Ray’s History Radio & TV Picks. No.2016/08. 26 Feb 2016.

Barry Lyndon
TCM: Sat 27 Feb 2016, 17.25 – 21.00. (Sky 317, Virgin 415)
Tony Peters in the Radio Times notes that Stanley Kubrick’s period drama, which follows an Irish adventurer, has not been on TV since 2008. So “now is an ideal time to revel in its sumptuous beauty”.
http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/1068252%7C0/Barry-Lyndon.html

Simon Schama: The Obliterators
BBC Radio 4: Sun 28 Feb 2016, 13.30 – 14.00
Simon Schama searches for a religious or political motive behind the destruction of archaeological sites by the so-called Islamic State. He also considers what our own history of iconoclasm during the Reformation might teach us here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b071s6nr

Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands
ITV: Sun 28 Feb 2016, 19.00 – 20.00. 9 / 12: Fantasy drama series.
Elvina and Beowulf try to keep their romance a secret.
http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/dz4gyj/beowulf-return-to-the-shieldlands–series-1-episode-9

Tim Marlow: Arts’s Greatest Failures
Sky Arts: Sun 27 Feb 2016, 20.00 – 21.00.
Tim Marlow examines why failure is a necessary evil en route to creating great art, from Old Masters including da Vinci and Rembrandt, to contemporary artists such as Gavin Turk and Michael Landy.
http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/dz4h7r/tim-marlow-arts-greatest-failures

Churchill’s Secret
ITV Sun 28 Feb 2016, 20.00 – 22.10.
In the summer of 1953, Winston Churchill suffered a severe stroke. News of the prime minister’s condition was kept from the public and from parliament. This one-off drama, starring Michael Gambon and Lindsay Duncan as Winston and Clementine Churchill, offers a fictionalised take on what might have happened next.
http://www.radiotimes.com/episode/dz5cyz/churchills-secret

Museum of Lost Objects
BBC Radio 4: Mon 29 Feb to Fri 4 Mar 2016, Daily 12.04 – 12.15.
Series tracing the stories of ten antiquities and cultural sites that have been destroyed or looted in Iraq and Syria.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0738jc2/broadcasts/upcoming

The Renaissance Unchained
BBC Four: Mon 28 Feb 2016, 21.00 – 22.00. 3 / 4. Silk, Sex and Sin.
Waldemar Januszczak turns his attention to the use of colour in Renaissance art. His focus is on what was then venal Venice, and he celebrates the art and artistry of Bellini, Giorgione, Titian and Veronese. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0726fyv

Henry VIII: Patron or Plunderer?
BBC Four: Mon 29 Feb 2016, 22.00 – 23.00. 2 / 2. Repeat of 2009 broadcast.
Architectural historian Jonathan Foyle looks for clues in King Henry VIII’s art to glimpse what was going on inside his head as he faced his darkest days in the 1530s. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lc71z

Making History
BBC Radio 4: Tue 1 Mar 2016, 15.00 – 15.30. 5 / 8.
The latest historical and archaeological research. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b071tgbw

In Our Time: the Dutch East India Company.
BBC Radio 4: Thu 3 Mar 2016, 09.00 – 09.45.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Dutch East India Company, which dominated the 17th-century Asian spice trade. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b071vl2l

Pompeii: New Secrets Revealed With Mary Beard
BBC One: Thu 3 Mar 2016, 21.00 – 22.00.
Pompeii, buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, is currently the subject of a multimillion-euro preservation project. Professor Mary Beard goes behind the scenes to see what is being revealed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b072nxtm

Free Thinking: A New Biography of Hitler & Botticelli Reimagined.
BBC Radio 3: Thu 3 Mar 2016, 22.00 – 22.45.
As a best-selling German biography of Hitler is published in English Anne McElvoy explores the way German historians view Hitler now and reviews Botticelli Reimagined at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b071d22s