SATURDAY 03 APRIL 2010

SAT 19:00 Oklahoma! (b00ggpzy)
Classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. Curly McLain and his sullen rival Jud Fry vie for the affections of pretty Laurey Williams, while her friend Ado Annie Carnes has to choose between feisty Will Parker and the happy-go-lucky peddler who is passing through town. Both of them need to get past Ado Annie's daddy.


SAT 21:15 Wallander (b00ry8lb)
Series 2

The Guilt

When a six-year-old boy disappears from pre-school, Wallander and the Ystad police join a desperate search to find him. Suspicions immediately fall on a paedophile recently released from prison, but as the investigation develops it becomes evident that the crime has its roots in relationships far more complicated than the police could ever have imagined.


SAT 22:45 Canoe Man (b00rs2kc)
It was the story that gripped a nation.

John Darwin was a real life Reggie Perrin who faked his death to fund a better life, disappearing at sea in a canoe, while his wife, Anne, played the grieving widow. Even the couple's sons were fooled.

This compelling drama documentary has collaboration from the journalist who had exclusive access to Anne Darwin in the vital few days before her arrest and to whom she confessed all.

As the story unraveled in the glare of the media spotlight, Anne Darwin desperately tried to keep the lie intact.

This unique telling of this extraordinary tale uses as its basis the three very different versions of the story Anne Darwin told to try and fool the press and the police.


SAT 23:45 A History of Christianity (b00nrtr8)
The First Christianity

When Diarmaid MacCulloch was a small boy, his parents used to drive him round historic churches. Little did they know that they had created a monster, with the history of the Christian Church becoming his life's work.

In a series sweeping across four continents, Professor MacCulloch goes in search of Christianity's forgotten origins. He overturns the familiar story that it all began when the apostle Paul took Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome. Instead, he shows that the true origins of Christianity lie further east, and that at one point it was poised to triumph in Asia, maybe even in China.

The headquarters of Christianity might well have been Baghdad not Rome, and if that had happened then western Christianity would have been very different.


SAT 00:45 A History of Christianity (b00ntrs7)
Catholicism: The Unpredictable Rise of Rome

Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch's grandfather was a devout pillar of the local Anglican church and felt that any dabbling in Catholicism was liable to pollute the English way of life. But now his grandfather isn't around to stop him exploring the extraordinary and unpredictable rise of the Roman Catholic church.

Over one billion Christians look to Rome, more than half of all Christians on the planet. But how did a small Jewish sect from the backwoods of 1st-century Palestine, which preached humility and the virtue of poverty, become the established religion of western Europe - wealthy, powerful and expecting unfailing obedience from the faithful?

Amongst the surprising revelations, MacCulloch tells how confession was invented by monks on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, and how the Crusades gave Britain the university system.

Above all, it is a story of what can be achieved when you have friends in high places.


SAT 01:45 How to Win an Election: A Panorama Guide (b00rs1ql)
In the 1950s, politicians cared little for what Churchill called the 'idiot's lantern'. Now television is central to a political leader's image and his chances of winning an election.

This is the story of how politicians abandoned the soapbox for the studio - from the early performances of the two Harolds, Macmillan and Wilson, through the TV campaigns of Margaret Thatcher to the spin-doctored presentation of Tony Blair. Has television finally reduced our politicians to actors spouting soundbites?

With six decades of fascinating archive from television's longest running current affairs programme - Panorama - this is the story of how television has changed British politics.


SAT 02:45 Canoe Man (b00rs2kc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:45 today]



SUNDAY 04 APRIL 2010

SUN 19:00 South Pacific (b00gfycy)
Adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's smash-hit musical set in the wartime tropics, telling the story of two love affairs in parallel. An American nurse falls in love with a local widowed planter who is many years her senior, has children of his own and is very set in his ways. Meanwhile, a young Marine falls for a local native girl. Including hit songs Happy Talk, This Nearly Was Mine and Some Enchanted Evening.


SUN 21:25 Arena (b00rwxsv)
Johnny Mercer - The Dream's on Me

The Great American Songbook is the heart and soul of America and Johnny Mercer is at the heart of the Great American Songbook. Produced by Clint Eastwood and directed by Bruce Ricker, this documentary tells the story of one of America's greatest songwriters and examines the enduring legacy of his songs.


SUN 23:05 In Concert (b00rzj4v)
Johnny Mercer

Concert featuring singer/songwriter Johnny Mercer accompanied by the Harry Roche Constellation.


SUN 23:30 Mad Men (b00rs2kf)
Series 3

The Gypsy and the Hobo

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

Don finally makes his confession to a furious Betty. A potential client and former acquaintance of Roger's calls to the agency, with more than work on her mind. Joan's husband searches for a new job.


SUN 00:20 A History of Christianity (b00nxmmn)
Orthodoxy - From Empire to Empire

Today, Eastern Orthodox Christianity flourishes in the Balkans and Russia, with over 150 million members worldwide. It is unlike Catholicism or Protestantism - worship is carefully choreographed, icons pull the faithful into a mystical union with Christ, and everywhere there is a symbol of a fierce-looking bird, the double-headed eagle. What story is this ancient drama trying to tell us?

In the third part of his journey into the history of Christianity, Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch charts Orthodoxy's extraordinary fight for survival. After its glory days in the eastern Roman Empire, it stood right in the path of Muslim expansion, suffered betrayal by crusading Catholics, was seized by the Russian tsars and faced near-extinction under Soviet communism.

MacCulloch visits the greatest collection of early icons in the Sinai desert, a surviving relic of the iconoclastic crisis in Istanbul and Ivan the Terrible's cathedral in Moscow to discover the secret of Orthodoxy's endurance.


SUN 01:20 Arena (b00rwxsv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:25 today]


SUN 03:00 Mad Men (b00rs2kf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 today]


SUN 03:45 In Concert (b00rzj4v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:05 today]



MONDAY 05 APRIL 2010

MON 19:00 The World of Nat King Cole (b0074qxl)
A portrait of the popular entertainer Nat King Cole, which uses a combination of rare and unseen archive including home movies, performances, and interviews to shed an intimate new light on the man behind the silky voice. Interviewees include Stevie Wonder, Andre 3000 Benjamin of Outkast, Whoopi Goldberg, Carlos Santana, Harry Connick Jr, Tony Bennett, BB King, Jools Holland, Quincy Jones, Baz Luhrmann and the entire Cole family.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00ry8w5)
Series 3

Hitchhikers vs Strategists

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 semi-final, three fans of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy lock horns with the cunning of the Strategists, a team bound by their love of obscure European board games.

They'll compete to draw together the connections between elements which at first glance seem utterly random.


MON 21:00 Little Voice (b0078zrq)
British comedy about a reclusive girl who spends all day in her bedroom listening to her late father's collection of old records of Shirley Bassey, Marilyn Monroe and various other famous female singers.

When her mother's boyfriend - a corrupt local promoter - spots her talent for imitating the singers, the girl is swept away by his promises of fame and fortune.


MON 22:30 BBC Four Sessions (b00cgp0n)
Tony Bennett in Concert

The legendary Tony Bennett performs an intimate concert for BBC Four in the setting of LSO St Lukes, London, accompanied by a four piece band.


MON 23:30 A History of Christianity (b00p270g)
Reformation: The Individual Before God

The Amish today are peaceable folk, but five centuries ago their ancestors were seen as some of the most dangerous people in Europe. They were radicals - Protestants - who tore apart the Catholic Church.

In the fourth part of the series, Diarmaid MacCulloch makes sense of the Reformation, and of how a faith based on obedience and authority gave birth to one based on individual conscience.

He shows how Martin Luther wrote hymns to teach people the message of the Bible, and how a tasty sausage became the rallying cry for Swiss Reformer Ulrich Zwingli to tear down statues of saints, allow married clergy and deny that communion bread and wine were the body and blood of Christ. 'Jesus ascended into heaven', declared Zwingli. 'He's sitting at the right hand of the Father, not on a table here in Zurich.'.


MON 00:30 The World of Nat King Cole (b0074qxl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 02:00 Only Connect (b00ry8w5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 02:30 BBC Four Sessions (b00cgp0n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]



TUESDAY 06 APRIL 2010

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00rwxxy)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Walk On By (b00784rg)
Stardust

The second in this lavishly-illustrated music series tells the epoch-changing story of what happened when the voice of Bing Crosby met the trumpet of Louis Armstrong.

Until then singers had just been part of the jazz big bands, not stars in their own right. All that changed with the emergence of Bing Crosby as the first true pop star of the recording era and it wasn't long before Frank Sinatra was generating the kind of fan hysteria today's boy bands would die for.

Both acknowledged a huge debt to Louis Armstrong, whose own hip and freewheeling singing style also paved the way for singers like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. From now on it was singers who would quite literally call the tune, changing popular song and the music business for ever.


TUE 20:20 Nina Simone: A Tribute (b0074pby)
Tribute to the great singer, songwriter and pianist Nina Simone, who died in 2003. Friends and musicians who knew and loved her, including Elton John and members of the band she played with for decades, paint a candid picture of the temperamental diva of the blues who triumphed over the racism of the Deep South to become one of the world's most charismatic performers.


TUE 21:05 Legends (b0088zmg)
Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song

Profile of jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, one of the most popular artists of the 20th century. The film looks at Fitzgerald's 50-year career from her winning turn at the Harlem Apollo's amateur night in 1934, through her rise as the definitive exponent of scat singing, her celebrated Songbook albums and triumphant stage career which continued almost up until her death in 1996. Features archive footage of Ella in full flight, alongside interviews with her closest friends and collaborators.


TUE 22:05 The Rodgers and Hart Story (b0074n24)
Before writing musicals with Oscar Hammerstein II, composer Richard Rodgers collaborated with lyricist Lorenz Hart for nearly 25 years on hit shows like Pal Joey, Babes in Arms and On Your Toes, producing classic songs such as My Funny Valentine and The Lady is a Tramp.

Jonathan Pryce narrates a profile which features rare archive footage and more recent performances by Broadway singers to reflect the way the songs were first heard in the 1920s and 1930s.


TUE 23:00 Meet Sammy Davis Jnr (b00ry92n)
An edition of Sammy Davis's variety show from the early 1960s.


TUE 23:45 A History of Christianity (b00p5wrk)
Protestantism - The Evangelical Explosion

Diarmaid MacCulloch traces the growth of an exuberant expression of faith that has spread across the globe - Evangelical Protestantism. Today, it is associated with conservative politics, but the whole story is distinctly more unexpected. It is easily forgotten that the evangelical explosion has been driven by a concern for social justice and the claim that one could stand in a direct emotional relationship with God. It allowed the Protestant faith to burst its boundaries from its homeland in Europe. In America, its preachers marketed Christianity with all the flair and swashbuckling enterprise of American commerce. In Africa, it converted much of the continent by adapting to local traditions, and now it is expanding into Asia. But is Korean Pentecostalism and its message of prosperity in the here and now an adaptation too far?


TUE 00:45 Legends (b0088zmg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:05 today]


TUE 01:45 Walk On By (b00784rg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 02:35 The Rodgers and Hart Story (b0074n24)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:05 today]


TUE 03:30 Nina Simone: A Tribute (b0074pby)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:20 today]



WEDNESDAY 07 APRIL 2010

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00rwxz3)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Legends (b0074rs3)
Matt Monro - The Man With The Golden Voice

Neil Pearson narrates a documentary telling the story of Matt Monro, the young Londoner born Terry Parsons who became one of the world's most popular ballad singers. The programme gives a fascinating insight into working class life and popular culture since the Second World War. Contributors include Paul Gambaccini, Don Black, George Martin, John Barry and Monro's family.


WED 20:30 The Sky at Night (b00rzv24)
The Sun in Splendour

We can never see our nearest star at night, only by day. Looking at it directly will blind us - because our nearest star is the Sun. Sir Patrick Moore is joined by the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Professor John Brown and by Dr Chris Davis. They take us on a tour of the Sun, Earth's primary source of energy and without which life would not exist. Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel demonstrate safe ways to look at the Sun from Sir Patrick's observatory in Sussex.


WED 21:00 Beautiful Minds (b00ry9jq)
Series 1

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Who are the modern men and women who will be remembered for the brilliance of their minds? What are their legacies and what can their extraordinary discoveries tell us about the nature of science and the nature of truth?

In the first of a three-part series, Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell describes how she discovered pulsars, the by-products of supernova explosions which make all life in the universe possible. She describes the moments of despair and jubilation as the discovery unfolded and her excitement as pulsars took the scientific world by storm.

Profoundly reflective about the nature of scientific discovery, she shares her thoughts on the connections between religion and science and describes how she see science as a search for understanding rather than a quest for truth.


WED 22:00 Mad Men (b00rxbkb)
Series 3

The Grown-Ups

As America mourns for the assassinated President Kennedy, Betty faces up to the disintegration of her marriage to Don. Pete discovers he has lost out to Cosgrove, and Roger prepares for his daughter's wedding.


WED 22:45 JFK (b0074g8t)
Oliver Stone's controversial re-creation of the 1963 Kennedy assassination in Dallas and its aftermath, focusing on the investigations of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison. Mixing documentary footage, reconstruction and speculation, the film advances a conspiracy theory to account for one of American history's darkest chapters, linking government corruption, the Vietnam War and the intelligence community with the killing.


WED 01:45 Beautiful Minds (b00ry9jq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 02:45 The Sky at Night (b00rzv24)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 03:15 Legends (b0074rs3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]



THURSDAY 08 APRIL 2010

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00rwy15)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Only Connect (b00ry8w5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


THU 20:00 A Little Later (b00rzr77)
The Great American Songbook

Four performances from the Later... with Jools Holland archive featuring songs synonymous with the Great American Songbook. Liza Minelli sings God Bless the Child; Randy Crawford and Joe Sample perform Feeling Good; there's Fine and Mellow from Cleo Laine and John Dankworth; and Eartha Kitt performs Ain't Misbehavin.


THU 20:15 Pal Joey (b00ckf2p)
A handsome young singer arrives in San Francisco with the dream of owning a club. The biggest problem in his life, though, is choosing between two very different women.

A musical comedy from Rodgers and Hart which includes the songs I Could Write a Book, The Lady is a Tramp, My Funny Valentine, I Didn't Know What Time It Was, Bewitched and Do It the Hard Way.


THU 22:00 Wallander (b00ry8lb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:15 on Saturday]


THU 23:30 Beautiful Minds (b00ry9jq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]


THU 00:30 A History of Christianity (b00p90kk)
God in the Dock

Diarmaid MacCulloch's own life story makes him a symbol of a distinctive feature about Western Christianity - scepticism, a tendency to doubt which has transformed both Western culture and Christianity.

In the final programme in the series, he asks where that change came from. He challenges the simplistic notion that faith in Christianity has steadily ebbed away before the relentless advance of science, reason and progress, and shows instead how the tide of faith perversely flows back in.

Despite the attacks of Newton, Voltaire, the French Revolutionaries and Darwin, Christianity has shown a remarkable resilience. The greatest damage to Christianity was actually inflicted to its moral credibility by the two great wars of the 20th century and by its entanglement with Fascism and Nazism. And yet it is during crisis that the Church has rediscovered deep and enduring truths about itself, which may even be a clue to its future.


THU 01:30 Sacred Music (b00rs3w2)
Series 2

Searching Out the Sacred

Simon Russell Beale returns to the UK to explore how three very different musical approaches to Christian music have captured the spiritual imagination of the nation. The composers James MacMillan, Sir John Tavener and John Rutter give a special insight into the challenges and rewards of writing sacred music for the 21st century. Music is performed by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen.


THU 02:30 Only Connect (b00ry8w5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


THU 03:00 Beautiful Minds (b00ry9jq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]



FRIDAY 09 APRIL 2010

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00rwy23)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Astaire and Rogers Sing George and Ira Gershwin (b00rw6ct)
A compilation of classic songs from the Great American Songbook written by brothers George and Ira Gershwin for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.


FRI 19:40 Walk On By (b007859n)
Soundtrack

From The Wizard of Oz to The Lion King, the story of popular song continues with a celebration of classic songs from stage and screen. Broadway and Hollywood musicals have been the launching pad for some of the greatest songs of all time and the fortunes of many a dull show or routine flick have been transformed by a hit tune.

The penultimate in the series, this edition tells the stories behind such standards as Night and Day, Over the Rainbow, My Funny Valentine, Somewhere, Cabaret, I Don't Know How to Love Him, and Stayin' Alive, charting the course of the show tune through Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein and Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber to Disney's role in bringing about the renaissance of the big movie song

With Mary Rodgers, Stephen Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, Tim Rice, Georgio Moroder, Robin Gibb and Alan Menken.


FRI 20:30 Astaire and Rogers Sing the Great American Songbook (b00rzkyn)
Compilation of memorable songs from the Great American Songbook sung by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their films. Includes songs written by George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields, and Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer.


FRI 21:00 BBC Four Sessions (b00ry9mr)
The Great American Songbook

Highlights of a unique gathering of eclectic artists at Air Studios in London to celebrate the songs and composers of the Great American Songbook.

Paolo Nutini sings the classic composition Nature Boy, popularised by Nat King Cole, and has fun with the songs of Louis Prima. Melody Gardot enigmatically explores the songbooks of Cole Porter and Harold Arlen, while Claire Martin swings it and performs classic songs by Rodgers and Hart, and Irving Berlin.

Sharleen Spiteri presents her accomplished interpretation of the Billie Holiday classic God Bless the Child and Gwyneth Herbert reinterprets the Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn classic Love Me or Leave Me with loops and beats. Jose James delivers a smooth and swinging version of Just Squeeze Me, a song made popular by Duke Ellington, while Krystle Warren performs a bluesy version of Cole Porter's risque Love for Sale and a string-laden performance of A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.

The session is a celebration of the music and popular songs of the famous and prolific American composers of the 1920s and onwards. Composers such as Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Rodgers and Hammerstein and Hoagy Carmichael, to name but a few - composers who wrote the tunes of Broadway theatre and Hollywood musicals that earned enduring popularity before the dawning of rock 'n' roll.

These songwriters have penned songs that have entered the general consciousness and which are now best described as standards - tunes which every musician and singer aspires to include in their repertoire, such as Over the Rainbow, Cheek to Cheek, Love for Sale, Love Me or Leave Me, Get Out of Town and The Lady Is a Tramp.


FRI 22:00 Arena (b00rwxsv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:25 on Sunday]


FRI 23:40 BBC Four Sessions (b00ry9mr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 01:00 Walk On By (b007859n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:40 today]


FRI 01:50 Arena (b00rwxsv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:25 on Sunday]


FRI 03:30 BBC Four Sessions (b00ry9mr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]