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 17 NOVEMBER 2012

SAT 19:00 Metalworks! (b01fhmhp)
The Golden Age of Silver

Dan Cruickshank visits Britain's finest country houses, museums and factories as he uncovers the 18th- and 19th-century fascination with silver. Delving into an unsurpassed era of shimmering opulence, heady indulgence and conspicuous consumption, Dan discovers the Georgian and Victorian obsession with this tantalising precious metal which represented status, wealth and excellent taste. He gives us a glimpse of some of the most extensive collections and exquisite pieces of silverware to have ever been made on British shores.


SAT 20:00 Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity (p00kjqch)
The Age of Invention

Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the electrifying story of our quest to master nature's most mysterious force - electricity. Until fairly recently, electricity was seen as a magical power, but it is now the lifeblood of the modern world and underpins every aspect of our technological advancements.

Without electricity, we would be lost. This series tells of dazzling leaps of imagination and extraordinary experiments - a story of maverick geniuses who used electricity to light our cities, to communicate across the seas and through the air, to create modern industry and to give us the digital revolution.

Just under 200 years ago scientists discovered something profound, that electricity is connected to another of nature's most fundamental forces - magnetism. In the second episode, Jim discovers how harnessing the link between magnetism and electricity would completely transform the world, allowing us to generate a seemingly limitless amount of electric power which we could utilise to drive machines, communicate across continents and light our homes. This is the story of how scientists and engineers unlocked the nature of electricity in an extraordinary century of innovation and invention.


SAT 21:00 The Killing (b01nzmzq)
Series 3

Episode 1

Denmark is the midst of a fiercely contested election race, set against the backdrop of the financial crisis. With ten days to go to the election, Detective Chief Inspector Sarah Lund prepares to celebrate her 25th year in the police force and looks forward to the prospect of a new job in the force. But her relative peace is shattered when body parts are found at Copenhagen dock only hours before a scheduled visit by the prime minister.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 22:00 The Killing (b01p1r5y)
Series 3

Episode 2

Following the kidnapping of Robert Zeuthen's daughter Emilie, Copenhagen Police put every effort into tracking down the perpetrator and finding the little girl. Meanwhile, the kidnapping has quickly become a hot potato in the election campaign and Prime Minister Kamper must deal with the fallout.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 23:00 Chateau Chunder: When Australian Wine Changed the World (b01nvwqp)
It's the 1970s and Australian wine is a joke - not for drinking, as Monty Python put it, but for 'laying down and avoiding'. The idea that a wine made Down Under could ever challenge the august products of Burgundy or Tuscany has wine buffs and snobby sommeliers sniggering into their tasting spoons. But little more than 40 years later, Australian winemaking is leading the world. London merchants sell more wine from Australia than from any other country, while the chastened French wine industry reluctantly take note of how modern winemaking - and wine marketing - is really done.

Chateau Chunder is both a social history of wine and wine drinking and an in-depth examination of how a small group of enterprising Australian winemakers took on the world and won, changing the way that wine is made and marketed.

With humour and insight, this documentary features winemakers, marketers, merchants, critics and drinkers including Bruce Tyrrell, James Halliday, Max Allen (Australian wine critics), Chris Hancock (Rosemount), Sir Les Patterson (Cultural Attaché to Australia, a comical creation of Barry Humphries), Robert Parker (US wine critic), Oz Clarke and Jancis Robinson (UK wine critics).

The starting point is the famous Python sketch - 'This is a bottle with a message, and the message is 'beware'. This is not a wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding'. And it was true. The idea that Australia could be a world class wine-making nation was a joke.

The documentary offers insightful detail on the nuts and bolts of the business and the way the Australians realised that the mid-price mass market needed labels that people could understand, good value, consistent quality (never the French way) and, most of all, some great branding. They pioneered the idea of selling wine by grape variety and colourful labels (Barramundi, Kanga Rouge, Wallaby White etc) rather than by the ancient and baffling classification systems of Europe. Cunningly, they also invented blind-tasting - wrapping French and Australian wines in brown paper bags, so the wines could be tasted without prejudice.


SAT 00:00 Metalworks! (b01fhmhp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 01:00 Top of the Pops (b01nzcc9)
27/10/77

David 'Kid' Jensen looks at the weekly pop chart from 1977 and introduces Slade, Mary Mason, Darts, Boney M, the Tom Robinson Band, Smokey Robinson, Rod Stewart, Abba, Baccara and a Legs & Co dance sequence.


SAT 01:30 Duets at the BBC (b01c2xwt)
The BBC delves into its archive for the best romantic duets performed at the BBC over the last 50 years. Whether it is Robbie and Kylie dancing together on Top of the Pops or Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge singing into each other's eyes on the Whistle Test, there is plenty of chemistry. Highlights include Nina and Frederik's Baby It's Cold Outside, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, Sonny and Cher, Shirley Bassey and Neil Diamond, Peaches and Herb, and a rare performance from Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush.


SAT 02:30 Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity (p00kjqch)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2012

SUN 19:00 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.


SUN 20:00 Michael Wood: The Story of India (b007zn52)
The Meeting of Two Oceans

The documentary series about the history of India charts the coming of Islam to the subcontinent and one of the greatest ages of world civilisation: the Mughals. Michael Wood visits Sufi shrines in Old Delhi, desert fortresses in Rajasthan and the cities of Lahore and Agra, where he offers a new theory on the design of the Taj Mahal. He also looks at the life of Akbar, a Muslim emperor who decreed that no one religion could hold the ultimate truth, but whose dream of unity ended in civil war.


SUN 21:00 Storyville (b01nyz3p)
From the Sea to the Land Beyond: Britain's Coast on Film

Made from over 100 years of BFI archive footage, From the Sea to the Land Beyond offers a poetic meditation on Britain's unique coastline and the role it plays in our lives. With a soundtrack specially created by Brighton-based band British Sea Power, award-winning director Penny Woolcock's film offers moving testimony to our relationship to the coast - during wartime, on our holidays and as a hive of activity during the industrial age.


SUN 22:15 Undertow (b01fkd79)
Peruvian drama in which a married fisherman struggles to reconcile his devotion to his lover with his town's rigid traditions.


SUN 23:50 Michael Wood: The Story of India (b007zn52)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SUN 00:50 Pop Charts Britannia: 60 Years of the Top 10 (b01nwfxs)
Documentary chronicling our ever-changing love affair with the British singles chart on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary. From the first NME chart in 1952, via Pick and Top of the Pops to home-taping the Radio One chart show and beyond, we have measured out our lives to a wonderful churn of pop driven, unbeknownst to us, by a clandestine world of music biz hustle. Featuring contributions by 60 years of BBC chart custodians from David Jacobs to Reggie Yates, chart fans Grace Dent and Pete Paphides and music biz veterans Jon Webster and Rob Dickins.


SUN 02:20 Sound It Out (b01nwfxx)
Over the last five years an independent record shop has closed in the UK every three days. This film is documentary portrait of one of the very last still trading - a vinyl record shop in Teesside, a cultural haven in one of the most deprived areas in the UK. Filmmaker Jeanie Finlay, who grew up three miles from the shop, follows daily life in a place that is thriving against the odds, ensured of survival by the local community that keeps it alive. A distinctive, funny and intimate film about men, the North and the irreplaceable role music plays in our lives.



MONDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2012

MON 19:00 World News Today (b01nywz4)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Timothy Spall: All at Sea (b01dc59m)
The Last Splash

Six years ago, Timothy Spall and his wife Shane left London to tour Britain's coast. This final episode of their journey sees them complete their circumnavigation, but not before a dramatic and frightening twist.

They arrive in Suffolk where they moor in Shotley marina, the site of the former naval training camp HMS Ganges. From here they venture into the serene Walton backwaters and then out into the North Sea for a trip to Brightlingsea, Essex. Essex to Kent should have been fairly trouble-free. Tim filled his boat with friends, including actress Frances Barber, before setting off on this celebratory leg.

Chatham is the port were the Spalls spent months learning the art of navigation before venturing out into the sea for the first time all those years ago. They know the area well, but Tim hadn't realised how much the waters of the Medway would change in the blackness of night. After hours at sea they are close to land, but soon become lost. The lights from all the factories and power plants on land add confusion and low tide increases the risk of running aground. After hours of fretting, Tim reluctantly calls the coastguard. The lifeboat crew take them to the nearest port, Queenborough in Sheppey.

The next day they safely make it to Chatham, where both Tim and Shane are emotionally drained and relieved. The final journey up the Thames into London is where he eventually realises why he did this adventure in the first place - 'It's been a celebration of life and a spit in the eye of the audacity of fate trying to kill me, so we went out and tried to kill ourselves.'.


MON 20:00 Nature's Microworlds (b01lc6w5)
Amazon

Steve Backshall lifts the lid on an incredible world of intricate relationships and unexpected hardship in the Amazon rainforest, explores the way that the jungle's inhabitants interact, and reveals a hidden secret that might just be what keeps the whole place alive.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b01nz909)
Series 6

Wintonians v Wordsmiths

Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital. Three friends from Winchester square up to a team united by their passion for reading and writing in this quarter-final, competing to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random. So join Victoria if you want to know what connects the 69th Infantry Regiment, Münchner Kindl, Serjeant-at-Arms and the Greek Olympic team.


MON 21:00 Calf's Head and Coffee: The Golden Age of English Food (p00y4h9g)
Stefan Gates discovers the cradle of contemporary English cuisine. The film argues that the current renaissance of British food has its origins in a golden age, some 300 years ago.


MON 22:00 Storyville (b00rhbcv)
Kings of Pastry

Imagine a scene never before witnessed - 16 French pastry chefs gathered in Lyon for three intense days of mixing, piping and sculpting everything from delicate chocolates to six-foot sugar sculptures in hope of being declared one of the best by the country's President.

This is the prestigious Meilleurs Ouvriers de France competition (Best Craftsmen in France). The blue, white and red striped collar worn on the jackets of the winners is more than the ultimate recognition for every pastry chef - it is a dream and an obsession. The finalists, France's culinary elite, risk their reputations as well as sacrifice family and finances in pursuit of this lifelong distinction of excellence. Similar to the Olympics, the three-day contest takes place every four years and it requires that the chefs not only have extraordinary skill and nerves of steel but also a lot of luck.

Filmmakers DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus secured exclusive access to shoot this epic, never-before-filmed test of France's finest artisans. The film follows chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, co-founder of Chicago's French Pastry School, as he journeys back to his childhood home of Alsace to practice for the contest.

Two other finalists are profiled in the documentary - Regis Lazard, who was competing for the second time (he dropped his sugar sculpture the first time), and Philippe Rigollot from Maison Pic, France's only three-star restaurant owned by a woman.

During the gruelling final competition, chefs work under constant scrutiny by master judges and the critical palates of some of the world's most renowned chefs evaluate their elaborate pastries. Finally, these pastry marathoners racing the clock must hand-carry all their creations including their fragile sugar sculptures through a series of rooms to a final buffet area without shattering them.

The film captures the high-stakes drama of the competition - passion, sacrifice, disappointment and joy - all in the quest to become one of the Kings of Pastry.


MON 23:25 The Killing (b01nzmzq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


MON 00:25 Timothy Spall: All at Sea (b01dc59m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 00:55 Nature's Microworlds (b01lc6w5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 01:25 Only Connect (b01nz909)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 01:55 Calf's Head and Coffee: The Golden Age of English Food (p00y4h9g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2012

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b01nywz9)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00psx88)
Series 1

Liverpool to Eccles

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 the public, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

His journey takes him coast to coast, from Liverpool to Scarborough, beginning on the world's first passenger railway line. On the first leg, Michael learns to speak Scouse in Liverpool, finds out about the first railway fatality and explores the origins of the Eccles cake.


TUE 20:00 Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury (b0110ghh)
The Worcester and Birmingham Canal

Seasoned stomper Julia Bradbury dons her walking boots once again to explore her own British backyard, travelling along the country's network of canals and their accompanying towpath trails. Julia navigates Highland glens, rolling countryside and river valleys, as well as our industrial heartlands, and follows these magical waterways as they cut a sedate path through some of the country's finest scenery.

Julia starts this walk in Birmingham, which surprisingly boasts more miles of canal than Venice. But her mission isn't to seek out gondolas or ice cream - it's to discover how the city, through its canal network, became the centre of the Industrial Revolution. It's also the start of Julia's two-day walk along the historic and picturesque Worcester and Birmingham Canal, which cuts a 30-mile path through to the River Severn. The highlight of the canal is a dramatic two-mile flight of 30 locks which lower the canal by 220 feet. Negotiating this flight of locks is considered to be a rite of passage by boaters, and it's definitely one for the tick list for walkers.


TUE 20:30 Britain on Film (b01nz93z)
Series 1

Getting Down to Business

In 1959 Britain's biggest cinema company, the Rank Organisation, decided to replace its newsreels with a series of short, quirky, topical documentaries that examined all aspects of life in Britain. For the next ten years, Look at Life chronicled - on high-grade 35mm colour film - the changing face of British society, industry and culture. Britain on Film draws upon the 500 films in this unique archive to offer illuminating and often surprising insights into what became a pivotal decade in modern British history.

This episode examines Look at Life's surprisingly entertaining films on the British economy, at a time when industry faced ever-increasing competition from abroad.


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

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

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


TUE 22:00 Rick Stein Tastes the Blues (b017758n)
Ever since the early 1960s, Rick Stein has been in love with the blues and years later he is fascinated by the dishes ingrained in its lyrics - fried chicken and turnip greens, catfish and black-eyed peas, and the rest. In this film, Rick pays homage to the musicians who created this music and to the great dishes of the Mississippi Delta that go hand in hand with the blues.


TUE 23:00 The Killing (b01p1r5y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Saturday]


TUE 00:00 Storyville (b01nyz3p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


TUE 01:15 Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury (b0110ghh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 01:45 Britain on Film (b01nz93z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


TUE 02:15 Rick Stein Tastes the Blues (b017758n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2012

WED 19:00 World News Today (b01nywzn)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00psyq3)
Series 1

Manchester to Bury

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.

While travelling coast to coast from Liverpool to Scarborough, Michael visits Manchester to find out more about George Bradshaw himself. He also gets fitted for a trilby in Denton and learns how the railways helped to create a national institution - fish and chips.


WED 20:00 Britain's Best Drives (b00jf4jn)
The Trossachs

Actor Richard Wilson takes a journey into the past, following routes raved about in motoring guides of 50 years ago.

For his final drive, Richard returns to the country of his birth in a splendid 1950s Bentley. He drops in on his sister, returns to the original 'Dr Finlay' house, takes to the water to find out how Sir Walter Scott inspired a deluge of sightseers to the region, drives Scotland's most famous road in the company of a bevy of vintage bikers, and discovers just what it is about great vistas that gives us all such a thrill.


WED 20:30 Tales from the Wild Wood (b01nz985)
Episode 6

Rob Penn's year in Strawberry Cottage Wood is nearly at an end. After ten months hard work he gets a final assessment from the local conservation expert. He attends an international cricket match to hunt down the timber he felled in the winter, and throws a party for everybody who has helped him throughout the year.


WED 21:00 Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (b01nz987)
Dinner

Clarissa Dickson Wright's latest culinary adventure reveals the origins and development of our three daily meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner. As a nation, we take them for granted, assuming that they have always existed as they are now. But unpick each of these eating rituals, trace their lineage back through a thousand years of British history and you find fascinating and surprising stories of social upheaval and shifting class structures, of technological developments and gastronomic revolutions.

Clarissa Dickson Wright completes her journey through the history of our mealtimes with dinner - our main meal of the day and also our showiest. Dinner is when we like to enjoy the finest dishes and exhibit our good taste even if, as Fanny Cradock understood, that involves a touch of snobbery. And, as Clarissa discovers, some people nowadays resort to serving ready meals as if they were their own culinary creations!

But although dinner is our most ritualistic meal, don't imagine that its traditions are timeless and unchanged. In fact, it's a microcosm of 1,000 years of evolving customs. As she journeys back into history, Clarissa reveals that in the Middle Ages, even the most refined diners ate with their hands - we have the Italians to thank for introducing us to the fork. Similarly, we have the humble turnip to thank for making roast beef our historic national dish, and the custom of eating dinner in series of separate courses only came to us via the Russian ambassador to Paris in the nineteenth century. But most surprising, perhaps, is the fact that for centuries dinner was always served in daylight hours. The custom of eating it in the evening only came about because of the increased availability of candles in Georgian times.

Sadly, we have the Victorians to blame for the poor reputation of British dinnertime cuisine, something that even pioneer TV cook Fanny Cradock could do nothing to dispel; and the rise in popularity of ready meals in our own time is not likely to revive it. As she reaches the end of her journey, Clarissa arrives at a typically outspoken conclusion about the current state of our mealtime traditions and what we need to learn from the customs of the past.


WED 22:00 Getting On (b01nz989)
Series 3

Episode 6

Artist Dylan Schwarz and his assistant Elke arrive on K2 to set up a kids art project. Pippa is attracting the attention of Dr Kersley and obstetrician Dr Tatty Oxford, who in turn has a surprise of her own to spring on Den. Kim confesses that Dave has been offered a job in Iraq, Den ponders her own unexpected news and Pippa makes a discovery of a different kind in a corner at Chatters.

Dylan's endeavours help solve one patient's diagnosis, but off the ward Den's announcement ends in a more brutal fashion with fisticuffs for Hilary. With Vag-At research a success, Pippa celebrates funding approval with a suitably open-mouthed Josh, who has a final surprise of his own to spring.


WED 22:30 Frost on Satire (b00srhgn)
Sir David Frost presents an investigation into the power of political satire with the help of some of the funniest TV moments of the last 50 years.

Beginning with the 1960s and That Was the Week That Was, he charts the development of television satire in Britain and the United States and is joined by the leading satirists from both sides of the Atlantic. From the UK, Rory Bremner, Ian Hislop and John Lloyd discuss their individual contributions, while from the US, Jon Stewart analyses the appeal of The Daily Show, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell talk about their respective portrayals of Sarah Palin and George W Bush, and Chevy Chase remembers how Saturday Night Live turned them into huge stars.

All of them tackle the key question of whether satire really can alter the course of political events.


WED 23:30 Metalworks! (b01fhmhp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


WED 00:30 Britain's Best Drives (b00jf4jn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 01:00 Tales from the Wild Wood (b01nz985)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 01:30 Getting On (b01nz989)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


WED 02:00 Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner (b01nz987)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2012

THU 19:00 World News Today (b01nywzt)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b01p2q00)
03/11/77

Peter Powell looks at the weekly pop chart from 1977 and introduces the Jam, the Barron Knights, the Carpenters, Queen, Status Quo, David Bowie, Showaddywaddy, Abba and a Legs & Co dance sequence.


THU 20:00 Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity (p00kjqcv)
Revelations and Revolutions

Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the electrifying story of our quest to master nature's most mysterious force - electricity. Until fairly recently, electricity was seen as a magical power, but it is now the lifeblood of the modern world and underpins every aspect of our technological advancements.

Without electricity, we would be lost. This series tells of dazzling leaps of imagination and extraordinary experiments - a story of maverick geniuses who used electricity to light our cities, to communicate across the seas and through the air, to create modern industry and to give us the digital revolution.

Electricity is not just something that creates heat and light, it connects the world through networks and broadcasting. After centuries of man's experiments with electricity, the final episode tells the story of how a new age of real understanding dawned - how we discovered electric fields and electromagnetic waves. Today we can hardly imagine life without electricity - it defines our era. As our understanding of it has increased so has our reliance upon it, and today we are on the brink of a new breakthrough, because if we can understand the secret of electrical superconductivity, we could once again transform the world.


THU 21:00 The Joy of Stats (b00wgq0l)
Documentary which takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride through the wonderful world of statistics to explore the remarkable power they have to change our understanding of the world, presented by superstar boffin Professor Hans Rosling, whose eye-opening, mind-expanding and funny online lectures have made him an international internet legend.

Rosling is a man who revels in the glorious nerdiness of statistics, and here he entertainingly explores their history, how they work mathematically and how they can be used in today's computer age to see the world as it really is, not just as we imagine it to be.

Rosling's lectures use huge quantities of public data to reveal the story of the world's past, present and future development. Now he tells the story of the world in 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers - in just four minutes.

The film also explores cutting-edge examples of statistics in action today. In San Francisco, a new app mashes up police department data with the city's street map to show what crime is being reported street by street, house by house, in near real-time. Every citizen can use it and the hidden patterns of their city are starkly revealed. Meanwhile, at Google HQ the machine translation project tries to translate between 57 languages, using lots of statistics and no linguists.

Despite its light and witty touch, the film nonetheless has a serious message - without statistics we are cast adrift on an ocean of confusion, but armed with stats we can take control of our lives, hold our rulers to account and see the world as it really is. What's more, Hans concludes, we can now collect and analyse such huge quantities of data and at such speeds that scientific method itself seems to be changing.


THU 22:00 Calf's Head and Coffee: The Golden Age of English Food (p00y4h9g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


THU 23:00 America on a Plate: The Story of the Diner (b017ss8x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 00:00 Tales from the Wild Wood (b01nz985)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Wednesday]


THU 00:30 Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity (p00kjqcv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 01:30 Top of the Pops (b01p2q00)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 02:00 The Joy of Stats (b00wgq0l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2012

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b01nywzz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Choir of the Year (b01nzchq)
2012

Choirs from all over the UK battle it out for the coveted title of Choir of the Year 2012. Six choirs have survived months of preliminary rounds to perform in the Grand Final at London's Royal Festival Hall. Tim Rhys-Evans and Josie D'arby host a showcase of talent from Britain's best-loved choral competition.


FRI 21:00 The Joy of the Single (b01nzchs)
Do you remember buying your first single? Where you bought it? What it was? The thrill of playing it for the first time? What it sounded like? How it maybe changed your life? Lots of us do. Lots of us still have that single somewhere in a dusty box in the attic, along with other treasured memorabilia of an adolescence lost in music and romance. The attic of our youth.

The Joy of the Single is a documentary packed with startling memories, vivid images and penetrating insights into the power of pop and rock's first and most abiding artefact - the seven-inch, vinyl 45-rpm record, a small, perfectly formed object that seems to miraculously contain the hopes, fears, sounds and experiences of our different generations - all within the spiralling groove etched on its shiny black surface, labelled and gift-wrapped by an industry also in its thrall.

In the confident hands of a star-studded cast, the film spins a tale of obsession, addiction, dedication and desire. The viewer is invited on a journey of celebration from the 1950s rock 'n' roll generation to the download kids of today, taking in classic singles from all manner of artists in each decade - from the smell of vinyl to the delights of the record label, from the importance of the record shop to the bittersweet brevity of the song itself, from stacking singles on a Dansette spindle to dropping the needle and thrilling to the intro.

Featuring contributions from Noddy Holder, Jack White, Richard Hawley, Suzi Quatro, Holly Johnson, Jimmy Webb, Pete Waterman, Norah Jones, Mike Batt, Graham Gouldman, Miranda Sawyer, Norman Cook, Trevor Horn, Neil Sedaka, Paul Morley, Rob Davies, Lavinia Greenlaw, Brian Wilson and Mike Love.


FRI 22:00 Ultimate Number Ones (b01nwfxv)
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UK chart, from the vaults of the BBC archive comes a selection of hits that attained the toppermost of the poppermost prize and made it to number one in the hit parade. From across the decades, we applaud the most coveted of all chart positions with smash hits and classics from The Bee Gees, T. Rex, Donna Summer, John Lennon, Culture Club, The Spice Girls, James Blunt, Rihanna, Adele and many more.


FRI 23:00 Love Me Do: The Beatles '62 (b01nfbt2)
On October 5th 1962 the Beatles released their first single, Love Me Do. It was a moment that changed music history and popular culture forever. It was also an extraordinary year in social and cultural history, not just for Liverpool but for the world, with the Cuban missile crisis, John Glenn in space and beer at a shilling a pint.

Stuart Maconie explores how the Beatles changed from leather and slicked back hair to suits and Beatle mops, and how their fashion set the pace for the sixties to follow. Pop artist Sir Peter Blake, Bob Harris and former Beatles drummer Pete Best join friends to reflect on how the Beatles evolved into John, Paul, George and Ringo - the most famous band in the world.


FRI 00:00 The Joy of the Single (b01nzchs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 01:00 Ultimate Number Ones (b01nwfxv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 02:00 Love Me Do: The Beatles '62 (b01nfbt2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]




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

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

America on a Plate: The Story of the Diner 23:00 THU (b017ss8x)

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner 21:00 WED (b01nz987)

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner 02:00 WED (b01nz987)

Britain on Film 20:30 TUE (b01nz93z)

Britain on Film 01:45 TUE (b01nz93z)

Britain's Best Drives 20:00 WED (b00jf4jn)

Britain's Best Drives 00:30 WED (b00jf4jn)

Calf's Head and Coffee: The Golden Age of English Food 21:00 MON (p00y4h9g)

Calf's Head and Coffee: The Golden Age of English Food 01:55 MON (p00y4h9g)

Calf's Head and Coffee: The Golden Age of English Food 22:00 THU (p00y4h9g)

Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury 20:00 TUE (b0110ghh)

Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury 01:15 TUE (b0110ghh)

Chateau Chunder: When Australian Wine Changed the World 23:00 SAT (b01nvwqp)

Choir of the Year 19:30 FRI (b01nzchq)

Duets at the BBC 01:30 SAT (b01c2xwt)

Frost on Satire 22:30 WED (b00srhgn)

Getting On 22:00 WED (b01nz989)

Getting On 01:30 WED (b01nz989)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 TUE (b00psx88)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 WED (b00psyq3)

Love Me Do: The Beatles '62 23:00 FRI (b01nfbt2)

Love Me Do: The Beatles '62 02:00 FRI (b01nfbt2)

Metalworks! 19:00 SAT (b01fhmhp)

Metalworks! 00:00 SAT (b01fhmhp)

Metalworks! 23:30 WED (b01fhmhp)

Michael Wood: The Story of India 20:00 SUN (b007zn52)

Michael Wood: The Story of India 23:50 SUN (b007zn52)

Nature's Microworlds 20:00 MON (b01lc6w5)

Nature's Microworlds 00:55 MON (b01lc6w5)

Only Connect 20:30 MON (b01nz909)

Only Connect 01:25 MON (b01nz909)

Pop Charts Britannia: 60 Years of the Top 10 00:50 SUN (b01nwfxs)

Rick Stein Tastes the Blues 22:00 TUE (b017758n)

Rick Stein Tastes the Blues 02:15 TUE (b017758n)

Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity 20:00 SAT (p00kjqch)

Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity 02:30 SAT (p00kjqch)

Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity 20:00 THU (p00kjqcv)

Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity 00:30 THU (p00kjqcv)

Sound It Out 02:20 SUN (b01nwfxx)

Storyville 21:00 SUN (b01nyz3p)

Storyville 22:00 MON (b00rhbcv)

Storyville 00:00 TUE (b01nyz3p)

Tales from the Wild Wood 20:30 WED (b01nz985)

Tales from the Wild Wood 01:00 WED (b01nz985)

Tales from the Wild Wood 00:00 THU (b01nz985)

The Joy of Stats 21:00 THU (b00wgq0l)

The Joy of Stats 02:00 THU (b00wgq0l)

The Joy of the Single 21:00 FRI (b01nzchs)

The Joy of the Single 00:00 FRI (b01nzchs)

The Killing 21:00 SAT (b01nzmzq)

The Killing 22:00 SAT (b01p1r5y)

The Killing 23:25 MON (b01nzmzq)

The Killing 23:00 TUE (b01p1r5y)

Timeshift 19:00 SUN (b00dzzdc)

Timothy Spall: All at Sea 19:30 MON (b01dc59m)

Timothy Spall: All at Sea 00:25 MON (b01dc59m)

Top of the Pops 01:00 SAT (b01nzcc9)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b01p2q00)

Top of the Pops 01:30 THU (b01p2q00)

Ultimate Number Ones 22:00 FRI (b01nwfxv)

Ultimate Number Ones 01:00 FRI (b01nwfxv)

Undertow 22:15 SUN (b01fkd79)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b01nywz4)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b01nywz9)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b01nywzn)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b01nywzt)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b01nywzz)