Historic Royal Palace Talks

I am going to assume that many of you are Lucy Worsley fans and gobble up her many documentaries made for the BBC that filter over to the US and (I have to assume) other countries as well.  While they don't all concern the Tudor/Stuart period, they are always fun, interesting and enjoyable to watch while you stitch.  

Lucy, as you might know is the head curator at the Historic Royal Palaces, a private trust that holds and runs the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace State Apartments, the Banqueting House in Whitehall and Kew Palace.  Some pretty important places to us lovers of history!!  The Historic Royal Palaces is unique as they rely on public donations and visitors and they are hurting tremendously during the pandemic - as are many public facing arts and history organizations.

I wanted to let everyone know of an opportunity to help that also is fun for you.  Since the pandemic started, Lucy has been hosting online talks about subjects with multiple other experts.  This week was one about the Guy Fawlks Gunpowder Plot.  They are unique in that they gather several experts (in this case a Gunpowder Plot expert and a Tower of London expert) and use photos of primary source documents as well as other photos to tell the story in great detail along with the current research that is going on.  Of course this could seem dry but Lucy is great at making it fun to watch.  You can watch live for a small donation or if you become a member of the Historic Royal Palaces for 55£, you can watch it anytime as well as the dozen earlier talks!!  The next one is on Nov 18th on Royal Coronations.

Past topics available to members include Royal Fashion, Diana's dresses, Field of Cloth of Gold, the Ravenmasters, etc.  I have listened to many of these types of talks so far during Covid and it makes a tremendous difference to have a seasoned TV personality on it!  

I would say that the live-cast is a bit choppy at times like all of these.  The video is immediately available right after for 24-hours to those who gave a small donation - but open forever to members.   But I found the Historic Royal Palace staff the best at allowing me a little extra time on access if I couldn't get to the 24-hour open video (as I couldn't) because of scheduling issues.  I was able to watch it complete the next morning and really enjoy it.  On some of these topics it is hard to see new material as we have all heard it before - if you are a rabid documentary watcher - but I was pleasantly surprised that there was new information and insights I hadn't heard before.  I decided to join as a member as I was happy with both the content and customer service when I had some hiccups with the use.

So help out our favorite sites and get a full day of of their past presentations to boot AND the rest of the next year's worth as well.  It certainly beats reality TV!

Tricia