SATURDAY 24 AUGUST 2013

SAT 19:00 Precision: The Measure of All Things (b02xgf5d)
Mass and Moles

Deep underground in a vault beneath Paris lives the most important lump of metal in the world - Le Grand K. Created in the 19th century, it's the world's master kilogramme, the weight on which every other weight is based. But there is a problem with Le Grand K - it is losing weight. Professor Marcus du Sautoy explores the history of this strange object and the astonishing modern day race to replace it.


SAT 20:00 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 21:00 King of Devil's Island (b01nrcvq)
Norway, the early 20th century. On the island of Bastoy lies a boys' home with a fearsome reputation. New inmate Erling is not cowed by the home's firm discipline and the brutality of housefather Brathen. He's only interested in one thing: escape. At first his conflict with authority only makes him unpopular with the other boys, but as he begins to gain the upper hand in his struggle they rally to his cause. Soon the boys are openly questioning Bastoy's regime, with devastating consequences.

In Norwegian with English subtitles.


SAT 22:50 Richard Pryor Live in Concert (b00793dn)
Stand-up comedy with Richard Pryor live in concert from 1979.


SAT 00:05 Duets at the BBC (b01c2xwt)
The BBC delves into its archive for the best romantic duets performed at the BBC over the last 50 years. Whether it is Robbie and Kylie dancing together on Top of the Pops or Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge singing into each other's eyes on the Whistle Test, there is plenty of chemistry. Highlights include Nina and Frederik's Baby It's Cold Outside, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, Sonny and Cher, Shirley Bassey and Neil Diamond, Peaches and Herb, and a rare performance from Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush.


SAT 01:05 Top of the Pops (b038z4mf)
Tony Blackburn presents the weekly pop chart show featuring the Dooleys, Siouxsie and the Banshees, 10cc, Klark Kent, Exile, the Rezillos, Darts, Cliff Richard, the Commodores and a Legs & Co dance sequence.


SAT 01:35 Tiger - Spy in the Jungle (b009v6nv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:40 Precision: The Measure of All Things (b02xgf5d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



SUNDAY 25 AUGUST 2013

SUN 19:00 BBC Proms (b0394h4y)
2013

Proms on Four: 20th Century Classics - London Symphony Orchestra

Tom Service presents a thoroughly British edition of his series focusing on 20th century music at the Proms, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding. Music includes Michael Tippett's Concerto for Double String Orchestra, Benjamin Britten's Les Illuminations featuring tenor Ian Bostridge, and Elgar's Second Symphony. The concert is dedicated to Sir Colin Davis, president of the London Symphony Orchestra, who died earlier this year.


SUN 21:00 Flamenco: Gypsy Soul (p01dy1fk)
Writer Elizabeth Kinder embarks on a journey through Andalusia from Malaga to Cadiz to find the soul of flamenco, the beguiling mix of guitar, song and dance strongly associated with southern Spain's gypsies.

Featuring performances from gypsy blacksmiths to goat herders, the documentary reveals a glimpse of a timeless way of life as it has been preserved down the centuries. The history of this mysterious music and its relationship to Spain is explored in chocolate box locations including Moron de la Frontera, Granada, Seville and Jerez and the programme also features rare archive of notable artists such as Camaron de la Isla and Diego Del Gastor.


SUN 22:00 Storyville (b0394h53)
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic

Portrait of legendary comedian Richard Pryor which chronicles his life from his troubled youth to his meteoric rise as one of the most respected - and controversial - comic actors of the 20th century. Often misunderstood during the height of his celebrity, the film lays bare the demons with which he struggled, reminding us just how daring and dangerous artistic freedom can be.

Featuring appearances from comedy royalty including Mel Brooks and Robin Williams, it also offers unprecedented access to members of his family and inner circle and features rarely seen footage of the artist at work.


SUN 23:20 Richard Pryor Live in Concert (b00793dn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:50 on Saturday]


SUN 00:35 How to Be a World Music Star: Buena Vista, Bhundu Boys and Beyond (b038rp8k)
Documentary telling the story of the British world music revolution from the early 1980s to the present. Through a variety of careers, starting with Zimbabwe's Bhundu Boys and culminating with Portugal's Mariza in the new millennium, the film explores what it takes to bring music from 'out there' over here.

Through the testimony of artists from all around the world alongside key British producers and broadcasters including Andy Kershaw, Joe Boyd and Nick Gold, it tracks the evolving story of what British audiences have wanted from what has come to be called 'world music' and what a range of artists, including Les Mystere des Voix Bulgares, Salif Keita, Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Buena Vista Social Club and Tinariwen, have made of us.

At the dawn of the 80s, in an age of spandex and synthesizers, many music fans were becoming bored with the pop charts and hungered for a new music that could excite them once again. Where music from the rest of the world had once been regarded as mere exotica, there was increasingly a sense that world music could be the future of pop music.

The documentary traces the hopes and ambitions of a new music industry as cultures came together for the first time, producing much brilliant music and a degree of human comedy.

From the tribal warriors of Mali who fought in rebellions with guitars and guns strapped to their shoulders, all-female choirs from the other side of the Iron Curtain playing to rock fans, a band from Zimbabwe who supported Madonna to a group of old men from Cuba who took the world by storm with their music from another era, these tales from musicians from out there arriving over here trace an evolving market that has both offered a blueprint for the future and an escape into a romantic past.


SUN 02:05 A-Z of World Music (b038rp8n)
Journeying through the alphabet, a showcase of music from across the world - from Africa to Uzbekistan, Norway to South America, India to Louisiana and everywhere in between.

Featured instruments include Kimmo Pohjonen's accordion, the impressively large drums of the Yamato Drummers and the extraordinary vocals of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The helter-skelter ride takes us from the 1970s, through to the explosion of acts in the 1980s, right up to the most sought-after musicians on the world music circuit today.

From Sevara Nazarkhan's pin-drop solo to a crowd-moving set from Orchestra Baobab, this is a compilation that presents a fun, vibrant snapshot of the range of traditional music that has captured audiences the world over.



MONDAY 26 AUGUST 2013

MON 19:00 Sounds of the 70s 2 (b01glwkz)
Arthouse Glam - Get in the Swing

Performances from The Kinks, Roxy Music, Elton John, New York Dolls, Queen, Sparks, Rod Stewart and the rediscovered David Bowie performance of The Jean Genie from January 1973.

Welcome to gender-bending, boys getting in the swing and girls who would be boys and boys who would be girls in this mixed-up, shook-up 70s world.


MON 19:30 The Richest Songs in the World (b01pjrt5)
Mark Radcliffe presents a countdown of the ten songs which have earned the most money of all time - ten classic songs each with an extraordinary story behind them. Radcliffe lifts the lid on how music royalties work and reveals the biggest winners and losers in the history of popular music.


MON 21:00 Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain (b0394j6q)
A Revolution in the City

Using her skills to uncover long-forgotten and abandoned plans, architectural investigator Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner explores the fascinating and dramatic stories behind some of the grandest designs that were never built.

Destruction, whether intentional or circumstantial, often creates a clean slate and demands a fresh outlook in which we come to think the unthinkable. This programme looks at bold, and in some cases shocking, plans to make revolutionary changes to Britain's biggest cities.

In the mid 17th century, the capital was reeling from the devastation caused by the Great Fire of London. But amid the destruction, a huge opportunity arose to completely remodel and modernise London and make it into a very different city than the one we know today.

London was effectively a blank sheet of paper and, within a week of the city being razed to the ground, architect Sir Christopher Wren presented King Charles II with a vision to create a completely new city. Wren wanted the winding streets and old courtyards that had existed almost unchanged since medieval times to be replaced by monumental Parisian-style avenues in a formal grid pattern with large piazzas. This was a unique opportunity to improve on the past but, while Wren's design for St Paul's Cathedral did become a reality, London was reconstructed on essentially the same street plan as before the fire.

Three centuries later, Glasgow was the second city of the empire and the industrial powerhouse of the nation, but was struggling to cope with overcrowding and slum housing. Many believed the only solution was to start again. The city's leading planner, Robert Bruce, proposed demolishing the entire city centre - the celebrated buildings of Mackintosh and Greek Thompson would all have been bulldozed - to create a 1940s vision of the future. The new Glasgow would have been built as a system of regular tower blocks, ringed by a motorway, built in districts according to function. Bruce's justification for these drastic proposals was the creation of a new 'healthy and beautiful city'. Although his plan was not realised in its entirety, many of his ideas were carried out, and the M8 motorway which cuts right through the city centre is probably the most visible legacy of the 'Bruce Report'.

In both plans, destruction was the driving force behind creating a new city on a fresh slate. Separated in time by 300 years, these two radical thinkers, Christopher Wren and Robert Bruce, devised colossal, transformative schemes for their respective cities in a bid to create their very personal vision of the 'perfect city'.


MON 22:00 Tribe (b007y1j3)
Series 3

Nenets

Explorer Bruce Parry travels to the frozen tundra of Northern Siberia, spending a month with a brigade of Nenet reindeer herders during their winter migration. The herders travel hundreds of miles in temperatures that can drop to -40.


MON 23:00 Tiger - Spy in the Jungle (b009v6nv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday]


MON 00:00 The Richest Songs in the World (b01pjrt5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 01:30 Nature's Microworlds (b01l4906)
Serengeti

A look at one of the most famous habitats on the planet, the Serengeti in east Africa, a vast grassland that is home to some of the greatest concentrations of herbivores on the continent. But what is the key to this exceptional grassland that allows such density and diversity?


MON 02:00 Johnny Kingdom and the Bears of Alaska (b01qyvnk)
Johnny Kingdom, the wild man of Exmoor, is back and going further than he's ever been before - the trip of a lifetime to Kodiak Island in Alaska in search of brown bears.

As a lad, amateur wildlife filmmaker Johnny would poach salmon from the rivers on Exmoor with his bare hands, but his lifelong ambition has been to see how the real experts - brown bears - do it, as they fish for sockeye salmon in the remote rivers of Kodiak Island off the southwest coast of Alaska.

It is also the biggest challenge he has faced as an amateur cameraman. In characteristic style, Johnny finds himself struggling to keep his camera still without a tripod and because his hands are shaking so much when faced with a 'hooge' bear less than 30 metres away.

The other challenge he faces, which he cannot control, is the weather. In the summer, although the snow has melted this part of Alaska is plagued by heavy mists and fog, which makes the journey by seaplane to the remote areas where the bears live even harder to achieve.

Fortunately Johnny is able to take advantage of being grounded and heads out on a boat into the rich waters around Kodiak Island to film humpback whales, tufted puffins and an enchantingly close encounter with sea otters.

But it's the bears he's come for and Johnny finally gets the shots he wanted - bears catching salmon. He can hardly believe it.

This is Johnny Kingdom at his best - infectiously enthusiastic, madly exuberant and never less than hugely enjoyable.


MON 03:00 Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain (b0394j6q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 27 AUGUST 2013

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b0393xlk)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Nature's Microworlds (b01l4906)
[Repeat of broadcast at 01:30 on Monday]


TUE 20:00 Archaeology: A Secret History (p0109k4g)
The Power of the Past

Archaeologist Richard Miles presents a series charting the history of the breakthroughs and watersheds in our long quest to understand our ancient past. He shows how 20th-century attention turned from civilisation and kings to the search for the common man against a background of science and competing political ideologies.


TUE 21:00 Ancient Greece: The Greatest Show on Earth (b039fpnk)
Democrats

Classicist Dr Michael Scott journeys to Athens to explore how drama first began. He discovers that from the very start it was about more than just entertainment - it was a reaction to real events, it was a driving force in history and it was deeply connected to Athenian democracy. In fact, the story of theatre is the story of Athens.


TUE 22:00 Peter and Dan Snow: 20th Century Battlefields (b007sfdd)
20th Century Battlefields

1973 Middle East

Peter and Dan Snow unpick the complex history of conflict in the Middle East. Known in the West as the Yom Kippur War, the fighting that broke out in 1973 was the biggest military clash between Arabic nations and Israel.

Peter and Dan travel to Israel, the country that found itself in danger of being crushed on two sides when Egypt and Syria launched a massive combined attack. Using state-of-the-art graphics, Peter explains how the Egyptians stunned the Israelis in their surprise attack, when thousands of Egyptian soldiers and hundreds of tanks crossed the Suez Canal and pushed into the Sinai desert. With the help of the British Royal Marines, Dan experiences how small teams of Egyptian foot-soldiers used the latest technology to stop the Israel tanks in their tracks.


TUE 23:00 Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited (b01sbvzt)
Families of the Stone Age

Julian Richards returns to the excavation of two burials from the Stone Age - the grave of an entire Neolithic family in Dorset and a tomb on Orkney that is helping to reveal some strange and unexpected burial rites from over 5,000 years ago.


TUE 00:00 Insect Dissection: How Insects Work (p00zst23)
Insects outnumber us by 200 million to one. They thrive in environments where humans wouldn't last minutes. We mostly perceive them as pests - yet without bugs, entire ecosystems would collapse, crops would disappear and waste would pile high.

The secret of their success? Their incredible alien anatomy.

To reveal this extraordinary hidden world, entomologists Dr James Logan and Brendan Dunphy carry out a complete insect dissection. Cutting-edge imaging technology shows us the beauty and precision of the natural engineering inside even the simplest insects.

Stripping back the layers, they uncover ingenious body systems and finely tuned senses - a bug body plan that is the hidden blueprint behind insects' 'global domination'. They also discover how science is now using the secrets of insect anatomy to inspire technology that could save human lives.


TUE 01:00 Nature's Microworlds (b01l4906)
[Repeat of broadcast at 01:30 on Monday]


TUE 01:30 Archaeology: A Secret History (p0109k4g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 02:30 Ancient Greece: The Greatest Show on Earth (b039fpnk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 28 AUGUST 2013

WED 19:00 World News Today (b0393xlz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Top of the Pops (b039gsjl)
Peter Powell presents the weekly pop chart show featuring the Jam, Leo Sayer, Boney M, Sylvester, Manhattan Transfer, Hi-Tension, Hylda Baker & Arthur Mullard, the Commodores and a Legs & Co dance sequence.


WED 20:00 Around the World in 60 Minutes (b00ymjkt)
A unique journey around the weird and wonderful planet that we call home.

When Yuri Gagarin was blasted into space he became the first human to get a proper look at where we live. 'The Earth is blue,' he exclaimed, 'how amazing!'. Suddenly our perspective on the world had changed forever. We thought we were going to explore the universe, yet the most extraordinary thing we discovered was our own home planet, the Earth.

So what would you see during just one orbit of the Earth? Starting 200 miles above the planet, this film whisks you around the planet to show what changes in the time it takes to circumnavigate the Earth just once. We hear from British-born astronaut Piers Sellers on what it's like to live and work in space, and also to gaze down and see how we are altering and reshaping our world.

We marvel at the incredible forces of nature that brings hundred-mile wide storms and reshapes continents, and also discover how we humans are draining seas and building cities in the middle of the desert. We also visit the wettest place on Earth, as well as the most volcanic.

Narrated by David Morrissey, this inspirational trip around the planet will make you view our home as you've never seen it before.


WED 21:00 Crash Test Dummies: A Smashing History (b039dyl5)
Engineer Jem Stansfield investigates how the crash test dummy has become an icon for safety. For 65 years he has been crashed, smashed and impaled, evolving from a simple military mannequin into a highly sophisticated measuring tool. Jem meets a whole range of dummies from the past, present and future at crash laboratories in Sweden, the UK and US to discover how their evolution has mirrored car safety improvements.

An affectionate look at a unique feat of engineering which makes you laugh, gasp and wince all at once.


WED 22:00 Martin Luther King: The Assassination Tapes (b0395lf7)
4 April 1968, and Martin Luther King is gunned down on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. The catalyst that would lead to his assassination began three months before his death, when the city's sanitation workers went on strike. Realising that this might be a seminal moment in the civil rights movement, scholars at the University of Memphis started to collect every piece of media they could find - television, radio and print.

Unbelievably, most of this remarkable footage hasn't been seen since 1968. Now, for the first time, it has been chronologically reassembled, bringing to life as never before the tumultuous events surrounding one of the most shocking assassinations in America.


WED 22:50 Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain (b0394j6q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


WED 23:50 Flamenco: Gypsy Soul (p01dy1fk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


WED 00:50 Top of the Pops (b039gsjl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 01:30 Around the World in 60 Minutes (b00ymjkt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:30 Crash Test Dummies: A Smashing History (b039dyl5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 29 AUGUST 2013

THU 19:00 World News Today (b0393xm5)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 BBC Proms (b0395lms)
2013

Proms on Four: Orchestras of the World - Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra

From the Royal Albert Hall, Katie Derham introduces the Gustav Mahler Jurgendorchester, which brings together some of Europe's best young musicians and is one of the most musically exciting and polished youth orchestras in the world. Conducted by Philippe Jordan, the orchestra performs Wagner's Rienzi Overture and Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony and is joined by the flamboyant French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet for Ravel's jazz-influenced Piano Concerto in G Major.


THU 21:15 Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe (b007920b)
The Heart of Italy

Francesco da Mosto discovers why Rome is the Eternal City and goes head to head with Mussolini. Travelling via the fantastic water gardens of Villa d'Este and the royal seat of the Bourbon dynasty, he arrives in Naples. After an encounter with Italy's most astonishing sculpture - Sanmartino's Veiled Christ - and a lesson in Neapolitan pizza making, Francesco descends deep into the caverns of underground Naples and discovers an eerie cult of the dead.


THU 22:15 Ancient Greece: The Greatest Show on Earth (b039fpnk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 23:15 Peter and Dan Snow: 20th Century Battlefields (b007sfdd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]


THU 00:15 Storyville (b0394h53)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]


THU 01:35 Johnny Kingdom and the Bears of Alaska (b01qyvnk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 02:00 on Monday]


THU 02:35 Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe (b007920b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:15 today]



FRIDAY 30 AUGUST 2013

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b0393xmc)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 BBC Proms (b0395mzs)
2013

Proms on Four: John Wilson's Hollywood Rhapsody

At the Royal Albert Hall, Katie Derham introduces the ever-popular John Wilson and his orchestra in a celebration of the music of Hollywood. Bernard Herrmann's Psycho, Erich Korngold's Robin Hood, Max Steiner's Casablanca and Miklos Rozsa's Ben Hur are among the film scores featured, performed by the orchestra Wilson describes as 'a symphony orchestra with an old-fashioned dance band in the middle'. With soloists Venera Gimadieva, Matthew Ford and Jane Monheit.


FRI 21:20 Youssou N'Dour: Voice of Africa (b0395mzx)
Documentary telling the remarkable life story of Senegal's most renowned singer/composer, Youssou N'Dour. He found international fame with the song 7 Seconds, but he became the voice of Africa through the emotional power of his songs followed by a dangerous move into politics. The film tracks Youssou's personal journey, with performances and rare footage from around the world, beginning in the remote desert landscape where Youssou chose to announce his return to music in February 2013. Featuring contributions from Youssou himself, his family, friends and band members, Peter Gabriel and Neneh Cherry, plus archive, home movies and performances from throughout his career.


FRI 22:20 BBC Four Sessions (b0074nv9)
Youssou N'Dour

The crown prince of African music, Youssou N'Dour, in fiery form on the last night of his 2003 European tour at the Union Chapel in London.

Mixing material from his highly acclaimed album Nothing's In Vain (Coono Du Reer) with classic songs like Immigres and Seven Seconds from his back catalogue, Dakar's favourite son mixes acoustic intimacy with all-singing, all-dancing showstoppers in a joyous celebration of his music.


FRI 23:20 imagine... (b01kkn74)
Summer 2012

Paul Simon's Graceland - Under African Skies

Paul Simon's Graceland album is one of his greatest achievements - a brilliant fusion of African rhythms and western pop which became a global phenomenon. It also proved hugely controversial, as Simon broke the UN-backed cultural boycott of a country still under the grip of apartheid.

Joe Berlinger's film captures Simon's return to South Africa 25 years on and contrasts the value of individual artistic expression versus collective political action as instruments of change. Did Paul Simon's unique collaboration with South Africa's township musicians set back the clock of South African liberation or drive it forward?


FRI 00:50 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 01:40 Youssou N'Dour: Voice of Africa (b0395mzx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:20 today]


FRI 02:40 BBC Four Sessions (b0074nv9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:20 today]