SATURDAY 17 FEBRUARY 2018

SAT 19:00 The Dark: Nature's Nighttime World (b01llxfs)
Central American Jungle

This illuminating natural history series reveals a totally new perspective on wildlife at night. Over six months, a team of biologists and specialist camera crew explore the length of South and Central America to find out how animals have adapted to life in the dark.

The expedition starts in the jungles of Costa Rica where the team are after some of the most frightening nocturnal predators. Alone in the dark, nighttime camera specialist Justine Evans has an exceptionally close encounter with a large male jaguar. Biologist Dr George McGavin is on the trail of the most ingenious predator of the jungle - the net casting spider. And cameraman Gordon Buchanan finds ruined temples deep in the jungle as he searches for the bizarre creatures that rule the jungle canopy at night.


SAT 20:00 Wild (b00jd9yx)
Scotland

Otters, Puffins and Seals

Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan explores his native Mull and some of the nearby islands, filming otters, deer, puffins, seals and a minke whale.


SAT 20:15 Winter Olympics Extra (b09sbx4y)
Pyeongchang 2018

17/02/2018

Radzi Chinyanganya presents further action from Pyeongchang 2018, where the medals are won in the men's figure skating.


SAT 21:00 Modus (b09n0nqk)
Series 2

Episode 3

Inger Johanne steels herself to work with Warren Schifford. As the search for the missing president leads to the dead body of a presidential guard, rumours emerge of possible infighting between the FBI and the Secret Service. Meanwhile, cultural differences between the Swedish police and their US counterparts are thrown into sharp relief.

In Swedish and English, with English subtitles.


SAT 21:45 Modus (b09n0r5y)
Series 2

Episode 4

Ingvar suggests he and Inger Johanne team up to track down the mole inside the Swedish police force, but he does a good job of undermining their teamwork and relationship. Meanwhile, a number of possible leads emerge in connection with the US president's disappearance, which leads Warren to insist that all evidence points to the work of a single individual.

In Swedish and English with English subtitles.


SAT 22:35 Top of the Pops (b09rmt82)
John Peel and Janice Long present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 11 April 1985. Featuring Tears for Fears, The Rah Band, Dream Academy, King and Philip Bailey & Phil Collins.


SAT 23:10 The Joy of the Bee Gees (b04v8677)
Guilty pleasure or genius, misfits or mavericks, noble or naff - how do we really feel about the Bee Gees? Are the brothers Gibb a cacophony of falsettos or songwriting maestros, the soundtrack to every office party or masters of melancholy and existential rage? Are they comedy or Tragedy? How deep is our love and how deep are the Bee Gees?

With a back catalogue that includes hits like How Do You Mend a Broken Heart, Massachusetts, Islands in the Stream, Stayin' Alive, Chain Reaction, How Deep Is Your Love, Gotta Get a Message to You, Words, To Love Somebody and Night Fever, the Bee Gees are second only to the Beatles in the 20th-century songwriting pantheon, but while their pop success spans several decades, there are different Bee Gees in different eras. Is there a central glue that unites the brothers and their music and, if so, what is it?

The Joy of the Bee Gees features a rare interview with the last remaining Bee Gee brother, Barry Gibb, many of those musicians and industry figures who have worked with them closely over the years, and a surprising cast of Bee Gees aficionados including John Lydon, Ana Matronic, Guy Chambers, Mykaell Riley and Alexis Petridis, who together share their stories and their insights into the band whose music and image moved us in the 60s and defined pop culture in the mid-to-late 1970s.

The film explores how the band were iconoclasts and outsiders, brothers in the family business, who worked best when together but who grew up and played out their fraternal struggles in public. The brothers went from child stars on the Australian variety circuit to competitors with the Beatles in the UK charts in the late 60s, scoring number one hits while still only teenagers.

In the mid-70s, the former 'beat group' reimagined themselves as a close-knit soul boy trio. The Saturday Night Fever album shot them to global superstardom and every radio station played a song written, produced or sung by the Bee Gees. The saturation of their music and their iconic 'medallion man' image would ultimately elbow them out of fashion, even make them figures of fun...

But you can't keep a good band down and in the 80s they became writing guns-for-hire to stars such as Kenny & Dolly, Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross. 1987 saw the band come back yet again and hit the top of the charts. The deaths of Maurice and then Robin brought the Bee Gees' reign to an end, but Barry and their music live on.

Let's enjoy finding out why and how: welcome to The Joy of the Bee Gees.


SAT 00:10 Southern Rock at the BBC (b01f1bwb)
Classic clips - from the Old Grey Whistle Test, In Concert and even Wogan - of Southern rock boogie in excelsis from the bands who poured out of the Deep South in the 70s. Includes performances from The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, Delaney & Bonnie with Eric Clapton, Dickey Betts from The Allman Brothers Band, The Marshall Tucker Band, Black Oak Arkansas, The Charlie Daniels Band, Gregg Allman with then-wife Cher, Edgar Winter and, of course, Lynyrd Skynyrd.


SAT 01:10 ...Sings Neil Diamond (b00vzzsy)
A compilation from the BBC archive of performances featuring songs written by, or associated with, Neil Diamond. Featuring Lulu, UB40, Vince Hill, Robert Wyatt, Gladys Knight, Urge Overkill, Lena Zavaroni, The Hollies and a duet by Neil Diamond and Shirley Bassey.


SAT 01:40 The Joy of the Bee Gees (b04v8677)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:10 today]


SAT 02:40 From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature (b09rzqp3)
Series 1

Frozen Solid

Everything around us - from the tiniest insect on Earth to the most distant stars of the cosmos - exists somewhere on a vast scale from cold to hot. In this series, physicist Dr Helen Czerski explores the extraordinary science of temperature. She unlocks the extremes of the temperature scale, from absolute zero to searing heat of stars - and reveals how temperature works, how deep its influence on our lives is, and why it's the hidden force that has shaped our planet and the entire universe.

In episode one, Helen ventures to the bottom of the temperature scale, revealing how cold has shaped the world around us and why frozen doesn't mean what you might think. She meets the scientists pushing temperature to the very limits of cold, where the normal laws of physics break down and a new world of scientific possibility begins. The extraordinary behaviour of matter at temperatures close to absolute zero is driving the advance of technology, from superconductors to quantum computing.



SUNDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2018

SUN 19:00 Only Connect (b09s4lp8)
Series 13

Wanderers v Vikings

Victoria Coren Mitchell hosts the series where knowledge will only take you so far. Patience and lateral thinking are also vital.

This round-three game sees the return of the Wanderers and the Vikings. They compete to find the connections between things which, at
first glance, seem utterly random. So join Victoria Coren Mitchell if you want to know what connects Odyle, Caloric, Phlogiston and Luminiferous aether.


SUN 19:30 University Challenge (b09s4lpb)
2017/18

Episode 27

Pressure is mounting as the quarter-finals continue in the quiz for students. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.


SUN 20:00 Winter Olympics Extra (b09sc13z)
Pyeongchang 2018

18/02/2018

Further action from South Korea, featuring the men's ski slopestyle event, and the 15km mass start biathlon.


SUN 21:00 Akala's Odyssey (b09sc141)
Writer and hip-hop artist Akala voyages across the Mediterranean and beyond to solve some of the mysteries behind Homer's monumental poem, the Odyssey. Travelling between spectacular ruins, such as the sacred shrine of Delphi or the Greek colonies on Sicily, Akala's journey culminates on the small island of Ithaca, where he ponders the theory that this is the destination which Homer had in mind as he composed the epic.

Along the way, he finds out what Homer's works may have sounded like to their first audiences, discovers how the rhythm of those ancient words connect to the beats of modern hip-hop and comes face to face with the characters from the masterpiece. He also investigates how this epic poem became the cornerstone of Western literature and how his own experiences as an artist have been impacted by a 3,000-year-old classic. Akala has undertaken this quest as part of his mission to compose his own response to the Odyssey - a new hip hop track called Blind Bard's Vision, which turns the tale on its head all over again. This is Akala's Odyssey.


SUN 22:00 In Order of Disappearance (b04pmsn6)
Nils Dickman lives a quiet but happy existence in the Norwegian mountains, keeping the roads clear with his snowplough company and even winning a citizen of the year award. But when his son is murdered by a drugs gang in a case of mistaken identity he goes looking for revenge, vowing never to stop until he has found everyone responsible. His search for the killers unwittingly kickstarts a brutal gang war between local gangster 'The Count' and his Serbian rival 'Papa', with Nils caught in the middle.


SUN 23:50 From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature (b09rzqp3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 02:40 on Saturday]


SUN 00:50 The Secret Life of Books (b06nxssd)
Series 2

Cider with Rosie

Best-selling chronicler of modern country life, Joanna Trollope traces the roots of her favourite book Cider with Rosie to uncover how Laurie Lee blended fact and fiction in his wistful elegy to a disappeared rural world - and reflect on why a book with such dark, hard-edged undercurrents continues to have such a popular appeal.


SUN 01:20 Modus (b0644fcy)
Series 1

Episode 1

During a snowy Christmas season in Sweden, psychologist and criminal profiler Inger Johanne Vik finds herself and her autistic daughter drawn into an investigation surrounding a series of brutal killings.

Inger's elder daughter Stina becomes an unwitting witness to a murder while attending a wedding reception with her family. The killer is now after her, but that is only the beginning.

In Swedish and English, with English subtitles.


SUN 02:05 Modus (b065f3rj)
Series 1

Episode 2

Detective Ingvar Nyman of the Swedish national police force is dispatched to Uppsala to investigate the shocking killing of Bishop Elisabeth Lindgren. Meanwhile, the partner of murdered TV chef Isabella Levin is frantically trying to track her down and young witness Stina Vik is haunted by the memories of what she saw.

In Swedish and English, with English subtitles.


SUN 02:50 Modus (b066bx9h)
Series 1

Episode 3

The police have finally discovered the body of murdered TV chef Isabella Levin, while the killer continues in his pursuit of young witness Stina Vik. Stina's mother Inger Johanne joins the investigation. Meanwhile, the widowed husband of Bishop Elisabeth Lindgren is acting strangely, while Rolf Ljungberg starts to doubt the fidelity of his husband, successful businessman Marcus Stahl. As police struggle to make sense of the Christmas murders, is another terrible event about to unfold?

In Swedish and English, with English subtitles.



MONDAY 19 FEBRUARY 2018

MON 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09s8bgp)
Series 1

19/02/2018

The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 The River Taff with Will Millard (b06zyl2v)
Series 1

Episode 1

Writer and fisherman Will Millard tells the extraordinary story of how the River Taff came back from the dead. This river, once so polluted by heavy industry that no fish could live there, has now become one of the best salmon and trout rivers in Wales. Will travels from the source high in the stunning Brecon Beacons National Park to Merthyr Tydfil where he discovers that the town's ironworks were once vital to the British Empire. Along the way he trains with a mountain rescue team facing a unique set of challenges, meets a group of conservationists working to protect a magical, hidden valley and fishes for wild brown trout in the most unlikely location.


MON 20:00 Winter Olympics Extra (b09sc4gw)
Pyeongchang 2018

19/02/2018

Radzi Chinyanganya presents additional action from the Winter Olympics, including the short dance segment of the ice dance competition.


MON 21:00 The Art of Japanese Life (b08v8gxj)
Series 1

Nature

Dr James Fox journeys through Japan's mountainous forests, marvels at its zen gardens and admires centuries-old bonsai, to explore the connections between Japanese culture and the natural environment. Travelling around Japan's stunning island geography, he examines how the country's two great religions, Shinto and Buddhism, helped shape a creative response to nature often very different to the West. But he also considers modern Japan's changing relationship to the natural world and travels to Naoshima Art Island to see how contemporary artists are finding new ways to engage with nature.


MON 22:00 Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit (b079v9nr)
Episode 2

In the second episode, Mary Beard explores the physical world of the Roman Empire, and finds surprising parallels with our own world. Setting out in the footsteps of the emperor Hadrian, she discovers a vast empire bound together by a common material culture, and a globalised economy of such scale that evidence of its side-effects can still be seen today, thousands of miles away from Rome. Mary unpicks the threads of a huge commercial and cultural network, taking in the vital supply of olive oil to Rome and her armies, the slave trade, and the all-important silver mines of Spain.

Following the famous Roman road network, and the shipping routes connecting the empire's thriving ports, Mary reveals another side to the Roman Empire, one where builders and traders eclipse soldiers, and starring slaves, not senators, making the most of a hugely connected new world.


MON 23:00 How the Celts Saved Britain (b00kps7h)
A New Civilisation

Dan Snow blows the lid off the traditional, Anglo-centric view of history and reveals how the Irish saved Britain from cultural oblivion during the Dark Ages, in this provocative, two-part documentary.

Travelling back in time to some of the remotest corners of the British Isles, Dan unravels the mystery of the lost years of 400-800 AD, when the collapse of the Roman Empire left Britain in tatters.

In the first episode, Dan shows how in the 5th century AD Roman 'Britannia' was plunged into chaos by the arrival of Anglo-Saxon invaders. As Roman civilisation disappeared from Britain, a new civilisation emerged in one of the most unlikely places - Ireland. Within a few generations, Christianity transformed a backward, barbarian country into the cultural powerhouse of early medieval Europe.

This is a visually and intellectually stimulating journey through one of the least known chapters of British history.


MON 00:00 Treasures of Heaven (b012248j)
Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the ancient Christian practice of preserving holy relics and the largely forgotten art form that went with it, the reliquary. Fragments of bone or fabric placed inside a bejewelled shrine, a sculpted golden head or even a life-sized silver hand were, and still are, objects of religious devotion believed to have the power to work miracles. Most precious of all, though, are relics of Jesus Christ, and the programme also features three reliquaries containing the holiest of all relics - those associated with the Crucifixion.

The story of relics and reliquaries is a 2,000-year history of faith, persecution and hope, reflected in some of the most beautiful and little-known works of art ever made. Featuring interviews with art historian Sister Wendy Beckett and Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum.


MON 01:00 Top of the Pops (b07jl1bb)
Tommy Vance presents the pop chart show, first broadcast on 11 February 1982. Includes appearances from Fun Boy Three & Bananarama, the Stranglers, Bow Wow Wow, Adrian Gurvitz, Hall & Oates, Depeche Mode, the J Geils Band, Modern Romance, Haircut 100 and the Jam.


MON 01:40 Top of the Pops (b07k8p62)
Mike Read presents the pop chart show. Includes appearances from Toni Basil, Madness, UB40, Tight Fit, the Jam, Robert Palmer, George Benson and Jets.


MON 02:20 Modus (b067dgjv)
Series 1

Episode 4

The police hear the results of the autopsy on the body of artist Niclas Rosen. The investigation now involves three seemingly unfathomable murders, but a link slowly starts to emerge. Lennart Carlsson is taken in for questioning, and Inger Johanne is more than a little unsettled when she realises that she has seen him before. Meanwhile, a series of vicious homophobic attacks is taking place around Stockholm.

In Swedish with English subtitles.


MON 03:05 Modus (b068d7xd)
Series 1

Episode 5

More violence is unleashed, as police begin to grapple with what they now believe is a homophobic motive. They start to trace the case back to an American organisation of religious Christian fanatics who take contracts out on homosexuals. Meanwhile, Inger Johanne enlists her past FBI experience and connections to make headway in the case.

In Swedish and English with English subtitles.



TUESDAY 20 FEBRUARY 2018

TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09s8bgv)
Series 1

20/02/2018

The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 The River Taff with Will Millard (b0705d04)
Series 1

Episode 2

Writer and fisherman Will Millard travels the length of the wild River Taff in South Wales, from its source high in the stunning Brecon Beacons to the Bristol Channel. He explores how the coal industry changed this beautiful landscape and its people forever. The river once ran black with coal dust but is now one of the finest trout and salmon rivers in Wales. Will meets the members of the Lewis Merthyr Colliery Brass Band and fishes for grayling with a former miner who is now a champion fly-fisherman. He visits one of Britain's biggest open-cast coal mines and sees how this spectacular landscape is being reclaimed after centuries of mining.


TUE 20:00 Winter Olympics Extra (b09sc63b)
Pyeongchang 2018

20/02/2018

The medals are won in the ice dance competition of the figure skating, and there's the best of the action in the women's ski halfpipe final. Radzi Chinyanganya presents.


TUE 21:00 PQ17: An Arctic Convoy Disaster (b03n3297)
Jeremy Clarkson tells the dramatic story of the Arctic convoys of the Second World War, from Russia to the freezing Arctic Ocean.

Accompanied by moving first hand testimony from the men who served on these convoys, Clarkson reveals the incredible hazards faced by members of the Merchant and Royal Navy who delivered vital war supplies via the Arctic to the Soviet Union: temperatures of minus 50 degrees, huge icebergs, colossal waves, not to mention German U-boats and the Luftwaffe. It is no wonder that Churchill described the Arctic Convoys as 'the worst journey in the world.'

Between 1941 and 1945, more than 70 convoys delivered 4 million tonnes of material to the USSR, yet one convoy in partiuclar would come to symbolise the dangers faced by the men who served on them. Codenamed PQ17, this convoy of 35 merchant ships would be described by Churchill as one of the most melancholy naval episodes of the war.

Retracing the route of PQ17 from the Arctic to the Russian winter port of Archangel, Clarkson reveals how, on the night of July 4th 1942, this joint Anglo-American convoy became one of the biggest naval disasters of the 20th century. To make matters worse, the cause of the disaster lay not in the brutal conditions of the Arctic, or the military might of the Germans, but a misjudgement made in the corridors of the Admiralty in London.


TUE 22:00 Byzantium: A Tale of Three Cities (b03kp6hg)
Episode 1

Simon Sebag Montefiore traces the sacred history of Istanbul. Known as the 'city of the world's desire', it's a place that has been the focus of passion for believers of three different faiths - Paganism, Christianity and Islam - and for nearly 3,000 years its streets have been the battleground for some of the fiercest political and religious conflicts in history.

Montefiore uncovers the city's ancient Greek roots, maps its transformation into the imperial capital of a Christian empire by Emperor Constantine the Great and reveals how ecclesiastical clashes forced eastern and western churches apart.


TUE 23:00 Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain (p01cyrf9)
Glass Houses

Using her investigative 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.

Technology has always been a driving force behind new ideas. Olivia explores how architects and designers have been inspired by the exciting possibilities presented by new technology to produce groundbreaking and controversial urban plans.

In 1855, visionary designer Sir Joseph Paxton proposed an ambitious plan to build a fantastic, futuristic ten-mile glass girdle circling the centre of London. It had only recently become possible to produce large sheets of cheap but strong plate glass and Paxton was inspired by its potential. With this exciting new technology at his fingertips, Paxton believed he could create a bright and pollution-free environment for Londoners as well as solve the capital's terrible congestion problems.

His spectacular glass 'Great Victorian Way' would connect the city to the West End, link rich and poor areas and cross the Thames three times. Contained in this magnificent glass structure were shops, houses, hotels, a pedestrian walkway, a road for carriages and eight lines of elevated pneumatic railway.

There was huge support for Paxton's scheme and Parliament passed a bill sanctioning construction, but the Great Victorian Way was never built. The 'Great Stink' took hold of London in 1858, spreading a cholera epidemic and so sanitation became the city's most pressing priority. Instead of creating a spectacular crystal boulevard the money was spent on a very different type of technology - the building of London's sewerage system.

A century later, London's congestion problems remained unsolved with the motor car having taken over roads designed for horse and carriage. In 1961, the architect Geoffrey Jellicoe proposed a solution directly inspired by Joseph Paxton's use of glass, in his radical new urban scheme for the green belt around London. Jellicoe took Paxton's idea of transforming the transport infrastructure even further, proposing a 'glass city' in which all cars would drive along rooftops, freeing the ground below for pedestrians.

With both these groundbreaking designs, Paxton and Jellicoe were seeking to harness technology to create bright and light cities, free of pollution and congestion, and utilising the most progressive forms of transport of the day.

Contributors include: Brett Steele, Eric Kuhne, Kate Colquhoun, Isobel Armstrong, Theodora Wayte, Lord Norman Foster, Charlie Burke, David Martlew, John Minnis, Hal Moggridge, Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe and Kathryn Moore.


TUE 00:00 Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited (b01skwfd)
The First Anglo-Saxons

Julian Richards returns to the excavation of two early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries to explore the mystery of the Anglo-Saxon invasions that began after the fall of the Roman Empire. In particular, the rich burial of a warrior and his horse offers up fresh clues to some of the very first pioneers.


TUE 01:00 Top of the Pops (b07ll9rl)
David Jensen presents the pop chart show, first broadcast on 4 March 1982. Includes appearances by Toni Basil, Tight Fit, Gary Numan, ABC, Jets, Madness and Zoo.


TUE 01:40 Top of the Pops (b07m7wpq)
Simon Bates presents the chart show programme, first broadcast on 11 March 1982. Includes performances from Bow Wow Wow, Fun Boy Three & Bananarama, Depeche Mode, Julio Iglesias, Haircut 100, the Associates, Adrian Gurvitz and Tight Fit.


TUE 02:15 Modus (b068rct2)
Series 1

Episode 6

The noose is tightening around Marcus Stahl, who also finds himself unjustly suspected of murder. Meanwhile, the secret of Bishop Elisabeth Lindgren can no longer be kept under wraps, as police probe further and her widowed husband buckles under the pressure. And Inger Johanne suddenly realises there may be a frightening connection between the killer and her daughter Stina.

In Swedish and English with English subtitles.


TUE 03:00 Modus (b06blfdj)
Series 1

Episode 7

Inger Johanne continues to use her expertise and intuition to piece the puzzle together. But, as she gets closer to understanding the killer's frame of mind, the killer gets closer to her too. Meanwhile, Marcus Stahl is finding it ever harder to keep his nefarious secret - eventually the truth will out, but not without terrible consequences.

In Swedish and English with English subtitles.



WEDNESDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2018

WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09s8bh0)
Series 1

21/02/2018

The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 The River Taff with Will Millard (b070t48y)
Series 1

Episode 3

Writer and fisherman Will Millard reaches the end of his journey down the River Taff in south Wales. This beautiful wild river, once neglected and polluted, has now come back to life. Will goes wild swimming with a group of eccentrics trying to change the image of this forgotten river. He meets retired Somali sailors drawn to Cardiff in the city's glory days as a thriving port and tells the story of how the industrial docks have been transformed. Finally, he sets out to catch the king of fish, migratory salmon returning to the river where they were born.


WED 20:00 Winter Olympics Extra (b09sc6q8)
Pyeongchang 2018

21/02/2018

Radzi Chinyanganya hosts extended highlights from Pyeongchang, including the women's short programme in the figure skating and the climax of the men's ski cross competition.


WED 21:00 Queen Victoria's Children (b01pp9l9)
Princes Will Be Princes...

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert shared a passionate marriage. Behind closed doors, royal domestic life often seemed like a battlefield.

In a 60-year family saga, this three-part series explores the reign of Victoria through her personal relationships with her husband and her nine children. It is a story of manipulation, conflict, intimidation, emotional blackmail, and fevered attempts by her children to escape the clutches of their domineering and needy mother.

The series uses a wealth of written material and photos left by Victoria, Albert and their children, including letters, diaries, memoirs and journals, to bring the subject and characters to life.

This final episode focuses on Victoria's relationship with her sons and how, after Albert's death, they struggled to live up to his model of purity. It explores Victoria's difficult relationship with her eldest son Bertie, whom she blamed for Albert's death, believing his sexual indiscretions to have fatally weakened her husband. It also examines her relationship with her son Leopold, the physically weak but spirited haemophiliac who put up the most determined effort to break free from his mother's control. Ultimately, the idea of monarchy based on purity is put to the test as the philandering Bertie comes to the throne.


WED 22:00 Wellington: The Iron Duke Unmasked (b05vlz90)
The Duke of Wellington was the most famous Briton of the first half of the 19th century. His victory over Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815 altered the course of history. The hero of Waterloo became a towering figure in British history for both his achievements and for embodying our notions of Britishness - the stiff upper lip, unfussy straightforwardness and incorruptibility in office - he was the Iron Duke.

This drama documentary looks behind the iron mask to focus on the intriguing complexities of the Duke of Wellington - his character, personality and relationships, told through his own words and the words of those who knew him best. General, politician, lover, outsider - the programme discovers that the hero of Waterloo was far more complex than his public image.

Drawing on his own vast private correspondence, as well as the diaries and memoirs of those around him, the film uses dramatic reconstruction to create an intimate portrait of the Duke of Wellington.


WED 23:00 The Genius of Turner: Painting the Industrial Revolution (b01s50kn)
A film that looks at the genius of JMW Turner in a new light. There is more to Turner than his sublime landscapes - he also painted machines, science, technology and industry. Turner's life spans the Industrial Revolution, he witnessed it as it unfolded, and he painted it. In the process he created a whole new kind of art. The programme examines nine key Turner paintings and shows how we should rethink them in the light of the scientific and Industrial Revolution. Includes interviews with historian Simon Schama and artist Tracey Emin.


WED 00:00 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.


WED 01:00 Top of the Pops (b07mzkxz)
Steve Wright presents the chart show, first broadcast on 18 March 1982. Includes appearances by Tight Fit, Gary Numan, Japan, Classix Nouveaux, ABC, Imagination and Visage.


WED 01:40 Top of the Pops (b07pqttq)
Peter Powell presents the weekly pop chart show, first broadcast on 25 March 1982. Includes appearances from Bucks Fizz, Goombay Dance Band, Pluto Shervington, Killing Joke, Altered Images, Julio Iglesias, and Chas and Dave.


WED 02:10 Queen Victoria's Children (b01pp9l9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 03:10 Modus (b06ct3w6)
Series 1

Episode 8

Inger Johanne and Ingvar finally have a clear picture of the killer's identity and motive, but - with one last killing outstanding on the murderous contract and the tension ratcheting up - the two can't agree on the best way to proceed. Who is next on the list to be murdered?

In Swedish and English with English subtitles.



THURSDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2018

THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09s8bh5)
Series 1

22/02/2018

The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b09szqds)
Mike Read and Gary Davies present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 25 April 1985.


THU 20:00 Winter Olympics Extra (b09sc7yg)
Pyeongchang 2018

22/02/2018

Extended action from South Korea, including the women's ice hockey final and the climax of the men's ski halfpipe competition.


THU 21:00 From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature (b09sc7yj)
Series 1

A Temperature for Life

Physicist Dr Helen Czerski explores the narrow band of temperature that has led to life on Earth. She reveals how life began in a dramatic place where hot meets cold, and how every single living creature on Earth depends on temperature for its survival. She uncovers the extraordinary natural engineering that animals have evolved to keep their bodies at the right temperature. And she witnesses the remarkable surgery that's using temperature to push the human body to the very brink of life.


THU 22:00 Wild Weather with Richard Hammond (b04v5lng)
Original Series

Water: The Shape Shifter

Richard Hammond investigates the crucial role water plays. Without water there would be almost no weather: no rain, no snow, no hail, no clouds. So Richard goes in pursuit of water in all its forms. He tries to weigh a cloud, finds out how rain could crush a car, and gets involved in starting an avalanche.

Along the way, he tries to find out why clouds float by building his own cloud with the aid of a cattle trough, some humidifiers and atmospheric scientist Dr Jim McQuaid. But will their cloud float in the air like a real cloud?

He also drops in on renowned hail scientist Charles Knight in his lab in Boulder, Colorado, to discover that there is far more to hail than meets the eye. In a scientific first, and with the help of Jim Stratton and Craig Zehrung from Purdue University, Richard sets about firing ice and hail at a board to find out which does the most damage.

Finally, in conjunction with the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF in Davos, Richard joins Walter Steinkogler as he starts an avalanche in an attempt to find out how something as delicate and fragile as a snowflake can travel at extraordinary speeds of up to 250mph on the ground.


THU 23:00 Storm Troupers: The Fight to Forecast the Weather (b07d7mqg)
Episode 2

Alok Jha investigates how modern weather forecasting was born amid the horrific catastrophes of the 20th century, as meteorologists helped fight two world wars and tried to predict natural disasters across the globe.

He tells the story of Lewis Fry Richardson, a visionary scientist who laid the foundations of modern computer-based weather forecasting in between shifts as an ambulance driver in the trenches of World War I.

In Norway, Alok sees how meteorologists managed to unravel the mysteries of weather fronts and in India he sees how famines, which cost millions of lives, spurred meteorologists to try to understand climate on a global scale.

Alok investigates how, during World War II, weather forecasters working from a secret camp outside London under the most testing wartime conditions were called on to make the most important weather forecast in history - they were asked to predict if conditions would be good enough for the D-Day invasion to proceed. He sees how a family operating a tiny weather station on the west coast of Ireland became a key part of this extraordinary drama, as they provided weather readings that were vital to the outcome of the war.


THU 00:00 Top of the Pops (b09szqds)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 00:35 Top of the Pops (b07sxd6v)
John Peel presents the weekly pop chart show. Includes appearances from Motorhead, Imagination, Roxy Music, Status Quo, Japan, Goombay Dance Band and Shakatak.


THU 01:15 Top of the Pops (b07tq0fc)
Simon Bates presents the weekly chart show, first broadcast on 8 April 1982. Includes appearances from Haircut 100, Chas & Dave, Boomtown Rats, Elton John, Stevie Wonder & Paul McCartney, Foster & Allen, Goombay Dance Band and Pigbag.


THU 01:50 Soup Cans & Superstars: How Pop Art Changed the World (b067ftp7)
Alastair Sooke champions pop art as one of the most important art forms of the 20th century, peeling back pop's frothy, ironic surface to reveal an art style full of subversive wit and radical ideas.

In charting its story, Alastair brings a fresh eye to the work of pop art superstars Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein and tracks down pop's pioneers, from American artists like James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg and Ed Ruscha to British godfathers Peter Blake and Allen Jones.

Alastair also explores how pop's fascination with celebrity, advertising and the mass media was part of a global art movement, and he travels to China to discover how a new generation of artists are reinventing pop art's satirical, political edge for the 21st century.


THU 03:20 Secret Knowledge (b06csx20)
The Art of the Impossible: MC Escher and Me

World-leading cosmologist Professor Sir Roger Penrose is more than just a fan of MC Escher's mind-bending art. During the course of a long creative collaboration, the British mathematician and the Dutch artist exchanged ideas and inspirations. Some of Escher's most iconic images have their origin in Penrose's mathematical sketches - while the artist's work has served as a starting point for the professor's own explorations of new scientific ideas. To coincide with the first ever Escher retrospective in the UK, Penrose takes us on a personal journey through Escher's greatest masterpieces - marvelling at his intuitive brilliance and the penetrating light it still sheds on complex mathematical concepts.



FRIDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2018

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b09s8bhb)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b09sw7zx)
John Peel and Janice Long present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 9 May 1985.


FRI 20:00 Winter Olympics Extra (b09sc8d1)
Pyeongchang 2018

23/02/2018

Radzi Chinyanganya hosts the action as the women's figure skating competition reaches its climax, and there's sure to be thrills and spills in the women's ski cross.


FRI 21:00 The Old Grey Whistle Test (b09scfnb)
For One Night Only

Hosted by Bob Harris, this live studio show features music, special guests and rare archive to mark 30 years since the legendary series was last broadcast. Featuring performances from Peter Frampton, Richard Thompson, and Albert Lee among others.

Bob also chats to Whistle Test alumni, including Dave Stewart, Joan Armatrading, Ian Anderson, Chris Difford and Kiki Dee along with fans such as Danny Baker and Al Murray. A night of reminiscence, great music and fun.


FRI 00:00 Top of the Pops (b09sw7zx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 00:40 The Old Grey Whistle Test (b014vzy3)
70s Gold

The Old Grey Whistle Test was launched on 21 September 1971 from a tiny studio tucked behind a lift shaft on the fourth floor of BBC Television Centre. From humble beginnings, it has gone on to provide some of the best and most treasured music archive that the BBC has to offer.

This programme takes us on a journey and celebrates the musically mixed-up decade that was the 1970s, and which is reflected in the OGWT archive. There are classic performances from the glam era by Elton John and David Bowie, an early UK TV appearance from Curtis Mayfield, the beginnings of heavy metal with Steppenwolf's iconic Born to Be Wild anthem and the early punk machinations of the 'mock rock' New York Dolls. Archive from the pinnacle year, 1973, features Roxy Music, The Wailers and Vinegar Joe. The programme's finale celebrates the advent of punk and new wave with unforgettable performances from Patti Smith, Blondie, Iggy Pop and The Jam.

Artists featured are Elton John, Lindisfarne, David Bowie, Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Steppenwolf, Vinegar Joe, Brinsley Schwarz, New York Dolls, Argent, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Captain Beefheart, Johnny Winter, Dr Feelgood, Gil Scott Heron, Patti Smith, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Cher & Gregg Allman, Talking Heads, The Jam, Blondie, Iggy Pop and The Specials.


FRI 02:10 The Old Grey Whistle Test Story (b0074t7r)
Jo Brand narrates a profile which celebrates the life and times of the BBC's first flagship live music programme, The Old Grey Whistle Test, which ran from 1971 to 1987. It looks at the music, the presenters, the TV rivals, the sparse studio and the legacy, finds out why Bob Harris whispered, what Sid Vicious tried to do to him and what Camel did with a woodwind quartet and why. All these questions are answered and many more, followed by loving compilations of those early 70s years, the era that time forgot.


FRI 02:50 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.