Folk Britannia

BBC Four has a pedigree for producing quality documentaries and it's music ones are amongst the best.  Of those the 'Britannia' series has been notably impressive with mini-series based around punk, metal, jazz, synths, soul, prog and much more.  We might return to some of the others at a later date but first I think we'll head off to a land where the ale is real, the clothes are woolly and the hats, for some reason, have green willow all round them.

The documentary consists of three episodes each focusing on a different era of British folk music.  Episode 1 - 'Ballads and Blues' - explores the revival era, episode 2 - 'Folk Roots, New Routes' - travels through the acid-folk and folk-rock of the 60s and early 70s and episode 3 - 'Between the Wars' - looks at the post punk years.

As with all these documentaries there's something for the novice and the acolyte alike.  Even with music I'm not much of a fan of - and I have to include the vast majority of British folk music in there, hence the facetious comment about willowy hats back there - I do love to watch passionate people talk about their work and their love of the music and there's plenrty of that on offer here.

(The playlist below contains all three episodes)

Enjoy.