The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. In a series of four epic journeys, he travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
His journey takes him from Buxton along one of the first railway routes south to the capital, London. This time, Michael visits the oldest working factory in the world at Cromford, explores the country's first public park in Derby and finds out why Burton's beer is said to be the best.
Military historian Saul David looks at how generals have struggled to kit out their armies for battle.
More than anywhere, the Serengeti is synonymous with wilderness and has even come to represent Africa. But the story of the Serengeti is just as much about humans as it is about wildlife. Right from the origin of our species in Africa, humans have been profoundly shaping this unique wilderness - hunters and pastoralists with cattle and fire, ivory traders and big game hunters, conservationists, scientists, film-makers and even tourists have all played a part in shaping the Serengeti.
Probably most powerful of all was a tiny microbe unknowingly brought to Africa by a small Italian expeditionary force - Rinderpest, a deadly virus that swept through the continent decimating cattle and wildlife alike and forever changing the face of the wild. The Serengeti is far from timeless, it is forever changing - and wherever there is change, the influence of Homo sapiens is not far behind.
A look at how the Minoan civilisation, situated on the Mediterranean island of Crete, was wiped out 3,500 years ago by one of the biggest volcanic eruptions since the Ice Age on the nearby island of Thira. 21st century science reveals the horror the volcano unleashed.
For the first time, the true story of the mastermind behind World War II's Great Escape is told by his niece, Lindy Wilson. Squadron Leader Roger Bushell was a young London barrister, an auxiliary pilot and a champion skier when he was shot down and captured early in the war. He escaped three times and, in spite of the Gestapo's threat to shoot him if he ever escaped again, Bushell accepted the role of 'Big X' on his return to the top-security PoW camp, Stalag Luft 111.
After 18 months of preparation, one of the greatest escapes of the war took place. Their aim to distract the enemy succeeded, as it was estimated that five million Germans were deployed to recapture the 76 escapees. However, Hitler's rage was uncontainable and he personally ordered a terrible reckoning.
WEDNESDAY 25 APRIL 2012
WED 19:00 World News Today (b01gkj2w)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00qgz23)
Series 1
Walsall to Bournville
Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. In a series of four epic journeys, he travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
His journey takes him from Buxton along one of the first railway routes south to the capital, London. This time, Michael meets the queen's saddler in Walsall, learns how to cook an authentic Indian curry in Birmingham and visits Bournville, rumoured to be the best place to live in Britain.
WED 20:00 The Joy of Stats (b00wgq0l)
Documentary which takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride through the wonderful world of statistics to explore the remarkable power they have to change our understanding of the world, presented by superstar boffin Professor Hans Rosling, whose eye-opening, mind-expanding and funny online lectures have made him an international internet legend.
Rosling is a man who revels in the glorious nerdiness of statistics, and here he entertainingly explores their history, how they work mathematically and how they can be used in today's computer age to see the world as it really is, not just as we imagine it to be.
Rosling's lectures use huge quantities of public data to reveal the story of the world's past, present and future development. Now he tells the story of the world in 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers - in just four minutes.
The film also explores cutting-edge examples of statistics in action today. In San Francisco, a new app mashes up police department data with the city's street map to show what crime is being reported street by street, house by house, in near real-time. Every citizen can use it and the hidden patterns of their city are starkly revealed. Meanwhile, at Google HQ the machine translation project tries to translate between 57 languages, using lots of statistics and no linguists.
Despite its light and witty touch, the film nonetheless has a serious message - without statistics we are cast adrift on an ocean of confusion, but armed with stats we can take control of our lives, hold our rulers to account and see the world as it really is. What's more, Hans concludes, we can now collect and analyse such huge quantities of data and at such speeds that scientific method itself seems to be changing.
WED 21:00 Beautiful Minds (b01glqt3)
Series 2
Professor Richard Dawkins
Professor Richard Dawkins reveals how he came to write his explosive first book The Selfish Gene, a work that was to divide the scientific community and make him the most influential evolutionary biologist of his generation. He also explores how this set him on the path to becoming an outspoken spokesman for atheism.
WED 22:00 Parkinson: The Interviews (b01gkj72)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 on Saturday]
WED 22:40 Episodes (b00ysm34)
Series 1
Episode 6
Sean and Beverly Lincoln are a happily married English couple, who are also the creators of a hit British TV show. Their life seems complete. That is until a hugely powerful and charismatic US network president persuades them to move to Los Angeles to recreate their show for American television.
Convinced that Sean is having an affair with Morning, Beverly packs a bag and leaves, intending to head back to London. However, in her distress, she is unaware that she is driving on the left-hand side of the road and doesn't realise her mistake until a head-on collision, a collision which leads her down a road with even more dire consequences.
WED 23:10 The Great Outdoors (b00td53g)
Episode 3
On the annual trip to the south coast, Bob and Christine's rivalry finally comes to a head. Meanwhile, Victor is hoping he will finally get his promised kiss from Hazel and Tom plucks up courage for his own romance.
WED 23:40 Frost on Satire (b00srhgn)
Sir David Frost presents an investigation into the power of political satire with the help of some of the funniest TV moments of the last 50 years.
Beginning with the 1960s and That Was the Week That Was, he charts the development of television satire in Britain and the United States and is joined by the leading satirists from both sides of the Atlantic. From the UK, Rory Bremner, Ian Hislop and John Lloyd discuss their individual contributions, while from the US, Jon Stewart analyses the appeal of The Daily Show, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell talk about their respective portrayals of Sarah Palin and George W Bush, and Chevy Chase remembers how Saturday Night Live turned them into huge stars.
All of them tackle the key question of whether satire really can alter the course of political events.
WED 00:40 Great British Railway Journeys (b00qgz23)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
WED 01:10 Timeshift (b00dwflh)
Series 8
Between the Lines - Railways in Fiction and Film
Novelist Andrew Martin presents a documentary examining how the train and the railways came to shape the work of writers and film-makers.
Lovers parting at the station, runaway carriages and secret assignations in confined compartments - railways have long been a staple of romance, mystery and period drama. But at the beginning of the railway age, locomotives were seen as frightening and unnatural. Wordsworth decried the destruction of the countryside, while Dickens wrote about locomotives as murderous brutes, bent on the destruction of mere humans. Hardly surprising, as he had been involved in a horrific railway accident himself.
Martin traces how trains gradually began to be accepted - Holmes and Watson were frequent passengers - until by the time of The Railway Children they were something to be loved, a symbol of innocence and Englishness. He shows how trains made for unforgettable cinema in The 39 Steps and Brief Encounter, and how when the railways fell out of favour after the 1950s, their plight was highlighted in the films of John Betjeman.
Finally, Martin asks whether, in the 21st century, Britain's railways can still stir and inspire artists.
WED 02:10 Episodes (b00ysm34)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:40 today]
WED 02:40 The Great Outdoors (b00td53g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:10 today]
WED 03:10 Beautiful Minds (b01glqt3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 26 APRIL 2012
THU 19:00 World News Today (b01gkj33)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b01glqzy)
14/04/77
Jimmy Savile looks at the weekly pop chart from 1977 and introduces the Brothers, Cleo Laine & John Williams, Billy Ocean, Brendon, the Stylistics, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr, David Soul, Abba and a Legs & Co dance sequence.
THU 20:00 Horizon (b01d99vb)
2011-2012
Solar Storms - The Threat to Planet Earth
There is a new kind of weather to worry about and it comes from our nearest star.
Scientists are expecting a fit of violent activity on the sun, which will propel billions of tonnes of superheated gas and pulses of energy towards our planet. They have the power to close down our modern technological civilisation - in 1989, a solar storm cut off the power to the Canadian city of Quebec.
Horizon meets the space weathermen who are trying to predict what is coming our way, and organisations like the National Grid, who are preparing for the impending solar storms.
THU 21:00 The Kidnap Diaries (b01glr00)
Dramatised account of film-maker Sean Langan's kidnapping in 2008 while on a quest to become the first western journalist to film the Taliban training camps. In a bizarre meeting of East and West, the self-confessed adrenaline junkie strikes up an unlikely friendship with the deeply Islamic family holding him captive. As his captors become his hosts, he begins to question his own motives and discovers a common humanity across the vast cultural divide.
THU 22:00 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b01gxkgw)
Sean Langan
In this in-depth interview Mark Lawson meets the award-winning journalist and filmmaker Sean Langan, whose kidnap by the Taliban in 2008 inspired BBC Four's hostage drama The Kidnap Diaries. Langan's professional life began as a TV entertainment presenter, but his investigative nose led him to document some of the most volatile and war-torn regions in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Armed with a camera and irrepressible courage, he has produced a series of enlightening documentaries including Afghan Ladies Driving School, African Railway, Langan Behind the Lines, Mission Accomplished and Fighting the Taliban.
THU 23:00 The King & the Playwright: A Jacobean History (p00qhsr7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
THU 00:00 Top of the Pops (b01glqzy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 00:30 The Kidnap Diaries (b01glr00)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 01:30 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b01gxkgw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
THU 02:30 Horizon (b01d99vb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 03:30 The Kidnap Diaries (b01glr00)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 27 APRIL 2012
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b01gkj3b)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 BBC Young Musician (b01glr7v)
2012
Strings Final
Week three of BBC Young Musician 2012 from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff, and with the winners of the keyboard and brass categories already decided, the focus moves to strings. Presenter Clemency Burton-Hill, herself an accomplished violinist, is in her element as she meets two cellists and three violinists, each hoping to win the strings title and gain that all-important place in the semi-final.
In a category final close to her heart, Clemency takes us behind the scenes, with competitor profiles, performance highlights and all the news from this year's competition. Violinists Julia Hwang, 16, Juliette Roos, 16, and Cristian Grajner-De Sa, 17, along with cellists Joel Sandelson, 17, and this year's youngest category finalist, Laura van der Heijden, at just 14, each have just twenty minutes to prove they are the best young string player in the country, before a panel of distinguished judges.
Whoever wins goes through to the semi-final, taking them a step closer to the final at the Sage, Gateshead on May 13th and a chance for a shot at the title of BBC Young Musician 2012.
FRI 21:00 Sinatra Sings (b0192r0w)
Ol' Blue Eyes in concert in his 1960s, 70s and 80s prime from a variety of US TV specials and in the recording studio. Sinatra the great swinger, saloon singer and balladeer sings classics like That's Life, Moonlight in Vermont, Fly Me to the Moon, Young at Heart and Theme from New York, with some reminiscences from Frank's third child, Tina.
FRI 22:00 ... Sings Bacharach and David! (b01gxl5w)
The BBC have raided their remarkable archive once more to reveal evocative performances from Burt Bacharach and Hal David's astonishing songbook. Love songs from the famous songwriting duo were a familiar feature of 60s and 70s BBC entertainment programmes such as Dusty, Cilla and The Cliff Richard Show, but there are some surprises unearthed here too.
Highlights include Sandie Shaw singing Always Something There to Remind Me, Aretha Franklin performing I Say a Little Prayer, Dusty Springfield's Wishin' and Hopin', The Stranglers' rendition of Walk on By on Top of the Pops, The Carpenters in concert performing (They Long to Be) Close to You and Burt Bacharach revisiting his classic Kentucky Bluebird with Rufus Wainwright on Later...with Jools Holland.
FRI 23:00 Burt Bacharach... This Is Now (b011g945)
Dusty Springfield narrates a documentary profile of the songwriter who won an Oscar for the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid score, enjoyed stage success with Promises, Promises and whose classic songs continue to influence modern music. Featuring interviews with Dionne Warwick, Noel Gallager, Hal David, Herb Alpert, Elvis Costello, Cilla Black, Richard Carpenter, Carol Bayer Sager and Gillian Lynne.
FRI 23:50 Easy Listening Hits at the BBC (b011g943)
Compilation of easy listening tracks that offers the perfect soundtrack for your cocktail party. There's music to please every lounge lizard, with unique performances from the greatest easy listening artists of the 60s and 70s, including Burt Bacharach, Andy Williams, Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, The Carpenters and many more.
FRI 00:50 The Joy of Easy Listening (b011g614)
In-depth documentary investigation into the story of a popular music genre that is often said to be made to be heard but not listened to. The film looks at easy listening's architects and practitioners, its dangers and delights, and the mark it has left on modern life.
From its emergence in the 50s to its heyday in the 60s, through its survival in the 70s and 80s and its revival in the 90s and beyond, the film traces the hidden history of a music that has reflected society every bit as much as pop and rock - just in a more relaxed way.
Invented at the dawn of rock 'n' roll, easy listening has shadowed pop music and the emerging teenage market since the mid-50s. It is a genre that equally soundtracks our modern age, but perhaps for a rather more 'mature' generation and therefore with its own distinct purpose and aesthetic.
Contributors include Richard Carpenter, Herb Alpert, Richard Clayderman, Engelbert Humperdinck, Jimmy Webb, Mike Flowers, James Last and others.
FRI 02:20 ... Sings Bacharach and David! (b01gxl5w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 03:20 BBC Young Musician (b01glr7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]