SATURDAY 07 MAY 2011

SAT 19:00 Tiger - Spy in the Jungle (b009v6nv)
Episode 2

Wildlife documentary. David Attenborough narrates the lives of four growing tiger cubs using footage collected by hidden-camera-carrying elephants.

The half-grown cubs are learning the hunting and fighting skills they will need as adults. Play-fighting erupts between them - it looks nasty, but their claws are never drawn. These bouts of boxing, caught on ele-cams, create an extraordinary spectacle.

Other jungle characters are filmed with logcams. Leopards are a real threat to the growing cubs while the deer make good hunting practice. The young tigers have huge appetites and their mother must hunt every day if she is to keep them fit.

When they are not eating, playing or fighting, the cubs sleep - and tigers love water, so a water hole is the perfect spot to cool off on a steaming day. The spy-cams also show that the jungle pools are a magnet for a whole array of forest animals, including wild boars and sloth bears.

The cubs are starting to behave as individuals and take personal hunting tuition from their mother. Then disaster strikes when both their parents are injured and a rogue male tiger puts in an appearance. They still have a lot to learn.


SAT 20:00 If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home (b010v8dx)
The Kitchen

Lucy Worsley, chief curator of the historic royal palaces, ends the series by looking at the room we now spend the most money on, but was once thought of as the most dirty, dangerous and undesirable room in the house - the kitchen. From baking bread in a Tudor kitchen to spit-roasting mutton with a dog to doing a week's Victorian re-cycling to trying out 1950s labour-saving gadgets, Lucy tracks the changes that have turned the kitchen from a room of hard work into the appliance-packed room we know today.


SAT 21:00 Spiral (b0110g38)
Series 3: The Butcher of La Villette

Episode 11

Police strive to pinpoint the connection between the elusive leader of Niko's prostitution ring and the Butcher of La Villette, who is still on the run. There is more tension between Laure and Gilou, as Gilou prepares to leave the team. Judge Roban finally gets proof of Arnaud's betrayal and his reaction is unforgiving. The screws tighten on the Courcelles bribery investigation. Szabo finds Josephine's Achilles' heel and uses it to blackmail her back into his clutches.


SAT 21:55 Spiral (b0111dx9)
Series 3: The Butcher of La Villette

Episode 12

The police finally close in on Niko's prostitution ring, but the Butcher of La Villette is still evading custody. Will Captain Berthaud manage to track him down? Will Niko's men get to him first? Or will he get the opportunity to kidnap another victim? Judge Roban finds that the high moral ground comes at a high price. Pierre discovers that Josephine has made a deal with Szabo in order to save him.


SAT 22:50 The Lighthouse Stevensons (b00y6hym)
The story of the remarkable family who tamed the wild Scottish coastline, told 200 years after the building of their first iconic lighthouse, the Bell Rock.


SAT 23:50 Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury (b010v7kx)
The Caledonian Canal

Seasoned stomper Julia Bradbury dons her walking boots once again and this time she is exploring her own British backyard, travelling along the country's network of canals and their accompanying towpath trails. This sees her navigating Highland glens, rolling countryside and river valleys, as well as our industrial heartlands, following these magical waterways as they cut a sedate path through some of the country's finest scenery.

Julia kicks off her tour with a visit to the Scottish Highlands. Against the stunning backdrop of Ben Nevis, her walk starts near Fort William where she embarks on her eight-mile trip along the Caledonian Canal, the majestic waterway that cuts through beautiful mountain country and is regarded as one of the most ambitious canals of its time. Julia's journey tells the story of one of the greatest canal engineers, Thomas Telford, whose ambition was to create not only an engineering marvel, but also badly needed jobs and wealth for the Highlands. Two hundred years on, it is now one of the most popular walking trails in the country.


SAT 00:20 Twenty Twelve (b00zhzqw)
Series 1

Episode 1

Comedy series following the personal and professional challenges faced by those responsible for delivering the biggest show on earth, as the Olympic Deliverance team try to get through to the end of the day, the end of the week and the end of the year without all the wheels falling off at once.

With time ticking inexorably downwards, the marketing team come up with a major public event to mark the '1000 days to go' milestone. A huge clock designed by a modern British artist will be installed outside Tate Modern on the banks of the Thames in a ceremony performed by both Seb Coe and Boris Johnson and will count down towards the start of the Olympic Games. The only problem is that the clock has a potentially disastrous design flaw which no-one seems to have noticed until it is too late.

Meanwhile the process of deciding which public figures should be approached to carry the Olympic Torch on its journey around Britain has begun.


SAT 00:50 Twenty Twelve (b00zs80d)
Series 1

Episode 2

Comedy series following the personal and professional challenges faced by those responsible for delivering the biggest show on earth, as the Olympic Deliverance team try to get through to the end of the day, the end of the week and the end of the year without all the wheels falling off at once.

A visiting group of dignitaries from Rio (Olympic hosts in 2016) is in London for the week. For Head of Deliverance Ian Fletcher and his team the mission is simple. All they have to do is to meet the Brazilian delegation and take them by coach to the Olympic Stadium where they will meet Head of LOCOG, Lord Sebastian Coe. What can possibly go wrong?

As it turns out, just about everything: from language difficulties through satellite navigation issues to burst water mains and phantom punctures. For the team it's a lesson in the importance of staying positive and focused even when you are literally travelling in completely the wrong direction.


SAT 01:20 Twenty Twelve (b00zwnf0)
Series 1

Episode 3

Comedy series following the personal and professional challenges faced by those responsible for delivering the biggest show on earth, as the Olympic Deliverance team try to get through to the end of the day, the end of the week and the end of the year without all the wheels falling off at once.

It's another challenging week for Head of Deliverance, Ian Fletcher, and his team. Roman remains of potentially national significance have been discovered on the site of the aquatics centre, forcing them to contemplate radical last-minute modifications to the design of the building. It's a matter of asking the tough questions. What would happen if they made the diving pool shallower? Will it matter if athletes have to go through the cafeteria to get from the changing rooms to the pool?

Head of Brand, Siobhan Sharpe, has decided that the 2012 games should have their own unique audio logo. Head of Infrastructure Graham Hitchins is grappling with the sensitive issue of civil aviation flight paths during the period of the games, and Head of Sustainability Kay Hope is faced with recording her own video blog at the Olympic site itself.


SAT 01:50 Twenty Twelve (b0103pnd)
Series 1

Episode 4

Comedy series following the personal and professional challenges faced by those responsible for delivering the biggest show on earth, as the Olympic Deliverance team try to get through to the end of the day, the end of the week and the end of the year without all the wheels falling off at once.

Dave Wellbeck is an ex-athlete, double Olympic silver medallist and, in theory, a natural choice as brand ambassador for Raising the Bar, a scheme to get young people inspired by Olympic ideals. He is hard-working, conscientious and loyal, but the truth is that he has about as much charisma as a dimmer switch and his busy schedule of presentations in schools around the country is having the effect of switching young people off in their thousands. Ian and Siobhan have different views on how to deal with the problem.

Head of Sustainability Kay Hope is forced to stand her ground in the light of the discovery that there might not, after all, be enough wind to power the much-vaunted Olympic Park wind turbine.


SAT 02:20 Twenty Twelve (b0109dvv)
Series 1

Episode 5

There are only three applicants for the post of Curator of the Cultural Olympiad, so how difficult can it be to select the best candidate? As Ian Fletcher and his team find out, it is almost impossible. As if that wasn't enough, their ultimate boss, Sebastian Coe, has decided that it would be good for the profile of Twenty Twelve if members of the team entered the London Marathon.

As the pressure on Ian as Head of Deliverance gradually increases, the cracks in his marriage are starting to get wider and wider. Could this possibly mean that the secret hopes of his ever-loyal PA Sally might one day move closer to fulfilment?


SAT 02:50 Twenty Twelve (b010j64y)
Series 1

Episode 6

The decision to hold equestrian events in Greenwich Park is one of the most controversial choices made by the Olympic authorities. Among the many groups of people who are against it are local residents, led by self-styled maverick film director Tony Ward. Given that it is now over 30 years since he made his one and only successful film, Ward has had a lot of time on his hands to think about how angry he is and to plan his campaign of protest.

It starts with the arrival of an enormous pile of horse manure on the pavement outside the Olympic Deliverance Commission offices and climaxes with a live debate with Head of Deliverance Ian Fletcher on Radio 4's Today programme.

Meanwhile in Ian's personal life, manure of a different kind finally hits the fan. Fortunately his ever-loyal PA Sally is on hand and completely ready to pick up the pieces.


SAT 03:20 If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home (b010v8dx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 08 MAY 2011

SUN 19:00 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 20:00 The Secret Life of the National Grid (b00vkjmy)
Wiring the Nation

At the heart of Britain sits something so all pervasive we don't even notice it's there - the national electricity grid. This three-part series charts how our lives got wired and the impact electrification has had.

The opening part takes us from the epic construction of the first grid in the 1920s and 30s to the challenge of making sure there is power at the flick of a switch today. Using rare archive and vivid personal accounts it reveals the heroic efforts, architectural masterpieces and engineering achievements behind the real power map of Britain.

Contributors include author Will Self, urban planner Sir Peter Hall and grid veterans on how Britain first banished darkness and turned on the electric light.


SUN 21:00 The Secret Life of Waves (b00y5jhx)
Documentary maker David Malone delves into the secrets of ocean waves. In an elegant and original film, he finds that waves are not made of water, that some waves travel sideways, and that the sound of the ocean comes not from water but from bubbles. Waves are not only beautiful but also profoundly important, and there is a surprising connection between the life cycle of waves and the life of human beings.


SUN 22:00 Jar City (b0111drq)
Icelandic thriller. Investigating the murder of an old man, police detective Erlendur finds clues linking it to the mysterious death of a child in 1974. Meanwhile, Orn, a man distraught at the death of his young daughter, uses the national genetics database to find out why she died.


SUN 23:30 Classic Albums (b010v8kh)
Primal Scream: Screamadelica

Primal Scream's seminal album Screamadelica was released in 1991, and synthesized the band's rock 'n' roll roots with the dance culture of that time; for many, the album's sound and imagery came to be regarded as quintessential symbols of the acid house era, perfectly catching the spirit and mood of the early 90s.

Using rare archive footage and special performances, this film tells the story of Screamadelica and its hit singles and dance anthems Loaded, Movin' On Up, Come Together and Don't Fight It, Feel It. From the formation of the band in Glasgow to winning the first-ever Mercury prize, the band members explain the record's inception with insights from main producer Andrew Weatherall, Creation Records founder Alan McGee and many others involved with or inspired by this joyful record.

Screamadelica both defines a generation and transcends its time, and is a true Classic Album.


SUN 00:30 Movin' on Up: Pop Hits from 1991 (b010w8t0)
BBC archive compilation exploring 1991's fellow travellers from the British indie guitar and dance scenes that accompanied Primal Scream's breakthough Screamadelica album, which went on to win the inaugaural 1992 Mercury Prize.

In the interim between Madchester and Britpop, a new British indie pop flourished that included dance-influenced guitar bands, indie-influenced dance outfits and the gearchanging hits of both the grunge spearhead that was Nirvana and those American alternative rockers REM.

Alongside Primal Scream's Movin' On Up are performances from The Late Show, Top of the Pops and other shows by the likes of Ride, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Pop Will Eat Itself, KLF, Massive Attack, Nirvana and REM, alongside many other intriguing moments from what was once called the 'shoegazing' era.


SUN 01:30 Seven Ages of Rock (b007rtpn)
What the World is Waiting For: Indie Rock

The journey through the history of rock music climaxes with a focus on British indie music.

Although once associated with social misfits seeking refuge from the bright processed pop then dominating the charts, The Smiths' first Top of the Pops appearance in 1983 paved the way for the hugely influential Madchester music scene.

However, it was the iconoclastic influence of Suede and intense media attention in the Blur v Oasis chart battles in the nineties that brought Britpop to a wider audience. Revealing interviews and rarely seen archive offers an insight into the story which ends with the recent reinvention of Indie by bands like The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand and The Arctic Monkeys.


SUN 03:00 A History of Christianity (b00nxmmn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



MONDAY 09 MAY 2011

MON 19:00 World News Today (b0110ghf)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 The Saga of Noggin the Nog (b0116gyw)
Noggin and the Pie

Part 1

Children's series about the adventures of the kindly king of the Northmen. Noggin receives a mystery birthday pie.


MON 19:40 Doctor Who (b0116gyy)
The Hand of Fear

Part 1

The TARDIS returns to present day Earth, where Sarah is caught in a rock fall and becomes possessed by the fossilized stone hand of the alien Eldrad.


MON 20:05 Doctor Who (b0116gz6)
The Hand of Fear

Part 2

At the nuclear power station, the stone hand has come to life and is determined to gain access to the reactor core.


MON 20:30 Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury (b0110ghh)
The Worcester and Birmingham Canal

Seasoned stomper Julia Bradbury dons her walking boots once again to explore her own British backyard, travelling along the country's network of canals and their accompanying towpath trails. Julia navigates Highland glens, rolling countryside and river valleys, as well as our industrial heartlands, and follows these magical waterways as they cut a sedate path through some of the country's finest scenery.

Julia starts this walk in Birmingham, which surprisingly boasts more miles of canal than Venice. But her mission isn't to seek out gondolas or ice cream - it's to discover how the city, through its canal network, became the centre of the Industrial Revolution. It's also the start of Julia's two-day walk along the historic and picturesque Worcester and Birmingham Canal, which cuts a 30-mile path through to the River Severn. The highlight of the canal is a dramatic two-mile flight of 30 locks which lower the canal by 220 feet. Negotiating this flight of locks is considered to be a rite of passage by boaters, and it's definitely one for the tick list for walkers.


MON 21:00 Storyville (b0110ghk)
Last Days of the Arctic: Capturing the Faces of the North

Ragnar Axelsson, known as Rax, is a photograher for Iceland's largest newspaper. This documentary follows him on his life's mission, to capture the human faces of climate change by photographing the vanishing lifestyles of the people of the north.

Rax is among the most celebrated photographers in the world and his series of photographs, Faces of the North, is a living document of the dying cultures of the far northern reaches of the planet, mainly Icelandic farmers, fishermen and the great hunters of Greenland.

'It was really only one photograph that started me off,' he says. 'An old man in a rowing boat and his dog on a skerry. I thought to myself, these men are vanishing. If I don't photograph them now, no one will remember them and no one will know that they ever existed.'

Rax spent his childhood summers on an isolated farm on the southern coast of Iceland, where the farmers lived off of the land as countless generations had before them. As a child he was enraptured by the landscape and the interactions between man and nature.

Twenty-five years ago, his fascination with people who try to survive in extreme circumstances took him from Iceland to Greenland - a place which has continually inspired him to return.

His photo essays of the hunters of Greenland are legendary. Rax could well have been a hunter himself - and we watch him as he stalks his images and strikes at the opportune moment. Fascinated by stories of half-forgotten people who have adapted to unspeakably harsh conditions, Rax is now documenting them as they cope with extreme changes to those conditions as the result of climate change.

Last Days of the Arctic is a celebration of the photographer and his subjects, an elegy for a disappearing landscape and the people who inhabit it.


MON 22:00 The Night Shift (b0116qjx)
Episode 1

Award-winning Icelandic comedy series involving three men working at a petrol station in Reykjavik who battle boredom, strange visitors and their own customers.


MON 22:25 The Night Shift (b0116stq)
Episode 2

Georg decides that crime is rife at the petrol station and that safety procedures must become a priority, so he submits his less-than-enthusiastic staff to improvised self-defence training. A callous thug is caught eating chocolate and immediately reported to the police. But the kid is not a criminal, he is Georg's young son Flemming.


MON 22:55 The Saga of Noggin the Nog (b0116gzn)
Noggin and the Ice Dragon

Part 1

Children's series about the adventures of the kindly king of the Northmen. The peaceful land of Nog is disturbed by a stranger in need of help.


MON 23:00 Rubicon (b010v8hy)
Connect the Dots

Worried about Ed's mental health, Will attempts to divert him from his search into the background of the mysterious Donald Bloom. Tanya is convinced that her hunch about George is worth pursuing and is encouraged to present her theory to Truxton Spangler. Katherine is following her own investigation into the unexplained suicide of her husband.


MON 23:50 Chemistry: A Volatile History (b00qjnqc)
The Power 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 phosphorous 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 the final part, Professor Al-Khalili uncovers tales of success and heartache in the story of chemists' battle to control and combine the elements, and build our modern world. He reveals the dramatic breakthroughs which harnessed their might to release almost unimaginable power, and he journeys to the centre of modern day alchemy, where scientists are attempting to command the extreme forces of nature and create brand new elements.


MON 00:50 Storyville (b0110ghk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 01:50 Jonathan Meades: Off Kilter (b00ml5wx)
Episode 1

Jonathan Meades takes a quixotic tour of Scotland, a country which has intrigued him since he first encountered lists of towns only known from football coupons.

Architecture critic Meades celebrates Aberdeen, the granite city full of 'brand new' 300-year-old buildings.


MON 02:50 Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury (b0110ghh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 03:20 Storyville (b0110ghk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 10 MAY 2011

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b0110gns)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 The Saga of Noggin the Nog (b0116spn)
Noggin and the Pie

Part 2

Children's series about the adventures of the kindly king of the Northmen. Noggin receives a mystery birthday pie.


TUE 19:40 Doctor Who (b0116h58)
The Hand of Fear

Part 3

The hand has used the nuclear energy to regenerate itself into the female form of the alien Eldrad, who demands that the Doctor return her to the planet Kastria.


TUE 20:05 Doctor Who (b0116h5b)
The Hand of Fear

Part 4

On the dead world of Kastria, the Doctor and Sarah begin to suspect that Eldrad has not been entirely truthful with them.


TUE 20:30 Time to Remember (b00vtydp)
The Pursuit of Peace

Material from the 1950s newsreel documentary series Time to Remember tells the story of the struggle to maintain peace in the decades after the Great War. The politicians' high hopes for improved international relations through the League of Nations were gradually eroded by expansionism and aggression across the globe.

Includes footage of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles; the first Armistice Day parade in 1919; Ramsay MacDonald addressing the League of Nations in 1924; Neville Chamberlain's visits to Germany to negotiate with Hitler; the liberations of Rome and Paris in the summer of 1944; the signing of the German surrender in 1945; and the signing of the United Nations charter.


TUE 21:00 The Viking Sagas (b0110gnv)
Hundreds of years ago in faraway Iceland the Vikings began to write down dozens of stories called sagas - sweeping narratives based on real people and real events. But as Oxford University's Janina Ramirez discovers, these sagas are not just great works of art, they are also priceless historical documents which bring to life the Viking world. Dr Ramirez travels across glaciers and through the lava fields of Iceland to the far north west of the country to find out about one of the most compelling of these stories - the Laxdaela Saga.


TUE 22:00 The Night Shift (b0116swv)
Episode 3

Georg wants to use the staff holiday fund to finance a trip to a commune in Sweden, but the others are not so keen. Olafur lusts after a gadget that he can't afford, Georg's son Flemming is being bullied and Daniel runs into trouble with his girlfriend when she discovers the nature of his employment.


TUE 22:25 The Night Shift (b0116swx)
Episode 4

Olafur gets into trouble when he tries to skive off to attend a talent show audition. Georg takes advantage by penalising him way over the odds. Daniel tries to convince downtrodden Olafur that he should stick up for himself.


TUE 22:50 The Saga of Noggin the Nog (b0116spq)
Noggin and the Ice Dragon

Part 2

Children's series about the adventures of the kindly king of the Northmen. The peaceful land of Nog is disturbed by a stranger in need of help.


TUE 23:00 Timeshift (b00wvcyj)
Series 10

Nordic Noir: The Story of Scandinavian Crime Fiction

Draw the curtains and dim the lights for a chilling trip north for a documentary which investigates the success of Scandinavian crime fiction and why it exerts such a powerful hold on our imagination.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a literary blockbuster that has introduced millions of readers to the phenomenon that is Scandinavian crime fiction - yet author Stieg Larsson spent his life in the shadows and didn't live to see any of his books published. It is one of the many mysteries the programme investigates as it travels to Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland in search of the genre's most acclaimed writers and memorable characters.

It also looks at Henning Mankell's brooding Wallander series, with actor Krister Henriksson describing the challenge of bringing the character to the screen, and it asks why so many stories have a political subtext. The programme finds out how Stieg Larsson based the bestselling Millennium trilogy on his work as an investigative journalist and reveals the unlikely source of inspiration for his most striking character, Lisbeth Salander.

There are also segments on Jo Nesbo, the Norwegian rock star-turned-writer tipped to inherit Larsson's mantle, and Karin Fossum, an author whose personal experience of murder has had a profound effect on her writing.


TUE 00:00 The Viking Sagas (b0110gnv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 01:00 Jar City (b0111drq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]


TUE 02:30 Time to Remember (b00vtydp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


TUE 03:00 The Viking Sagas (b0110gnv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 11 MAY 2011

WED 19:00 World News Today (b0110grm)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Indian Hill Railways (b00qzzlm)
The Nilgiri Mountain 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.

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway is a romantic line, popular with honeymooners and driven by love and devotion as well as steam. It chugs through the south Indian jungle up to a hill station, once known as Snooty Ooty.

The current guard is Ivan. Married for twenty years, he is concerned about his friend Jenni, the ticket inspector, because he's still a bachelor - but Jenni has a secret.

In the engine shed, Shivani, the railway's first female diesel engineer, is working on a steam loco. She has to make it look its best, as in the year of filming, 1999, the railway celebrated its centenary. The high point is the Black Beauty competition to pick the best engine on the line, but rains and landslides threaten the proceedings and the tourist business. Will love win out in the end?


WED 20:30 Petworth House: The Big Spring Clean (b0110grp)
Art in the Deep Freeze

Andrew takes a turn around Britain's earliest globe and reveals the hidden identity of a 2,000-year-old Roman, while an ailing Gainsborough landscape is restored to glory.


WED 21:00 Julia Bradbury's Icelandic Walk (b0110grr)
Julia Bradbury heads for Iceland to embark on the toughest walk of her life. Her challenge is to walk the 60 kilometres of Iceland's most famous hiking route, a trail that just happens to end at the unpronounceable volcano that brought air traffic across Europe to a standstill in 2010. With the help of Icelandic mountain guide Hanna, Julia faces daunting mountain climbs, red hot lava fields, freezing river crossings, deadly clouds of sulphuric gas, swirling ash deserts and sinister Nordic ghost stories as she attempts to reach the huge volcanic crater at the centre of the Eyjafjallajökull glacier.


WED 22:00 The Night Shift (b0116sxy)
Episode 5

Olafur tries out some self-assertion. Daniel is humiliated when his middle-class parents turn up at the station and are aghast to find that he is working there as an attendant instead of studying to become a doctor. Georg's regime is challenged by Olafur's friends.


WED 22:25 The Night Shift (b0116sy0)
Episode 6

Olafur's new-found fitness mania backfires when the protein drink he has been gorging himself on turns out to have some freakish side-effects. Georg is convinced that somebody has been stealing empty cans from the station's recycling bins and puts his team on high alert.


WED 22:50 The Saga of Noggin the Nog (b0116spx)
Noggin and the Ice Dragon

Part 3

Children's series about the adventures of the kindly king of the Northmen. The peaceful land of Nog is disturbed by a stranger in need of help.


WED 23:00 Spiral (b0110g38)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


WED 23:55 Spiral (b0111dx9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:55 on Saturday]


WED 00:55 Storyville (b0110ghk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


WED 01:50 Indian Hill Railways (b00qzzlm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 02:50 Petworth House: The Big Spring Clean (b0110grp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 03:20 Julia Bradbury's Icelandic Walk (b0110grr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 12 MAY 2011

THU 19:00 World News Today (b0110h30)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b010v8hw)
1976 edition in which Noel Edmonds introduces Mud, Barry Manilow, Robin Sarstedt, Sutherland Bros & Quiver, Cliff Richard, Frankie Valli, the Rolling Stones, Abba and Ruby Flipper.


THU 20:00 Ride of My Life: The Story of the Bicycle (b00t6ylx)
Author Rob Penn travels around the world collecting hand-built parts for his dream bicycle and charts the social history of one of mankind's greatest inventions.


THU 21:00 The End of the World? A Horizon Guide to Armageddon (b00zj1c2)
Our understanding of the world around us is better now than ever before. But are we any closer to knowing how it is all going to end?

Dallas Campbell delves into the Horizon archive to discover how scientists have tried to predict an impending apocalypse - from natural disaster to killer disease to asteroid impact - and to ask: when Armageddon arrives, will science be able to save us?


THU 22:00 Rubicon (b0110h37)
Look to the Ant

Will is surprised by an invitation to Kale Ingram's apartment but remains unsure whether to trust him. Miles volunteers for overnight duty to monitor live surveillance footage of a wedding and Katherine visits Gerald Bradley's widow hoping that she can shed light on her own husband's suicide.


THU 22:45 The Saga of Noggin the Nog (b0116srj)
Noggin and the Ice Dragon

Part 4

Children's series about the adventures of the kindly king of the Northmen. The peaceful land of Nog is disturbed by a stranger in need of help.


THU 22:55 The Cell (b00mbvfh)
The Spark of Life

In a three-part series, Dr Adam Rutherford tells the extraordinary story of the scientific quest to discover the secrets of the cell and of life itself. Every living thing is made of cells, microscopic building blocks of almost unimaginable power and complexity.

The final part reveals how our knowledge of cells has brought us to the brink of one of the most important moments in history. Scientists are close to repeating what has happened only once in four billion years - the creation of a new life form.


THU 23:55 Everything and Nothing (b00zwndy)
Nothing

Two-part documentary which deals with two of the deepest questions there are - what is everything, and what is nothing?

In two epic, surreal and mind-expanding films, Professor Jim Al-Khalili searches for an answer to these questions as he explores the true size and shape of the universe and delves into the amazing science behind apparent nothingness.

The second part, Nothing, explores science at the very limits of human perception, where we now understand the deepest mysteries of the universe lie. Jim sets out to answer one very simple question - what is nothing? His journey ends with perhaps the most profound insight about reality that humanity has ever made. Everything came from nothing. The quantum world of the supersmall shaped the vast universe we inhabit today, and Jim can prove it.


THU 00:55 The End of the World? A Horizon Guide to Armageddon (b00zj1c2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


THU 01:55 Top of the Pops (b010v8hw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 02:35 Ride of My Life: The Story of the Bicycle (b00t6ylx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 03:35 The End of the World? A Horizon Guide to Armageddon (b00zj1c2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 13 MAY 2011

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b0110js4)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 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.


FRI 20:30 Transatlantic Sessions (b00n5bt7)
Series 4

Episode 4

Folk musicians come together in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever', as Shetland fiddle virtuoso Aly Bain and dobro ace Jerry Douglas host a Highland gathering of the cream of Nashville, Irish and Scottish talent.

Alison Moorer, Karen Casey, Dan Tyminski, Liam O'Maonlai, Stuart Duncan, Ronan Browne and Allan MacDonald are among those featured.


FRI 21:00 Bee Gees: In Our Own Time (b08ktv7w)
Documentary following the fascinating, and at times turbulent, story of the Bee Gees, one of the most successful bands of all time. This is the story of three very close brothers, tied together by familial love and a natural aptitude and obsession for all things musical.

Born on the Isle of Man but raised in Manchester the Brothers Gibb, eldest brother Barry and twins Robin and Maurice were whisked to Australia by their parents at an impressionable age in search of a better life. Australia, for the Gibb family, was the start of a new adventure and a new career.

From childhood stardom to the first flashes of fame on the coat tails of 1960s Beatlemania, the Bee Gees enjoyed number one successes with hits like Massachusetts and I've Got To Get A Message to You.

The early 1970s saw a spell in the musical wilderness, but eventually led to the Bee Gees discovering a whole new musical direction and, more importantly, the discovery of Barry's unique falsetto voice. The phenomenon of Saturday Night Fever in 1977 brought the band worldwide success, and identified them as the band that defined disco.

A career as songwriters, and success with Barbra Streisand and number one hits like Islands in the Stream by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, meant a brief hiatus for the Bee Gees as a group. But, true to form, they returned with number one successes in the late 1980s with hits such as You Win Again.

The unexpected and sudden death of Maurice in 2003 meant the end of the Bee Gees as we know it, and the end of an era.

Bee Gees: In Our Own Time is the story of a consistently successful, talented and musically prolific band of brothers.


FRI 22:30 ... Sings Bee Gees (b0110js7)
Archive compilation celebrating the songbook of the brothers Gibb, with contributions and covers from the likes of Al Green, Esther Ofarim, Take That, Dionne Warwick, Steps, Rita Coolidge, Aaliyah and others, performing hits such as To Love Somebody, Words, How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?, How Deep Is Your Love, Heartbreaker and More Than A Woman.


FRI 23:00 Once Upon a Time in New York: The Birth of Hip Hop, Disco and Punk (b007mw93)
How the squalid streets of '70s New York gave birth to music that would go on to conquer the world - punk, disco and hip hop.

In the 1970s the Big Apple was rotten to the core, yet out of the grime, grit and low rent space emerged new music unlike anything that had gone before.

Inspired by the Velvet Underground, a new wave of 'punk' rock emerged in lower Manhattan including The New York Dolls, The Ramones and the Patti Smith Group. Meanwhile, downtown loft parties held by gay New Yorkers heralded the birth of disco, which would eventually spawn the ultimate club for the privileged few: Studio 54. The swanky mid-town discos were out of bounds to black New York so in the Bronx DJs such as Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa created their own parties, heralding the birth of hip hop.

With David Johansen, Patti Smith, John Cale, Richard Hell, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc, Nile Rodgers, Chuck D, Tommy Ramone, Chris Stein, Fab 5. Freddy, Lenny Kaye, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, Syl Sylvain, Nicky Siano, David Mancuso, DJ AJ, David Depino, Jayne County, Leee Childers, Nelson George, Victor Bokris and Vince Aletti.


FRI 00:05 Bee Gees: In Our Own Time (b08ktv7w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 01:35 ... Sings Bee Gees (b0110js7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]


FRI 02:05 Once Upon a Time in New York: The Birth of Hip Hop, Disco and Punk (b007mw93)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]


FRI 03:05 Sacred Music (b009s86s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]