Catch up TV

Series 41: 1. Pioneering Women Special

A celebration of the achievements of some of Britain's most inspirational women, filmed in the Houses of Parliament and marking 100 years since women first won the right to cast their vote in 1918.\n\nStarting with the suffragettes and ending with modern-day heroines and history makers, the programme looks at women who have broken down barriers in every aspect of life. Among those featured is Christina Broom, the first female press photographer, who produced wonderfully intimate portraits of suffragettes, troops in Chelsea Barracks and the royal family. She was one of only two photographers given special access to photograph King George V lying in state in Westminster Hall.\n\nPresenter Fiona Bruce meets Tania, the daughter of Violette Szabo, the British secret agent who was executed for helping the French resistance. Tania was only two when Violette was killed and had the honour of receiving her mother's George Cross for bravery.\n\nThere are also stories about the first female Olympic gymnastics team - at least one of whom was in her forties, profoundly deaf Florence Attwood, who became chief designer for a leading toy company, and polar explorers Ann Daniels and Caroline Hamilton, who made history in 2002.\n\nRoadshow expert Elaine Binning meets long-distance swimmer Brenda Fisher, now 91, who trained for her epic feats in Grimsby docks, and Fiona chats to Baroness Boothroyd, the first female speaker of the House of Commons, who admits she misses the place.\n\nJewellery expert Joanna Hardy reveals that the brooch belonging to leading suffragist Millicent Fawcett is the most potent piece she has held in her whole career. The brooch is featured on a statue of Millicent unveiled in Parliament Square in April - the first woman to stand alongside the male line-up of political and historical greats.

Source: BBC 2