SATURDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2020

SAT 19:00 Dog Tales and Cat Tales (m000mmk3)
Series 1

Cat Tales: In from the Wild

In this episode, we take a close-up look at the world’s most popular furry pet, the cat. Detailed real-time brain scans reveal a possible explanation for why owners are besotted with their cats. A cat’s meow plugs straight into the emotional centres of our brains in exactly the same way as a baby’s cry. And adult cats only meow to humans. So they may not intend to manipulate us, but they do. It turns out owners literally can’t help loving their cats.

Can we tell what a cat is thinking and feeling? In a way, we can. Dr Lauren Finka has been studying cats’ enigmatic faces to try and read their thoughts and emotions. ‘Whilst cats definitely change their expressions, it's very, very subtle. For the average cat owner trying to look at the cat's face, it remains problematic.' So, unless you’re a scientist, cats remain hard to read.

By contrast, according to new research, it turns out that cats can read our emotions like a book.

We discover that the gap between our lovable pets and wildcats is paper-thin. So how did we end up with a wild animal living in our homes?

We meet vet Dr Ashlie Randal, who is working with domestic cats that have turned wild – feral cats. 'Feral cats are very different from domestic cats. They typically will fight or resort to flight when people come into play.' And yet, genetically, they are identical to your furry pet.

So what’s the origin of our nearly wild pets? Geneticist Carlos Driscoll explains how his research found their wildcat ancestors are Felix Silvestris Lybica, the North African wildcat. 'People have been speculating about it for hundreds of years. Now with the advent of molecular genetic techniques, we can really drill down and say definitively where domestic cats come from.'

Archaeology has pinpointed one of the earliest ever pet cats - the moment when human met cat 9,500 years ago. It was found in an ancient Cypriot burial by archaeologist Jean-Denis Vigne. 'They were facing each other in death. In the afterlife. And this is a scene that has been arranged by people.'

Using graphics and interviews, we reveal that what drew cats and humans together was a change in human behaviour - the beginning of agriculture. It attracted cats out of the wild and into human settlements.

The story of the pet cat takes an unexpected twist, one thousand miles and several thousand years away in Egypt. Things seemed to look up for cats as the ancient Egyptians turned them into gods. But Egyptologist Salima Ikram uncovers a trove of cat mummies to reveal the unpleasant downside of the Egyptian obsession with cats. 'Pilgrims would buy these cats to give a blood sacrifice.'

Things didn’t improve for Egyptian cats in Europe during the Middle Ages. It was all the fault of Pope Gregory IX, who said that cats were in league with Satan. Medieval expert Ronald Hutton paints a ghastly picture. 'In late medieval Europe, there were festivals formed around the torturing and killing of cats, regarding cats as essentially, nosy, menacing, intrusive, potentially satanic beings.'

But in the 21st century, the life of a cat has really turned around. They are now the most popular furry pet in the world. We visit Las Vegas’s largest cat show to see just how far the cat has come.

We also find out if it’s really true that you can’t train a cat. According to Samantha Martin of Acro-Cats, you actually can: 'Cats are brilliant. People really underestimate the brilliance of cats. By training them, they get to use their brain.'

So what’s next for the cat? We meet owners who are cross breeding other wildcats with domestic cats to create completely new species. Ironically, they’re trying to make domestic cats look wild, which under the skin of course, they still are.

What do cats make of all this? As usual, they’re not saying.


SAT 20:00 Pole to Pole (p02j92mv)
Crossing The Line

Running badly behind schedule and far off-course, Michael travels from Ethiopia to Kenya. En route, he encounters a lion, turns to hitchhiking and meets a hippo colony while on safari.


SAT 21:00 Mystery Road (m000mtkk)
Series 2

The Road

A decapitated corpse and drug-running bring taciturn detective Jay Swan to the remote, tight-lipped coastal community of Gideon.


SAT 21:55 Mystery Road (m000mtkn)
Series 2

The Flare

Jay suspects the trucking firm is tied to the drug trade, but the intervention of an ex-military businessman also proves intriguing.


SAT 22:55 The Beach: Isolation in Paradise (m000mtkq)
Series 1

Episode 1

Film-maker Warwick Thornton’s international success has come at a personal cost. He has reached a crossroads in his life and something has to change.

He has chosen to try giving up life in the fast lane for a while to go it alone, on an isolated beach in Western Australia, one of the most beautiful yet brutal environments in the world, to see if the experience can transform and heal his life.


SAT 23:20 The Beach: Isolation in Paradise (m000mtkv)
Series 1

Episode 2

Film-maker Warwick Thornton’s international success has come at a personal cost. He has reached a crossroads in his life and something has to change.

He has chosen to try giving up life in the fast lane for a while to go it alone, on an isolated beach in Western Australia, one of the most beautiful yet brutal environments in the world, to see if the experience can transform and heal his life.


SAT 23:45 Clive James (p00rzvjz)
Postcard from London

First transmitted in 1991, Clive James recalls his experiences of London life in the early 1960s. In between his visits to some of London’s tourist sites, such as the National Gallery - "still the best free show in town" - James trades anecdotes with some of his famous friends.

Victoria Wood explains how she once shared a bed with him without him knowing. Terence Donovan fondly recalls the sense of freedom in the sixties and the effect that miniskirts had on his driving. Peter Cook evokes a cutting edge side of the capital as he talks about The Establishment, the satirical nightclub he started in Soho and where the legendary Lenny Bruce would perform from time to time. And Michael Caine explains why he won't eat a doughnut with a hole in it to this day!


SAT 00:35 Top of the Pops (b01pmbdy)
1978 - Big Hits

A pick 'n' mix of Top of the Pops classics from 1978, when in-yer-face punk and new wave rebellion co-existed with MOR suburban pop, disco fever, soul balladry, reggae and prog rock, and when two mega-successful movie soundtracks in the shape of Grease and Saturday Night Fever squared up on the dancefloor. Featuring shouty Sham 69, the cool rebellion of Ian Dury, Elvis Costello and Blondie, the media-savvy clowning of The Boomtown Rats, Kate Bush's debut with Wuthering Heights, alongside Brotherhood of Man's perky Figaro, Dan Hill's sentimental Sometimes When We Touch and the high camp of Boney M's Rasputin. Bob Marley shares chart space with 10cc's Dreadlock Holiday, and ELO and Manfred Mann's Earth Band keep on rockin'.


SAT 01:35 Pole to Pole (p02j92mv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:25 Dog Tales and Cat Tales (m000mmk3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020

SUN 19:00 Natural World (b079s2ph)
2016-2017

Kangaroo Dundee and Other Animals - Part 1

In the outback of Australia, the world's most famous 'kangaroo mum' is expanding operations. Brolga, aka Kangaroo Dundee, is opening his doors to a whole new bunch of animal characters, including a trio of camels and a southern hairy-nosed wombat called Pete.

The kangaroo joeys are still very much a priority but these days Brolga is sharing maternal duties with his wife Tahnee. With three emu chicks set to move into the family home and the dream of building a wildlife hospital about to become a reality, life in the Australian bush is more hectic than ever before.


SUN 20:00 The Ghan: Australia's Greatest Train Journey (b0bq3jnv)
The Ghan follows one of the world's great rail journeys, taking viewers on an immersive and visually stunning ride on Australia's most iconic passenger trains. Known as the Ghan, it travels for 2979 kilometres over 54 hours from the bottom to the top of the country. It begins in the suburban city of Adelaide, traversing a seemingly endless outback that includes the magnificent red centre, ending in the tropical coastal town of Darwin at the north western tip of Australia. The transcontinental train line led to the development of central Australia and the growth of towns along its path - Port Augusta, Alice Springs and Darwin. It took an epic 127 years to complete and was constructed by local Aboriginal surveyors and early immigrants, including the famous Afghan camel drivers, after whom the train is named.


SUN 23:00 Own the Sky: Jet Pack Dreamers (m0009dl2)
How what began as a passion for the tantalising possibilities of jetpacks became an obsession. Shot over ten years, this documentary chronicles Australian David Mayman's seemingly impossible quest to fulfil his childhood dream to build and fly the world’s first jetpack.

His ambition, which nearly cost him his life and family, culminates in an attempt to make the world's first jetpack flight around the Statue of Liberty.


SUN 00:00 Ultimate Cover Versions at the BBC (b06ns4gf)
Smash hits from 60 years of great cover versions in performance from the BBC TV archive. Reinterpretations, tributes and acts of subversion from the British invasion to noughties X Factor finalist Alexandra Burke. Artists as varied as The Moody Blues, Soft Cell, Mariah Carey and UB40 with their 'retake' on someone else's song - ultimate chart hits that are, in some cases, perhaps even better than the original.

Arguably The Beatles, alongside Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys, introduced the notion of 'originality' and self-generating artists writing their songs into the pop lexicon in the 60s. One of the most fascinating consequences of this has been the 'original' cover version, a reinterpretation of someone else's song that has transformed it into pop gold with a shift of rhythm, intent and context. The pop cover has proved a remarkably imaginative and durable form and this compilation tracks this pop alchemy at its finest and most intriguing.


SUN 01:00 EastEnders 2008 (b00ccfk0)
Stacey feels the pressure as the Slaters celebrate her reunion with Bradley. Dot is horrified when Max makes a shock announcement. Bianca is mystified by an unexpected gift.


SUN 01:30 EastEnders 2008 (b00ccfqh)
The Millers are thrown when Mickey tells them he's leaving Walford for good - but can Keith persuade him to stay? Shirley ropes Heather into her latest money-making scheme. Bianca is determined to uncover the identity of her guardian angel.


SUN 02:00 EastEnders 2008 (b00ccg64)
Peggy and Phil's unexpected return from holiday causes problems for Shirley and Vinnie. Stacey and Bradley make a shocking discovery about Sean. Max's underhand tactics have unexpected results.


SUN 02:30 EastEnders 2008 (b00ccgjl)
Ronnie's attempts to find Roxy lead her to Jack - but does Peggy know more than she's letting on? Stacey tries to get Sean away from the Square.


SUN 03:00 Natural World (b079s2ph)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



MONDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2020

MON 19:00 Elephant Diaries (b00794vb)
Series 3

Episode 1

Michaela Strachan meets Wendi, the extraordinary two-year-old orphan who has taken on the leadership of the Nairobi nursery's herd of baby elephants.

Jonathan Scott's challenge is to try to win over 10-year-old Emily, the matriarch of the older orphans on their way back to a life in the wilds of Tsavo National Park.

An emergency rescue team flies to Samburu National Reserve to try to save a starving and motherless little baby that is being aggressively rejected by other elephants.


MON 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000mtmg)
Series 3

Mountain Challenge

Impressive skies, misty waters and snowy mountains – completed by Bob Ross using just his specially designed painting knife!

American painter Bob Ross offers soothing words of encouragement to viewers and painting hobbyists in an enormously popular series that has captivated audiences worldwide since 1982. Ross is a cult figure, with nearly two million Facebook followers and 3,000 instructors globally. His soothing, nurturing personality is therapy for the weary, and his respect for nature and wildlife helps heighten environmental awareness.

Across the series, Ross demonstrates his unique painting technique, which eliminates the need for each layer of paint to dry. In real time, he creates tranquil scenes taken from nature, including his trademark ‘happy’ clouds, cascading waterfalls, snow-covered forests, serene lakes and distant mountain summits.

Many of Bob’s faithful viewers are not painters at all. They are relaxing and unwinding with Bob’s gentle manner and encouraging words, captivated by the magic taking place on the canvas.


MON 20:00 Fake or Fortune? (b0612kxh)
Series 4

Lowry

Art detectives Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould return for a brand new series, starting with an investigation into three small pictures by one of Britain's best-loved modern artists - LS Lowry.

Stephen Ames, a Cheshire property developer, has a problem - he's inherited three small oil paintings believed to be by Laurence Stephen Lowry, an artist renowned for his scenes of northern life, but he doesn't have any proof. All he knows is that they were bought by his father Gerald, a self-made businessman with a passion for art, in the early 70s.

The trouble for Stephen is that LS Lowry is probably the most faked British artist, his deceptively simple style of painting making him a soft target for forgers. As a result, the art market has become very wary of newly discovered Lowry works. If he can't find evidence in favour of the pictures, they are worthless.

As they hunt for proof with the assistance of specialist art researcher Dr Bendor Grosvenor, the team encounter unexpected obstacles and extraordinary coincidences, culminating in a groundbreaking scientific discovery that challenges everything we thought we knew about Lowry the artist. But is it enough to prove that the pictures are genuine?


MON 21:00 The Secret History of Writing (m000mtmj)
Series 1

From Pictures to Words

We take it for granted, but every time we pick up a pen, we are employing the most powerful technology ever invented: the technology of writing. The invention of writing about 5,000 years ago made civilisation itself possible, and every innovation of the modern world is based on the foundation of the written word. But how and where did writing begin, and who began it? In From Pictures to Words, the first of three films about the history of writing, we uncover the hidden links between all the diverse writing systems in use today and trace the origin of our own alphabet to a turquoise mine in the Sinai Desert and a man riding a donkey whose name was Khebded.

Writing is a recent innovation. Our species has existed for about 300,000 years, and for all but the last 5,000 of them, people had to record and transmit vital knowledge without the aid of writing. At the Moon Dreaming site in the Northern Territory of Australia, Yidumduma Bill Harney, an elder of the Aboriginal Wardaman people, explains how Aboriginal culture has been transmitted down the generations orally, without the need to write anything down. So, why did people eventually feel the need to make permanent records in visual form?

According to Irving Finkel, an Assyriologist from the British Museum, it was in Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, where the need for record-keeping was first felt. Here, about 5,000 years ago, the Sumerians developed the first city states. The city dwellers depended for their sustenance on taxing the surrounding countryside, and Irving produces a clay tablet from this period that is the distant ancestor of today’s spreadsheet: a grid of boxes ruled into the clay, with symbols that represent numbers, and small stylised pictures that represent commodities, such as an ear of barley. These so-called pictograms would be the basis for the first writing systems, and so we owe writing to the first accountants and tax inspectors.

But the language of accountancy is limited. To represent the full vocabulary of the Sumerian people would require a key conceptual leap, a way to use pictures to represent not things but sounds. This is what Irving dubs the giant leap for mankind, something called the Rebus Principle: the idea is that a picture of an ear of barley can represent barley, but it can also be used to represent the sound of the word barley in Sumerian, which is pronounced ‘sheh’. Thus, the word ‘sheh-ga’, which means ‘beautiful’, can be represented by the pictogram of an ear of barley, followed by the stylised picture of a cow’s udder, which stands for milk, pronounced ‘ga’ in Sumerian.

The Rebus Principle is the key that unlocked writing for all the peoples of the ancient near east. Egyptian hieroglyphs, which developed in the same period, are also based on the same principle. The earliest known complete Egyptian text is found beneath a pyramid near Cairo, inscribed on the walls of the tomb of Pharaoh Teti. The Pyramid Texts are a series of elaborate magic spells, designed to raise Teti to eternal life. Hieroglyphs are indeed magic, because like all writing, while they may not be able raise the dead, they do allow them to speak.

In fact, the Rebus lies behind all the ancient writing systems of the world. The earliest known Chinese writing is found inscribed on bones and turtle shells from 3,500 years ago. Chinese is a picture-based script that uses the Rebus Principle to represent sounds with stylised pictures. The same is true of Mayan glyphs, a writing system that developed in Central America about 2,600 years ago. The similarities between these scripts is striking. Is this evidence of a common root for all writing?

In essence, the Rebus Principle is simply a sort of pun, something that could have occurred to a child. Irving Finkel believes that it was invented many times, as a natural expression of a common human sense of humour! The similarities between ancient writing systems are simply due to the fact that we all share the same human mind.

But today, most people write using alphabets – simple scripts with just a few dozen symbols that seem to have no connection to pictures. Here the story is different, because the alphabet was only invented once. In the company of archaeologist Pierre Tallet, we travel to the Sinai to an ancient Egyptian temple perched high above the desert. This is the place where the cultural exchange between Egyptian scribes and illiterate Canaanite migrant workers created a new kind of script. This script also used the Rebus Principle, but in a radically simpler way, adapting hieroglyphic pictograms to represent the sounds of the Canaanite tongue.

Almost every alphabet in use today, from Arabic to the Latin alphabet, can trace its origins to this script. Our letters do not look like pictures, but in fact in almost every word we write lie hidden the ghosts of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.


MON 22:00 The Real Doctor Zhivago (b09djrvr)
Dr Zhivago is one of the best-known love stories of the 20th century, but the setting of the book also made it famous. It is a tale of passion and fear, set against a backdrop of revolution and violence. The film is what most people remember, but the story of the writing of the book has more twists, intrigue and bravery than many a Hollywood blockbuster.

In this documentary, Stephen Smith traces the revolutionary beginnings of this bestseller to it becoming a pawn of the CIA at the height of the Cold War. The writer of the novel, Boris Pasternak, in the words of his family, willingly committed acts of literary suicide in being true to the Russia he loved, but being honest about the Soviet regime he hated and despised. Under Stalin, writers and artists just disappeared if they did not support the party line. Many were murdered.

Writing his book for over 20 tumultuous years, Boris Pasternak knew it could result in his death. It did result in his mistress being sent to the gulag twice, but he had to have his say. This is the story of the writing of perhaps the bravest book ever published. It is the story before the film won Oscars and its author, the Nobel Prize. It is the untold story of the real Dr Zhivago - Boris Pasternak.


MON 23:00 Mindful Escapes: Breathe, Release, Restore (m000mf8j)
Series 1

Episode 1

How does connecting with the images and sounds of the natural world help us gain a greater sense of ease, perspective and connection?

This first episode is about breathing. By immersing ourselves in images of jellyfish floating, elephants swimming and lemurs swinging through the rainforest, we learn to focus on our breathing and are reminded that we are not separate from the world around us.

What is the relationship between each breath and mindfulness, and why is breathing so important to becoming still and being in the moment?


MON 23:30 Sold! Inside the World's Biggest Auction House (b083s5t6)
Episode 1

The programme goes behind the scenes in London, Dubai, New York and Hong Kong, as staff, experts, advisers and buyers set art trends, prices and records.

However, in 2016, the auction house's 250th anniversary year, there are fears that a downturn in the global economy could have a negative impact on the multibillion-pound industry.


MON 00:30 Fake or Fortune? (b0612kxh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 01:30 The Joy of Painting (m000mtmg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:00 Elephant Diaries (b00794vb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 02:30 The Secret History of Writing (m000mtmj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2020

TUE 19:00 Elephant Diaries (b00794vw)
Series 3

Episode 2

Michaela finds out if Naserian, the newly rescued baby elephant, has survived her first 24 hours at the Nairobi nursery. In Tsavo, Jonathan gets up close and personal with the big matriarch Emily as the herd of 30 larger orphans comes face to face with a herd of wild elephants, and are visited by Dika, an enormous orphan bull that is now living wild.

Back in Nairobi, Michaela follows the preparations for breaking up the nursery herd and moving their devoted mini-matriarch Wendi and five older babies to a brand new release site. As the move begins, Michaela's in the thick of the action when one of the baby elephants being transported has a panic attack in the back of a truck.


TUE 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000mttt)
Series 3

Mountain Waterfall

Bob Ross paints a tiny waterfall tucked beside a glassy lake, surrounded by snowy majestic peaks and distant evergreens.

American painter Bob Ross offers soothing words of encouragement to viewers and painting hobbyists in an enormously popular series that has captivated audiences worldwide since 1982. Ross is a cult figure, with nearly two million Facebook followers and 3,000 instructors globally. His soothing, nurturing personality is therapy for the weary, and his respect for nature and wildlife helps heighten environmental awareness.

Across the series, Ross demonstrates his unique painting technique, which eliminates the need for each layer of paint to dry. In real time, he creates tranquil scenes taken from nature, including his trademark ‘happy’ clouds, cascading waterfalls, snow-covered forests, serene lakes and distant mountain summits.

Many of Bob’s faithful viewers are not painters at all. They are relaxing and unwinding with Bob’s gentle manner and encouraging words, captivated by the magic taking place on the canvas.


TUE 20:00 Earth's Great Rivers (b0bx73pk)
Series 1

Amazon

This episode is a pioneering exploration of the latest discoveries concerning the Amazon - by far the greatest river on Earth. It is the river of superlatives, flowing more than 4,000 miles from the Andes to the Atlantic. Its 1,100 tributaries drain the greatest river basin on the planet and along its incredible journey it collects and transports one-fifth of the world's fresh water. Its outflow into the Atlantic Ocean per second is greater than the next six rivers combined. It truly lives up to its mighty reputation.

Due to its enormous size, it still hides secrets - it truly is the mysterious river of myth and legend, and it really does have monsters living in it, like giant electric eels and botos - the world's largest species of river dolphin. For most of its length, it is impossible to see into its murky waters. However, there are a few secret springs, bubbling with water as clear as gin, providing an unparalleled window into the Amazon's rich and spectacular underwater world.

One exclusive location is the Blue Lagoon, home to an anxious young couple - a newly discovered species of cichlid. These fish take their babies out for a swim in this natural aquarium bounded by an ominous underwater curtain of dark river water. Camera traps reveal some of the infamous predators lurking within, like freshwater stingrays and Amazon barracuda. Prowling nearby are giant electric eels capable of generating more than 500 volts, who give the cameraman a run for his money.

The team scoured the entire river system for its most beautiful locations. The rocky terraces of the Cristalino River were the perfect setting to try out float cams which enabled the team to join a family of giant river otters on a fishing foray. In Peru, there is a newly mapped Amazon tributary which boils! Scientists believe it is the longest stretch of thermal river in the world, creating a snake of steam over the canopy at dawn. The show joins shaman Juan Flores as he prays to the water spirits and makes medicine from the river's sacred waters and medicinal plants he collects from the jungle nearby.

Every year the Amazon floods on an almost unbelievable scale. Stretches of the river can rise by ten metres and the weight of so much water temporarily sinks the earth's crust by three inches! GPS drone technology reveals this gigantic transformation as never before, transporting viewers through the many vistas and atmospheres of the great river, capturing swathes of rainforest steaming in the dawn, and revealing the incredible expanse of the immense river which, in some places, stretches far beyond the horizon. It creates the Amazon's legendary flooded forests, home to the hoatzin, or stinkbird, so named for its particular and pungent smell - they feed on a diet of leaves and are basically flying compost heaps.

On the shores of the river town of Alter do Chao are some of the most beautiful white sand beaches in Brazil. Known as the Caribbean of the Amazon, it hosts a dolphin-themed carnival complete with hundreds of sequined dancers, spectacular floats and colourful processions. When all this water finally reaches the sea, it creates the last and newest secret world of the giant river, the Amazon reef. Spectacular drone footage captures the spectacle of the Amazon's fresh water floating over the surface of the ocean as a vast green cloud (which can cover more than a million square kilometres).

High-tech submarines allow cameras to reveal the wonders of the Amazon algal reef, not just packed with technicolour fish but also home to 'gardens' of giant sponges, many a thousand years old and a metre across. The sponges feed on the nutrients that the Amazon has collected on it's incredible journey. No other river shapes the landscape, and even the ocean, in the way the Amazon can, and what is so fantastic is that it is still one of the few remaining healthy great rivers on Earth.


TUE 21:00 Australia with Simon Reeve (b01y0fx9)
Episode 1

Simon's adventure starts in the magnificent 'red centre' of the continent and continues onwards through south Australia, via the extraordinary Indian Pacific railway until Simon reaches the west coast city of Perth.

On the way, he joins an Aussie rancher in the parched outback and takes part in a spectacular camel round-up. This mad adventure, involving specially adapted off-road vehicles and a chopper, is part of an ongoing effort to stop the damaging spread of up to a million feral camels across the country.

Simon also passes through Australia's wine country and to the lucrative tuna-fishing city of Port Lincoln, and he investigates the impact these trades are having on the environment. In Western Australia, he joins a 21st-century gold rush - part of the resource boom that has made Australia one of the richest countries in the world.

Finally in Perth, Simon discovers a full-scale British invasion. Working in a mine or driving a lorry can bring a salary of £100,000 a year, as evidenced when Simon meets a former binman from Hull who is now living the dream, with a beautiful house in the sun, private pool and his very own boat.


TUE 22:00 Chateau Chunder: When Australian Wine Changed the World (b01nvwqp)
It's the 1970s and Australian wine is a joke - not for drinking, as Monty Python put it, but for 'laying down and avoiding'. The idea that a wine made Down Under could ever challenge the august products of Burgundy or Tuscany has wine buffs and snobby sommeliers sniggering into their tasting spoons. But little more than 40 years later, Australian winemaking is leading the world. London merchants sell more wine from Australia than from any other country, while the chastened French wine industry reluctantly take note of how modern winemaking - and wine marketing - is really done.

Chateau Chunder is both a social history of wine and wine drinking and an in-depth examination of how a small group of enterprising Australian winemakers took on the world and won, changing the way that wine is made and marketed.

With humour and insight, this documentary features winemakers, marketers, merchants, critics and drinkers including Bruce Tyrrell, James Halliday, Max Allen (Australian wine critics), Chris Hancock (Rosemount), Sir Les Patterson (Cultural Attaché to Australia, a comical creation of Barry Humphries), Robert Parker (US wine critic), Oz Clarke and Jancis Robinson (UK wine critics).

The starting point is the famous Python sketch - 'This is a bottle with a message, and the message is 'beware'. This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding'. And it was true. The idea that Australia could be a world class wine-making nation was a joke.

The documentary offers insightful detail on the nuts and bolts of the business and the way the Australians realised that the mid-price mass market needed labels that people could understand, good value, consistent quality (never the French way) and, most of all, some great branding. They pioneered the idea of selling wine by grape variety and colourful labels (Barramundi, Kanga Rouge, Wallaby White etc) rather than by the ancient and baffling classification systems of Europe. Cunningly, they also invented blind-tasting - wrapping French and Australian wines in brown paper bags, so the wines could be tasted without prejudice.


TUE 23:00 Mindful Escapes: Breathe, Release, Restore (m000mf8z)
Series 1

Episode 2

Join mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe as he focuses on change and what we can learn from how animals adapt to changes in the world around them. Why is a chameleon's ability to alter its appearance crucial to its survival and what lessons are there from understanding how elephants grieve?

Learning to be mindful can help us cope with life’s stresses, and Andy shows how focusing on the sights and sounds of the natural world can help us deal with change in our lives and how to live in the moment.


TUE 23:30 Mystery Road (m000mtkk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


TUE 00:25 Mystery Road (m000mtkn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:55 on Saturday]


TUE 01:25 The Joy of Painting (m000mttt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 01:50 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.


TUE 02:20 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.


TUE 02:50 Australia with Simon Reeve (b01y0fx9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2020

WED 19:00 Elephant Diaries (b00794wg)
Series 3

Episode 3

After a long and dramatic journey, Michaela and the six little orphaned elephants from Nairobi arrive at Ithumba, the new release site in the wilds of northern Tsavo, but their leader Wendi is out of her depth in their strange new home. Back in Nairobi, the four baby elephants left behind are struggling to cope with the loss of their mini-matriarch. Hopefully help is at hand for Wendi.

In southern Tsavo, Jonathan prepares for action as four much bigger female orphans are reluctantly separated from Emily's huge herd. The idea is that these more experienced females will help Wendi and the youngsters already at Ithumba settle in. But will it work? Jonathan follows the entire move and is an eyewitness when things go badly wrong.


WED 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000mttm)
Series 3

Twilight Meadow

A crisp blue sky and lake embrace soft rolling hills and leafy trees. Bob Ross also recreates the stillness of evening perfectly on black canvas.

American painter Bob Ross offers soothing words of encouragement to viewers and painting hobbyists in an enormously popular series that has captivated audiences worldwide since 1982. Ross is a cult figure, with nearly two million Facebook followers and 3,000 instructors globally. His soothing, nurturing personality is therapy for the weary, and his respect for nature and wildlife helps heighten environmental awareness.

Across the series, Ross demonstrates his unique painting technique, which eliminates the need for each layer of paint to dry. In real time, he creates tranquil scenes taken from nature, including his trademark ‘happy’ clouds, cascading waterfalls, snow-covered forests, serene lakes and distant mountain summits.

Many of Bob’s faithful viewers are not painters at all. They are relaxing and unwinding with Bob’s gentle manner and encouraging words, captivated by the magic taking place on the canvas.


WED 20:00 Digging for Britain (b074hn34)
Series 4

North

Professor Alice Roberts explores the year's most exciting archaeological finds in the north of Britain. A team discovers clues to Scotland's first kingdoms, metal detectorists unearth a hoard of Viking treasure, and a new housing development reveals a graveyard of Iron Age warriors.


WED 21:00 A Cook Abroad (b054z96y)
Rick Stein's Australia

Rick Stein is in Australia, a country he fell in love with on his first visit at the age of 19. On a journey in search of the ingredients revolutionising Australian cooking, Rick sets off from his new home in Mollymook, New South Wales, up to Sydney before flying to Tasmania.

In Sydney, Rick revisits some of his old haunts and reminisces over his misspent youth, a time when he was fleeing a personal tragedy back home. In the fish market, where his love affair with Australian fish culture began, Rick learns that a staggering 70 per cent of fish eaten in the country is imported. Now, after years of looking to other countries for its ingredients, Australia is beginning to look to its own produce, and the most modern move on the culinary circuit is to go ancient. Rick travels out to Botany Bay, the site of James Cook's first landing, where he gets back to basics, does some foraging and learns the art of cooking the aboriginal way.

But when it comes to cooking with native foods, the sleepy backwater of Tasmania is leading the way. Tasmania is not only an emerging foodie destination but, as Rick discovers, an eco-paradise. He goes hunting for wallaby, samples the best single-malt whisky in the world and tastes sustainably farmed salmon that has become a national obsession. With small-scale producers making a splash on the international food scene, this wild outpost has also become a great business model for a new - sustainable - kind of industry.


WED 22:00 Mercury Prize (m000mttq)
2020

Hyundai Mercury Prize 2020: Album of the Year

A special programme celebrating the 12 albums making up the shortlist for the much-coveted Mercury Prize 2020. In what has been an unparalleled year in music, Lauren Laverne guides viewers through each of the records selected on the eve of the eagerly anticipated announcement of the winner.

This year’s shortlist is:

Composer, producer and performer Anna Meredith’s second offering FIBS.

Charli XCX’s how i’m feeling now, an album created in 39 days during lockdown.

Pop superstar Dua Lipa’s number 1 Future Nostalgia.

Producer, singer and drummer Georgia’s hymn to the dancefloor Seeking Thrills.

East Londoner Kano’s emotionally and politically charged Hoodies All Summer.

The first record in five years from Newcastle band Lanterns on the Lake titled Spook the Herd.

Laura Marling’s beautiful Song for Our Daughter, which gives the singer her fourth Mercury nod.

The soulful sounds of Michael Kiwanuka’s self-titled KIWANUKA.

South London jazz drummer Moses Boyd’s solo debut Dark Matter.

Brighton four-piece Porridge Radio’s Every Bad.

Indie outfit Sports Team’s energetic debut Deep Down Happy.

Glastonbury headliner Stormzy’s chart-topping Heavy Is the Head.

The show will reflect on each of the albums through individual performances, including seven specially filmed in music venues around the UK.


WED 23:00 Mindful Escapes: Breathe, Release, Restore (m000mf8s)
Series 1

Episode 3

Mindfulness is the ability to be present with a clear, calm, curious mind - and feelings of joy can be triggered when this happens. How can watching penguins pinching pebbles, seeing antelope leaping in the air or looking at scenes of summer flowers help us to feel more positive emotionally?

Mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe takes us on a global journey with imagery that will bring feelings of happiness and wellbeing to the viewer as we immerse ourselves in the sights and sounds of the natural world.


WED 23:30 The Secret History of Writing (m000mtmj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


WED 00:30 Carved with Love: The Genius of British Woodwork (b01q6xrv)
The Divine Craft of Carpentry

This series about the history of British woodworking concludes by looking at the Middle Ages, a golden era. Sponsored by the monarchy and the church, carvers and carpenters created wonders that still astound us today, from the magnificent roof of Westminster Hall to the Coronation Chair, last used by Elizabeth II but created 700 years ago. The film also shows how this precious legacy was nearly destroyed during the fires of the Reformation.


WED 01:30 The Joy of Painting (m000mttm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 02:00 Elephant Diaries (b00794wg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 02:30 The Beach: Isolation in Paradise (m000mtkq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:55 on Saturday]


WED 02:55 The Beach: Isolation in Paradise (m000mtkv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:20 on Saturday]



THURSDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2020

THU 19:00 Elephant Diaries (b00794x1)
Series 3

Episode 4

At the Nairobi nursery, the dry season brings a flood of new baby orphans, and Michaela meets the latest newcomer, a happy and charismatic baby elephant called Jipe. In southern Tsavo, Emily, the matriarch of the large orphan herd, is behaving strangely, throwing her weight around like an adolescent teenager. Her keepers think she may be ready to go back to the wild.

Up at the new release site in northern Tsavo, Jonathan follows the newly formed herd of ten little orphans as they start to bond. But just as they are beginning to settle down, disaster strikes - the herd is attacked by a rabid dog and it looks like all the orphans here, including gentle little Wendi, may have to be put down.


THU 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000mts5)
Series 3

Winter Stillness

Ice cold pond, snow-covered banks, soft hues in the sky. Bob Ross teaches us to admire the simple beauty of nature.

American painter Bob Ross offers soothing words of encouragement to viewers and painting hobbyists in an enormously popular series that has captivated audiences worldwide since 1982. Ross is a cult figure, with nearly two million Facebook followers and 3,000 instructors globally. His soothing, nurturing personality is therapy for the weary, and his respect for nature and wildlife helps heighten environmental awareness.

Across the series, Ross demonstrates his unique painting technique, which eliminates the need for each layer of paint to dry. In real time, he creates tranquil scenes taken from nature, including his trademark ‘happy’ clouds, cascading waterfalls, snow-covered forests, serene lakes and distant mountain summits.

Many of Bob’s faithful viewers are not painters at all. They are relaxing and unwinding with Bob’s gentle manner and encouraging words, captivated by the magic taking place on the canvas.


THU 20:00 Doctor Zhivago (m000mtmx)
Doctor and poet Yuri Zhivago is brought up in the family of Alexander Gromeko, whose daughter Tonya he eventually marries. But his true love is for the passionate and beautiful Lara, the mistress of a political opportunist. With the outbreak of the Great War, and with Moscow transformed by the Revolution, their romance is disrupted by the social upheaval surrounding them.

David Lean's Oscar-winning epic set in revolutionary Russia, based on the novel by Boris Pasternak.


THU 23:05 Mindful Escapes: Breathe, Release, Restore (m000mf8f)
Series 1

Episode 4

The natural world offers a constant source of calm and comfort. How do images of hypnotic starling murmurations or macaques relaxing in hot springs in Japan encourage us to slow down? How can we experience more being and less doing?

Mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe talks us through the process and takes us on an immersive journey around the sights and sounds of resting wildlife all over the planet.


THU 23:35 Storyville (b084fs2p)
The Cult that Stole Children - Inside The Family

An incendiary, heartbreaking investigation into one of Australia's most notorious cults, and the scars its survivors still bear today.

Anne Hamilton-Byrne was beautiful, charismatic, delusional and damaged. She was also incredibly dangerous. Convinced she was a living god, Hamilton-Byrne headed an apocalyptic sect dubbed The Family, which was prominent in Melbourne through the 60s and 70s. With her husband Bill, she acquired numerous children - some through adoption scams, some born to cult members - and raised them as her own. Isolated from the outside world, the children were dressed in matching outfits, had identically dyed blonde hair, and were allegedly beaten, starved and injected with LSD. Taught that Hamilton-Byrne was both their mother and the messiah, the children were eventually rescued during a police raid in the mid 80s, but their trauma had only just begun.


THU 00:35 David Stratton’s Stories of Australian Cinema (m000hy15)
Series 1

Episode 1

Much-loved film critic David Stratton tells the fascinating story of Australian cinema, focusing in on the films that capture this idiosyncratic nation with drama, emotion and humour.

David played a pivotal role supporting film-makers and helping them to find audiences both locally and abroad. He rose to fame co-hosting a movie review show with Margaret Pomeranz, which the nation religiously tuned in to for almost 30 years.

In this first episode, we learn how Aussie film-makers gained the confidence to tell their own stories with the boldness of Picnic at Hanging Rock and Mad Max, the global success of Crocodile Dundee and Shine, the flamboyance of Strictly Ballroom and the raw authenticity of Samson and Delilah.

The series takes us on a thrilling journey across Australian cinema's most moving moments and unforgettable scenes and into the heart of the stories portrayed on the big screen that helped shape a nation’s idea of itself.


THU 01:35 Life Cinematic (m000f1jb)
Series 1

Edgar Wright

British director Edgar Wright talks to Robbie Collin about the films that have influenced his life and career. His choices range from modern classics such as An American Werewolf in London, Carrie and Bullitt to contemporary films, including Mad Max: Fury Road. There's also a musical classic from the 1930s, Dames.

Edgar also provides an insight into the making of his most recent movie, Baby Driver, and reflects on his early introduction to cinema as well as the important role that music plays in his films.


THU 02:35 Digging for Britain (b074hn34)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Wednesday]



FRIDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2020

FRI 19:00 Elephant Diaries (b00794xm)
Series 3

Episode 5

As the unfolding drama of the rabies emergency plays out, Jonathan Scott is in northern Tsavo with Wendi and the other nine little orphaned elephants. What will be their fate?

In Nairobi, Michaela is following the contrasting fortunes of two of the new orphan babies, Jipe and Lualeni, and joins in as the keepers organise a very special football match - Orphans FC versus Keepers FC.

In southern Tsavo Emily, the matriarch of the big orphan herd, has finally decided to strike out on her own. For the orphanage, Emily has become another success story; for her, it's the end of an 11-year journey back to the wild, but it's the end of an era for Jonathan too. Can he track her down for one last time just to say goodbye?


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m000kxky)
Kylie Minogue

A compilation of classic Kylie performances from the Top of the Pops studio.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b06vkg5r)
1981 - Big Hits

A bumper crop of hits from the Top of the Pops archive showcasing an exciting year on the pop charts. 1981 embraced disco and ska, new wave punk, the burgeoning New Romantic scene and the rise of synthpop, with some prog quirkiness and good old rock 'n' roll thrown in.

Performances from big-hitter soloists Phil Collins, Shakin' Stevens and Kim Wilde are featured alongside the exuberant chaos of groups like Tenpole Tudor, Adam and the Ants and The Teardrop Explodes. It's party time as Odyssey fill the dancefloor with the infectious Going Back to My Roots and Clare Grogan adopts some unorthodox shapes for Altered Images' Happy Birthday. And The Specials' 2 Tone social-commentary classic Ghost Town vies with Ultravox's Vienna and The Human League's Don't You Want Me for song of the year.


FRI 21:00 Australian Hits at the BBC (m000mts7)
A look back at a wide-ranging selection of the top songs performed by the music acts that came here from the Land Down Under, and the appearances on a selection of BBC shows that saw them get a grip on the UK charts.

Over the decades, those bringing a bit of Australian sunshine and spirit to British screens have included Aussie pop pioneers The Easybeats, rock legends AC/DC, and the new sensations who became one of the nation’s most successful acts of all time, INXS.

Also featured are groundbreaking Aborigine band Yothu Yindi and a true giant of the Australian music scene, John Farnham, whose hit You’re the Voice has achieved almost national anthem status. A selection of songs from the 80s, 90s and noughties will have you singing along to Love Is in the Air, blushing to ‘I Touch Myself’ and stepping back in time with Kylie and Jason, Kylie and Nick Cave and, of course, some classic solo Kylie too.


FRI 22:00 Mystify: Michael Hutchence (m000crsv)
A journey into the heart and soul of Michael Hutchence, internationally renowned lead-singer of INXS, a complex and shy man who spent the bulk of his life in the public eye, rarely revealing his true self to anyone except his very close friends.
Rare archive footage and intimate insights from friends, lovers, family, colleagues and Michael Hutchence himself, portray his life from the beginning of his fractured family background to the peaks of rock stardom and down into the depths after a freak accident in Copenhagen removed his sense of taste and smell and seriously affected his ability to deal with his unravelling personal and professional life.
A feature-length theatrical documentary written and directed by Richard Lowenstein, director of the majority of both INXS and Michael’s music videos and the 1986 feature film, Dogs in Space, in which Michael played the lead.


FRI 23:40 INXS: Live Baby Live (m000crsx)
Eagle Rock Films has fully restored INXS' classic concert film to present Live Baby Live in HD and 4K for the first time ever.

On 13 July 1991, INXS were filmed in concert at Wembley Stadium, London, performing one of the most stunning concerts ever by one of the world’s greatest rock and roll bands to a sold-out, heaving mass of 72,000 fans. The Wembley concert was the last of a 12-month worldwide run of dates on the band's record-breaking X-Factor Tour, and those there on the day witnessed a band at the absolute peak of their powers. This electrifying concert was directed by David Mallet (AC/DC, U2, Madonna), and it featured classic anthems New Sensation, Mystify and Need You Tonight.


FRI 00:40 Smashing Hits! The 80s Pop Map of Britain and Ireland (b0b99nq0)
Series 1

Episode 1

Two 80s icons explore the distinct sounds that came out of different parts of Britain and Ireland in one of pop's golden decades.

Midge Ure, lead singer of Ultravox and one of the men behind Band Aid, and Kim Appleby, who had a string of hits with her sister Mel in the Stock, Aitken and Waterman-produced band Mel and Kim, go on a journey back in time to the 80s to figure out why certain cities produced their own diverse tunes.

It's a fascinating tale. Emerging from the ashes of punk, British and Irish music ripped up the pop rule book in the 80s and topped the charts worldwide. But there was no definitive 'British' pop sound. Innovative chart-toppers were being produced by artists hailing from all over the UK and Ireland.

In this first episode, Midge Ure and Kim Appleby explore London's new romantic movement, travel to Coventry to investigate the rise of ska and speak to some of Sheffield's electronic music pioneers.

The show features interviews with key figures, like Gary Kemp from Spandau Ballet, Marco Pirroni from Adam and the Ants, Pauline Black from The Selecter, Martin Ware and Glenn Gregory from Heaven 17 and 'super-producer' Trevor Horn. But of course the star is the music - and this episode includes some of the best tunes, videos and performances from the early part of this marvellous musical decade.


FRI 01:40 Australian Hits at the BBC (m000mts7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:40 Top of the Pops (m000kxky)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]