Season 1983 - Episode Guide

The history programme that brings the past up to date, introduced by John Tusa.

In this edition How do you Democratise a Nazi? On the 50th anniversary of Hitler's elevation to the chancellorship of the Third Reich Simon Winchester reports from Washington and Nuremberg on how America in 1945 tried to remake a nation in its own image through a process of forced re-education.

The Venerable Bede-Britain's first historian. Who was he? Where and how did he live? Why is he so important? The story of a remarkable man who, over a thousand years ago, could have travelled from Northumbria to Rome.

And The Levellers - three months ago in Putney church Michael Foot and other members of the Labour Party associated themselves with the men of the ' New Model Army' who spoke there 300 years before. Who were these men who, in their radicalism, saw Cromwell as the modern equivalent of establishment and right wing? How does the philosophy of these Levellers find echoes in the Labour Party today?

John Tusa investigates the work of a lifetime -the completed new edition of The Diary of Samuel Pepys. He talks to Robert Latham , editor of this unparalleled document of Restoration society, who has uncovered previously unknown details of Pepys's life.

Peter Ibbotson uncovers 'the weeders'. Are civil servants destroying vital historical evidence when they decide Government records should not be kept?

The Historical Cleopatra. As the BBC drama series approaches its climax, Timewatch asks 'Was Cleo patra's reputation as a lustful tyrant really deserved?'

The Peace Movement in the 1930s and Today

Fifty years ago, British politics was dominated by campaigns for peace. What are the parallels with the 1980s? John Tusa reports.

The Last Muggletonian

In 1652, the Muggletonians were a radical sect in Revolutionary England. Simon Winchester traces their secret survival until the death of the last Muggletonian in 1979. The Victorian Police

What sort of Force was the Police intended to be? With a new Police Bill before Parliament, Bernard Clark returns to their original beat.

The history programme that brings the past up to the present

The Loved and Hated King

Richard III - hunchback murderer of the princes in the Tower, or victim of Tudor propaganda? On the 500th anniversary of his coronation, historians go into battle again over his reputation.

The Silent Years of Television

In 1950 politics were not allowed on British television. By the end of the decade television dominated the political scene. As an election approaches John Bowman asks how television has changed British political history. Animals and Men

Throughout history man has used animals for food, companions and labour. John Tusa talks to Keith Thomas about his new history of Man and the Natural World -the background to today's concern for animal liberation and ecology.