SATURDAY 14 JANUARY 2012

SAT 19:00 Unnatural Histories (b011wzrc)
Yellowstone

As the world's first national park, Yellowstone has long served as a model for the protection of wilderness around the world. For Americans it has become a source of great national pride, not least because it encapsulates all our popular notions of what a wilderness should be - vast, uninhabited, with spectacular scenery and teeming with wildlife. But Yellowstone has not always been so. At the time of its creation in 1872, it was renowned only for its extraordinary geysers, and far from being an uninhabited wilderness it was home to several American Indian tribes.

This film reveals how a remote Indian homeland became the world's first great wilderness. It was the ambitions of railroad barons, not conservationists, that paved the way for a brand new vision of the wild, a vision that took native peoples out of the picture. Iconic landscape paintings show how European Romanticism crossed the Atlantic and recast the American wilderness, not as a satanic place to be tamed and cultivated, but as a place to experience the raw power of God in nature. Forged in Yellowstone, this potent new version of wilderness as untouched and deserving of protection has since been exported to all corners of the globe.


SAT 20:00 Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity (p00kjqch)
The Age of Invention

Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the electrifying story of our quest to master nature's most mysterious force - electricity. Until fairly recently, electricity was seen as a magical power, but it is now the lifeblood of the modern world and underpins every aspect of our technological advancements.

Without electricity, we would be lost. This series tells of dazzling leaps of imagination and extraordinary experiments - a story of maverick geniuses who used electricity to light our cities, to communicate across the seas and through the air, to create modern industry and to give us the digital revolution.

Just under 200 years ago scientists discovered something profound, that electricity is connected to another of nature's most fundamental forces - magnetism. In the second episode, Jim discovers how harnessing the link between magnetism and electricity would completely transform the world, allowing us to generate a seemingly limitless amount of electric power which we could utilise to drive machines, communicate across continents and light our homes. This is the story of how scientists and engineers unlocked the nature of electricity in an extraordinary century of innovation and invention.


SAT 21:00 Borgen (b019jr89)
Series 1

The Art of the Possible

After only a few short months as prime minister, Birgitte Nyborg has negotiated her first finance bill into place. But before the final ratification, several members of parliament withdraw their support. Ousted politician Michael Laugesen is in a new position as a newspaper editor and is out to get Nyborg, who lets her family down on more than one occasion at home. While Kasper finds a new job, Katrine is still extremely vulnerable as she experiences yet another shock.


SAT 22:00 Borgen (b019jr8c)
Series 1

100 Days

TV journalist Katrine Fonsmark gets the scoop of her life when an anonymous source contacts her with important security policy information. The pressure is on prime minister Birgitte Nyborg to kill the story, but she decides to go her own way. In the process Katrine finds herself in some intense situations and runs into problems with her boss, but in the middle of the turmoil help appears from an unexpected angle.


SAT 23:00 Timeshift (b019c85h)
Series 11

The Rules of Drinking

Timeshift digs into the archive to discover the unwritten rules that have governed the way we drink in Britain.

In the pubs and working men's clubs of the 40s and 50s there were strict customs governing who stood where. To be invited to sup at the bar was a rite of passage for many young men, and it took years for women to be accepted into these bastions of masculinity. As the country prospered and foreign travel became widely available, so new drinking habits were introduced as we discovered wine and, even more exotically, cocktails.

People began to drink at home as well as at work, where journalists typified a tradition of the liquid lunch. Advertising played its part as lager was first sold as a woman's drink and then the drink of choice for young men with a bit of disposable income. The rules changed and changed again, but they were always there - unwritten and unspoken, yet underwriting our complicated relationship with drinking.


SAT 00:00 Horizon (b0148vph)
2011-2012

The Core

For centuries we have dreamt of reaching the centre of the Earth. Now scientists are uncovering a bizarre and alien world that lies 4,000 miles beneath our feet, unlike anything we know on the surface. It is a planet buried within the planet we know, where storms rage within a sea of white-hot metal and a giant forest of crystals make up a metal core the size of the moon.

Horizon follows scientists who are conducting experiments to recreate this core within their own laboratories, with surprising results.


SAT 01:00 The Sky at Night (b08spfqw)
Other Solar Systems

We now know there are other solar systems far away in space, but are they like ours and is there life on these strange worlds? Sir Patrick Moore goes on the quest for little green men.


SAT 01:30 Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity (p00kjqch)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:30 Unnatural Histories (b011wzrc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 03:30 Timeshift (b019c85h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]



SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2012

SUN 19:00 The Story of Musicals (b019c7pz)
Episode 2

This episode charts how British musical talent in the 1980s stormed the West End with hits like Cats, Les Miserables, Blood Brothers and Phantom of the Opera. There are first-hand accounts from the extraordinary individuals whose tenacity and creativity ensured these shows became mega-hits despite often precarious beginnings. And it reveals how the titantic shows of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh became global phenomena, securing Britain's reputation as the powerhouse of musical theatre.

With contributions from Lord Lloyd Webber, Sir Cameron Mackintosh, Sir Tim Rice, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Stephen Fry, Trevor Nunn, Sir Cliff Richard, Elaine Paige, Gillian Lyne, Paul Nicholas, Bonnie Langford, Richard Stilgoe, John Caird, John Napier, Bill Kenwright, Willy Russell, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schonberg, Anthony Pye-Jeary, Arlene Phillips, Charles Hart, Don Black, Harold Prince and Michael Ball.


SUN 20:00 Robin and the Seven Hoods (b00g3692)
The Robin Hood legend is updated to 1928 Prohibition-era Chicago in this spoof gangster film in which a good-at-heart mobster becomes a folk hero among the poor when he and his merry gang set about usurping the underworld's new kingpin. Songs include My Kind of Town, which was nominated for an Academy Award.


SUN 22:00 ... Sings Musicals (b019jshd)
A delve into the BBC archives for an eclectic mix of performances from musicals from the 60s to the present. Featuring the likes of Ella Fitzgerald singing Mack the Knife from the Threepenny Opera, Captain Sensible performing a classic from South Pacific, Jeff Beck going down the yellow brick road of Oz, Jay Z taking on Annie, and all points in between.


SUN 23:00 The Story of Musicals (b019c7pz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 00:00 R.E.M. at the BBC (b019g9vf)
In September 2011 R.E.M., the rock band from Athens, Georgia, decided to call it a day after 31 years. This collection from the BBC archives includes performances of Pretty Persuasion from the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1984, Orange Crush on Top of the Pops in 1989 and special acoustic versions of Losing My Religion and Half a World Away on The Late Show in 1991, along with performances on Later with Jools Holland and Parkinson. Also, vocalist Michael Stipe and bassist Mike Mills reflect on the band ending.


SUN 01:00 Later... with Jools Holland (b019g9vh)
REM

Special edition featuring rock band R.E.M. live in the studio and in conversation with Jools Holland. The band perform songs from their album Up, plus some old favourites.


SUN 02:00 The Lark Ascending (b019c9t9)
Dame Diana Rigg explores the enduring popularity of The Lark Ascending by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, which was recently voted Britain's favourite piece of classical music by listeners to Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4.

Composed at a key turning point in world history, The Lark Ascending represents music for all occasions. It is used in rites of passage such as births, deaths and marriages, and is a favourite for film-makers looking to create that quintessential English pastoral feel. Fans of the work include actor Peter Sallis, who wants a copy of The Lark Ascending to be buried with him, top violinist Tasmin Little, who has played the piece as part of the BBC Proms, and music critic Michael Kennedy, who was a personal friend of Vaughan Williams.

The programme includes a beautiful new performance of the work in the same village hall where it was heard for the first time in December 1920. The Lark Ascending is performed by 15-year-old violin prodigy Julia Hwang and pianist Charles Matthews, using the original arrangement for violin and piano.


SUN 02:30 ... Sings Musicals (b019jshd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


SUN 03:30 The Story of Musicals (b019c7pz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



MONDAY 16 JANUARY 2012

MON 19:00 World News Today (b019c9t7)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Climbing Great Buildings (b00tv92l)
Burghley House

Dr Jonathan Foyle, architectural historian and novice climber, scales Britain's most iconic structures, from the Normans to the present day, to reveal the buildings' secrets and tell the story of how our architecture and construction has developed over 1000 years.

The next step in Jonathan's journey takes him to Burghley House in Lincolnshire. Built to impress Queen Elizabeth I on her many trips around the country, it is the finest example of an Elizabethan house in Britain.

With unprecedented access to Burghley, Jonathan, aided by champion climber Lucy Creamer, climbs the building, to reveal the innovations of the Elizabethan builders and craftsmen. On his adventures, Jonathan scales up to the roof of Burghley to reveal a unique playground of hidden ornate sculpture where royalty and ambassadors were entertained. He also zips 80 feet across the central courtyard to decipher the scores of mysterious symbols that adorn the building, and scales over a hundred feet to come face-to-face with a one-handed clock. Finally, Jonathan reveals why, although the house was built to accommodate Elizabeth I and her court, she never even set eyes on it.


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

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

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

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


MON 21:00 Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings (b019jsfg)
What a King Should Know

Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of medieval illuminated manuscripts and shows how they gave power to the king and united the kingdom in an age of plague, warfare and rebellion. She discovers that Edward III used the manuscripts he read as a boy to prepare him for his great victory at the battle of Crecy and reveals how a vigorous new national identity bloomed during the 100 Years War with France (1340-1453).

In the British Library's Royal Manuscripts collection she finds out that magnificent manuscripts like the Bedford Hours, taken as war booty from the French royal family, were adapted for the education of English princes. Dr Ramirez also explores how knowledge spread through a new form of book - the encyclopaedia.


MON 22:00 Storyville (b019jsfj)
Survivors

Survivors: My Friend Sam - Living For the Moment

Documentary about an extraordinary man named Sam Frears. Sam, now 39 years old, was born with an extremely rare genetic disorder - Familial Dysautonomia - which left him with only a 50% chance of making it to his fifth birthday.

The film reveals a complex, engaging, exceptional person as he struggles with everyday life while pursuing his joint goals of getting his acting career back on track and finding love.


MON 23:00 John Sergeant on Tracks of Empire (b00t3dbd)
Unite and Divide

John Sergeant embarks on a unique 3,000 mile journey through the history of the greatest legacy the British left to India - its rail network. The biggest in Asia, it runs on 40,000 miles of track and reaches every corner of the subcontinent. Proposed in 1853 by Governor General Lord Dalhousie, it would become the biggest engineering project of its time and instrumental in every chapter of India's history.

Starting in Kolkata, Sergeant traverses India from east to west, travels through turbulent Bihar state, visits the Victorian railway town of Jamalpur, and discovers why the construction of the Dufferin Bridge at Varanasi resulted in Victorian technology and ingenuity clashing with ancient religion, before ending his journey at the border with Pakistan.

Even though Mahatma Gandhi denounced the railways as evil, Sergeant reveals how it became a civil engineering triumph that united the country and played a crucial role when India became independent in 1947.


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


MON 01:00 Les Mis at 25: Matt Lucas Dreams the Dream (b00wyn0c)
Les Miserables is the world's best-loved musical. It has been seen by 57 million people and in 2010 celebrated its 25th anniversary with its two largest ever productions at London's O2 Arena. Matt Lucas, a lifelong fan of 'Les Mis', was invited to fulfil his dream of performing in these shows alongside more than 300 stalwarts from previous productions.

This documentary tells the story of a musical that many thought would fail, but which became a worldwide phenomenon with unforgettable songs like I Dreamed A Dream. We follow Matt as he prepares for the performance of a lifetime, we hear from those involved with the show's creation, including Cameron Mackintosh and Michael Ball, and of course we enjoy wonderful moments from the show itself.


MON 02:00 Storyville (b019jsfj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


MON 03:00 Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings (b019jsfg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 17 JANUARY 2012

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b019jsh8)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Climbing Great Buildings (b00tv973)
St Paul's Cathedral

Dr Jonathan Foyle, architectural historian and novice climber, scales Britain's most iconic structures, from the Normans to the present day, to reveal the buildings' secrets and tell the story of how our architecture and construction has developed over 1000 years.

The next step on Jonathan's journey celebrating Britain's architecture takes him to St Paul's Cathedral in London. If one structure captures the spirit of London, this is it. Beautifully crafted and designed by the great Sir Christopher Wren, it is simply stunning in its stature, with its iconic dome that has dominated London's skyline for over 300 years.

With unprecedented access to secret parts of St Paul's, Jonathan, aided by champion climber Lucy Creamer, climbs over 300 feet to investigate the innovations and tricks of the trade that architectural illusionist Christopher Wren employed to create this magnificent cathedral. He tests the limits of his courage to abseil over 220 feet straight down the centre of the dome from the cupola to get a completely unique view of St Paul's. He reveals how not everything at St Paul's is at it seems, as he uncovers the magic behind the greatest of Wren's architectural tricks, the dome.


TUE 20:00 ... Sings Musicals (b019jshd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]


TUE 21:00 The Story of Musicals (b019jshb)
Episode 3

The final episode brings the story up to the 90s and beyond.

We see the rise of the jukebox musical as Bjorn Ulvaeus and Judy Craymer tell the story of the creation of Mamma Mia! Ben Elton and Brian May reveal how We Will Rock You defied the critics to become a smash hit. And as pop culture invaded musical theatre with celebrities like Jason Donovan taking leading roles, the Jerry Springer Opera proved a step too far for the moral majority.

Billy Elliot took inspiration from the doyenne of British musical theatre, Joan Littlewood, as the hit movie was recreated for the stage, while Andrew Lloyd Webber embraced the medium of television to find new stars.


TUE 22:00 The Then and Now of Muhammad Ali (b00kyqkr)
On the occasion of Muhammad Ali's 70th birthday, Sir David Frost charts the life and career of the world's greatest sportsman through a series of landmark interviews.

Frost meets Ali at his ranch in Michigan and together they look back over the boxer's glittering career and talk about the Parkinson's disease that now blights the former champion's life.

The programme also includes excerpts from two of their greatest encounters - in 1968 when Ali declared that all 'white men are devils' and in 1974 when they met at Ali's training camp at Deer Lake prior to the historic Rumble in the Jungle fight with George Foreman.


TUE 22:50 America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine (b017svd6)
Life was an iconic weekly magazine that specialised in extraordinarily vivid photojournalism. Through its most dynamic decades, - the 40s, 50s and 60s - Life caught the spirit of America as it blossomed into a world superpower. Read by over half the country, its influence on American people was unparalleled. No other magazine in the world held the photograph in such high esteem. At Life the pictures, not the words, did the talking. As a result, the Life photographer was king.

In this film, leading UK fashion photographer Rankin celebrates the work of Life's legendary photographers including Alfred Eisenstaedt and Margaret Bourke-White, who went to outrageous lengths to get the best picture - moving armies, naval fleets and even the population of entire towns. He travels across the USA to meet photographers Bill Eppridge, John Shearer, John Loengard, Burk Uzzle and Harry Benson who, between them, have shot the big moments in American history - from the assassination of Robert F Kennedy, the Civil Rights struggle and Vietnam to behind the scenes at the Playboy mansion and the greatest names in Hollywood.

These photographers pioneered new forms of photojournalism, living with and photographing their subjects for weeks, enabling them to capture compelling yet ordinary aspects of American life too. Rankin discovers that Life told the story of America in photographs, and also taught America how to be American.


TUE 23:50 The Story of Musicals (b019jshb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 00:50 ... Sings Musicals (b019jshd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]


TUE 01:50 The Then and Now of Muhammad Ali (b00kyqkr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


TUE 02:40 Climbing Great Buildings (b00tv973)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 03:10 The Story of Musicals (b019jshb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 18 JANUARY 2012

WED 19:00 World News Today (b019jslq)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Climbing Great Buildings (b00tv99n)
Blenheim Palace

Dr Jonathan Foyle, architectural historian and novice climber, scales Britain's most iconic structures, from the Normans to the present day, to reveal the buildings' secrets and tell the story of how our architecture and construction have developed over 1,000 years.

The next step of Jonathan's journey celebrating British architecture takes him to the epitome of the English stately home - Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. Built in the early 1700s as a reward for the Duke of Marlborough's defeat of King Louis XIV of France, it's one of the finest examples of English Baroque buildings in the country.

With unprecedented access to Blenheim Palace, aided by champion climber Lucy Creamer, Jonathan scales the building to investigate the innovations and techniques used to construct it and to decipher the stories and propaganda carved all over the building. He climbs over 100 feet to reveal the story of how a bawdy playwright, a brave general and his strong-willed wife combined and clashed to create this most audacious masterpiece. He zips across the courtyard to see how the duke's epic victory is celebrated in stone through flamboyant and satirical sculpture, and he dangles precariously inside the Great Hall trying not to break the lamps, worth 250,000 pounds, to get a view of the spectacular hand-painted ceiling.


WED 20:00 Timeshift (b00dzzdc)
Series 8

Last Days of Steam

The surprising story of how Britain entered a new age of steam railways after the Second World War and why it quickly came to an end.

After the war, the largely destroyed railways of Europe were rebuilt to carry more modern diesel and electric trains. Britain, however, chose to build thousands of brand new steam locomotives. Did we stay with steam because coal was seen as the most reliable power source or were the railways run by men who couldn't bear to let go of their beloved steam trains?

The new British locomotives were designed to stay in service well into the 1970s, but in some cases they were taken off the railways and scrapped within just five years. When Dr Richard Beeching took over British Railways in the 1960s the writing was on the wall, and in 1968 the last steam passenger train blew its whistle.

But while steam use declined, steam enthusiasm grew. As many steam engines lay rusting in scrapyards around Britain, enthusiasts raised funds to buy, restore and return them to their former glory. In 2008, the first brand new steam locomotive to be built in Britain in nearly 50 years rolled off the line, proving our enduring love of these machines.


WED 21:00 Jonathan Meades on France (b019m5yy)
Fragments of an Arbitrary Encyclopaedia

Jonathan Meades travels through Lorraine and explains why, although close to its eastern border, it has become the symbolic, or even mystical, heart of France and a stronghold of a romantic nationalism that is also expressed by such diverse means as typography, music, engineering, exquisite urbanism and, above all, a sensitivity to Germany's proximity.


WED 22:00 Outnumbered (b014k53v)
Series 4

Episode 3

Karen is on a sleepover, and Ben is away at adventure camp. Mum and Dad are left with a labrador to look after, and get a glimpse of what life will be like once the children have left home.


WED 22:30 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.


WED 23:00 Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings (b019jsfg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


WED 00:00 Borgen (b019jr89)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


WED 01:00 Borgen (b019jr8c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Saturday]


WED 02:00 Outnumbered (b014k53v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


WED 02:30 Twenty Twelve (b00zwnf0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]


WED 03:00 Jonathan Meades on France (b019m5yy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2012

THU 19:00 World News Today (b019jsr8)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b019jsrb)
13/01/77

David Hamilton introduces Pussycat, Barry Biggs, Liverpool Express, David Parton, Gallagher & Lyle and Status Quo. Dance sequence by Legs & Co.


THU 20:00 John Sergeant on Tracks of Empire (b00t3dbd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Monday]


THU 21:00 Pugin: God's Own Architect (b01b1z45)
Augustus Northmore Welby Pugin is far from being a household name, yet he designed the iconic clock tower of Big Ben as well as much of the Palace of Westminster. The 19th-century Gothic revival that Pugin inspired, with its medieval influences and soaring church spires, established an image of Britain which still defines the nation. Richard Taylor charts Pugin's extraordinary life story and discovers how his work continues to influence Britain today.


THU 22:00 Fig Leaf: The Biggest Cover-Up in History (b00ydp38)
Writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith uncovers the secret history of the humble fig leaf, opening a window onto 2,000 years of western art and ethics.

He tells how the work of Michelangelo, known to his contemporaries as 'the maker of pork things', fuelled the infamous 'fig leaf campaign', the greatest cover-up in art history, how Bernini turned censorship into a new form of erotica by replacing the fig leaf with the slipping gauze, and how the ingenious machinations of Rodin brought nudity back to the public eye.

In telling this story, Smith turns many of our deepest prejudices upside down, showing how the Victorians had a far more sophisticated and mature attitude to sexuality than we do today. He ends with an impassioned plea for the widespread return of the fig leaf to redeem modern art from cheap sensation and innuendo.


THU 23:00 The Story of Musicals (b019jshb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 00:00 ... Sings Musicals (b019jshd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]


THU 01:00 Top of the Pops (b019jsrb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 01:35 Pugin: God's Own Architect (b01b1z45)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


THU 02:35 John Sergeant on Tracks of Empire (b00t3dbd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Monday]


THU 03:35 Fig Leaf: The Biggest Cover-Up in History (b00ydp38)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]



FRIDAY 20 JANUARY 2012

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b019jsxx)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:35 Monitor (b007mw90)
Elgar

Ken Russell's classic 1962 biography of the composer Edward Elgar, which includes reconstructed events in his life using actors and was made for the 100th edition of the pioneering documentary strand, Monitor.


FRI 20:30 Transatlantic Sessions (b00809fv)
Series 3

Episode 3

Folk musicians come together in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever'. Paul Brady hooks up with Scottish chanteuses Eddi Reader and Karen Matheson and a few others in a performance of his song, Rainbow. Also featured are Iris DeMent in a rare appearance in the UK, joining Joan Osborne and Bruce Molsky, with the instrumental talents of Sharon Shannon on accordion and Russ Barenberg on guitar.


FRI 21:00 Paul Simon - Live from Webster Hall, New York (b01b35ks)
In June 2011, Paul Simon ended his So Beautiful or So What tour of small clubs and theatres in the United States by playing Webster Hall, a historic 1,400-person club in New York.

The set list was drawn from his legendary career and includes several songs that have not been performed live in many years. Kodachrome, Mother and Child Reunion, Gone at Last and The Obvious Child are just some of the highlights, along with songs from Simon's latest album So Beautiful or So What including Dazzling Blue, Rewrite, The Afterlife and the album's propulsive title track.

Joining Simon on stage are Vincent Nguini (guitar), Jim Oblon (guitar, drums), Mick Rossi (piano), Andrew Snitzer (saxophone, keyboard), Bakithi Kumalo (bass), Mark Stewart (guitar), Jamey Hadad (percussion) and Tony Cedras (multi-instrumentalist).


FRI 22:00 imagine... (b0171r6x)
Winter 2011

Simon and Garfunkel - The Harmony Game

Arts series. In Jennifer Lebeau's film, Simon and Garfunkel: The Harmony Game, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel talk openly and eloquently about an extraordinarily creative period in their career - the making of Bridge Over Troubled Water. The story behind what was to become their final album has long been shrouded in rock and roll mythology and is told in gripping detail in these rare interviews. Archive footage is used to reveal technical breakthroughs and the emotional feelings the two artists had for each other.


FRI 23:15 BBC One Sessions (b007cj5l)
Paul Simon

The legendary American singer-songwriter with his six-piece band in an intimate concert from LSO St Luke's in London's Shoreditch. Simon plays songs from throughout his solo career and his 60s heyday with Simon and Garfunkel including You Can Call Me Al, The Only Living Boy in New York, The Boxer and Still Crazy After All These Years, alongside songs from his gold-selling album, Surprise. The band sing jawdropping harmonies, play everything from penny whistle to baritone sax and accordion while Simon sings, plays guitar and conducts the band in front of 250 fans.


FRI 00:05 Songs of America 1969 (b01770d9)
A vintage programme from a turbulent time in America's past. Considered controversial at the time, it features footage of Simon and Garfunkel on stage, in the studio and on tour. It also integrates video montages of key events of the era, including news clips of Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, activist Cesar Chavez and the Poor People's March on Washington. Songs include America, So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bridge over Troubled Water, Scarborough Fair, El Condor Pasa (If I Could), Punky's Dilemma, Mrs Robinson, Mystery Train, The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy), The Boxer, Homeward Bound, The Sound of Silence and several others.


FRI 01:00 Paul Simon - Live from Webster Hall, New York (b01b35ks)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:00 imagine... (b0171r6x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 03:15 BBC One Sessions (b007cj5l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:15 today]