SATURDAY 07 MAY 2016
SAT 19:00 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b079s0c5)
Katie Paterson
Katie Paterson's public artwork, Hollow, will be made out of 10,000 samples of different tree species and unveiled in Bristol in early May. This film follows Katie over a ten-month period as she assembles the wood collection and creates the artwork. Sourced from all around the world, her samples include the oldest tree in the world, a tree that survived a nuclear blast and many trees that are now extinct. Katie's quest to collect tree samples takes her to an arboretum in Scotland and the national wood collection at Kew, to create an artwork designed to inspire wonder at the evolution of trees through time and the fragility of life on our planet.
SAT 19:30 BBC Young Musician (b07b3215)
2016
Semi-Final
BBC Young Musician 2016 reaches its penultimate stage - the semi-final. Clemency Burton-Hill and trumpet player Alison Balsom, herself a BBC Young Musician Finalist in 1998, present extensive highlights from the semi-finalists' performances at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.
In the category finals we were treated to some remarkable performances from 25 talented and dedicated young musicians. Now the winners of the keyboard, woodwind and percussion finals- Jackie Campbell, Jess Gillam, Andrew Woolcock - are joined by the winners from the brass and strings categories to compete against each other for just three places in the grand final at the Barbican Hall in London.
Making the all-important decisions are the judges: Meurig Bowen, Director of the Cheltenham Music Festival, Alpesh Chauhan, Assistant Conductor at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Huw Humphreys, Head of Music at London's Barbican Centre, and Chair of the jury across the category finals, composer Dobrinka Tabakova.
SAT 21:00 Hinterland (b079zppv)
Series 2 (BBC Four)
Episode 3
The murder of a local dignitary leads to the uncovering of a tragic story of love and loss fuelled by distrust and suspicion in the depths of the Hinterland.
Tha neach-lagh air a lorg marbh, air a mhuirt. Tha nàimhdeas sa choimhearsnachd an aghaidh Daniel Protheroe agus feumaidh Mathais a lorg mus lorg muinntir na coimhearsnachd e. Tha fios aig Mathias gu bheil an càirdeas eadar nighean ceannard na buidhne seo agus Daniel cudromach gus fuasgladh fhaighinn air a’ chùis.
SAT 22:30 Dancing Cheek to Cheek: An Intimate History of Dance (b04smrrc)
Revolution on the Dance Floor
Len Goodman and Lucy Worsley reveal how Britain's dance floors were revolutionised in the 19th century, as the slow and stately dances of an earlier era were replaced with new dances that were faster, freer and a lot more fun.
The Industrial Revolution changed the way ordinary people danced, and at Queen Street Mill in Burnley, Len uncovers the fascinating story of how factory workers developed clog dancing to imitate the sounds and rhythms of the machinery they used. Lucy discovers how upper-class dancing tastes were transformed by the introduction of the waltz at the beginning of the 19th century, which allowed couples to dance scandalously close.
In the 19th century, a greater proportion of the population than ever before lived in cities, and Len visits one of London's most beautiful Victorian gin palaces to find out about the drinking and the dancing that went on at a typical working-class knees-up. Whilst the working classes were letting their hair down, the middle classes were enjoying the latest dance music in the comfort of their own homes thanks to the invention of the upright piano. Lucy tries her hand at the 19th century's favourite tune - the Blue Danube waltz - on the piano once played by the Brontë sisters.
At the Czech and Slovak Club in London, Len discovers the rustic roots of the 19th century's biggest dance craze - the polka. Together Len and Lucy take a series of polka classes with Darren Royston, historical dance teacher at RADA, as they prepare to dance it at a grand finale ball dressed in their full Victorian finery.
SAT 23:30 Glen Campbell: The Rhinestone Cowboy (b01pwxs8)
In 2011, Glen Campbell announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and that he would be bowing out with a final album and farewell tour across Britain and America. This documentary tells Campbell's remarkable life story, from impoverished childhood in Arkansas to huge success, first as a guitarist and then as a singer, with great records like Wichita Lineman and Rhinestone Cowboy. With comments from friends and colleagues, including songwriter Jimmy Webb and Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees, it is a moving story of success, disgrace and redemption as rich as any of the storylines in Campbell's most famous songs.
The peak of Glen Campbell's career was in 1975, when he topped the charts around the world with Rhinestone Cowboy, but his musical journey to that point is fascinating. A self-taught teenage prodigy on the guitar, by his mid-twenties Campbell was one of the top session guitarists in LA, a key member of the band of session players now known as The Wrecking Crew. He played on hundreds of tracks while working for producers like Phil Spector and Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, including Daydream Believer by The Monkees, You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling by The Righteous Brothers, Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra and Viva Las Vegas by Elvis Presley.
But Campbell always wanted to make it under his own name. A string of records failed to chart until, in 1967, he finally found his distinctive country pop sound with hits like Gentle on My Mind and By the Time I Get to Phoenix. The latter was written by Jimmy Webb, and together the two created a string of great records like Wichita Lineman and Galveston. Campbell pioneered country crossover and opened the way for artists like Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.
By the end of the 1960s, Campbell was the fastest rising star in American pop with his own television show and a starring role in the original version of True Grit. Over the following ten years, he had more success with Rhinestone Cowboy and Southern Nights, but his private life was in turmoil. Divorce, drink and drugs saw this clean-cut all-American hero fall from grace and a tempestuous relationship with country star Tanya Tucker was front-page news.
Despite a relapse in 2003, when he was arrested for drunk driving and his police mug shot was shown around the world, the last two decades have been more settled. He remarried, started a new family and renewed his Christian faith, and was musically rediscovered by a new generation. Like his friend Johnny Cash, he released acclaimed new albums with young musicians, covering songs by contemporary artists like U2 and The Foo Fighters. Therefore the diagnosis with Alzheimer's was all the more poignant, but his dignified farewell has made him the public face of the disease in the USA.
The film includes contributions by many of Campbell's friends and colleagues, including his family in Arkansas, fellow session musicians Carol Kaye and Leon Russell, long-time friend and collaborator Jimmy Webb, former Monkee Mickey Dolenz, broadcaster Bob Harris, lyricist Don Black and country music writer Robert Oermann.
SAT 00:30 An Evening with Glen Campbell (b01pyfht)
A special concert recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in 1977, where 80 musicians played new arrangements of Glen Campbell's hit songs.
SAT 01:50 John Denver: Country Boy (b03j4cz2)
Documentary exploring the private life and public legacy of John Denver, America's original country boy. With exclusive accounts from those closest to him, the man behind the music is revealed in an intimate profile in his 70th birthday anniversary year.
SAT 02:50 Glen Campbell: The Rhinestone Cowboy (b01pwxs8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:30 today]
SUNDAY 08 MAY 2016
SUN 19:00 A History of Ancient Britain (b00z597g)
Series 1
Age of Bronze
Neil Oliver continues his epic tour of Britain's most distant past with the arrival of metals and the social revolution that ushered in a new age of social mobility, international trade, and village life.
SUN 20:00 Forest, Field & Sky: Art out of Nature (b079ckkf)
Dr James Fox takes a journey through six different landscapes across Britain, meeting artists whose work explores our relationship to the natural world. From Andy Goldsworthy's beautiful stone sculptures to James Turrell's extraordinary sky spaces, this is a film about art made out of nature itself. Featuring spectacular images of landscape and art, James travels from the furthest reaches of the Scottish coast and the farmlands of Cumbria to woods of north Wales. In each location he marvels at how artists' interactions with the landscape have created a very different kind of modern art - and make us look again at the world around us.
SUN 21:00 The Silk Road (p03qb25g)
Episode 2
In the second episode of his series tracing the story of the most famous trade route in history, Dr Sam Willis travels west to Central Asia, a part of the Silk Road often overlooked and yet the place of major innovations, big historical characters and a people - the Sogdians - whose role was pivotal to its success.
In the high mountain passes of Tajikistan, Sam meets the last survivors of that race, who once traded from the Mediterranean to the China Sea. In the Uzbek cities of Samarkand and Bukara, he discovers how they were built by armies of captive craftsmen for one of the greatest conquerors the world has ever seen - Timur.
From here, Sam follows the flow of goods back towards the markets of the west, showing how their trading culture sparked cultural, technical and artistic revolutions all along the Silk Road, and goes back to school to learn where modern mathematics and astronomy were born.
SUN 22:00 The Sky at Night (b07bgdxy)
Mercury: The Problem Child of the Solar System
May 9 2016 sees one of the astronomical highlights of the year - a transit of Mercury across the sun, the best opportunity to observe this phenomenon until 2049.
To mark the event, the Sky at Night attempts to explain the many mysteries of Mercury - a planet so bizarre that it is sometimes described as the 'problem child' of the solar system. Surface temperatures exceed 450 degrees but it also has patches of ice, its day is twice as long as its year, and it is a planet that appears to be shrinking.
SUN 22:30 Ran (b014pyx1)
Akira Kurosawa's epic masterpiece is a reworking of Shakespeare's King Lear set in medieval Japan.
After a lifetime of battles, 70-year-old Lord Hidetora announces that he is passing his authority to his eldest son Taro. The youngest son Saburo protests and is banished from the kingdom. But instead of fulfilling their father's wishes, eldest brother Taro, now in charge, and his middle brother Jiro are disloyal to the former lord and attack his castle. Hidetora survives, but, following his sons' betrayal, is now losing his mind. When Jiro has his brother murdered, the banished Saburo and his allies return to fight a battle against the remaining brother.
In Japanese with English subtitles.
SUN 01:05 Oak Tree: Nature's Greatest Survivor (b06fq03t)
George McGavin investigates the highly varied and dramatic life of oak tree. Part science documentary, part historical investigation, this film is a celebration of one of the most iconic trees in the British countryside. It aims to give viewers a sense of what an extraordinary species the oak is and provide an insight into how this venerable tree experiences life.
Filmed over a year, George uncovers the extraordinary transformations the oak goes through to meet the challenges of four very different seasons.
In autumn, George goes underground, digging below an oak tree to see how its roots extract precious resources from the soil. And he sees why the oak's superstrong wood made it the perfect material for building some the most famous ships in naval history, including Nelson's flagship The Victory.
In winter, George discovers the sophisticated strategies the tree uses to survive gales and bitter frosts. He finds out about the oak's vital role in architecture, showing how some very familiar sights, such as the tower of Salisbury Cathedral, are in fact giant oak structures.
In spring, George investigates how the oak procreates, spreading its pollen through the countryside. He discovers the incredibly sophisticated strategies it uses to withstand savage onslaughts from predators hellbent on eating it alive.
In summer, George uses a high-powered microscope to see the hundreds of species that regard the oak as their home. Humans too rely on the oak for their own form of 'sustenance'. Whisky gets its unique flavours from the oak wood barrels in which it's matured.
SUN 02:35 The Silk Road (p03qb25g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
MONDAY 09 MAY 2016
MON 19:00 World News Today (b079z3xg)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 The Wonder of Bees with Martha Kearney (p01t6pjf)
Episode 4
Martha enjoys the English countryside at its best, offers her honey to the public at a village fair and finally succeeds in harvesting the true wildflower honey she set out to achieve.
At the height of summer the owners of the meadow have invited the public to an open day to celebrate this unique bit of countryside. The pressure is on Martha to get the honey ready in time. With such a late spring the meadow flowers are late opening and the bees are still foraging on a neighbouring farmer's crops when the day arrives.
Martha visits Cornwall's Tregothnan Estate to discover the secret of the highly-prized manuka honey and returns to Suffolk with plans for a final harvest of wildflower honey. By now the meadow is in its prime. When Martha sends her honey to be tested it is proved to be true wildflower honey. It only remains to prepare the bees for the winter and reflect on a rewarding and fascinating season of beekeeping.
MON 20:00 Timeshift (b01n8hl9)
Series 12
Magnificent Machines: The Golden Age of the British Sports Car
Timeshift sets its rear-view mirror to look back at the golden age of the British sports car. It's the story of how - in the grey austerity of the postwar years - iconic marques like Jaguar, Austin-Healey, MG and Triumph sparked a manufacturing frenzy that helped to democratise speed and glamour.
From the MG Midget, much loved by American GIs, through to the more affordable Austin Healey 'frog-eye' Sprite and the E-Type Jaguar, seen by many as the ultimate sports car, this is a tale of how, for a brief time, Britain was home to two-seater heaven.
MON 21:00 Britain's Deadliest Rail Disaster: Quintinshill (b05vqx7v)
On 22 May 1915, a collision at the Quintinshill signal box, near Gretna, became Britain's deadliest ever rail crash. Involving a military train filled with troops - most of whom were from Leith - heading for Gallipoli and two passenger trains, the crash claimed an estimated 226 lives and left hundreds more injured.
The duty signalmen, George Meakin and James Tinsley, were found responsible for the disaster and were both jailed on the charges of culpable homicide.
Neil Oliver explores the series of mistakes that may have caused the collision, the part played by the train companies and the government, and determines whether the investigation would have come to the same conclusions if it were carried out today. Dramatised reconstructions add to this compelling account of a tragedy which had a profound effect on several communities in Scotland, and remains the deadliest in the annals of Britain's railways.
Britain's Deadliest Rail Disaster: Quintinshill is a Finestripe Productions programme for BBC Scotland.
MON 22:00 The Dark Ages: An Age of Light (b01p65b9)
What the Barbarians Did for Us
The Dark Ages have been misunderstood. History has identified the period following the fall of the Roman Empire with a descent into barbarism - a terrible time when civilisation stopped.
Waldemar Januszczak disagrees. In this four-part series, he argues that the Dark Ages were a time of great artistic achievement, with new ideas and religions provoking new artistic adventures. He embarks on a fascinating trip across Europe, Africa and Asia, visits the world's most famous collections and discovers hidden artistic gems, all to prove that the Dark Ages were actually an 'Age of Light'.
The 'Barbarians' are often blamed for the collapse of the Roman Empire, but in reality they were fascinating civilisations that produced magnificent art. Focusing on the Huns, Vandals and Goths, Waldemar follows each tribe's journey across Europe and discovers the incredible art they produced along the way.
MON 23:00 Natural World (b01ntt8p)
2012-2013
Attenborough's Ark
David Attenborough chooses his ten favourite animals that he would most like to save from extinction. From the weird to the wonderful, he picks fabulous and unusual creatures that he would like to put in his 'ark', including unexpected and little-known animals such as the olm, the solenodon and the quoll. He shows why they are so important and shares the ingenious work of biologists across the world who are helping to keep them alive.
MON 00:00 Everything and Nothing (b00zwndy)
Nothing
Two-part documentary which deals with two of the deepest questions there are - what is everything, and what is nothing?
In two epic, surreal and mind-expanding films, Professor Jim Al-Khalili searches for an answer to these questions as he explores the true size and shape of the universe and delves into the amazing science behind apparent nothingness.
The second part, Nothing, explores science at the very limits of human perception, where we now understand the deepest mysteries of the universe lie. Jim sets out to answer one very simple question - what is nothing? His journey ends with perhaps the most profound insight about reality that humanity has ever made. Everything came from nothing. The quantum world of the supersmall shaped the vast universe we inhabit today, and Jim can prove it.
MON 01:00 The Genius of David Bowie (b01k0y0q)
A selection of some of David Bowie's best performances from the BBC archives, which also features artists who Bowie helped along the way, such as Mott the Hoople, Lulu, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.
MON 02:00 The High Art of the Low Countries (b01rsfgd)
Dream of Plenty
Andrew Graham-Dixon shows how the art of Renaissance Flanders evolved from the craft of precious tapestries within the Duchy of Burgundy into a leading painting school in its own right. Starting his journey at the magnificent altarpiece of Ghent Cathedral created by the Van Eyck brothers, Andrew explains their groundbreaking innovation in oil painting and marvels at how the colours they obtained can still remain so vibrant today.
Andrew describes how, in the early Renaissance, the most urgent preoccupation was not the advancement of learning, humanist or otherwise, but the Last Judgment. People believed they were living in the end of days; a subject popular with preachers and artists and intensely realised in swarming microscopic detail by Hieronymus Bosch.
MON 03:00 Timeshift (b06b36q3)
Series 15
A Very British Map: The Ordnance Survey Story
For over 200 years, Ordnance Survey has mapped every square mile of the British Isles, capturing not just the contours and geography of our nation, but of our lives. Originally intended for military use, OS maps were used during wartime to help locate enemy positions. In peacetime, they helped people discover and explore the countryside.
Today, the large fold-out paper maps, used by generations of ramblers, scouts and weekend adventurers, represent just a small part of the OS output. As Ordnance Survey adjusts to the digital age, Timeshift looks back to tell the story of a quintessentially British institution.
TUESDAY 10 MAY 2016
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b079z3xr)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Insect Worlds (b01r9097)
Them and Us
Steve Backshall explores the connections and relationship that we have with insects and other arthropods. In Kenya, huge armies of driver ants give houses a five-star clean-up, and in China, we discover how silkworm caterpillars have shaped our culture and distribution. While locusts devastate crops in Africa, bees and beetles across the world provide a key link in our food chains. Many of us perceive these animals merely as creepy crawlies and nothing more than a nuisance, but as Steve reveals, we couldn't live without them.
TUE 20:00 Eurovision Song Contest (b079zwpc)
2016
Semi-Final 1
Mel Giedroyc and Scott Mills are live from Stockholm in Sweden for the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Eighteen acts take to the stage, but only ten will make it through to the grand final on Saturday. The UK's entry, Joe and Jake, join Scott and Mel to discuss all things Eurovision.
TUE 22:05 Timeshift (b06b36q3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
03:00 on Monday]
TUE 23:05 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.
TUE 00:05 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.
TUE 01:05 The Dark Ages: An Age of Light (b01p65b9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Monday]
TUE 02:05 An Evening with Glen Campbell (b01pyfht)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:30 on Saturday]
TUE 03:25 Britain on Film (b01p65b7)
Series 1
The Joy of Tech
Throughout the 1960s, the Rank Organisation produced hundreds of short, quirky documentaries that examined all aspects of life in Britain. Shot on high-quality colour film stock, they were screened in cinemas, but until now very little of the footage has been shown on television. This series draws on this unique archive to offer illuminating and often surprising insights into a pivotal decade in modern British history.
This episode looks at the extraordinary advances in technology during a period when automatic washing machines were transforming life in the home, computers were about to revolutionise the workplace and nuclear power was promising to change the world.
WEDNESDAY 11 MAY 2016
WED 19:00 World News Today (b079z3y1)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Handmade on the Silk Road (b079zyb8)
The Wood Carver
Shavkat Jumanijozov has been working with wood for over 30 years. In his workshop in Khiva in Uzbekistan, he makes doors, chests and impressive wooden columns. Trained by the grandson of a famous 19th-century carver, Shavkat is a proud master of his craft and oversees a team of brothers, sons and nephews, passing on his expertise to the next generation.
In this beautifully filmed portrait of a traditional craftsman at work, we follow the painstaking carving of a wooden pillar, from the first cuts into the wood to its sanding, shaping and varnishing, each stage captured in absorbing detail.
WED 20:00 The Silk Road (p03qb25g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
WED 21:00 Doris Day - Virgin Territory (b0074rwd)
Doris Day has often been dismissed as an actress and overlooked as a singer, despite career highs such as Calamity Jane and Pillow Talk. Covering her early years as a band singer, and her troubled private life, this documentary re-evaluates one of the screen's most enduring legends.
WED 22:00 My Week with Marilyn (b01nx8kb)
It is 1956 and The Prince and the Showgirl is being made at Pinewood Studios in London, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier, who has recruited one of the biggest Hollywood stars of all time, Marilyn Monroe, to co-star with him.
Colin Clark, a junior assistant on the production, is assigned the job of looking after Marilyn and keeps a journal about the week he spent with her. It proves to be a turbulent experience as Marilyn is going through marital problems with her husband and uses Colin as a much-needed sounding board for all her pent-up neurosis.
WED 23:30 Dancing Cheek to Cheek: An Intimate History of Dance (b04smrrc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 on Saturday]
WED 00:30 Timeshift (b012zmy7)
Series 11
All the Fun of the Fair
Timeshift explores rarely seen images from the University of Sheffield's National Fairground Archive to ride back to the origins of the fairground. From the sideshows, the freak shows and early hand-powered rides to the arrival of steam and electricity, the story of fairs is the tale of one of our first forms of popular entertainment.
The film shows how fairgrounds often provided the only entertainment to rapidly expanding industrial towns. It looks at how, from the 50s, the fairground was the site of youth rebellion, and why we are still entranced by these travelling carnivals that arrive overnight and then vanish just as mysteriously.
WED 01:30 Timeshift (b016pwgw)
Series 11
Of Ice and Men
Timeshift reveals the history of the frozen continent, finding out why the most inhospitable place on the planet has exerted such a powerful hold on the imagination of explorers, scientists, writers and photographers.
Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest place on the globe. Only a handful of people have experienced its desolate beauty, with the first explorers setting foot here barely a hundred years ago.
From the logbooks of Captain Cook to the diaries of Scott and Shackleton, from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner to HP Lovecraft, it is a film about real and imaginary tales of adventure, romance and tragedy that have played out against a stark white backdrop.
We relive the race to the Pole and the 'Heroic Age' of Antarctic exploration, and find out what it takes to survive the cold and the perils of 'polar madness'. We see how Herbert Ponting's photographs of the Scott expedition helped define our image of the continent and find out why the continent witnessed a remarkable thaw in Russian and American relations at the height of the Cold War.
We also look at the intriguing story of who actually owns Antarctica and how science is helping us reimagine a frozen wasteland as something far more precious.
Interviewees include Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Francis Spufford, Huw Lewis-Jones, Sara Wheeler, Henry Worsley, Prof David Walton and Martin Hartley.
WED 02:30 Everything and Nothing (b00zwndy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:00 on Monday]
THURSDAY 12 MAY 2016
THU 19:00 World News Today (b079z3y9)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 The Sky at Night (b07bgdxy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Sunday]
THU 20:00 Eurovision Song Contest (b07b21vv)
2016
Semi-Final 2
Mel Giedroyc and Scott Mills are live from Stockholm in Sweden for the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Eighteen more acts battle it out and UK viewers have the opportunity to vote for their favourite. But who will win the final ten places in the grand final on Saturday?
THU 22:05 Eurovision at 60 (b05vsm0d)
Hosts and competitors tell the behind-the-scenes story of 60 years of Eurovision, the greatest and maddest song contest on earth.
THU 23:35 Britain's Deadliest Rail Disaster: Quintinshill (b05vqx7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
THU 00:35 Horizon (b00z6zc7)
2010-2011
Are We Still Evolving?
Dr Alice Roberts asks one of the great questions about our species: are we still evolving?
There's no doubt that we're a product of millions of years of evolution.
But thanks to modern technology and medicine, did we escape Darwin's law of the survival of the fittest?
Alice follows a trail of clues, from ancient human bones to studies of remarkable people living in the most inhospitable parts of the planet and the frontiers of genetic research, to discover if we are still evolving, and where we might be heading.
THU 01:35 Darwin's Struggle: The Evolution of the Origin of Species (b00hd1mr)
Documentary telling the little-known story of how Darwin came to write his great masterpiece On the Origin of Species, a book which explains the wonderful variety of the natural world as emerging out of death and the struggle of life.
In the 20 years he took to develop a brilliant idea into a revolutionary book, Darwin went through a personal struggle every bit as turbulent as that of the natural world he observed. Fortunately, he left us an extraordinary record of his brilliant insights, observations of nature, and touching expressions of love and affection for those around him. He also wrote frank accounts of family tragedies, physical illnesses and moments of self-doubt, as he laboured towards publication of the book that would change the way we see the world.
The story is told with the benefit of Darwin's secret notes and correspondence, enhanced by natural history filming, powerful imagery from the time and contributions from leading contemporary biographers and scientists.
THU 02:35 Timeshift (b01n8hl9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
FRIDAY 13 MAY 2016
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b079z3yh)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b07bfnxc)
Simon Bates introduces the pop chart programme, featuring performances from Slade, Depeche Mode, Madness, Imagination, Alvin Stardust, Linx and Adam & The Ants, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.
FRI 20:00 The Good Old Days (b07bfnr9)
Leonard Sachs presents an edition of the old-time music hall programme, filmed in 1974 from the stage of the City Varieties Theatre, Leeds. Guests include Terry Scott, Georgia Brown, Ray Allen, Michel Gallois, Los Gauchos and performers from the Players Theatre.
FRI 21:00 BBC Young Musician (b07b39zx)
2016
Jazz Award Final
BBC Young Musician turns the spotlight on the world of jazz, as five outstanding young players compete in the BBC Young Musician jazz final. With an 'access all areas' backstage pass, Josie D'Arby and singer, pianist and songwriter Joe Stilgoe present coverage of the final.
On stage: saxophone and recorder player Tom Ridout, his sister Alexandra Ridout on trumpet, pianists Elliott Sansom and Noah Stoneman, and saxophonist Tom Smith. They are joined by one of the country's finest jazz bands, the Gwilym Simcock Trio.
The result: some remarkable performances that make you forget that all the competitors are all between 15 and 21 years of age. One of them will walk away as the winner of the BBC Young Musician jazz award.
Making the all-important decision is a panel of judges with all the right credentials: pianist and broadcaster Julian Joseph, saxophonist Tim Garland, composer and pianist Zoe Rahman, trumpeter Bryon Wallen and singer and composer Gwyneth Herbert.
FRI 23:00 Queens of Jazz: The Joy and Pain of the Jazz Divas (b01sbxqw)
A celebration of some of the greatest female jazz singers of the 20th century. It takes an unflinching and revealing look at what it actually took to be a jazz diva during a turbulent time in America's social history - a time when battle lines were being constantly drawn around issues of race, gender and popular culture.
The documentary tracks the diva's difficult progress as she emerges from the tough, testosterone-fuelled world of the big bands of the 30s and 40s, to fill nightclubs and saloons across the US in the 50s and early 60s as a force in her own right. Looking at the lives and careers of six individual singers (Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone and Annie Ross), the film not only talks to those who knew and worked with these queens of jazz, but also to contemporary singers who sit on the shoulders of these trailblazing talents without having to endure the pain and hardship it took for them to make their highly individual voices heard above the prejudice of mid-century America.
This is a documentary about how these women triumphed - always at some personal cost - to become some of the greatest artists of the 20th century, women who chose singing above life itself because singing was their life.
FRI 00:00 Top of the Pops (b07bfnxc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 00:40 Agnetha: ABBA and After (b02x9zwc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:05 on Tuesday]
FRI 01:40 ABBA at the BBC (b03lyzpr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:05 on Tuesday]
FRI 02:40 Queens of Jazz: The Joy and Pain of the Jazz Divas (b01sbxqw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 today]