SATURDAY 18 OCTOBER 2014

SAT 19:00 Edward VII: Prince of Pleasure (b00rq3y2)
King Edward VII has always been an enigma. Twentieth-century dynasty builder and sex addict, boorish philistine and civilised cosmopolitan - he was all of these. Using extensive new research, this documentary unravels the mystery of a thoroughly modern monarch and shows that his legacy is still relevant today.


SAT 20:00 The Horizon Guide to Space Shuttles (b0109cc7)
In 2011, after more than 30 years of service, America's space shuttle took to the skies for the last time. Its story has been characterised by incredible triumphs, but blighted by devastating tragedies - and the BBC and Horizon have chronicled every step of its career. This unique and poignant Horizon Guide brings together coverage from three decades of programmes to present a biography of the shuttle and to ask what its legacy will be. Will it be remembered as an impressive chapter in human space exploration, or as a fatally flawed white elephant?


SAT 21:00 The Code (b04mgxk8)
Series 1

Episode 3

Wracked by guilt that his brother Jesse has paid such a high price for trying to help his investigation, Ned fears the worst when Jesse goes missing.


SAT 21:55 The Code (b04mgxkc)
Series 1

Episode 4

Ned and Jesse are on the run, and running out of options. Their house has been ransacked, their phones bugged and their every computer stroke tracked. With nowhere to hide and no-one to turn to, they have no choice but to hunt down the truth in Lindara in the hope that it will save them.


SAT 22:55 Northern Soul: Living for the Weekend (b04bf1lf)
The northern soul phenomenon was the most exciting underground British club movement of the 70s. At its high point, thousands of disenchanted white working class youths across the north of England danced to obscure, mid-60s Motown-inspired sounds until the sun rose. A dynamic culture of fashions, dance moves, vinyl obsession and much more grew up around this - all fuelled by the love of rare black American soul music with an express-train beat.

Through vivid first-hand accounts and rare archive footage, this film charts northern soul's dramatic rise, fall and rebirth. It reveals the scene's roots in the mod culture of the 60s and how key clubs like Manchester's Twisted Wheel and Sheffield's Mojo helped create the prototype that would blossom in the next decade.

By the early 70s a new generation of youngsters in the north were transforming the old ballrooms and dancehalls of their parents' generation into citadels of the northern soul experience, creating a genuine alternative to mainstream British pop culture. This was decades before the internet, when people had to travel great distances to enjoy the music they felt so passionate about.

Set against a rich cultural and social backdrop, the film shows how the euphoria and release that northern soul gave these clubbers provided an escape from the bleak reality of their daily lives during the turbulent 70s. After thriving in almost total isolation from the rest of the UK, northern soul was commercialised and broke nationwide in the second half of the 70s. But just as this happened, the once-healthy rivalry between the clubs in the north fell apart amidst bitter in-fighting over the direction the scene should go.

Today, northern soul is more popular than ever, but it was back in the 70s that one of the most fascinating and unique British club cultures rose to glory. Contributors include key northern soul DJs like Richard Searling, Ian Levine, Colin Curtis and Kev Roberts alongside Lisa Stansfield, Norman Jay, Pete Waterman, Marc Almond, Peter Stringfellow and others.


SAT 23:55 Motown at the BBC (b00hq4qr)
To mark the 50-year anniversary of Motown in 2009, a compilation of some of the iconic record label's greatest names filmed live in the BBC studios. Visitors from Hitsville USA over the years have included Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops and The Jackson 5.


SAT 00:55 The Sky at Night (b04lpvzv)
Ice Giants

The vast frozen worlds of Uranus and Neptune are the most enigmatic and mysterious planets in the solar system. From the most powerful winds ever recorded to their exotic atmospheres, what makes these planets so unique? Chris Lintott and Maggie Aderin-Pocock reveal the latest images of the ice giants, while award-winning astro-photographer Damian Peach shares his tips for capturing these jewels of the night sky.


SAT 01:25 The Horizon Guide to Space Shuttles (b0109cc7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:25 Edward VII: Prince of Pleasure (b00rq3y2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



SUNDAY 19 OCTOBER 2014

SUN 19:00 Top of the Pops (b03mpphw)
The Story of 1979

1979 was a unique year for Top of the Pops, which saw the show record its highest audience of 19 million viewers and in which physical format singles sales hit an all-time high of 79 million. 1979 is maybe the most diverse year ever for acts on Top of the Pops with disco at its peak, new wave, 2 Tone, reggae, rock, folk and electro records all making the top five.

Original interviews with Gary Numan, Nile Rodgers, Woody from Madness, Jah Wobble, Chas and Dave, Janet Kay, Linda Nolan, Jim Dooley, Secret Affair, the Ruts, Legs and Co and many others tell the story of an exceptional year.

In the year that the 'winter of discontent' saw continuing strikes black out ITV and TOTP reduced during a technicians strike to a narrator introducing videos, the show also found itself the site of conflict backstage. TOTP's old guard of 70s MOR acts had their feathers continually ruffled by new wave bands, as the Skids spat at the Nolan Sisters backstage and Generation X urinated off the roof onto the Dooleys.

Elsewhere in the corridors of TV Centre, in preparation for playing their single Death Disco, Public Image Ltd demanded their teeth were blacked out in make-up to appear ugly, while Gary Numan remembers the overbearing union presence which prevented TOTP artists moving their own microphones without a union technician and the Musicians Union trying to ban him from the show for his use of synthesizers.

The most popular musical styles of 1979 were 2 Tone, reggae and disco. The latter saw Nile Rodgers, the man of the year, score four hits with Chic as well as writing and producing a further four hits with Sister Sledge, Sheila B Devotion and Sugarhill Gang, who appeared with what would prove to be the first ever rap hit.

Jamaican and UK reggae artists scored continual hits through the year and then watched as the Police notched up three hits with white reggae and the label 2 Tone revived the 60s reggae style known as ska. In November, in what is remembered as the 2 Tone edition, all three of the label's new acts - Madness, Specials and Selecter - appeared on one historic night and took the show by storm, with Madness capping off their performance of One Step Beyond by leading a 'nutty train' conga through the studio.


SUN 20:00 BBC Music John Peel Lecture (b04m9q6v)
2014: Iggy Pop

Iggy Pop delivers this year's BBC Music John Peel Lecture on the subject of free music in a capitalist society. Iggy has inspired and energised rock and roll's alternative spirit since the late sixties and John Peel was actually the first DJ to play Iggy's music (as part of the Stooges) on UK radio in 1969. Following the lecture, Lauren Laverne talks to Iggy about his musical legacy and a specially-invited audience puts questions to the godfather of punk.


SUN 21:00 Storyville (b04m3k1q)
Russia's Toughest Prison: The Condemned

With unprecedented access, this documentary looks into the hidden world of one of Russia's most impenetrable and remote institutions - a maximum security prison exclusively for murderers. Deep inside the land of the gulags, this is the end of the line for some of Russia's most dangerous criminals - 260 men who have collectively killed nearly 800 people. The film delves deep into the mind and soul of some of these prisoners.

In brutally frank and uncensored interviews the inmates speak of their crimes, life and death, redemption and remorselessness, insanity and hope. The film tracks them though their unrelenting days over several months, lifting the veil on one of Russia's most secretive subcultures to reveal what happens when a man is locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours every day, for life.

A startling insight into inscrutable minds and the forbidding world they have been condemned to.


SUN 22:20 Horror Europa with Mark Gatiss (b01nmsw7)
Actor and writer Mark Gatiss embarks on a chilling voyage through European horror cinema. From the silent nightmares of German Expressionism in the wake of World War I to lesbian vampires in 1970s Belgium, from the black-gloved killers of Italy's bloody giallo thrillers to the ghosts of the Spanish Civil War, Mark reveals how Europe's turbulent 20th century forged its ground-breaking horror tradition. On a journey that spans the continent from Ostend to Slovakia, Mark explores classic filming locations and talks to the genre's leading talents, including directors Dario Argento and Guillermo del Toro.


SUN 23:50 Mr Blue Sky: The Story of Jeff Lynne and ELO (b01n3yf4)
Documentary which gets to the heart of who Jeff Lynne is and how he has had such a tremendous musical influence on our world. The story is told by the British artist himself and such distinguished collaborators and friends of Jeff as Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tom Petty, Joe Walsh, Olivia and Dhani Harrison, Barbara Orbison and Eric Idle.

The film reveals that Lynne is a true man of music, for whom the recording studio is his greatest instrument. With access to Lynne in his studio above LA, this is an intimate account of a great British pop classicist who has ploughed a unique furrow since starting out on the Birmingham Beat scene in the early 60s, moving from the Idle Race to the multimillion-selling ELO in the 70s and then, with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and George Harrison, as a key member of the Traveling Wilburys.


SUN 00:50 Jeff Lynne's ELO at Hyde Park (b04ltd74)
On a sunny day in September 2014, Jeff Lynne, head honcho of 70s hit-making band ELO took to the stage in London's Hyde Park and, with the help of his backing band and the strings of the BBC Concert Orchestra, brought to a close Radio 2's Live in Hyde Park annual festival. After an absence from the live stage for 28 years, this headline set by Jeff Lynne's ELO was a much-anticipated and talked-about event, and he did not disappoint.

In front of 50,000 people, Lynne delivered a rousing and crowd-pleasing string of the Electric Light Orchestra's chart-topping hits, including Livin' Thing, Sweet Talkin' Woman, Don't Bring Me Down, Mr Blue Sky, and Roll Over Beethoven. And there was also a special treat, Jeff's touching tribute to his band buddies from the ultimate supergroup of all time, the Traveling Wilburys, with his performance of their 1988 hit Handle With Care.

All in all, a memorable night and a fantastic return to the live arena for Mr Jeff Lynne's ELO!


SUN 02:15 Storyville (b04m3k1q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



MONDAY 20 OCTOBER 2014

MON 19:00 World News Today (b04m3k3c)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00qbng0)
Series 1

Torquay to Totnes

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 along the Brunel's Great Western Railway from Swindon to Penzance. This time, Michael finds out about Torquay's microclimate, goes salmon fishing on the Dart estuary and spends some of Totnes's new local currency.


MON 20:00 Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies (b01m81f5)
Military Marvels

In the heady postwar years of the 1950s and 60s, British flying was at its zenith and its aircraft industry flourished in a dazzling display of ingenuity and design brilliance. Having invented the jet engine, Britain was now set to lead the world into the jet age with a new generation of fighters and bombers. The daring test pilots who flew them were as well known as the football stars of today, while their futuristic-looking aircraft, including the Meteor, Canberra, Valiant, Vulcan and the English Electric Lightning, were the military marvels of the age.


MON 21:00 The Art of Gothic: Britain's Midnight Hour (b04mgxxx)
Liberty, Diversity, Depravity

In the middle of the 18th century - in England - an entirely surprising thing happened. Out of the Age of Enlightenment and Reason a monster was born - a Gothic obsession with monsters, ghouls, ghosts and things that go bump in the night. From restrained aristocratic beginnings to pornographic excesses, the Gothic revival came to influence popular art, architecture and literature.


MON 22:00 Dracula (b00vffvv)
Classic horror from the Hammer Studio. On reaching Castle Dracula in darkest Transylvania, intrepid vampire hunter Doctor Van Helsing is alarmed to find that his young colleague Jonathan Harker has already succumbed to the mysterious count. On visiting the family of Harker's fiancee, he is even more alarmed to find that she is suffering from an unidentified malady. The local doctor suggests it is anaemia, but Van Helsing knows the terrifying truth, that she has become the count's latest victim.


MON 23:20 Detectorists (b04ld1jd)
Series 1

Episode 3

Club president Terry is keen to help Lance and Andy search the bottom paddock at Bishop's Farm, but only because he's convinced that's where Larry Bishop has buried his missing wife. Meanwhile, Lance is determined to get his ex along to hear him play at the local pub's folk music night.


MON 23:50 Ancient Apocalypse (b0074m6w)
The Maya Collapse

In the ninth century AD, the great Maya civilisation in Central America and southern Mexico all but disappeared. Millions died and great cities were abandoned to the jungle. Why this happened was a mystery, until science started unlocking the secrets of the past to reveal the brutality of nature.


MON 00:40 The Bridge: Fifty Years Across the Forth (b04g80p8)
A unique amateur film provides the centrepiece of a documentary celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of Scotland's great landmarks, the Forth Road Bridge. The documentary traces the memories of the people who built the bridge, the biggest of its kind in Europe at the time, as well as those who ran the Forth ferries that stopped running when it opened in 1964.


MON 01:40 Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies (b01m81f5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 02:40 The Art of Gothic: Britain's Midnight Hour (b04mgxxx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 21 OCTOBER 2014

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b04m3kxg)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00qbngz)
Series 1

Bugle to Mevagissey

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 along the Brunel's Great Western Railway from Swindon to Penzance. This time, Michael visits the largest clay mine in the world near St Austell, goes pilchard fishing in Mevagissey and finds out how the estate of Heligan shaped British gardens.


TUE 20:00 Great British Railway Journeys (b00qbnj1)
Series 1

Truro to Penzance

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 along the Brunel's Great Western Railway from Swindon to Penzance. This time, Michael searches for the lost church of St Piran, explores the last working tin mine in Cornwall and harvests oysters on the Helford River.


TUE 20:30 World War I at Home (b045gjf6)
The Safe House

A century after the start of the First World War, Louise Minchin reveals the story of Dunham Massey stately home in Cheshire which was turned into a military hospital for injured Tommies.


TUE 21:00 Dan Cruickshank and the Family that Built Gothic Britain (b04m3ljr)
As good as any Dickens novel, this is the triumphant and tragic story of the greatest architectural dynasty of the 19th century. Dan Cruickshank charts the rise of Sir George Gilbert Scott to the very heights of success, the fall of his son George Junior and the rise again of his grandson Giles. It is a story of architects bent on a mission to rebuild Britain. From the Romantic heights of the Midland Hotel at St Pancras station to the modern image of Bankside power station (now Tate Modern), this is the story of a family that shaped the Victorian age and left a giant legacy.


TUE 22:00 The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (b04mlzdl)
Episode 1

Ruth discovers that her husband has fallen in love with another woman and in her fury discovers that she has extraordinary powers. Peel away the wife and mother and what do you find?


TUE 23:00 Supernatural (b04mlzdn)
Dorabella

Chilling anthology series where membership to the secret society, The Club of the Damned, is granted through telling horror stories.


TUE 23:55 The Horizon Guide to Space Shuttles (b0109cc7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday]


TUE 00:55 Edward VII: Prince of Pleasure (b00rq3y2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


TUE 01:55 World War I at Home (b045gjf6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


TUE 02:25 Britain on Film (b02w63mx)
Series 2

Island Nation

In 1959 Britain's biggest cinema company, the Rank Organisation, decided to replace its newsreels with a series of short, quirky, topical documentaries that examined all aspects of life in Britain. During the 1960s - a decade that witnessed profound shifts across Britain's political, economic and cultural landscapes - many felt anxiety about the dizzying pace of change.

Look at Life reflected the increasing social and moral unease in films that tackled subjects ranging from contraception to immigration; from increasing stress at work to the preservation of the Sabbath; and from the environmental implications of waste management to the threat of nuclear weapons. Through these films, we can glimpse many of the seismic societal transformations of the Sixties developments that polarised the nation and changed life in Britain forever.

This episode focuses on the films that examine the implications of Britain's identity as an island nation, a geographical reality that has influenced not just our coastal landscape but our national psyche too. Featuring footage from well-known offshore isles like Wight and Man to the more isolated, culturally-distinctive and splendidly-idiosyncratic places like Harris and Cromer, which was inhabited year-round by just a single family of four.


TUE 02:55 Dan Cruickshank and the Family that Built Gothic Britain (b04m3ljr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 22 OCTOBER 2014

WED 19:00 World News Today (b04m3lmn)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00qgypx)
Series 1

Buxton to Matlock

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 an architectural wonder, the Duke of Devonshire's stables in Buxton, helps to repair the ancient peat landscape of the Peak District and travels on the historic steam railway to Rowsley.


WED 20:00 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b04mb194)
Michael Landy

Famous for destroying all his possessions, Michael Landy's thought-provoking art installations have often shown fascination with the idea of destruction. In 2010 his Art Bin project gave artists the chance to throw away their failed artworks and in summer 2014 he was invited to bring the Art Bin to the Yokohama Triennale in Japan.

Following Michael as he takes his 'monument to creative failure' to Yokohama, this film is an entertaining portrait of artistic exchange as artists from Japan and beyond crash, shatter and fragment their artistic failures in his giant bin.

As artists queue to condemn their works to what Michael calls 'Landyfill', he reflects on attitudes to the value of art, consumerism and creativity - and the experience of bringing his own work to a new audience.


WED 20:30 The Wonder of Animals (b04m9r3s)
Snakes

Chris Packham delves beneath a snake's skin to discover what has made them some of the most successful predators on earth. Their simple body plan hides remarkable adaptations that enable them to rival their limbed, winged and finned counterparts.

Chris reveals the variety of ways in which snakes use their bodies not just to slither, but to climb, fly and swim. He explores how they use their senses to hunt, from heat-sensitive pits used to capture prey in the dark to tongues used to lure fish, and how venom acts not just to kill prey but also to predigest it.


WED 21:00 Natural World (b01nmdh3)
2012-2013

A Wolf Called Storm

Storm is an extraordinary wolf - the head of a pack in Canada's frozen north that hunts the giant buffalo herds. This pack came to fame in Frozen Planet, and now cameraman Jeff Turner spends a year with Storm and his wolf family, learning how they survive in this harsh wilderness and whether Storm can pass his hunting skills on to the new generation of wolf cubs.


WED 22:00 Storyville (b048wq0z)
The Lance Armstrong Story - Stop at Nothing

Documentary telling the intimate but explosive story about the man behind the greatest fraud in recent sporting history, a portrait of a man who stopped at nothing in pursuit of money, fame and success.

It reveals how Lance Armstrong duped the world with his story of a miraculous recovery from cancer to become a sporting icon and a beacon of hope for cancer sufferers around the world. The film maps how Armstrong's cheating and bullying became more extreme and how a few brave souls fought back, until eventually their voices were heard.

Director Alex Holmes tracks down some of his former friends and team members who reveal how his cheating was the centre of a grand conspiracy in which Armstrong and his backers sought to steal the Tour de France. Friends and fellow riders were brought into a dirty pact that no-one could betray, lest the horrifying extent of complicity be revealed. But the former friends whose lives he destroyed would prove to be his nemesis, and help uncover one of the dirtiest scandals in sports history.


WED 23:35 Top of the Pops (b00zwrn5)
1964 to 1975 - Big Hits

1964 saw the birth of a very British institution. Spanning over four decades, Top of the Pops has produced many classic moments in pop culture.

Digging deep within the darkest depths of the BBC's archive, this compilation offers some memorable performances from 1964 through to 1975 from the likes of The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Status Quo, Procol Harum, Stevie Wonder, Queen and The Kinks, and opens the vintage vaults to rare performances from Stealers Wheel, Julie Driscoll, Peter Sarstedt and The Seekers.

So sit back and witness once again where music met television.


WED 01:05 Sounds of the Eighties (b0074shx)
Episode 1

The 80s saw many great contributions to the fields of art and culture. Not the least of these was floppy hair. Floppy hair dominates this episode of pop morsels from the BBC archive, featuring Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran, Culture Club, ABC, Wham!, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Bananarama and Kylie Minogue.


WED 01:35 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b04mb194)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:05 The Wonder of Animals (b04m9r3s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 02:35 Natural World (b01nmdh3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 23 OCTOBER 2014

THU 19:00 World News Today (b04m3m94)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b04m9r6z)
Andy Peebles presents another edition of the weekly pop chart with performances by the Dooleys, the Headboys, Chic, Dr Hook, Viola Wills, Errol Dunkley, the Charlie Daniels Band, Cats UK, Dave Edmunds, Dana and the Police and dance sequences by Legs & Co.


THU 20:00 Majesty and Mortar: Britain's Great Palaces (b0488trx)
Opening the Palace Doors

With the widowhood of Queen Victoria, the glorious life of palaces almost came to an abrupt end. There would be just one final flowering of palatial style just before the First World War, on an imperial scale - the redesign of Buckingham Palace and The Mall. The interwar period was a difficult time for many of Britain's best palaces, forced into a half-life of grace-and-favour accommodation for exiled royalty and aristocracy down on their luck. But more recent times would see restoration and conservation on a new scale and, with it, detective work to uncover palace secrets.


THU 21:00 How the Wild West Was Won with Ray Mears (b045nz9q)
Deserts

Ray Mears looks at how the landscapes of America's five great deserts challenged the westward push of the early pioneers.

As Ray travels through the cold high mountain Great Basin desert and the hot Sonoran desert of southern Arizona, he discovers how their hostile geography and rich geology shaped the stories of fortune hunting and lawlessness in the Wild West, and were the setting for the last wars between the US Army and the Apache warrior tribes.

Ray's journey begins in Monument Valley, whose dramatic desert landscape has become synonymous with the Wild West years. He explores how plants and animals survive in this waterless climate and how the Navajo Indian people adapted to the conditions. In Tucson, he meets up with desert coroners Bruce Anderson and Robin Reineke, who show him how the desert still kills people today.

He explores how the Apache adapted their warfare methods to the desert and how the US cavalry struggled in the hot arid landscape. In Tombstone, he gets to grips with the myths around lawmakers and lawlessness and how it flourished in the remote desert regions of the Old West. He discovers how this forbidding landscape was the perfect refuge for bandits and pursues the outlaw trail to Butch Cassidy's hideout at Robber's Roost. His journey ends with the story of Geronimo's surrender which marked the end of the Indian Wars, and of the Old West.


THU 22:00 Detectorists (b04m9rh2)
Series 1

Episode 4

Terry announces that he is standing down as leader of the DMDC, unleashing a bitter winner-takes-all scramble for presidential power when Andy and Lance fall out over gold. Becky and Sophie are forced to become allies in the Two Brewers pub quiz. Is this Andy's worst idea ever?


THU 22:30 The Art of Gothic: Britain's Midnight Hour (b04mgxxx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


THU 23:30 Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies (b01m81f5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


THU 00:30 Top of the Pops (b04m9r6z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 01:10 TOTP2 (b007897x)
70s Special

A 'then and now' special featuring a number of 1970s artistes as they were in 2002. As well as archive footage, the show also includes previously unseen performances by Donny Osmond, David Cassidy, Page and Plant and Alice Cooper.


THU 01:55 Detectorists (b04m9rh2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


THU 02:25 World War I at Home (b045gjf6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Tuesday]


THU 02:55 How the Wild West Was Won with Ray Mears (b045nz9q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 24 OCTOBER 2014

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b04m3pcz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Concerto at the BBC Proms (b01k763t)
Mozart Clarinet

Another chance to hear a live performance from the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major, considered by some to be his finest work, recorded at the BBC Proms in 2006.

Gifted English clarinet soloist Julian Bliss, at the time only 17 years old, performs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductor Jirí Behlohlávek.


FRI 20:00 Rule Britannia! Music, Mischief and Morals in the 18th Century (b04097wg)
Episode 1

Suzy Klein investigates music as a weapon in the fight for British identity; helping to cement the power of a new German royal family and used in Jacobite uprisings against them. She discovers why Italian opera was all the rage, thanks partly to a fascination with castrated male singers.

When Handel arrived in London, the city realised it has a genius on its hands, a man capable of creating music of such power, vigour and vitality that it can stir the hearts of the whole nation. Music stirred a 'bottom up' revolution, as the Beggar's Opera brought the satirical, subversive songs of the street onto the British stage, inventing modern musical theatre as we know it.

Featured music includes Rule Britannia, God Save the King, Handel's Water Music and Thomas Arne's guide to hating the French - Beer-Drinking Britons.


FRI 21:00 The Joy of ABBA (b03lyzpp)
Between 1974 and 1982 ABBA plundered the Anglo-Saxon charts but divided critical opinion. This documentary explores how they raised the bar for pop music as a form and made us fall in love with the sound of Swedish melancholy. A saga about the soul of pop.


FRI 22:00 ABBA at the BBC (b03lyzpr)
If you fancy an hour's worth of irresistible guilty pleasures from Anni-Frid, Benny, Bjorn and Agnetha, this is the programme for you. ABBA stormed the 1974 Eurovision song contest with their winning entry Waterloo, and this programme charts the meteoric rise of the band with some of their greatest performances at the BBC.

It begins in 1974 with their first Top of the Pops appearance, and we even get to see the band entertaining holidaymakers in Torbay in a 1975 Seaside Special. There are many classic ABBA tunes from the 1979 BBC special ABBA in Switzerland, plus their final BBC appearance on the Late Late Breakfast show in 1982.

This compilation is a must for all fans and includes great archive interviews, promos and performances of some of ABBA's classics including Waterloo, Dancing Queen, Does Your Mother Know, Thank You for the Music, SOS, Fernando, Chiquitita and many more.


FRI 23:00 Agnetha: ABBA and After (b02x9zwc)
In this documentary, the BBC have exclusive access to Agnetha Faltskog, 'The Girl with the Golden Hair' as the song goes, celebrating her extraordinary singing career which began in the mid-60s when she was just 15. Within just two years, she was a singing sensation at the top of the charts in Sweden.

Along came husband Bjorn Ulvaeus and the phenomenal band ABBA that engulfed the world in the 70s, featuring Agnetha's touching voice and striking looks. Agnetha lacked confidence on stage as the global demand for the group grew and grew, while being away from her young children caused her great turmoil.

With special behind-the-scenes access to the making of her comeback album, the film follows this reluctant star - the subject of much tabloid speculation since she retreated from the stage post-ABBA - as she returns to recording aged 63. Included in the film is her first meeting with Gary Barlow, who contributes a duet to the new album.

The programme features interviews with Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Gary Barlow, Tony Blackburn, Sir Tim Rice and record producers Peter Nordahl and Jorgen Elofsson.


FRI 00:00 Disco at the BBC (b01cqt74)
A foot-stomping return to the BBC vaults of Top of the Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test and Later with Jools as the programme spins itself to a time when disco ruled the floor, the airwaves and our minds. The visual floorfillers include classics from luminaries such as Chic, Labelle and Rose Royce to glitter ball surprises by The Village People.


FRI 01:00 The Joy of ABBA (b03lyzpp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:00 ABBA at the BBC (b03lyzpr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 03:00 Agnetha: ABBA and After (b02x9zwc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]