Some of you may have watched last night's Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings on BBC Four. For those of you who missed the broadcast, fear not. The programme is available to UK users only on the BBC iPlayer, and will hopefully also be shown in other countries.

Presented by the art historian Dr Janina Ramirez, Illuminations features three episodes drawing on the splendid manuscripts in the British Library's current major exhibition, Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (11 November 2011-13 March 2012). Dr Scot McKendrick, one of the exhibition's curators, acted as consultant to the BBC series.

Yesterday's episode was entitled Ruling by the Book, and has been reviewed by Christopher Howse for The Daily Telegraph (Sins and secrets of the medieval kings, 10 January). Episode 2, What a King Should Know, will be broadcast first on Monday, 16 January, at 21.00 on BBC Four.