David Olusoga

David Olusoga scored a double win at the RTS West of England Awards, taking home the On-Screen Talent and Factual prizes for Union with David Olusoga. In the BBC Two series, the historian investigates the origins and development of modern Great Britain. Bristol wildlife specialist Silverback Films won five awards, including the Natural History category for Netflix’s Life on Our Planet, which is narrated by Morgan Freeman. The series was praised by the judges as “amazing, gripping and epic.

In September, when dance troupe Diversity took to the stage for prime-time TV’s most controversial four minutes of 2020, one woman was watching especially intently – Ade Rawcliffe, ITV’s freshly promoted group director of diversity and inclusion.

“I was told they were going to do the dance. I thought it was incredibly moving, a wonderful creative expression,” she says of the group’s routine inspired by some of the year’s seminal events, not least the global Black Lives Matter protests.

Historian and presenter David Olusoga will return to explore the lives of residents within a single house and uncover the untold stories of the previous occupants through detective work, contemporary documents and genealogical records.

The four-part series will see Olusoga head to Leeds for series four, a city filled with historical ties to the Civil War and technological advancements.

Professor Beard, who appears alongside British historians Simon Schama and David Olusoga in the series, has been replaced onscreen with a voiceover by American actor Liev Schrieber. The show following in the footsteps of Kenneth Clarke’s landmark series of the same name in 1969.

Mary Beard’s career began with a piece of cake. On a trip to the British Museum with her mother, a curator noticed her struggling to see one of the exhibits, a 3,000-year-old piece of carbonised cake from Ancient Egypt.

“He got his keys out, he opened the case, he got the bit of cake out and he showed it to me.” It was a “light-bulb moment” for the then five-year-old, and a lesson in the joy of sharing. “People will see you wanting to know something and they’ll get their keys and unlock the case.”

“Genres go through cycles and I feel a lack of confidence about the genre at the moment across British broadcasting,” argued the BBC’s history commissioner Tom McDonald.

The exec, who also commissions specialist factual and natural history shows for the BBC, praised the efforts of other broadcasters – “When Channel 4 do history they do it very well and differently to us; Channel 5 do some really fantastic history” – but he added that “the ecosystem only works if everyone is doing it.

“I don’t worry about finding the next generation of on-screen historians,” he continued.

Black and British Season will bring content on what is means to be black and British to the BBC’s TV, online and radio outlets this November.

The season’s TV content ranges from one-off documentaries to sitcoms, airing on BBC Two and BBC Four.

A Black History of Britain will look at the long relationship between the British Isles, Africa, North America and the Caribbean.

The series will use new genetic and genealogical research alongside original records and interviews to build a new national narrative.

“This series will unveil a new type of black British history, because to me black history is everyone’s history,” said Olusoga. “It's the long, often tragic and always surprising story of Britain’s relationship with Africa and her peoples.”