History TV and radio in the UK: what's on our screens this week?

Saturday 18th January, 8pm

Writer Phil Tinline travels back to the 1980s to look back at the second presidency of Ronald Reagan, which followed the Gipper’s optimistic “Morning in America” reelection campaign. As another entertainer, Donald J Trump, returns to power, what does the difference in tone between then and now tell us about how things have changed?

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Mysteries Of Stonehenge

Channel 4

Sunday 19th January, 6pm

Promising a mix of archaeology and cultural history, the Mysteries strand explores how certain sites exert a huge pull on our collective imaginations. First up, cameras head for Stonehenge in a documentary that looks at the stone circles’s origins and its more recent history too, including the place it occupies in our imaginations.

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SAS Rogue Heroes

BBC One

Sunday 19th January, 9pm

The penultimate episode of the series, Paddy Mayne (Jack O’Connell) meets General Montgomery (Con O’Neill). The architect of the British victory at El Alamein can smell booze coming off the SAS men, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s not impressed.

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What Happened At Auschwitz

BBC One

Monday 20th January, 8.30pm

In a documentary to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp, Jordan Dunbar speaks to survivors. Also today, The Lost Music Of Auschwitz (Sky Arts, 9pm) brings to life forgotten scores, while Auschwitz: Countdown To Liberation (Sky History, 9pm) explores events in the run-up to the Red Army reaching Auschwitz.

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Pompeii: The New Dig – pick of the week

BBC Two

Monday 20th January, 9pm

As archaeologists continue their work in the shadow of Vesuvius, work at Pompeii continues to reveal remarkable insights into life in the Roman world. This one-off special (all episodes are available via iPlayer) follows painstaking work to reveal a luxury home that was possibly owned by a local politician.

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The Essay: EarthWorks

BBC Radio 3

Monday 20th January, 9.45pm

In the third series of EarthWorks, visual artist and archaeologist Rose Ferraby one again explores traces of human history that can be seen in different landscapes around the British Isles. In the first of five weekday episodes she visits the Hepple Estate in Northumberland, a site where, 4,000 years ago, rock art was etched into boulders.

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Shadow Of War: A Tainted Anatomy

BBC Radio 4

Tuesday 21st January, 8pm

During the Second World War, Nazi-sponsored anatomists took advantage of access to increased number of cadavers for their research. As anatomist and forensic anthropologist Professor Sue Black explores in a remarkable documentary, this work included using the bodies of British PoWs. How did this happen and why did it take so long to come to light?

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Long Lost Family Special: The Spanish Baby Scandal

ITV1

Tuesday 21st January, 9pm

During the Franco era, thousands of babies were taken from their families, a practice that continued beyond the dictator’s death into the 1990s. Davina McCall and Nicky Campbell meet two women affected by a historic scandal that, even today, many in Spain think has yet to be fully acknowledged.

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Rethink…

BBC Radio 4

Thursday 23rd January, 4pm

Ben Ansell considers the future of the UK’s museums. The country is home to internationally important institutions but, at a time when funding is tight, what’s their purpose? Who are they for? And how do they balance their educational remit with the need to attract visitors?

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Bloody Mary: Lucy Worsley Investigates

BBC Two

Friday 24th January, 9pm

Concluding the current series, Lucy Worsley grapples with the life and times of Mary Tudor, one of the most notorious figures in British royal history. Was she really as “bloody” as we imagine? Or has her reputation been tainted by misogyny and the religious conflicts of the 16th century?

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