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 15 JANUARY 2011

SAT 19:00 South Pacific (b00kjjnx)
Ocean of Islands

The South Pacific islands are the most remote in the world. Their extraordinary isolation has created some of the most curious, surprising and precarious examples of life found anywhere on Earth; from giant crabs that tear open coconuts, to flesh-eating caterpillars that impale their prey on dagger-like claws.

Human culture is different too. The men of Pentecost Island celebrate their annual harvest by leaping from 20-metre high scaffolds, with only forest vines to break their fall. And on the tiny island of Anuta, possibly the most remote community of people on the planet, the locals survive entirely on what they can grow and catch.

The South Pacific's innumerable islands look like pieces of paradise, but the reality of life here is sometimes very different, with waves the size of buildings, brutal tropical storms, and, in the far south, even blizzards. This is the real South Pacific.


SAT 20:00 Timeshift (b00xf6xk)
Series 10

The Modern Age of the Coach

Documentary which brings the story of the coach up to date, as it explores the most recent phase of Britain's love affair with group travel on four wheels - from school trips and football away-days to touring with bands and 'magic bus' overland treks to India.

The establishment of the National Coach Company may have standardised the livery and the experience of mainstream coach travel in the 1970s, but a multitude of alternative offerings meant the coach retained its hold on the public imagination, with even striking miners and New Age travellers getting in on a very British act.


SAT 21:00 Bruce Springsteen: The Promise - The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town (b00xk78m)
Thom Zimny's film, The Promise - The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, explores the three years it took to make Bruce Springsteen's fourth studio album, 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Struggling with newfound stardom brought on by 1975's Born To Run and locked in a legal struggle for control of his own career with his manager Mike Appel, Springsteen was determined to make an album that would do justice to the dreams and struggles of working-class America. The 'Boss' and the E-Street Band worked tirelessly to make a profound, mature work tinged with what Springsteen calls 'American noir'. In the process, he wrote and recorded nearly 70 songs, gave away potential hits like Because The Night and nearly drove his band and his producers around the twist.

Zimny's film is driven by in-depth interviews with Springsteen, the E-Street Band and producers Jon Landau and Jimmy Lovine and features extensive black-and-white archive footage of the process from the time, shot in Springsteen's home studio and at New York's Record Plant.


SAT 22:30 Bruce Springsteen: Darkness Live 1978 (b00xxn1l)
Hot on the heels of the release of their classic fourth studio album, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band went on the road with renewed hunger and are captured here playing the songs from the album live in 1978 in Houston, cementing their reputation as saviours of rock 'n' roll.


SAT 23:30 BBC Four Sessions (b0074sjm)
Bruce Springsteen with the Seeger Sessions Band

Series of unique concerts by musicians from around the world.

Bruce Springsteen makes a departure from his rock 'n' roll superstar persona, singing the songs made famous by Pete Seeger in the 1950s. Backed by a hootenanny-style 18-piece ensemble including horns, fiddles and accordion, he performs songs from his album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.


SAT 00:30 Hammond Meets Moss (b00sfptv)
Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond and motor racing legend Sir Stirling Moss share the same life-altering experience - they had their lives changed forever by terrible car accidents.

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

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


SAT 01:30 The Deadliest Crash: the Le Mans 1955 Disaster (b00sfptx)
At 6.26 pm, June 11th 1955, the world of playboy racers and their exotic cars exploded in a devastating fireball. On the home straight early in the Le Mans 24-Hour race, future British world champion Mike Hawthorn made a rash mistake. Pierre Levegh's Mercedes 300 SLR smashed into the crowd, killing 83 people and injuring 120 more. It remains the worst disaster in motor racing history.

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


SAT 02:30 Bruce Springsteen: The Promise - The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town (b00xk78m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



SUNDAY 16 JANUARY 2011

SUN 19:00 The Normans (b00tfdsk)
Conquest

In the second of this three-part series, Professor Robert Bartlett explores the impact of the Norman conquest of Britain and Ireland. Bartlett shows how William the Conqueror imposed a new aristocracy, savagely cut down opposition and built scores of castles and cathedrals to intimidate and control. He also commissioned the Domesday Book, the greatest national survey of England that had ever been attempted.

England adapted to its new masters and both the language and culture were transformed as the Normans and the English intermarried. Bartlett shows how the political and cultural landscape of Scotland, Wales and Ireland were also forged by the Normans and argues that the Normans created the blueprint for colonialism in the modern world.


SUN 20:00 Dan Snow's Norman Walks (b00td53j)
Herefordshire and Monmouthshire - the March of Wales

As part of the BBC's Norman season, historian Dan Snow puts his walking boots on and sets off to see what the great British landscape can teach us about our Norman predecessors. From their violent arrival on these shores, to their most sustaining legacies, Dan's three walks follow an evolutionary path through the Normans' era from invasion, to conquest, to successful rule and colonization.

On the Sussex coast, along the Welsh border and on the edge of the North York Moors, Dan explores the landscape and whatever evidence might remain; earthmounds, changing coastlines, viewpoints, and of course the giant stone castles and buildings that were the great symbol of Norman rule. All these elements offer clues as to how the Norman elite were ultimately able to dominate and rule our Anglo-Saxon kingdom.

As Dan discovers, there are a great many unknowns about events in 1066 and thereafter. But one thing is clear - wherever they went, the varied British landscape and its diverse people offered a fresh challenge to the Normans.

Dan's second walk explores what the invaders did next, as they aimed to cement their rule across a diverse nation. Despite William the Conqueror being confirmed as king, the Normans had only completed stage one of their colonization, and few areas were as unstable as the Welsh borders. Challenging topography and a multitude of local chieftains made for an uncivilized region and Dan’s walk around the Monnow river system is dominated by the motte and bailey castles that sprang up throughout the Norman era. These were the handiwork of ambitious barons who made their mark on the 'march' – a border zone from which the Normans pushed their influence west into Wales and Ireland. Dan's very rural walk is still touched by the agriculture, forests and common ground established by the Normans, and he discovers that one of the present-day landowning families has held its lands for almost a thousand years.


SUN 20:30 Johnny Kingdom's Year with the Birds (b00vtz42)
Episode 2

Johnny Kingdom, gravedigger-turned-amateur film-maker spends a year recording the bird life in and around his home on his beloved Exmoor.

Johnny has spent three years creating a wildlife habitat on his 52-acre patch of land on the edge of Exmoor. He has been busy nailing nest boxes on tree trunks, planting a wildflower meadow, dredging his pond, putting up remote cameras and wiring them up to a viewing station in his cabin on the land - all the time hoping against hope that not only will he attract new wildlife but also that he will be able to film it.

This year he is turning his attention to the bird life, hoping to follow some of the species he finds near his home and on his land, across the seasons. We see the transitions from the lovely autumn mists of the oak wood, through the sparkling snow-clad landscape of a north Devon winter, into spring's woodland carpet of bluebells and finally the golden glow of early summer.

The bulk of the series is from Johnny's own camera. Do not expect the Natural History Unit - instead expect passion, enthusiasm, humour and an exuberant love of the landscape and its wildlife.

Spring has arrived and it is the busiest time of year for the birds. Johnny tries to film as many of them that are nesting on his land as he can. The great spotted woodpeckers have abandoned their roosting site and found a new tree to nest in, but with 20 acres of woodland Johnny will have his work cut out to find it.

He also fixes remote cameras in place to film the nests of bluetits, blackbirds and swallows, but a period of unusually hot weather spells disaster for some of them. On a happier note, Johnny is delighted when a pair of Canada geese nest on the island on his pond and hatch out five goslings.


SUN 21:00 Among Giants (b0078hj5)
Gritty northern drama in which two friends compete for the affections of a young Australian woman when she joins their team of painters on a risky job to paint a 15-mile stretch of electricity pylons on the Yorkshire Moors.


SUN 22:30 Le diner de cons (b007sfr0)
Screwball French comedy. Each week, successful Parisian editor Pierre Brochant enlivens his comfortable but boring life by organising an 'idiots dinner', to which every attendee must come in the company of an entertainingly stupid guest.

Pierre thinks he has struck gold when he meets Francois Pignon, an unsuspecting tax inspector who enjoys building models of famous landmarks out of matchsticks. But on the night of the event, Pierre hurts his back and is forced to cancel at the last minute, which turns out to be only the first of a series of mini-disasters that threaten to leave his comfortable life in tatters.


SUN 23:45 The Godmother of Rock & Roll: Sister Rosetta Tharpe (b00xf8k7)
During the 1940s, 50s and 60s, Sister Rosetta Tharpe played a highly significant role in the creation of rock & roll, inspiring musicians like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. She may not be a household name, but this flamboyant African-American gospel singing superstar, with her spectacular virtuosity on the newly-electrified guitar, was one of the most influential popular musicians of the 20th century.

Tharpe was born in 1915, close to the Mississippi in Cotton Plant, Arkansas. At the age of six she was taken by her evangelist mother Katie Bell to Chicago to join Roberts Temple, Church of God in Christ, where she developed her distinctive style of singing and guitar playing. At the age of 23 she left the church and went to New York to join the world of show business, signing with Decca Records. For the following 30 years she performed extensively to packed houses in the USA and subsequently Europe, before her death in 1973.

In 2008 the state governor of Pennsylvania declared that henceforth January 11th will be Sister Rosetta Tharpe Day in recognition of her remarkable musical legacy.


SUN 00:45 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.


SUN 01:45 Legends (b00vv0zz)
Roll over Beethoven - The Chess Records Saga

Chicago's Chess Records was one of the greatest labels of the post-war era, ranking alongside other mighty independents like Atlantic, Stax and Sun. From 1950 till its demise at the end of the 60s, Chess released a myriad of electric blues, rock 'n' roll and soul classics that helped change the landscape of black and white popular music.

Chess was the label that gave the world such sonic adventurers as Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf and Etta James. In this documentary to mark the label's 60th anniversary, the likes of Jimmy Page, Mick Hucknall, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Paul Jones and Little Steven, as well as those attached to the label such as founder's son Marshall Chess, pay tribute to its extraordinary music and influence.

The film reveals how two Polish immigrants, Leonard and Phil Chess, forged friendships with black musicians in late 1940s Chicago, shrewdly building a speciality blues label into a huge independent worth millions by the end of the 1960s. Full of vivid period detail, it places the Chess story within a wider social and historical context - as well as being about some of the greatest music ever recorded, it is, inevitably, about race in America during these tumultuous times.


SUN 02:45 Dan Snow's Norman Walks (b00td53j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SUN 03:15 The Normans (b00tfdsk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



MONDAY 17 JANUARY 2011

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00xk7wz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Hop, Skip and Jump: The Story of Children's Play (b00p8lhr)
The Great Outdoors

Two-part series which tells the story of children's outdoor games in 20th-century Britain begins by looking at British children at play between the 1900s and the mid-1950s.

It is a journey into a secret world of adventure and imagination that blossomed in the nation's streets, back alleys and playgrounds. The children's songs and games were passed down from one generation to the next and remain an abiding memory for most grown-ups. Playing on the streets was the defining feature of a working class childhood.

But the freedom they enjoyed meant they often got into trouble; none more so than the tribal gangs of boys who named themselves after the places where they lived. The programme highlights how children's play varied between city and country, between the different social classes and between boys and girls.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00xjrr9)
Specials

University Challenge Special

Victoria Coren presents a special edition of the quiz show in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital. Undefeated champions of champions, the Crossworders, risk their reputation by confronting the awesome brainpower of the University Challengers, captained by the illustrious Alex Guttenplan.

It isn't going to be an easy ride for either team, as they try to connect Fortis shareholders with Muntadar al-Zaidi, sabateurs and Nikita Kruschchev.


MON 21:00 Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask (b00vv0zx)
The composer of Land of Hope and Glory is often regarded as the quintessential English gentleman, but Edward Elgar's image of hearty nobility was deliberately contrived. In reality, he was the son of a shopkeeper, who was awkward, nervous, self-pitying and often rude, while his marriage to his devoted wife Alice was complicated by romantic entanglements which fired his creative energy.

In this revelatory portrait of a musical genius, John Bridcut explores the secret conflicts in Elgar's nature which produced some of Britain's greatest music.


MON 22:30 Storyville (b00xk7x1)
Pablo's Hippos

Recounting the absurd and paradoxical history of Colombia's thirty-year struggle with international drug trafficking, at once a farce and a tragedy, as seen through the eyes of the extravagant pet of the most powerful drug baron in history: a hippopotamus named Pablo.


MON 23:50 Mad and Bad: 60 Years of Science on TV (b00wltfx)
From Raymond Baxter live on Tomorrow's World testing a new-fangled bulletproof vest on a nervous inventor to Doctor Who's contemporary spin on the War on Terror, British television and the Great British public have been fascinated with the brave new world offered up by science on TV.

Narrated by Robert Webb, this documentary takes a fantastic, incisive and funny voyage through the rich heritage of science TV in the UK, from real science programmes (including The Sky At Night, Horizon, Tomorrow's World, The Ascent of Man) to science-fiction (such as The Quatermass Experiment, Doctor Who, Doomwatch, Blake's 7, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), to find out what it tells us about Britain over the last 60 years.

Important figures in science and TV science, including Sir David Attenborough, Robert Winston, Dr Tim Hunt, Professor Colin Blakemore, Tony Robinson, Sir Patrick Moore and Johnny Ball, comment on growing up with TV science and on how it has reflected - or led - our collective image of science and the scientist.


MON 01:20 Hop, Skip and Jump: The Story of Children's Play (b00p8lhr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:20 Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask (b00vv0zx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 18 JANUARY 2011

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00xllms)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 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'.


TUE 20:00 Baroque! - From St Peter's to St Paul's (b00jf3hv)
Episode 3

Spectacular three-part series, exploring the Baroque tradition in many of its key locations. Starting in Italy and following the spread of the wildfire across Europe and beyond, art critic Waldemar Januszczak takes a tour of the best examples of Baroque to be found, and tells the best stories behind those works.

Episode Three brings the Baroque home with an exploration of the English Baroque tradition that finds its climax through a tour of London's Hawksmoor churches, and Christopher Wren's iconic St Paul's Cathedral.


TUE 21:00 Secret Lives of the Artists (b00t4jx0)
Who Killed Caravaggio?

When Caravaggio died in 1610 , he was 39 years old, the most famous painter of his age and an exile from Rome after killing a man in a street fight. But his death has always been a mystery, with no body, no grave site, and conflicting stories of what happened.

In 2001, art critic Andrew Graham- Dixon went in search of the true story of the extraordinary life and mysterious death of one of the greatest painters in western art, travelling from Rome to Naples to Malta and Sicily, meeting experts and scouring archives on the way. He uncovered the painter's criminal record, a trail of violent incident, sexual intrigue and conspiracy, and came face to face with some of the most profoundly spiritual paintings ever painted.

Graham-Dixon has been researching and working on the story of the artist ever since. Caravaggio's art has never been more popular, and now he thinks he may have found some of the answers.


TUE 22:00 Sectioned (b00sg94v)
Powerful documentary which, for the first time, follows three people who have been sectioned on their journey through the mental health system. With unprecedented access to one of the largest mental health trusts in the UK, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, the film focuses on Andrew, Richard and Anthony as they battle to regain control of their lives, bringing into sharp focus the huge challenges faced by patients and staff alike.


TUE 23:00 The Brain: A Secret History (b00x7cb5)
Emotions

Dr Michael Mosley continues his exploration of the brutal history of experimental psychology. Experiments on the human mind have led to profound insights into how our brain works - but have also involved great cruelty and posed some terrible ethical dilemmas.

In this film, Michael investigates how scientists have struggled to understand that most irrational and deeply complex part of our minds - our emotions.

Michael meets survivors - both participants and scientists - of some of the key historical experiments. Many of these extraordinary research projects were captured on film - an eight-month-old boy is taught to fear random objects, baby monkeys are given mothers made from wire and cloth, and an adult is deliberately violent before a group of toddlers.

Michael takes part in modern-day experiments to play his own small part in the quest to understand emotions.


TUE 00:00 The Search for Life: The Drake Equation (b00wltbk)
For many years our place in the universe was the subject of theologians and philosophers, not scientists, but in 1960 one man changed all that.

Dr Frank Drake was one of the leading lights in the new science of radio astronomy when he did something that was not only revolutionary, but could have cost him his career. Working at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Greenback in Virginia, he pointed one of their new 25-metre radio telescopes at a star called Tau Ceti twelve light years from earth, hoping for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.

Although project Ozma resulted in silence, it did result in one of the most seminal equations in the history of science - the Drake Equation - which examined seven key elements necessary for extraterrestrial intelligence to exist, from the formation of stars to the likely length a given intelligent civilisation may survive. When Frank and his colleagues entered the figures, the equation suggested there were a staggering 50,000 civilisations capable of communicating across the galaxy.

However, in the 50 years of listening that has followed, not one single bleep has been heard from extraterrestrials. So were Drake and his followers wrong and is there no life form out there capable of communicating? Drake's own calculations suggest that we would have to scan the entire radio spectrum of ten million stars to be sure of contact.

The answers to those questions suggest that, far from being a one-off, life may not only be common in the universe but once started will lead inevitably towards intelligent life.

To find out about the equation's influence, Dallas Campbell goes on a worldwide journey to meet the scientists who have dedicated their lives to focusing on its different aspects.


TUE 01:00 Secret Lives of the Artists (b00t4jx0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 02:00 Baroque! - From St Peter's to St Paul's (b00jf3hv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 03:00 Storyville (b00xk7x1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 on Monday]



WEDNESDAY 19 JANUARY 2011

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00xllyn)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 The Boats That Built Britain (b00scqb3)
The Phoenix

The square rigger is arguably the most important vehicle in history. In the 19th century these boats transported finished goods and raw materials all over the world, transforming Britain from a second-rate European power into the richest and most powerful nation on earth.

Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe sets out on the Phoenix, a plank-perfect square rigger, to discover just how these incredible boats changed Britain and the world forever.


WED 20:00 Sykes and a... (b00xygk7)
Series 5

Haunting

Classic episode of the much-loved 1960s sitcom. Strange things happen when Eric and Hattie unpack an old theatrical trunk belonging to their Uncle Edward, an escapologist.


WED 20:30 Sykes (b00xxq4t)
Series 1

Stranger

Classic comedy. Eric and Hattie are visited by a mysterious stranger who claims that he has returned to honour a childhood promise.


WED 21:00 Hattie (b00xllyq)
Ruth Jones takes on the role of the larger-than-life Carry On actress Hattie Jacques, revealing how her home life was blown apart by a secret sexual liaison with her handsome young driver while she was married to Dad's Army star John Le Mesurier.


WED 22:25 This Is Your Life (b00xyf0n)
Series 8

Hattie Jacques

Eamonn Andrews hosts the nostalgic chat show with a look into Hattie Jacques's life and career, with contributions from John Le Mesurier, Eric Sykes, Leslie Phillips, Shirley Eaton, Leonard Sachs and Bernard Miles. (1963)


WED 22:55 More Dawn French's Girls Who Do: Comedy (b0074syv)
Series 1

Victoria Wood

Dawn French talks to Victoria Wood about her comedy life and influences. (2006)


WED 23:25 More Dawn French's Girls Who Do: Comedy (b0074syb)
Series 1

Julie Walters

Dawn French interviews Julie Walters about her life in comedy.


WED 23:55 Hattie (b00xllyq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 01:25 This Is Your Life (b00xyf0n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:25 today]


WED 01:55 Sykes and a... (b00xygk7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:25 Sykes (b00xxq4t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 02:55 Hattie (b00xllyq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 20 JANUARY 2011

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00xln21)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Storyville (b00rm4x1)
Barbados at the Races

Run Cat Run!

Four-part series looking at Barbados today through the lives, at work and at play, of the island's horse racing community. The series is centred on the Barbados Turf Club and follows the stories of a colourful cast of characters, from the big white owners at the top of the tree right down to the poor black exercise riders and grooms. The Club and its racecourse have been based at the former British army garrison on the edge of the island's capital, Bridgetown, for over a hundred years. The quirky and, at times, spiritually-minded series looks at how the culture of Barbados today, its institutions and the mindset of its people, have been shaped by the colonial past and the legacy of slavery.

It is not so long ago that the stands at the Barbados Turf Club were racially segregated, and until very recently the club was the preserve of the mainly white, wealthier classes. Now, however, the race track has attracted a new breed of small trainer determined to break into this exclusive gentleman's club. This is a tale of two trainers - one big, powerful and white, one small, cash-strapped and black - and shows that in the world of horse racing everyone can find themselves out of their depth.


THU 20:00 Beautiful Equations (b00wltbm)
Artist and writer Matt Collings takes the plunge into an alien world of equations. He asks top scientists to help him understand five of the most famous equations in science, talks to Stephen Hawking about his equation for black holes and comes face to face with a particle of anti-matter.

Along the way he discovers why Newton was right about those falling apples and how to make sense of E=mc2. As he gets to grips with these equations he wonders whether the concept of artistic beauty has any relevance to the world of physics.


THU 21:00 The Brain: A Secret History (b00xln23)
Broken Brains

Dr Michael Mosley concludes his series exploring the brutal history of experimental psychology by looking at how experiments on abnormal brains have revealed the workings of the normal brain.

He meets remarkable individuals like Karen, who suffered from a rare condition - alien hand syndrome - which meant that one of her hands constantly attacked her. And Julia, who seems to have recovered from her stroke - until experiments reveal she is unable to recall the name of any object.

Michael explores the case of an amnesiac known for years only by his initials, HM, who became the most studied individual in the history of psychology and whose extraordinary case opened a window on how our memory works. He visits the centre which has been set up to map HM's brain down to the level of a neuron. But are the functions of our brain really as fixed as we think? Michael tries out a device which aims to make us see using our tongue.


THU 22:00 Five Daughters (b00s8j5t)
Episode 3

In the final part of this drama based on interviews with some of those most closely involved, we follow the days after bodies, thought to be those of Annette Nicholls and Paula Clenell, are discovered.

We see how their families coped with their unfolding tragedies and learn how, 17 days after the discovery of the first victim, the police finally closed the net on the murderer.


THU 23:00 Le diner de cons (b007sfr0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 on Sunday]


THU 00:15 The Brain: A Secret History (b00xln23)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


THU 01:15 Beautiful Equations (b00wltbm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 02:15 Storyville (b00rm4x1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 02:45 The Brain: A Secret History (b00xln23)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 21 JANUARY 2011

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00xln7j)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Mozart Uncovered (b0074q3y)
Symphony No 40 in G Minor

Conductor Charles Hazlewood rehearses and performs some of the key works featured in the BBC series The Genius of Mozart and analyses them in more detail. Mozart's Symphony No.40 in G minor, K550 is examined by Hazlewood and his specially-formed period orchestra, the second of Mozart's three last great symphonies written in an extraordinary burst of creativity in just six weeks.


FRI 20:30 Transatlantic Sessions (b00809fv)
Series 3

Episode 3

Folk musicians come together in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever'. Paul Brady hooks up with Scottish chanteuses Eddi Reader and Karen Matheson and a few others in a performance of his song, Rainbow. Also featured are Iris DeMent in a rare appearance in the UK, joining Joan Osborne and Bruce Molsky, with the instrumental talents of Sharon Shannon on accordion and Russ Barenberg on guitar.


FRI 21:00 Legends (b00xln7l)
Thin Lizzy: Bad Reputation

Affectionate but honest portrait of Thin Lizzy, arguably the best hard rock band to come out of Ireland.

Starting with the remix of the classic album Jailbreak by Scott Gorham and Brian Downey, the film takes us through the rollercoaster ride that is the story of Thin Lizzy. From early footage of singer Phil Lynott in Ireland in his pre-Lizzy bands the Black Eagles and Orphanage, it follows his progress as he, guitarist Eric Bell and drummer Brian Downey form the basic three-piece that was to become Thin Lizzy - a name taken from the Beano.

Using original interviews with Bell, Downey, the man who signed them and their first manager, it traces the early years leading to the recruitment of guitarists Brian 'Robbo' Robertson and Scott Gorham - the classic line-up. The film uses a number of stills, some seen on TV for the first time, archive from contemporary TV shows and a range of tracks both well known and not so famous.

There are hilarious self-deprecating anecdotes, from the stories behind the making of the Boys are Back in Town to the hiring of Midge Ure. We hear about the 'revolving door' as guitarist after guitarist was fired and hired, and the recording of Bad Reputation and Live and Dangerous - where producer Tony Visconti pulls no punches in talking about how he recorded the latter - putting the controversy to bed for the final time. Except that Downey and Robertson still disagree with him.

Finally, we hear how drugs and alcohol impacted on the band and how the music suffered, how one member later substituted golf for heroin and how addiction and the related lifestyle led to the death of Phil Lynott.

Contributors include Brian Downey, Scott Gorham, Eric Bell, Brian Robertson, Midge Ure, Bob Geldof, Tony Visconti, Joe Elliot and many others.


FRI 22:00 Iron Maiden: Flight 666 (b00r5ylv)
A film that documents the first leg of Iron Maiden's Somewhere Back in Time world tour, which took them 50,000 miles around the planet playing 23 concerts on five continents in just 45 days.

One of the stars of the movie is the customised Boeing 757, Ed Force One, which carried the band, their crew and 12 tons of stage equipment and was piloted by airline captain and Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson.

The film gives a close-up, behind-the-scenes look at what happened on and off stage, when Maiden gave full access to a camera crew for the first time, and contains some of the most spectacular live footage yet seen of the band.

Taking the viewer from Mumbai to Santiago, LA to Sydney, Tokyo to San Paolo and all points between, through exhaustion and fan pandemonium, travelling with band and crew on the plane, to and from shows, in the bar and during leisure time, this really is Access All Areas.


FRI 23:55 Classic Albums (b00vlq0y)
Black Sabbath: Paranoid

The second album by Black Sabbath, released in 1970, has long attained classic status. Paranoid not only changed the face of rock music, but also defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history. The result of a magic chemistry which had been discovered between four English musicians, it put Black Sabbath firmly on the road to world domination.

This programme tells the story behind the writing, recording and success of the album. Despite vilification from the Christian and moral right and all the harsh criticism that the music press could hurl at them, Paranoid catapulted Sabbath into the rock stratosphere.

Using exclusive interviews, musical demonstration, archive footage and a return to the multi-tracks with engineer Tom Allom, the film reveals how Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward created their frighteningly dark, heavy and ear-shatteringly loud sound.

Additional comments from Phil Alexander (MOJO & Kerrang! editor), Geoff Barton (Classic Rock editor), Henry Rollins (writer/musician) and Jim Simpson (original manager) add insight to the creation of this all-time classic.


FRI 00:50 Bruce Springsteen: The Promise - The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town (b00xk78m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


FRI 02:20 Bruce Springsteen: Darkness Live 1978 (b00xxn1l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 on Saturday]


FRI 03:20 Legends (b00xln7l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]




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

Among Giants 21:00 SUN (b0078hj5)

BBC Four Sessions 23:30 SAT (b0074sjm)

Baroque! - From St Peter's to St Paul's 20:00 TUE (b00jf3hv)

Baroque! - From St Peter's to St Paul's 02:00 TUE (b00jf3hv)

Beautiful Equations 20:00 THU (b00wltbm)

Beautiful Equations 01:15 THU (b00wltbm)

Bruce Springsteen: Darkness Live 1978 22:30 SAT (b00xxn1l)

Bruce Springsteen: Darkness Live 1978 02:20 FRI (b00xxn1l)

Bruce Springsteen: The Promise - The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town 21:00 SAT (b00xk78m)

Bruce Springsteen: The Promise - The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town 02:30 SAT (b00xk78m)

Bruce Springsteen: The Promise - The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town 00:50 FRI (b00xk78m)

Classic Albums 23:55 FRI (b00vlq0y)

Dan Snow's Norman Walks 20:00 SUN (b00td53j)

Dan Snow's Norman Walks 02:45 SUN (b00td53j)

Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask 21:00 MON (b00vv0zx)

Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask 02:20 MON (b00vv0zx)

Five Daughters 22:00 THU (b00s8j5t)

Hammond Meets Moss 00:30 SAT (b00sfptv)

Hattie 21:00 WED (b00xllyq)

Hattie 23:55 WED (b00xllyq)

Hattie 02:55 WED (b00xllyq)

Hop, Skip and Jump: The Story of Children's Play 19:30 MON (b00p8lhr)

Hop, Skip and Jump: The Story of Children's Play 01:20 MON (b00p8lhr)

Hugh Masekela: Welcome to South Africa 00:45 SUN (b00s6bln)

Iron Maiden: Flight 666 22:00 FRI (b00r5ylv)

Johnny Kingdom's Year with the Birds 20:30 SUN (b00vtz42)

Le diner de cons 22:30 SUN (b007sfr0)

Le diner de cons 23:00 THU (b007sfr0)

Legends 01:45 SUN (b00vv0zz)

Legends 21:00 FRI (b00xln7l)

Legends 03:20 FRI (b00xln7l)

Mad and Bad: 60 Years of Science on TV 23:50 MON (b00wltfx)

More Dawn French's Girls Who Do: Comedy 22:55 WED (b0074syv)

More Dawn French's Girls Who Do: Comedy 23:25 WED (b0074syb)

Mozart Uncovered 19:30 FRI (b0074q3y)

Only Connect 20:30 MON (b00xjrr9)

Secret Lives of the Artists 21:00 TUE (b00t4jx0)

Secret Lives of the Artists 01:00 TUE (b00t4jx0)

Sectioned 22:00 TUE (b00sg94v)

South Pacific 19:00 SAT (b00kjjnx)

Storyville 22:30 MON (b00xk7x1)

Storyville 03:00 TUE (b00xk7x1)

Storyville 19:30 THU (b00rm4x1)

Storyville 02:15 THU (b00rm4x1)

Sykes and a... 20:00 WED (b00xygk7)

Sykes and a... 01:55 WED (b00xygk7)

Sykes 20:30 WED (b00xxq4t)

Sykes 02:25 WED (b00xxq4t)

The Beauty of Maps 19:30 TUE (b00s5p6k)

The Boats That Built Britain 19:30 WED (b00scqb3)

The Brain: A Secret History 23:00 TUE (b00x7cb5)

The Brain: A Secret History 21:00 THU (b00xln23)

The Brain: A Secret History 00:15 THU (b00xln23)

The Brain: A Secret History 02:45 THU (b00xln23)

The Deadliest Crash: the Le Mans 1955 Disaster 01:30 SAT (b00sfptx)

The Godmother of Rock & Roll: Sister Rosetta Tharpe 23:45 SUN (b00xf8k7)

The Normans 19:00 SUN (b00tfdsk)

The Normans 03:15 SUN (b00tfdsk)

The Search for Life: The Drake Equation 00:00 TUE (b00wltbk)

This Is Your Life 22:25 WED (b00xyf0n)

This Is Your Life 01:25 WED (b00xyf0n)

Timeshift 20:00 SAT (b00xf6xk)

Transatlantic Sessions 20:30 FRI (b00809fv)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b00xk7wz)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b00xllms)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b00xllyn)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b00xln21)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b00xln7j)