Blitz Cities

To mark the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Blitz, EastEnders star Shane Richie travels around his home city of London, finding out what it was like to live through the worst attack in Britain's history. In a moving journey around some of London's worst-hit areas, he talks to survivors who still remember their horrific experiences vividly. He goes up in a plane to recreate the actual bombing routes taken by the Germans, and he experiences what life was like inside the shelters as the bombs rained down.

Liverpool's docks were a primary German target in the Blitz. Liverpool actor Ricky Tomlinson, who was born in 1939, goes up in a plane to look at the effect it had on his home city. In an emotional journey, he talks to survivors, family members and old friends like comedian Stan Boardman, whose brother was killed in an air-raid shelter. Ricky finishes the programme back in the plane, with a tearful tribute to the bravery of those who lived and worked through the Blitz.

In 1942 the Germans attacked English tourist hotspots in an attempt to reduce British morale. These raids became known as the Baedeker Blitz, after the popular travellers' guidebook. In this programme, Myleene Klass goes back to her home county of Norfolk to look into the story of the Baedeker Blitz on Norwich. She recreates the famous raids in a plane and also looks at Great Yarmouth, one of the most heavily bombed coastal towns in the UK. On the ground, she hears moving stories from survivors and has an emotional reuinon with her childhood piano teacher, who learnt to play piano during the war.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the start of the Blitz, John Humphrys returns to South Wales to discover more about the devastating Nazi bombing campaign and how it affected those who experienced it. He sees the reconnaissance maps the Germans used to identify key bombing targets and takes to the air to follow the direct flight path of the Luftwaffe bombers as they attacked Cardiff and Swansea. Back on the ground, he also meets survivors of the bombings, including Elaine Kidwell from Swansea, who describes the Blitz on the city as hell.

Hollywood actor David Harewood travels back to his native Birmingham to look at his city's Blitz story. During the war, Birmingham's factories were crucial to war production, and although the city was heavily bombed, much of the destruction was kept secret. David uncovers this story and talks to victims of the Blitz. He also goes up in a small plane to recreate the German bombing raids - from the sky he is able to see that the house where he grew up in Small Heath was sandwiched between two major targets.