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Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Britain Under the Microscope. 欢迎回来【闲话英伦】. Hi, 安澜.
Hi. Lulu. Hi, everyone.
So in the previous episode we were focusing on nature documentaries, especially those made by BBC. In this episode, let's move on to history documentaries which I know you love.
I love history documentaries. I just love absolutely everything about history.
In this we’re so different because history has got to be one of my biggest headaches when I was in school. I think the reason why I didn't like history is because I thought it was so boring. It was mostly about memorizing dates and names and facts.
Yeah, I know that a lot of people they learn history that way, but when I was at school and also outside of school as well, I learned history by the stories and that's the thing that I found really fun is that there's so many stories, it’s not just names of kings or queens or emperors. They are actual people, they’re the stories behind all of these grand events in history.
This is what I said about, I've recently started to get into documentaries because some of these great documentaries they really bring history to life.
I know we're gonna be talking about BBC documentaries, but I can even see that now in China there's some really great history documentaries that do bring history to life.
Yeah, it's not just this really like very rigid structure and almost like textbook materials. This is the thing, they start to do things like docudrama or like reenactment就是那种场景再现. Docudrama就是documentary和drama拼在一起的. So they would hire actual actors to act as these famous historical figures. That is also very popular in the UK.
Very very popular. One of the…ones I liked the most is a bit old now is called Days that Shook the World.

Yes I love that. Days that Shook the World, when I was watching it, I did not even think I was watching documentary.
Yep. Because it's just a very simple premise. Basically it's one day that's really meant to us in history and they go through it step by step, so minute by minute.
And they get actors and actresses to act as these people. It's really gripping.
Yes, it is. And it's different from a drama because as you say it's a docudrama, so it's really authentic, it's very close to the original.
This is one trend of trying to make it into a docudrama.
The other trend I don't know if you would agree with me is that you see a lot of scholars but they are not your conventional scholars or just like being very serious and giving you all these theories.
Yeah. In the UK, I would say one of the most famous scholars who appears in these history documentaries is Mary Beard.
(温妮弗莱德·玛丽·比尔德爵士（Dame Winifred Mary Beard）英国著名古典学家，剑桥大学古典学教授。)
Mary beard. Is she the one who's doing like ancient Rome?
Yes, she's a professor of classics at Cambridge University. But she's not the typical Cambridge don and she's not dry or boring. She's actually really passionate about her subject. ( don, see also donnish, a teacher at a university, especially Oxford or Cambridge （尤指牛津大学和剑桥大学的）大学教师)
Honestly, my stereotype of an Oxford or Cambridge academic is someone who's very elitist, speak with a posh accent, and just like, basically saying ‘I'm gonna teach you this, and I know you wouldn't understand.’
Yeah, pretty much, that's one thing I really like about this particular presenter is that she makes it really engaging. She brings ancient history down to earth. So she talks about things like graffiti. She talks about how Romans go to the toilet.
Yeah, I remember watching bits of it when she was going around all these ruins in Rome and introducing the artifacts. And I think you could really see passion in her eyes. But she really isn't a TV figure. I don't like judging people's appearance but I'm not even talking about appearance but more like she doesn't really do like all these makeup or grooming and all that, she's got hair all over the place.
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