Wolf Hall is set to be a classic

Peter Kosminsky's new serialisation of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (BBC 1) will be remembered as a classic. Damien Lewis leads as Henry VIII with Mark Rylance as Thomas Cromwell. Ultimately Henry has the power of life and death, and Cromwell realises his place as the "butcher's dog".

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We probably all know the plot from our school history lessons. Henry, and the country, desperately need him to have a son to secure the Tudor succession and enable a smooth transfer of power. This is proving difficult with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, so Henry's hopes rest on Ann Boleyn. The new series starts with the latter's execution, as she too failed to produce the long-awaited son. In the process, England converted to Protestantism, Henry became more unpredictable, and Cromwell started a rise to power that made him many enemies. Throughout, there is a foreboding about Cromwell's eventual fate.

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The whole story may be based on historical fact, sometimes a little edited, but we meet the great figures of that period such as Archbishop Cranmer, Cardinal Wolsey, Henry's wives and the future Queen Mary. The narrative is focussed on the comings and goings at the court, but it may have benefitted from illustrating the positive benefits of Cromwell's reformation for church and country.

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Cromwell was masterly in nudging Henry away from Rome and enabling people to hear and read the Bible in English. Quite a feat when we remember that in Brentwood and Amersham, just a few miles out of London, there are memorials commemorating people burnt alive for reading God's word during the earlier part of Henry's reign.

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If you want even more of Henry VIII, Six Wives with Lucy Worsley (BBC 4) is being repeated. It takes a "fly on the wall" approach with re-enactments and Lucy's flawless commentary.

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Immigration: How British Politics Failed (BBC 2) left me feeling very angry. We had a procession of politicians describing immigration as a "problem". At the moment, our church is flourishing because we have had a recent migration of young people from Africa. They are keeping our care system going, and without them hundreds of elderly and vulnerable people would be left to fend for themselves. They are not a problem: they are a solution.

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There was just one telling moment in this miserable programme. The Prime Minister of the day is quoted as having said that we need migrants as they undercut local pay rates and keep inflation down. That is the reason working-class people have often feared migration. It is used to create competition in the jobs market.

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Apart from some superficial statements about immigration being essential for economic growth, this issue was hardly explored. Nor was there any historical analysis of the successive waves of immigration that have shaped our country.

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At the moment, we hear or rather see on social media, the racist rhetoric that "we want our country back", or "it's like living in a foreign country", "they are taking over", "they have a different religion" and so on.

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Had the programme-makers spent an afternoon in our local library they would have read the same claims about Smethwick sixty years ago. The arrival of a Sikh migrant community in a poor area did create issues, but exploitative politicians and a poisonous newspaper made them into a? massive problem.

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Jump back to the first two decades of the twentieth century and the same was said of the Irish community in Birmingham. The Chamberlain family are lauded for their contribution to the city, but their electioneering often included large dollops of anti-Irish hatred. Meanwhile, in London, it was all the fault of the newly arrived Jews. Two hundred years before that, ?it had been the Huguenots.

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All these communities made the UK their home and have very successfully become part of our community. Why can't we have a programme showing when, where and how immigration has had a positive impact on our national life?

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Meanwhile, there is an internet campaign to "#boycottBoots". Apparently, some are offended by the "woke" Make Magic(Boots plc) Christmas TV ad. The plot is that Santa Claus is sleeping it off and Mrs Claus realises that she will have to take charge to get everything ready for Christmas. Probably not dissimilar to what happens in households up and down the land.

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But there is a twist: this Santa is a white man, whereas Boot's Mrs Claus is a Black woman. Some of the comments on social media were horrific and many unrepeatable—another astonishing story about how "they" are stealing "our" Christmas.

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If there is one thing that spoils an evening out it's unwittingly landing in a public house on quiz night. A couple of times I've been persuaded to join a team, but the questions about obscure characters on a long-forgotten thread of a soap opera, or the runner-up in the 1973 Derby, defeated me. So, I braced myself for tedium when I heard Paul Sinha's Perfect Pub Quiz (Radio 5). Fortunately, it turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

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During the current series Paul, has been to Merthyr in Wales and South Norwood in London. At both venues, he was able to pull out some interesting curiosities about the local area, that everyone can enjoy. It's a little gem of a programme and provides a welcome break from some of the heavier stuff on our radios.

A version of this article first appeared in the Methodist Recorder, 22 November 2024