Episode Information

Afua Hirsch explores if Britain can be honest about its history and what that means for the legacy of our greatest heroes. All countries have an official version of their history. It is a story built around grand achievements, victories and successes. However, around the world people are now challenging this by raising, often ignored, uncomfortable truths such as involvement with slavery, racism or colonialism. This is history at its most heated – people have been killed in protests in the US. Now the debate has come to Britain and in this programme Journalist Afua Hirsch explores why people get so upset when she raises what to her are simple facts of our past. She’ll explore whether we in Britain can be honest about our history and what that means for the legacy of our greatest heroes. From Horatio Nelson’s pro-slavery views to Winston Churchill’s racism Afua finds out the truth. She questions why we seem unwilling to be honest about our history and whether we should bring statues of wrong-doers tumbling down. As she does so she comes face to face with traditionalists such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, tracks down and confronts her twitter troll and takes action into her own hands teaming up with a guerrilla projection team and creating her own nuanced Churchill museum. Afua also asks whether we have something to learn from Germany in how to address the past, a country with a distinctly different history from our own.