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Images of IS-type jihadis flickered on the screen, execution videos accompanied by snatches of Arabic. We’d been torn apart by religious violence before, that was the point, but the violence
back then was Christian. It wasn’t an unreasonable trick to start this one-off marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation but, like all tricks, it worked less well the more it was
used. Few moments in the hour that followed were without Professor Starkey shoehorning in some comparison so us feeble-minded modern types might have more of a chance of understanding. Henry
VIII’s break with Rome was described as a “hard Brexit”. The 95 “theses” Martin Luther launched against the Roman church were translated into German and then, by means of the new printing
press, “went viral”. The Pope and Luther exchanged insulting pamphlets, the result being “the ultimate Twitter storm”. If I was about to nail my views, like Luther, to the door of Wittenberg
Cathedral, I’d say this approach to history pushes people away rather than pulls them in. If you want them to grasp what a miracle the printed word was, what an incendiary idea it was that
individuals could get to heaven without the vast machinery of the Church, don’t compare them to Twitter. Don’t compare them to anything, in fact, just trust that a grown-up audience gets it.
The rebel monk Martin Luther was on about much the same thing. Hiding from Vatican spies in the fortress of Wartburg, he began translating the Bible into German from the original Greek.
People should be able to read God’s word themselves, he declared, not need priestly elites to interpret it. If Starkey’s approach felt patronising, it was still more balanced than the
version of the Reformation I learned 30 years ago in school. Back then it was all about switched-on Renaissance types sweeping aside the superstitions of the past. As we learned last night,
the German princes who backed Luther mainly wanted to stop paying taxes to the Pope. Meanwhile, in England, Henry VIII just wanted his divorce, and wasn’t partial to either side of the
emerging religious divide. As proof, in 1540, he disembowelled three Roman Catholics and beheaded three Lutherans, all on the same day. I guess we’d call that equal opportunities,
Tudor-style. Barbie: The Most Famous Doll In The World (C4) saw Mary Portas head to the California HQ of makers Mattel. Barbie has a dedicated PR team there and that alone told us how
strangely contentious this toy has become. Sales have fallen 30 per cent over the last three years, causing Barbie’s “management” to wonder if she’s out of step with modern values. Changes
have been made, and Barbie’s wardrobe now boasts astronaut outfits and lab coats. The new “curvy Barbie”, however, still presents to small girls a skewed image of how a woman’s body should
look. What girls make of it is another matter. As Barbie fans and critics spouted off, we wondered if adults were listening to the kids. Boys and girls alike seemed to hold deeply entrenched
views about the gender divide, regardless of what parents said or what toys they played with.