The Story of India with Michael Wood: Complete BBC Series [DVD]

After watching 'The Story Of India' on DVD I have to say that it was time well spent. Historian Michael Wood is a stellar choice for presenting this series. His innate passion for history and energetic style fits seamlessly with the colourful and vibrant subject matter that is India. This is backed up by engaging visuals and music, as expected from the BBC. The series also does well to go back as far as it does, starting off in the South and working its way around other areas of the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan) and even visiting neighbouring regions (Central Asia).

This series has the following 6 episodes on 2-discs.

1. Beginnings - Ancient rituals in South India and the Indus Valley Civilisation (3000BC) are explored
2. The Power of Ideas - covers the emergence of Buddhism around 500BC and the first Indian Empire led by the Maurya rulers.
3. Spice Routes and Silk Roads - India as a trading partner of Ancient Rome and Greece.
4. Ages of Gold - The Gupta and Chola Empires which marked the Golden Age of Indian history around 300-600AD.
5. The Meeting of Two Oceans - Covers the period of Mughal rule including Akbar the Great around 1600AD.
6. Freedom - covering British rule and the struggle for independence.

It is a great advert for India and it's rich history, placing it on a par with other civilizations like the Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Romans and Chinese. There are aspects (Aryan Migration Theory and Indus Valley Civilisation) that some Indian historians will be very unhappy about (as Wood mentions briefly) but until some-one makes a comparable series with evidence to support alternative ideas, this is the best documentary out there. The reason I gave it only 4 stars was because I felt it could have had more content - possibly by having at least 2 more episodes. I personally would have liked more coverage of certain eras (such as 1000BC to 200AD) but I still recommend it highly.

The BBC produced a whole range of TV series this summer based around the anniversary of the partition of India and Pakistan. Michael Wood's series is by far the best in every aspect. It's excellent television (goodness me, it's what we pay our licence fee for!).

Wood is an engaging, enthusiastic historian who obviously has a passion for Indian history, Indian culture, and the peoples of India. So the series traces the development of the sub-continent from its earliest days, when men first populated the area, through all the major historical events that have shaped the people and the places. Religion inevitably forms a spiritual spine to the series, but Wood manages to explain the different belief systems without patronising and keeps their impact intact.

Wood also dares to go where other 'presenters' don't dare to tread. In the course of the series he visit Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq (where he's been several times before) and Tibet, in order to better explain the historical context behind the waves of invaders who populated and influenced India. Mind you, I'm not convinced that the footage with the Dalai Lama was a first-person interview...

I found the Ganges series to be pretty but overly dramatic, and the two other 'personality' journeys into India and Pakistan, hosted by well known TV people who were tracing their family roots, to be superficial and overblown. This series is none of those things.

Instead it is colourful, engaging, entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable. My one criticism is that the final episode, which deals with the days of the British Empire and partition, is maybe a little too harsh. But that's obviously because Wood is personally uncomfortable with the history of Empire... and it's a minor point.

Otherwise this is top-class documentary television. Well worth watching several times over.
And if you like it, then try Wood's book on a South Indian Journey, too!

Lets get a few things clear, I'm a fan of Michael Wood, I'm an Indian and I absolutely loved his take on the Story of India.
Next many would say that Michael is a bit too close for comfort with the subject... India. I would agree. But I'm tired of long dispassionate discourses about a subject (example: Ganges DVD).
For once someone looks like he loves the subject and what he's doing.
And does he do it well? Absolutely!!