[MR] My BBC show finally airs Stateside

[Anthony Bryant]

Apologies if you are getting this multiple times, but I am mass- 
sending this as I wanted to get the news out 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 Military History 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://military.discovery.com/tv/warriors/episode-guide/episode-guide.html 
  )

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  
The 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!)

Check out the show, and let me know you what you think.

Effingham