SATURDAY 29 MAY 2010

SAT 19:00 Opera Italia (b00sjdmp)
Beginnings

Three-part series tracing the history of Italian opera presented by Antonio Pappano, world-renowned conductor and music director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The series features sumptuous music, stunning Italian locations and some of the biggest names in opera as contributors.

In the first programme, Pappano takes a whistle-stop tour of the beginnings of opera, from Monteverdi to Rossini. He also looks at the works of two non-Italian composers, Handel and Mozart, both of whom were pivotal in the development of the art form. Along the way he enlists the help of some of the world's greatest singers - Juan Diego Florez, Joyce DiDonato, Danielle de Niese, Sarah Connolly and Pietro Spagnoli.


SAT 20:00 Diva Diaries (b00sjlxy)
Documentary which follows one of today's hottest young sopranos, Danielle de Niese, as she makes her sensational debut as Susanna in Mozart's the Marriage of Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

Danielle shot to fame in Britain with her all-singing, all-dancing Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne in 2005. Her stunning voice, exotic beauty and electric stage presence make her sought after by major opera houses throughout the world.

The film gives a unique insight into the life and art of an international opera singer, from vocal preparation to the physical and mental strain of a jet-setting lifestyle. For three months Danielle allowed cameras intimate access to her busy life, as well as charting the highs and lows of the Marriage of Figaro rehearsal and performance process with her own 'diva-diary' camera.


SAT 21:00 Wallander (b00sm0qj)
Series 2

The Ghost

Arson is suspected when a house burns to the ground following a gas explosion and a man and a woman are found dead. Wallander and the Ystad police investigate and uncover an intricate web of lies, betrayal and secret love affairs.


SAT 22:30 Fitzcarraldo (b00cl39k)
Werner Herzog's 1982 classic set in early 20th century Peru. To achieve his dream of building an opera house in the Peruvian rainforest, Brian 'Fitzcarraldo' Fitzgerald leases an inaccessible tract of land rich in rubber, hoping to mine it. But to reach it, deep in the Amazon, he must enlist the help of the natives in an outlandish plan to move his steamship across land from one river to another.


SAT 01:00 Opera Italia (b00sjdmp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 02:00 Diva Diaries (b00sjlxy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 03:00 Stephen Fry on Wagner (b00sjllw)
Stephen Fry explores his passion for controversial composer Richard Wagner. Can he salvage the music he loves from its dark association with Hitler's Nazi regime? His journey takes him to Germany, Switzerland and Russia as he pieces together the story of the composer's turbulent career.

Along the way he plays Wagner's piano, meets the composer's descendants and eavesdrops on rehearsals for the legendary Bayreuth Festival, the annual extravaganza of Wagner's music held in a theatre designed by the composer himself.



SUNDAY 30 MAY 2010

SUN 19:00 Dunkirk: The Story Behind the Legend (b00snp3v)
During nine days in May/June 1940, the British Army in France was evacuated from Dunkirk, a brilliant escape from a military defeat. Ever since, the 'Dunkirk spirit' has become part of our national mythology - a particularly British catchword for muddling out of disaster with a stiff upper lip and a strong cup of tea.

But this investigation is not a military history - it looks instead at the creation of a legend and reveals that the truth we think we all know about Dunkirk is not quite the truth after all.


SUN 20:00 War Walks (b0074mbh)
Series 2

Dunkirk

Professor Richard Holmes walks the French beaches and breakwaters from which thousands of British troops escaped capture in May 1940. German tanks had overwhelmed British and French troops and were poised to seize the British Expeditionary Force.


SUN 20:30 Mrs Dalloway (b0078ryg)
An adaptation of the classic Virginia Woolf novel. As society hostess Clarissa Dalloway prepares for another of her legendary parties, she finds herself haunted by figures and scenes from her passionate youth.


SUN 22:05 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00sm0tw)
Vanessa Redgrave

Mark Lawson talks to the Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave about her life and career. She reflects on her legendary acting family, political activism and the loss of her daughter, actress Natasha Richardson.

Redgrave rose to prominence as a Shakespearean heroine before becoming a key part of the 1960s New Wave film movement. After a succession of challenging stage and film roles she remains one of our finest dramatic actresses, as renowned for her humanitarian concerns as her performances.


SUN 23:05 Evening (b00sm0yq)
Adaptation of Susan Minot's novel about a dying woman's memories of a complex romantic situation from her youth in 1950s Rhode Island.


SUN 01:00 Elvis by the Presleys Uncut (b00psnt8)
The story of Elvis's life and career told by those who knew him best, his family - an intimate portrayal of his private life with performance footage, home movies and personal photographs. Featuring revealing interviews with his former wife Priscilla, their daughter Lisa Marie and other members of Elvis's close circle of family and friends, it charts the singer's life and key relationships from 1959 to his death in 1977.

Insights from the family and rare archive materials vividly illuminate his life after the army, early years at Graceland with Priscilla, his interests, holidays and life on tour with the 'Memphis Mafia'. Elvis's career ups and downs, the breakdown of his marriage, his personal qualities and frailties are all brought to light as the Presleys reflect with candour on his life and enduring legacy.


SUN 02:30 Elvis: Black Leather - The '68 Comeback Special (b00pqb9s)
Highlights of Elvis's 1968 TV special, featuring renditions of old favourites, performed almost 'unplugged'-style with a group of musicians, together with bigger production numbers.


SUN 03:15 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00sm0tw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:05 today]



MONDAY 31 MAY 2010

MON 19:00 The Boats That Built Britain (b00sfsqw)
World War Two Landing Craft

Looking more like a skip than a boat, the LCVP, or Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel, won't win any prizes for beauty. Yet the craft did more to win World War II than any other piece of machinery. There were once over 20,000 of these little boats, but only a handful remain. Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe puts one of them through its paces and finds out how the boat was developed for one momentous day in 1944.


MON 19:30 Only Connect (b00djm6n)
Series 1

Episode 1

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 20:00 Atom (b007vbql)
The Key to the Cosmos

The second in Professor Jim Al-Khalili's three-part documentary about the basic building block of our universe, the atom. He shows how, in our quest to understand the tiny atom, we unravelled the mystery of how the universe was created. It's a story with dramatic twists and turns, taking in world-changing discoveries like radioactivity, the atom bomb and the big bang. All this forms part of an epic narrative in which the greatest brains of the 20th century competed to answer the biggest questions of all - why are we here and how were we made?


MON 21:00 Opera Italia (b00sm18t)
Viva Verdi

Three-part series tracing the history of Italian opera presented by Antonio Pappano, conductor and music director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The series features sumptuous music, stunning Italian locations and some of the biggest names in opera as contributors.

The second episode focuses on Verdi, whose operas are central to Pappano's conducting repertoire and the backbone of the international opera scene. It shows how Verdi's music was influenced by composers such as Bellini and particularly Donizetti, whose gothic masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor is explored with the help of soprano Diana Damrau.

Pappano looks at six of Verdi's most famous works - Nabucco, Rigoletto, Don Carlo, Otello, Falstaff and La Traviata, the last of which Pappano rehearses and conducts at the Royal Opera House with the starry cast of Renee Fleming, Joseph Calleja and Thomas Hampson.

Pappano travels to Le Roncole in northern Italy where Verdi was born amidst a turbulent political environment, and politics became a major influence on Verdi's operas in later life. He conducts Va Pensiero from Nabucco at a vast open-air concert in Naples, a chorus which was to become a powerful symbol of political unity for the Italian people.


MON 22:00 Storyville (b00sm18w)
The New Kings of Nigeria

Jaja was a 19th century slave who rose up to become a legendary king before being kidnapped by the British, never to see his homeland again. 140 years later Jaja's great grandson, and heir to the throne, returns to Nigeria.

Having been educated in the West, Walter's public school accent lands him an unlikely role - he becomes the voice of Big Brother Nigeria. Walter is part of a new wave of elite young Nigerians returning to live in Lagos. The burgeoning media world is their playground, and we join them in an energetic romp through its screens, sets and socials. Walter becomes a hustling TV and music producer, and takes us along for the ride.


MON 23:00 Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture (b00jwcb1)
Milk

Documentary series looking at the history of 20th-century farming in Britain opens by focusing on milk.

In the early years of the century, 150,000 dairy farmers milked by hand and sold milk door to door. By the end of the century, the 15,000 that were left were breeding cows that increased yields by 400 per cent and milk was sold through supermarkets.

This episode features the home movies and stories of two dairy farmers who survived to tell the story of how and why the revolution happened.


MON 00:00 Timeshift (b00k36fj)
Series 9

Farm to Pharma: The Rise and Rise of Food Science

Documentary which explores the history of British food science, taking a fascinating voyage through over a century of petri-dishes, vitamins and E-numbers.

The connection between food manufacturers and the white coat brigade is nothing new. One hundred and fifty years before Heston Blumenthal, Birmingham chemist Alfred Bird was reinventing custard because his wife had an allergy to eggs.

By the 1930s, George Orwell was already complaining about the chemical by-products that the British people were eating, but when war gave scientists a chance to remake the British diet the improvement in the nation's health was extraordinary.

Charting the growing role that food science has played in our daily lives, we meet Tony Blake, the food scientist who pioneered instant soup for Batchelors, and we learn about biochemist Jack Drummond, the tragic mastermind of British food in the Second World War, who died alongside his family as in a mysterious murder.

We discover how vegetarian product Quorn was invented to prevent a global food crisis and how breakthroughs in flavour chemistry helped create the day-glo processed foods of the 1970s. We recall Margaret Thatcher's early career as a food scientist and find out why there was no such thing as a free lunch when it came to the promise of fat-free snacks.


MON 01:00 Elvis in Las Vegas (b00pqcg1)
The untold story of how Elvis Presley transformed Las Vegas, but how the same city helped to destroy him.

In 1969, Elvis was at the peak of his powers with a stage show at the Hilton and recordings that crowned him the most famous entertainer in the world. However, beneath the surface his own demons - and the schemes of his celebrity manager, Colonel Tom Parker - were taking their toll.

Based in 1970s Vegas and featuring some of Elvis's finest performances, home movies and rare archive footage, the documentary reveals a bizarre tale of intrigue and excess, recounted by those closest to him. It shows how the Vegas experience impacted on Elvis's spectacular shows, his chart-topping recordings, his volatile relationship with Parker and his unusual private life - all set against the glamorous backdrop of a 'Sin City' that would never be the same again.

Featuring interviews with Priscilla Presley, Colonel Parker's wife Loanne, the Memphis Mafia, Tom Jones, Nancy Sinatra, songwriters Leiber and Stoller and many more.


MON 02:00 Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii (b00pqdr1)
Colourful concert performance by 'the King' including hits such as Burning Love, I Can't Stop Loving You, Suspicious Minds and Can't Help Falling In Love.


MON 03:05 Opera Italia (b00sm18t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 01 JUNE 2010

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00sm1fy)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Only Connect (b00dn8cy)
Series 1

Episode 2

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.


TUE 20:00 The Art of Russia (b00p90g8)
Out of the Forest

Series in which art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon presents the incredible story of Russian art - its mystery and magnificence - until now untold on British television.

He explores the origins of the Russian icon from its roots in Byzantium and the first great Russian icon, Our Lady of Vladimir, to the masterpieces of the country's most famous icon painter Andrei Rublev.

At the same time as being epic and awe-inspiring, and producing brilliant art, medieval Russia could be a terrifying place. Criss-crossing the epic landscape, Andrew visits the monastery founded by Ivan the Terrible, where Ivan's favourite forms of torture found inspiration in religious art.

One man would shine a light into Russia's 'dark' ages - Peter the Great who, surprisingly, took as his inspiration Deptford in South London.


TUE 21:00 Rick Stein's Taste of Italian Opera (b00sm1g0)
Chef Rick Stein takes a light-hearted look at the role that food played in the creation of Italian opera and shows how music and food are intrinsically linked in Italy. He draws parallels between cooking and composing, noting how both involve the skilful combination of ingredients and how they share the common purpose of bringing pleasure to many. Rick also explains why he thinks the music of Verdi, Rossini and Puccini are linked to the food of the regions where they lived and worked.


TUE 22:00 Flight of the Conchords (b00lc6xd)
Series 2

Prime Minister

The Prime Minister of New Zealand is in town and Murray has to arrange a meeting with the President. He also gets the boys a gig as a Simon and Garfunkel tribute act, and one fan is particularly impressed by Jemaine's Garfunkeling.


TUE 22:30 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00sm0tw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:05 on Sunday]


TUE 23:30 Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture (b00jzjs4)
Fruit and Veg

A look at the changes in the way fruit and veg was grown, picked and sold, told through three of the staples in the British landscape - apples, strawberries and tomatoes.

Home movies and archive footage reveal the extent of the revolution in how the fruit was picked and the impact supermarkets had on the fortunes of the small- and medium-sized growers.


TUE 00:30 Dorset Days: A Year in the Life of Longhorn Jim (b00jyzkq)
Documentary about Falklands War veteran and ex-firefighter Jim Armstrong, who is now a farmer in Dorset.

The film follows Jim through 2007 as he helps to raise a herd of traditional Longhorn cattle and his own flock of sheep. Sad echoes of his war experiences 25 years earlier resurface at times, but they never dent his optimistic spirit or his delight in selling meat locally and spending his days in the great Dorset outdoors.


TUE 01:30 Opera Italia (b00sm18t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


TUE 02:30 The Art of Russia (b00p90g8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 03:30 Rick Stein's Taste of Italian Opera (b00sm1g0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 02 JUNE 2010

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00sm1jq)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Only Connect (b00drsq2)
Series 1

Episode 3

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.


WED 20:00 The Art of Russia (b00pdzdp)
Roads to Revolution

Andrew Graham-Dixon explores how Russia changed from a feudal nation of aristocratic excess to a hotbed of revolution at the beginning of the 20th century, and how art moved from being a servant of the state to an agent of its destruction.

From monuments that celebrate the absolutism of the tsars to the epic Russian landscape as inspiration; from the design and construction of gold and glittering palaces to the minutiae of diamond-encrusted Faberge eggs; and eventually to the stark and radical paintings of the avant-garde, the journey through Russian art history is one of extraordinary beauty and surprise.


WED 21:00 What Makes a Great Tenor? (b00sm1js)
The great tenor Rolando Villazon takes us inside the world of the sexiest and most risky of all operatic voices. It's a journey which includes some of the great names of the past, such as Caruso and Lanza, and some of the brightest stars performing today, like Domingo, Alagna and Florez. We hear how they tackle their most famous roles and what the risks and rewards are.


WED 22:00 Outnumbered (b00dc30d)
Series 1

Episode 1

Partly-improvised sitcom looking at the trials and tribulations of bringing up three young children - a regal five-year-old girl with a talent for interrogation, a seven-year-old boy who could fib for Britain and an 11-year-old who is gearing up for his scary first day at secondary school.


WED 22:30 Flight of the Conchords (b00lgly0)
Series 2

New Zealand Town

The prime minister of New Zealand wants to create 'New Zealand Town' in the bit between Chinatown and Little Italy. The boys want to play at the grand opening but he wants someone more cool - so Murray gets hold of some hair gel.


WED 22:55 Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture (b00k3685)
Wheat

Documentary series about the history of 20th-century farming in Britain looks at wheat and tells how the country became self-sufficient in producing bread-making wheat after the Second World War.

Told through the working lives and home movie archives of three wheat-farming families from the east of England, it reveals how farmers went from horse power to machine power and how they used science and genetics to transform the size and yield of wheat and the rural landscape, with controversial outcomes for the countryside.


WED 23:55 Who Killed the Honey Bee? (b00jzjys)
Bees are dying in their millions. It is an ecological crisis that threatens to bring global agriculture to a standstill. Introduced by Martha Kearney, this documentary explores the reasons behind the decline of bee colonies across the globe, investigating what might be at the root of this devastation.

Honey bees are the number one insect pollinator on the planet, responsible for the production of over 90 crops. Apples, berries, cucumbers, nuts, cabbages and even cotton will struggle to be produced if bee colonies continue to decline at the current rate. Empty hives have been reported from as far afield as Taipei and Tennessee. In England, the matter has caused beekeepers to march on Parliament to call on the government to fund research into what they say is potentially a bigger threat to humanity than the current financial crisis.

Investigating the problem from a global perspective, the programme makers travel from the farm belt of California to the flatlands of East Anglia to the outback of Australia. They talk to the beekeepers whose livelihoods are threatened by colony collapse disorder, the scientists entrusted with solving the problem, and the Australian beekeepers who are making a fortune replacing the planet's dying bees. They also look at some of the possible reasons for the declining numbers - is it down to a bee plague, pesticides, malnutrition? Or is the answer something even more frightening?


WED 00:55 What Makes a Great Tenor? (b00sm1js)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 01:55 The Art of Russia (b00pdzdp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:55 What Makes a Great Tenor? (b00sm1js)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 03:55 Flight of the Conchords (b00lgly0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]



THURSDAY 03 JUNE 2010

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00sm1vt)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Only Connect (b00dwf5x)
Series 1

Episode 4

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.


THU 20:00 The Art of Russia (b00phtcz)
Smashing the Mould

Series in which art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the incredible story of Russian art - its mystery and magnificence - until now untold on British television.

The final part examines political revolution and how art was at the forefront of throwing out 1,000 years of royal rule, from its earliest revolutionary days of enthusiasm and optimism when painting died, the poster was king and the machine-made triumphed over the handmade to the dead hand of Socialist Realism.

Andrew roots out great portraits of Stalin now hidden in museum storerooms and never on public view, looks at the transformation of the Moscow metro into a great public art gallery and visits the most stunning creation of post-war Communist rule, the Space Monument.

Finally, he comes to the confusion and chaos of Russia today and how it is producing some of the world's strangest art - from heroic sculptures of Russian leader Vladimir Putin to the insides of a giant erotic apple; from the recreation of the Imperial royal family facing the firing squad to sculpture in liquid oil; from Russia's embrace of the commercial art market to a return to Socialist Realism. Russia seems to stand on another brink of revolution.


THU 21:00 Wallander (b00sm0qj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


THU 22:30 The Other Side of Dunkirk (b0074pzn)
Powerful myths and misconceptions have shaped our understanding of the moment which changed the course of WW2 - the evacuation at Dunkirk in 1940. But what really happened at Dunkirk and in the crisis before the days of the evacuation?

This documentary takes a European look at the crisis and asks new questions from a French and German perspective as well as from a British point of view. Featuring interviews with veterans and historians from all three key protagonists, providing revealing insights into the events of May and June 1940.


THU 23:30 Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture (b00k9bms)
Beef

A look at how two of our finest native breeds of cattle, Hereford and Aberdeen Angus, reigned supreme before the Second World War and helped earn Britain a reputation as the 'stockyard of the world'. The programme also shows how, since then, both breeds have been transformed to a much larger size - from standing only to the stockman's waist to reaching his shoulder.


THU 00:30 Opera Italia (b00sm18t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


THU 01:30 What Makes a Great Tenor? (b00sm1js)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]


THU 02:30 The Art of Russia (b00phtcz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 03:30 The Other Side of Dunkirk (b0074pzn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]



FRIDAY 04 JUNE 2010

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00sm3qr)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Aida (b00sm3qt)
Giuseppe Verdi's Ancient Egyptian opera Aida in a spectacular outdoor production on Lake Constance, complete with a flying boat, half-submerged singers and a golden elephant on a barge. Presented from the floating stage of the Bregenz Festival, the opera tells the story of the doomed love of an Egyptian general for a captive Ethiopian princess, Aida.

Directed for the stage by Graham Vick with soprano Tatiana Serjan as Aida and tenor Rubens Pelizzari as General Radames. Carlo Rizzi conducts the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

In Italian with English subtitles.


FRI 21:40 Dolly Parton: Live from London (b00qmdzy)
Dolly Parton filmed in concert at the O2 in London in summer 2008, playing the hits and more, including Jolene, 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream and I Will Always Love You.


FRI 22:50 Queens of Country (b007cbjb)
The story of six women with big hair and bigger voices who came out of the South and changed America and its music for good. The 60s and 70s were the golden age for this music from the battlefield of marriage - songs about the hurt and pride of raising a family, about standing by your man (or standing up to him), about going crazy with love.

The six are: Patsy Cline, whose weeping ballads made country music modern; Tammy Wynette, her life a chaos of divorce, violence and pills; Bobbie Gentry, who quit recording 35 years ago; Loretta Lynn, the coalminer's daughter who went on to rock with the White Stripes; Tanya Tucker, a teen queen who made country music sexy; and Dolly Parton, who made millions singing of the world she left behind.

Contributors include Billy Connolly, Jack White, LeAnn Rimes, Lauren Laverne, Crystal Gayle, George Jones and Elvis Costello. Featuring rare archive performances.


FRI 23:50 TOTP2 (b0088q0h)
Country Jukebox

Steve Wright presents an hour of country tunes. There are classics from Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Willie Nelson, Glen Campbell, Billie Jo Spears and Crystal Gayle, and massive hits from the Mavericks, Shania Twain, Lonestar, the Dixie Chicks and LeAnn Rimes. Plus, new material from Keith Urban and Rascall Flatts and an exclusive look at the latest video from The Eagles.


FRI 00:50 Legends (b0074rx6)
Mario Lanza: Singing to the Gods

A celebration of Mario Lanza's incomparable talents, and the tragic story of his brief life. With clips from his classic MGM and Warners movies, including The Great Caruso, Serenade and For the First Time.


FRI 01:50 Aida (b00sm3qt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]