What a pathetic excuse.

If people can wait until Thursday I'll stand in, in the meantime get well soon Valerie. I usually find a mix of hot lemon juice, honey and whisky works well. Even if it doesn't after a couple you'll be beyond caring anyway.

Thanks .... hic .... Fil

Sounds like you over did it with the lemon juice Valerie...

Next week's historical highlights:-

Saturday 23rd April.

19:10 BBC 2 Around the World in 80 Treasures.

Repeat of the programme shown on the 18th (Monday).
Last in the seies.

20:30 C4 The Duchess and the Headless Man

From the Secret History strand examining debauchery and scandal amongst Britain's aristocracy. In 1963 the Duke of Argyll used his wife's collection of explicit photographs as proof of her infidelity. One snapshot caused a stir as the man's head was missing (we presume from the photograph, not altogether) leading to great speculation about his identity. The programme promises to reveal all.
(Repeat).

Sunday 24th April

17:25 C4 Britain's Cold War Super Weapons.

Documentary covering Britain's attempts, not always successfull, to keep up with the US and the USSR in the arms race of the cold war. Features film previously classified as top secret.

18:30 BBC 2 White Smoke: Election of a Pope.

The inside story of Papal elections.

Monday 25th April

21:00 BBC 1 Genghis Khan.

When I first saw the trails for this I thought they'd done a re-make of the Water Margin. Instead a dramatised documentary examines the mind and methods of the Mongol Emperor who ruled over an empire larger than the Roman.

Tuesday 26th April


19:30 Five Hidden Treasure Houses.

This week Penshurst place, home to the Viscount De L'isle.

20:00 Five D-Day The Ultimate Conflict.

Second and last part of the series of reconstructions and recolections of those who were there on the 6th June 1944.
(Repeat)

Wednesday 27th April

21:00 BBC 1 D-Day to Berlin

Second of three programmes looking at the final stages of the war in the west examines the fighting at Arnhem and the Battle of the Bulge.

Thursday 28th April

19:30 Five World War 1 in Colour

Colourized footage from the Great War. This week the conflict on the Eastern Front and the Russian Revolution.
(Repeat)

22:45 BBC 1 The Bermuda Triangle

Three investigations into the truth behind the myth including investigation of five wrecks 730ft down.
(Repeat)

Friday 29th April

Nothing. Not a sausage. Rent a DVD or go down the pub.

TT and other repeats on the Discovery Channel:-

Tony's series The worst Jobs in History continues it's repeat showing at 19:00 Saturday.

TT:-

Sunday 24th Eight (8) editions back to back starting at 09:00.
Monday 19:00 Giants Grave on the Shetlands.
Tuesday 19:00 Human bones in a Peak District cave.
Wednesday 19:00 A farmer finds a masaic under his pig sty.
Thusday 19:00 Saxon remains in Northamptonshire.
Friday 19:00 Breamore, Hampshire.

Once again thanks for stepping into the breach

quote:

Originally posted by Valerie:
Hi folks - I'm hoping someone can help me out here.
I am confined to the house with a nasty flu bug and I haven't been able to get out for a Radio Times .... and I don't know when I will be fit again. Would some very kind person take over for me and do this week's TV programmes. I would be very, very grateful!

BTW I'm pretty sure my firewall will prevent the bug getting down the wires and infecting anyone else .... believe me you don't want this one - I ache all over and I'm shivery, my head aches and I've got a cough louder than my dogs can bark!!

Yu can log on to the Radio times website at WWW.radiotimes.com

Thanks morse - but that still wouldn't have helped me do the work whilst feeling like death warmed up

quote:

Originally posted by Valerie:
Thanks morse - but that still wouldn't have helped me do the work whilst feeling like death warmed up

if you were that bad, then you should have been in hospital. or if you have health insurance they could have arranged for a nurse to come round and look at the website for you!

I'll bear that in mind for next time I feel that bad

Back on schedule this week!


From Radio Times 30th April - 6th May 2005


SATURDAY 30th
BBC 2 6.05pm
Private Life of a Masterpiece
Last in a series of five programmes.
The Kiss by Gustav Klimt. This erotically charged and hugely popular example of Art Nouveau fused with Symbolism has been the subject of intense speculation since its unveiling in1908. Who are the two lovers in a rapturous embrace? Is the man or woman in control? And, most tantalisingly, could it depict the artist, a man whose sexual appetite was on a par with Casanova’s? Germaine Greer, John Malkovich and former “Erotic Review” editor Rowan Pelling share their thoughts.

BBC 2 7.50pm
The Nazis: a Warning From History.
First in a re-run of Laurence Ree’s powerful, six-part, Bafta-winning series, which debunks many popular myths surrounding the rise and fall of Nazi Germany.
Helped into Power. How is it possible that a cultured nation at the heart of Europe allowed Adolf Hitler to come to power? Fascinating archive film and interviews with former Nazi Party members, illustrate the birth of Nazism in Germany.

SUNDAY 1st
BBC 2 7.10pm
Time watch - The Mystery of the Black Death.
Could the Black Death - killer of up to half of Europe over a period of four years in the 14th century - be lying dormant, ready to strike again? New evidence refutes received opinion that the cause was bubonic plague spread by rats, but was actually a deadly virus that emerged from animals and then vanished again.

MONDAY 2nd
Channel 4 9.00pm
Riddle of the Human Hobbits: an Equinox Special.
The story of the most important fossil discovery in over half a century: the remains of a species of tiny prehistoric humans on the Indonesian island of Flores. The existence of these creatures, known as Homo floresiensis, perhaps as recently as 13,000 years ago could mean current perceptions of how humans evolved are to undergo a radical rethink. State-of-the-art computer images reveal how the miniature people hunted elephants and feared giant reptiles.

TUESDAY 3rd
BBC 2 8.30pm
Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain.
Ninth in a series of twelve programmes.
In the last series he made before his death last November, the Bolton steeplejack attempts to fulfil a lifelong ambition - a tour of the UK on the 1912 steam traction engine he’s spent 27 years restoring.
Engines at Work. Dibnah meets up with old friends at the North Staffs and Cheshire Traction Engine Club, sees a lovingly restored triple expansion engine and learns about the Black Country’s rich mining industry.

Five 7.30pm
Hidden Treasure Houses.
Last in a series of four programmes. The valuables within four country houses are explored by art and antiques connoisseur James Miller.
Holker Hall. Lord and Lady Cavendish give a guided tour of their Cumbrian country house which includes fine gardens, a library of 3,500 books and the scientific instruments of the brilliant but eccentric Henry Cavendish.

Five 8.00pm
Bad Boys of the Blitz: Revealed
The dark, uncertain days of WWII offered a steady stream of ill-gotten gains for British crooks. They were prepared to burn call-up papers or desert in order to loot during blackouts, exploit rationing, and dupe US GI’s and an overstretched police force. Here, ageing, unrepentant criminals such as “Mad” Frankie Fraser and Roy Hill get dewy-eyed about the black market, prostitution rackets and thievery that thrived while the rest of the nation was busy fighting the Nazis.

WEDNESDAY 4th
BBC 1 9.00pm
D-Day to Berlin.
Last in a series of three programmes of rousing drama documentaries that bring to life the Allies’ protracted progress from the beaches of Normandy to victory in Germany a year on.
The Dream That Died. With British and American armies poised to cross the Rhine in the west, victory seemed certain at last. On 16 April the Soviets began their final assault on the German capital; 14 days later Hitler was dead. But even before the victory celebrations were over, a new chill gripped the alliance as another dictator - Soviet leader Joseph Stalin - came into power, wiping out the dream of a new Europe based on liberty and democracy.

BBC 2 8.00pm
Ray Mears’s Bushcraft. (Not England)
First in a new series of five programmes.
Birchbark Canoe. Mears makes a traditional canoe from birch bark, cedar and spruce roots. The time-consuming task requires judgement and patience - a true bush craft experience, using only traditional tools and natural materials. For Mears, these are the finest crafts ever created - and making such a canoe is a life-long ambition.

Five 8.00pm
Inside Hitler’s Bunker: the True Story.
The darkest period in the history of the 20th century ended in an underground bunker in Berlin in the spring of 1945. As the Soviet Army closed in, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler committed suicide. Using eyewitness accounts and the latest technology, experts attempt to recreate the scene in the Fuhrer’s last hiding place.

THURSDAY 5th
Five 7.30pm
World War I in Colour.
Seventh in a series of eight programmes.
The Great War is given a fascinating new perspective as computer technology is used to recast black-and-white footage in detailed colour. The images are accompanied by poignant first-hand testimony from veterans and harrowing excerpts from letters sent by shell-shocked youngsters at the front.
Mayhem on the Eastern Front (part 2). Concluding the story of the bloody Eastern Front campaign. After the forced abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in 1917, Russia faced ruin, compelling writer Maxim Gorky to declare of his beloved Moscow: “this isn’t a capital, it’s a cesspit” Then the USA realised King George V’s dream that two English-speaking nations would unite in the conflict.

FRIDAY 6th
BBC 2 7.00pm
Piltdown Man Hoax: Days That Shook the World.
On 20th November 1953, news breaks that one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the century is an elaborate hoax. Heralded as the “missing link” between ape and man and proof of Darwin’s theory of evolution, the remains of the earliest human being - known as “Piltdown Man” - were revealed to be a cleverly constructed forgery.

BBC 2 9.00pm
55 Days - the Fall of Saigon.
As America struggles to find a get-out strategy in Iraq, this documentary looks at the humiliation of their withdrawal from Vietnam 30 years ago. Tim Pigott-Smith narrates the remarkable story of the events leading up to that chaotic day, captured in images of Americans scrambling aboard a helicopter on the roof of the CIA building in Saigon - a traumatic moment that was to shape the American psyche for over a generation.



Time Team on Discovery.

A Time Team programme is scheduled for 7.00am on Saturday 30th and 6.00am on Sunday 1st. And at 7pm on Saturday 30th you can see the Tudor episode of Worst Jobs In History

Monday Brading, Isle of Wight.
Tuesday Henley-in-Arden.
Wednesday Castleford.
Thursday Throckmorton.
Friday High Ercall.


Also on Discovery Friday 6th May at 10.00pm:-
Mummy Autopsy
The team travels to Rio de Janeiro to investigate a 3,000-year old Egyptian sarcophagus.


And don’t forget UKTV History, which has a range of history and archaeology programmes for those with access to digital, satellite or cable channels.

What did people think of the Human Hobbit programme ?? I found it fascinating, the idea that a species of human evolved by 'shrinking' to the most suitable size for the environment it was in. Did people buy that, or did it sound like cooking up a theory to suit the finds ??

There were an awful lot of "probablys" in the programme and I was intrigued by the way some species adapted to the limited food supply by shrinking whilst others got bigger.

Was out last night - meant to tape the programme, and realised I'd forgotten when I got in

From Radio Times 7th - 13th May 2005


SATURDAY 7th
BBC 2 6.05pm (7.35pm in England)
The Nazis: a Warning From History.
Second in a re-run of Laurence Ree’s powerful, six-part, Bafta-winning series, which debunks many popular myths surrounding the rise and fall of Nazi Germany.
Chaos and Consent. Nazi military prowess gave the impression of an ordered society. But archive film and eyewitnesses tell a different story.

BBC 2 7.25pm (Scotland only)
Scotland’s VE Day - Countdown to Victory
The final week of WWII in Europe witnessed incredible tales of endurance, compassion and cruelty - bombers that had raised German cities dropped food to the starving Dutch, and Scottish PoWs were held hostage by Russian “allies”. Meanwhile, at home, an exhausted nation awaited German surrender.

SUNDAY 8th
BBC 2 8.00pm
Tribe.
They may have satellite TV, but as one of the last nomadic peoples on the planet, the Darhad herders of Outer Mongolia continue a tradition that’s many centuries old. Bruce Parry finds conditions tough as he joins a family on their arduous winter migration, but he’s able to contribute, using his herding schools to help guide 300 animals along a mountain pass.

ITV 10.00pm
Victory in Europe Day in Colour.
Letters, diaries and original colour film from WWII are used to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VE Day.

Channel 4 5.25pm
The Airships.
First in a new series of three programmes.
Years before the Wright brothers got their aeroplane off the ground, Brazilian Santos Dumont navigated his powered airship around the Eiffel Tower in Paris and Count von Zeppelin’s first airship flew for 18 minutes on its maiden voyage. This series follows the evolution of these giant flying machines, from their emergence in Germany as passenger carriers to their use as aerial bombers during WWI, and beyond.

Channel 4 6.25pm
TIME TEAM SPECIAL: STEEL CITY *******************
TR and the Team are in Sheffield, where they join archaeologists working to uncover the often brutal past of the Industrial Revolution’s forgotten city. The most dangerous machinery imaginable and the worst man-made disaster in British history become visible in the remains of a city that was once the world’s biggest producer of steel.

MONDAY 9th
BBC 2 9.00pm
How Art Made the World.
First in a new series of five programmes in which archaeologist and art historian Dr Nigel Spivey investigates how images that surround us today are heavily influenced by the ancient world.
More Human than Human. What links the “Hello Boys!” wonder bra campaign, Michaelangelo’s David and a prehistoric stone statue? These body images are, to varying degrees, unrealistic yet it’s the dissimilarity to a recognized form that we widely prefer, asserts Spivey, as he draws evidence from Egyptian tombs, psychological tests and two virtually unknown statues.

TUESDAY 10th
BBC 2 7.00pm
Britain’s Best Buildings - The Palace of Westminster.
A second chance to see this five part series.
Its magnificence has been obscured by almost two centuries of political hot air, but presenter Dan Cruickshank gains access to the Palace’s interior, one of architectural history’s great secrets. From the pinnacle of Gothic splendour to the MP’s sewage-pumping system, the seat of Parliament is laid bare.

BBC 2 8.30pm
Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain.
Tenth in a series of twelve programmes.
In the last series he made before his death last November, the Bolton steeplejack attempts to fulfil a lifelong ambition - a tour of the UK on the 1912 steam traction engine he’s spent 27 years restoring.
Chains and Copper. After linking up with an authentic chain maker, Fred and the boys head off to Angelsey to visit vast copper mine Parys Mountain. Then its an overnight stop at the Ffestiniog railway, where Fred enjoys a ride and drive on the footplate of an 1891 slate-shunting engine and sees possibly the oldest working steam engine in the world.

Five 7.15pm
Tim Marlow on … Caravaggio: the Final Years.
Art historian Marlow provides a guide to the exhibition at London’s National Gallery, which gathers together stunning canvasses produced by the Italian artist while he was on the run from a murder charge in the early 17th century.

Five 8.00pm
Hunt for Hitler’s Scientists: Revealed.
The story of the Allied spies whose missions to capture top Nazi scientists and their military inventions thwarted Hitler’s hopes of developing a “miracle weapon”. The Allies were terrified that Germany would develop the nuclear bomb before them and subsequently were equally desperate to stop the Soviet Union from gaining the edge in the Cold War. Archive footage and interviews with people from both sides give an insight into the clandestine operations that changed the course of the war.

WEDNESDAY 11th
BBC 2 8.00pm
Ray Mears’s Bushcraft. (Not England)
Second in a series of five programmes.
Canoe Journey. Last week Mears realised a life-long ambition - to build a traditional birch bark canoe. Now he climbs aboard a canoe to make the ultimate bush craft journey, paddling silently through the Canadian wilderness along a river that was once an arterial route for the fur trade. On the way he encounters moose and beaver, and shares his knowledge with canoe expert Ray Goodwin.

Five 7.15pm
Tutankhamun: Reopening the FBI Files
The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in November 1922 enthralled the world. Now the enduring puzzle of the death of the Egyptian boy king is investigated by FBI detectives, using latest forensic technology and assisted by leading archaeologists. Is there a connection between his untimely demise and the sudden end of the 18th dynasty?

THURSDAY 12th
Channel 4 9.00pm
Princes in the Tower.
One of history’s most gruesome and colourful mysteries is re-examined in this factual drama. Eight years after the supposed deaths of the boy King Edward V and his younger brother Richard, a young man appeared insisting he was the younger of the two princes. Could his claim to the throne have been genuine.

Five 7.30pm
World War I in Colour.
Last in a series of eight programmes.
The Great War is given a fascinating new perspective as computer technology is used to recast black-and-white footage in detailed colour. The images are accompanied by poignant first-hand testimony from veterans and harrowing excerpts from letters sent by shell-shocked youngsters at the front.
Victory and Despair. When the conflict ended in 1918, the British and French governments were determined to humble and punish Germany. They forced their enemy to sign a harsh armistice treaty - which led to German civil unrest and the rise of vengeful extremist parties, most notably the Nazis.

FRIDAY 13th
BBC 2 9.00pm
Wren: the Man Who Built Britain
Hugh Bonneville stars as architect and Renaissance man Christopher Wren in a docudrama charting his brilliant career, which culminated in the building of St Paul’s Cathedral in 1710.

BBC 2 10.00pm
Nation on Film - VE Day Special.
Shooting the War. The Battle of Britain and victory celebrations in the north of England are recalled using recently unearthed footage.



Time Team on Discovery.

A Time Team programme is scheduled for 7.00am on Saturday 7th and 6.00am on Sunday 8th. And at 7pm on Saturday 30th you can see the Stuart episode of Worst Jobs In History

Monday An IA underground chamber in Cornwall.
Tuesday A Roman settlement in Cheshunt.
Wednesday A pub car park near Ironbridge.
Thursday A 13th century monastery at Chicksands.
Friday Kinlochbervie.


Also on Discovery Friday 13th May at 10.00pm:-
Mummy Autopsy
The team investigate four mutilated “trophy heads” discovered in southern Peru.


And don’t forget UKTV History, which has a range of history and archaeology programmes for those with access to digital, satellite or cable channels.


And for Tony Fans:-

Wednesday 11th
BBC 2 10.00pm
Blackadder III.
Nob and Nobility. A brave Englishman risks his life to save the French aristocracy from Madame Guillotine.

Fred Dibnah.

"Linking up with an authentic chain maker."

Ouch.

From Radio Times 14th - 20th May 2005


SATURDAY 14th
BBC 2 7.35pm
The Nazis: a Warning From History.
Third in a re-run of Laurence Rees powerful, six-part, Bafta-winning series, which debunks many popular myths surrounding the rise and fall of Nazi Germany.
The Wrong War. Adolf Hitler loved watching the Hollywood epic “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer”. So how was it that in 1939 he was at war with a country whose achievements he admired - Great Britain - and allied to his ideological enemy the Soviet Union?

SUNDAY 15th
Channel 4 5.25pm
The Airships.
Second in a series of three programmes.
Following the triumph of the Los Angeles airship, the German Zeppelin company formed an alliance with Goodyear to build airships in the USA. On the other side of the Atlantic, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen used an airship to become the first man to fly to the North Pole and German Hugo Eckner flew his Graf Zeppelin around the globe in just 12 days. However, tragedy struck for the British-built R101, which crashed on its maiden flight to India causing 48 fatalities.

Channel 4 6.25pm
TIME TEAM SPECIAL: HADRIAN’S WELL *******************
Digging at a huge site in London, archaeologists uncovered two extraordinary Roman cisterns. At the bottom of each lay the remains of a complex mechanism for drawing water from these 5m-deep containers. Engineers, technologists and historians join TR and the Team in an effort to reconstruct one of these rare machines and, in the process, discover how it worked.

MONDAY 9th
BBC 2 9.00pm
How Art Made the World.
Second in a series of five programmes in which archaeologist and art historian Dr Nigel Spivey investigates how images that surround us today are heavily influenced by the ancient world.
The Day Pictures Were Born. Why are we so fixated on pictures? How did we come to create them in the first place? Spivey tells a remarkable story that begins with paintings created by our ancestors in the caves of Europe and ends with our modern-day obsession with imagery.

TUESDAY 17th
BBC 2 7.00pm
Britain’s Best Buildings - Hardwick Hall.
A second chance to see this five part series.
Adultery, violence and a royal execution colour the history of one of our most mysterious country homes. The brainchild of the indomitable Countess of Shrewsbury - better known as Bess of Hardwick - the Elizabethan pile in Derbyshire became a monument to wealth, influence and ambition. Yet its tale includes four weddings, four funerals and the messiest, most public divorce Britain had seen.

BBC 2 8.30pm
Fred Dibnah’s Made in Britain.
Eleventh and twelfth in a series of twelve programmes.
In the last series he made before his death last November, the Bolton steeplejack attempts to fulfil a lifelong ambition - a tour of the UK on the 1912 steam traction engine he’s spent 27 years restoring.
A Lifetime’s Achievement. Fred heads down to London to collect his MBE for services to broadcasting and industrial heritage from the Queen, as he completes his traction-engine journey around the UK in this double-bill. He also takes in the mountains of Snowdonia, where he visit’s the Welsh Slate Museum, checks out the world’s first boat lift in Cheshire, then stops off at Loughborough in Leicestershire for a ride on a 1912 steam engine that saw sterling service on the now defunct Great Central Railway.

Five 7.15pm
Pevsner’s Cities with Gavin Stamp.
Liverpool. Perhaps more widely known for its football and music, Liverpool was visited in the late 1960s by architectural historian Nigel Pevsner, who documented its unique buildings and expansive, evocative docks. Here, art historian Gavin Stamp follows in Pevsner’s footsteps in an insightful journey through the city’s rich architectural history and its changing economic fortunes.

Five 8.00pm
Hitler’s Britain.
Occupation. Documentary using detailed Nazi documents, some of them translated for the first time, to depict what Britain would have been like had the Nazis successfully invaded in 1940. Among the terrifying possibilities are a Nazi death squad assigned to murder all the members of Britain’s government, along with the literary and intellectual elite.


WEDNESDAY 11th
BBC 2 8.00pm
Ray Mears’s Bushcraft. (Not England)
Third in a series of five programmes.
American Prairies. On a journey into the Old West, Ray follows in the footsteps of Jim Bridger, who forged a path across America’s continental divide. From constructing a boat out of willow and buffalo hide, to preserving meat and berries, he utilises the skills of such mountain men - and of the native Shoshone people.

Five 7.15pm
Nefertiti: Search For The Lost Mummy.
Some 3,000 years ago, she was one of the most powerful women on earth - but then she seemed to completely vanish from history. In this documentary, the life of Nefertiti is closely examined by Egyptologist Dr Joann Fletcher, who believes she has found the legendary queen’s mummy in the Valley of the Kings, and aims to prove it with a positive identification of the remains.

FRIDAY 13th
BBC 2 9.00pm
Britain’s Lost Colosseum - Timewatch
A love of bloody spectacle led the Romans to build amphitheatres all over their Empire. In Britain there were at least 25, the largest in Chester, where archaeologists Tony Wilmott and Dan Garner spend three months excavating a complex site of ruins. With the help of computer animation, they bring the amphitheatre back to life.



Time Team on Discovery.

A Time Team programme is scheduled for 7.00am on Saturday 14th and 6.00am on Sunday 15th. And at 7pm on Saturday 30th you can see the Georgian episode of Worst Jobs In History

Monday Ancaster.
Tuesday Vauxhall Bridge.
Wednesday The Saxon origins of Ely.
Thursday No info.
Friday Winchester.


Also on Discovery Friday 20th May at 10.00pm:-
Mummy Autopsy
Specialists attempt to reconstruct the last moments of a man whose skeleton was uncovered in a sand dune in Wyoming.


And don’t forget UKTV History, which has a range of history and archaeology programmes for those with access to digital, satellite or cable channels.


And for Tony Fans:-

Wednesday 18th
BBC 2 10.00pm
Blackadder III.
Sense and Senility. Anarchists threaten the Prince Regent’s Life.

Oooops Forgot this one

SUNDAY 15th
Channel 4 8.00pm
Pioneer House.
First in a new series of six programmes.
A New World. This historical reality documentary series sees a diverse group of modern British and American men, women and children transported to a replica of colonial New England c1628. Here they must work together, using only the primitive tools of the period, to build an authentic functioning British colony as it would have been at the dawn of modern America. The group starts out full of enthusiasm for the project, but tolerance is sure to be tested during four months of isolation, deprivation, sickness and backbreaking labour.

Just spotted this:

Tuesday 17th May (ie tonight!) - ITV1 (Westcountry only)
The West at War Programme 2 of 6
Historian Robin Bush explores the history of conflict involving the region's people across 2000 years. This week, the battles of Torrington and Sedgemoor.

From Radio Times 21st - 27th May 2005

SATURDAY 21st
BBC 2 7.10pm
The Nazis: a Warning From History.
Fourth in a re-run of Laurence Rees powerful, six-part, Bafta-winning series, which debunks many popular myths surrounding the rise and fall of Nazi Germany.
The Wild East. Nearly one in five Poles died during WWII under a brutal regime of ethnic cleansing. Interviews with former Nazis and moving eyewitness testimony debunk the myth that Poland’s German leaders were acting under orders, and reveal the chaos and blood lust that ensued.

Channel 4 7.10pm
The Michelangelo Code: Secrets of the Sistine Chapel.
Readers of popular fiction will already be aware that some of Leonardo da Vinci’s work can be held to contain an astounding hidden meaning. As art critic Waldemar Januszczak presents the findings of his 20-year study of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, he argues that the same is true of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s masterpeice. In a journey that takes him from Texas to Jerusalem and around Italy, Januszczak reveals the significance of one of the world’s most famous works of art.

SUNDAY 22nd
Channel 4 5.30pm
The Airships.
Last in a series of three programmes.
The Goodyear Zeppelin company created the first flying aircraft carriers for the US navy. In 1931, came the US Akron and later its sister ship the US Macon, but both crashed into the Atlantic within years. However, it was the explosion of the luxury passenger airship the Hindenburg in 1937 which finally put an end to dreams of using airships for mass travel. But it was not the end of these giant flying machines, and more recently unmanned airships have been put to a crucial new use in the stratosphere.

Channel 4 6.30pm
TIME TEAM DIGS … THE MODERN AGE *******************
With the help of the British Museum’s David Gainster, TR looks back at what TT have learnt from previous digs at such diverse locations as a Tudor palace, an Armada wreck and a Civil War site, as well as Josiah Wedgwood’s first revolutionary pottery, a lost railway viaduct in Wales and the Birmingham factory that was the world’s biggest in the 18th century.

Channel 4 8.00pm
Pioneer House.
Second in a series of six programmes.
Harsh Reality. With dissent starting to surface and motivation sadly lacking in the replica of colonial New England c1628, Governor Wwyers is forced to lay down the law. Soon lay preacher Don Heinz finds that presiding over a multi-faith congregation is the least of his worries when he is unexpectedly asked to lead the group, while an unexpected arrival only adds to the growing anarchy.

MONDAY 23rd
BBC 2 9.00pm
How Art Made the World.
Third in a series of five programmes in which archaeologist and art historian Dr Nigel Spivey investigates how images that surround us today are heavily influenced by the ancient world.
The Art of Persuasion. Imagery is one of the biggest weapons in the modern political armoury. But the ways in which politicians exploit images were originally invented thousands of years ago. From Stonehenge to Alexander the Great. NS tells the story of how rulers in the ancient world first created images to manipulate their subjects.

TUESDAY 24th
Five 7.15pm
The Art of The Gods.
Art historian Louise Govier guides viewers around one of the world’s finest collections of European paintings, at London’s National Gallery, aiming to prove that they are far from dusty museum pieces. On the contrary, their classical subjects are packed with lustful sex, violence, betrayal and humour. She reveals the secrets behind sumptuous canvasses by artists including Rubens, Tiepolo, Botticelli and Velazquez.

Five 8.00pm
Hitler’s Britain.
Resistance. Documentary using detailed Nazi documents, some of them translated for the first time, to depict what Britain would have been like had the Nazis successfully invaded in 1940. Churchill’s plans to form two secret bodies, auxiliary units of civilian resistance, to sabotage communications and supplies and wage a guerrilla war if the Nazis gained a foothold.

WEDNESDAY 25th
BBC 2 8.00pm
Ray Mears’s Bushcraft.
Fourth in a series of five programmes.
Sweden. The Scandinavian country is a place where ancient bush craft skills are in daily use. Ray sees how pine tar is produced and uses it on some traditional skis. In the north, he also spends time with the Sami people in sub-zero temperatures, learning about their folklore and undertaking a journey by dog sled through a magical landscape.

FRIDAY 13th
BBC 2 9.00pm
The Year Without Summer - Timewatch
Mount Tambora in eastern Indonesia unleashed the biggest blast ever in April 1815, a cataclysmic event that could have provoked a change in climate around the world. Thousands starved to death, lurid skies inspired the artist Turner and, out of the freakish cold, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was born. On opposite sides of the globe, two experts investigate.



Time Team on Discovery.

A Time Team programme is scheduled for 7.00am on Saturday 21st and 6.00am on Sunday 22nd. And at 7pm on Saturday 21st you can see the Victorian episode of Worst Jobs In History

Monday Canterbury.
Tuesday Bridgnorth.
Wednesday Lindisfarne.
Thursday Basildon.
Friday TT investigate a find by two cavers.


Also on Discovery Friday 27th May at 10.00pm:-
Mummy Autopsy
Featuring “Jimmy Garlic”, London’s only local mummy, which was found in the Church of St James.


And don’t forget UKTV History, which has a range of history and archaeology programmes for those with access to digital, satellite or cable channels.