The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
Series that goes behind the scenes of one of the world's most significant and magnificent tourist sites. Once the seat of absolute power in France, and scene of some of the key moments in European history, in the 21st century the Palace of Versailles has had to adapt to survive in the fast-moving and competitive world of international tourism.
It's a challenge the chateau is taking full on with the introduction of innovative events programmes and ingenious fund-raising schemes, and the judicious trial of new technology. As well as evolving to embrace the new, Versailles continues to preserve the old, employing ancient craft techniques and international expertise in an ongoing and never-ending process of restoration and conservation. But in a place with as much history as Versailles change is not always welcome, and relations between the old guard and the modernisers have to be carefully negotiated.
The series explores the chateau's many layers of history and its modern evolution through the stories of some of the people who work there today.
This episode goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the small army of expert and devoted - if often eccentric - craftsmen who work to restore everything from silk drapes and furniture to paintings and picture frames, and indeed the very stonework of the chateau. Even those parts of the chateau so high or remote that the only beneficiaries are birds are given loving and painstaking attention.
Jonathan Dimbleby explores ten thousand miles of one of the world's most awe-inspiring countries. Summer 2006. Having lived through the Cold War, Jonathan makes his first stop in the city of Murmansk, which stands as a reminder to the years when England and Russia were close allies in a war of survival against the Nazis. But soon he is on the move, entering the strange and remote world of Karelia and savouring the sophisticated elegance of St Petersburg.
Art critic and film-maker Ben Lewis spent two years following the contemporary art market, from its heady peak in May 2008 until the crash and burn in October. Now, in a new and updated version of the film first broadcast in May 2009, he returns one year later, in October 2009, to discover a very different market.
The last five years had witnessed an unprecedented craze for contemporary art, in which works of art by Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, and Mark Rothko sold for record-breaking prices of 30 million pounds upwards. It all climaxed in September 2008, when Damien Hirst sold 111 million pounds' worth of his art at an unprecedented auction at Sotheby's - the very day Lehman Brothers collapsed bringing down the financial markets of the western world. The bubble did not burst the night of the Hirst sale - but it proved to be a last hurrah.
The auctions in October and November 2008 were a disaster, and Ben was there too, filming the art world in shock. By early 2009, the contemporary art auction market was down 75 per cent, auction houses had recorded record losses and were rapidly downsizing.
In this inside eye-witness journey into the art world, Ben visits auction houses, art fairs, galleries and the homes of billionaires across the world, searching for the reasons behind the greatest rise in financial value of art in history. He interviews leading dealers, art collectors and art market analysts and discovers an extraordinary world of unusual market practices, speculation, secrecy and a passionate enthusiasm for art.
Comedy series about Kiwi folk musicians Bret and Jemaine as they to try to make it big in New York.
Bret is upset when he and Jemaine are racially harassed by a greengrocer. After a lesson from Dave in flipping the bird, the boys decide to take drastic action.
A woman is found dead after the opening of a war photographer's exhibition. Murder is suspected, as is the photographer. Wallander and his team of police investigate.
THURSDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2009
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00p270d)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Return to Pembrokeshire Farm (b00n1lvz)
Episode 2
Griff Rhys Jones continues with phase two of the restoration of his farm in Pembrokeshire. Work on the derelict miller's cottage is progressing well, but across the lane there is trouble at the mill, as Griff's plans meet local objections.
Meanwhile, Griff takes on another very unusual restoration project.
THU 20:00 Nicholas Crane's Britannia: The Great Elizabethan Journey (b00gsn8f)
A Journey Through the Borders and Scotland
Nicholas Crane visits parts of Britain that were largely unknown until William Camden wrote his encyclopaedic account of the British Isles. Britannia is an Elizabethan 'lost' masterpiece describing the mountains and rivers of Britain, its climate, its customs and people like it had never been seen before.
On the Scottish leg of a 5,000 mile journey, Nick discovers there's still gold in them hills, witches in Athol, Britain's only true remaining wilderness, and a spirit of independence that makes some Scots today as uncertain about union with England as their ancestors were in 1600.
THU 21:00 A History of Christianity (b00p270g)
Reformation: The Individual Before God
The Amish today are peaceable folk, but five centuries ago their ancestors were seen as some of the most dangerous people in Europe. They were radicals - Protestants - who tore apart the Catholic Church.
In the fourth part of the series, Diarmaid MacCulloch makes sense of the Reformation, and of how a faith based on obedience and authority gave birth to one based on individual conscience.
He shows how Martin Luther wrote hymns to teach people the message of the Bible, and how a tasty sausage became the rallying cry for Swiss Reformer Ulrich Zwingli to tear down statues of saints, allow married clergy and deny that communion bread and wine were the body and blood of Christ. 'Jesus ascended into heaven', declared Zwingli. 'He's sitting at the right hand of the Father, not on a table here in Zurich.'.
THU 22:00 Gracie! (b00p1p41)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
THU 23:20 The Thick of It (b00p270j)
Series 3
Episode 5
After weeks of trading bitter blows in the press, DoSAC minister Nicola Murray MP and her shadow Peter Mannion MP are invited onto BBC Radio 5Live for a debate on Richard Bacon's late-night phone-in programme.
Director of communications Malcolm Tucker and opposition PR guru Stewart Pearson decide to listen in the comfort of their respective offices, but when some breaking news threatens to make things difficult for the politicians, the programme quickly turns into a phone-in like no other. Malcolm and Stewart are left no choice but to start getting their people over to the studios.
THU 23:50 A History of Christianity (b00p270g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 00:50 Gracie! (b00p1p41)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
THU 02:10 Return to Pembrokeshire Farm (b00p31y3)
Episode 2
Griff Rhys Jones continues with phase two of the restoration of his farm in Pembrokeshire. Work on the derelict miller's cottage is progressing well, but across the lane there is trouble at the mill, as Griff's plans meet local objections.
Meanwhile, Griff takes on another very unusual restoration project.
THU 02:40 A History of Christianity (b00p270g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2009
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00p27k9)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Transatlantic Sessions (b00809fv)
Series 3
Episode 3
Folk musicians come together in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever'. Paul Brady hooks up with Scottish chanteuses Eddi Reader and Karen Matheson and a few others in a performance of his song, Rainbow. Also featured are Iris DeMent in a rare appearance in the UK, joining Joan Osborne and Bruce Molsky, with the instrumental talents of Sharon Shannon on accordion and Russ Barenberg on guitar.
FRI 20:00 Darcey Bussell's Ten Best Ballet Moments (b008l3dd)
Darcey Bussell, who retired from the Royal Ballet in 2007, introduces and demonstrates some of her favourite ballet moments with dancers Roberto Bolle and Jonathan Cope.
Featuring some of her own performances and archive highlights, with music ranging from Scott Joplin to Tchaikovsky.
The ballets include Giselle, The Nutcracker and a classic performance by Margot Fonteyn in Swan Lake.
FRI 21:00 Johnny Cash: The Story of Folsom Prison (b00p27kc)
Documentary which explores the most important day in the career of the legendary Johnny Cash.
Cash's concert at Folsom State Prison in California in January 1968 touched a raw nerve in the American psyche and made him a national hero at a troubled time in American history.
Using the stark images of rock photographer Jim Marshall, graphic techniques, archive footage and interviews with Merle Haggard, Cash's daughter Rosanne, band members Marshall Grant and WS 'Fluke' Holland, alongside former inmates of the prison, the film documents this explosive concert, the live album that followed and a transformative moment in the lives of Cash, the inmates of Folsom Prison and the American nation in the troubled year of 1968.
FRI 22:00 Later with Jools Holland and Johnny Cash (b0074q0q)
In a tribute to the late Johnny Cash, this one-off show finds Jools Holland playing host to the Man in Black himself. Cash performs a selection of his classics with a three-piece band. Other guests include Carleen Anderson, Pops Staples and June Carter Cash.
FRI 22:30 The Johnny Cash TV Show (b00p27kf)
Rock
The first chance for British viewers to see the pick of the guests and collaborations with the host on Johnny Cash's prime-time show for American TV from the early 1970s.
Among Cash's amazing array of guests are Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Louis Armstrong.
FRI 23:30 We Need Answers (b00hw3yw)
Series 1
Wine
Mark Watson, Tim Key and Alex Horne lead a comic quiz show with a difference, adapted from their award-winning Edinburgh show. Jilly Goolden and Jay Rayner take part in a knock-about quiz to find out which one of them is the smartest, the funniest and the best at surreal physical challenges. All the questions come from the audience members and text-messaging services and are on the subject of wine.
FRI 00:00 Only Connect (b00m3zhp)
Series 2
Mathematicians v Cambridge Quiz Society - Semi-Final
Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.
In the first semi-final, three mathematicians pit their logical skills against the wits of the Cambridge Quiz Society. They compete to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly bereft of associations. How does Lord Kelvin of Largs link to George Orwell via the Ebola virus and India?
FRI 00:30 Johnny Cash: The Last Great American (b0074s4x)
Documentary profiling the life of legendary country music star Johnny Cash, who died in 2003 shortly after completing the retrospective Unearthed, a five-CD set of the acoustic performances with which he resurrected his career in the last decade of his life, and after losing his wife, June Carter Cash.
This first major retrospective of Cash's life, times and music features contributions from his daughter Rosanne Cash and son John Carter Cash, his longtime manager Lou Robin and fellow musicians including Little Richard, Cowboy Jack Clement, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and Elvis Costello.
Cash was the son of a poor sharecropper from Kingsland, Arkansas, who sang folk, spiritual and country songs to himself while picking cotton in the fields. In the 50s he signed to Sam Phillips' Sun Records, scored his first hits and was part of the 'Million Dollar Quartet' with Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.
In the 60s, he created his famous 'Man in Black' persona, and became a huge country star with hits like Folsom Prison Blues, Ring of Fire, I Walk the Line and A Boy Named Sue, while torn between drug dependency, hellraising and a powerful spirituality. Cash had long since established himself as a man of the people with his prison concerts beginning with an incendiary performance at San Quentin in 1958.
He ended the decade by finally marrying June Carter - a member of hugely influential US country dynasty the Carter Family - launching his own national TV series from Nashville, befriending the Native American movement and opposing the war in Vietnam while playing concerts for the soldiers in the field.
After tough times in the 80s, Cash reignited his career with a new young audience in the 90s when he recorded with rap-rock producer Rick Rubin.
FRI 01:30 The Johnny Cash TV Show (b00bv3z3)
Country Gold
The pick of Johnny Cash's prime-time show for American television.
Cash performs some of his best-known songs and introduces some classic country guests including Tammy Wynette, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Bill Monroe, Loretta Lynn and the Everly Brothers performing with their father, Ike.
FRI 02:30 Darcey Bussell's Ten Best Ballet Moments (b008l3dd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRI 03:30 We Need Answers (b00hw3yw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:30 today]
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
A History of Christianity
19:00 SUN (b00nxmmn)
A History of Christianity
02:15 SUN (b00nxmmn)
A History of Christianity
21:00 THU (b00p270g)
A History of Christianity
23:50 THU (b00p270g)
A History of Christianity
02:40 THU (b00p270g)
Amazing Gracie: The Gracie Fields Story
22:20 MON (b0074qlt)
Anna M
22:00 SUN (b00p1p32)
Beaufort
02:15 SAT (b00nxks9)
Cranford
20:00 SAT (b008cxm8)
Cranford
01:15 SAT (b008cxm8)
Cranford
20:00 SUN (b008d35d)
Cranford
01:15 SUN (b008d35d)
Darcey Bussell's Ten Best Ballet Moments
20:00 FRI (b008l3dd)
Darcey Bussell's Ten Best Ballet Moments
02:30 FRI (b008l3dd)
Electric Proms
23:35 TUE (b00nn7vx)
Enid
21:00 SAT (b00nxkm8)
Flight of the Conchords
22:00 WED (b0087fs1)
Gracie!
21:00 MON (b00p1p41)
Gracie!
02:20 MON (b00p1p41)
Gracie!
22:00 THU (b00p1p41)
Gracie!
00:50 THU (b00p1p41)
It's Only a Theory
23:45 SUN (b00nxks7)
It's Only a Theory
22:00 TUE (b00p26x9)
It's Only a Theory
03:35 TUE (b00p26x9)
It's Only a Theory
22:30 WED (b00p26x9)
It's Only a Theory
01:30 WED (b00p26x9)
Johnny Cash: The Last Great American
00:30 FRI (b0074s4x)
Johnny Cash: The Story of Folsom Prison
21:00 FRI (b00p27kc)
Later with Jools Holland and Johnny Cash
22:00 FRI (b0074q0q)
Life
20:00 TUE (b00p1n00)
Mark Lawson Talks To...
21:00 SUN (b00p1p30)
Mark Lawson Talks To...
03:15 SUN (b00p1p30)
Mark Lawson Talks To...
00:30 WED (b00p1p30)
Mark Lawson Talks To...
03:00 WED (b00p1p30)
Munro: Mountain Man
19:00 SAT (b00mwgyq)
Nicholas Crane's Britannia: The Great Elizabethan Journey
20:00 THU (b00gsn8f)
No Holds Bard
22:30 TUE (b00h6s1b)
No Holds Bard
02:35 TUE (b00h6s1b)
Only Connect
00:00 FRI (b00m3zhp)
Return to Pembrokeshire Farm
19:30 THU (b00n1lvz)
Return to Pembrokeshire Farm
02:10 THU (b00p31y3)
Russia: A Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby
20:00 WED (b00bf5b8)
Spiral
22:25 SAT (b00n1h67)
Spiral
23:15 SAT (b00n5695)
Storyville
00:15 SUN (b00nxks5)
Storyville
21:00 TUE (b00p26x7)
Storyville
01:35 TUE (b00p26x7)
Tales from the Green Valley
19:30 MON (b0078yy5)
Talking Landscapes
19:30 TUE (b0074m11)
The Andy Williams Show
00:35 TUE (b00n5bt9)
The Great Contemporary Art Bubble Update
21:00 WED (b00kmt51)
The Great Contemporary Art Bubble Update
02:00 WED (b00kmt51)
The Johnny Cash TV Show
22:30 FRI (b00p27kf)
The Johnny Cash TV Show
01:30 FRI (b00bv3z3)
The Medici: Makers of Modern Art
01:20 MON (b00fztl9)
The Thick of It
23:20 THU (b00p270j)
The Thirties in Colour
20:00 MON (b00csk9m)
Transatlantic Sessions
19:30 FRI (b00809fv)
Travels with Vasari
23:20 MON (b00fqvnc)
Travels with Vasari
00:20 MON (b00fvgq8)
Versailles Stories
19:30 WED (b0074sgp)
Wallander
23:00 WED (b00m9jky)
We Need Answers
23:30 FRI (b00hw3yw)
We Need Answers
03:30 FRI (b00hw3yw)
Where Is Modern Art Now?
00:15 SAT (b00nxm6s)
World News Today
19:00 MON (b00p1p3z)
World News Today
19:00 TUE (b00p26x5)
World News Today
19:00 WED (b00p26yv)
World News Today
19:00 THU (b00p270d)
World News Today
19:00 FRI (b00p27k9)