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
Pride And Prejudice
BBC Radio 4
Saturday 13th December, 3.15pm
Marking the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, here’s a new adaptation of one of her best-loved novels. Concludes Sunday (3pm). Narrated by Tamsin Greig. Listen out too for When I Met Jane Austen (weekdays from Monday 15th December, 11.45am & 1.45pm), in which celebrities, beginning with David Baddiel, recall their first encounters with the novelist’s work.
Archive On 4: The Battle Of The Drina
BBC Radio 4
Saturday 13th December, 8pm
Filmmaker Fiona Lloyd-Davies looks back three decades to the siege of Goražde, a Bosniak enclave that was surrounded by Bosnian Serb forces during the bitter breakup of the former Yugoslavia. There’s a personal element to the story as Lloyd-Davies remembers how coming under fire affected her sister Vanessa, a British Army doctor who committed suicide in 2005.
Great Lives
BBC Radio 4
Monday 15th December, 3pm
The series where celebrities speak up for historical figures returns. In the first of eight new episodes, former astronaut Tim Peake nominates Jeffrey Quill (1913–96), Vickers Aviation’s chief test pilot who was a central figure in the development of the Supermarine Spitfire. Presented by Matthew Parris.
Civilisations: Rise And Fall
BBC Two
Monday 15th December, 9pm
The series concludes by charting what happened when Japan’s samurai class encountered the industrialised west in the middle of the 19th century. It’s the story of an elite determined to maintain its hold on power, US gunboats and a clash of cultures that changed Japan forever.
The Essay: Accompanying Austen
BBC Radio 3
Monday 15th December, 9.45pm
Over five weekday nights, film critic Antonia Quirk meets composers who have provided the music for Jane Austen adaptations, and for a biopic of the novelist. First up, she hears from Rachel Portman, whose score for the 1996 film version of Emma, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, won an Oscar.
Lady Killers With Lucy Worsley
BBC Radio 4
Tuesday 16th December, 3pm
Season four of the show about women who got caught up in the criminal justice system begins with an episode recorded at the Hay Literature Festival. Novelist Sarah Waters, Lucy Worsley and historian Rosalind Crone’s subject is women who inspired fictional characters in books, including Margaret Garner, an escaped slave whose life Toni Morrison researched when writing Beloved.
What’s The Monarchy For?
BBC One
Tuesday 16th December, 9pm
How has the royal family shaped its public image down the years? Concluding his series on the Windsors’ place in the 21st century, David Dimbleby considers the royals’ relationship with broadcasters. Satirist Ian Hislop of Private Eye fame is among those offering their insights.
Mozart: Genius For Hire
Sky Arts
Tuesday 16th December, 9pm
In the first of three documentaries shown over successive evenings, the topic is how Mozart broke from courtly patronage. Featuring Matthew Broome and David Harewood reading from letters between Mozart and his father. Also look out for Mozart’s Sister (Wednesday, 9pm) and Mozart’s Women (Thursday, 9pm). A drama based on Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus is headed for Sky next week.
Persuasion: The Read With Monica Dolan
BBC4
Thursday 18th December, 8pm
The actor Monica Dolan (Mr Bates Vs The Post Office, Sherwood) reads from Jane Austen’s last completed novel, which tells the story of 27-year-old Anne Elliot and her on-off relationship with naval officer Frederick Wentworth. A soothing Jackanory for grown-ups that nonetheless deals with big themes, including how money and class shaped people’s lives in the Regency era.
Christmas Treasures Of The National Trust – pick of the week
BBC Two
Friday 19th December, 9pm
In a one-off episode of the entertaining fly-on-the-wall series, cameras follow life at three National Trust properties in the run-up to the festive season. At Victorian mansion Cragside in Northumberland, the team prepares to recreate a servants’ ball. At Tudor-era Cotehele, Cornwall, staff work on a 60ft seasonal garland and there’s a 1920s-themed bash at Colston Fishacre in Devon.