Good morning, we are continuing our Tony Robinson Palette cleanser.  I will do two episodes once again.  In the first episode, Tony explores the city of Adelaide.  The run time for this episode is 25:29.  In the second episode, Tony heads to Northern Tasmania and the town of Launceston.  The run time for this episode is 25:54.

Adelaide is a city of churches; however, it is also home to radicals and rebels.  It is the capital of South Australia.  Tony’s rabble-rousing radar is on high alert.  He comes across the statue of Mary Lee and he tells her story to a group of locals.  Mary Lee was the most influential woman in Australian history.  She fought for the right of women to vote in South Australia.  She took on a man named Ebenezer Black and he was against the right of women to vote.  He planned on wrecking the bill that would allow women to vote.  He stuck an amendment in the bill that would have allowed women to stand in Parliament.  However, his colleagues agreed and got the bill passed.  So not only women could vote in South Australia, but they could also stand in Parliament.

Tony then heads on over to the cricket pitch where the British took on the Australians in a controversial cricket game.  The British played a hard and ruthless game, and the Australians were not going to have it.  When one of their players was seriously injured the Australians were righteously angry.  The cricket tour was nearly canceled, it took an intervention by the Prime Minister to keep the tour going.

Tony’s next stop is the parade ground where Australia sent off its fighting men.  The Vietnam War would prove to be different.  There was national conscription. When the Vietnam Veterans got home they were treated horribly and were often denied jobs.  Tony would catch up with a songwriter who talked about the Australian experience of the Vietnam War.  So where else does Tony go on his Time Walk in Adelaide, tune into the rest of the episode to find out more?

Tony begins this episode by quoting an explorer who found a piece of beautiful land in Tasmania.  Tony begins his Time Walk at Cataract Gorge.  Patsy Cameron is an aboriginal elder who talks about what Tasmanians eat.  She gives him a plant that tastes like a vegetable.  Tony then tries a grub and then after trying a grub he takes a stroll by a grand river.

The river Tamar is the reason why Launceston was built.  There was plenty of fresh water and it provided a route to the sea.  It was a free town and people could make their fortunes in the town.  Tony explores John Battman and John Fawkner.  John Fawkner was a convict and the son of a convict.  He wanted to claim land north of Melbourne, however, he was brought up on assault charges.  The judge sorted those out and Fawkner was prevented from leaving because he had lots of debts.  He managed to dodge those debts and manage to get out of Launceston.  However, the captain recognized him and nearly brought Fawkner back.  Fawkner tricked the captain telling him that he was sick and the captain agreed to keep him on board.  He managed to make his way back to mainland Australia and would become a member of Parliament.

Tony then heads across town and the site of the Tasmanian Cricket association oval.  He goes back to 1851 when the first match between Australian colonies took place.  Tasmania won that match.  Tasmania was the senior colony and Launceston was the senior town.  That changed when gold was discovered near Melbourne and Tasmania’s fortunes fell.
Tony then finds himself at the Zoo and is looking at monkeys that are from Japan.  They were given in a trade for wallabies.  He uses it to reflect on the relationship between Launceston and Hobart.  However, Hobart and Launceston have been great rivals.  Tony catches up with the mayor of Launceston to talk about that animosity.  So why are Hobart and Launceston great rivals?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

Both episodes were very cool, but I would have to say that Launceston had a higher degree of coolness.  The story about burying the hatchet between Hobart and Launceston was very cool and Tony was in his element talking about archelogy.

Well, after that disastrous TV series we are due for a palette cleanser.  Who would be a better palette cleanser than Tony Robinson?  Tony Robinson explores Australia in his series Time Walks.  I am going to do two episodes of Time Walks.  The first episode is about Townsville and the run time for this episode is 25:33. The second episode is about Canberra and the run time for this episode is 26:15.

Today Tony explores Townsville, a place he feels deserves a better name.  He starts up on Castle Hill and moves his way down and through the town.  Castle Hill overlooks the town and many people have climbed it over the years.  He points out a stick figure that is painted on the mountain.  He meets the man who painted the stick figure on the mountain.  After his trip to Castile Hill, he goes to the beach.

However, he is not able to swim at the beach because of the jellyfish.  There are also green ants at the beach.  The then explores the origins of his name.  The name came from a man Robert Towns.  He had only come to the settlement once and he complained about it.  Tony then goes into public to start a campaign to change the name of the town.  He feels that it should be named after John Melton Black and he was the man who created the town.  He built the first house and brought culture to the settlement.  Tony wants to call it Blackville, however, the locals are not persuaded.  It was the men with the money who got towns named for them.

Tony then learns about Eddie Marbo who fought for aboriginal rights.  He went to court to settle who own Australia before the British.  He won the case but did not live to see his victory.  Tony catches up with Eddie’s friend about the type of man he was.  Then Tony moves on and explores the impact of World War II on Townsville.  He goes into a surviving air raid shelter.  The people of Townsville prepared for war because they felt like the Japanese were going to invade them.  Townsville residents needed to be prepared for war.  So what else does Tony learn about Townsville?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

In episode two of this review, Tony overlooks Canberra and talks about the origins of the name.  He starts at Red Hill and ends at Mitchell in the north.  Canberra is the capital of Australia and it was designed for political purposes.  How did Australians decide where to put their capital?  The number one thing was that it needed to be New South Wales and there was a need to have cold weather to bring up Australia.  However, there are people who at sneer Canberra.

Tony takes a detour down Canberra Boulevard and notices a funeral home.  Across the street from the funeral home, there is the Russian Embassy.  Next door to the funeral home is where the Australians had their secret service and where the Secret Service would spy on the Russians.  Australians are famous for coming up with nicknames for their Prime Ministers.  The Australian first prime minister was a huge drinker but was a brilliant man.  He was in an advertisement for soap.

Tony visits the National Archives and visits the artifacts of the 17th Prime Minister.  His drowning death shocked the nation.  Tony reflects on the life of this prime minister.  Then he takes off for the art museum and talks about Jackson Pollock’s painting.  It was a painting that caused controversy when it was purchased because it purchased over one million dollars.  Tony encounters children to paint a version of the Jackson Pollock painting.

Tony then moves on to the parliament building.  He talks about the opening of the Parliament building and what a disaster that was.  He then highlights more drama that happened at the Parliament House. So what happened as a result of this drama?  What else does Tony find about Canberra?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

This is such a nice palette cleanser after watching 24 Hours in the Past.  I would suggest both of these episodes for a geography classroom.

Finally, I am done slogging through this series.  Teachers, be glad that I went through this series so you folks did not have to.

In the concluding episode of 24 Hours in the Past, the time travelers are left destitute.  They turn to the one place where nobody wanted to go and that was the workhouse.  How will our Time Travelers manage to negotiate the workhouse?  Will Ann keep her mouth shut and buckle down to survive the workhouse?  Who will conquer the 19th Century and discover the inner Victorian?  The run time for this episode is 57:45.

The Time Travelers have been kicked out of the pottery and will not have to find another way to make money.  They are now homeless and broke and will be turning to the workhouse.  They will live 24 Hours in the workhouse.  The master and the matron will be greeting them along with Ruth Goodman.  Everyone is apprehensive about entering the workhouse.

Bruce Owen and Annette Hamish are the master and matron of the workhouse.  I really enjoyed the looks of the master and matron for the workhouse.  I wonder how many times Bruce had to practice his strict face to stop from laughing.  Anette is equally terrifying.  It is interesting to see them take their roles seriously.  The workhouse was the only relief the poor had.  The workhouse had room for 158 paupers and was meant to reform the people inside.  Order, cleanliness, and discipline were the order of the day.  Bruce gives a glimpse of the rules for the workhouse.  Once inside, the men and the women are separated.  They are to shed their old clothes and dawn the uniforms of the workhouse.

The first step is to take a bath and everyone had to share the same water.  The women promptly refuse to take a bath and lie to the matron.  Matron is not impressed with the women’s refusal to bathe, and I almost wonder if she got the heads up that they did not want to bathe.  The men on the other hand take a bath and shave.  The men figured out how to bathe with one tub of water.  Ruth talks about how families were separated when they entered the workhouse and reads from one of the diaries of an inmate.  The workhouse master is not impressed when the boys dance in their clogs.

Ann talks back to the matron and is immediately sent to solitary confinement.  She took it really seriously too, forgetting it was a TV series.  She was really over the top with calling down the judgment of God on the poor people who were playing the role of matron and master.  She really showed herself to be a fool when she said that.  It was annoying that she could not shut up.  The other women and the men are set to work.  They will work in exchange for a bed and board.  The men set to work sewing their own mattresses, which is something they struggle with at night.  However, they manage to get a rhythm.  Zoe and Miquita are sent to the oakum room.  The women are reflective of the experience of the workhouse and how it was a place that was to be avoided.

The tasks are completed for the night and they have a meal.  Then they turn in for the night.  I feel like Ruth is getting a kick out of Anne in solitary confinement.  (After enduring her attitude for three episodes, I would get a kick out of Ann in solitary confinement too.)  She talks about the punishments Ann would have faced during the Victorian Period for refusing to follow the workhouse rules.  Will Ann change her attitude tomorrow?

Why would you put that they were kicked out of the jobs?  I do not see the narrative purpose of that statement at the start of the episode.  This episode was slightly better than the previous three.  It would have been better without Ann.  It would be tempting to show this episode in the classroom, but I feel like Secrets of the Workhouse would have been a better series.  This is one series to skip showing in the history classroom.

Good morning, we are continuing to explore 24 Hours in the Past.  This time the time travelers are exploring life working in a Victorian Factory.  The team will be making pots and plates for the potter’s factory.  There will be a look at the struggle for fair wages by the workers.  It was a struggle to write seven hundred words for this episode because it was such a disappointment.  The run time for this episode is 57:46.

The time travelers are now working in a pottery factory and they will get their first taste of factory work.  Fi catches up with the Time Travelers and tells them where they will work.  Everyone is nervous about working in the pottery factory.  Ann brags about her lack of skills.  Thousands of people would have come in from the countryside to work in the factory.
 
Ruth Goodman and Tim Blanford are waiting for them.  Tim works in heavy industry and will prove to be a strict boss.  It really would have been interesting to get more of his thoughts on the Time Traveler’s working in the pottery factory.  The supervisor’s views would have been interesting as well.  The 19th Century was the industrial age and Britain was at the heart of the industrial age.  They are assigned their jobs.  Ann cannot work in the morning and will have to come back in the afternoon.  Working in the pottery factory was hard work and required long hours during the Victorian Age.  By Victorian standards, Ann would have been considered old.  They set to work in the pottery factory.

Everyone will have to learn fast to work in the pottery factory.  Colin is struggling with how technical it is.  Miquita is a one-legged dancer and will power the lathe.  Zoe will be turning the potter’s wheel.  The Time Travelers will have two hours to master their jobs.  The work is very hard and sometimes travelers are struggling to work.  Children were employed in the factories and some of the jobs would have been done by children.  Ann reads the diary of one of the child workers and finds work making oat cakes to sell.  Time Travelers work all morning.  They take a break for lunch.  They try Ann’s oat cakes.

Ruth meets up with the Time Travelers to do a catch-up before lunch.  Alistar did an excellent job producing his pottery.  Tyger struggled with working the clay.  Zoe was good at her job.  Colin had a technically difficult job, but he will fail at his job because of Miquita.  The clay preparation was substandard.  They go off to eat lunch.  Miquita feels bad for letting Colin down.  Ann was the only one able to make some ready cash.  You can catch a glimpse of Ruth’s daughter in the lunch section.

The afternoon shift begins.  The Time Travelers will have to make up for the mistakes that were made this morning.  They will be preparing and loading the kilns.  Some of them will be working on decorating the shop.  The workers have two hours to complete their various jobs.  Will the time travelers manage to get paid?  Or will the team crumble down?  What role do workers’ rights place in this episode?

Ann Widdecombe is getting on my nerves with her stands.  She said she wanted to experience the life of her grandmother, but her grandmother would have sucked it up and got on with it.  The diaries proved to be worthless to the Time Travelers.  They should have given them a guide as to the expectations of each of the jobs.  That would have served the series a whole lot better.  Additionally, maybe they could have performed different types of jobs it would have been better around.

I am rapidly concluding that I would NOT showing in a history classroom, not even for a history fun day.  Ann’s attitude really put me off for this show.  The only people I liked were Allistar, Zoe, and Colin, because they seemed genuinely interested in what they were doing.  Maybe this show could have been saved with a better cast and better instructions for expectations.  I felt bad for Ruth having to deal with Ann.

I still demand a Ruth Goodman and Tony Robinson co-hosted program.

Good morning we are continuing with episode two and this time the six celebrities are working in a Victorian Coach House.  They will serve three different coaches.  The run time for this episode is 57:46. The time travelers have survived their first day in the Victorian Period.  Who will rise to the challenge this week?

The Time Travelers are given new uniforms and had a scrub to fit their station.  They will be servants on this day.  The Time Travelers immediately think of Upstairs, Downstairs, and Downton Abbey.  They walk up to a grand manor house, however, Fi pulls the switch and points them in the direction of the coaching inn.  They make their way to the Coaching Inn.

The Coaching Inn was the equivalent of a service station.  There were horses, horses, and more horses.  They had to keep timetables and serve travelers who made their way over the roads.  A journey from London to Edinburg took two days.  Oftentimes, horses were changed up to 27 Times.  Competition among the coaching inns was fierce as everyone need to do their jobs speedily and efficiently.

Fi gives them the diaries of people who worked at Coaching Inn and sends them into the inn.  Waiting for them are Ian and Emmy Bletchley.  They own a pub in real life.  Ruth Goodman also greets them as well.  Based on his efforts on the last day, Colin has his choice of job.   After Colin chooses his job, Ian assigns everyone else their positions.  Colin is not keen on horses but will face his fear to be successful in his tasks. 

The group sets to work on the tasks.  The women head to the main building to work in the house.  They set to cleaning the rooms and cooking in the kitchen.  The men set to work in the horse yard.  Ann and Zoe are assigned to the kitchen and immediately refuse to skin a rabbit and pluck a pleasant.  Ann and Zoe are completely useless in the kitchen.  In real life, they would have been fired for their refusal, but for this experiment, they are kept on.  Instead of having a meat soup, the cook will have to cook a more vegetable-based soup.

Tyger is a man of all work and cleans the pots.  Ian sets him to work.  In the man’s time, Miquita has no clue to start a fire and seeks out help to start the fire.  The innkeeper’s wife is not sympathetic to Miquita’s fire-lighting plight.

The inn hosts its first passengers.  They have two hours to prep the coach and tend to the guests.  There are a couple of guests spending the night.  The guests spread their legs and so the rush is on to get the food cooked and the guest rooms ready for the night.  The pressure is on for time travelers.  Ann is getting fed up with working in the kitchen.

At the end of the night, they all meet with everyone.  Ian is not happy with the performance of the staff.  Everything has been going slow.  Ruth highlights all the problems that happened.  She hopes that everyone steps up tomorrow because they will be left in charge.  Will the time travelers manage to step it up?  Or will midnight visitors cause them to crumble?  The work is hard and will they be tossed out on the street before the day is done?

I was reminded why I did not like this series.  At least the Time Crashers made an effort to participate in the activities.  The diaries are also completely useless at this point as well.  This series would have been served by providing them a guide to their time period and to the jobs they were going to do.  It was almost as if the time travelers did not want to put aside their modern sensibilities in order to fully emerge themselves into the period.  I will press on with watching this series for a review that way you don’t have to.  So far this is one series to skip showing in a classroom.

To make up for how horrible this show was, could we please get a Tony Robinson and Ruth Goodman co-hosted show?  I would like to see the pair of them together at least once!

Since it is summer, I thought I might as well do the TV series 24 Hours in the Past.  From time to time, I watched this series and was unsure if I wanted to do this series for a review.  The run time for episode one is 57:48.

Celebrities Alistair McGowan, Ann Widdecombe, Colin Jackson, Miquita Oliver, Tyger Drew-Honey, and Zöe Lucker go back in time to live lives as Victorians for a full day.  The participants will be employed at four different places in the town: the dusty yard, coaching in, potteries, and the workhouse.  They have twenty-four hours to complete tasks.  Who will rise to the challenge?  Who will crumble under the pressure?

Alistar McGowan is a comedian with an interest in history and is enthusiastic about going back in time.  Ann Widdecombe is a politician who wants to live the life of her granny.  She is the oldest participant in the series.  Colin Jackson is a world-champion hurdler and commentator who wants to take on a new challenge.  Zöe Lucker is an actress who wants to live the life of a Victorian.  Miquita Oliver is the presenter and wants to relate to the young poor Victorians.  Tyger Drew-Honey wants to experience the Victorian period because it was a period before the world changed.  The presenter for this series is Fi Glover and she is partnered with the delightful Ruth Goodman.

A Victorian town was recreated with the sights and sounds of the Victorian Period.  It is complete with shops, pubs, and workplaces.  Everything is real and it is wet.  Even the clothes they wore would have been worn by other people.  Everyone has to be careful with the clothes they pick because they will be working and sleeping in these clothes.  In this first episode, the participants find themselves assigned to the dust yard.  The dust yard was where rubbish was sorted.  Some of it was resold and recycled.

The first thing the participants do is select their wardrobe and their time travels.  They have a good laugh over the selection.  Fi then gives them a lunch of cheese and bread.  They then have to hand over their cell phones and are given a diary of people who lived during the Victorian Age.  The first period is in the 1840s and it is where 70% of Victorians were working class.  They have no skills that would be able to translate to the 19th Century so they will start in the dust yard.

They are greeted in the dust yard by Ruth Goodman (of course in period costume) and Dan Hill.  Dan Hill is a scrapyard owner and will be the boss of the group.  He expects the group to work hard to earn their wages.  Every piece of waste had its value during the Victorian period.  Tasks are divided between men and women.  There are dustmen, carpet beaters, and street cleaners.  They set to work on their tasks.  Dan Hill is not impressed with the efforts of the actors and said that he would not hire them in real life.

They get a lunch break.  If you did not get paid, you did not eat.  Only Alistar and Tyger have earned money to buy something extra for lunch.  However, Tyger wastes his first penny to get a bigger meal.  Ann gives him a telling-off for gambling his money away.

After lunch, they take on more tasks.  They are going to go through the dust hill and pick the rubbish out of the dust and sort it.  Zoe is put in charge of the dust hill and so she is the one that assigns the tasks.  Will the participants be able to complete their tasks and be paid at the end of the day?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out how the famous people handle their first twenty-four hours of Victorian people.

I was reminded why I did not like this series.  Unlike other series, the actors were thrown into tasks with little or no instructions.  They did not have a handy guide with instructions on what was expected of them.  Ruth helps things out a bit with her commentary.  At this moment, this would be on series to skip showing in the classroom.

Timeline, Absolute History, and other Historic Youtube channels have been on a tear of uploading history documentaries to their channels.  Today, I will review a documentary on Marie Antoinette: The Trial of a Queen.  The run time for this documentary film is 1:44:10.

Marie Antoinette would go down in history as France’s tragic Queen.  She was a mother and a wife.  She was a woman caught up in a situation nobody could have dreamed of.  The year is 1793 and France has been a republic for the last four months.  This is the story of her last 72 days of life after the Revolution swept away the royal family and kings.  New documents reveal that her trial was rigged.

The document begins with Marie Antoinette teaching her son his multiplication tables.  They are under house arrest and all of a sudden hear the crowds.  Louis XVI has just been executed.  He had been guillotined in the public square.  Robespierre will be in charge of Marie Antoinette’s fate.  However, his power is threatened.  Spain, Germany, and Austria are amassing their armies on the borders, threatening to invade.  Other regions in France are in danger of rebelling.

Marie Antoinette’s life is now a political issue.  Six months after Louis’ death, Marie Antoinette is transferred to a new prison.  She will be tried for treason against France.  She is stripped of her family and her possessions.  She is a prisoner and has fallen into the hands of a man who wants her dead.  It would bring his man glory and power.  However, Robespierre is more cautious.  The prosecutor wanted to have the trial sooner.  Robespierre wanted a later trial date and had only put Marie Antoinette in prison to quiet the people.  Marie Antoinette was no threat to the revolution, Robespierre wanted to go after the people who were corrupting the revolution.

The prosecutor would not be distracted.  He hated Marie Antoinette with a passion.  He wanted the trial.  He was going to feel the public’s demand for a trial.  In the meantime, Marie Antoinette was put under closer surveillance.  In the meantime, Charles is terribly abused by the shoemaker who is in charge of the boy.  He was to undergo a new education to become the perfect citizen.  His guardian would try to make him turn against his mother.

The push continued to put her on trial.  Robespierre wanted to deal with the trial later.  He was flooded with petitions calling for her death.  While she is in prison, she continues to try to hide a condition that weakens her.  Behind the scenes, there were moves to try to help her to escape.  Civil War was going to come to France and the French army was crumbling against combined Austria, Spanish, and Prussian armies.

After a final failed escape attempt, a reign of terror is unleashed on the French people.  In the meantime, the prosecutor worked to pad the case against Marie Antoinette.  Robespierre wants to be careful with the trial even though the pressure was on to have a tainted jury.  One man was also trying to make sure that the trial was a public spectacle of what would happen if a woman interfered with the affairs of her husband.  This man would put it that the job of the woman was to be in the home raising good citizens of the republic.

The trial of Marie Antoinette was going to begin and it would be a blockbuster trial.  There would be no help from the Austrians.  The jury was selected from “trusted Revolutionaries.”  The “evidence” was gathered.  “Witnesses” were gathered.  How would this trial go?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

Woah, Woah, Woah this is a different perspective on Marie Antoinette.  It made me feel enraged as to what happened to her, especially with the lies that were told about her.  This docu-drama was very well done.  The narration was good and not too much.  The acting was good as well, almost too good, it made me hate the real historical figures.  It left me feeling that the trial was tainted.  The docu-drama was divided into chapters which can make it easy to break up for viewing in a classroom.  This would be a good docu-drama to show in the classroom.

In the final Time Crashers episode, our time travelers are heading back to the Iron Age.  They will have to start a fire, prepare chickens, and construct a wicker man.  How will our celebrities handle life in the Iron Age?  The run time for this episode is 46:23.

The Time Crashers are shocked to find themselves in the Iron Age.  It is AD 43 and Rome has just conquered the southern half of England.  They are poised to take over more and more of England.  However, they have not reached where the Time Crashers are camped.  Kristie immediately says that she does not know about the time.  She is ready to try it.

They gather at the fire pit and look at the Time Crashers’ guide.  They will eat, cook, and sleep in the roundhouses.  They learn that they are members of a Celtic tribe.  The first job for the Time Crashers is the election of the tribe leaders.  They will pick one man and one woman to lead the tribe.  Meg and Greg are elected as tribe leaders based on their efforts in previous time crashes.  The Time Crashers are going to put on the feast later.  Everyone looks forward to putting their new skills to work.

Germaine and Louise are in charge of lighting the fire, which will prove to be a challenge for the pair.  Once the fire is lit they will need something to cook.  Kristie and Keith look at the food stores to see what they have.  Fern and Charlie are tasked to prepare the meat.  Fern is confident to pluck it but not to gut it.  They look at the deer that is provided, which will prove to be a bigger challenge for the pair.  They look for a knife to start skinning the deer.  What will they have to use to gut the deer?

Chris explores the outskirts of the camp and discovers a person working with iron and they go to him to resolve their skinning a deer problem.  Back at the fire making, Germaine is still struggling with trying to make the fire.  However, they do not know what they need to do when there is smoke.  However, Greg solves the problem by getting embers from the blacksmith.  The fire is started and now the Time Crashers have heat.  He felt like a failure for not getting the fire going.

There is fire but no food, and Fern works to pluck a chicken.  However, the problem is gutting the chicken.  Chris and Charlie work on the knife with a bone handle at the Forge.  They will have to skin the deer and give the pelt to the blacksmith for payment.  Keeping your word was important In the Iron Age.  If a person did not keep their word, then there could be conflict.

The people are getting restless.  The food is not ready.  Keith jokes that he may ask for reelection if things go up.  It will be a tough day for the Time Crashers.  They will have to come together to put together the feast.  Fern has disappeared from the fire.  Meg goes out to track her down.  However, living in the Iron Age has proven too much for Fern’s pluck and tenacity.  She has learned a lot about herself by living over Time Periods.  I am sorely disappointed in Fern for leaving the show early.  The Time Crashers come together to talk about Fern’s departure. 

After dinner, the Time Crashers go to sleep in the round houses.  The women take charge of the fire and take turns throughout the night.  The next morning is wet and raining.  It may be a challenge to keep morale up during these conditions.  They wake up and work on the morning tasks in order to prepare for the feast.  Will they be able to complete their tasks in time for the feast?  Will any of the other Time Crashers drop out?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

What was the purpose of the social historian again?  With all his experience, Tony could have handled this episode on his own.  It was an interesting episode to see how the celebrities handled the Iron Age.  This would be an interesting episode to show to a history class.

Good morning, the Time Crashers are going to explore the life of fishermen and fishwives.  The work is hard and grueling.  Will the Time Crashers rise to the occasion or will they crash and burn?  The run time for this documentary is 46:25.

The Time Crashers is in Suffolk and the home of one of England’s oldest industries: fishing.  It is cold and rainy, “perfect conditions” as Tony Robinson puts it.  The year is 1885 and Queen Victoria is on the throne.  Britain is the world’s most powerful trading nation.  Fishers in Suffolk send their goods to market by train. 

Charlie takes charge of the Time Crasher’s manual.  He announces the men are oystermen and they work for the company.  The number one rule is not to eat their catch.  Oystermen are no longer independent and now work for a private company.  Louise takes charge of the women.  They will be the “wives” of the oystermen.  They will be helping their “husbands” catch oysters but will not get paid for the position.  The wives will have to find other ways to make money.  The Time Crashers play along with this theme. 

Running a fishery was the job of the company foreman. Roger Barton is going to keep the Time Crashers on track.  He announces that they have an order for oysters and that the order needs to be completed by 5:00.  The foreman also has a wife, and she will oversee the ladies.

The Ladies will be collecting seaweed.  Zoe is feeling optimistic in this era and will find the seaweed with Meg.  Wet seaweed was the bubble wrap of the day and will be used to pack the oysters.  Meg gives Zoe a lesson on how to walk over mudflats.  Zoe has taken a hit in confidence during the eras, so perhaps this is an era where she can shine.

The Foreman works with the men.  Oysters were originally the food of the poor, however, due to overfishing, the oyster population collapsed.  When the population collapsed, then the oysters became the food of the rich.  The men will have to collect 400 oysters and five sacks of muscle.  The men divide their work and set off.  They will have to mind the tides, so they must get a start on the oyster beds.  The tide will come in in four hours.

The weather is miserable.  There are only 7 hours left in the day for the Time Crashers to fulfill their order.  To make extra cash, the oystermen caught herring.  The remaining fish wives work with the herring to fulfill local orders.  It is the first time some of these women have even gutted the fish.

At the muscle beds, the men are working hard raking oysters.  Chris is complaining about the cold.  Roger comments that there was always a weakling and he thinks Chris is the weakling.  Downstream, Zoe and Meg are nearly finished collecting seaweed.  Zoe is happy with the physical work of picking seaweed.   The other fishwives are working to gut the herring and preserve them.  To fulfill an order of 100 herrings, they need to be halfway by midmorning.  However, they have only done twenty-nine herrings so far and it was only 11:00 in the morning.

The oyster pickers go through their catch and have only caught 280 oysters.  They will have to trawl for the rest of the oysters.  The tide is against them.  The muscle rakers want the tides to stay away while they finish their five sacks.  This is a section that got nerve-wracking.  Will the Time Crashers make their deadline for seafood orders?  Or will they get a just punishment for their failure?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more.

Oh, yeah, I keep forgetting to mention the social historian, Cassie.  She does a good job providing context, but does Sir Tony need a social historian to provide context?  I think Tony could have handled this show on his own and did not need the social historian.  In all honesty, I was here for Tony and the celebrities and not Cassie. 

Anyway, this was a tense episode of will the Time Crashers finish their order?  I had my doubts throughout the episode.  Again, this would be a good series for a fun history day.

Good morning the Time Crashers are transported to the Georgian Period and to a farm.  How will the Time Crashers handle what the farm must throw at them?  The run time for this episode is 49:37.

The year is 1796.  King George is on the throne and he loves farming.  Wealthy landowners are building their farms to follow the king.  The Time Crashers are transported to one of these farms.  Kristie is immediately displeased at being in the kitchen once again.  The Time Crashers immediately dive into their guides.  The first pair that discover their Georgian roles is Charlie and Greg.  They are farm hands and they fill take orders from the Bailiff.  Louise and Kristie are kitchen maids.  Meg and Fern are dairymaids.  Keith, Chris, and Germaine are shepherds.  Zoe will be working in the kitchen.

The Time Crashers have eight hours to make the farmhouse immaculate.  The farm owner the Viscount and Viscountess are making their way to the farm for their inspection.  The dairymaids will have to show off the produce of the farm while the kitchen maids will have to make food for the visit.  The farm inspection was important because it showed off their wealth to their friends.  They were showing off the ideal farm.

Fern and Meg are going to milk the goats and make cutters.  Kristie and Louise are going to make bread as well as biscuits and cake.  Fern, Meg, Kristie, and Louise will be answering the bailiff’s wife.  The first step is milking.  However, milking the goat is proving to be a challenge.  If the girls do not get enough milk, they will not have enough to make cheese to impress the viscount.  Louise struggles to get the oven started with the tinderbox.  Kristie has no problems getting the oven lit.  They work to get the bread made.

Greg and Charlie are working in the mill and making flour.  The model farm would have a mill on sight.  Making flour was one way to show off the progress of the new model farm.  While Greg and Charlie are enjoying life in the mill, Keith, Chris, and Germaine are finding shepherding difficult.  Chris is butting heads with the bailiff.  The boys fail at their task and the bailiff must step in.

Fern and Louise work on making the goat’s cheese.  The Bailiff’s wife is glad to see that the cheese is being made.  Kristie oversees the meal for the farm hands.  Louise is struggling to get the bread made.  Louise jokes that she and Kristie are the only two of the Time Crashers that have never made bread.  The oven is very hot.  The Georgian ovens were so hot that they burned the dresses of the kitchen maids.  It was reported that a woman had burned to death.

The shepherds work on getting the sheep clean.  Chris wants to redeem himself with the bailiff.  However, he is a man that takes his cleanliness very seriously.  Chris has a go with clipping the dirt off a sheep.  Greg and Charlie work to coax the pig out of the pen to wash the pig up to a comedic effect.

Zoe returns to the Time Crashers.  Everyone is thrilled that Zoe is back.  She had been sacked from the previous episode.  She returns to work in the kitchens once again.  She sets to work grating sugar.  Zoe is having a hard time.  Fern and Meg are not having any luck with the butter.  The bailiff’s wife inspects their progress and tells the ladies that they had filled the butter church too much.  Louise is having a challenge making bread.  Kristie inspects the bread and discovers that the oven was not hot enough to make the bread. 

Will the Time Crashers clean up the farm in time to pass inspection?  Will Louise be able to make the perfect loaf of bread?  Will Fern and Meg manage to make butter in time?  Will the farm hands pass the inspection?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out more about the Georgian Farm and the Time Crashers.

This episode was particularly good because of the idea of the rich gentleman farmer.  This would be one episode to show for a fun history day.