Being The Brontës

Celebrating the remarkable success of the Brontë sisters
Ben-Felsenburg-colour-176Students of literary history will know that there’s a lot to be said for sibling rivalry. For it was in 1847 that three sisters spurred on one another to each publish a novel and achieve lasting fame. Taking us back to that extraordinary cultural moment, Being The Brontës (Saturday 26, BBC Two, 9pm) is a loving and enlightening celebration of the family and their work, full of fascinating facts and guaranteed to send you rushing off afterwards to reread their books.

Making their pilgrimage to the Brontës’ West Yorkshire home of Haworth Parsonage, three presenters each champion one of the girls. For Martha Kearney, the question is how fragile Charlotte could possibly have crafted the raging passion of the tale of Jane Eyre. ‘The most intense experience I’ve ever had while sitting down,’ is the swooning verdict of novelist Helen Oyeyemi on Emily’s Wuthering Heights.

Ignoramuses may write off Anne as the ‘forgotten Brontë’, but writer Lucy Mangan is having none of it, and it’s clear that any of us who haven’t yet read Agnes Grey – the searing account of a put-upon Victorian governess – should be ashamed of ourselves. Supplementing the scholarly erudition, our presenters bravely roam across the austere moors, indulge in a spot of Victorian costume dress-up, and have a game go at the domestic chores with which women of the age had to contend. Now, what could be more cheering than a large dose of bleak Gothic romance?

NOT TO BE MISSED

tv-not-to-be-missed

Britain’s Whales (Friday 25, ITV, 8pm)
Ben Fogle is our winning guide for an unforgettable close encounter with a pod of humpback whales just off the British coast.

BAKE OFF CREME DE LA CREME (Tuesday 29, BBC2, 8pm)
Bake off goes pro: 15 leading pastry chefs go into battle in the surroundings of the Welbeck Estate and under the eyes of Tom Kerridge and his judges.

Line Of Duty (Thursday 24, BBC2, 9pm)
Out goes one gritty detective thriller and in comes another: after Happy Valley, Vicky McClure is back as DC Fleming and is on the case with cops gone bad.