The Celts, BBC2 - TV review: The ancient Celtic tribes are far too often overlooked

Was Rome really a disciplined, ordered, civilising presence?

The Celts

(BBC)

Mysteries abounded on BBC Two, where Neil Oliver and Alice Roberts were our guides in an enjoyable attempt to uncover the truth about The Celts. As Oliver and Roberts explained, the ancient Celtic tribes are far too often overlooked in favour of Romans and Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, their stories stripped away to Boudicca, the Iceni and failed revolt.

Yet the reality was rather more complex, with the ultimately victorious Romans deliberately misrepresenting the Celts as noble savages in order to provide a contrast with “the idea of Rome as a disciplined, ordered, civilising presence”. History might well be written by the victors but Oliver and Roberts' impassioned and informed defence went some way to addressing that imbalance.