The War of the World,
The Clash of Empires
mon, june 30 | 9 p.m.
World War II was the greatest triumph, the moment when the forces of light — the Western democracies — prevailed over the forces of darkness — the Nazis and the other Axis powers. It was a conflict that began in Europe in September 1939, but became global only with the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. It ended with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan in August 1945. In the program, Harvard historian Niall Ferguson challenges nearly all our enduring assumptions about what was, without question, the most destructive conflict the planet has ever seen. The three-part series fundamentally transforms the way we think about World War II. This is a three-part series. The remaining two parts will air on the following two Mondays at 9 p.m.
Masterpiece Mystery! Inspector Lewis, Series I
Expiation
sun, july 6 | 8 p.m.
Kevin Whately returns as Detective Inspector Robbie Lewis in the spin-off to the popular Inspector Morse series. Lewis, back in Oxford following the tragic death of his wife, is cracking cases with his sharp young sidekick, DS Hathaway (Laurence Fox, Becoming Jane). An impressive list of guest stars (Gina McKee, Anna Massey and James Wilby) joins Lewis and Hathaway this season as they take on murder mysteries that draw them into the underbelly of celebrity, ambition and the sexual politics of the Oxfordshire elite. When an Oxford housewife is found hanged in her home, Lewis and Hathaway unearth a far darker murder case than the initial suicide verdict suggests.
NOVA
Fireworks!tue, july 1 | 7 p.m.
Discover the colorful history of pyrotechnics and learn the chemical secrets that put the bang in the rocket and the fizz in the “Roman Candle.” The show introduces a gallery of firework creators and pyromaniacs, and reveals how hi-tech firing systems are transforming public displays into a dazzling, split-second science. This program will re-air on Thursday, July 3, 10 p.m.
Wide Angle
The Heart of Darfurtue, july 1 | 9 p.m.
With the Darfur Peace Agreement in shambles and fears rising that the region
is headed for a new cycle of bloodletting, The Heart of Darfur provides an eyewitness account of what the U.N. Secretary-General has called “the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.” Granted access to the capital city of North Darfur in Sudan, Wide Angle reports from Al Fasher, once a sleepy desert town of 30,000, but today home to 100,000 refugees and 10,000 U.N. personnel. The film captures the desperation of daily life in Al Fasher’s sprawling Abu Shouk refugee camp and travels beyond Al Fasher into the volatile rebel-held areas of Sudan to portray the lives of black African villagers who get up every morning to face yet another day filled with threats of looting, murder and rape by Sudan’s pro-government Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed. Our cameras follow “the busiest man in Africa” — charismatic General Martin Luther Agwai, commander of the new combined U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur — on a mission as he helicopters into hostile areas attempting to coax rebel leaders and some of the Arab tribes into joining the negotiating table.
