Treason! Revolution! Mutiny! | The Friday Update

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Friday Update, in which I give a little insight into what I’ve been up to for the past seven days.

What have I been up to this week?

Announcement! We’re making a mini-series!

If you asked me a week or so ago, I’d have told you that I was currently working on a video about English republicanism and anti-monarchism. The coronation of Charles III is just around the corner. And, I wanted to make a video about to tie-in with it.

I didn’t want to make a video simply about whether and why the monarchy is bad. My sense is that most people, even many of those who support the monarchy, know that it is an outdated, anti-meritocratic anachronism. Instead, then, my intention was to make a video about the history of republicanism in England.

Because, the Royal Family and their supporters often work hard to suggest that opposition to the monarchy is both a marginal force in British politics and a fairly recent phenomenon. As such, I wanted to highlight the stories of Brits throughout history who have tried to overthrow the crown.

The more I read and wrote, however, the more it became evident that trying to squash all these stories into one video was likely to be a bit of a disaster. To keep the video pacey and fun, I was going to have to leave out huge amounts of detail. I also wasn’t sure entirely how well it would hang together; it could very easily have felt like four videos that had been badly taped together.

So, we’re making a mini-series!

A couple of days ago, we made the decision to convert the single video into a mini-series of slightly-shorter-than-usual videos spotlighting various aspects of opposition to the monarchy within England and the various moments in which it almost (or did!) crumble.

It’s all a bit of a gamble. I’ve no idea how viewers will respond to having a bunch of shorter videos rather than one meaty one. But I definitely feel like this is the best way to serve the source material.

So, get ready for a month of treason, mutiny and revolution!

And outside of work?

Last weekend, I found time to go on a nice, long bike ride with some friends. There’s a group I go out for a casual ride with around every month. However, we tend not to do so in winter as it can get pretty wet and cold here in the UK. Last weekend’s ride was the first of 2023. And it was a mixed bag!

We cycled along a trail called the Camel Trail, which is a beautiful route in Cornwall. The ride out was lovely and we had a great roast dinner at a pub in a town called Padstow. On the way back, though, it absolutely chucked it down! It was a very cold, damp drive home…

What have I been reading/watching/listening to?

My reading this week has been largely fragmented around various sources to support the first video in the mini-series we’re working on. However, I did manage to head to the cinema to see Champions. And, I had very mixed feelings about it.

The film is the story of a basketball coach who find himself coaching a Special Olympics basketball team. There were some funny bits to the film and I thought the cast was great. However, it had some slightly off dynamics to it.

The post made it seem like a real ensemble piece. However, it was very much centred on its protagonist, Woody Harrelson. Structurally, it was the story of an able-bodied, neurotypical character and the members of the Special Olympics team kind of existed only to serve his plot line.

It was a shame because I thought it looked like a promising film and I like a sports movie! Did anyone else catch it and have any thoughts?

That brings us to the end of this week’s edition of the Friday Update. I hope you’ve found it mildly insightful.

Thanks as ever for your generous support and I’ll look forward to updating you more next week!!