The savvy Suffragettes and a very modern PR campaign
Yesterday marked 105 years since suffragette emily davison was killed after falling under the King’s horse at epsom. It’s an event that even those who know very little about the suffragette movement are aware of. Last night’s Suffragettes With Lucy Worsley (BBC1) set out to tell the story of the votes for women campaign, detailing how things escalated from using peaceful means to terrorist tactics.
Unlike other, stuffier, historians, Ms Worsley isn’t afraid to dip into the dressing up box and immerse herself in the narrative. Laced up in a corset as an edwardian lady, she took us back to 1903 when the Women’s social and Political Union (WsPU) was formed.
By then, 19 Bills on votes for women had been put before Parliament — and dismissed.
When it became apparent that peaceful leafleting and rallies were producing no results, the WsPU decided to up their game. throughout last night’s documentary it was hard not to be impressed by just how savvy these women were in publicising their cause.
they printed their own newspaper, they wore branded sashes and invited sympathetic journalists to work with them — the sort of campaign today’s celebs would pay a Pr agency a small fortune for.
In 1907, they made imprisonment
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their aim. the idea of middle-class ladies in Holloway jail was shocking and attracted the press coverage they so desperately needed.
But how to ensure they would be incarcerated? simple. they assaulted policemen to get arrested and then didn’t pay their fines.
By 1909, they went on political hunger strike, which led to them being force fed.
Much of the story was told through the diaries of the suffragettes and hearing them talk of the torturous experience of force feeding was one of the most powerful moments in the film.
they described the sensation of drowning, of their eyes feeling like they were going to burst.
No wonder a group of 117 doctors wrote to Prime Minister asquith urging him to stop this ‘ beastly and revolting procedure’. By 1913, terrorist tactics were being used and it took the outbreak of World War I for a truce to be called.
there is something so charmingly engaging about Lucy Worsley — who wasn’t afraid to criticise the suffragettes for their violence. she certainly makes history come alive but at 90 minutes the programme was way too long.
and, despite trying hard, it still felt like a history lesson we’re all familiar with — not least because the BBC had a glut of documentaries on the suffragette movement in February.
If factual storytelling is your thing then you’d do well to swerve the new series of Versailles (BBC2). the programme makers have landed themselves in hot water over the graphic sexual scenes. so last night the nudity was toned down and held back until the very end, a risky gamble as it’s probably the reason most people tune in.
King Louis XIV ( George Blagden) was buoyant after his victory over the dutch but — more importantly — because work had finished on the lavish Hall of Mirrors at his palace.
He celebrated by taking two mistresses. don’t pity the Queen, she was enjoying the attentions of Leopold of Hungary.
as the King and his courtiers lived in splendour, the Parisian peasants were living in squalor. But, most bizarrely, they were all speaking with broad Lancashire and yorkshire accents.
Versailles is glamorous, highly camp and corny. and, despite the dodgy accents, it does have a strange allure — even if it does feel more like a Carry On film than a historical drama.