[Ansteorra] SCAdian does BBC program on Tokugawa Iyeyasu and the Battle of Sekigahara

Mike Andrews W5EGO mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Wed Dec 3 19:27:49 PST 2008


Baron Edward Effingham, Companion of the Laurel and lots of other 
stuff, is a historical researcher and a costume designer in real life.
He sent this to the SCA-Laurels list and asked that it be distributed
as widely as possible. 

: Some of you may have heard about the BBC TV show I did the research
: for -- on Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Battle of Sekigahara.
: 
: If you didn't know, the Readers' Digest version is that some time ago,
: the Beeb contacted me asking me if I'd like to be their researcher for
: a docudrama on the Battle of Sekigahara (for which I literally wrote
: the book), as part of a series on historical military commanders.
: After .004 seconds of hesitation (just to be polite), I said yes.
: 
: The series was broadcast in the UK in February, and finally has made
: its way Stateside, so I thought my fellow SCAdians might like to see
: it. It is on the Discovery Military channel.
: 
: There's a brief review I did of the final production and some
: screenshots of it on the Tosando board. It might whet your appetite
: for it:
: http://tousando.proboards18.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=538&page=1
: 
: The series itself is about several great historical military leaders
: at their crossroads: Attila, Cortes, Napoleon, Richard the
: Lionhearted, Spartacus, and Ieyasu. It's showing this week (starting
: Friday night with Attila), and my ep on Tokugawa Ieyasu is on this
: Sunday. (Ironically, the Japanese drama is on Sunday, Dec. 7. Gotta
: love it.)
: 
: About this episode (from their webpage): "Tokugawa Leyasu is a
: towering figure in Japanese history. He is Oliver Cromwell, Richard
: Lionheart and Alfred The Great combined - the man who overthrew
: the governing dynasty of Japan and established a regime that would
: last for centuries."
: 
: It'll be shown several times.
: 
: More about the Warriors series and show times:
: http://military.discovery.com/tv/warriors/about/about.html
: 
: Historically speaking, it's not perfect -- we had to conflate months
: of political machinations and maneuvering and conflict into one hour,
: so some historical personages got rolled into one, and others just
: aren't there, and there's more reliance on the "bushido" thing than I
: would have preferred (and there's even a ninja attack that I BEGGED
: them not to do) but it's still a stunning production, and all things
: considered I'm pleased and proud to have been attached to it. I don't
: know what is going to have to be cut out for the US release to make
: room for commercials, and I really worry about that -- there is NO fat
: in the show that can easily be trimmed. The UK version was 59 minutes
: long, and that was barely enough to do some semblance of justice to
: the story.
: 
: Watch the episode, and then tell yourself "they did this with only 75
: extras and 25 horses" and be amazed. Even Japanese TV had spots about
: it on their news programs expressing surprise and admiration for the
: quality and scale of the production given what the budget was. (Heck,
: just look at the screen shots!)
: 
: Effingham

And from a later post in the same thread,

: The British series is available from Amazon UK at
: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heroes-Villains-Brian-McCardie/dp/B000YY561K/
:
: I assume the Discovery release will be the whole BBC production (with
: hour-long episodes) rather than the cut-down-for-commercials US
: versions.
: 
: Effingham

This link may also be of interest: 
http://military.discovery.com/tv/warriors/episode-guide/episode-guide.html 


-- 
Mike Andrews, W5EGO
mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin 



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