DON’T MISS
Saturday magazine
LONDON: 2000 YEARS OF HISTORY REVEALED
Channel 5, 9.15pm FORGET the stuffy image of historical documentaries. This one is fronted by three young, cool and engaging historians – Dan Jones, Suzannah Lipscomb and Rob Bell.
They are keen to tell the fascinating story of the UK capital and their enthusiasm is infectious.
It’s a tale that’s both gory and glorious as they tell how an uninhabited swamp became one of the largest and most successful cities on Earth.
Fighting off invasions, catastrophic fires and the deadly plague, London grew from a small Roman trading post to a thriving megacity.
In the opening scenes, Dan is at Crossrail, an engineering super project that unearthed plenty of ruins and remains with its giant tunnelling machines.
Suzannah gets to know Queen Boudica, the fearsome warrior who burnt the city to the ground in 60AD, and Rob investigates the engineering genius behind the very first London Bridge.
Dan also visits the Tower of London to marvel at the White Tower built by William the Conqueror to dominate the city. DERRY GIRLS Channel 4, 9.15pm IT’S a brave TV show that can take a topic like The Troubles and turn it into comedy gold but this has not only worked but become a certified hit.
Set in Derry, Northern Ireland, in the 1990s, it follows a group of teenage girls as they navigate parents, parties, school and love interests.
Now they have to do all of that while also dealing with the backdrop of the precarious peace process.
There’s much excitement, however, as series two kicks off as the gang are off on an outdoor pursuits weekend, aiming to bring Protestant and Catholic schoolkids together.
More specifically, the Catholic girls will be spending the weekend with the lads from the Londonderry Boys Academy. “No funny business with these Protestant lads,” says Erin’s mum. “I want no one coming back pregnant.”
Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) is mostly up for metaphorical bridge building but Michelle (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell) is more keen on another type of cross-community relations.