The BEST episodes directed by Jamie Muir
#1 - Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters
BBC Documentaries - Season 2011 - Episode 161
From dinosaurs to mammoths, when our ancient ancestors encountered the fossil bones of extinct prehistoric creatures, what did they think they were? Just like us, ancient peoples were fascinated by the giant bones they found in the ground. In an epic story that takes us from Ancient Greece to the American Wild West, historian Tom Holland goes on a journey of discovery to explore the fascinating ways in which our ancestors sought to explain the remains of dinosaurs and other giant prehistoric creatures, and how bones and fossils have shaped and affected human culture. In Classical Greece, petrified bones were exhibited in temples as the remains of a long lost race of colossal Heroes. Chinese tales of dragons may well have had their origins in the great fossil beds of the Gobi desert. In the Middle Ages, Christians believed that mysterious bones found in rock were the remains of giants drowned in Noah's Flood. But far from always being wrong, Tom learns that ancient explanations and myths about large fossilsed bones often contained remarkable paleontological insights long before modern science explained the truth about dinosaurs. Tom encounters a medieval sculpture that is the first known reconstruction of a monster from a fossil, and learns about the Native Americans stories, told for generations, which contained clues that led bone hunters to some of the greatest dinosaur finds of the nineteenth century. This documentary is an alternative history of dinosaurs - the neglected story of how mythic imagination and scientific inquiry have met over millennia to give meaning to the dry bones of prehistory. Today, as our interest in dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures continues unabated, it turns out we are not so far away from the awe and curiosity of our ancient ancestors.
#2 - The Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
BBC Documentaries - Season 2012 - Episode 111
Documentary about the greatest public ceremony of the twentieth century. As well as recounting the events of Coronation Day, 2nd June 1953, the film focuses on the months of meticulous planning beforehand. What took place behind the scenes is told using diaries, letters, official records and government papers, together with much rare, evocative archive. There are interviews with historians and experts on royal ceremonial as well as participants in the ceremony. The Coronation was an immense challenge - the views of forceful personalities from die-hard traditionalists to forward-thinking innovators had to be reconciled, the movements of thousands had to be marshalled like clockwork, and the BBC had to mount its most ambitious television outside broadcast to date in the teeth of prime minister Winston Churchill's opposition. At the centre of it all was the 27-year-old Queen, bearing an immense responsibility while remaining apparently calm and unperturbed throughout. This is a story of precision planning, last minute nerves and an ancient ceremony which brought together church, state, aristocracy and monarchy in a glorious panoply - the like of which will never be seen again.
#3 - Pevsner Revisited
BBC Documentaries - Season 2001 - Episode 69
Jonathan Meades investigates the life of the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner, and the writing of his largest work, The Buildings of England.