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 23 FEBRUARY 2013

SAT 19:00 Natural World (b0078gk1)
2002-2003

My Halcyon River

An idyllic portrait of a British river, chronicling the small dramas of the wildlife that lives in and around it. Otters hunt under the cover of darkness, mink lie in wait for unwary victims and kingfishers spear their prey, while newborn chicks learn to swim under the watchful eye of their parents.


SAT 19:50 Wild (b0078ssw)
2004-05 Shorts

Wild Summer River

A leisurely trip down the River Dart, through moor and heath into ancient oak woodland and back out onto open pasture. Dippers, herons, kingfishers, mallards and many other water birds can all be found on its water, along its banks live badgers and foxes, and above it soar buzzards and peregrine falcons.


SAT 20:00 Baroque! - From St Peter's to St Paul's (b00j8bwk)
Episode 2

Three-part series exploring the Baroque tradition in many of its key locations. Starting in Italy and following the spread of the wildfire across Europe and beyond, art critic Waldemar Januszczak takes us on a tour of the best examples of Baroque to be found, and tells the best stories behind those works.

He follows Baroque to its dark heart in Spain, focusing on the route of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela and featuring star painters Velasquez, Caravaggio and Zurburan. He then carries on through Belgium and Holland to discover such celebrities as Rubens and Vermeer.


SAT 21:00 Spiral (b01qytvt)
Series 4: State of Terror

Episode 5

The autopsy of the Kurd reveals a hidden clue which leads Herville to upgrade the case to the highest priority. Karlsson receives a visit from Special Branch, who attempt to blackmail her into providing information about Thomas Riffaut. Judge Roban continues to investigate the case against his colleague Garnier and finds that he has a very unlikely ally. Gilou is getting in deeper with the sinister Egyptian brothers.

In French with English subtitles.


SAT 21:50 Spiral (b01qytvw)
Series 4: State of Terror

Episode 6

At a top-level police meeting called when a youth is shot dead in a drive-by killing, Herville boasts that his unit is already investigating a gun-running case and will have arrests within 24 hours. Karlsson visits Riffaut's new hideout and overhears the gang planning a kidnapping. Clement is called to a judicial review with Jorkel and the wife of Jorkel's missing business partner. Berthaud asks Judge Roban to take on the gun-running case.

In French with English subtitles.


SAT 22:45 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.


SAT 23:45 Country at the BBC (b017zqwb)
Grab your partner by the hand - the BBC have raided their archive and brought to light glittering performances by country artists over the last four decades.

Star appearances include Tammy Wynette, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash and, of course, Dolly Parton. All the greats have performed for the BBC at some point - on entertainment shows, in concert and at the BBC studios. Some of the rhinestones revealed are Charley Pride's Crystal Chandeliers from the Lulu Show, Emmylou Harris singing Together Again on the Old Grey Whistle Test and Billie Jo Spears's Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad from the Val Doonican Music Show.

We're brought up to date with modern country hits by kd lang, Garth Brooks, Alison Krauss and Taylor Swift, plus a special unbroadcasted performance from Later...with Jools Holland by Willie Nelson.


SAT 01:15 Top of the Pops (b01qsrh8)
16/02/78

David 'Kid' Jensen introduces the weekly pop chart programme featuring performances from the Tom Robinson Band, Kate Bush, Elkie Brooks, Magazine, Darts, Billy Joel, Sweet, the Bee Gees, Abba and Legs & Co.


SAT 01:50 New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s (b0177bjb)
Prince: A Purple Reign

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

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

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


SAT 02:50 Baroque! - From St Peter's to St Paul's (b00j8bwk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2013

SUN 19:00 The Story of British Pathé (b0141mmz)
Entertaining Britain

While the company was famous for its pioneering news reports, it also produced immensely popular 'cinemagazines', which entertained cinemagoers for decades. Initially made to boost the nation's morale after the First World War, entertaining strands such as Pathe Pictorial and Eve's Film Review were designed to appeal to women who were interested in fashion, celebrities and movie stars - and offered plenty of handy hints for those running the home. In the 1930s, the arrival of synchronised sound increased the popularity of cinemagazines, and the company launched Pathetone Weekly - a strand that featured what Pathe believed were the 'novel, amusing and strange' dimensions of our national life.


SUN 20:00 Whaam! Roy Lichtenstein at Tate Modern (b01qyv6z)
Alastair Sooke takes us on an exclusive personal tour of the Roy Lichtenstein Retrospective at Tate Modern.

Together with fans, critics, artists and those who knew Lichtenstein, Alastair leads an entertaining and provocative discussion about the work and legacy of one of the most celebrated and instantly recognisable artists of the 20th century.
Renowned for his works based on comic strips and advertising imagery, Lichtenstein's chisel-jawed action men and love-lorn women made him the hero of the Pop Art movement.

When the pictures first appeared in the 1960s they caused a sensation - but also outrage and controversy, with many questioning whether his re-workings of other people's images could really be called art. As the exhibition reveals, however, there was more to Lichtenstein than simply the famous comic book images and also on display are many of his less familiar works - nudes, landscapes, sculpture and his own take on the work of modern art masters such as Picasso and Matisse.

Offering an in-depth look at one of the year's most talked about exhibitions, Alastair and guests explore the enduring appeal of Lichtenstein's imagery, debate the controversies around his work and his influence on today's generation of artists and tackle the big question - was Lichtenstein a Pop Art genius and one of the defining image-makers of the 20th century, or a one-trick wonder whose big idea was so powerful he could never let it go?


SUN 21:00 Madness in the Desert: Paris to Dakar (b01r1cnw)
Documentary telling the story of the world's craziest race.

In 1977, French motorcyclist Thierry Sabine was in serious trouble, lost in the Libyan desert and dying from thirst. Whilst most men would weep and think back over their lives, Thierry thought about coming back - to do a rally across the Sahara Desert. The 9,000km Paris-Dakar rally was born.

The rally became a beacon for eccentric adventurers battling the terrain in customised vehicles, seduced by the romance of the desert and the extreme challenge. It soon became a victim of its own rapid success. Caught up in controversy and with over 60 deaths, in 2008 this incredible event was brought to an end in Africa by terrorism.

Featuring winners Cyril Neveu, Hubert Auriol, Jean-Louis Schlesser, Ari Vatanen, Stephane Peterhansel, Martine de Cortanze, former participant Sir Mark Thatcher and many more, this is the story of the biggest motorsport event the world has ever seen and one of the greatest challenges of human endeavour ever conceived, told by those who took part.

How the west took on a landscape of incredible beauty and scale. And lost.


SUN 22:00 Timeshift (b01p2pm6)
Series 12

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting: The Rise of Martial Arts in Britain

Timeshift, the black belt of the archive world, takes a look at the rise of martial arts in Britain. From the early days of bartitsu, through judo and karate to kung fu, Britain has had a long and illustrious involvement with the martial arts. Gold medals have been won, Sherlock Holmes's life has been saved and aftershave has been worn - all thanks to the martial arts.


SUN 23:00 The Swing Thing (b00g3694)
Documentary telling the story of swing, an obscure form of jazz that became the first worldwide pop phenomenon, inspired the first ever youth culture revolution and became a byword for sexual liberation and teenage excess well before the Swinging Sixties.

In the process, swing threw up some of the greatest names in 20th century music, from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington to Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra. The film uses archive and contemporary accounts to shed light on why it endures today.


SUN 00:30 ... Sings the Great American Songbook (b00rs3w4)
Presenting the best and most eclectic performances on the BBC from the world's best-known artists performing their interpretations of classic tracks from The Great American Songbook.

In chronological order, this programme takes us through a myriad of BBC studio performances, from Dame Shirley Bassey in 1966 performing The Lady is A Tramp, to Bryan Ferry in 1974 on Twiggy's BBC primetime show performing Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, to Captain Sensible on Top of the Pops in 1982 with his number one hit version of Happy Talk, through to Kirsty MacColl singing Miss Otis Regrets in 1994 to Jamie Cullum with his version of I Get a Kick Out Of You on Parkinson in 2004 and bang up to date with Brit winner Florence from Florence and the Machine performing My Baby Just Cares for Me with Jools Holland on his Annual Hootenanny at the end of 2009.

The Great American Songbook can best be described as the music and popular songs of the famous and prolific American composers of the 1920s and onwards. Composers such as Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Hoagy Carmichael to name but a few... songwriters who wrote the tunes of Broadway theatre and Hollywood musicals that earned enduring popularity before the dawning of rock 'n' roll.

These famous songwriters have penned songs which have entered the general consciousness and which are now best described as standards - tunes which every musician and singer aspires to include in their repertoire.


SUN 01:30 Sounds of the 70s 2 (b01k68gc)
Punk - Anarchy on the BBC

The late 70s had parents from all over the UK fearing one particular four letter word... punk. With anarchy spreading across the nation, the BBC managed to capture and sometimes contain some of the chaotic energy of these iconic moments in its studios. This episode provides another chance to jump up and down on the couch and pogo to performances from the Stranglers, the Damned, the Sex Pistols, the Jam, Undertones, the Rezillos, Buzzcocks, the Clash, X-Ray Spex and Joy Division.


SUN 02:00 The Story of British Pathé (b0141mmz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 03:00 Whaam! Roy Lichtenstein at Tate Modern (b01qyv6z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



MONDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2013

MON 19:00 World News Today (b01qypjn)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00xxr3w)
Series 2

York to Saltaire

Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. He travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains, as his journey follows some of the earliest railways in the country from Newcastle to Melton Mowbray.

Michael takes a Turkish bath in the famous spa town of Harrogate, explores the exemplary Victorian village of Saltaire, and rubs noses with some friendly alpacas, whose fleeces made fortunes in Bradshaw's day.


MON 20:00 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.


MON 20:30 Britain on Film (b01nrmwp)
Series 1

A Woman's Place

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. The opening episode reveals how Look at Life reflected the radical shifts in the position of women in British society, and shows how the country adapted to the new demands and expectations of women at home and in the workplace and at play.


MON 21:00 Chivalry and Betrayal: The Hundred Years War (b01qyvbm)
Agents of God

Henry V has claimed the crown of France for his heirs, but to secure it the English must conquer all of France. Potent French resistance comes in the most unlikely form - an illiterate young peasant girl, Joan of Arc. Dr Janina Ramirez explores the longest and bloodiest divorce in history.


MON 22:00 Storyville (b01qyvbp)
I Will Be Murdered

Storyville: Documentary which chronicles an extraordinary story of murder, love and political conspiracy triggered when a video of a murdered Guatemalan lawyer surfaced on Youtube in which he foretold his own death and named the culprits.

In May 2009, wealthy, charismatic lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg went cycling near his home in Guatemala City and was murdered. In a country with one of the highest murder rates in the world, such killings were not uncommon. But what was extraordinary is that Rosenberg knew for certain that he was about to be killed.

Rosenberg's lover had been murdered a few weeks before, driving him to investigate a case which, he told friends, he feared would lead to his death. In a video he recorded days before he died, he accused the Guatemalan president of his murder. It became a Youtube sensation, prompting crowds to take to the street demanding the president's resignation. But the subsequent investigation into Rosenberg's death would take multiple twists and turns, before reaching a stunning revelation.


MON 23:25 Bullets, Boots and Bandages: How to Really Win at War (b01c301b)
Raising Arms

Military historian Saul David looks at how generals have struggled to kit out their armies for battle.


MON 00:25 Britain on Film (b01nrmwp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 00:55 Art of America (b017755r)
Looking for Paradise

In the first episode of a series exploring the history of American art, Andrew Graham-Dixon embarks on an epic journey from east to west, following in the footsteps of the pioneers who built the foundations of modern America.

During his journey, he travels to Massachusetts to see the earliest portraits in America depicting the Puritan settlers and visits Pennsylvania to uncover the dark truth behind Benjamin West's most famous painting, the spectacular Treaty of Penn with the Indians. In Philadelphia, he turns the pages of one of the world's most expensive books - John James Audubon's exquisite Birds of America, and explores the wilderness that inspired America's greatest landscape painter, Thomas Cole.

He also uncovers the paradox at the heart of America: that progress and innovation have come at a tragic price, the destruction of the unique cultural heritage of Native Americans by European settlers.

Andrew's journey takes us to the end of the 19th century and the announcement that the era of westward expansion was officially over.


MON 01:55 John Steinbeck: Voice of America (b017j50x)
Melvyn Bragg travels from Oklahoma to California to examine the enduring legacy of the Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck.

In novels such as The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men and Cannery Row, Steinbeck gave voice to ordinary people who were battling poverty, drought and homelessness. Travelling the famous Route 66 from the midwest to the Pacific coast, Melvyn assesses how relevant Steinbeck's work is today. He visits the site of the 1930s dust bowl in Oklahoma; the California orchards where bloody political battles were fought between migrant labourers and growers; and the Monterey coastline where Steinbeck developed his ideas on ecology.

Melvyn makes a case for Steinbeck as one of the great voices of American literature.


MON 03:00 Chivalry and Betrayal: The Hundred Years War (b01qyvbm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 26 FEBRUARY 2013

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b01qypjt)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00xxr4n)
Series 2

Batley to Sheffield

Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. He travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains, as his journey follows some of the earliest railways in the country from Newcastle to Melton Mowbray.

Michael finds out about shoddy, a successful 19th-century recycling industry in the textile town of Batley, discovers how the railways boosted Yorkshire's forced rhubarb trade and meets the great-great-granddaughter of George Bradshaw himself.


TUE 20:00 Horizon (b0148vph)
2011-2012

The Core

For centuries we have dreamt of reaching the centre of the Earth. Now scientists are uncovering a bizarre and alien world that lies 4,000 miles beneath our feet, unlike anything we know on the surface. It is a planet buried within the planet we know, where storms rage within a sea of white-hot metal and a giant forest of crystals make up a metal core the size of the moon.

Horizon follows scientists who are conducting experiments to recreate this core within their own laboratories, with surprising results.


TUE 21:00 The Sound and the Fury: A Century of Music (b01qyvd8)
Easy Listening?

The series concludes with the focus shifting to the United States in the post-war years of the 1950s and beyond. Beginning with arguably the most notorious work of 20th century classical music, John Cage's 'silent' composition 4'33", it looks at how a series of maverick Americans re-invented the sound of classical music into a more simple form, bringing back harmonies and rhythms that made it increasingly popular with audiences across the world. It also examines how this music found its way into a spiritual realm, with the strain of pared-down religious composition that came to be known as 'holy minimalism'.

From the Maverick concert hall in Woodstock, New York to an Orthodox cathedral in Estonia to a car park in Peckham, south London, the story is told by a stellar line-up of contributors including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, John Adams, Arvo Pärt and John Tavener.


TUE 22:00 Good Italy, Bad Italy: Girlfriend in a Coma (b01r1ctk)
With Italy going to the polls on 24th and 25th February, Bill Emmott, former editor of The Economist and a man with a special passion for Italy and Italians since his teenage years, asks where has Italy gone wrong and examines the good sides about Italy as well as the disasters.


TUE 23:30 Rick Stein's Taste of Italian Opera (b00sm1g0)
Chef Rick Stein takes a light-hearted look at the role that food played in the creation of Italian opera and shows how music and food are intrinsically linked in Italy. He draws parallels between cooking and composing, noting how both involve the skilful combination of ingredients and how they share the common purpose of bringing pleasure to many. Rick also explains why he thinks the music of Verdi, Rossini and Puccini are linked to the food of the regions where they lived and worked.


TUE 00:30 Bob Servant (b01qsr4g)
Independent

The Debate

Bob is in trouble and he knows it. A by-election debate, in front of a live audience, is his last chance for glory, but he's running unusually low on ideas. Can he pull himself together and win over the crowd ahead of election day?


TUE 01:00 Art of America (b017j25v)
Modern Dreams

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

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

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


TUE 02:00 America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine (b017svd6)
Life was an iconic weekly magazine that specialised in extraordinarily vivid photojournalism. Through its most dynamic decades, - the 40s, 50s and 60s - Life caught the spirit of America as it blossomed into a world superpower. Read by over half the country, its influence on American people was unparalleled. No other magazine in the world held the photograph in such high esteem. At Life the pictures, not the words, did the talking. As a result, the Life photographer was king.

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

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


TUE 03:00 The Sound and the Fury: A Century of Music (b01qyvd8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013

WED 19:00 World News Today (b01qypjz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00xy9vl)
Series 2

Langley Mill to Melton Mowbray

Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. He travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains, as his journey follows some of the earliest railways in the country from Newcastle to Melton Mowbray.

Michael learns the secrets of stilton cheese, finds out how trains transformed the traditional British sport of fox hunting and attempts to make an authentic Melton Mowbray pork pie.


WED 20:00 Sissinghurst (b00j6q8d)
Episode 6

Documentary series about the attempts of writer Adam Nicolson and his wife Sarah Raven to bring farming back into the heart of the estate and garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, their historic home which is owned by the National Trust and was moulded into its present form by Nicolson's grandmother Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson back in the 1930s.

It's May and Adam's quest to breathe new life into the Sissinghurst estate is gathering pace. The National Trust has appointed a farmer and there is good news from the vegetable plot as the first delivery of produce is ready for the restaurant. But Adam realises he has got to talk to the staff to try to ease rising tensions. He discovers he is not the only one to have a sense of belonging at Sissinghurst and begins to realise the impact the project will have on the staff on the ground. He changes his tune and starts to wonder whether he himself is becoming National Trust-ified.

Adam and Sarah take their bridge-building efforts a stage further as they lend a hand in the restaurant. Sarah's not sure about being sworn at by Steve the head chef, though.

Adam's research for his book takes him a step further in fathoming Vita and Harold's unusual relationship - in which both of them had numerous gay affairs and yet despite it all remained devoted to each other.

As mid-June and the glory of high summer arrives, it is time for the garden's star attraction to take centre stage: the White Garden comes into full bloom. This tiny garden area is now a design icon of international significance. Adam's sister Juliet reveals that there are now no fewer than 20 such White Gardens in Connecticut alone.


WED 20:30 Nature's Microworlds (b01qyvnh)
Australia's Red Centre

In Australia's red centre, Steve Backshall reveals two-metre-tall kangaroos, the world's most venomous snake and a burrowing toad living among the throng of animals. Parched by the sun, scorched by fire and prone to unpredictable floods, the heart of this island continent is as inhospitable as it gets. Poor soils make vegetation tough and indigestible even to Australia's largest herbivore, the red kangaroo. However, it teems with animals found nowhere else on Earth. The key to the success of this extraordinary place is as surprising as the creatures that make it home.


WED 21:00 Johnny Kingdom and the Bears of Alaska (b01qyvnk)
Johnny Kingdom, the wild man of Exmoor, is back and going further than he's ever been before - the trip of a lifetime to Kodiak Island in Alaska in search of brown bears.

As a lad, amateur wildlife filmmaker Johnny would poach salmon from the rivers on Exmoor with his bare hands, but his lifelong ambition has been to see how the real experts - brown bears - do it, as they fish for sockeye salmon in the remote rivers of Kodiak Island off the southwest coast of Alaska.

It is also the biggest challenge he has faced as an amateur cameraman. In characteristic style, Johnny finds himself struggling to keep his camera still without a tripod and because his hands are shaking so much when faced with a 'hooge' bear less than 30 metres away.

The other challenge he faces, which he cannot control, is the weather. In the summer, although the snow has melted this part of Alaska is plagued by heavy mists and fog, which makes the journey by seaplane to the remote areas where the bears live even harder to achieve.

Fortunately Johnny is able to take advantage of being grounded and heads out on a boat into the rich waters around Kodiak Island to film humpback whales, tufted puffins and an enchantingly close encounter with sea otters.

But it's the bears he's come for and Johnny finally gets the shots he wanted - bears catching salmon. He can hardly believe it.

This is Johnny Kingdom at his best - infectiously enthusiastic, madly exuberant and never less than hugely enjoyable.


WED 22:00 Bob Servant (b01qyvnm)
Independent

Election Day

A reinvigorated Bob and Frank embark on a final push for votes, but a confrontation with Bob's first ever boo boy leaves them on the run from the police. Bob keeps his head held high as they wait for the election results. Surely he can't win?


WED 22:30 ArtWorks Scotland (b01pkjmz)
Andy Stewart - The Man Behind the Kilt

Andy Stewart was one of Scotland's most successful entertainers, at home and abroad. He had hit records all over the world with songs such as Donald Where's Your Troosers and A Scottish Soldier and toured the globe long before it was the rock and roll thing to do. This ArtWorks Scotland documentary takes a nostalgic look at his life and work, from his early days as a serious actor and impressionist to his heyday fronting The White Heather Club. With contributions from Stanley Baxter, John Cairney, The Alexander Brothers, Sydney Devine and Andy's closest family, the film reveals another side to one of Scotland's best-loved icons.


WED 23:00 Michael Wood on Beowulf (b00kpv23)
Historian Michael Wood returns to his first great love, the Anglo-Saxon world, to reveal the origins of our literary heritage. Focusing on Beowulf and drawing on other Anglo-Saxon classics, he traces the birth of English poetry back to the Dark Ages.

Travelling across the British Isles from East Anglia to Scotland and with the help of Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney, actor Julian Glover, local historians and enthusiasts, he brings the story and language of this iconic poem to life.


WED 00:00 Baroque! - From St Peter's to St Paul's (b00j8bwk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday]


WED 01:00 Art of America (b017sryq)
What Lies Beneath

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

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

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

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


WED 02:00 Nature's Microworlds (b01qyvnh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 02:30 Bob Servant (b01qyvnm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


WED 03:00 Johnny Kingdom and the Bears of Alaska (b01qyvnk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2013

THU 19:00 World News Today (b01qypk4)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b01qyvrp)
02/03/78

Noel Edmonds introduces the weekly pop chart programme featuring performances from Darts, Kate Bush, Nick Lowe, Andy Williams, Samantha Sang, Rita Coolidge, the Tom Robinson Band, Abba and Legs & Co.


THU 20:00 Voyager: To the Final Frontier (b01nj48v)
This is the story of the most extraordinary journey in human exploration, the Voyager space mission. In 1977 two unmanned spacecraft were launched by NASA, heading for distant worlds. It would be the first time any man-made object would ever visit the farthest planets of the solar system - Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. On the way the Voyagers would be bombarded by space dust, fried by radiation and discover many of the remarkable wonders of the solar system.

Now, at the end of 2012, 35 years and 11 billion miles later, they are leaving the area of the sun's influence. As they journey out into the galaxy beyond they carry a message from Earth, a golden record bolted to the side of each craft describing our civilisation in case of discovery by another. This is the definitive account of the most intrepid explorers in Earth's history.


THU 21:00 The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (b010y7my)
The tale of an unlikely friendship between Bruno, the son of a Nazi commandant, and Shmuel, a Jewish boy held captive in a concentration camp. Though the two are separated physically by a barbed-wire fence, their friendship grows and their lives become inescapably intertwined.

Based on the best-selling book by John Boyne.


THU 22:30 Chivalry and Betrayal: The Hundred Years War (b01qyvbm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


THU 23:30 Britain's Most Fragile Treasure (b0161dgq)
Historian Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of a centuries-old masterpiece in glass. At 78 feet in height, the famous Great East Window at York Minster is the largest medieval stained-glass window in the country and the creative vision of a single artist, a mysterious master craftsman called John Thornton, one of the earliest named English artists.

The Great East Window has been called England's Sistine Chapel. Within its 311 stained-glass panels is the entire history of the world, from the first day to the Last Judgment, and yet it was made 100 years before Michelangelo's own masterpiece. The scale of Thornton's achievement is revealed as Dr Ramirez follows the work of a highly skilled conservation team at York Glaziers Trust. They dismantled the entire window as part of a five-year project to repair centuries of damage and restore it to its original glory.

It is a unique opportunity for Dr Ramirez to examine Thornton's greatest work at close quarters, to discover details that would normally be impossible to see and to reveal exactly how medieval artists made images of such delicacy and complexity using the simplest of tools.

The Great East Window of York Minster is far more than a work of artistic genius, it is a window into the medieval world and mind, telling us who we once were and who we still are, all preserved in the most fragile medium of all.


THU 00:30 The Sound and the Fury: A Century of Music (b01qyvd8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 01:30 Top of the Pops (b01qyvrp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 02:00 Rick Stein's Taste of Italian Opera (b00sm1g0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 on Tuesday]


THU 03:00 The Art of the Night (b018jl9c)
Painting at night is difficult and problematic, so why have so many great artists taken on the challenge? Waldemar Januszczak celebrates the nocturnal art of Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Velazquez, Hopper and Magritte as he explores art's edgy relationship with the night and tries to discover why the dark adds so much extra drama and mystery to art.



FRIDAY 01 MARCH 2013

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b01qypk9)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Barenboim and Boulez at the Proms (b01qzjdh)
A highlight of the BBC Proms 2012 were the five concerts given by conductor Daniel Barenboim with his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Alongside performances of all Beethoven's nine symphonies, Barenboim programmed music by another great giant of musical modernism, French composer Pierre Boulez. This programme brings together the Proms performances of four of these Boulez works, all written in the last quarter of the 20th century - Messagesquisse, Dialogue de l'ombre double, Mémoriale and Anthèmes. With members of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, and introduced by Tom Service.


FRI 20:40 Pop Go the Sixties (b00rgd4h)
Series 1

The Kinks, the Shadows, the Tremeloes, the Who

More pop moments from the BBC's 60s archive, featuring the Who, the Kinks, the Shadows and the Tremeloes.


FRI 20:55 Pop Go the Sixties (b00cvzhf)
Series 2

Dusty Springfield

A colourful nugget of pop mined from the BBC's archive. From her own series recorded in 1967, Dusty Springfield performs the Bobby Hebb classic, Sunny, which had been a hit in the UK for Cher and Georgie Fame.


FRI 21:00 Dusty Springfield at the BBC (b01qyvw7)
A selection of Dusty Springfield's performances at the BBC from 1961 to 1995. Dusty was one of Britain's great pop divas, guaranteed to give us a big melody in songs soaring with drama and yearning.

The clips show Dusty's versatility as an artist and performer and include songs from her folk beginnings with The Springfields; the melodrama of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me; Dusty's homage to Motown with Heatwave and Nowhere to Run; the Jacques Brel song If You Go Away; the Bacharach and David tune The Look of Love; and Dusty's collaboration with Pet Shop Boys in the late 1980s.

There are also some great duets from Dusty's career with Tom Jones and Mel Torme.


FRI 22:00 Definitely Dusty (b00780bt)
Documentary looking at the life and work of soul and pop diva Dusty Springfield, singer of such classics as You Don't Have to Say You Love Me and Son of a Preacher Man, who was equally famous for her trademark panda eyes and blonde beehive.

Using archive footage and interviews shot in the UK and the US, it charts her progress from plain Catholic schoolgirl to glamorous star and ventures behind the extravagant image to reveal a complex and vulnerable character.

Featuring interviews with fellow musicians from a career spanning four decades, including Elton John, Burt Bacharach, Neil Tennant, Lulu and Martha Reeves.

Dusty's protective inner circle of friends have never spoken about her on camera before. Pat Rhodes, Dusty's personal secretary for her entire solo career, her manager Vicky Wickham, ardent fan-turned-backing singer Simon Bell and others talk about the highs and lows of the woman they knew and loved.


FRI 23:00 Dusty (b01r1zmr)
Vintage episode of Dusty Springfield's 1960s TV series, featuring special guest Scott Walker. Among the highlights, Dusty sings You Don't Have to Say You Love Me.


FRI 23:25 Classic Soul at the BBC (b0074pvv)
A collection of some of the greatest soul performances from the BBC's archive, featuring Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Dusty Springfield, Isaac Hayes, Solomon Burke and Percy Sledge.


FRI 00:25 Steve Winwood: English Soul (b00srj7k)
From childhood prodigy to veteran master, Birmingham-born Steve Winwood's extraordinary career is like a map of the major changes in British rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues from the 1960s to the present. This in-depth profile traces that journey and reveals a master musician blending Ray Charles and English hymnody into a unique brand of English soul.

From the blues-boom-meets-beat-group chart hits of the Spencer Davis Group, through the psychedelic pop of early Traffic and into Berkshire as Traffic become the first band to 'get their heads together in a country cottage', then via a brief sojourn in supergroup Blind Faith and back to Traffic as a jam band who conquer the emerging American rock scene, Winwood's first ten years on the boards were extraordinary.

As the 80s dawned he reinvented himself as a solo artist and became a major star in the US with hits like Higher Love and Back in the High Life. These days he's back in arenas, touring with old friend Eric Clapton.

Paul Bernay's film blends extensive interviews with Winwood in his Gloucestershire home and film of Winwood's first return to that Berkshire cottage since 1969 with rare archive footage and contributing interviews with Eric Clapton, Paul Rodgers, Paul Jones, Paul Weller, Muff Winwood, Dave Mason and more.


FRI 01:25 Dusty Springfield at the BBC (b01qyvw7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:25 Definitely Dusty (b00780bt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 03:25 Dusty (b01r1zmr)
[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)

... Sings the Great American Songbook 00:30 SUN (b00rs3w4)

America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine 02:00 TUE (b017svd6)

Art of America 00:55 MON (b017755r)

Art of America 01:00 TUE (b017j25v)

Art of America 01:00 WED (b017sryq)

ArtWorks Scotland 22:30 WED (b01pkjmz)

Barenboim and Boulez at the Proms 19:30 FRI (b01qzjdh)

Baroque! - From St Peter's to St Paul's 20:00 SAT (b00j8bwk)

Baroque! - From St Peter's to St Paul's 02:50 SAT (b00j8bwk)

Baroque! - From St Peter's to St Paul's 00:00 WED (b00j8bwk)

Bob Servant 00:30 TUE (b01qsr4g)

Bob Servant 22:00 WED (b01qyvnm)

Bob Servant 02:30 WED (b01qyvnm)

Britain on Film 20:30 MON (b01nrmwp)

Britain on Film 00:25 MON (b01nrmwp)

Britain's Most Fragile Treasure 23:30 THU (b0161dgq)

Bullets, Boots and Bandages: How to Really Win at War 23:25 MON (b01c301b)

Chivalry and Betrayal: The Hundred Years War 21:00 MON (b01qyvbm)

Chivalry and Betrayal: The Hundred Years War 03:00 MON (b01qyvbm)

Chivalry and Betrayal: The Hundred Years War 22:30 THU (b01qyvbm)

Classic Soul at the BBC 23:25 FRI (b0074pvv)

Country at the BBC 23:45 SAT (b017zqwb)

Decisive Weapons 20:00 MON (b0077c0f)

Definitely Dusty 22:00 FRI (b00780bt)

Definitely Dusty 02:25 FRI (b00780bt)

Dusty Springfield at the BBC 21:00 FRI (b01qyvw7)

Dusty Springfield at the BBC 01:25 FRI (b01qyvw7)

Dusty 23:00 FRI (b01r1zmr)

Dusty 03:25 FRI (b01r1zmr)

Good Italy, Bad Italy: Girlfriend in a Coma 22:00 TUE (b01r1ctk)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 MON (b00xxr3w)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 TUE (b00xxr4n)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 WED (b00xy9vl)

Horizon 20:00 TUE (b0148vph)

John Steinbeck: Voice of America 01:55 MON (b017j50x)

Johnny Kingdom and the Bears of Alaska 21:00 WED (b01qyvnk)

Johnny Kingdom and the Bears of Alaska 03:00 WED (b01qyvnk)

Madness in the Desert: Paris to Dakar 21:00 SUN (b01r1cnw)

Michael Wood on Beowulf 23:00 WED (b00kpv23)

Natural World 19:00 SAT (b0078gk1)

Nature's Microworlds 20:30 WED (b01qyvnh)

Nature's Microworlds 02:00 WED (b01qyvnh)

New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s 01:50 SAT (b0177bjb)

Pop Go the Sixties 20:40 FRI (b00rgd4h)

Pop Go the Sixties 20:55 FRI (b00cvzhf)

Rick Stein's Taste of Italian Opera 23:30 TUE (b00sm1g0)

Rick Stein's Taste of Italian Opera 02:00 THU (b00sm1g0)

Sissinghurst 20:00 WED (b00j6q8d)

Sounds of the 70s 2 01:30 SUN (b01k68gc)

Spiral 21:00 SAT (b01qytvt)

Spiral 21:50 SAT (b01qytvw)

Steve Winwood: English Soul 00:25 FRI (b00srj7k)

Storyville 22:00 MON (b01qyvbp)

The Art of the Night 03:00 THU (b018jl9c)

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 21:00 THU (b010y7my)

The Joy of the Single 22:45 SAT (b01nzchs)

The Sound and the Fury: A Century of Music 21:00 TUE (b01qyvd8)

The Sound and the Fury: A Century of Music 03:00 TUE (b01qyvd8)

The Sound and the Fury: A Century of Music 00:30 THU (b01qyvd8)

The Story of British Pathé 19:00 SUN (b0141mmz)

The Story of British Pathé 02:00 SUN (b0141mmz)

The Swing Thing 23:00 SUN (b00g3694)

Timeshift 22:00 SUN (b01p2pm6)

Top of the Pops 01:15 SAT (b01qsrh8)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b01qyvrp)

Top of the Pops 01:30 THU (b01qyvrp)

Voyager: To the Final Frontier 20:00 THU (b01nj48v)

Whaam! Roy Lichtenstein at Tate Modern 20:00 SUN (b01qyv6z)

Whaam! Roy Lichtenstein at Tate Modern 03:00 SUN (b01qyv6z)

Wild 19:50 SAT (b0078ssw)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b01qypjn)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b01qypjt)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b01qypjz)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b01qypk4)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b01qypk9)