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 05 JUNE 2010

SAT 19:00 Opera Italia (b00sm18t)
Viva Verdi

Three-part series tracing the history of Italian opera presented by Antonio Pappano, 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.

The second episode focuses on Verdi, whose operas are central to Pappano's conducting repertoire and the backbone of the international opera scene. It shows how Verdi's music was influenced by composers such as Bellini and particularly Donizetti, whose gothic masterpiece Lucia di Lammermoor is explored with the help of soprano Diana Damrau.

Pappano looks at six of Verdi's most famous works - Nabucco, Rigoletto, Don Carlo, Otello, Falstaff and La Traviata, the last of which Pappano rehearses and conducts at the Royal Opera House with the starry cast of Renee Fleming, Joseph Calleja and Thomas Hampson.

Pappano travels to Le Roncole in northern Italy where Verdi was born amidst a turbulent political environment, and politics became a major influence on Verdi's operas in later life. He conducts Va Pensiero from Nabucco at a vast open-air concert in Naples, a chorus which was to become a powerful symbol of political unity for the Italian people.


SAT 20:00 What Makes a Great Tenor? (b00sm1js)
The great tenor Rolando Villazon takes us inside the world of the sexiest and most risky of all operatic voices. It's a journey which includes some of the great names of the past, such as Caruso and Lanza, and some of the brightest stars performing today, like Domingo, Alagna and Florez. We hear how they tackle their most famous roles and what the risks and rewards are.


SAT 21:00 Wallander (b00spg6y)
Series 2

The Heritage

When the wealthy owner of a successful cider business is found brutally murdered, suspicions fall on his family and workers and family secrets are revealed. But just when Wallander thinks he has worked it out, more deaths occur and he is back to square one, with his officers struggling to stay focused.


SAT 22:30 Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley (b00c188n)
Satirical drama based on Margaret Thatcher's early years in politics. Young Margaret wants nothing more than to be an MP, but may be too much of a rebel for the Conservative Party of the 1950s. She did not have a 'good war', she is interested in politics and she thinks a woman's place can be in the House as well as the home.


SAT 23:55 The Making of the Iron Lady (b00c13bf)
Using unseen archive footage, new filming and interviews with those closest to the action, Michael Cockerell tells the inside story of the 20 years that took Margaret Thatcher from Commons new girl to her election in 1979 as the first ever female British prime minister.

While her decade inside Number 10 has been well covered, the story of how she rose to the top has remained untold, and the film shows how she fought the male chauvinism of Westminster, particularly in her own party.


SAT 00:55 Rick Stein's Taste of Italian Opera (b00sm1g0)
Chef Rick Stein takes a light-hearted look at the role that food played in the creation of Italian opera and shows how music and food are intrinsically linked in Italy. He draws parallels between cooking and composing, noting how both involve the skilful combination of ingredients and how they share the common purpose of bringing pleasure to many. Rick also explains why he thinks the music of Verdi, Rossini and Puccini are linked to the food of the regions where they lived and worked.


SAT 01:55 Opera Italia (b00sm18t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 02:55 What Makes a Great Tenor? (b00sm1js)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 06 JUNE 2010

SUN 19:00 Legends (b0074t3w)
Joan Sutherland - The Reluctant Prima Donna

Documentary about Dame Joan Sutherland, one of the greatest operatic performers of the late twentieth century, who died in October 2010. Shy and lacking in confidence, she had sung unnoticed at Covent Garden for seven years after arriving from Australia, but over the course of twelve months was transformed into La Stupenda.

With a focus on the two roles - Lucia di Lammamoor and Alcina - that launched her, the film features interviews with Dame Joan, Richard Bonynge, Franco Zeffirelli, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti.


SUN 20:00 Shanties and Sea Songs with Gareth Malone (b00s97c0)
The story of Britain's maritime past has a hidden history of shanties and sea songs, and choirmaster Gareth Malone has been travelling Britain's coast to explore this unique heritage. From dedicated traditionalists to groundbreaking recording artists, Gareth meets a variety of sea-singers from across the country.

His journey begins in Portsmouth where he meets a devoted shanty singer, before continuing on to Tyneside and the Yorkshire coast, where the Filey Fisherman's Choir, with an average age of 70, are determined to keep the tradition alive.

Gareth gets a fascinating insight into the songs of the Herring Girls when he visits Gardenstown in Scotland. In Whitby, he meets Kimber's Men, a local group who have dedicated themselves to writing and singing songs celebrating heroes of the sea, such as a rescue of 1881 when the sea was so rough the people of Whitby had to carry their 2-tonne lifeboat some six miles overland on a wooden trailer and in heavy snow to the bay where a ship had hit the rocks. Despite the exhaustion, they still managed to rescue the shipwrecked crew and passengers.

Gareth's journey ends in Port Isaac in Cornwall, where a group of local fishermen sing shanties and sea songs alongside their day job. Calling themselves the Fishermen's Friends, they have been so successful that they have landed a lucrative record deal.


SUN 21:00 Hammond Meets Moss (b00sfptv)
Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond and motor racing legend Sir Stirling Moss share the same life-altering experience - they had their lives changed forever by terrible car accidents.

The pair recovered quickly from their respective physical injuries, but the acquired brain injuries of those major impacts meant their minds took much longer to heal. Why should brain tissue take so much longer to repair itself than skin and bone, and what kind of trauma does the organ go through when trying to 'reboot' itself?

In an engaging and intimate conversation punctuated by some extraordinary medical insights and archive footage of both of their accidents, the two men exchange their experiences.


SUN 22:00 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?


SUN 23:00 Ford's Dagenham Dream (b00j0gnm)
Documentary which tells the story of a dream of happy families on wheels that the Ford Motor Company brought from Detroit to Dagenham, then sold to Britain.

From the 1950s onwards Ford revolutionised the cars we drove, producing dream cars for the average British family. In the 60s and 70s Ford sold dreams to boy racers too, but it came at a price. The mass production of motor cars required an army of assembly line workers who did jobs that were infamous for their soul-destroying monotony.

At its peak Dagenham was producing more than 3,000 cars every day and its most popular dream car, the Cortina, sold around five million in Britain alone. But the assembly line workers had a love-hate relationship with the cars they made and for some the dream became a nightmare.

Illustrated with powerful first person testimony and rare archive, this is the story of the rise and fall of Ford's Dagenham dream.


SUN 00:00 The Maharajas' Motor Car: The Story of Rolls-Royce in India (b00j4c2s)
Documentary telling the story of Rolls-Royce in India through the fortunes of India's princes.

Combining newly shot high-definition sequences, archive film and photographs, this film follows the princes from the zenith of British imperial power in the early 1900s through to their decline in the aftermath of independence in 1947.

Contributors include: HH Shriji Arvind Singh, the Maharana of Udaipur; Manvendra Barwani, Rana of Barwani; Pranlal Bhogilal, India's foremost Rolls-Royce collector, and Sharada Dwivedi, writer and cultural commentator.


SUN 01:00 Hammond Meets Moss (b00sfptv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


SUN 02:00 Legends (b0074t3w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 03:00 Shanties and Sea Songs with Gareth Malone (b00s97c0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SUN 04:00 Hammond Meets Moss (b00sfptv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



MONDAY 07 JUNE 2010

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00spgk6)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 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 20:00 Atom (b007vz5n)
The Illusion of Reality

The final part of Professor Jim Al-Khalili's documentary series about the basic building block of our universe, the atom.

Al-Khalili explores how studying the atom forced us to rethink the nature of reality itself, encountering ideas that seem like they are from science fiction but in fact are a central part of modern science. He discovers that there might be parallel universes in which different versions of us exist and finds out that empty space is not empty at all, but seething with activity.

The world we think we know - the solid, reassuring world of our senses - turns out to be a tiny sliver of an infinitely weirder and more wonderful universe than we had ever conceived in our wildest fantasies.


MON 21:00 Opera Italia (b00spgk8)
The Triumph of Puccini

Three-part series tracing the history of Italian opera presented by Antonio Pappano, 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.

The final episode is devoted to Puccini, the worthy successor to Verdi. Puccini's operas are cinematic in their scale with ravishing, passionate and clever music, as he took Italian opera into the 20th century.

Pappano looks at five of Puccini's most popular operas - La Boheme, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Gianni Schicchi and Turandot. He travels to Rome to meet stage director Franco Zeffirelli and talk about Puccini and Zeffirelli's famous production of Turandot.

Pappano also talks to one of the great Puccini interpreters, the soprano Renata Scotto, about the composer, Madame Butterfly and the role of Mimi in La Boheme. Also featured are soprano Angela Gheorghiu, tenors Jonas Kaufmann and Roberto Alagna and baritone Sir Thomas Allen.


MON 22:00 Storyville (b00spgkb)
Valentino - The Last Emperor

Film which travels inside the singular world of one of Italy's most famous fashion designers, Valentino Garavani, documenting the colourful and dramatic closing act of his celebrated career and capturing the end of an era in global fashion.

However, at the heart of the film is a love story - the unique relationship between Valentino and his business partner and companion of 50 years, Giancarlo Giammetti. Capturing intimate moments in the lives of two of Italy's richest and most famous men, the film lifts the curtain on the final act of a nearly 50-year reign at the top of the glamorous and fiercely competitive world of fashion.


MON 23:30 Ozwald Boateng: Why Style Matters (b00gmj5m)
For many, Savile Row menswear designer Ozwald Boateng embodies modern British style and in this documentary he unpicks and re-stitches his own relationship with style, looking to answer questions about what style is, where it comes from and why it is worth having.

Boateng pinpoints the places on his life-long journey through fashion where he added a new thought or influence to his look and reveals just how much being stylish has influenced his success. He talks about style with family, friends, colleagues and journalists and travels to Milan to meet one of his heroes, the master of modern menswear, Giorgio Armani.


MON 00:30 All the Young Dudes: Pop and Fashion (b00gq7dx)
Writer Paul Morley takes a journey back through time to revisit his own adventures and misadventures in fashion and meets the pop stars who he feels are responsible for the way he looks now.

Morley uses pop music as a kind of time machine and his encounters with pop stars in this documentary act as portals into other worlds where people wear bovver boots and braces or sparkly capes and flower shaped hats.

He seeks out the men who have influenced him and shaped fashion over the decades and finds a touch of himself in the glamour of Slade, the prog-rock playfulness of Jethro Tull, the androgyny of The Human League, the soberness and intellect of Joy Division, the darkness of Tricky and the geography teacher attire of Jarvis Cocker.


MON 01:30 Dolly Parton: Live from London (b00qmdzy)
Dolly Parton filmed in concert at the O2 in London in summer 2008, playing the hits and more, including Jolene, 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream and I Will Always Love You.


MON 02:40 Queens of Country (b007cbjb)
The story of six women with big hair and bigger voices who came out of the South and changed America and its music for good. The 60s and 70s were the golden age for this music from the battlefield of marriage - songs about the hurt and pride of raising a family, about standing by your man (or standing up to him), about going crazy with love.

The six are: Patsy Cline, whose weeping ballads made country music modern; Tammy Wynette, her life a chaos of divorce, violence and pills; Bobbie Gentry, who quit recording 35 years ago; Loretta Lynn, the coalminer's daughter who went on to rock with the White Stripes; Tanya Tucker, a teen queen who made country music sexy; and Dolly Parton, who made millions singing of the world she left behind.

Contributors include Billy Connolly, Jack White, LeAnn Rimes, Lauren Laverne, Crystal Gayle, George Jones and Elvis Costello. Featuring rare archive performances.


MON 03:40 Opera Italia (b00spgk8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 08 JUNE 2010

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00spgw0)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 The Sky at Night (b0790dsb)
Star Birth

The many star-forming areas of our galaxy are obscured by interstellar dust, but Herschel, a new space telescope, can see these areas in infrared light. Sir Patrick Moore is joined by Professor Derek Ward-Thompson and Dr Chris North to examine the latest stunning images from Herschel.

Pete Lawrence shows what is on offer in the June sky and Paul Abel searches for a comet - but will he find it?


TUE 20:00 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.


TUE 21:00 Nixon in the Den (b00spjnp)
Leading historian David Reynolds takes a fresh look at the controversial career and embattled presidency of Richard Nixon.

Reynolds argues that Nixon was genuinely successful as an international statesman, with his historic visits to communist China and the Soviet Union helping to thaw the Cold War. Yet behind the scenes, Nixon's diplomacy was a story of intrigue and rivalry. The methods that won him acclaim on the international stage also doomed his presidency in the infamous Watergate scandal.

An intimate psychological profile, the film reveals how Nixon was driven by a deep inferiority complex and ruthless ambition to escape a loveless, impoverished background. Nixon clawed his way to the most powerful job in the world yet could never shake off this past.

With the help of Nixon's scribbled memos, audio recordings and rarely seen home movie footage and photos, the film throws new light on Nixon's obsessive secrecy, relentless deception and paranoid mistrust of key aides, especially his foreign policy adviser Henry Kissinger.

Shy and tortured, Nixon ran his presidency largely from a hideaway office across the road from the White House. The film recreates this, his 'den', the place where Nixon dreamed of greatness but was haunted by his demons.


TUE 22:00 Flight of the Conchords (b00lgly0)
Series 2

New Zealand Town

The prime minister of New Zealand wants to create 'New Zealand Town' in the bit between Chinatown and Little Italy. The boys want to play at the grand opening but he wants someone more cool - so Murray gets hold of some hair gel.


TUE 22:25 Storyville (b007mwjw)
How Vietnam Was Lost

Based on David Maraniss's book They Marched into Sunlight, a documentary telling the story of two seemingly unconnected events in October 1967 that changed the course of the Vietnam War.

Whilst a US battalion unwittingly marched into a Viet Cong ambush which killed 61 young men, half a world away angry students at the University of Wisconsin were protesting the presence of Dow Chemical recruiters on campus.


TUE 23:45 Nixon in the Den (b00spjnp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 00:45 The Joy of Motoring (b00hq385)
Tristram Hunt shows how motoring has gone from allowing us to explore the beautiful English countryside to the present day of speed cameras, congestion charges and environmental issues. Along the way, he looks at different cars through the ages that define a decade and a generation.


TUE 01:45 Art of Spain (b008vsgz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 02:45 The Sky at Night (b0790dsb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 03:15 Nixon in the Den (b00spjnp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 09 JUNE 2010

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00spjdp)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Only Connect (b00f3n41)
Series 1

Episode 6

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.


WED 20:00 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.


WED 21:00 Pavarotti: A Life in Seven Arias (b008l391)
When Luciano Pavarotti died in 2007, the world lost one of its finest voices. The 'King of the High Cs' was sought after by all the major opera houses in his early career. International superstardom came with his Three Tenors and Pavarotti and Friends concerts, and his version of Nessun Dorma was used for the BBC's coverage of the 1990 FIFA World Cup. This portrait uses archive and the memories of his closest associates- including Jose Carreras, Dame Joan Sutherland and Juan Diego Florez.


WED 22:00 Flight of the Conchords (b00llfyc)
Series 2

Wingmen

Bret is in love with the girl from the pet store but is too shy to ask her out, so Jemaine and Dave lend a hand. Jemaine enlists their old friend John the mugger to make Bret look tough, with predictable results.


WED 22:30 Hammond Meets Moss (b00sfptv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


WED 23:30 Touring Britain (b00hw3yr)
The Victorian Way

Cultural historian David Heathcote uses his favourite old 1887 Baedeker Guide to explore modern-day Britain, discovering unexpected delights and hidden treasures which were popular with Victorian tourists but are rarely visited today.

Following in the footsteps of early American tourists who arrived off the boats in Liverpool, he takes the advice of the Guide and discovers 'the most fashionable of Welsh watering places'. The Guide then recommends a trip to the salt mines, popular with American visitors 100 years ago and, surprisingly, just as interesting today.

He then travels on to Manchester, recommended by Baedeker as a hotbed of music, politics and radical thinking and discovers that the spirit of what attracted the curious visitors 100 years ago lives on.

The journey ends in York where modern day tourists follow in the footsteps of their Victorian counterparts and enjoy the magnificent medieval city and cathedral.

As he travels, Heathcote explores the story behind the guide books that were so influential in creating the independent traveller as we know it today.


WED 00:30 Storyville (b00spgkb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]


WED 02:00 Art of Spain (b008x4bp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 03:00 Pavarotti: A Life in Seven Arias (b008l391)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 04:00 Flight of the Conchords (b00llfyc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]



THURSDAY 10 JUNE 2010

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00spjnm)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Only Connect (b00f7zsg)
Series 1

Episode 7

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.


THU 20:00 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.


THU 21:00 Hero: The Bobby Moore Story (b0074r86)
Moving and inspiring film telling the story of Bobby Moore, who has passed into football legend as the captain who in 1966 led England to its only World Cup victory.

Together with highlights from his playing career he is remembered by his family, friends and fellow footballers. The skills and determination of the East End boy who went on to lift the World Cup are recalled by a host of football greats including Pele, George Best, Jimmy Greaves, Denis Law, Bobby and Jack Charlton, Alan Ball, Geoff Hurst and David Beckham.


THU 22:30 Wallander (b00spg6y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


THU 00:00 Who Is Kurt Wallander? (b00fzbmt)
John Harvey presents a documentary about writer Henning Mankell, Sweden's most popular author internationally and the creator of the Kurt Wallander detective series.

By examining Mankell's anti-hero Wallander, it reveals the hidden angst affecting present-day Sweden, a country with an excellent welfare system yet one which has suffered two shocking recent political assassinations. The film tries to grasp what Mankell's characters say about Sweden and how his books inform the rest of the world about Scandinavia's largest country.


THU 01:00 Touring Britain (b00j0gss)
The Classic Motorist's Way

Cultural historian David Heathcote uses two of the earliest Shell Guides to explore modern-day Britain.

The Guides are works of art in their own right and embrace the best of modernism and a love of the wild and unexplored. They used cutting edge art and photography and beautiful poetry and prose to entice the townies out to explore Britain in their newly-acquired automobiles.

The 1930s Shell Guide to Dorset was compiled by Paul Nash, one of the leading contemporary surreal war artists, while the Guide to Cornwall was edited by the young, ambitious poet John Betjeman, who took on the job to pay for his wedding expenses.

Heathcote's journey takes him through Dorset, exploring the wild and the ancient sites in Cerne Abbas and Badbury Rings. He also visits the seaside town of Swanage, which Nash disliked because of its grotesque over-development.

In Cornwall, Betjeman recommends that visitors should go to Tintagel in bad weather when the car park is empty, advice which Heathcote follows with spectacular results. The Guide takes him to quiet corners of Cornwall, old fishing villages and breathtakingly beautiful landscapes.

As he travels, Heathcote explores the themes of development which the Guides raise. Betjeman declared that traffic had spoilt everything by the 1960s, but Heathcote discovers a different, more optimistic view of the changes in Cornwall and he is still able to delight in many of the treasures that the Shell Guides recommended.


THU 02:00 Art of Spain (b008yw7p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 03:00 Hero: The Bobby Moore Story (b0074r86)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 11 JUNE 2010

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00spk3p)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 La Boheme (b00pk6t1)
The opera world's dream team, soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Rolando Villazon, star in this feature film version of Giacomo Puccini's immortal opera. It is directed by Academy Award nominee Robert Dornhelm, and Bertrand de Billy conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Set in Paris in the 1830s, writer Rodolfo agrees to join his friends later for a drink to celebrate Christmas Eve but there is a knock at the door: their neighbour Mimi, whose candle has gone out, asks for fire and it is love at first sight. Their happiness is cut short as Mimi develops a fatal illness and leaves. It is only when she is dying that the lovers are briefly reunited.


FRI 21:15 The Britpop Story (b0074rl7)
In August 1995 Blur and Oasis were engaged in a head-to-head chart battle which divided music fans and led to a wider argument about British pop music.

John Harris, journalist and author of The Last Party - the definitive study of the entwinement of music and politics in the 1990s - presents a documentary charting the rise of Britpop, its brief romance with New Labour and the emergence of 'new lad' culture. Finally, as Britpop declines, he asks what legacy it has left.

Including contributions from Blur's Graham Coxon, Elastica's Justine Frischmann, Sleeper's Louise Wener, former New Labour insider Darren Kalynuk, and the founder of Creation records, Alan McGee.


FRI 21:45 Blur: No Distance Left to Run (b00rkm75)
This full-length feature documentary follows Blur on the reunion trail in the summer of 2009 after a ten-year hiatus as they rediscover their music and the friendships that originally inspired the band when they came together at the dawn of the 90s.

As the band progress through rehearsals to warm-up gigs to their headline slot at Glastonbury, their history is explored - how they met, how they became stars with Parklife and Britpop, and how the stand-off with Oasis helped them reinvent themselves.

This is the story of how the childhood friendship between Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon was the creative crucible of the band and how that relationship ground to a halt when the band became hugely popular, eventually bringing the band to its knees.

The film follows the healing of that creative friendship and their emotional triumph at Glastonbury in June 2009.


FRI 23:30 Glastonbury (b00rl1v0)
2009

Blur

Highlights of Blur's triumphant gig on the Pyramid Stage in June 2009 at Worthy Farm. Having only played a handful of small shows beforehand, their reunion on arguably the biggest musical stage in the world made for one of the most memorable finales in the history of the festival. It didn't disappoint, as a nervous but excitable band and a show full of crowd-pleasing hits made it a 'you had to be there' night.


FRI 00:30 Hero: The Bobby Moore Story (b0074r86)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Thursday]


FRI 02:00 Rick Stein's Taste of Italian Opera (b00sm1g0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 00:55 on Saturday]


FRI 03:00 La Boheme (b00pk6t1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]




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

All the Young Dudes: Pop and Fashion 00:30 MON (b00gq7dx)

Art of Spain 20:00 TUE (b008vsgz)

Art of Spain 01:45 TUE (b008vsgz)

Art of Spain 20:00 WED (b008x4bp)

Art of Spain 02:00 WED (b008x4bp)

Art of Spain 20:00 THU (b008yw7p)

Art of Spain 02:00 THU (b008yw7p)

Atom 20:00 MON (b007vz5n)

Blur: No Distance Left to Run 21:45 FRI (b00rkm75)

Dolly Parton: Live from London 01:30 MON (b00qmdzy)

Flight of the Conchords 22:00 TUE (b00lgly0)

Flight of the Conchords 22:00 WED (b00llfyc)

Flight of the Conchords 04:00 WED (b00llfyc)

Ford's Dagenham Dream 23:00 SUN (b00j0gnm)

Glastonbury 23:30 FRI (b00rl1v0)

Hammond Meets Moss 21:00 SUN (b00sfptv)

Hammond Meets Moss 01:00 SUN (b00sfptv)

Hammond Meets Moss 04:00 SUN (b00sfptv)

Hammond Meets Moss 22:30 WED (b00sfptv)

Hero: The Bobby Moore Story 21:00 THU (b0074r86)

Hero: The Bobby Moore Story 03:00 THU (b0074r86)

Hero: The Bobby Moore Story 00:30 FRI (b0074r86)

La Boheme 19:30 FRI (b00pk6t1)

La Boheme 03:00 FRI (b00pk6t1)

Legends 19:00 SUN (b0074t3w)

Legends 02:00 SUN (b0074t3w)

Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley 22:30 SAT (b00c188n)

Nixon in the Den 21:00 TUE (b00spjnp)

Nixon in the Den 23:45 TUE (b00spjnp)

Nixon in the Den 03:15 TUE (b00spjnp)

Only Connect 19:30 MON (b00dzy8z)

Only Connect 19:30 WED (b00f3n41)

Only Connect 19:30 THU (b00f7zsg)

Opera Italia 19:00 SAT (b00sm18t)

Opera Italia 01:55 SAT (b00sm18t)

Opera Italia 21:00 MON (b00spgk8)

Opera Italia 03:40 MON (b00spgk8)

Ozwald Boateng: Why Style Matters 23:30 MON (b00gmj5m)

Pavarotti: A Life in Seven Arias 21:00 WED (b008l391)

Pavarotti: A Life in Seven Arias 03:00 WED (b008l391)

Queens of Country 02:40 MON (b007cbjb)

Rick Stein's Taste of Italian Opera 00:55 SAT (b00sm1g0)

Rick Stein's Taste of Italian Opera 02:00 FRI (b00sm1g0)

Shanties and Sea Songs with Gareth Malone 20:00 SUN (b00s97c0)

Shanties and Sea Songs with Gareth Malone 03:00 SUN (b00s97c0)

Storyville 22:00 MON (b00spgkb)

Storyville 22:25 TUE (b007mwjw)

Storyville 00:30 WED (b00spgkb)

The Britpop Story 21:15 FRI (b0074rl7)

The Deadliest Crash: the Le Mans 1955 Disaster 22:00 SUN (b00sfptx)

The Joy of Motoring 00:45 TUE (b00hq385)

The Maharajas' Motor Car: The Story of Rolls-Royce in India 00:00 SUN (b00j4c2s)

The Making of the Iron Lady 23:55 SAT (b00c13bf)

The Sky at Night 19:30 TUE (b0790dsb)

The Sky at Night 02:45 TUE (b0790dsb)

Touring Britain 23:30 WED (b00hw3yr)

Touring Britain 01:00 THU (b00j0gss)

Wallander 21:00 SAT (b00spg6y)

Wallander 22:30 THU (b00spg6y)

What Makes a Great Tenor? 20:00 SAT (b00sm1js)

What Makes a Great Tenor? 02:55 SAT (b00sm1js)

Who Is Kurt Wallander? 00:00 THU (b00fzbmt)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b00spgk6)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b00spgw0)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b00spjdp)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b00spjnm)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b00spk3p)