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 11 SEPTEMBER 2010

SAT 19:00 Nature's Great Events (b00j1bhw)
The Great Tide

A mighty army of dolphins, sharks, whales, seals and gannets hunt down the billions of sardines along South Africa's east coast each winter. This is the sardine run: an underwater armageddon, the greatest gathering of predators anywhere on the planet, and the most spectacular event in the world's oceans.

However, in recent years the sardine run has become less predictable, perhaps due to the warming effects of climate change. If the sardine run does not happen, the lives of the animals caught up in the drama hang in the balance.

Pioneering a unique boat stabilised camera mount for surface filming, the Nature's Great Events crew capture all the high-octane action as the predators compete for sardines, filmed with aerial, underwater and above water cameras. Super slow-motion cameras also capture the very moment gannets plunge into the water, hitting it at 60 miles an hour.

A violent winter storm is the trigger for the sardines to begin their desperate dash. They are followed by a superpod of 5,000 dolphins and further up the coast more predators gather. A shoal of sardines 15 miles long is pushed into the shallows and aerial shots show thousands of sharks gathering to feed on them.

The climax to the sardine run is a spectacular feeding frenzy as the dolphins round the sardines up into balls on which all the predators feast. Gannets rain down in their thousands, sharks pile in scattering the fish and a Bryde's whale lunges in taking great mouthfuls of sardines.


SAT 20:00 Timeshift (b00tp1cv)
Series 10

The North on a Plate

Paris-based cultural historian Andrew Hussey follows his success with France on a Plate by travelling back to his homeland, the north west of England, in search of its lost food culture.

He brings with him the French idea of terroir, a term used by their wine growers and foodies - a belief that a food from a particular area is rendered unique though a particular set of local circumstances including culture and landscape.

As he wanders around the north west, Andrew asks if this rather highbrow foodie term can be applied to common northern grub such as a Blackpool chip or a Wigan pie. As he isn't a foodie he relies on local people to help him out, including three generations of a Wigan biker club and a woman who knows far too much about rhubarb.

In doing so, he uncovers some fascinating cultural history and the role of the Industrial Revolution in defining modern eating habits. And, most importantly, he redefines the concept of terroir by giving it a northern accent.


SAT 21:00 Wallander (b00m9jky)
Series 1

The Photographer

A woman is found dead after the opening of a war photographer's exhibition. Murder is suspected, as is the photographer. Wallander and his team of police investigate.

In Swedish with English subtitles.


SAT 22:30 Mad Men (b00tp91q)
Series 4

Public Relations

Don's secretive demeanour results in an unfavourable interview by an Advertising Age reporter, leading an important client to fire his ad agency. Don struggles with a bathing suit account for which the client wants to project a wholesome image.

Pete and Peggy work together to secure increased budget from a client with an ill-advised publicity stunt involving two women fighting over a baked ham. Roger attempts to find a girlfriend for Don, setting him up with a friend of his wife. Betty and the kids spend Thanksgiving with her new husband's family. Betty gets into a fight with Don over her delay in moving out of the house.

This episode takes place the week of Thanksgiving, 1964.


SAT 23:15 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.


SAT 00:35 Timeshift (b00tp1cv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 01:35 Eddie Waring: Mr Rugby League (b00tnwkv)
Eddie Waring introduced millions of TV viewers to rugby league, but within his own northern heartland he was both loved and loathed. For some he was loveable Uncle Eddie, to others an embarrassing northern caricature who appeared on light entertainment shows and failed to take the game seriously. Waring painted a picture of 'the north' that caused problems on his home patch. Were people laughing with him, or at him, at the game of rugby league and the wider north?

He was also more than a hired voice, he was an expert and an entrepreneur - a fixer and a visionary who entered dangerous territory as he attempted to take the game to new levels. This is the story of his controversial role in the history of rugby league.


SAT 02:35 People's Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture (b00tnw4p)
Neo-Classical

Architectural historian Dr Jonathan Foyle explores some of the best Georgian and Victorian neo-classical civic buildings in the north of England. He visits town halls, concert halls, libraries, schools and galleries in Liverpool, Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and Todmorden in an unlikely story of rivalry, ambition and power in the service of social responsibility.

The north's public building boom was first funded by the profits of sugar, tobacco, cotton and slavery. Later, the Victorian municipalities in the increasingly powerful industrial and mercantile northern towns competed with one another to build bigger, better, more significant architectural monuments than the neighbouring city.

Neo-classicism harked back to Rome, democratic Athens and the Greek city-state. The regular proportion, geometry and symmetry of classical temple-style architecture suggested order in chaotically-expanding urban environments and served to associate towns regarded as squalid and unruly with the cultured ancient civilisations of antiquity. These were buildings constructed with the aim of elevating the towns in which they stood.

Featuring contributions from historians Lawrence Westgaph, Steve Binns, Joseph Sharples and Colin Cunningham, Jonathan Foyle visits Bluecoat School in Liverpool, John Woods's Liverpool Town Hall, Liverpool Athenaeum, Thomas Harrison's Liverpool Lyceum and Manchester Portico Library, Charles Barry's Royal Manchester Institution, Manchester Athenaeum, John Foster Jnr's Liverpool Oratory, Harvey Elmes's Liverpool St George's Hall, Lockwood and Mawson's Bradford St George's Hall, Cuthbert Brodrick's Leeds Town Hall, Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery, Cornelius Sherlock's Picton Reading Rooms and, to illustrate that smaller towns also aspired to neo-classical magnificence, Todmorden Town Hall.


SAT 03:40 Timeshift (b00tp1cv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 04:40 Churches: How to Read Them (b00tp1cs)
Medieval Life

Richard Taylor uncovers evidence that shows how and why our parish churches came to play such a crucial role in the everyday life of the Middle Ages. He looks at how humorous wall paintings and intricate carvings were used to teach moral lessons and how carved angels in such spectacular churches as Blythburgh, Suffolk, were used to create a heaven on earth.

Taylor finds out how rites such as baptism and the largely forgotten ritual known as the 'churching of women' offered people protection from the cradle to the grave. And he discovers how - even today - the local pub may have an unexpected bond with the parish church.



SUNDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2010

SUN 19:00 Coast (b007944m)
Series 2

Newcastle to Hull

Neil Oliver and the team take a journey around the coast of the British Isles. While Neil explores the ancient coastal home of the Venerable Bede, the genius monk who 1,300 years ago wrote the first history of England, engineer Dick Strawbridge investigates the construction of the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge, and its odd connection with the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Alice Roberts reveals the dark secrets of Whitby Jet, and how in 1967 the summer of free love was also the summer of free gas.


SUN 20:00 Today I'm With You (b00tr1gh)
During the late 1960s Finnish photographer and filmmaker Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen came to Byker, a working class community in Newcastle upon Tyne. She fell in love with her new home just as it was about to be demolished. Her seminal documentation of the community led to national recognition for her work as a key account of Britain's traditional working class culture at the moment of its destruction.

In 2005, Sirkka returned. The visionary Byker Wall Estate that replaced the original terraced streets was to have rehoused the community intact, but inevitably didn't.

This new film follows her as she negotiates a photographic journey through its now multicultural communities - building a portrait of the estate out of her comically chaotic portrait sessions and the arresting photographs, stories and negotiations that flow from them. Through rare film footage we glimpse her as a young woman photographing the old community.


SUN 21:00 Newcastle on Film (b00tr1gk)
From bridges to bulldozers and shipyards to sing-alongs, Newcastle is a city rich in history with a thousand different stories to tell. This programme uses archive footage from the 1900s through to the present day to reveal a fascinating glimpse into the life of this great city and its inhabitants.


SUN 21:30 A Journey Back to Newcastle: Michael Smith's Deep North (b00tr1gm)
Michael Smith goes in search of the Newcastle of his youth.

Approaching the Toon from the Tyne, he believes the place has more in common with Baltic City States than London, where he now lives. He argues that there are in fact several Norths; unlike the South, where everything is centered on London's inescapable black hole gravity, the North has plural accents and plural identities. The North East is the far north, the Deep North of the title, remote and disconnected from this axis. As far as the North East is concerned, Leeds and Manchester may as well be in the midlands.

Smith's North is a land apart entirely, and a land that defines itself by this basic fact. A small conurbation clustered by the coast, separated from the main rump by miles and miles of rural emptiness. Deep North is a lyrical meditation on Newcastle and the North East, and ultimately, a subjective and personal response of a prodigal son returning.


SUN 22:30 The Fall: The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E Smith (b0074r00)
A profile of one of England's truly unique and underrated bands, The Fall. One of the most enigmatic, idiosyncratic and chaotic garage bands of the last 30 years, The Fall are led by the belligerent and poetic Mark E Smith and grew out of the fringe of the Manchester punk scene. By 2005, they had released in excess of three dozen albums, toured relentlessly, inspired two successful stage plays, recorded 24 Peel Sessions, and performed with contemporary ballet dancer Michael Clark along with various spoken word events.

All this has happened under the guidance of Smith with various line-ups totalling over 40 different members. They have never conformed to fashion or musical trends and when asked why they were his favourite band, John Peel replied 'they are always different, they are always the same'.

This is the first time that Mark E Smith has agreed to the story being told on television and he along with many of the major players take us through this unique English rock 'n' roll story. It is told alongside footage of their most recent and sadly now last Peel Session recorded in August 2004 at the BBC Maida Vale studios, and there is also film of John playing out the session at Peel Acres a week later.

Contributors include past and present band members such as Marc Riley, Una Baines, Steve Hanley, Ben Pritchard and Eleni Smith, plus thoughts from key fans/critics including Paul Morley, Tony Wilson, Stewart Lee, promoter Alan Wise, original Buzzcocks manager Richard Boon, and Franz Ferdinand.


SUN 23:30 Oil City Confidential: Dr Feelgood (b00s2y91)
Director Julien Temple's film celebrates Canvey Island's Dr Feelgood, the Essex R 'n' B band that exploded out of the UK in the prog era of the early Seventies, delivering shows and albums that helped pave the way for pub rock and punk.

Temple examines Canvey Island culture as a 'Thames delta' for British rhythm and blues, with a central performance from the Feelgood's guitarist and songwriter Wilko Johnson. A British original, his dynamic stage presence and relationship with lead singer Lee Brilleaux drove the band through their early performances, characterising their three albums between 1975 and 1976, Down by the Jetty, Malpractice and the number one live album, Stupidity.

Wilko left the band in 1977, bassist John B Sparks and drummer The Big Figure both left in 1982, and Lee Brilleaux died in 1994. This is an imaginative, filmic and moving study of the place, times and characters that created the heyday of a seminal British band, and the personal forces that pulled them apart.


SUN 01:20 Newcastle on Film (b00tr1gk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


SUN 01:50 A Journey Back to Newcastle: Michael Smith's Deep North (b00tr1gm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]


SUN 02:50 Coast (b007944m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 03:45 Newcastle on Film (b00tr1gk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


SUN 04:15 A Journey Back to Newcastle: Michael Smith's Deep North (b00tr1gm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]



MONDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2010

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00tr1px)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 The Story of Maths (b00f3n43)
The Frontiers of Space

Four-part series about the history of mathematics, presented by Oxford professor Marcus du Sautoy.

By the 17th century, Europe had taken over from the Middle East as the world's powerhouse of mathematical ideas. Great strides had been made in understanding the geometry of objects fixed in time and space. The race was now on to discover the mathematics to describe objects in motion.

Marcus explores the work of Rene Descartes and Pierre Fermat, whose famous Last Theorem would puzzle mathematicians for more than 350 years. He also examines Isaac Newton's development of the calculus, and goes in search of Leonard Euler, the father of topology or 'bendy geometry', and Carl Friedrich Gauss who, at the age of 24, was responsible for inventing a new way of handling equations - modular arithmetic.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00tr1pz)
Series 4

The Wrights v Urban Walkers

Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.

The Wright family from Leeds pool their knowledge of IT, Electrical Engineering and Mexican cinema to challenge the brainpower of the Urban Walkers, a team unified by their love of taking extended inner city hikes across various European capitals.


MON 21:00 People's Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture (b00tr1q1)
The Gothic Revival

Architectural historian Dr Jonathan Foyle visits some of the best neo-gothic Victorian civic buildings in the north of England. Pointed arches, spires and clustered columns proliferate on churches and cathedrals, town halls and libraries, as gothic moves from the sacred to the secular through the 19th century and becomes the north's civic style of choice.

Two men are primarily responsible for this medieval style's adoption by the Victorians. Augustus Pugin associated gothic with godliness and harmony and believed that architecture could influence morality. John Ruskin's influential book The Stones of Venice looked at the gothic architecture of the Italian renaissance mercantile republics and associated it with freedom. When Ruskin untethered gothic architecture from ecclesiastical building it went on to flourish in the hands of a generation of young, idealistic architects seeking to assert the cultural credentials of the north and exert an improving influence over the citizens of the burgeoning industrial towns.

Featuring contributions from Rosemary Hill, author of God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain; Dr Katy Layton-Jones, lecturer in urban history; and Dr Terry Wyke, lecturer in history and economic history.

Jonathan Foyle visits the Temple of Liberty at Stowe; Pugin and Charles Barry's Palace of Westminster; Robert Chantrell's St Peter's Church in Leeds; William Crossland's Rochdale Town Hall; Alfred Waterhouse's Manchester Town Hall; Basil Champneys' Rylands Library in Manchester; Edward Mountford's Sheffield Town Hall; the Victoria Baths at Chorlton on Medlock; and Giles Gilbert Scott's Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, the biggest gothic church in Britain, built with more than 2.5 million pounds of the public's money.


MON 22:00 Storyville (b00tr1q3)
The Trouble with Pirates

Documentary telling the story of the piracy explosion, with unique access to the coastal towns of war-torn Somalia, the boardrooms of the City of London, the operation hubs on board warships in the Gulf of Aden and the heartbreak of a hostage situation gone wrong.


MON 23:00 A Journey Back to Newcastle: Michael Smith's Deep North (b00tr1gm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 on Sunday]


MON 00:00 People's Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture (b00tnw4p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 02:35 on Saturday]


MON 01:00 People's Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture (b00tr1q1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 02:00 The Story of Maths (b00f3n43)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 03:00 People's Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture (b00tr1q1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2010

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00tr2p1)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 The Yorkshire Dales on Film (b00tnvnq)
Using moving images from across the decades, this documentary goes on a short trip to one of the most beautiful parts of the UK, the Yorkshire Dales. Encompassing newsreels, documentaries and home movies, these rarely-seen archive gems come together to reveal all aspects of life in the Dales, from sheep farming to cheese making, railway lines to dry stone walls and hill runners to potholing.


TUE 20:00 Wellington Bomber (b00tr2p5)
One autumn weekend, early in WWII at an aircraft factory at Broughton in North Wales, a group of British workers, men and women, set out to smash a world record for building a bomber from scratch. They managed to build a Wellington Bomber in 23 hours and 50 minutes. They worked so quickly that the test pilot had to be turfed out of bed to take it into the air, 24 hours and 48 minutes after the first part of the airframe had been laid.

So who were the men and women who made this record-breaking Wellington? Britain's propaganda machine made a 12-minute film about the attempt and Peter Williams Television has traced six of them, one of whom, Bill Anderson, was only 14 years old. Their story of the excitement of the attempt is the heart of this documentary.

The Wellington was a special aircraft, as historian Sir Max Hastings says. It was held in great affection by those who flew it, mostly because its geodetic construction enabled it to survive enormous damage, as Flt Lt 'Tiny' Cooling remembers. He flew 67 missions in Wellingtons.

More Wellingtons were built during WWII than any other British aircraft, except the Spitfire and the Hurricane, the stars of the Battle of Britain. And, unwittingly, the Wellington, Britain's main strike bomber, played an important role in the Battle of Britain, as this documentary reveals.


TUE 21:00 Timeshift (b00tr480)
Series 10

1960: The Year of the North

Documentary which sets out to show that the 1960s - the most creative decade of the 20th century - began not in swinging London but in smokestack northern England. It was from there that a new kind of voice was heard - cocky and defiant, working class, affluent, stroppy and sexy.

Novelist Andrew Martin explores how in 1960 the north asserted itself, came out of the closet artistically speaking, abandoned the cloth cap stereotype and in the process liberated itself and Britain as a whole. The story of how the north went from being the economic engine room of the country to cultural powerhouse is told through the work of northern writers such as Alan Sillitoe, Shelagh Delaney, Stan Barstow and Tony Warren. Thanks to their lead in conspicuously kicking over the old traces, by the end of 1960 if you wanted iconoclasm, humour, style and music, you definitely looked to the north.


TUE 22:00 Monitor (b00ttq49)
Shelagh Delaney's Salford

Shelagh Delaney, the author of A Taste of Honey, looks at Salford, where she grew up and where the action of her plays takes place.


TUE 22:20 Battlefield Britain (b0078s6r)
The Battle of Britain

Dan Snow experiences how the Battle of Britain was fought at the limits of human endurance when he takes flight in a high performance stunt plane. Recreating the spiralling turns of a dogfight, he feels the extraordinary side-effects of the high G forces felt by pilots in this critical battle of World War II.

Using revolutionary graphics, Peter Snow gives a blow-by-blow account of the pivotal moments of the battle and how the RAF held off the might of the German Luftwaffe during the summer of 1940. The future of the entire country was at stake in this, the first great air battle in history.


TUE 23:20 Timeshift (b00tr480)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 00:20 People's Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture (b00tr1q1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


TUE 01:20 Wellington Bomber (b00tr2p5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 02:20 Battlefield Britain (b0078s6r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:20 today]


TUE 03:20 Timeshift (b00tr480)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2010

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00tr47w)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Newcastle on Film (b00tr1gk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


WED 20:00 We Need Answers (b00ph5yn)
Series 2

Poetry, God, Politics and Geography

Anarchic comedy game show in which celebrity guests answer questions set by the public. Mark Watson hosts, Tim Key is in the question master's chair and Alex Horne provides expert analysis from a booth. Two celebrities battle it out to be crowned the winner and avoid the shame of donning 'The Clogs of Defeat'.

Comedienne and comic actress Miranda Hart competes against poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan.

The rules are simple - contestants must match their answer to the one given by a text answering service. Questions range from 'Can Miranda lick a cloud?' to 'Does Ian's internal monologue rhyme?'.

The show also features a cunning physical challenge which pits the contestants against each other. Miranda and Ian see who is best at judging a minute ... with buckets on their heads.


WED 20:30 Churches: How to Read Them (b00tr47y)
Medieval Death

The medieval church cannot be understood without recognising that death was at its heart. Richard Taylor shows how churches were designed to give medieval people a way to escape death, with their Judgement scenes, cadaver tombs and graphic depictions of the crucifixion.

He explains why scenes of suffering on the cross became so prominent and why the instruments used in the persecution of Jesus were depicted in the decoration of windows, floors and walls at such remarkable sites as Malvern Priory in Worcestershire.

Taylor explains the medieval obsession with purgatory and how this again transformed our churches with the building of elaborate chantry chapels, where Masses could be said to ease the journey of departed souls into heaven.


WED 21:00 Vatican: The Hidden World (b00tr2p3)
With unprecedented access to the Vatican and the people who live and work there, this is a unique profile of the heart of the Catholic Church and the world's smallest sovereign state.

Archivists reveal the Vatican's secrets, including the signed testimony of Galileo recorded by the Inquisition. A cardinal journeys deep below St Peter's Basilica to inspect the site claimed to be the tomb of the saint himself, and curators share a private viewing of Michelangelo's extraordinary decoration of the Sistine Chapel.

An intriguing behind-the-scenes look at the workings of one of the world's most powerful and mysterious institutions.


WED 22:00 Mad Men (b00tr482)
Series 4

Christmas Comes But Once a Year

Drama series set in the world of advertising in 1960s New York. An old friend returns to the fold, and the firm reluctantly throws a Christmas party for its most important client. Don prepares for his first Christmas away from his children and makes an indiscretion.


WED 22:45 Timeshift (b0094yzq)
Series 7

The Rise and Fall of the Ad Man

Cultural commentator Peter York takes a characteristically insightful and witty look at the changing fortunes of British advertising through the story of the personalities who led it through its highs and lows.

Inspired by the maverick US advertisers of Madison Avenue, a new generation of British ad men created a unique style of advertising based on authentic British culture. It tapped into home-grown humour and marketed itself as almost a branch of the arts. During the 1970s, British ads came to be regarded as the best in the world.

But as York shows, the same combination of ambition, big spending and oversized egos which fed British advertising's glorious rise also led to a disastrous fall when the business climate changed in the 1980s. Now the British ad man has had to reinvent himself for a new, global market.

York gets the extraordinary inside story from top British advertising figures past and present including Alan Parker, David Puttnam, Tim Bell, Frank Lowe and the most successful ad man in the world today, Martin Sorrell.


WED 23:45 Churches: How to Read Them (b00tr47y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 00:15 Vatican: The Hidden World (b00tr2p3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 01:15 Wellington Bomber (b00tr2p5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Tuesday]


WED 02:15 We Need Answers (b00ph5yn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:45 Churches: How to Read Them (b00tr47y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 03:15 Vatican: The Hidden World (b00tr2p3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2010

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00tr6kb)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Seven Ages of Britain (b00qn322)
Age of Conquest

David Dimbleby tells the story of Britain through its art and treasure. The first part of the chronicle begins with the Roman invasion and ends with the Norman Conquest.

David travels throughout Britain in search of the greatest works of art from the time: the mosaics of Bignor Roman Villa, the burial treasure of Sutton Hoo, Anglo-Saxon poetry and Alfred the Great's jewel. He also goes abroad, throughout Europe, to find objects either made in Britain, or which tell us something about our past.

In Aphrodisias, Turkey, he finds the oldest image of Britannia; in Florence, a beautiful illuminated Bible made by Northumbrian monks in the 8th century; in Normandy, the Bayeux Tapestry, now believed to have been made by English nuns. He ends at the Tower of London, now seen as a symbol of Britishness, but originally built by William the Conqueror to subdue the people of England.


THU 20:30 Take One Museum (b0074s8n)
Manchester

Explorer and expedition leader Paul Rose goes on a non-stop, 30 minute tour of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester.

Powered machinery, factories, discovering the atom and splitting it, our national network of trains and electricity, even standardised time - all of these inventions and discoveries originate in Manchester. The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester proudly displays it all in buildings that are themselves equally as interesting, such as the oldest passenger railway station in the world.

Paul started life as a tool-making apprentice in a car factory so has a natural fascination for machinery, but he also reveals the human stories that made our world what it is today - including the man who experimented on his servant and went on to prove the most fundamental law of nature.


THU 21:00 The Road to Coronation Street (b00ttj2r)
6.53pm, December 9th 1960, Granada Studios, Manchester. With minutes to go until the live transmission of episode one, creator Tony Warren is being sick in the toilets, actress Pat Phoenix is missing and so is the cat from the opening shot.

This is the epic story of one man's struggle to make a programme that no-one wanted. Granada's formidable bosses Sidney Bernstein and his brother Cecil are not enthusiastic, but together with producer Harry Elton and director Derek Bennett, Tony takes up the battle. He wants cobbles, a pub, seven houses and a shop, but above all he wants Northern actors. Led by casting director Margaret Morris and her young assistant Josie Scott, the hunt begins for the legendary cast - Doris Speed, Pat Phoenix, Violet Carson and William Roache. With a last-minute change of title, Coronation Street is born.


THU 22:15 Timeshift (b00tr480)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 23:15 Churches: How to Read Them (b00tr47y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Wednesday]


THU 23:45 Vatican: The Hidden World (b00tr2p3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]


THU 00:45 The Road to Coronation Street (b00ttj2r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


THU 02:05 Timeshift (b00tr480)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 03:05 The Road to Coronation Street (b00ttj2r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2010

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00tr6rl)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 BBC Proms (b00tr86j)
2010

Last Night Celebrations in Scotland

A glittering line up at the Caird Hall in Dundee for the BBC Proms Last Night Celebrations in Scotland concert. Presented by Kaye Adams, the programme features superstar violinist Nicola Benedetti, soprano Lesley Garrett, guitarist Paul Galbraith, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Garry Walker, and the specially assembled Dundee Proms Chorus.


FRI 21:30 Legends (b00tr86l)
Herb Alpert, Tijuana Brass and Other Delights

This is the story of deals on the beach, accidental pop stars, friendship, comebacks, multimillion dollar deals and new discoveries - the story of musician, producer, record industry mogul and artist, Herb Alpert.

Herb is probably best known as the trumpet player who created the Tijuana Brass and sold America, and the world, the sound of Mexico. Or the crooner that made the ladies swoon when he sang This Guy's in Love With You. From his first job working with soul legend Sam Cooke to creating A&M Records, Alpert's life reads like a wonderful story of dreams come true. This profile follows him today and platforms his music and artwork as he exhibits his sculptures for Hollywood's art elite. Contributors include Lou Adler, Quincy Jones, Richard Carpenter, Sting, Jam & Lewis and Stephen Fry.


FRI 22:30 Herb Alpert and His Tijuana Brass (b00qsyx3)
Latin big band Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass play Something Special. Includes The Lonely Bull, What Now My Love, Up Cherry Street and Spanish Flea.


FRI 22:55 I'm in a Rock 'n' Roll Band! (b00snk78)
The Band

Series investigating what makes the perfect rock 'n' roll band.

From small town wannabes to worldbeaters; from their imaginations to our hearts: this is a no-holds barred romp through the classic shared journey that rock 'n' roll bands take. Explaining what makes the sum greater than its individual parts are Sting, Bob Geldof, New Order, Iggy Pop and Roger Daltrey.

Voting has now closed.


FRI 23:55 They Came From Manchester: Five Decades of Mancunian Pop (b00d9g2x)
A compilation of BBC studio performances of some of the great Manchester bands from the 1960s to the present, including Freddie and the Dreamers, The Hollies, 10CC, the Buzzcocks, The Fall, Joy Division, James, M-People, Oasis and many more.


FRI 00:55 Hugh Masekela: Welcome to South Africa (b00s6bln)
South African musician Hugh Masekela celebrates his 70th birthday and reflects on his career in performance and interview, from first picking up a trumpet in the 50s through the apartheid years, exile and stardom in America, his return to South Africa on Nelson Mandela's release, and concluding with his vision of the future for his country.

The programme also features performances from his 70th birthday concert at the Barbican in London in December 2009, where he was joined by the London Symphony Orchestra, their Community Choir and guest South African singers.


FRI 01:55 Legends (b00tr86l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]


FRI 02:55 BBC Proms (b00tr86j)
[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)

A Journey Back to Newcastle: Michael Smith's Deep North 21:30 SUN (b00tr1gm)

A Journey Back to Newcastle: Michael Smith's Deep North 01:50 SUN (b00tr1gm)

A Journey Back to Newcastle: Michael Smith's Deep North 04:15 SUN (b00tr1gm)

A Journey Back to Newcastle: Michael Smith's Deep North 23:00 MON (b00tr1gm)

BBC Proms 19:30 FRI (b00tr86j)

BBC Proms 02:55 FRI (b00tr86j)

Battlefield Britain 22:20 TUE (b0078s6r)

Battlefield Britain 02:20 TUE (b0078s6r)

Churches: How to Read Them 04:40 SAT (b00tp1cs)

Churches: How to Read Them 20:30 WED (b00tr47y)

Churches: How to Read Them 23:45 WED (b00tr47y)

Churches: How to Read Them 02:45 WED (b00tr47y)

Churches: How to Read Them 23:15 THU (b00tr47y)

Coast 19:00 SUN (b007944m)

Coast 02:50 SUN (b007944m)

Eddie Waring: Mr Rugby League 01:35 SAT (b00tnwkv)

Herb Alpert and His Tijuana Brass 22:30 FRI (b00qsyx3)

Hugh Masekela: Welcome to South Africa 00:55 FRI (b00s6bln)

I'm in a Rock 'n' Roll Band! 22:55 FRI (b00snk78)

Legends 21:30 FRI (b00tr86l)

Legends 01:55 FRI (b00tr86l)

Mad Men 22:30 SAT (b00tp91q)

Mad Men 22:00 WED (b00tr482)

Miss Marie Lloyd: Queen of the Music Hall 23:15 SAT (b007qcxg)

Monitor 22:00 TUE (b00ttq49)

Nature's Great Events 19:00 SAT (b00j1bhw)

Newcastle on Film 21:00 SUN (b00tr1gk)

Newcastle on Film 01:20 SUN (b00tr1gk)

Newcastle on Film 03:45 SUN (b00tr1gk)

Newcastle on Film 19:30 WED (b00tr1gk)

Oil City Confidential: Dr Feelgood 23:30 SUN (b00s2y91)

Only Connect 20:30 MON (b00tr1pz)

People's Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture 02:35 SAT (b00tnw4p)

People's Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture 21:00 MON (b00tr1q1)

People's Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture 00:00 MON (b00tnw4p)

People's Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture 01:00 MON (b00tr1q1)

People's Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture 03:00 MON (b00tr1q1)

People's Palaces: The Golden Age of Civic Architecture 00:20 TUE (b00tr1q1)

Seven Ages of Britain 19:30 THU (b00qn322)

Storyville 22:00 MON (b00tr1q3)

Take One Museum 20:30 THU (b0074s8n)

The Fall: The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mark E Smith 22:30 SUN (b0074r00)

The Road to Coronation Street 21:00 THU (b00ttj2r)

The Road to Coronation Street 00:45 THU (b00ttj2r)

The Road to Coronation Street 03:05 THU (b00ttj2r)

The Story of Maths 19:30 MON (b00f3n43)

The Story of Maths 02:00 MON (b00f3n43)

The Yorkshire Dales on Film 19:30 TUE (b00tnvnq)

They Came From Manchester: Five Decades of Mancunian Pop 23:55 FRI (b00d9g2x)

Timeshift 20:00 SAT (b00tp1cv)

Timeshift 00:35 SAT (b00tp1cv)

Timeshift 03:40 SAT (b00tp1cv)

Timeshift 21:00 TUE (b00tr480)

Timeshift 23:20 TUE (b00tr480)

Timeshift 03:20 TUE (b00tr480)

Timeshift 22:45 WED (b0094yzq)

Timeshift 22:15 THU (b00tr480)

Timeshift 02:05 THU (b00tr480)

Today I'm With You 20:00 SUN (b00tr1gh)

Vatican: The Hidden World 21:00 WED (b00tr2p3)

Vatican: The Hidden World 00:15 WED (b00tr2p3)

Vatican: The Hidden World 03:15 WED (b00tr2p3)

Vatican: The Hidden World 23:45 THU (b00tr2p3)

Wallander 21:00 SAT (b00m9jky)

We Need Answers 20:00 WED (b00ph5yn)

We Need Answers 02:15 WED (b00ph5yn)

Wellington Bomber 20:00 TUE (b00tr2p5)

Wellington Bomber 01:20 TUE (b00tr2p5)

Wellington Bomber 01:15 WED (b00tr2p5)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b00tr1px)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b00tr2p1)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b00tr47w)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b00tr6kb)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b00tr6rl)