March Highlights

When The Boat Comes In

Weekdays, 4pm (from Monday 1st March)

All-time classic British TV drama When The Boat Comes In continues on Yesterday this month. The drama was originally broadcast between 1976 and 1981, and stars James Bolan as Jack Ford, a WWI veteran who returns to his poverty-stricken home town in the North East of England in the 1920s.

During the two world wars, Britain was at a low ebb financially and When The Boat Comes In follows the human drama in a country ravaged by war and the Great Depression.

Ford has had his fill of struggle in the trenches and is now determined to make something of himself in the brave new world. What he finds is a society on its knees, but using cunning, guile and dollops of cynicism, he finally makes his mark. But, as ever in those troubled times, there are problems ahead.

G. B. H. (Channel Premiere)

Weekdays, 9pm (from Monday 1st March)

Legendary social realist and dramatist Alan Bleasdale created some of the hardest hitting and relevant dramas of the Thatcher years, chronicling everything from the desperation of unemployment (see Boys From The Blackstuff) to the erosion of power and elevation of corruption.

G.B.H. is a darkly humorous epic that focuses on the latter, played out in the conflict between an enigmatic city politician, Michael Murray (Robert Lindsay) and his nemesis, schoolteacher Jim Nelson (Michael Palin).

Nelson defies a Murray-inspired 24-hour strike and inadvertently steals the limelight when his endeavours are picked up by the press. While Murray seeks revenge in what is initially a one-sided fight, G.B.H. slowly reveals the secrets in his past that will cause his carefully constructed world to unravel.

Just when the pressure of public life and power games start getting on top of him, a beautiful woman arrives on the scene…

Shipwreck Detectives

Saturdays in March, 3pm and 8pm

The truth behind a shipwreck can be as mysterious as the depths of the ocean in which it lies. Myths and legends have always followed in the wake of a disaster at sea, as the evidence is unobtainable, lying untouched and invisible beneath the waves.

The Shipwreck Detectives, a dedicated group of Australian marine archaeologists, have made it their mission to uncover the truth, through discovery and excavation of some of Australia’s most notorious shipwrecks.

Using state-of-the-art forensic science and cutting edge technology, they attempt to solve the puzzles of the past and reveal spectacular evidence of murder, mutiny and buried treasure.

Their investigations lead them to the discovery of the lost WWII flying boats of Broome, a long-forgotten cache of diamonds and the lost shipwreck of Truk Lagoon in a deepwater graveyard of 50 ships. For starters, though, it’s the terrible tale of the Dutch ship Batavia, one of the most incredible stories of shipwreck ever recorded and one of the bloodiest chapters in Australia’s history.

Beau Brummell: This Charming Man

Saturday 27th March, 8pm

James Purefoy stars as the notorious 19th century dandy, Beau Brummell, in this sumptuous and rollicking period drama.

Beau Brummell, a close friend of the Prince Regent, King George IV, became famous for his impeccable dress sense and connections with the right people. If ever there was a forerunner to the cult of celebrity, Beau Brummel was it.

Credited with making a less flashy and more elegant style of dress fashionable, the beautifully cut clothing that he made popular is seen as an early version of the suit. Having risen to a height of popularity, however, his descent was swift. Brummell died penniless in France, having lost the favour of the Prince.

This drama, also starring Hugh Bonneville, Phil Davis and Matthew Rhys follows Brummel in his heyday – from keeping his many creditors off his back by sheer charm and cunning alone, to fashionable invention and even a love triangle between himself, Lord Byron and the lady Julia.