BBC Presenter and Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, Lucy Worsley OBE Visits Local College

Quoted by The Guardian as “the undisputed Queen of TV History”, Lucy Worsley is Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, an established author and presenter of numerous BBC documentaries, including: Lucy Worsley: Elizabeth I’s Battle for God’s Music (BBC 4), Six Wives With Lucy Worsley (BBC 1) and most recently, she won a BAFTA for the specialist factual documentary, Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley (2019).

Following a sell-out talk titled Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother and Widow at Newcastle’s New Vic Theatre the evening prior, London-based historian Lucy visited the College’s Knutton Lane campus to address an audience made up of students and staff from the College’s Performing Arts and A Level History, Film Studies, Media and English departments.

Passionate about making history engaging to the widest possible audience, Lucy entertained around 180 students packed in to the College’s auditorium with a light-hearted, humorous and insightful repertoire during an animated Q&A session. Questions from students included; ‘should Queen Victoria be regarded as a feminist icon?’, ‘if you could bring one historical figure back from the dead, who would it be?’, ‘what is the best artefact you have found whilst examining historical buildings?’ and ‘following your recent BAFTA win, what is the secret to making history programmes that the public want to watch?’

Karen Dobson OBE, Principal & Chief Executive of NSCG said: “To have a historian, presenter, curator and author as highly regarded as Lucy Worsley OBE take time out of her busy schedule to pay us a visit this morning was a real privilege. She had the entire auditorium captivated with humorous recollections of her favourite historical artefacts, appraisal of Henry VIII’s wives, tales of her own educational journey and much more. We were delighted that she was able to join us and thank her wholeheartedly for sharing her infectious passion and enthusiasm for history with our students, all of whom thoroughly enjoyed the session.”