Originally published by L.S. Media. March 30th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Written and presented by Dr. Helen Castor, a fellow of Sidney College, Cambridge University, She-Wolves was a three part series for the B.B.C. which looked at the lives of seven women who dominated early Medieval and Tudor England and drew the comparisons between them all, that as women they were viewed with suspicion and labelled She –Wolves by their detractors.

As Great Britain celebrates prepares to celebrate 60 years of reign by Queen Elizabeth II, Dr. Helen Castor looks back at the lives of Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabella of France, Margaret of Anjou, Lady Jane Grey, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I.

What works with any programme where the presenter has to impart knowledge to those, however unwanted the term may be, unwilling to take in what is rightly a fascinating look at the lives of the women who helped shaped England in their own indomitable way. Dr. Helen Castor certainly is engaging and forthright in her knowledge of a subject that has won her great acclaim, firstly for the book on which the T.V. programme takes its name and now for her presenting style. Informative without appearing condescending, knowledgeable without betraying the core audience of whom she was reaching out to. In short, someone you would really want to be your tutor if you’re fortunate enough to be in her particular university college.

Dr. Helen Castor weaved a tale of political intrigue and supposed male dominance throughout the ages and shows far from the she-wolf tag they received, the women especially Lady Jane Grey and Matilda were women thrust into the forefront of a nation’s consciousness only to have it taken away as they realise they too have been used by the male hierarchy around them. In the case of Mary Tudor, badly wronged in history it seems by her father and then her brother as she discovered the depths that Edward would stoop to keep a woman off the throne of England. How history may have been different if Lady Jane Grey had withheld the crown against her cousin, would we even have had Elizabeth’s reign to shout about as one of the greatest by a monarch in this country?

It is television programmes such as this that was the corner stone of the B.B.C. and especially Lord Reith’s assertion that television should educate, entertain and inform. It is a million miles away from some of the current programmes on the channel and both the B.B.C. and Dr. Helen Castor should be congratulated for producing an excellent and educational programme.

Ian D. Hall