I've been a fan of Michael Wood since his series on the Anglo-Saxons in the late 1970s or early 1980s. He sparked my interest in history by making it come alive. Before that, school history lessons were just lists of names and dates. He made me aware that these were real people with real lives.

Fantastic. Michael Wood inspired me to study history too. And I met the great man at Manchester Uni in 1982/3.

He so well articulates, without a trace of negativity, the many reasons why using reenactors in documentaries is far from ideal. I feel differently. It's the most wretched form of pandering pollution that ever poisoned the genre 😉 I love the work of Michael Wood. He and John Romer have made the most enlightening and emotionally engaging historical documentaries I've ever seen. Wonderful interview! Good to see that he *obviously* followed his own advice to new historians, never lose your passion.

We particularly loved your early tv programmes Michael ! In Search of the Dark Ages etc. We went to your talk in Salisbury Library, must have been the 1970s I think, and we were sitting on the second row when you came and sat on the front row just in front of as you waited to speak and had a lovely ‘private’ talk with you! Remember your programme about Hedges? That modern hedges underneath can be 1,000 years old. Absolutely fascinating as we didn’t know that. I’ve still got my video of that programme, which surprised you as you said you didn’t have it! We look at hedges in a totally different way ever after! And when we mentioned this to you at another talk you gave, you remembered that!

When I first saw his zeal for learning when I was 14, I was hooked. Decades later, I still am. He is a marvel.

How wonderful to know that you are active still in the amazing subject of History of Great Britain. You have been a favorite historian of mine Professor Wood. Thank you for all the years of sharing with us incomparable and exceptional works on The United Kingdom and of course on India. History is a great passion of mine. History is our teacher. Thank you Thank you Professor Wood 🙏

Stonehenge - totally agree with you. It should NOT be touched. I live 5 miles from Stonehenge.

Even if I listened to Michael Wood wax lyrical for days beyond number and I'd still find him riveting. Such knowledge and intelligence coupled with a wonderful voice. His Legacy series completely seduced me to the fascination of history ancient and modern. May he keep us entertained and educated for many years to come.

Such an interesting interview, thank you both

Thank you for providing this interview with Michael Wood, of which I am a great admirer.

What a wonderful interview. I have been an admirer of him since seeing his Legacy series. His enthusiaism is infectious.

Michael Wood is the greatest historical presenter of all time … academic, intellectual and charismatic… Just like his TV replacement Dan Snow ☹️

PROFESSOR MICHAEL WOOD. WATCHED SO MANY DOCUMENTRIES ON TELEVISON. WOW 140 TOO !!! ( HIS TRAVELS TO INDIA & CHINA WERE MEMORABLE) !! FROM U.K. (2022).

I love the quality of your channel. Wildly underrated.

Wow great find !! i guess like many of you, I feel he has been the teacher I always wanted at school and never got. . Countless wonderful hours listening and watching his amazing works. Thanks Viral History !

Thank you for this.

Loved this guy from his 'Story of India' and 'Story of China,' I hope to see more still from Professor Michael Wood. I have great deal of respect for the fact that he attempts to come across as kind and polite.

Thank you (both of you). I like this channel - especially interviews ("Primary Sources").

Exactly! Top marks for not using reenactments. Animation can work though.

He's up there with David Attenborough as a presenter

I SO envy you. You Michael born in the 1950s, me in 1939 so I really know on,y what I’ve read and seen about Second World War. But I have a real passion for history since I was 9 or 10. But leaving school at 14 and a half? What chance had I of studying history at university, or being a historian? So my passion is reading about history + tv programmes about it.

awesome!

My favourite book is the one he wrote about his his travels around south India . Check it out, a book from the heat

Here’s a question … King Alfred , clearly travelled and educated … what would he have known of China , Egypt , Alexander? He went to Rome so surely must have heard much

Michael Wood, Love you to do your own biographical 52 minute vidio. The width and breath of your sabilities very much deserves to inspire this and the next generation of searching minds.

What a wonderful man...and how amazing his family sharing their stories. Not so in my families (Mum's and Dad's) They were too traumatised and wanted to protect "us kids". Also in New Zealand, as immigrants, the sources you quote were more applicable to the indigenous people not us

Thanks for helping me to brlieve in Shakespeare again.

Any more television?

Even Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance have many a question about the authorship of Shakespeare plays

Can't remember his program about sailing up the Congo

Very interesting conversation. Must admit don't always share his opinion on things. I believe in the right of self determination, not to have it imposed by someone whe believes their's is superior. The Battlefield Trust came up with the site of the Battle of Bosworth, residents of the area had different views. So let them get on with it. The farmer who owned the land, waited. He then let Time Team access, which discredited the Trust and highlighted their inferior knowledge. I soke to the son in law of the Farmer who said he took great interest in their fall from grace. That land had been preserved for centuries of Farmers. These events are replicated across the UK. The oral telling of history still prevails in this Country. Shakespeare knew he had to tell history from the side of the victorious, not the reality.

Hey, come on viral history….. I’ve just discovered you today, and I’ve written a long comment while watching Nathen, and another as Michael Woods talked……yet neither of them have come up in the Comments!! At the top of Michael’s it says there are 6 Comments, but there is only one. Ah. In Search of the Dark Ages book! I’VE got it from 40 years ago, signed by Michael and I’ve written about it in my disappeared Comment! So come on viral history channel. Please FIX IT!

Art of the Western World got me through 1st year art history art college, because it was so much clearer and on point than the prof was.

I did not realise the term anglo - saxon had racial conottation. In the UK it is purely a historic term. The other term is the use of the term BCE and CE. More prevalent outside the UK

to not coin a phrase, all things in time.... history cannot be "rewritten" it can only be discovered, and if in the discovery of history our ideas change, or need to change... then so be it ps: at one point in his life, Prof Wood was known (maybe still is) as the thinking woman's crumpet

Tell him about getting high, in a Person market, on Hoama

Crikey, that covered a lot of ground...

Love Professor Wood. It's a shame to see modern academia kow-towing to politically correct nonsense. There is no more accurate term for the "Anglo-Saxons" than "Anglo-Saxon". This is the absurdity of modern "higher learning". Pathetic.

It was good until he started dunking on Brexit.

My question to Professor is how can you chaff out propaganda especially colonial histography made to perpetuate a particular narrative to show some cultures as inferior despite huge amount contrary evidences