Half Life (BBC) Episode 5 The Road Through the Mountains Joe travels to the Kurdish region of Tunceli in Turkey, which is the new name for Dersim. Tunceli means ‘bronze fist’ which is appropriate because the area is still heavily miltarized. Poison gas (made by German chemical factories) was used in caverns, and people were bombed from above. In Episode 6 Tranquility Joe’s great-grandfather Siegfried retires to North Carolina in the United States after the war, but by 1957 he was hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital. It was there, as a form of therapy, that he began writing his lengthy memoir, which made Joe question whether that changed the status of the document that had set him off on this whole journey.
The Rest is History Episode 553 The Last Viking: Warrior of the New Rome (Part 2). This is the second part of the Harald Hardrada excursion. I’ll let Tom and Dominic describe the episode:
Harald Hardrada; exiled prince of Norway and mercenary, has landed in the greatest city on Earth: Constantinople. There he joins one of the most prestigious military organisations in the world, the Varangian Guard, charged with protecting the Emperor. Almost the next ten years of Harald’s young life are spent at war protecting the city from enslaving raiders. But then, he becomes embroiled in the dark and complex political intrigues and plots of the Byzantine court. Zoe, the formidable wife of the recently deceased Emperor Michael IV, who had been exiled by her husband’s successor, recruits Harald to help her seize the throne. Wealthy, influential and renowned in the world’s most glittering city, things have never seemed better for Harald. But then, does he overreach and embark upon a dangerous affair with the empress herself? Imprisoned for his crimes, Harald manages to slay the terrible serpent haunting his prison cell, and escape at last back to Kyiv.
On his return to Kyiv in 1043, greatly enriched, he finds that his nephew Magnus has taken the throne of Norway and Denmark. After a bit of skirmishing, he and Magnus agree to share the kingdom and the wealth, and when Magnus dies, Harald is now the King of Norway, which is what he always wanted. He modernized Norway and introduced Christianity and taxes, and by 1065 and now 55 years old, was known as Harald Hardrada (i.e. hard leader)
Background Briefing Agents of Influence Ep. 1 The PM’s secret strategists Quite frankly I find the whole idea and terminology of an “influencer” offensive: someone who is important for their effect on other people, rather than for anything they actually do themselves. But apparently they’re all the go in politics today, and politicians are falling over themselves to appear on their shows. I’m getting too old for all this.
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 