Whether history presenters should ever resort to gimmickry to keep viewers interested is a point for debate, but Lucy Worsley has a reputation for bringing the past to life without dumbing it down. Her trademark when she was making her name on BBC Four was delivering cogent facts while jovially wearing period costumes, to make sure history wasn’t homework.
There isn’t much of that hoopla in Lucy Worsley Investigates: The American Revolution. Worsley remains in her own wardrobe, leaving the donning of 18th-century robes and long, dusty wigs to the actors playing Benjamin Franklin and George III in the show’s brief, mercifully dialogue-free dramatic reconstructions. This two-parter isn’t an investigation, either – or at least it is only in the way any history documentary is, as Worsley goes through the normal light-factual procedures by visiting relevant locations in the UK and the US, finding in each an expert with a point to make and an artefact to illustrate it.
