Adolf Hitler was arguably the most extraordinary leader who ever lived. A man incapable of forming normal human relationships, lacking compassion and fuelled by anger and prejudice, his hatred would lead to the Holocaust and his desire for conquest would leave much of Europe in ruins. British comedian Eddie Izzard summed him up rather eloquently in his Dress to Kill performance, branding him a "mass-murdering f***head".
Hitler left behind a legacy of destruction almost unparalleled in history, despite a few other sadistic psychopaths having given it their best shot. Yet this man, so full of violence, was once adored by millions of supporters. The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler - Leading Millions into the Abyss (BBC Knowledge, Friday at 9pm) is a three-part documentary presented by British historian Laurence Rees that explores how the Nazi leader managed to charm a nation and transform himself from a simple soldier into a ranting fuhrer.
After Germany's defeat in the first world war, Hitler would have remained a mere failed painter if not for his training as a propaganda agent, which allowed him to teach his fellow soldiers about the dangers of communism. In 1919, aged 30, Hitler began to realise his life's mission - the eradication of Jews from Germany - and his warped appeal grew amid a political crisis triggered by the collapse of the German economy.
As someone who didn't pay much attention in history class at school, I'm certainly no expert on the second world war, but with insights and interviews from those who lived through Hitler's tenure, and from those who knew him, I found The Dark Charisma fascinating. There's plenty of archival footage of Hitler's theatrical speeches, lengthy rants that build into almost childish temper tantrums, but Rees doesn't attempt to humanise this monster, he simply wonders at how Hitler, described in one interview as "a bit weird", managed to pull off such a remarkable public-relations campaign.
Thankfully, he was unable to charm his way out of an under-attack Fuhrerbunker in 1945.
For a spell of lighter relief, supernatural drama series Witches of East End premieres on Tuesday (Star World, 8.45pm), bringing a more frivolous flavour to the overflowing cauldron of recent television witchiness. Inspired by Melissa de la Cruz's bestselling book of the same name (sorry, British soap fans, this is not a biography on Pat Butcher and Dot Cotton), the show follows a family of modern-day white witches, led by matriarch Joanna Beauchamp (Julia Ormond).
To protect her two twenty-something daughters, Beauchamp has raised them magic-free but, with the arrival of her estranged sister, Wendy (Madchen Amick; Twin Peaks), their idyllic life is about to change. An evil force (not Hitler) returns to the fictional seaside town of East End intent on harming the Beauchamp womenfolk.