Terry Jones’ Great Map Mystery
Dates: May 13th -June 3rd 2008
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Presenter: Terry Jones
Time: Approx. 30 minutes
Web Site: Terry Jones’ Great Map Mystery
Below is a comprehensive review of the BBC documentary series Terry Jones’ Great Map Mystery (2008). It is aimed at historians and documentary enthusiasts. It appeals to anyone interested in the intersection of cartography, travel, and historical speculation.
Overview of Terry Jones’ Great Map Mystery
Terry Jones’ Great Map Mystery is a four-part BBC television documentary series. It first aired in 2008 on BBC Two Wales. The series was presented and driven by Terry Jones. He is the former Monty Python member known in later life for his work as a medieval historian and documentarian.
Jones presents four half-hour episodes. These include The Road to Aberystwyth, The Road to St David’s, St David’s to Holywell, and Chester to Holyhead. He embarks on a journey through Wales. The journey is guided by John Ogilby’s 1675 road atlas Britannia. This was the first published comprehensive road map of England and Wales. Over a journey of roughly 18th-century road itineraries, the series blends travelogue with historical investigation and personal reflection.
Structure and Thematic Focus
The series is structured chronologically, following old strip-map routes from the English border into Wales and across to Holyhead. As Jones travels, the documentary interleaves:
- Landscape and travel sequences that vividly place viewers within the Welsh terrain;
- Historical narration recounting Ogilby’s life, the production of Britannia, and its social and political context.
- Argumentation around a central mystery, Jones suggests that Ogilby’s map is intended as a coded blueprint. It relates to a planned French invasion of Britain. This plan had clandestine royal support.
The result is not merely a walking tour. It is an effort to rethink the purpose and subtext of an early modern cartographic work. It blends historical research with practical historiographical inquiry.
Presentation and Production
On the technical side, the series is well produced for its time:
- Cinematography emphasizes rural Welsh vistas and the lived trace of cartographic paths in the modern landscape.
- Jones’s presentation style is conversational, personable, and often humorous—consistent with his persona developed in other BBC history documentaries.
- Pacing remains brisk for episodic television, with each installment running roughly 30 minutes.
The tone oscillates between earnest historical curiosity and Jones’s trademark wit. It aims to make the topic approachable for a mainstream audience.
Critical and Viewer Reception
The critical reception of Great Map Mystery is captured by major aggregator sites like Rotten Tomatoes. It shows a lack of formal critic reviews. There are no aggregated scores. This means mainstream critical coverage at the time of broadcast was limited. It also didn’t translate into long-term archived ratings.
Still, audience and community reception is generally positive:
- IMDb lists the series around a 7.5/10 rating, indicating relative approval from viewers who have rated it.
- Online community discussions (e.g., Reddit threads among documentary and Monty Python fans) appreciate it for its blend of travel, history, and historical personality, and as part of Jones’s non-comedic oeuvre.
It’s worth noting that the series aired more than a decade ago. It had a limited original BBC Wales broadcast. As a result, Great Map Mystery never achieved the broad cultural penetration of other UK historical documentaries. It has virtually no dedicated mainstream reviews in outlets like The Guardian or BBC Culture archives.
Strengths of the Series
1. Engagement with Cartography as Historical Text
The series treats Ogilby’s Britannia not just as a static artifact. It views it as a dynamic historical document. This document shaped and reflected early modern mobility. It influenced political consciousness and geographical cognition. Jones’s journey shows how the road atlas functions as a tool. It also acts as a cultural statement about Wales and England in the 17th century.
2. Narrative Drive
Jones frames the series as a mystery investigation. This approach gives narrative propulsion to what otherwise is esoteric material. This generates interest in both the historical figure of Ogilby and in the broader context of post-Restoration Britain.
3. Accessibility
Uses accessible language and humor to bridge academic and general audiences. It makes mapping history approachable without significant prior knowledge. This is a common challenge in documentary formats on specialized subjects.
Limitations and Critiques
1. Scarcity of Scholarly Engagement in Mainstream Press
The documentary received limited attention from established television critics and history reviewers. Thus, it lacks formal published critiques situating it within the historiography of cartography or British travel history. This makes it harder to assess its academic impact.
2. Speculative Premise
Much of the “mystery” in the series involves speculative interpretation. This is especially true for the idea of a secret coded blueprint of invasion motives embedded in Ogilby’s atlas. It does not align with widely accepted historical analysis. While this speculative angle works narratively, historians who adhere to stricter methodological standards find the interpretive leap unsupported. It is beyond what primary texts, apart from Jones’s framing, can substantiate.
3. Limited Episode Depth
With only four half-hour episodes, substantive engagement with the deep context of 17th-century politics can feel compressed. Discussion of cartographic production is also limited. Ogilby’s personal life is similarly condensed. Viewers seeking deeper academic insight will want to supplement with books or journal literature on early modern mapping.
Comparative Context
Terry Jones’ Great Map Mystery belongs to a tradition of British documentary series. They leverage travel, history, and personal narration. This is akin to other presenter-led explorations like A History of Britain or Coast. Nonetheless, it focuses specifically on cartographic history. It also delves into early modern routes, placing it closer to niche academic terrain than broad general history surveys.
It can be viewed alongside more recent works. These explore historical cartography’s societal impacts at greater length. Examples include Maps: Power, Plunder & Possession (BBC/Prof. Jerry Brotton) and various academic essays on Britannia itself. But Jones’s series is unique in fusing a field journey with interpretive argument built around one historical artifact.
Conclusion: Scholarly and Public Value
Terry Jones’ Great Map Mystery is best understood as a hybrid documentary—equal parts travelogue, history lesson, and speculative inquiry into the cultural meaning of cartographic practice:
- It highlights the interplay between map as artifact and map as lived landscape, using Jones’s journey to animate historical geography.
- The tone is not aggressively scholarly. It introduces key concepts of early modern mapping, historical agency, and geographical imagination in a digestible format.
- For viewers interested in cartography, early modern Britain, or historical documentaries led by engaging presenters, it offers a compelling experience. It is compact and rewarding. a compelling, compact, and rewarding watch.
Historians approaching the series should appreciate its narrative creativity while maintaining critical distance from uncorroborated speculative interpretations. It’s a valuable entry point into the history of mapping, but best supplemented with academic readings for in-depth study.