SATURDAY 06 MARCH 2010

SAT 19:00 Life (p07gj8bp)
Birds

Birds owe their global success to feathers - something no other animal has. They allow birds to do extraordinary things.

For the first time, a slow-motion camera captures the unique flight of the marvellous spatuletail hummingbird as he flashes long, iridescent tail feathers in the gloomy undergrowth. Aerial photography takes us into the sky with an Ethiopian lammergeier dropping bones to smash them into edible-sized bits. Thousands of pink flamingoes promenade in one of nature's greatest spectacles. The sage grouse rubs his feathers against his chest in a comic display to make popping noises that attract females. The Vogelkop bowerbird makes up for his dull colour by building an intricate structure and decorating it with colourful beetles and snails.


SAT 20:00 Indian Hill Railways (b00r5wk7)
The Kalka-Shimla Railway

From the Himalayas in the north to the Nilgiris in the south - for a hundred years these little trains have climbed through the clouds and into the wonderful world of Indian hill railways.

Shimla was once the summer capital of the Raj. They built churches, schools, a town hall and the railway and left behind their symbols of empire and an ethos of duty, loyalty and ambition - but they also left a divided subcontinent.

Characters featured include Maqsood, a refugee and a porter from Kashmir, and John Whitmarsh-Knight, a teacher looking for a home. Sanjay the stationmaster is hoping for promotion, and his boss Bataljit is waiting for a transfer, but everybody is waiting for the snow.


SAT 21:00 Wallander (b00pssh8)
Series 2

Faceless Killers

Detective drama. Wallander investigates the brutal slaying of an elderly couple at an isolated farmhouse.

A police leak of the wife's dying words leads to an outbreak of racist reprisals in Ystad. The fallout from the case leads Wallander to doubt everything, including his abilities as a police officer.


SAT 22:30 Legends (b00r0t24)
Dennis Wilson: The Real Beach Boy

Dennis Wilson was the drummer in the Beach Boys. And he was the real Beach Boy. In a band of geeks who sang about surfing, cars and girls, Dennis was the only one who surfed, the one who drove hot rod cars in competition and the one who got all the girls.

He was married five times, shared a house with Charles Manson (with whom he wrote songs, including one recorded by the Beach Boys) but died, ironically by drowning, at the age of 39. He was also the first Beach Boy to release a solo album, the stunning Pacific Ocean Blue, which after years of being out of print and fetching hundreds on Ebay, was re-released in 2008 to widespread acclaim, being voted No 1 Reissue of the Year by Mojo and Uncut magazines.

This documentary tells the story of Dennis's life and music, with unseen archive footage and original interviews with Beach Boys Al Jardine and David Marks, his sons Michael and Carl and many friends and fellow musicians. These include Taylor Hawkins, drummer with the Foo Fighters who provided a vocal for the lost track on Pacific Ocean Blue, Holy Man, for which Dennis never laid down a vocal when he recorded the song in 1977.


SAT 23:30 The Armstrong and Miller Show (b00nftch)
Series 2

Episode 2

Sketch show starring Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller.

Jilted Jim's honeymoon from hell continues, Dennis Lincoln-Park introduces another treasured antiquity to the nation, and the pilots find themselves in a spot of bother.


SAT 00:00 The Thick of It (b00pd5w4)
Series 3

Episode 8

Award-winning political comedy.

As the election looms and the Opposition eye the prize, the word around the Westminster Village is that Malcolm Tucker is running out of both options and friends. He may have bitten off more than he can chew with Steve Fleming, but when an offer of help appears from an unlikely direction, Malcolm starts to set his finest trap yet.


SAT 00:30 Leeds International Piano Competition (b00n1k10)
2009

Episode 3

Every three years since 1963, Leeds plays host to the cream of young international concert pianists who travel there to take part in the city's International Piano Competition. Past winners have included musical greats like Rada Lupu and Murray Perahia.

Huw Edwards is joined by concert pianists Cristina Ortiz and Lucy Parham to review the third finalist in 2009's contest. David Kadouch from France is the second of the competitors to play Beethoven's piano concerto No 5. Away from the concert hall, Clemency Burton-Hill looks at the mystique of the piano.


SAT 01:25 BBC Proms (b00m42kb)
2009

Prom 38: Stravinsky's Rite of Spring

Suzy Klein presents as Stravinsky's riotous Rite of Spring comes to the Proms, played by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with conductor Ilan Volkov.

Ravel's choreographic poem La Valse begins the programme, followed by the world premiere of Korean composer Unsuk Chin's Cello Concerto, written especially for the solo cellist Alban Gerhardt.


SAT 03:25 Indian Hill Railways (b00r5wk7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 07 MARCH 2010

SUN 19:00 Pop Go the Sixties (b00rgd4h)
Series 1

The Kinks, the Shadows, the Tremeloes, the Who

More pop moments from the BBC's 60s archive, featuring the Who, the Kinks, the Shadows and the Tremeloes.


SUN 19:15 The Singer (b00pq892)
Drama. A middle-aged nightclub crooner (Gerard Depardieu) becomes infatuated with a young, beautiful estate agent (Cecile de France) he has spotted in the audience.


SUN 21:00 Metal Britannia (b00r600m)
Nigel Planer narrates a documentary which traces the origins and development of British heavy metal from its humble beginnings in the industrialised Midlands to its proud international triumph.

In the late 60s a number of British bands were forging a new kind of sound. Known as hard rock, it was loud, tough, energetic and sometimes dark in outlook. They didn't know it, but Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and, most significantly, Black Sabbath were defining what first became heavy rock and then eventually heavy metal.

Inspired by blues rock, progressive rock, classical music and high energy American rock, they synthesised the sound that would inspire bands like Judas Priest to take metal even further during the 70s.

By the 80s its originators had fallen foul of punk rock, creative stasis or drug and alcohol abuse. But a new wave of British heavy metal was ready to take up the crusade. With the success of bands like Iron Maiden, it went global.

Contributors include Lemmy from Motorhead, Sabbath's Tony Iommi, Ian Gillan from Deep Purple, Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden and Saxon's Biff Byford.


SUN 22:30 Metal at the BBC (b00r600p)
Compilation of memorable heavy metal performances from BBC TV shows, including Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Motorhead.


SUN 23:00 Mad Men (b00r5xy4)
Series 3

Seven Twenty-Three

Conrad Hilton wants Don under exclusive contract, but Don doesn't want to sign. Peggy is wooed by Duck. Betty gets involved with local politics and meets a man who will change her life. Don gets an eclipse of the heart at his children's school.


SUN 23:50 Rock Family Trees (b00rbkdh)
Series 1

Deep Purple People

Programme charting the tempestuous history of one of the greatest hard rock bands of all time.

In the early seventies, Deep Purple could claim to be the biggest band in the world in terms of record sales and the size of their live audiences. Yet tensions between the five members were never far from the surface and the history of the band is littered with splits. One of the many stories tells of the events which led to the singer Ian Gillan leaving Deep Purple in 1973, an event which keyboard player Jon Lord describes as 'the biggest shame in rock 'n' roll'. Members of Deep Purple and offshoots such as Rainbow, Whitesnake and Gillan describe with remarkable frankness the highs and lows of three decades of life in the music business.


SUN 00:40 Rock Family Trees (b0077lp7)
Series 2

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Formed in the late 60s, Black Sabbath's lyrics, looks and lifestyle got them into trouble with moral guardians on both sides of the Atlantic. This programme charts the band's career, showing how friendships forged between the four original members 40 years ago have survived to the present.


SUN 01:30 Iron Maiden: Live in Concert (b00r8z1n)
A 60-minute concert filmed in different cities around the world in early 2008 in which this British rock and roll export demonstrate why they are perhaps the global force in metal with songs like Fear of the Dark, Wasted Years, Number of the Beast and Hallowed Be Thy Name. Taken from the concert film Somewhere Back In Time Live.


SUN 02:30 Mad Men (b00r5xy4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]


SUN 03:15 Metal Britannia (b00r600m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



MONDAY 08 MARCH 2010

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00rbkkk)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Syrian School (b00r5xy2)
Syria's Got Talent

Five-part series following a year in the life of four schools in Damascus, a high pressure crossroads in the Middle East.

It concentrates on some remarkable characters finding their way in a country that has never before opened ordinary life up to the cameras in this way, challenges the usual cliches of Arab life and charts the highs and lows of the school year.

It's time for the country's nationwide search to find Syria's brightest and best primary school students. Thousands of pupils will battle it out in every conceivable discipline, over three hard-fought rounds of competition to become National Pioneers of the Ba'ath Party - Syria's ruling party.

At Al Muleiha Primary School for Boys, head teacher Soha skilfully steers her boys towards the Pioneer final, guiding her most gifted pupils into some of the less competitive disciplines. 11-year-old Imad has his eyes on the prize, for cardboard modelling.

And at Jeramana Middle School, Ward has his own challenge. He's a gifted boy who has been picked to represent his country in one of the toughest international chess tournaments in the world - in Beirut.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00rbkkm)
Series 3

Brasenose Postgrads vs Hitchhikers

Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.

In the second of the quarter-finals, three postgraduate students from Brasenose College, Oxford, pit their wits against a trio of Douglas Adams fans who call themselves the Hitchhikers, in honour of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

They compete to draw together the connections between elements which, at first glance, seem utterly random: P J Tracy, Nicci French, Ellery Queen and Grant Naylor.


MON 21:00 Women (b00rbkkp)
Libbers

Acclaimed filmmaker Vanessa Engle turns her attention to sexual politics in a three-part documentary series about feminism and its impact on women's lives today.

This first episode charts the rise of the women's liberation movement in the 1970s, and includes interviews with legendary British and American feminists, such as Kate Millett, Susan Brownmiller and Germaine Greer, and the last ever interview with novelist Marilyn French, who died in May 2009.


MON 22:00 Sex, the City and Me (b007qyh4)
Fast-paced and powerful drama set in the high-octane world of the City of London. Jess, a high-flying banker, is sidelined in her job by her Machiavellian boss when she returns to work after having a baby. She decides to sue the bank and ends up risking everything, including her marriage. The drama is inspired by in-depth interviews with women who have fought major cases in the City.


MON 23:30 Timeshift (b0074nxp)
Series 1

Greenham Common Changed My Life

The story of the women who occupied the Greenham Common Peace Camp from 1981 to 2000 - what brought them to Greenham, their protests, conflicts with authority and the life they led at the camp. Contributors include Fiona Bruce, Fay Weldon and Joan Ruddock, all of whom visited the site to show their support.


MON 00:10 Timeshift (b0074ndm)
Series 1

The Grunwick Strike

The strike over union recognition at a small film processing plant in North London escalated into a national cause celebre as some of the worst scenes of picket line violence ever seen in Britain at the time were played out nightly on TV news bulletins.

Such was the intensity of the dispute that the para-military police Special Patrol Group was used for the first time in an industrial dispute and at one point cabinet minister Shirley Williams was arrested outside the factory gates.

Grunwick was a film processing business in Willesden, North London, owned by George Ward. In the hot summer of 1976, the mainly Asian and women workers went on strike initially over pay and conditions. Though not trade union members, they were supported by the union APEX and eventually the postal workers across London came out in support.

Over many months in 1976-77 the dispute involved the arbitration service ACAS, a Public Inquiry, the High Court, the Appeal Court and finally went through the House of Lords with George Ward emerging having won the right to not have to negotiate with a union.

The repercussions of the strike reverberated throughout the labour movement, and helped prepare the ground for the Conservatives' success in the elections of 1979 - and their subsequent curbing of the unions' power in the 1980s.

The film weaves archive from the time with drama reconstruction and interviews with key players, including Baroness Shirley Williams, Arthur Scargill, Norris McWhirter, Jack Dromey - the then leader of Brent Trades Council and a key organiser, Roy Grantham - the then head of APEX Union who represented the Grunwick workers, Jim Mortimer - the then head of ACAS, journalist/broadcaster Paul Foot, and the worker who started the strike, Jayaben Desai.


MON 00:55 Storyville (b0081vm3)
Why Democracy?

Iron Ladies of Liberia

When Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became Africa's first ever elected female head of state, filmmakers Siatta Scott-Johnson and Daniel Junge were there to follow her. It was the start of an extraordinary year they spent with the Liberian president as she struggled to take control of a country devastated by years of civil war.

Together with her 'iron ladies' (the finance minister and police chief are also formidable females), she takes a firm hold on the government, trying to root out corruption and spend the tiny annual budget carefully. But it is not an easy task, and everything seems to be against her - even her presidential mansion burns down.


MON 01:50 Women (b00rbkkp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 02:50 Only Connect (b00rbkkm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 03:20 Timeshift (b0074nxp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 today]


MON 04:00 Timeshift (b0074ndm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 00:10 today]



TUESDAY 09 MARCH 2010

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00rbl40)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Hidden Histories (b00fhqp4)
Series 1

Episode 2

Series looking at how the Royal Commission investigates and records Welsh history. The challenges for Huw Edwards and the history detectives include using flash photography to decipher the writing on a ninth century stone pillar, recreating what an iron age fort would have looked like and uncovering an eighteenth century copper works before it disappears beneath a housing development.


TUE 20:00 The Sky at Night (b0786bf2)
Life

Half a century ago, scientists were speculating about the possibility of planets outside our solar system. Since then we have discovered over 400 such extra-solar planets. But is there anything living on them and if so, is it intelligent? Sir Patrick Moore debates the question of life in the universe with today's planet hunters and astrobiologists, while at the Royal Society Dr Chris Lintott searches for evidence of alien life.


TUE 21:00 Sidekick Stories (b00rbl44)
A celebration of the TV sidekick.

Narrated by Catherine Tate (Donna Noble to David Tennant's Dr Who), Sidekick Stories looks at the role of the assistant/companion on television, from drama to sitcom, and light entertainment to children's programmes.

What are the literary antecedents of the TV sidekick - and who's the greatest of them all? What's the dramatic function of the game show hostess? Did the That's Life reporters feel emasculated? How do you create a memorable robot? And what's it like playing straight man to a puppet?

We examine the role of the companion in Dr Who (the man with the most sidekicks in TV history) and reveal the hidden talents of the magician's assistant. There's Edward Hardwicke on how to play Dr Watson; Andrew Sachs on the enduring appeal of Manuel, and Isla St Clair on life as 'principal boy' to Larry Grayson's 'dame'.

The show also features Ian Carmichael (Lord Peter Wimsey; Jeeves and Wooster) in his last ever television interview.


TUE 22:00 Storyville (b00rbl46)
Barbados at the Races

Bajan Born and Bred

This four-part series looks at Barbados today through the lives - at work and at play - of the island's horse racing community. The series is centred on the Barbados Turf Club and following the stories of a colourful cast of characters, from the big white owners at the top of the tree right down to the poor black exercise riders and grooms. The Club and its racecourse have been based at the former British Army Garrison on the edge of the island's capital Bridgetown for over a hundred years. These quirky and, at times, spiritually-minded programmes look at how the culture of Barbados today, its institutions and the mindset of its people have been shaped by the colonial past and the legacy of and slavery.

This programme explores what it is to be Bajan (Barbadian) during the run-up to Independence Day. Jonathon Simpson owns a farm and breeding stables in the hills, where groom Pat Coward is kept busy breaking in yearlings for training. Meanwhile in St Ann's Fort next to the Garrison Savannah the Barbados Defence Force's top Sgt. Maj. Cherrol Dean is drilling his troops for the 43rd annual Independence Day Parade. The programme discusses the ways in which Bajans - human and equine alike - are both bred and nurtured and compares the experiences of single mothers Pat and army medic Safreya Small. This first programme finds an island influenced - but perhaps surprisingly not overshadowed - by its colonial past, with a sense of historical contradiction and ambiguity that is the heartbeat of the series.


TUE 22:30 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (b00rfpqg)
Episode 1

Seven-year-old Jess lives with her dominating mother until she is rudely removed from her peculiar Pentecostal home and sent to school.


TUE 23:25 Sacred Music (b03d09b3)
Series 1

The Gothic Revolution

Documentary series in which actor and former chorister Simon Russell Beale explores the flowering of Western sacred music.

He begins his journey at Notre Dame in Paris, where an enigmatic medieval music manuscript provides the key to the early development of polyphony - music of 'many voices'. Featuring music performed by members of the award-winning choir The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers.


TUE 00:25 Sacred Music (b009lvpl)
Series 1

Palestrina and the Popes

Documentary series in which actor and former chorister Simon Russell Beale explores the flowering of Western sacred music.

He uncovers the links between the papal intrigues of Renaissance Rome and the music of the enigmatic Palestrina, whose work is considered by many to be unsurpassed in its spiritual perfection. The art and architecture of the Italian High Renaissance are accompanied by a performance from the award-winning choir The Sixteen, conducted by founder Harry Christophers.


TUE 01:25 Sacred Music (b009phyw)
Series 1

Tallis, Byrd and the Tudors

Four-part documentary series in which Simon Russell Beale explores the flowering of Western sacred music. Beale takes us back to Tudor England, a country in turmoil as monarchs change the national religion and Roman Catholicism is driven underground. In telling the story of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, two composers at the centre of England's own musical Renaissance, Beale visits parish churches, great cathedrals and a private home where Catholic music would have been performed in secret.


TUE 02:25 Sacred Music (b009s86s)
Series 1

Bach and the Lutheran Legacy

Four-part documentary series in which Simon Russell Beale explores the flowering of Western sacred music. With music performed by The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers, Beale explores how Martin Luther, himself a composer, had a profound effect on the development of sacred music, re-defining the role of congregational singing and the use of the organ in services. Ultimately, these reforms would shape the world of JS Bach and inspire him to write some of the greatest sacred music.


TUE 03:25 The Sky at Night (b0786bf2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 10 MARCH 2010

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00rblqz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 It's Only a Theory (b00nqc0c)
Episode 5

Comedians Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter host a series in which qualified professionals and experts submit their theories about life, the universe and everything for examination by a panel of Hamilton, Hunter and a guest celebrity, who then make a final decision on whether the theory is worth keeping.

The guest celebrity is broadcaster Martha Kearney and the experts are Julian Richards and Dr Peter Thompson.


WED 20:00 Growing Babies (b00fvh1j)
War in the Womb

Laverne Antrobus investigates the theory of foetal-maternal conflict, an idea championed by Harvard evolutionary biologist Professor David Haig and controversially believed by some to be to blame for a wide range of behavioural and psychological disorders such as Tourettes, depression and autism.

On a biological level at least, the odyssey of pregnancy is dogged by conflict. It begins with the battle between 500 million sperm to reach the single egg, through the aggressive tactics employed by the cells of the placenta as they invade the wall of the uterus, to the escalation of hormones in later pregnancy that have been likened by some to a kind of hormonal cold war between mother and baby.

Antrobus discovers how the symptoms of pre-eclampsia in the mother are driven by the foetus lashing out for survival when the placenta begins to fail. She meets Dr Ananth Kuramanchi, the scientist who believes he has found the smoking gun of pre-eclampsia - a protein produced by foetal tissue that is capable of totally remodelling the maternal bloodstream to suit the foetus's goals.

Finally, Antrobus explores how conflict in the womb permeates the foetal genome as she investigates one of the most recent discoveries in genetics, genomic imprinting. She discovers how the genes of mother and father employ strategies of cunning and subterfuge to suit their own selfish ends.


WED 21:00 Syrian School (b00rblr1)
Marked for Life

Five-part series following a year in the life of four schools in Damascus, a high pressure crossroads in the Middle East.

For 40 years, Syria has been dominated by a single party. There's limited political freedom. But here in Damascus life seems to be slowly changing, especially for the next generation. But there is still an immense hurdle for them to cross: the dreaded Baccalaureate Examination. The whole city seems in a state of panic, from teachers to parents and pupils.

17-year-old twin sisters Farah and Rahaf are facing the exams together - success or failure will determine their futures. But their dreams are wildly different. Farah dreams of studying English and exploring the world - inspired by her Satellite TV heroine Nigella Lawson. Rahaf is more anxious - aiming for a more cautious future in engineering. We follow them from revision to results.

Meanwhile, Iraqi refugee Yusif is struggling with his education, as all his attention is focused on the visa he hopes to get that will take him away from Syria. His family is desperate to move to Canada - but can they make it out of Damascus?

In Damascus, it's exam season. And everyone's future is riding on it.


WED 22:00 Mad Men (b00rblr3)
Series 3

Souvenir

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

Don and Betty have a weekend in Rome to check out Conrad Hilton's hotel. Pete spends the vacation alone and gets close to his neighbour's German au pair, Gudrun. Joan's secret is revealed. Henry Francis comes to Betty's aid. Don gives Betty a little souvenir, but does she want more?


WED 22:45 Women (b00rbkkp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


WED 23:45 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00pcnnj)
AS Byatt

Mark Lawson talks to AS Byatt after her Man Booker Prize nomination for her novel The Children's Book. Byatt talks about her passion for literature and how she has managed to combine family life with the solitary world of a writer.


WED 00:45 It's Only a Theory (b00nqc0c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 01:15 Syrian School (b00rblr1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 02:15 Growing Babies (b00fvh1j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 03:15 Women (b00rbkkp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]



THURSDAY 11 MARCH 2010

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00rbm32)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Only Connect (b00rbkkm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


THU 20:00 Chemistry: A Volatile History (b00qck1t)
The Order of the Elements

The explosive story of chemistry is the story of the building blocks that make up our entire world - the elements. From fiery phosphorus to the pure untarnished lustre of gold and the dazzle of violent, violet potassium, everything is made of elements - the earth we walk on, the air we breathe, even us. Yet for centuries this world was largely unknown, and completely misunderstood.

In this three-part series, professor of theoretical physics Jim Al-Khalili traces the extraordinary story of how the elements were discovered and mapped. He follows in the footsteps of the pioneers who cracked their secrets and created a new science, propelling us into the modern age.

In part two, Professor Al-Khalili looks at the 19th-century chemists who struggled to impose an order on the apparently random world of the elements. From working out how many there were to discovering their unique relationships with each other, the early scientists' bid to decode the hidden order of the elements was driven by false starts and bitter disputes. But ultimately the quest would lead to one of chemistry's most beautiful intellectual creations - the periodic table.


THU 21:00 Storyville (b00rbm34)
Race Horses

What might it be like to be a horse? Not just any horse, but a top-end racehorse in Ireland? This is the question Race Horses explores, following three promising, charismatic horses over the course of one rather difficult racing year, bringing us into their world and revealing their distinct individual characters.

Beautiful, unusual, and highly entertaining, the film combines the drama of a sports movie with the exploration of an ancient human obsession, offering a subtle critique of humanity's quirks on the side.


THU 22:20 Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (b00rbm36)
Bakhtay is a six-year-old girl living in a cave in Bamiyan, the town in Afghanistan where the Taliban destroyed the giant Buddha statues in 2001. She desperately wants to go to school to learn some jokes, but she has many hurdles to overcome - from buying the right equipment to avoiding the bully boys playing at being Taliban.


THU 23:40 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00gq60t)
Maureen Lipman

Actress and writer Maureen Lipman talks to Mark Lawson about life after the death of her screen-writer husband Jack Rosenthal, working with Roman Polanski, being the face of BT, and how she has been banned from Woking shopping centre.


THU 00:40 Storyville (b00jwcr6)
The Jazz Baroness

Documentary, made by her great niece, about the British Jewish baroness who fell in love with the jazz genius Thelonious Monk.

Pannonica Rothschild was born with everything, got married and had five children, but one track by a man she had never met inspired her to leave and start a new life in America.

Helen Mirren is the voice of 'Nica', while Sonny Rollins, TS Monk Jr, the Duchess of Devonshire, Quincy Jones, Lord Rothschild, Roy Haynes, Chico Hamilton and others appear as themselves.


THU 02:05 Storyville (b00rbm34)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


THU 03:25 Chemistry: A Volatile History (b00qck1t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



FRIDAY 12 MARCH 2010

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00rbmmx)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Sacred Music (b00rbmmz)
Series 2

Brahms and Bruckner

Documentary series in which Simon Russell Beale explores the flowering of Western sacred music.

He travels to Germany and Austria to explore the work of two musical giants, Brahms and Bruckner. With Harry Christophers and his choir The Sixteen, Simon discovers how Bruckner approached his sacred music as a devout Catholic, while Brahms found himself unable to believe in anything but his music.


FRI 20:30 Storyville (b00rbl46)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]


FRI 21:00 Blues Britannia: Can Blue Men Sing the Whites? (b00kc752)
Documentary telling the story of what happened to blues music on its journey from the southern states of America to the heart of British pop and rock culture, providing an in-depth look at what this music really meant to a generation of kids desperate for an antidote to their experiences of living in post-war suburban Britain.

Narrated by Nigel Planer and structured in three parts, the first, Born Under a Bad Sign, focuses on the arrival of American blues in Britain in the late 50s and the first performances here by such legends as Muddy Waters, Sonnie Terry and Brownie McGhee.

Part two, Sittin' on Top of the World, charts the birth of the first British blues boom in the early 60s, spearheaded by the Rolling Stones and groups such as the Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, the Animals and the Pretty Things.

The final section, Crossroads, looks at the next, more hardcore British blues boom of the mid-to-late 60s, with guitarists Eric Clapton and Peter Green and the international dominance of their respective bands, Cream and Fleetwood Mac.

Featuring archive performances and interviews with Keith Richards, Paul Jones, Chris Dreja, Bill Wyman, Phil May, John Mayall, Jack Bruce, Mick Fleetwood, Ian Anderson, Tony McPhee, Mike Vernon, Tom McGuinness, Mick Abrahams, Dick Taylor, Val Wilmer, Chris Barber, Pete Brown, Bob Brunning, Dave Kelly and Phil Ryan.


FRI 22:30 Blues at the BBC (b00k36m5)
Collection of performances by British and American blues artists on BBC programmes such as The Beat Room, A Whole Scene Going, The Old Grey Whistle Test and The Late Show.

Includes the seminal slide guitar of Son House, the British R&B of The Kinks, the unmistakeable electric sound of BB King and Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton and John Lee Hooker, as well as less familiar material from the likes of Delaney and Bonnie, Freddie King and Long John Baldry.


FRI 23:30 Sidekick Stories (b00rbl44)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


FRI 00:30 Blues Britannia: Can Blue Men Sing the Whites? (b00kc752)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:00 Blues at the BBC (b00k36m5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]


FRI 03:00 Sacred Music (b00rbmmz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 04:00 Sidekick Stories (b00rbl44)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]