SATURDAY 01 NOVEMBER 2008

SAT 19:00 London to Brighton in Four Minutes (b00dttsc)
An undercranked film of a train journey from London to Brighton. The camera is positioned on the front of the train and nothing is in shot except the view forward.


SAT 19:05 John Betjeman Goes by Train (b00fgpzw)
1962 British Transport film in which John Betjeman takes a trip from King's Lynn through Norfolk, visiting the royal station for Sandringham before heading to the coast.


SAT 19:15 Lark Rise to Candleford (b0094ytl)
Series 1

Episode 9

Adaptation of Flora Thompson's memoir of her Oxfordshire childhood. Queenie finds a beautiful embroidered panel on a grave that has the residents of Lark Rise and Candleford intrigued. Twister starts dreaming of everything he could buy if they sold the panel, while Dorcas and Sir Tim set about getting to the bottom of the mystery of who created it. Alf and Phillip's rivalry continues.


SAT 20:15 Lark Rise to Candleford (b009lv7b)
Series 1

Episode 10

Adaptation of Flora Thompson's memoir of her Oxfordshire childhood. It is Zillah's birthday and all her friends and locals visit the post office for a party. Tensions mount between Dorcas and Sir Tim as painful truths about the past begin to surface and Dorcas decides to sell the post office. Phillip becomes increasingly possessive of Laura and she expresses doubts about their relationship.


SAT 21:15 Reader, I Married Him (b0074sx0)
Heroes

Daisy Goodwin presents a series about the romantic novel. This edition looks at the heroes of the nineteenth century – Darcy, Rochester and Heathcliff - and finds that they not only paved the way for more contemporary romantic figures but remain firm favourites for most women. Contributors include P D James, Joanna Trollope and Andrew Davies.


SAT 22:15 Damages (b0090byx)
Series 1

We Are Not Animals

Acclaimed American legal drama following a ruthless lawyer's class action suit against an allegedly corrupt former company CEO. Gregory's pivotal evidence leads Patty to protect him at all costs, while Tom and Ellen worry that they are being manipulated.


SAT 23:00 Damages (b0091tvk)
Series 1

Blame the Victim

Acclaimed American legal drama following a ruthless lawyer's class action suit against an allegedly corrupt former company CEO. Patty struggles to rethink her strategy after losing her key witness, while Ellen's concentration on the case is broken when her parents arrive with some shocking news.


SAT 23:40 Mad Men (b0094yyp)
Series 1

Ladies Room

Drama series which takes an unflinching look at the world of advertising in 1960s New York. Don has to find the answer to the question of what women want, and find it quickly. Betty consults a specialist about her health issues. Don is pressured to help with Nixon's presidential campaign. Peggy fends off the advances of one of the copy writers.


SAT 00:25 David Ogilvy: Original Mad Man (b009pg3d)
Documentary about pioneering British advertising executive and self-proclaimed genius, David Ogilvy, who led a revolution in advertising, feeding dreams and shaping aspirations with famous campaigns, slogans and jingles. He started what eventually would become conglomerate Ogilvy and Mather in 1948 and the film reveals the extremes and eccentricities of the man through interviews with those who knew him and worked with him, including his widow and son and authors Peter Mayle and Fay Weldon.


SAT 01:25 Britain from Above (b00d62qx)
Satellite Earth

Documentary telling the story of one satellite's journey into space and how global agencies and individuals are using satellites in all kinds of ways - farming their land from space, locating ancient water supplies hidden deep beneath the most arid desert regions and tracking ocean currents and the global mechanisms of climate change.

As every conceivable aspect of our world is being 'sensed' and recorded, from the skies above our heads to the rocks beneath our feet, here is an in-depth look at the biggest technological revolution since the invention of the steam engine.


SAT 02:25 The Satellite Story (b008fmdq)
Documentary celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first satellite, Sputnik, which launched the space age in 1957. The film explores how satellites have affected almost every aspect of our lives, from spy satellites and GPS transforming the military to the communications revolution kickstarted by Telstar. But recent events in China have revealed just how vulnerable we might be, for they suggest we might be on the verge of another new age, one of satellite terrorism.


SAT 03:25 Reader, I Married Him (b0074sx0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:15 today]



SUNDAY 02 NOVEMBER 2008

SUN 19:00 The Story of Maths (b00f7zsk)
To Infinity and Beyond

Marcus du Sautoy concludes his investigation into the history of mathematics with a look at some of the great unsolved problems that confronted mathematicians in the 20th century.

After exploring Georg Cantor's work on infinity and Henri Poincare's work on chaos theory, he looks at how mathematics was itself thrown into chaos by the discoveries of Kurt Godel, who showed that the unknowable is an integral part of maths, and Paul Cohen, who established that there were several different sorts of mathematics in which conflicting answers to the same question were possible.

He concludes his journey by considering the great unsolved problems of mathematics today, including the Riemann Hypothesis, a conjecture about the distribution of prime numbers. A million-dollar prize and a place in the history books await anyone who can prove Riemann's theorem.


SUN 20:00 Timeshift (b00ff170)
How to Write a Mills and Boon

What happens when a literary novelist tries to write popular romantic fiction? To mark 100 years of romance publishers Mills and Boon, literary novelist Stella Duffy takes on the challenge of writing for them.

Romantic fiction is a global phenomenon, and Mills and Boon are among the biggest names in the business. The company welcomes submissions from new authors, but as Duffy soon finds out, writing a Mills and Boon is harder than it looks.

Help is at hand from the publishers themselves, a prolific Mills and Boon author and some avid romance fans, as Duffy's quest to create the perfect romantic novel takes her from London to Italy on a journey that is both an insight into the art of romantic fiction and the joy and frustration of writing itself.


SUN 21:00 Consuming Passion: 100 Years of Mills and Boon (b00fcwn0)
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the popular romance publishing phenomenon Mills and Boon, a colourful and camp drama which charts the witty and moving stories of three very different women affected by the brand's success: co-founder Charles Boon's wife Mary, daydreaming 1970s writer Janet and modern-day literature lecturer Kirstie.


SUN 22:25 imagine... (b00f5vk9)
Autumn 2008

Imagine... A Love Story

What makes a great love story? Imagine looks at the great books, films and pop songs that have tackled the thorny issue of love, pain and desire. Lancelot and Guinevere, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Lady Chatterley's Lover, 24 hours from Tulsa, Casablanca, Brief Encounter and Lolita are all great love stories. But what makes them special?

'A great love story has to have a fly in the ointment', according to Pulitzer prize winner Jeffrey Eugenides. Other contributors include best selling authors Sarah Waters, Helen Fielding, Jane Austen's biographer Claire Tomalin, Burt Bacharach's lyricist Hal David, screen doctor Robert McKee, psychoanalyst Adam Phillips and literature professor John Sutherland.


SUN 23:15 Neil Young: Don't Be Denied (b00f815m)
Neil Young grants rare and unprecedented access to the BBC for a documentary in which he traces his musical journey in his own words.

The film was made from three hours of interview shot in New York and California, and uses previously unseen performance footage from the star's own extensive archives. It also features cohorts Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Nils Lofgren and James Taylor.

From his early transcontinental American quest for recognition, through the first flush of success with Buffalo Springfield, to the bi-polar opposites of mega-stardom with Crosby, Stills and Nash and the soulful rock of Crazy Horse, Young's career has enjoyed many guises.

Perhaps his most famous period was as a 1970s solo artist making albums that became benchmarks. After The Goldrush, recorded in his Topanga Canyon home, and Harvest, part-recorded on his northern Californian ranch, saw Young explore the confessional side of song-writing. But never one to rest on his laurels, he would continually change direction.

In the mid-seventies, two of Young's closest friends died as a result of heroin abuse. What followed was music's answer to cinema verite, with Tonight's The Night a spine-chilling wake for his dead friends.

As New Wave arrived, Young was keen to explore new ideas. A collaboration with Devo on what became his art-house epic, Human Highway, saw the genesis of Rust Never Sleeps, a requiem for the seventies.

In the eighties, Young explored different genres, from electronica to country, and in recent times he has returned to Crazy Horse and Crosby, Stills and Nash, but only when it has suited him.

The film ends with Young still refusing to be denied, on tour in the USA with CSNY, playing anti-Bush songs to a Republican audience in the South.


SUN 00:15 Timeshift (b00ff170)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SUN 01:15 Consuming Passion: 100 Years of Mills and Boon (b00fcwn0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


SUN 02:40 Neil Young: Don't Be Denied (b00f815m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:15 today]


SUN 03:40 The Story of Maths (b00f7zsk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



MONDAY 03 NOVEMBER 2008

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00fcy1k)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 The Sky at Night (b06ss0zv)
Big Bangs

Sir Patrick Moore discovers how some gamma ray bursts, the biggest explosions in the universe, mark the spectacular deaths of the first stars. Dr Chris Lintott visits the NASA Phoenix team to find out the latest from the Mars polar explorer.


MON 20:00 A Poem for Harry - A Tribute to Harry Patch (b0074t0t)
Former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion composes his own moving tribute to the last veteran of the Great War trenches, Harry Patch. With an introduction by HRH The Prince of Wales.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00fcy1m)
Series 1

Episode 8

Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital. It is all about making connections between things which may appear, at first glance, not to be connected at all.


MON 21:00 Armistice (b00fcy1p)
Professor David Reynolds takes a fresh look at the extraordinary events and personalities that brought about the armistice of 1918, venturing beyond the familiar British account of Remembrance Day to unravel how the other side, the Germans, plunged to total defeat in just a few months at the end of the war.

In a journey that takes him through command centres and battlefields, he uncovers a story of wounded egos, mental illness and political brinkmanship as statesmen and generals haggled over the terms of peace, while, at the front, the soldiers fought on with sustained brutality.

For many Germans, the armistice was a betrayal of all they had fought for and it caused lasting resentments that would eventually fuel Adolf Hitler's rise to power. Reynolds argues that the bitter endgame of the 'war to end all wars' tragically sowed the seeds of even more appalling conflict to come.


MON 22:30 Storyville (b00fz3kn)
Operation Filmmaker

In the wake of Operation Iraqi Freedom, American actor Liev Schreiber has the idealistic notion of rescuing an Iraqi film student from the rubble of his country and bringing him to the west to intern on the Hollywood movie Everything Is Illuminated.

It promises to be a heartwarming tale, a small victory out of the troubled US mission in Iraq, but as in the war itself, good intentions yield unintended consequences and the operation doesn't go to plan.

Director Nina Davenport becomes personally involved in Schreiber's charitable effort, and soon finds herself embroiled in a complex moral quagmire and all-consuming power struggle between filmmaker and subject.


MON 00:00 Bombay Railway (b007t367)
Dreams

India is undergoing unprecedented growth and Bombay is its financial powerhouse. The city promotes itself as a positive vision of the future, a place where dreams can come true. Like an extended family, the Bombay railway provides an unfailing lifeline to the city. This series follows the hope and dreams of some the people who work for the railway.

Hans Dev Sharma is a senior operations clerk. He works in the timetabling department, which schedules over 2,000 trains a day - under its cultural quota, Hans was talent-spotted as an exceptional actor and dancer and the railways offered him a job. Hans is living the Bollywood dream, with Bombay Railways as his life and his stage. But will he get his big break?

Jagdish Paul Raj was born in Bombay and is as ambitious as the city he lives in. The son of a railway catering officer, Jagdish, like his father, always had an interest in food but none in the railway. He graduated in politics and economics and became a fully qualified chef. Now 31, he is running a successful catering business on the train to Goa. He is tendered for more trains, but will he be successful?

Mumtaz Kazi is Indian Railways' first fully qualified female train driver and has driven trains all over India. Mumtaz was brought up in a traditional Muslim family - a railway family. Now her father has retired and her immediate family live in Canada - Mumtaz is the only member left in Bombay. It will be Mumtaz's responsibility to find a wife for her brother, to get him married and back to Canada in just eight weeks. Can she do it and still drive the train?


MON 01:00 Only Connect (b00fcy1m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 01:30 The Sky at Night (b06ss0zv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:00 Armistice (b00fcy1p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 03:30 Only Connect (b00fcy1m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]



TUESDAY 04 NOVEMBER 2008

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00fd0wz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 My Family at War (b00fd0x1)
Episode 1

Historian Dan Snow and actress Natalie Cassidy set off down very different paths to try and discover the truth behind their families' roles in the Great War.

Natalie's journey tracks some of the forgotten stories of the war and takes her from the bombed out streets of London to the mass burial sites of Belgium. Dan retraces the footsteps of his great grandfather General Thomas Snow and is shocked to discover that he may have been partially to blame for the slaughter at the Battle of the Somme.


TUE 20:10 1914-1918 (b00ff7m7)
Mutiny

Documentary series telling the history of the Great War through the words of those who lived through the conflict. By the start of 1917, the strain of war was so great that half the French army mutinied, while in Russia the whole regime was overthrown.


TUE 21:00 That Mitchell and Webb Look (b00937v3)
Series 2

Episode 3

Off-beat comedy sketch show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. A farmer tries to teach his horse French; a robot nearly manages to smell cheese; there's a chance to see the exciting new reality TV show Back to Life, a bit like Big Brother but with re-animated corpses; plus a sensitive documentary about Alan and his nineteen penises.


TUE 21:30 Flight of the Conchords (b008bxvw)
Series 1

What Goes on Tour

Comedy series about Kiwi folk musicians Bret and Jemaine as they to try to make it big New York. Murray tells the boys he's got them a gig in Central Park, and so begins a legendary warm-up tour of hotel lounges, featuring debauchery, leather suits and even Murray swearing. Features the song Mermaid.


TUE 22:00 The Book Quiz (b00b09r8)
Series 2

Episode 5

Kirsty Wark presents the literary panel game, as Wendy Holden and Giles Coren do battle against Baroness Margaret Jay and David Nicholls for a place in the final.


TUE 22:30 Consuming Passion: 100 Years of Mills and Boon (b00fcwn0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


TUE 23:55 Storyville (b00fz3kn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 on Monday]


TUE 01:25 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00f80z6)
Harbouring History

The backstreets of Weymouth seem an unlikely spot to explore railway history, but Julia discovers there was once a short railway that ran south from Weymouth and across the unique coastal features of Chesil Beach and Portland. The walk is the ideal platform for learning about the history of Portland Harbour and the tied isle's most famous export, Portland stone.


TUE 01:55 Consuming Passion: 100 Years of Mills and Boon (b00fcwn0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


TUE 03:20 Only Connect (b00fcy1m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


TUE 03:50 Flight of the Conchords (b008bxvw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]



WEDNESDAY 05 NOVEMBER 2008

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00fd162)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 My Family at War (b00ffl2s)
Episode 2

Matthew Kelly travels through France on his way to the battlefields of Flanders, hoping to solve the mystery of his great uncle Albert, who died in a prisoner of war camp in 1917. To find out how he came to be there, and how he died, Matthew must retrace Albert's footsteps through the war.

Former England cricketer Phil Tufnell wants to find out what life was like for his grandfather, Mechanic 1st Class William Tufnell, in the Royal Flying Corps on the Western Front.


WED 20:10 An Awfully Big Adventure (b0077fyw)
Kenneth Grahame

Series about the lives and work of six great figures in children's literature. This programme looks at the life of the creator of The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame. It analyses the events which shaped Grahame's life, his thwarted ambition and personal tragedy.


WED 21:00 Picture Book (b00fd164)
When We Were Very Young

Series which reveals the enchanting story of our childhood reading.

This opening part looks at our very first books and the picture-book heaven they create for under-fives, exploring the magical interplay of words and pictures and how they begin to shape our childhood imagination.

Featuring favourites from The Tale of Peter Rabbit to Charlie and Lola, from Noddy to Thomas the Tank Engine, plus modern classics such as We're Going on a Bear Hunt and Each Peach Pear Plum.

There are also interviews, readings and demonstrations of their art from leading writers and illustrators including Michael Rosen, Shirley Hughes, Alan Ahlberg and Lauren Child.


WED 22:00 A Year in Tibet (b0094zlf)
Three Husbands and a Wedding

For twelve months, a television crew has followed a handful of ordinary Tibetan people living in and around Gyantse, Tibet's third largest town. The result is a unique and intimate portrait of life in one of the most mysterious and isolated societies on earth.

It is autumn in southern Tibet and everyone is pulling together to get in the harvest. Like all farmers, Dundan is worried most about hailstones flattening his crops. In the past his brother Tseden, the local shaman, protected the fields with his spells. Now the local government has installed guns to disperse the clouds and this has put Tseden out of a job.

In the nearby town of Gyantse, Rincheu, a local builder, struggles to find enough workers during the harvest to complete his all important first government commission.

In the monastery, the monks recover from a hectic visit by the highest ranking Buddhist Lama in Tibet. After a riotous time celebrating the success of the event, they go home to help with the harvest.

Tseden is also helping a local family to arrange their daughter's wedding. Despite months of preparation, nobody actually gets around to telling the bride she is going to be wed - nor does anybody mention that she is expected to marry her husband's brother as well.


WED 23:00 Joanna Lumley in the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon (b00cl3zb)
Documentary following Joanna Lumley as she retraces the steps of her grandfather to Bhutan, the last of the Buddhist kingdoms untouched by western technology. In 1931, Colonel Weir, bestowed on the King of Bhutan the Knight Commander of the Indian empire.


WED 00:10 Picture Book (b00fd164)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 01:10 A Year in Tibet (b0094zlf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


WED 02:10 The Lost World of Tibet (b0093677)
Dan Cruickshank presents a documentary revealing the story of the Dalai Lama, his secret Himalayan kingdom and the story of his exile, using eyewitness accounts from Tibetans including the Dalai Lama himself and colour archive footage of Tibet from the 1930s to 50s.


WED 03:10 Picture Book (b00fd164)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 06 NOVEMBER 2008

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00fd1db)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:40 1914-1918 (b00ff9bb)
Collapse

Documentary series telling the history of the Great War, in which nine million people perished. This part looks at the poverty and unrest among the German people, how the Americans finally joined in and how the war ended.


THU 20:30 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00fd1dd)
Gateway to the Highlands

Julia Bradbury faces an epic walk in more ways than one. Not only is this the longest and arguably most dramatic walk yet, but it passes through the unruly territory of Scottish clans and Rob Roy. The Highlands were a place to be wary of, until the railway arrived.


THU 21:00 Consuming Passion: 100 Years of Mills and Boon (b00fcwn0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


THU 22:25 Timeshift (b00ff170)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Sunday]


THU 23:25 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00fd1dd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


THU 23:55 BBC Four Sessions (b0074p67)
Beck

Series of unique concerts featuring musicians from around the world. At London's Union Chapel, Beck performs a solo and acoustic set that includes numbers from his album Sea Change, along with special renditions of some of his extensive back catalogue, including Loser.

Songs are performed using half a dozen guitars, including some slide blues along with piano, harmonica and drum machine. Beck also covers Nelly's Hot in Herre, along with a few bars of Justin Timberlakes Cry Me a River.


THU 00:55 Timeshift (b00ff170)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Sunday]


THU 01:55 Consuming Passion: 100 Years of Mills and Boon (b00fcwn0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


THU 03:20 Timeshift (b00ff170)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Sunday]



FRIDAY 07 NOVEMBER 2008

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00fd1mg)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Nathan Milstein: Master of Invention (b00fd1pz)
Part 2

Second in a two-part documentary by celebrated filmmaker Christopher Nupen which provides a fascinating and intimate portrait of one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, Nathan Mironovich Milstein.

Respected by his contemporaries, his career was one of the longest in the history of classical music, spanning a remarkable 73 years. Throughout his life, Milstein scrupulously avoided publicity and it took Nupen three years to persuade this most modest of musicians to take part in this film.


FRI 20:30 Only Connect (b00fcy1m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


FRI 21:00 Alistair Cooke's America (b0074npp)
The Promised Fulfilled and the Promise Broken

Alistair Cooke's personal examination of the history of the United States continues with a look at prosperity and politics in the 1920s. However, by the end of the decade the prosperity had vanished and had been replaced by economic depression.


FRI 21:50 People's Century (b00ffp16)
The story of 'the hungry thirties' told by men and women who suffered in the worldwide depression that followed the Wall Street Crash.

In Chicago, the unemployed ripped wooden paving blocks from the city streets, while in Belgium, laid-off miners broke into their own pits to scavenge for waste coal. Sweden was the first democracy to fight the depression, and America's President Roosevelt offered the country a new deal.


FRI 22:45 BBC Four Sessions (b00fd1q1)
Randy Newman

The great American master of irony, singer-songwriter Randy Newman graces the stage at LSO St Luke's in London for an intimate concert. Balancing songs of scathing wit with affecting romantic ballads, he is joined by the strings of the BBC Concert Orchestra under the baton of Robert Ziegler.

There is a selection from his critically-acclaimed album Harps and Angels, including the critique of the Bush administration A Few Words in Defence of Our Country, and Newman also cherrypicks songs such as Short People, I Think It's Going to Rain Today, Political Science and Marie from his impressive back catalogue.


FRI 23:45 Regeneration (b0078pvq)
Adaptation of Pat Barker's prizewinning novel set in a Scottish hospital during the First World War. Eminent psychiatrist William Rivers questions his values and training when charged with treating victims of shell shock, only to send them back into active service at the front. He is particularly challenged when the poet and decorated soldier Siegfried Sassoon is declared mentally ill for making an anti-war statement.


FRI 01:35 Armistice (b00fcy1p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


FRI 03:05 Only Connect (b00fcy1m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


FRI 03:35 BBC Four Sessions (b00fd1q1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:45 today]