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 09 JUNE 2012

SAT 19:00 Talk at the BBC (b01fd3wh)
Episode 3

Funny, surreal and extraordinary - extracts from interviews broadcast on the BBC from the 1950s to the 1970s, arguably the golden age of conversation.


SAT 20:00 Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency (b0140vb9)
Warts and All - Portrait of a Prince

Colourful series marking the 200th anniversary of one of the most explosive and creative decades in British history. It presents a vivid portrait of an age of elegance presided over by a prince of decadence - the infamous Prince Regent himself, a man with legendary appetites for women, food and self-indulgence. Yet this was the same man who would rebuild London, carving out the great thoroughfare of Regent Street and help establish the Regency look as the epitome of British style through his extravagant patronage of art and design.

In this first episode, historian Dr Lucy Worsley chronicles the Regency's early years, which culminated in victory over Napoleon in 1815, and explores the complicated character of the Prince Regent, a man with legendary appetites for women, food, art and self-indulgence.

For Lucy, the Regency was an age of contradictions and extremes that were embodied in the person of the Prince Regent himself. She uncovers Prince George's modest childhood; bright and talented, the young George was beaten with a whip by his tutors and it was small wonder that he would later rebel, eventually embracing a scandal-ridden lifestyle that included illegal marriages and discarded mistresses.

So how did this overweight popinjay preside over an age in which art and culture mattered? A tour of his treasures in the Royal Collection shows Lucy that George was a genuine connoisseur, buying up Rembrandts and French furnishings while his excesses were at the same time inspiring satirical caricatures that mocked him as the 'Prince of Whales'. And she investigates George's collaboration with portrait painter Sir Thomas Lawrence, who left the definitive images of Regency society and became George's flatterer-in-chief; Regency wags laughed at how his paintings magically transformed an overweight bald fifty-something into a 'well-fleshed Adonis'.

Meanwhile, the long war with France was having a huge impact on the British psyche; travel and trade with Europe were impossibly restricted. Lucy follows in the footsteps of painter JMW Turner who, unable to travel to the continent, toured the south coast in 1811 and captured startling images of a country at war.

George liked to think of himself as a man of fashion, and Lucy takes us through surviving accounts from his tailors that reveal his shopaholic ways. These were the years in which the Prince's sometime friend Beau Brummell, the famous dandy, ruled fashionable London like a dictator, and Lucy samples a bit of butch Regency style by trying on some of the fashions he popularised, as well as joining Brummell biographer Ian Kelly on a tour of London's fashionable Regency haunts. She also discovers Brummell's spectacular fall from favour, after loudly referring to the Regent as someone's 'fat friend'.

Lucy visits the battlefield of Waterloo and discovers that the site became a prototype of battlefield tourism - Turner, Byron and many others all visited in the years after the battle and Lucy handles some grisly memorabilia purchased by Lord Byron.

The episode concludes with the most spectacular royal art commission of them all - Lawrence's series of paintings in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle, paid for by George to memorialise his victory over Napoleon. Never mind that George wasn't at any of the battles - this was an age in which appearance and reality fused together to create monumental art.


SAT 21:00 Spiral (b00mvmn6)
Series 2: Gangs of Paris

Episode 1

When a charred corpse is found in the boot of a car in the suburbs, Berthaud's police team are called to the scene along with the prosecutors Roban and Clement. So begins an investigation which forces the team into the broken, gang-ruled suburbs of Paris, and once more to the door of shady lawyer Josephine Karlsson.


SAT 21:50 Spiral (b00mwgys)
Series 2: Gangs of Paris

Episode 2

Laure is disciplined for her use of force on a suspect and comes into conflict with Clement over his compromising newspaper interview. Karlsson is taken into Szabo's pay as his accomplice in representing the drug ring. Judge Roban uses his usual cunning in investigating a strange rape allegation.


SAT 22:45 Timeshift (b017zqw8)
Series 11

The Golden Age of Trams: A Streetcar Named Desire

Move along the car! Timeshift takes a nostalgic trip on the tram car and explores how it liberated overcrowded cities and launched the era of the commuter. The film maps the tram's journey from early horse-drawn carriages on rails, through steam, and to electric power.

Overhead wires hung over Britain's towns and cities for nearly 50 years from the beginning of the 20th century until they were phased out everywhere except Blackpool. Manchester, the last city to lose its trams was, however, among the first to reintroduce them as the solution to modern-day traffic problems.

The film includes a specially recorded reading by Alan Bennett of his short story Leeds Trams, and contributions from Ken Dodd and Roy Hattersley.


SAT 23:45 Wonders of the Solar System (b00rf172)
Original Series

Empire of the Sun

Professor Brian Cox visits some of the most stunning locations on earth to describe how the laws of nature have carved natural wonders across the solar system.

In this first episode Brian explores the powerhouse of them all, the sun. In India he witnesses a total solar eclipse - when the link to the light and heat that sustains us is cut off for a few precious minutes.

But heat and light are not the only power of the sun over the solar system. In Norway, Brian watches the battle between the sun's wind and earth, as the night sky glows with the northern lights.

Beyond earth, the solar wind continues, creating dazzling aurora on other planets. Brian makes contact with Voyager, a probe that has been travelling since its launch 30 years ago. Now 14 billion kilometres away, Voyager has just detected the solar wind is beginning to peter out. But even here we haven't reached the end of the sun's rule.

Brian explains how its greatest power, gravity, reaches out for hundreds of billions of kilometres, where the lightest gravitational touch encircles our solar system in a mysterious cloud of comets.


SAT 00:45 Destination Titan (b0109ccd)
It's a voyage of exploration like no other - to Titan, Saturn's largest moon and thought to resemble our own early Earth. For a small team of British scientists this would be the culmination of a lifetime's endeavour - the flight alone, some two billion miles, would take a full seven years.

This is the story of the space probe they built, the sacrifices they made and their hopes for the landing. Would their ambitions survive the descent into the unknown on Titan's surface?


SAT 01:45 The Sky at Night (b0816dgx)
Juice

A European mission called JUICE has been announced which will visit Jupiter and its fascinating moons Europa, Callisto and Ganymede. Sir Patrick Moore finds out why these icy moons may harbour conditions suitable for life, and also the latest news from the Cassini mission, currently sending back astounding images from Saturn.


SAT 02:15 Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency (b0140vb9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 03:15 Talk at the BBC (b01fd3wh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



SUNDAY 10 JUNE 2012

SUN 19:00 Behind the Scenes at the Museum (b00scr08)
Commercial Vehicle Museum

Series in which acclaimed filmmaker Richard Macer visits three different museums struggling to connect with a modern audience.

At the British Commercial Vehicle Museum in Lancashire, a mutiny is brewing over the appointment of a new leader. The museum is the last link to Leyland Trucks, one of the nation's great manufacturing giants, but just as Leyland fell victim to industrial action in the 70s and 80s now history is in danger of repeating itself at the Commercial Vehicle Museum too.

The first thing new leader Stephen Bullock wants to do is bring back the Leyland festival. For many years this was the town's way of celebrating its industrial might with a procession of lorries and buses, but after the factory closed the carnival was cancelled.

However, not everyone approves of these new changes at the museum. Some of the many longstanding volunteers are vehicle enthusiasts who think the museum should stay just the way it is. But will it survive if it doesn't change?

Macer spent six months filming amidst the gleaming lorries and double decker buses and observed as a bitter row erupted between the new leader and the head of the volunteers.


SUN 20:00 Timeshift (b012zmy7)
Series 11

All the Fun of the Fair

Timeshift explores rarely seen images from the University of Sheffield's National Fairground Archive to ride back to the origins of the fairground. From the sideshows, the freak shows and early hand-powered rides to the arrival of steam and electricity, the story of fairs is the tale of one of our first forms of popular entertainment.

The film shows how fairgrounds often provided the only entertainment to rapidly expanding industrial towns. It looks at how, from the 50s, the fairground was the site of youth rebellion, and why we are still entranced by these travelling carnivals that arrive overnight and then vanish just as mysteriously.


SUN 21:00 Nina Conti - A Ventriloquist's Story: Her Master's Voice (b01jv1yr)
Internationally acclaimed ventriloquist Nina Conti, takes the bereaved puppets of her mentor and erstwhile lover Ken Campbell on a pilgrimage to Vent Haven, the resting place for puppets of dead ventriloquists. She gets to know her latex and wooden travelling partners along the way, and with them deconstructs herself and her lost love in this ventriloquial docu-mocumentary requiem.

Ken Campbell was a hugely respected maverick of the British theatre, an eccentric genius who would snort out forgotten artforms. Nina was his prodigy in ventriloquism and has been said to have reinvented the artform. This film is truly unique in genre and style. No one has seen ventriloquism like this before.

Nina Conti's funny, highly original and poignant documentary, takes us on two journeys. A personal journey, and a professional one, through the strange, surprising and often hilarious world of ventriloquism. When Nina was just another twenty-something wannabe actress, Ken presented her with a teach-yourself ventriloquism kit. This set her on a path to becoming a sell-out act in Britain and abroad, with a clutch of major awards.

On the road, Nina brings all the puppets to life as struggles to meet the conflicting demands of her old acerbic partner Monkey, and the new characters she has been bequeathed. But one puppet remains silent. Ken's doll of himself sits mournful and judgemental in the hotel bedroom. Nina cannot find her master's voice and until she does, she will not be able to lay her old life to rest.

Never has watching someone talk to themselves been this interesting.


SUN 22:00 The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse (b00x9b7w)
The extraordinary story of comedian Bob Monkhouse's life and career, told through the vast private archive of films, TV shows, letters and memorabilia that he left behind.


SUN 23:30 Frank Skinner on George Formby (b016fpz0)
George Formby was a huge star of stage and film. In his heyday he was as big as The Beatles, earning vast sums of money on stage and starring in films which broke box office records. Formby's trademark ukulele still inspires millions of dedicated fans, including comedian and performer Frank Skinner, who believes Formby was the greatest entertainer of his time.

Playing the ukulele and performing the songs that keep the Formby legend alive today, Skinner follows the music hall star's extraordinary rise to fame and fortune, explores his worldwide popularity and reveals the ruthless exploitation that surrounded his sudden and tragic death.


SUN 00:30 Punk Britannia (b01jmwjd)
Punk 1976-1978

Daydreaming England was about to be rudely awoken as punk emerged from the London underground scene. A nation dropped its dinner in its lap when the Sex Pistols swore on primetime television. Punk had finally found its enemy- the establishment. In Manchester, the Buzzcocks' self-released Spiral Scratch was a clarion call for a do-it-yourself generation, while the Clash's White Riot tour took punk's message across Britain. Moral outrage followed the Pistols around the country, effectively outlawing punk - but there was one refuge for the music. Nestled in the wasteland of 70s Covent Garden, the Roxy was punk's cathedral. Punk interlopers the Jam raised the bar for lyricism, challenging punk's London elite.

Punk also began to extend its three-chord vocabulary through an alliance with reggae, memorably captured by the Clash on White Man in Hammersmith Palais. With their second single, God Save the Queen, the Pistols scored a direct hit at the establishment in summer '77, but a disastrous PR stunt on a Thames barge would mark a turning point. The darker underbelly of the summer of '77 would see race riots in Lewisham. This street turbulence was the backdrop for a rawer, working class sound. If the Pistols and the Clash had been the theory, a second wave led by Sham 69 was the reality.

By '78 punk was becoming a costume - the very pop orthodoxy it had originally sought to destroy. For many punk ended when the Pistols split, beset by internal problems, following an abortive tour of the USA in January '78. Those practitioners who would go on to enjoy sustained success sought to modify their sound to survive, such as Siouxsie Sioux. Punk had shown what it was against, now it was time to show what it was for in the post-punk era.

With John Lydon, Mick Jones, Siouxsie Sioux and Paul Weller.


SUN 01:30 Punk at the BBC (b01k1nhx)
An archive celebration of BBC studio performances from the British bands that broke through courtesy of punk, from its pub rock roots with Dr Feelgood to its explosive heyday with The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Damned, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division and many more.


SUN 02:30 Nina Conti - A Ventriloquist's Story: Her Master's Voice (b01jv1yr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



MONDAY 11 JUNE 2012

MON 19:00 World News Today (b01jv253)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00psz43)
Series 1

Todmorden to York

Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. In a series of four epic journeys, Portillo travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains. His first journey is from Liverpool to Scarborough.

Michael travels back in time on the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway, finds out about the latest Roman discoveries in York and takes to the air in the Network Rail helicopter.


MON 20:00 A303: Highway to the Sun (b0116ly6)
The A303 is the road that passes Stonehenge on the way to the beaches of Devon and Cornwall. On the way, it whisks drivers through 5,000 years of remarkable moments in British history. And it is the star of this film made for armchair travellers and history lovers.

Writer Tom Fort drives its 92-mile length in a lovingly restored Morris Traveller. Along the way he has many adventures - he digs up the 1960s master plan for the A303's dreams of superhighway status, meets up with a Neolithic traveller who knew the road like the back of his hand, gets to know a section of the Roman 303, uncovers a medieval murder mystery and discovers what lies at the end of the Highway to the Sun.


MON 21:00 London: A Tale of Two Cities with Dan Cruickshank (p00r36lv)
Dan Cruickshank follows in the footsteps of John Stow and John Strype, two of London's greatest chroniclers, to explore one of the most dramatic centuries in the history of London.

The 17th century saw London plunged into a series of devastating disasters. The Civil War, a murderous plague and the destruction that was the great fire should have seen the small medieval city all but destroyed. Yet somehow, London not only survived but emerged as one of the wealthiest and most influential cities in Europe.

Using two remarkable surveys written at either end of this momentous century, Dan discovers how a unique combination of innovation, ambition and sheer spirit of enterprise saw Londoners thrive. His journey reveals the twists and turns of a century that laid the foundations of one of the most important cities on the planet.


MON 22:00 Timeshift (b0105r8x)
Series 10

Crime and Punishment - The Story of Capital Punishment

Timeshift digs into the archive to trace the extraordinary story of the ultimate sanction. At the beginning of the 19th century you could still be hanged in Britain for offences such as stealing a sheep or shooting a rabbit. Even children as young as seven were sent to the gallows. The last hanging in this country took place as recently as 1964.

By opting for a dispassionate history rather than staging the usual polarised debate, the programme breaks new ground with its fascinating attention to detail, such as the protocols of the public execution or the 'science' of hanging. With contributions from both sides of the argument, it provides an essential guide to a subject that still divides us.


MON 23:00 The Secrets of Scott's Hut (b010n2lm)
Ben Fogle joins an expedition across Antarctica to find Captain Scott's hut, frozen in time for a century. The hut was built to support Scott's 1911 attempt to be first to the South Pole, and was later abandoned together with 10,000 personal, everyday and scientific items.

Ben uncovers the hut and its contents, finding new information about his hero Scott and his famously tragic expedition. Scott's diaries are read by Kenneth Branagh.


MON 00:30 The Secret Life of Ice (b016fpyy)
Ice is one of the strangest, most beguiling and mesmerising substances in the world. Full of contradictions, it is transparent, yet it can glow with colour, it is powerful enough to shatter rock, but it can melt in the blink of an eye. It takes many shapes, from the fleeting beauty of a snowflake to the multimillion-tonne vastness of a glacier and the eeriness of the ice fountains of far-flung moons.

Science writer Dr Gabrielle Walker has been obsessed with ice ever since she first set foot on Arctic sea ice. In this programme, she searches out some of the secrets hidden deep within the ice crystal to try to discover how something so ephemeral has the power to sculpt landscapes, to preserve our past and inform our future.


MON 01:30 Natural World (b0078zwl)
2005-2006

Penguins of the Antarctic

Antarctica's penguins are some of the most endearing animals on earth, but behind the comical behaviour is a continual struggle to survive the deadly cold. Each penguin has its own strategy - some rely on thick down coats and fat reserves, others migrate north for the winter or stay on volcano-heated islands. Life in the freezer is getting even tougher as Antarctica's climate starts to change. The ice-loving Emperor penguins may be the first to lose out, but their cousins, the King penguins, are waiting in the wings to take over. All penguins must draw on their ability to defy the odds if they are to survive their greatest challenge yet.


MON 02:20 A303: Highway to the Sun (b0116ly6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 03:20 London: A Tale of Two Cities with Dan Cruickshank (p00r36lv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 12 JUNE 2012

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b01jv452)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00psz7n)
Series 1

Pontefract to Bridlington

Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. In a series of four epic journeys, Portillo travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what remains of Bradshaw's Britain. His first journey is from Liverpool to Scarborough.

Michael searches for the last liquorice grower in Pontefract, discovers how the railways turned Hull into one of the largest white fish ports in the world and goes fishing for sea bass in Bridlington.


TUE 20:00 The Grammar School: A Secret History (b019c88d)
Episode 2

This is the story of the golden age of the grammar schools in the 1950s and 60s and their sudden demise. They gave talented children from modest backgrounds, like Michael Wood, Neil Kinnock and Edwina Currie, the chance to go to the very best schools in the country. This revealing history explains how and why the grammar schools were suddenly phased out by the very people who had benefited from them.


TUE 21:00 Wellington Bomber (b00tr2p5)
One autumn weekend, early in WWII at an aircraft factory at Broughton in North Wales, a group of British workers, men and women, set out to smash a world record for building a bomber from scratch. They managed to build a Wellington Bomber in 23 hours and 50 minutes. They worked so quickly that the test pilot had to be turfed out of bed to take it into the air, 24 hours and 48 minutes after the first part of the airframe had been laid.

So who were the men and women who made this record-breaking Wellington? Britain's propaganda machine made a 12-minute film about the attempt and Peter Williams Television has traced six of them, one of whom, Bill Anderson, was only 14 years old. Their story of the excitement of the attempt is the heart of this documentary.

The Wellington was a special aircraft, as historian Sir Max Hastings says. It was held in great affection by those who flew it, mostly because its geodetic construction enabled it to survive enormous damage, as Flt Lt 'Tiny' Cooling remembers. He flew 67 missions in Wellingtons.

More Wellingtons were built during WWII than any other British aircraft, except the Spitfire and the Hurricane, the stars of the Battle of Britain. And, unwittingly, the Wellington, Britain's main strike bomber, played an important role in the Battle of Britain, as this documentary reveals.


TUE 22:00 Decisive Weapons (b0078dxf)
Series 1

The P-51 - Cadillac of the Skies

In 1943, the large and slow Flying Fortresses, used in the US Air Force's daylight bombing raids, were being shot out of the sky at a rate of up to 60 per day. Only one fighter plane could save them - the single-seat P51 Mustang. The P51 enabled American pilots to fly eight-hour missions - by the end of the war, it accounted for half of all German planes destroyed, either in the air or on the ground. American and German veterans recount the legend that was the Mustang.


TUE 22:30 Decisive Weapons (b0077c0f)
Series 1

The Harrier - Jumping Jet Flash

Untested in combat and generally derided by the British military establishment, the Harrier proved itself in the Falklands conflict when just 20 of them took on a 200-strong Argentinian air force.


TUE 23:00 The First World War from Above (b00vyrzh)
Fergal Keane tells the story of the World War One from a unique new aerial perspective. Featuring two remarkable historical finds, including a piece of archive footage filmed from an airship in summer 1919, capturing the trenches and battlefields in a way that has rarely been seen before. It also features aerial photographs taken by First World War pilots - developed for the first time in over 90 years - that show not only the devastation inflicted during the fighting, but also quirks and human stories visible only from above.


TUE 00:00 Nina Conti - A Ventriloquist's Story: Her Master's Voice (b01jv1yr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


TUE 01:00 Spiral (b00mvmn6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


TUE 01:50 Spiral (b00mwgys)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:50 on Saturday]


TUE 02:45 Wellington Bomber (b00tr2p5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 13 JUNE 2012

WED 19:00 World News Today (b01jv0rw)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00pszd7)
Series 1

Filey to Scarborough

Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. In a series of four epic journeys, Portillo travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what remains of Bradshaw's Britain. This leg of the journey takes him from Liverpool to Scarborough.

Michael goes birdwatching on the wild cliffs of Flamborough Head, learns to decipher traditional knitting patterns in Filey and meets one of the oldest residents of the Victorian seaside resort of Scarborough - a 4,000-year-old skeleton called Gristhorpe Man.


WED 20:00 The Golden Age of Canals (b01173hf)
Most people thought that when the working traffic on canals faded away after the war, it would be the end of their story. But they were wrong. A few diehard enthusiasts and boat owners campaigned, lobbied and dug, sometimes with their bare hands, to keep the network of narrow canals open.

Some of these enthusiasts filmed their campaigns and their home movies tell the story of how, in the teeth of much political opposition, they saved the inland waterways for the nation and, more than 200 years after they were first built, created a second golden age of the canals.

Stan Offley, an IWA activist from Ellesmere Port, filmed his boating trips around the wide canals in the 40s, 50s and 60s in 16mm colour. But equally charming is the film made by Ed Frangleton, with help from Harry Arnold, of a hostel boat holiday on the Llangollen Canal in 1961. There are the films shot by ex-working boatman Ike Argent from his home in Nottinghamshire and looked after by his son Barry.

There is astonishing film of the last days of working boats, some shot by John Pyper when he spent time with the Beecheys in the 60s, film taken by Keith Christie of the last days of the cut around the BCN, and the films made by Keith and his mate Tony Gregory of their attempts to keep working the canals through their carrying company, Midland Canal Transport.

There is film of key restorations, the Stourbridge 16 being talked about with great wit and affection by one of the leading activists in that watershed of restorations in the mid-60s, David Tomlinson, and John Maynard's beautiful films of the restoration of the Huddersfield, 'the impossible restoration', shot over two decades.

All these and more are in the programme alongside the people who made the films and some of the stars of them. Together they tell the story of how, in the years after 1945, a few people fought the government like David fought Goliath to keep canals open and restore ones that had become defunct, and won against all the odds.


WED 21:00 Turner's Thames (b01jv255)
In this documentary, the presenter and art critic Matthew Collings explores how Turner, the artist of light, makes light the vehicle of feeling in his work, and how he found inspiration for that feeling in the waters of the River Thames.

JMW Turner is the most famous of English landscape painters. Throughout a lifetime of travel, he returned time and again to paint and draw scenes of the Thames, the lifeblood of London. This documentary reveals the Thames in all its diverse glory, from its beauty in west London, to its heartland in the City of London and its former docks, out to the vast emptiness and drama of the Thames estuary near Margate.

Turner was among the first to pioneer painting directly from nature, turning a boat into a floating studio from which he sketched the Thames. The river and his unique relationship with it had a powerful impact upon his use of materials, as he sought to find an equivalent in paint for the visual surprise and delight he found in the reality of its waters.

By pursuing this ever-changing tale of light, Turner also documented and reflected upon key moments in British history in the early 19th century; the Napoleonic wars, social unrest and the onset of the industrial revolution. His paintings of the river Thames communicate the fears and exultations of the time.

Turner's greatness as a painter is often attributed to his modern use of colour. Many of his paintings are loved by the British public and regularly celebrated as the nation's greatest art. This film reveals for the first time on television a key inspiration for that modernity and celebrity; a stretch of water of immense importance to the nation in the early 19th century but which today is often taken for granted - the River Thames.


WED 22:00 Timeshift (b0103pnb)
Series 10

Crime and Punishment - The Story of Corporal Punishment

Timeshift lifts the veil on the taboo that is corporal punishment. What it reveals is a fascinating history spanning religion, the justice system, sex and education. Today it is a subject that is almost impossible to discuss in public, but it's not that long since corporal punishment was a routine part of life. Surprising and enlightening, the programme invites us to leave our preconceptions at the door so that we may better understand how corporal punishment came to be so important for so long.


WED 23:00 Borgen (b019c0dy)
Series 1

Decency in the Middle

The final countdown to election day is full of surprises on all sides as Denmark prepares for parliamentary elections. Birgitte Nyborg, facing her first election as party leader, decides at the last minute to head in her own direction - the question is whether the voters will reward or punish her for this change of course. Likewise, Birgitte's press advisor Kasper Juul and TV journalist Katrine Fonsmark are each thrown off track in their own way in this super-professional, super-competitive race.


WED 00:00 London: A Tale of Two Cities with Dan Cruickshank (p00r36lv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


WED 01:00 The Golden Age of Canals (b01173hf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:00 Timeshift (b0103pnb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


WED 03:00 Turner's Thames (b01jv255)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 14 JUNE 2012

THU 19:00 World News Today (b01jv0s1)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b01jv5nk)
26/05/77

Dave Lee Travis looks at the weekly pop chart from 1977 and introduces Blue, Olivia Newton-John, Frankie Miller, Liverpool Express, Stranglers, Marie Myriam, Brendon, Kenny Rogers, ELO and Rod Stewart, with a dance sequence from Legs & Co.


THU 20:00 Wonders of the Solar System (b00rkksg)
Original Series

Order Out of Chaos

Professor Brian Cox visits some of the most stunning locations on earth to describe how the laws of nature have carved natural wonders across the solar system.

Brian reveals how beauty and order in earth's cosmic backyard was formed from nothing more than a chaotic cloud of gas. Chasing tornados in Oklahoma, he explains how the same physics that creates these spinning storms shaped the young solar system. Out of this celestial maelstrom emerged the jewel in the crown, Brian's second wonder - the magnificent rings of Saturn.

On an ice-choked lagoon in Iceland, he sees the nearest thing on earth to Saturn's rings. Using the latest scientific imagery and breathtaking graphics, he explains how the intricate patterns round Saturn are shaped by the cluster of more than 60 moons surrounding the planet.

One of those moons makes a spectacular contribution to the rings and is the third wonder of the solar system. Brian describes the astonishing discovery of giant fountains of ice erupting from the surface of Enceladus, which soar thousands of kilometres into space.


THU 21:00 The Bridges That Built London with Dan Cruickshank (b01jv5nr)
Dan Cruickshank explores the mysteries and secrets of the bridges that have made London what it is. He uncovers stories of Bronze-Age relics emerging from the Vauxhall shore, of why London Bridge was falling down, of midnight corpses splashing beneath Waterloo Bridge, and above all, of the sublime ambition of London's bridge builders themselves.


THU 22:00 Tumbledown (b0074mwj)
April 1982: The British task force sails for the South Atlantic. Among their number is 22-year-old Robert Lawrence, an officer in the elite regiment of Scots Guards. On the bleak hills of the Falkland Islands they fight and win a series of bloody battles. For many of the soldiers it is a violent initiation into active combat, but for Robert, wounded hours before the Argentine surrender, the real battle begins when he returns home.


THU 23:55 Wellington Bomber (b00tr2p5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 00:55 Top of the Pops (b01jv5nk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 01:35 Wonders of the Solar System (b00rkksg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 02:35 The Bridges That Built London with Dan Cruickshank (b01jv5nr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 15 JUNE 2012

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b01jv0s6)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Concerto at the BBC Proms (b01k031g)
Mendelssohn Violin

Another chance to hear a live performance from the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall of one of the most popular and frequently performed violin concertos of all time, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, recorded at the first night of the BBC Proms in 2005. Exciting and versatile violin soloist Janine Jansen performs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductor, Sir Roger Norrington.


FRI 20:00 Puccini's Il Trittico (b01jz58g)
Il Tabarro

Antonio Pappano introduces and conducts this one-act opera by Puccini at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The first in a trilogy of short operas by Puccini, Il Tabarro - The Cloak - is a dark passionate opera with a love triangle at its core and is set on a barge on the banks of the river Seine.

Directed for the stage by Richard Jones and featuring an international cast, Eva-Maria Westbroek is Giorgetta, Lucio Gallo is her husband Michele and Aleksandrs Antonenko plays the young docker Luigi. At the climax of the opera the cloak reveals its dark secret.


FRI 21:00 Punk Britannia (b01jv7f2)
Post-Punk 1978-1981

Punk had shown what it was against - now what was it for? In the wake of the Pistols' demise a new generation of musicians would re-imagine the world they lived in through the music they made. Freed up by punk's DIY ethos, a kaleidoscope of musical influences broke three chord conformity.

Public Image Limited allowed Johnny Rotten to become John Lydon the artist. In Manchester, Magazine would be first to record in the wake of the Pistols' split, Mark E Smith made street poetry while Ian Curtis turned punk's external rage into an existential drama. A raft of left-wing art school intellectuals like Gang of Four and Wire imbued post-punk with a sense of radical politics and conceptualism while the Pop Group infused funk with anti-capitalist sentiment in the early days of Thatcher. Flirting with fascism and violence, the working class Oi! movement tried to drag punk from the Kings Road into the heart of the East End whilst Anarcho punks Crass embarked on the most radical vision of any.

In a time beset by dread and tension perhaps the biggest paranoia was Mutually Assured Destruction essayed perfectly by Young Marble Giants' Final Day. Released in the height of Thatcherism, Ghost Town by The Specials marked a parting of the post-punk waves. Some would remain avowedly uncommercial whilst others would explore pop as a new avenue in the new decade. The song that perhaps summed up post-punk's journey was Orange Juice's Rip It Up and Start Again.

With John Lydon, Howard Devoto, Mark E Smith, Peter Hook, Jerry Dammers, The Raincoats, Wire, Jah Wobble, Mark Stewart, Edwyn Collins, Young Marble Giants and many more.


FRI 22:00 Glastonbury (b01jv7f4)
2020

Glastonbury After Hours

In this personal film, Julien Temple, who directed the definitive documentary history of the Glastonbury Festival, explores the alternative side of the festival away from the spotlight of the main stages with their global pop superstars.

In fields known as Shangri La, Arcadia, the Unfair Ground, Strummerville, Block 9 and the Common, every year an unlikely attempt at utopia takes shape. Here, the festival reconnects with its radical, countercultural origins combining underground music, performance art and some of the funniest and most provocative sights of the festival with a dark, urgent 21st century spontaneity.

Filmed at the 2011 festival, this 75 minute documentary features Michael Eavis, the creators of, and visitors to the true heart of the Glastonbury, and, fuelled by the music of tomorrow, explores the hopes, dreams and personal utopias of those who, for one weekend in June, come together as the tribes of 21st Century Albion.


FRI 23:15 Top of the Pops (b01932g9)
The Story of 1977

Following BBC Four's Top of the Pops 1976, the next stop is 1977 - in some ways a year zero for Britain's most iconic music programme. As the country veered between strikes and street parties, pop bastion Top of the Pops was stormed by punk and new wave acts such as the Stranglers and the Jam. Yet Top of the Pops at first seemed unaware of the changes afoot and the way in which the show is made was beset by working practices that are perhaps symptoms of the way in which Britain could be said 'not to be working'.

Jeans were getting tighter, hair shorter and the tunes louder, but it was an incredibly diverse year. Disco was also a dominant force with Donna Summer's I Feel Love, alongside the reggae of Bob Marley and the Wailers, the pub rock of Eddie and the Hot Rods and the plastic pop of Boney M. British pop that year was in a state of flux - unpredictable and exciting.

Appearing on Top of the Pops in 1977 is explored in the documentary by artists such as the Adverts, John Otway, members of Darts, JJ Burnel from the Stranglers and Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols, with insights from the Top of the Pops production team, Nicky Wire from the Manics and journalists Alexis Petridis and Pete Paphides.


FRI 00:15 Glastonbury (b00wyn9g)
1997

Radiohead

Arguably one of the greatest sets at the Glastonbury Festival in its entire 40 years started when Oxford's Radiohead took to the Pyramid Stage on Saturday June 28th 1997. They had released their seminal album OK Computer two weeks earlier to huge acclaim and this performance features many of its tracks, including Paranoid Android, Karma Police and No Surprises, as well as earlier songs such as The Bends.


FRI 01:15 Punk Britannia (b01jv7f2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:15 Glastonbury (b01jv7f4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 03:30 Puccini's Il Trittico (b01jz58g)
[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)

A303: Highway to the Sun 20:00 MON (b0116ly6)

A303: Highway to the Sun 02:20 MON (b0116ly6)

Behind the Scenes at the Museum 19:00 SUN (b00scr08)

Borgen 23:00 WED (b019c0dy)

Concerto at the BBC Proms 19:30 FRI (b01k031g)

Decisive Weapons 22:00 TUE (b0078dxf)

Decisive Weapons 22:30 TUE (b0077c0f)

Destination Titan 00:45 SAT (b0109ccd)

Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency 20:00 SAT (b0140vb9)

Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency 02:15 SAT (b0140vb9)

Frank Skinner on George Formby 23:30 SUN (b016fpz0)

Glastonbury 22:00 FRI (b01jv7f4)

Glastonbury 00:15 FRI (b00wyn9g)

Glastonbury 02:15 FRI (b01jv7f4)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 MON (b00psz43)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 TUE (b00psz7n)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 WED (b00pszd7)

London: A Tale of Two Cities with Dan Cruickshank 21:00 MON (p00r36lv)

London: A Tale of Two Cities with Dan Cruickshank 03:20 MON (p00r36lv)

London: A Tale of Two Cities with Dan Cruickshank 00:00 WED (p00r36lv)

Natural World 01:30 MON (b0078zwl)

Nina Conti - A Ventriloquist's Story: Her Master's Voice 21:00 SUN (b01jv1yr)

Nina Conti - A Ventriloquist's Story: Her Master's Voice 02:30 SUN (b01jv1yr)

Nina Conti - A Ventriloquist's Story: Her Master's Voice 00:00 TUE (b01jv1yr)

Puccini's Il Trittico 20:00 FRI (b01jz58g)

Puccini's Il Trittico 03:30 FRI (b01jz58g)

Punk Britannia 00:30 SUN (b01jmwjd)

Punk Britannia 21:00 FRI (b01jv7f2)

Punk Britannia 01:15 FRI (b01jv7f2)

Punk at the BBC 01:30 SUN (b01k1nhx)

Spiral 21:00 SAT (b00mvmn6)

Spiral 21:50 SAT (b00mwgys)

Spiral 01:00 TUE (b00mvmn6)

Spiral 01:50 TUE (b00mwgys)

Talk at the BBC 19:00 SAT (b01fd3wh)

Talk at the BBC 03:15 SAT (b01fd3wh)

The Bridges That Built London with Dan Cruickshank 21:00 THU (b01jv5nr)

The Bridges That Built London with Dan Cruickshank 02:35 THU (b01jv5nr)

The First World War from Above 23:00 TUE (b00vyrzh)

The Golden Age of Canals 20:00 WED (b01173hf)

The Golden Age of Canals 01:00 WED (b01173hf)

The Grammar School: A Secret History 20:00 TUE (b019c88d)

The Secret Life of Bob Monkhouse 22:00 SUN (b00x9b7w)

The Secret Life of Ice 00:30 MON (b016fpyy)

The Secrets of Scott's Hut 23:00 MON (b010n2lm)

The Sky at Night 01:45 SAT (b0816dgx)

Timeshift 22:45 SAT (b017zqw8)

Timeshift 20:00 SUN (b012zmy7)

Timeshift 22:00 MON (b0105r8x)

Timeshift 22:00 WED (b0103pnb)

Timeshift 02:00 WED (b0103pnb)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b01jv5nk)

Top of the Pops 00:55 THU (b01jv5nk)

Top of the Pops 23:15 FRI (b01932g9)

Tumbledown 22:00 THU (b0074mwj)

Turner's Thames 21:00 WED (b01jv255)

Turner's Thames 03:00 WED (b01jv255)

Wellington Bomber 21:00 TUE (b00tr2p5)

Wellington Bomber 02:45 TUE (b00tr2p5)

Wellington Bomber 23:55 THU (b00tr2p5)

Wonders of the Solar System 23:45 SAT (b00rf172)

Wonders of the Solar System 20:00 THU (b00rkksg)

Wonders of the Solar System 01:35 THU (b00rkksg)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b01jv253)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b01jv452)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b01jv0rw)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b01jv0s1)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b01jv0s6)