B4

RADIO-LISTS: BBC FOUR
Unofficial Weekly Listings for BBC 4 — supported by bbc.co.uk/programmes/

SATURDAY 18 JANUARY 2014

SAT 19:00 Wild China (b00bf5b0)
Heart of the Dragon

The fairy-tale hills of Guilin and the cormorant fishermen of the Li River form the heart of this exploration of the colourful rice-growing cultures and strange creatures of southern China - a land of endless hills, mysterious caverns, spectacular rock pinnacles and traditional cultures with a taste for wildlife.

SAT 20:00 A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley (p01fv16l)
The Golden Age

Lucy Worsley explores the Edwardian era and the golden age of detective fiction between the wars - the time of Dr Crippen, Agatha Christie and the films of Alfred Hitchcock.

SAT 21:00 The Bridge (b03f2bn1)
Series 2

Episode 5

As the investigation grows, some new leads are opened and four individuals wearing animal masks carry out a new attack and then post a video online where they again claim responsibility. Saga and Martin try to track down the new group, who are busy planning yet another attack. Saga has a hard time getting used to living with her boyfriend and feels she needs to be alone. She decides to check into a hotel, a decision she will soon come to regret. Martin goes back to visit Jens in prison and this time he exceeds his authority.

In Danish and Swedish with English subtitles.

SAT 22:00 The Bridge (b03fqbkf)
Series 2

Episode 6

Martin is at the hospital watching over his son Nikolaj, who has suddenly fallen ill. Saga visits the hospital to update him on the case and notices that something isn't quite right.

The investigation intensifies as another poisoning is connected to Saga and Martin's case. Furthermore, a motorboat is recovered from the bottom of the sea and some old skeletal remains are found inside. Who were these people and what did they die of? Are they connected to the larger case?

Jens doesn't want Martin visiting him in prison anymore, but Martin won't back down. Saga is nervous ahead of her first meeting with her potential mother-in-law and wonders if she's being a good enough girlfriend.

In Danish and Swedish with English subtitles.

SAT 23:00 Slade at the BBC (b01pdt89)
Don your best platforms and sequinned hat and join Noddy, Jim, Dave and Don aka Slade for a trip down memory lane as we uncover some of Slade's finest appearances from the vaults of the BBC archive, introduced by none other than Noddy Holder himself.

Rock out to the classics of Coz I Luv You, Mama Weer All Crazee Now, Gudbuy T'Jane and C*m On Feel the Noize and see how Slade's all-important look evolves after their first TV appearance on the BBC back in 1969. Most performances come from their 70s heyday and from BBC studio shows like Top of the Pops, Crackerjack, Blue Peter and Cheggers Plays Pop.

Noddy both introduces the compilation and reflects on Slade's glory daze at the BBC.

SAT 00:00 Top of the Pops (b03q02r7)
Weekly pop chart programme presented by David 'Kid' Jensen. Featuring Bonnie Tyler, Sally Oldfield, Paul Evans, the Shadows, Steve Allen, Driver 67, the Village People, Rocky Sharpe & the Replays and dances by Legs & Co.

SAT 00:40 Big in America: British Hits in the USA (b01bywsr)
Compilation of British rock 'n' roll acts in performance with tracks that crossed over to the US charts. From The Dave Clark Five to Coldplay, the Brits have rocked America and sometimes even done better across the pond than here - take a bow A Flock of Seagulls, Supertramp and Bush - who are also included here alongside darker British global exports like Black Sabbath and The Cure.

SAT 01:40 Wild China (b00bf5b0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

SAT 02:40 A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley (p01fv16l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

SUNDAY 19 JANUARY 2014

SUN 19:00 The Man who Discovered Egypt (b01f13f4)
Documentary about English Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, the pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology. Ancient Egypt was vandalised by tomb raiders and treasure hunters until this Victorian adventurer took them on. Most people have never heard of him, but this maverick undertook a scientific survey of the pyramids, discovered the oldest portraits in the world, unearthed Egypt's prehistoric roots - and in the process invented modern field archaeology, giving meaning to a whole civilisation.

SUN 20:00 Hidden Histories: Britain's Oldest Family Businesses (b03q0177)
Balson the Butcher

The first of three documentaries following the bosses of some Britain's oldest family businesses as they go on a journey into their remarkable pasts.

Richard Balson's family have been butchers for almost 500 years, since Henry VIII was on the throne. He goes back through centuries of butchery to the origin of the British high street. Along the way he discovers how the Balsons have stayed in the butchery business despite scandal and tragedy.

SUN 21:00 Point Blank (b007896b)
Thriller. Shot and left for dead by his double-crossing partner, hardened crook Walker gets an opportunity for revenge when given a lead to the man's whereabouts. However, to get his share of the stolen money, Walker must also take on members of the 'Organisation', a criminal group to which the proceeds went.

SUN 22:30 Me and Me Dad: A Portrait of John Boorman (b022y0h2)
An intimate family portrait of the film director John Boorman by one who should know him best - his daughter Katrine. Now over 80 years old, the director of Hell in the Pacific, Excalibur, Deliverance and The Emerald Forest is one of the last great mavericks. His daughter, who previously had never held a camera, spent four years filming her father who, during the process, found it impossible to resist taking control and offering her a crash course in filmmaking.

Vulnerable, cross, funny, wild and wise, Boorman chronicles his adventures in Hollywood, but also talks with great honesty about his childhood, his marriages, his passion for nature, his need for danger and why film is the only thing he ever truly loved. Though the film is also a portrait of one of the most influential British filmmakers of the last 40 years, most of all it is a story of a father and daughter finding their way back to each other through the language of film.

SUN 23:20 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.

SUN 00:20 The Man who Discovered Egypt (b01f13f4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

SUN 01:20 Born to be Wild: The Golden Age of American Rock (b03q050x)
School's Out

This second part tells the story of the 1970s, when rock stars became multi-millionaires and the music they made was the soundtrack for middle America.

After the rage and protest of the previous decade, rock music of the early 70s was gentle and sweet - the songs of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and the Doobie Brothers. Although the USA was riven by political disasters - the end of the Vietnam War, Watergate and the gasoline crisis - rock music seldom commented on them, although Alice Cooper's Nixon satire Elected was a rare exception. But in the middle of the decade new voices started to emerge, such as Bruce Springsteen's songs of working class glory or Tom Petty's tight, 1960s-inspired sound.

The massive success of stadium shows exemplified how big American rock had become and, in 1976 and 1977, the genre soared with a string of multi-platinum albums by Fleetwood Mac, Boston, the Eagles and Meat Loaf. Unlike in the UK, American punk barely diverted the rock gods, but disco did make an impact. Rock became smoother and more saccharine and in the corporate offices of record labels the drive was for ever larger profits.

With interviews with many of the decade's leading rock musicians, the programme also features studio and concert footage including Alice Cooper, Bruce Springsteen and the Eagles.

Interviews include: Tom Petty, Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, Tom Scholz (Boston), Todd Rundgren, Don Felder (the Eagles), Tom Johnston (the Doobie Brothers), Chuck D (Public Enemy), Peter Frampton, Bill Payne (Little Feat), Pamela des Barres, FM DJ Jim Ladd, film director Penelope Spheeris, manager Peter Mensch, journalists Sylvie Simmons and Rolling Stone magazine's David Fricke.

SUN 02:20 Alice Cooper: Brutally Live (b03q9tvk)
The king of shock rock's inimitable stage show Brutally Live, filmed at the Hammersmith Apollo, London in July 2000, in support of his album Brutal Planet. Alice Cooper combines his distinct brand of rock and theatre with the use of elaborate props to unsettle and shock his audience. His famous costumes, a guillotine, a werewolf baby, pools of fake blood and the thick black eye make-up dripping down his face work together to create his trademark demonic style.

MONDAY 20 JANUARY 2014

MON 19:00 World News Today (b03ql4sq)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

MON 19:30 Elephant Diaries (b00794vw)
Series 1

Episode 2

Michaela finds out if Naserian, the newly rescued baby elephant, has survived her first 24 hours at the Nairobi nursery. In Tsavo, Jonathan gets up close and personal with the big matriarch Emily as the herd of 30 larger orphans comes face to face with a herd of wild elephants, and are visited by Dika, an enormous orphan bull that is now living wild.

Back in Nairobi, Michaela follows the preparations for breaking up the nursery herd and moving their devoted mini-matriarch Wendi and five older babies to a brand new release site. As the move begins, Michaela's in the thick of the action when one of the baby elephants being transported has a panic attack in the back of a truck.

MON 20:00 King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons (b03816y5)
Alfred of Wessex

King Alfred the Great fights a desperate guerrilla war in the marshes of Somerset - burning the cakes on the way - before his decisive victory at Edington. Creating towns, trade and coinage, reviving learning and literacy, Alfred then laid the foundations of a single kingdom of 'all the English'. Filmed on location from Reading to Rome, using original texts read in old English, and interviews with leading scholars, Michael Wood describes a man who was 'not just the greatest Briton, but one of the greatest rulers of any time or place'.

MON 21:00 Project Nim (b01p0gtf)
Documentary about Nim Chimpsky, the chimpanzee who in the 1970s became the focus of a landmark experiment which aimed to show that an ape could learn to communicate with language if raised and nurtured like a human child. Following Nim's extraordinary journey through human society, and the enduring impact he makes on the people he meets along the way, the film is an unflinching and unsentimental biography of an animal we tried to make human.

MON 22:35 Storyville (b03qljf3)
Big Brother Watching Me: Citizen Ai Weiwei

Storyville follows artist Ai Weiwei, China's most notorious artist. In recent years his provocative work has brought him global recognition - and a prision sentence from the Communist authorities.

The documentary follows Ai Weiwei in the tense year following his release from his three month confinement in 2011. It documents his ongoing legal battles while on parole, and the pressure exerted by the authorities, who monitor his every move.

At home and in his studio, the artist reflects on his experiences in prison, the political climate and wonders how far he should take his activism - after all, he now has a young son to worry about. The troubles with his enemies provide inspiration for making new works of art, an outlet for him to vent his frustration.

This absorbing documentary captures the life of a dissident artist, one recovering from the pyschological impact of his time in prison.

MON 23:50 Hidden Histories: Britain's Oldest Family Businesses (b03q0177)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Sunday]

MON 00:50 King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons (b03816y5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

MON 01:50 Project Nim (b01p0gtf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 21 JANUARY 2014

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b03ql4sw)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

TUE 19:30 Elephant Diaries (b00794wg)
Series 1

Episode 3

After a long and dramatic journey, Michaela and the six little orphaned elephants from Nairobi arrive at Ithumba, the new release site in the wilds of northern Tsavo, but their leader Wendi is out of her depth in their strange new home. Back in Nairobi, the four baby elephants left behind are struggling to cope with the loss of their mini-matriarch. Hopefully help is at hand for Wendi.

In southern Tsavo, Jonathan prepares for action as four much bigger female orphans are reluctantly separated from Emily's huge herd. The idea is that these more experienced females will help Wendi and the youngsters already at Ithumba settle in. But will it work? Jonathan follows the entire move and is an eyewitness when things go badly wrong.

TUE 20:00 Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited (b01sgx9m)
Sacred Women of the Iron Age

Archaeologist Julian Richards returns to some of his most important digs to discover how science, conservation, and brand new finds have changed our understanding of entire eras of ancient history. Julian goes back to the excavation of two very different Iron Age woman - the possible sacrifice of a teenage girl from the Cotswolds, and the extraordinary chariot queen whose well preserved possessions are leading to some astonishing new conclusions about Iron Age belief, all because of a mirror and its otter-fur bag.

TUE 21:00 Rococo: Travel, Pleasure, Madness (b03sg830)
Travel

Following the grandeur of Baroque, Rococo art is often dismissed as frivolous and unserious, but Waldemar Januszczak disagrees. In this three-part series he re-examines Rococo art and argues that the Rococo was actually the age in which the modern world was born. Picking three key territories of Rococo achievement - travel, pleasure and madness - Waldemar celebrates the finest cultural achievements of the period and examine the drives and underlying meanings that make them so prescient.

The first episode is about travel in the 18th century and how it impacted greatly on some of the finest art ever made. The world was getting smaller and took on new influences shown in the glorious Bavarian pilgrimage architecture, Canaletto's romantic Venice and the blossoming of exotic designs and tastes all over Europe. The Rococo was art expressing itself in new, exciting ways.

TUE 22:00 The Man who Discovered Egypt (b01f13f4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]

TUE 23:00 Wild China (b00bf5b0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]

TUE 00:00 China in Six Easy Pieces (b036r5cx)
For centuries the west has been enthralled by flamboyant blue-and-white ceramics from China but unaware that all the time the Chinese were making porcelains for themselves that were completely different - subtle monochromes for the Imperial court, beautiful objects for the scholar's table and delicate domestic wares.

Ceramics expert Lars Tharp, Antiques Roadshow resident and presenter of Treasures of Chinese Porcelain, has picked his six favourite pieces representing Chinese taste. He goes on a journey through a thousand years of Chinese history, travelling from the ancient capital of Huangzhou in the south to Beijing's Forbidden City in the north, to uncover what these six pieces tell us about Chinese emperors, scholars, workers, merchants and artists.

To him, they are China in ceramic form. But can they help us to understand China today?

TUE 01:00 Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited (b01sgx9m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

TUE 02:00 The Man who Discovered Egypt (b01f13f4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]

TUE 03:00 Rococo: Travel, Pleasure, Madness (b03sg830)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 22 JANUARY 2014

WED 19:00 World News Today (b03ql4t1)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

WED 19:30 Elephant Diaries (b00794x1)
Series 1

Episode 4

At the Nairobi nursery, the dry season brings a flood of new baby orphans, and Michaela meets the latest newcomer, a happy and charismatic baby elephant called Jipe. In southern Tsavo, Emily, the matriarch of the large orphan herd, is behaving strangely, throwing her weight around like an adolescent teenager. Her keepers think she may be ready to go back to the wild.

Up at the new release site in northern Tsavo, Jonathan follows the newly formed herd of ten little orphans as they start to bond. But just as they are beginning to settle down, disaster strikes - the herd is attacked by a rabid dog and it looks like all the orphans here, including gentle little Wendi, may have to be put down.

WED 20:00 The Grammar School: A Secret History (b0192q6y)
Episode 1

The British grammar schools provided five consecutive prime ministers as well as many high fliers in industry, science and the arts. Yet at the height of their success they were phased out.

Featuring David Attenborough and Joan Bakewell amongst many others, this two-part series uses personal stories and rare archive footage to reveal the secret history of some of Britain's most successful schools, whose aim was to give the very best education to talented children - whatever their background.

WED 21:00 Hidden Histories: Britain's Oldest Family Businesses (b03qlp97)
Toye the Medal Maker

Fiona Toye married into a family that has been making regalia for generations, including OBEs for the royal family. The film follows Fiona as she steers this traditional company through the 21st century.

Narrated by Margaret Mountford.

WED 22:00 Treasures of Ancient Egypt (p01mv1cv)
The Golden Age

On a journey through Ancient Egyptian art, Alastair Sooke picks treasures from its most opulent and glittering moment. Starting with troubling psychological portraits of tyrant king Senwosret III and ending with the golden mask of boy king Tutankhamun, Sooke also explores architectural wonders, exquisite tombs and a lost city - site of the greatest artistic revolution in Egypt's history where a new sinuous style was born under King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti. Along the way Egyptologists and artists reveal that the golden veneer conceals a touching humanity.

WED 23:00 Seamus Heaney: Out of the Marvellous (b03b9q6j)
A portrait of one of the greatest English-language poets of his generation, this joyful and penetrating documentary was made with the late Seamus Heaney's unprecedented collaboration. The film explores the key personal relationship in his life, that with his wife Marie, and follows him to Harvard, New York and London, to readings, signings and public interviews.

Offering compelling insights into the working life of a major writer, it digs deep into the rich store of Heaney's poetry to reveal a man who lived his life fully; used his gifts to give expression to the great themes in all our lives of love, loss and longing; and managed, as a man and as a writer, to combine the simplicity of a farmer's son from County Derry with the sophistication of a major artist.

WED 00:15 Narnia's Lost Poet: The Secret Lives and Loves of CS Lewis (b03jrw5j)
CS Lewis's biographer AN Wilson goes in search of the man behind Narnia - best-selling children's author and famous Christian writer, but an under-appreciated Oxford academic and an aspiring poet who never achieved the same success in writing verse as he did prose.

Although his public life was spent in the all-male world of Oxford colleges, his private life was marked by secrecy and even his best friend JRR Tolkien didn't know of his marriage to an American divorcee late in life. Lewis died on the same day as the assassination of John F Kennedy and few were at his burial - his alcoholic brother was too drunk to tell people the time of the funeral. Fifty years on, his life as a writer is now being remembered alongside other national literary heroes in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner.

In this personal and insightful film, Wilson paints a psychological portrait of a man who experienced fame in the public arena, but whose personal life was marked by the loss of the three women he most loved.

WED 01:15 Britain by Bike (b00tg2q0)
The Cotswolds

Clare Balding tests the limits of pedal power again with a cycle trip through an area considered one of the prettiest in Britain, the Cotswolds.

Following the wheel tracks of cycling author Harold Briercliffe, whose guide books of the late 1940s paint an evocative portrait of Britain on B-Roads, she encounters not only beautiful countryside but one or two surprises.

Briercliffe had controversial views about this handsomely-preserved landscape. Carrying a set of Harold's Cycling Touring Guides for company and riding his very own bicycle, Clare goes in search of the world he described.

Along the way, she explores why the countryside looks the way it does, examines how post-war social change opened the doors of great private houses like Blenheim to a paying public and reveals how two men - both called William Morris - helped change the face of heritage tourism.

WED 01:45 The Grammar School: A Secret History (b0192q6y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

WED 02:45 Hidden Histories: Britain's Oldest Family Businesses (b03qlp97)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THURSDAY 23 JANUARY 2014

THU 19:00 World News Today (b03ql4t6)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b03qlq5q)
Weekly pop chart programme presented by Peter Powell. Featuring Olympic Runners, Anne Murray, the Three Degrees, Ian Dury & the Blockheads, Billy Joel, Chic, the Village People and dance sequences by Legs & Co.

THU 20:00 Ever Decreasing Circles (b036d6db)
Series 1

A Strange Woman

Martin and certain others in the Close are nearly scandalised by Paul's outlandish behaviour, burning perfectly good house signs and entertaining scantily clad women in his back garden.

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

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

THU 21:00 Treasures of Ancient Egypt (p01mv1kj)
A New Dawn

Alastair Sooke concludes the epic story of Egyptian art by looking at how, despite political decline, the final era of the Egyptian Empire saw its art enjoy revival and rebirth. From the colossal statues of Rameses II that proclaimed the pharaoh's power to the final flourishes under Queen Cleopatra, Sooke discovers that the subsequent invasions by foreign rulers, from the Nubians and Alexander the Great to the Romans, produced a new hybrid art full of surprise. He also unearths a seam of astonishing satirical work, produced by ordinary men, that continues to inspire Egypt's graffiti artists today.

THU 22:00 Lost Land of the Volcano (b00mwcqx)
Episode 3

Steve Backshall heads a team descending into the crater of a giant extinct volcano covered in thick jungle. Deep in the heart of the remote island of New Guinea, this lost land is protected on all sides by fortress walls half a mile high. They are the first outsiders ever to penetrate this hidden world, which biologists have long believed could be home to spectacular new creatures.

George McGavin travels east to an erupting volcano and discovers a rare bird that depends on the hot ash for its survival. Sudden explosions bring the trip to a quick halt as giant boulders crash into camp.

The series culminates in the lost world of the crater as Steve and wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan discover two large mammals that have no fear of people and are totally new to science - a giant rat that is as big as a cat, and a cuscus, which is a tree-climbing marsupial.

THU 23:00 Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited (b01sgx9m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Tuesday]

THU 00:00 Rococo: Travel, Pleasure, Madness (b03sg830)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]

THU 01:00 Top of the Pops (b03qlq5q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

THU 01:40 Ever Decreasing Circles (b036d6db)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

THU 02:10 Lost Land of the Volcano (b00mwcqx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]

THU 03:10 Treasures of Ancient Egypt (p01mv1kj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

FRIDAY 24 JANUARY 2014

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b03ql4tc)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

FRI 19:30 BBC Proms (b03qw0jf)
Chamber Music

Britten and Dowland

Two great British tenors perform music by two great British composers. Ian Bostridge joins lutenist Elizabeth Kenny and the viol ensemble Fretwork for galliards and laments by John Dowland and a lute song from Benjamin Britten's opera Gloriana. James Gilchrist sings Britten's rarely heard Songs from the Chinese, accompanied by guitarist Christoph Denoth. To complete the programme, soprano Ruby Hughes joins James and Christoph for one of Britten's folk song arrangements, Master Kilby.

FRI 20:00 Chamber Music at the BBC (b03qlqqy)
Julian Bream at the BBC

Petroc Trelawney presents the last in his series exploring the great classical stars through the BBC film archive. He spotlights the legendary British guitarist Julian Bream. Now 80 years old, Bream's life and music were richly documented through regular appearances on television from the 1960s to the 1980s. Performances include Malcolm Arnold's Guitar Concerto conducted by the composer, duets with John Williams, hot jazz, classical transcriptions and lute music performed with Bream's own Early Music Consort.

FRI 21:00 Born to be Wild: The Golden Age of American Rock (b03qlqr0)
Welcome to the Jungle

The final part explores the 1980s and the eventual demise of the golden era of American rock.

The beginning of the decade saw the meteoric rise of MTV which completely changed the landscape of rock music. From Los Angeles, a new rock scene emerged of party-anthem pop-metal, tailor-made for the visual medium of TV. Bands like Van Halen, Motley Crue and Poison sported heavy make-up, flashy clothes and huge hair while singing songs of sex, partying, drinking and drugs.

The other side of American mainstream rock attempted to tackle the social and political issues of the time. John Mellencamp, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen all produced a stadium rock that appealed to the nation's blue-collar workers. Their music filled arenas, but was anybody really listening to the message?

As the decade moved on, MTV exposure directly translated to commercial profit and soon the hugely popular pop-metal - dubbed Hair Metal by its critics - was saturating the market. Power ballads, big choruses and even bigger hair were the order of the day, with the highly marketable Bon Jovi leading the pack. Guns N' Roses saw themselves as the antithesis to what they considered fake rebellion, soft-rock drivel. But, as we discover, even they became neutralised by the commercialisation of the rock industry.

The documentary ends in the early 90s with the emergence of Nirvana and grunge, which wiped away the narcissistic, sexist and pompous music form American rock had grown into. However, it was ultimately another genre of pop music that really replaced the golden age of rock, producing the big personalities the rock scene could no longer provide.

FRI 22:00 Bon Jovi in Concert (b03qlqr2)
Stadium gods Bon Jovi rock London's tiny BBC Radio Theatre. The band perform classics from six albums across their 30-year reign: Slippery When Wet, Crush, Have a Nice Day, Lost Highway, The Circle and the first ever performance of material from 2013's What About Now.

FRI 23:00 Classic Albums (b00x7chg)
Tom Petty: Damn the Torpedoes

The third album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released in 1979, has long been regarded as a classic and demonstrates the musical and songwriting virtuosity of a great frontman and his amazing backing band. A mix of rootsy American rock 'n' roll and the best of the British invasion, of jangling Byrds guitars and Stones-like rhythms, Damn the Torpedoes was the album that took Petty into the major league and redefined American rock.

This programme tells the story behind the conception and recording of the album and how it transformed the band's career. Using interviews, musical demonstration, acoustic performance, archive footage and a return to the multi-tracks with the main protagonists, it shows how Petty, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Ron Blair and Stan Lynch created their songs and sounds with the help of co-producer Jimmy Iovine and engineer Shelly Yakus. Additional comments from journalists and other producers and musicians help tell the story and put the album into its rightful place in rock history.

Recorded in secrecy at a time when the band was fighting for creative independence amidst a legal wrangle with their record company, the album is imbued with an anger and a gutsy attitude the situation had created. Many songs from the album are still played live and form an important part of Petty's body of work, including Refugee, Here Comes My Girl, Even the Losers, Shadow of a Doubt, Louisiana Rain, Century City and top ten hit Don't Do Me Like That.

Damn the Torpedoes hit number two in the US for seven weeks, initially selling over 2.5 million copies, and launched Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers onto the world stage and into superstar territory, standing as one of the great records of the late 70s and early 80s.

FRI 00:00 Born to be Wild: The Golden Age of American Rock (b03qlqr0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

FRI 01:00 Bon Jovi in Concert (b03qlqr2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]

FRI 02:00 Great American Rock Anthems: Turn it up to 11 (b03n2w37)
It's the sound of the heartland, of the midwest and the industrial cities, born in the early 70s by kids who had grown up in the 60s and were now ready to make their own noise, to come of age in the bars, arenas and stadiums of the US of A. Out of blues and prog and glam and early metal, a distinct American rock hybrid started to emerge across the country courtesy of Alice Cooper, Grand Funk Railroad et al, and at its very heart is The Great American Rock Anthem.

At the dawn of the 70s American rock stopped looking for a revolution and started looking for a good time; enter the classic American rock anthem - big drums, a soaring guitar, a huge chorus and screaming solos. This film celebrates the evolution of the American rock anthem during its glory years between 1970 and 1990 as it became a staple of the emerging stadium rock and AOR radio and then MTV.

From School's Out and Don't Fear the Reaper to Livin' on a Prayer and Smells Like Teen Spirit, these are the songs that were the soundtrack to teenage lives in the US and around the world, anthems that had people singing out loud with arms and lighters aloft.

Huey Morgan narrates the story of some of the greatest American rock anthems and tracks the emergence of this distinct American rock of the 70s and 80s. Anthems explored include School's Out, We're an American Band, Don't Fear the Reaper, Paradise by the Dashboard Light, I Love Rock 'n' Roll, Eye of the Tiger, I Want to Know What Love Is, Livin' on a Prayer and Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Contributors include: Alice Cooper, Dave Grohl, Butch Vig, Meat Loaf, Todd Rundgren, Richie Sambora, Blue Oyster Cult, Survivor, Toto and Foreigner.

FRI 03:00 Classic Albums (b00x7chg)
[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)

A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley 20:00 SAT (p01fv16l)

A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley 02:40 SAT (p01fv16l)

Alice Cooper: Brutally Live 02:20 SUN (b03q9tvk)

BBC Proms 19:30 FRI (b03qw0jf)

Big in America: British Hits in the USA 00:40 SAT (b01bywsr)

Bon Jovi in Concert 22:00 FRI (b03qlqr2)

Bon Jovi in Concert 01:00 FRI (b03qlqr2)

Born to be Wild: The Golden Age of American Rock 01:20 SUN (b03q050x)

Born to be Wild: The Golden Age of American Rock 21:00 FRI (b03qlqr0)

Born to be Wild: The Golden Age of American Rock 00:00 FRI (b03qlqr0)

Britain by Bike 01:15 WED (b00tg2q0)

Chamber Music at the BBC 20:00 FRI (b03qlqqy)

China in Six Easy Pieces 00:00 TUE (b036r5cx)

Classic Albums 23:00 FRI (b00x7chg)

Classic Albums 03:00 FRI (b00x7chg)

Elephant Diaries 19:30 MON (b00794vw)

Elephant Diaries 19:30 TUE (b00794wg)

Elephant Diaries 19:30 WED (b00794x1)

Ever Decreasing Circles 20:00 THU (b036d6db)

Ever Decreasing Circles 01:40 THU (b036d6db)

Great American Rock Anthems: Turn it up to 11 02:00 FRI (b03n2w37)

Hidden Histories: Britain's Oldest Family Businesses 20:00 SUN (b03q0177)

Hidden Histories: Britain's Oldest Family Businesses 23:50 MON (b03q0177)

Hidden Histories: Britain's Oldest Family Businesses 21:00 WED (b03qlp97)

Hidden Histories: Britain's Oldest Family Businesses 02:45 WED (b03qlp97)

King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons 20:00 MON (b03816y5)

King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons 00:50 MON (b03816y5)

London on Film 20:30 THU (b01jzq75)

Lost Land of the Volcano 22:00 THU (b00mwcqx)

Lost Land of the Volcano 02:10 THU (b00mwcqx)

Me and Me Dad: A Portrait of John Boorman 22:30 SUN (b022y0h2)

Narnia's Lost Poet: The Secret Lives and Loves of CS Lewis 00:15 WED (b03jrw5j)

Nelson's Caribbean Hell-hole: An Eighteenth Century Navy Graveyard Uncovered 23:20 SUN (b01s6gjx)

Point Blank 21:00 SUN (b007896b)

Project Nim 21:00 MON (b01p0gtf)

Project Nim 01:50 MON (b01p0gtf)

Rococo: Travel, Pleasure, Madness 21:00 TUE (b03sg830)

Rococo: Travel, Pleasure, Madness 03:00 TUE (b03sg830)

Rococo: Travel, Pleasure, Madness 00:00 THU (b03sg830)

Seamus Heaney: Out of the Marvellous 23:00 WED (b03b9q6j)

Slade at the BBC 23:00 SAT (b01pdt89)

Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited 20:00 TUE (b01sgx9m)

Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited 01:00 TUE (b01sgx9m)

Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited 23:00 THU (b01sgx9m)

Storyville 22:35 MON (b03qljf3)

The Bridge 21:00 SAT (b03f2bn1)

The Bridge 22:00 SAT (b03fqbkf)

The Grammar School: A Secret History 20:00 WED (b0192q6y)

The Grammar School: A Secret History 01:45 WED (b0192q6y)

The Man who Discovered Egypt 19:00 SUN (b01f13f4)

The Man who Discovered Egypt 00:20 SUN (b01f13f4)

The Man who Discovered Egypt 22:00 TUE (b01f13f4)

The Man who Discovered Egypt 02:00 TUE (b01f13f4)

Top of the Pops 00:00 SAT (b03q02r7)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b03qlq5q)

Top of the Pops 01:00 THU (b03qlq5q)

Treasures of Ancient Egypt 22:00 WED (p01mv1cv)

Treasures of Ancient Egypt 21:00 THU (p01mv1kj)

Treasures of Ancient Egypt 03:10 THU (p01mv1kj)

Wild China 19:00 SAT (b00bf5b0)

Wild China 01:40 SAT (b00bf5b0)

Wild China 23:00 TUE (b00bf5b0)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b03ql4sq)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b03ql4sw)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b03ql4t1)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b03ql4t6)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b03ql4tc)