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 19 FEBRUARY 2011

SAT 19:00 South Pacific (b00l7q55)
Fragile Paradise

The South Pacific is still relatively healthy and teeming with fish, but it is a fragile paradise. International fishing fleets are taking a serious toll on the sharks, albatross and tuna, and there are other insidious threats to these bountiful seas. This episode looks at what is being done to preserve the ocean and its wildlife.


SAT 20:00 Glamour's Golden Age (b00nk9m5)
Beautiful and Damned

The story of 1920s London's Bright Young People is a tale of sex, drink, drugs and a gossip-hungry press. Beautiful and Damned traces the growth of 1920s London's bright young party set whose antics were enjoyed and scorned in equal measures by a watching nation. And the more artistic of the merry band - Cecil Beaton, Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford among them - saw their work make the characters and attitudes of the era both legend and fable.

Contributors include Philip Hoare, DJ Taylor, Selina Hastings, Lucy Moore and Adrian Bingham.


SAT 21:00 The Killing (b00yvs6s)
Series 1

Episode 9

The police are after Theis, who has disappeared once again with murder suspect Rama and now seems more prepared than ever to take the law into his own hands. The investigation reaches a standstill, with Sarah and Jan being given a 24-hour ultimatum before they are taken off the case. At the Town Hall, the political landscape undergoes some radical changes. Pernille must try to manage on her own, as both the family and family business are left in her hands.


SAT 22:00 The Killing (b00yvs6v)
Series 1

Episode 10

Sarah and Jan pursue a new lead, but are taken aback when their boss intervenes. Sarah's personal life is drastically reconfigured. Troels attempts to establish a new alliance at the Town Hall, but is met with fierce resistance. With Theis still in custody and awaiting release, Pernille comes under pressure from all sides and starts suspecting that someone close to her might be hiding something.


SAT 22:55 How TV Ruined Your Life (b00ysfvh)
Love

Charlie Brooker argues that TV has warped our expectations of romance with a toxic combination of Blind Date and rom-coms. Do 'soulmates' even exist? Warning: this episode contains traces of Dirty Den and suggestive swimwear.


SAT 23:25 Getting On (b00lqbkb)
Series 1

Episode 2

Pippa prepares her research paper and Den and Kim deal with a male referral, but it is problem patient Ivy who dominates the day. Aggressive and deeply unpleasant, she sets a chain reaction in motion that sees Hilary in tears and Kim in trouble.

Elsewhere on the ward, life and death continues as normal, but with the MRSA statistics up it seems another crisis is just around the corner. Meanwhile, Den and Hilary are starting to bond.


SAT 23:55 Love Songs at the BBC: A Valentine's Day Special (b00ymh70)
It's a time for guilty pleasures, for courtship, for declarations of love, for looking someone in the eye and whispering sweet nothings, accompanied by a compilation of some of the greatest and squishiest love songs from the likes of Celine Dion, Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, Jason and Kylie, 10cc and Lionel Richie, all from the Top of the Pops era. If Hot Chocolate and Chaka Khan don't get the temperatures rising, then nothing will.


SAT 00:55 Legends (b00r0t24)
Dennis Wilson: The Real Beach Boy

Dennis Wilson was the drummer in the Beach Boys. And he was the real Beach Boy. In a band of geeks who sang about surfing, cars and girls, Dennis was the only one who surfed, the one who drove hot rod cars in competition and the one who got all the girls.

He was married five times, shared a house with Charles Manson (with whom he wrote songs, including one recorded by the Beach Boys) but died, ironically by drowning, at the age of 39. He was also the first Beach Boy to release a solo album, the stunning Pacific Ocean Blue, which after years of being out of print and fetching hundreds on Ebay, was re-released in 2008 to widespread acclaim, being voted No 1 Reissue of the Year by Mojo and Uncut magazines.

This documentary tells the story of Dennis's life and music, with unseen archive footage and original interviews with Beach Boys Al Jardine and David Marks, his sons Michael and Carl and many friends and fellow musicians. These include Taylor Hawkins, drummer with the Foo Fighters who provided a vocal for the lost track on Pacific Ocean Blue, Holy Man, for which Dennis never laid down a vocal when he recorded the song in 1977.


SAT 01:55 Glamour's Golden Age (b00nk9m5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:55 Love Songs at the BBC: A Valentine's Day Special (b00ymh70)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:55 today]



SUNDAY 20 FEBRUARY 2011

SUN 19:00 The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion (b00sbt8d)
What is the World Made Of?

Michael Mosley takes an informative and ambitious journey exploring how the evolution of scientific understanding is intimately interwoven with society's historical path.

In this episode, Michael demonstrates how our society is built on our search to find the answer to what makes up everything in the material world. This is a story that moves from the secret labs of the alchemists and their search for gold to the creation of the world's first synthetic dye - mauve - and onto the invention of the transistor.

This quest may seem abstract and highly theoretical. Yet it has delivered the greatest impact on humanity. By trying to answer this question, scientists have created theories from elements to atoms, and the strange concepts of quantum physics that underpin our modern, technological world.


SUN 20:00 Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture (b00yml9v)
Mavericks of Empire

By the middle of the 18th century, Britain was in possession of a vast empire. It required a new way of seeing ourselves and so we turned to the statues of ancient Greece and Rome to project the secular power and glory of the British Empire.

The message was clear: Britain was the new Rome, our generals and politicians on a par with the heroes of the ancient world. The flood of funds, both public and private, into sculptural projects unleashed a new golden age, yet it was also a remarkably unorthodox one. The greatest sculptors of the 18th and 19th centuries were those mavericks who bucked prevailing trends - geniuses like John Flaxman, Francis Chantrey and Alfred Gilbert.

Alastair Sooke tells the story of these mavericks and reveals the extraordinary technical breakthroughs behind their key works: carving in marble with a pointer machine and the primal power of the lost-wax technique.


SUN 21:00 Rich Hall's 'How the West Was Lost' (b00c4zvh)
Comedian Rich Hall goes west to find out what killed off that most quintessentially American of all film genres, the western.

Through films such as The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, Little Big Man, The Wild Bunch and Unforgiven, Rich charts the rise and fall of America's obsession with its own creation myth - the Wild West. He explores how the image of the cowboy as a moral, straight-talking heroic figure was created by Hollywood but appropriated by Washington, as one president after another sought to associate themselves with this potent symbol of strength and valour.

From Tombstone to Texas, Montana to Wyoming, Rich travels across a landscape that is both actual and mythic in the minds of not just Americans, but all of us. With his customary wit and intelligence he unpicks the truth from the fiction of Hollywood's version of frontier life, draws parallels between popular western narratives and America's more questionable foreign policy, and celebrates the real heroes of the west - John Ford, John Wayne, Sam Peckinpah, Arthur Penn and Clint Eastwood.

Filmed on location in Arizona, Montana and Wyoming and incorporating interviews and archive clips of some of the best-loved westerns of all-time, the film is Rich Hall's personal salute to a genre of film he feels passionate about.


SUN 22:30 For Crying Out Loud (b00ymhqz)
Jo Brand is outraged and appalled by the latest outburst of public crying. It is happening on X Factor, Who Do You Think You Are and even the politicans are at it. It would appear we are awash with tears. Jo is particularly baffled by this outpouring of weepiness as crying is something she rarely does.

In this documentary, Jo decides it's time to get to the bottom of crying: why we do it, who does it and whether we have always done it. And once she discovers crying is in fact good for you, she has no choice but to see if she can actually make a handkerchief soggy too.

To find out more about crying she talks to friends Phill Jupitus, Shappi Khorsandi and Richard E Grant; interviews crying historians, psychologists and biochemists; and, in her quest to discover her own tears, visits Moorfields Eye Hospital to check her tear ducts are in good working order. She subjects herself to joining a class of crying drama students, discovers the world's weirdest crybabies at the Loss Club and finally opens up to Princess Diana's psychotherapist, Susie Orbach.

Having unpicked the watery world of crying, can Jo bring herself to actually shed a tear?


SUN 23:30 Toots and the Maytals: Reggae Got Soul (b00ymljb)
The untold story of one of the most influential artists ever to come out of Jamaica, Toots Hibbert, featuring intimate new performances and interviews with Toots, rare archive from throughout his career and interviews with contemporaries and admirers including Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Jimmy Cliff, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Marcia Griffiths and Paolo Nutini.

From his beginnings as a singer in a Jamaican church to the universally-praised, Grammy award-winning artist of today, the film tells the story of one of the true greats of music.

Toots was the first to use the word reggae on tape in his 1968 song Do the Reggay and his music has defined, popularised and refined it across six decades, with hit after hit including Pressure Drop, Sweet and Dandy, Monkey Man, Funky Kingston, Bam Bam, True Love Is Hard To Find and Reggae Got Soul.

As Island records founder Chris Blackwell says, 'The Maytals were unlike anything else... sensational, raw and dynamic'. Always instantly recognisable is Toots's powerful, soulful voice which seems to speak viscerally to the listener - 'one of the great musical gifts of our time'. His songs are at the same time stories of everyday life in Jamaica and postcards from another world.


SUN 00:30 Reggae at the BBC (b00ymljd)
An archive celebration of great reggae performances filmed in the BBC Studios, drawn from programmes such as The Old Grey Whistle Test, Top of the Pops and Later... with Jools Holland, and featuring the likes of Bob Marley and the Wailers, Gregory Isaacs, Desmond Dekker, Burning Spear, Althea and Donna, Dennis Brown, Buju Banton and many more.


SUN 02:00 Glastonbury (b00syzjc)
2010

Toots and the Maytals

Mark Radcliffe introduces a set from Jamaica's Toots and the Maytals on the West Holts Stage, recorded at Glastonbury 2010.


SUN 03:00 For Crying Out Loud (b00ymhqz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]



MONDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2011

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00yvs8j)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Twitchers: A Very British Obsession (b00vnflv)
Every year, a secret tribe take to the roads of Britain. In the space of a few months they will drive thousands of miles and spend thousands of pounds in pursuit of their prey. Their aim is to see as many birds as possible, wherever that bird may be.

Welcome to the very competitive world of the twitcher - obsessives who'll stop at nothing to get their bird.


MON 20:30 The Beauty of Books (b00yvs8l)
Illustrated Wonderlands

The Victorians were masters of illustrated books, especially for children. Thanks to an emerging middle class readership, new printing technology and a sentimentalised regard for childhood, fairy tales and fantasy fiction containing words and pictures grew into an established genre.

First published in 1865, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was one of the most remarkable books of the period, a combination of the genius of Carroll's nonsense verse and prose and the meticulously detailed illustrations of John Tenniel. Creating a handshake on the page, they formed an inseparable bond that has since become a cultural phenomenon. But beyond Tenniel, Carroll's masterpiece has been illustrated hundreds of times by artists like Salvador Dali, Ralph Steadman and Mervyn Peake, all creating their own distinctive Wonderlands. Peake was also a talented writer, and his Gormenghast trilogy of 1946 is an illustrated series of fantasy novels that re-interpreted the genre in the 20th century.

Today, illustrated or 'picture' books are still thriving for the youngest readership. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler reveals how the genius of the writer and illustrator partnership continues to enthral and enrich the story of the book.


MON 21:00 When God Spoke English: The Making of the King James Bible (b00yvs8n)
Documentary telling the unexpected story of how arguably the greatest work of English prose ever written, the King James Bible, came into being.

Author Adam Nicolson reveals why the making of this powerful book shares much in common with his experience of a very different national project - the Millennium Dome. The programme also delves into recently discovered 17th-century manuscripts, from the actual translation process itself, to show in rich detail what makes this Bible so good.

In a turbulent and often violent age, the king hoped this Bible would unite a country torn by religious factions. Today it is dismissed by some as old-fashioned and impenetrable, but the film shows why, in the 21st century, the King James Bible remains so great.


MON 22:00 To Kill a Mockingbird at 50 (b00szxxk)
Marking the 50th anniversary of the influential novel To Kill a Mockingbird, writer Andrew Smith visits Monroeville in Alabama, the setting of the book, to see how life there has changed in half a century.


MON 23:00 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.


MON 00:00 Fig Leaf: The Biggest Cover-Up in History (b00ydp38)
Writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith uncovers the secret history of the humble fig leaf, opening a window onto 2,000 years of western art and ethics.

He tells how the work of Michelangelo, known to his contemporaries as 'the maker of pork things', fuelled the infamous 'fig leaf campaign', the greatest cover-up in art history, how Bernini turned censorship into a new form of erotica by replacing the fig leaf with the slipping gauze, and how the ingenious machinations of Rodin brought nudity back to the public eye.

In telling this story, Smith turns many of our deepest prejudices upside down, showing how the Victorians had a far more sophisticated and mature attitude to sexuality than we do today. He ends with an impassioned plea for the widespread return of the fig leaf to redeem modern art from cheap sensation and innuendo.


MON 01:00 When God Spoke English: The Making of the King James Bible (b00yvs8n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 02:00 To Kill a Mockingbird at 50 (b00szxxk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


MON 03:00 Twitchers: A Very British Obsession (b00vnflv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 04:00 The Beauty of Books (b00yvs8l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]



TUESDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2011

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00yvsbq)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Timothy Spall: Somewhere at Sea (b00scqsn)
The Bogey Man

Three-part documentary series featuring one of Britain's best loved actors, Timothy Spall, as he and his wife sail from to Cornwall to south Wales in a Dutch barge.

The voyage continues with Timothy and Shane having to cope with the highly dangerous waters around Lizard Point if he is to complete the journey by winter. Although in a state of some anxiety, Timothy manoeuvres the Princess Matilda around the infamous Lizard before mooring in Newlyn, a focus of the Cornish fishing industry. But tying up for the night is never straightforward.

The Spalls get advice from the eighteen-strong crew of the Penlee Lifeboat on how to tackle Land's End, another tough test lying in wait, and Timothy marvels at their seafaring skills and bravery in tackling the elements in order to save lives at sea.

His own voyage attracts plenty of interest. 'They all think we're mad, but they're not stopping us!' laughs Tim at one point.


TUE 20:00 Britain by Bike (b00tg2q0)
The Cotswolds

Clare Balding tests the limits of pedal power again with a cycle trip through an area considered one of the prettiest in Britain, the Cotswolds.

Following the wheel tracks of cycling author Harold Briercliffe, whose guide books of the late 1940s paint an evocative portrait of Britain on B-Roads, she encounters not only beautiful countryside but one or two surprises.

Briercliffe had controversial views about this handsomely-preserved landscape. Carrying a set of Harold's Cycling Touring Guides for company and riding his very own bicycle, Clare goes in search of the world he described.

Along the way, she explores why the countryside looks the way it does, examines how post-war social change opened the doors of great private houses like Blenheim to a paying public and reveals how two men - both called William Morris - helped change the face of heritage tourism.


TUE 20:30 Justice (b00yvsd6)
What's a Fair Start?

The fifth of Harvard professor Michael Sandel's lectures on the philosophy of justice focuses on a simple but controversial question - is it just to tax the rich to help the poor?

The American philosopher John Rawls argued that in order to work out a fair social system, one must start from an imaginary position where everyone has the same opportunity to succeed in life. But is this ever possible in the real world? Sandel polls his students to find out how many of them are first-borns, and makes an intriguing discovery.


TUE 21:00 Storyville (b00yvsd8)
The Man Who Fooled the Nazis

Documentary which catalogues how a Spanish farmer named Juan Pujol became 'Garbo', one of the most successful double agents in history. The British code-named him Garbo for being the 'greatest actor in the world', because of his ability to gain the Third Reich's trust and make possible the successful D-Day landings that turned the course of history.


TUE 22:25 Operation Mincemeat (b00wllmb)
For more than 60 years, the real story behind Operation Mincemeat has been shrouded in secrecy. Now, Ben Macintyre reveals the extraordinary truth in a documentary based on his best-selling book.

In 1943, British intelligence hatched a daring plan. As the Allies prepared to invade Sicily, their purpose was to convince the Germans that Greece was the real target. The plot to fool the Fuhrer was the brainchild of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond.

British agents procured the body of a tramp and reinvented his entire identity. He was given a new name, an officer rank and a briefcase containing plans for a fake invasion of Greece. The body was floated off the Spanish coast where Nazi spies would find it.

The deception was an astonishing success. Hitler fell for it totally, ordering his armies to Greece to await an invasion that never happened. Meanwhile, the Allies landed in Sicily with minimal resistance. The island fell in a month. The war turned in the Allies' favour.

Together with original witnesses, Macintyre recreates the remarkable story of how one brilliant team, and one dead tramp, pulled off a deception which changed the course of history.


TUE 23:25 Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture (b00yml9v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Sunday]


TUE 00:25 Force of Nature: The Sculpture of David Nash (b00ymlhp)
David Nash is one of Britain's most original and internationally recognised sculptors. In a career spanning 40 years he has created over 2,000 sculptures out of wood, many of then monumental in scale. In this film Nash gives an intimate insight into his unique collaboration with his material. From sawing and gouging to charring and planting, it reveals how he has used his profound knowledge of trees and the forces of nature to inform his work.

Using extensive archive it traces Nash's artistic journey from art school to the rugged mining landscape of Blaenau Ffestiniog in north Wales via the many exhibitions he has had around the world, culminating in the most significant to date at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2010.


TUE 01:25 How to Get a Head in Sculpture (b00vjmqh)
From the heads of Roman Emperors to the 'blood head' of contemporary British artist Marc Quinn, the greatest figures in world sculpture have continually turned to the head to re-evaluate what it means to be human and to reformulate how closely sculpture can capture it.

Witty, eclectic and insightful, this film is a journey through the most enduring subject for world sculpture, one that carves a path through politics and religion, the ancient and the modern.

Actor David Thewlis has his head sculpted by three different sculptors, while the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, artist Maggi Hambling and art critic Rachel Johnston discuss art's most enduring preoccupation, ourselves.


TUE 02:25 Storyville (b00yvsd8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 03:50 Justice (b00yvsd6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]



WEDNESDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2011

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00yvsjb)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture (b00jwcb1)
Milk

Documentary series looking at the history of 20th-century farming in Britain opens by focusing on milk.

In the early years of the century, 150,000 dairy farmers milked by hand and sold milk door to door. By the end of the century, the 15,000 that were left were breeding cows that increased yields by 400 per cent and milk was sold through supermarkets.

This episode features the home movies and stories of two dairy farmers who survived to tell the story of how and why the revolution happened.


WED 20:30 Time to Remember (b00tww3x)
Pioneers of Aviation

In the 1950s, the newsreel company Pathe mined their archive to produce a series of programmes for television called Time to Remember. Made by the producer Peter Baylis, they chronicled the political, social and cultural changes that occurred during the first half of the 20th century.

Each episode was narrated by a prominent actor such as Ralph Richardson, Michael Redgrave, Anthony Quayle, Edith Evans, Basil Rathbone and Joyce Grenfell, all reading scripts recalling historic, evocative or significant moments from an intriguing past.

In 2010, the material from the original Time to Remember has been collected together thematically to create a new 12-part series under the same title that offers a rewarding perspective on the events, people and innovations from history that continue to shape and influence the world around us.

This episode tells the story of the groundbreaking men, women and machines who took to the skies in the first half of the 20th century and includes footage of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk; President Theodore Roosevelt becoming the first head of state to fly in an aeroplane; the German Zeppelins; the R101 disaster; Imperial Airways at Croydon Aerodrome; and Charles Lindbergh's first solo transatlantic flight in the Spirit of St Louis in 1927.


WED 21:00 Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture (b00yvsjd)
Children of the Revolution

'Sculpture has changed more in the last hundred years,' says Alastair Sooke, 'than in the previous thirty thousand.' The third and last episode of the series tells the dramatic story of a century of innovation, scandal, shock and creativity.

It begins with the moment at the turn of the 20th century when young sculptors ceased visiting the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum and looked instead at the 'primitive' works of Africa and the Pacific islands. The result was an artistic revolution spearheaded by Eric Gill and Jacob Epstein that would climax in the anti-sculptural gestures of Gilbert & George and Damien Hirst.

Yet for all the provocation and occasional excesses of conceptualism, sculpture has never enjoyed such popularity. From the memorials of World War One to the landmarks of Antony Gormley and Rachel Whiteread, sculpture remains the art form that speaks most directly and powerfully to the nation.

The programme climaxes with a series of encounters between Alastair and leading sculptors Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread, Antony Gormley and Anthony Caro.


WED 22:00 imagine... (b007ccw7)
The Plinth, the Model, the Artist and his Sculpture

In 2005, an extraordinary sculpture by leading Brit artist Marc Quinn of a naked, heavily pregnant, disabled Alison Lapper was unveiled on the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. It's a project that's been dogged with controversy.

Following the creation of Alison Lapper Pregnant over five years, this film tells the compelling story of how two very different people came together to challenge preconceptions about beauty and what is considered normal.


WED 22:50 The Killing (b00yvs6s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


WED 23:50 The Killing (b00yvs6v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Saturday]


WED 00:45 Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture (b00yvsjd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 01:45 imagine... (b007ccw7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


WED 02:35 Time to Remember (b00tww3x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 03:05 Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture (b00yvsjd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2011

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00yvtd9)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 South Africa Walks (b00s8g03)
The Green Kalahari

Having tackled treks across the UK, Julia Bradbury embarks on a grand adventure in South Africa, setting out on four very different walks that explore its claim to be 'a world-in-one country'.

Julia is a regular visitor to the Rainbow Nation, but this is her chance to go beyond the normal tourist destinations to a series of increasingly remote locations. However, these are all walks that any reasonably adventurous walker could embark on, offering a fresh and personal perspective on a friendly and fascinating country that is so often misunderstood.

Julia's final walk takes her to the remote north-west corner of South Africa. This is the edge of the Kalahari Desert and the setting for Julia's most adventurous undertaking yet. Far away from the major tourist draws of the country, it is an insight into a true African world. Set against the stunning red geology of Augrabies Falls National Park, it's a stark but beautiful walk, encountering simple rural lives and remarkable agriculture, utterly reliant on the broad waters of the Orange River.


THU 20:00 Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession (b00s2wvh)
Windows on the World

In a series about the extraordinary stories behind maps, Professor Jerry Brotton uncovers how maps aren't simply about getting from A to B, but are revealing snapshots of defining moments in history and tools of political power and persuasion.

Visiting the world's first known map, etched into the rocks of a remote alpine hillside 3,000 years ago, Brotton explores how each culture develops its own unique, often surprising way of mapping. As Henry VIII's stunning maps of the British coastline from a bird's-eye view show, they were also used to exert control over the world.

During the Enlightenment, the great French Cassini dynasty pioneered the western quest to map the world with greater scientific accuracy, leading also to the British Ordnance Survey. But these new scientific methods were challenged by cultures with alternative ways of mapping, such as in a Polynesian navigator's map which has no use for north, south and east.

As scientifically accurate map-making became a powerful tool of European expansion, the British carved the state of Iraq out of the Middle East. When the British drew up Iraq's boundaries, they had devastating consequences for the nomadic tribes of Mesopotamia.


THU 21:00 Micro Men (b00n5b92)
Affectionately comic drama about the British home computer boom of the early 1980s.

Legendary inventor Clive Sinclair battles it out with ex-employee Chris Curry, founder of Acorn Computers, for dominance in the fledgling market.

The rivalry comes to a head when the BBC announce their Computer Literacy Project, with the stated aim of putting a micro in every school in Britain. When Acorn wins the contract, Sinclair is furious, and determines to outsell the BBC Micro with his ZX Spectrum computer.

Home computing arrives in Britain in a big way, but is the country big enough for both men?


THU 22:25 Upgrade Me (b00n1hwj)
Poet and gadget lover Simon Armitage explores people's obsession with upgrading to the latest technological gadgetry.

Upgrade culture drives millions to purchase the latest phones, flatscreen TVs, laptops and MP3 players. But is it design, functionality, fashion or friends that makes people covet the upgrade, and how far does the choice of gadgets define identity? Simon journeys across Britain and to South Korea in search of answers.


THU 23:25 Beautiful Minds (b00ry9jq)
Series 1

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Who are the modern men and women who will be remembered for the brilliance of their minds? What are their legacies and what can their extraordinary discoveries tell us about the nature of science and the nature of truth?

In the first of a three-part series, Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell describes how she discovered pulsars, the by-products of supernova explosions which make all life in the universe possible. She describes the moments of despair and jubilation as the discovery unfolded and her excitement as pulsars took the scientific world by storm.

Profoundly reflective about the nature of scientific discovery, she shares her thoughts on the connections between religion and science and describes how she see science as a search for understanding rather than a quest for truth.


THU 00:25 Horizon (b00x7cb3)
What Makes Us Clever? A Horizon Guide to Intelligence

Dallas Campbell delves into the Horizon archive to discover how our understanding of intelligence has transformed over the last century. From early caveman thinkers to computers doing the thinking for us, he discovers the best ways of testing how clever we are - and enhancing it.


THU 01:25 Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession (b00s2wvh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 02:25 Beautiful Minds (b00ry9jq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:25 today]


THU 03:25 South Africa Walks (b00s8g03)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]



FRIDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2011

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00yvtws)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 The Salzburg Festival (b00yvtwv)
Part Two

Founded for political reasons, used by the Nazis for political reasons, revived after the Second World War by the US Army for political reasons, dominated for two decades by Herbert von Karajan, a double member of the Nazi party and rescued by Gerard Mortier who believed that all art has a political purpose, the Salzburg Festival remains the most important music festival in Europe - contentious, outrageous and with a phenomenally high standard of performance.

The conclusion of the first full-length history of this tortured, annual cultural bun-fight, with an all-star cast including Herbert von Karajan, Wilhelm Furtwangler, Georg Solti, Simon Rattle, Riccardo Muti, James Levine, Karl Bohm, Toscanini, Curd Jurgens, Maximillian Schell, Klaus-Maria Brandauer, Placido Domingo, Valery Gergiev, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Christa Ludwig, Mirella Freni, Mariss Jansons, Thomas Hampson, Lang Lang, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Grace Bumbry, Sena Jurinac, Lisa della Casa, Anna Netrebko, Alfred Brendel, Daniel Barenboim, Seiji Ozawa, Peter Sellars, Pierre Boulez, Bruno Walter, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Wilhelm Bachhaus, Richard Strauss, Lotte Lehmann and Adolf Hitler, plus festival president Helga Rabl-Stadler and Austrian president Dr Fisher.


FRI 21:00 Forever Young: How Rock 'n' Roll Grew Up (b00sxjls)
Documentary which looks at how rock 'n' roll has had to deal with the unthinkable - namely growing up and growing old, from its roots in the 50s as music made by young people for young people to the 21st-century phenomena of the revival and the comeback.

Despite the mantra of 'live fast, die young', Britain's first rock 'n' roll generations are now enjoying old age. What was once about youth and taking risks is now about longevity, survival, nostalgia and refusing to grow up, give up or shut up. But what happens when the music refuses to die and its performers refuse to leave the stage? What happens when rock's youthful rebelliousness is delivered wrapped in wrinkles?

Featuring Lemmy, Iggy Pop, Peter Noone, Rick Wakeman, Paul Jones, Richard Thompson, Suggs, Eric Burdon, Bruce Welch, Robert Wyatt, Gary Brooker, Joe Brown, Chris Dreja of The Yardbirds, Alison Moyet, Robyn Hitchcock, writers Rosie Boycott and Nick Kent and producer Joe Boyd.


FRI 22:00 Steve Winwood: English Soul (b00srj7k)
From childhood prodigy to veteran master, Birmingham-born Steve Winwood's extraordinary career is like a map of the major changes in British rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues from the 1960s to the present. This in-depth profile traces that journey and reveals a master musician blending Ray Charles and English hymnody into a unique brand of English soul.

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

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

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


FRI 23:00 Carole King and James Taylor: Live at the Troubadour (b00sftvw)
Carole King and James Taylor reunited at the intimate Hollywood venue in concert in 2007 to play their era-defining hits, nearly four decades after they first performed at the Troubadour in November 1970, a year before their Tapestry and Sweet Baby James' albums stormed the American charts. King and Taylor are backed by the Section, the same band that propelled those albums into homes around the world.

James Taylor had released his first album on the Beatles' Apple label, Carole King was struggling to forge a new solo career after being one half of Goffin-King, one of the great Brill Building songwriting partnerships of the early 60s. Their musical friendship blossomed with Taylor's support for King and his cover of her song You've Got a Friend. The Troubadour became the centre of a new singer-songwriter culture that also featured the likes of Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and many more.


FRI 00:00 Classic Albums (b00x7chg)
Tom Petty: Damn the Torpedoes

The third album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released in 1979, has long been regarded as a classic and demonstrates the musical and songwriting virtuosity of a great frontman and his amazing backing band. A mix of rootsy American rock 'n' roll and the best of the British invasion, of jangling Byrds guitars and Stones-like rhythms, Damn the Torpedoes was the album that took Petty into the major league and redefined American rock.

This programme tells the story behind the conception and recording of the album and how it transformed the band's career. Using interviews, musical demonstration, acoustic performance, archive footage and a return to the multi-tracks with the main protagonists, it shows how Petty, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Ron Blair and Stan Lynch created their songs and sounds with the help of co-producer Jimmy Iovine and engineer Shelly Yakus. Additional comments from journalists and other producers and musicians help tell the story and put the album into its rightful place in rock history.

Recorded in secrecy at a time when the band was fighting for creative independence amidst a legal wrangle with their record company, the album is imbued with an anger and a gutsy attitude the situation had created. Many songs from the album are still played live and form an important part of Petty's body of work, including Refugee, Here Comes My Girl, Even the Losers, Shadow of a Doubt, Louisiana Rain, Century City and top ten hit Don't Do Me Like That.

Damn the Torpedoes hit number two in the US for seven weeks, initially selling over 2.5 million copies, and launched Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers onto the world stage and into superstar territory, standing as one of the great records of the late 70s and early 80s.


FRI 00:55 Steve Winwood: English Soul (b00srj7k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 01:55 Forever Young: How Rock 'n' Roll Grew Up (b00sxjls)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:55 Carole King and James Taylor: Live at the Troubadour (b00sftvw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]




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

Beautiful Minds 23:25 THU (b00ry9jq)

Beautiful Minds 02:25 THU (b00ry9jq)

Britain by Bike 20:00 TUE (b00tg2q0)

Carole King and James Taylor: Live at the Troubadour 23:00 FRI (b00sftvw)

Carole King and James Taylor: Live at the Troubadour 02:55 FRI (b00sftvw)

Classic Albums 00:00 FRI (b00x7chg)

Fig Leaf: The Biggest Cover-Up in History 00:00 MON (b00ydp38)

For Crying Out Loud 22:30 SUN (b00ymhqz)

For Crying Out Loud 03:00 SUN (b00ymhqz)

Force of Nature: The Sculpture of David Nash 00:25 TUE (b00ymlhp)

Forever Young: How Rock 'n' Roll Grew Up 21:00 FRI (b00sxjls)

Forever Young: How Rock 'n' Roll Grew Up 01:55 FRI (b00sxjls)

Getting On 23:25 SAT (b00lqbkb)

Glamour's Golden Age 20:00 SAT (b00nk9m5)

Glamour's Golden Age 01:55 SAT (b00nk9m5)

Glastonbury 02:00 SUN (b00syzjc)

Horizon 00:25 THU (b00x7cb3)

How TV Ruined Your Life 22:55 SAT (b00ysfvh)

How to Get a Head in Sculpture 01:25 TUE (b00vjmqh)

Justice 20:30 TUE (b00yvsd6)

Justice 03:50 TUE (b00yvsd6)

Legends 00:55 SAT (b00r0t24)

Legends 23:00 MON (b00xln7l)

Love Songs at the BBC: A Valentine's Day Special 23:55 SAT (b00ymh70)

Love Songs at the BBC: A Valentine's Day Special 02:55 SAT (b00ymh70)

Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession 20:00 THU (b00s2wvh)

Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession 01:25 THU (b00s2wvh)

Micro Men 21:00 THU (b00n5b92)

Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture 19:30 WED (b00jwcb1)

Operation Mincemeat 22:25 TUE (b00wllmb)

Reggae at the BBC 00:30 SUN (b00ymljd)

Rich Hall's 'How the West Was Lost' 21:00 SUN (b00c4zvh)

Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture 20:00 SUN (b00yml9v)

Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture 23:25 TUE (b00yml9v)

Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture 21:00 WED (b00yvsjd)

Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture 00:45 WED (b00yvsjd)

Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture 03:05 WED (b00yvsjd)

South Africa Walks 19:30 THU (b00s8g03)

South Africa Walks 03:25 THU (b00s8g03)

South Pacific 19:00 SAT (b00l7q55)

Steve Winwood: English Soul 22:00 FRI (b00srj7k)

Steve Winwood: English Soul 00:55 FRI (b00srj7k)

Storyville 21:00 TUE (b00yvsd8)

Storyville 02:25 TUE (b00yvsd8)

The Beauty of Books 20:30 MON (b00yvs8l)

The Beauty of Books 04:00 MON (b00yvs8l)

The Killing 21:00 SAT (b00yvs6s)

The Killing 22:00 SAT (b00yvs6v)

The Killing 22:50 WED (b00yvs6s)

The Killing 23:50 WED (b00yvs6v)

The Salzburg Festival 19:30 FRI (b00yvtwv)

The Story of Science: Power, Proof and Passion 19:00 SUN (b00sbt8d)

Time to Remember 20:30 WED (b00tww3x)

Time to Remember 02:35 WED (b00tww3x)

Timothy Spall: Somewhere at Sea 19:30 TUE (b00scqsn)

To Kill a Mockingbird at 50 22:00 MON (b00szxxk)

To Kill a Mockingbird at 50 02:00 MON (b00szxxk)

Toots and the Maytals: Reggae Got Soul 23:30 SUN (b00ymljb)

Twitchers: A Very British Obsession 19:30 MON (b00vnflv)

Twitchers: A Very British Obsession 03:00 MON (b00vnflv)

Upgrade Me 22:25 THU (b00n1hwj)

When God Spoke English: The Making of the King James Bible 21:00 MON (b00yvs8n)

When God Spoke English: The Making of the King James Bible 01:00 MON (b00yvs8n)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b00yvs8j)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b00yvsbq)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b00yvsjb)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b00yvtd9)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b00yvtws)

imagine... 22:00 WED (b007ccw7)

imagine... 01:45 WED (b007ccw7)