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
You’re Dead To Me
Radio 4
Saturday 6th January, 10am
Greg Jenner’s hit podcast-cum-series returns with an episode devoted to Catherine the Great, empress off Russia between 1762 and 1796. What kind of ruler was she? On hand to help answer this question are comedian David Mitchell and Dr Julia Leikin.
Archive On 4: Saints And Sinners
Radio 4
Saturday 6th January, 8pm
In a show marking the centenary of the first outside broadcast from a UK church, the Rev Dr Giles Fraser looks at the history of religious broadcasting in the UK. Drawing on material from the BBC’s Oral History collection, Fraser tells a story that touches on changing values and the question of who controls religious broadcasting.
Drama: Our Man In Havana
Radio 4
Sunday 7th January, 3pm
Dramatist Jeremy Front’s two-part adaptation of Graham Greene’s satirical novel takes listeners back to Havana under the Fulgencio Batista regime. Rory Kinnear stars as Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman who’s under severe financial pressure when he begins to work with an MI6 agent, Hawthorne (Miles Jupp).
Drama On 3: Bacon In Moscow
Radio 3
Sunday 7th January, 7.30pm
In 1988, a retrospective of paintings by Francis Bacon opened at the Central House of Artists in Moscow. Even in the context of glasnost, this was a remarkable moment. But how did it come about? Timothy Spall stars as Bacon in a play based on a memoir by art gallerist James Birch (Luke Norris).
Call The Midwife
BBC One
Sunday 7th January, 8pm
The East End-set drama returns with a new series set in 1969. The first of eight episodes features comedian Rosie Jones as Doreen Challis, a woman with cerebral palsy whose pregnancy is causing consternation among some of those around her.
Start The Week
Radio 4
Monday 8th January, 9am
In January 1924, James Ramsay MacDonald became the first-ever Labour prime minister, a cue here for Jon Cruddas MP to join Tom Sutcliffe to discuss his new book, A Century Of Labour. The discussion also features the insights of political scientist Jane Green and Jonathan White, professor of politics at the London School of Economics.
Digging For Britain
BBC Two
Tuesday 9th January, 8pm
The first of week’s trio of shows focuses on digs in the east, where the highlights include the discovery of a previously unknown Roman settlement in Lincolnshire. Plus, further east still, there’s a report on work being conducted at the site of the battle of Waterloo in Belgium. The series continues and concludes on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Great American Buffalo – pick of the week
BBC Four
Tuesday 9th January, 10pm
For thousands of years, vast herds of buffalo sustained the indigenous people living on the Great Plains of America. Then Europeans arrived and, by the 1880s, the animals were on the verge of extinction. Over two feature-length episodes, Ken Burns tells the story of the USA’s national mammal.
Lady Killers With Lucy Worsley
Radio 4
Wednesday 10th January, 11.30am
The series in which Lucy Worsley examines crimes committed by women returns. In the first episode, she examines the actions of Maria Manning, who was dubbed the Lady Macbeth of Bermondsey after conspiring with her husband to kill her lover. Novelist Kate Mosse helps Worsley unravel a gruesome tale.
The Cambridgeshire Crucifixion
BBC Four
Wednesday 10th January, 9pm
In 2017, archaeologists working in the village of Fenstanton in the Cambridgeshire Fens were stunned to discover, in the form of a nail through a heelbone, evidence of a Roman-era crucifixion. This documentary charts what happened next, all building up to a full forensic facial reconstruction of the unfortunate victim.
Authors
Start the year with a subscription to BBC History Magazine - £5 for your first 5 issues!
As a print subscriber you also get FREE membership to HistoryExtra.com worth £34.99 + 50% London Art Fair 2024 Tickets
