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 13 AUGUST 2011

SAT 19:00 The Blue Planet (b0074mmc)
Coral Seas

Amazingly beautiful and complex, coral reefs develop from humble beginnings. Tiny larvae settle and then over hundreds of years the intricate and fragile reefs that we so enjoy grow, inch by inch. Reefs are adorned with spectacularly colourful life, but it is no tropical paradise. Space is at a premium and even the coral itself fights to survive. And then, at night, the sharks come out to hunt. Layer upon layer the coral supports innumerable animals, but one big storm can threaten the entire community.


SAT 20:00 Carrot or Stick? A Horizon Guide to Raising Kids (b0135mty)
Child psychologist Laverne Antrobus delves into the Horizon archive to find out how science has shaped our approach to parenting and education over the last fifty years. From lessons in motherly love to tough discipline to bribery tactics, she asks what's the best approach when it comes to bringing up children.

Laverne also explores how extreme behaviour can sometimes be explained by underlying neurological problems and discovers whether children learn best in a more child-centred environment.


SAT 21:00 Wallander (b00sv2s0)
Series 2

The Witness

Katarina's life is threatened as she tries to prosecute a successful businessman with links to organised crime. Meanwhile, one of his business associates tries to cover up a fatal accident on a construction site and attempts to silence a witness.


SAT 22:25 The Great Outdoors (b00td53g)
Episode 3

On the annual trip to the south coast, Bob and Christine's rivalry finally comes to a head. Meanwhile, Victor is hoping he will finally get his promised kiss from Hazel and Tom plucks up courage for his own romance.


SAT 23:05 imagine... (b0074swk)
Summer 2005

Being a Concert Pianist

In July, 19-year-old pianist Benjamin Grosvenor made his debut at the Proms to great acclaim, wowing both audiences and critics with his performance of Liszt's Piano Concerto No 2 in A Major. The youngest ever soloist to perform in the First Night of the Proms, he returns to the Royal Albert Hall on August 6 to take on Britten's Piano Concerto.

In 2005, Imagine discovered this musical prodigy in the making. Alan Yentob talked to the 12-year-old Grosvenor about his success the previous year, in the piano section of The Young Musician of The Year Competition. This is another chance to see that documentary.

Imagine: Being a Concert Pianist gets under the lid of this extreme form of musicianship. Celebrated pianists, including Yevgeny Kissin, Vladimir Ashkenazy and Chinese wunderkind Lang Lang, talk intimately about their lives, their work and their motivation. The film gives a frank and personal perspective on a profession for which the only real qualification is genius, richly illustrated with specially recorded rehearsal and performance.


SAT 00:05 BBC Proms (b013lst3)
2011

Benjamin Grosvenor at the First Night of the Proms

The 19-year-old British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor makes his Proms debut at the opening of the 2011 season - the youngest soloist ever to appear at a Proms First Night. Benjamin is the soloist in Liszt's Piano Concerto No 2, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jirí Belohlàvek, followed by a brilliant encore for solo piano - Brahms's Hungarian Dance No 5.


SAT 00:35 The Sky at Night (b07n82h4)
Dawn at Vesta

The Nasa spacecraft Dawn is getting up close and personal with the asteroid Vesta. Sir Patrick Moore discusses the first fly-by images of this most unusual asteroid, which will tell us more about how our solar system formed some 4.5 billion years ago. Paul Abel and Pete Lawrence present their guide to the August night sky, including the return of the red planet Mars.


SAT 01:05 Horizon (b0078y7h)
2005-2006

The Hawking Paradox

Series exploring topical scientific issues examines Professor Stephen Hawking's most controversial theory and possibly his greatest mistake.

For 30 years the most famous scientist in the world defended an extraordinary idea, an idea some claimed would undermine the whole of science. It was called the information paradox and it led one opponent to dub Hawking 'the most stubborn man in the universe'. But finally Hawking had to admit that he'd been wrong all along. Now, as he nears the end of his extraordinary career, Hawking's scientific legacy is being called into question like never before.

For a year Horizon filmed behind the scenes with Hawking as he struggled to finish what many thought was going to be his last scientific paper. If he succeeded he would potentially end his career on a high, confirming his status as one of the great figures in physics. But the odds were against him, as his physical health continued to decline.

This is an extraordinary story of one man's defiance of disability and his peers. It is a story that ranges from the beginning of the universe, which Hawking explored, to the intensive care unit of Addenbrookes, where he was taken and was critically ill for three months. On his hospital bed he had an insight which he hoped would form the basis of his latest comeback.


SAT 01:55 Carrot or Stick? A Horizon Guide to Raising Kids (b0135mty)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:55 The Blue Planet (b0074mmc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



SUNDAY 14 AUGUST 2011

SUN 19:00 BBC Proms (b013lsyc)
2011

Kathryn Tickell and Friends

Northumbrian smallpiper Kathryn Tickell and friends celebrate the music of Percy Grainger in a Prom at the Royal Albert Hall. Molly on the Shore, Shepherd's Hey, Early One Morning - Grainger was a pioneering collector of folk music from around the world and the concert includes traditional and contemporary folk music using material which formed the basis of Grainger's arrangements. Special guests include English folk singer June Tabor and also on stage are the Northern Sinfonia conducted by John Harle. Introduced by Charles Hazlewood.


SUN 20:10 Come Clog Dancing: Treasures of English Folk Dance (b00wmy5q)
At the height of the industrial revolution in the last decades of the 19th century there was a dance, now rarely seen, that resounded through the collieries and pit villages of the north east of England - the clog dance.

For conductor and musician Charles Hazlewood, clog dance has become an obsession and he plans to put it firmly back on the map by staging a mass flashmob clog dance.

Helped by a team of local enthusiasts led by expert clog dancer Laura Connolly, Charles recruits and trains 140 men and women from across the north east, and one sunny Saturday in a busy square in central Newcastle they ambush the public with a six-minute performance.

Along the way, Charles delves into the history of this fascinating folk dance, learns and performs a few steps himself, and meets and works with some of the key characters keeping this ancient dance alive.


SUN 21:10 Mid-August Lunch (b013nlps)
It's the middle of August and Rome is deserted, with most of its inhabitants away on vacation. Gianni is an unemployed,
middle-aged man who lives with his mother in the working class district of Trastevere. Having no money for holidays, he has
stayed behind in the city to look after his gentle but demanding mum.

As the mid-August bank holiday of Ferragosto approaches, the administrator of Gianni's building suddenly turns up and pressures him to give temporary hospitality to his own mother in return for the waiving of unpaid bills. But, unbeknownst to Gianni, another lady, Aunt Maria, has also been included in the bargain and is left at the flat at the last minute.

The same day, Gianni's doctor also dumps his mother wtih Gianni before going away on holiday. Unwillingly left in charge of this motley crew of elderly ladies, Gianni tries his best to cope with what will be a very unusual couple of days.


SUN 22:20 Carluccio and the Leopard (b00g31qr)
Antonio Carluccio travels to Sicily to discover more about one of the most successful novels ever written in the Italian language, The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Whilst tracing the locations that inspired the book, Antonio cooks the food that is such an integral part of the lives of its characters.

Giuseppe Tomasi, Prince of Lampedusa, who died in 1957, had seen his family fortune disappear during his lifetime. The Palermo palace he lived in as a child had been destroyed by American bombing in the Second World War and the family's country villa was reduced to rubble by an earthquake. Lampedusa was acutely nostalgic for the aristocratic world of his childhood and at the end of his life he wrote a novel, based on the life of his great grandfather, that recreated this lost paradise.

Basing himself in the kitchen of a 16th century villa, Antonio recreates the meals of the 1860s that Lampedusa describes with such artistry. He explores the history of Italian unification that forms the background of the novel and ventures into the vibrant city of Palermo to find the street food that is still an important part of the Sicilian way of life. Antonio discovers the way that food is central to Sicilian culture, with Greek, Arab, Norman and Spanish invaders all having contributed to the island's unique cuisine.

He also meets Lampedusa's adopted son and learns how this eccentric and impoverished nobleman died before his only novel was published, causing a sensation in Italy and sparking a national debate on the eve of the centenary of the unification it described.


SUN 23:20 Timeshift (b00wwlll)
Series 10

Italian Noir: The Story of Italian Crime Fiction

Timeshift profiles a new wave of Italian crime fiction that has emerged to challenge the conventions of the detective novel. There are no happy endings in these noir tales, only revelations about Italy's dark heart - a world of corruption, unsolved murders and the mafia.

The programme features exclusive interviews with the leading writers from this new wave of noir, including Andrea Camilleri (creator of the Inspector Montalbano Mysteries) and Giancarlo De Cataldo (Romanzo Criminale), who explains how his work as a real-life investigating judge inspired his work. From the other side of the law, Massimo Carlotto talks about how his novels were shaped by his wrongful conviction for murder and years spent on the run from the police.

The film also looks at the roots of this new wave. Carlo Emilio Gadda (That Awful Mess) used the detective novel to expose the corruption that existed during Mussolini's fascist regime and then, after the Second World War, Leonardo Sciascia's crime novels (The Day of The Owl) tackled the rise of the Sicilian mafia. These writers established the rules of a new kind of noir that drew on real events and offered no neat endings.

Also featuring Italian writers Carlo Lucarelli and Barbara Baraldi, the film uses rarely seen archive from Italian television.


SUN 00:20 Glastonbury (b0135npq)
2011

Beyonce

Highlights of Beyonce's triumphant song and dance headlining performance from Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage in June, with solo hits like Crazy In Love, Single Ladies and Halo alongside a cover of Etta James's At Last and a great Destiny's Child medley.


SUN 01:30 Glastonbury (b0135p24)
2011

Janelle Monae

Highlights from Janelle Monae's breakthrough set from the West Holts Stage at the Glastonbury Festival. Monae's acclaimed soul revue show enraptured BBC TV viewers and festival goers alike, as the Kansas City-born soul singer and band performed Tightrope and other songs from her debut album The ArchAndroid. Alongside fellow R&B queen Beyonce's Sunday night performance, this was one of the freshest and best sets at the festival.


SUN 02:20 BBC Proms (b013lsyc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



MONDAY 15 AUGUST 2011

MON 19:00 World News Today (b013fbdw)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 The Weather (b00jz8gj)
Rain

Documentary series about the weather. The rain is an essential part of being British, giving us the English lawn, the sliding tackle and endless grounds for complaint, but what do we really know about it?

The programme uncovers the true shape of a raindrop, shows how and why rain falls, and tells remarkable stories of how we have adapted or succumbed to this elemental force of nature, such as James Glaisher's seven-mile hot-air balloon ascent in 1862, and how Charles Macintosh invented the waterproof coat.

The Victorians believed that they could master the rain and push it aside, but today climate change threatens us with rain that is wilder and more unpredictable than ever.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b013fbdy)
Series 5

Social Networkers vs Vegetarians

A trio of social networkers who met online take on three committed vegetarians. They compete to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random, from the Barghest of Yorkshire to the Mail on Sunday's political column to Winston Churchill's depression to Gnasher.


MON 21:00 Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words (b013fbf0)
The Culture Wars

Culture used to be so easy to define - it was ballet, opera, Shakespeare, Beethoven... But in the 20th century, these easy assumptions were torn apart by intellectuals who turned culture into a political weapon.

In a series which mines the BBC archive for footage of the great minds of the modern age - presenting these thinkers in their own words - this film looks at key thinkers, from FR Leavis to Stuart Hall, who have redefined the meaning of culture in the modern age.

It's a story that takes in the unashamed elitism of Kenneth Clark in his triumphant series Civilisation; the battle to give culture to the people waged by Raymond Williams and Richard Hoggart; and the advent of popular culture, spearheaded by hip young American academic Susan Sontag. From the battle over Lady Chatterley's Lover to the war against imperialism from Edward Said and CLR James, this is a thrilling intellectual journey that still resonates in all our lives today.


MON 22:00 Women in Love (b00zwp18)
Episode 2

Adaptation of DH Lawrence's classic novels The Rainbow and Women in Love, focusing on the lives of two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen and their developing relationships with two friends, Rupert Birkin and Gerald Crich, in the aftermath of the First World War.


MON 23:30 A Renaissance Education: The Schooling of Thomas More's Daughter (b0135mv0)
The intellectual forces at work in the Tudor era ensured it was a pivotal period for children's education. Historian Dr Helen Castor reveals how the life and education of Margaret More, daughter of Thomas More, tell a story of the transforming power of knowledge. As a child in Tudor England, and educated to an exceptionally high level, Margaret embodies the intellectual spirit of the age - an era which embraced humanism, the birth of the Church of England and the English Renaissance. This film reveals what a revolutionary intellectual spirit Margaret More was and how the ideas that shaped her education helped change the cultural life of England forever.


MON 00:30 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.


MON 01:30 The Weather (b00jz8gj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:30 Only Connect (b013fbdy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 03:00 Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words (b013fbf0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 16 AUGUST 2011

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b013ffks)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Grand Tours of Scotland (b00vt0b5)
Series 1

In Search of Perfect Isolation

Paul Murton follows in the footsteps of the first tourists to Scotland. With a Victorian guidebook in his hands, he travels across the country tracing the changes that have taken place since the birth of Scottish tourism 200 years ago.

In this edition, he travels to the Northern Isles to discover how their remoteness from the mainland became a draw for tourists in search of perfect isolation. After all, Shetland is closer to the Arctic Circle than to London and closer to the coast of Norway than to the English border!

Keen to escape the noise and pressures of their overcrowded world, more adventurous tourists braved the rough seas to travel to Orkney and Shetland, hoping to restore themselves in the peace and quiet of the far north. Paul's journey begins on board a Norwegian racing yacht in the ocean to the east of Shetland. Landing at Lerwick, Paul continues to explore the main island and its fabulous wildlife before heading out to sea again and sailing south to the musical Orkney Islands.


TUE 20:00 Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe (b00791vw)
The Romantic North

Francesco da Mosto gets romantic in Juliet's home town of Verona, witnesses the birth of western art, has a fashion makeover from Giorgio Armani, is invited into a closed convent to see the tomb of the most notorious woman in European history, and goes deep-sea diving in pursuit of a childhood dream.


TUE 21:00 Surviving Hitler: A Love Story (b013ffkv)
A Jewish teenager and an injured soldier join a doomed plot to kill Hitler. They face almost certain death, yet luck and love shine upon them as they outwit Nazi terror and become the first couple married in post-war Berlin. Narrated by the former teenager herself and featuring the original footage shot by her sweetheart, their story would sound like a pitch for a Hollywood blockbuster were it not all true. A harrowing tale of war, resistance, love and survival - and, miraculously, a happy ending.


TUE 21:55 My Father was a Nazi Commandant (b013ffkx)
The Emmy Award-winning story of a young woman grappling with the terrible legacy left by her Nazi father. Amon Goeth was a prominent Nazi leader and commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp. Utterly ruthless and sadistic, he murdered thousands of Jews and others during WWII. After seeing Ralph Fiennes's portrayal of him in Schindler's List, Goeth's daughter Monika began a quest to come to terms with his evil legacy. Together with Helen Jonas, a survivor of the Holocaust and Goeth's slave, the two women unearth the personal cost of crimes that consumed millions and question whether a parent's actions can ever be truly laid to rest.


TUE 22:45 Rick Stein's Taste of Italian Opera (b00sm1g0)
Chef Rick Stein takes a light-hearted look at the role that food played in the creation of Italian opera and shows how music and food are intrinsically linked in Italy. He draws parallels between cooking and composing, noting how both involve the skilful combination of ingredients and how they share the common purpose of bringing pleasure to many. Rick also explains why he thinks the music of Verdi, Rossini and Puccini are linked to the food of the regions where they lived and worked.


TUE 23:45 Mid-August Lunch (b013nlps)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:10 on Sunday]


TUE 00:55 Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe (b00791vw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 01:55 Surviving Hitler: A Love Story (b013ffkv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 02:50 My Father was a Nazi Commandant (b013ffkx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:55 today]



WEDNESDAY 17 AUGUST 2011

WED 19:00 World News Today (b013fj43)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Art of the Sea (b00s9kf5)
In Pictures

As an island nation the sea has exerted a powerful influence on some of Britain's best known artists. It has led to some of the finest British paintings from the likes of Constable and Turner and continues to be fertile territory for prominent artists today.

Poet and author Owen Sheers examines our changing relationship to the sea over the last four centuries and how this is reflected in the work of artists who have tried to capture its ever-changing essence in the stillness of a canvas, sculpture or photograph.


WED 20:30 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b013fj45)
Mad about the Buoys

Untrained mariner Timothy Spall has spent a fortune on technology for his new challenge - the unpredictable Irish Sea - as he and his wife continue their mini-odyssey around Britain.

Entering Liverpool means navigating their first big city since leaving London, but reaching dry land can be daunting in a small boat when dodging tankers and ferries. It's even more difficult when the coastguard sends him round in circles because he's on the wrong side of the marker buoys.

On his way to Glasson Dock in Lancashire, Tim is tricked again by another buoy. Misunderstanding his sea chart results in an unplanned dropped anchor in the middle of the Irish Sea, where they have to wait all night before he can enter the port.

Their next destination finds them in the company of royalty - Piel Island near Barrow-in-Furness has the unusual honour of having its own king and queen, a tradition which goes back centuries.


WED 21:00 The Pendle Witch Child (b013fj47)
Simon Armitage presents the extraordinary story of the most disturbing witch trial in British history and the key role played in it by one nine-year-old girl. Jennet Device, a beggar-girl from Pendle in Lancashire, was the star witness in the trial in 1612 of her own mother, her brother, her sister and many of her neighbours and, thanks to her chilling testimony, they were all hanged.

Armitage explores the lethal power and influence of one child's words - a story of fear, magic and demonic pacts retold partly with vivid and innovative hand-drawn animation. He discovers how Jennet's appearance in the witness box cast its shadow way beyond Lancashire, impressing lawyers, politicians, clerics and even King James I himself, and setting a dark precedent for child testimony in witch trials as far away as America. Finally, in a dramatic twist to the tale, he reveals how, 22 years after the original trial, Jennet's own words were very nearly the death of her - when she herself was put on trial, accused of being a witch by a 10-year-old boy.

With the help of historians Malcolm Gaskill, Diane Purkiss and Ronald Hutton, Armitage attempts to get inside Jennet's head and understand how the illegitimate and illiterate youngest child of a family of beggars could become both pawn and player in a much bigger story of 17th-century religion, power, law, science and the monarchy.

What made Jennet speak out so everyone she knew would die? And how did the courts decide to admit her evidence and allow her example to create a precedent for accepting the testimony of other child witnesses who wanted to send their neighbours to the gallows?

Although the events in this film may date back 400 years, its issues resonate today as much as ever - when to believe our children, how the police and the court system should handle child witnesses and above all how, in times of crisis, fear of evil can easily lead us to behave in ways which may corrode the very values that we most wish to protect.


WED 22:00 Nurse Jackie (b010vw1x)
Series 2

What the Day Brings

Jackie manages to evade O'Hara's questions about her fake MRI. Jackie, Kevin and the girls have an unsuccessful trip. On the journey back Kevin finds out Jackie's secret. Zoe saves a patient's life after a wrong diagnosis.


WED 22:30 Nurse Jackie (b010jptg)
Series 2

Years of Service

Drama series about Jackie Peyton, a no-nonsense emergency room nurse based in New York, who has to balance her frenzied job with a complicated home life and an addiction. Jackie's back at work after an aborted family vacation, and her indiscretions have put her at odds with her family, friends and co-workers. And the drug dealer she ripped off is now seeking revenge.


WED 23:00 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.


WED 00:00 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b013fj45)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 00:30 Wallander (b00sv2s0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


WED 02:00 Art of the Sea (b00s9kf5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 03:00 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b013fj45)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 03:30 The Pendle Witch Child (b013fj47)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 18 AUGUST 2011

THU 19:00 World News Today (b013g7dk)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0135mtw)
29/07/76

David Hamilton introduces Thin Lizzy, Chanter Sisters, Liverpool Express, Jimmy James and the Vagabonds and dance sequences from Ruby Flipper.


THU 20:00 ...Sings Elvis (b00pqcg3)
2011 marked the 75th anniversary of Elvis Presley's birth and was celebrated by a host of performances by artists covering the King's classic songs culled from the BBC archives.

Some of Britain's biggest stars were introduced to rock n roll as teenagers via their idol Elvis, and Cliff Richard, Paul McCartney, Tom Jones and John Cale all pay their tribute. The original songwriters of some of Elvis's greatest hits perform their own versions of classic tracks, including Carl Perkins singing Blue Suede Shoes and Mac Davis doing In the Ghetto.

Other artists paying homage from across five decades include The Deep River Boys, the Stylistics, Boy George, Alison Moyet, Pet Shop Boys and Robbie Williams. There will be jumpsuits, pelvic thrusts, brilliant tunes ... and Glen Campbell's Elvis impersonation.


THU 21:00 The Story of British Pathé (b013g7dm)
The Birth of the News

For more than half a century, the film and newsreel company British Pathé documented almost every aspect of everyday life in Britain and around the world. Covering everything from major world events and exotic foreign travelogues to the pageantry of state occasions and gritty social issues, the company amassed a unique documentary record of 20th-century life. This series delves into British Pathé's amazing treasure trove of images, beginning with the work of the buccaneering cameramen behind Pathé's newsreels - men who witnessed pivotal moments in history and created many of the conventions of news programming that we still use today.


THU 22:00 Hop, Skip and Jump: The Story of Children's Play (b00pf049)
Moving Indoors

Two-part series which tells the story of children's outdoor games in 20th-century Britain.

The mid to late 1950s are generally considered to be the highpoint of children's outdoor play. The benefits of the welfare state, better health care for children and an improving standard of living all helped create a final heyday of the singing street. All the traditional outdoor games - and new ones - were thriving in the cities and the countryside.

However, outdoor play was to dramatically change from the late 1950s onwards. Mass car ownership and the advent of 'stranger danger' made the streets more perilous, while the coming of mass television provided a rival attraction - one that was favoured by all parents, as it was safe.

Television's influence inspired a new generation of children's games that were grafted onto the old. Popular songs, fashions, adventure programmes and news stories such as the conquest of space were all turned into a myriad of games and rhymes that reflected the modern world.

Even in the multilingual playgrounds of today, traditional games are still played, some of them with origins stretching back centuries. But they are complemented and enriched by Afro-Caribbean hip-hop raps, role plays that have been adapted from modern TV shows and dance steps from the latest music fashions.


THU 23:00 The Pendle Witch Child (b013fj47)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]


THU 00:00 Surviving Hitler: A Love Story (b013ffkv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 00:55 Top of the Pops (b0135mtw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 01:30 ...Sings Elvis (b00pqcg3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 02:30 The Story of British Pathé (b013g7dm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 19 AUGUST 2011

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b013g87h)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 BBC Proms (b013lt5v)
2011

Brahms Night with Bernard Haintink and Emanuel Ax

In the first of a pair of Brahms Proms, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Bernard Haitink, perform Brahms's Third Symphony and Piano Concerto No 1. Haitink describes the COE as 'a group of exceptionally talented musicians', which would also apply to the soloist who joins them in the second half, pianist Emanuel Ax. Presenter Charles Hazlewood also talks to Haitink during a break in rehearsals.


FRI 21:25 Anyone for Demis? How the World Invaded the Charts (b013g87k)
The British have a love-hate relationship with the foreign pop song. For years they were frequent visitors to the charts and were bought in their millions. Once heard never forgotten, these international hits conjure instant memories of a holiday abroad, musical portraits of countries far away.

This documentary tells the story of these musical imports from the Second World War to the present day. It reveals surprising stories behind some of the songs and asks what made them so popular.

The programme starts with the fad for Hawaiian music in wartime Britain. Dodging the bombs was Felix Mendelssohn and his Hawaiian Serenaders. Hula dancer Doreena Sugundo, who joined the band aged seventeen, remembers their exotic stage act and the intricacies of the homemade grass skirt.

In the 1950s the foreign pop song was a fixture in the newly-formed charts. From Anton Karas's zither music to the Obernkirchen Children's Choir, continental pop sold in its millions. On BBC television, calypsos from Harry Belafonte and Cy Grant were family favourites, while Danish aristocrats Nina and Frederik brought a certain cosmopolitan cool with their versions of international folk music.

One would think that the worldwide success of the Beatles would see off these foreign pretenders. Not so, as in their breakthrough year of 1963 they were challenged in the charts by the Singing Nun's song Dominique. But the Singing Nun's subsequent fall from grace rivals any rock and roll tragedy.

People travelled the world through their record collections and on the new BBC2 Nana Mouskouri brought an early version of world music to our homes. In the late 1960s the package holiday boom meant that ordinary Britons could visit the places they'd only dreamt of seeing. Holiday songs like Sylvia's Y Viva Espana were souvenirs of a week in the sun and Greek balladeer Demis Roussos became the 1970s' most unlikely sex symbol.

Since then there has been the fad for pan pipes, initially coming not from the Andes but Romania, and in the 1980s the success of Paul Simon's Graceland and the emergence of world music. As our holidays became more exotic and our tastes for food more international, so music from around the world has become more dominant, with the craze for Latin and salsa music.

So now when music is truly global, and international stars like Shakira bestride the music world, has the foreign pop song had its day? Will there ever been another foreign pop sensation like the Singing Nun or the pan pipes, and is there anyone for Demis?

Featuring interviews with Nana Mouskouri, Sylvia, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Gipsy Kings. Narrated by Liza Tarbuck.


FRI 22:25 Exotic Pop at the BBC (b013g87m)
Compilation of international hits from the BBC archives that paint exotic musical portraits of far away countries or instantly conjure up memories of holidays abroad. This smorgasbord of foreign pop delights includes performances by Demis Roussos, Vanessa Paradis, Gheorghe Zamfir and Sylvia, amongst many others.


FRI 23:25 Nana Mouskouri at the BBC (b00fvhg4)
A vintage collection of Nana Mouskouri's performances from the BBC archive, including her entry in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest and musical collaborations with Michel Legrand, Charles Aznavour and Cliff Richard.


FRI 00:25 World of Music: An Evening with James Galway (b013g87p)
A performance by the renowned flautist, with special guests Kyung-Wha Chung, Jessye Norman, Calvin Simmons, Moray Welsh and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.


FRI 01:15 Anyone for Demis? How the World Invaded the Charts (b013g87k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:25 today]


FRI 02:15 BBC Proms (b013lt5v)
[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)

...Sings Elvis 20:00 THU (b00pqcg3)

...Sings Elvis 01:30 THU (b00pqcg3)

A Renaissance Education: The Schooling of Thomas More's Daughter 23:30 MON (b0135mv0)

Anyone for Demis? How the World Invaded the Charts 21:25 FRI (b013g87k)

Anyone for Demis? How the World Invaded the Charts 01:15 FRI (b013g87k)

Art of the Sea 19:30 WED (b00s9kf5)

Art of the Sea 02:00 WED (b00s9kf5)

BBC Proms 00:05 SAT (b013lst3)

BBC Proms 19:00 SUN (b013lsyc)

BBC Proms 02:20 SUN (b013lsyc)

BBC Proms 19:30 FRI (b013lt5v)

BBC Proms 02:15 FRI (b013lt5v)

Carluccio and the Leopard 22:20 SUN (b00g31qr)

Carrot or Stick? A Horizon Guide to Raising Kids 20:00 SAT (b0135mty)

Carrot or Stick? A Horizon Guide to Raising Kids 01:55 SAT (b0135mty)

Come Clog Dancing: Treasures of English Folk Dance 20:10 SUN (b00wmy5q)

Exotic Pop at the BBC 22:25 FRI (b013g87m)

Force of Nature: The Sculpture of David Nash 00:30 MON (b00ymlhp)

Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe 20:00 TUE (b00791vw)

Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe 00:55 TUE (b00791vw)

Glastonbury 00:20 SUN (b0135npq)

Glastonbury 01:30 SUN (b0135p24)

Grand Tours of Scotland 19:30 TUE (b00vt0b5)

Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words 21:00 MON (b013fbf0)

Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words 03:00 MON (b013fbf0)

Hop, Skip and Jump: The Story of Children's Play 23:00 WED (b00p8lhr)

Hop, Skip and Jump: The Story of Children's Play 22:00 THU (b00pf049)

Horizon 01:05 SAT (b0078y7h)

Mid-August Lunch 21:10 SUN (b013nlps)

Mid-August Lunch 23:45 TUE (b013nlps)

My Father was a Nazi Commandant 21:55 TUE (b013ffkx)

My Father was a Nazi Commandant 02:50 TUE (b013ffkx)

Nana Mouskouri at the BBC 23:25 FRI (b00fvhg4)

Nurse Jackie 22:00 WED (b010vw1x)

Nurse Jackie 22:30 WED (b010jptg)

Only Connect 20:30 MON (b013fbdy)

Only Connect 02:30 MON (b013fbdy)

Rick Stein's Taste of Italian Opera 22:45 TUE (b00sm1g0)

Surviving Hitler: A Love Story 21:00 TUE (b013ffkv)

Surviving Hitler: A Love Story 01:55 TUE (b013ffkv)

Surviving Hitler: A Love Story 00:00 THU (b013ffkv)

The Blue Planet 19:00 SAT (b0074mmc)

The Blue Planet 02:55 SAT (b0074mmc)

The Great Outdoors 22:25 SAT (b00td53g)

The Pendle Witch Child 21:00 WED (b013fj47)

The Pendle Witch Child 03:30 WED (b013fj47)

The Pendle Witch Child 23:00 THU (b013fj47)

The Sky at Night 00:35 SAT (b07n82h4)

The Story of British Pathé 21:00 THU (b013g7dm)

The Story of British Pathé 02:30 THU (b013g7dm)

The Weather 19:30 MON (b00jz8gj)

The Weather 01:30 MON (b00jz8gj)

Timeshift 23:20 SUN (b00wwlll)

Timothy Spall: Back at Sea 20:30 WED (b013fj45)

Timothy Spall: Back at Sea 00:00 WED (b013fj45)

Timothy Spall: Back at Sea 03:00 WED (b013fj45)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b0135mtw)

Top of the Pops 00:55 THU (b0135mtw)

Wallander 21:00 SAT (b00sv2s0)

Wallander 00:30 WED (b00sv2s0)

Women in Love 22:00 MON (b00zwp18)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b013fbdw)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b013ffks)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b013fj43)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b013g7dk)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b013g87h)

World of Music: An Evening with James Galway 00:25 FRI (b013g87p)

imagine... 23:05 SAT (b0074swk)