The Royal mob

Sorry forgot to day it's made by Sky and I'm watching on Now.

Sheesh all fingers and thumbs: day=say

I'm watching ,when I was in primary school my teacher was a man who came back from WW1 with horrible shell shock .
If someone dropped a book or banged a desk lid he would shake uncontrollably.It was at first scary but we learned to be careful around him as he was a lovely man and a much respected teacher .
He told us about WW1 ,how it was the result of "family arguements " between Victoria's GC and resulted in millions of people dying or living with the kind of problems he had or worse .
I've never forgotten him .

It's long been held as a theory Paddyanne54

As was the opposite point of view held by QV I believe, ie that family could stop trouble before it got started.

Clearly things were more complicated.

I'd like to watch it but don't have Sky. I've read AN Wilson's Victoria book and others about her children and her reign. In spite of having nine children, she didn't enjoy being a mother, found her offspring an inconvenient by product of her passionate relationship with Albert, who from what I read was the better parent She had a strange and resentful relationships with them and it's common knowledge she really didn't get on with Bertie the future Edward V11. Allegedly she blamed him for the death of Albert who caught a cold which turned to fever when he was dispatched to read him the riot act. Quite a few pictures of the family posed together in the aftermath of Albert's death show them all looking similarly miserable, which seemed to be Victoria's default face thereafter, or as it's known these days "resting bitch face"

History repeated itself when Vicky, Victoria's first born didn't get on with her oldest son the future Kaiser who turned out to be an absolute horror, I believe he was at the bedside of the Queen when she died

Turning to your comments about shell shock Paddyann, I grew up in a town which had quite a few, what were known back then as, mental asylums, now closed. Some of the older men in those places were incarcerated there as a result of shell shock in the First WW, clearly a condition that traumatised many who survived that awful war and left them with mental scars they didn't recover from. I think the actor who played the British Officer in Ryan's Daughter displayed the awfulness of the condition very well.

Such devastation and human misery caused.
Relevant at this moment in time🌹(no poppy icon)

The series hasnt reached this point yet.

With regards to the Kieser Wilhelm, his father was very liberal, as was Vicky his mother. Wilhelm hated them both by the time he was an adult.
Having a withered hand had a detrimental effect on his personality.
Having Prussian relatives using him as a pawn in their power struggles with his parents and feeding his narcissistic superiority complex with stories of personal grandeur, didnt help.

Wilhelm's damaged arm (difficult birth) wasn't very well dealt with when he was growing up. His father , who seemed quite a decent person, had to wait a long time to become the Kaiser himself and his reign was incredibly short because he died from cancer pretty soon afterwards. I think I remember reading that Wilhelm was influenced by his grandfather who was quite horrible too and Bismarck who shaped his aggression.

It's hard to understand, unlike the 2nd WW, what actually caused the 1914/18 war, and why those issues couldn't have been sorted out by diplomacy, indirectly it led to the 2nd WW anyway.

Just finished watching last episode. Absolutely fascinating. Brilliant mix of documentary/drama but quite frightening about how family dynamics had so much impact on European history. I knew the "bones" of it but this really brought it to life.

I havent finished it yet Rosiebee but I thought the same as you about the mix.
Not every attempt at this type of program works this well.

Thoroughly enjoyed this drama/documentary..thought I new my history but clearly not so was enlightened and yes the family of sisters dynamics impacted so much..was not aware! Thought this 4 part series was beautifully done.

Have watched two episodes, it’s well done, acting, dress etc and interspersed with real footage.Nothing new in the telling of the family feuds but may reach a new audience.