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 16 JUNE 2012

SAT 19:00 The Blue Planet (b0074mhp)
Introduction

Although 70 per cent of our planet is covered by water, the oceans and many of their inhabitants - such as the blue whale - remain an unexplored mystery. This edition travels to the very depths of the seas to reveal a spectacular variety of life - from alien monsters of the deep to pack-hunting killer whales attacking a grey whale calf.


SAT 20:00 Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency (b014b7d2)
Developing the Regency Brand

In this second episode, Lucy Worsley looks at Britain in the wake of Waterloo - and asks how this new, triumphant nation wanted to be seen and how it set about celebrating itself in its architecture and design. Again, the Regent led the way. As he grew fatter, barely able to climb stairs or walk about, architecture became his chief creative outlet - and nowhere more so than in the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. At the start of his reign as Regent, this had been an elegant neoclassical villa, but working with the architect John Nash, George transformed it after 1815 into the most outrageous of palaces. In it, Lucy discovers more about the Regent's tastes, and finds out what he and his chef had in common.

But while the Regent was building away, what were his people doing? Lucy finds out why Waterloo Bridge became the official memorial to Britain's victory, and how it became an obsession for the painter John Constable. She also explores the powerful influence of the Elgin Marbles, purchased for the British Museum in 1816. These broken statues caused a revolution in Regency ideas and taste, and helped to spread the Greek revival in architecture across the British Isles - even if some buildings, like Edinburgh's very own Parthenon, didn't quite get finished.

So who was behind the Regency 'look'? Lucy finds out more about one of the most influential architects of the age, exploring Sir John Soane's strange architectural ideas and discovering some of his more unexpected legacies. But even if, to our eyes, Soane's ideas may be more exciting, it was his rival John Nash who really defined Regency style - and worked with the Regent himself.

At Windsor Castle, Lucy finds remnants of the Regent's lost palace, Carlton House. These were spaces where, increasingly, luxurious informality in design went hand-in-hand with racy lifestyles. In the Regent's world of gilding and pink velvet, anything went. The richest in society indulged in courtesans and soft furnishings in equal measure. And since one dance summed up this new moral climate, Lucy takes the opportunity to learn the then outrageously sexy waltz.

Not that everyone was living this way. Lucy goes in search of her heroine Jane Austen, who dedicated her novel Emma to the Prince Regent. Lucy discovers that Jane put a few political messages into her novels - particularly when it came to the relationship between architecture and upper class morals. She even wrote part of a novel on property speculation.

And for Lucy, speculation is at the heart of Regency architecture. Across Britain, it gave us the quintessential Regency look - the stucco terraces, the black ironwork and white columns. The newest spa town of the Regency - Leamington Spa - is a classic example. But for the most spectacular development of all, Lucy returns to London and the most ambitious project of the Regency - Regent Street. Backed by a Regent who thought it would 'eclipse Napoleon' and a government eager to cash in by developing farmland at Regent's Park, it is perhaps the most visible monument to Regency ambition. As Lucy walks its length, the street reveals itself to be at the heart of the Regency ideal and a telling expression of the Regent himself.


SAT 21:00 Spiral (b00n1h67)
Series 2: Gangs of Paris

Episode 3

Laure's net is closing in on Aziz, but she still has to call in a favour from Roban to help her hold a suspect. A police stakeout on the estate goes dangerously wrong. Pierre is faced with a moral dilemma as his star begins to rise. Karlsson continues to play a dangerous game with Szabo's shady clients.

In French with English subtitles.


SAT 21:50 Spiral (b00n5695)
Series 2: Gangs of Paris

Episode 4

Acclaimed French police drama series. Rachid is dead, causing problems for both Karlsson and the police. Gilou has to investigate a murder linked to a gay nightclub.


SAT 22:50 Entertaining the Troops (b014v51p)
During World War Two an army of performers from ballerinas to magicians, contortionists to impressionists, set out to help win the war by entertaining the troops far and wide. Risking their lives they ventured into war zones, dodging explosions and performing close to enemy lines. Featuring the memories of this intrepid band of entertainers and with contributions from Dame Vera Lynn, Eric Sykes and Tony Benn, this documentary tells the remarkable story of the World War II performers and hears the memories of some of those troops who were entertained during the dark days of war.


SAT 23:50 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.


SAT 00:30 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.


SAT 01:30 Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency (b014b7d2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:30 The Blue Planet (b0074mhp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



SUNDAY 17 JUNE 2012

SUN 19:00 Behind the Scenes at the Museum (b00sftd3)
Freud Museum

The Freud Museum in Hampstead, London is where the father of psychoanalysis lived his final year after escaping the Nazis in Austria. Sigmund Freud managed to smuggle out all his possessions, including the famous couch where his patients lay. This iconic piece of furniture is now a shrine to therapists and Freud fans from all over the world.

But despite its gravitas this small museum is struggling to stay relevant. In recent years Freud's thinking has fallen out of fashion and theories like Penis Envy and the Oedipus Complex have been discredited by many in the psychology world. Now the museum is appointing a new director with the mission to make Freud less elitist and more appealing to ordinary people.

One of the first things the museum does is to hold a dating evening. A number of games are created for the night, based on Freud's obsession with human sexuality. Another activity seizes on Freud's groundbreaking theory of dream interpretation, with scholar Ivan Ward getting partygoers together to discuss their dreams with one another.

But the process of making change is slow because no one can agree. Everyone has an opinion on how best to serve Freud, including the caretaker Alex who has lived at the museum since its beginning.


SUN 20:00 Timeshift (b0135kkp)
Series 11

When the Circus Comes to Town

Roll up! Roll up! Join Timeshift under the big top for unique access to the University of Sheffield's National Fairground Archive which tells the story of the circus. From Billy Smart to Gerry Cottle and Archaos to Cirque du Soleil, the documentary captures the appeal of this enduring mass entertainment. Find out what a josser is, discover why clowns are one of the few acts to achieve lasting celebrity and marvel at the sheer spectacle of some of the biggest circuses of all time.

In an age when almost every form of popular entertainment owes something to the circus, this is a nostalgic journey into the origins of one of the ultimate expressions of human athleticism and showmanship.


SUN 21:00 Make Me Happy: A Monkey's Search for Happiness (b01jzq26)
Comedian and ventriloquist Nina Conti (and monkey) delve into the world of new age and alternative therapies in the quest for self-knowledge, enlightenment and happiness.

Nina, mostly happy, gauche and open, is unravelling a little. Life is flying by and she is fearful of what she is becoming - a flakey, stressed-out mum. She wants to feel less angst, more grounded and happy. Monkey is sceptical and the voice of her self-doubt and to him it's all rubbish - the so-called therapists are nothing but charlatans trying to make money.

In a documentary both comical and bizarre, Nina is subjected to therapies ranging from naked yoga and laughter therapy to shamanic ritual, before heading off for an unsettling three-day retreat in the wilds of Scotland to undergo primal screaming and rebirth.

But will it make her happy?


SUN 22:00 The Art of Tommy Cooper (b007hzl2)
Tommy Cooper was a national comedy institution whose catchphrases still remain in the language today. This bumbling giant with outsized feet and hands, whose mere entrance on stage had audiences erupting with uncontrollable laughter, was born in Caerphilly in 1921, where a statue is now erected in his honour - unveiled by Sir Anthony Hopkins.

This programme looks at the life and art of the man in the fez, whose clumsy, fumbling stage magic tricks hid a real talent as a magician. His private life was complicated and often difficult, but as far as his audiences were concerned, he was first and foremost a clown whose confusion with the mechanisms of everyday life made for hilarious viewing.


SUN 22:30 Parkinson: The Interviews (b01f7x12)
Series 1

Tommy Cooper and Frankie Howerd

Michael Parkinson introduces a recut of two interviews he did with Frankie Howerd during the Parkinson show series and a Christmas interview with Tommy Cooper.

Frankie Howerd wanted everything scripted, resulting in an unprompted and unrehearsed interview, whilst Tommy Cooper managed to run rings around a delighted Parkinson. Includes clips from Up Pompeii, The Main Attraction and The Bob Monkhouse Show.


SUN 23:10 Timeshift (b0126vfd)
Series 11

Hotel Deluxe

Timeshift invites you to make a reservation in the world of hotels for the super rich. The Savoy, the Ritz, the Dorchester - the very names of Britain's grand hotels spell luxury around the world. The film charts how luxury hotels have met the needs of new forms of wealth, from aristocrats to rock stars and beyond, with comfort, innovation and, above all, service.


SUN 00:10 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.


SUN 01:10 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.


SUN 02:25 Make Me Happy: A Monkey's Search for Happiness (b01jzq26)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



MONDAY 18 JUNE 2012

MON 19:00 World News Today (b01jzpxr)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 How the Brits Rocked America: Go West (b01b4x9g)
How the West Was Won

In the 1960s, arriving British groups were astounded by pizza, skyscrapers and real cowboys while America fell in love with a curious blend of swinging London and ye olde England.


MON 20:30 London on Film (b01jzq75)
The West End

From bright lights, showbusiness and shops to riots, sleaze and traffic jams, film-makers have long been drawn to London's West End. Using a rich mix of archive material, this film paints a colourful and surprising portrait of the city's beating heart.


MON 21:00 Ukraine's Forgotten Children (b01k2g45)
Ten times as many children are in institutional care in Ukraine as in England. In this disturbing investigation, film-maker Kate Blewett finds out what a lifetime in the care of the state really means for Ukraine's forgotten children.

Shot over six months in an institute for disabled and abandoned children, the film takes us inside the lives of a handful of children who were abandoned by their parents - with a simple signature - to state care. The institute houses 126 children, of whom all but four still have living parents. The vast majority are what are called 'social orphans' in Ukraine, signed over to institutional care in a society that still clings to the Soviet-era ideal that the state knows best. But what Kate finds is that children of widely varying abilities are warehoused together, leading inevitably to institutionalisation, repetitive behaviour, self-stimulation and self-harm, even amongst those with very minor disabilities.

Lyosha is ten, and has no arms and legs. But with a fighting spirit and lively intelligence, he uses his balance and powerful neck muscles to propel himself around the room, along corridors and even up and down stairs, almost as quickly as those around him with four limbs. He is proud of the fact that he makes his own bed every morning, and will not allow carers to help him do so. Lyosha is just one of a group of boys for whom Nikolai, the institute director, has great ambitions. Nikolai has seen too many of the children he has cared for leave at 18, to be transferred to psychiatric or geriatric homes, labelled as incapacitated and effectively robbed of their human rights and their future. He has gained funding from Russia for a small group home for boys like Lyosha whom he feels have the greatest unrealised potential. Once in this home they will get the education and rehabilitation they need to avoid a future without hope or freedom.

Kate also meets young men in their 20s and 30s who were not so lucky. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, Boris, Dennis and Leonya have all been categorised by the state as 'incapacitated' - unaware of, and unable to control, their actions. Following their fight to find some way to challenge this quasi-legal label, which robs them of many of their fundamental rights, Kate hears their tales of beatings, isolation cells and the abuse of chemical straitjackets as punishment in a psychiatric institute named Novosivitsky that became notorious in Ukraine in 2010 after an inmate was beaten to death. Boris says of his time there 'It was so painful, like living under the lid of a coffin'.

In parallel with the fight of the incapacitated for legal freedom and the journey of Lyosha and his friends into a small group home, Kate also follows the stories of some of the sickest children in Nikolai's care. Margarita is five, but gravely ill. Instead of being in a hospital she has been sent to Nikolai's remote institute, where there are no specialist medical facilities and the medical director, responsible for all the children, is a retired dentist. Desperately worried about Margarita's worsening condition, Nikolai takes her to the local hospital, but officials there say she must be discharged back to the institute as soon as her temperature stabilises. The doctor in charge of her care says 'I understand her condition is catastrophic, but this is a disaster from long ago, from the child's birth - she is a child who has been abandoned'.

Around £9 billion has been spent in Ukraine in preparation for hosting Euro 2012 in June, but while vast sums have been found for infrastructure in the major cities, the budgets for the weakest members of society have been under strain. This film takes us into a disturbing world that the Ukrainian government would rather outsiders did not witness. It is a powerful and emotionally gripping indictment of a system that hides orphan children away in remote and inaccessible institutions, before labelling many of them as beyond rehabilitation.


MON 22:30 A Short Journey into Tajikistan (b01jzq77)
Tajikistan, in central Asia, was once one of the smallest and poorest republics of the USSR. In the last twenty years it has moved from communism to capitalism, from atheism to a rediscovery of Islam.

Reporter Khayrulla Fayz returns to his village to discover what life is like for people there now. He talks to cotton farmers in the fields where he picked cotton as a child, meets migrant workers forced to leave their families to find work in Russia and asks the new entrepreneurs about the challenges of doing business there.

When Khayrulla was a boy he spoke Russian and looked up to Lenin as the father of the nation. He finds out who the new heroes are for the younger generation carving out an identity for this newly-independent country.


MON 23:15 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.


MON 00:15 The Perfect Suit (b012cnww)
A witty exploration of the evolution of the gentleman's suit. Alastair Sooke only owns one suit, but he is fascinated by how the matching jacket and trousers has become a uniform for men. Over the last 100 years the suit has evolved from working man's Sunday best to the casual wear of royalty.

For many 'the suit' is synonymous with all that is dull. But tailor Charlie Allen, Top Man chief designer Gordon Richardson and Sir Paul Smith show Alastair that the suit can be a cutting-edge fashion item and 'armour' to face the world.


MON 01:15 How the Brits Rocked America: Go West (b01b4x9g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:15 London on Film (b01jzq75)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 02:45 Ukraine's Forgotten Children (b01k2g45)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 19 JUNE 2012

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b01jzpxz)
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 Sea Fever (b00s96rw)
For Those in Peril

Over the centuries people have been drawn to the sea for different reasons - for pleasure, for fishing and for trade. The unpredictable power of the sea has a nasty habit of catching them out, necessitating the resources of the rescue services and lifeboat volunteers.

Occasionally, home movie makers managed to capture some of the exploits of these rescue services. Their recollections tell the story of how they used increasingly elaborate technology and risked their lives to save the lives of others, and why, in spite of all this, the sea continued to claim so many lives.

Lighthouses were there at the beginning, but automation saw the end of the people who kept them going. One keeper who filmed them before they disappeared at the end of the 20th century was Peter Halil. Peter realised that no one was recording the passing of a way of life, so set about doing it himself. He enlisted the help of fellow keeper Gerry Douglas Sherwood and the programme features the eloquent video he shot, together with recollections of both of them.

Peter's films captured the end of a way of life, while others filmed the inherent dangers to life itself. Amazing film of the work of the volunteer coastguard in St Ives and the crisis to the naval minesweeper HMS Wave in 1951, the RNLI lifeboat in Dover coping with the Texaco Caribbean disaster in 1971, and the work of the combined rescue services called out in August 1979 to the aid of yachts in trouble in the Fastnet race shape the tone of the programme. Maritime historian Richard Woodman provides a historical and technological context for the eyewitnesses and home movie enthusiasts who tell the stories behind the images in each of these rescues.

Perhaps the most compelling is that of Eric Smith, an RAF winchman. Dramatic home movie images filmed from the Cornish coast reveal the daring and ultimately successful operation to rescue two men trapped in a ship sinking off Land's End. The drama and tension are portrayed, as is the skill and bravery of Eric Smith, qualities that brought him the George Medal.


TUE 21:00 Shakespeare Uncovered (b01k2l8w)
Joely Richardson on Shakespeare's Women

Shakespeare Uncovered: In Twelfth Night and As You Like It, Joely Richardson investigates (with a major contribution from her mother Vanessa Redgrave) the legacy of the two great comedies and the great comic heroines created by Shakespeare in those hugely popular plays.

Shakespeare's comic heroines are well known to be some of his greatest creations and in this film Joely looks at Viola in Twelfth Night, washed up on a foreign shore, having (for her own safety) to disguise herself as a man and then falling in love with the man she is working for. Then there is the legendary Rosalind in As You Like It, who also spends much of the play disguised as a man but in the process torments and teases the man she loves in an effort to uncover how sincere he is.

Joely investigates the reason why these heroines spend much of their time dressed as men - it was because they were originally created for young men to play. But at the same time we find that Shakespeare revealed an acute understanding and sympathy for women when he wrote these characters.

A variety of film versions are studied alongside the most recent productions at Shakespeare's Globe, and with contributions from the world's greatest Shakespearean scholars like Jonathan Bate and Germaine Greer and from actors like Vanessa Redgrave and Helen Mirren, this film reveals the legacy of strong, sassy, witty women that we inherit from William Shakespeare's great comedies.


TUE 22:00 Rude Britannia (b00srf2d)
A History Most Satirical, Bawdy, Lewd and Offensive

In the early 18th century, Georgian Britain was a nation openly, gloriously and often shockingly rude. This was found in the graphic art of Hogarth, Gillray, Rowlandson and George Cruikshank, and the rude theatrical world of John Gay and Henry Fielding. Singer Lucie Skeaping helps show the Georgian taste for lewd and bawdy ballads, and there is a dip into the literary tradition of rude words via the poetry of Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift and Lord Byron, and Laurence Sterne's novel Tristram Shandy.


TUE 23:00 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.


TUE 00:00 Make Me Happy: A Monkey's Search for Happiness (b01jzq26)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


TUE 01:00 Spiral (b00n1h67)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


TUE 01:50 Spiral (b00n5695)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:50 on Saturday]


TUE 02:50 Shakespeare Uncovered (b01k2l8w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 20 JUNE 2012

WED 19:00 World News Today (b01jzpy6)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Time to Remember (b00tzlzz)
Stage and Screen

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.

Archive footage from the theatres, music halls and cinemas of the 1920s and 30s combines with characterful voiceover to give a glimpse of the entertainment industries in their early 20th century golden age. It includes footage of Charles Laughton applying his own stage make-up, chorus line auditions and rehearsals in the West End, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks visiting Europe, and Alfred Hitchcock's first talkie, 1929's Blackmail.


WED 20:00 Timeshift (b00dzzdc)
Series 8

Last Days of Steam

The surprising story of how Britain entered a new age of steam railways after the Second World War and why it quickly came to an end.

After the war, the largely destroyed railways of Europe were rebuilt to carry more modern diesel and electric trains. Britain, however, chose to build thousands of brand new steam locomotives. Did we stay with steam because coal was seen as the most reliable power source or were the railways run by men who couldn't bear to let go of their beloved steam trains?

The new British locomotives were designed to stay in service well into the 1970s, but in some cases they were taken off the railways and scrapped within just five years. When Dr Richard Beeching took over British Railways in the 1960s the writing was on the wall, and in 1968 the last steam passenger train blew its whistle.

But while steam use declined, steam enthusiasm grew. As many steam engines lay rusting in scrapyards around Britain, enthusiasts raised funds to buy, restore and return them to their former glory. In 2008, the first brand new steam locomotive to be built in Britain in nearly 50 years rolled off the line, proving our enduring love of these machines.


WED 21:00 The Strange Case of the Law (b01jzqgy)
Laying Down the Law

English common law, with its emphasis on the role of the jury, set a standard of fairness that has influenced legal systems across the world. Many of the features that characterise today's courts were in place by as early as the 14th century. How did England come to have such a distinctive and enduring system?

Barrister Harry Potter traces English law back to the simple compensation culture of early Anglo-Saxon Kent. He explores the rise of trial by ordeal, where painful and dangerous physical tests were used to determine guilt or innocence. He shows how this system of religious 'proof' came to be replaced by jury trial, explains why Henry II's attempt to unify law in England led to murder in Canterbury Cathedral and takes a revealing look at the most famous legal document in history, Magna Carta.


WED 22:00 Garrow's Law (b00nsp4s)
Series 1

Episode 1

In the late 18th century, young idealistic barrister William Garrow is given his first criminal defence case at the Old Bailey by attorney and mentor John Southouse. He defends Peter Pace, who is accused by renowned thief-taker Edward Forrester of robbing a man at gunpoint.

The case is won by Garrow's nemesis Silvester, but Garrow's impressive performance in court catches the eye of Lady Sarah Hill. She instructs him to defend a helpless serving girl, Elizabeth Jarvis, who stands accused of murdering her newborn baby. Garrow learns a harsh lesson from his first case, and vows to defend the life of Elizabeth.


WED 23:00 Borgen (b019chkh)
Series 1

Count to 90

Danish drama series about the fight for political power - and the personal sacrifices and consequences this has for those involved on and behind the political stage.

Birgitte Nyborg is undeniably the winner of the election, doubling her party's seats in parliament. Focus now turns to the negotiation of alliances and the forming of a new coalition government. Turbulence, toil and surprises ensue, and Birgitte's election win begins to look more like a loss. Katrine is going through hell, but continues her dedication to her work. In addition to losing his job, Kasper is losing his grip. And in the middle of all the commotion, Ole Dahl's funeral takes a strange turn.


WED 00:00 Ukraine's Forgotten Children (b01k2g45)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


WED 01:30 Timeshift (b00dzzdc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:30 Time to Remember (b00tzlzz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 03:00 The Strange Case of the Law (b01jzqgy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 21 JUNE 2012

THU 19:00 World News Today (b01jzpyf)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b01k6gkp)
02/06/77

Noel Edmonds looks at the weekly pop chart from 1977 and introduces Elkie Brooks, the Muppets, Twiggy, Jesse Green, Hot Chocolate, the Strawbs, Genesis, the Four Seasons, Heatwave, Carol Bayer Sager and Rod Stewart, with a dance sequence from Legs & Co.


THU 20:00 Wonders of the Solar System (b00rmpqh)
Original Series

The Thin Blue Line

Professor Brian Cox reveals how something as flimsy as an envelope of gas - an atmosphere - can create some of the most wondrous sights in the solar system. He takes a ride in an English Electric Lightning and flies 18 km up to the top of earth's atmosphere, where he sees the darkness of space above and the thin blue line of our atmosphere below. In the Namib desert in south-west Africa, he tells the story of Mercury. This tiny planet was stripped naked of its early atmosphere and is fully exposed to the ferocity of space.

Against the stunning backdrop of the glaciers of Alaska, Brian reveals his fourth wonder: Saturn's moon Titan, shrouded by a murky, thick atmosphere. He reveals that below the clouds lies a magical world. Titan is the only place beyond earth where we've found liquid pooling on the surface in vast lakes, as big as the Caspian Sea, but the lakes of Titan are filled with a mysterious liquid, and are quite unlike anything on earth.


THU 21:00 Simon Bolivar Orchestra: Live from Stirling (b01jzqlx)
Kirsty Wark presents live coverage of a special outdoor concert by the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra conducted by the charismatic Gustavo Dudamel, performed in Raploch in Stirling and marking the start of the London 2012 Festival. The concert, staged in the shadow of Stirling Castle, also celebrates the work of the community-based music programme Sistema Scotland and features a performance from some of the local children who are part of this project. The Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra play pieces by Beethoven, Purcell and a very special finale, so expect fireworks on and off stage from one of the most exciting orchestras and conductors in the world.


THU 22:30 Shakespeare Uncovered (b01k2l8w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 23:30 London on Film (b01jzq75)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Monday]


THU 00:00 Rude Britannia (b00srf2d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]


THU 01:00 Top of the Pops (b01k6gkp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 01:40 Wonders of the Solar System (b00rmpqh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 02:40 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.



FRIDAY 22 JUNE 2012

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b01jzpyn)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Concerto at the BBC Proms (b01k763t)
Mozart Clarinet

Another chance to hear a live performance from the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major, considered by some to be his finest work, recorded at the BBC Proms in 2006.

Gifted English clarinet soloist Julian Bliss, at the time only 17 years old, performs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductor Jirí Behlohlávek.


FRI 20:00 Puccini's Il Trittico (b01k6685)
Suor Angelica

Antonio Pappano introduces and conducts this short one-act opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, a tragic tale of love, loss and religious redemption set in 17th-century Sienna, which was Puccini's favourite opera from his trilogy Il Trittico. The setting is a Catholic children's hospital run by nuns, where Sister Angelica has become an expert herbalist creating remedies for the sick. She is much loved yet hiding a deep secret and over the course of the work Puccini gradually tightens the emotional screw.

Directed for the stage by Richard Jones with an international cast.


FRI 21:00 David Bowie and the Story of Ziggy Stardust (b01k0y0n)
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is arguably the most important album in the mind-blowing career of David Bowie. Released in 1972, it's the record that set the mercurial musician on course to becoming one of the best-known pop stars on the planet. In just over a year, Bowie's messianic Martian invaded the minds of the nation's youth with a killer combination of extraterrestrial rock 'n' roll and outrageous sexuality, all delivered in high-heeled boots, multicoloured dresses and extravagant make-up. In Bowie's own words, Ziggy was 'a cross between Nijinsky and Woolworths', but this unlikely culture clash worked - Ziggy turned Bowie into stardust.

This documentary tells the story of how Bowie arrived at one of the most iconic creations in the history of pop music. The songs, the hairstyles, the fashion and the theatrical stage presentation merged together to turn David Bowie into the biggest craze since the Beatles. Ziggy's instant success gave the impression that he was the perfectly planned pop star. But, as the film reveals, it had been a momentous struggle for David Bowie to hit on just the right formula that would take him to the top.

Narrated by fan Jarvis Cocker, it reveals Bowie's mission to the stars through the musicians and colleagues who helped him in his unwavering quest for fame - a musical voyage that led Bowie to doubt his true identity, eventually forcing the sudden demise of his alien alter ego, Ziggy.

Contributors include Trevor Bolder (bass player, Spiders from Mars), Woody Woodmansey (drummer, Spider from Mars), Mike Garson (Spiders' keyboardist), Suzi Ronson (Mick Ronson's widow, who gave Bowie that haircut), Ken Scott (producer), Elton John (contemporary and fan), Lindsay Kemp (Bowie's mime teacher), Leee Black Childers (worked for Mainman, Bowie's production company), Cherry Vanilla (Bowie's PA/press officer), George Underwood (Bowie's friend), Mick Rock (Ziggy's official photographer), Steve Harley, Marc Almond, Holly Johnson, Peter Hook, Jon Savage, Peter Doggett and Dylan Jones.


FRI 22:00 The Genius of David Bowie (b01k0y0q)
A selection of some of David Bowie's best performances from the BBC archives, which also features artists who Bowie helped along the way, such as Mott the Hoople, Lulu, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.


FRI 23:00 Storyville (b0074nrj)
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

Classic rock film documenting David Bowie's last public appearance as his androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. This memorable final concert at the Hammersmith Odeon was filmed by DA Pennebaker, famous for such 1960s rock documentaries as Don't Look Back and Monterey Pop. The 17 songs performed include Changes, Time and Suffragette City.


FRI 00:30 David Bowie at the BBC (b01k0y0t)
David Bowie in concert at the BBC Radio Theatre. Songs include Wild is the Wind, Ashes to Ashes, Absolute Beginners, The Man Who Sold the World and Fame.


FRI 01:30 David Bowie and the Story of Ziggy Stardust (b01k0y0n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:30 The Genius of David Bowie (b01k0y0q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 03:30 Puccini's Il Trittico (b01k6685)
[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)

A Short Journey into Tajikistan 22:30 MON (b01jzq77)

Behind the Scenes at the Museum 19:00 SUN (b00sftd3)

Borgen 23:00 WED (b019chkh)

Concerto at the BBC Proms 19:30 FRI (b01k763t)

David Bowie and the Story of Ziggy Stardust 21:00 FRI (b01k0y0n)

David Bowie and the Story of Ziggy Stardust 01:30 FRI (b01k0y0n)

David Bowie at the BBC 00:30 FRI (b01k0y0t)

Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency 20:00 SAT (b014b7d2)

Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency 01:30 SAT (b014b7d2)

Entertaining the Troops 22:50 SAT (b014v51p)

Garrow's Law 22:00 WED (b00nsp4s)

Glastonbury 01:10 SUN (b01jv7f4)

How the Brits Rocked America: Go West 19:30 MON (b01b4x9g)

How the Brits Rocked America: Go West 01:15 MON (b01b4x9g)

London on Film 20:30 MON (b01jzq75)

London on Film 02:15 MON (b01jzq75)

London on Film 23:30 THU (b01jzq75)

Make Me Happy: A Monkey's Search for Happiness 21:00 SUN (b01jzq26)

Make Me Happy: A Monkey's Search for Happiness 02:25 SUN (b01jzq26)

Make Me Happy: A Monkey's Search for Happiness 00:00 TUE (b01jzq26)

Parkinson: The Interviews 22:30 SUN (b01f7x12)

Puccini's Il Trittico 20:00 FRI (b01k6685)

Puccini's Il Trittico 03:30 FRI (b01k6685)

Punk Britannia 00:10 SUN (b01jv7f2)

Rude Britannia 22:00 TUE (b00srf2d)

Rude Britannia 00:00 THU (b00srf2d)

Sea Fever 20:00 TUE (b00s96rw)

Shakespeare Uncovered 21:00 TUE (b01k2l8w)

Shakespeare Uncovered 02:50 TUE (b01k2l8w)

Shakespeare Uncovered 22:30 THU (b01k2l8w)

Simon Bolivar Orchestra: Live from Stirling 21:00 THU (b01jzqlx)

Spiral 21:00 SAT (b00n1h67)

Spiral 21:50 SAT (b00n5695)

Spiral 01:00 TUE (b00n1h67)

Spiral 01:50 TUE (b00n5695)

Storyville 02:40 THU (b0109ccb)

Storyville 23:00 FRI (b0074nrj)

The Art of Tommy Cooper 22:00 SUN (b007hzl2)

The Blue Planet 19:00 SAT (b0074mhp)

The Blue Planet 02:30 SAT (b0074mhp)

The Bridges That Built London with Dan Cruickshank 23:00 TUE (b01jv5nr)

The Genius of David Bowie 22:00 FRI (b01k0y0q)

The Genius of David Bowie 02:30 FRI (b01k0y0q)

The Perfect Suit 00:15 MON (b012cnww)

The Strange Case of the Law 21:00 WED (b01jzqgy)

The Strange Case of the Law 03:00 WED (b01jzqgy)

Time to Remember 19:30 TUE (b00tww3x)

Time to Remember 19:30 WED (b00tzlzz)

Time to Remember 02:30 WED (b00tzlzz)

Timeshift 20:00 SUN (b0135kkp)

Timeshift 23:10 SUN (b0126vfd)

Timeshift 20:00 WED (b00dzzdc)

Timeshift 01:30 WED (b00dzzdc)

Top of the Pops 23:50 SAT (b01jv5nk)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b01k6gkp)

Top of the Pops 01:00 THU (b01k6gkp)

Turner's Thames 23:15 MON (b01jv255)

Ukraine's Forgotten Children 21:00 MON (b01k2g45)

Ukraine's Forgotten Children 02:45 MON (b01k2g45)

Ukraine's Forgotten Children 00:00 WED (b01k2g45)

Wonders of the Solar System 00:30 SAT (b00rkksg)

Wonders of the Solar System 20:00 THU (b00rmpqh)

Wonders of the Solar System 01:40 THU (b00rmpqh)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b01jzpxr)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b01jzpxz)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b01jzpy6)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b01jzpyf)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b01jzpyn)