Media being what it is, the articles and information, uproar and condemnation, will probably only serve to increase ratings as those disgusted with the program tune in to see the proof their disgust is justified. Others will tune in to see why everyone's disgusted. As the saying goes "There's no such thing as bad publicity."
Yes.by HistoryMan
Well its time to post on this subject that has created such an unwarranted storm of crititism, The first episode was in no way disrespectful of the fallen, there have been comments on here regarding "graverobbers", did,nt see any of that, there was no evidence whatsoever, just the finding of a German bunker 12 feet down that held numerous items of what all of us collect, and BTW was all removed to the Latvian Museum for display like any other War Museum, The main gripe on here and elsewhere has been the inclusion of a certain presenter ,which btw the other main characters had no involvement in. I hope you all noted that the entire episode and the following episodes were all overseen by the Legenda Organisation, an Internationally recognised body who in the last 10yrs have recovered and repatriated 12,000 fallen soldiers to their country of origin for a decent military burial and work under the full cooperation of the War Graves Commission, and the various Authorities who require to have war dead returned, that includes Germany and Russia. There was a post on here regarding one of the presenters wearing a German helmet, inferring that it came from a grave, not so, it was found on the surface, I hope the poster has the decency to admit that his post was unfounded and wholly inaccurate. Also to stop the watchful eyes of the "blackdiggers", the bunker was refilled. Now I would like to ask all those who have posted here one question, Where on earth do you think that all the items in your collections come from, is there some vast secret hoard of items that every now and then come to the surface, no , they come from battlefields, Vet bring backs, items sent back to their home towns, Where the hell do you honesty think they got them from, from the bodies of dead soldiers perhaps??, relic helmets that are constantly being displayed on this forum come from battlefields, either found, dug up etc, can you sit there and honestly say that none of them were from illegal diggers, grave robbers, if you can then you are holier than thou. we have yet to see the episode where a certain person was "accused "of disrespect by holding a bone, something that the English programme Time Team has done on numerous occassions, yet no uproar was heard. There has been a great deal of critisism from people who have never even dug a battlefield ,like the so called bastions of Archaeology who think nothing of entering a tomb, pulling out all the items they can including mummies, removing them from their place of burial, displaying them in museums and living off their fame, yet no-one sees fit to call them graverobbers, they call it history which is exactly what this programme is about. I,ll ask you all another question, If someone came to you, offered to include you in a televised recovery of items from the battlefield, under the professional eyes of a recognised body like Legenda in a very war torn part of Europe, and that all items found would be handed over to a museum, and any bodies found would also receive decent burial in their country of origin, how many would decline??. With the bone incident,do you honestly think that lf Legenda thought that there was disrespect being shown in the clip they would have allowed it to be aired?? I would ask all those who have commented about this programme to think seriously about any future accusations without evidence and especially without even viewing the programme, then to use your comments to attempt to influence others.This post may well get me banned from the forum, if so , that is a shame as since joining in 2009 I have made many friends, learnt a great many things from people who I have respected , but that respect has been soured by the many unwarranted comments made here, the little supposedly funny asides from others and the lack of decency shown towards a once very respected member here mainly from the moderators and admin staff, shame on you
Well, what the hell happened there???The programme was so heavily edited that not a single frame showing the exhumation and handling of human remains was shown! All that occurred was the digging of a bunker in the middle of a cow pasture (where Craig Gottlieb said that from his military experience would not be there) after having fruitlessly dug a trench system in the tree line that he said was the obvious position for one (nothing was found at all).
Even though butchered by the editing, the programme was like watching car crash T.V., it literally made my teeth itch how chaotic and amateurish the whole procedure was and all the presenters came across as complete clowns. I've heard a lot about C.G. from other collectors who have met him and said he's well, different shall we say. But after watching him this evening with his condescending and self important attitude I can honestly say that he comes across as a truly awful, awful man, there were no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Basically the whole 55 minutes ( 5 minutes of the programme had just disappeared from the advertised slot, a sign of probably a last minute panic by Channel 5?)I think that's probably the case after the furore the original programme had engendered. What was left was a very amateurish production that kept flashing up notices stating that the shown footage was only part of an on going excavation that followed all the regulations required by Latvian law. All in all it was a complete non event that still left a bad taste in the mouth due to the cringeworthy way the presenters approached the whole dig.
One thing that did make me laugh was at the end of the dig Craig Gottlieb was covered from head to foot in mud and crap compared to all the others even though he was not filmed doing any digging whatsoever, merely standing on the edge of the hole telling everyone, including the guys from Legenda what to do and where they should be digging and generally pi$$ing everyone off. That
bit was priceless.
At least this completely emasculated programme was so chopped to pieces by the last minute editing of it, there was very little left for people to start shouting from the roof tops about grave robbing and the disrespectful handling of human remains as not a second of this was shown, and for that we should all be grateful.
Regards, Ned.
'I do not think we can hope for any better thing now.
We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course, and the end cannot be far.
It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. R. SCOTT.
Last Entry - For God's sake look after our people.'
In memory of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott, Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans. South Pole Expedition, 30th March 1912.
I have just watched it
I thought Steve T came across a right knob !!!!
Very good, objective....
I thought a deliriously enthusiastic amateur who wanted to appear more experienced in this form of archaeology than he really was, a better description. When they were digging the trench system in the tree line looking for the bunker that was not there, the quote "I have over 20 years experience digging trenches" was perhaps a little disingenuous under the specific circumstances....
'I do not think we can hope for any better thing now.
We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course, and the end cannot be far.
It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. R. SCOTT.
Last Entry - For God's sake look after our people.'
In memory of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott, Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans. South Pole Expedition, 30th March 1912.
Was this the episode with the timber framed "Bunker"?
Best,
Jan
Hi Jan,
Yes, but do you mean there's more programmes to come???
Regards, Ned.
'I do not think we can hope for any better thing now.
We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course, and the end cannot be far.
It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. R. SCOTT.
Last Entry - For God's sake look after our people.'
In memory of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott, Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans. South Pole Expedition, 30th March 1912.
Very good, objective....
Oh Ned, I saw all four episodes before they were due to be aired by NG channel, what we saw tonight was no different to the episode one I saw nearly two years ago (apart from the name change logo thingy, titles that the word I'm looking for).
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