Months before the new British Prince George made his earthly debut in late July 2013, the Rhode Island PBS program director scheduled a two-part portrait of his great-grandmother's grandparents (his great-great-great grandparents) - and the ancestor for whom the little prince was named, it turns out. King George and Queen Mary: The Royals Who Rescued the Monarchy examines the lasting legacy of the couple who rescued the monarchy from potential disaster. Rhode Island PBS presents this two-part documentary on August 8 and 15 at 9 p.m.
Episode 1 (August 8 at 9 p.m.) focuses on King George V. George could not have been a more unlikely modernizer. Born and brought up in the Victorian age he was conservative to his fingertips. yet in the face of unstoppable social change after the First World War he turned out to be a remarkable innovator, creating the House of Windsor, embracing democratic reform, and reinventing many of the royal traditions that we know today. When he celebrated his silver jubilee in 1935 the monarchy was more popular than ever. But as a parent King George V was far less successful - he bullied his children and alienated his eldest son and heir, Prince Edward. As one courtier remarked at the time, ‘the royal family are like ducks, they sit on their children’. By contrast, King George had a loving relationship with his granddaughter, and much of Queen Elizabeth’s style and commitment to duty can be traced back to this early influence. A long-form preview of this first episode is below.
Episode 2 (August 15 at 9 p.m.) focuses on Queen Mary, who came from a relatively humble royal background, but was picked as a future queen consort by Queen Victoria. At first she was betrothed to Prince Eddy, heir to the throne. But when Eddy died during the influenza pandemic of 1891-92, she was unceremoniously passed to his brother George. Despite the arranged marriage, King George and Queen Mary had a loving relationship. Mary revered the monarchy and obeyed her husband in all things - even the length of her dresses. She always put duty and service first. But when King George died in 1936, this once rigidly formal character emerged as a determined if eccentric royal matriarch with a mind of her own. When the abdication crisis threatened the future of the House of Windsor she was the rock to which the nation turned as a symbol of stability and continuity. Queen Mary died in 1953, having lived to see her granddaughter, Elizabeth, ascend to the throne, but not her coronation.
In August 2013, Rhode Island PBS presents the five-part "Secrets of..." series, a look inside four of the most beautiful manor houses in the English countryside, as well as the occupants of these magnificent houses.
Secrets of Chatsworth - August 8 at 8 p.m. and August 22 at 9 p.m.
Over five centuries, Chatsworth Estate has been passed down through 16 generations of the Cavendish family and is presently the home of the current 12th Duke of Devonshire and his family. We discover the stories throughout its 500 years that have shaped the history of Chatsworth into the acclaimed and distinguished house it has become today. So rich are some of the tales, they have even caught the imagination of Hollywood: The Duchess was the story of Lady Georgiana Spencer and her ill-fated marriage to the the 5th Duke. Although their marriage was a great dynastic match, their personalities were entirely unsuited and they lived together with Lady Elizabeth Foster, Georgiana's close friend in a ménage à trois.
Chatsworth even links to American President John F. Kennedy, who came to visit his sister Kathleen Kennedy after she was tragically killed in a plane crash and buried on the grounds of Chatsworth. Kathleen was married to Billy Cavendish, son and heir to the 10th Duke of Devonshire.
So how does it really feel to live and work in such an opulent house with so much colorful history? Viewers take a look behind the doors of the house and stroll around the vast gardens and estate, talking to the Duke and Duchess to find out the real truth behind Chatsworth.
Secrets of Henry VIII's Palace - August 15 at 8 p.m.
Hampton Court is the ultimate royal pleasure palace — embodying the indulgent and grandiose kingship built by Cardinal Wolsey and developed by Henry VIII. Through its rooms, chart King Henry VIII’s decline from fit young warrior to bloated womanizer and recall the vivid stories of the ladies who became his queens.
Learn how William and Mary demolished half of the Tudor palace to replace it with an exquisite baroque structure, making Hampton Court one of the most unusual palaces in the world. Go beneath the brick and stone of this true pleasure palace and now thriving tourist location to uncover an abundance of art and stories that bring Hampton Court alive.
Secrets of Althorp: The Spencers - August 22 at 8 p.m.
Althorp, childhood home and final resting place of Princess Diana, is currently the home of Diana’s brother, Charles, the 9th Earl Spencer. Nineteen generations of Spencers have presided over this grand estate for more than 500 years. The Spencer dynasty has produced politicians, military heroes, dukes and duchesses and will one day furnish Britain with a king: Diana’s son, Prince William. Noted for their generosity, the Spencers once came to the rescue of a distant cousin fallen on hard times: the great-great-great-grandfather of George Washington.
Althorp House has hosted some of the kingdom’s most distinguished guests, and its rooms have witnessed scenes of great celebration, the first earl’s secret wedding to his sweetheart and most recently, the marriage of the current earl, who takes viewers on a personal tour around the noble manor that’s first of all his family home.
Secrets of Highclere Castle - August 29 at 8 p.m.
Famous as the location backdrop to the hugely-popular costume drama Downton Abbey, the castle also has its own extraordinary tales to tell.
For centuries it has been the real-life home of the aristocratic Carnarvon family, and has entertained Kings and Queens of England along with a host of nobilities and celebrities. An ancestor of the modern-day Lord and Lady Carnarvon bankrolled the expeditions that discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen, which explains one of this stately home’s astonishing secrets. Hidden within secret compartments in its wall are centuries-old Egyptian relics, while in the basement are replicas of the contents of the tomb itself: a slice of Egyptian history transported to the depths of the English countryside.
The show explores Highclere’s illustrious history and reveals that truth can often be stranger than fiction. Many of the events played-out in the fictional Downton Abbey are based-upon true tales from Highclere’s past. Just like its television counterpart, the castle was, for example, a military hospital that played a vital role in the First World War. The hospital, complete with operating theater, was set-up and run by the fabulously wealthy Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon, who traded the trappings of her comfortable aristocratic life for the chance to nurse wounded officers brought home from the battlefront.
In the early years of the 20th Century,English aristocrats owned more than half of the land in the country, and the phrase ‘nothing exceeds like excess’ was coined to describe their lifestyles. It was a world of luxury and indolence for a wealthy few, supported by an army of servants toiling ceaselessly "below stairs" to make the privileged lives of their Lords and Ladies run as smoothly as possible.
And Highclere was no exception. It was deemed, the social epicenter of Edwardian England, and even hosted HRH The Prince of Wales, the future King of England, for the most extravagant shooting party in Highclere’s history. The bill came to a staggering thirty thousand dollars just to feed the guests.
Unsurprisingly, such highlife took its toll on the pockets of the aristocrats. Owners of British manor houses were “land rich,” but “cash poor,” and many sought out rich wives as a means of improving their financial fortunes. The 5th Earl of Carnarvon earned new money for the estate through his marriage to a teenage heiress named Almina Wombwell, the illegitimate daughter of banking giant Alfred De Rothschild. She gained a title and access to High Society: he gained access to her fabulous wealth.
Even so, the social and political changes that followed the end of the war in 1918 were to spell ruin for many British country estates. Huge increases in income tax and death duties meant that many families were forced to sell homes that had stood proud for centuries. For British aristocracy it was the end of life as they knew it. Great country estates fell into ruin and many were demolished. Life at Highclere changed forever – but the house withstood it all.
Today, the castle remains the family home of Lord and Lady Carnarvon. At around a million dollars a year in upkeep, the life of the English nobility is no longer one of extravagant parties and opulence. Secrets of Highclere Castle gives a privileged, behind-the-scenes taste of what it is like to be a modern-day Lord and Lady living in a home with 1,300 years of English history.
Secrets of the Manor House - August 29 at 9 p.m.
Exactly 100 years ago, the world of the British manor house was at its height. It was a life of luxury and indolence for a wealthy few supported by the labor of hundreds of servants toiling ceaselessly "below stairs" to make the lives of their lords and ladies run as smoothly as possible. It is a world that has provided a majestic backdrop to a range of movies and popular costume dramas to this day, including PBS' Downton Abbey.
But what was really going on behind these stately walls? Secrets of the Manor House looks beyond the fiction to the truth of what life was like in these British houses of yesteryear. They were communities where two separate worlds existed side by side: the poor worked as domestic servants, while the nation’s wealthiest families enjoyed a lifestyle of luxury, and aristocrats ruled over their servants as they had done for a thousand years.
The program talks to present-day British lords and ladies and to the descendants of those who lived and worked in manor houses across the country. A series of expert historians explain the true picture of how life was lived within the walls of these stately homes that had changed very little for centuries. It explains the hierarchy of the British establishment: led by the king with a supporting cast of dukes, earls and barons, each keenly aware of his or her place. It visits modern manor houses, where aristocratic families sometimes still rule over scores of servants, in homes with 100 and more bedrooms, and where the lord still enjoys a luxurious life of hunting, shooting and fishing among the beauty of rural Britain. And it details the true hardship of life as a "downstairs" servant: maids would carry 45 gallons of hot water along hidden servants’ passageways to fill one aristocratic lady’s bath, and a housemaid’s day would start before dawn and last for 17 hours as she scrubbed floors, cleaned grates and carried coal — all for a wage of $15 a year.
But, precisely a century ago, a perfect storm of financial hardship and political and social change was threatening to engulf this traditional British way of life. Some impoverished British aristocrats married wealthy American heiresses to prop up and sustain their fading manor houses; the working classes were finding a voice and demanding both political power and better jobs; and the terrible disaster of World War I was looming in the wings. When war came, nothing in the life of the British manor house was ever the same again.
Denise Aiken – attorney, former state representative (Democrat)
Bernard Jackvony – attorney, former lieutenant governor (Republican) Dave Layman – corporate communications consultant Maureen Moakley – political science professor, University of Rhode Island
Topics
Paid Family Leave law
Eva-Marie Mancuso nomination for commissioner of higher education
ACLU’s threatened lawsuit over high-stakes testing
College student loan rates
Ending door-to-door postal delivery
A Lively Experimentairs on WSBE Rhode Island PBS (36.1) Fridays at 8:30 p.m., with rebroadcasts on Saturdays at 7 P.M. on WSBE Learn(36.2), and Sundays at noon on WSBE Rhode Island PBS.
WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on Rhode Island cable: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, and Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable: Comcast 819HD and Verizon FiOS 18 / 518HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36 / 3128HD, Dish Network 7776.
WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; in Rhode Island on Cox 808; Verizon FiOS 478; Full Channel 109; and in Massachusetts on Comcast 294 or 312.
Can't get to the TV? Watch the episode online anytime and anywhere on our YouTube channel. Episodes of A Lively Experimentare generally available to watch on the next business day. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and YouTube will notify you when a new episode is uploaded.
Ed Fitzpatrick – political columnist, Providence Journal
Maureen Moakley – political science professor, University of Rhode Island Ted Nesi – political & economic reporter, WPRI.com Wendy Schiller – political science professor, Brown University
Topics
Bills the governor has and has not signed into law
Are state tax incentives really worth it?
Eva-Marie Mancuso nomination for commissioner of higher education
Landscape of the 2014 political races
A Lively Experimentairs on WSBE Rhode Island PBS (36.1) Fridays at 8:30 p.m., with rebroadcasts on Saturdays at 7 P.M. on WSBE Learn(36.2), and Sundays at noon on WSBE Rhode Island PBS.
WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on Rhode Island cable: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, and Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable: Comcast 819HD and Verizon FiOS 18 / 518HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36 / 3128HD, Dish Network 7776.
WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; in Rhode Island on Cox 808; Verizon FiOS 478; Full Channel 109; and in Massachusetts on Comcast 294 or 312.
Can't get to the TV? Watch the episode online anytime and anywhere on our YouTube channel. Episodes of A Lively Experimentare generally available to watch on the next business day. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and YouTube will notify you when a new episode is uploaded.
Mentally revisiting the bone chill of winter sure feels good during a heat wave, doesn't it? Oh, we'll wish soon enough we could have somehow saved up this heat when those winter winds start howling, but at least right now, a little frost in the air would be welcome.
So, plan ahead and get your tickets now for a ride aboard the Polar Express in November. The Cape Cod Railway has partnered with Rhode Island PBS to bring you a magical tour to start off your Christmas season in memorable style, and as thanks for being a member.
It's hot. In the Rhode Island PBS viewing area, we have the Ocean State (Rhode Island), the Bay State (Massachusetts), and the Constitution State (Connecticut), which, to force-fit into the theme I'm trying to create here, unless you pay attention to staying cool, you can really mess up your constitution.
So, with these refreshing seaside state mottoes in mind, here are some practical tips for what you should do if the weather is extremely hot, from the National Weather Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some of them are just plain common sense, others are important reminders:
Stay indoorsas much as possible and limit your exposure to sun. Sunburn makes the job of heat dissipation that much more difficult.
Stay on the lowest floor, out of the sunshine, if air conditioning is not available.
Consider spending the warmest part of the day in air conditioned public buildings such as libraries, movie theaters, shopping malls, and other community facilities.
Eat regular, light, well-balanced meals and limit your intake of alcoholic beverages. Foods like meats and other proteins increase metabolic heat production and also increase water loss.
Drink plenty of water, even if you don't feel thirsty. Your body needs water to keep cool. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, as they can make you lose water. People who have epilepsy or heart, kidney or liver disease, are on fluid-restricted diets, or have a problem with fluid retention should consult a doctor before increasing liquid intake.
Dress in loose-fitting, lightweight and light-colored clothing that covers as much skin as possible. These garments reflect heat and sunlight, and help your body maintain normal temperatures.
Protect your face and head by wearing a wide-brimmed hat.
Check on family, friends and neighbors who do not have air conditioning and who spend much of their time alone.
Never leave children or pets alone in closed vehicles.
Avoid strenuous work during the warmest part of the day. Use the buddy system when working in extreme heat, and take frequent breaks.
Know these heat disorders and symptoms:
Sunburn - Redness and pain. In severe cases swelling of skin, blisters, fever and headaches.
Heat Cramps - Muscular pains and spasms due to heavy exertion. Although heat cramps are the least severe, they are often the first signal that the body is having trouble with the heat.
Heat Exhaustion - Typically occurs when people exercise heavily or work in a hot, humid place where body fluids are lost through heavy sweating. Blood flow to the skin increases, causing blood flow to decrease to the vital organs. This results in a form of mild shock. If not treated, the victim's condition will worsen. Body temperature will keep rising and the victim may suffer heat stroke.
Heat or Sun Stroke - A life-threatening condition. The victim's temperature control system, which produces sweating to cool the body, stops working. The body temperature can rise so high (106 or higher) that brain damage and death may result if the body is not cooled quickly.
And if it's too hot work in the garden or bake in the kitchen or repair those windows, you can still collect recipes and tips for days with cooler temperatures by watching your favorite gardening, cooking, home repair and travel shows midday on Rhode Island PBS.
Maureen Moakley – political science professor, University of Rhode Island Topics
The General Assembly process: are bills properly vetted?
Forcing Bryant University to pay the Town of Smithfield for emergency services
Increased auto registration and license fees to pay for DOT projects
Providence taxes
SEC probe into the RI pension fund
A Lively Experimentairs on WSBE Rhode Island PBS (36.1) Fridays at 8:30 p.m., with rebroadcasts on Saturdays at 7 P.M. on WSBE Learn(36.2), and Sundays at noon on WSBE Rhode Island PBS.
WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on Rhode Island cable: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, and Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable: Comcast 819HD and Verizon FiOS 18 / 518HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36 / 3128HD, Dish Network 7776.
WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; in Rhode Island on Cox 808; Verizon FiOS 478; Full Channel 109; and in Massachusetts on Comcast 294 or 312.
Can't get to the TV? Watch the episode online anytime and anywhere on our YouTube channel. Episodes of A Lively Experimentare generally available to watch on the next business day. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and YouTube will notify you when a new episode is uploaded.
Ian Donnis – political reporter, R.I. Public Radio
Dave Layman – corporate communications consultant
Scott MacKay – political analyst, R.I. Public Radio
Mark Murphy – editor, Providence Business News Topics
Last-minute legislation
at the Statehouse
Dynamo House
Sakonnet River Bridge
tolls
Unusual bills
A Lively Experimentairs on WSBE Rhode Island PBS (36.1) Fridays at 8:30 p.m., with rebroadcasts on Saturdays at 7 P.M. on WSBE Learn(36.2), and Sundays at noon on WSBE Rhode Island PBS.
WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on Rhode Island cable: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, and Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable: Comcast 819HD and Verizon FiOS 18 / 518HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36 / 3128HD, Dish Network 7776.
WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; in Rhode Island on Cox 808; Verizon FiOS 478; Full Channel 109; and in Massachusetts on Comcast 294 or 312.
Can't get to the TV? Watch the episode online anytime and anywhere on our YouTube channel. Episodes of A Lively Experimentare generally available to watch on the next business day. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and YouTube will notify you when a new episode is uploaded.
Panel Dyana Koelsch – moderator David Caprio – former Democrat state representative Laurence Ehrhardt – former Republican state representative Dave Layman – communications consultant Maureen Moakley – RI political science professor Topics
2014 state budget debate
Sakonnet River Bridge tolls
Select legislation for Electric Boat?
New occupants for the Dynamo House in Providence
A Lively Experimentairs on WSBE Rhode Island PBS (36.1) Fridays at 8:30 p.m., with rebroadcasts on Saturdays at 7 P.M. on WSBE Learn(36.2), and Sundays at noon on WSBE Rhode Island PBS.
WSBE Rhode Island PBS transmits standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) programming over the air on digital 36.1; on Rhode Island cable: Cox 08 / 1008HD, Verizon FiOS 08 / 508HD, and Full Channel 08; on Massachusetts cable: Comcast 819HD and Verizon FiOS 18 / 518HD; on satellite: DirecTV 36 / 3128HD, Dish Network 7776.
WSBE Learn transmits over the air on digital 36.2; in Rhode Island on Cox 808; Verizon FiOS 478; Full Channel 109; and in Massachusetts on Comcast 294 or 312.
Can't get to the TV? Watch the episode online anytime and anywhere on our YouTube channel. Episodes of A Lively Experimentare generally available to watch on the next business day. Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and YouTube will notify you when a new episode is uploaded.
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