "kind of"s for my liking
innit!
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I was very disappointed with last night's show.
Far too many shots of the University building in Dundee, for example.
Very slow; dumbed down; probably could have done the show in 30 minutes!
And very closed minds as well! The woman in charge (red head - can't remember her name) absolutely did NOT want to consider any element of ritual sacrifice!
So, I probably won't watch another episode.
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absolutely did NOT want to consider any element of ritual sacrifice!
Professor Sue Black - To be fair, I think she was trying to evaluate the evidence, without falling into the easy trap of it being ritual sacrifice (or cannabalism!)
In the past there have been lots of extreme conclusions drawn by archaeologists with far too much imagination and not enough scientific rigour :o
Linda
Lifelong Time Team fan :)
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I'd agree Linda. Most programme makers want to sensationalise things to bring in the audience.! I don't think Sue Black had a closed mind at all, I think she kept it very well open as a scientist should!
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I think they went with a proper forensic approach - consider all possibilities and dont jump to conclusions...
Of course it's always going to be circumstantial, but their explanation is plausible since it fits the evidence they have, and also ties in with historical detail for the time and area.
Shane
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On thinking about it a bit more (more awake now :o ) its strange that she only discovered the cutting marks on the skull at the last minute before the presentation. You'd think they'd have been seen before.
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On thinking about it a bit more (more awake now :o ) its strange that she only discovered the cutting marks on the skull at the last minute before the presentation. You'd think they'd have been seen before.
agreed - they usually go over all the bones with that light/magnifying glass gadget.. but maybe the bright sunlight in the presentation room helped throw shadows and make the marks on the skull show up easier..
Shane
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I hope they do show the missed episode at the end of the series. I want to see if the 'theories' I came up with from the information given about that episode are correct or off the wall. I would have been much happier for them to drop yesterday's episode, which I gave up on part way through when they were heading down the ritual sacrifice route again. I hope the other episodes are better - I was fascinated by the discoveries they made about lifestyle etc in the first series, and the way they were then able to marry this to the historical documentation.
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My OH and I thought it would have been so much fun if it had been a serial killer.
Paul
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I was also disappointed by this episode. But if you didn't see the first series, don't give up just on this one, as some of the previous episodes were really interesting.
Worthwhile sticking with it, I think, just for a bit.
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I found it quite interesting, tad on the gruesome side, but least they were frank and didnt skirt the truth. I recognised the older bleach-blonde lady from Meet the Ancestors - loved that programme (and her amazing facial reconstructions of skulls of all conditions/completeness). BBC should definitely commission another series of that!
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Caroline Wilkinson - she was the 'assistant' on Meet the Ancestors, doing facial reconstruction the hard way with clay.
Now she's a Professor :)
Interesting (and good!) that the 3 lead figures in History Cold Case are all women
Linda
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Set up my Sky+ to record it and due to atmospherics the whole recording failed. Will now have to watch via laptop, a real nuisance!!!!
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Programme was a little too drawn out and I think the lack of skulls didn't help plus they couldn't get any DNA.
In view of the place they were all found I wonder if maybe not so much a ritual sacrifice but more of an execution of an 'enemy' family. Perhaps a family were ostracised by their tribe and had fled to the moors to live, then been found by the other tribe and killed?
Don't think it was a ritual sacrifice area because not enough bodies and why only one adult male?
Maybe I missed a bit, did they say how the bones had been discovered in view of the size and depth of the hole
Next episode looks like could be more interesting.
Jean
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Hi all
Just spotted that The Bodies in the Well is being shown tonight at 9.00pm.
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I think this series has been disappointing so far. I was hoping the bodies in the well episode would revive my interest but it didn't really reveal much more than what I had already read in the media write ups. I wanted to know more than what I already knew and it failed to deliver. I might have enjoyed it more if they hadn't revealed so much to the media before broadcast.
C
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My husband and I find the programme very interesting - but - yet again - another programme ruined by the intrusive, totally unnecessary background music ...
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All sensationalism and little meaty information. I do hate that. I bet the scientists involved do, too.
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spotted an upcoming program on C4 that might be interest to people that watched History Cold Case.
Back From the Dead / 4th September 2011 - Sunday / 8pm
Nelson's Navy. Episode 1
Three-hundred-and-fifty skeletons, exhumed from Royal Navy graveyards from the age of Nelson's Navy, are throwing an extraordinary new light on how these sailors lived, fought, outwitted their enemy, and, from the oldest to youngest, suffered for victory.
Shane