St Mary’s Student Features in ITV D-Day Commemorative Programme

Public History Master’s student at St Mary’s University, Twickenham (SMU) Natasha Billson has featured on ITV’s D-Day 80 at the Royal Albert Hall TV programme, which was aired on Sunday 9th June during D-Day celebrations.

Alongside completing a Public History master’s at SMU, Natasha is an archaeologist, filmmaker, and history presenter who has previously featured on Channel 4 and National Geographic TV.

The programme, hosted by Davina McCall, marked the end of national commemorations for D-Day on its 80th anniversary, telling the story of the Battle of Normandy through a unique blend of music and archives. Letters and diary entries from the time were used on the programme to chart the historic events throughout the summer of 1944.

SMU postgraduate student Natasha featured in the programme alongside former Army Corporal and most recent winner of BBC’s The Traitors Harry Clark. Natasha and Harry visited the British Normandy Memorial in France to pay their respects, with Natasha pointing out a bombardier also named Harry Clark who died aged 23 in June 1944.

The pair uncovered the story of Harry’s namesake and revealed newspaper clippings of his death during the massive air, land, and sea invasion of Northern France in the summer of 1944.

Speaking of the programme, Course Lead for the MA Public History Mark Donnelly said, “It’s really wonderful to see Natasha contributing to such an important commemorative event, sharing her skills and expertise in public history with a TV audience of millions.”

The Public History Master’s course at St Mary’s uses diverse and innovative sources to explore our understanding of the past and its contexts. More information on the Public History MA can be found here.