History TV and radio in the UK: what's on our screens this week?
Can't decide which shows to watch or listen to this week? Here are the latest history radio and TV programmes airing in the UK that you won't want to miss
Bettany Hughes’s Treasures Of The World
Channel 4
Saturday 18th October, 7pm
East to Uzbekistan, where the classicist visits Termez. Here, she considers how Alexander the Great’s campaigns in the area, where he built a major city, led to a rich exchange of religious ideas. Among other highlights, Hughes also offers a primer on Zoroastrian funerary practices.
Great British Train Journeys From Above
Channel 4
Saturday 18th October, 8pm
Hugh Bonneville narrates as cameras follow the route of the narrow-gauge Ffestiniog Railway in Gwynedd. Now a heritage route that takes chuffed tourists through the grandeur of Snowdonia National Park, the railway was once crucial in connecting slate quarries with the wider world via the harbour at Porthmadog.
Archive On 4: A People’s History Of Gaza
BBC Radio 4
Saturday 18th October, 8pm
Tim Whewell charts the story of Gaza through the testimony of those who have lived in the tiny territory. Those offering their memories include an 89-year-old who arrived in Gaza via camel in 1948. For all the violence and strife, there are reminders of better times, as in the 1990s when an ongoing peace process held out hope.
Rob Brydon’s Honky Tonk Road Trip
BBC Two
Sunday 19th October, 9pm
The comedian begins the final leg of his travels through the American South in Alabama. Here, he salutes the influence of black musicians on country music. He also visits Memphis, Tennessee, home to Sun Studio, where Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash recorded their earliest hits. His travels conclude, as is only correct, at the Grand Ole Opry.
The House At Number 48
BBC Radio 4
Monday 20th October, 1.45pm
Over 10 weekday episodes, Antony Easton investigates the life of his father, who left behind an unassuming leather suitcase when he passed. Its contents prove to be extraordinary, the first step in a personal journey that takes Easton into the past and touches on some of the darkest moments in 20th-century German history.
The Secret Letters Of Mary Queen Of Scots – pick of the week
BBC Two
Monday 20th October, 9pm
Imprisoned for much of her life, Mary Queen of Scots took to communicating with confidants through coded letters smuggled out to the wider world. What do these letters tell us about her life? A documentary focusing on three amateur codebreakers and their work deciphering a clutch of documents. (Also broadcast on BBC Scotland, Saturday 18th October, 9pm.)
The Forsytes
5
Monday 20th October, 9pm
Following previous adaptations in 1967 and 2002, novelist John Galsworthy’s family saga comes to the small screen for the third time. Beginning in the late Victorian era, the books follow the lives of an upper-class family whose money comes from stockbroking. A starry cast includes Jack Davenport, Eleanor Tomlinson and Tuppence Middleton.
When Kevin Met Sadie
BBC Radio 4
Tuesday 21st October, 4pm
The five Kevin and Sadie novels (1970–76), written for young adults by Joan Lingard (1932–2022), told the story of a young couple in Northern Ireland. As The Troubles raged, here were books that told of love across the sectarian divide. BBC Ireland correspondent Chris Page, who read the stories as a boy, salutes their enduring cultural influence.
Witches Of Essex
Sky History
Tuesday 21st October, 9pm
More sleuthing into past events east of the capital as Rylan Clark and Professor Alice Roberts look back to the Elizabethan era. More specifically, they re-investigate the case of midwife Ursula Kemp, who lived in the village of St Osyth and was accused of using sorcery to bering about the death of a friend’s daughter.
Classic Movies: The Story of The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp
Sky Arts
Thursday 23rd October, 8pm
In the 1940s, filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger crafted an extraordinary run of movies that mixed cinematic spectacle and arthouse sophistication. The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943) was among the best of these, a satirical celebration of British stoicism. Winston Churchill loathed it, but Blimp was a huge hit with British audiences.