As the Iran war enters its third week, there is still no defined US strategy or future planning for the region, laments Herald columnist Kevin McKenna

Every once in a while, the BBC shows us why the licence fee is cheap at the price. The three-part documentary The Normans, presented by Robert Bartlett, Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at St Andrews University, is one of those broadcasting jewels that are beyond the capability or will of the US subscription streaming platforms.

 Beautifully filmed on location throughout Britain and France and vividly curated by this no-frills historian, it shows us how the Norman Conquest continues to shape the political, religious and economic destiny of Britain and Ireland.

The dissonance of the middle ages in Norman England rarely ceases to beguile you. The implacable brutality of William the Conqueror’s reign proceeded alongside a level of statesmanship, economic stewardship and political future-proofing that was sophisticated and visionary.

It’s perhaps a happy coincidence for the BBC that this sumptuous production began streaming just as the US and Israel started to bomb Iran. Thus, we’ve been gifted one of those rare moments of truth when it becomes clear that in the course of 1,000 years the men who would lust after global domination today – despite having technology that can lasso stars – remain beholden to the savagery that annexed kingdoms in the Middle Ages.

History withholds judgment on the Normans’ favoured behead-first, ask-questions-later approach. After all, they bequeathed an architectural, artistic and literary heritage and a legal and economic system that would lay the foundations for the world’s most successful empire.

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