Faces have changed, glasses are common, people are significantly heavier, and beards are more prevalent today. The trick of doing a documentary is to provide entertainment while staying true to the history. TV people and scholars fix on and obsess about different things. He hopes the two fields provide the viewers with a good balance. While the scholarship is critical, the drama of events surrounding the formation of the United States makes a good yarn.
Opportunities abound for the Revolution to fail.
In the days before fast communications, somehow the American and French troops had to march from New England to Virginia in late summer 1781. The objective was to get to Yorktown in time to meet French admiral Count de Grasse's fleet, which was traveling from the Caribbean to the Chesapeake Bay. But the Admiral was only available until the middle of October. Fortunately, the besieged General Charles Cornwallis surrendered October 17. The British reinforcements arrived a week later after the French fleet had gone.