Ray’s History Radio & TV Picks. No.06. 04 March 2015.

Banished.
BBC 2: Thu 5 March 2015, 21.00 – 22.00. 1/7.
New drama series, written by Jimmy McGovern, set in the first Australian penal colony founded by the British in New South Wales in 1788.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02jfvs9

Saints & Sinners: Britain’s Millennium of Monasteries.
BBC 4: Thu 5 March 2015, 21.00 – 2200. 3/3.
How the immensely rich and powerful monasteries, that had dominated British society for a thousand years, were annihilated in less than five years.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054fmzl

Nelson in His Own Words
BBC 2: Fri 6 March 2015, 21.00 – 22.00.
Drama documentary with Jonathan Slinger as Nelson, whose letters reveal a very different and more complex man than the hero that Britain created after his death.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054v8dl

The Great War: Hell Cannot Be So Terrible.
BBC 4: Sun 8 March 2015, 19.00 – 19.40. 11 of 26. 1964 series continues.
In the Battle of Verdun the French and Germans suffered over 700,000 casualties
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074p3g

Poldark.
BBC 1: Sun 8 March 2015, 21.00 – 22.00. 1/8
New drama series set in Cornwall, 1783. Ross Poldark returns from the battlefield to find his father dead, the estate in ruins and his sweetheart Elizabeth engaged to his cousin.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02jslsh

Promises, Promises: A History of Debt.
BBC Radio 4. Mon 2 March – Fri 13 March 2015. 10 daily episodes
During the second week David Graeber examines debt in the medieval period, and the influence of debt during the conquest of South America and on the birth of Capitalism.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054zdp6/episodes/guide

Saudi Arabia: Sands of Time. The Balance of Power
BBC Radio 4. Mon 9 March 2015. 20.00 – 20.30. 2/3
The establishment of the Kingdom, its rise as a global power, and how it was challenged by religious extremists.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054pqv6

Making History. BBC Radio 4. Tue 10 March 2015. 15.00 – 15.30. 6/ 8
Exploring themes from Britain’s past in response to queries raised by listeners own historical research. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054qc24

Suffragettes Forever! The Story of Women and Power. 3/3
BBC 4: Wed 11 March 2015, 20.00 – 21.00.
How the Edwardian suffragette movement became a quasi-terrorist organisation. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b055npp6