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 26 OCTOBER 2013

SAT 19:00 Africa (b01qmbqn)
The Future

David Attenborough comes face to face with a baby rhino and asks what the future holds for this little one. He meets the local people who are standing side by side with the wildlife at this pivotal moment in their history.

We discover what it takes to save a species, hold back a desert and even resurrect an entire wilderness - revealing what the world was like before modern man.


SAT 20:00 Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited (b01s74g9)
Pagans of Roman Britain

Series in which archaeologist Julian Richards returns to some of his most important digs to discover how science, conservation and new finds have changed our understanding of entire eras of ancient history.

Julian goes back to the excavation of two burials from Roman Britain - a wealthy man from Roman Winchester and a lavishly appointed grave of a woman from the heart of London that holds a special and unexpected secret only recently unlocked.


SAT 21:00 Inspector Montalbano (b03fv4sv)
Hall of Mirrors

A bomb goes off outside an empty store-room in a quiet Vigata street. Montalbano commences his investigation, but is soon disorientated by a series of disparate events, including the acquaintance of an attractive and mysterious woman

In Italian with English subtitles.


SAT 22:55 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.


SAT 00:25 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.


SAT 01:25 Top of the Pops (b03f4qgp)
David Jensen presents a weekly look at pop charts featuring the Buzzcocks, Elton John, Showaddywaddy, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Heatwave, Blondie, Dean Friedman, Streetband, Queen, Child and the Boomtown Rats.


SAT 01:00 Africa (b01qmbqn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 02:00 Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited (b01s74g9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 27 OCTOBER 2013

SUN 19:00 Unnatural Histories (b011s4k0)
Serengeti

More than anywhere, the Serengeti is synonymous with wilderness and has even come to represent Africa. But the story of the Serengeti is just as much about humans as it is about wildlife. Right from the origin of our species in Africa, humans have been profoundly shaping this unique wilderness - hunters and pastoralists with cattle and fire, ivory traders and big game hunters, conservationists, scientists, film-makers and even tourists have all played a part in shaping the Serengeti.

Probably most powerful of all was a tiny microbe unknowingly brought to Africa by a small Italian expeditionary force - Rinderpest, a deadly virus that swept through the continent decimating cattle and wildlife alike and forever changing the face of the wild. The Serengeti is far from timeless, it is forever changing - and wherever there is change, the influence of Homo sapiens is not far behind.


SUN 20:00 Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain (p01cyrf9)
Glass Houses

Using her investigative skills to uncover long-forgotten and abandoned plans, architectural investigator Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner explores the fascinating and dramatic stories behind some of the grandest designs that were never built.

Technology has always been a driving force behind new ideas. Olivia explores how architects and designers have been inspired by the exciting possibilities presented by new technology to produce groundbreaking and controversial urban plans.

In 1855, visionary designer Sir Joseph Paxton proposed an ambitious plan to build a fantastic, futuristic ten-mile glass girdle circling the centre of London. It had only recently become possible to produce large sheets of cheap but strong plate glass and Paxton was inspired by its potential. With this exciting new technology at his fingertips, Paxton believed he could create a bright and pollution-free environment for Londoners as well as solve the capital's terrible congestion problems.

His spectacular glass 'Great Victorian Way' would connect the city to the West End, link rich and poor areas and cross the Thames three times. Contained in this magnificent glass structure were shops, houses, hotels, a pedestrian walkway, a road for carriages and eight lines of elevated pneumatic railway.

There was huge support for Paxton's scheme and Parliament passed a bill sanctioning construction, but the Great Victorian Way was never built. The 'Great Stink' took hold of London in 1858, spreading a cholera epidemic and so sanitation became the city's most pressing priority. Instead of creating a spectacular crystal boulevard the money was spent on a very different type of technology - the building of London's sewerage system.

A century later, London's congestion problems remained unsolved with the motor car having taken over roads designed for horse and carriage. In 1961, the architect Geoffrey Jellicoe proposed a solution directly inspired by Joseph Paxton's use of glass, in his radical new urban scheme for the green belt around London. Jellicoe took Paxton's idea of transforming the transport infrastructure even further, proposing a 'glass city' in which all cars would drive along rooftops, freeing the ground below for pedestrians.

With both these groundbreaking designs, Paxton and Jellicoe were seeking to harness technology to create bright and light cities, free of pollution and congestion, and utilising the most progressive forms of transport of the day.

Contributors include: Brett Steele, Eric Kuhne, Kate Colquhoun, Isobel Armstrong, Theodora Wayte, Lord Norman Foster, Charlie Burke, David Martlew, John Minnis, Hal Moggridge, Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe and Kathryn Moore.


SUN 21:00 The Golden Age of Steam Railways (b01p8w38)
Small Is Beautiful

Two-part documentary telling the remarkable story of a band of visionaries who rescued some of the little narrow gauge railways that once served Britain's industries. These small railways and the steam engines that ran on them were once the driving force of Britain's mines, quarries, factories and docks. Then, as they disappeared after 1945, volunteers set to work to bring the lines and the steam engines back to life and started a movement which spread throughout the world. Their home movies tell the story of how they helped millions reconnect with a past they thought had gone forever.


SUN 22:00 The Golden Age of Steam Railways (b01pdsy6)
Branching Out

For more than 100 years steam trains ran Britain, but when steam started to disappear in the 1950s bands of volunteers got together to save some of the tracks and the steam engines that ran on them. Some of these enthusiasts filmed their exploits and the home movies they shot tell the story of how they did it, and how they helped people to reconnect to a world of steam most thought had been lost forever.


SUN 23:00 Medieval Lives: Birth, Marriage, Death (b03f4l0j)
A Good Death

Most of the time we try not to think about death, but the people of the Middle Ages didn't have that luxury. Death was always close at hand, for young and old, rich and poor - even before the horrors of the Black Death, which killed millions in a few short months.

However, for the people of the Middle Ages death wasn't an end but a doorway to everlasting life. The Church taught that an eternity spent in heaven or hell was much more important than this life's fleeting achievements and there was much you could do to prepare for the next life in this one.

As historian Helen Castor reveals, how to be remembered - and remembering your loved ones - shaped not only the worship of the people of the Middle Ages but the very buildings and funding of the medieval Church itself.


SUN 00:00 Arena (b03f4qgr)
Arena: The National Theatre

Part One - The Dream

The National Theatre is 50 in October 2013 and has given the BBC unprecedented access to make two Arena documentaries for BBC Four.

The films ask why it took until 1963 to create a National Theatre, and Dame Joan Plowright talks frankly to director Adam Low about the appointment of her husband Laurence Olivier, the greatest actor of his generation, as the National's first artistic director. The films uncover the life of the Theatre's early golden period at the Old Vic, the National's first home, under the towering presence of Olivier; the commissioning and construction of the controversial and now iconic Denys Lasdun building on the South Bank; and the turbulent succession of Peter Hall at the end of Olivier's reign.

Through the personal anecdotes of those who wrote, directed and performed on the National's many stages the films reveal the stories behind the greatest hit productions, from Olivier's Othello to War Horse, under artistic directors Peter Hall, Richard Eyre, Trevor Nunn and up to and including the latest great successes under Nicholas Hytner. Other contributors include Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi, Alan Bennett, Judi Dench, Francis de la Tour, David Hare, Alan Ayckbourn and Adrian Lester.


SUN 01:00 The Who: The Making of Tommy (b03f7z78)
1968 was a time of soul-searching for the Who - with three badly performing singles behind them, they needed a big new idea to put them back at the top and, crucially, to hold them together as a band. Inspired by Indian spiritual master Meher Baba, Pete Townshend created the character of Tommy, the 'deaf, dumb and blind boy'. Broke and fragmenting when they started recording, the album went on to sell over 20 million copies. In this film, the Who speak for the first time about the making of the iconic album and how its success changed their lives.


SUN 02:00 Quadrophenia: Can You See the Real Me? (b01k83bl)
In his home studio and revisiting old haunts in Shepherd's Bush and Battersea, Pete Townshend opens his heart and his personal archive to revisit 'the last great album the Who ever made', one that took the Who full circle back to their earliest days via the adventures of a pill-popping mod on an epic journey of self-discovery.

But in 1973 Quadrophenia was an album that almost never was. Beset by money problems, a studio in construction, heroin-taking managers, a lunatic drummer and a culture of heavy drinking, Townshend took on an album that nearly broke him and one that within a year the band had turned their back on and would ignore for nearly three decades.

With unseen archive and in-depth interviews from Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Keith Moon, John Entwistle and those in the studio and behind the lens who made the album and 30 page photo booklet.

Contributors include Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Ethan Russell, Ron Nevison, Richard Barnes, Irish Jack Lyons, Bill Curbishley, John Woolf, Howie Edelson, Mark Kermode and Georgiana Steele Waller.



MONDAY 28 OCTOBER 2013

MON 19:00 World News Today (b03ft92f)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b0196y72)
Series 3

Great Yarmouth to Beccles

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

Following the route of the Great Eastern Line, which ventures from the edge of England to the centre of the country's financial capital, London, Michael discovers the grave robbing history of Great Yarmouth, tries his hand at working a Victorian swing bridge in Reedham and takes to the air to discover how a Victorian rail guidebook helped aviators in the Second World War.


MON 20:00 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (b0077l8q)
Series 2

One for the Road

Vintage sitcom. According to Bob and Shakespeare, 'wine is a gentle stimulant and good companion' and so is Terry on the night Bob gets breathalysed.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b03fv7sj)
Series 8

Press Gang v Science Editors

Two teams who lost their first heats return for another chance at making the semi-finals, competing to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random. So join Victoria Coren Mitchell if you want to know what connects frozen mashed potato, omelette pans, vegetable bouillon powder and cranberries.


MON 21:00 Timeshift (b03fv7sl)
Series 13

Full Throttle: The Glory Days of British Motorbikes

Timeshift returns with an exploration of the British love of fast, daring and sometimes reckless motorbike riding during a period when home-grown machines were the envy of the world. From TE Lawrence in the 1920 to the 'ton-up boys' and rockers of the 1950s, motorbikes represented unparalleled style and excitement, as British riders indulged their passion for brands like Brough Superior, Norton and Triumph.

But it wasn't all thrills and spills - the motorbike played a key role during World War II and it was army surplus bikes that introduced many to the joy and freedom of motorcycling in the 50s, a period now regarded as a golden age. With its obsession with speed and the rocker lifestyle, it attracted more than its fair share of social disapproval and conflict.

Narrated by John Hannah.


MON 22:00 How the North West Was Won (b0116syb)
The history of the North West 200 motorcycle race from its beginnings in the 1920s to the present day. A wealth of archive pictures and film tell the story, and individual race stories of the North West are set in the social history of the time.


MON 22:40 Africa (b01qmbqn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


MON 23:40 Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited (b01s74g9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday]


MON 00:40 Only Connect (b03fv7sj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 01:10 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (b0077l8q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 01:40 Great British Railway Journeys (b0196y72)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:10 Britain on Film (b01qnnqp)
Series 1

Country Living

The series looking at the culture, economics and society of 1960s Britain turns its attention to one of our great national treasures - the countryside. Drawing on the archive of high-quality colour films produced by the country's biggest cinema company, the Rank Organisation, this film shows how new technologies and production methods were changing the face of agriculture and records how country life was adapting to the new economic and moral realities of a fast-changing nation.


MON 02:40 Timeshift (b03fv7sl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 29 OCTOBER 2013

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b03ft92s)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b0196y9g)
Series 3

Darsham to Felixstowe

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

Travelling along the route of the Great Eastern Line, which ventures from the edge of England to the centre of the country's financial capital, London, Michael follows the Victorians' fascination with Britain's own Atlantis to the lost city of Dunwich, meets some gentle giants who were crucial to the smooth running of the railways and discovers how the Port of Felixstowe grew into the biggest container port in the land.


TUE 20:00 Lost Cities of the Ancients (b00792tn)
The Vanished Capital of the Pharoah

This episode looks at the legendary lost city of Piramesse. This magnificent ancient capital was built 3,000 years ago by the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses the Great, but long ago the whole city disappeared. When it was rediscovered by early archaeologists, it opened up a bizarre puzzle - when Piramesse was finally found it was in the wrong place, somewhere Ramesses the Great could not possibly have built it.

Recreating the stories of both the early archaeologists and the ancient Egyptians, the film enters a lost world, recounting the strange tale of the quest for Piramesse and following the intriguing detective work of modern archaeologists Manfred Bietak and Edgar Pusch as they solve the baffling mystery of how this great lost city could vanish, only to reappear thousands of years later in the wrong place.


TUE 21:00 Disowned and Disabled (b03fvc2g)
Nowhere Else to Go

Sixty years ago, the care of children who were orphaned or abandoned by their parents was based on the Victorian poor laws. Most disowned kids were sent to orphanages, huge institutions run with strict discipline and little love. Others were sent away to former colonies or farmed out to unregulated foster carers where their care was hit-or-miss. Single mothers were forced to give up their babies for adoption. Some unwanted children found loving homes, while others experienced hardship and bullying - or worse.

However, all that was set to change. After the Second World War a devastating national scandal, coupled with the rise of the welfare state, led to a new commitment to put the interests of the child first. Many orphanages were closed, foster care was regulated and child welfare services were improved.

But, as this documentary shows through searing interviews and case studies, it's clear that the process of change was fraught with difficulty and disaster. Despite the best efforts of social workers the difficulty of caring for children without parents grew. Although care homes closed, many of those that remained were in meltdown as their staff grappled with the troubled teenagers in their charge. Shocking methods ensued such as isolation, lock-up and even drugs, as the staff struggled to stay in control. And child abuse came into the public consciousness when it emerged that returning children at risk to their birth parents could lead to disaster.

This film follows the stories of several individuals who experienced the care system after the war. It shows how, despite many scandals and much suffering, putting children first has become a trusted guiding principle in solving one of society's greatest challenges: how to care for those without loving parents.


TUE 22:00 Mini: A Life Revisited (b03fvc2j)
First broadcast in 1975, this provocative documentary about an 11-year-old serial arsonist shocked millions across the UK. Michael 'Mini' Cooper had already torched a church and set his family home ablaze with his violent father asleep upstairs. The film follows the angelic looking 'Mini' over a gruelling three-week period in a young offenders home in County Durham, as social workers and psychiatrists quiz and probe the charismatic and intelligent tearaway as they determine his future.

Franc Roddam's film has a simplicity and directness that captivates whilst never shying away from the seriousness of the situation. Roddam would go onto find fame in Hollywood, but nearly 40 years on remains close friends with Cooper, who has spent most of his life in and out of jail, care, mental health units and halfway houses.

Cooper has channelled his experiences into a revealing new book 'Mini and Me' and the programme also sees both Franc Roddam and Mini Cooper in conversation with Alan Yentob.


TUE 23:00 The Golden Age of Steam Railways (b01p8w38)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


TUE 00:00 The Golden Age of Steam Railways (b01pdsy6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]


TUE 01:00 Lost Cities of the Ancients (b00792tn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 02:00 Great British Railway Journeys (b0196y9g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 02:30 Disowned and Disabled (b03fvc2g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 30 OCTOBER 2013

WED 19:00 World News Today (b03ft92y)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b0196ybz)
Series 3

Sudbury to Southend

Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. Portillo travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us and what remains of Bradshaw's Britain.

Following the route of the Great Eastern Line, Michael comes face to face with a medieval politician, takes a rail tour of Victorian freak show hot spots, and visits Southend to ride one of the world's first electric railways.


WED 20:00 Nelson's Caribbean Hell-hole: An Eighteenth Century Navy Graveyard Uncovered (b01s6gjx)
Human bones found on an idyllic beach in Antigua trigger an investigation by naval historian Sam Willis into one of the darkest chapters of Britain's imperial past. As archaeologists excavate a mass grave of British sailors, Willis explores Antigua's ruins and discovers how the sugar islands of the Caribbean were a kind of hell in the age of Nelson.

Sun, sea, war, tropical diseases and poisoned rum.


WED 21:00 Disowned and Disabled (b03glsm1)
Breaking Free

In the summer of 2012, the Paralympic Games became one of the most watched sporting events in recent times. But just 60 years ago, disability was considered a shameful tragedy, to be hidden away and forgotten.

Part two of the series tells the largely unknown story of disabled people's battle for equality in the decades following the Second World War. It was a battle led by people who as children had found themselves rejected by society; stigmatised and traumatised by years of patronising care and forced segregation.

Before the 1940s, society had always assumed that children with physical and learning disabilities would not amount to anything. Care for physically disabled children was largely based on trying to make them appear 'normal'; children with learning disabilities were often housed in institutions for 'idiots' and 'imbeciles', and received little to no education.

In the late 1960s, the first generation of post-war disabled children came of age. Inspired by the Civil Rights Movement and the sixties spirit of liberalization, disabled young people founded a new movement to fight for equal rights. Over the next two decades, the Disabled Peoples Movement grew in strength, putting increasing pressure on the government to improve the lives of disabled people and to end the discrimination many continued to experience.

Change was slow to come, but in the 80s and 90s a huge shift in policy and attitudes began to take place. This had a profound effect on the lives of future generations of disabled children, an effect which continues to be felt to this day. Using the powerful stories of individuals such as Kevin Donnellon and Anne Rae, who tell the moving and uplifting stories of their lives and how they fought for change, this film sheds light on the often harsh reality faced by disabled children in the late 20th century. It is also a story of empowerment about how one of the most vulnerable groups in society fought to be accepted, to make themselves heard and finally gain control of their lives - control which they had been denied for many years.


WED 22:00 The Dark Matter of Love (b03fvd0h)
Can love be learned? That is one question at the heart of this complex story of Masha, an 11-year-old Russian girl learning to love her adoptive American family - through science.

Former Disney employees Claudio and Cheryl Diaz live in a Wisconsin suburb with their biological daughter Cami. Masha isn't the only Russian child joining the Diaz family - they are also adopting twin five-year-old boys Marcel and Vadim. Nothing can prepare the Diaz's for what is to come.

When the reality of bonding with children who have grown up in institutions hits, the Diazes turn to Dr Robert Marvin, a developmental psychologist who has spent a lifetime creating a program that draws on the past 100 years of scientific discoveries into love. His framework draws on experiments on monkeys, birds and human children. Rare footage of these extraordinary experiments is woven through the story of Masha, Marcel and Vadim learning to love for the very first time.

Director Sarah McCarthy follows the Diaz family for the first year of their new family dynamic. The ability of both parents and children to adapt over a year is extraordinary to witness in compressed time. They are a testament to the mix of perseverance, improvisation and blind faith required for parenting.

The Dark Matter of Love shows we all have a lot to learn.


WED 23:00 The Somme: Secret Tunnel Wars (b01skvnh)
Beneath the Somme battlefield lies one of the great secrets of the First World War, a recently-discovered network of deep tunnels thought to extend over several kilometres. This lost underground battlefield, centred on the small French village of La Boisselle in Picardy, was constructed largely by British troops between 1914 and 1916. Over 120 men died here in ongoing attempts to undermine the nearby German lines and these galleries still serve as a tomb for many of those men.

This documentary follows historian Peter Barton and a team of archaeologists as they become the first people in nearly a hundred years to enter this hidden, and still dangerous, labyrinth.

Military mines were the original weapons of shock and awe - with nowhere to hide from a mine explosion, these huge explosive charges could destroy a heavily-fortified trench in an instant. In order to get under the German lines to plant their mines, British tunnellers had to play a terrifying game of subterranean cat and mouse - constantly listening out for enemy digging and trying to intercept the German tunnels without being detected. To lose this game probably meant death.

As well uncovering the grim reality of this strange underground war, Peter discovers the story of the men who served here, including the tunnelling companies' special military units made up of ordinary civillian sewer workers and miners. He reveals their top secret mission that launched the Battle of the Somme's first day and discovers why British high command failed to capitalise on a crucial tactical advantage they had been given by the tunnellers.


WED 00:00 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.


WED 01:00 Nelson's Caribbean Hell-hole: An Eighteenth Century Navy Graveyard Uncovered (b01s6gjx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:00 Great British Railway Journeys (b0196ybz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 02:30 Disowned and Disabled (b03glsm1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 31 OCTOBER 2013

THU 19:00 World News Today (b03ft935)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b03fvds7)
Mike Read presents the weekly look at the 1978 pop charts, with Racey, Olivia Newton-John, Elkie Brooks, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Sarah Brightman & Hot Gossip, David Essex, the Boomtown Rats and dance sequences by Legs & Co.


THU 20:00 Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures (b01b4wmr)
The Great Dying

It is estimated that 99 per cent of species have become extinct, and there have been times when life's hold on earth has been so precarious it has seemed to hang on by a thread.

This series focuses on the survivors, the old-timers whose biographies stretch back millions of years, and who show how it is possible to survive a mass extinction event which wipes out nearly all of their neighbours. The Natural History Museum's Professor Richard Fortey discovers what allows the very few to carry on going - perhaps not forever, but certainly far beyond the life expectancy of normal species. What makes a survivor when all around drop like flies?

In the opening episode, Professor Fortey focuses on 'the great dying' - a series of cataclysms over a million-year period 250 million years ago.


THU 21:00 Arena (b03fvds9)
Arena: The National Theatre

Part Two - War and Peace

The National Theatre is 50 in October 2013 and has given the BBC unprecedented access to make two Arena documentaries for BBC Four.

In the second film Peter Hall, Richard Eyre, Trevor Nunn and Nicholas Hytner talk about running the new National Theatre - the biggest job in the British theatre - from its opening by the Queen in 1976 through the strikes which nearly forced it to close in the 1970s, clashes with the government, the controversy of the play Romans in Britain, to the fulfilment of Olivier's original dream with the huge success of shows like Amadeus, Guys and Dolls, War Horse and One Man Two Guvnors.

With contributions from Ian McKellen, Judi Dench, James Corden and many others.


THU 22:30 Timeshift (b03fv7sl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


THU 23:30 How the North West Was Won (b0116syb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]


THU 00:10 Top of the Pops (b03fvds7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 00:50 Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures (b01b4wmr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 01:50 Britain on Film (b01q6pzr)
Series 1

War and Peace

Throughout the 1960s, the Rank Organisation produced hundreds of short, quirky documentaries that examined all aspects of life in Britain. Shot on high-quality colour film stock, they were screened in cinemas, but until now very little of the footage has been shown on television. This series draws on this unique archive to offer illuminating and often surprising insights into a pivotal decade in modern British history.

This episode examines Look at Life's coverage of what was the most important political conflict of the era - the Cold War. With international tensions rising, the series recorded the enormous anti-nuclear protests in London; the experiences of British forces stationed in Berlin; and visited Eastern Europe, to observe everyday life for the people living behind the Iron Curtain.


THU 02:20 Arena (b03fvds9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 01 NOVEMBER 2013

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b03ft93b)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Symphony (b01778mc)
New Nations and New Worlds

Simon Russell Beale continues his history of the symphony by taking a musical journey through the rise of nationalism in Europe into the New World. He discovers how nationalist voices such as Tchaikovsky, Dvorak and Sibelius brought the symphony to wider audiences and visits Dvorak's summer house as he left it at his death in 1904, a remarkable insight into the personal life of the great composer.

Simon follows the development of the symphony outside Europe and explores how growing urbanisation led to the construction and growing popularity of some of the world's greatest concert halls, visiting the Musikverein in Vienna, the Philharmonic Hall in St Petersburg and Carnegie Hall in New York.

The symphonies are played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder.


FRI 20:30 Transatlantic Sessions (b03fgzny)
Series 6

Episode 6

Music co-directors, Shetland fiddle virtuoso Aly Bain, dobro ace Jerry Douglas and their all-star house band, host a gathering of the cream of Nashville, Irish and Scottish talent in a spectacular location overlooking the banks of Loch Lomond.

The final programme in the series features Karen Matheson, Maura O'Connell, Aoife O'Donovan, Tim O'Brien and Andy Irvine backed by Aly, Jerry and house-band stalwarts Mike McGoldrick, Donald Shaw, Danny Thompson and James Mackintosh.


FRI 21:00 Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here (b01j0yyv)
John Edginton's documentary explores the making of Pink Floyd's ninth studio album, Wish You Were Here, which was released in September 1975 and went on to top the album charts both in the UK and the US.

Featuring new interviews with band members Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason alongside contributions from the likes of sleeve designer Storm Thorgerson and photographer Jill Furmanovsky, the film is a forensic study of the making of the follow-up to 1973's Dark Side of the Moon, which was another conceptual piece driven by Roger Waters.

The album wrestles with the legacy of the band's first leader, Syd Barrett, who had dropped out of the band in 1968 and is eulogised in the album's centrepiece, Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Pink Floyd had become one of the biggest bands in the world, but the 60s were over and the band were struggling both to find their purpose and the old camaraderie.


FRI 22:00 Pink Floyd: A Delicate Sound of Thunder (b03fvfcy)
A spectacular concert film from Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. Filmed at New York's Nassau Coliseum in 1989 using 27 cameras, it sees David Gilmour, Rick Wright and Nick Mason on fine form, performing classic after classic including Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Time, Comfortably Numb and Wish You Were Here.


FRI 23:35 A Pink Floyd Miscellany 1967-2005 (b014grts)
A compilation of rarely screened Pink Floyd videos and performances, beginning with the Arnold Layne promo from 1967 and culminating with the reunited band's performance at Live 8 in 2005. Also including a newly restored Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) and performances of Grantchester Meadows, Cymbeline and others.


FRI 00:35 Prog at the BBC (b00g8tfx)
Compilation of some of the greatest names and British bands in what they still dare to call prog rock, filmed live in the BBC studios in the early 1970s. Expect to see stadium names like Yes, Genesis and Emerson, Lake and Palmer alongside much-loved bands of the era including Caravan, Family, Atomic Rooster and more.


FRI 01:35 Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here (b01j0yyv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:35 A Pink Floyd Miscellany 1967-2005 (b014grts)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:35 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 Pink Floyd Miscellany 1967-2005 23:35 FRI (b014grts)

A Pink Floyd Miscellany 1967-2005 02:35 FRI (b014grts)

Africa 19:00 SAT (b01qmbqn)

Africa 01:00 SAT (b01qmbqn)

Africa 22:40 MON (b01qmbqn)

Arena 00:00 SUN (b03f4qgr)

Arena 21:00 THU (b03fvds9)

Arena 02:20 THU (b03fvds9)

Britain on Film 02:10 MON (b01qnnqp)

Britain on Film 01:50 THU (b01q6pzr)

Disowned and Disabled 21:00 TUE (b03fvc2g)

Disowned and Disabled 02:30 TUE (b03fvc2g)

Disowned and Disabled 21:00 WED (b03glsm1)

Disowned and Disabled 02:30 WED (b03glsm1)

Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain 20:00 SUN (p01cyrf9)

Entertaining the Troops 00:00 WED (b014v51p)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 MON (b0196y72)

Great British Railway Journeys 01:40 MON (b0196y72)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 TUE (b0196y9g)

Great British Railway Journeys 02:00 TUE (b0196y9g)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 WED (b0196ybz)

Great British Railway Journeys 02:00 WED (b0196ybz)

How the North West Was Won 22:00 MON (b0116syb)

How the North West Was Won 23:30 THU (b0116syb)

Inspector Montalbano 21:00 SAT (b03fv4sv)

Lost Cities of the Ancients 20:00 TUE (b00792tn)

Lost Cities of the Ancients 01:00 TUE (b00792tn)

Medieval Lives: Birth, Marriage, Death 23:00 SUN (b03f4l0j)

Mini: A Life Revisited 22:00 TUE (b03fvc2j)

Nelson's Caribbean Hell-hole: An Eighteenth Century Navy Graveyard Uncovered 20:00 WED (b01s6gjx)

Nelson's Caribbean Hell-hole: An Eighteenth Century Navy Graveyard Uncovered 01:00 WED (b01s6gjx)

Only Connect 20:30 MON (b03fv7sj)

Only Connect 00:40 MON (b03fv7sj)

Pink Floyd: A Delicate Sound of Thunder 22:00 FRI (b03fvfcy)

Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here 21:00 FRI (b01j0yyv)

Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here 01:35 FRI (b01j0yyv)

Pop Charts Britannia: 60 Years of the Top 10 22:55 SAT (b01nwfxs)

Prog at the BBC 00:35 FRI (b00g8tfx)

Quadrophenia: Can You See the Real Me? 02:00 SUN (b01k83bl)

Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited 20:00 SAT (b01s74g9)

Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited 02:00 SAT (b01s74g9)

Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited 23:40 MON (b01s74g9)

Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures 20:00 THU (b01b4wmr)

Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures 00:50 THU (b01b4wmr)

Symphony 19:30 FRI (b01778mc)

The Dark Matter of Love 22:00 WED (b03fvd0h)

The Golden Age of Steam Railways 21:00 SUN (b01p8w38)

The Golden Age of Steam Railways 22:00 SUN (b01pdsy6)

The Golden Age of Steam Railways 23:00 TUE (b01p8w38)

The Golden Age of Steam Railways 00:00 TUE (b01pdsy6)

The Somme: Secret Tunnel Wars 23:00 WED (b01skvnh)

The Who: The Making of Tommy 01:00 SUN (b03f7z78)

Timeshift 21:00 MON (b03fv7sl)

Timeshift 02:40 MON (b03fv7sl)

Timeshift 22:30 THU (b03fv7sl)

Top of the Pops 01:25 SAT (b03f4qgp)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b03fvds7)

Top of the Pops 00:10 THU (b03fvds7)

Transatlantic Sessions 20:30 FRI (b03fgzny)

Ultimate Number Ones 00:25 SAT (b01nwfxv)

Unnatural Histories 19:00 SUN (b011s4k0)

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? 20:00 MON (b0077l8q)

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? 01:10 MON (b0077l8q)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b03ft92f)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b03ft92s)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b03ft92y)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b03ft935)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b03ft93b)