Fighting talk from Lawless

There is something about a woman's wrath that makes it well worth staying away from.

The result of a woman's wrath is generally a requirement to say sorry, even if mouthing that hideous word is anathema.

Sorry probably wouldn't cut it for Boudica, whose life is told by the very fine Lucy Lawless in Warrior Women.

Lucy - the star of Xena: Warrior Princess in TV reality - hosts this five-part series on the Documentary Channel from August 26.

Boudica, who was queen of a Celtic tribe, led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire.

That's what I'm told anyway.

To be honest, there is no way I can back this up with evidence.

Having said that, I did see it on TV, and some of what you are about to read I got from Wikipedia, so I'm pretty sure.

As sure as you can be.

Anyway, Boudica's husband, Prasutagus, ruler of the Iceni tribe who had ruled as a nominally independent ally of Rome, left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and the Roman Emperor in his will.

However, when he died his will was ignored.

The kingdom was annexed, Boudica was flogged, her daughters raped, and Roman financiers called in their loans, taking her land.

That really does add insult to injury, and, to be fair, you would be quite annoyed.

The result of Boudica's anger was the loss of 70,000 lives, as she went on something of an extended rampage, ignoring the possibly thousands of sorries that, I'm sure, would have headed in her direction.

Sadly, there are some problems with Warrior Women.

For a start, Lucy's accent appears to have changed, and, if I didn't know better, I would think she was, linguistically, somewhere between England and Australia.

But, worse, look for the scene where Prasutagus is being cremated on a large log fire.

Yes: Those are power lines in the background.

It is not fair to be picky, but there are hundreds of these shows about ancient history, and some are very good.

I'll say no more.

Speaking of women, the driving force behind the New Zealand International Science Festival will feature on Talk Talk, on TVNZ7 this Saturday.

Dame Elizabeth Hanan, a companion of the Royal Society of New Zealand for her contribution to science communication, will discuss her work in science and civic life.

Dame Elizabeth survived a remarkable 18 years as a Dunedin city councillor.

If for no other reason ...

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