Brigantia iron age Celtic re-enactment society


 

BRIGANTIA is an historical re-enactment society, recreating the iron age Celts since 1990. We are based around Portsmouth in Hampshire in the south of England and travel around the UK and Europe performing public displays of combat and living history for fairs, museums, schools, local councils and national heritage organizations.

Do you have an event in mind that might need us?

Brigantia has done schools weeks, films, TV appearances, documentaries, combat displays and domestic displays for English Heritage, local councils, television companies, museums and fairs.

We are a non profit-making society, and our charges vary. The following is only typical.

For film work we ask for full expenses (travel, food and accommodation), plus the standard rate for an extra for each member on set, plus £150 for the society.

For shows we usually ask for travel expenses (petrol and sometimes van hire) and somewhere to pitch our tents, plus £150 for the society.

School visits by 2 or 3 of us usually cost about £50 to £100, depending on location.

We are not a big organisation, and usually field up to a dozen of our members at a show.



BRIGANTIA SHOWS

2007

April
Saturday 28th &
Sunday 29th
Organising combat displays in Danebury Ring iron age hill fort near Stockbridge in Hampshire.
June
Saturday 2nd &
Sunday 3rd
Taking part in Templecombe Medieval Festival in Somerset.
August
Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th
Taking part in the huge Battle of Camlann at Tintagel in Cornwall.
September
Saturday 8th
Taking part in historic fayre in Ham Hill Country Park in Somerset.



BRIGANTIA TV CREDITS

2006 After doing Cuchullain, Rick became Vercingetorix for Terry Jones' Barbarian Lives on the BBC.
2004 Did some fight scenes (in sillouhette again) for episode 3 of the 4 part historical series Pagans on channel 4, written and presented by Richard Rudgley.
2003 Animal Devil - an hour long Burning Gold production about the parts played by various animals in myth. For the section on ravens we enacted great scenes from The Tain - starring Rick as a very credible Cuchullain. Well, he scared me.

Heard but not seen in Boudicca - an ambitious co-production between British ITV and American WGBH network, written by Andrew Davies and directed by Bill Anderson. It was made by Box Films in the Czech republic and the crowd scenes sounded wrong, so we spent a day in a London sound studio recording chants, battle cries and sword fight noises till we were hoarse.

Seven Ages of Britain - a seven episode series produced by Wildfire for Channel 4 introduced by Bettany Hughes. Episode 2 is about the iron age, and this author (Lugodoc himself) was the only person they could find to demonstrate a sling shot from the ramparts of Danebury Ring iron age hill fort in Hampshire. My finest minute.
2002 Conaan and Lugodoc are interviewed for seven minutes on Portsmouth Televsion on August 14th.

In February we did a gruelling three-day shoot to recreate the deaths of several iron age persons in bogs for a documentary on bog bodies made by Brighton Films for The Discovery Channel. We used real bogs.
2001 Recreate neolithic and bronze age sky burial and cremation scenes (mostly in sillouhette) at Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire for the Bones of Contention episode of Cannibal - a four part documentary on cannibalism made by 3BM for Channel 4. This series was released to coincide with the release of Hannibal (starring Anthony Hopkins) at the cinema.

Ran around like loonies in the night in the Forest of Bere in Hampshire recreating The Siege of Anglesey in AD 60 for Welsh TV. Produced by Telegraffiti.

Rebuilding The Past on Channel 4 - added life to a roundhouse built on the site of an original excavation on the Bisley Farm iron age site in Kent. Conaan wowed us all when he spectacularly wielded a sword reconstructed from a grave find, and sliced a melon in half with great aplomb.

Secrets Of The Living Dead made by Electric Sky for Channel 4 - we re-enact the death of an iron age warrior stabbed in the collar bone. This was the most fake blood we ever had to deal with.
2000
Celtic Myths 4 - Sex & Society made by Electric Sky for Welsh TV, featuring Professor Ronald Hutton. We supplied the young lovers for the short scenes illustrating The Mabinogion.

What If? - Boudicca for BBC Bristol. A half-hour documentary asking - what if Boudicca had defeated the Romans? This time the heroine is played by the wonderfully named Imogen Slaughter.
1999 Ambiorix in Time TouristsA whole episode of Time Tourists for Meridian TV, filmed at New Barn near Dorchester in Dorset. A builder and a cake maker are transported back to the 1st century B.C. We nearly built a whole smithy in less than a day, but we finished the cakes!

Film a small segment of Hope And Beauty at Danebury Ring for Black Inc Productions- a documentary on cosmetics to be shown on The Discovery Channel.
1994 Andrea Mason as BoudiccaTake part with several other Celtic groups in filming Boudicca for Castle Video to be released by W.H. Smith. Andrea Mason (later to appear on the popular cop show The Bill) has the title role.

Take part with several other Celtic groups in filming the iron age Celtic episode of Ancient Warriors to be released on The Discovery Channel.

On February 12th we appear for 8 minutes on  London Weekend Television's flagship Saturday night TV show Barrymore, along with some Romans.
1993
The Celtic Fury -  directed by a mad Italian but never finished or shown, this documentary would have depicted events around the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43. Champion fights, feasts, deer hunts and water sacrifices were all filmed (real film, not video) over 3 days at Castell Henllys in South West Wales, with other Celtic groups including the Prytani and the Silures tribes. If anyone reading this knows what happened to the footage, please get in touch.



 

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©2003 - Brigantia