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
Archive On 4: Outrage Inc
BBC Radio 4
Saturday 23rd August, 8pm
Ranging across time from the suffragettes to, in the name of highlighting the dangers of global heating, soup being chucked at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, publicist Mark Borkowski explores the history of political protest stunts. Featuring archive and new interviews, including the reflections of Led By Donkeys, longtime activist Jamie Kelsey Fry and Extinction Rebellion’s co-founder, Clare Farrell.
Bettany Hughes’s Lost Worlds: The Nabataeans
Channel 4
Saturday 23rd August, 8.10pm
The Nabataean Kingdom represents, in the estimation of Bettany Hughes, the forgotten empire of the ancient world. All the more reason for the classicist to trace its history in a three-part series that begins with a visit to the archaeological site of Hegra in Saudi Arabia, where recent discoveries include human remains buried in extraordinary rock-cut tombs.
We Want The Funk
BBC Two
Saturday 23rd August, 9.10pm
How did funk develop? This one-off documentary tells a story with roots in African music and jazz, and which encompasses, among others, James Brown, Sly And The Family Stone and Parliament-Funkadelic. There’s plenty here about the place of funk in the politics of 1970s America and the music is, of course, fabulous.
The Castle: Rebuilding History
Channel 4
Sunday 24th August, 7.30pm
In a project that’s lasted years, Norwich Castle’s Norman Keep has been substantially restored so that visitors can now see how our forebears would have used the building. In a one-off documentary, cameras eavesdrop on those trying to ensure the work is carried out to the most exacting – and historically accurate – standards.
King And Conqueror – pick of the week
BBC One
Sunday 24th August, 9.10pm
How did the rivalry between William of Normandy (played here by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau of Game Of Thrones fame) and Harold Godwinson (James Norton) reach a point where they both thought they had no choice but to face each other in battle? An eight-part drama that’s one of the highlights of the BBC’s autumn schedule. Continues Monday (9.30pm).
The Second Map
BBC Radio 4
Bank Holiday Monday 25th August, 11am
Even during the Second World War, the 14th Army was known as ‘The Forgotten Army’. And yet, as Kavita Puri traces in the second part of her series on the conflict in Asia, it numbered nearly a million British Empire troops, who were tasked with winning back Burma and fought hugely significant battles.
Hollywood And The Adland Five
BBC Radio 4
Bank Holiday Monday 25th August, 7.15pm
In the late 1970s and 1980s, a new generation of British directors, men who had started out in advertising, gatecrashed the world of feature films. In a four-part weeknight series, two Sir Christophers steeped in cinema, Nolan and Frayling, argue that Hugh Hudson, Adrian Lyne, Alan Parker, Ridley and Tony Scott collectively transformed the movie industry.
Disaster At Sea: The Piper Alpha Story
BBC Two
Bank Holiday Monday 25th August, 9pm
On 6 July 1988, a series of explosions ripped through the Piper Alpha oil platform in the North Sea. As this three-part series recounts, the disaster took the lives of 167 workers and rescuers. The first episode details the initial hour of the disaster.
Iron Curtain: Living Under Soviet Occupation
PBS America
Tuesday 26th August, 8.40pm
Following the Second World War, eastern European countries occupied by the Red Army fell under the influence of Soviet Russia. What was it like to live in nations such as Hungary, Poland and East Germany during these years? Shown over successive evenings, a three-part series that takes the story up to the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
Talking Pictures: The Godfather Trilogy
BBC Four
Thursday 28th August, 8.15pm
In a documentary that draws heavily on the BBC archives, Celia Imrie revisits the stories behind the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s classic gangster trilogy. Followed by screenings of The Godfather (9pm) and The Godfather Part II (11.45pm), films that offer insights both into the USA in the 1970s and into the history of Italian-Americans.