Ep. 2: The Buckingham Palace Freak Show

De: Stephen Fry

Step right up, step right up and don’t be shy - welcome to Victorian Secrets, and the secrets of... The Freak Show. The secrets of enormously fat men and bearded ladies, the secrets of exotic women with enticingly large buttocks, the secrets of Siamese Twins and dwarf families and, in particular, the secrets of our own, our very own Aztec Children, seen by half a million people on the European continent before they publicly revealed their own, personal, extraordinary secret.

We’ll go backstage to hear the terrible secrets of the freaks themselves, we’ll lift the lace curtains of Buckingham Palace, where our own Queen, god bless her, took tea with the tiny, the towering and the terribly formed.

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Of only the distracting music could be eliminated

Stephen Fry is an amazing narrator in this series. Just as he excels in his other narrations. The subject matter and storylines are engaging and enjoyable.
Having say that….the drone of the annoying and persistent piano background music becomes as annoying and irritating as fingernails scratching the surface of a blackboard.
Shameful way to treat an otherwise excellent series.

a time traveling piece

a wonderful series that carefully mixes storytelling with documentary and commentary and fry's lovely and timeless personality

fact light apologist sensationalism

this is really really bad. their take on the kidnapping enslavement and parading of people like Hottentot Venus and the so-called baboon lady... Juliette wwas really abused by her husband who traded her around and then sold her body and their child body after the death. but these apologists are like 'oh no, these freaks made lots of money so they were actually able-bodied! this was a good thing for them...."
No they were kidnapped, exploited slaves and there's miles and miles of research to support that. Lost all respect for this series won't be listening to anymore.

a different perspective

I appreciate the different perspective and explanations of people's thinking then and now. The historians do a very good job of explaining how people and our perceptions have changed.