I do love big, sweeping historical series. The Story of the Jews with Simon Schama, for instance, was fabulous.
It was most unusual, however, in not being focused on Muslim history.
This year alone has seen BBC Two's glossy, controversial The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors, plus (ongoing now) a major celebration of the The Islamic Golden Age on Radio 3's The Essay (twenty programmes) and, starting today, a "landmark" four-part series on Radio 4 entitled The Making of the Modern Arab World.
Wouldn't it be great if the BBC were to look beyond that part of the world and give us landmark series on the history of Brazil, or Russia, or India, or China? Or Japan? What about a long history of Canada, or Australia, or New Zealand? Or maybe a panoramic overview of Central American or South American or Caribbean history? What about a history of the Pacific south seas? Or a long view of Greece, or Italy, or France, or Norway, or Finland? How about a history of the Armenians? Or an account of why Central Africa has become such a hotbed of genocide over the centuries?
How about something - anything! - other than Islamic history for a change, BBC?
No! What we lack is a new twice-daily soap, ‘The Arabs; an everyday story of Saudi folk.’
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