"Lucy Worsley's Secrets of the Royal Palaces"--PBS tonight 5PM

Thank you Rebecca! I love Lucy Worsley and all her shows. I’ve seen her Tower of London and Hampton Court Palace tours, but not her Kensington Palace tour. I will look forward to watching! I’m so glad you posted this, thank you!!

We too enjoy her shows and have watched many of them. They are well done.

Susan, you're welcome! I hope you enjoy the show.
Welcome home!

jaimeelsabio, yes, all her shows are well done!
I hope you enjoy this one.
A real treat, especially if you haven't seen it before.

I love her shows and will now look for her book. Thanks for posting.

Thank you Rebecca! <3

she is very knowledgeable but she is known, respectfully, in our house as "She Who Must Change Clothes".

Barbara, do look at all her book titles that come up when you do a search for them. She has written one about Mary, daughter of Henry VIII, which is very good.

Nick, LOL, "it did have a bit too much of her weird obsession with dressing up as someone from the old days." So true!

She does love to play dress up, but I suppose every presenter needs some kind of hook. This particular program has already shown multiple times here, but I do enjoy her shows.

Nigel, "known, respectfully, in our house as "She Who Must Change Clothes".
LOL! My husband loves it when Lucy comes out with one of her "outfits" on!

Thanks CJean! I love her programs, too, and always watch, even the ones I've seen before.

"She Who Must Change Clothes"

Oh my word...still sipping morning coffee and almost splashed it on the computer screen. Thank you Nigel for the laugh. I agree it's weird but "so" Lucy.

I learn so much from her shows, even the ones I don't think I want to watch, lol! I'm thinking of the Russian Revolution one...was not really interested but the alternatives were awful so stuck to it. Yes, I learned a lot!

Thanks for the head's up Rebecca! You know I love her!

Pam, you're welcome! You know I will always post it when I see a Lucy show on the schedule!
Welcome home.

I learn so much from her, too!
For example, on her program about Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, I learned that both Henry and Anne had fleas!
Lucy said the reason all their clothing was trimmed with fur was because the fleas were drawn to it, and off of the body.

Another program showed the servants or royal dressers would lay the clothing on a wooden table, then beat the fur with a flat board or a wooden club to kill the fleas.

Count us fans in our household. Seen most, if not all her shows. Got a chuckle that others too have noticed her penchant for playing dress up. Quirky, but fun!

Julie has an extensive collection of coloured leather gloves in homage to Lucy, of whom she is a big fan.

Worked well until she wore a pair on a long walk and inclement day and we got a soaking. Subsequently everything she touched got stained purple, even after she removed the gloves as she’d comprehensively dyed her hands purple into the bargain!

Still love Lucy though!

Tammy, glad to hear you enjoy her programs, too!

ianandjulie, yes, I love Lucy's clothing, too, especially her glove collection! Sorry to hear about Julie's ruined gloves!

There is another "Lucy" program that aired last Christmas that had quite a spooky costume for Lucy...and several spooky characters.
I think the program is "Twelve Days of Christmas", so it will soon be time for it to come on again. The spooky costumes were the Mummers.

The Mummers were people who went house to house in Medieval times, dressed with scary masks and ragged clothes. They forced their way into people's houses, forced them to play a game of cards and to bet money. The Mummers cheated, and left with the people's money, but you couldn't protest because they would beat you up.
Doesn't sound like a very nice holiday tradition to me.

There are other more cheerful celebrations profiled in the program.
When I see it on the PBS schedule, I'll post it on the Forum.

Rebecca, love the flea story, kinda gross huh. It makes me appreciate being born now. Life was not easy in those days and for reasons we can’t relate to. And yes, what little girl didn’t want to play dress up, here she has the real deal to play with.

Barbara, yes! Very gross about the fleas! Any remaining illusions I had about the Tudor era being glamorous or elegant just got thrown out the window!
And lucky Lucy; all those great outfits to dress up in anytime she wants, such as for a costume party.

Still laughing about Nigel's comment about Lucy's outfits......

A friend of mine went to a talk of Lucy’s a few weeks ago and said she is just like on tv - “interesting/irritating and as mad as a box of frogs”. Sums her up well.

She also did a show on Russia and the Romanovs - Empire of the Tsars - for anyone who wants to see her dress up in fancy old outfits from a different country!

I do enjoy her shows, as odd as she is. Having had many an eccentric professor in college, I find that weirdness to just be part of the deal when you have someone so passionate about and obsessed with a particular subject.

Jennifer, I'm sure the talk your friend went to was quite interesting!
Laughing..."as mad as a box of frogs".
Yes, she does seem quirky, but many of my friends are artists, so I'm sort of used to it.

1885BD, I did see the Russia and the Romanovs episode. Very interesting, and quite a surprise; a subject I would not have thought Lucy would cover.

My older sister took a class in college back in the day about clothes from the 1500s on up, and she was told that the high collars on women (and men??) in Elizabethan days (the ones that go all the way up the neck and flare out a bit) were to keep fleas and body lice away from their faces. I’ve never forgotten that, and every time I see clothes from those days, that’s what I think of.

Susan, would those have been the original flea collars?

Susan, very interesting! I would have loved to have taken that class.

LOL Cyn!!

Cyn, yes! lol

Rebecca, I think you’d love a class like that. My sister learned all kinds of fascinating facts like that, but that’s the only one I can remember. Hmm, I wonder where we could find a class like that now, maybe a community college?

She has done several series and most of them are on YouTube, no need to wait for PBS. Also check the PBS app and/or Amazon for VOD.

I’ve watched many of her shows on YouTube but the picture quality is not as good as PBS, so for me it’s not as enjoyable.

Susan, I would love a class like that!
There are several universities in England that offer one week seminars on various subjects such as that, and I have looked into attending one of those. You can stay in the dorm rooms for the duration as part of the package price.

phred, thanks!

Nick, those shows have not aired here, so I have not seen them. I will keep an eye on the TV schedule for them.

Royalty watchers or just those who are charmed by Worsley's unquenchable enthusiasm can find plenty of complete programs, indeed series, on YouTube for free. A suitable follow-up to the palaces might be her series on Royal Myths. And who could resist her analysis of the toilets at Versailles? Now that's history in depth. Those of us who are subjects of her majesty will note that Worsley has been awarded The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Southam, did not know about her OBE. Thanks for that information. Very interesting.

I have seen several in her Royal Myths series, and wow, they are great, too.

She’s on BBC (U.K.) tonight recreating fireworks from the Elizabethan era. This gives her another chance to dress up as Elizabeth 1 if memory serves and she has the usual keen enthusiasm for explosives. So to OBE, and ‘mad as a box of frogs’ you can add ‘Gloriana’ cosplayer and pyromaniac.

Thanks ianandjulie. Unfortunately, we do not get that program here tonight, but I will watch for it to eventually be replayed on PBS here.

"She’s on BBC (U.K.) tonight recreating fireworks from the Elizabethan era."
I am assuming this program is in advance of the fireworks planned for Guy Fawkes Night--November 5.

Rebecca - that’s right, although Bonfire Night celebrates the Gun Powder Plot to blow up James l/Vl who was Elizabeth’s successor.

Rebecca, a week long stay in the dorms at an English University and an interesting class sounds wonderful to me. What a fun experience that would be.

I especially liked the Royal Myths episode on Queen Anne. It was so illuminating and fascinating. Queen Anne has been so undeservingly maligned in history.

ianandjulie, yes! Thanks for mentioning that.

Susan, I agree about the Queen Anne program.

So how was the Palaces show? And the fireworks one? How did you all enjoy them?

Nigel, the palaces show was excellent!
Lucy took us into places in the Tower of London that the public cannot go in, of course. One of those rooms had a medieval wall painting that has been discovered fairly recently. She lingered a bit too long telling us about the ravens, showing us their cages, watching them eating mice. Look away from the program when the ravens are chewing on mice, is my advice.

At Hampton Court Palace, Lucy stepped out a window and onto the roof....a different view entirely, from which all the eras of building could be seen at a glance. She walked around up there, along the peak of the roofline. This was, however, the closest look I've ever had of the Tudor twisted chimneys in all their beauty!
Lucy was quite excited and animated during these two segments.

Kensington Palace; a more sedate coverage than of the other two palaces. Mostly centered on taking historic clothing out of storage boxes and examining them.

Have watched a few of her History’s Biggest Fibs episodes and I really liked it. Many events in the past are known as feel-good stories and she shows in some cases manipulation playes a role and so not taking everything for granted.

Those programs have not been shown in our area, but I hope they will air them in the future.
Lucy is a great host, and so knowledgeable about all things in British history.

Rebecca, I loved that scene at Hampton Court Palace where she stepped out onto the roof! AND when she was showing the rooms that they use for office space which was what....some Queen's bedroom or dressing chamber? Wow.

Of course....the oldest building in Idaho is a nearby mission, built in 1850, lol so ANY of Hampton Court is impressive to me. Or the Tower of London. Or Windsor Castle, lolol.

Rebecca, not sure but I think one of the episodes was about Queen Anne as part of her Royal History's Biggest Fibs, maybe it's the same as Secrets of the Royal Palaces. Other episodes are about the French and Russian Revolution, the attack of the Spanish Armada and main events of American history too. Despite her entertaining style the series are very informative and so fun to watch.

Pam, yes, Lucy took us to an upstairs bedroom that she and her staff now use as a work room.
Originally, it had been the bedroom of Queen Katherine, then of Queen Anne Boleyn, then of the third wife, Jane Seymour.
It was in this bedroom that Queen Jane gave birth to the baby son that Henry VIII had been wanting ever since he became king.
It was also in this bedroom that two weeks later, Queen Jane died of complications of the birth.
Today, the room is off-limits to the public, which is a shame because of the history associated with it.

Lucy also explained that for a number of years, Hampton Court was forgotten, until William and Mary (the Stuarts) chose to remodel it and live there.
They tore down half of Hampton Court and built a half onto it in a Baroque style, intending for it to mimic somewhat Versailles.
If they had not run out of money to spend on the project, they would have then torn down the other half of the Tudor palace, and continued with the new Baroque building.
We only have the Tudor parts of Hampton Court today because King William ran out of money.
Thank goodness he ran out of money.

Wil, the episodes you've described sound familiar, but they were not called History’s Biggest Fibs here.
The title was different.
They were called "Royal Myths" as referenced by Susan in her above post:
"I especially liked the Royal Myths episode on Queen Anne. It was so illuminating and fascinating. Queen Anne has been so undeservingly maligned in history."
They frequently repeat here in America on our local PBS stations.