The Hairy Bikers’ Pubs That Built Britain – BBC 2

This has attracted some criticism for being lacking in content, but I’m quite enjoying it.  All right, the style of presentation is a bit too … er, Children’s BBC crossed with 1980s quiz show is about the best I can describe it as!  And we’re not seeing any cooking, or any bikes for that matter.  But it’s quite interesting.  The idea is to visit a pub, or pubs, in a particular area, and discuss its/their links with a particular aspect of that area’s history.  So far we’ve had pubs in York which were visited by soldiers before the Battle of Marston Moor, pubs in the Lake District which were visited by the Romantic poets, pubs in the great and wonderful city of Manchester (er, actually more in Middleton, one of the suburbs) visited by Samuel Bamford & co before Peterloo, pubs in Cornwall which were involved in smuggling and, rather poignantly, pubs in Lincolnshire which were popular with RAF bombers during the Second World War.  That fifth episode was really rather moving, especially when Dave and Si were joined by a 96-year-old veteran who shared his memories of his experiences of those times with them.

We’re not getting deep and meaningful explorations of these times in history, but they aren’t historians, and they’ve only got 30 minute slots this time anyway.  Give them a break!  This is a hell of a lot better than low budget quiz shows and “reality TV” and some of the other drivel used to fill in schedules.  It’s not the greatest series ever, but I quite like it.