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 28 NOVEMBER 2009

SAT 19:00 Balmoral (b00mqg2c)
Documentary telling the story of Balmoral, the royal family's most private residence. For over 150 years this Scottish castle has been home to royal traditions of picnics, stag hunting and kilts. From prime ministers to Princess Diana, life at this tartan-bound holiday home has not appealed to everyone.

But there is another story of Balmoral, of how the royal family has played a role in shaping modern Scotland and how Scotland has shaped the royal family. Queen Victoria's adoption of Highland symbols, from tartan to bagpipes, helped create a new image for Scotland. Her values, too, helped strengthen the union between Scotland and England. Ever since, Balmoral has been a place that reflects the very essence of the royal family.


SAT 20:00 Cranford (b008flrv)
Series 1

November 1842

A theft from the Doctor's house and an attack on Mr Johnson spread panic and the fear of an imminent crime wave. Suspicion and mistrust ripple through Cranford and Miss Pole resorts to desperate measures to safeguard her treasures.

To save his father, Harry is forced to make a formidable decision, thereby putting himself in danger. In these uncertain times, the ladies cluster together at Christmas.

With the coming of spring, love blossoms in many hearts as Valentine cards arrive, but are they really tokens of love? And can the culprit be unaware of the catastrophe that could result from his pranks?


SAT 21:00 Gracie! (b00p1p41)
Singer and comedienne Gracie Fields from Rochdale was the nation's darling. Beginning on the cusp of World War II and at the phenomenal peak of her career, this heart-breaking love story tells of Gracie's relationship with Italian-born Hollywood director Monty Banks and its staggering repercussions.


SAT 22:20 Spiral (b00n8zty)
Series 2: Gangs of Paris

Episode 5

The mysterious north African, Samy, arrives from Special Branch to help with the investigation into the Larbi crime family. Aziz is still out of control and finally pushes one of his young gang members too far - the team are called to a street shooting and the perpetrator is a sinister teenager.


SAT 23:10 Spiral (b00ndzps)
Series 2: Gangs of Paris

Episode 6

Samy goes deep undercover with the Larbi gang. The police are closing in on Aziz, but as usual nothing is straightforward. Josephine Karlsson is up to her neck in the dealings of the Larbi gang. Clement plays a clever game behind the scenes.


SAT 00:05 The Great Contemporary Art Bubble Update (b00kmt51)
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 October 2009, Ben returns to find out what has been happening.

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.


SAT 01:05 Cranford (b008flrv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:05 Anna M (b00p1p32)
Atmospheric drama in which a young woman with psychiatric problems attempts suicide and then develops an unhealthy obsession with the doctor overseeing her physiotherapy.



SUNDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2009

SUN 19:00 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.'.


SUN 20:00 Cranford (b008h3r3)
Series 1

April 1843

Star-studded period drama. A maze of misunderstandings leads the ladies of Cranford astray as May Day fills hearts with hopes of love. Mrs Forrester and Miss Pole hatch a plan after the young doctor makes a puzzling purchase, whilst Miss Tompkinson's ambiguous conversation with him sets in motion a disastrous chain of events. Will the innocent doctor be able to survive the turmoil and secure the affections of the one he loves?


SUN 21:00 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00p50nr)
Imelda Staunton

Imelda Staunton began her stage career playing the likes of St Joan and Piaf in repertory theatre. More recently she has starred as Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, busy-body Miss Pole in Cranford, and the eponymous back street abortionist in Mike Leigh's Vera Drake.

She talks to Mark Lawson about her life and career, from her early ambitions to become an actress to her recent role on the West End stage in Entertaining Mr Sloane, as well as various experiences along the way: working on a Steven Seagal film; auditioning for Cats at Andrew Lloyd Webber's house and her Oscars experience when she was nominated for Best Actress for Vera Drake.


SUN 22:00 Princesses (b00p50nt)
Spanish-set drama telling the story of a friendship between prostitutes Caye and Zulema.


SUN 23:50 It's Only a Theory (b00p26x9)
Episode 8

Comedians Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter host a series in which qualified professionals and experts submit their theories about life, the universe and everything for examination by a panel of Hamilton, Hunter and a guest celebrity, who then make a final decision on whether the theory is worth keeping.

The guest is broadcaster Clare Balding and the experts are David Ryan and Marcus Chown.


SUN 00:20 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.


SUN 01:20 Cranford (b008h3r3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SUN 02:20 A History of Christianity (b00p270g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 03:20 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00p50nr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



MONDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2009

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00p510v)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Versailles Stories (b0074sh7)
Follow the Guide

Series exploring the history and modern evolution of one of France's great palaces through the stories of the people who work there today.

In peak season at Versailles 20,000 tourists can roll up at the gates in just one day. For confused visitors, the keys to unlocking the past are held by the fifty-strong team of palace guides, each primed with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the past glories of France. For many of the guides it's not so much a job as a way of life - a way of life that is now under threat.

This episode follows the dreams of would-be Versailles guide, Fabrice Callet, who has been passionate about French history since childhood. Becoming one of this elite band is a huge challenge at the best of times, involving three years of study and a tough national exam. Even if he succeeds, Fabrice will need to find his own way of infiltrating the close knit and not always welcoming world of the Versailles permanent team.

Fabrice's ambitions come at a time of great change for the historic chateau: although Versailles is one of the most popular tourist sites in Europe, competition for visitors is fierce, and new management is intent on modernising the palace and the way that tourists experience it. With the introduction of modern technology in the form of audio guides, the old guard's way of doing things, and indeed their jobs, hang in the balance. Would-be guide Fabrice Callet dreams of becoming one of this elite band.


MON 20:00 The Thirties in Colour (b00cwgxk)
End of an Era

Last in the four part series using rare, private and commercial colour film and photographs to give poignant and surprising insights into the 1930s.

It was Golden Age for international travel, a decade when advanced transport systems allowed people to journey all over the world. Travellers with the means recorded their experiences by using the new colour film technologies. Often unintentionally, their home movies captured defining moments at a time when the nations of Europe were about to be plunged into the disaster that was the Second World War.

The final episode features colour films shot by travelling film-makers in Europe, including footage shot on the streets of Berlin decked in red swastikas at the time of the Olympic Games, rare pictures of the Jewish quarter in Warsaw just weeks before the Nazi invasion and, in London, tourists wearing gas masks amid fears of imminent bombing raids by the German Luftwaffe.


MON 21:00 Margot (b00p510x)
Drama based on events in the life of ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn. At the beginning of the 1960s, Fonteyn faces retirement from her career as a prima ballerina and a crisis in her marriage to Panamanian 'politician' Tito de Arias. When the much younger Rudolf Nureyev arrives on the scene, he transforms Margot's professional and personal life in a partnership celebrated around the world. But when Tito is shot and paralysed, the dancer faces an agonising choice about her future.


MON 22:25 Marguerite and Armand (b00p510z)
Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev star in a television performance of Sir Frederick Ashton's ballet Marguerite and Armand, which was inspired by Dumas's tragic love story La Dame aux Camelias.

Designed by Sir Cecil Beaton, the ballet's music comes from Liszt's Piano Sonata in B minor. Marguerite and Armand is performed by the partnership for which it was created and is introduced by Dame Margot Fonteyn.


MON 23:00 Art of Spain (b008vsgz)
The Moorish South

Critic and art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon travels from southern to northern Spain to tell the story of some of Europe's most exciting and vital art. For 700 years, most of Spain was an Islamic state, and the south was its beating heart. Under the Moors, Spain became the most advanced, wealthy and populous country in Europe. Andrew travels to Cordoba, Seville and Granada, visiting beautiful Moorish palaces and mosques, telling the story of one of the most colourful and sophisticated cultures to ever appear in Europe.


MON 00:00 Art of Spain (b008x4bp)
The Dark Heart

Critic and art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon travels from southern to northern Spain to tell the story of some of Europe's most exciting and vital art. He journeys to the country’s scorched centre to explore Spanish art of the 16th and 17th centuries. From the mystical world of El Greco to the tender genius of Velazquez, this was a moment so extraordinary it became known as the Golden Age. But beneath the glittering surface was a dark and savage heart. Travelling from the architectural jewel of Toledo to majestic Madrid, Andrew Graham-Dixon traces the rise and fall of the Spanish Empire, the brutal conquest of the New World, and the religious madness of the Inquisition, to discover how a history so violent could produce some of the most beautiful art ever seen.


MON 01:00 Art of Spain (b008yw7p)
The Mystical North

Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals how northern Spain has produced some of the most dazzling and iconic art of the modern age. He shows how Spain's turbulent history has shaped its artists, from Francisco Goya and Pablo Picasso to Joan Miro and Salvador Dali. As well as the giants of painting, Graham-Dixon argues that Spanish architecture is the art form taking the nation forward into the new millennium.


MON 02:00 Margot (b00p510x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 03:30 The Thirties in Colour (b00cwgxk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



TUESDAY 01 DECEMBER 2009

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00p5wkz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Talking Landscapes (b0074m1n)
The Fens

Aubrey Manning sets out to uncover the history of Britain's ever-changing landscape. He investigates whether the Fens - flat, drained farmland - are a completely man-made landscape, and uncovers a 17th-century aristocratic plan gone horribly wrong. Plus, the secret of the Roman occupation - the Fens' hidden prehistoric hills.


TUE 20:00 Life (b00p4rl4)
Creatures of the Deep

Marine invertebrates are some of the most bizarre and beautiful animals on the planet, and thrive in the toughest parts of the oceans.

Divers swim into a shoal of predatory Humboldt squid as they emerge from the ocean depths to hunt in packs. When cuttlefish gather to mate, their bodies flash in stroboscopic colours. Time-lapse photography reveals thousands of starfish gathering under the Arctic ice to devour a seal carcass.

A giant octopus commits suicide for her young. A camera follows her into a cave which she walls up, then she protects her eggs until she starves.

The greatest living structures on earth, coral reefs, are created by tiny animals in some of the world's most inhospitable waters.


TUE 21:00 Storyville (b00p5wl1)
Simon Mann's African Coup: Black Beach

A failed coup attempt ... a British mercenary in a grim African prison ... a dictator accused by the West of torture ... and beneath it all, a spectacular underwater oil reserve that the world's major powers would love to get their hands on.

It may sound like the latest John LeCarre bestseller, but it's the real-life intrigue behind Simon Mann's African Coup, Storyville's penetrating look at mysterious goings on in Equatorial Guinea, a tiny West African nation newly rich from oil and infamous for corruption. Filmed over eighteen months, with access to key players, the film offers a unique look inside a country that rarely allows in the foreign press.

The story proper begins in 2004, when a group of mercenaries, headed by Mann, is arrested in Zimbabwe. Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, accuses them of plotting a bloody coup d'etat to steal his country and its oil. When Mann is sentenced to 34 years in Equatorial Guinea's feared Black Beach jail, he claims to be only a part of a Western plot to grab the country's vast oil resources. This fast-paced thriller of a film travels the globe to unravel that plot, from South Africa to Spain, from London to Washington - promising to reveal the truth of what happened in the most controversial coup attempt in recent history.

But as this all plays out, another actor has its eye on Obiang's oil: China. The Chinese government showers the country with largesse. A new capital city rises from the jungle. Accused by the US of corruption and horrifying human rights abuses, President Obiang welcomes China as his new best friend. Simon Mann's African Coup sheds light on the uncomfortable realities of oil politics in the 21st century.


TUE 22:00 We Need Answers (b00p5wl3)
Series 2

Women

Anarchic comedy game show in which celebrity guests answer questions set by the public.

Mark Watson hosts, Tim Key is in the questionmaster's chair and Alex Horne provides expert analysis from a booth. Two celebrities battle it out to be crowned the winner and avoid the shame of donning 'The Clogs of Defeat'.

The rules are simple - contestants must match their answer to the one given by a text answering service. Questions can range from 'How many gerbils would have to be stacked on top of each other to reach the moon?' to 'How heavy is the sky?' to 'Is gravy a condiment?'. Each show also features a cunning physical challenge which pits the contestants against each other.

Veteran broadcaster and host of Woman's Hour, Jenni Murray takes on former rugby league sensation Martin Offiah in a challenge which include a side-splitting shouting competition.


TUE 22:30 Ghosts in the Machine (b00nk9yw)
Documentary charting the history of the supernatural on British television, and how ghosts have been portrayed on the small screen. From Hamlet to Most Haunted, the apparitions have abandoned their traditional haunts of drama and comedy and crossed over into factual and reality TV.

Ghosts in the Machine celebrates classic ghost stories like The Stone Tape, and Whistle and I'll Come to You. It revisits controversial shows like Derren Brown's Seance and 1992's Ghostwatch, which convinced thousands of viewers that Michael Parkinson was possessed by a poltergeist.

The film examines the recent explosion of interest in the paranormal. How did ghosts get their own genre, and how did television become the medium of the medium?

Contributors include Derren Brown (Seance), Jane Asher (The Stone Tape), Kenneth Cope (Randall and Hopkirk Deceased), Yvette Fielding (Most Haunted), Mark Gatiss (Crooked House), Sarah Greene (Ghostwatch), Jonathan Miller (Whistle and I'll Come to You) and Bill Paterson (Sea of Souls).


TUE 23:30 Whistle and I'll Come to You (b0074qxg)
Michael Hordern stars in Jonathan Miller's chilling adaptation of MR James's ghost story of solitude and terror.


TUE 00:15 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.


TUE 01:15 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.


TUE 02:15 Storyville (b00p5wl1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 03:15 Ghosts in the Machine (b00nk9yw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]



WEDNESDAY 02 DECEMBER 2009

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00p5wps)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Versailles Stories (b0074sht)
Putting on a Show

Series exploring the history and modern evolution of one of France's great palaces through the stories of the people who work there today.

The spectacular height of the summer season at Versailles is the Fetes de Nuit, a six-night extravaganza of music and horsemanship rooted in a tradition going back to the time of Louis XIV. This programme goes behind the scenes as 70 performers and 100 horses prepare for the event

The event is the creative vision of Artistic Director Bartabas, the man described by many as 'half man, half horse'. For six weeks the young, mainly female, dressage riders de-camp from their permanent home in the chateau's historic stable block, where they are students at Versailles' exclusive riding academy, to temporary tented accommodation in the heart of the palace grounds. Here from dawn to dusk they are subject to Bartabas' sharp tongue as he drums home his exacting standards of horseman ship and artistry.

To stage the spectacular performance, and in another first for the centuries-old chateau, a ten and a half thousand-seat stadium is being built across Versailles' historic Neptune's Basin. It's a huge build and one that has to fit around rehearsals, and Bartabas' whim.


WED 20:00 Russia: A Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby (b00bfjd0)
Country Matters

Jonathan Dimbleby explores ten thousand miles of one of the world's most awe-inspiring countries.

If the action in today's Russia is in the cities, the eternal spirit of Russia is in the countryside. Jonathan finds himself at a reception for a Madonna concert, attended by anyone who's anyone in Moscow. But the next day he takes the train to a different world - the family estate of Leo Tolstoy, arguably the greatest of all Russian writers.

Further south he comes to the reality of farming in Russia today, where families struggle to survive after the ending of state subsidies. Voronezh is in the middle of Black Earth country, named after the rich soil that surrounds it. This part of Russia bore the brunt of Stalin's brutal project to bring all farms under state control. Millions died in the famine that followed, and in the purges he later inflicted on the survivors. In the woods nearby, Jonathan comes across a memorial to some of the victims.

Pyatigorsk is a spa town, and Jonathan decides to sample the warm sulphur springs. Just above are the great mountains of the Caucasus, the scene then and now of fierce fighting between Russian armies and the local tribesmen. Jonathan gets a chance to ride one of the famous Kabardin horses whose bloodline is prized by breeders all over the world.

Jonathan's route takes him past Beslan where 331 people died, over half of them children. He visits the ruins of School Number One, preserved as a memorial to them. Further on he comes across another side of the story, a Chechen village whose entire population was deported to Central Asia in 1944 on Stalin's orders.

Finally he reaches the Caspian Sea, under the huge walls of Derbent, an ancient city built by the Persians to defend themselves from the peoples of the north.


WED 21:00 The Man Behind the Masquerade (b00p5wpv)
In 1979, artist Kit Williams turned Britain into a giant treasure map, promising a golden hare, buried in the earth, to the first person who solved the riddle of his book Masquerade. The hysteria that followed the hunt drove Williams underground, where he has continued to create complex and beautiful art, which he refuses to publicly exhibit.

In his first interview in two decades, Kit lifts the lid on life before and after Masquerade. Did the hare deprive us of one of our most gifted painters?


WED 22:00 Flight of the Conchords (b0088ynb)
Series 1

Girlfriends

Comedy series about Kiwi folk musicians Bret and Jemaine as they to try to make it big New York. Bret gets a girlfriend but doesn't want things to go too fast, while Jemaine would be only too pleased if things would get a bit faster for him. Murray gets a CD deal for the guys that seems too good to be true. Features the songs Foux Da Fa Fa and A Kiss is Not a Contract.


WED 22:30 We Need Answers (b00p5wl3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]


WED 23:00 Wallander (b00mfbr4)
Series 1

The Container Lorry

The police launch a murder investigation after finding an abandoned lorry with a container full of dead refugees.

In Swedish with English subtitles.


WED 00:25 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00p50nr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


WED 01:25 We Need Answers (b00p5wl3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]


WED 01:55 The Man Behind the Masquerade (b00p5wpv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 02:55 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00p50nr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]



THURSDAY 03 DECEMBER 2009

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00p5wrh)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Return to Pembrokeshire Farm (b00ndvtg)
Episode 3

Griff Rhys Jones continues with phase two of the restoration of his farm in Pembrokeshire.

Restoration work on the miller's cottage moves to the inside of the building. Across the lane, building work at the mill has ground to a halt as the planning authorities investigate local objections to Griff's plans. Meanwhile, Griff makes plans for a music festival in Pembrokeshire.


THU 20:00 Nicholas Crane's Britannia: The Great Elizabethan Journey (b00h4cpk)
A Journey Through Ireland

In the last leg of his epic 5,000 mile journey across the pages of William Camden's 'lost' masterpiece Britannia, Nicholas traverses Ireland, the country that sent a shudder down the spines of Elizabethans. The Queen said that Ireland was full of 'ravening beasts'. It was impossible to govern, but could not be ignored because the Spanish might use it to launch an attack on Britain. Nicholas sets off to discover why the Emerald Isle terrified the Elizabethans and how Camden tried to tame it.


THU 21:00 A History of Christianity (b00p5wrk)
Protestantism - The Evangelical Explosion

Diarmaid MacCulloch traces the growth of an exuberant expression of faith that has spread across the globe - Evangelical Protestantism. Today, it is associated with conservative politics, but the whole story is distinctly more unexpected. It is easily forgotten that the evangelical explosion has been driven by a concern for social justice and the claim that one could stand in a direct emotional relationship with God. It allowed the Protestant faith to burst its boundaries from its homeland in Europe. In America, its preachers marketed Christianity with all the flair and swashbuckling enterprise of American commerce. In Africa, it converted much of the continent by adapting to local traditions, and now it is expanding into Asia. But is Korean Pentecostalism and its message of prosperity in the here and now an adaptation too far?


THU 22:00 Margot (b00p510x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


THU 23:25 The Thick of It (b00p5wrm)
Series 3

Episode 6

With the Prime Minister away at a summit in Spain, Malcolm Tucker is left at home to mind the shop. Just as Nicola Murray is about to launch her Fourth Sector Initiative to the media, the media decide that what they really want is someone to launch another leadership contest.

Does Nicola have what it takes and, if she does, can Malcolm take it away from her before she does any damage?


THU 23:55 The Armstrong and Miller Show (b00p27k7)
Series 2

Episode 6

Sketch show starring Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller features Flanders and Swann-alikes Brabbins and Fyffe, and a nightmarish experience for one man in a bank.


THU 00:25 A History of Christianity (b00p5wrk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


THU 01:25 Margot (b00p510x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


THU 02:55 A History of Christianity (b00p5wrk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


THU 03:55 Return to Pembrokeshire Farm (b00ndvtg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]



FRIDAY 04 DECEMBER 2009

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00p5wt5)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Transatlantic Sessions (b0080w4g)
Series 3

Episode 4

Folk musicians come together in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever'. Iris DeMent and Phil Cunningham are among the performers. There is also a piping duet from Scotland's Fred Morrison and Ireland's Michael McGoldrick with backing from Donal Lunny.


FRI 20:00 Romeo and Juliet (b00p5x3z)
Performed by the Royal Ballet, this celebrated filmed version of Prokofiev's ballet features choreography by Kenneth MacMillan, beautiful costumes and sets and outstanding performances by Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn as the star-crossed lovers.


FRI 22:00 Nureyev: From Russia with Love (b0080kjw)
Documentary telling the story of dancer Rudolf Nureyev's rise to fame in the years before he defected from communist Russia and began his long stage partnership with the British ballerina, Margot Fonteyn.

Through the vivid memories of those who knew him best, this psychological portrait tracks the origins of his rebellious character, his complex personal relationships and his artistic genius. It features previously unseen footage of his early triumphs in Leningrad, filmed by a German teenager with whom he fell in love, and who encouraged him to leave his homeland.


FRI 23:30 We Need Answers (b00p5wl3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]


FRI 00:00 Only Connect (b00m6n2p)
Series 2

Chessmen v Rugby Boys - 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 second semi-final, three quietly strategic chess players pit their wits against the brawn of the Rugby Boys. Who will win the battle, as they compete to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random? How does Carmilla link to Neo via Lord Voldemort and Sir Leigh Teabing?


FRI 00:30 The Night James Brown Saved Boston (b00kk5yl)
April 5th 1968, the morning after one of the most catastrophic moments in American history - the assassination of Martin Luther King. America's inner cities had begun to implode and in Boston there is a fragile peace.

The mayor of Boston is about to cancel a long-scheduled James Brown concert to avoid confrontation - a potentially incendiary move - but after warnings he has a change of heart and asks if there is 'something James Brown can do to help'.

This documentary tells the story of that amazing night and features rarely-seen footage of the Godfather of Soul's concert plus personal reminiscences from those in attendance.


FRI 01:45 BBC Four Sessions (b0074pvs)
James Brown

Series of concerts featuring musicians from around the world at LSO St Luke's in London's East End. The late James Brown, aka the Godfather of Soul, is joined by a 19-piece band including two drummers, three backing vocalists, two dancers in hot pants and a brass section.

He performs some of his most famous songs, including Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, It's a Man's Man's World, I Feel Good and Sex Machine.


FRI 02:45 Transatlantic Sessions (b0080w4g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 03:15 We Need Answers (b00p5wl3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]


FRI 03:45 Only Connect (b00m6n2p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 00:00 today]




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

A History of Christianity 19:00 SUN (b00p270g)

A History of Christianity 02:20 SUN (b00p270g)

A History of Christianity 21:00 THU (b00p5wrk)

A History of Christianity 00:25 THU (b00p5wrk)

A History of Christianity 02:55 THU (b00p5wrk)

Anna M 02:05 SAT (b00p1p32)

Art of Spain 23:00 MON (b008vsgz)

Art of Spain 00:00 MON (b008x4bp)

Art of Spain 01:00 MON (b008yw7p)

BBC Four Sessions 01:45 FRI (b0074pvs)

Balmoral 19:00 SAT (b00mqg2c)

Cranford 20:00 SAT (b008flrv)

Cranford 01:05 SAT (b008flrv)

Cranford 20:00 SUN (b008h3r3)

Cranford 01:20 SUN (b008h3r3)

Flight of the Conchords 22:00 WED (b0088ynb)

Ghosts in the Machine 22:30 TUE (b00nk9yw)

Ghosts in the Machine 03:15 TUE (b00nk9yw)

Gracie! 21:00 SAT (b00p1p41)

It's Only a Theory 23:50 SUN (b00p26x9)

Johnny Cash: The Story of Folsom Prison 00:20 SUN (b00p27kc)

Life 20:00 TUE (b00p4rl4)

Margot 21:00 MON (b00p510x)

Margot 02:00 MON (b00p510x)

Margot 22:00 THU (b00p510x)

Margot 01:25 THU (b00p510x)

Marguerite and Armand 22:25 MON (b00p510z)

Mark Lawson Talks To... 21:00 SUN (b00p50nr)

Mark Lawson Talks To... 03:20 SUN (b00p50nr)

Mark Lawson Talks To... 00:25 WED (b00p50nr)

Mark Lawson Talks To... 02:55 WED (b00p50nr)

Nicholas Crane's Britannia: The Great Elizabethan Journey 20:00 THU (b00h4cpk)

Nureyev: From Russia with Love 22:00 FRI (b0080kjw)

Only Connect 00:00 FRI (b00m6n2p)

Only Connect 03:45 FRI (b00m6n2p)

Princesses 22:00 SUN (b00p50nt)

Return to Pembrokeshire Farm 19:30 THU (b00ndvtg)

Return to Pembrokeshire Farm 03:55 THU (b00ndvtg)

Romeo and Juliet 20:00 FRI (b00p5x3z)

Russia: A Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby 20:00 WED (b00bfjd0)

Spiral 22:20 SAT (b00n8zty)

Spiral 23:10 SAT (b00ndzps)

Storyville 21:00 TUE (b00p5wl1)

Storyville 02:15 TUE (b00p5wl1)

Talking Landscapes 19:30 TUE (b0074m1n)

The Armstrong and Miller Show 23:55 THU (b00p27k7)

The Great Contemporary Art Bubble Update 00:05 SAT (b00kmt51)

The Johnny Cash TV Show 00:15 TUE (b00p27kf)

The Johnny Cash TV Show 01:15 TUE (b00bv3z3)

The Man Behind the Masquerade 21:00 WED (b00p5wpv)

The Man Behind the Masquerade 01:55 WED (b00p5wpv)

The Night James Brown Saved Boston 00:30 FRI (b00kk5yl)

The Thick of It 23:25 THU (b00p5wrm)

The Thirties in Colour 20:00 MON (b00cwgxk)

The Thirties in Colour 03:30 MON (b00cwgxk)

Transatlantic Sessions 19:30 FRI (b0080w4g)

Transatlantic Sessions 02:45 FRI (b0080w4g)

Versailles Stories 19:30 MON (b0074sh7)

Versailles Stories 19:30 WED (b0074sht)

Wallander 23:00 WED (b00mfbr4)

We Need Answers 22:00 TUE (b00p5wl3)

We Need Answers 22:30 WED (b00p5wl3)

We Need Answers 01:25 WED (b00p5wl3)

We Need Answers 23:30 FRI (b00p5wl3)

We Need Answers 03:15 FRI (b00p5wl3)

Whistle and I'll Come to You 23:30 TUE (b0074qxg)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b00p510v)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b00p5wkz)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b00p5wps)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b00p5wrh)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b00p5wt5)