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 11 OCTOBER 2008

SAT 19:00 Lark Rise to Candleford (b008vr51)
Series 1

Episode 3

Adaptation of Flora Thompson's memoir of her Oxfordshire childhood.

When local widower Old Amos announces his engagement to his maid Patty, the town become suspicious that she may just be after his money.

Robert refuses to let his children sing a song in praise of the Tories at the local church concert, which results in them being banned from the concert altogether.

Robert's stubbornness incurs the wrath of his children, family and even the village.


SAT 20:00 Lark Rise to Candleford (b008x3d1)
Series 1

Episode 4

Adaptation of Flora Thompson's memoir of her Oxfordshire childhood. A strange old man arrives in Candleford looking for his estranged daughters - who turn out to be Ruby and Pearl Pratt. Horrified to see him out in public, playing scams on the local residents, the girls must decide whether they can forgive him for deserting them when they needed him most. Meanwhile, Caroline is being pursued by a bailiff collecting debts for the brewery.


SAT 21:00 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?


SAT 22:00 Damages (b008p8w5)
Series 1

Pilot

Acclaimed American legal drama following a ruthless lawyer's class action suit against Arthur Frobisher, an allegedly corrupt former company CEO. Alleging that he encouraged his former employees to buy the company's stock, only to then sell his own stake after the inflation of the share price, she and her junior associate work to build the case against him regardless of the consequences.


SAT 22:55 Damages (b008p8yx)
Series 1

Jesus, Mary and Joe Cocker

Acclaimed American legal drama following a ruthless lawyer's class action suit against an allegedly corrupt former company CEO. Ellen works hard to convince her best friend Katie to break her non-disclosure agreement and testify against Frobisher, but Patty isn't convinced that she will give an accurate testimony if she does decide to take the stand.


SAT 23:40 Children's TV on Trial (b007m428)
The 1950s

Series which tunes in to the decades of children's programming from its origins in the 1950s through to the 1990s.


SAT 00:40 Children's TV on Trial (b007m44j)
The 1960s

Series which tunes in to the decades of children's programming from its origins in the 1950s through to the 1990s.


SAT 01:40 Children's TV on Trial (b007m47g)
The 1970s

Series which tunes in to the decades of children's programming from its origins in the 1950s through to the 1990s.


SAT 02:40 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b007mp79)
Biddy Baxter

Interview with the TV editor and producer who brought Blue Peter to the screen.


SAT 03:40 Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails (b00drtpj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



SUNDAY 12 OCTOBER 2008

SUN 19:00 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.


SUN 20:00 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.


SUN 21:00 Dance Britannia (b008m3qc)
Twist and Shout

Three-part documentary series telling the history of British social dancing in the 20th century, using rare archive film and interviews. The post-war 'baby boomer' generation were the first-ever teenagers and they rejected ballroom dancing, falling in love with rock and roll and juke boxes instead. The Twist in 1960 was a revolution, and dancing became sexier as Brits copied the moves of black American soul artists. The mods invented the Shake, and the hippies almost danced inside their heads.


SUN 22:00 Last Man in Hammersmith Palais (b008l3rx)
Documentary which recounts the story of west London venue the Hammersmith Palais, immortalised in song by the Clash, which closed down in April 2007. It began in 1919 when a disused roller skating rink saw the start of thousands of nights of jazz, swing, reggae, pop, rock, bhangra and ska. Artists and Palais goers alike, including include Dame Vera Lynn, Mick Jones, Andy Summers, Phill Jupitus recall fond memories of great evenings at the Palais, and there's plenty of archive footage.


SUN 23:00 More Dawn French's Boys Who Do: Comedy (b008fmyv)
Russell Brand

Dawn French interviews Russell Brand about his life in comedy.


SUN 23:30 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.


SUN 00:30 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.


SUN 01:30 Wilderness Explored (b00dwf7q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SUN 02:30 Last Man in Hammersmith Palais (b008l3rx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


SUN 03:30 Later... with Jools Holland (b00dwfyy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 today]



MONDAY 13 OCTOBER 2008

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00dzy8x)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 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.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00dzy8z)
Series 1

Episode 5

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 (b00dzy91)
The Genius of the East

When ancient Greece fell into decline, mathematical progress stagnated as Europe entered the Dark Ages, but in the east mathematics reached new heights.

Du Sautoy visits China and explores how maths helped build imperial China and was at the heart of such amazing feats of engineering as the Great Wall.

In India, he discovers how the symbol for the number zero was invented and Indian mathematicians' understanding of the new concepts of infinity and negative numbers.

In the Middle East, he looks at the invention of the new language of algebra and the spread of eastern knowledge to the west through mathematicians such as Leonardo Fibonacci, creator of the Fibonacci Sequence.


MON 22:00 Storyville (b00dzy93)
Roman Polanski - Wanted and Desired

In September 2009, Roman Polanski was arrested in Switzerland on a 30-year-old warrant. In 1978, the filmmaker skipped bail and escaped to France. For decades, no-one truly understood why. This documentary that reveals the truth about the bungled legal proceedings which brought about his escape.

In her riveting reopening of this controversial and, as it turns out, very complex case, filmmaker Marina Zenovich fashions a perceptive and intelligent exploration of what really happened and casts a very different light on Polanski's decision, as well as the workings of the American legal system.

Revisiting all of the key players, including the lawyers, the victim and the media, the film looks at the conduct of the judge whose handling of the case was unusual. In addition, it incorporates insightful interviews from the present, bringing new comprehension and clarity to events long clouded by myths and presumptions.

Winner of three Emmys, two prizes at Sundance and countless other international awards, the film is a timely look at one of the most high-profile and fascinating legal battles of the last thirty years.


MON 23:30 Monsoon Railway (b007rtzs)
Part 1

Director Gerry Troyna paints an affectionate portrait of the Indian railway culture.

Indian Railways is a vast organisation, employing 1,500,000 people and catering for every aspect of their lives from cradle to grave. The documentary follows three typical employees as they face the annual battle to keep trains running during the monsoon season.


MON 00:20 Only Connect (b00dzy8z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 00:50 The Story of Maths (b00dzy91)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 01:50 Timeshift (b00dwflh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:50 The Story of Maths (b00dzy91)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 02:50 The Story of Maths (b00dzy91)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 14 OCTOBER 2008

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00dzypp)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 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.


TUE 20:00 High Anxieties: The Mathematics of Chaos (b00dzypr)
Documentary which looks at how developments in mathematics over the past 40 years have completely changed our understanding of the fundamental nature of the world we live in.

As we approach tipping points in both the economy and the climate, the film examines the mathematics we have been reluctant to face up to and asks if, even now, we would rather bury our heads in the sand rather than face harsh truths.


TUE 21:00 That Mitchell and Webb Look (b0074g0h)
Series 1

Episode 6

Comedy sketch show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. The world's earliest forensic detectives believe they may be up against the perfect crime. The special secret snooker words to Lady in Red are revealed, plus what to do if offered the job of Führer of the Third Reich.


TUE 21:30 Flight of the Conchords (b00856jj)
Series 1

Bowie

Comedy series about Kiwi folk musicians Bret and Jemaine as they to try to make it big in their adopted home of New York. When Murray suggests a photoshoot Bret becomes self-conscious about his body, but David Bowie appears in his dreams with helpful advice. Featuring the songs Bowie's in Space and Bret You Got it Going On.


TUE 21:55 London to Brighton Side by Side (b00f2zxt)
In 1953, the BBC made a point-of-view film from the London to Brighton train. In 1983, they did the same again. This is a film made of both runs at once, with every bridge, siding, tunnel and station running side by side in unlikely synchronisation.


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 Blue/Orange (b0074r35)
Adaptation of Joe Penhall's award-winning play. In a psychiatric hospital, a junior doctor is treating a young black man diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. The patient is having a final interview with the doctor, who has invited his mentor to sit in on the session. He is concerned that the diagnosis is inaccurate and would like the patient hospitalised for longer. The senior doctor, however, disagrees.


TUE 00:00 Storyville (b00dzy93)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]


TUE 01:30 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00dwflf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 02:00 High Anxieties: The Mathematics of Chaos (b00dzypr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 03:00 Only Connect (b00dzy8z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


TUE 03:30 Flight of the Conchords (b00856jj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]



WEDNESDAY 15 OCTOBER 2008

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00dzyz3)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Britain from Above (b00d4pwc)
The Land

Turning back time and drawing on previously unseen archive footage and photography to focus on the dramatic transformation of Britain's cities, landscape and industry. Focusing on the period since the Second World War, Britain from Above explores the greatest period of change in the nation in the last 200 years.

Nowhere shows the transformation that has swept the British countryside in the last 60 years more than East Anglia. Aerial photographs taken by both the RAF and the Luftwaffe before the war show an isolated rural landscape of small fields, hordes of labourers and horse drawn ploughs. But all that changed. Sparked by the war itself, East Anglia became the crucible of a land revolution as its agriculture was industrialised faster and on a larger scale than anywhere else.

Today hedgerows, horses and farm workers have all gone. While the number of people working on the land has collapsed, rural villages have grown, bursting through their old boundaries as commuters arrive. New roads and new employers such as Stansted Airport have heated up an already fast growing economy and the impact on the landscape can be clearly seen from above.

Using hitherto unseen land-use maps of the 1930s, together with wartime aerial reconnaissance photos, the programme reveals how and why East Anglia, and by extension Britain's rural landscape, has been shaped the way it has. Today we see a landscape under ever greater pressure from new housing, crowded roads and the sudden surge in food prices which makes farmland ever more valuable.


WED 20:00 Britain from Above (b00d4v3n)
Man-made Britain

Andrew Marr goes on a journey to discover how some of the greenest landscapes in the British Isles were in fact shaped and moulded by human hands down the centuries.

He looks at the ancient 'wild wood' and Iron Age forts lurking in Britain's forests to the present-day strain modern economic needs put on the countryside, and how town planners restrict urban growth through the establishment of greenbelt areas.

He also looks down on Britain's national parks to show how we go to extraordinary lengths to preserve them as beautiful but artificial playgrounds. We also see how Britain's rugged landscape is used as the ideal testing ground for the Eurofighter.


WED 21:00 Wilderness Explored (b00dzyz5)
Australia's Red Heart

Australia's stark and beautiful red centre is now seen as part of the country's national identity, with Uluru, or Ayres Rock, a national symbol. But this vast desert centre was originally seen as a place of death and silence by the first white explorers. It has taken 200 years for a new perception to emerge, one that recognises it as a place of life and creation - the way it has always been seen by the continent's original inhabitants, the Aborigines.


WED 22:00 Wild Down Under (b0074pnx)
Wild Down Under

Series exploring the wildlife and landscape of Australia. An introduction to the continent and surrounding islands, capturing the enormity of this vast and exotic land which is home to some of the most unique wildlife in the world.


WED 22:50 Wild Down Under (b0074ppm)
Desert Heart

Series exploring Australia's wildlife and landscape. This edition features the huge desert in the centre - no barren wasteland but home to a surprising diversity of flora and fauna. Nomadic budgerigars and giant red kangaroos flourish in a land battered by unpredictable cycles of drought and flood. Aborigines have lived here for thousands of years, but modern Australians are only just beginning to understand the terrain.


WED 23:40 Wilderness Explored (b00dzyz5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 00:40 Travellers' Century (b00crnkq)
Eric Newby

Benedict Allen follows the travels of quintessential British amateur traveller Eric Newby. Born in suburban Hammersmith between the wars, Newby was dismissed by his public school as 'not clever', and his life became a catalogue of challenges. As a teenager, he went to sea to serve as a deck hand, sailing around Cape Horn. During the WW2 he joined the Special Boat Squadron, and was captured by the enemy. After escaping from an Italian POW camp, he met his future wife Wanda.

Newby itched to discover the world and, in the mid-1950s, abandoned an unhappy career in the rag trade to head off with diplomat Hugh Carless into remotest Afghanistan and climb Mir Samir. The journey was immortalised in A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.

Fifty years on, Benedict Allen finds this lost corner of Afghanistan little changed - and comes away full of admiration for the author. Newby failed to reach the summit, but for all his sardonic understatement and self-deprecation, he was just a hair's breadth away. And all with the aid of a map drawn on the back of an envelope.


WED 01:40 Travellers' Century (b00cskdg)
Laurie Lee

Explorer, writer and broadcaster Benedict Allen retraces part of author Laurie Lee's journey across Spain in 1935, which became the basis for his celebrated travelogue As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning.

Lee thought of himself first and foremost as a poet, and the book reveals a poet's sensibility in its meticulous, distilled observations of the country and people he quickly came to love.

Allen tries to find out whether Lee's evocative prose actually works as travel writing and Lee is revealed as an enigmatic, mercurial figure in the tradition of the wandering minstrel or troubadour, with a huge array of talents and an astonishing facility to charm.


WED 02:40 Wilderness Explored (b00dzyz5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 16 OCTOBER 2008

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00dzz5t)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Steam Days (b00f5lrr)
Going Great Western

First transmitted in 1986, Miles Kington explores the line laid from Bristol to Exeter by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and then travels through south Devon in all its glory.

Along the way Kington examines the enormous task faced by Brunel in the design and construction of the Royal Albert Bridge, which carries the Cornish Main Line railway in and out of Cornwall. Perhaps less well known is the impact of the railway line and the rail company on promoting tourism in the Edwardian golden age of British seaside resorts.


THU 20:00 Absolutely Chuffed: The Men Who Built a Steam Engine (b00dzz5y)
Documentary about the 18-year odyssey of a group of enthusiasts who set out to build a brand new mainline steam engine from scratch in 1990.


THU 20:30 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00dzz60)
The Birth of Steam

Tin and copper once made the area around Redruth the richest patch of land in the country. They inspired great engineering feats and pioneering tramways, the forebears of the rail empire. Julia Bradbury has her work cut out as she crosses an entire county, winding past Cornwall's crumbling engine houses and following a railway that has not operated for 140 years.


THU 21:00 Timeshift (b00dzzdc)
Series 8

Last Days of Steam

The surprising story of how Britain entered a new age of steam railways after the Second World War and why it quickly came to an end.

After the war, the largely destroyed railways of Europe were rebuilt to carry more modern diesel and electric trains. Britain, however, chose to build thousands of brand new steam locomotives. Did we stay with steam because coal was seen as the most reliable power source, or were the railways run by men who couldn't bear to let go of their beloved steam trains?

The new British locomotives were designed to stay in service well into the 1970s, but in some cases they were taken off the railways and scrapped within just five years. When Dr Richard Beeching took over British Railways in the 1960s the writing was on the wall, and in 1968 the last steam passenger train blew its whistle.

But while steam use declined, steam enthusiasm grew. As many steam engines lay rusting in scrapyards around Britain, enthusiasts raised funds to buy, restore and return them to their former glory. In 2008, the first brand new steam locomotive to be built in Britain in nearly 50 years rolled off the line, proving our enduring love of these machines.


THU 22:00 Oh, Mr Porter! (b007zc1b)
Comedy in which a bungling railway worker is given the job of stationmaster at a rundown station in rural Ireland, where his sidekicks are a toothless old gaffer and a portly young loudmouth. Hilarious adventures ensue, including a locomotive chase after gunrunners make off with a train.


THU 23:20 BBC Four Sessions (b0074qnh)
Gillian Welch

Series of unique concerts by musicians from around the world. This edition features acclaimed country-folk singer/songwriter Gillian Welch, accompanied by guitarist and collaborator David Rawlings. Welch draws on folk, country, bluegrass and Appalachian mountain ballads to create her own sometimes bleak American music which somehow sounds both ancient and modern.


THU 00:20 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00dzz60)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


THU 00:50 Timeshift (b00dzzdc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


THU 01:50 Absolutely Chuffed: The Men Who Built a Steam Engine (b00dzz5y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 02:20 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00dzz60)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


THU 02:50 Timeshift (b00dzzdc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 17 OCTOBER 2008

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00dzztw)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Vladimir Ashkenazy: The Vital Juices are Russian (b00dzzty)
Celebrated film-maker Christopher Nupen's 1968 profile of renowned Russian pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy charts a crucial turning point in Ashkenazy's life and career. Having lived in London for five years after leaving the Soviet Union, he and his Icelandic wife Thorunn decided to move to Iceland.

The film is a closely-observed account of one of the most demanding and rewarding of all professions and examines the talent and trials of one of classical music's greats.


FRI 20:20 Snowdrift at Bleath Gill (b00f2ksz)
Produced in 1955 and part of the British Transport Films' collection, this short film follows the heroic actions of railway workers who rescue a snowbound train in the north Pennines.


FRI 20:30 Only Connect (b00dzy8z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


FRI 21:00 Les Paul: Chasing Sound (b00dzzv0)
Documentary profiling the late Les Paul, creator of the solid-body electric guitar, inventor of overdubbing and multi-track recording, king of the 50s pop charts and rock 'n' roll icon.

Les Paul tells his own classic rags-to-riches story, featuring vintage archive and original performance footage of him and his Trio, original interviews with the likes of BB King, Jeff Beck, Jose Feliciano, Tony Bennett and Bonnie Raitt and copious contributions from the genius from Waukesha, Wisconsin, who died in 2009.

Paul was the last of that self-educated, brilliantly innovative generation of musicians and media pioneers who revolutionised popular music in the last century.


FRI 22:30 Guitar Heroes at the BBC (b00dzzv2)
Part I

Concentrating on the 1970s (1969 to 1981 to be exact) and ransacking a host of BBC shows from The Old Grey Whistle Test to Sight & Sound, this compilation is designed to release the air guitarist in everyone, combining great electric guitarists like Carlos Santana, Mark Knopfler, The Edge and Peter Green with acoustic masters like John Martyn, Pentangle and Paco Pena.


FRI 23:30 imagine... (b00dzzv4)
The Story of the Guitar

Out of the Frying Pan

Alan Yentob presents a three-part series examining how the guitar became the world's favourite musical instrument.

As the guitar turns electric, music is changed for ever. The world's first electric guitar had nothing to do with jazz or blues, but Hawaiian-style music and was known as the 'frying pan'.

Yentob continues his investigation from the blues of the Mississippi to the guitar wars of the 1950s, when the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul were battling for supremacy.


FRI 00:30 The Avengers (b0074t2t)
Series 4

The 13th Hole

60s drama series. Steed and Emma's investigations into the murder of a colleague lead them to a golf club.


FRI 01:20 The Avengers (b0074t3n)
Series 4

The Quick Quick Slow Death

Steed and Emma investigate foul play when a foreign agent is involved in a road accident and the body of a man is found in the pram he was pushing.


FRI 02:10 Les Paul: Chasing Sound (b00dzzv0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 03:40 Guitar Heroes at the BBC (b00dzzv2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]




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

Absolutely Chuffed: The Men Who Built a Steam Engine 20:00 THU (b00dzz5y)

Absolutely Chuffed: The Men Who Built a Steam Engine 01:50 THU (b00dzz5y)

BBC Four Sessions 23:20 THU (b0074qnh)

Blue/Orange 22:30 TUE (b0074r35)

Britain from Above 19:30 WED (b00d4pwc)

Britain from Above 20:00 WED (b00d4v3n)

Children's TV on Trial 23:40 SAT (b007m428)

Children's TV on Trial 00:40 SAT (b007m44j)

Children's TV on Trial 01:40 SAT (b007m47g)

Damages 22:00 SAT (b008p8w5)

Damages 22:55 SAT (b008p8yx)

Dance Britannia 21:00 SUN (b008m3qc)

Flight of the Conchords 21:30 TUE (b00856jj)

Flight of the Conchords 03:30 TUE (b00856jj)

Guitar Heroes at the BBC 22:30 FRI (b00dzzv2)

Guitar Heroes at the BBC 03:40 FRI (b00dzzv2)

High Anxieties: The Mathematics of Chaos 20:00 TUE (b00dzypr)

High Anxieties: The Mathematics of Chaos 02:00 TUE (b00dzypr)

Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails 21:00 SAT (b00drtpj)

Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails 03:40 SAT (b00drtpj)

Lark Rise to Candleford 19:00 SAT (b008vr51)

Lark Rise to Candleford 20:00 SAT (b008x3d1)

Last Man in Hammersmith Palais 22:00 SUN (b008l3rx)

Last Man in Hammersmith Palais 02:30 SUN (b008l3rx)

Later... with Jools Holland 23:30 SUN (b00dwfyy)

Later... with Jools Holland 03:30 SUN (b00dwfyy)

Legends 00:30 SUN (b0074pbq)

Les Paul: Chasing Sound 21:00 FRI (b00dzzv0)

Les Paul: Chasing Sound 02:10 FRI (b00dzzv0)

London to Brighton Side by Side 21:55 TUE (b00f2zxt)

Mark Lawson Talks To... 02:40 SAT (b007mp79)

Monsoon Railway 23:30 MON (b007rtzs)

More Dawn French's Boys Who Do: Comedy 23:00 SUN (b008fmyv)

Oh, Mr Porter! 22:00 THU (b007zc1b)

Only Connect 20:30 MON (b00dzy8z)

Only Connect 00:20 MON (b00dzy8z)

Only Connect 03:00 TUE (b00dzy8z)

Only Connect 20:30 FRI (b00dzy8z)

Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury 19:30 TUE (b00dwflf)

Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury 01:30 TUE (b00dwflf)

Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury 20:30 THU (b00dzz60)

Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury 00:20 THU (b00dzz60)

Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury 02:20 THU (b00dzz60)

Snowdrift at Bleath Gill 20:20 FRI (b00f2ksz)

Steam Days 19:30 THU (b00f5lrr)

Storyville 22:00 MON (b00dzy93)

Storyville 00:00 TUE (b00dzy93)

That Mitchell and Webb Look 21:00 TUE (b0074g0h)

The Avengers 00:30 FRI (b0074t2t)

The Avengers 01:20 FRI (b0074t3n)

The Book Quiz 22:00 TUE (b009pgs9)

The Story of Maths 19:00 SUN (b00dwf4f)

The Story of Maths 21:00 MON (b00dzy91)

The Story of Maths 00:50 MON (b00dzy91)

The Story of Maths 02:50 MON (b00dzy91)

The Story of Maths 02:50 MON (b00dzy91)

Timeshift 19:30 MON (b00dwflh)

Timeshift 01:50 MON (b00dwflh)

Timeshift 21:00 THU (b00dzzdc)

Timeshift 00:50 THU (b00dzzdc)

Timeshift 02:50 THU (b00dzzdc)

Travellers' Century 00:40 WED (b00crnkq)

Travellers' Century 01:40 WED (b00cskdg)

Vladimir Ashkenazy: The Vital Juices are Russian 19:30 FRI (b00dzzty)

Wild Down Under 22:00 WED (b0074pnx)

Wild Down Under 22:50 WED (b0074ppm)

Wilderness Explored 20:00 SUN (b00dwf7q)

Wilderness Explored 01:30 SUN (b00dwf7q)

Wilderness Explored 21:00 WED (b00dzyz5)

Wilderness Explored 23:40 WED (b00dzyz5)

Wilderness Explored 02:40 WED (b00dzyz5)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b00dzy8x)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b00dzypp)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b00dzyz3)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b00dzz5t)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b00dzztw)

imagine... 23:30 FRI (b00dzzv4)