SATURDAY 03 NOVEMBER 2018

SAT 19:00 Natural World (b04d8vsz)
2014-2015

A Bear with a Bounty

Meet Lily, an eight-year-old wild black bear, described by some as the most popular bear in the world. Why? Thanks to bear biologist Dr Lynn Rogers, from day one her life has been documented online. Dr Rogers has a unique relationship with Lily and all of his study bears, feeding them by hand and walking with them in the Northwoods of Minnesota. But his methods have divided opinion, resulting in a bounty being put on Lily's head. With hunting season fast approaching, this is the latest and possibly most challenging chapter in her remarkable life.


SAT 20:00 The Man who Discovered Egypt (b01f13f4)
Documentary about English Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, the pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology. Ancient Egypt was vandalised by tomb raiders and treasure hunters until this Victorian adventurer took them on. Most people have never heard of him, but this maverick undertook a scientific survey of the pyramids, discovered the oldest portraits in the world, unearthed Egypt's prehistoric roots - and in the process invented modern field archaeology, giving meaning to a whole civilisation.


SAT 21:00 Beck (b0brjp1r)
Flesh and Blood

Martin Beck is drawn into a case of a missing girl in Stockholm.

In Swedish with English subtitles.


SAT 22:35 There She Goes (b0bqrdsr)
Series 1

What Rosie Wants

A trip to Rosie's favourite place - the swimming pool - ends in disaster when she decides she hates it. Emily begins to wonder if it's just that Rosie wanted to do something else. Simon goes off to take pictures of all the places they regularly visit to put together a booklet. Rosie types 'onetwoman', which Emily and Ben try to cross-reference with her iPad to figure out what it means. In the earlier timeline, Emily's academic nature and desire for answers is yielding much less success. At their first appointment with a genetics doctor, she finds him a like-minded soul who seems to view Rosie as a problem to be solved.


SAT 23:05 Top of the Pops (b0bqr3l5)
Simon Bates presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 14 August 1986. Featuring It Bites, Lionel Richie, Anita Dobson, Phil Fearon and Chris De Burgh.


SAT 23:35 Top of the Pops (b0bqr550)
Gary Davies and Bruno Brookes present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 21 August 1986. Featuring Depeche Mode, Prince and The Revolution, Bruce Hornsby and The Range, Modern Talking, Boris Gardiner, and The Communards.


SAT 00:05 More Dangerous Songs: And the Banned Played On (b048wwpz)
Compilation of songs previously banned by the BBC, including Lola by The Kinks, Jackie by Scott Walker and We Don't Need This Fascist Groove Thang by Heaven 17.


SAT 01:05 The Kacey Musgraves Country & Western Rhinestone Revue at Royal Albert Hall (b081sx52)
Kacey Musgraves performs live to a packed-out Royal Albert Hall. At just 27 and with a huge international following, Kacey sings a number of her hits and shows what a breath of fresh air she is to the modern country music scene. She wows her fans as she performs some of her biggest hits including Biscuits, Silver Lining and Merry Go Round from her albums Same Trailer Different Park and Pageant Material.


SAT 02:05 Natural World (b04d8vsz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 03:05 Secret Knowledge (b05z5hc0)
Thomas Chatterton: The Myth of the Doomed Poet

Poet Michael Symmons Roberts explores the mythic afterlife of the 18th-century poet Thomas Chatterton. With access to rare documents and artefacts, and featuring a surprising interview with Queen guitarist Brian May, Michael explains how Chatterton's tragic early death in his London garret aged just 17 was immortalised by a succession of poets and painters and photographers - most notably by the pre-Raphaelite Henry Wallis in his masterpiece known as The Death of Chatterton - and how these successive images of the young Chatterton have saddled poets ever since with the notion of the doomed young artist suffering and ultimately dying in service to the muse.



SUNDAY 04 NOVEMBER 2018

SUN 19:00 Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways (b01qh3z3)
Episode 3

Over just 50 years, Britain's railways grew from a handful of small lines carrying coal to the biggest industry in the strongest nation on the planet. A nation had built the railways and now those railways would build a nation, influencing working conditions for its employees, proving a valuable export across the globe and even changing warfare.

Yet the story of railways up until the beginning of the Second World War concerned who they really belonged to - the private rail companies who were obsessed with profit, the public who rode them, or the government, who needed them at times of crisis but was reluctant to regulate.


SUN 20:00 We Will Remember Them with Huw Edwards (b0bqr5jf)
To mark the centenary of the end of World War One, Huw Edwards embarks on an emotional and explorative journey of remembrance. Travelling from Wales to the western front, Huw reveals the untold story behind the unique way in which Britain and the empire honour their fallen soldiers, who sacrificed their lives in the fight for freedom. The British government refused calls to return its war dead for burial, unlike France and America. This policy meant hundreds of thousands of families were effectively prevented from visiting the graves of their loved ones. A mothers' movement emerged fighting the ruling. But when it failed, bereaved families were left to come to terms with their grief in other ways. This is the story of the ritual of remembrance that occurs each year. The story of war memorials and commemorative events, and it's a story that still resonates so deeply, a hundred years on.


SUN 21:00 The First World War from Above (b00vyrzh)
Fergal Keane tells the story of the World War One from a unique new aerial perspective. Featuring two remarkable historical finds, including a piece of archive footage filmed from an airship in summer 1919, capturing the trenches and battlefields in a way that has rarely been seen before. It also features aerial photographs taken by First World War pilots - developed for the first time in over 90 years - that show not only the devastation inflicted during the fighting, but also quirks and human stories visible only from above.


SUN 22:00 Arena (b0bqt8g3)
Make Me Up!

A satirical look at the contradictory pressures faced by women today. It examines how television and social media can help us explore identity, at the same time encouraging women to conform to strict beauty ideals. Multimedia artist Rachel Maclean has created a world that is both seductive and dangerous, a place where surveillance, violence and submission are a normalised part of daily life.

Siri wakes to find herself trapped inside a brutalist candy-coloured dreamhouse. Despite the cutesy decor, the place is far from benign, and she and her fellow inmates are encouraged to compete for survival. Forced to go head to head in a series of demeaning tasks, Siri and Alexa start subverting the rules, soon revealing the sinister truth that underpins their world.


SUN 23:10 Arena (b08d80fd)
Alone with Chrissie Hynde

Arena spends the summer with supercool self-confessed rock chick, Chrissie Hynde - shopping for clothes in Paris, hanging out with Sandra Bernhard in New York, life in London and a special trip back to her home town of Akron, Ohio.

A thoughtful and intimate portrait of a 'lone, hungry, irritable wolf', featuring a glorious live performance at one of London's newest venues.


SUN 00:10 Dazzling Duets at the BBC (b08j8j2l)
Dazzling duets from four decades of BBC entertainment, from Parkinson to the Proms. Whether it's pianos or banjos, violins or voices, kora, erhu or harmonica, this is a journey full of striking partnerships and extraordinary combinations. Oscar Peterson, Larry Adler, Ballake Sissoko, Kiri Te Kanawa, Nigel Kennedy and Bela Fleck are just some of the featured artists bringing us a musical feast, full of fun and surprises.


SUN 01:10 Ballrooms and Ballerinas: Dance at the BBC (b06sg7zj)
Strictly Come Dancing - today one of the most popular shows on television - is the latest manifestation of the BBC's enduring love affair with dance. Whether it was profiling stars such as Margot Fonteyn, reluctantly teaching us how to do the twist or encouraging us to dance like John Travolta, the BBC's cameras were there to capture every move and every step. From ballet to ballroom and beyond, this is Dance at the BBC.


SUN 02:10 We Will Remember Them with Huw Edwards (b0bqr5jf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SUN 03:10 Secret Knowledge (b01r3n6m)
The Kimbolton Cabinet

Granted privileged access to the Victoria and Albert Museum after hours, John Bly seeks out the Kimbolton Cabinet, an exquisite piece of 18th-century English furniture that promises to reveal much about not only our nation's craft heritage but also his very own childhood.



MONDAY 05 NOVEMBER 2018

MON 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0bq4721)
Series 1

05/11/2018

Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping the world.


MON 19:30 Regimental Stories (b014v51m)
The Royal Welsh

Every year, the Royal Welsh celebrate the 1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift where 122 British soldiers survived an attack by 4,000 Zulu warriors. This documentary tells the real story behind the epic film Zulu and shows how regimental history continues to inspire and motivate new recruits to this day.


MON 20:00 Rome: A History of the Eternal City (b01pdt0s)
The Rebirth of God's City

Simon Sebag Montefiore charts Rome's rise from the abandonment and neglect of the 14th century into the everlasting seat of the papacy recognised today. His story takes us through the debauchery and decadence of the Renaissance, the horrors of the Sack of Rome and the Catholic Reformation, through to the arrival of fascism and the creation of the Vatican State. By taking us inside Rome's most sensational palaces and churches and telling the stories behind some of the world's most beloved art, Sebag Montefiore's final instalment is a visual feast.


MON 21:00 WWI: The Last Tommies (b0brjshr)
Series 1

For King and Country

Vivid and heartbreaking stories told by the last Tommies - filmed in their 90s and 100s - remembering life and death in World War I, illustrated with powerful archive.

This episode tells the story of the first years of war in 1914 and 1915, culminating in the Battle of Loos, when the Pals Battalions, who had enthusiastically volunteered to serve, had their first taste of the horror of mass industrialised warfare. We see how the Tommies survived and kept their spirits up in the trenches with death all around them. And we see how families at home faced up to the absence and the tragic loss of husbands, fathers, sweethearts and sons. Yet despite this shock they still had to work incredibly long hours in the munitions factories and 'keep the home fires burning.' War wasn't the glorious adventure that so many had imagined.


MON 22:00 Lucy Worsley's Fireworks for a Tudor Queen (b09cfwt4)
Historian Lucy Worsley teams up with artist and materials scientist Zoe Laughlin to explore the explosive science and fascinating history of fireworks, using an original pyrotechnics instruction manual, and other 400-year-old historical documents, to recreate one of the most spectacular fireworks displays from the Tudor era.

Lucy and Zoe are joined by a team of top class pyrotechnicians to replicate a mind-blowing fireworks display especially designed for Queen Elizabeth I - one of the first documented firework displays in England. Lucy pieces together clues from some of the earliest instruction manuals for making fireworks in England, as well as eyewitness accounts of the display laid on in 1575. Armed with this information, the team apply their understanding of cutting-edge pyrotechnics to recreate it in the grounds of Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, where it was originally staged.

Using hands-on experiments to test their designs, the team construct Tudor rockets, firework fountains and a fire-breathing dragon, as well as discovering the secrets of Elizabethan gunpowder.

Throughout the show, Lucy explores the history of the three-week extravaganza laid on by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in his final attempt to win the queen's hand in marriage - from the elaborate food the Tudor audience would have eaten, to the colours that the set might have been painted in.

She also reveals the important role fireworks had during the Tudor era - from the firework effects used on stage at the Globe Theatre to the pyrotechnical experimentation that took place at the Tower of London, the MI5 of its day.

But not all the clues can be found in England - some of the fireworks described need to be tracked down further afield. Lucy travels to Italy to recreate the mysterious Girandola - a horizontal spinning wheel of fire - whilst Zoe flies to South Korea to witness the ancient, and rather terrifying, rocket box launcher in action.

The danger and technical challenges involved in recreating 400-year-old fireworks creates a real sense of scale and event. And the detective work needed to decipher these Tudor pyrotechnic manuals, and the engineering ingenuity to recreate them, form the narrative spine of the film, culminating in a spectacular recreation of Elizabeth I's mind-blowing firework display at Kenilworth Castle.


MON 23:30 Bacchus Uncovered: Ancient God of Ecstasy (b09z8d01)
Professor Bettany Hughes investigates the story of Bacchus, god of wine, revelry, theatre and excess, travelling to Georgia, Jordan, Greece and Britain to discover his origins and his presence in the modern world, and explore how 'losing oneself' plays a vital role in the development of civilisation.

In this fascinating journey, Bettany begins in Georgia where she discovers evidence of the world's oldest wine production, and the role it may have played in building communities. In Athens, she reveals Bacchus's pivotal role in a society where his ecstatic worship was embraced by all classes, and most importantly women. On Cyprus, she uncovers startling parallels between Bacchus and Christ. Finally, Bettany follows the god's modern embrace in Nietzsche's philosophy, experimental theatre and the hedonistic hippie movement to conclude that, while this god of ecstasy is worthy of contemporary reconsideration, it is vital to heed the warning of the ancients - 'MEDEN AGAN' - nothing in excess.


MON 00:30 Utopia: In Search of the Dream (b090c2pj)
Series 1

Blueprints for Better

In this first episode, Prof Richard Clay explores how utopian visions begin as blueprints for fairer worlds and asks whether they can inspire real change.

Charting 500 years of utopian visions and making bold connections between exploration and science fiction - from radical 18th-century politics to online communities like Wikipedia - Richard delves into colourful stories of some of the world's greatest utopian dreamers, including Thomas More, who coined the term 'utopia', Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, and Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek.

Richard builds a compelling argument that utopian visions have been a powerful way of criticising the present, and he identifies key values he believes the imagined better futures tend to idealise. He shows how the concept of shared ownership, a 'commons' of both land and digital space online, has fired utopian thinking, and he explores the dream of equality through the campaign for civil rights in the 1960s and through a feminist theatrical production in today's America.

Immersing himself in a terrifying '1984' survival drama in Vilnius, Lithuania, Richard also looks at the flip side, asking why dystopias are so popular today in film, TV and comic book culture. He explores whether dystopian visions have been a way to remind ourselves that hard-won gains can be lost and that we must beware of humanity's darker side if we are ever to reach a better place.

Across Britain, Germany, Lithuania and America, Richard talks about the meaning of utopia with a rich range of interviewees, including Katherine Maher, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols, explorer Belinda Kirk, football commentator John Motson and Hollywood screenwriter Frank Spotnitz.


MON 01:30 Rome: A History of the Eternal City (b01pdt0s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 02:30 WWI: The Last Tommies (b0brjshr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 06 NOVEMBER 2018

TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0bq4730)
Series 1

06/11/2018

Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London return to report on the events that are shaping the world.


TUE 19:30 Regimental Stories (b0155b4p)
The Parachute Regiment

Created to spearhead the liberation of Europe in World War II, the Parachute Regiment prides itself on having the toughest selection process in the British Army. This film reveals how its historic missions in Normandy and Arnhem continue to motivate the regiment's recruits to this day.


TUE 20:00 The Story of Wales (p00mlrqc)
The Makings of Wales

Huw Edwards presents this major television history of Wales, showing our country in ways it has never been seen before. Thirty thousand years in the making, this story begins with the drama of the earliest-known human burial in western Europe. Huw delves into the biggest prehistoric copper mine in the world, and visits the mesmerising site of an Iron Age hillfort. He reveals the true scale of the Roman occupation, and shows how Welsh saints carried the light of the gospel to the rest of the Celtic world, and left a mark on their homeland that we can all still read today.


TUE 21:00 WWI: The Last Tommies (b0brjy2b)
Series 1

The Battle of the Somme

The Battle of the Somme is an immersive account of one of the most iconic and tragic battles in history, told through its last survivors and through families and communities at home who lost loved ones. When the troops went over the top in June 1916, they imagined this was the attack that would end the war. Instead, it turned into the most costly battle of the entire war, with enormous casualties on both sides.

We tell the stories of the officers and the men, the Tommies who sustained life-changing injuries and the nurses who treated them. We see how whole communities were devastated as the Pals Battalions, each one recruited from a particular town or city, were mown down. With the help of the tank, the Battle of the Somme ended in November 1916. The British and empire casualties totalled 400,000 men. They had advanced just six miles, but they had dealt a devastating blow to the German army.


TUE 22:00 There She Goes (b0brf3lk)
Series 1

The Wrong Grandad

Simon's mum and stepdad have come to stay. They want to take Ben back down to Devon for three weeks in the summer, which causes Simon and Emily to wonder why they are not willing to take Rosie.

While Simon and Emily go on a rare night out, nana and grandad look after the kids, but when they return, they sense that something has gone wrong.


TUE 22:30 The Silk Road (p03qb3q4)
Episode 3

In the final episode of his series tracing the story of the most famous trade route in history, Dr Sam Willis continues his journey west in Iran. The first BBC documentary team to be granted entry for nearly a decade, Sam begins in the legendary city of Persepolis - heart of the first Persian Empire.

Following an ancient caravan route through Persia's deserts, he visits a Zoroastrian temple where a holy fire has burned for 1,500 years, and Esfahan, one of the Silk Road's architectural jewels and rival to Sam's next destination - Istanbul. In the ancient capital of Byzantium, Sam discovers how the eastern Roman Empire was ruled through silk and how Venetian merchants cashed in on the wealth and trade it generated.

Sam's last stop takes him full circle to Venice. Visiting Marco Polo's house, Sam reminds us how the great traveller's book was one of the first to link east to west and how the ideas and products that trickled down the Silk Road not only helped to trigger the Renaissance, but set Europe on a path of unstoppable change.


TUE 23:30 Lost Kingdoms of Central America (b04j8st0)
The People Who Greeted Columbus

The Taino people of the Caribbean were the first people of the Americas to greet Christopher Columbus. But, as Dr Jago Cooper reveals, they had a multicultural society complete with drug-infused rituals, strange skulls and amazing navigation. In deep caverns and turquoise seas, Jago uncovers their hidden history.


TUE 00:30 Ireland's Treasures Uncovered (b070w5kh)
The story of the iconic Irish artefacts that have helped to shape and create modern Ireland, both north and south.

The programme reveals the surprising tales behind treasures such as the Tara Brooch, the Broighter Hoard, the Waterford Charter Roll and others, revealing new stories behind the artefacts that we thought we knew. It also reveals the most recent astounding finds that are adding to the list of Ireland's Treasures.

Using key access to Ireland's two largest museums, in Belfast and Dublin, the programme brings together archaeologists and curators who have spent their lives working to understand the true context for these emblematic treasures.


TUE 01:30 Timeshift (b0155fss)
Series 11

Dear Censor

Lifting the lid on the world of cinema censorship, this programme has unique access to the files of the British Board of Film Classification. Featuring explicit and detailed exchanges between the censor and film-makers, 'Dear Censor' casts a wry eye over some of the most infamous cases in the history of the board.

From the now seemingly innocuous Rebel Without a Cause, the first 'naturist' films and the infamous works of Ken Russell, and up to Rambo III, this frank and surprisingly warm documentary demonstrates how a body created by the industry to safeguard standards and reflect shifts in public opinion has also worked unexpectedly closely with the film-makers themselves to ensure that their work was able reach an audience.


TUE 02:30 WWI: The Last Tommies (b0brjy2b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 07 NOVEMBER 2018

WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0bq474m)
Series 1

07/11/2018

Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London return to report on the events that are shaping the world.


WED 19:30 Regimental Stories (b015j5s6)
The Royal Tank Regiment

The Royal Tank Regiment began as a top secret band of plumbers, electricians and mechanics brought together to break the stalemate of trench warfare in WWI. They revolutionised warfare and the regimental history of bravery and innovation inspires members of the regiment to this day.


WED 20:00 Invasion! with Sam Willis (b09hr5pc)
Series 1

Episode 1

Three-part series in which intrepid historian Dr Sam Willis reveals a remarkable story of invasion in Britain spanning thousands of years.

From the time continuous settlement began in Britain over 10,000 years ago to Iron Age hillforts and Viking ships, Sam explores the many invasions of Britain. He unearths hidden stories to build a vivid picture of both successful and unsuccessful invasions and examines how they have shaped our psyche, including fear of invasion.

Some invasions are bloody, some bloodless. Some were by invitation, some absurd and doomed. From Barbary pirates and brutal border raids to the air attacks of the 20th century, these invasions have shaped modern Britain and made us the people we are today.

In this first programme, Sam fells a tree with a flint axe in Kent, gets to grips with the technology of Viking boats and rides an Iron Age chariot. He also searches for clues of invasion at Silbury Hill and tracks down evidence of the Beaker people who brought ceramics, metalwork and beakers to Britain.


WED 21:00 WWI: The Last Tommies (b0brk21h)
Series 1

The Fight to the End

The Fight to the End tells the story of the terrible battles of 1917 and 1918, and how Britain and her allies turned a looming defeat into victory. As recruitment levels fell, conscription was introduced. One of the conscripts was Harry Patch - here interviewed for the first time - who went on to live to the age of 111, and who survived to be the last fighting Tommy of WWI. These were years when German U-boats attempted to starve Britain into submission and there were serious food shortages on the home front.

We hear dramatic stories of the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 - a battle fought in a quagmire of mud at a terrible cost to soldiers' lives. In the Spring Offensive of 1918, the German army made huge advances and almost won the war. Some of our survivors were taken prisoner and worked as slave labour in Germany. But with the help of the United States, there was a final push to victory.

The sacrifice involved in this total war changed the world forever. We conclude by briefly looking at the effects of the war on some of the characters we have grown to know and love across the series.


WED 22:00 Captain Jack and the Furious Few (b0bqs96t)
A hundred years ago, with German U-boats and battleships terrorising Allied shipping and zeppelins bombing Britain's towns and cities, Ulster-Scots teenager Jack McCleery was one of 12 young men tasked with a deadly mission on board the navy's 'mystery ship'. In Captain Jack and the Furious Few, David Hayman reveals the story of the test pilots of the world's first aircraft carrier, HMS Furious. The top guns of their day, their secret mission would revolutionise warfare.

A gifted pilot, Jack McCleery was head-hunted by the navy after just nine months of intensive flight training. He was posted to the newly commissioned HMS Furious in 1917, where he would serve for two years as part of an elite squadron of test pilots.

Their mission was to land a wheeled plane on the deck of a moving vessel in order to develop and test the techniques and technology that would convert the Furious into the world's first dedicated aircraft carrier, capable of launching a strategic air attack on Britain's enemies - but nothing like this had ever been attempted before.

Flying from the deck of HMS Furious, the bravery and sacrifice of those 12 Royal Navy test pilots would change the course of warfare forever. Jack McCleery's diaries, letters and personal archive of sketches and previously unseen photographs are a unique record of that extraordinary period in his own life, and in the history of aviation.


WED 23:00 Sleuths, Spies & Sorcerers: Andrew Marr's Paperback Heroes (p040pvpp)
Detectives

In the first episode of a series that explores the books we (really) read, Andrew Marr investigates the curious case of detective fiction. This is a genre that been producing best-sellers since the 19th century, and whose most famous heroes - Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Inspector Rebus - are now embedded in our collective psyche. But how does detective fiction work- and how do the best crime writers keep us compulsively turning the pages?

Andrew deconstructs detective stories by looking at their 'rules' - the conventions we expect to be present when we pick up a typical mystery. Because detective fiction is an interactive puzzle, these rules are the rules of a game - a fiendish battle of wits between the reader and the writer. What is remarkable is that instead of restricting novelists (as you might expect), these rules stimulate creativity, and Andrew reveals how clever writers like Agatha Christie have used them to create a seemingly infinite number of story-telling possibilities.

The fictional detective is a brilliant invention, a figure who takes us to (often dark) places that we wouldn't normally visit. While we are in their company, no section of society is off-limits or above suspicion, and Andrew shows how writers have used crime fiction not merely to entertain, but also to anatomise society's problems.

Andrew interviews modern-day crime writers including Ian Rankin, Sophie Hannah and Val McDermid, while profiling important pioneers such as Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett and Ruth Rendell. Along the way, he decodes various great set-pieces of the detective novel such as Hercule Poirot's drawing room denouements, and the 'locked room' mysteries of John Dickson Carr.


WED 00:00 Everyday Miracles: The Genius of Sofas, Stockings and Scanners (b04fd6s9)
Home

Professor Mark Miodownik shows us what is so great about stuff. All the things of modern life around us that we maybe take for granted are revealed to be little pieces of domestic magic - everyday miracles - from razor blades to tights, via plywood and foam rubber. On the road and in the lab with explosive experiments, Mark reveals why the everyday, and even the mundane, is anything but.


WED 01:00 Horizon (b08w61hc)
2017

Ten Things You Need to Know about the Future

This episode looks at the issues that will change the way we live our lives in the future. Rather than relying on the minds of science fiction writers, mathematician Hannah Fry delves into the data we have today to provide an evidence-based vision of tomorrow. With the help of the BBC's science experts - and a few surprise guests - Hannah investigates the questions the British public want answered about the future.

Hannah tries to discover whether we could ever live forever or if there will ever be a cure for cancer. She finds out how research into the human brain may one day help with mental health, and if it is possible to ever ditch fossil fuels. Hannah and her guests also discover the future of transport - and when, if ever, we really will see flying cars. She discovers whether a robot will take your job or if, as some believe, we will all one day actually become cyborgs. The programme predicts what the weather will be like and discovers if we are on the verge of another mass extinction. Hannah's tenth prediction is something she - and Horizon - are confident will definitely happen, and that is to expect the unexpected!


WED 02:00 Secret Knowledge (b036qfcy)
Walter Scott's Castle

Novelist, poet and all-round cultural impresario Sir Walter Scott is renowned for inventing many of the myths of Scotland that still dominate how the country is imagined. His home in the Scottish Borders, Abbotsford House, brilliantly brings to life his romantic views of Scotland.

In the run-up to the reopening of Abbotsford House Scott-fan Stuart Kelly gets exclusive behind-the-scenes access as over 13,000 treasures are moved back into the strange and wonderful building. Exploring some newly discovered secret corners Stuart finds out just how controversial the bizarre building and the man who built it remain.


WED 02:30 WWI: The Last Tommies (b0brk21h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 08 NOVEMBER 2018

THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0bq476q)
Series 1

08/11/2018

Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London return to report on the events that are shaping the world.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0brk3w1)
John Peel and Janice Long present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 28 August 1986. Featuring Jermaine Stewart, Peter Cetera, Jaki Graham, Human League, Boris Gardiner and Janet Jackson.


THU 20:00 Human Universe (p0276q61)
What Is Our Future?

Professor Brian Cox concludes his exploration of our place in the universe by asking what next for the ape that went to space.

In northern Spain, he begins in a cave that was once home to our distant ancestors. Here, he discovers some of the earliest art in the universe - a child's hand painted onto the wall that has remained intact for around 40,000 years. That child - if raised today - would be just as bright and just as capable as any modern child. Yet its vision of the future would be very different to ours.

To understand what sets us apart, Brian heads to the Arctic. In Svalbard, he joins a group of people who are celebrating the midsummer sun. At these latitudes, the sun doesn't set for weeks on end. Brian shows how science is able to precisely predict the future passage of our star in ways our ancestors could not have imagined. The difference is that science has given us a vision of the deep future. It has shown us that we live in a clockwork universe where planets turn around stars in predictable orbits, stars around galaxies and the galaxies themselves are all falling through a probably infinite universe.

But powerful as science is at predicting the motion of the heavens, our future is far from certain. In Florida, Brian joins the latest efforts to protect Earth from potential catastrophic events. He joins a team of Nasa astronauts who are training for a future mission to an asteroid - should we ever discover one coming our way - under 30 feet of water in a submerged laboratory that simulates space. It is just one example of how, for our long-term survival, space exploration may well be vital. It is a view shared by Apollo 16 astronaut Charlie Duke, who tells Brian what it was like to escape the confines of the planet. It is a dream that both Nasa and now commercial companies share as they race to get humans back into deep space.

But space travel, like every leap our civilisation has ever made, requires energy. Here too, scientists are hard at work attempting to safeguard our future. At the National Ignition Facility in California, Brian witnesses the world's most successful fusion experiment in action. He believes that if their mission succeeds, our civilisation will have unlocked a way to the stars that will not destroy the planet in the process.

Brian concludes by returning to the top of the world in Svalbard, where he gains access to our civilisation's greatest treasure, locked away in a vault buried deep in the permafrost.


THU 21:00 Britain's Pompeii: A Village Lost in Time (b07myxws)
Professor Alice Roberts joins the team excavating a 3,000-year-old Bronze Age village in the Cambridgeshire Fens that has been called the British Pompeii.

The village earned its nickname because 3,000 years ago it burned to the ground, and as it burned it fell into the peat, preserving both the houses and their contents. Until its discovery, we had little real idea of what life was like in Bronze Age Britain.

Now we can peek inside our Bronze Age ancestors' homes as archaeologists discover perfectly preserved roundhouses, and the contents inside them - right down to the utensils in their kitchens. These roundhouses were built in a style never seen in the UK before - testimony not only to the villagers' technical skills, but also of their connections to Europe.

The team has made other incredible discoveries on the dig - from Britain's oldest-found wheel, to swords used in battle, and bowls still containing preserved remnants of food. One of the biggest revelations is the discovery of a complete set of the early technology used to produce cloth - a full industrial process we've never seen in Britain before.

This glimpse into domestic life 3,000 years ago is unprecedented, but it also transforms our impressions of Bronze Age Britain - far from being poor and isolated, it seems the villagers were successful large-scale farmers who used their farming surplus to trade with Europe, exchanging their crops for beautiful glass jewellery and multiple metal tools per household.

As part of the dig, the archaeologists also investigate the cause of the fire - was it just a terrible accident, or did the villagers' wealth provoke an attack?


THU 22:00 Blackadder (p00bf6vt)
Blackadder Goes Forth

Plan E - General Hospital

Melchett orders Blackadder to unmask a spy working in the hospital where George is recovering from a bomb blast. Edmund sets to work, interrogating Darling, seducing a nurse and asking Baldrick to keep an eye on a patient with a pronounced German accent.


THU 22:30 Blackadder (b0078nnr)
Blackadder Goes Forth

Plan F - Goodbyeee

Sitcom set in the trenches of the First World War. When Blackadder, George and Baldrick are told they are going over the top the next day, Blackadder decides to feign madness.


THU 23:00 Madame Tussaud: A Legend in Wax (b08cgm56)
The remarkable true story of the woman behind the worldwide waxworks empire, Madame Tussaud.

In an astonishing life that spanned both the French and Industrial revolutions, this single mother and entrepreneur travelled across the Channel to England, where she overcame the odds to establish her remarkable and enduring brand. Determined to leave an account of who she was and the times she lived through, her memoirs, letters and papers offer a unique insight into the creation of the extraordinary empire which bears her name.


THU 00:00 Top of the Pops (b0brk3w1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 00:30 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (b00kvbny)
Simon Armitage goes on a journey to discover the language and landscape of our first great Arthurian romance, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. For JRR Tolkien, Gawain is 'a fairy tale for adults', but Armitage finds strong modern relevance in the trials of its stripling hero and a tale of do or die. A marvel of the imagination, Armitage argues that Gawain must take its place alongside Chaucer and Shakespeare at the head of the canon.


THU 01:30 Invasion! with Sam Willis (b09hr5pc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Wednesday]


THU 02:30 Human Universe (p0276q61)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



FRIDAY 09 NOVEMBER 2018

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b0bq4787)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0brk4hs)
Gary Davies presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 4 September 1986. Featuring The Communards, MC Miker G & DJ Sven, Bruce Hornsby and The Range, Bon Jovi, Farley 'Jackmaster' Funk, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Boris Gardiner.


FRI 20:00 Soul & Beyond with Corinne Bailey Rae and Trevor Nelson (b0bqtf55)
DJ Trevor Nelson and singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae present their ultimate soundtrack in an hour of classic and contemporary soul and R&B gems. As they watch their selection, they reveal the reasons behind their choices. From childhood favourites such as The Jackson 5 and Gladys Knight to inspirational tracks from Prince, Mary J Blige, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, this is a playlist to satisfy any soul fan.


FRI 21:00 Boy George's 1970s: Save Me from Suburbia (b07z7y5v)
British popstar Boy George recalls, revisits and assesses how the 1970s moulded the person and artist he has become. This is his musical, social and sexual coming of age, when he discovered the power of his own sexuality before setting about turning that persona into a popstar. Set against a backdrop of social discord, disenfranchisement and sexual repression, the 70s was also conversely the decade that revelled in colour and creative chaos, giving the world glam rock, disco and punk, and the young George O'Dowd was at the birth of them all. The documentary includes contributions from contemporaries like Martin Degville (Sigue Sigue Sputnik), Andy Polaris (Animal Nightlife), DJ Princess Julia and popstar Marilyn.

Boy George says: 'I think of the 70s as being this glorious decade where I discovered who I was and discovered all these amazing things - punk rock, electro music, fashion, all of that. And yeah of course there was that dark side to the 70s, the rubbish, the strikes, the poverty, and I'd get chased and confronted for the way I looked. But I was a teenager. I didn't have any time for misery. I was just having a great time with my friends.'.


FRI 22:00 Radio 2 In Concert (b0bqtf57)
Boy George and Culture Club

Recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre in London in 2018, Boy George and Culture Club are one of the most representative and influential bands of the 1980s and have sold over 150 million records worldwide. Winners of numerous awards, they rose to fame in the early 1980s with an illustrious music career now spanning four decades.

In this special and intimate show, expect some of their classic tunes such as Karma Chameleon and Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? as well as songs from 2018's Life, their first studio album since Don't Mind If I Do, which came out in 1999.


FRI 23:00 The Joy of the Single (b01nzchs)
Do you remember buying your first single? Where you bought it? What it was? The thrill of playing it for the first time? What it sounded like? How it maybe changed your life? Lots of us do. Lots of us still have that single somewhere in a dusty box in the attic, along with other treasured memorabilia of an adolescence lost in music and romance. The attic of our youth.

The Joy of the Single is a documentary packed with startling memories, vivid images and penetrating insights into the power of pop and rock's first and most abiding artefact - the seven-inch, vinyl 45-rpm record, a small, perfectly formed object that seems to miraculously contain the hopes, fears, sounds and experiences of our different generations - all within the spiralling groove etched on its shiny black surface, labelled and gift-wrapped by an industry also in its thrall.

In the confident hands of a star-studded cast, the film spins a tale of obsession, addiction, dedication and desire. The viewer is invited on a journey of celebration from the 1950s rock 'n' roll generation to the download kids of today, taking in classic singles from all manner of artists in each decade - from the smell of vinyl to the delights of the record label, from the importance of the record shop to the bittersweet brevity of the song itself, from stacking singles on a Dansette spindle to dropping the needle and thrilling to the intro.

Featuring contributions from Noddy Holder, Jack White, Richard Hawley, Suzi Quatro, Holly Johnson, Jimmy Webb, Pete Waterman, Norah Jones, Mike Batt, Graham Gouldman, Miranda Sawyer, Norman Cook, Trevor Horn, Neil Sedaka, Paul Morley, Rob Davies, Lavinia Greenlaw, Brian Wilson and Mike Love.


FRI 00:00 Top of the Pops (b0brk4hs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 00:35 ... Sings the Great American Songbook (b00rs3w4)
Presenting the best and most eclectic performances on the BBC from the world's best-known artists performing their interpretations of classic tracks from The Great American Songbook.

In chronological order, this programme takes us through a myriad of BBC studio performances, from Dame Shirley Bassey in 1966 performing The Lady is A Tramp, to Bryan Ferry in 1974 on Twiggy's BBC primetime show performing Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, to Captain Sensible on Top of the Pops in 1982 with his number one hit version of Happy Talk, through to Kirsty MacColl singing Miss Otis Regrets in 1994 to Jamie Cullum with his version of I Get a Kick Out Of You on Parkinson in 2004 and bang up to date with Brit winner Florence from Florence and the Machine performing My Baby Just Cares for Me with Jools Holland on his Annual Hootenanny at the end of 2009.

The Great American Songbook can best be described as the music and popular songs of the famous and prolific American composers of the 1920s and onwards. Composers such as Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Hoagy Carmichael to name but a few... songwriters who wrote the tunes of Broadway theatre and Hollywood musicals that earned enduring popularity before the dawning of rock 'n' roll.

These famous songwriters have penned songs which have entered the general consciousness and which are now best described as standards - tunes which every musician and singer aspires to include in their repertoire.


FRI 01:35 Soul & Beyond with Corinne Bailey Rae and Trevor Nelson (b0bqtf55)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 02:35 Boy George's 1970s: Save Me from Suburbia (b07z7y5v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]