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 02 NOVEMBER 2013

SAT 19:00 Frozen Planet (b00zj1q5)
To the Ends of the Earth

David Attenborough travels to the end of the Earth, taking viewers on an extraordinary journey across the polar regions of our planet, North and South. The Arctic and Antarctic are the greatest and least-known wildernesses of all - magical ice worlds inhabited by the most bizarre and hardy creatures on Earth.

Our journey begins with David at the North Pole, as the sun returns after six months of darkness. We follow a pair of courting polar bears, which reveal a surprisingly tender side. Next stop is the giant Greenland ice cap, where waterfalls plunge into the heart of the ice and a colossal iceberg carves into the sea. Humpback whales join the largest gathering of seabirds on Earth to feast in rich Alaskan waters. Further south, the tree line marks the start of the taiga forest, containing one third of all trees on earth. Here, 25 of the world's largest wolves take on formidable bison prey.

At the other end of our planet, the Antarctic begins in the Southern Ocean, where surfing penguins struggle to escape a hungry sea lion and teams of orcas create giant waves to wash seals from ice floes - a filming first. Diving below the ice, we discover prehistoric giants, including terrifying sea spiders and woodlice the size of dinner plates. Above ground, crystal caverns ring the summit of Erebus, the most southerly volcano on earth. From here, we retrace the routes of early explorers across the formidable Antarctic ice cap - the largest expanse of ice on our planet. Finally, we rejoin David at the South Pole, exactly one hundred years after Amundsen, and then Scott, were the first humans to stand there.


SAT 20:00 Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited (b01sbvzt)
Families of the Stone Age

Julian Richards returns to the excavation of two burials from the Stone Age - the grave of an entire Neolithic family in Dorset and a tomb on Orkney that is helping to reveal some strange and unexpected burial rites from over 5,000 years ago.


SAT 21:00 Inspector Montalbano (b03gtfbd)
A Voice in the Night

A supermarket controlled by a Mafia family is robbed, setting off a chain of events in which the Mafia's political links start to transpire. Montalbano finds himself having to conduct his investigation using even more unconventional methods and this time he does something he's never done before.

In Italian with English subtitles.


SAT 22:45 50s Britannia (b01sgbw2)
Rock 'n' Roll Britannia

Long before the Beatles there was British rock 'n' roll. Between 1956 and 1960 British youth created a unique copy of a distant and scarce American original whilst most parents, professional jazz men and even the BBC did their level best to snuff it out.

From its first faltering steps as a facsimile of Bill Haley's swing style to the sophistication of self-penned landmarks such as Shakin' All Over and The Sound of Fury, this is the story of how the likes of Lord Rockingham's XI, Vince Taylor and Cliff Richard and The Shadows laid the foundations for an enduring 50-year culture of rock 'n' roll.

Now well into their seventies, the flame still burns strong in the hearts of the original young ones. Featuring Sir Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde, Joe Brown, Bruce Welch, Cherry Wainer and The Quarrymen.


SAT 23:45 Totally British: 70s Rock 'n' Roll (b01r3pm9)
1970-1974

Trawled from the depths of the BBC Archive and classic BBC shows of the day - Old Grey Whistle Test, Top of the Pops and Full House - a collection of performance gems from a totally rock 'n' roll early 1970s.

This was a golden era for British rock 'n' roll as everyone moved on from the whimsical 60s and looked around for something with a bit more oomph! In a pre-heavy metal world bands were experimenting with influences that dated back to 50s rock 'n' roll, whilst taking their groove from old-school rhythm and blues. It was also a time when men grew their hair long!

In a celebration of this era, we kick off with an early 1970s Badfinger number direct from the BBC library and continue the groove from the BBC vaults with classic rock 'n' roll heroes like Free, Status Quo, the Faces, Humble Pie and Mott the Hoople. Plus from deep within the BBC archives we dig out some rarities from the likes of Babe Ruth, Stone the Crows, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Man, Heavy Metal Kids and original rockers Thin Lizzy... to name but a few.

Sit back and enjoy a 60-minute non-stop ride of unadulterated Totally British 70s Rock 'n' Roll!


SAT 00:50 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.


SAT 01:30 Frozen Planet (b00zj1q5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 02:30 Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited (b01sbvzt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 03 NOVEMBER 2013

SUN 19:00 Unnatural Histories (b011wzrc)
Yellowstone

As the world's first national park, Yellowstone has long served as a model for the protection of wilderness around the world. For Americans it has become a source of great national pride, not least because it encapsulates all our popular notions of what a wilderness should be - vast, uninhabited, with spectacular scenery and teeming with wildlife. But Yellowstone has not always been so. At the time of its creation in 1872, it was renowned only for its extraordinary geysers, and far from being an uninhabited wilderness it was home to several American Indian tribes.

This film reveals how a remote Indian homeland became the world's first great wilderness. It was the ambitions of railroad barons, not conservationists, that paved the way for a brand new vision of the wild, a vision that took native peoples out of the picture. Iconic landscape paintings show how European Romanticism crossed the Atlantic and recast the American wilderness, not as a satanic place to be tamed and cultivated, but as a place to experience the raw power of God in nature. Forged in Yellowstone, this potent new version of wilderness as untouched and deserving of protection has since been exported to all corners of the globe.


SUN 20:00 Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain (b038rj1b)
Making Connections

Using her 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. In this episode she looks at two of the most radical civil engineering projects proposed in the last century and explores how international politics and vested interests both drove, and derailed, plans to better connect Britain to the continent.

In the early 1900s Britain was anticipating the threat of war. As concern grew about Germany expanding its naval fleet and investing in its infrastructure, there were calls to find a way for Britain's navy to be able to react swiftly to protect our waters. The solution proposed was to create a ship canal big enough for warships to cross from the Firth of Clyde on the west of Scotland to the Firth of Forth on the east. This enormous civil engineering endeavour would have completely changed the central belt of Scotland - the favoured route was through Loch Lomond, now considered one of the most treasured wilderness areas in the country.

There was huge support for the building of the canal, not least from members of parliament who recognised the potential for creating jobs and wealth in their constituencies. The debate over whether to invest £50m of the public purse in building the canal dragged on for years in both the House of Commons and Lords, with opinion split on whether it really was a strategic imperative. In the end, technology decided the fate of the canal. By 1918, all of the naval fleet was fuelled by oil rather than coal and so instead of a canal an oil pipeline was built from the mouth of the Clyde to Grangemouth on the east, and Royal Navy destroyers never did - and never will - sail up Loch Lomond.

Fifty years later, instead of seeking to protect Britain from attacks from the continent, thoughts had turned to how to connect our island to the rest of Europe. There had been talk of building a channel tunnel between England and France for centuries. In contrast with the Mid-Scotland Canal, where strategic advantages stimulated building, it was national security concerns that cut short the first proposal for a Channel Tunnel. The idea was presented to the British by Napoleon in 1802, but was rejected over concerns that the French had covert plans to invade England.

But 170 years later, the idea was to become a reality. Britain had finally joined mainland Europe through her membership of the Common Market in 1973, and both the French and British governments agreed it made sense build a tunnel together. But in 1975, construction was again abandoned because the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, had to look for economies in a financial crisis caused by dramatically rising world oil prices. Once more, the bid to connect with the continent had failed.

The idea was resurrected yet again in the early 1980s, with several competing schemes for consideration. The boldest of these, sponsored by British Steel, was a vast structure combing a double-decker bridge and tunnel, linked to an artificial island in the middle of the English Channel. The materials for the construction of this vast project would keep the steel mills of England and Scotland busy for a decade - but the politicians chose in favour of the Eurotunnel bid and British industry lost out.

Both these grandiose schemes defined how Britain saw its relationship with Europe. In an age when the headline 'Fog in Channel - Europe Isolated' made sense, a naval ship canal that would protect our island fortress from continental rivals was considered to be in the national interest. But just 60 years later, the fog had lifted and securing Britain's national interests became dependent on a physical connection with countries previously regarded as hostile. However, both plans foundered on the conflict of politics and vested interest.


SUN 21:00 Searching for Exile: Truth or Myth? (b01s51hb)
Authored documentary by Ilan Ziv which sets out to explore the historical and archaeological evidence for the Exile of the Jews after their defeat in Jerusalem at the hands of the Roman Empire, and its relevance to today.

Tracing the story of Exile from the contemporary commentator Josephus, to 1960s Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin, to the modern city of Rome and finally to the ruins of a Palestinian village, Ziv asks where the roots of this story lie and what evidence there is for it.

At the centre of the film is the ancient town of Sepphoris (on whose ruins stood the Palestinian village of Saffuriya until 1948) and the lessons its multi-layered history may have to offer.


SUN 22:00 Searching for Exile: The Debate (b03gq4qh)
Ed Stourton chairs a discussion which examines the historical and archaeological evidence portrayed in the film Searching for Exile: Truth or Myth? A panel debates what this could mean for Judaism and what impact it could have for other religions.


SUN 22:45 Treasures of Chinese Porcelain (b015sttj)
In November 2010, a Chinese vase unearthed in a suburban semi in Pinner sold at auction for £43 million - a new record for a Chinese work of art. Why are Chinese vases so famous and so expensive? The answer lies in the European obsession with Chinese porcelain that began in the 16th century.

Lars Tharp, the Antiques Roadshow expert and Chinese ceramics specialist, sets out to explore why Chinese porcelain was so valuable then - and still is now. He goes on a journey to parts of China closed to western eyes until relatively recently. Lars travels to the mountainside from which virtually every single Chinese export vase, plate and cup began life in the 18th century - a mountain known as Mount Gaolin, from whose name we get the word kaolin, or china clay. He sees how the china clay was fused with another substance, mica, that would turn it into porcelain.

Carrying his own newly acquired vase, Lars uncovers the secrets of China's porcelain capital, Jingdezhen. He sees how the trade between China and Europe not only changed our idea of what was beautiful - by introducing us to the idea of works of art we could eat off - but also began to affect the whole tradition of Chinese aesthetics too, as the ceramicists of Jingdezhen sought to meet the European demand for porcelain decorated with family coats of arms, battle scenes or even erotica.

The porcelain fever that gripped Britain drove conspicuous consumption and fuelled the Georgian craze for tea parties. Today the new emperors - China's rising millionaire class - are buying back the export wares once shipped to Europe. The vase sold in Pinner shows that the lure of Chinese porcelain is as compelling as ever.


SUN 23:45 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.


SUN 00:45 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.


SUN 02:20 Unnatural Histories (b011wzrc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



MONDAY 04 NOVEMBER 2013

MON 19:00 World News Today (b03gq4wz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b0196yky)
Series 3

Epping to Hackney

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 East Anglia to the centre of the country's financial capital, London, Michael visits Essex to discover why dairy herds travelled there by rail from all over the country in the 19th century. He also visits Waltham Cross to see how the gunpowder made there fuelled the building of an empire and heads to Hackney to uncover the gruesome details of the first murder on a train.


MON 20:00 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (b00778sr)
Series 2

The Great Race

Classic sitcom. Bob and Terry argue about fitness over a pint and challenge each other to a cross-country cycle race to see who's the fittest.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b03gtg7d)
Series 8

Lasletts v Board Gamers

Family team the Lasletts play a trio of board game enthusiasts, 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: test of dissolved oxygen, climate of wine growing regions, Giles Coren's first novel and Arthur Fonzarelli.


MON 21:00 Timeshift (b03gtg7g)
Series 13

When Coal Was King

Timeshift explores the lost world of coal mining and the extraordinarily rich social and cultural lives of those who worked in what was once Britain's most important industry. It's a story told through a largely forgotten film archive that movingly documents the final years of coal's heyday from the 1940s to the 1980s. One priceless piece of footage features a ballet performance by tutu-wearing colliers.

Featuring contributions from those who worked underground, those who lived in the pit villages, those who filmed them at work and at play and those - like Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall - who have been inspired by what made coalfield culture so unique.

Narrated by Christopher Eccleston.


MON 22:00 Explosions: How We Shook the World (b00v9kb3)
Engineer Jem Stansfield is used to creating explosions, but in this programme he uncovers the story of how we have learnt to control them and harness their power for our own means.

From recreating a rather dramatic ancient Chinese alchemy accident to splitting an atom in his own home-built replica of a 1930s piece of equipment, Jem reveals how explosives work and how we have used their power throughout history. He goes underground to show how gunpowder was used in the mines of Cornwall, recreates the first test of guncotton in a quarry with dramatic results and visits a modern high explosives factory with a noble history.

Ground-breaking high speed photography makes for some startling revelations at every step of the way.


MON 23:00 Two Melons and a Stinking Fish (b0074q13)
This rare and revealing documentary from 1996 about artist Sarah Lucas is being shown to coincide with Lucas's retrospective at London's Whitechapel Gallery. Made by acclaimed director Vanessa Engle, the film shadows Lucas over four months as she makes her witty and provocative sculptures, often using everyday objects. With candid and often hilarious contributions from Angus Fairhurst, Gary Hume, Damien Hirst and Barbara Gladstone.


MON 23:50 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.


MON 00:50 Only Connect (b03gtg7d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 01:20 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (b00778sr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 01:50 Great British Railway Journeys (b0196yky)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:20 Timeshift (b03gtg7g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 05 NOVEMBER 2013

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b03gq50w)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b0196ypr)
Series 3

Fenchurch to Embankment

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 of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

Following the route of the Great Eastern Line, Michael takes a ride on a secret miniature railway hidden beneath London's streets, rings the bells of the famous church of Bow and tries his hand at station announcing at Fenchurch Street station.


TUE 20:00 Lost Cities of the Ancients (b00792v2)
The Cursed Valley of the Pyramids

In the Lambeyeque valley in northern Peru lies a strange lost world - the forgotten ruins of 250 mysterious pyramids, including some of the biggest on the planet, colossal structures made out of mud bricks. Long ago, the Lambeyeque people were haunted by a terrible fear and believed that building pyramids was essential to their survival. Their obsession reached its height at a city called Tucume, an eerie place of 26 pyramids standing side by side, the last pyramids this civilisation created before they vanished forever.

What was the fear that drove these people to build so many pyramids, what were they for and why did the whole civilisation suddenly vanish? This film captures the moments when archaeologists at the site uncovered a mass of bodies of human sacrifice victims, following a trail of clues into the dark story of Tucume. It recreates the strange rituals of the people of the valley, revealing a civilisation whose obsession to build pyramids eventually turned to horror, until Tucume finally vanished in a bloody frenzy of human sacrifice.


TUE 21:00 Autism: Challenging Behaviour (b03gvnvm)
Documentary which explores the controversy around ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis), an intensive intervention used to treat autism. Parents who want ABA for their children passionately believe that it is the best way to teach a child new skills and to help them function in mainstream society, but critics of ABA argue that it is dehumanising and abusive to try to eliminate autistic behaviour.

The film follows three-year-old Jack and four-year-old Jeremiah through their first term at Treetops School in Essex - the only state school in the UK which offers a full ABA programme. Neither boy has any language, Jeremiah finds it hard to engage with the world around him and Jack has severe issues with food. Both their parents have high hopes of the 'tough love' support that Treetops offers, but will struggle with their child's progress.

We also meet Gunnar Frederiksen, a passionate and charismatic ABA consultant who works with families all over Europe. His view of autism - that it is a condition that can be cured and that families must work with their child as intensively and as early as possible if they want to take the child 'out of the condition' - is at odds with the way that many view autism today.

Gunnar is working with three-year-old Tobias in Norway and has trained the parents so that they can work with him at home as his ABA tutors. He also introduces us to Richard, a 16-year-old from Sweden who was diagnosed with autism at the age of three and whose parents were told that he would be unlikely ever to speak. Today, Richard is 'indistinguishable from his peers' and plays badminton for the Swedish national team. In an emotional scene, Richard and his family look back at video recordings of the early ABA treatment and we are confronted both by the harshness of the method and the result of the intervention.

These and other stories are intercut with the views and experiences from those who oppose ABA and who argue that at the heart of ABA is a drive to make children with autism as normal as possible, rather than accepting and celebrating their difference. Lee, an autistic mother of a son who has Aspergers, describes how the drive to make her behave and act like a 'normal' child broke her, and how she was determined to accept her son for who he was.

The question of how far we accept autistic difference and how much should we push people with autism to fit into society's norms raises wider questions that affect us all - how do we achieve compliance in our children, how much should we expect children to conform and how far should parents push children to fit in with their own expectations?


TUE 22:00 Storyville (b03hcfdm)
The Disappeared

The Disappeared is the dramatic story of those killed and then secretly buried by the IRA. Darragh MacIntyre reveals the continuing trauma of the relatives of those taken, killed and buried, and investigates the alleged involvement of Republican leader Gerry Adams in one of the killings.

At least 15 people were 'disappeared' by the IRA during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Some of them are still missing. The most recent search was for the remains of 19-year-old Columba McVeigh who was disappeared in 1975. A specialist forensic team spent five months in 2013 digging in a bog in County Monaghan, but found nothing.

The film highlights the powerful story of the life and harrowing death of widow and mother-of-ten Jean McConville. She was dragged from the arms of her young children by an IRA gang in 1972, then shot and buried. Her body was finally recovered in 2003.

Michael McConville explains how at 11 years of age he was tied up and beaten when he threatened to tell police about what had happened. His sister Agnes recalls the abuse they got from other children afterwards, before the siblings were shipped off to various orphanages.

The IRA policy of disappearing victims dates back to 1972 when four people were taken from Belfast. It is said to have ended in 1981 after an order from the IRA's governing Army Council. A policy of lies and intimidation appears to have run in parallel with the policy of disappearing people. One family after another explain how they were virtually silenced by a climate of fear. They also had to cope with rumours claiming their loved one was alive and well. The evidence suggests these rumours were invented by the IRA to keep the families away from the truth.

A forensic detective outlines the mechanics of the killings and burials. He tells how most of the victims were shot once in the back of the head and then dumped in shallow graves. In some cases the bodies were weighted down with stones in case they rose to the surface if the bog dried out.

A former IRA leader is outraged when told that Sinn Fein blame an older generation of Republican leaders for the practice. Billy McKee, a founding member of the Provisional IRA, says that is a 'damned lie'. McKee says that he would have executed Jean McConville, but he wouldn't have 'disappeared' her.

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams is challenged about allegations that he ordered the disappearance of Jean McConville. Adams, today a member of the Irish parliament, is also probed about his knowledge of the fate of two IRA men who were disappeared in the same way that same year.


TUE 23:25 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.


TUE 00:55 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.


TUE 01:55 Great British Railway Journeys (b0196ypr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 02:25 Autism: Challenging Behaviour (b03gvnvm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 06 NOVEMBER 2013

WED 19:00 World News Today (b03gq531)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b019j16g)
Series 3

Windsor to Didcot

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 of Bradshaw's Britain remains.

Following in the footsteps of Queen Victoria, Michael uses the railways she often rode from Windsor Castle to her country getaway on the Isle of Wight, from which his journey continues west, to Portland.

Michael visits a station fit for royalty in Windsor, views an engineering triumph built by Brunel to span the Thames at Maidenhead, and tries his hand at collecting the mail 'Victorian style' on a steam-powered travelling post office.


WED 20:00 Britain by Bike (b00t4lqf)
North Devon

Clare Balding sets out on a two-wheel odyssey to re-discover Britain from the saddle of a touring cycle.

In a six-part series, Clare follows the wheeltracks of compulsive cyclist and author Harold Briercliffe whose evocative guide books of the late 1940s lovingly describe by-passed Britain - a world of unspoiled villages, cycle touring clubs and sunny B roads.

Carrying a set of Harold's Cycling Touring Guides for company and riding his very own bicycle, Clare embarks on six iconic cycle rides to try and find the world he described - if it is still there.

Her first journey takes Clare to the rugged and beautiful Atlantic coast of north Devon - from Lynmouth, scene of Britain's worst flood disaster in the early 1950s, to Ilfracombe via Little Switzerland, and a hidden silver mine whose riches probably helped England win the Battle of Agincourt.


WED 20:30 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b03hd9hd)
Edmund de Waal

Edmund de Waal is widely known as the author of bestselling family memoir The Hare with Amber Eyes. He is also an internationally acclaimed artist. He trained as a potter, studying ceramics in Japan and his works are in the collections of over forty international museums. Filmed mainly in de Waal's South London studio, this film gives a fascinating insight into his working methods, following him prepare eleven ceramic installations for 2012's exhibition A Thousand Hours.


WED 21:00 Speeches that Shook the World (b03f3v3w)
Speech-making is the art of persuasion. Well-honed rhetoric appeals not just to the mind, but to the heart and, deeper down, in the guts. Examining the speeches that provoked radical change, surprised pundits or shocked listeners, poet Simon Armitage dissects what makes a perfect speech.

Simon gets the inside story behind some of the famous speeches of the modern age, talking to Tony Blair's speechwriter, to Earl Spencer on his controversial address at his sister's funeral and the woman who challenged the rioters in Hackney. We hear how Peter Tatchell confronted the BNP, Paul Boateng on how Enoch Powell's divisive speech personally affected him as a child, and Colonel Tim Collins, whose charge was to motivate his troops on the eve of the Iraq war. Simon discusses the nuts and bolts of speech writing with Vincent Franklin, aka the blue-sky thinking guru Stuart Pearson from The Thick of It, and gets tips on powerful delivery from actor Charles Dance.

Looking at both contemporary speeches and the classics - Churchill, Martin Luther King, Emmeline Pankhurst - Simon explores whether it is carefully wrought rhetoric, a well-argued stance or a bombastic delivery that wins over an audience.


WED 22:00 Martin Luther King and the March on Washington (b039dyn8)
Documentary commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's March on Washington, a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

The film tells the story of how the march for jobs and freedom began, speaking to the people who organised and participated in it. Using rarely seen archive footage the film reveals the background stories surrounding the build up to the march as well as the fierce opposition it faced from the JFK administration, J Edgar Hoover's FBI and widespread claims that it would incite racial violence, chaos and disturbance. The film follows the unfolding drama as the march reaches its ultimate triumphs, gaining acceptance from the state, successfully raising funds and in the end, organised and executed peacefully - and creating a landmark moment in the struggle for civil rights and racial equality in the United States.

Including interviews with some of the key actors: members of the inner circles of the core organizational groups such as Jack O'Dell, Clarence B Jones, Julian Bond and Andrew Young; Hollywood supporters and civil rights campaigners including Harry Belafonte, Diahann Carroll and Sidney Poitier; performing artists at the march such as Joan Baez and Peter Yarrow; JFK administration official, Harris Wofford; the CBS Broadcaster who reported from the march, Roger Mudd; Clayborne Carson, the founding director of Stanford's Martin Luther King Jr Research and Education Institute and a participant in the march; as well as those who witnessed the march on TV and were influenced by it, such as Oprah Winfrey, and most of all, the remembrances of the ordinary citizens who joined some 250,000 Americans at the capital on that momentous day.


WED 23:00 Frozen Planet (b00zj1q5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


WED 00:00 Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited (b01sbvzt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday]


WED 01:00 Great British Railway Journeys (b019j16g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 01:30 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b03hd9hd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 02:00 Britain by Bike (b00t4lqf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:30 Speeches that Shook the World (b03f3v3w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 07 NOVEMBER 2013

THU 19:00 World News Today (b03gq5v0)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 The Sky at Night (b03gtgsy)
Moore Moon Marathon

The moon is a most familiar sight in our sky - it is the astronomer's friend and was Sir Patrick Moore's favourite object - yet fundamentally we still do not know how it was formed and why its far side looks so different. The team join astronomers on Blackheath to watch a lunar eclipse; find out how everyone got on in the Moore Moon Marathon, the list of fascinating features you can see on the moon; and discuss the new missions that will explore this reassuringly familiar yet still most mysterious of cosmic satellites.


THU 20:00 Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures (b01bgnmq)
Fugitive from the Fire

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 seems it hangs 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 its neighbours. The Natural History Museum's professor Richard Fortey discovers what allows the very few to carry on going - perhaps not for ever, but certainly far beyond the life expectancy of normal species. What makes a survivor when all around drop like flies? Professor Fortey travels across the globe to find the survivors of the most dramatic of these obstacles - the mass extinction events.

In episode two, Fortey focuses on the 'KT boundary'. 65 million years ago, a 10km-diameter asteroid collided with the Earth and saw the end of the long reign of the dinosaurs. He investigates the lucky breaks and evolutionary adaptations that allowed some species to survive the disastrous end of the Cretaceous Age when these giants did not.


THU 21:00 Defiance (b013j3cr)
Thriller based on a true story. In 1940s Eastern Europe, four Jewish brothers flee to the forest to escape persecution and death at the hands of Nazi forces after their parents are murdered. Once there, they find more refugees are using the forest as a hideout, so they band together to share resources and attempt to outwit the German forces, who are always on their tail.


THU 23:05 Timeshift (b03gtg7g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


THU 00:05 Lost Horizons: The Big Bang (b00dcbqm)
Professor Jim Al Khalili delves into over 50 years of the BBC science archive to tell the story behind the emergence of one of the greatest theories of modern science, the Big Bang.

The remarkable idea that our universe simply began from nothing has not always been accepted with the conviction it is today and, from fiercely disputed leftfield beginnings, took the best part of the 20th century to emerge as the triumphant explanation of how the universe began. Using curious horn-shaped antennas, U-2 spy planes, satellites and particle accelerators, scientists have slowly pieced together the cosmological jigsaw, and this documentary charts the overwhelming evidence for a universe created by a Big Bang.


THU 01:05 The Sky at Night (b03gtgsy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 01:35 The Final Frontier? A Horizon Guide to the Universe (p00yjn1x)
Dallas Campbell looks back through almost 50 years of the Horizon archives to chart the scientific breakthroughs that have transformed our understanding of the universe. From Einstein's concept of spacetime to alien planets and extra dimensions, science has revealed a cosmos that is more bizarre and more spectacular than could have ever been imagined. But with every breakthrough, even more intriguing mysteries that lie beyond are found. This great journey of discovery is only just beginning.


THU 02:35 Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures (b01bgnmq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



FRIDAY 08 NOVEMBER 2013

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b03gq714)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Symphony (b017j75d)
Revolution and Rebirth

Simon Russell Beale's journey takes him into the 20th century, a time when the certainties of empire were falling away, war was looming and the world was changing faster than ever before.

Simon investigates the extraordinary symphonic world of Shostakovich, the star composer of the new Soviet Union, as well as the work of Ives and Copland who were both, in their different ways, creating a new American sound. He discovers how the development of the gramophone and broadcasting meant that more people could hear their music than ever before and how it became possible to immortalise the symphony in sound.

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


FRI 20:30 Sacred Music: The Story of Allegri's Miserere (b00g81g7)
Simon Russell Beale tells the story behind Allegri's Miserere, one of the most popular pieces of sacred music ever written. The programme features a full performance of the piece by the award-winning choir the Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers.


FRI 21:00 Elvis Costello: Mystery Dance (b03gq719)
Elvis Costello is one of the uncontested geniuses of the rock world. 33 albums and dozens of hit songs have established him as one of the most versatile and intelligent songwriters and performers of his generation. This film provides a definitive account of one of Britain's greatest living songwriters - the first portrait of its kind - directed by Mark Kidel, who was won numerous awards for his music documentaries, including portraits of Rod Stewart, Boy George, Tricky, Alfred Brendel, Ravi Shankar, John Adams and Robert Wyatt.

Elvis is a master of melody, but what distinguishes him above all is an almost uncanny way with words, from the playful use of the well-worn cliche to daring poetic associations, whether he is writing about the sorrow of love or the burning fire of desire, the power play of the bedroom or the world of politics.

The film tells the story of Elvis Costello - a childhood under the influence of his father Ross McManus, the singer with Joe Loss's popular dance band; a Catholic education which has clearly marked him deeply; his overnight success with The Attractions and subsequent disenchantment with the formatted pressures of the music business; a disillusionment which led him to reinvent himself a number of times; and writing and recording songs in various styles, including country, jazz, soul and classical.

The film focuses in particular on his collaborations with Paul McCartney and Allen Toussaint, who both contribute. It also features exclusive access to unreleased demos of songs written by McCartney and Costello. Elvis was interviewed in Liverpool, London and New York, revisiting the places in which he grew up. The main interview, shot over two days at the famed Avatar Studios in NYC, is characterised by unusual intimacy. Elvis talks for the first time at great length about his career, songwriting and music, and often breaks into song with relevant examples from his repertoire.


FRI 22:00 Later Presents... Elvis Costello in Concert (b03h8qyt)
Jools Holland presents a live studio performance by singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, accompanied by the Attractions, the Brodsky Quartet and a chamber-jazz septet. The set features songs from throughout his career, including classics Pump It Up and Watching the Detectives.


FRI 23:00 Blondie: One Way or Another (b0074thn)
The story of New York's finest - the most successful and enduring band fronted by a woman - Debbie Harry and Blondie. From their Bowery beginnings at CBGB's in 1974 to their controversial induction into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in New York. The band crossed pop with punk, reggae and rap and had no 1s in all styles. With exclusive backstage and performance footage from their UK tour plus in-depth interviews with current and ex-band members and friends Iggy Pop, Shirley Manson, Tommy Ramone, and Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads.


FRI 00:10 Guitar Heroes at the BBC (b00plj0l)
Part VI

In this sixth and final show to round out the Guitar Heroes series, axe fans get classic riffs from Pete Townshend as The Who play Won't Get Fooled Again, Rod and Ronnie with The Faces doing Miss Judy's Farm at the old BBC TV Theatre, some weird yodel-rock from Dutch prog rockers Focus, folky acoustic numbers from Davey Graham and Ralph McTell, and some flamboyant fretwork from Americans Nils Lofgren and Ted Nugent.

Filmed in the 1970s for shows including Top of the Pops and The Old Grey Whistle Test, these tracks pay tribute to a golden era in rock and to the last of the 70s Guitar Heroes.

Complete line-up:

The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again
The Faces - Miss Judy's Farm
Focus - Hocus Pocus
Man - Day and Night
Chris Spedding - Motor Bikin'
Nils Lofgren - Back It Up
The Cate Brothers - In One Eye and Out the Other
Ralph McTell - Dry Bone Rag
The Runaways - Wasted
The Motors - Dancing the Night Away
Ted Nugent - Free For All
The Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love
Gary Moore - Back on the Streets
Judas Priest - Take on the World
Davey Graham - City and Suburban Blues
ZZ Top - Cheap Sunglasses.


FRI 01:10 Elvis Costello: Mystery Dance (b03gq719)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:10 Later Presents... Elvis Costello in Concert (b03h8qyt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 03:15 Sacred Music: The Story of Allegri's Miserere (b00g81g7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]




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

50s Britannia 22:45 SAT (b01sgbw2)

Arena 23:25 TUE (b03fvds9)

Autism: Challenging Behaviour 21:00 TUE (b03gvnvm)

Autism: Challenging Behaviour 02:25 TUE (b03gvnvm)

Blondie: One Way or Another 23:00 FRI (b0074thn)

Britain by Bike 20:00 WED (b00t4lqf)

Britain by Bike 02:00 WED (b00t4lqf)

Defiance 21:00 THU (b013j3cr)

Disowned and Disabled 23:50 MON (b03fvc2g)

Disowned and Disabled 00:55 TUE (b03glsm1)

Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain 20:00 SUN (b038rj1b)

Elvis Costello: Mystery Dance 21:00 FRI (b03gq719)

Elvis Costello: Mystery Dance 01:10 FRI (b03gq719)

Explosions: How We Shook the World 22:00 MON (b00v9kb3)

Frozen Planet 19:00 SAT (b00zj1q5)

Frozen Planet 01:30 SAT (b00zj1q5)

Frozen Planet 23:00 WED (b00zj1q5)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 MON (b0196yky)

Great British Railway Journeys 01:50 MON (b0196yky)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 TUE (b0196ypr)

Great British Railway Journeys 01:55 TUE (b0196ypr)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 WED (b019j16g)

Great British Railway Journeys 01:00 WED (b019j16g)

Guitar Heroes at the BBC 00:10 FRI (b00plj0l)

Inspector Montalbano 21:00 SAT (b03gtfbd)

Later Presents... Elvis Costello in Concert 22:00 FRI (b03h8qyt)

Later Presents... Elvis Costello in Concert 02:10 FRI (b03h8qyt)

Lost Cities of the Ancients 20:00 TUE (b00792v2)

Lost Horizons: The Big Bang 00:05 THU (b00dcbqm)

Martin Luther King and the March on Washington 22:00 WED (b039dyn8)

Only Connect 20:30 MON (b03gtg7d)

Only Connect 00:50 MON (b03gtg7d)

Pink Floyd: A Delicate Sound of Thunder 00:45 SUN (b03fvfcy)

Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here 23:45 SUN (b01j0yyv)

Sacred Music: The Story of Allegri's Miserere 20:30 FRI (b00g81g7)

Sacred Music: The Story of Allegri's Miserere 03:15 FRI (b00g81g7)

Searching for Exile: The Debate 22:00 SUN (b03gq4qh)

Searching for Exile: Truth or Myth? 21:00 SUN (b01s51hb)

Speeches that Shook the World 21:00 WED (b03f3v3w)

Speeches that Shook the World 02:30 WED (b03f3v3w)

Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited 20:00 SAT (b01sbvzt)

Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited 02:30 SAT (b01sbvzt)

Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited 00:00 WED (b01sbvzt)

Storyville 22:00 TUE (b03hcfdm)

Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures 20:00 THU (b01bgnmq)

Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures 02:35 THU (b01bgnmq)

Symphony 19:30 FRI (b017j75d)

The Final Frontier? A Horizon Guide to the Universe 01:35 THU (p00yjn1x)

The Sky at Night 19:30 THU (b03gtgsy)

The Sky at Night 01:05 THU (b03gtgsy)

Timeshift 21:00 MON (b03gtg7g)

Timeshift 02:20 MON (b03gtg7g)

Timeshift 23:05 THU (b03gtg7g)

Top of the Pops 00:50 SAT (b03fvds7)

Totally British: 70s Rock 'n' Roll 23:45 SAT (b01r3pm9)

Treasures of Chinese Porcelain 22:45 SUN (b015sttj)

Two Melons and a Stinking Fish 23:00 MON (b0074q13)

Unnatural Histories 19:00 SUN (b011wzrc)

Unnatural Histories 02:20 SUN (b011wzrc)

What Do Artists Do All Day? 20:30 WED (b03hd9hd)

What Do Artists Do All Day? 01:30 WED (b03hd9hd)

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? 20:00 MON (b00778sr)

Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? 01:20 MON (b00778sr)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b03gq4wz)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b03gq50w)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b03gq531)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b03gq5v0)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b03gq714)