What to watch and listen to this week: Two documentaries look at the real stories behind Peaky Blinder and Witchfinders

The Real Peaky Blinders, Monday, 9pm, BBC Two: a look at the real gangs that emerged in the industrial city of Birmingham in the 19th century. Picture: Plimsoll Productions / Proper Job Films

TV PICKS OF THE WEEK

The Real Peaky Blinders

Monday, 9pm, BBC Two

Glamourised and fictionalised to a barely credible degree, the careers of the Peaky Blinders bear little resemblance to the real gangs that emerged in the industrial city of Birmingham in the 19th century. They were brutal thugs, most of whom had hung up their razor-blade-weaponised flat caps – if they ever had them – by the time Stephen Knight’s drama opened in the aftermath of the Great War. Here Professor Carl Chinn looks at the legend and the reality. EK