TV Review Cromwell: All Warts?
Oliver Cromwell: Warts And All

by Andy Brooks

The BBC used to pride itself in the quality of its
documentaries. But standards nowadays are clearly
sacrificed on the altar of expediency if this
drama-documentary on Cromwell shown on Monday is anything
to go by.

Part of the "Charles 11 season", the film claimed to go
"behind the myths to explain how a Puritan farmer could win
the civil war for the Roundheads, kill a king, and take
over the country". But apart from a few sound-bites from
two academics it went little beyond the received bourgeois
myth of school text-books and popular fiction.

Errors

Putting aside the irritating factual errors that could so
easily have been corrected the central flaw is the attempt
to reduce the English Revolution to a comic-book struggle
between conflicting personalities and religious trends.

The programme assumes the viewer knows nothing about these
events but then goes on to spread more confusion in its
attempt to do justice to the memory of Cromwell in 60
minutes.

Considerable time is spent on the trial and execution of
Charles Stuart in 1649 but there's no explanation of what
came after. Incredibly the words "Commonwealth" or
"republic" are never mentioned. We're told that England
after 1649 was the only country in Europe without a king
which isn't true unless you don't count Venice and the
Dutch republic. And the suppression of the radical
Levellers by the Cromwell leadership is reduced to an
imaginary dialogue between Cromwell and Lilburn.

Recognise

The conclusion does recognise the importance of Cromwell as
one of "the most important characters of British history"
but makes no serious attempt to tell us why.

Why is the word "republic" still taboo in some quarters as
far as English history is concerned? It was, afterall, what
the Commonwealth was, and indeed it was how it styled
itself in French and Latin during its existence.

 Why is it that the poetry of Milton and Marvell go largely
unrecognised on television while lesser artists are
elevated?

The answer is simply that the ruling class is unable to
come to terms with the English Revolution even though over
three centuries have passed since those epic days. That in
itself would be an interesting topic for a documentary.

New Worker

27th November 2003