Ray’s History Radio & TV Picks. No.16. 21 May 2015.

The Last Days of Julius Caesar
Channel 5: Thu 21 May 2015, 20.00 – 21.00. 6/6.
Writers and historians debate the Ancient Roman politics behind the assassination of Julius Caesar. http://www.channel5.com/shows/the-last-days-of/episodes/julius-caesar-2

Art of China.
BBC Four: Fri 22 May 2015, 00.45 – 01.45. 1 /3
Andrew Graham-Dixon pieces together the spectacular recent discoveries of ancient art that are redefining China’s understanding of its origins. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04c3cmw

Britain’s Deadliest Rail Disaster: Quintinshill
BBC Four: Thu 21 May 2015, 21.00 – 22.00.
On 22 May 1915, a collision near Gretna became Britain’s deadliest ever rail crash. Involving a military train filled with troops heading for Gallipoli and two passenger trains, the crash claimed an estimated 226 lives and left hundreds more injured. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05vqx7v

Britain’s Greatest Generation.
BBC 2: Fri 22 May 2015, 21.30 – 22.30. 3 / 4. Fight for Freedom
A documentary look at the defiant spirit that brought the nation together during WWII as seen through the eyes of the generation who fought or lived through it. This episode interweaves stories of extraordinary courage, terrible suffering and miraculous survival from servicemen and women between 1942 and 1945.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05wdp6g
Episodes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05v3q9l/episodes/guide

Anzac Girls
More 4, Fri 22 May 2015, 21.00 – 22.00. 4/6
This new Australian World War I period drama is based on real letters and diaries of five young women from Australia and New Zealand in the First World War. The nurses are seconded to a British hospital near the Western Front in France: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/anzac-girls

1864
BBC Four: Sat 23 May 2015, 21.00 – 23.00. Episodes 3 & 4. Danish with English subtitles.
Danish drama which weaves personal stories with the wider political rumblings of a conflict fought over the Schleswig-Holstein question, a diplomatic dispute between Denmark and Prussia. Denmark officially lays claim to Schleswig, triggering a declaration of war from Prussia. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05wmygd
General De Meza decides to withdraw to Dybbol: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05wmygk

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
BBC 1: Sun 24 May 2015, 21.00 – 22.00. 2/7: How Is Lady Pole?
In the early 19th Century, two men are destined to bring magic back to England. Mr Norrell takes on Jonathan Strange as his apprentice; a pupil that outshines the master: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05x1hzy

Armada: 12 Days to Save England.
BBC 2: Sun 24 May 2015, 21.00 – 22.00. Repeated Mon 23.30 – 00.30. 1 / 3.
In the first part of a major three-part drama documentary series, Anita Dobson stars as Elizabeth I, and Dan Snow takes to the sea to tell the story of how England came within a whisker of disaster in summer 1588.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pkxkm

1945: The Savage Peace
BBC 2: Sun 24 May 2015, 22.00 – 23.00.
When the Second World War ended, the people of liberated Europe celebrated their freedom from Nazi tyranny. Their years of suffering had ended, but for millions of Germans, the end of the conflict opened a new and terrible chapter. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05x30lb

Incarnations: India in 50 Lives.
BBC Radio 4: Mon 25 – Fri 29 May 2015, 13.45 – 14.00. Episodes 11-15 of new daily series.
Professor Sunil Khilnani profiles Amir Khusro, Kabir, Guru Nanak, Krishnadevaraya and Mirabel:
Series details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05rptbv

Tommies: Mon 25 May 1915
BBC Radio 4: Mon 25 May 2015, 14.15 – 15.00. 5/5 Drama based on unit war diaries and eye-witness
Today Mickey Bliss, from the Lahore Division of the British Indian Army, is in London, taking time out from signals training at Aldershot to look up an old friend who might finance his much-needed overhearing device.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05vx1bv
Previous episode from 1914 (2014) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04l902x/broadcasts/2015/04

Inside the Medieval Mind
BBC Four: Mon 25 May 2015, 20.00 – 21.00. Repeat of 2008 series. 2 / 4: Sex.
Robert Bartlett examines thought during medieval times. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b009wzw3

Landmark. The Thirty-Nine Steps and World War I
BBC Radio 3. Mon 25 May, 2015. 22.00 – 22.45.
In a special edition of Free Thinking, Matthew Sweet talks to Buchan’s biographer Andrew Lownie and Buchan scholars Dr Michael Redley and Dr Kate Macdonald about the connections between Buchan’s own war experience and The Thirty-Nine Steps, and to Professors Elleke Boehmer and Terence Ranger about how ideas about empire and adventure play out in the novel. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b047bs5z

Churchill: When Britain Said No
BBC 2: Sun 24 May 2015, 21.00 – 22.00.
Just weeks after VE day, Winston Churchill was confident that the nation would reward him for his leadership during the Second World War, and elect him prime minister. However Churchill was humiliated at the polls and his Conservative party almost annihilated. Historians including Sir Max Hastings, Juliet Gardiner and Anthony Beevor explore what prompted the nation to reject Churchill in such a vehement fashion.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05x31b6

The Last Explorers: Livingstone
BBC 4: Mon 24 May 2015, 22.00 – 23.00. 3 / 4. John Muir:
Neil Oliver tells the story of the father of the modern conservation movement and one of the founders of America’s National Park movement. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017zqnn

Joan of Arc: God’s Warrior
BBC 2: Tue 26 May 2015, 21.00 – 22.00.
Writer and historian Dr Helen Castor explores the life – and death – of an extraordinary figure who dared lead an army in an age that scorned female military endeavour. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05x31w3

Britain’s Underground Army
BBC Radio 4: Wed 27 May 2015, 11.00 – 11.30.
Peter French, Harry Parkes and Geoff Rose reflect on how being called up to work as Bevan Boys in the coal mines during the Second World War changed their lives. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05vzzyr