Lincoln Professor ‘Thrilled’ to be Consultant on BAFTA-winning Documentary

Krista Cowman, Professor of History and Director of Research for the College of Arts, offered her expertise for the documentary ‘Suffragettes with Lucy Wirsley’ which won the BAFTA for Specialist Factual Documentary at last night’s awards ceremony.

The documentary was presented by Lucy Worsley and used dramatized testimonies to tell the story of working-class women conducting a dangerous campaign to be given the right to vote in the UK. The programme explores the actions of these women as the suffrage campaign becomes more and more dangerous, and provides access to an amazing range of artefacts, from hunger-striking medals, diffused bombs and private letters.

Krista’s career has focused on women in politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which has included the suffrage campaign, ‘war brides’ in France and women campaigners for post-war reconstruction in Britain both in and out or parliament. Her expertise has also been used in ‘The Suffragette’ 2015 feature film, BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour and numerous TV and radio programmes.

Krista said: “I was thrilled to be asked to work on the programme screened on BBC1 as part of the suffrage centenary celebrations last year.

“The programme really brought the militant suffrage movement alive and showed a new audience some of the sacrifices very ordinary women took to win the vote, and the ends they were prepared to go to.

“Drama documentary is the perfect medium for translating complex historical research for a general audience, and it’s great that production companies are working with academics in this way.”