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
Ancient Greece By Train With Alice Roberts
Channel 4
Saturday 15th March, 8pm
Having taken to the tracks to explore the histories of Ancient Egypt and the Ottoman Empire, Alice Roberts now turns her attention to the world of the Ancient Greeks. She begins in the northern city of Thessaloniki, famed for its associations with Alexander the Great.
Lockdown’s Legacy: Waiting For Covid
BBC Radio 4
Saturday 15th March, 8pm
It’s five years since the first Covid lockdown, a mournful anniversary marked with a series of shows on BBC Radio 4 that act as a kind of second draft of history in the wake of contemporaneous journalism. First up, the focus is on the four-month period when the pandemic moved towards the UK’s shores.
Dope Girls
BBC One
Saturday 15th March, 9.15pm
Episode four of the stylish drama and Kate tries to broker a peace with the Saluccis. Meantime, Turner puts more pressure on Violet, who, now working undercover at the club, makes an unexpected discovery. Plus Billie and Evie go in search of solace.
The Story Of Solent City
BBC Radio 4
Sunday 16th March, 7.15pm
The writer Owen Hatherley looks back at plans to link the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth. The result of this 1960s dreaming would have been a Los Angeles-style grid conurbation. Why didn’t it happen? And what does the failure of the idea have to tell us today?
David Herman Remembers… Face To Face
BBC Four
Sunday 16th March, 9pm
David Herman, who produced the interview strand Face To Face when it was revived in 1989, looks back at the show’s history. Followed by highlights from the series, including archive interviews with Tony Hancock (9.55pm), Martin Luther King (11.40pm) and Professor Carl Jung (1.20am).
Human Intelligence
BBC Radio 4
Monday 17th March, 1.45pm
Naomi Alderman’s series celebrating the human mind returns. The latest run of 10 episodes begins with shows focusing on those who worked on the Manhattan Project, beginning with J Robert Oppenheimer. Other programmes profile Miles Bohr, John von Neumann, Lise Meitner and, the pacifist whose work helped kick-start efforts to build the bomb, Albert Einstein.
Great Continental Railway Journeys
BBC Two
Monday 17th March, 6.30pm
Michael Portillo latest adventure begins in the Norwegian port of Bergen and ends in the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen. In the first of five weekday episodes, he visits the home of composer Edvard Grieg. Other highlights this week include a visit to a site associated with Second World War heroism.
Masters Of Reinvention
U&Yesterday
Monday 17th March, 8pm
Mechanical engineer Dr Shini Somara oversees proceedings as experts complete builds inspired by projects from the magazine Practical Mechanics, which ceased publishing in 1963. First up, the projects are a camping trailer from 1950 and a two-seat toboggan from 1960.
Orchestras Of Auschwitz
BBC Radio 4
Tuesday 18th March, 4pm
Composer and conductor Leo Geyer has been studying the music once played by the orchestras at Auschwitz. Here, we listen in as Geyer and his company, Constella, prepare to perform an 80-minute piece made up from fragments of music salvaged from the camp.
Saint Patrick: Born In Britain, Made In Ireland – pick of the week
BBC Two
Thursday 20th March, 9pm
Ciarán Hinds narrates a documentary telling the story of Ireland’s patron saint. Patrick, we learn, the son of a wealthy family, was first kidnapped and trafficked to Ireland. After escaping, he became a priest and made the momentous decision to return and forever change the trajectory of Ireland’s history.