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 22 MAY 2010

SAT 19:00 Francesco's Venice (b0078sx5)
Death

Final episode of a documentary series telling the story of Venice, presented by Francesco da Mosto.

Venice may be sinking, it may even be in peril, but da Mosto is in no mood to throw in the towel. The fate of Venice still hangs in the balance, and he puts at least some of the blame at the door of the British. From the moment that Byron put Venice on the tourist map, the city has been caught up in a trail of events that has made life harder and harder for the Venetians.

But this episode is also Francesco's personal story, and he has pledged his belief in the future of Venice by continuing to live and bring up his children there, even though his life has been affected by the dangers the city faces. In the great flood of 1966 that threatened to wash the city away, he was a terrified child of five who watched the waters invade his home and wondered if life could ever continue. Francesco's father, Count da Mosto, reminisces about the 1966 floods with chilling immediacy, and Francesco swims the Grand Canal.

It has not just been the tourists or the rising waters of the lagoon that have threatened the city. Outrageous ideas to bring the city into the modern age have included bridges linking the city with mainland Italy, flattening old churches and even converting the Grand Canal into an eight-lane motorway.


SAT 20:00 Vivaldi's Women (b0074sbz)
In the early 18th century, Antonio Vivaldi composed music for La Pieta in Venice, a home for children who were abandoned at birth. The institution had its own all-female orchestra and choir who provided entertainment in the church for visiting tourists. This film tells the story of that extraordinary partnership through the eyes of a modern group of female singers and musicians as they travel to Venice to recreate Vivaldi's music in the Pieta as it sounded 300 years ago.


SAT 21:00 Wallander (b00sjbw3)
Series 2

The Angel of Death

A choir of young women give an acclaimed guest performance in a country church outside Ystad. But when an 18-year-old member of the choir disappears, Wallander and the Ystad police are brought in to investigate. Initially it seems as if she left of her own free will, but soon traces are found that point in the opposite direction.


SAT 22:30 Micro Men (b00n5b92)
Affectionately comic drama about the British home computer boom of the early 1980s.

Legendary inventor Clive Sinclair battles it out with ex-employee Chris Curry, founder of Acorn Computers, for dominance in the fledgling market.

The rivalry comes to a head when the BBC announce their Computer Literacy Project, with the stated aim of putting a micro in every school in Britain. When Acorn wins the contract, Sinclair is furious, and determines to outsell the BBC Micro with his ZX Spectrum computer.

Home computing arrives in Britain in a big way, but is the country big enough for both men?


SAT 23:55 Synth Britannia (b00n93c4)
Documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage.

In the late 1970s, small pockets of electronic artists including The Human League, Daniel Miller and Cabaret Voltaire were inspired by Kraftwerk and JG Ballard, and they dreamt of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.

The crossover moment came in 1979 when Gary Numan's appearance on Top of the Pops with Tubeway Army's Are 'Friends' Electric? heralded the arrival of synthpop. Four lads from Basildon known as Depeche Mode would come to own the new sound, whilst post-punk bands like Ultravox, Soft Cell, OMD and Yazoo took the synth out of the pages of NME and onto the front page of Smash Hits.

By 1983, acts like Pet Shop Boys and New Order were showing that the future of electronic music would lie in dance music.

Contributors include Philip Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant.


SAT 01:25 Synth Britannia at the BBC (b00n93c6)
A journey through the BBC's synthpop archives from Roxy Music and Tubeway Army to New Order and Sparks. Turn your Moogs up to 11 as we take a trip back into the 70s and 80s!


SAT 02:25 Eurovision Young Musicians (b00sftvt)
2010

Peter Moore, the 14-year-old trombonist who famously became the youngest ever winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2008, is the UK's representative in the Eurovision Young Musician 2010 Competition.

This biennial competition was launched in 1982 and this year the final takes place in Vienna's spectacular Town Hall square in front of an audience of approximately 45,000 people. Peter's progress through the competition in Austria is followed and there's a catch-up on what has happened to him since winning the BBC Young Musician competition.

Peter carries the hopes of the nation as he aims to be one of seven finalists looking to win the prestigious title. If he makes it through to the final, he will perform with Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Cornelius Meister.


SAT 03:25 Vivaldi's Women (b0074sbz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 23 MAY 2010

SUN 19:00 Coast (b00mfhn6)
Shorts

Slapton Sands

Dick Strawbridge visits a resident of Slapton Sands who recalls his experience of the evacuation announcement by the Army in November 1943. Three thousand homes were requisitioned for military purposes in Slapton Sands during the war and residents had to leave their homes, not knowing when they would return. Dick also joins an American serviceman on an emotional journey, as he returns to the beach where he was given up for dead during World War II's secret, and disastrous, 'Operation Tiger'.


SUN 19:10 In Which We Serve (b0074sgt)
This is the story of a ship - the HMS Torrin - from its construction to its participation at Dunkirk and its final sinking in the Battle of Crete. As the ship goes down, the crew remember their homes and loved ones.

Based on true events as recounted to Noel Coward by Lord Mountbatten.


SUN 21:00 Sea Fever (b00sfshy)
Gone Fishing

Series which focuses on Britain's maritime history, culture, economics and science concludes with the remarkable story of Britain's fishermen, using home movie archive.

At the beginning of the 20th century thousands made a good living working in conditions of unimaginable danger. But technology and avarice in some areas created problems of over-fishing and the century ended with the port of Hull laid to waste. Hull skipper Ken Knox and filmmaker/engineer Alan Hopper watch Alan's astonishing films and tell how the sophisticated technologies companies used to send crews to distant Atlantic waters in the 50s and 60s in the hunt for white fish. Hull's men had already fished out local waters using a technique called box fleet fishing, a dangerous method remembered by one who did it in the 1930s, Robert Rowntree.

Smaller ports survived and small scale family fishing was part of the secret of their success. In Peterhead, Donald Anderson filmed the exploits of his crew, including his young son, as the fleets hunted herring shoals.

In St Ives, the Stevens fishing family were filmed by a local film-maker on their boat the Sweet Promise back in the 1950s. Watching this film today is David Stevens, the son of the skipper and 15 at the time, and crew member Donald Perkin, the last of six brothers who worked as fishermen in St Ives from the 30s to the 80s.

Historian from the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, Tony Pawlyn, helps explain how these men fished and why they survived while the Hull men went under. These men are our last link with a tradition of hunter-gathering.

The programme goes to Skye in Scotland and asks if the new way of fishing - farming - is the ultimate threat to livelihoods of these hunter-gatherer fishermen.


SUN 22:00 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00sjccw)
Martin Amis

Mark Lawson talks to notorious literary bad boy Martin Amis ahead of the BBC dramatisation of his book Money. In this revealing interview Amis speaks candidly about his relationship with his father Kingsley Amis, which survived the breakup of his parents' marriage and his father's disinterest in reading Martin's books. Amis also reveals how his sister Sally was a 'victim of the sexual revolution' whose consequent struggles in life influenced his latest book The Pregnant Widow.


SUN 23:00 Carole King and James Taylor: Live at the Troubadour (b00sftvw)
Carole King and James Taylor reunited at the intimate Hollywood venue in concert in 2007 to play their era-defining hits, nearly four decades after they first performed at the Troubadour in November 1970, a year before their Tapestry and Sweet Baby James' albums stormed the American charts. King and Taylor are backed by the Section, the same band that propelled those albums into homes around the world.

James Taylor had released his first album on the Beatles' Apple label, Carole King was struggling to forge a new solo career after being one half of Goffin-King, one of the great Brill Building songwriting partnerships of the early 60s. Their musical friendship blossomed with Taylor's support for King and his cover of her song You've Got a Friend. The Troubadour became the centre of a new singer-songwriter culture that also featured the likes of Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and many more.


SUN 00:00 In Concert (b0074sq9)
Carole King

Vintage footage of the singer/songwriter performing her songs I Feel the Earth Move, (You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman, So Far Away, It's Too Late, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow and Up on the Roof for a BBC live studio performance in 1971. James Taylor guests on guitar.


SUN 00:30 Neil Young: Don't Be Denied (b00f815m)
Neil Young grants rare and unprecedented access to the BBC for a documentary in which he traces his musical journey in his own words.

The film was made from three hours of interview shot in New York and California, and uses previously unseen performance footage from the star's own extensive archives. It also features cohorts Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Nils Lofgren and James Taylor.

From his early transcontinental American quest for recognition, through the first flush of success with Buffalo Springfield, to the bi-polar opposites of mega-stardom with Crosby, Stills and Nash and the soulful rock of Crazy Horse, Young's career has enjoyed many guises.

Perhaps his most famous period was as a 1970s solo artist making albums that became benchmarks. After The Goldrush, recorded in his Topanga Canyon home, and Harvest, part-recorded on his northern Californian ranch, saw Young explore the confessional side of song-writing. But never one to rest on his laurels, he would continually change direction.

In the mid-seventies, two of Young's closest friends died as a result of heroin abuse. What followed was music's answer to cinema verite, with Tonight's The Night a spine-chilling wake for his dead friends.

As New Wave arrived, Young was keen to explore new ideas. A collaboration with Devo on what became his art-house epic, Human Highway, saw the genesis of Rust Never Sleeps, a requiem for the seventies.

In the eighties, Young explored different genres, from electronica to country, and in recent times he has returned to Crazy Horse and Crosby, Stills and Nash, but only when it has suited him.

The film ends with Young still refusing to be denied, on tour in the USA with CSNY, playing anti-Bush songs to a Republican audience in the South.


SUN 01:30 In Concert (b007rm8l)
James Taylor

A classic concert from 1971 by American singer-songwriter James Taylor.


SUN 02:10 Sea Fever (b00sfshy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


SUN 03:10 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00sjccw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]



MONDAY 24 MAY 2010

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00sjdmk)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Atom (b007tr91)
The Clash of the Titans

The first of three programmes in which nuclear physicist Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the story of the greatest scientific discovery ever - that everything is made of atoms.

As scientists delved deep into the atom, into the very heart of matter, they unravelled nature's most shocking secrets. They had to abandon everything they believed in and create a whole new science, which today underpins the whole of physics, chemistry, biology and maybe even life itself.

The series tells a story of geniuses like Albert Einstein and Werner Heisenberg who were driven by their thirst for knowledge and glory. It is a story of false starts and conflicts, ambition and revelation, a story which leads us through some of the most exciting and exhilarating ideas ever conceived by the human race.


MON 20:30 Timothy Spall: Somewhere at Sea (b00sfsqy)
Race Against the Tide

Three-part documentary series featuring one of Britain's best loved actors, Timothy Spall, as he and his wife sail from to Cornwall to south Wales in a Dutch barge.

In the concluding leg, having navigated the Princess Matilda around the dangerous waters of Land's End and into the relative calm of the port of St Ives, Tim is still troubled. He now has to negotiate some of the most extreme tides in Britain as he plans his route through the Bristol Channel. Not only that, but it occurs to him that his anchor is faulty as he and Shane discover the delights of nearby Padstow, which attracts a million visitors a year for its seafood and other local attractions.

From Padstow, Timothy and Shane moor overnight at Watchet in Somerset, but first have to navigate its notoriously difficult approach, and as they are behind schedule they have to cope with this in the dark. They eventually complete this task with only a few bumps and bruises and then make it over to the Cardiff Barrage and nearby Penarth Marina for the winter.


MON 21:00 Opera Italia (b00sjdmp)
Beginnings

Three-part series tracing the history of Italian opera presented by Antonio Pappano, world-renowned conductor and music director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The series features sumptuous music, stunning Italian locations and some of the biggest names in opera as contributors.

In the first programme, Pappano takes a whistle-stop tour of the beginnings of opera, from Monteverdi to Rossini. He also looks at the works of two non-Italian composers, Handel and Mozart, both of whom were pivotal in the development of the art form. Along the way he enlists the help of some of the world's greatest singers - Juan Diego Florez, Joyce DiDonato, Danielle de Niese, Sarah Connolly and Pietro Spagnoli.


MON 22:00 Storyville (b00sjdmt)
Killer Image - Shooting Robert King

What makes an inexperienced photographer decide he wants to cover wars in the most dangerous parts of the planet?

In this documentary, filmmaker Richard Parry follows photo-journalist Robert King from his first brush with war in the Balkans in his early twenties to his Time magazine shoots in Chechnya. King seems like a danger addict and yet craves peace. His early naivity transforms itself to deep cynicism. He seems traumatised, yet continues to work.

This compelling portrait asks two powerful questions about war journalists: why do they do it and how do they survive it?


MON 23:20 How to Be an Ex-Prime Minister (b007r80c)
Michael Cockerell tells the story of how prime ministers have coped with life after Number Ten, after Tony Blair became the youngest member of the ex-PMs' club for a hundred years.

The film reveals who left office bankrupt, who did TV commercials for Cheshire cheese, who had his own chat show and who has never had a single happy day since leaving Number Ten.

Cockerell, who met the eight PMs prior to Blair, looks at what Tony planned do next and just how many millions he could make from being an ex-PM.


MON 00:20 Opera Italia (b00sjdmp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 01:20 Atom (b007tr91)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:20 Timothy Spall: Somewhere at Sea (b00sfsqy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 02:50 Opera Italia (b00sjdmp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 03:50 How to Be an Ex-Prime Minister (b007tgf2)
Michael Cockerell tells the story of how prime ministers have coped with life after Number Ten, after Tony Blair became the youngest member of the ex-PMs' club for a hundred years.

The film reveals who left office bankrupt, who did TV commercials for Cheshire cheese, who had his own chat show and who has never had a single happy day since leaving Number Ten.

Cockerell, who met the eight PMs prior to Blair, looks at what Tony planned do next and just how many millions he could make from being an ex-PM.



TUESDAY 25 MAY 2010

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00sjllt)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Behind the Scenes at the Museum (b00sftd3)
Freud Museum

The Freud Museum in Hampstead, London is where the father of psychoanalysis lived his final year after escaping the Nazis in Austria. Sigmund Freud managed to smuggle out all his possessions, including the famous couch where his patients lay. This iconic piece of furniture is now a shrine to therapists and Freud fans from all over the world.

But despite its gravitas this small museum is struggling to stay relevant. In recent years Freud's thinking has fallen out of fashion and theories like Penis Envy and the Oedipus Complex have been discredited by many in the psychology world. Now the museum is appointing a new director with the mission to make Freud less elitist and more appealing to ordinary people.

One of the first things the museum does is to hold a dating evening. A number of games are created for the night, based on Freud's obsession with human sexuality. Another activity seizes on Freud's groundbreaking theory of dream interpretation, with scholar Ivan Ward getting partygoers together to discuss their dreams with one another.

But the process of making change is slow because no one can agree. Everyone has an opinion on how best to serve Freud, including the caretaker Alex who has lived at the museum since its beginning.


TUE 20:30 Masterpieces of the British Museum (b0074sm2)
The Sutton Hoo Helmet

The story of the discovery in East Anglia and restoration of the most iconic piece of the Sutton Hoo treasure, Britain's richest ever archaeological find.


TUE 21:00 Stephen Fry on Wagner (b00sjllw)
Stephen Fry explores his passion for controversial composer Richard Wagner. Can he salvage the music he loves from its dark association with Hitler's Nazi regime? His journey takes him to Germany, Switzerland and Russia as he pieces together the story of the composer's turbulent career.

Along the way he plays Wagner's piano, meets the composer's descendants and eavesdrops on rehearsals for the legendary Bayreuth Festival, the annual extravaganza of Wagner's music held in a theatre designed by the composer himself.


TUE 22:00 Flight of the Conchords (b00l7qq0)
Series 2

Love is a Weapon of Choice

The boys both fall in love with a girl they meet while out jogging, and so begins a competition between them for her attention, culminating in a benefit gig for the victims of canine epilepsy.


TUE 22:30 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00sjccw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]


TUE 23:30 Mental: A History of the Madhouse (b00sfpvf)
Documentary which tells the fascinating and poignant story of the closure of Britain's mental asylums. In the post-war period, 150,000 people were hidden away in 120 of these vast Victorian institutions all across the country. Today, most mental patients, or service users as they are now called, live out in the community and the asylums have all but disappeared. Through powerful testimonies from patients, nurses and doctors, the film explores this seismic revolution and what it tells us about society's changing attitudes to mental illness over the last sixty years.


TUE 00:30 Stephen Fry on Wagner (b00sjllw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 01:30 Behind the Scenes at the Museum (b00sftd3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 02:30 Opera Italia (b00sjdmp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


TUE 03:30 Stephen Fry on Wagner (b00sjllw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 26 MAY 2010

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00sjlxw)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Legends (b0074rx6)
Mario Lanza: Singing to the Gods

A celebration of Mario Lanza's incomparable talents, and the tragic story of his brief life. With clips from his classic MGM and Warners movies, including The Great Caruso, Serenade and For the First Time.


WED 20:30 Masterpieces of the British Museum (b0074snm)
The Lewis Chessmen

Amongst the most appealing objects in the British Museum is a chess set, perhaps made by 12th century Norwegian craftsmen and discovered on a remote beach on the Isle of Lewis in 1831. Each piece is amazingly carved out of whale teeth - some are comic, some pensive and some grand.


WED 21:00 Diva Diaries (b00sjlxy)
Documentary which follows one of today's hottest young sopranos, Danielle de Niese, as she makes her sensational debut as Susanna in Mozart's the Marriage of Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

Danielle shot to fame in Britain with her all-singing, all-dancing Cleopatra in Handel's Giulio Cesare at Glyndebourne in 2005. Her stunning voice, exotic beauty and electric stage presence make her sought after by major opera houses throughout the world.

The film gives a unique insight into the life and art of an international opera singer, from vocal preparation to the physical and mental strain of a jet-setting lifestyle. For three months Danielle allowed cameras intimate access to her busy life, as well as charting the highs and lows of the Marriage of Figaro rehearsal and performance process with her own 'diva-diary' camera.


WED 22:00 Outnumbered (b00sbjz8)
Series 3

Episode 6

Mum and Dad struggle to put things right between them, but Karen is unimpressed by their behaviour. She is worried by her vital role in the school concert, while Ben is busy recreating the assault on Everest on the stairs. But then there is a major panic about one of the children.


WED 22:30 Flight of the Conchords (b00lc6xd)
Series 2

Prime Minister

The Prime Minister of New Zealand is in town and Murray has to arrange a meeting with the President. He also gets the boys a gig as a Simon and Garfunkel tribute act, and one fan is particularly impressed by Jemaine's Garfunkeling.


WED 23:00 The Deadliest Crash: the Le Mans 1955 Disaster (b00sfptx)
At 6.26 pm, June 11th 1955, the world of playboy racers and their exotic cars exploded in a devastating fireball. On the home straight early in the Le Mans 24-Hour race, future British world champion Mike Hawthorn made a rash mistake. Pierre Levegh's Mercedes 300 SLR smashed into the crowd, killing 83 people and injuring 120 more. It remains the worst disaster in motor racing history.

The story was quickly engulfed by conspiracy theory, blame and scandal. Was the mysterious explosion caused by Mercedes gambling all on untried technologies? Did they compound it by using a lethal fuel additive? Have the French authorities been covering up the truth ever since? Or was the winner, the doomed British star Mike Hawthorn, guilty of reckless driving and did his desire to win at all costs start the terrible chain of events?


WED 00:00 Storyville (b00sjdmt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]


WED 01:20 Diva Diaries (b00sjlxy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 02:20 Stephen Fry on Wagner (b00sjllw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 03:20 The Deadliest Crash: the Le Mans 1955 Disaster (b00sfptx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]


WED 04:20 Flight of the Conchords (b00lc6xd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]



THURSDAY 27 MAY 2010

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00sjm1t)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 South Africa Walks (b00s8g03)
The Green Kalahari

Having tackled treks across the UK, Julia Bradbury embarks on a grand adventure in South Africa, setting out on four very different walks that explore its claim to be 'a world-in-one country'.

Julia is a regular visitor to the Rainbow Nation, but this is her chance to go beyond the normal tourist destinations to a series of increasingly remote locations. However, these are all walks that any reasonably adventurous walker could embark on, offering a fresh and personal perspective on a friendly and fascinating country that is so often misunderstood.

Julia's final walk takes her to the remote north-west corner of South Africa. This is the edge of the Kalahari Desert and the setting for Julia's most adventurous undertaking yet. Far away from the major tourist draws of the country, it is an insight into a true African world. Set against the stunning red geology of Augrabies Falls National Park, it's a stark but beautiful walk, encountering simple rural lives and remarkable agriculture, utterly reliant on the broad waters of the Orange River.


THU 20:00 Sacred Music (b00rs3w2)
Series 2

Searching Out the Sacred

Simon Russell Beale returns to the UK to explore how three very different musical approaches to Christian music have captured the spiritual imagination of the nation. The composers James MacMillan, Sir John Tavener and John Rutter give a special insight into the challenges and rewards of writing sacred music for the 21st century. Music is performed by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen.


THU 21:00 Behind the Scenes at the Museum (b00sjm1w)
National Waterways Museum

Series in which acclaimed filmmaker Richard Macer visits three different museums struggling to connect with a modern audience.

The National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port marks the birthplace of the industrial revolution when canals were built to transport goods to emerging cities like Liverpool and Manchester. A financial crisis has left the museum with a reputation for sunken boats, and unless the situation improves dramatically some of the country's oldest barges and narrowboats might have to be sold off or even destroyed.

The museum's many volunteers are angry and believe its dire predicament is the result of mismanagement, so a new director is being brought on board with the task of saving it. In just a short while Stuart Gillis makes a big impression and the staff and volunteers begin to see him as a saviour. But will Stuart be able to live up to such high expectations?


THU 22:00 Wallander (b00sjbw3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


THU 23:30 Stephen Fry on Wagner (b00sjllw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 00:30 Behind the Scenes at the Museum (b00sjm1w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


THU 01:30 Legends (b0074rx6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 on Wednesday]


THU 02:30 Sacred Music (b00rs3w2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 03:30 Behind the Scenes at the Museum (b00sjm1w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 28 MAY 2010

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00sjm40)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 The Marriage of Figaro (b00790z0)
A richly-detailed staging of Mozart's comic masterpiece from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Antonio Pappano conducts David McVicar's highly-acclaimed production with a superb cast including Gerald Finley as the Count, Dorothea Roschmann as the Countess, Erwin Schrott as Figaro and Miah Persson as Susanna. Presented by Charles Hazlewood.


FRI 22:45 Elvis in Las Vegas (b00pqcg1)
The untold story of how Elvis Presley transformed Las Vegas, but how the same city helped to destroy him.

In 1969, Elvis was at the peak of his powers with a stage show at the Hilton and recordings that crowned him the most famous entertainer in the world. However, beneath the surface his own demons - and the schemes of his celebrity manager, Colonel Tom Parker - were taking their toll.

Based in 1970s Vegas and featuring some of Elvis's finest performances, home movies and rare archive footage, the documentary reveals a bizarre tale of intrigue and excess, recounted by those closest to him. It shows how the Vegas experience impacted on Elvis's spectacular shows, his chart-topping recordings, his volatile relationship with Parker and his unusual private life - all set against the glamorous backdrop of a 'Sin City' that would never be the same again.

Featuring interviews with Priscilla Presley, Colonel Parker's wife Loanne, the Memphis Mafia, Tom Jones, Nancy Sinatra, songwriters Leiber and Stoller and many more.


FRI 23:45 Elvis by the Presleys Uncut (b00psnt8)
The story of Elvis's life and career told by those who knew him best, his family - an intimate portrayal of his private life with performance footage, home movies and personal photographs. Featuring revealing interviews with his former wife Priscilla, their daughter Lisa Marie and other members of Elvis's close circle of family and friends, it charts the singer's life and key relationships from 1959 to his death in 1977.

Insights from the family and rare archive materials vividly illuminate his life after the army, early years at Graceland with Priscilla, his interests, holidays and life on tour with the 'Memphis Mafia'. Elvis's career ups and downs, the breakdown of his marriage, his personal qualities and frailties are all brought to light as the Presleys reflect with candour on his life and enduring legacy.


FRI 01:15 Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii (b00pqdr1)
Colourful concert performance by 'the King' including hits such as Burning Love, I Can't Stop Loving You, Suspicious Minds and Can't Help Falling In Love.


FRI 02:20 Elvis: Black Leather - The '68 Comeback Special (b00pqb9s)
Highlights of Elvis's 1968 TV special, featuring renditions of old favourites, performed almost 'unplugged'-style with a group of musicians, together with bigger production numbers.


FRI 03:05 Elvis in Las Vegas (b00pqcg1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:45 today]




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

Atom 19:30 MON (b007tr91)

Atom 01:20 MON (b007tr91)

Behind the Scenes at the Museum 19:30 TUE (b00sftd3)

Behind the Scenes at the Museum 01:30 TUE (b00sftd3)

Behind the Scenes at the Museum 21:00 THU (b00sjm1w)

Behind the Scenes at the Museum 00:30 THU (b00sjm1w)

Behind the Scenes at the Museum 03:30 THU (b00sjm1w)

Carole King and James Taylor: Live at the Troubadour 23:00 SUN (b00sftvw)

Coast 19:00 SUN (b00mfhn6)

Diva Diaries 21:00 WED (b00sjlxy)

Diva Diaries 01:20 WED (b00sjlxy)

Elvis by the Presleys Uncut 23:45 FRI (b00psnt8)

Elvis in Las Vegas 22:45 FRI (b00pqcg1)

Elvis in Las Vegas 03:05 FRI (b00pqcg1)

Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii 01:15 FRI (b00pqdr1)

Elvis: Black Leather - The '68 Comeback Special 02:20 FRI (b00pqb9s)

Eurovision Young Musicians 02:25 SAT (b00sftvt)

Flight of the Conchords 22:00 TUE (b00l7qq0)

Flight of the Conchords 22:30 WED (b00lc6xd)

Flight of the Conchords 04:20 WED (b00lc6xd)

Francesco's Venice 19:00 SAT (b0078sx5)

How to Be an Ex-Prime Minister 23:20 MON (b007r80c)

How to Be an Ex-Prime Minister 03:50 MON (b007tgf2)

In Concert 00:00 SUN (b0074sq9)

In Concert 01:30 SUN (b007rm8l)

In Which We Serve 19:10 SUN (b0074sgt)

Legends 19:30 WED (b0074rx6)

Legends 01:30 THU (b0074rx6)

Mark Lawson Talks To... 22:00 SUN (b00sjccw)

Mark Lawson Talks To... 03:10 SUN (b00sjccw)

Mark Lawson Talks To... 22:30 TUE (b00sjccw)

Masterpieces of the British Museum 20:30 TUE (b0074sm2)

Masterpieces of the British Museum 20:30 WED (b0074snm)

Mental: A History of the Madhouse 23:30 TUE (b00sfpvf)

Micro Men 22:30 SAT (b00n5b92)

Neil Young: Don't Be Denied 00:30 SUN (b00f815m)

Opera Italia 21:00 MON (b00sjdmp)

Opera Italia 00:20 MON (b00sjdmp)

Opera Italia 02:50 MON (b00sjdmp)

Opera Italia 02:30 TUE (b00sjdmp)

Outnumbered 22:00 WED (b00sbjz8)

Sacred Music 20:00 THU (b00rs3w2)

Sacred Music 02:30 THU (b00rs3w2)

Sea Fever 21:00 SUN (b00sfshy)

Sea Fever 02:10 SUN (b00sfshy)

South Africa Walks 19:30 THU (b00s8g03)

Stephen Fry on Wagner 21:00 TUE (b00sjllw)

Stephen Fry on Wagner 00:30 TUE (b00sjllw)

Stephen Fry on Wagner 03:30 TUE (b00sjllw)

Stephen Fry on Wagner 02:20 WED (b00sjllw)

Stephen Fry on Wagner 23:30 THU (b00sjllw)

Storyville 22:00 MON (b00sjdmt)

Storyville 00:00 WED (b00sjdmt)

Synth Britannia at the BBC 01:25 SAT (b00n93c6)

Synth Britannia 23:55 SAT (b00n93c4)

The Deadliest Crash: the Le Mans 1955 Disaster 23:00 WED (b00sfptx)

The Deadliest Crash: the Le Mans 1955 Disaster 03:20 WED (b00sfptx)

The Marriage of Figaro 19:30 FRI (b00790z0)

Timothy Spall: Somewhere at Sea 20:30 MON (b00sfsqy)

Timothy Spall: Somewhere at Sea 02:20 MON (b00sfsqy)

Vivaldi's Women 20:00 SAT (b0074sbz)

Vivaldi's Women 03:25 SAT (b0074sbz)

Wallander 21:00 SAT (b00sjbw3)

Wallander 22:00 THU (b00sjbw3)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b00sjdmk)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b00sjllt)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b00sjlxw)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b00sjm1t)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b00sjm40)