4/5 Solid Doc on Richard The Lionheart!
  by VideoCollector
Enjoyed watching this documentary. Helped me to understand the story of Richard the Lionheart. Some good detailed information about the events and places. Although the pacing could be a bit faster I enjoyed this program and will show it to my family.



1/5 Poor quality, amateur-ish and inaccurate
  by Silver Whistle (Scotland, UK)
This is an extremely low-quality documentary: an over-simplistic script, with poor quality graphics (hideous cartoons of the kings, and some of the castles depicted are not the ones that are mentioned), and a narrator, Sue Hosler (also the producer), who sounds as if she's reading very slowly for the benefit of small children taking dictation.

It is very Anglo-centric, looking at Richard's acts only in terms of how they affected England, and ignoring the fact that the mainland part of the Angevin Empire was far more important. It makes the Third Crusade look like Richard's doing, and ignores the dispute over the succession to the throne of Jerusalem. It omits the real reason for Richard's arrest by Leopold of Austria - suspicion of the murder of Conrad of Montferrat, King of Jerusalem - and simply blames Richard's "poor people-skills" for alienating Leopold. "Poor people-skills" is an interesting euphemism for being suspected of arranging a stabbing.

The Robin Hood legends are mentioned, as if they grew out of the circumstances of Richard's reign in 12C; in fact, they are 14C, and Walter Scott is largely responsible for associating them with the 12C in 'Ivanhoe', a novel. The Blondel myth is also trotted out, and that of the crock of gold at Chalus.

I can only think that this is aimed at schoolchildren, and even then is of such a low standard, I would be worried by its use in schools. Avoid.