PassportAn insider look at our favorite shows, new series, and premiering specials you won’t want to miss.
Spring Into New Seasons and Series
April is full of new beginnings and promise of a brighter tomorrow. We are celebrating Earth Month, welcoming spring, experiencing the Solar Eclipse, solving mysteries, singing along to nostalgic hits, and looking in to what the future has in store.
Science & Nature
Explore the world around you and nurture your curiosity.
A Brief History of the Future
A Brief History of the Future" is a unique six-part PBS documentary series about our futures and how we can reimagine them. Hosted by renowned futurist Ari Wallach, the show invites viewers on a journey around the world that is filled with discovery, hope, and possibility about where we find ourselves today and what could come next.
This series challenges the dystopian framework embraced by popular culture by offering a refreshing take on the future. The docuseries asks us all: how can we become the great ancestors the future needs us to be? "A Brief History of the Future" weaves together history, science, and unexpected ideas to expand our understanding about the impact that the choices we make today will have on our tomorrows.
Each episode follows those who are working to solve our greatest challenges. The series also features valuable insights from a wide range of thinkers, scientists, developers and storytellers including French President Emmanuel Macron, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, sailor Dame Ellen MacArthur, musician Grimes, architect Bjarke Ingels, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, legendary soccer player Kylian Mbappé, and more.
Wednesdays at 8:00pm, premiering April 3rd.
Great American Eclipse
Explore the spectacular cosmic phenomenon of a total solar eclipse. In April 2024, the Moon’s shadow is sweeping from Texas to Maine, as the U.S. witnesses its last total solar eclipse until 2044.
This extraordinary astronomical event is plunging locations in the path of totality into darkness for more than four minutes – nearly twice as long as the last American eclipse in 2017. Learn how to watch an eclipse safely and follow scientists as they work to unlock secrets of our Sun – from why its atmosphere is hundreds of times hotter than its surface, to what causes solar storms and how we might one day predict them.
Wednesday April 3, 2024 at 7:00pm
One With the Whale from Independent Lens
Hunting whales is a matter of life or death for the residents of St. Lawrence.
When a shy Alaska Native teen becomes the youngest person ever to harpoon a whale for his village, his family is blindsided by thousands of keyboard activists brutally attacking him online—without full perspective on the importance of the hunt to his community’s well-being.
PBS App Exclusive premiering Tuesday, April 23rd.
Changing Planet: Season 3, Coral Special
In the third year of this seven-year project examining the issues facing the planet’s most threatened ecosystems, Dr. M. Sanjayan visits the Maldives to take an in-depth look at coral reefs and the urgent efforts to help them survive climate change.
Globally, coral reefs are at crisis point – warming seas cause corals to bleach and without action nearly all reefs could die off in the next few decades. There's a race against time to help damaged reefs recover. Sanjayan visits Laamu Atoll in the Maldives to take part in a world-first collaboration that could be the key to restoring reefs.
Premieres Wednesday April 24th at 7:00pm
Arts & Music
Celebrate the art, music, literature, and theatre that has shaped our culture
The Express Way with Dule Hill
THE EXPRESS WAY WITH DULÉ HILL is a premium documentary series that explores the power of the arts. Led by renowned actor, dancer, and singer, Dulé Hill, the series captures diverse artists’ stories from across America, celebrating community, humanity, and the transformative potential of creative expression.
Premieres April 23rd at 8:00pm
Gershwin Prize: Elton John and Bernie Taupin
The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song salutes Elton John and Bernie Taupin. A once-in-a-lifetime meeting between John, a young piano player, and lyricist Taupin together in 1967, they have forged a songwriting partnership that continues after more than 50 years. John and Taupin will receive the Gershwin Prize at an all-star concert in Washington, D.C.
Premieres Monday, April 8th at 7:00pm
Backroads
Lakeland PBS is proud to present our new spring block of episodes of Backroads! Discover new artists from Minnesota through their live performances.
New episodes begin Thursday, April 11th at 7:30pm featuring Kitchi Boogie, International Treasure, and Sarah Morris.
The Seven Ages of Elvis
Delve deeply into the world and life of Elvis and explore the life of the ultimate rise and fall megastar who defined the heights and pitfalls of modern super-celebrity. This acclaimed documentary also reveals why Elvis became an even bigger phenomenon after his death.
Airing Saturday, April 13th at 9:00pm
Riverdance
Celebrate the magic of Irish music and dance in this reinvention of the groundbreaking show.
Airing on Saturday, April 20th at 9:00pm
Dramas
Explore gripping crime mysteries, breathtaking period pieces, and captivating international stories from MASTERPIECE and other PBS favorites.
Julius Caesar: The Making of a Dictator
The dramatic story of how nearly five centuries of ancient Roman democracy was overthrown in just 16 years… by one man. This is the story of a brazen, ambitious power-grab that saw Julius Caesar consolidate the vast power of Rome in his own hands.
Rome. 63 BC. Julius Caesar is 37. An ambitious aristocrat, holding a minor political office, is determined to climb the senatorial ladder. For almost 500 years, Rome has been ruled on Republican principles – a democracy of sorts, built around the central idea that no one man should ever wield too much power.
But Rome is on a knife edge.
Premieres Tuesday, April 2nd at 8:00pm
Mr. Bates vs The Post Office on Masterpiece
Award-winning actor Toby Jones (Empire of Light, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Sherlock) stars in this shockingly true David vs Goliath story following one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history.
When money started to seemingly disappear from its local branches, the government-owned UK Post Office wrongly blamed its own managers for the apparent loss. Hundreds were harassed, accused of theft and fraud, even sent to prison—leaving lives, marriages, and reputations in ruins. But the issue was actually caused by errors in the Post Office’s own computer system; something it denied for years. This is the story of decent, ordinary, and real-life people who were relentlessly pursued, coerced, and controlled by a powerful corporation, and their seemingly unsurmountable battle to right so many horrific wrongs.
Premieres Sunday, April 7, 2024 at 8:00pm.
Guilt on Masterpiece
The award-winning TV series Guilt is a darkly funny Scottish thriller, which centers on unscrupulous lawyer Max McCall (Mark Bonnar, World on Fire, Unforgotten, Shetland, Catastrophe) and the shenanigans he gets into in and around Edinburgh. Max can’t manage to stay out of trouble for very long.
Season 3 Premieres Sunday, 28th at 9:00pm
Continue Watching Our March Sunday Night Favorites
While new dramas are on their way, keep following these stories during our Sunday Night Lineup. Airing Sundays starting at 7:00pm
Alice & Jack on Masterpiece
Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson star in Alice & Jack, a modern love story. When Alice and Jack first meet, they’re bound by a connection so powerful it seems nothing can break it, but will their path lead them to a place of happiness and togetherness?
Alice & Jack reveals how love plays out between two very different people over 15 years. The story explores the seminal question of whether the bonds between us are stronger than the forces that would tear us apart.
Continue following this new love story through April 21st.
Call The Midwife, Season 13
Call the Midwife, based on the best-selling memoirs of the late Jennifer Worth, tells colorful stories of midwifery and families in London’s East End. Inspired by the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, Call the Midwife follows the nurses, midwives and nuns from Nonnatus House, who visit the expectant mothers of Poplar, providing the poorest women with the best possible care.
It is now 1969, and Call the Midwife returns with Poplar coping with the popularity of home births under the auspices of the Sisters.
New episodes airing every Sunday at 7:00pm
View Our Monthly Highlights Guide
When you become a member of Lakeland PBS, you can opt in to have our Highlights guide mailed directly to you.