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 26 NOVEMBER 2011

SAT 19:00 Yellowstone (b00jrh7r)
Summer

As the spring melts the winter snow, the full extent of Yellowstone is gradually revealed. Now, from the surrounding lowlands herds of elk, pronghorn and bison return from their winter feeding grounds to take advantage of America's richest natural grasslands - right in the heart of Yellowstone. In only a few weeks, a brutally harsh deep freeze has been transformed into a flower-decked nursery perfect for the year's newborn animals. There is also a new cast of characters that emerge bleary-eyed from hibernation as grizzly bears begin to teach their young the secrets of survival in Yellowstone - how to hunt fish in the still-frozen rivers and, as the season progresses, when to move out through valleys and grasslands into summer forests and up into Yellowstone's alpine peaks. In this spectacular wilderness, over 10,000ft high, they slide and scrabble, hunting millions of tiny moths buried under rocks on the barren slopes.

But summer here is fickle - even on Midsummer's Day, winter can descend from the surrounding mountains bringing punishing snows to fragile flower meadows. August is the only month in the year when it does not snow, but then, just as it seems the easy living of summer has finally arrived, it is brought to an abrupt end as fires sweep through the forest, laying Yellowstone to waste.

Yellowstone is the most geothermally active place on earth. There are 10,000 boiling springs, bubbling mudpots and fumeroles there, and more geysers than in all the rest of the world put together. For some, nature's fountains are more than just a marvel, they are an obsession. 'Geyser Gazers' have seen them all and can even imitate them.


SAT 20:00 Art of America (b017j25v)
Modern Dreams

In the second part of his fascinating journey exploring American art, Andrew Graham-Dixon gets under the skin of the modern American metropolis. Starting his journey at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, which he describes as a pioneering early skyscraper, Andrew discovers how the ambitions of visionary artists and architects helped America remove itself from the shadow of Europe and become the most advanced civilisation on earth.

Andrew travels to downtown Manhattan to explore the grimy world of early 20th century painters John Sloan and George Bellows, and visits Stockbridge in Massachusetts to find out how the world of Norman Rockwell is not as sentimental as it first seems. In Chicago, he explores the visionary mind of architect Louis Sullivan and travels to the decaying outskirts of the city to see the underside of the American dream.

He uncovers the impact the Great Depression had on artists such as Edward Hopper and Arshile Gorky, and finds out how this struggle inspired America's first internationally-acclaimed art movement - Abstract Expressionism. He pays a pilgrimage to Jackson Pollock's perfectly-preserved studio in Long Island to discover the secrets of his unique drip technique, before flying across America to take in one of modern art's most moving experiences, Mark Rothko's chapel in Houston, Texas.


SAT 21:00 The Killing (b0391fc7)
Series 2

Episode 3

Having escaped from Herstedvester Prison, Jens Peter Raben sets out to track down a member of his former army squad. When an Islamist activist is arrested as the main murder suspect, Lund and her partner Strange disagree on the direction of the investigation. In parliament, young justice minister Thomas Buch must fend off accusations of a cover-up regarding a previously unpublished Special Branch memo.


SAT 22:00 The Killing (b017t3jp)
Series 2

Episode 4

After yet another gruesome murder is discovered, all clues indicate that the perpetrator of the first two killings may be responsible. But Special Branch is no longer convinced that police have the right suspect. Justice minister Thomas Buch, still under pressure, discovers some key secrets about his predecessor.


SAT 23:00 The Slap (b017j75g)
Rosie

For Rosie, the moment of truth has arrived - she has her court date and Harry will finally get the punishment he deserves. But 'The Slap' has turned her into an obsessive and it threatens her relationship with friends and family, and especially her husband, Gary.


SAT 23:55 Top of the Pops (b017j75b)
04/11/76

Noel Edmonds introduces 1976 chart hits by Showaddywaddy, Bonnie Tyler, Climax Blues Band, the Manhattans and the Who. With the Top of the Pops dancers.


SAT 00:25 Gershwin's Summertime: The Song that Conquered the World (b017nf05)
An intriguing investigation into the extraordinary life of Gershwin's classic composition, Summertime. One of the most covered songs in the world, it has been recorded in almost every style of music - from jazz to opera, rock to reggae, soul to samba. Its musical adaptability is breathtaking, but Summertime also resonates on a deep emotional level. This visually and sonically engaging film explores the composition's magical properties, examining how this song has, with stealth, captured the imagination of the world.

From its complex birth in 1935 as a lullaby in Gershwin's all-black opera Porgy and Bess, this film traces the hidden history of Summertime, focusing on key recordings, including those by Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin, Mahalia Jackson, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald. It reveals how musicians have projected their own dreams and desires onto the song, reimagining Summertime throughout the 20th century as a civil rights prayer, a hippie lullaby, an ode to seduction and a modern freedom song.

Back in the 1930s, Gershwin never dreamt of the global impact Summertime would have. But as this film shows, it has magically tapped into something deep inside us all - nostalgia and innocence, sadness and joy, and our intrinsic desire for freedom. Full of evocative archive footage as well as a myriad versions of Summertime - from the celebrated to the obscure - the film tells the surprising and illuminating tale behind this world-famous song.


SAT 01:25 Yellowstone (b00jrh7r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 02:25 Art of America (b017j25v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2011

SUN 19:00 The Story of British Pathé (b014bb01)
Around the World

For more than half a century film and newsreel company British Pathe documented almost every aspect of British life, but it also captivated audiences with enthralling stories from overseas.

In the age before mass tourism made international travel affordable and accessible to most of us, their sumptuous travelogues and anthropological documentaries offered British cinemagoers a rare opportunity to glimpse faraway worlds. For decades Pathe dutifully covered royal tours to every corner of the British Empire, but by the 1950s, when the first package holidays were sold, the company also recorded the experiences of the first generations of Britons who were able to indulge in leisure travel around the globe.

This film examines the unique footage captured by the company's cameras across five continents during Pathe's seven decades of international film-making.


SUN 20:00 Symphony (b017j75d)
Revolution and Rebirth

Simon Russell Beale's journey takes him into the 20th century, a time when the certainties of empire were falling away, war was looming and the world was changing faster than ever before.

Simon investigates the extraordinary symphonic world of Shostakovich, the star composer of the new Soviet Union, as well as the work of Ives and Copland who were both, in their different ways, creating a new American sound. He discovers how the development of the gramophone and broadcasting meant that more people could hear their music than ever before and how it became possible to immortalise the symphony in sound.

The symphonies are played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder.


SUN 21:00 Storyville (b017sr43)
Riding Giants

The history of surfing culture is told through the exploits of the pioneers and contemporary heroes of big-wave surfing in Stacy Peralta's documentary, which features the likes of Greg Noll and Jeff Clark. Riding Giants makes palpable the magnitude and terrifying power of the waves they seek to conquer and captures the unfathomable combination of adrenaline and fear that the surfers experience each time they take on a monster swell.


SUN 22:30 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.


SUN 23:30 The Old Grey Whistle Test (b0074t8q)
California Comes to the Whistle Test

A compilation of BBC performances by artists who lived and worked in California in the 1970s. Featuring Jackson Browne, Little Feat, Ry Cooder, Judee Sill, Bonnie Raitt and a rare duet between James Taylor and Carly Simon.


SUN 00:30 New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s (b0177bjb)
Prince: A Purple Reign

Film which explores how Prince - showman, artist, enigma - revolutionised the perception of black music in the 1980s with worldwide hits such as 1999, Kiss, Raspberry Beret and Alphabet Street. He became a global sensation with the release of the Oscar-winning, semi-autobiographical movie Purple Rain in 1984, embarking on an incredible journey of musical self-discovery that continued right up to his passing in April 2016, aged 57.

From the psychedelic Around the World in a Day to his masterpiece album Sign O' the Times and experiments with hip-hop and jazz, Prince was one of most ambitious and prolific songwriters of his generation. He tested the boundaries of taste and decency with explicit sexual lyrics and stage shows during his early career, and in the 1990s fought for ownership of his name and control of his music, played out in a public battle with his former label, Warner. Highly regarded as one of the most flamboyant live performers ever, Prince was a controversial and famously elusive creative force.

Contributors include Revolution guitarist Dez Dickerson, Paisley Park label president Alan Leeds, hip-hop legend Chuck D and Prince 'Mastermind' and UK soul star Beverley Knight.


SUN 01:30 Symphony (b017j75d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SUN 02:30 Legends (b00r0t24)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]



MONDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2011

MON 19:00 World News Today (b017sryl)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Stephen Fry in America (b00ffvlz)
True West

The high mesas of New Mexico are the starting point for Stephen's journey through the dramatic landscapes and peoples of the South West. The physicists at the Los Alamos lab, who are unravelling the mysteries of dark matter, contrast starkly to the ecohouse dwellers living off the grid near Sante Fe.

Staying with the Navajo Indians in Monument Valley in Arizona, Stephen learns to weave a basket, before heading to the sublime beauty of Lake Powell and life aboard a luxurious houseboat. He takes a World War II Flying Fortress bomber to the 'Boneyard' in Tucson, where 3,000 military planes are eerily mothballed, before living out a fantasy by becoming a cowboy at the Old Tucson Studios.

In Nevada he meets semi-naked Mormon missionaries during their calendar shoot and is initiated into the intricacies of brothel life by madame extraordinaire Susan Austin, before heading over the Sierra Nevada mountains to the Pacific Ocean.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b017sryn)
Series 5

Listeners vs Trade Unionists

A trio of Listener crossword fans and three members of an executive council trade union group compete in the 3rd/4th place play-off. They compete to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random, from blood transfusion to web rotary printing press to RMS Titanic to Eddystone lighthouse.


MON 21:00 Art of America (b017sryq)
What Lies Beneath

In the final part of his United States odyssey, Andrew Graham-Dixon feels the pulse of contemporary America. Beginning in Levittown - the first mass-produced suburb - Andrew uncovers the dark side of post-war consumerism and the role artists have played in challenging the status quo.

He visits New York's Metropolitan Museum to see the most subversive artwork of 1950s America, Jasper Johns's White Flag. Pop art defined the 1960s and Andy Warhol was its greatest artist. Andrew examines Warhol's soup can paintings, meets his former lover Billy Name and interviews one of the last great surviving pop artists, James Rosenquist.

He travels west down the open road, exploring its art, arriving in Los Angeles, an artificial dream world that has inspired the graphic style of Ed Ruscha and the city's own unique contribution to 20th century design - Googie architecture.

Back east, Andrew visits the home of one of his favourite 20th century artists, the late Philip Guston, and gets a private view of his work. He drops into the studio of Jeff Koons to learn how the enfant terrible of contemporary art continues to challenge the boundaries of American taste. Finally, he explores the impact 9/11 has had on America and how a new generation of artists, such as Matthew Day Jackson, have made sense of this tragic event.


MON 22:00 American Nomads (b01777fp)
Beneath the America we think we know lies a nation hidden from view - a nomadic nation, living on the roads, the rails and in the wild open spaces. In its deserts, forests, mountain ranges and on the plains, a huge population of modern nomads pursues its version of the American dream - to live free from the world of careers, mortgages and the white picket fence.

When British writer Richard Grant moved to the USA more than 20 years ago, it wasn't just a change of country. He soon found himself in a world of travellers and the culture of roadside America - existing alongside, but separate from, conventional society. In this film, he takes to the road again, on a journey without destination.

In a series of encounters and unplanned meetings, Richard is guided by his own instincts and experiences - and the serendipity of the road. Travelling with loners and groups, he encounters the different 'tribes' of nomads as he journeys across the deserts of America's south west.


MON 23:30 Not Cricket (b0074qcq)
The Basil D'Oliveira Conspiracy

With explosive new evidence this film tells the full story of the D'Oliveira scandal, explaining the critical political role that cricket played in bringing about the fall of apartheid in South Africa.

In 1968, Basil D'Oliveira, a brilliant 'coloured' cricketer from South Africa who had made his home in the UK, found himself at the centre of a row that rocked the English political and sporting establishment. Excluded from the England team to tour South Africa - apparently because of his race - the 'D'Oliveira Affair' led directly to the sporting isolation of South Africa, which became crucial in bringing about the fall of the apartheid system of white rule in South Africa.

Set against the backdrop of the tumultuous events of 1968, this documentary tells the story of Basil D'Oliveira and his betrayal by the English establishment, as D'Oliveira himself speaks out for the first time.


MON 00:50 Only Connect (b017sryn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 01:20 Stephen Fry in America (b00ffvlz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:20 Storyville (b017sr43)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


MON 03:55 Art of America (b017sryq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2011

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b017ss8v)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 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.


TUE 20:00 Stephen Fry in America (b00flx59)
Pacific

Starting in San Francisco where he meets up with Apple's design guru Jony Ive, Stephen explores the Pacific Northwest. He travels up the coast to Mendocino to take part in a drug bust, before joining tree-sitters and Big Foot believers in the Oregon giant redwood forests.

Dope smoking students and edgy cabaret in Seattle give way to the stark wilderness of Alaska and an unsuccessful whale hunt with Eskimos in Barrow, the northernmost city of the USA.

On the islands of Hawaii, he meets a real life Magnum PI , goes swimming with sharks and paddles with surfers. He then sees the death of stars with astrophysicist Alex Filippenko and the birth of new land as lava flows into the sea, creating yet more America.


TUE 21:00 America on a Plate: The Story of the Diner (b017ss8x)
Writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith re-envisions the story of 20th-century American culture through its most iconic institution - the diner. Whether Edward Hopper's Nighthawks or the infamous encounter between Pacino and de Niro in Heat, these gleaming, gaudy shacks are at the absolute heart of the American vision.

Stephen embarks on a girth-busting road journey that takes him to some of America's most iconic diners. He meets the film-makers and singers who have immortalised them, and looks at the role diners have played not only in America's greatest paintings and movies, but also in the fight against racial oppression and the chain restaurants' global takeover.

For Stephen, it is because the diner is the last vestige of a vital part of the American psyche - the frontier. Like the Dodge City saloon it is a place where strangers are thrown together, where normal rules are suspended and anything can happen. And it is this crackle of potentially violent and sexual energy that have drawn so many artists to the diner, and made it not a convenient setting but an engine room of 20th-century American culture.


TUE 22:00 Diner (b0077kc6)
Acutely observed rites-of-passage movie about five young Baltimore men in 1959 for whom their the local diner is the centre of their world, a place in which to laugh, cry, reminisce about the past and make plans for the future. In this particular week, they celebrate Christmas and face up to adulthood - which means saying goodbye to love and an end to their diner days.


TUE 23:45 Stephen Fry in America (b00flx59)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 00:45 Purple Rain (b00kx3c7)
Iconic musical drama which launched Prince's career. In Minneapolis, Prince plays 'The Kid', a talented but troubled young musician eager to make it big. But emotional problems are holding him back, threatening to wreck his relationship with singer Apollonia and his very sense of self.


TUE 02:35 America on a Plate: The Story of the Diner (b017ss8x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2011

WED 19:00 World News Today (b017ssft)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Churches: How to Read Them (b00tp1cs)
Medieval Life

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

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


WED 20:00 Abraham Lincoln: Saint or Sinner? (b00y5kdx)
To most Americans Abraham Lincoln is the nation's greatest president - a political genius who won the Civil War and ended slavery. Today the cult of Lincoln has become a multi-million dollar industry, with millions of Americans visiting his memorials and thousands of books published that present him as a saint more than a politician.

But does Lincoln really deserve all this adulation? 150 years after the war his reputation is being re-assessed, as historians begin to uncover the dark side of his life and politics. They have revealed that the president who ended slavery secretly planned to deport the freed black people out of America. Others are asking if Lincoln should be remembered as a war hero who saved the nation or as a war criminal who launched attacks on innocent southern civilians.


WED 21:00 Storyville (b017srys)
Bobby Fischer: Genius and Madman

Considered by many to be the world's greatest chess player, Bobby Fischer personified the link between genius and madness. His trajectory propelled him from child prodigy to world chess champion at the age of 29 and then into a nosedive of delusions and paranoia. Fischer was a recluse for decades before resurfacing for a bizarre final chapter as a fugitive.

Veteran filmmaker Liz Garbus's documentary exposes the disturbingly high price Fischer paid to achieve his legendary success and the resulting toll it took on his psyche. Rare archival footage and insightful interviews with those closest to him expand this captivating story of a mastermind's tumultuous rise and precipitous fall.


WED 22:30 The Killing (b0391fc7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


WED 23:30 The Killing (b017t3jp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Saturday]


WED 00:30 Churches: How to Read Them (b00tp1cs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 01:00 American Nomads (b01777fp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]


WED 02:30 Storyville (b017srys)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 01 DECEMBER 2011

THU 19:00 World News Today (b017svd0)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b017svd2)
25/11/76

Jimmy Savile introduces 1976 chart hits by the Kursaal Flyers, Billy Ocean, Cliff Richard, Elton John and Chicago. With Legs & Co performing a dance sequence.


THU 20:00 Storyville (b0109ccb)
Knocking on Heaven's Door - Space Race

April 12th 2011 was the fiftieth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight into space, hailed by the Soviet Union as a triumph for socialist science over capitalism. But the true story is much stranger.

George Carey's film shows how the Russian space programme was kick-started by a mystic who taught that science would make us immortal, and carried forward by a scientist who believed that we should evolve into super-humans who could leave our overcrowded planet to colonise the universe. Stranger still, Carey shows how those ideas have survived communism and adapted themselves to the science of the modern world.


THU 21:00 America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine (b017svd6)
Life was an iconic weekly magazine that specialised in extraordinarily vivid photojournalism. Through its most dynamic decades, - the 40s, 50s and 60s - Life caught the spirit of America as it blossomed into a world superpower. Read by over half the country, its influence on American people was unparalleled. No other magazine in the world held the photograph in such high esteem. At Life the pictures, not the words, did the talking. As a result, the Life photographer was king.

In this film, leading UK fashion photographer Rankin celebrates the work of Life's legendary photographers including Alfred Eisenstaedt and Margaret Bourke-White, who went to outrageous lengths to get the best picture - moving armies, naval fleets and even the population of entire towns. He travels across the USA to meet photographers Bill Eppridge, John Shearer, John Loengard, Burk Uzzle and Harry Benson who, between them, have shot the big moments in American history - from the assassination of Robert F Kennedy, the Civil Rights struggle and Vietnam to behind the scenes at the Playboy mansion and the greatest names in Hollywood.

These photographers pioneered new forms of photojournalism, living with and photographing their subjects for weeks, enabling them to capture compelling yet ordinary aspects of American life too. Rankin discovers that Life told the story of America in photographs, and also taught America how to be American.


THU 22:00 The Slap (b017svd8)
Manolis

For Hector's father Manolis, a man facing his mortality, the 'Slap' illuminates the selfishness and greed of his children's generation. He is concerned by how the event has divided his family and yearns to return to a simpler life in the old country.


THU 22:55 Top of the Pops (b017svd2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 23:25 Arena (b0074rmh)
James Ellroy's Feast of Death

A programme exploring the work of crime writer James Ellroy, whose credits include LA Confidential, The Black Dahlia and My Dark Places, the latter a harrowing memoir of his own mother's murder. Ellroy later moved on from crime writing to pen his own secret history of the United States. As the second volume of his 'Underworld USA' trilogy - The Cold Six Thousand - was published in the UK in 2001, the film takes a tour of Ellroy's often disturbing world.


THU 01:00 Storyville (b017srys)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]


THU 02:30 America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine (b017svd6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 02 DECEMBER 2011

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b017sw75)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Sacred Music: The Story of Allegri's Miserere (b00g81g7)
Simon Russell Beale tells the story behind Allegri's Miserere, one of the most popular pieces of sacred music ever written. The programme features a full performance of the piece by the award-winning choir the Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers.


FRI 20:00 God's Composer (b017sw77)
Simon Russell Beale continues his Sacred Music journey in this special celebration marking the 400th anniversary of the death of the great Spanish Renaissance composer Tomas Luis de Victoria. In exploring the extraordinary world of this intensely spiritual man - musician, priest and mystic - Simon's travels take him to some of Spain's most stunning locations, from the ancient fortified city of Avila, with its medieval walls and glorious cathedral, to the magnificent El Escorial palace, where Philip II would listen to Victoria's music though a small door leading off his bedroom directly to the high altar of the Basilica.

In Madrid, Simon explores the dramatic religious paintings of Victoria's contemporary El Greco in the Prado Museum and visits the convent of Las Descalzas Reales, named after the barefoot nuns who worshipped there and where Victoria spent the final three decades of his life as choirmaster and organist.

The music is specially performed by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen in the church of San Antonio de los Alemanes, a hidden baroque jewel built in Victoria's lifetime in the heart of Madrid.


FRI 21:00 New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s (b017sw79)
Lionel Richie: Dancing on the Ceiling

Documentary showing how Lionel Richie achieved his dream of becoming 'as big as The Beatles' and how much of what he learnt from his years with The Commodores prepared him for that success. After 15 years of soaring success with the band, Lionel left the group to go solo in what many considered to be a risky move. His first solo album, Lionel Richie, grabbed the world's attention, whilst the follow-up, Can't Slow Down, turned him into a global superstar. But could he maintain sustained popularity without the group he'd known as brothers behind him?

Contributors include: Billboard Magazine editor Adam White, Motown songwriter and producer Gloria Jones, Kenny Rogers, video director Bob Giraldi, songwriter and producer David Foster, general manager at Motown in 1978 Keith Harris, UK soul singer Lemar and Pearly Gates of The Flirtations.


FRI 22:00 Lionel Richie at the BBC (b017sw7c)
A selection of Lionel Richie's greatest moments from the BBC archives, from his first Top of the Pops appearance with The Commodores in 1979 to highlights from his 2009 concert at the BBC's Maida Vale studios.


FRI 23:00 Motor City's Burning: Detroit from Motown to the Stooges (b009372j)
Documentary looking at how Detroit became home to a musical revolution that captured the sound of a nation in upheaval.

In the early 60s, Motown transcended Detroit's inner city to take black music to a white audience, whilst in the late 60s suburban kids like the MC5 and the Stooges descended into the black inner city to create revolutionary rock expressing the rage of young white America.

With contributions from Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, George Clinton, Martha Reeves, John Sinclair and the MC5.


FRI 00:00 New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s (b017sw79)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 01:00 Lionel Richie at the BBC (b017sw7c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 02:00 Sacred Music: The Story of Allegri's Miserere (b00g81g7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 02:30 God's Composer (b017sw77)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]




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

Abraham Lincoln: Saint or Sinner? 20:00 WED (b00y5kdx)

America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine 21:00 THU (b017svd6)

America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine 02:30 THU (b017svd6)

America on a Plate: The Story of the Diner 21:00 TUE (b017ss8x)

America on a Plate: The Story of the Diner 02:35 TUE (b017ss8x)

American Nomads 22:00 MON (b01777fp)

American Nomads 01:00 WED (b01777fp)

Arena 23:25 THU (b0074rmh)

Art of America 20:00 SAT (b017j25v)

Art of America 02:25 SAT (b017j25v)

Art of America 21:00 MON (b017sryq)

Art of America 03:55 MON (b017sryq)

Churches: How to Read Them 19:30 WED (b00tp1cs)

Churches: How to Read Them 00:30 WED (b00tp1cs)

Diner 22:00 TUE (b0077kc6)

Gershwin's Summertime: The Song that Conquered the World 00:25 SAT (b017nf05)

God's Composer 20:00 FRI (b017sw77)

God's Composer 02:30 FRI (b017sw77)

Legends 22:30 SUN (b00r0t24)

Legends 02:30 SUN (b00r0t24)

Lionel Richie at the BBC 22:00 FRI (b017sw7c)

Lionel Richie at the BBC 01:00 FRI (b017sw7c)

Motor City's Burning: Detroit from Motown to the Stooges 23:00 FRI (b009372j)

New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s 00:30 SUN (b0177bjb)

New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s 21:00 FRI (b017sw79)

New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s 00:00 FRI (b017sw79)

Not Cricket 23:30 MON (b0074qcq)

Only Connect 20:30 MON (b017sryn)

Only Connect 00:50 MON (b017sryn)

Purple Rain 00:45 TUE (b00kx3c7)

Sacred Music: The Story of Allegri's Miserere 19:30 FRI (b00g81g7)

Sacred Music: The Story of Allegri's Miserere 02:00 FRI (b00g81g7)

Stephen Fry in America 19:30 MON (b00ffvlz)

Stephen Fry in America 01:20 MON (b00ffvlz)

Stephen Fry in America 20:00 TUE (b00flx59)

Stephen Fry in America 23:45 TUE (b00flx59)

Storyville 21:00 SUN (b017sr43)

Storyville 02:20 MON (b017sr43)

Storyville 21:00 WED (b017srys)

Storyville 02:30 WED (b017srys)

Storyville 20:00 THU (b0109ccb)

Storyville 01:00 THU (b017srys)

Symphony 20:00 SUN (b017j75d)

Symphony 01:30 SUN (b017j75d)

The Killing 21:00 SAT (b0391fc7)

The Killing 22:00 SAT (b017t3jp)

The Killing 22:30 WED (b0391fc7)

The Killing 23:30 WED (b017t3jp)

The Old Grey Whistle Test 23:30 SUN (b0074t8q)

The Slap 23:00 SAT (b017j75g)

The Slap 22:00 THU (b017svd8)

The Story of British Pathé 19:00 SUN (b014bb01)

Time to Remember 19:30 TUE (b00tww3x)

Top of the Pops 23:55 SAT (b017j75b)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b017svd2)

Top of the Pops 22:55 THU (b017svd2)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b017sryl)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b017ss8v)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b017ssft)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b017svd0)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b017sw75)

Yellowstone 19:00 SAT (b00jrh7r)

Yellowstone 01:25 SAT (b00jrh7r)