THIS WEEK’S TOP TV PICKS
MUSIC Later… With Jools Holland Friday, BBC2, 10pm
Despite its limitations, the most recent Hootenanny turned out to be the most popular yet. Now Holland d (right) returns rns with the 57th series of his evergreen music showcase, but once again it’s adopting a different format because of the pandemic. The host still can’t invite guests to share a stage, so he’s keeping the six-part run more low-key by presenting it from his South London recording studio. From there he will chat to his main guest and introduce performances from established and rising stars. Holland begins by speaking to 6 Music’s artistin-residence Arlo Parks about the inspiration for her new album (see review, facing page).
ARCHAEOLOGY The Great British Dig: History In Your Back Garden
Wednesday, More4, 9pm If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from watching the muchmissed Time e Team and other similar r shows, it’s that there’s a wealth of history beneath our feet. This series, commissioned following a successful pilot episode last April, takes that idea and runs with it – each episode charts the progress of experts as they try to unearth long-lost ancient buildings, topsecret sites and Viking graveyards they believe are hidden beneath lawns and flowerbeds across the nation. Host Hugh Dennis (above) looks on as, in the first part, a team of archaeologists tries to locate a Roman fort that once stood in what is now Benwell, a suburb of Newcastle.
ARTS Charles Hazlewood: Beethoven & Me
Tuesday, Sky Arts, 9pm
Two hundred d and fifty years on from Beethoven’s birth, his legacy is explored in a highly personal documentary y presented by y conductor Charles Hazlewood (above). Centring on the Fifth Symphony, the film explores the anguish that may have lain behind it. Having talked about the childhood abuse he himself suffered, Hazlewood wonders if much of Beethoven’s artistic vision was a result of the treatment he experienced at the hands of his father, but the conductor also delights in the inspirational, life-affirming passion of the music. Look out for the Paraorchestra, the ensemble that combines ablebodied and disabled musicians.
DOCUMENTARY Esther Rantzen: Living With Grief
Thursday, Channel 5, 10pm
Her life has been marked by grief ever since the death of her beloved husband more than 20 years ago. o. But now Dame me Esther Rantzen (above) wants to take her own painful memories of losing Desmond Wilcox in 2000 and see if she can help others deal with the tragedy of bereavement that has touched all too many families over the past year of the pandemic. This is the story of lives that have been claimed by coronavirus as well as tragic accidents and murder, but though the subject matter is bleak, Rantzen also finds hope to light up the darkness as she shares her own experience of moving on and eventually discovering a way to look to the future with optimism.
HISTORY Raiders Of The Lost Past With Janina Ramirez
Friday, BBC2, 2, 9pm As our appetite for all things archaeological is heightened by the new Netflix hit The he Dig, historian n Janina Ramirez (above) returns with the series in which she discovers what lies behind the greatest finds of all. In this week’s episode Ramirez is in Crete where, a century ago, the wealthy Arthur Evans uncovered what might have been the remains of a 3,000-yearold Minoan palace. But in between admiring the landscape and the treasures that were unearthed, Ramirez is forced to ask how much of the story of the ancient world that Evans helped to shape was formed by the nationalist and imperialist ideologies of the early 20th Century.