Traitors
February
Channel 4
Created by writer Bash Doran ( Broadwalk Empire), Traitors takes us back to the world of 1945. With the Second World War over, a new Labour administration has taken power just as ambitious Feef Symonds (Emma Appleton) joins the Civil Service. However, she soon finds that her American lover Peter (Matt Lauria) wants her to spy on the Government.
Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle
February
BBC Four
What was it like to travel from the Caribbean to bombed-out Britain in the 1940s and try to build a new life? Soon Gone, a series of eight monologues made in conjunction with Sir Lenny Henry’s production company Douglas Road and the Young Vic Theatre, charts the experiences of one family from first arrival through to the present day. Each film is set amidst the domesticity of a front room, and stars include Lenny Henry himself, Vinette Robinson (who played Rosa Parks in the 2018 series of Doctor Who) and Montserrat Lombard ( Ashes to Ashes, Upstart Crow).
Last B- 24
Wednesday 13 February, 7.50pm
PBS America
In 1944 a battle-scarred B-24 Liberator bomber known as the Tulsamerican crashed in the sea off the coast of Croatia. Divers located the plane in 2010, and this documentary follows the subsequent work of underwater archaeologists as they explore the wreck and search for the remains of the crew.
China Towns
Begins Saturday 16 February BBC Radio 4
Born in the Potteries, writer Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) often returned to his roots for inspiration during his career, notably in novels such as
Anna of the Five Towns and the Clayhanger Family series. Bennett’s ‘Five Towns’ stories form the basis of this new drama series, which plays out over 11 hours and focuses on life in a fictionalised Stoke-on-Trent between 1865 and 1902. It’s a tale of fortunes won and lost, and of lives transformed by the advent of new technologies and ways of working. A starry cast includes Neil Dudgeon from
Midsomer Murders.