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| DB: |
Good
evening and welcome to History Today.
I would like to take this moment to thank viewers who have stayed with us
over the course of these discussions. We are under increasing
pressure from the controllers, who fear that we have been in someway disappointing
those viewers with a yen for historical inquiry. I can only apologise and
pledge that tonight both myself and Professor F.J Lewis, Emeritus Professor
of History at All Souls College, Oxford, are determined as never before
to undertake a full and rigorous expedition of tonight's most exciting subject,
The Doomsday Book. The beginning of radicalism or the end of liberty
? Professor Lewis... |
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| RN: |
See
that Michael Bolton? |
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| DB: |
Oh
dear. I am aware of his work. |
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| RN: |
That's
your haircut, that is. |
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| DB: |
You
see those white plastic bracelets that mental patients wear that say 'on
continuous medication. Return wearer to hospital.'? |
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| RN: |
I
have observed them. |
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| DB: |
That's
your Swatch, that is. That's your shockproof Tag Hauer. |
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| RN: |
It
is indeed a moot point - the end of radicalism, beginning of liberty. |
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| DB: |
Yes. |
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| RN: |
It's
in this twilight period of transition we can see the magical significance
14th century mythology attaches to things, which are themselves
symbols of transition. |
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| DB: |
Yes. |
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| RN: |
The
edge of a forest or twilight itself. That dusk before the day has really
ended but nor can one say it is yet early evening. |
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| DB: |
Of
course. |
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| RN: |
That's
your bedtime, that is. That's your bedtime on Friday nights.
You're on the cover of Quarter-past Five Monthly. Congratulations. |
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| DB: |
The
importance of The Doomsday Book as a milestone in history can be
seen from the fact that it is one of only a handful of books to be kept
in cryogenic suspension at the British Museum. The book is held in a sealed
chamber at a set temperature of minus 273 º Celsius. A temperature
that is known in modern physics as absolute zero. |
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| RN: |
Indeed. |
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| DB: |
And
that's the number of pubic hairs you've got. You thought you had
one but then you wee'd through it. |
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| RN: |
You
know those things that happen in the street after nine o'clock? |
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| DB: |
Oh,
yes. Yes, very much so. |
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| RN: |
Oh?!
So I presume you're familiar with the Viking longboat driven by
Mary Peters down our street at nine-thirty? |
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| DB: |
Yes,
of course. |
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| RN: |
{nods
and rubs chin} Like all ships of Nordic pagan design.. |
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| DB: |
Yes. |
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| RN: |
...
had a curved aft {puts one hand out} and a curved stern {puts other
hand out}, thus. |
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| DB: |
Yes,
I am aware of the design. |
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| RN: |
And
that's how you walk down the street. |
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| DB: |
Well
I don't think anyone can be in any doubt... |
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| RN: |
{gets
up wiggling, hands out at shoulders, bit like a Thunderbird}
Oh girls... {looks at watch} Oh no! Quarter-past five! |
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| DB: |
...that
tonight Professor Lewis and myself have had a most penetrating and invigorating
debate. |
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| RN: |
{keep
wiggling, yawns} |
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| DB: |
Professor
F.J Lewis, thankyou very much. |
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| RN: |
{pauses}
Thankyou. {keeps on wiggling} |
