Timewatch

From the Public Records Office in London Peter France introduces three films which reflect the way official records are preserved for future generations.

Peter France introduces two stories which throw new light on the life and times of Henry Tudor, who took the throne of England from Richard III 500 years ago. The first film indicates the problems facing Margaret Rule and her assistant Andrew Fielding. The second reassesses the life of Henry VII - the king who may well have commissioned the Mary Rose.

From the British Museum, Peter France presents three films which reveal the way visionaries and others dealt with the 'outsider' as they set out to perfect a society, a state and a national image at the turn of the 19th century. To achieve the first, English reformers constructed a new prison system - only to find that within 20 years it was a total failure. To achieve the second, the Brothers Grimm falsified their country's original folk tales to define behaviour ' acceptable to the architects ' of the new Germany. And to achieve the third, satirical cartoonists vilified the national characteristics of the Welsh, the Scots and the Irish to build up the concept of pure Englishness.

Peter France introduces three stories about the lives of women in worlds dominated by men. First "The Nine Day Queen" then "Most Dangerous Women" followed by "The World of Mary Ellen Best".

During World War 2, Britain's MI6 recruited a French spy and infiltrated him into a rival secret service; the Special Operations Executive (SOE). That spy went on to betray much of SOE's activities to the Nazis? This program explore why.

In Hollywood, Peter France re-discovers a classic documentary of the 30s. In 1936, two young men trying to make their way in Hollywood were brought together by their hatred of Fascism. Where most of their compatriots supported Fascism or preferred not to know, Irving Allen and Herbert Bregstein were exceptional in seeing the dangers ahead and trying to do something about it. Using all their own time and money, they made a film. The Road to War used newsreel to try to alert the American people to the mounting horror of war in China, Ethiopia, Italy, Germany, Austria and Spain. But America did not want to know and the film disappeared without trace until last year.

Peter France presents a selection of films screened in the series over the past year, and reveals the origins and backgrounds to the stories.

A few weeks ago, a Victoria Cross, won at the battle of Rorke's Drift more than 100 years ago, was sold at auction in London.

The Domesday Book was completed 900 years ago but it says little about the daily worries and concerns of the people whose land and animals are recorded in so much detail.

This summer the National History Museum of Bulgaria in Sofia put on display more than 160 silver bowls and jugs, which had been found a few months earlier by a farmer and his wife digging an irrigation ditch.