The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
Michael Portillo embarks on a new journey, guided by his Bradshaw's Handbook from London's Euston station to Leeds.
In this first leg, he finds out what happened to the once proud Euston Arch andk braves the watery depths under Camden Town to see how goods were transported by rail, road and canal. Clad in his old school blazer, Michael heads north to explore the Harrow of his childhood and remembers the tragic rail disaster of 1952. At the country estate of one of the world's wealthiest banking families in Tring, he discovers an exotic collection in need of special attention before alighting at Cheddington, scene of the Great Train Robbery.
Paleontologist Professor Richard Fortey embarks on a quest to discover the extraordinary lives of rock pool creatures. To help explore this unusual environment he is joined by some of the UK's leading marine biologists in a dedicated laboratory at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth. Here and on the beach in various locations around the UK, startling behaviour is revealed and new insights are given into how these animals cope with intertidal life. Many popular rock pool species have survived hundreds of millions of years of Earth's history, but humans may be their biggest challenge yet.
Professor Mark Miodownik concludes his odyssey of the stuff of modern life. This time he looks at how materials have enabled us to indulge our curiosity about the world around us. To go further and travel faster. He looks at how the bicycle suddenly stirred our national gene pool, why we should all be grateful for exploding glass and what levitation has to do with discovering your inner self. On the road and in the lab with dramatic experiments, Mark reveals why the everyday and even the mundane is anything but.
The night-time market at Smithfield was once the sole supplier of meat and poultry to London and could play by its own rules.
But now the modern world of political correctness and customer service is proving a challenge for some in this closed, traditional man's world.
Smithfield has been supplying the capital with meat since the 12th century, but what does the future hold for the men of the meat market?
Simon Schama traces the steps of the empire-makers to tell the extraordinary story of how this small set of islands came to rule an empire that stretched around the globe. How did a trading enterprise based on the idea of liberty become an empire built on the enslavement of millions of Africans? How did Britain lose control of its own colony - America - yet go on to conquer India? On a journey that takes him to Barbados, North America, Canada and India, Schama reveals how Britain came to rule 'the wrong empire'.
WEDNESDAY 27 AUGUST 2014
WED 19:00 World News Today (b04fm30h)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b03qg89k)
Series 5
Bletchley to Newport Pagnell
Michael Portillo continues his journey north on Robert Stephenson's first inter-city railway line from the capital. Along the line at Bletchley he meets one of the Second World War's most secret agents, discovers a poet in Olney whose words are still sung today and explores the first purpose-built railway town at Wolverton. Michael's last stop on this leg is Newport Pagnell, where he learns the ancient craft of vellum-making.
WED 20:00 The Wonder of Animals (b04fmg8d)
Big Cats
Chris Packham delves beneath the skin of the big cats to explore what makes them such good hunters, and he reveals that it is not all about brawn.
New scientific research shows how subtle adaptations in their anatomy and physiology contribute to the success of all stages of a big cat hunt: the stalk, the capture and the kill.
Leg hairs help the leopard to stalk, and intricate muscle fibres drive the snow leopard to capture its prey. For the jaguar, jaw muscles and whiskers combine to give it a precision bite that can take down a caiman, and an enlarged area of the lioness's brain gives it the edge over all their big cat cousins.
WED 20:30 The Beauty of Anatomy (b04fmg8g)
Rembrandt and Ruysch
In the 17th century in Holland, anatomy became the cutting edge of medical science, inspiring the great artists of the age like Rembrandt to produce the most beautiful anatomical paintings yet created.
Adam Rutherford travels to the Hague and Amsterdam to find out what it was that drew Rembrandt to anatomy and why dissecting bodies was thought a suitable subject for high art.
WED 21:00 Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds: A Tale of Three Cities (b04fmg8j)
Paris 1928
Dr James Fox tells the story of Paris in 1928. It was a city that attracted people dreaming of a better world after World War I. This was the year when the surrealists Magritte, Dali and Bunuel brought their bizarre new vision to the people, and when emigre writers and musicians such as Ernest Hemingway and George Gershwin came looking for inspiration.
Paris in 1928 was where black musicians and dancers like Josephine Baker found adulation, where Cole Porter took time off from partying to write Let's Do It, and where radical architect Le Corbusier planned a modernist utopia that involved pulling down much of Paris itself.
WED 22:00 Wild China (b00c5n6g)
Land of the Panda
China's heartland is the centre of a 5,000-year-old civilization and is home to the giant panda, the golden snub-nosed monkey and the golden takin. China faces environmental problems, but the relationship the Chinese have with their environment is deep and extraordinary. We will understand what this means for the future of China.
WED 23:00 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.
WED 00:00 Moominland Tales: The Life of Tove Jansson (b01pgrk2)
Moomintroll and the Moomin family are characters loved by children and parents worldwide who have grown up listening to Finnish writer Tove Jansson's delightful stories about a group of philosophical trolls who face a range of adventures in Moominland.
This documentary reveals the strong autobiographical slant in the Moomins series as it traces the author's own extraordinary story from living the bohemian life of an artist in war-torn Helsinki to becoming a recluse on a remote island in the Gulf of Finland.
Enjoying unprecedented access to Jansson's personal archive, the film reveals an unconventional, brave and compelling woman whose creative genius extended beyond Moominland to satire, fine art and masterful adult fiction - not least her highly regarded The Summer Book. With home movie footage shot by her long-term female lover and companion, it offers a unique glimpse of an uncompromising fun-loving woman who developed love as the central theme of her work.
WED 01:00 The Wonder of Animals (b04fmg8d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 01:30 The Beauty of Anatomy (b04fmg8g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
WED 02:00 Wild China (b00c5n6g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WED 03:00 Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds: A Tale of Three Cities (b04fmg8j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 28 AUGUST 2014
THU 19:00 World News Today (b04fm30n)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 BBC Proms (b04fy0gz)
2014
BBC Proms Masterworks: Stravinsky and Lutoslawski
Tom Service presents as the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain return for their annual Proms performance. Ed Gardner conducts an energetic programme of 20th-century music featuring Stravinsky's vivid ballet Petrushka, Lutoslawski's colourful Concerto for Orchestra and Prokofiev's First Piano Concerto with soloist Louis Schwizgebel.
THU 21:10 A History of Britain by Simon Schama (b0078tr5)
Series 3
Forces of Nature
The French Revolution sent shockwaves through Britain. While some watched transfixed, others were horrified.
Simon Schama explores why the British proved immune to the siren call of liberty, equality and fraternity.
THU 22:10 Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe (b0079238)
The Land of My Mother
Francesco da Mosto visits the south and Sicily, home of his mother's family for more than 500 years. Easter celebrations in the south involve the streets running red with celebrants' blood and the locals indulging in frantic dances to ward off the threat of the tarantula.
On Sicily, the brooding majesty of Etna terrifies Francesco as he stares into the volcano, but there's beauty and art at the Villa Bagheria and an explosion of baroque decadence at Noto. Finally for Francesco, there's an emotional reunion with his family, who have come down from Venice.
THU 23:10 Everyday Miracles: The Genius of Sofas, Stockings and Scanners (b04fmg34)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
THU 00:10 King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons (b038rkw9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
THU 01:10 Al Murray's Great British War Movies (b04fmfrg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
THU 02:10 The Cricklewood Greats (b01bs3ww)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:10 on Monday]
THU 02:55 A History of Britain by Simon Schama (b0078tr5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:10 today]
FRIDAY 29 AUGUST 2014
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b04fm30t)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 BBC Proms (b04fy01d)
2014
Friday Night at the Proms: Barenboim Conducts the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
A Proms visit from Daniel Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is always an exciting event. The international ensemble's home is Seville and the programme has a strong Spanish flavour. Razia Iqbal and organist-conductor Wayne Marshall present Mozart's sparkling overture to the Marriage of Figaro - set just outside Seville - and a series of Ravel pieces including Rapsodie espagnol, Pavane for a Dead Princess and the ultra-popular Bolero.
FRI 21:00 Blondie's New York... and the Making of Parallel Lines (b04fmgkb)
Blondie's album Parallel Lines captured the spirit of 1970s New York at a time of poverty, crime and an exploding artistic life, selling 16 million copies. This is the story of that album, that time and that city, told primarily by the seven individuals who wrote, produced and performed it. It was a calculated and painstaking endeavour to produce sure-fire hits - whatever it took.
The film follows Debbie Harry and the rest of the Blondie crew as they head into the studio to record their game-changing album with producer Mike Chapman. It also features commentary from Harry herself about writing music, the media's focus on her appearance and lyrically inspirational ex-boyfriends.
In 1978 the New York band Blondie had two punk albums behind them and were establishing a name for themselves at the club CBGBs on New York's Lower East Side. Then Chrysalis Records exec Terry Ellis saw them and spent a massive $1m buying out their recording contract. He had to ensure that their next album was a hit - there was no room for error. To do this he brought in maverick Australian record producer Mike Chapman, who already had a string of hits under his belt. Mike's job was to turn this crew of New York punks into world stars - but did they have the popular songs which would appeal to a wider non-punk audience?
At a time when rich creativity, grinding poverty and drug abuse were hand in hand on the sidewalks of the Lower East Side, the music and lyrics of Parallel Lines celebrated and captured this vibrant and edgy chemistry, shooting the band to international stardom.
FRI 21:50 Glastonbury (b047zjqt)
Lorde
Blondie
A look back at the 2014 Friday lunchtime set at the festival by legendary New York group Blondie. Led by Debbie Harry, the band celebrate their official 40th anniversary this year and at Worthy Farm, in between the rain showers, work through a set that includes some of their many classic hits plus a track or two from their most recent album.
FRI 22:45 Synth Britannia (b00n93c4)
Documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage.
In the late 1970s, small pockets of electronic artists including The Human League, Daniel Miller and Cabaret Voltaire were inspired by Kraftwerk and JG Ballard, and they dreamt of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.
The crossover moment came in 1979 when Gary Numan's appearance on Top of the Pops with Tubeway Army's Are 'Friends' Electric? heralded the arrival of synthpop. Four lads from Basildon known as Depeche Mode would come to own the new sound, whilst post-punk bands like Ultravox, Soft Cell, OMD and Yazoo took the synth out of the pages of NME and onto the front page of Smash Hits.
By 1983, acts like Pet Shop Boys and New Order were showing that the future of electronic music would lie in dance music.
Contributors include Philip Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant.
FRI 00:15 Blondie's New York... and the Making of Parallel Lines (b04fmgkb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 01:05 Glastonbury (b047zjqt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:50 today]
FRI 02:00 Synth Britannia (b00n93c4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:45 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 History of Britain by Simon Schama
00:00 TUE (b0074lsn)
A History of Britain by Simon Schama
21:10 THU (b0078tr5)
A History of Britain by Simon Schama
02:55 THU (b0078tr5)
Al Murray's Great British War Movies
20:00 MON (b04fmfrg)
Al Murray's Great British War Movies
02:55 MON (b04fmfrg)
Al Murray's Great British War Movies
01:10 THU (b04fmfrg)
BBC Proms
19:00 SUN (b04frc32)
BBC Proms
19:30 THU (b04fy0gz)
BBC Proms
19:30 FRI (b04fy01d)
Blondie's New York... and the Making of Parallel Lines
21:00 FRI (b04fmgkb)
Blondie's New York... and the Making of Parallel Lines
00:15 FRI (b04fmgkb)
Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds: A Tale of Three Cities
23:55 MON (b04f83xq)
Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds: A Tale of Three Cities
21:00 WED (b04fmg8j)
Bright Lights, Brilliant Minds: A Tale of Three Cities
03:00 WED (b04fmg8j)
Cafe de Flore
22:05 SUN (b01rhg9m)
Definitely Dusty
21:05 SUN (b00780bt)
Definitely Dusty
03:00 SUN (b00780bt)
Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain
23:00 WED (b038rj1b)
Everyday Miracles: The Genius of Sofas, Stockings and Scanners
21:00 TUE (b04fmg34)
Everyday Miracles: The Genius of Sofas, Stockings and Scanners
03:00 TUE (b04fmg34)
Everyday Miracles: The Genius of Sofas, Stockings and Scanners
23:10 THU (b04fmg34)
Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe
22:10 THU (b0079238)
Glastonbury
21:50 FRI (b047zjqt)
Glastonbury
01:05 FRI (b047zjqt)
Great British Railway Journeys
19:30 TUE (b03qg72p)
Great British Railway Journeys
19:30 WED (b03qg89k)
Human Planet
19:00 SAT (b00rrd7t)
Human Planet
01:50 SAT (b00rrd7t)
Human Planet
23:00 TUE (b00rrd7t)
Inspector Montalbano
21:00 SAT (b01fqlql)
Kate Bush at the BBC
01:00 SUN (b04f86xk)
King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons
19:00 MON (b038rkw9)
King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons
01:55 MON (b038rkw9)
King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons
00:10 THU (b038rkw9)
Moominland Tales: The Life of Tove Jansson
00:00 WED (b01pgrk2)
Queens of Disco
00:20 SAT (b0074thh)
Sounds of the 70s 2
01:20 SAT (b01jk1b8)
Synth Britannia
22:45 FRI (b00n93c4)
Synth Britannia
02:00 FRI (b00n93c4)
TOTP2
22:50 SAT (b007v15w)
Tales from the National Parks
20:00 SAT (b016psp6)
Tales from the National Parks
02:50 SAT (b016psp6)
Tales from the National Parks
01:00 TUE (b016psp6)
The Beauty of Anatomy
01:25 MON (b04dzrtr)
The Beauty of Anatomy
20:30 WED (b04fmg8g)
The Beauty of Anatomy
01:30 WED (b04fmg8g)
The Cricklewood Greats
23:10 MON (b01bs3ww)
The Cricklewood Greats
02:10 THU (b01bs3ww)
The Eagle Has Landed
21:00 MON (b00glr88)
The Joy of ABBA
02:00 SUN (b03lyzpp)
The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill
00:00 SUN (b04dzswb)
The London Markets
22:00 TUE (b01jbb99)
The Secret Life of Rockpools
20:00 TUE (b01rtdr4)
The Secret Life of Rockpools
02:00 TUE (b01rtdr4)
The Wonder of Animals
00:55 MON (b04dzrtp)
The Wonder of Animals
20:00 WED (b04fmg8d)
The Wonder of Animals
01:00 WED (b04fmg8d)
Wild China
22:00 WED (b00c5n6g)
Wild China
02:00 WED (b00c5n6g)
World News Today
19:00 TUE (b04fm30b)
World News Today
19:00 WED (b04fm30h)
World News Today
19:00 THU (b04fm30n)
World News Today
19:00 FRI (b04fm30t)