Medieval TV Schedules

Of course, back in the early medieval period there were far fewer TV programmes available, and only a couple of channels. Most of those programmes involved, in one way or another, either ploughing or the plague. Albeit with an occasional foray into travelogues for those thinking of joining their feudal lord's soldiers in an invasion of the continent and/or Wales and Scotland.

The long running TV soap opera Piers Ploughman of course had a massive (for the time) audience. Three times a week mediaeval peasants tuned in to see whether or not Piers managed to plough a furrow. All without falling foul of his manorial lord's foul moods. Or his wife's unreasonable demands for more children to help her get the harvest in. Or the local priest thinking up more ways to accuse Piers of committing some sin or another. Often, Piers endured endless trouble from his mother-in-law's disastrous attempts at witchcraft. Often resulting in that episode ending with a cliff-hanger. This usually saw Piers transformed into a frog by his mother-in-law.

Of course, the nightly news programmes on medieval TV mainly concerned themselves with the doings of kings and who they were doing it to. Foreign news mainly - as we have already seen above – concerned who was invading who, and which noble families were vying for which crown. This latter interest in the doings of the various noble houses brought about an early forerunner of the Football Pools. The peasants would tune in every Saturday, around tea time, to see which noble houses had fought each other for which crown and which one had won. A draw was worth three points and 21 points was enough for one lucky peasant to win the star prize of a goat. Thus making the lucky winner equivalent to a millionaire at today's prices.

Of course, all this changed in the late medieval period with the invention of the video game and the runaway success of the game Grand Pilgrimage 5. A game where the player had to get his group of pilgrims to Canterbury, despite all the odds against it.

From then on, TV in history tended towards a slow decline until the invention of the Reality TV genre in the Victorian period with Celebrity Ripper in Fog.

 

[Books by David Hadley are available here (UK) or here (US).]