User Reviews

Saw this on RTE Brian Blessed gives a rousing if over-the-top narration to a good summary of the overall scramble for Africa. If it adds little new in terms of analysis or ideas (although it does put more of the onus on Boer intransigence and aggression), for a newcomer to the Boer War this provides an excellent introduction. This is no mean feat as the war of course is a complex conflict that even the British at the time found hard to comprehend, perhaps best seen through the use of concentration camps for want of any other conceivable. The documentary uses one historian from Sandhurst as well as actors portraying historic characters reading from primary sources (although the one playing Churchill is nothing at all like the man himself in any way) to summarise the Zulu wars (incorporating footage used from 'War of the Zulus'), rivalry with the Germans, Chinese Gordon, Omdurman and the conquest of the Sudan, and the roots and conduct of the war itself. Overall, a fine hour-long documentary.