Quella sporca città

Let me open with a disclaimer: I'm a huge fan of Dan Snow's history programmes; they're visually exciting, filled with facts, they have plenty of fun along the way, Snow is a great and charismatic presenter, a reliable historian, and I try never to miss his programmes when they're aired. I should have praised him long ago but have for some silly reason waited till now when I have something to complain about.

And it is this: I was somewhat disappointed in finding that the "Filthy Cities" episode on London seems slightly tendentious and Union Jack-waving when compared with the (US-bashing) episode on New York. I realize that an episode of one hour cannot cover all facts, but the London episode was entirely about the plague in the Middle Ages, and it ends with these words: "London, ONCE a filthy city, would in time become the centre of the richest and most powerful empire in history, and remains to this day one of the greatest cities on earth."

Right. But compare this to the closing words of the New York episode:

"Many of the technological solutions that transformed New York City in the 19th century produced waste that has blighted the 21st. Every fifteen minutes, New York produces enough greenhouse gases to fill the entire Empire State Building. Those gases cannot be contained in the city that created them; now, it's a truly global problem (…) Our battle against our own filth will never be over."

Also true, but this leaves us to conclude that whereas filth in London vanished with the Middle Ages, global concern should now focus exclusively on New York as the main culprit. Snow mentions how the battle against the filth of New York began in 1851 but his London episode never gets to 'the Great Stink' of 1858, when the magistrates of London (seven years behind New York) realized that they had to deal with the filth of the Londoners (I actually thought that the 'Great Stink' would be the main topic of the London episode, with engineer Joseph Bazalgette as the hero who made the new planning of the sewers. But no). While staying conveniently in the Middle Ages with the London episode, Snow's New York episode presents the predictable amount of slum lords, corrupt Tammany Hall politicians and greedy capitalists that left the poor to suffocate and starve in the slums (as they did in London, too, and also here due to the indifference of those in power that ought to have cared).

Facts are these: London is every bit as filthy as New York, both cities ranging at damage level 'low to moderate' on the WHO scale. New York has actually been praised as a role model among cities in the battle against greenhouse gases – and the British are even slower at embracing hybrid cars than the Americans, as a matter of fact. And to return to the ending of the London episode: "London, once a filthy city, would in time become the centre of the richest and most powerful empire in history, and remains to this day one of the greatest cities on earth" – come again? What on earth do political power and world domination (which I would hesitate to brag about in these anti-empire days) have to do with pollution?

But when that is said; Dan Snow is a brilliant presenter and a thorough historian – and maybe he didn't write the script for this series? The credits are not quite clear on this point. Moreover, the above is my only complaint to anything I've seen from Snow.

Pretty good entertainment, the host didn't really grab me, but he served his purpose, so why only three episodes? I watched all three episodes and I only saw one slight pronunciation error, he said swathing like Sway-thing, that is until the last episode.

I don't know if I'm right or not, but in the last episode, they show an elephant being executed by electrocution, a clip from the 1930s or so, and I thought the animal rights people are gonna be all over you, man, show canceled, then it turned out that there were no more episodes. Maybe he really got sued or something or maybe people thought he was a little boring and awkward, kinda like a British Anthony Bordain. That's just my opinion, he was great besides that, the bit with the bedbug and louse in the New york episode was exciting to watch since I hate them both, lol.

I have been fascinated by the television contributions of Dan Snow and his father ever since Battlefield Britain, and consider them to be among the finest historical documentaries I have ever seen. History for me is about the experience from the viewpoint of those who lived through the times represented. It is often difficult to picture the world during these times. The Snows understand this desire and along with the show's developers have consistently provided the viewer with a front row seat to history, with special emphasis on the viewpoint of the commoner during these times.

The excellence continues with Filthy Cities. In this show the audience is taken on a tour of the nasty underbelly of some of the worlds greatest cities from varied periods in history - medieval London, 18th Century Paris, and 19th Century New York. We experience the sights, sounds, thrall, and particularly the smells of these cities in the time periods depicted. The focus of the show is firmly in the management (or lack) of the tremendous waste streams such urban metropolises create, from human waste, to garbage, to industrial pollutants in addition to the inevitable outbreaks of disease and death which followed. It paints a no doubt highly accurate picture of the tremendously unsanitary conditions of these cities, and what engineers, rulers, and the populace at large attempted to do about the problem.

I have a scant few criticisms for the show. Sometimes it does seem like they try a bit too hard to gross out the audience. Yet these things that few in a modern industrial society need to deal with were a daily routine for the people of yesteryear. The smells and nature of filth were an inescapable reality for the populace, even the upper crust of society.

I sincerely hope that more episodes will be forthcoming, perhaps a glimpse of Ancient Rome or Athens, or Asian cities like Bejing or Edo. If you have an interest in history, especially with the aforementioned desire to picture places as they very well may have appeared, then you should not miss this outstanding program.