The BBC has announced that it has a sustainable plan for the future of the BBC Singers, in association with The VOCES8 Foundation.
The threat to reduce the staff of the three English orchestras by 20% has not been lifted, but it is being reconsidered.
See the BBC press release here.

Radio-Lists Home Now on BBC 4 Contact

RADIO-LISTS: BBC FOUR
Unofficial Weekly Listings for BBC 4 — supported by bbc.co.uk/programmes/



SATURDAY 04 OCTOBER 2008

SAT 19:00 Lark Rise to Candleford (b008r9wl)
Series 1

Episode 1

Adaptation of Flora Thompson's memoir of her Oxfordshire childhood. Young country girl Laura Timmins leaves her friends and family in the hamlet of Lark Rise to start her first job at the post office in nearby town Candleford. Postmistress Dorcas Lane gives Laura a warm welcome but other residents of Candleford aren't so generous. When Lark Rise residents challenge the post office's 'eight mile rule' that forces them to pay for delivery of telegrams, Laura finds herself torn between communities.


SAT 20:00 Lark Rise to Candleford (b008s7ct)
Series 1

Episode 2

Adaptation of Flora Thompson's memoir of her Oxfordshire childhood. Postwoman Mrs Macey receives news that her husband Dan has escaped from prison. Before long the whole town is alight with gossip, and Mrs Macey fears that the damage to her reputation will force her to leave Candleford. Meanwhile, her son Freddy has been secretly meeting a mysterious stranger in the woods.


SAT 21:00 Von Ryan's Express (b0078zy6)
Action-packed World War II story about Allied prisoners who stage a mass breakout from an Italian POW camp, commandeer a train and head towards the Swiss border. As the Italian war effort collapses, the escapees are aided by their erstwhile captors, but when the Germans catch on, they set out to halt the escape with an armoured train and aerial attack.


SAT 22:55 The Narrow Margin (b0078hd3)
Tense story of a tough cop attempting to transport the widow of a gangster to the trial in which she'll testify. They undertake a rail journey from Chicago to Los Angeles with their lives constantly under threat from hit men on the train, who will stop at nothing to prevent her from testifying.


SAT 00:05 Art of Arts TV (b00drs92)
The Single Arts Film

For the past half century, arts programming has been one of the cornerstones of British public service television. This three-part series sees an illustrious line-up of luminaries, including David Attenborough, Joan Bakewell, Melvyn Bragg, Jonathan Miller, Jonathan Meades, Ken Russell, Brian Sewell and Alan Yentob, reflect on the contribution that arts programmes have made to our national broadcasting culture. In the first episode, they offer fascinating and trenchant insights into one of the most celebrated, and often controversial, areas of the genre: the single arts documentary.


SAT 01:05 Art of Arts TV (b00dwc9y)
The Arts Magazine Show

For the past half century, arts programming has been one of the cornerstones of British public service television. This three-part series sees an illustrious line-up of luminaries, including David Attenborough, Joan Bakewell, Melvyn Bragg, Jonathan Miller, Jonathan Meades, Ken Russell, Brian Sewell and Alan Yentob, reflect on the contribution that arts programmes have made to our national broadcasting culture. Coming under the spotlight in this episode are arts magazine shows like Late Night Line Up, The Late Show and The Culture Show - a genre that has often set the cultural agenda, and provided the forum for many explosive debates.


SAT 02:05 Art of Arts TV (b00dwcdl)
The Landmark Arts Series

For the past half century, arts programming has been one of the cornerstones of British public service television. This three-part series sees an illustrious line-up of luminaries, including David Attenborough, Joan Bakewell, Melvyn Bragg, Jonathan Miller, Jonathan Meades, Ken Russell, Brian Sewell and Alan Yentob, reflect on the contribution that arts programmes have made to our national broadcasting culture. In the final episode, they reconsider some of the most ambitious and celebrated of all arts programmes - the major landmark series, fronted by some of the art world's biggest names, including Kenneth Clark's epic Civilisation, John Berger's cerebral Ways of Seeing, and the inimitable Robert Hughes' series The Shock of the New.


SAT 03:05 Arena (b0074rmg)
At 30

Documentary looking at some of the most memorable Arena programmes of the past 30 years. With contributions from Anthony Wall, Alan Yentob, Lesley Megahey and Nigel Williams.



SUNDAY 05 OCTOBER 2008

SUN 19:00 Great Britons (b0074sf7)
Brunel

Jeremy Clarkson follows in the footsteps of the great engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel whose designs for bridges, railways, steamships, docks and buildings revolutionised modern engineering.

But his boldness and determination to succeed often led him to repeatedly risk his own life. Jeremy Clarkson, discovers for himself just how terrifying that was.


SUN 20:00 Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails (b00drtpj)
Ian Hislop brings his customary humour, analysis and wit to the notorious Beeching Report of 1963, which led to the closure of a third of the nation's railway lines and stations and forced tens of thousands of people into the car and onto the road.

Was author Dr Richard Beeching little more than Genghis Khan with a slide rule, ruthlessly hacking away at Britain's rail network in a misguided quest for profitability, or was he the fall guy for short-sighted government policies that favoured the car over the train?

Ian also investigates the fallout of Beeching's plan, discovering what was lost to the British landscape, communities and ways of life when the railway map shrank, and recalls the halcyon days of train travel, celebrated by John Betjeman.

Ian travels from Cornwall to the Scottish borders, meeting those responsible and those affected and questioning whether such brutal measures could be justified. Knowing what we know now, with trains far more energy efficient and environmentally sound than cars, perhaps Beeching's plan was the biggest folly of the 1960s?


SUN 21:00 Dance Britannia (b008m3mr)
Dancehall Days

Three-part documentary series telling the history of British social dancing in the 20th century, using rare archive film and interviews. In the 1900s, the huge new dancehalls made social dancing affordable for British working people for the first time. American jazz freed up our movements, as the Charleston made the nation go dance crazy. This was followed by ballroom dancing, the jitterbug and, in the countryside, the Folk Dance Society was founded to save the art of Morris dancing.


SUN 22:00 Brits Can't Dance (b008lz2h)
A celebration of the not-so-successful example of Brits hoofing on TV, from Step This Way to Strictly Come Dancing.


SUN 22:30 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00dwcp6)
John le Carre

John le Carre converses with Mark Lawson about his fragmented childhood, life in the diplomatic service, working with Alec Guinness and his book A Most Wanted Man. Le Carre worked as an intelligence officer in the 1970s before turning to writing full time. His personal experiences during the Cold War informed a string of best-selling espionage novels including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. He also wrote the corporate corruption thriller The Constant Gardener, which became a Oscar-winning film.


SUN 23:30 Timeshift (b0074tc7)
Series 6

Spy Stories - British Espionage in Fact and Fiction

Bill Nighy narrates a documentary telling the story of the long and often extraordinary relationship between fact and fiction in the mysterious world of British espionage. The programme charts the evolution of spying through the twentieth century and looks at the parallel development of spy fiction during the same period. Contributors include Stella Rimington, Daphne Park, David Shayler, John le Carre, Charlie Higson, Bernard Porter, Nick Hiley and Stephen Dorril.


SUN 00:30 Timeshift (b008by9l)
Series 7

Watching the Russians

Beginning with the rise of Russophobia in Victorian Britain, former MI5 director general Stella Rimington explores our love-hate relationship with Russia over the past 150 years. The journey takes her to the East End of London on the trail of Russian revolutionaries and to the former mining town of Chopwell, once dubbed Little Moscow. She talks to former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky and shares recollections of the bugged British embassy in Moscow with former ambassador Rodric Braithwaite.


SUN 01:30 Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails (b00drtpj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SUN 02:30 Brits Can't Dance (b008lz2h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


SUN 03:00 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00dwcp6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]



MONDAY 06 OCTOBER 2008

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00dyv23)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 The Sky at Night (b00dx5wb)
Autumn Sky

Sir Patrick Moore hosts an autumn equinox party in his garden and talks to Dr John Mason about what to look for in the night sky at this time of year.


MON 20:00 In Search of Spanish Flu (b00dwf49)
Documentary in which a team of top UK virologists exhume the body of statesman, military officer and diplomat Sir Mark Sykes from a country churchyard in an attempt to detect the genetic footprint of one of the most dangerous viruses the world has ever seen, the Spanish Flu. It may be that an aristocrat who died nearly 90 years ago holds the key to preventing a modern bird flu pandemic.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00dwf5x)
Series 1

Episode 4

Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital. It is all about making connections between things which may appear, at first glance, not to be connected at all.


MON 21:00 The Story of Maths (b00dwf4f)
The Language of the Universe

After showing how fundamental mathematics is to our lives, Marcus du Sautoy explores the mathematics of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece.

In Egypt, he uncovers use of a decimal system based on ten fingers of the hand, while in former Mesopotamia he discovers that the way we tell the time today is based on the Babylonian Base 60 number system.

In Greece, he looks at the contributions of some of the giants of mathematics including Plato, Euclid, Archimedes and Pythagoras, who is credited with beginning the transformation of mathematics from a tool for counting into the analytical subject we know today.


MON 22:00 Storyville (b00dwf4h)
Dirty Tricks: The Man Who Got the Bushes Elected

Stefan Forbes's gripping documentary tells the story of Lee Atwater, the blues-playing rogue whose rambunctious rise to become chairman of the GOP positioned him as kingmaker and political rock star.

Atwater mentored George W Bush and Karl Rove while leading the Republicans to victory, helped make liberal a dirty word and transformed the way America elects its presidents.

Featuring interviews with colleagues, friends and adversaries, the film sheds new light on his crucial role in America's shift to the right in the past ten years.


MON 23:30 President Hollywood (b00djm6q)
Jonathan Freedland reveals how 2008's dramatic race for the White House was run before on 'The West Wing'. The TV series held an election between a charismatic, non-white Democrat called Matt Santos and an appealing, experienced Republican Arnold Vinick; two candidates remarkably similar to Barack Obama and John McCain.

Freedland argues that the relationship between on-screen art and political life is nothing new. Both Hollywood and Washington have been exerting their power and influence over the image of the presidency for nearly a century.

This programme was originally broadcast in September 2008, before the US election.


MON 00:30 Only Connect (b00dwf5x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 01:00 The Story of Maths (b00dwf4f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 02:00 The Sky at Night (b00dx5wb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:30 In Search of Spanish Flu (b00dwf49)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 03:00 The Story of Maths (b00dwf4f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 07 OCTOBER 2008

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00dwf5g)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00dtp4b)
The Peak Express

Julia Bradbury has her backpack on to explore the great outdoors. Julia's walks follow the old tracks, overgrown cuttings and ancient viaducts of Britain's lost rail empire, visiting disused lines across England, Scotland and Wales. Through stunning landscapes and urban backstreets, each contrasting walk has a unique story to tell, offering Julia a window into industrial Britain and how the rise and fall of the railways has altered lives and localities across the country.

Julia begins her exploration of Britain's lost rail empire in Derbyshire, the heart of the Peak District, with a walk along the popular Monsal Trail. Limestone cliffs and gorges abound, not to mention the tunnels and soaring viaducts of the Midland Railway - one of the most dramatic and unlikely main lines ever built.


TUE 20:00 Super Rich: The Greed Game (b009r2f3)
As the credit crunch bites and a global economic crisis threatens, Robert Peston reveals how the super-rich have made their fortunes, and the rest of us are picking up the bill.


TUE 21:00 That Mitchell and Webb Look (b0074fzs)
Series 1

Episode 5

Comedy sketch show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Includes a chance to swim with, and ultimately get eaten by, a very angry great white shark called Owen; the latest quiz show, the Hole In the Ring, where members of the public get insulted for no good reason; a mysterious lost tribe living in the heart of a suburban garden centre.


TUE 21:30 Flight of the Conchords (b0084lc3)
Series 1

Sally Returns

Comedy series about Kiwi folk musicians Bret and Jemaine as they to try to make it big in their adopted home of New York. Bret and Jemaine's ex-girlfriend Sally returns and begins dating Jemaine again, causing tension between Bret and Coco. Features the songs Business Time and Sally.


TUE 22:00 The Book Quiz (b009pgs9)
Series 2

Episode 2

Kirsty Wark presents as Daisy Goodwin and David Aaronovitch fight it out with AL Kennedy and Simon Hoggart for a place in the semi-finals of the literary panel game.


TUE 22:30 Fanny Hill (b00856dh)
Episode 2

Andrew Davies's two-part adaptation of John Cleland's infamous, classic 18th-century novel, Fanny Hill. In need of money, Fanny becomes mistress to the enigmatic Mr H. Jealous of Fanny's love for Charles, he expels Fanny from his home and she seeks refuge in Mrs Cole's brothel. However, Fanny is thrown on to the streets when the brothel is closed. Rescuing the elderly Mr Goodyear, Fanny receives a handsome inheritance for her companionship. Charles pursues Fanny and they plan their future.


TUE 23:30 The Age of Excess: When Britain Went Too Far (b0084l5q)
Documentary which looks back at Britain during the 18th century, a time of sexual excess and liberation, particularly in London. Vast amounts of erotic art and literature were produced – from the debauches of Fanny Hill, the orgies pictured by Thomas Rowlandson and accounts of the activities of the Hellfire Club. Presenter Matthew Sweet argues that the creators of this erotic enlightenment were not merely grubby pornographers, but that they conjured new ways of understanding human subjectivity.


TUE 00:30 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00dtp4b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 01:00 The Book Quiz (b009pgs9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


TUE 01:30 Fanny Hill (b00856dh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]


TUE 02:30 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00dtp4b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 03:00 Only Connect (b00dwf5x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


TUE 03:30 Flight of the Conchords (b00dyhkg)
Series 1

Sally Returns

Comedy series about Kiwi folk musicians Bret and Jemaine as they to try to make it big in their adopted home of New York. Bret and Jemaine's ex-girlfriend Sally returns and begins dating Jemaine again, causing tension between Bret and Coco. Features the songs Business Time and Sally.



WEDNESDAY 08 OCTOBER 2008

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00dwf7n)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Britain from Above (b00d1kd1)
The City

Revealing the transformation of Britain's most important city: her capital, London. Starting with amazing Luftwaffe aerial photographs of the very first bombs of the Blitz falling on a vulnerable city, we track the changes that came out of five years of bombing.

Comparing exhaustive footage of London in the 40s with the city of today, we see how great plans for urban renewal were stillborn and, instead, London rebuilt itself in an ad hoc way along old street patterns.

The only exception to this was the dramatic city that rose from the derelict docklands. Where Canary Wharf had a blank canvas and used it to create an American style grid of streets and huge buildings, the city itself was faced with squeezing ever more bizarrely-shaped buildings into its confused medieval street plan.

The story of a capital that has been transformed from a low-rise, smog-ridden industrial city into an upwardly mobile, rapidly changing hub of leisure, retail and finance.


WED 20:00 Britain from Above (b00d24qq)
24 Hour Britain

Andrew Marr goes on an epic journey through a day in the life of Britain, as seen from the skies.

From helicopters, planes, hang gliders and satellites, we see the picture of a nation constantly on the move with beautiful, varied and often mysterious landscapes. Swooping over towns and cities allows Andrew Marr to see them from a new angle as he meets the people whose work takes them high above us to monitor and manage the networks that keep the country working.


WED 21:00 Wilderness Explored (b00dwf7q)
Arctic

Two hundred years ago, the Arctic was largely a great blank on the map for would-be explorers. It captured their imagination as a place of sublime beauty and yet also as a desolate frozen landscape, home to the deadly polar bear. It was a place where heroes attempted to find the North-West passage and where whole expeditions disappeared without trace.

In the last century, the polar sea has become a region of vital strategic significance where the great powers built secret bases, transforming the lifestyle of the Inuit. Now, as the Arctic ice melts, the polar bear has become an emblem for the fragility of our planet.


WED 22:00 Kingdom of the Ice Bear (b007xnzs)
The Frozen Ocean

First part of an award-winning trilogy of programmes about the Arctic, narrated by Hywel Bennett. This film reveals the gentle side of polar bears as they lovingly tend their cubs, and captures the underwater chorus of eerie cries beneath the ice as the one-horned narwhals share rich feedings with belugas and harp seals.


WED 22:55 Kingdom of the Ice Bear (b00dyhkj)
The Land of Beyond

Hywel Bennett narrates the second of an award-winning trilogy of films about the Arctic. The winter is long and harsh, but for eight weeks of the year the midnight sun warms the frozen earth, nurturing lush vegetation and a rich variety of flowers, and transforming the barren wastelands into fecund breeding grounds so the life of the Arctic can renew itself.


WED 23:50 Wilderness Explored (b00dwf7q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 00:50 Frank Hurley: The Man who Made History (b0074qjq)
A look at the life and work of photographer Frank Hurley, who captured some of the earliest images of the world's most remote places. The cinematographer on Ernest Shackleton's doomed Endurance expedition to the Antarctic, Hurley also photographed both World Wars and explored New Guinea. But today's experts believe some of his pictures to be elaborate fakes – was he a giant of photography or just a conjurer with a camera?


WED 01:50 The Worst Journey in the World (b0079s9p)
Drama telling an often overlooked story of epic endurance. The story of Captain Scott's second polar expedition (1910-1913) remains a testament to an age of tragic heroism, but it is rarely remembered that prior to that fateful journey Scott and his men spent over two years conducting scientific experiments in that harsh environment.

One such task saw three of his men set forth in the snow, facing the harshest of conditions and risking their lives and their sanity - all for a penguin egg - in the winter journey of July 1911. Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Dr Bill Wilson and Lieutenant 'Birdie' Bowers faced the worst journey in the world to bring back Emperor penguin eggs which they hoped would prove an evolutionary link between reptiles and birds.

The expedition nearly cost the three men their lives, and it proved at once the pinnacle of Apsley Cherry-Garrard's life and his downfall.

This charming and moving film guides us through this quintessentially British tale of an ill-equipped, under-prepared and resolutely amateur team of adventurers almost overwhelmed by the elements.


WED 02:55 Wilderness Explored (b00dwf7q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 09 OCTOBER 2008

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00dwfl7)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Fossil Detectives (b00dx3p1)
South of England

Series in which Hermione Cockburn leads a team of fossil experts and geologists around regions of Britain to search for its best fossil treasures and mysteries.

The team finds out why southern England is the best place to go dinosaur hunting in the UK, as they excavate their own dinosaur at a secret location on the Isle of Wight. They search for the iguanodon, the discovery that made scientists realise that dinosaurs existed, while Billy Bragg and his son Jack share their best fossil finds.


THU 20:00 Steam Days (b00dwflc)
The Fishing Line

First transmitted in 1986, Miles Kington experiences the power of a London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier 'Black Five' on a journey from Fort William across the western Highlands via Glenfinnan to Mallaig.

While observing breathtaking scenery and stunning engineering achievements, including Glenfinnan viaduct, Kington uncovers what the West Highland Line meant to the traditional crofting communities that had been devastated by the Highland clearances.


THU 20:30 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00dwflf)
Discovering Snowdonia

Julia walks along the stunning Mawddach estuary in north Wales. The area between Dolgellau and the coastal resort of Barmouth is one of the least visited parts of Snowdonia, but in the 1860s it received a great rush of holidaymakers, taking advantage of the new railway that connected the valley to the cities of England.


THU 21:00 Timeshift (b00dwflh)
Series 8

Between the Lines - Railways in Fiction and Film

Novelist Andrew Martin presents a documentary examining how the train and the railways came to shape the work of writers and film-makers.

Lovers parting at the station, runaway carriages and secret assignations in confined compartments - railways have long been a staple of romance, mystery and period drama. But at the beginning of the railway age, locomotives were seen as frightening and unnatural. Wordsworth decried the destruction of the countryside, while Dickens wrote about locomotives as murderous brutes, bent on the destruction of mere humans. Hardly surprising, as he had been involved in a horrific railway accident himself.

Martin traces how trains gradually began to be accepted - Holmes and Watson were frequent passengers - until by the time of The Railway Children they were something to be loved, a symbol of innocence and Englishness. He shows how trains made for unforgettable cinema in The 39 Steps and Brief Encounter, and how when the railways fell out of favour after the 1950s, their plight was highlighted in the films of John Betjeman.

Finally, Martin asks whether, in the 21st century, Britain's railways can still stir and inspire artists.


THU 22:00 The Lady Vanishes (b0078kyh)
One moment Miss Froy was sitting there, on the train, London-bound from Tyrol. The next she had vanished. Some passengers claim she was never there, but Iris is certain she saw her. Was it her imagination?


THU 23:35 The Signalman (b0074ptz)
Charles Dickens's ghost story in which a lonely signalman is haunted by a hooded figure who seems to warn of danger.


THU 00:15 Saki: Who Killed Mrs De Ropp? (b0079spj)
Drama adapted from works by Edwardian short story writer Saki. On a train journey, Saki meets Mrs De Ropp, oppressive aunt and guardian to an unruly brood. Inspired by the meeting, he imagines a tale of repressed children who find solace in their childish wonder, and are saved by their imagination. This innovative drama mixes live action and animation and is both a dark social satire of Edwardian attitudes to children and a fairytale for grown-ups.


THU 01:15 Timeshift (b00dwflh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


THU 02:15 Fossil Detectives (b00dx3p1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 02:45 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00dwflf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


THU 03:15 Timeshift (b00dwflh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 10 OCTOBER 2008

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00dwfyr)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Itzhak Perlman: Virtuoso Violinist (b00dwfyt)
Celebrated film-maker Christopher Nupen's profile of Itzhak Perlman, who battled polio to become a virtuoso of the violin and one of the world's leading players. Nupen's account of Perlman's formative years is a story of the triumph of talent, determination, character and tenacity over seemingly insurmountable odds.


FRI 20:30 Only Connect (b00dwf5x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


FRI 21:00 Legends (b0074pbq)
Julian Bream

Andrew McGregor introduces a compilation of performances from the BBC archives of 1962-1979 by the legendary classical guitarist Julian Bream. As well as playing solo, Bream also collaborates with fellow guitarist John Williams and jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli.


FRI 22:00 Later... with Jools Holland (b00dwfyy)
Guitar Heroes

Guitar heroes from as far away as Mexico and as close to home as Chiswick have all come to rock the Later studio since 1995. This collection of performances brings together the best of them, from the legendary Buddy Guy to the homegrown guitar superstars he inspired, such as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend. Joining them on the bill are Santana, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The White Stripes, Radiohead and more.


FRI 23:00 imagine... (b00dyhyt)
The Story of the Guitar

In the Beginning

Alan Yentob embarks on a three-part personal journey to discover how the guitar became the world's favourite musical instrument. Beginning with the rise of the acoustic guitar, the series takes him from an ancient Middle Eastern ancestor of the lute, to the iconic guitars draped round the necks of Bill Hailey and Elvis Presley and beyond.

Featuring interviews with Bert Weedon - the man who taught Britain to 'Play in a Day', Pete Townshend, Bill Bailey, flamenco player Paco Pena and classical guitarist John Williams.


FRI 00:00 The Avengers (b0074t0z)
Series 4

Small Game for Big Hunters

60s drama series. A rare African cult is encountered in the Home Counties.


FRI 00:50 The Avengers (b0074t1w)
Series 4

The Girl from Auntie

Classic 60s crime drama. Steed returns from holiday to find a shapely blonde impersonating Emma. The imposter leads Steed to a succession of corpses.


FRI 01:40 Legends (b0074pbq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:45 Later... with Jools Holland (b00dwfyy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 03:40 Legends (b0074pbq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]




LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)

Arena 03:05 SAT (b0074rmg)

Art of Arts TV 00:05 SAT (b00drs92)

Art of Arts TV 01:05 SAT (b00dwc9y)

Art of Arts TV 02:05 SAT (b00dwcdl)

Britain from Above 19:30 WED (b00d1kd1)

Britain from Above 20:00 WED (b00d24qq)

Brits Can't Dance 22:00 SUN (b008lz2h)

Brits Can't Dance 02:30 SUN (b008lz2h)

Dance Britannia 21:00 SUN (b008m3mr)

Fanny Hill 22:30 TUE (b00856dh)

Fanny Hill 01:30 TUE (b00856dh)

Flight of the Conchords 21:30 TUE (b0084lc3)

Flight of the Conchords 03:30 TUE (b00dyhkg)

Fossil Detectives 19:30 THU (b00dx3p1)

Fossil Detectives 02:15 THU (b00dx3p1)

Frank Hurley: The Man who Made History 00:50 WED (b0074qjq)

Great Britons 19:00 SUN (b0074sf7)

Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails 20:00 SUN (b00drtpj)

Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails 01:30 SUN (b00drtpj)

In Search of Spanish Flu 20:00 MON (b00dwf49)

In Search of Spanish Flu 02:30 MON (b00dwf49)

Itzhak Perlman: Virtuoso Violinist 19:30 FRI (b00dwfyt)

Kingdom of the Ice Bear 22:00 WED (b007xnzs)

Kingdom of the Ice Bear 22:55 WED (b00dyhkj)

Lark Rise to Candleford 19:00 SAT (b008r9wl)

Lark Rise to Candleford 20:00 SAT (b008s7ct)

Later... with Jools Holland 22:00 FRI (b00dwfyy)

Later... with Jools Holland 02:45 FRI (b00dwfyy)

Legends 21:00 FRI (b0074pbq)

Legends 01:40 FRI (b0074pbq)

Legends 03:40 FRI (b0074pbq)

Mark Lawson Talks To... 22:30 SUN (b00dwcp6)

Mark Lawson Talks To... 03:00 SUN (b00dwcp6)

Only Connect 20:30 MON (b00dwf5x)

Only Connect 00:30 MON (b00dwf5x)

Only Connect 03:00 TUE (b00dwf5x)

Only Connect 20:30 FRI (b00dwf5x)

President Hollywood 23:30 MON (b00djm6q)

Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury 19:30 TUE (b00dtp4b)

Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury 00:30 TUE (b00dtp4b)

Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury 02:30 TUE (b00dtp4b)

Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury 20:30 THU (b00dwflf)

Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury 02:45 THU (b00dwflf)

Saki: Who Killed Mrs De Ropp? 00:15 THU (b0079spj)

Steam Days 20:00 THU (b00dwflc)

Storyville 22:00 MON (b00dwf4h)

Super Rich: The Greed Game 20:00 TUE (b009r2f3)

That Mitchell and Webb Look 21:00 TUE (b0074fzs)

The Age of Excess: When Britain Went Too Far 23:30 TUE (b0084l5q)

The Avengers 00:00 FRI (b0074t0z)

The Avengers 00:50 FRI (b0074t1w)

The Book Quiz 22:00 TUE (b009pgs9)

The Book Quiz 01:00 TUE (b009pgs9)

The Lady Vanishes 22:00 THU (b0078kyh)

The Narrow Margin 22:55 SAT (b0078hd3)

The Signalman 23:35 THU (b0074ptz)

The Sky at Night 19:30 MON (b00dx5wb)

The Sky at Night 02:00 MON (b00dx5wb)

The Story of Maths 21:00 MON (b00dwf4f)

The Story of Maths 01:00 MON (b00dwf4f)

The Story of Maths 03:00 MON (b00dwf4f)

The Worst Journey in the World 01:50 WED (b0079s9p)

Timeshift 23:30 SUN (b0074tc7)

Timeshift 00:30 SUN (b008by9l)

Timeshift 21:00 THU (b00dwflh)

Timeshift 01:15 THU (b00dwflh)

Timeshift 03:15 THU (b00dwflh)

Von Ryan's Express 21:00 SAT (b0078zy6)

Wilderness Explored 21:00 WED (b00dwf7q)

Wilderness Explored 23:50 WED (b00dwf7q)

Wilderness Explored 02:55 WED (b00dwf7q)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b00dyv23)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b00dwf5g)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b00dwf7n)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b00dwfl7)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b00dwfyr)

imagine... 23:00 FRI (b00dyhyt)