Is making television programmes something youd like to do more of?
I would love to do more – I started writing with the thought that history can and should be accessible and interesting to everyone, not just academics, and so television is the logical extension of that idea. The visual aspect that TV adds gives you another dimension to work with and makes the story come to life more vividly. 4. And you were also historical adviser for the film Plunkett & Maclean. It must have been fun spending time with Robert Carlyle and Jonny Lee Miller et al. As a historian I was fascinated to see costumes and locations like the ones I imagined as I was writing coming to life. But the best bit was seeing the actors in costume between takes – watching a dandified fop in a purple tricorn hat smoking a cigarette as he talks to a dusty highwayman eating a Big Mac is a sight for sore eyes. 5. What are you planning next? I have just finished finished the research for a biography of Richard II, and I’ll start writing it in the autumn. I did medieval history at university
