Landmark Trust
The Landmark Trust rescues and gives new life to forts, follies, towers and cottages by restoring them for use as holiday destinations. But how does the charity go about its work? This series promises to offer some clues and tell the stories behind some of the buildings the Trust has saved. Film crews also follow two restoration projects: efforts to preserve the Grade I-listed St Edward’s Presbytery in Ramsgate, which was designed by the Victorian architect Augustus Pugin; and the 18th-century maritime villa of Belmont in Lyme Regis, which in the 20th century became the home of John Fowles, author of The French Lieutenant’s Woman. It may not quite show life as our forebears really lived it, but the return of Downton Abbey is always a TV event – especially as this is the final series. Details were sketchy as WDYTYA? Magazine went to press, but we can surely expect creator Julian Fellowes to give us a grand finale. BBC TWO SCOTLAND AND IPLAYER Over four episodes, painter Lachlan Goudie traces the history of Scottish art. It’s a tale that reaches back 5,000 years, as Goudie heads for Orkney and the standing stones of the Ring of Brodgar. The series also explores the rebirth of Scottish art during the Enlightenment; and the way the Glasgow Boys, in part inspired by French artists, painted intimate scenes of late 19thcentury rural life.
BBC2 Historian Simon Schama has recently teamed up with National Portrait Gallery curators to create five temporary displays within the gallery’s permanent collections. The idea behind the partnership is to explore the history of portraiture, its development and the messages that paintings convey, through five themes: power, love, fame, people and self.
The accompanying BBC series finds Schama discussing artists and sitters who have played a key role in Britain’s national story, and also looking at how the public has reacted to the images on view. YESTERDAY Yesterday gives much of its October programming over to its Spy Season, including this documentary that profiles historical trailblazers in the world of espionage. Expect tales of Tudor England, France at the time of Cardinal Richelieu and the American Civil War.