The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
In a journey taking him coast to coast from Brighton to Cromer, Michael finds out about the Stiffs' Express, a funeral service running coffins from Waterloo to Brookwood Cemetery. He discovers how London's West End became a great 19th-century shopping destination and explores the changing fortunes of London's docks.
Sea adventurers Timothy Spall and his wife Shane take their barge to three different countries and the Isle of Man. From Whitehaven, where Spall learns about the pirate John Paul Jones, they steam over to Douglas to visit his son, actor Rafe Spall, who is there to work on BBC Two's The Shadow Line. Next they visit a city Tim loves dearly, Belfast, and a special pub he says is 'the finest drinking establishment in the English-speaking world'. Finally, it's across to Portpatrick and Scotland, as they clock up some serious nautical mileage in their circumnavigation of the British Isles.
As summer comes to a close, Timothy Spall's trip around the coast of his beloved Britain reaches the halfway mark. He encounters several Scottish ports and islands, but mostly in the famous Scottish misty drizzle. Before the weather worsens he winds his way through the Scottish western islands and takes his barge Princess Matilda back to her roots by venturing up the Caledonian Canal, a short cut from the west of Scotland to the east which sets up next year's trip down the east coast and back home to London. This year Timothy and his wife Shane have travelled further than in any other of their previous six years at sea. All they need is somewhere to moor up for winter.
Art historian and curator Tobias Capwell celebrates the great age of armour. Referencing the unstoppable rise of the Royal Almain Armoury at Greenwich, he tells the forgotten story of how Henry VIII fused German high technology with Renaissance artistry in the pursuit of one aim - to become the very image of the perfect knight. Using the talents of foreign craftsmen and his court artist Hans Holbein, Henry transformed himself into a living metal sculpture. His daughter Elizabeth I further exploited that image, making her courtiers parade before her in the most innovative and richly decorated works ever commissioned in steel.
Television interviews seem to have been around forever - but that's not the case. They evolved in confidence and diversity as television gradually came of age. So how did it all begin? With the help of some of its greatest exponents, Sir David Frost looks back over nearly 60 years of the television interview.
He looks at political interviews, from the earliest examples in the postwar period to the forensic questioning that we now take for granted, and celebrity interviews, from the birth of the chat show in the United States with Jack Paar and Johnny Carson to the emergence of our own peak-time British performers like Sir Michael Parkinson and Sir David himself.
Melvyn Bragg, Joan Bakewell, Tony Benn, Clive Anderson, Ruby Wax, Andrew Neil, Stephen Fry, AA Gill, Alastair Campbell and Michael Parkinson all help trace the development of the television interview. What is its enduring appeal and where does the balance of power actually lie - with the interviewer or the interviewee?
A look at whether the creation of the welfare state made life better for Britain's disabled community, and at the rights that disabled groups, including the blind and those affected by thalidomide, began to demand.
THURSDAY 10 MAY 2012
THU 19:00 World News Today (b01hbblb)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 The Sky at Night (b08slwrh)
Moore Marathon
The Sky at Night celebrates 55 years with the second of its special programmes. Sir Patrick picked out 55 objects in the April sky and asked viewers to take part in his Moore Marathon. He finds out how everyone got on, with help from the team.
THU 20:00 The Sky at Night (b080z2s1)
700 Not Out
Sir Patrick Moore celebrates the 700th episode of The Sky at Night at his home in Sussex, with the help of special guests Professor Brian Cox, impressionist and amateur astronomer Jon Culshaw and Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal. A stellar panel of astronomers gathers to answer vexing questions from the viewers, while Sir Patrick has a close encounter with his younger self.
THU 21:00 The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Computer (b01hlkcq)
In 1901, a group of divers excavating an ancient Roman shipwreck near the island of Antikythera, off the southern coast of Greece, found a mysterious object - a lump of calcified stone that contained within it several gearwheels welded together after years under the sea. The 2,000-year-old object, no bigger than a modern laptop, is now regarded as the world's oldest computer, devised to predict solar eclipses and, according to recent findings, calculate the timing of the ancient Olympics. Following the efforts of an international team of scientists, the mysteries of the Antikythera Mechanism are uncovered, revealing surprising and awe-inspiring details of the object that continues to mystify.
THU 22:00 Do We Really Need the Moon? (b00yb5jp)
The moon is such a familiar presence in the sky that most of us take it for granted. But what if it wasn't where it is now? How would that affect life on Earth?
Space scientist and lunar fanatic Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock explores our intimate relationship with the moon. Besides orchestrating the tides, the moon dictates the length of a day, the rhythm of the seasons and the very stability of our planet.
Yet the moon is always on the move. In the past, it was closer to the Earth and in the future it will be farther away. That it is now perfectly placed to sustain life is pure luck, a cosmic coincidence. Using computer graphics to summon up great tides and set the Earth spinning on its side, Aderin-Pocock implores us to look at the Moon afresh: to see it not as an inert rock, but as a key player in the story of our planet, past, present and future.
THU 23:00 The King & the Playwright: A Jacobean History (b01hdf7m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
THU 00:00 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.
THU 01:00 The Sky at Night (b08slwrh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 01:30 The Sky at Night (b080z2s1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 02:30 Do We Really Need the Moon? (b00yb5jp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
THU 03:30 The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Computer (b01hlkcq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 11 MAY 2012
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b01hbblk)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 BBC Young Musician (b01hdjk1)
2012
Percussion Final
The ultimate music contest continues, as BBC Young Musician 2012 shines a spotlight on some of the UK's most talented young percussionists in the last of five category finals from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.
Clemency Burton-Hill introduces extensive highlights from their performances, with behind-the-scenes access and insightful comment and analysis. Rhythm takes centre stage, as we witness a spectacular display of technique, showmanship and passion from five percussionists: 18-year-olds James Larter, Richard Rayner and Molly Lopresti, and 16-year-olds Peter Rayner and Hyun-gi Lee. Expect the unexpected from a mostly modern repertoire, which features backing tracks, shouting and self-penned compositions.
With the semi-final line up almost complete, each of the five young percussionists will be hoping that their journey doesn't end here. They'll be aiming to convince the judges that they deserve the one remaining place in the semi-final, taking them a step closer to the coveted title, BBC Young Musician 2012.
FRI 21:00 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down a Dream (b00scr6s)
Peter Bogdanovich's epic portrait of one of America's great heartland rock 'n' roll bands.
Hailing from Gainesville, Florida, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers got together in the mid-70s, moved to California and released their self-titled debut album in 1976. The album was a hit in the UK where its concise, rock 'n' roll traditionalism sat well with the emerging punk and new wave scenes.
The film uses extensive interviews with the band and friends like Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks and Rick Rubin to chart their stubborn, independent-minded and often highly-successful journey towards the present day - breaking up occasionally, stopping off with the Travelling Wilburys, various Petty solo outings and periods backing the likes of Dylan, but fundamentally sticking together as one of America's greatest live and recording rock 'n' roll bands.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released Mojo, their first album together in eight years, in June 2010.
FRI 01:00 Guitar Heroes at the BBC (b00plj0l)
Part VI
In this sixth and final show to round out the Guitar Heroes series, axe fans get classic riffs from Pete Townshend as The Who play Won't Get Fooled Again, Rod and Ronnie with The Faces doing Miss Judy's Farm at the old BBC TV Theatre, some weird yodel-rock from Dutch prog rockers Focus, folky acoustic numbers from Davey Graham and Ralph McTell, and some flamboyant fretwork from Americans Nils Lofgren and Ted Nugent.
Filmed in the 1970s for shows including Top of the Pops and The Old Grey Whistle Test, these tracks pay tribute to a golden era in rock and to the last of the 70s Guitar Heroes.
Complete line-up:
The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again
The Faces - Miss Judy's Farm
Focus - Hocus Pocus
Man - Day and Night
Chris Spedding - Motor Bikin'
Nils Lofgren - Back It Up
The Cate Brothers - In One Eye and Out the Other
Ralph McTell - Dry Bone Rag
The Runaways - Wasted
The Motors - Dancing the Night Away
Ted Nugent - Free For All
The Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love
Gary Moore - Back on the Streets
Judas Priest - Take on the World
Davey Graham - City and Suburban Blues
ZZ Top - Cheap Sunglasses.
FRI 02:00 BBC Young Musician (b01hdjk1)
[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)
A Civil Arrangement
21:00 SUN (b01hddk5)
African Railway
20:00 SAT (b00s6bgw)
African Railway
02:20 SAT (b00s6bgw)
African Railway
00:50 TUE (b00s6bgw)
Ancient Apocalypse
22:00 TUE (b0074m7j)
Ancient Apocalypse
03:20 TUE (b0074m7j)
BBC Young Musician
19:30 FRI (b01hdjk1)
BBC Young Musician
02:00 FRI (b01hdjk1)
Do We Really Need the Moon?
22:00 THU (b00yb5jp)
Do We Really Need the Moon?
02:30 THU (b00yb5jp)
Fleetwood Mac: Don't Stop
01:55 SUN (b00nq7q9)
Frost on Interviews
22:40 WED (b01dc5ft)
Frost on Interviews
01:55 WED (b01dc5ft)
Great British Railway Journeys
19:30 TUE (b00xbkx0)
Great British Railway Journeys
01:50 TUE (b00xbkx0)
Great British Railway Journeys
19:30 WED (b00xblg3)
Great British Railway Journeys
01:25 WED (b00xblg3)
Guitar Heroes at the BBC
01:00 FRI (b00plj0l)
How to Build a Cathedral
19:00 MON (b00b09rb)
How to Build a Cathedral
00:00 MON (b00b09rb)
Inside the Medieval Mind
20:00 MON (b00b6w6m)
Inside the Medieval Mind
01:00 MON (b00b6w6m)
Metalworks!
21:00 WED (b01hdhpy)
Metalworks!
02:55 WED (b01hdhpy)
New York Rock at the BBC
00:20 SAT (b007mwcf)
Parkinson: The Interviews
23:00 SAT (b01hdcb3)
Parkinson: The Interviews
22:00 WED (b01hdcb3)
Peter Green: Man of the World
02:55 SUN (b00k92x1)
Play For Today
22:30 SUN (b00jzj72)
Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
19:00 SUN (b00x1ygp)
Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
23:55 SUN (b00x1ygp)
Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity
20:00 SUN (p00kjqch)
Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity
00:55 SUN (p00kjqch)
South Pacific
19:00 SAT (b00kwdqr)
South Pacific
03:20 SAT (b00kwdqr)
Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures
22:00 MON (b01bs7jq)
Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures
02:00 MON (b01bs7jq)
The Bridge
21:00 SAT (b01hdbtb)
The Bridge
22:00 SAT (b01hdbtd)
The Bridge
23:00 MON (b01hdbtb)
The Bridge
22:50 TUE (b01hdbtd)
The Disabled Century
23:45 WED (b0077s66)
The End of the World? A Horizon Guide to Armageddon
01:20 SAT (b00zj1c2)
The King & the Playwright: A Jacobean History
21:00 MON (b01hdf7m)
The King & the Playwright: A Jacobean History
03:00 MON (b01hdf7m)
The King & the Playwright: A Jacobean History
23:00 THU (b01hdf7m)
The Many Faces of...
21:30 SUN (b00wylqq)
The Sky at Night
19:30 THU (b08slwrh)
The Sky at Night
20:00 THU (b080z2s1)
The Sky at Night
01:00 THU (b08slwrh)
The Sky at Night
01:30 THU (b080z2s1)
The Story of British Pathé
20:00 TUE (b013rl1w)
The Story of British Pathé
23:50 TUE (b013rl1w)
The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Computer
21:00 THU (b01hlkcq)
The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Computer
03:30 THU (b01hlkcq)
Timothy Spall: Back at Sea
20:00 WED (b013rknf)
Timothy Spall: Back at Sea
20:30 WED (b0140vqb)
Timothy Spall: Back at Sea
00:25 WED (b013rknf)
Timothy Spall: Back at Sea
00:55 WED (b0140vqb)
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down a Dream
21:00 FRI (b00scr6s)
Top of the Pops
23:40 SAT (b01h257p)
Unnatural Histories
21:00 TUE (b0122njp)
Unnatural Histories
02:20 TUE (b0122njp)
When God Spoke English: The Making of the King James Bible
00:00 THU (b00yvs8n)
World News Today
19:00 TUE (b01hbbl0)
World News Today
19:00 WED (b01hbbl5)
World News Today
19:00 THU (b01hbblb)
World News Today
19:00 FRI (b01hbblk)