Armchair Travel: The Stuarts, China, Peasants' Revolt in England, Sicily

 Armchair Travel

Sat. Aug. 2    BBC2 N Ireland, 9.00pm : John Ball  encouraging Wat Tyler's rebels 

Dr Clare Jackson with helmet of Henry, Prince of Wales                                                                    Photo: BBC Scotland

The Stuarts: attempting to create a feeling of Britishness
The history of the 17th century British royal family in The Stuarts (BBC2 N Ireland 8.00pm Wednesday July 30) is explored by Clare Jackson. She explains the difficulties of ruling Ireland, England and Scotland, multiple religions and civil war. In this first episode, she looks at James VI of Scotland's attempts to unite his country with Ireland and England.

Terracotta Army Museum                                                                      Photo: BBC/Renegade Pictures

Strange masks:  four thousand years old

     The new series of Art of China continues (BBC4 9.00pm Wednesday July 30) as Andrew Graham-Dixon travels across China seeking out Chinese art and put it into a historical setting. In this episode, he finds some recent discoveries of ancient art that redefine China's own understanding of its past. There is an remarkable collection of futuristic and strange bronze masks created nearly four  thousand years ago. He travels the Yellow River to the tomb of a warrior empress and explains the origins of Chinese calligraphy.
     This is followed by a repeat of Wild China: Heart of the Dragon (BBC4 10.00pm Wednesday July 30) It explores how rural Chinese in the south have developed a relationship with the region's animals,including the use of water buffalo in farming, and how tamed cormorants help their owners while fishing

Peasants' Revolt, Kent, England:  shaped political thought for more than 600 years
     John Ball, a priest in the 14th-century came to despise the Church authorities and in turn they persecuted him. He joined forces with Wat Tyler in the county Kent in England in 1381 to lead the uprising that became known as the Peasants' Revolt. In the first of a two-part programme
Melvyn Bragg's Radical Lives: Now Is the Time - John Ball (BBC2 N Ireland, 9.00pm Saturday August 2) Bragg examines how the words of John Ball helped shape rebellions and political thought for more than 600 years

Montalbano: another visit to southeast Sicily

    In The Artist's Touch, (Inspector Montalbano, BBC4, 9.00pm. Saturday August 2) Goldsmith Alberto Larussa is found dead in his wheelchair, which has been modified into an electric chair. It looks like an elaborate suicide. But is it?. For Montalbano the case takes on a different view of the case when the dead man's will is deemed to be a forgery - and suspicion quickly falls on Larussa's brother Giacomo, who stands to inherit everything. Meanwhile, Deputy Inspector 'Mimi' Augello investigates the puzzling murder of an electrician. This episode is a script specially written for TV and is not taken from any of the detective novels of Andrea Camilleri.
Boxsets
Inspector Montalbano: TV Series One (5 Disc DVD) is available from www.amazon.co.uk  for approx. €29.57 / £23.39 sterling (exchange rates when blogged)