News -
THE HISTORY CHANNEL HIGHLIGHTS MARCH 2023
BRAND NEW
U-BOAT WARGAMERS
Sundays from 5th March at 22:00
U-Boat Wargamers tells the remarkable story of Gilbert Roberts, Jean Laidlaw and the Women’s Royal Navy Service (WRNS) – aka the ‘Wrens’ – as they use revolutionary war gaming tactics to defeat Admiral Karl Dönitz and his Wolf Pack fleets of U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic during World War II. The year is 1943 and Admiral Karl Dönitz - head of the Nazis’ U-boat fleet - has brought Britain to the brink of starvation by destroying their merchant ships. The Royal Navy turns to retired war gamer Gilbert Roberts, who needs to find a team, but the Navy can’t spare any men. Instead, he turns to the Women’s Royal Navy Service (WRNS) to war game the U-boats’ tactics. In partnership with Jean Laidlaw, one of Britain’s first female chartered accountants, and a small team of resourceful female mathematicians, they decipher Dönitz’s tactics and develop a method by which the Navy’s destroyers can infiltrate the Wolf Packs and pick off the U-boats one by one. The Wrens were some of the greatest war gamers of their generation, but their legacy has largely been ignored. Now the story of these forgotten war gamers can be told, in a premiere series narrated by Emmy and Bafta-winning actor Sir Derek Jacobi (I, Claudius, Hamlet, Gladiator). (6x75)
BRAND NEW
ROYAL AUTOPSY
Mondays from 20th March at 21:00
Professor Alice Roberts presents a new investigation into the deaths of Queen Elizabeth I and King Charles II in the original series Royal Autopsy. Each episode follows a detailed ‘as real’ autopsy - led by forensic pathologist Dr Brett Lockyer - which uses a combination of prosthetic bodies and actors alongside detailed historical research in order to reach a conclusion. Using eyewitness accounts sourced from the time of their deaths, the final dying days of these historic figures are brought to life with premium scripted dramatic scenes, starring Mark Wingett (Snow White and The Huntsman; The Bill) as Charles II and Linda Marlowe (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; EastEnders) as Elizabeth I. (2x60)
