SATURDAY 28 MARCH 2009

SAT 19:00 Legends (b008fmyt)
Val Doonican Rocks

Pauline McLynn narrates an affectionate portrait of popular Irish entertainer Val Doonican, as famous for his props such as cardigans and rocking chair as for his easy-listening style. From 1964-1986 he led the BBC1 ratings, his particular brand of laid-back entertainment surviving the revolutionary 60s, IRA campaigns and a variety of changing musical styles. His hits included Walk Tall and The Special Years as well as a number of comic 'Oirish' songs. At the age of 80, Val still performs but the sweaters and his faithful rocking chair are nowhere to be seen. Includes interviews with Rolf Harris, John Williams, Gerry Anderson and Gloria Hunniford.


SAT 20:00 India's Hospital Train (b00jf4jq)
The story of a special train, the Lifeline Express. It is known as the Magic Train. With two state-of-the-art operating theatres, recovery rooms, offices and accommodation, each project requires a team of volunteer doctors, surgeons and nurses to give their services for free. For four weeks, cameras follow the Mandsor project as operations are carried out on poor rural people while the train is standing in a station in the middle of India.

Dashrath is going deaf, Bharat can't walk and baby Shiva was born with a cleft lip. They cannot reach a hospital and they can't afford the operations. The operations change the lives of both patients and doctors. With compelling, dynamic and moving stories, the Magic Train opens a gateway to another India, where 21st-century medicine meets village India.


SAT 21:00 Geisha Girl (b0074s37)
Documentary following 15-year-old Yukina as she leaves home and moves to Kyoto to embark on the arduous training needed to become a geisha.

The profession has always been shrouded in controversy, with some believing geisha are little more than high-class prostitutes. At such a young age, does Yukina really understand what this ancient profession has in store for her?


SAT 22:00 Spirited Away (b00794mp)
Oscar-winning animated film in which a young Japanese girl finds her parents have been turned into pigs. Her only chance to reverse the transformation is to work in a magical bath house.


SAT 00:00 Fish! A Japanese Obsession (b00jdw5k)
Charles Rangeley Wilson, author, journalist and BBC 2's Accidental Angler, travels to Japan to explore the Japanese people's passionate relationship to fish.

Of all the island nations on Earth, there is, perhaps, none quite so obsessed by fish as Japan. Whether for food or entertainment, fish are at the very core of Japanese identity. From their reverential love of jewel-like koi to the seemingly barbaric world of scientific whaling via the submarine ballet of the drive hunt, there are few corners of Japanese culture that have not been shaped by reference to fish.

Trying to comprehend this 'alien' culture, Charles embarks on a six-week odyssey through Japan, determined to use his love of fish and fishing as the common point of interest between himself and those he meets along the way. Since he loves fish possibly even more than the Japanese, they must have plenty in common...


SAT 02:30 BBC Proms (b00czjth)
2008

Prom 40: Boulez and the BBC Symphony Orchestra

Sara Mohr-Pietsch introduces a concert in which Pierre Boulez conducts two of Janacek's greatest non-theatrical works, Sinfonietta and the Glagolitic Mass, and the quirky Capriccio for piano (left hand only). Organist Simon Preston and pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet join the massed forces of the BBC Symphony Chorus, the London Symphony Chorus and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.



SUNDAY 29 MARCH 2009

SUN 19:00 Baroque! - From St Peter's to St Paul's (b00jf3hv)
Episode 3

Spectacular three-part series, exploring the Baroque tradition in many of its key locations. Starting in Italy and following the spread of the wildfire across Europe and beyond, art critic Waldemar Januszczak takes a tour of the best examples of Baroque to be found, and tells the best stories behind those works.

Episode Three brings the Baroque home with an exploration of the English Baroque tradition that finds its climax through a tour of London's Hawksmoor churches, and Christopher Wren's iconic St Paul's Cathedral.


SUN 20:00 Japan in Colour: The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn (b00jdvv1)
In 1908, the French banker and philanthropist Albert Kahn launched one of the most ambitious projects in the history of photography. A pacifist, internationalist and utopian idealist, Kahn decided to use his private fortune to improve understanding between the nations of the world. To this end, he created what he called his Archive of the Planet. For the next two decades, he dispatched professional photographers to document the everyday lives of people in more than 50 countries all around the world. Kahn's wealth enabled him to supply his photographers with the most advanced camera technology available. They used the autochrome - the first user-friendly camera system capable of producing true-colour photographs.

Some of the most important of all the 72,000 colour images in Kahn's Archive were shot during three separate visits (in 1908, 1912 and 1926) to Japan. As an international financier, Kahn had established a network of contacts that included some of the most prominent members of Japan's business, banking and political elites. Consequently, Kahn's photographers were granted privileged access to places that would have otherwise been off limits - including some of the royal palaces, where they shot colour portraits of the princes and princesses from Japan's Imperial family. But some of their most fascinating images capture moments from the lives of ordinary Japanese people at work and play. This film showcases Kahn's treasury of films and autochromes of silk-farmers, Shinto monks, schoolchildren, porcelain merchants, Kabuki stars and geishas - pictures that were recorded at a time when this fascinating country was going through momentous changes.


SUN 21:00 How Britain Got the Gardening Bug (b00jkrkp)
Documentary looking at the extraordinary changes and crazes that have happened to British gardening since the Second World War, from garden gnomes and crazy paving to Leylandii and decking.

As recently as the 1960s, garden centres did not exist and gardening was strictly for old boys in sheds, yet today it has become the height of cool.

Contributors include Penelope Keith, Laurence Llewellyn Bowen, Germaine Greer and Carol Klein.


SUN 22:30 In the Shadow of Fujisan (b00jkrkr)
Long Live the Turtle

Three-part series looking at the role of wild animals in Japanese life, art and religion. This edition investigates Japan's exploitation of marine resources, exemplified by the plight of the sea turtle, and gives an insight into a culture very different from that of the west.


SUN 23:15 Newswipe (b00jf3hx)
Series 1

Episode 1

Charlie Brooker returns to train his sights firmly on news and current affairs.

He looks at the news's obsession with the credit crunch, and the potty levels it has reached. Nick Davies authors a piece about the influence the PR industry has over the news and Tim Key performs a poem.


SUN 23:45 Baroque! - From St Peter's to St Paul's (b00jf3hv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 00:45 BBC Proms (b00cp2gx)
2008

Prom 5: Folk Day

Charles Hazlewood introduces a concert showcasing some of Britain's most exciting folk talent. Folk Day celebrates the diversity and influence of folk music and culminates in a Prom featuring artists who are continuing to revive and re-interpret the traditions of folk music, including 23-year-old Bella Hardy, guitarist Martin Simpson and the boisterous 11-piece big band Bellowhead, who between them won three Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2007/8.


SUN 02:40 How Britain Got the Gardening Bug (b00jkrkp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



MONDAY 30 MARCH 2009

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00jlc7t)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Legends (b00fwdwp)
Nana Mouskouri - The White Rose of Athens

Profile of Greek singer Nana Mouskouri, known as the White Rose of Athens and one of the best-selling female artists of all time.

The documentary features a revealing interview with Nana herself, rare archive footage and interviews with family and friends including Harry Belafonte, Julio Iglesias and Charles Aznavour.

There is also exclusive footage from her July 2008 farewell concert in Athens which, following a four year long world tour, marked her retirement from performing.


MON 20:30 The Book Quiz (b00jkry4)
Series 3

Episode 9

Kirsty Wark presents the literary panel game, as the Bishop of Southwark, the Right Reverend Dr Thomas Butler and former editor of the Erotic Review, Rowan Pelling do battle against Woman's Hour presenter Jenni Murray and award-winning crime writer Mark Billingham.


MON 21:00 Japan: A Story of Love and Hate (b00jkry6)
Documentary which tells an unusual love story of survival in the world's second richest economy.

Naoki, 56, had it all in Japan's bubble economy days - he ran a business with 70 staff, drove a brand new BMW and lived in a six-bedroom house. But when Japan's economy crashed in the early 1990s he lost everything, ending up divorced and penniless.

He was saved from homelessness by his new girlfriend, 29-year-old Yoshie, who took him in despite living in a tiny one-room apartment. At his age, the only job Naoki can find is part-time at the post office, which means working seven hours a day and earning just 4,000 pounds a year.

Yoshie now has to find extra jobs to support him, working 15 hours a day in three jobs. Each evening she leaves Naoki at home to do the housework and heads to a sleazy chat bar, where she is paid to drink, flatter and flirt with married men.

Naoki sees his relationship with Yoshie like father and daughter and admits that since losing his business he has lost his confidence in both his professional and social life.


MON 22:00 Spiral (b0074sk6)
Series 1

Episode 1

A young woman is found brutally murdered and dumped in a skip. Leading the investigation is young public prosecutor Pierre Clement, who teams up with no-nonsense police captain Laure Berthaud and investigating magistrate Judge Roban. Together, they must establish the identity of the victim and get to the perpetrators while navigating a tangled web of political intrigue, prostitution and drugs - each with a different vision of justice, each with their own personal demons.


MON 22:50 Spiral (b0074sl0)
Series 1

Episode 2

Pierre must face the possibility that some of his nearest and dearest could be implicated in the murder case he is following, which is now linked to some very high-ranking names. Laure Berthaud's team investigate the apparent murder of a baby by his babysitter, while ambitious young lawyer Josephine Karlsson is recruited as the public half of a new legal partnership.


MON 23:40 Japan: A Story of Love and Hate (b00jkry6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 00:40 The Book Quiz (b00jkry4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 01:10 BBC Proms (b00csk20)
2008

Prom 15: Beethoven and Elliott Carter

Suzy Klein introduces a Prom which celebrates the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's 5th Symphony with a performance by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under conductor David Robertson.

To celebrate Elliott Carter's 100th birthday, Nicholas Daniel performs Carter's single-movement Oboe Concerto, while the concert open with a full-string version of Beethoven's Grosse Fuge, originally written as the final movement of one of his late string quartets.


MON 03:05 Legends (b00fwdwp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]



TUESDAY 31 MARCH 2009

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00jlc8d)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Coal House (b00f7y58)
Coal House at War

Episode 9

It is the last week in the Coal House, and the threat of air raids and sleepless nights are taking their toll. The women are charming the butcher for black market meat, while the rivalry between the men and the Bevin Boys is resolved on the football pitch. And there is a surprise visit over Sunday lunch for some of the evacuees.


TUE 20:00 A Woman in Love and War: Vera Brittain (b00flklr)
Dramatisation of the life of Vera Brittain, a young woman who lived through the First World War, presented by Jo Brand.

In 1914 Vera Brittain was young, in love and preparing to study at Oxford. She was at the heart of an intense friendship that bound five youngsters (four young men and Vera) together, full of ambition and excitement. Four years later, her life and the life of her whole generation had changed unimaginably. The war saw her companions killed. As a volunteer nurse in London and on the Front she witnessed horrors that turned her idealistic passion for a 'just war' to dust. This is the story of the First World War as seen through a woman's eyes.

Through Vera's letters, memoirs and her celebrated autobiography Testament of Youth, Jo Brand retells the story of Vera's war that saw her brother Edward, her fiance Roland Leighton and their friends Victor Richardson and Geoffrey Thurlow killed, along with an army of boys recruited through their schools. What emerges is a profoundly moving portrait. The correspondence is unmatched in the depth and breadth of its perspective, showing the war as it was for the young officer in the trenches, the volunteer nurse in military hospitals at home and abroad, and the civilian population on the home front. It is unique, yet tells the experience of thousands of people in Britain at the time.

Jo uses these letters, school reports, army and hospital records to trace Brittain's experiences. She visits the sites of hospitals in Camberwell and France, the home and university that served as refuge, and talks with Baroness Shirley Williams, Brittain's daughter, about the war's impact on her mother. Dramatic reconstructions reproduce key moments from the story.


TUE 21:00 Early Doors (b0078scy)
Series 2

Episode 4

Comedy series set in a small Manchester public house.

The regulars continue to gossip about Ken and Tanya, and his relationship with Mel has turned distinctly cold following the discovery of her and Dean getting close and personal during last week's quiz.

Eddie and Joan discuss with the whole pub their love of circuses, as Phil and Nige divulge that they nearly got caught with their pants down during a police raid. Tommy gets a new job and Jumping Joe's Krazy Road Show gets a gig.


TUE 21:30 I've Never Seen Star Wars (b00jks3x)
Series 1

Rory McGrath

Marcus Brigstocke hosts a chat show in which he invites someone to step out of their comfort zone and try five new cultural experiences.

In this episode, Rory McGrath tries watching Fawlty Towers, straightening his hair and going to a ballet.


TUE 22:00 Mad Men (b00jn88p)
Series 2

A Night to Remember

Drama series which takes an unflinching look at the world of advertising in 1960s New York.

To win over an imported beer brand as a new client, Duck and Don try to appeal to a new market demographic.

Harry is overwhelmed with his department's workload and finds assistance from an unlikely source, and Father Gill convinces Peggy to become part of a pro bono church project.


TUE 22:50 Law and Order (b00jks3d)
A Villain's Tale

Four-part drama series about the British judicial system, dealing with an investigation presented from the perspectives of the police force, the criminal, the solicitor and the prison system. Does Mr English pick the villain from the identity parade?


TUE 00:00 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00czhy9)
GF Newman

Writer GF Newman discusses his life and career with Mark Lawson. Responsible for the classic drama serial Law and Order and more recently Judge John Deed, Newman also discusses his belief in reincarnation and vegetarianism.


TUE 01:00 BBC Proms (b00cwg52)
2008

Prom 23: Beethoven and Mahler

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Donald Runnicles, will perform Beethoven's 1st Symphony. This is followed by Das Lied von der Erde, Song of the Earth, a work which Mahler called a symphony for tenor, mezzo-soprano and orchestra. Johan Botha is the tenor, Karen Cargill is the mezzo soprano.


TUE 03:10 The Book Quiz (b00jkry4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


TUE 03:40 I've Never Seen Star Wars (b00jks3x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]



WEDNESDAY 01 APRIL 2009

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00jlcbx)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Britain's Best Drives (b00jf4jn)
The Trossachs

Actor Richard Wilson takes a journey into the past, following routes raved about in motoring guides of 50 years ago.

For his final drive, Richard returns to the country of his birth in a splendid 1950s Bentley. He drops in on his sister, returns to the original 'Dr Finlay' house, takes to the water to find out how Sir Walter Scott inspired a deluge of sightseers to the region, drives Scotland's most famous road in the company of a bevy of vintage bikers, and discovers just what it is about great vistas that gives us all such a thrill.


WED 20:00 Simon Schama's Power of Art (b00793ll)
Bernini

Documentary series in which historian Simon Schama recounts the story of eight moments of high drama in the making of eight masterpieces. He looks at how Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Ecstasy of St Thereza shows a nun in the state of orgasmic bliss and wonders how it was ever allowed.


WED 21:00 Gladstone and Disraeli: Clash of the Titans (b00j0gfb)
Huw Edwards presents a documentary examining the relationship between Victorian prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone, whose bitter personal rivalry dominated British politics for 40 years.

Disraeli was a peacock with an elegant wit and an outsider who made it to the top, while Gladstone was an insider and a stern moralist who chopped down trees and saved fallen women, and the two of them drove each other onwards and changed the face of British politics.


WED 22:30 Newswipe (b00jks6r)
Series 1

Episode 2

Charlie Brooker sets his satirical sights on news and current affairs. In charting the rise of the public's role in making the news via vox pops and mobile phone footage, Brooker examines the good, the bad and the absurd in citizen journalism. Plus, reviews of two big stories making the news, controversial authored pieces, a poem and much more.


WED 23:00 I've Never Seen Star Wars (b00jks3x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 on Tuesday]


WED 23:30 Nobody Knows (b0074tdq)
Award-winning Japanese drama in which four children are forced to rely on one another after they are abandoned by their mother.


WED 01:50 Simon Schama's Power of Art (b00793ll)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:50 Mad Men (b009364t)
Series 1

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Drama series which takes an unflinching look at the world of advertising in 1960s New York. Top executive Don Draper's position is under threat from his competitors. An assignment to sell cigarettes after a medical report about their dangers has just been published doesn't help.


WED 03:35 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.



THURSDAY 02 APRIL 2009

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00jks94)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:40 Natural World (b0077vkx)
1999-2000

Hokkaido: Garden of the Gods

A look at the unique wildlife of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost island, and the island's few remaining members of the ancient Ainu race, who see all animals as sacred.

Swept by winds from the high Arctic, Hokkaido is an island of towering volcanos and fairytale forests, where cranes perform dances in the snow, brown bears plunge for salmon in rivers and eagles plunder the spoils from winter fishing fleets.

The unique wildlife of Hokkaido has long been worshipped by an ancient race of hunter-gatherers, called Ainu, a few of whom still survive among modern Japanese. Even today, they honour the natural world around them through ritualised dance and prayer.


THU 20:30 The Sumo Tokoyama: The Art of Hairdressing for Wrestlers (b007b9tv)
Documentary about the prestigious world of sumo wrestling, in which aesthetics are considered as important as sheer strength. And the wrestler's hair is no exception to the rule, with traditional top knots being crafted daily by the tokoyama, or sumo hairdresser.


THU 21:00 New Town (b00hq1w5)
Drama set in Edinburgh's New Town area. Starry architects Purves and Pekkala are offered the chance to redesign a Georgian church, but when the head of Scottish Heritage falls from the church tower in a mysterious accident, it becomes a question of whether he fell or was pushed.


THU 22:00 The Book Quiz (b00jkry4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


THU 22:30 I've Never Seen Star Wars (b00jks96)
Series 1

Emily Maitlis

Marcus Brigstocke hosts a chat show in which he invites someone to step out of their comfort zone and try five new cultural experiences. Broadcaster Emily Maitlis listens to Dolly Parton, watches the Godfather and rides a motorbike for the first time.


THU 23:00 Newswipe (b00jks6r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 on Wednesday]


THU 23:30 New Town (b00hq1w5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


THU 00:30 Newswipe (b00jks6r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 on Wednesday]


THU 01:00 I've Never Seen Star Wars (b00jks96)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]


THU 01:30 Natural World (b0077vkx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:40 today]


THU 02:20 New Town (b00hq1w5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 03 APRIL 2009

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00jks72)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Jazz 625 (b008wdpn)
Oscar Peterson

Flora Purin introduces a restored and re-edited version of a session by jazz pianist Oscar Peterson from October 1964.


FRI 20:00 Dido and Aeneas (b00jlcgq)
Lavish film production of Purcell's operatic masterpiece.

Maria Ewing plays the doomed Queen of Carthage and Karl Daymond her lover, Aeneas. The opera is conducted by the late Richard Hickox.


FRI 21:00 Sissinghurst (b00j4bht)
Episode 5

Documentary series about the attempts of writer Adam Nicolson and his wife Sarah Raven to bring farming back into the heart of the estate and garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, their historic home which is owned by the National Trust and was moulded into its present form by Nicolson's grandmother Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson back in the 1930s.

Progress on the farm project is slow and Adam's impatience is causing unease among some of the National Trust's employees. Peter Weeden, head chef at the Paternoster Chophouse in London, is brought in to help head chef Steve. Sarah is frustrated as one of her key ideas - growing edible flowers on the vegetable plot - gets the thumbs down.

Adam continues to research his book and looks into his grandmother's famous liaison with the writer Virginia Woolf. He visits Virginia's grand-niece at her old home, Rodmell in Sussex. Adam questions the Trust as to why there is no reference to Vita's gay world in the Sissinghurst museum.

The springtime garden is full of Chelsea visitors and head gardener Alexis is trying to control the crowds. Relations between Adam and Sarah and staff on the ground are not good and Adam can't wait for it all to be over.


FRI 21:30 Sissinghurst (b00j6q8d)
Episode 6

Documentary series about the attempts of writer Adam Nicolson and his wife Sarah Raven to bring farming back into the heart of the estate and garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, their historic home which is owned by the National Trust and was moulded into its present form by Nicolson's grandmother Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson back in the 1930s.

It's May and Adam's quest to breathe new life into the Sissinghurst estate is gathering pace. The National Trust has appointed a farmer and there is good news from the vegetable plot as the first delivery of produce is ready for the restaurant. But Adam realises he has got to talk to the staff to try to ease rising tensions. He discovers he is not the only one to have a sense of belonging at Sissinghurst and begins to realise the impact the project will have on the staff on the ground. He changes his tune and starts to wonder whether he himself is becoming National Trust-ified.

Adam and Sarah take their bridge-building efforts a stage further as they lend a hand in the restaurant. Sarah's not sure about being sworn at by Steve the head chef, though.

Adam's research for his book takes him a step further in fathoming Vita and Harold's unusual relationship - in which both of them had numerous gay affairs and yet despite it all remained devoted to each other.

As mid-June and the glory of high summer arrives, it is time for the garden's star attraction to take centre stage: the White Garden comes into full bloom. This tiny garden area is now a design icon of international significance. Adam's sister Juliet reveals that there are now no fewer than 20 such White Gardens in Connecticut alone.


FRI 22:00 Arena (b00jks9j)
Cool

Documentary exploring the meaning and history of cool through the American music of the 1940s and 50s that became known as cool jazz. Those who wrote and played it cultivated an attitude, a style and a language that came to epitomise the meaning of a word that is now so liberally used.

The film tells the story of a movement that started in the bars and clubs of New York and Los Angeles and swept across the world, introducing the key players and setting them in the context of the post-war world.


FRI 23:00 Jazz 625 (b00jnr22)
Modern Jazz Quartet

1964 performance by the Modern Jazz Quartet, featuring members John Lewis, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath and Connie Kay and a guest appearance from Laurindo Almeida.


FRI 23:35 Mad Men (b00jn88p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]


FRI 00:25 Arena (b00jks9j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 01:25 Jazz 625 (b008wdpn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 01:50 Jazz 625 (b00jnr22)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]


FRI 02:25 Dido and Aeneas (b00jlcgq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 03:25 Sissinghurst (b00j4bht)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 03:55 Sissinghurst (b00j6q8d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]