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
Bettany Hughes’s Treasures Of The World
Channel 4
Saturday 8th April, 6.30pm
Series two of the archaeology series concludes in Azerbaijan. Here, classicist and historian Bettany Hughes heads for Gobustan, where she sees 40,000-year-old rock art. Plus Hughes also visits Shari, on the route of the ancient Silk Road, where weavers are still working in a traditional manner.
Fortress Britain With Alice Roberts
Channel 4
Saturday 8th April, 7.30pm
The Cold War era was characterised by paranoia and the ever-present threat of nuclear war. As Alice Roberts, Danielle George and Onyeka Nubia discover, it was an era that resulted in the government investing in bunkers and subterranean weapons stores. Plus the story of how notorious spies such as Kim Philby leaked secrets to the Soviet Union.
Archive On 4: The British Bhangra Explosion
Radio 4
Saturday 8th April, 8pm
During the 1980s and 1990s, British Indians rewired traditional Punjabi folk music by adding electric guitars and synthesizers. As to how all this came about, Anita Rani looks back with the help of key figures such as Alaap, Sheila Chandra and Apache Indian.
The Reunion – pick of the week
Radio 4
Easter Day, 11.15am
Signed on 10 April 1998, the Good Friday Agreement was designed to end The Troubles in Northern Ireland. What happened in the build-up to this momentous day? Key figures – including Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s chief of staff, Bertie Ahearn and Monica McWilliams, co-founder of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition – look back. Presented by Kirsty Wark.
Great Expectations
BBC One
Easter Day, 9pm
Steven Knight’s love-it-or-loathe-it Dickens adaptation reaches episode three. Pip has left Gravesend and gone to work for the lawyer Mr Jaggers, whom it soon becomes clear, if it were’t already, is not the most honest of men. Meantime, Estella learns about Miss Havisham’s scheme.
Pompeii: The Discovery With Dan Snow
Channel 5
Easter Day, 9pm
The historian heads to Italy to tell the story of how Pompeii came to be rediscovered and excavated. Today, the site is associated with careful archaeology, but those who first dug at Pompeii were essentially treasure-hunters. Tourism, we learn, began as early as the 18th century.
Great Lives
Radio 4
Tuesday 11th April, 4.30pm
King in Prussia from 1740, Frederick the Great survived a brutal childhood to become a musician, a writer and, most of all, a man who took extraordinary military risks. But how do contemporary Germans view a man much admired by Hitler? Historian Christopher Clark nominates Frederick as having lived an extraordinary life.
In Our Time
Radio 4
Thursday 13th April, 9am
Melvyn Bragg and guests look back to August 1346, when the armies of France and England met outside the town of Crécy in northern France. The French outnumbered the English, but Edward III prevailed. A battle that grew from years of tension between Edward and Philip VI led to decades of further conflict in the Hundred Years’ War.
Open Country
Radio 4
Thursday 13th April, 3pm
There are around 200 abandoned villages in Norfolk, a county that also has more abandoned churches than anywhere else in the country. Lawrence D’Silva dons his walking boots to discover why this is so, in the process wandering down the grassy outlines of streets that once formed the medieval village of Godwick.
Pilgrimage: The Road Through Portugal
BBC Two
Friday 14th April, 9pm
The latter-day pilgrims continue their journey through Portugal. Highlights in the second of three episodes include a visit to the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and a stop in Porto, a city where several pilgrimage routes intersect.
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