Diary
VISIT / WATCH / LISTEN
By Jonathan Wright and Rhiannon Davies
VISIT
Here be Vikings
This spring, the Jorvik Viking Festival returns to York after an extended pandemic-related hiatus, and it promises to be bigger than ever.
Traditional highlights – such as the Viking camp in Parliament Street and the march to Coppergate, during which a fearsome band of re-enactors storm to the Jorvik Viking Centre – are augmented with new events including the Jorvik Games. Held on the Saturday evening, the Games will see competitors face off in bouts designed to test their endurance, strength and cunning.
If you’d prefer to take part in the festival from the comfort of your own home, on 22 May you can head online to watch leading academics giving lectures on Viking hoards.
Jorvik Viking Festival
York / 28 May–1 June / Booking essential for ticketed events / jorvikvikingfestival.co.uk
WATCH
Crowning glory
When he was making his final film, a feature-length documentary about Queen Elizabeth II, Roger Michell explained why he was drawn to the monarch as a subject. “She has been our constant,” he said. “I think she’s drilled into our subconscious. She’s like the world’s biggest movie star, and you don’t have to be a royalist to be amazed by her.”
Sadly, the director died in September 2021, but he had completed work on Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts, which is being released this month to tie in with celebrations for the Queen’s platinum jubilee. Expect a film rich in archive material, offering a fresh and inventive take on Elizabeth’s life and times.
Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts
In cinemas from Friday 27 May
VISIT
Sweet treatments
A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Now a new exhibition at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh explores how food itself has been viewed as medicine over the past six centuries. Using manuscripts, illustrations and unusual artefacts (such as Dr Gregory’s Stomachic Powder patented laxative, pictured) it traces the complex relationship between diet and health. Through items such as 17th-century recipe books, we learn how food was thought to prevent and cure illness, and also discover the darker aspects of diet control.
Food: Recipe or Remedy
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh / Until 27 January 2023 / rcpe.ac.uk
WATCH
Meet the family
When a show reaches its 19th series, it’s clearly doing something right. That’s certainly the case with Who Do You Think You Are?, a genealogy programme in which celebrities trace their lineage – and often react with shock to what they discover.
The series returns with five new episodes, kicking off with comedian Sue Perkins researching the poignant story of her orphaned grandfather. Novelist and gameshow whizz Richard Osman, The Great British Bake Off co-host Matt Lucas, actor Anna Maxwell Martin and Ralf Little, the latest lead in Death in Paradise, also feature.
Who Do You Think You Are?
BBC One / From Thursday 26 May
LISTEN
Abolitionist and adventurer
By any standards, the life of Olaudah Equiano was remarkable. Born in the kingdom of Benin (in what is now Nigeria) in c1745, Equiano was enslaved as a child. Transported to Barbados and then to the colony of Virginia, he was purchased by Michael Henry Pascal, a Royal Navy lieutenant. Renamed Gustavus Vassa, he became Pascal’s unpaid servant and later wrote first-hand accounts of battles fought during the Seven Years’ War.
Equiano was literate thanks in part to Robert King, an American Quaker and merchant who, having bought Equiano, encouraged him to master reading and writing (which he’d first learned on board naval ships). In 1766, Equiano bought his freedom from King.
A life of travel and adventure followed, but it was as a freedman living in London in the 1780s that he found fame when he became involved in the abolitionist movement. His autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African (1789), a bestseller in his own lifetime, has subsequently become a key text in understanding the era. Now a new BBC radio docudrama charts his life and times.
The Amazing Life of Olaudah Equiano
BBC Radio 4 / Tuesday 24 May
LISTEN
Return of the living gods
The question of whether and when antiquities should be repatriated is an issue that is occupying ever more of the attention of those who run the world’s most famous museums. Usually, the artefacts in question left their countries of origin long ago. But that’s not true in the case of Cambodia, where an investigative team is dealing with the thefts of prized treasures that may have happened as recently as the 1980s, 1990s and even the early 2000s.
For a new BBC Radio 4 documentary, Celia Hatton reports on the Cambodian team now examining UK collections including those of the British Museum and the V&A. Over the course of its work, the team has built up a network of former looters, now government witnesses, with code names such as Red Horse and Iron Princess. At the centre of many of the sales was a rogue British art dealer, Douglas Latchford (1931–2020), who faced a US indictment on wide-ranging charges of trafficking and dealing in stolen goods but died before he could be tried.
Underpinning the investigators’ efforts is the idea that ancient statues taken from temples are not just pieces of stone but represent living gods – and the Cambodians want their gods back.
Crossing Continents – Cambodia: Returning the Gods
BBC Radio 4 / Thursday 12 May
VISIT
Priceless words
Whether it’s the finely wrought jewellery piled high in the pharaohs’ tombs of ancient Egypt, or the flakes that were brushed over medieval artworks to make them glimmer in the candlelight, gold has enthralled us for millennia.
The British Library is exploring how the precious metal has been used to elevate the written word throughout history. Bringing together stunning examples of gold-adorned manuscripts, scrolls and sacred texts gathered from more than 20 countries, the exhibition also reveals the fascinating stories of the owners of these magnificent documents.
Gold
British Library, London / 20 May–2 October / Booking advised / bl.uk
WATCH
Regret and defiance
On 25 May 1895, Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years’ hard labour for gross indecency. Such were attitudes towards homosexuality at the time that the trial judge, Sir Alfred Wills, thought Wilde’s sentence to be “totally inadequate for a case such as this”. A brilliant career was ending in disgrace.
But what did Wilde himself think about his situation? Exploring this question is a new one-man play directed by Trevor Nunn and written by Stuart Paterson, which is being filmed for BBC Four. Toby Stephens (Lost in Space) stars as Wilde, referred to throughout by his prisoner number in Reading Gaol: C33.
The play portrays Wilde at his lowest ebb – condemned to solitary confinement because of his sexuality, filthy because he is denied water to wash himself, and on the verge of madness. It’s the cue for the imprisoned writer to begin a conversation with his former self – the elegantly attired wit who was the toast of London society. Among the subjects across which he ranges are his abandonment by his wife and sons, his feelings towards his former lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, and, inevitably, his own humiliation.
Prisoner C33
BBC iPlayer / Streaming now
VISIT
Female mystique
Witches, goddesses, demons and saints have been woven into the fabric of our belief systems and myths since ancient times. Now the British Museum is making history with the first major exhibition dedicated to female spiritual beings. Among more than 70 sculptures, paintings and sacred artefacts from six continents, stand-out objects include an intriguing sculpture of Lilith, seen as Satan’s consort in the Jewish tradition.
The display seeks to examine the various ways in which our forebears grappled with femininity, spanning themes ranging from wisdom and passion to war and justice. To generate discussion about the themes, contributors such as classicist Mary Beard offer their thoughts throughout the exhibition through specially commissioned audio-visual think pieces.
Feminine Power: The Divine to the Demonic
The British Museum, London / 19 May–25 September / Booking advised / britishmuseum.org
LISTEN
Strength of purpose
Life dealt Joan Rhodes (1921–2010) some terrible cards. Deserted by both parents, she landed in the workhouse. But from an early age she was a street performer and blessed with remarkable strength – both attributes that help explain her decision to become a strongwoman who toured the country and appeared on TV shows and in movies.
Her fortitude is much admired by Anna Maxwell Martin, who approves of the fact that Rhodes never complained about her start in life. The Motherland and Line of Duty star selects Rhodes to be celebrated in Radio 4’s ever-excellent historical biographical series Great Lives. In other forthcoming episodes, comedian Rob Newman speaks up for New Deal architect Franklin D Roosevelt.
Great Lives
BBC Radio 4 & BBC Sounds / Tuesday 17 May
WEEKLY TV & RADIO
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