BLITZ, BBC2, 9pm
THIS new four-part series looks at specific bombs dropped on Britain during the Blitz, and shows how they changed the lives of the people in the surrounding streets, as well as the course of the conflict.
The third episode will focus on the terrible bombing of Clydebank but tonight’s first episode tells the story of a bomb that fell on east London’s Martindale Road. When the conflict began in 1939 there was a quiet period known as “the Phoney War” when it seemed all the talk of bombs and gas attacks had been an exaggeration, and many children who’d been evacuated were brought back home. Then the Blitz properly began in 1940 and the horror was finally with us.
This Martindale Road bomb failed to detonate and the locals were relieved, but they still had to be evacuated from the locality just in case, so they all took shelter in a nearby school – which was then bombed. It’s a horrific story.
THE SEARCH FOR A MIRACLE CURE, C4, 10pm
THIS documentary title sets alarm bells ringing. Can there ever be such a thing as a “miracle cure” for an affliction? And if so, why is it on TV instead of on the NHS?
The disease in question is multiple sclerosis. The lawyer Mark Lewis, best known for taking on The News Of The World in the phone hacking scandal, was diagnosed with the condition when he was just 25, and feels that the stress of his incredible workload had worsened his symptoms.
Now aged 50, he is joining a clinical trial in Israel that might offer hope of a spectacular breakthrough in treating this terrible illness and other neurological disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
As our population lives longer, more of us are becoming susceptible to Alzheimer’s and it’s a frightening thing to consider. This documentary will examine whether there is indeed hope of “a miracle cure”.
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