ALSO LOOK OUT FOR…
Sylvia Plath’s only novel, the semi-autobiographical The Bell Jar (1963), is a study of mental illness and depression that’s also a key feminist text. Tragically, Plath took her own life a few weeks after it was published in the UK. Life Inside the
Bell Jar (BBC Two, August) is one of several BBC arts documentaries scheduled to be shown this summer that also has much to say about social history. The documentary features the first- ever interview on camera with Frieda Hughes about her mother. Forthcoming episodes of Open
Country (Radio 4) include one in which Helen Mark visits Purton Hulks ships’ graveyard ( Thursday 9 August), a remarkable collection of craft stranded on the foreshore. Also listen out for the continuing Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (Radio 4, Monday 13 August) in which the comedian and writer reflects on what we can learn from figures who lived in the classical world.
On PBS America, highlights include A Nation Soars ( Tuesday 4 September), which looks, from a Canadian perspective, at how aviation changed the course of the First World War. The series consists of three episodes, with the first dealing with the way aeroplanes enabled more accurate mapping of enemy positions. The continuing Hitler’s Circle
of Evil (H2, Wednesday 15 August) is a docudrama that charts the rise of Nazism through the relationships between its central figures, and the ways in which they tried to outdo each other to win Hitler’s favour.