SATURDAY 10 DECEMBER 2011

SAT 19:00 Natural World (b00tj7j4)
2010-2011

The Himalayas

Documentary looking at the wildlife of the most stunning mountain range in the world, home to snow leopards, Himalayan wolves and Tibetan bears.

Snow leopards stalk their prey among the highest peaks. Concealed by snowfall, the chase is watched by golden eagles circling above. On the harsh plains of the Tibetan plateau live extraordinary bears and square-faced foxes hunting small rodents to survive. In the alpine forests, dancing pheasants have even influenced rival border guards in their ritualistic displays. Valleys carved by glacial waters lead to hillsides covered by paddy fields containing the lifeline to the east, rice. In this world of extremes, the Himalayas reveal not only snow-capped mountains and fascinating animals but also a vital lifeline for humanity.


SAT 20:00 Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters (b014lsgb)
From dinosaurs to mammoths, when our ancient ancestors encountered the fossil bones of extinct prehistoric creatures, what did they think they were? Just like us, ancient peoples were fascinated by the giant bones they found in the ground.

In an epic story that takes us from Ancient Greece to the American Wild West, historian Tom Holland goes on a journey of discovery to explore the fascinating ways in which our ancestors sought to explain the remains of dinosaurs and other giant prehistoric creatures, and how bones and fossils have shaped and affected human culture.

In Classical Greece, petrified bones were exhibited in temples as the remains of a long-lost race of colossal heroes. Chinese tales of dragons may well have had their origins in the great fossil beds of the Gobi desert. In the Middle Ages, Christians believed that mysterious bones found in rock were the remains of giants drowned in Noah's Flood.

But far from always being wrong, Tom learns that ancient explanations and myths about large fossilsed bones often contained remarkable paleontological insights long before modern science explained the truth about dinosaurs. Tom encounters a medieval sculpture that is the first known reconstruction of a monster from a fossil, and learns about the Native Americans stories, told for generations, which contained clues that led bone hunters to some of the greatest dinosaur finds of the nineteenth century.

This documentary is an alternative history of dinosaurs - the neglected story of how mythic imagination and scientific inquiry have met over millennia to give meaning to the dry bones of prehistory. Today, as our interest in dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures continues unabated, it turns out we are not so far away from the awe and curiosity of our ancient ancestors.


SAT 21:00 The Killing (b0185nq6)
Series 2

Episode 7

Having been taken off the case, Lund continues to chase the perpetrator but finds herself in danger. Justice Minister Thomas Buch faces the consequences of his predecessor's desperate actions and decides to go out on a limb in response - when a journalist steps forward to reveal a macabre, and thus unknown, fact relating to the suppressed military investigation. Raben is tracking his wife's movements and Special Branch, in turn, is tracking Raben's.


SAT 22:00 The Killing (b0185nq8)
Series 2

Episode 8

Raben is in critical condition after being shot, but the accusations he made prior to his shooting leave Brix and Lund in doubt over the neutrality of officers within their own ranks. Buch's attack on the minister of defence is decisively refuted and it looks like the prime minister's demands in light of this new debacle might finally wear down Buch's determination. Will the young, tenacious minister admit defeat and throw in the towel? Meanwhile, the focus of the investigation shifts once again and Brix goes out on a limb to take a risky decision.


SAT 23:00 The Slap (b017zqwd)
Aisha

Aisha and Hector go on their anniversary holiday where she meets temptation and he makes a confession.


SAT 23:55 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.


SAT 00:50 Horizon (b013pnv4)
2011-2012

Seeing Stars

Around the world, a new generation of astronomers are hunting for the most mysterious objects in the universe. Young stars, black holes, even other forms of life.

They have created a dazzling new set of supertelescopes that promise to rewrite the story of the heavens.

This film follows the men and women who are pushing the limits of science and engineering in some of the most extreme environments on earth. But most strikingly of all, no-one really knows what they will find out there.


SAT 01:50 The Sky at Night (b07wxb65)
Outer Limits

The outer limits of the solar system are a dark, cold and mysterious place, which only the Voyager spacecraft have visited. Sir Patrick Moore discusses the ice giants Uranus and Neptune, while Chris Lintott has an early Christmas treat - a lost episode of The Sky at Night from 1963 which has been returned to the BBC, in which Arthur C Clarke talks about his vision of bases on the moon and speculates when man will be on Mars.


SAT 02:20 Natural World (b00tj7j4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 03:20 Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters (b014lsgb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 11 DECEMBER 2011

SUN 19:00 Churches: How to Read Them (b00twwc4)
Reformation: Chaos and Creation

The late middle ages was a time of destruction that still leaves its mark on our churches today. With the help of art historian Sister Wendy Beckett and a spectacular stained glass window, Richard Taylor tries to understand the intense medieval devotion to the Virgin Mary and how this fuelled the anger of the Reformation that followed.

Richard 'reads' a ruined church and explains how it was not Henry VIII but his boy-king successor, Edward VI, who was responsible for the greatest changes in the Reformation. He also traces how the Book of Common Prayer and the translation of the Bible into English transformed the way that the English worshipped and the appearance of their churches.

Richard travels to Burntisland in Fife, whose square-built church was a radical attempt by the Scots to break with their Catholic past.


SUN 19:30 Rosslyn Chapel: A Treasure in Stone (b00v3y5s)
The exquisite Rosslyn Chapel is a masterpiece in stone. It used to be one of Scotland's best-kept secrets, but it became world-famous when it was featured in Dan Brown's the Da Vinci Code.

Art historian Helen Rosslyn, whose husband's ancestor built the chapel over 550 years ago, is the guide on a journey of discovery around this perfect gem of a building. Extraordinary carvings of green men, inverted angels and mysterious masonic marks beg the questions of where these images come from and who the stonemasons that created them were. Helen's search leads her across Scotland and to Normandy in search of the creators of this medieval masterpiece.


SUN 20:30 African Railway (b00s6bgw)
In a moving and often funny documentary, award-winning film-maker Sean Langan is off to east Africa to ride the rails of the Tazara railroad, whose passenger and goods trains travel through spectacular scenery and a game park teeming with wild animals.

The railway was built by the Chinese just after independence to link Zambia's copper belt to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, and once carried the region's hopes and dreams. But now it is in crisis. Every day there are derailments, trains running out of fuel and mechanical breakdowns.

Langan meets the train crews, controllers and maintenance crews who battle to keep it going - and at Tazara HQ he is on the track of Tazara's elusive Chinese railway advisors to find out why it is in such a parlous state.


SUN 21:30 Scrapheap Orchestra (b017zn47)
Is it possible for professional musicians from the BBC Concert Orchestra to make beautiful sounds out of garbage? This documentary aims to find out. For the first time ever an entire orchestra of 44 instruments will be built from just scrap. The quest to build an orchestra of instruments out of rubbish is more than just a musical spectacle - in the construction of these instruments we delve into the history of instrument making and the science of music, why different instruments are made the way they are, why some designs have not changed for hundreds of years and why, when played together, the sound of an orchestra is unlike anything else on earth.

Inspirational conductor Charles Hazlewood leads the challenge and charges a group of the UK's top instrument makers with the mission of transforming junk, broken furniture and the contents of roadside skips into an orchestra of instruments.

The BBC Concert Orchestra - a team of virtuoso performers - will put their reputations on the line by using these instruments to stage what they hope will be a flawless performance of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture at the 2011 Proms. But will the scrapheap orchestra pass muster at the mother of all classical musical festivals?


SUN 23:00 Treasures of Chinese Porcelain (b015sttj)
In November 2010, a Chinese vase unearthed in a suburban semi in Pinner sold at auction for £43 million - a new record for a Chinese work of art. Why are Chinese vases so famous and so expensive? The answer lies in the European obsession with Chinese porcelain that began in the 16th century.

Lars Tharp, the Antiques Roadshow expert and Chinese ceramics specialist, sets out to explore why Chinese porcelain was so valuable then - and still is now. He goes on a journey to parts of China closed to western eyes until relatively recently. Lars travels to the mountainside from which virtually every single Chinese export vase, plate and cup began life in the 18th century - a mountain known as Mount Gaolin, from whose name we get the word kaolin, or china clay. He sees how the china clay was fused with another substance, mica, that would turn it into porcelain.

Carrying his own newly acquired vase, Lars uncovers the secrets of China's porcelain capital, Jingdezhen. He sees how the trade between China and Europe not only changed our idea of what was beautiful - by introducing us to the idea of works of art we could eat off - but also began to affect the whole tradition of Chinese aesthetics too, as the ceramicists of Jingdezhen sought to meet the European demand for porcelain decorated with family coats of arms, battle scenes or even erotica.

The porcelain fever that gripped Britain drove conspicuous consumption and fuelled the Georgian craze for tea parties. Today the new emperors - China's rising millionaire class - are buying back the export wares once shipped to Europe. The vase sold in Pinner shows that the lure of Chinese porcelain is as compelling as ever.


SUN 00:00 Churches: How to Read Them (b00twwc4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 00:30 Scrapheap Orchestra (b017zn47)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]


SUN 02:00 New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s (b01805m3)
Public Enemy: Prophets of Rage

In the late 1980s Public Enemy were the biggest rap group on the planet. Their mission: to raise the consciousness of a generation. With a rebellious attitude to match their militant image they sold millions of records preaching pro-black politics to fans of all races, all done through a groundbreaking wall of noise that changed the sound of hip hop. White, middle Americans were outraged, but their kids loved it.

Not surprisingly, this confrontational approach attracted controversy. Critics claimed the group themselves were racist, exposing racial divides rather than promoting equality. They were banned from some TV and radio stations and when one member reportedly made anti-Semitic remarks in a newspaper interview the resulting media-storm threatened to end their career. Tensions were running high and arguments within the band ended in violence. Could they keep it together long enough to get their message across?

Includes exclusive new interviews with Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, Hank and Keith Shocklee and the S1Ws. Plus contributions from Run DMC, Method Man (Wu-Tang Clan), Anthrax's Scott Ian, Jurassic 5's Chali 2na, Bahamadia, writer and activist Kevin Powell and DJ Dave Pearce.


SUN 03:00 Hip-Hop at the BBC (b017zrm5)
Hip-hop through the decades from the BBC archives, including the Sugarhill Gang in 1979, Run DMC, LL Cool J and Eric B & Rakim in the 80s, Ice-T, Monie Love, Fugees and the Roots in the 90s and concluding with Dr Dre & Eminem, Dizzee Rascal and Jay-Z.



MONDAY 12 DECEMBER 2011

MON 19:00 World News Today (b0185ns7)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 The Games That Time Forgot (b00t6yc0)
Alex Horne tries to discover why some games survived, and examines the best of those that did not.

Whilst revisiting his own childhood haunts, he attempts to relaunch the ancient sport of the Quintain, horseless jousting, and tries his damnedest to understand the rules of the Jingling Match. Not forgetting his attempt to restage the forgotten spectacle of Cricket on Horseback.

This might just be a journey to the very heart of sport itself, but if not, it will be a lot of fun playing games that have not been seen for hundreds of years and even more fun discovering why.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b0186y2m)
Wall Night

Wall Night 1 - Part 1

Victoria Coren presents a special edition of the quiz show in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital. Eight seasoned Only Connect teams return to take part in a Connecting Wall mini-tournament.


MON 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.


MON 22:00 Only Connect (b018gtnt)
Wall Night

Wall Night 1 - Part 2

Victoria Coren presents a special edition of the quiz show in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital. The semi-finals and final of the mini-tournament, plus wall-solving tales from celebrity alumni.


MON 22:30 Arena (b0074prh)
Ken Dodd's Happiness

A tribute to Liverpudlian comic Ken Dodd, in which he discusses his career and the influences of his comedy style.

Features film clips of his early performances and footage of him on tour in more recent times.


MON 23:30 Games Britannia (b00p90d8)
Dicing with Destiny

Three-part series presented by historian Benjamin Woolley about popular games in Britain from the Iron Age to the Information Age, in which he unravels how an apparently trivial pursuit is a rich and entertaining source of cultural and social history.

In part one, Woolley investigates how the instinct to play games is both as universal and elemental as language itself and takes us from 1st-century Britain to the Victorian era.

Ancient and medieval games were not just fun, they were fundamental, and often imbued with prophetic significance. By the late Middle Ages this spiritual element in games began to be lost as gaming became increasingly associated with gambling. Dice and card games abounded, but a moral backlash in Victorian times transformed games into moral educational tools.

This was also the era in which Britain established the world's first commercial games industry, with such classics as the Staunton Chess Set, Ludo and Snakes and Ladders leading the way, all adaptations of original games from other countries.

In the case of Snakes and Ladders, what once represented a Hindu journey to enlightenment was transformed into a popular but banal family favourite, and Woolley sees this as the perfect analogy for how the sacred energy which once imbued games had become gradually drained away by commercialisation.


MON 00:30 Only Connect (b0186y2m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 01:00 Only Connect (b018gtnt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


MON 01:30 Julia Bradbury's Icelandic Walk (b0110grr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 02:30 Timeshift (b00fh2bh)
Series 8

How to Solve a Cryptic Crossword

A look at the world of cryptic crosswords, offering up the secrets of these seemingly impenetrable puzzles.

Crossword setter Don Manley, AKA Quixote, reveals the tricks that compilers use to bamboozle and entertain solvers using a crossword he created especially for the programme.

We also find out why Britain became home to the cryptic crossword, how a crossword nearly put paid to the D-Day invasion and why London Underground is elevating the crossword to an art form.

Author Colin Dexter explains why Inspector Morse loved his crossword, Martin Bell reveals how his father became the first crossword setter of the Times without ever having solved one and the crossword editor of the Daily Telegraph opens up her postbag.

Also sharing their enthusiasm for cryptic crosswords are actors Prunella Scales and Simon Russell Beale, Val Gilbert of the Daily Telegraph and Jonathan Crowther, AKA Azed of the Times.


MON 03:30 Games Britannia (b00p90d8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 today]



TUESDAY 13 DECEMBER 2011

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b0185nsy)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Churches: How to Read Them (b00tx33j)
Restoration and Reason

Church life in the 18th century is often thought to have been genteel and rather dull, but Richard Taylor finds that churches in this Age of Enlightenment reflect the intellectual excitement, the vigour and the potential for conflict of a turbulent time.

Richard shows how the symbols in even the most everyday parish church reveal the ever-closer identification between church and state and he tries out the extraordinary triple-decker pulpit at St Mary's in Whitby. In a lightning tour of the London churches of Sir Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor, he discovers how they reflect the latest scientific insights and archaeological discoveries of the age. And in the startling simplicity of Baptist and Methodist chapels and meeting houses, he taps into the burgeoning spirit of dissent that brought the monopoly of the parish church to an end.


TUE 20:00 Balmoral (b00mqg2c)
Documentary telling the story of Balmoral, the royal family's most private residence. For over 150 years this Scottish castle has been home to royal traditions of picnics, stag hunting and kilts. From prime ministers to Princess Diana, life at this tartan-bound holiday home has not appealed to everyone.

But there is another story of Balmoral, of how the royal family has played a role in shaping modern Scotland and how Scotland has shaped the royal family. Queen Victoria's adoption of Highland symbols, from tartan to bagpipes, helped create a new image for Scotland. Her values, too, helped strengthen the union between Scotland and England. Ever since, Balmoral has been a place that reflects the very essence of the royal family.


TUE 21:00 Donated to Science (b0185nt0)
In 2006, a New Zealand television company interviewed several people who planned to donate their bodies to the Otago Medical School for students to dissect. They were asked about their lives and their loves, their hopes, their fears and, of course, their bodies. The school is one of the last in the world whose students still do significant human dissection, and both they and the donors gave permission to be followed through the whole process. By intercutting the donors' interviews with their own bodies being dissected and the students' reactions for the first time on film, there is the chance to share the amazing journey of the students, the donors and their families.


TUE 21:55 Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters (b014lsgb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday]


TUE 22:55 Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City (b017znj7)
Wellspring of Holiness

Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world. For the Jewish faith, it is the site of the Western Wall, the last remnant of the second Jewish temple. For Christians, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the site of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For Muslims, the Al-Aqsa mosque is the third holiest sanctuary of Islam.

In episode one, Simon delves into the past to explore how this unique city came into being, explaining how it became of such major importance to the three Abrahamic faiths, and how these faiths emerged from the Biblical tradition of the Israelites.

Starting with the Canaanites, Simon goes on a chronological journey to trace the rise of the city as a holy place and discusses the evidence for it becoming a Jewish city under King David. The programme explores the construction of the first temple by Solomon through to the life and death of Jesus Christ and the eventual expulsion of the Jews by the Romans, concluding in the 7th century AD, on the eve of the capture of Jerusalem by the Muslim caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab.


TUE 23:55 The Games That Time Forgot (b00t6yc0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 on Monday]


TUE 00:55 Balmoral (b00mqg2c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 01:55 Donated to Science (b0185nt0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 02:50 Churches: How to Read Them (b00tx33j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 03:20 Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City (b017znj7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:55 today]



WEDNESDAY 14 DECEMBER 2011

WED 19:00 World News Today (b0185ntd)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Scrapheap Orchestra (b017zn47)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 on Sunday]


WED 21:00 Still Ringing After All These Years: A Short History of Bells (b018ct1c)
The sound of bells ringing is deeply rooted in British culture. Bells provide the grand soundtrack to our historic moments, call out for our celebrations and toll sadly in empathy with our grief. No important event seems complete without their colourful ringing.

But how did bells become so rooted in our culture and entwined with our national identity?

Richard Taylor travels the country to unravel the 1,500 years of history that have made bells such a key British sound. He meets the people who work with bells and those who understand their significance in our past and present. The story he tells is an extraordinary one.

Richard explores the magical qualities of bells and how they came to be synonymous with Christian worship. He discovers how they diversified to impact on every aspect of medieval life - and how some of the practices which originated then still hold sway in our modern lives. He gets to the bottom of what bell ringing is and how this 'sport' came to represent the sound of England, and he reveals how bells embodied the hopes of the nation in her darkest hours.

We have heard the sound of bells so many times that we can take them for granted - it is time to prick up our ears and listen to their incredible story.


WED 22:00 John Arlott in Conversation with Mike Brearley (b018gwvh)
An edited version of a landmark series first broadcast in 1984. The distinguished BBC commentator John Arlott talks to former England cricket captain Brearley about growing up between the wars, his career as a helper in a mental hospital, a policeman, a poet, a wine and football correspondent, and a cricket writer and commentator. The interview provides a fascinating insight into the life experience and attitudes of a liberal thinker born almost a hundred years ago and who died in 1991.


WED 23:00 The Killing (b0185nq6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


WED 00:00 The Killing (b0185nq8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Saturday]


WED 01:00 Still Ringing After All These Years: A Short History of Bells (b018ct1c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 02:00 Scrapheap Orchestra (b017zn47)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 on Sunday]


WED 03:30 Still Ringing After All These Years: A Short History of Bells (b018ct1c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 15 DECEMBER 2011

THU 19:00 World News Today (b0186b52)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0186b54)
09/12/76

David Hamilton introduces 1976 chart hits by Paul Nicholas, Tommy Hunt, the Kursaal Flyers, Jethro Tull and Showaddywaddy. Legs & Co perform a dance sequence.


THU 20:00 Horizon (b00vdkmj)
2010-2011

What Happened Before the Big Bang?

They are the biggest questions that science can possibly ask: where did everything in our universe come from? How did it all begin? For nearly a hundred years, we thought we had the answer - a big bang some 14 billion years ago.

But now some scientists believe that was not really the beginning. Our universe may have had a life before this violent moment of creation.

Horizon takes the ultimate trip into the unknown to explore a dizzying world of cosmic bounces, rips and multiple universes, and finds out what happened before the big bang.


THU 21:00 Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City (b0186b56)
Invasion, Invasion, Invasion

Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world. For the Jewish faith, it is the site of the western wall, the last remnant of the second Jewish temple. For Christians, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the site of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For Muslims, the Al-Aqsa mosque is the third holiest sanctuary of Islam.

In episode two, Simon discovers the impact on the holy city of a new faith - Islam. He explores Muhammad's relationship with Jerusalem, the construction of one of Islam's holiest shrines - the Dome of the Rock - and the crusaders' attempts to win it back for Christianity.

He also brings to life lesser-known characters, whose impact still resonates - Al Hakim's destructive delusions of grandeur and Queen Melisende's embellishment of crusader Jerusalem, as well as the notorious stand-off between Saladin and Richard the Lionheart.

The episode ends in the 13th century with King Frederick II, whose groundbreaking power-sharing deal prefigures the tortuous peace negotiations of our own times. Then, as now, peace did not last.


THU 22:00 The Slap (b0186b58)
Richie

Richie is confused by his sexuality and is cracking under the strain of keeping Connie's confidence that Hector raped her.


THU 22:55 Andy Hamilton's Search for Satan (b016ptr6)
Just how did the Devil get inside our heads? And who put him there? For Halloween, award-winning comedy writer and performer Andy Hamilton (creator and star of Radio 4's acclaimed infernal comedy Old Harry's Game) explores just who the devil Satan is, where he comes from and what he has been up to all this time.


THU 23:55 Top of the Pops (b0186b54)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 00:25 Only Connect (b0186y2m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


THU 00:55 Only Connect (b018gtnt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]


THU 01:25 Horizon (b00vdkmj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 02:25 Andy Hamilton's Search for Satan (b016ptr6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:55 today]


THU 03:25 Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City (b0186b56)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 16 DECEMBER 2011

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b0186bc0)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Transatlantic Sessions (b007zmn2)
Series 3

Episode 2

Folk musicians come together in what have been called the greatest backporch shows ever. Jerry Douglas demonstrates his Grammy award-winning dobro skills and other highlights include Eddi Reader with Tim O'Brien, Julie Fowlis with Donal Lunny and Darrell Scott backed by Karen Matheson.


FRI 20:00 Still Ringing After All These Years: A Short History of Bells (b018ct1c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]


FRI 21:00 Tony Bennett's 85th Birthday Concert (b0187wr4)
The truly legendary American singer celebrates his 85th birthday in fine style, with a special concert at the historic London Palladium. Accompanied by his quartet, Tony Bennett moves effortlessly through a repertoire spanning 60 years, with songs such as Steppin' Out With My Baby, The Good Life, Smile and his favourite, I Left My Heart In San Francisco. He is joined for two unique duets, by stellar British singers Cleo Laine and Leona Lewis.


FRI 22:00 Tony Bennett: An American Classic (b007cjh4)
Tony Bennett celebrated turning 80 in 2006 with this television special created and directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha). In this 'docu-musical', the viewer is taken on a musical journey of Tony's life via a re-creation of the seminal venues of his career.

From 52nd Street swing clubs to the Columbia recording studios where he first recorded, from the classic TV studios of the 60s to the Rat Pack's Las Vegas stage and from Carnegie Hall to his triumphant performance on MTV Unplugged, Tony is paired with some of today's greatest artists to perform duets of his greatest hits, including Barbra Streisand, Elton John, John Legend and Christina Aguilera.

These performances are seamlessly woven throughout with narratives by Billy Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bruce Willis, John Travolta and Robert De Niro.


FRI 22:45 The Swing Thing (b00g3694)
Documentary telling the story of swing, an obscure form of jazz that became the first worldwide pop phenomenon, inspired the first ever youth culture revolution and became a byword for sexual liberation and teenage excess well before the Swinging Sixties.

In the process, swing threw up some of the greatest names in 20th century music, from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington to Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra. The film uses archive and contemporary accounts to shed light on why it endures today.


FRI 00:15 Tony Bennett's 85th Birthday Concert (b0187wr4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 01:15 Tony Bennett: An American Classic (b007cjh4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 02:00 The Swing Thing (b00g3694)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:45 today]


FRI 03:30 Still Ringing After All These Years: A Short History of Bells (b018ct1c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]