FRIDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2008

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00dnbcq)
The latest news from around the world.


FRI 19:30 Jacqueline du Pre and the Elgar Cello Concerto (b00dqcrd)
Director Christopher Nupen's intimate portrait of cellist Jacqueline du Pre and her legendary performance of Elgar's Cello Concerto.

One of the finest musicians that Britain has ever produced, her career was cut tragically short by multiple sclerosis when she was 28 and she died in 1987 at the age of 41. The film begins with an account of her activities after the onset of her illness and includes, at her request, a re-edited version of the film which Nupen made with her in 1967. It outlines her childhood, her first steps in music, her studies with William Pleeth, her meteoric career and her meeting with and marriage to Daniel Barenboim.

It ends with the performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim, one that has already passed into legend.


FRI 20:40 Cambridge Folk Festival (b00d6mqw)
2008

The Imagined Village

Mark Radcliffe presents coverage of the Cambridge Folk Festival, featuring the top artists from the world of folk, roots and acoustic music, either live in concert from the main stage or in exclusive backstage performances.

The Imagined Village is a multicultural project spearheaded by Simon Emmerson and including Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy, Billy Bragg, Sheila Chandra, Johnny Kalsi, Chris Wood, Francis Hylton, Andy Gangageen, Sheema Mukherjee, Barney Morse Brown and the Young Coppers.

Taking the English tradition and interweaving contemporary sounds and voices, it explores Simon's assertion that 'Englishness is the final frontier of world music'.

The programme features electric performances from the Imagined Village's headline set at the festival, including their signature song Cold Haily Rainy Night and Hard Times Of Old England Retold.

In conversation with Mark Radcliffe key protaganists of the project Simon Emmerson, Martin Carthy, Billy Bragg and contributor poet Benjamin Zephaniah explain and explore the genesis, power and aspiration of this impressive project.


FRI 21:10 David Gilmour Live at Gdansk (b00dnbcx)
David Gilmour, the guitar and voice of Pink Floyd, plays live to 50,000 people against the historical backdrop of the Gdansk shipyards in Poland, to celebrate the 26th anniversary of the Solidarity movement.

Gilmour and his band, featuring Floyd's Rick Wright and Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera, perform a mixture from Gilmour's On An Island album and Floyd songs including Wish You Were Here and Comfortably Numb. The band are backed by the string section of the Baltic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.


FRI 22:10 David Gilmour: Gdansk Diary (b00dnbcv)
Documentary snapshot of the band and production crew preparing for and then and delivering David Gilmour's unique concert in the Gdansk shipyard in August, 2006. The film portrays the contextual drama of the urban landscape of the shipyard and shows Gilmour meeting Lech Walesa, the former Polish president and co-founder of Solidarity, as they lay a wreath at the Monument to the Fallen Workers at the shipyards.


FRI 22:40 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 23:40 Life on Mars (b0074sgm)
Series 1

Episode 8

Drama series about a Manchester detective who suffers a near-fatal car crash and wakes up in what seems to be 1973.

Sam is finally accepting of this world, until he comes face to face with his 29-year-old dad, Vic Tyler. Vic is a small time gambler who unwittingly finds himself at the centre of a murder enquiry. Gene is convinced that Vic is his link to nailing a new crime syndicate and is prepared to put Vic's life on the line to get to them.

As Sam moves to protect his own father he embarks upon an emotional journey as he pieces together a childhood memory and finally uncovers the truth about his father, a truth that will change him forever.


FRI 01:30 David Gilmour Live at Gdansk (b00dnbcx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:10 today]


FRI 02:30 David Gilmour: Gdansk Diary (b00dnbcv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:10 today]


FRI 03:00 The Pink Floyd Story: Which One's Pink? (b008hs1m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:40 today]