TV: Pick of the day

HISTORY Blood on our Hands: the English Civil War (9pm C4)

The English Civil War brought vividly to life, without the interposition of Schama, Starkey or any other big-name historian beginning with "S". The question that this three-parter answers admirably clearly - using the first-hand testimonies of "ordinary" people caught up in the conflict - is how a peaceable nation was turned into a 17th-century equivalent of Bosnia, with families and communities at each others' throats (often literally). The country suffered greater losses, propotionately, than in the First World War, and this opener follows events up to the arrest of King Charles I, looking at the role of propaganda in fuelling the conflict.

MUSIC The Brit Awards 2005 (8pm ITV1)

Your chance to gauge how much you have missed Chris Evans (above), as the ginger plutocrat makes his return to TV by hosting the 25th annual pop bash. Franz Ferdinand, Scissor Sisters and Keane lead the nominations.

ARTS The Culture Show (7pm & 11.20pm BBC2)

Kurt Vonnegut (above), the author of Slaughterhouse Five, talks about his work to mark 60 years since the bombing of Dresden. The interview is not in the Thomas Pynchon class of rarity, but still of sufficient infrequency to make one take note.