London

9pm, BBC2

This programme is subtitled Fire and Destiny - oooh, is it a bad Eighties girl group? No. Put your headbands away, for this is an adaptation of Peter Ackroyd's weighty tribute to the capital, London: The Biography. With the help of some stunning photography, Ackroyd shows us how London has redeveloped following fires.

So we learn about the 5,000 blazes that took place in just eight years of the 19th century, as well as memorable conflagrations in 1666 and during the Blitz, and the fiery havoc wrought by Boudicca.

All this gadding about through history can be confusing, despite Ackroyd's knowledgeable presentation. So we also hear from key figures in London's history, played by some of today's finest actors, including Derek Jacobi as Roman historian Tacitus, Philip Jackson as Samuel Pepys and Harriet Walter as Virginia Woolf (right).

They tell their stories as if being interviewed in an "I am an expert in this field" documentary, and superb performances mean this element is highly watchable. But why is it necessary? The subject matter alone is fascinating. Do producers think we can no longer cope with straight documentary, without the opinions of talking heads?