At Home with the Georgians-Brilliant!!!

Amanda Vickery, helping us snoop into the lives and homes of the Georgians!

Charleybrown, a fellow Canadian Period Drama addict whose blog (Enchanted Serenity of Period Films) is truly brilliant, has come up with an absolute gem this weekend.  She has found what sounds like a dry British documentary on the Georgian home, but is actually one of the most entertaining pieces of BBC television I have seen in ages and here is the link-  Enchanted Serenity of Period Films: At Home with the Georgians: "In this three part series, historian Amanda Vickery explores how the great British obsession with our homes began 300 years ago."

Professor Amanda Vickery is the slightly cheeky historian/presenter of this series, whose particular interest is in the Georgians, and she takes us straight into the lives of real people living in England during the 1700s by reading us their diaries, and having actors reenact their lives. She also pokes into homes of the period while imagining what would have been going on in them, and fiddling with her IPad when she is not reading the original documents.  Her books and a CD of a radio show on Georgian England and social history are below and likely have the same cheeky feel to them (more Christmas list material for me!).

Sex, scandal and soft furnishings is what the BBC trailers promised and the titillation of peeping into the thoughts and lives of the Georgians is what makes this series different.  As much as we love Jane Austen, we ever aware that she is only showing us the female perspective, and even that only an unmarried woman's.  In this series we get to meet lonely horny young bachelors planning future happiness if only they can find the right woman (some do and some don't).  And the women's stories are equally compelling.  One woman  finds happiness in and out of the bedroom with her new rich husband, but there are miserable spinsters and abused wives which show the other side of the coin as well.

Alternately heart-breaking and hilarious, this is historic voyeurism at it's best. Here's a clip from YouTube as the full version has been removed from ESPF: