Second World War

Suggs hunts for World War II treasure on History

WW2 Treasure Hunters (w/t), will see Suggs and World War Two expert Stephen Taylor bring forgotten stories of the war back to life, by unearthing rare artefacts from former military sites across the UK.

Using archives, maps and state-of-the-art technology, the duo will work together to identify the best places to dig at forgotten sites, including airfields, barracks and military bases.

Once they have been located, they will go on to perform extensive digs to excavate the relics.

This week's top TV: 24 - 30 August

Goodness Gracious Me India Special 2015

Monday

Muslim Drag Queens

Channel 4

10pm


Asif Quraishi (Credit: C4/Phil Fisk)

Filmmaker Marcus Plowright meets members of the clandestine gay Asian (‘Gaysian’) community, who often struggle to publically reconcile their sexuality with their culture and religion.

BBC to commemorate 70th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day

Kirsty Young

The BBC will mark the 70th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day) with a range of coverage on television and radio.

Kirsty Young will anchor live coverage of the commemorations on Saturday 15 August in VJ Day 70: The Nation Remembers (BBC One, from 10.30am, with highlights on Sunday 16 August at 5.30pm on BBC Two), with James Naughtie commentating on events and Dan Snow speaking to veterans and their families.

Memories of a world at war

Four years in the making and, at the time, the UK’s most expensive series, The World at War remains TV’s greatest documentary.  

 

Knitted together by Laurence Olivier’s narration and a Carl Davis score, the programme movingly tells the story of the Second World War using eyewitness accounts and interviews with important figures, including Albert Speer and Lord Mountbatten.  

 

History man Dan Snow forges an online empire

"I’d rather have internet than running water," declares Dan Snow, broadcaster, historian and self-confessed digital obsessive. Not content with making history programmes for broadcasters on subjects as diverse as China’s Terracotta Army and the D-Day landings, Snow is now building an online empire. His new tools are apps, YouTube videos, Facebook, Twitter (where he has a whopping 100,000 followers) and, most recently, Periscope, the Twitter-owned live video app.

Why is the Second World War so popular on television?

Turn on the TV on any given day and it's likely you'll stumble across something to do with the Second World War.

Whether it's new ITV drama Home Fires, reruns of Dad's Army, or a documentary about Hitler, decades after the war ended, it still dominates television schedules.

This week sees an increased output of programmes centred on the 1939-1945 conflict, as Britain commemorates the 70th anniversary of VE Day.