Tudor Monastery Farm: Coming to BBC2

[British Red]

Having watched the whole series now, I must say, although I enjoyed it, I agree that it was the weakest they have done so far.

It felt less real (there is no separate Tudor farm at the Weald and Downland and I felt that showed) and the information on the techniques of farming felt "bitty" and disjointed - the series really didn't "flow" for me and the demonstrations felt lightweight. I would still watch another series - but would like to see more stuff like "Tales from the Green Valley" with an in depth solid feel

Still better than most of the pap they show on the idiot box of course - but slightly disappointing given the previous high standard I agree

 

[Shambling Shaman]

"Tales from the Green Valley"

must admit Tales from the green valley is still our favorite, but we have enjoyed all the shows.

 

[British Red]

All the "Green Valley" episodes are available on Youtube now as well

 

[John Fenna]

I have learned a lot, been entertained by them all - but Green Valley set the mark that the others have yet to equal

 

[treadlightly]

I enjoyed it too but also maybe not as much as previous ones. Maybe it suffered because our knowledge of 500 year old farming techniques is not as detailed as that of Victorian farming? It's also hard to keep repeating a formula and keep the standard as high as previously achieved.

 

[Coldfeet]

Well I have now acquired a copy of the Green Valley series, so I can enjoy that over the Christmas break

 

[General Strike]

I'm really enjoying it; I thought that in some episodes (episode 3 springs to mind) they covered so many subjects that it felt like they'd run out of topics for the rest of the series.

I think it would be great if they would put the brakes on a little, and cover a few things in a bit more depth - for instance I would have been interested in seeing the brewing process in the same level of detail as the lead mining was shown. The guy doing lost wax casting would have also been interesting - if we could see more of how the method was used in Tudor England (instead of just a bell) and had seen the mould being broken as opposed to the mould being made and the pouring, that would've been great. That said, they're probably wary of going into too much detail and losing casual viewers' interest.

 

[Shambling Shaman]

When I read your post to swmbo this bit stood out.

and the information on the techniques of farming felt "bitty" and disjointed - the series really didn't "flow" for me and the demonstrations felt lightweight.

Her suggestion was that maybe the books will hold more detailed info and that would be a good selling point?

only an observation and like I've said still liked all there shows.

 

[British Red]

Maybe so Rob - I enjoyed it, but previous series have been more in depth on individual subjects - the clearing, ploughing and harrowing of the bracken invaded "Triangle field" in TFTGV for example covered several episodes and probably twenty to thirty minutes of footage. I miss that and would hate to see the franchise dumbed down to an "experience" show