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 12 JUNE 2010

SAT 19:00 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.


SAT 20:00 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.


SAT 21:00 Wallander (b00srcxs)
Series 2

The Collector

Wallander and the Ystad police investigate the death of a woman during a house robbery. When Isabelle discovers she was an instructor at her gym, her personal and professional lives clash as her and Pontus's traineeship comes to an end.


SAT 22:30 The Man Who Shot the 60s (b00pwsns)
A tribute to Brian Duffy, who passed away in May 2010. Duffy was one of the greatest photographers of his generation. Along with David Bailey and Terence Donovan he defined the image of the 1960s and was as famous as the stars he photographed. In the 1970s he suddenly disappeared from view and burned all his negatives. Filmed on the eve of the first-ever exhibition of his work, Duffy agrees to talk about his life, his work and why he made it all go up in flames.


SAT 23:30 Enid (b00nxkm8)
Illuminating and surprising drama telling the story of arguably the most popular children's storyteller of all, Enid Blyton.

It reveals how Blyton became the writer who would capture more youthful imaginations than anyone else, following her career from ambitious, driven and as yet unpublished young woman to household name and moral guardian, while glimpsing her own childhood - a dark time, far from the carefree, happy idyll portrayed in her books.

Through marriages and children, the roles of Enid the wife (to Hugh and then Kenneth) and mother are portrayed, ones she struggled to fulfil while balancing them with her extraordinary output.

The film also uncovers a strong and resourceful woman; a woman who never really grew up; a woman who rewrote the endings of many chapters of her real life, sometimes with cruel and hurtful results; and a woman whose legacy has often been criticised but whose success cannot be argued with, who gave children the stories they wanted.


SAT 00:55 Bookmark (b0074mgt)
Enid Blyton

An imaginative study of the life of Enid Blyton, combining drama, animation and documentary.


SAT 01:35 Pavarotti: A Life in Seven Arias (b008l391)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:35 Opera Italia (b00spgk8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 03:35 Enid (b00nxkm8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 today]



SUNDAY 13 JUNE 2010

SUN 19:00 Timeshift (b00djlz9)
Series 8

How to Be a Good President

In a whistlestop tour through the history of the US presidency, journalist and author Jonathan Freedland asks what qualities make a great president and what we can learn from the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, JFK or even Richard Nixon about what it takes to make a mark in the White House.

Freedland is helped by distinguished contributors, including James Naughtie, Shirley Williams, Douglas Hurd, Simon Hoggart and Bonnie Greer, who give frank assessments of some of America's greatest presidents.


SUN 20:00 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.


SUN 21:00 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00srdpb)
Sir David Frost

Renowned broadcaster and satirist David Frost talks about his life and career.


SUN 22:00 Mrs Henderson Presents (b008lyk2)
In 1937, widowed Laura Henderson buys a derelict West End theatre and hires an impresario to run it. Her idea of using on-stage nudity to attract audiences when business falls off presents the unlikely pair with a number of hurdles.


SUN 23:40 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.


SUN 01:25 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.


SUN 01:55 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.


SUN 02:55 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00srdpb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



MONDAY 14 JUNE 2010

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00srf2b)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Only Connect (b00fcy1m)
Series 1

Episode 8

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 Medical Mavericks (b0074tcg)
Series 1

Anaesthesia

Series telling the incredible stories of the guinea-pig doctors who transformed medicine. Presenter Dr Michael Mosley explores the curious and sometimes fatal ways in which pioneering doctors laid the foundations of modern medicine by experimenting on themselves.

In this first episode, Dr Mosley charts the development of pain-free surgery. He starts with the 18th century chemist Humphrey Davy, who inhaled up to 50 pints of laughing gas a day and yet missed its true significance. Conman-turned-dentist Dr William Morton slept with a skeleton by night and experimented with ether by day, 19th century Scottish national hero James Young Simpson's reckless enthusiasm for chloroform led to numerous deaths and Sigmund Freud's experiments with cocaine transformed anaesthetics.

Mosley also undergoes some of the historical experiments himself and meets researchers who are continuing the tradition of self-experimentation today.


MON 21:00 Rude Britannia (b00srf2d)
A History Most Satirical, Bawdy, Lewd and Offensive

In the early 18th century, Georgian Britain was a nation openly, gloriously and often shockingly rude. This was found in the graphic art of Hogarth, Gillray, Rowlandson and George Cruikshank, and the rude theatrical world of John Gay and Henry Fielding. Singer Lucie Skeaping helps show the Georgian taste for lewd and bawdy ballads, and there is a dip into the literary tradition of rude words via the poetry of Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift and Lord Byron, and Laurence Sterne's novel Tristram Shandy.


MON 22:00 Storyville (b00srf2g)
Sync or Swim

When Welsh film-maker Dylan Williams followed his lover to Stockholm, the first thing his language teacher told him was that the way to fit into Swedish society was to join a club. Struggling to find work, approaching 40 and looking for a new purpose in life, he took her at her word. The club he found was Stockholm Arts Swim Gents, Sweden's only male synchronised swimming team, a ramshackle collection of men who were each looking for 'something different'. They found it.

What ensues is an unexpected rollercoaster ride that ends at the unofficial world championships. By turns funny and moving, the film shows that happiness can be found in the strangest of places.


MON 23:00 Gentlemen's Relish (b007bs62)
Romantic comedy exploring racy and raunchy escapades behind the sepia-tinted pornography of Edwardian London. Adapted from the novel Kingdom Swann by Miles Gibson.


MON 00:30 Rude Britannia (b00srf2d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 01:30 Storyville (b00srf2g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


MON 02:30 The Story of the Open University (b00lz2p5)
In 1969 change was in the air. Man stepped on the moon and Britain launched a revolutionary new kind of university, one where the lectures were televised and the students could study at home. It was greeted with scepticism, both by politicians and academics, but went on to become a much-loved, and often spoofed, British institution.

Lenny Henry tells the story of the Open University and reveals how it changed his own life. Featuring contributions from Sir David Attenborough, Myleene Klass and Anna Ford.


MON 03:30 Rude Britannia (b00srf2d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 15 JUNE 2010

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00srf7j)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Only Connect (b00fh2bf)
Series 1

Episode 9

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.


TUE 20:00 Travels with Vasari (b00fqvnc)
Episode 1

The first part of an exploration of the extraordinary achievement of the chronicler of the Italian Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari, author of the monumental Lives of the Artists.

On a spectacular journey through Renaissance Italy, Andrew Graham-Dixon searches for the shadowy figure who wrote one of the most important books on art and looks at some dazzling works, including masterpieces of the early Renaissance by Giotto, Masaccio and Donatello.


TUE 21:00 Rude Britannia (b00ssrsg)
Presents Bawdy Songs and Lewd Photographs

A popular culture of rudeness managed to survive and even thrive in the long era of Victorian values, from the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837 until the 1950s. The arrival of photography in the Victorian age sparked a moral panic, as rude and saucy images became available to anyone who had the money to buy them.

Current-day performers recreate the acts of celebrated rude music hall stars such as Champagne Charlie and Marie Lloyd, and there is a look at the satirical and rude world of one of Britain's first comic book icons, boozy anti-hero Ally Sloper. The documentary shows how a 20th-century seaside culture of rudeness emerged, with peepshows on the pier - the Mutoscopes - and the picture postcard art of Donald McGill.


TUE 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.


TUE 22:25 Miss Marie Lloyd: Queen of the Music Hall (b007qcxg)
Costume drama inspired by the life and loves of London's East End music hall legend Marie Lloyd.

Spotted by Percy Courtney, her true love and first husband, Marie is soon topping the bill. However, fame takes its toll on the marriage and it ends bitterly. As Marie struggles to juggle her private and public life she falls out with lifelong friend/dresser Freddie and into the arms of fellow performer, the dependable Alec Hurley.

Marie leads a music hall strike and triumphs, but at home she tires of Alec's humdrum ways. Sticking to the principle, as sung, that A Little of What You Fancy Does You Good, Marie chases the champagne lifestyle, taking up with toyboy jockey Bernard Dillon. Respectable society is scandalised and Marie is dropped from the Royal Command Performance, but hits back with an alternative Command Performance.

Riding high professionally but battling failing health and with her personal life in tatters and splashed across the newspapers, she begins to buckle. A faithful but helpless Freddie stands by as Marie is determined that the show must go on.


TUE 23:45 Rude Britannia (b00ssrsg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 00:45 Censored at the Seaside: The Postcards of Donald McGill (b0074rs7)
With their fat wives, skinny husbands and embarrassed vicars, Donald McGill's postcards and their cheeky end-of-the-pier humour are known throughout the world; however, the authorities of post-WW2 Britain weren't so enamoured with McGill's sense of fun. This documentary, narrated by Linda Smith, takes a look at how one man and his double entendres became caught up in the absurdity of post-war censorship.

McGill was a British institution, whose saucy postcards became an integral part of the British seaside holiday and at the height of his popularity were selling up to 16 million copies a year. The bawdy humour came straight out of the music hall and it is a British tradition that led on to the Carry On films, Benny Hill and Les Dawson. McGill's humour was thought to be so representative of the British character that it was championed by George Orwell in a famous essay and Dennis Potter named him the 'Picasso of the Pier'.

Yet in the 1950s, with McGill almost in his 80s, he was prosecuted for obscenity. He pleaded guilty to avoid being imprisoned and continued to work for another eight years, but the demise of the saucy seaside postcard had begun.

The film includes interviews with McGill enthusiasts Roy Hudd, Roy Hattersley and Michael Winner.


TUE 01:45 Travels with Vasari (b00fqvnc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 02:45 Rude Britannia (b00ssrsg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 16 JUNE 2010

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00srh6g)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Only Connect (b00fm5vv)
Series 1

Episode 10

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 Travels with Vasari (b00fvgq8)
Episode 2

Concluding the exploration of the extraordinary achievement of the chronicler of the Italian Renaissance, Giorgio Vasari, author of the monumental Lives of the Artists.

On a spectacular journey through Renaissance Italy, Andrew Graham-Dixon searches for the shadowy figure who wrote one of the most important books on art and looks at some dazzling works, including masterpieces of the early Renaissance by Giotto, Masaccio and Donatello.


WED 21:00 Rude Britannia (b00sss1g)
You Never Had It So Rude

The final part of a series exploring British traditions of satire and bawdy humour brings the story of a naughty nation up to date and explores how a mass democracy of rude emerged, beginning with the 1960s revolutions and continuing with the today's controversies.

There is a look at how a tradition of rude cartooning came back to life, as cartoonists draw the iconic political figures of the last 50 years: Gerald Scarfe captures Harold Macmillan, Steve Bell does Margaret Thatcher and Martin Rowson depicts Tony Blair.

The rude comic art of Viz is revealed in the characters of Sid the Sexist and the Fat Slags, and the rude theatre of Joe Orton, the rude radio of Round the Horne and the hippy rudeness of underground magazine Oz are also investigated.

And the history of rude television is traced from Till Death Us Do Part to Little Britain via Spitting Image. Finally, there is a look at how rude comedy begins to be seen as offensive in sexist and racist ways.


WED 22:00 Steptoe and Son (b00srh6j)
Series 2

The Bath

Albert's habit of having a bath in the front room is ruining his son's love life. Harold has had enough and decides to build a proper bathroom but Albert is not happy.


WED 22:30 Flight of the Conchords (b00lpk08)
Series 2

Evicted

Comedy series following Kiwi folk musicians Bret and Jemaine as they to try to make it big in New York.

The boys have been paying rent in the wrong currency and Eugene has to evict them, but Murray has a plan to put on a musical about their lives, a moving rags-to-rags story about two illegal immigrants trying to make it in New York.


WED 23:00 What the Butler Saw (b00st6n6)
Joe Orton-penned drama set in Dr Prentice's Home for the Disturbed, where the administrators are crazier than the patients.


WED 00:25 Rude Britannia (b00sss1g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 01:25 Gerald Scarfe: Drawing Blood (b0074pjx)
A look at the work of Britain's most scathing caricaturist, Gerald Scarfe, famous for his savage depictions of public figures. Contributors include Michael Portillo, William Hague, Ian Hislop and Clare Short.

Will Scarfe's shocking depictions of Princess Diana and Charles and Camilla be too much for polite society, and can he even offend Tracey Emin, the enfant terrible of the art world?


WED 02:15 Travels with Vasari (b00fvgq8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 03:15 Rude Britannia (b00sss1g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 04:15 Flight of the Conchords (b00lpk08)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]



THURSDAY 17 JUNE 2010

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00srhgl)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Only Connect (b00fqpmy)
Series 1

Episode 11

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 The Medici: Makers of Modern Art (b00fztl9)
Documentary in which Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals how the Medici family transformed Florence through sculpture, painting and architecture, and created a world where masterpieces fetch millions today.

Without the money and patronage of the Medici we might never have heard of artists such as Donatello, Michelangelo or Botticelli. Graham-Dixon examines how a family of shadowy, corrupt businessmen, driven by greed and ambition, became the financial engine behind the Italian Renaissance.


THU 21:00 Frost on Satire (b00srhgn)
Sir David Frost presents an investigation into the power of political satire with the help of some of the funniest TV moments of the last 50 years.

Beginning with the 1960s and That Was the Week That Was, he charts the development of television satire in Britain and the United States and is joined by the leading satirists from both sides of the Atlantic. From the UK, Rory Bremner, Ian Hislop and John Lloyd discuss their individual contributions, while from the US, Jon Stewart analyses the appeal of The Daily Show, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell talk about their respective portrayals of Sarah Palin and George W Bush, and Chevy Chase remembers how Saturday Night Live turned them into huge stars.

All of them tackle the key question of whether satire really can alter the course of political events.


THU 22:00 Wallander (b00srcxs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


THU 23:30 imagine... (b008bypx)
Autumn 2007

Louise Bourgeois: Spiderwoman

Alan Yentob presents a profile of the provocative French-born American artist Louise Bourgeois, who was still producing cutting edge work at the age of 95.

Memories of a disturbed childhood have produced fantastic and disturbing sculptures of giant spiders and poured-plastic body parts. As a girl she restored old tapestries, worked with Leger and knew surrealists like Breton and Duchamp. In New York she emerged as an artist in her own right, bringing dread, desire, sex and the psyche into her work.

Yentob goes to a Sunday salon at her New York home where young artists queue up to get her often fiery reactions to their work. He talks with Tracey Emin, Antony Gormley, Stella Vine and others who have been inspired by this strange and mischievous artist.


THU 00:20 Frost on Satire (b00srhgn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


THU 01:20 Rude Britannia (b00srf2d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


THU 02:20 The Medici: Makers of Modern Art (b00fztl9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 03:20 Frost on Satire (b00srhgn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 18 JUNE 2010

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00srj7f)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Summer Night Concert from Vienna (b00srj7h)
2010

Katie Derham presents the Vienna Philharmonic's spectacular Summer-night Concert in the grounds of Schonbrunn Palace. Franz Welser-Most conducts a programme on the theme of the sun, moon and the stars, including music by Holst, Liszt and John Williams. As ever there are Viennese musical encores by members of the Strauss family, accompanied by a dramatic fireworks display.


FRI 21:00 Steve Winwood: English Soul (b00srj7k)
From childhood prodigy to veteran master, Birmingham-born Steve Winwood's extraordinary career is like a map of the major changes in British rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues from the 1960s to the present. This in-depth profile traces that journey and reveals a master musician blending Ray Charles and English hymnody into a unique brand of English soul.

From the blues-boom-meets-beat-group chart hits of the Spencer Davis Group, through the psychedelic pop of early Traffic and into Berkshire as Traffic become the first band to 'get their heads together in a country cottage', then via a brief sojourn in supergroup Blind Faith and back to Traffic as a jam band who conquer the emerging American rock scene, Winwood's first ten years on the boards were extraordinary.

As the 80s dawned he reinvented himself as a solo artist and became a major star in the US with hits like Higher Love and Back in the High Life. These days he's back in arenas, touring with old friend Eric Clapton.

Paul Bernay's film blends extensive interviews with Winwood in his Gloucestershire home and film of Winwood's first return to that Berkshire cottage since 1969 with rare archive footage and contributing interviews with Eric Clapton, Paul Rodgers, Paul Jones, Paul Weller, Muff Winwood, Dave Mason and more.


FRI 22:00 Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood Live at Madison Square Garden (b00k9cbz)
Reunion concert by Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood at New York's Madison Square Garden in 2008. The rock legends took to the stage together for just three concerts in a highly anticipated collaboration, performing a string of hits that included Blind Faith's Presence of the Lord and Can't Find My Way Home, in addition to Clapton's classic After Midnight and Winwood's Dear Mr Fantasy.

Both Winwood and Clapton have long and prestigious musical careers, with countless honours and awards to their names. Their musical paths connected in 1969 with the formation of Blind Faith, a supergroup that pioneered the fusion of rock and blues to tremendous studio and stage success.

Despite critical and popular acclaim the band was short-lived, releasing only one album and embarking on a brief 1969 tour that debuted on July 12 at Madison Square Garden and ended on August 24 in Hawaii. Since that final show, Winwood and Clapton have remained friends but had only performed an occasional song together at charity events.


FRI 23:00 Keep on Running: 50 Years of Island Records (b00kvd38)
Damian Lewis-narrated documentary telling the colourful story of Island Records, the Jamaican-founded record label built by maverick boss Chris Blackwell which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009.

The film features a rare, in-depth interview with Blackwell alongside contributions from former Island artists Grace Jones, Toots Hibbert, Amy Winehouse, Sly and Robbie, PJ Harvey, U2, Brian Eno, Spencer Davis, Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens, the B52s, Kid Creole, Greg Lake, Ian Anderson, Trevor Horn, Paul Weller, Richard Thompson and Keane.

News archive and rare performance footage are used to tell the story of the label - its part in bringing reggae music into the world; its expansion into progressive rock in the late 1960s; the rise of Bob Marley into a global star; and the label's reputation for consistently signing, producing and championing innovative acts from the UK and all over the world.


FRI 00:30 Steve Winwood: English Soul (b00srj7k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 01:30 The Story of the Open University (b00lz2p5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 02:30 on Monday]


FRI 02:30 Summer Night Concert from Vienna (b00srj7h)
[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)

Blur: No Distance Left to Run 23:40 SUN (b00rkm75)

Bookmark 00:55 SAT (b0074mgt)

Censored at the Seaside: The Postcards of Donald McGill 00:45 TUE (b0074rs7)

Enid 23:30 SAT (b00nxkm8)

Enid 03:35 SAT (b00nxkm8)

Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood Live at Madison Square Garden 22:00 FRI (b00k9cbz)

Flight of the Conchords 22:00 TUE (b00llfyc)

Flight of the Conchords 22:30 WED (b00lpk08)

Flight of the Conchords 04:15 WED (b00lpk08)

Frost on Satire 21:00 THU (b00srhgn)

Frost on Satire 00:20 THU (b00srhgn)

Frost on Satire 03:20 THU (b00srhgn)

Gentlemen's Relish 23:00 MON (b007bs62)

Gerald Scarfe: Drawing Blood 01:25 WED (b0074pjx)

Glastonbury 01:55 SUN (b00rl1v0)

Keep on Running: 50 Years of Island Records 23:00 FRI (b00kvd38)

Mark Lawson Talks To... 21:00 SUN (b00srdpb)

Mark Lawson Talks To... 02:55 SUN (b00srdpb)

Medical Mavericks 20:00 MON (b0074tcg)

Miss Marie Lloyd: Queen of the Music Hall 22:25 TUE (b007qcxg)

Mrs Henderson Presents 22:00 SUN (b008lyk2)

Nixon in the Den 20:00 SUN (b00spjnp)

Only Connect 19:30 MON (b00fcy1m)

Only Connect 19:30 TUE (b00fh2bf)

Only Connect 19:30 WED (b00fm5vv)

Only Connect 19:30 THU (b00fqpmy)

Opera Italia 19:00 SAT (b00spgk8)

Opera Italia 02:35 SAT (b00spgk8)

Pavarotti: A Life in Seven Arias 20:00 SAT (b008l391)

Pavarotti: A Life in Seven Arias 01:35 SAT (b008l391)

Rude Britannia 21:00 MON (b00srf2d)

Rude Britannia 00:30 MON (b00srf2d)

Rude Britannia 03:30 MON (b00srf2d)

Rude Britannia 21:00 TUE (b00ssrsg)

Rude Britannia 23:45 TUE (b00ssrsg)

Rude Britannia 02:45 TUE (b00ssrsg)

Rude Britannia 21:00 WED (b00sss1g)

Rude Britannia 00:25 WED (b00sss1g)

Rude Britannia 03:15 WED (b00sss1g)

Rude Britannia 01:20 THU (b00srf2d)

Steptoe and Son 22:00 WED (b00srh6j)

Steve Winwood: English Soul 21:00 FRI (b00srj7k)

Steve Winwood: English Soul 00:30 FRI (b00srj7k)

Storyville 22:00 MON (b00srf2g)

Storyville 01:30 MON (b00srf2g)

Summer Night Concert from Vienna 19:30 FRI (b00srj7h)

Summer Night Concert from Vienna 02:30 FRI (b00srj7h)

The Britpop Story 01:25 SUN (b0074rl7)

The Man Who Shot the 60s 22:30 SAT (b00pwsns)

The Medici: Makers of Modern Art 20:00 THU (b00fztl9)

The Medici: Makers of Modern Art 02:20 THU (b00fztl9)

The Story of the Open University 02:30 MON (b00lz2p5)

The Story of the Open University 01:30 FRI (b00lz2p5)

Timeshift 19:00 SUN (b00djlz9)

Travels with Vasari 20:00 TUE (b00fqvnc)

Travels with Vasari 01:45 TUE (b00fqvnc)

Travels with Vasari 20:00 WED (b00fvgq8)

Travels with Vasari 02:15 WED (b00fvgq8)

Wallander 21:00 SAT (b00srcxs)

Wallander 22:00 THU (b00srcxs)

What the Butler Saw 23:00 WED (b00st6n6)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b00srf2b)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b00srf7j)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b00srh6g)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b00srhgl)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b00srj7f)

imagine... 23:30 THU (b008bypx)