Ray’s History Radio & TV Picks. No.2016/13.

World War One: the Cultural Front
BBC Radio 4: Sat 9 Apr 2016, 10.30 – 11.00. 1 of 3
Francine Stock continues her annual exploration of the culture made in the years of war. This time around, we’re in 1916, the year of Verdun and the Somme. How did the artists and writers of Paris react to battles that heralded a horrific new age of mechanised warfare? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07654q4

Archive On 4: The Unabomber
BBC Radio 4: Sat 9 Apr 2016, 20.00 – 21.00
Between 1978 and 1995, survivalist and former academic Theodore Kaczynski waged a one-man terror campaign in the USA, a protest against modern technology. His bombs killed three people and injured 23. Kaczynski himself, now jailed for life, is among those whose voices we hear in a documentary looking back at the manhunt that ultimately resulted in his arrest. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07654x0

Sunday Feature: 1816, the Year without a Summer
BBC Radio 3: Sat 10 Apr 2016, 18.45 – 19.30
In 1815, Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted, in an explosion that could be heard more than 2000km away. As cultural historian Corin Throsby charts, the eruption brought cold and wet weather to Europe and New England, and indirectly led to Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0769l3q

The Rest Is History
BBC Radio 3: Sun 10 Apr 2016, 19.15 – 19.00
The historical panel show continues with an episode that includes discussions of Robin Hood, wartime slogans and a statuesque mystery. Frank Skinner hosts and historian Kate Williams offers an expert perspective, while this week’s guests are comedians Al Murray and Isy Suttie.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0769tsq

A History of Ancient Britain.
BBC 4: Fri 15 Apr 2016, 21.00 – 22.00. 1 /3 Age of Ice.
Neil Oliver travels back to ice age Britain as he begins the epic story of the evolution of the land and its occupants over thousands of years of ancient history. In this episode he describes a struggle for survival in a brutal world of climate change and environmental catastrophe. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yk27f

The Essay: Minds at War
BBC Radio 3: Mon 11 to Fri 15 Apr 2016, 22.45 – 23.00. Five weekday episodes
As part of programming to mark the centenary of the Easter Rising, contemporary writers and academics reflect on how Irish thinkers and artists reacted to the First World War. Fintan O’Toole reflects on James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922), Heather Jones of the LSE explores Elizabeth Bowen’s novel “The Last September”, Gerald Dawe explores the little known poet Francis Ledwidge and his poem “O’Connell Street”. John D McHugh looks at the war photos of Father Francis Browne and Elizabeth Kuti explores Sean O’Casey’s “The Silver Tassie”. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0769qr0

Drama: Beyond Endurance
BBC Radio 4: Fri 15 Apr 2016, 14.15 – 15.00. Repeat of 2015 broadcast.
Dominic West stars as Ernest Shackleton in Meredith Hooper’s play, charting the great explorer’s 1914 Endurance expedition planning to cross Antarctica, told in the words of the explorers themselves.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05pnvq9