U-Boat Wargamers
Starts 5/03, Sundays @ 22:00 CET
6x60’
Starts 5/03, Sundays @ 22:00 CET
6x60’
U-Boat Wargamers tells the remarkable story of Gilbert Roberts, Jean Laidlaw and the Women’s Royal Navy Service (WRNS) – aka the ‘Wrens’ – as they use revolutionary war gaming tactics to defeat Admiral Karl Dönitz and his Wolf Pack fleets of U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II.
The year is 1943 and Admiral Karl Dönitz - head of the Nazis’ U-boat fleet -has brought Britain to the brink of starvation by destroying their merchant ships. The Royal Navy turns to retired war gamer Gilbert Roberts who needs to find a team, but the Navy can’t spare any men. Instead, he turns to the Women’s Royal Navy Service (WRNS) to war game the U-boats’ tactics. In partnership with Jean Laidlaw, one of Britain’s first female chartered accountants, and a small team of resourceful female mathematicians, they decipher Dönitz’s tactics and develop a method by which the Navy’s destroyers can infiltrate the Wolf Packs and pick off the U-boats one by one.
The Wrens were some of the greatest war gamers of their generation, but their legacy has largely been ignored. Now the story of these forgotten war gamers can be told, in a premiere series narrated by Emmy and Bafta-winning actor Sir Derek Jacobi (I, Claudius, Hamlet, Gladiator).
Hitler: A Life In Pictures
Starts 20/03, Mondays @21:00 CET
4x60’
Hitler: A Life in Pictures is a major four-part series telling the story of the rise and fall of Hitler through photographs and film, seeking to understand how the use of propaganda and image helped bring him to power. From his childhood through to the end the First World War Hitler struggled to be noticed until he joined a little-known right ring political party known as the NSPAD or Nazi Party. As he rose to power Hitler made use of the new image-making technologies to amplify his place in Germany and the world.
Hitler’s private life became an endless source of fascination, and he carefully controlled his image to be in line with National Socialist ideals, while also hiding his secret relationships. Hitler’s viscous racial ideology led to the horrors of the concentration and extermination camps and the series shows not just the propaganda but the reality of the Final Solution.
Hitler's ambition for Germany drove him to war in a bid for global domination, but what resulted was one of the greatest disasters the world has ever seen.
Royal Autopsy
Starts 20/03, Mondays @21:00 CET
2x60’
Starts 20/03, Mondays @21:00 CET
2x60’
In this graphic, ground-breaking two-part TV series, Professor Alice Roberts investigates the cause of death of two of Britain’s most famous monarchs, King Charles II and Queen Elizabeth I.
Alice’s investigations bring together, for the first time, a unique blend of expertise to provide new insight and conclusions that challenge the received wisdom of how and why they died. At the heart of each investigation is a detailed ‘as real’ autopsy led by Forensic Pathologist Dr Brett Lockyer. Together they search for any clues on the monarch’s body surface, then cut open the corpse to study their internal organs. Alice takes her findings to leading medical and historical experts for further detailed analysis, exploring the cause and symptoms of any diseases, and how each ailment would have affected the regent, both in life and eventual death.
Using eye-witness accounts sourced from the time of their deaths, the final dying days are brought to life in vivid detail with exquisite scripted dramatic scenes, starring Mark Wingett as Charles II and Linda Marlowe as Elizabeth I.
In both episodes, Alice opens a new cold case investigation to examine the life and death of our most celebrated monarchs. The gruesome facts are separated from wild fiction, the diseases and the health issues they lived with are investigated and are embedded in a broader historical context of their lives.
Based on the evidence, Professor Alice Roberts and Dr Brett Lockyer deliver their findings to reveal what they believe really did kill King Charles II and Queen Elizabeth I.
