FRIDAY 23 MAY 2008

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00bfmt2)
The latest news from around the world.


FRI 19:30 Transatlantic Sessions (b00pdx3d)
Series 2

Episode 3

Folk musicians come together to make music in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever'.


FRI 20:00 The Passions of Vaughan Williams (b00bfmt4)
Fifty years after his death, this musical and psychological portrait of Ralph Vaughan Williams explores the passions that drove a giant of 20th-century English music. It explores the enormous musical range of an energetic, red-blooded composer whose output extends well beyond the delicate pastoralism of his perhaps most famous piece, The Lark Ascending.

The film tells the story of his long marriage to his increasingly disabled wife Adeline and his long affair with the woman who eventually became his second wife, Ursula. The effect of these complicated relationships on his music is demonstrated in performances of orchestral and choral works, specially filmed at Cadogan Hall, London by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Richard Hickox and by the singers of Schola Cantorum of Oxford.

Among the contributors is the late Ursula Vaughan Williams, who was interviewed shortly before she died at the age of 96.


FRI 21:30 The Pink Floyd Story: Which One's Pink? (b008hs1m)
Over 40 years after Britain's foremost 'underground' band released their debut album Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Pink Floyd remain one of the biggest brand names and best-loved bands in the world.

This film features extended archive, some of it rarely or never seen before, alongside original interviews with four members of Pink Floyd - David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and the late Richard Wright - and traces the journey of a band that has only ever had five members, three of whom have led the band at different stages of its evolution.

Tracing the band's history from psychedelic 60s London to their reunion appearance at Live 8 in 2005, this is the story of a succession of musical and commercial peaks separated by a succession of struggles around the creative leadership of the band. Their story was given added poignancy by the 2006 death of their estranged frontman, Syd Barrett.

Pink Floyd spearheaded the concept album, never sold themselves as personalities and expanded rock way beyond its three minute pop song beginnings. Pink Floyd has made the four members very rich and has consumed their creative lives, but it hasn't always made them friends. When first meeting their American record company, one of the executives apocryphally asked, "Which one's Pink?". This film traces the reverberations of that question throughout the band's history.

First led by the innovative singer, songwriter and guitarist Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd were at the forefront of Britain's psychedelic era. After putting the band on the map with hits like Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, Barrett drifted out of the band after experimenting with LSD.

The three remaining members added Barrett's old Cambridge friend David Gilmour to the band on guitar and functioned as a communal unit while creating extended sonic explorations on albums like Atom Heart Mother and Echoes. While creating ever larger and more visually ambitious stage shows, the band personally shunned the limelight, taking the stage as four shadowy figures and never appearing on their album covers.

Gradually Roger Waters emerged as the band's key songwriter, creating those massive selling concept albums of the mid-70s, Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall, two of the biggest-selling and boldest albums of all time. But Waters's desire to control the band and the increasing passivity of the others eventually left to him leaving the band and the name after 1983's The Final Cut album.

David Gilmour eventually assumed control of the band, producing two globally-successful Pink Floyd albums, A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994), with the help of Nick Mason and Rick Wright. Meanwhile, Waters conducted a less commercially-successful solo career.

As a result of Bob Geldof's pleading, David Gilmour, Rick Wright and Nick Mason reunited with Roger Waters for one time only for 2005's Live 8, playing together for the first time in approximately 25 years.

Whether Pink Floyd will ever record or perform again with or without Roger Waters remains unclear.


FRI 22:30 Classic Albums (b0074sf2)
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon

Series looking at the creation of some classic rock albums. This edition looks at the legendary Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon with interviews with Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason.


FRI 23:20 Omnibus (b00788mh)
Syd Barrett - Crazy Diamond

The arts documentary series looks at the life of Syd Barrett, the creative genius behind the early successes of pioneering rock band Pink Floyd. His departure after a drug-induced breakdown was a bitter blow, and members of the group describe the ways in which he still haunts their lives and their music.


FRI 00:10 The Avengers (b0074s2f)
Series 5

The Hidden Tiger

Fantasy drama series. Emma gets scratched when Steed hunts a big cat.


FRI 01:00 The Avengers (b0074s36)
Series 5

The Correct Way to Kill

Spy drama series. Suspicion falls on Steed and Mrs Peel when two top enemy agents are found dead. They join forces with the enemy to find the murderer.


FRI 01:50 The Passions of Vaughan Williams (b00bfmt4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 03:20 Transatlantic Sessions (b00pdx3d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]