| 138SquadronRAF | 30 Jun 2015 12:21 p.m. PST |
The Napoleon documentary produced by the BBC is now on Youtube. Here's the first part. YouTube link Now the presenter is Andrew Roberts and you must take this into account. Not a great deal of criticism and we should all acknowledge how wonderful he was; so don't talk about Haiti! As to duc d'Enghien, he had it coming! Overthrowing the Spanish Bourbons, well they were Bourbons, what more reason do you need? The wars of the 3rd,4th, 6th and 7th Coalitions, nothing to do with Napoleon. |
| Rhysius Cambrensis | 30 Jun 2015 1:01 p.m. PST |
Yeah, I think he is in love with Napoleon. He probably shed a tear when he recounted the tale of Napoleon saying good bye to his guard. |
| Jemima Fawr | 30 Jun 2015 1:21 p.m. PST |
Andrew Roberts strangely failed to explain how Jerome Bonaparte became a General in Napoleon's supposed meritocracy… |
| 138SquadronRAF | 30 Jun 2015 1:46 p.m. PST |
Andrew Roberts strangely failed to explain how Jerome Bonaparte became a General in Napoleon's supposed meritocracy… Makes perfect sense if Jerome was a Mafia Capo however….. |
| Fat Wally | 30 Jun 2015 2:32 p.m. PST |
In one of the later episodes he does bemoan about Napoleon's relatives being not up to the task. |
 Unlucky General  | 30 Jun 2015 3:06 p.m. PST |
Clearly Roberts is a fan but I think it generally balanced.Certainly more so than other anti-Napoleon documentaries I have seen this year. It's like the lives of all significant players in history when asked to make an overall assessment. It's easy to point out contradictions and exceptions if you want to pick holes in anyone's summation. It's like trying to judge a king like Henry VIII – one the whole was he good or was he bad and from what angle do you approach it? Roberts only had three hours to sum up about 20 action packed years. His book takes a lot more time and discusses the perspectives in greater detail. But by all means if you want to rubbish it, why break with a 200 year tradition? |
| Jemima Fawr | 30 Jun 2015 11:47 p.m. PST |
My perception is undoubtedly coloured by the fact that Andrew Roberts is an utter  in person. |
| Guthroth | 01 Jul 2015 12:02 a.m. PST |
It was interesting, but Roberts is so heavily a fan of Napoleon it had me almost speechless at some of his points.
The highlight IMO being his repeated declarations that Nap was "A man of the people" – despite the fact that he used grapeshot on the crowds. |
| Reactionary | 01 Jul 2015 2:08 a.m. PST |
What Jemima says; unfortunately I have met the arrogant poltroon at a Mess do… |
| Green Tiger | 01 Jul 2015 2:32 a.m. PST |
Yes I gave up after the first one I'm afraid – Roberts seems to be the definitive apologist! |
| Gazzola | 01 Jul 2015 4:31 a.m. PST |
I guess it must be painful for some people, who, after watching years of numerous anti-Napoleon documentaries that have been thrown at us, in which the presenters usually fall for the usual myths and consider Napoleon as a Corsican Ogre, they are suddenly confronted with someone who admires Napoleon and destroys their beloved myths. LOL. > |
| Gunfreak | 01 Jul 2015 4:49 a.m. PST |
British fan of napoleon? Sounds like the Queen needs to reinstate drawing and quartering. |
| Guthroth | 01 Jul 2015 4:49 a.m. PST |
Gazzola, that's certainly not my beef with the programme. I'll watch any doc about a leader, but nowadays I expect a balanced assessment, certainly not the fawning hero worship that we were presented with. |
| Lord Elpass | 01 Jul 2015 7:00 a.m. PST |
Given how the BBC is run nowadays we should probably count ourselves lucky that the series wasn't devoted to Napoleon's Favourite Recipes or Interior Design by Josephine! |
| MichaelCollinsHimself | 01 Jul 2015 7:29 a.m. PST |
Yeah… the practice of giving all the best jobs to relatives; that is "Napotism" isn't it ? |
| Gazzola | 02 Jul 2015 2:42 a.m. PST |
Guthroth There have been documentaries on Wellington in which the presenters could also be accused of hero worship. But, even though I disagreed with some of the things I said, I just saw them as admiring Wellington. That is their view. Andrew admires Napoleon. That is his view. No difference. As a matter of note, although, as no doubt everyone is probably aware, I also admire Napoleon. However, I did disagreed with some of the things Andrew said. But again, we all have our own viewpoints, which should be respected. |
| daler240D | 02 Jul 2015 3:29 a.m. PST |
I saw it and would hardly describe it as "fawning hero worship". He was an impressive man, or we would not be seeing documentaries made about him. |
| von Winterfeldt | 02 Jul 2015 5:13 a.m. PST |
napotism, a good and fitting discription |
| Mac1638 | 02 Jul 2015 5:42 a.m. PST |
It's alway difficult to show that your heroes have feet of clay and Andrew Roberts is no exception, brushes them under the carpet. He failed to explain why he needs to created kingdoms just to stick his incompetent brothers on their thrones.
He keeps banging on about the Tsar breaking his alliance.
How does he treat his allies,
Spain is supporting the France with their invasion of Portugal, while the French are in Spain they overthrow the government and put yet another of Napoleon's incompetent bother on the throne. He also waxes lyrical about France nationalism and how nationalism spreads across europe. Nationalism, now that worked well for europe. |
 Whirlwind | 02 Jul 2015 8:40 a.m. PST |
I just got to watch it last night/this morning. It was okay, on balance I think I admired Napoleon a little less than at the beginning becuause of Roberts' occasional hand-waving through of quite controversial stuff. However I did really wonder about Roberts' emphasis on Napoleon as a proto-Thatcherite and the Revolution as essentially middle-class rather than radical. |
returns to Flintloque to paint an Ogre.