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
24 Hours: The Fall Of Nazi Germany
Channel 4
Saturday 3rd May, 8pm
In the wake of the suicide of Adolf Hitler, the Allies and what remained of the Nazi regime had to negotiate a peace. As this documentary recounts, it was a fraught process and yet what was decided would shape the future history of the world.
Drama: Victory At Ambridge
BBC Radio 4
Sunday 4th May, 3pm
Dramatised from the novel by Catherine Miller, members of the current cast of the long-running soap play a past generation of Ambridge residents in a Second World War-set drama. In the first of two episodes, Dan and Doris Archer worry about their son Jack’s wife, Peggy, who’s stuck in London. Plus a series of ancient prophecies worry the villagers.
Sunday Feature: Conscripting Beethoven
BBC Radio 3
Sunday 4th May, 7.15pm
During the Second World War, as historian Leah Broad relates here, two world-famous pianists regularly Beethoven’s music, Myra Hess and Elly Ney. But while Hess’s recitals in London emphasised the most compassionate aspects of Beethoven’s music, Ney’s playing came to be associated with Nazism and violence.
VE Day: The Nation Pays Tribute
BBC One
Bank Holiday Monday 5th May, 10.30am
The 80th anniversary of VE Day is almost upon us and the commemorations to mark this momentous moment include a military procession and a flypast in London to honour the Second World War generation. Sophie Raworth presents the BBC’s coverage.
Jonathan Dimbleby: My Father And Belsen
BBC Four
Bank Holiday Monday 5th May, 10pm
The broadcaster reflects on his father Richard’s reporting on the liberation of the Belsen concentration camp in 1945. Followed by Richard Dimbleby At Belsen (10.15pm), an edition of Panorama from 1965 in which, 20 years on, Dimbleby returned to Belsen.
Who Do You Think You Are?
BBC One
Tuesday 6th May, 9pm
Ross Kemp of EastEnders fame is the latest celebrity to research his family history. He begins by focusing on his great-grandfather, Arthur ‘Pop’ Chalmers, who was one of 11 siblings and grew up in a pub in a Portsmouth. Two more generations back, Kemp learns about a forebear who served in the Napoleonic Wars.
Half-Life
BBC Radio 4
Wednesday 7th May, 9.30am
In an eight-part series, novelist and journalist Joe Dunthorne embarks on an investigation into his own family history by telling the story of his German-Jewish great-grandfather, Siegfried, a chemist. Dunthorne expects to find a story of escaping the Nazis, but Siegfried’s memoirs tell an even darker tale.
Drama: The Talented Mr Shakespeare
Radio 4
Wednesday 7th May, 2.15pm
It’s 1591 and Christopher Marlowe is less than happy with the way William Shakespeare is claiming to be the sole author of the Henry VI plays. Cue Marlowe plotting with the actor Will Kemp to murder The Bard. Darkly comic events ensue. Starring Mark Gatiss as Sir Robert Cecil.
VE Day: The Nation Remembers – pick of the week
BBC One
Thursday 8th May, 10.45am
The BBC’s coverage of VE Day commemorations begins today with Sophie Raworth introducing coverage of a service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey. Later in the day, VE Day at 80: A Celebration To Remember (BBC One, 8pm) is centred on a live concert being held on Horse Guards Parade.
Marie Antoinette
BBC Two
Thursday 8th May, 9pm
The historical drama returns for a second series. It’s now 1783, the weather is bitter and Marie (Emilia Schüle) is worried by the suffering she sees from her carriage as she travels through Paris. Trouble may lie ahead. More immediately, the queen risks a scandal when she elevates Yolande.