Ray’s History Radio & TV Picks. No.27. 7 Aug 2015.

Walking Through History: King John’s Ruin: Peak District
Channel 4: Sat 8 Aug 2015, 19.00 – 20.00.
Tony Robinson walk takes you across Robin Hood country on route to the Peaks to unravel John’s reign.
Details & walking guide / map:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/walking-through-history/articles/all/king-johns-ruin-peak-district

Archive On 4: Misunderstanding Japan
BBC Radio 4: Sat 8 Aug 2015, 20.00 – 21.00
Dr Christopher Harding explores western representations of Japan down the years. Harding explores whether such clichés have led to the Japanese being misunderstood, and whether the Japanese themselves have helped to perpetuate such stereotypes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b064ww32

The Churchill Barriers
BBC Radio 4: Mon 10 Aug 2015, 14.15 – 15.00.
Drama by Emma Spurgin Hussey; a tale set in Orkney, 1944, where clerk George finds common ground with Italian POW Giorgio as they build the famous sea defences. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b064ygky

Life in Squares
BBC 2: Mon 10 Aug 2015, 21.00 – 22.00. 3 / 3.
In this drama series about the Bloomsbury Set, events pick up in 1937, as Vanessa’s son, Julian Bell, announces his intention to go to Spain and join the struggle against Franco.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b065y25f

Making History.
BBC Radio 4: Tue 11 Aug 2015, 15.00 – 15.30. 6/8
Tom Holland, Helen Castor and Fiona Watson explore themes from the past in response to queries raised by listeners’ own historical research: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0639vps

A Walk of One’s Own – Virginia Woolf On Foot
BBC Radio 4: Tue 11 Aug 2015, 9.30 – 9.45. 1 / 4.
For a four-part series, Virginia Woolf’s biographer Alexandra Harris retraces walks undertaken by the Bloomsbury group novelist. Harris begins, accompanied by Driving Over Lemons author Chris Stewart, in southern Spain, where Woolf and husband Leonard travelled in 1923 to visit émigré writer Gerald Brenan.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b066wqyv

Bannockburn Begins
BBC Radio 3: Tue 11 Aug 2015, 22.00 – 22.45. (Rpt of Sunday Feature broadcast 2014)
On the eve of the feast of St John the Baptist in the year 1314, the battle of Bannockburn began. Over 700 years later, Robert Bruce’s great victory over Edward II of England is still with us. There’s a glorious mismatch between historians and history. The battle lives in our imagination – but why and how? Novelist Louise Welsh and a raft of historians explore the meaning of Bannockburn – what people fought for on that day in 1314 and why it took on such a life of its own. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b047gdhl

Black Sails.
History: Tue 11 Aug 2015, 22.00 – 23.00. Episode 6.
Drama set in 1715. The Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean is at its apex. In this episode a deadly game of chess is organized for Flint and the Walrus crew: http://blacksails.tv/

Socrates: Genius Of The Ancient World
BBC Four: Wed 12 Aug 2015, 21.00 – 22.00
Bettany Hughes profiles the Greek philosopher, whose life and work has long been a source of fascination for her. It’s the story of a maverick who constantly questioned the society in which he lived, and was sentenced to death for his troubles: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b065gv2m

Decoding The Masterworks
BBC Radio 4: Thu 13 Aug 2015 11.30 – 12.04.
Art historian Janina Ramirez visits Tate Modern on London’s South Bank, with Professor Dawn Ades and the Tate’s own Matthew Gale to look at Salvador Dali’s Metamorphosis of Narcissus..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b064zlvq

Barry Lyndon
BBC Radio 4: Thu 13 & Fri 14 Aug 2015, 10.0 – 11.00, rpt 15.00 – 16.00. (From 2010)
Don McCamphill’s two-part dramatization of William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1844 novel in which a duel forces 18th-century Irish adventurer Redmond Barry to leave home and serve in the Seven Years War.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t18j1