Mastercrafts BBC2, 9pm

IT TAKES up to five years to train properly as a stonemason and, during their six-week intensive course, Mastercraft's rookies learn the foundations of the craft – everything from quarrying their own stone to detailed carving.

It was the skills and techniques of the stonemason that defined the look and build of the country right up to the Second World War. However, because of extensive bomb damage and the urgent need to rebuild, new techniques put paid to the stonemason's craft, and much of the work of stonemasons was diverted into restoration projects.