ALSO LOOK OUT FOR... Royal Murder Mysteries

This month’s round-up of TV and radio

Poldark June

BBC ONE Continuing to mine the much-loved novels of Winston Graham, Auntie’s blockbuster of life in Cornwall in the late 18th century is back for a third series.

Naturally, this means the return of familiar characters such as Ross (Aidan Turner) and Demelza (Eleanor Tomlinson), but we’re also promised new faces.

These include Elizabeth’s cousin, Morwenna, (Ellise Chappell), who takes a job as a governess from George Warleggan in order to support her sisters and widowed mother. We also meet Demelza’s brothers: while religious Sam ( Tom York) is a Methodist proselytiser like his father, Drake (Harry Richardson) is a good-natured free spirit who doesn’t want to settle for his allotted place in life.

Making History June

RADIO 4 The long-running history magazine show returns for a new series. As ever, Tom Holland, Helen Castor and producer Nick Patrick have found a raft of stories that offer new angles on familiar stories. When the programme looks back on the Battle of the Medway, which took place in 1667, it’s told not from the perspective of the English, but from the perspective of the Dutch raiders who attacked Charles II’s fleet and inflicted an ignominious defeat.

Among other highlights, there will be reports on the respective roles of the railways and the Romantic poets in shaping how we see the Lake District; the Pentrich rebellion of 1817, when Derbyshire villagers, despairing at harsh living conditions, rose against the Crown; and plans to build a road tunnel near Stonehenge.

Monday 12 June, 8pm

YESTERDAY From the makers of Medieval Murder Mysteries, here’s a series that looks anew at the deaths of those from ruling families. Over six episodes, its subjects include William the Conqueror, whose demise was followed by a dispute between his sons; and Prince George, the Duke Of Kent (1902- 42), an RAF officer who died when a flight taking him to Iceland crashed in Scotland.

The Reith Lectures With Hilary Mantel Tuesday 13 June

RADIO 4 In historical novels, the dead come to take on a new, simulated life. What are we to make of this process? Is it, to quote Hilary Mantel, “an open door to confusion” or “a pathway to light”? In five lectures, the Wolf Hall author considers issues and difficulties that come up when we approach the past through fiction.

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