The Mark Steel Lectures

Absolutely stunning and entertaining short series of programmes covering great historical people.

In each 30 minute episode Mark manages to deliver a summary of the person's life and work at breakneck speed, put into a modern context by hilarious asides.

What I really like is the loving attention to detail e.g. fake newspaper pages revealing in-jokes etc. These flash on to the screen so quickly that you really need to pause a recording to appreciate them all. Plus more become apparent with repeated viewing.

Immensely watchable.