Ray’s History Radio & TV Picks. No.2016/03

Battlefield Recovery
Channel 5: Sat 16 Jan 2016, 19.05 – 20.00.
This new WWII history series has created some controversy in the archaeological circles. The team heads to western Latvia to unearth what really happened when Hitler’s crack SS Nordland division faced off against Stalin’s Red Army in 1944. http://www.channel5.com/shows/battlefield-recovery/episodes/episode-2-852

Deadline Gallipoli
Drama: Sat 16 Jan 2016. 21.00 – 23.05. (Sky 158 or Virgin 190). Part 1.
A new two-part drama on the origin of the Gallipoli legend from the point of view of war correspondents Charles Bean, Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, Phillip Schuler and Keith Murdoch, who lived through the campaign in 1915. http://drama.uktv.co.uk/shows/deadline-gallipoli/

Deadline Gallipoli
Drama: Sun 17 Jan 2016. 19.00 – 21.00. Repeat of part1.
Sun 17 Jan 2016. 21.00 – 23.15. Part 2. http://drama.uktv.co.uk/shows/deadline-gallipoli/

Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands
ITV: Sun 17 Jan 2016, 19.00 – 20.00. 3 / 12
Fantasy drama; Beowulf and Rate Thane of the Varni ride out to find Slean who is missing.
http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/itv-commissions-13-part-epic-warrior-drama-beowulf

War & Peace
BBC One: Sun 17 Jan 2016, 21.00 – 22.00. 3 / 6
Cuckolded Pierre challenges Dolokhov to a duel. Elsewhere, Helene decides to re-enter society, while depressed Andrei shuts himself away in the countryside. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06yjts5

Deutschland 83
Channel 4: Sun 17 Jan 2016, 21.00 – 22.00. (German + subtitles) 3 / 8: Atlantic Lion
Rauch and Schweppenstette are presented with a glimpse of the future and plan their next move.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/deutschland-83/videos/all/s1-ep3-does-not-compute

Immortal Egypt with Joann Fletcher
BBC 2: Mon 18 Jan 2016, 21.00 – 22.00. 3 / 4: Zenith
Egyptologist Joann Fletcher reaches the age of Amenhotep III, the greatest of pharaohs. Fletcher considers the experiences of those who built the Valley of the Kings and reveals that the years that followed the death of Tutankhamun were a time of decline. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06yjrgg

Victorian Bakers
BBC 2: Tue19 Jan 2016, 20.00 – 21.00. 3 / 3: Garish, glittery and green Victorian Cake.
The living history series about the preparation of our daily bread reaches the end of the Victorian era, and finds the modern-day bakers recreating life in an elegant shop on the high street. Steam ovens and an electric dough mixer make day-to-day working life much less physically demanding. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03f55c6

Tumanbay
BBC Radio 4: Wed 20 Jan 2016, 14.15 – 15.00. 8 / 10: The Purge
Increasingly insecure and fearful for his life, the sultan begins a purge of the palace. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06wg7rk
Free Podcasts to dowload: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06qcrhv/episodes/downloads

The Story of Scottish Art
BBC 4: Wed 20 Jan 2016, 20.00 – 21.00. 3 / 4:
Lachlan Goudie explores how, at the turn of the 19th century, Scotland’s artists challenged the traditions they had inherited and, embracing new ways of seeing and painting from the Continent, revolutionised Scottish art. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06kq6nz

Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley
BBC 4: Wed 20 Jan 2016, 21.00 – 22.00. 3 / 3: The Road to Revolution.
The final years of Romanov rule ultimately came to an end amidst the chaos of the Great War. Charting the dynasty’s demise, Lucy Worsley outlines how most of the later tsars were unable to make the necessary transition from autocrats to constitutional monarchs. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06wrgzw

In Our Time: Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.
BBC Radio 4: Thu 21 Jan 09.00 – 09.45.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Paine’s hugely influential pamphlet published in 1776, which put forward the case for US independence from the British Empire. It subsequently earned the political activist and philosopher the informal title of Father of the American Revolution. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06wg9dw

Britain’s Bloody Crown
Channel 5: Thu 21 Jan 2016, 20.00 – 21.00. 3 / 4: The Princes Must Die.
Dan Jones investigates whether Richard III was responsible for the deaths of his late brother Edward IV’s sons in the Tower of London. http://www.channel5.com/shows/britains-bloody-crown

The Story of China
BBC Two: Thu 21 January, 21.00 – 22.00. 1 / 6.
Michael Wood presents a new six-part series tracing the history of the world’s newest superpower. He begins with the veneration of ancestors, a prelude to an investigation of China’s story that goes back to times when, in terms of stories being handed down, mythology and reality are difficult to untangle. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06yglnh

Jericho
ITV: Thu 21 Jan 2016, 21.00 – 22.00. 3 / 8:
Set in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1870s, this new drams series is set in the shantytown of Jericho, home to a community that will live, thrive and die in the shadow of the viaduct they’ve been brought together to build.
http://www.examiner.co.uk/whats-on/film-tv/itvs-jericho-10-things-learned-10698526