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 09 OCTOBER 2010

SAT 19:00 Life (b00ncr13)
Challenges of Life

In nature, living long enough to breed is a monumental struggle. Many animals and plants go to extremes to give themselves a chance.

Uniquely, three brother cheetahs band together to bring down a huge ostrich. Aerial photography reveals how bottle-nosed dolphins trap fish in a ring of mud, and time-lapse cameras show how the Venus flytrap ensnares insect victims.

The strawberry frog carries a tadpole high into a tree and drops it in a water-filled bromeliad. The frog must climb back from the ground every day to feed it.

Fledgling chinstrap penguins undertake a heroic and tragic journey through the broken ice to get out to sea. Many can barely swim and the formidable leopard seal lies in wait.


SAT 20:00 Michael Wood's Story of England (b00v3z4r)
The Great Famine and the Black Death

Groundbreaking series in which Michael Wood tells the story of one place throughout the whole of English history. The village is Kibworth in Leicestershire in the heart of England - a place that lived through the Black Death, the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution and was even bombed in World War Two.

Wood's fascinating tale reaches the catastrophic 14th century. Kibworth goes through the worst famine in European history, and then, as revealed in the astonishing village archive in Merton College Oxford, two thirds of the people die in the Black Death.

Helped by today's villagers - field walking and reading the historical texts - and by the local schoolchildren digging archaeological test pits, Wood follows stories of individual lives through these times, out of which the English idea of community and the English character begin to emerge.


SAT 21:00 BBC Four World Cinema Awards (b00v9g9b)
2010

Jonathan Ross hosts the annual celebration of world cinema from the British Film Institute. All the hits are featured, from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to Let the Right One In, while Bernardo Bertolucci, renowned director of The Last Emperor and Last Tango In Paris, is honoured.

In a strong shortlist, the contenders for film of the year include Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon, I Am Love, which stars Tilda Swinton, and Jacques Audiard's A Prophet.


SAT 22:00 Face to Face (b00v9g9d)
Bernardo Bertolucci

Jeremy Isaacs interviews Italian film director Bernardo Bertolucci about his life and work. They discuss his parents, childhood, decision to make films, political background and the nature of politcal filmmaking, other directors and their influence on him, working methods as a director and working with actors such as Marlon Brando, experience of psychoanalysis, themes he detects in his work and reaction to the popularity of some of his films.


SAT 22:30 Mad Men (b00v3z4t)
Series 4

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword

Don and Pete try to land a new Japanese client, but Roger's racist attitude may hand the lucrative account to a rival. Don has to read deeply and think quickly to salvage things. Betty is worried about reports of her daughter Sally's erratic behaviour and wonders about referring her to a therapist.


SAT 23:15 Crooked House (b00gf5l2)
Something Old

When schoolteacher Ben unearths an old door knocker in the garden of his new home, the curator suggests it may come from the now-demolished house, reputed to be haunted. Ben prompts the curator to tell him stories about the house's past.

In the 1920s, Lady Constance de Momery presides over a costume ball for her grandson, but all is not as it seems and when young heir to the estate Felix de Momery announces his engagement to sweetheart Ruth, his friends Billy and Katherine seem far from pleased.

Is the happy couple's destiny inextricably linked with another tragic wedding day many years ago and does the sight of a ghostly bride in a grave-stained wedding dress explain why there has not been a wedding at Geap Manor since then?


SAT 23:50 Timeshift (b00v3z0f)
Series 10

When Britain Went Wild

Timeshift explores the untold story of how Britain 'went wild' in the 1960s. It shows how the British people fell in love with animals and how, by the end of the decade, wildlife protection had become an intrinsic part of our culture. Before that time people knew very little about endangered species or the natural world - the very word 'environment' was hardly recognised. But the 1960s saw a sea change.

The film discovers how early television wildlife programmes with David Attenborough, writers such as Gerald Durrell and Gavin Maxwell and pioneers of conservation such as Peter Scott contributed to that transformation.


SAT 01:20 100 Years of Wildlife Films (b007xnvt)
From the most memorable wildlife films and rare cinematic gems, to amateur footage and the poignant last shots of vanished animals, Bill Oddie explores 100 years of wildlife filming. The documentary looks at how societal attitudes towards wildlife have shaped film-making - from hunting and safaris in the 1930s to a fresh-faced David Attenborough leaping on to animals to catch them for zoos in the 1950s.


SAT 03:20 BBC Four World Cinema Awards (b00v9g9b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


SAT 04:20 Churches: How to Read Them (b00tx3fg)
The Victorians and After

Richard Taylor discovers how, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, medieval imagery and ritual make a surprise return to Victorian places of worship and plunge the Anglican Church into conflict.

Richard retraces the controversy surrounding this Oxford Movement of Anglo-Catholics and explores their finest churches, showing how some of its most fervent supporters, including William Morris, had a change of heart about the radical restructuring that it brought to ancient buildings.

But the 20th century would bring even more powerful changes. Richard sees how the impact of war is reflected on imagery in our churches and how the First World War brought a return to another medieval practice - the commemoration of the dead. He visits a 21st century church that looks more like a rock venue and he finally finds the perfect place to reflect on what he has learned from his reading of Britain's churches.



SUNDAY 10 OCTOBER 2010

SUN 19:00 Time to Remember (b00v3yry)
Casualties of War

Lesley Sharp is the modern-day narrator linking together the best of the newsreel footage from the 1950s Time to Remember series illustrating the scale of the sacrifice made by ordinary people during the 20th century's two world wars.

Includes footage of recruitment and training for the Great War; soldiers going over the top in the trenches; celebrations at the end of World War One; the evacuation of 300,000 men from Dunkirk in 1940; and Hurricanes taking off during the Battle of Britain.


SUN 19:30 The Beauty of Maps (b00s5p6k)
City Maps - Order out of Chaos

Documentary series charting the visual appeal and historical meaning of maps.

The British Library is home to a staggering 4.5 million maps, most of which remain hidden away in its colossal basement, and the programme delves behind the scenes to explore some amazing treasures in more detail. This is the story of three maps, three 'visions' of London over three centuries; visions of beauty that celebrate but also distort the truth. It's the story of how urban maps try to impose order on chaos.

On Sunday 2 September 1660, the Great Fire of London began reducing most of the city to ashes, and among the huge losses were many maps of the city itself. The Morgan Map of 1682 was the first to show the whole of the City of London after the fire. Consisting of sixteen separate sheets, measuring eight feet by five feet, it took six years to complete. Morgan's beautiful map symbolised the hoped-for ideal city.

In 1746 John Rocque produced what was at the time the most detailed map ever made of London. Like Morgan's, Rocque's map is all neo-Classical beauty and clinical precision, but the London it represented had become the opposite. In engravings of the time, such as Night, the artist William Hogarth shows a city boiling with vice and corruption. Stephen Walter's contemporary image, The Island, plays with notions of cartographic order and respectability. His extraordinary London map looks at first glance to be just as precise and ordered as his hero Rocque's but, looking closer, it includes 21st-century markings, such as 'favourite kebab vans' and sites of 'personal heartbreak'.


SUN 20:00 All Our Working Lives (b00v9gln)
Revisited

Shipbuilding

The story of the British shipbuilding industry, told with rare archive and interviews with the people who worked in it. The programme features the original 1980s documentary on the industry, followed by a new film which brings the story of our shipyards right up to date.


SUN 21:30 Boys from the Blackstuff (b00v9glr)
Shop Thy Neighbour

Alan Bleasdale's acclaimed drama series, an astute social commentary about life in recession-hit Britain in the Thatcher era. Chrissie and his wife Angie are driven to despair by money problems and hounding by the Department of Employment investigators.


SUN 22:30 The Sheltering Sky (b007888l)
In 1947, an American couple, Port and Kit Moresby, arrive in North Africa. A jaded musician, Port is looking to the desert for inspiration and a way to revive his failing marriage, while Kit, tired of their nomadic lifestyle, hopes for a miracle to rekindle their passion. As their paths cross and re-cross those of other travellers, the couple indulge in sexual adventures. But Port is determined to leave the modern world behind and they set out into the Sahara.


SUN 00:45 BBC Four World Cinema Awards (b00v9g9b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


SUN 01:45 Time to Remember (b00v3yry)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 02:15 All Our Working Lives (b00v9gln)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SUN 03:45 Time to Remember (b00v3yry)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



MONDAY 11 OCTOBER 2010

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00v9gy1)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 The Cell (b00mbvfh)
The Spark of Life

In a three-part series, Dr Adam Rutherford tells the extraordinary story of the scientific quest to discover the secrets of the cell and of life itself. Every living thing is made of cells, microscopic building blocks of almost unimaginable power and complexity.

The final part reveals how our knowledge of cells has brought us to the brink of one of the most important moments in history. Scientists are close to repeating what has happened only once in four billion years - the creation of a new life form.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00v9gy3)
Series 4

Mensans vs Bloggers

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

Three friends who originally met through British Mensa pit their wits against a team drawn together by their love of TV blogs and forums.

They compete to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random, from mice to Madeleine to Gabriel.


MON 21:00 A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss (b00v9gy5)
Frankenstein Goes to Hollywood

Three-part series in which actor and writer Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen, Doctor Who, Sherlock) celebrates the greatest achievements of horror cinema.

A lifelong fan of the genre, Mark begins by exploring the golden age of Hollywood horror. From the late 1920s until the 1940s, a succession of classic pictures and unforgettable actors defined the horror genre - including The Phantom of the Opera starring Lon Chaney, Dracula with Bela Lugosi, and Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff.

Mark explains just how daring and pioneering these films were, and why they still send a chill down the spine today. He also traces how horror pictures evolved during this period, becoming camp and subversive (The Old Dark House and Bride of Frankenstein, both directed by Englishman James Whale), dark and perverse (films like Freaks, which used disabled performers), before a final flourish with the psychological horror of RKO Pictures' films (Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie), which still influence directors today. However, by the early 1950s the monsters were facing their biggest threat - the rise of science fiction films in the post-war atomic era.

Along the way, Mark steps into some of the great sets from these classic films, hears first-hand accounts from Hollywood horror veterans, discovers Lon Chaney's head in a box and finds out why Bela Lugosi met his match in Golders Green.


MON 22:00 The Bride of Frankenstein (b0077r2z)
With his original monster on the rampage, Frankenstein is forced by a crazed scientist to assemble a bride for the beast, by piecing her together from corpses. Boris Karloff as the lucky groom and Colin Clive as his creator reassemble for a sequel which, if anything, outdoes the original.


MON 23:10 Timeshift (b0074t74)
Series 6

Transylvania Babylon

A comic exploration of the cult of Dracula. From Bela Lugosi to bloodsucking bikes, with a Mexican tag-wrestling version thrown in for good measure, this ghoulish compilation is an entertaining homage to the vampire tradition gifted us by Bram Stoker's famous Count.


MON 23:40 All Our Working Lives (b00v9gln)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Sunday]


MON 01:15 A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss (b00v9gy5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 02:15 The Worst Journey in the World (b0079s9p)
Drama telling an often overlooked story of epic endurance. The story of Captain Scott's second polar expedition (1910-1913) remains a testament to an age of tragic heroism, but it is rarely remembered that prior to that fateful journey Scott and his men spent over two years conducting scientific experiments in that harsh environment.

One such task saw three of his men set forth in the snow, facing the harshest of conditions and risking their lives and their sanity - all for a penguin egg - in the winter journey of July 1911. Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Dr Bill Wilson and Lieutenant 'Birdie' Bowers faced the worst journey in the world to bring back Emperor penguin eggs which they hoped would prove an evolutionary link between reptiles and birds.

The expedition nearly cost the three men their lives, and it proved at once the pinnacle of Apsley Cherry-Garrard's life and his downfall.

This charming and moving film guides us through this quintessentially British tale of an ill-equipped, under-prepared and resolutely amateur team of adventurers almost overwhelmed by the elements.


MON 03:15 The Cell (b00mbvfh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 04:15 A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss (b00v9gy5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 12 OCTOBER 2010

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00v9j20)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 It's Only a Theory (b00nf014)
Episode 3

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

The guest celebrity is broadcaster Kirsty Wark and the experts are Dr David Bainbridge, Professor Chris Budd and Professor Stanley Wells.


TUE 20:00 Britain's Best Drives (b00j0gsq)
North Cornish Coast

Actor Richard Wilson takes a journey into the past, following routes raved about in motoring guides of 50 years ago.

Richard struggles to get to grips with a retro VW camper van as he drives the coast road from St Ives to Land's End.

He learns of St Ives's 1950s abstract art heyday and meets a 95-year-old painter still at work in Porthmeor Studios. He discovers why DH Lawrence was expelled from the county, hears legends of Cornish mermaids and gets to know his van on a blustery clifftop campsite.


TUE 20:30 Time to Remember (b00v6c8q)
A Woman's World

Newsreel footage and original 1950s Time to Remember voiceover by Joyce Grenfell and Dame Edith Evans offer an insight into the ways women's roles in society changed through the first five decades of the 20th century.

Featuring footage of suffragette protest, including Emily Davison at the 1913 Derby; working women during the First World War; Suzanne Lenglen playing tennis; and something of the fashions of the 20s and 30s.


TUE 21:00 Jane Goodall: Beauty and the Beasts (b00v9j22)
In 1960, a young secretary from Bournemouth, with no scientific qualifiactions, entered a remote forest in Africa and achieved something nobody else had ever done before. Jane Goodall became accepted by a group of wild chimpanzees, making discoveries that transformed our understanding of them, and challenged the way we define ourselves as human beings by showing just how close we are as a species to our nearest living relatives.

Since then, both she and the chimps of Gombe in Tanzania have become world famous - Jane as the beauty of many wildlife films, they as the beasts with something profound to tell us. As one of the programme's contributors, David Attenborough, suggests, Jane Goodall's story could be a fable if it wasn't true.

In this revealing programme filmed with Jane Goodall in Africa, we discover the person behind the myth, what motivates her and the personal cost her life's work has exacted from her - and why she still thinks we have a lot to learn from the chimps she has devoted her life to understanding.


TUE 22:00 Gorillas Revisited with Sir David Attenborough (b0074sfp)
David Attenborough recounts his very personal experiences with the mountain gorillas of Rwanda. Ever since they were discovered over a century ago, these remarkable creatures have been threatened by loss of habitat, poaching, disease and political instability. But despite all odds their numbers have increased. David tells the extraordinary tale of how conservationists like Dian Fossey have battled to save the mountain gorilla from the brink of extinction.


TUE 23:00 Apes in Danger (b0074sfr)
Chimpanzee

Fergal Keane narrates a documentary about the day-to-day intrigues of chimp society in Gombe, where a crisis is deepening. Chimp numbers are crashing here and everywhere else in Africa and biologists like Jane Goodall, the British primatologist, have had to give up their research and join the battle to save them from extinction.


TUE 23:30 Time to Remember (b00v6c8q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


TUE 00:00 Jane Goodall: Beauty and the Beasts (b00v9j22)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 01:00 Singer-Songwriters at the BBC (b00v4kdy)
Series 1

Episode 2

Compilation which unlocks the BBC vaults to explore the burgeoning singer-songwriter genre that exploded at the dawn of the 1970s and became one of the defining styles of that decade.

Featuring Peter Sarstedt, Carole King, Jim Croce, Bridget St John, Cat Stevens, Judy Collins, Randy Newman, John Sebastian, Joan Armatrading, Ralph McTell, Al Stewart, Kevin Coyne, Billy Joel, Tim Hardin and Paul Simon.

Programme sources include the Old Grey Whistle Test, In Concert, Top of the Pops, Sounds for Saturday, the Bobbie Gentry Show and One in Ten.


TUE 02:00 Songwriters' Circle (b00v4kf0)
Justin Currie, Chris Difford and Boo Hewerdine

Justin Currie, Chris Difford and Boo Hewerdine are the featured artists as BBC Four combines great singer-songwriters for unique concerts celebrating the craft of the song.

Filmed at Bush Hall on Uxbridge Road in west London, these concerts see three singer-songwriters perform their classic songs in turn, while helping each other out musically with harmonies and the odd guitar part. The artists only meet an hour or two before going on stage and, in between performance, take viewers inside their work, chattng about their songs, their history and background.

The three songwriters - Justin Currie, formerly of Del Amitri, who wrote hits including Nothing Ever Happens; Chris Difford, who mixes his solo work with Squeeze hits such as Up the Junction; and Boo Hewerdine, formerly of The Bible and perhaps best known for writing Patience of Angels for Eddie Reader - compare notes on songwriting, life after Top of the Pops and the male menopause.


TUE 03:00 Time to Remember (b00v6c8q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


TUE 03:30 Jane Goodall: Beauty and the Beasts (b00v9j22)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 13 OCTOBER 2010

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00v9jhd)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 War Walks (b0074l7h)
Series 2

Boyne

Few battles resound down the centuries as loudly as the Boyne. The defeat of James II by William III in 1690 is commemorated every July, when the Protestant marching season begins in Northern Ireland.

Richard Holmes walks beside the beautiful river where the two kings clashed and shows how the battle was almost over before it was fought - if a Jacobite gunner had been a little luckier, William would have been killed while inspecting enemy positions along the banks.


WED 20:00 Explosions: How We Shook the World (b00v9kb3)
Engineer Jem Stansfield is used to creating explosions, but in this programme he uncovers the story of how we have learnt to control them and harness their power for our own means.

From recreating a rather dramatic ancient Chinese alchemy accident to splitting an atom in his own home-built replica of a 1930s piece of equipment, Jem reveals how explosives work and how we have used their power throughout history. He goes underground to show how gunpowder was used in the mines of Cornwall, recreates the first test of guncotton in a quarry with dramatic results and visits a modern high explosives factory with a noble history.

Ground-breaking high speed photography makes for some startling revelations at every step of the way.


WED 21:00 Michael Wood's Story of England (b00v9kb5)
Peasants' Revolt to Tudors

Groundbreaking series in which Michael Wood tells the story of one place throughout the whole of English history. The village is Kibworth in Leicestershire in the heart of England - a place that lived through the Black Death, the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution and was even bombed in World War Two.

Wood's gripping tale moves on to dramatic battles of conscience in the time of the Hundred Years' War. Amazing finds in the school archive help trace peasant education back to the 14th century and we see how the people themselves set up the first school for their children.

Some villagers join in a rebellion against King Henry V, while others rise to become middle class merchants in the textile town of Coventry. On the horizon is the Protestant Reformation, but the rise of capitalism and individualism sow the seeds of England's future greatness.


WED 22:00 Mad Men (b00v9kb7)
Series 4

Waldorf Stories

Drama series set in the world of advertising in 1960s New York. Don and the agency are up for an award for their Glo Coat ad. Roger reflects on how he first met Don. Peggy gets stripped for action and an old young face returns to the fold.


WED 22:45 Cat People (b0078ns6)
Classic horror. Oliver, a young New Yorker, falls in love with Irena, a fashion designer whom he meets at the Central Park Zoo. But Irena is haunted by a past which threathens those around her with death and destruction.


WED 23:55 Michael Wood's Story of England (b00v9kb5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 00:55 Jane Goodall: Beauty and the Beasts (b00v9j22)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


WED 01:55 Gorillas Revisited with Sir David Attenborough (b0074sfp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]


WED 03:00 Explosions: How We Shook the World (b00v9kb3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 04:00 Michael Wood's Story of England (b00v9kb5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 14 OCTOBER 2010

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00v9kqb)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Seven Ages of Britain (b00rfqpk)
Age of Money

In the 18th century, the triumph of commerce led to the emergence of a new 'middle' class, a group of people who craved pleasure and novelty, and developed its own tastes in art. The result was a golden age in painting, with Hogarth, Reynolds and Gainsborough reinventing the British style.

The story ends in 1805 with the burial of Horatio Nelson, a commoner, at the heart of St Paul's: the supremacy of the middle class assured.


THU 20:30 In Search of Medieval Britain (b00b413n)
Heartlands

Medieval art historian Dr Alixe Bovey uses the oldest surviving route map of Britain to make a series of journeys through Britain in the Middle Ages. Exploring the life of the commoner, she discovers the origins of precedent in common law and uncovers the foundations of modern parliament in a bloody power struggle.


THU 21:00 Henry VIII: Patron or Plunderer? (b00lc71z)
Episode 2

In the 1530s, King Henry VIII was at a crossroads. In his desperation for a new wife and an heir he had broken with Rome, divorced Catherine of Aragon and married Anne Boleyn. Isolated and vulnerable, he needed a powerful new image as head of church and state.

In the second of a two-part documentary, architectural historian Jonathan Foyle looks for clues in the king's art to glimpse what was going on inside his head as he faced his darkest days.


THU 22:00 Michael Wood's Story of England (b00v9kb5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]


THU 23:00 A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss (b00v9gy5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


THU 00:00 I Walked With a Zombie (b0078t0v)
A Canadian nurse, Betsy, arrives on a Caribbean island to tend an invalid woman who appears to suffer from an unexplained paralysis. The horrific truth soon emerges, however, amid the haunting rhythms of the voodoo drums.


THU 01:05 The Bride of Frankenstein (b0077r2z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]


THU 02:20 Explosions: How We Shook the World (b00v9kb3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Wednesday]


THU 03:20 Henry VIII: Patron or Plunderer? (b00lc71z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 15 OCTOBER 2010

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00v9lhv)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Chopin: The Women Behind the Music (b00v9qpb)
Documentary about the life of the great pianist and composer Chopin and the story of the women whose voices inspired his music. It is undeniable that Chopin revolutionised the nature of music composed for the piano both technically and emotionally. What is less well known is that the actual musical instrument that provided his greatest source of inspiration was the female voice.

To mark the 200th anniversary of Chopin's birth, this film follows young pianist James Rhodes on a journey to Warsaw, Paris and London to discover the real women who had such a powerful influence on the composer.

Exploring the events of Chopin's life, Rhodes encounters the singers who enchanted the composer with their voices: Konstancja, a young soprano and the object of his teenage affections; Delfina, the sexually notorious Polish Parisian emigre countess; fellow composer and opera singer Pauline Viardot; and, during the final few months of his life, the Swedish operatic superstar Jenny Lind.

Threaded through the narrative of the film is a selection of Chopin's piano music performed by Rhodes, while rising young opera singer Natalya Romaniw performs some of the signature arias that thrilled Chopin.

Featuring contributions from Chopin experts including the interpreters Emanuel Ax and Garrick Ohlsson, his biographer Adam Zamoyski and piano guru Jeremy Siepmann.


FRI 21:00 Singer-Songwriters at the BBC (b00v9lhx)
Series 1

Episode 3

Compilation which unlocks the BBC vaults to explore the burgeoning singer-songwriter genre that exploded at the dawn of the 1970s and became one of the definining styles of that decade.

Featuring classic songs from Bobbie Gentry, Kris Kristofferson, Buffy Saint-Marie, Janis Ian, Gordon Lightfoot, John Martyn, Randy Newman, Linda Lewis, Joni Mitchell, Don McLean, Ralph McTell, Loudon Wainwright III, Don Williams and Paul Brady.

Programme sources include The Old Grey Whistle Test, Top of the Pops, Sounds for Saturday, The Bobbie Gentry Show and One in Ten.


FRI 22:00 Songwriters' Circle (b00v9lhz)
Joe Ely, John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett

This session of the specially-created concerts for BBC FOUR in which three singer-songwriters take it in turns to play their signature works, chat about their songs and collaborate muscially features three of the best exponents of Americana - Texans Lyle Lovett and Joe Ely and Indiana's John Hiatt.

All three draw on country, rock 'n' roll, blues and soul influences to craft their own characteristic sound, each with their own distinctive lyrical voice. Lyle Lovett performs classics like If I Had a Boat and My Baby Don't Tolerate; John Hiatt plays some of his strongest and most covered work including Thing Called Love and Have a Little Faith In Me; and Joe Ely, who flew in especially for the show from his home town of Lubbock, Texas and tells his share of good stories, performs Me and Billy the Kid, Honky Tonk Masquerade and more.


FRI 23:00 Leonard Cohen: Songs from the Road (b00vdgmf)
A selection of live performances from Leonard Cohen's triumphant 2008-2009 world tour, featuring classic songs like Bird on the Wire, Famous Blue Raincoat and Hallelujah performed by Leonard and his impeccable musicians and singers before transfixed audiences in a variety of venues across the world.


FRI 00:00 BBC Four Sessions (b00fd1q1)
Randy Newman

The great American master of irony, singer-songwriter Randy Newman graces the stage at LSO St Luke's in London for an intimate concert. Balancing songs of scathing wit with affecting romantic ballads, he is joined by the strings of the BBC Concert Orchestra under the baton of Robert Ziegler.

There is a selection from his critically-acclaimed album Harps and Angels, including the critique of the Bush administration A Few Words in Defence of Our Country, and Newman also cherrypicks songs such as Short People, I Think It's Going to Rain Today, Political Science and Marie from his impressive back catalogue.


FRI 01:00 Singer-Songwriters at the BBC (b00v9lhx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:00 Songwriters' Circle (b00v9lhz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 03:00 Chopin: The Women Behind the Music (b00v9qpb)
[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)

100 Years of Wildlife Films 01:20 SAT (b007xnvt)

A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss 21:00 MON (b00v9gy5)

A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss 01:15 MON (b00v9gy5)

A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss 04:15 MON (b00v9gy5)

A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss 23:00 THU (b00v9gy5)

All Our Working Lives 20:00 SUN (b00v9gln)

All Our Working Lives 02:15 SUN (b00v9gln)

All Our Working Lives 23:40 MON (b00v9gln)

Apes in Danger 23:00 TUE (b0074sfr)

BBC Four Sessions 00:00 FRI (b00fd1q1)

BBC Four World Cinema Awards 21:00 SAT (b00v9g9b)

BBC Four World Cinema Awards 03:20 SAT (b00v9g9b)

BBC Four World Cinema Awards 00:45 SUN (b00v9g9b)

Boys from the Blackstuff 21:30 SUN (b00v9glr)

Britain's Best Drives 20:00 TUE (b00j0gsq)

Cat People 22:45 WED (b0078ns6)

Chopin: The Women Behind the Music 19:30 FRI (b00v9qpb)

Chopin: The Women Behind the Music 03:00 FRI (b00v9qpb)

Churches: How to Read Them 04:20 SAT (b00tx3fg)

Crooked House 23:15 SAT (b00gf5l2)

Explosions: How We Shook the World 20:00 WED (b00v9kb3)

Explosions: How We Shook the World 03:00 WED (b00v9kb3)

Explosions: How We Shook the World 02:20 THU (b00v9kb3)

Face to Face 22:00 SAT (b00v9g9d)

Gorillas Revisited with Sir David Attenborough 22:00 TUE (b0074sfp)

Gorillas Revisited with Sir David Attenborough 01:55 WED (b0074sfp)

Henry VIII: Patron or Plunderer? 21:00 THU (b00lc71z)

Henry VIII: Patron or Plunderer? 03:20 THU (b00lc71z)

I Walked With a Zombie 00:00 THU (b0078t0v)

In Search of Medieval Britain 20:30 THU (b00b413n)

It's Only a Theory 19:30 TUE (b00nf014)

Jane Goodall: Beauty and the Beasts 21:00 TUE (b00v9j22)

Jane Goodall: Beauty and the Beasts 00:00 TUE (b00v9j22)

Jane Goodall: Beauty and the Beasts 03:30 TUE (b00v9j22)

Jane Goodall: Beauty and the Beasts 00:55 WED (b00v9j22)

Leonard Cohen: Songs from the Road 23:00 FRI (b00vdgmf)

Life 19:00 SAT (b00ncr13)

Mad Men 22:30 SAT (b00v3z4t)

Mad Men 22:00 WED (b00v9kb7)

Michael Wood's Story of England 20:00 SAT (b00v3z4r)

Michael Wood's Story of England 21:00 WED (b00v9kb5)

Michael Wood's Story of England 23:55 WED (b00v9kb5)

Michael Wood's Story of England 04:00 WED (b00v9kb5)

Michael Wood's Story of England 22:00 THU (b00v9kb5)

Only Connect 20:30 MON (b00v9gy3)

Seven Ages of Britain 19:30 THU (b00rfqpk)

Singer-Songwriters at the BBC 01:00 TUE (b00v4kdy)

Singer-Songwriters at the BBC 21:00 FRI (b00v9lhx)

Singer-Songwriters at the BBC 01:00 FRI (b00v9lhx)

Songwriters' Circle 02:00 TUE (b00v4kf0)

Songwriters' Circle 22:00 FRI (b00v9lhz)

Songwriters' Circle 02:00 FRI (b00v9lhz)

The Beauty of Maps 19:30 SUN (b00s5p6k)

The Bride of Frankenstein 22:00 MON (b0077r2z)

The Bride of Frankenstein 01:05 THU (b0077r2z)

The Cell 19:30 MON (b00mbvfh)

The Cell 03:15 MON (b00mbvfh)

The Sheltering Sky 22:30 SUN (b007888l)

The Worst Journey in the World 02:15 MON (b0079s9p)

Time to Remember 19:00 SUN (b00v3yry)

Time to Remember 01:45 SUN (b00v3yry)

Time to Remember 03:45 SUN (b00v3yry)

Time to Remember 20:30 TUE (b00v6c8q)

Time to Remember 23:30 TUE (b00v6c8q)

Time to Remember 03:00 TUE (b00v6c8q)

Timeshift 23:50 SAT (b00v3z0f)

Timeshift 23:10 MON (b0074t74)

War Walks 19:30 WED (b0074l7h)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b00v9gy1)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b00v9j20)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b00v9jhd)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b00v9kqb)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b00v9lhv)