Past Finders ITV1 - Meridian & Channel Thursday 26th September 2002 19:30 to 20:00
Local archaeology series. Teams from Wessex Archaeology find a Roman temple at Springhead, and dig through the night at Amesbury to uncover a hunter's grave from the Bronze Age.
Past Finders ITV1 - Meridian & Channel Thursday 3rd October 2002 19:30 to 20:00
Local archaeology series. An excavation of the Roman city of London reveals a bizarre find - the remains of a bird and a cat stuffed inside the remains of a pig. And during National Archaeology Day, Dorset villagers search for a lost medieval hamlet.
Feature on a recent YAC outing that I was at. Hear me and several other volunteers make utter morons of ourselves....
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New tv- documentary about Trijntje
Trijntje, that is the name the archaeologists gave the eldest known woman in Holland.(= pronounced as Trein, Dutch train) Her skeleton was found during the excavation for the Betuwe route near Hardinxveld-Giessendam ( the nest highspeed train tracé). The remains of this woman are about 7000 years old. In a tv-series of 3 programs Leo Verhart, archaeologist and conservator of prehistory of the Rijksmuseum for antiquities in Leiden, will do an investigation to find out more about Tijntje. The documentary will show from tuesday 24 september on Nederland 1. From 17.10 tot 17.37 hour. (European time)
From the Radio Times feature "Coming Up, TV - not now but in the future" (p.13 if you're interested)
"Tony Robinson is leaving behind his Baldrick image and presenting four more "Fact or Fiction" programmes for Channel 4. They seek the truth behind historical figures Julius Caesar, Nero, Robert the Bruce and Richard III."
[Dinosaur Hunting - A Time Team Special] Tony Robinson and Phil Harding go on a road trip to America to look at some of the dinosaur bones that have created a major tourist industry. Dinosaur hunting is now a major pastime. They join a museum dig to excavate the bones of a tyrannosaurus and meet legendary dinosaur hunter Jack Horner.
The Romans in Britain BBC2 Wednesday 2nd October 2002 01:00 (Duration: 30 minutes)
[Fact and Fable] Documentary series in which Guy de la Bedoyere traces the history of the Romans in Britain. This programme looks at the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43, asking what prompted the attack and how the Britons reacted.
The Romans in Britain BBC 2 Wednesday 9th October 2002 01:00 (Duration: 30 minutes)
[Coming of Age] Documentary series in which Guy de la Bedoyere traces the history of the Romans in Britain. This programme looks at the development of showpiece cities such as London and Bath, and the commercial opportunities and emerging industry which brought new wealth to the people. However, a shadow fell over the province with the arrival of Saxon pirates.
SUNDAY 6th BBC 2 8.00pm A History of Britain by Simon Schama. Another chance to see Simon Schama evoking key moments of Britain's dramatic past. Burning Convictions. Henry VIII's passion for Anne Boleyn set in motion a tidal wave of religious upheaval. Simon Schama tries to explain how, only three generations after Henry VIII's excommunication as a result of his marriage, Britain ceased to be a Catholic country.
Channel 4 8.00pm Howard Goodall's Great Dates. Concluding edition of the series in which the composer shows how great pieces of music are not accidents but the direct product of their time, place, culture and politics. In 1937 Fascism gripped Europe and Stalin's terror was at its height. In Germany and the USSR composers like Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Richard Strauss had to square their consciences with the artistic demands of totalitarian regimes. While Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Billie Holiday were making jazz the musical voice of America, the Nazi's were busy banning it. George Gershwin's death was in 1937, which was also the year Shostakovich wrote his Symphony No 5 in the face of Stalinism.
MONDAY 7th BBC 2 8.30pm What The Tudors Did For Us. Continuing the four-part series in which Adam Hart-Davis investigates lasting innovations from the Tudor period. The Good Lyfe. A H-D makes marmalade,takes on a champion in the sport of real tennis and learns how to use the first piece of domestic machinery - the knitting machine - as he recalls how many luxuries of the modern world can be attributed to the Tudors, including carpets, upholstered furniture and flushing lavatories.
TUESDAY 8th BBC 2 7.30pm War Walks. Arras. In May 1940, the Germans staged a lightning invasion of Belgium and France in the first of a new kind of armoured warfare known as blitzkrieg. Professor Richard Holmes traces their route to the French city of Arras, where a small British force launched a counterattack.
BBC 2 8.00pm Two Men in a Trench. The Battle of Shrewsbury. English archers unleashed the devastating power of the longbow for the first time ever, in July 1403, as the battle to overthrow Henry IV ensued. From their base at the church of St Mary Magdalen, built to commemorate the conflict, archaeologists Tony Pollard and Neil Oliver set out to investigate the battle and its history.
BBC 2 9.00pm Ancient Apocalypse. (repeat) Death on the Nile. The world's first great civilisation, Egypt's Old Kingdom, collapsed abruptly in 2200 BC. Clues from the remote deserts of southern Egypt and the glaciers of Iceland, together with a dramatic archaeological find in the Nile delta, suggest terrible forces of nature were to blame.
WEDNESDAY 9th Five 9.00pm Who Killed Tutankhamun?.... Revealed. Two detectives apply modern investigative techniques to probe the circumstances of the young pharaoh's death over 3,300 years ago.
THURSDAY 10th BBC 2 9.00pm Wild New World. Continuing the series revealing the spectacular wildlife of North America at the end of the Ice Age, 14,000 years ago, using evidence uncovered from today's landscapes and scientific research to create computer-generated imagery. Canyonlands. America's South West was a land of extremes where herbivores such as mammoths and ground sloths sheltered in the Grand Canyon caves.
Channel 4 9.00pm The Man Who Saved Rome. The AD1 seaon continues with this profile of Vespasian, the man who saved Rome from collapse. Rising from obscurity to become one of the Roman Empire's great military leaders and most successful emperors, his ascent to power began amid fire, civil unrest, division in the army and realisation in the Senate that Emperor Nero was mad.
Five 8.00pm The Great Stink. A profile of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, the civil engineer who designed the pioneering system of sewers that was instrumental in ending Victorian London's cholera and typhoid epidemics. Presented by television producer Peter Bazalgette. NB Radio Times has a featurette about this programme on page 110.
FRIDAY 11th BBC 2 9.00pm Myths of the Titanic - Timewatch. No maritime tragedy has captured the public's imagination like the sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912. Rare archive footage, plus location filming in America, Britain and Northern Ireland, attempts to explain why the ship's story still exerts such a fascination.
SATURDAY 12th (note change of day) BBC 2 8.15pm A History of Britain by Simon Schama Last repeat in Simon Schama's series evoking key moments of Britain's dramatic past. The Body of The Queen. Queen Elizabeth I faced a difficult situation as the ruler of a Protestant rogue state in a Catholic Europe, however, it was her tangled relationship with her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, that would test her the most. Elizabeth never married, Mary did twice - and it ruined her. Mary was always surrounded by conspiracy and intrigue and she tormented Elizabeth until she was finally executed for treason. But it was Mary not Elizabeth who gave birth to an heir. Who then was victorious?
SUNDAY 13th BBC 1 6.15pm Antiques Roadshow. Michael Aspel takes the team of experts to Harrogate, North Yorkshire, where they discover a table made from an ANCIENT BEDPOST AND 3,000-YEAR OLD ANTIQUITIES!!!
Channel 4 8.00pm Building of the Year. From the new Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, the announcement of the 2002 RIBA Stirling Prize for architecture. There are profiles of each of the seven short-listed buildings before fashion and design figure Wayne Hemingway announces the winners of the £20,000 prize. Plus a look back at some of the key architectural stories of the past year, including the wobbly bridge on the Thames. Presented by critic and broadcaster Waldemar Januszczak.
MONDAY 14th BBC 2 7.30pm The Trouble With Love. Pandora's Box. Romance makes a comeback in the final programme of the series tracing the history of love through the centuries. Presented by Amanda Vickery.
BBC 2 8.30pm What The Tudors Did For Us. Concluding the four-part series in which Adam Hart-Davis investigates lasting innovations from the Tudor period. War Machyne. How did England become a military power? A H-D reveals how Henry VIII's ascension to the throne necessitated invention in the field of armaments.
Channel 4 9.00pm The Day The Earth Was Born. Amid violent explosions, cosmic ice and fire, our world was born. But how did these cataclysmic events lead to a planet able to sustain life? Using the 24-hour clock to represent the lifetime of the planet, Origins charts the events that lead to creation. Continues next Monday.
TUESDAY 15th BBC 2 7.30pm War Walks. Goodwood. "The death ride of the armoured divisions" was how the 1944 British breakout from the Normandy bridgehead became known. Professor Richard Holmes follows in the tracks of the tanks and talks to veterans.
BBC 2 8.00pm Allies At War. The relationship between the Allied leaders during the Second World War is examined in the first of a three-part series. Archive film, stills and reconstructions tell the story of General De Gaulle of the Free French, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill from 1939 - 1941.
WEDNESDAY 16th Five 9.00pm The Brits who fought for Hitler : Revealed. Documentary looking at the British soldiers who turned against the Allies during the Second World War to join a Waffen SS unit called the British Free Corps, brainchild of English Nazi John Amery.
THURSDAY 17th BBC 2 9.00pm Wild New World. Continuing the series revealing the spectacular wildlife of North America at the end of the Ice Age, 14,000 years ago, using evidence uncovered from today's landscapes and scientific research to create computer-generated imagery. Ice Age Oasis. Among the creatures that inhabited Florida at the time of the first human visitations were giant ground sloths, and armoured glyptodonts the size of a small car.
FRIDAY 18th BBC 2 9.00pm War Stories. Battleplan:El Alamein. The Egyptian desert was the scene of one of the great British victories of the Second World War. Peter Snow and his son Daniel use groundbreaking graphics to illustrate the struggle between German general Rommel and his British opponent Montgomery.
NEW for this week - list of the week's Time Team programmes on Discovery. Monday An attempt to uncover the Scottish Isle of Islay's mysterious treasure. Tuesday The derelict Hylton Castle, Sunderland. Wednesday A Roman statue at Tockenham in Wiltshire. Thursday The original Roman settlement in London. Friday Establishing the full extent of a Saxon burial ground in the small Wiltshire village of Winterbourne Gunner.
SATURDAY 19th BBC 2 8.05pm A History of Britain by Simon Schama Another chance to see Simon Schama's flagship series evoking key moments of Britain's dramatic past. The British Wars. Behind the romantic stories of Cavaliers and Roundheads, lies a truely terrible story of a vicious civil war that killed hundreds and thousands of men, women and children, tore families apart and divided a nation. These bloody wars were to culminate in two events unique in British history - the public execution of a king with the beheading of Charles I and the creation of a British republic.
Channel 4 8.05pm The English Church. Writer and presenter Simon Jenkins begins a new, six-part exploration of the evolution of the English church. Conquest. Using the Norman Conquest as his starting point, he tours Hertfordshire and Gloucestershire to illustrate how the nation was converted from paganism to piety.
MONDAY 21st BBC 2 7.30pm Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age. Railways. A replica of Stephenson's Rocket is among the attractions as Dibnah dabbles in nostalgia for steam.
BBC 2 8.30pm What The Stewarts Did For Us. Beginning a four-part series in which Adam Hart-Davis investigates lasting innovations from the Stewart period. Desygner Livinge. The trendiest new drink of the time - coffee - is sampled by A H-D as he begins his journey through a period of grand design.
Channel 4 8.00pm Demolition Detectives. First of two programmes in which Maxwell Hutchinson, Sarah Gaventa and Rae Borras have 48 hours to find out all they can about a building before it is turned to dust and rubble. Hull. The detectives visit Orchard Park Estate in Hull where two 18-storey tower blocks are about to be razed to the ground.
Channel 4 9.00pm The Day The Earth Was Born. Concluding the two-part documentary which follows the spectacular journey that shaped our planet during the first hundred million years of its existence. In a remote cave in Mexico, reminders of the Earth's first life forms still exist. But can they help to answer the question of how life began?
TUESDAY 22nd BBC 2 7.30pm War Walks. Hastings. William the Conqueror's defeat of King Harold in the Battle of Hastings in 1066 marked the death of Anglo-Saxon England and the start of Norman domination. Professor Richard Holmes explores the battlefield site.
BBC 2 8.00pm Allies At War. The relationship between the Allied leaders during the Second World War is examined in the second of a three-part series. Archive film, stills and reconstructions tell the story of General De Gaulle of the Free French, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill from 1939 - 1941.
BBC 2 9.00pm Great Britons - Brunel Jeremy Clarkson makes the case for choosing Isambard Kingdom Brunel as the greatest Briton of all time. Born in 1806, Brunel repeatedly risked his life designing a serties of audacious bridges and railways that made him a superstar of the Industrial revolution. Clarkson revisits some of them, including the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol.
BBC 2 11.20pm Great Britons Collection - Brunel Another chance to see the One Foot in the Past special on the 19th century engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. With Kirsty Wark.
WEDNESDAY 23rd BBC 2 11.20pm Great Britons Collection - Darwin Another chance to see the first ever episode of the landmark natural history series Life on Earth. Infinite Variety. David Attenborough explores the wildlife and landscape that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
Five 9.00pm The First Pompeii Revealed This documentary follows the excavation of a Bronze Age site destroyed by volcanic activity 2,000 years before the more famous eruption that froze Pompeii in time. With Dr Simon Stoddart.
THURSDAY 24th BBC 2 9.00pm Wild New World. Continuing the series revealing the spectacular wildlife of North America at the end of the Ice Age, 14,000 years ago, using evidence uncovered from today's landscapes and scientific research to create computer-generated imagery. Edge of the Ice. At the end of the last Ice Age, the collapse of an ice dam in the New World triggered a rush of water that created a waterfall of epic proportions. New research suggests that the first people to arrive in America were hunters who travelled by boat, while the animal population of the time included such creatures as the elephant-like mastodon and its biggest predator, the scimitar-toothed cat.
FRIDAY 25th BBC 2 9.00pm Great Britons Darwin. Blasphemous to some, brilliant to others, did On The Origin of Species make Charles Darwin the greatest ever Briton? Andrew Marr makes his case in the Galapagos Islands - where Darwin first witnessed evolution at work.
This week's Time Team programmes on Discovery. Monday The secrets of a 2,000-year old Iron Age underground chamber in Cornwall. Tuesday The team unearths evidence that mammoths roamed in Oxfordshire. Wednesday In search of the Knights Templar. Thursday A 400-year old shipwreck off Teignmouth. Friday Unearthing King Conchobar's palaces at Emain Macha in Ulster.
SATURDAY 26th BBC 2 7.00pm A History of Britain by Simon Schama Another chance to see Simon Schama's flagship series evoking key moments of Britain's dramatic past. Revolutions. After the death of Charles I, two men lay at the heart of the turmoil in Britain: Oliver Cromwell, the man of iron who led the Republic; and Charles II who restored the lustre of the monarchy. But in the end it was anti-Catholic feeling that would lead to a final revolution.
Channel 4 8.00pm The English Church. Writer and presenter Simon Jenkins continues his in-depth exploration of the evolution of the English church. Control. The Medieval church wasn't just powerful, it dominated every aspect of people's lives. This week Jenkins visits churches in Kent, Oxfordshire and Lincolnshire to illustrate how terror, propaganda and even humour became useful tools for preserving this pre-eminence.
MONDAY 28th BBC 1 9.00pm Pyramid. Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World to survive intact. Using the latest historical research and modern technology, this one-off programme tells the story of this construction as it would have appeared to those who built it. Narrated by Omar Sharif.
BBC 2 7.30pm Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age. Ships and Engineering. Dibnah visits Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Britain and takes a ride on the paddle steamer Waverley as he pays tribute to those who transformed Britain into a great manufacturing nation.
BBC 2 8.30pm What The Stewarts Did For Us. Adam Hart-Davis investigates lasting innovations from the Stewart period. The Applyance of Science. A H-D explains how the work of Francis Bacon made Britain a leading scientific nation, and led to its crowning glory - the steam engine.
Channel 4 8.00pm Demolition Detectives. Second of two programmes in which Maxwell Hutchinson, Sarah Gaventa and Rae Borras have 48 hours to find out all they can about a building before it is turned to dust and rubble. Glasgow. The detectives visit Rotten Row, an old Victorian maternity hospital in Glasgow that is about to be demolished piece by piece as the hospital is gradually dismantled.
Five 8.00pm The Most Evil Men in History. Nero. A profile of the corrupt Roman Emperor, who had his mother, Agrippina, murdered to secure power.
TUESDAY 29th BBC 2 7.30pm (to be shown on Thursday in England) Time Flyers. First of a six-part series exploring Britain's history from the air. Reading Between the Lines. The Team are in Yorkshire to investigate some strange lines that criss-cross the landscape for several miles. Are they the relic of a pagan ceremony or will an excavation of the site reveal another explanation?
BBC 2 8.00pm Allies At War. The relationship between the Allied leaders during the Second World War is examined in this three-part series. Archive film, stills and reconstructions tell the story of General De Gaulle of the Free French, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill.The third and final film in the series chronicles the bitter climax to this angry triangular entente on the eve of D-Day, when a last-minute row threatened to jeopardise a vital part of the biggest seaborne invasion in history.
Five 9.00pm Dambusters: Revealed. Documentary telling the tale of the ingenious "bouncing bomb", invented by Barnes Wallis, which wrecked two massive German dams during WWII. With reconstructions, interviews, archive footage and a fresh assessment of the technology involved.
THURSDAY 31st BBC 2 9.00pm Wild New World. Continuing the series revealing the spectacular wildlife of North America at the end of the Ice Age, 14,000 years ago, using evidence uncovered from today's landscapes and scientific research to create computer-generated imagery. American Serengeti. America's Ice Age plains were home to an abundance of wild beasts - cheetahs pursued antelopes at over 60mph and the giant short-faced bear challenged prides of American lions for their prey.
Channel 4 9.00pm TIME TEAM. The Wreck of the Colossus. Last year divers discovered one of the most exciting naval artefacts ever found in British waters, part of the wreck of the 18th century warship HMS Colossus. This special follows Tony Robinson and the team as they join divers who are fighting to recover the vessel's treasure and piece together the history of this old warship.
FRIDAY 1st BBC 2 9.00pm Great Britons Cromwell. Historian Richard Holmes assesses the achievements of Oliver Cromwell, the military leader whose passionate belief in the rights of the common man saw him curb the power of King Charles I prior to the Civil War and sow the seeds of modern-day parliamentary democracy.
Channel 4 8.00pm TIME TEAM DIGS..... The Bronze Age. A new eight-part series in which Tony, Mick, Phil and Carenza go back to some of their finest discoveries and re-examine what has been learnt about specific periods in time. This opening episode focuses on the Bronze Age, with the team revisiting an ancient bridge in Vauxhall and a trackway at Flag Fen.
This week's Time Team programmes on Discovery. Monday The Team is in Lavenham, Suffolk. Tuesday The Team is in Maryland, USA. Wednesday Cornwall. Thursday Birmingham. Friday Archaeological investigations in Govan.
Just thought I'd give everyone a reminder about this one.............
Five 9.00pm The First Pompeii Revealed This documentary follows the excavation of a Bronze Age site destroyed by volcanic activity 2,000 years before the more famous eruption that froze Pompeii in time. With Dr Simon Stoddart.
In 'Leading Edge', Geoff Watts discovers how new materials are helping to save the medieval walls of the Greek island of Rhodes. He meets George Scherer, the professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton University and investigates the fundamental physics underlying stone decay to guide the development of materials to prevent, stop or repair any damage. (Thu, BBC Radio 4, 2100-2130)
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As Valerie pointed out viewers south of the border will have to wait until Thursday to see Time Fliers however at 19:30 on Tuesday the War Walks series continues with Prof Richard Holmes exploring the site of the Battle of Bosworth.
SATURDAY 2nd BBC 1 6.10pm (5.45pm SUNDAY in England) Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot. In this historical recreation Nick Knowles steps back in time to meet the protagonists involved in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, foiled at the 11th hour when Yorkshire-born zealot Guy Fawkes was caught priming explosives in a bid to blow up Parliament and assassinate King James I.
BBC 2 7.15pm Tower Bridge: Britain's Best Buildings. Dan Cruickshank begins a new four-part series looking at Britain's best buildings with an exploration of London's Tower Bridge. One of the most famous silhouettes in the country, it is an extraordinary building for the modern age. Sheathed in the disguise of a Mediaeval skin, the bridge hides the dramatic workings of 20th-century technology and construction and has, at various times, been the site of prostitution, suicide, intrigue and immodesty, and a conservation battle that raged for two decades.
BBC 2 8.05pm A History of Britain by Simon Schama Another chance to see Simon Schama's flagship series evoking key moments of Britain's dramatic past. Britannia Incorporated. When Bonnie Prince Charlie and his army advanced on London to overthrow the King, the country's new-found peace and prosperity was threatened. The Scottish and English parliaments had been united - but many in Scotland were unhappy wioth the new order.
Channel 4 8.00pm The English Church. Writer and presenter Simon Jenkins continues his in-depth exploration of the evolution of the English church. Power. Many 15th-century English families became very rich through the wool trade, and a large number chose to spend their wealth on church buildings. SJ visits churches in Yorkshire, Devon and Somerset to examine the impact of this new money on church design.
SUNDAY 3rd - specially for Eddie and Mandy!! The Science of Shark Attacks Documentary looking at the shark's seven senses and its skeletal structure to reveal why it is such an efficient killer. Plus a look at how, when and where sharks attack.
MONDAY 4th BBC 2 7.30pm Fred Dibnah's Magnificent Monuments. First in a six-part rerun of the series celebrating Britain's great building and engineering feats. Forts and Castles. Dibnah considers the development of castles from early Iron Age forts to secret underground tunnels used during WWII.
BBC 2 8.30pm What The Stewarts Did For Us. Adam Hart-Davis investigates lasting innovations from the Stewart period. The Organysed Isle. AH-D shows how the Stewarts introduced order with the first public transport, street lighting, fire brigade and high-street bank. But the greatest innovation was in politics: the unification of England and Scotland and the founding of the constitutional monarchy.
Channel 4 8.00pm Lost Worlds. Angkor Wat. In 1860 one of the world's most astonishing architectural wonders was discovered deep in the Cambodian jungle. This new three-part series travels to the remote site of Angkor Wat to investigate and, using the latest computer technology, to re-create the staggering 12th-century City of the God Kings as archaelogists unravel its many mysteries.
TUESDAY 5th BBC 2 7.30pm (shown on Thursday in England) Time Flyers. Second of a six-part series exploring Britain's history from the air. The Village that Disappeared. The team investigate a buried Mediaeval village in Somerset. The outline of several houses and fields hidden in the landscape are hidden from the air, but what ended this community? Evidence suggests that the 14th-century Black Death could have killed off the inhabitants.
BBC 2 8.00pm Great Britons - Nelson. Historian and writer Lucy Moore makes the case for choosing Horatio Nelson as the greatest Briton of all time. The country's most dazzling and successful naval leader, Nelson gave up his life at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 to save Britain from French invasion. His bold style of attack had revolutionised warfare, but what truly makes him great, argues Moore, was his humanity, genius and passion.
BBC 2 11.20pm Great Britons Collection. Another chance to see an archive documentary that supports the candidature of Horatio Nelson.
Five 9.00pm Was Hitler Gay?: Revealed. Examining controversial theories, postulated by German historian Lothar Machtan, regarding Hitler's sexual orientation.
THURSDAY 7th BBC 2 9.00pm Wild New World. Concluding the series revealing the spectacular wildlife of North America at the end of the Ice Age, 14,000 years ago, using evidence uncovered from today's landscapes and scientific research to create computer-generated imagery. Mammoths to Manhattan. Why did many species of mammal become extinct at the end of America's Ice Age, 13,000 years ago? The film examines the evidence and looks at how the survivors have adapted to the altered landscape of North America - 21st-century moose roam through downtown Anchorage while burrowing owls raise young in Silicon Valley.
Channel 4 9.00pm Edward and Mary: the Unknkown Tudors. First of two films in which Dr David Starkey explores the story of two of England's more obscure monarchs: the reforming Protestant Edward VI and his Catholic sister Queen Mary. Edward VI: the Boy King. An examination of Edward's early years and the impact of his short reign, plus speculation as to what might have been if this highly intelligent boy had lived.
FRIDAY 8th BBC 2 8.00pm Hidden Gardens. The passion and style of six historic gardens and their creators is explored by Chris Beardshaw in this new series. St. Fagans. Beardshaw visits Cardiff to see the major tasks undertaken when a turn-of-the-century Italianate garden that has lain totally overgrown for years is restored to the glory it enjoyed under creator Lady Gay Windsor.
BBC 2 9.00pm Great Britons - Shakespeare Misquoted and misused, Shakespeare has become a tourist cliche. But, while performances of his plays were raucous and raw, he made English the envy of the world. Actress Fiona Shaw explores the author's identity and applauds him for writing about life in a way that all could understand.
Channel 4 8.00pm TIME TEAM DIGS..... The Iron Age. Tony Robinson is joined by John Collis from Sheffield University to look at what the team have discovered about the Iron Age over the past ten years. Far from being a primitive era, Iron Age Britain emerges as an increasingly wealthy and sophisticated society. Featuring a return visit to a strange underground chamber in the Orkneysand a study of Cornwall's largest site - located on the Helford estuary and never previously excavated.
This week's Time Team programmes on Discovery. Monday Yorkshire. Tuesday Wiltshire. Wednesday Richmond. Thursday Greylake. Friday Orkney.
And don't forget - the new channel UKHistory is now in full flow for those with access to digital, satellite or cable.
SATURDAY 2nd BBC 1 6.10pm (5.45pm SUNDAY in England) Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot. In this historical recreation Nick Knowles steps back in time to meet the protagonists involved in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, foiled at the 11th hour when Yorkshire-born zealot Guy Fawkes was caught priming explosives in a bid to blow up Parliament and assassinate King James I.
Another chance for me to review a programme in advance of most of you seeing it. If you have the chance - do watch this one. A mixture of historical reconstruction and expert interjection to correct some of our misconceptions about the story, and all done with a quirky touch of humour!
And do watch out for a lovely moment between Nick Knowles and the drummer!
Beer, dont ya just love it