Reviews & recommended threads

Now and then I review a film or TV show, play a computer game or book I’ve read and share my opinions on social media.
Of course from the perspective of a history addict obsessed with details and authenticity.
On this page you’ll find some of those threads.
If you see just a link, it will take you to a Twitter thread.
If you see twitter & bluesky or threads mentioned under the title, clicking those will take you to threads on those websites.
If you see wordpress & substack mentioned, clicking those will take you to the thread in article form, which is a bit easier to read.

Fair warning: I am going to be looking for tiny details and then obsess about it.
Me pointing out errors may result in you being unable to ignore them in films, tv shows or games.

Films

• The Vikings (1958)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• The First Great Train Robbery (1978)
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• The Bunker (1981)
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• A Knights Tale (2001)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Outlander (2008)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Black Death (2010)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• The Wolfman (2010)

• Dracula ontold (2014)

• The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Their finest (2016)

• Outlaw King (2018)

• The King (2019)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Charité at War (2019)

• The Irishman (2019)

• The Old Guard (2020)

• The Reckoning (2020)

• The Dig (2021)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• The Last Duel (2021)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• The Northman (2022)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• The Last Kingdom (last season, 2022)

• A spy among friends (2022)

• Medieval (2022)

• The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

• The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings must die (2023)

• Napoleon (2023)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Indiana Jones and the Dial of destiny (2023)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• The Zone of Interest (2023)

• Firebrand (2023)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Nosferatu (2024)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Dû bist mîn ich bin dîn (2025)
  Wordpress
  Substack

TV shows

• World on fire series 1 (2019)

• Medieval Dead episode (2021)

• Iron Chef (2022)

• 1899 (2022)

• Das Boot,series 3, episode 1.

• Barbarians season, 2 (2022)

• A discovery of witches, season 2 (2021)

• The Detectorists (Christmas Special 2022)

• Vikings: Valhalla (2022)

• Tony Robinson’s History of Britain, Episode 4, season 2

• The Black Death (2023)

• Bodies (2023)

• Time Bandits (2024)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• King & Conqueror (2025)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Robin Hood (2025)
  Wordpress
  Substack

Games

• The Saboteur (2009)

• Assassin’s Creed Unity (2014)

• Battlefield 1 Revolution (2016)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Call of Duty WWII (2017)

• Kingdom Come Deliverance (2018)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (2018)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• A Plague Tale (2019)

• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (2020)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Medieval Dynasty

• Call of Duty®: Black Ops Cold War

• War Mongrels (2021)

• Call of Duty Vanguard

• Sniper Elite 5 (2022)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Pentiment (2022)

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (2022)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Vienna 1480 - Renaissance Room (2023)

• Inkulinati (2024)

• Aviators (2024)

• Manor Lords (2024)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• News Tower (2024)

• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (2024)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Sniper Elite: resistance (2025)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Kingdom Come Deliverance II (2025)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Mafia: The Old Country (2025)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Scriptorium: Master of Manuscripts (2026)
  Wordpress
  Substack

Youtube videos

• Why the Dark Ages Were the Worst Time to be Alive, by the Infographics Show

• How Did Bubonic Plague (Black Death) Actually End?, by the Infographics show
  Wordpress
  Substack

• What Hygiene Was Like For Medieval Peasants, by Weird History
  Twitter
  Bluesky

AI generated content

• Chloe VS History
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Time Witnessed
  Wordpress
  Substack

Online articles & other publications

• Listverse: 10 Gross Facts That Confirm the Middle Ages Were Beyond Filthy
  Twitter
  Bluesky
  Threads

• Tales of the middle ages: Why Medieval Castles Were Filthy Places You’d Never Want to Live In
  Twitter

Books:

• ‘Struwwelpeter’, by Heinrich Hoffmann (1845)

• ‘The Luttrell village’, by Sheila Sancha (1982)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘The ties that bound, peasant families in medieval England’, by Barbara A. Hanawalt (1986)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘Water technology in the Middle Ages’, by Roberta J. Magnusson (2003)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘I wonder why, Book of knowledge’. by various authors (2006)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘Clean, a history of personal hygiene and purity’ by Virginia Smith (2008)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘Medieval pets’ by Kathleen Walker-Meikle (2012)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Urban Bodies: Communal Health in Late Medieval English Towns and Cities’ by Carole Rawcliffe (2013)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘Von der Badstube zum Badekabinett’ by Daniela Rösing (2014)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘Urban Women: Life, Love, and Work in the Medieval Low Countries’ by Andrea Bardyn, Chanelle Delameillieure, Jelle Haemers (2019)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘Gross facts about the Middle Ages’, by Mira Vonne (2019)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘The Light Ages’ by Seb Falk (2020)’

• Het middeleeuwse openbare badhuis’ by Fabiola van Dam (2020)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘Community, Urban Health and Environment in the Late Medieval Low Countries’ by Janna Coomans (2021)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘Spurensuche im Mittelalter’ by Stadtmuseum Neckarsulm (2021)

• ‘Life in Medieval Europe, fact and fiction’ by Danièle Cybulskie (2021)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘Unfortunate Ends: On Murder and Misadventure in Medieval England’ by Soren Lily. (2022)

• ‘Historic Building Mythbusting’, by James Wright (2024)

• The medieval pig’ by Dolly Jørgensen (2024)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Land of thieves, by Janna Coomans (2025)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘The Black Death’, by Thomas Asbridge (2026)
  Wordpress
  Substack

Art

• ‘Yves de Saint-Denis,Vita et passio sancti Dionysii’ (People on bridges), end 13th-beginning of the 14th century
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• Roman de la Rose, the seven deadly sins, 14th century
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• Flemish book of hours (1400s)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (1412-1416)
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• The Nuremberg house books (1425 onwards)
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• Detail of the Werl Triptych (1438)

• Saint Martin by the Master of Sierentz. (1440–1450)

• Couple Seated on a Bed, from Sses of Daily Life, by Israhel van Meckenem, 1440s
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• Hausbuch von Schloss Wolfegg, bathing scene, c. 1480
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Analysing the Narrenschiff window scene (1494)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Joanna I of Castile’s book of hours, circa 1500.

• The Pedlar, by Hieronymus Bosch, circa 1500

• The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things, possibly by Hieronymus Bosch, circa 1500

• Dutch bathhouse scene, unknown artist, (1500s)
  Wordpress
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• The Seven Works of Mercy, by the Master of Alkmaar, 1504.
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Ein andechtig geistliche Badenfart, bath house illustrations, (1514)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Da Costa hours by by Simon Bening, c. 1515

• Series of paintings depicting German country life, by Hans Wertinger, c. 1516/1525

• Draper’s market in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, anonymous, 1530
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• ‘Brothel scene’ by the Brunswick Monogrammist, 1537

• Analysing the ‘Praxis rerum criminalium’ by Joos de Damhouder, 1554
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘Twelve proverbs’ by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1558.

• Peasants by the Hearth, by Pieter Aertsen, 1560

• The Pancake Bakery, by Pieter Aertsen, 1560.
  Wordpress
  Substack

• 16th century drawing of a bath house

• ‘The Hunters in the Snow’ by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1565.
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘The Census at Bethlehem’ by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1566)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘De boerendans’ (the farmer’s or peasant’s dance), Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1567.
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• ‘Boerenbruiloft’ (farmer’s or peasant’s wedding) from c. 1567.
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• Hausbuch von Schloss Wolfegg, Luna and her children, late 15th century

• Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters, Hendrick Avercamp, c. 1608.
  Wordpress
  Substack

• ‘Ice Skating in a village’ by Hendrick Avercamp (ca. 1610)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Ice enjoyment by a city, Winter landscape by a city, Hendrick Avercamp, c. 1620
  Twitter
  Bluesky
  Threads

• Winter landscape, by Pieter Brueghel de Jonge, c. 1624.
  Twitter
  Bluesky
  Threads

• Winter, by Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne, 1625.
  Twitter
  Bluesky
  Threads

• The Village Fair, attributed to Sebastiaen Vrancx, c. 1634
  Twitter
  Bluesky
  Threads

• The legend of the baker of Eeklo, copy after Cornelis van Dalem and Jan van Wechelen. C. 1550 - 1650.
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• Woman at her Toilet, by Jan Havicksz Steen, 1655–1660
  Twitter

• The Saint Nicolas Feast, by Jan Steen (1660s)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• The Discovery of Jan Claasz, by Cornelis Troost, 1738

• ‘Der lästige Kavalier’ by Berthold Woltze (1874)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• A view of The Hague from the Delftse Vaart in the Seventeenth Century, Cornelis Springer, 1852.

• ‘Die Bauern und die Zeitung’ by Albert Anker, 1867

• Briton Rivière’s Victorian animal paintings

• ‘For the benefit of those ladies who ask the right to smoke in public’, by Harry Grant Dart (1908).
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Elektroschutz in 132 Bildern (Electrical Protection in 132 Pictures)

• Walter Molino’s pulp art

• Cats stealing food in paintings

• The work of Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)

Historical Photo threads

• Old photo analysis: the chocolate seller, London, 1930s
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Murder on the Rue des Bordeaux, crime scene photo 1903

• August Sander photos

• A Dutch family photo album

• The Ghosts of History, WWII photos combined with modern ones

• Colour photos of Joan D’ Arc festival in 1932

• Jenő Dulovits’s colour photos of the 1930s

• Hugh Mangum’s photos of American people, 1890s-1920s
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• Album of German from Dresden visiting the Netherlands during WWII
  Twitter
  Bluesky
  Threads

  You can find my old photo album collection here on this new substack of mine:

Living History/Re-enactment photo threads

• Siege of Grolle 1627

• Roman camp in Germania

• Court of the dukes of Orléans 1394-1415

• 15th century at Château de Lassay

• De Gueules et d’Argent 1202

• Genz d’armes 1415

• Lothringen Landsknecht

• Barbaric invasions

• Celts in France, 3rd-1st century BC

• Late medieval event at Middelaldercentret in Denmark

• Verdun 1916

• Company of Saynt George late medieval event Middelaldercentret in Denmark

• 1470s Burgandy event

• Company of Saynt George gathering at Lenzburg, 2024.

Objects:

• Lego Medieval Town Square

Recommended threads:

• Medieval literacy & the story of 7 year old Onfim.

• Beethoven was not black.

• Medieval curfew fire covers
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• Testing an AI chat bot’s history knowledge

• Rushes on medieval and post medieval floors

• The Titanic baby

• Air rifle Ria

• The bodies in the ice

• The “Nanking massacre” photo album

• The Medieval body found at St Bees Priory

• Illustrations of 17th century carnivals

• Victorian Lady cyclist detectives

• Putting LOTS of art & old photos through the Myheritage animation application.

• Medieval & Renaissance beekeeping

• 18th & 19th century Anti slavery ceramics

• Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer

• History of early 20th century motorised scooters

• Photo thread about newsies, child newspaper sellers. & child labour

• When a movie crew decided that an historical open air museum wasn’t medieval enough

• Fancy Cycling. Trick Riding for Amateurs

• Illustrations from late 19th century Dutch Police News magazine

• Future fantasies, German 1930 picture album

• Women’s favourite weapons in the Chicago Sunday Tribune from 1900

• Photo thread on box-beds aka bedstedes

• The legend of Gelert, the baby saving dog

• The Horrors of the “Congo Free State”

• Naughty WWII adverts

• How a Danish Dutch diplomat saved my grandmother’s life in WWII.

• Josef Menšík, the knight who tried to stop the Nazis

• Researching a story about medieval women poisoning their husbands

• A little girl and her cat during the flood of 1953

• Ode to the humble washandje (little wash hand, aka washing mitt)

• Victorian & Edwardian postcards with real hair

• Researching when people started using a chopping block

• When did we start hanging laundry across streets and using clothes pegs?
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Did medieval people share their homes with cattle?
  Wordpress
  Substack

• The curious claims about Elizabeth I’s bathing habits
  Wordpress
  Substack

Threads on the Second World War & Remembrance

• Remi’s story, the tiny victim of the Holocaust
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• Dutch WWII booklet ‘Mad and Wise during Seyss’

• The Twentol Factory executions.

• Annick van Hardeveld’s story
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• Bourtange remembrance
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• Liberation of the Netherlands, photo thread

• Hidden radios of the war

• Teapots

• The German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940

• Van Berkhout and the destruction of Dutch vehicles in 1940

• How a Danish Dutch diplomat saved my grandmother’s life in WWII

• Swingkids, German anti Nazi movement in the 1930s-40s
  (Threads link)

Threads on Hygiene History:

• Original 15th century bathhouse in Germany
  Twitter
  Bluesky

• 16th century drawing of a bath house

• Het middeleeuwse openbare badhuis, by Fabiola van Dam

• Urban Bodies: Communal Health in Late Medieval English Towns and Cities’ by Carole Rawcliffe (2013)
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Ein andechtig geistliche Badenfart, bath house illustrations, 1514
  Twitter
  Bluesky
  Threads

• Monks & toilets

• John of Wallingford’s anti Dane propaganda

• List of medieval conduits supplying towns & cities with clean water

• ‘Von der Badstube zum Badekabinett’ by Daniela Rösing

• 14th century Viennese infanterist’s morning routine

• About medieval people sharing their home with cattle
  Wordpress
  Substack

• Bronze age (steam) bathing in the Netherlands

• Bathhouse museum in Wangen im Allgäu

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