BBC: Warriors Richard the Lionheart

Warriors is a three-disc set from BBC Video featuring an interesting approach to the standard documentary. Each hour-long production features a docu-drama about a famous warlord or leader from history. The figures covered in the main discs are Napoleon, the Shogun, Spartacus, Cortes, Richard the Lionheart, Genghis Khan, and Attila the Hun. Woven amongst the dramatic scenes detailing each conquerors life and military exploits is narration from the perspective of an individual that had been close to him. In some cases the information from these narrators has been gleaned from actual documentary evidence, written accounts of the times they lived and lead men to battle.

The violence and sometimes questionable actions of the historical protagonists in these productions is never sugar-coated. Although sometimes not for the squeamish, this does lend them extra gravity in telling their tales. In his own way, each man lived on the edge, lord of a violent world where conquest was commonplace, and BBC Video provides an engaging window into those past worlds of blood and plunder.