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 07 MARCH 2015

SAT 19:00 The Secret Life of Elephants (b00gvl9w)
The Secret Life of Elephants

Second in a series of three programmes revealing the emotional and dramatic lives of elephants in Kenya's Samburu reserve.

Baby elephant Breeze is growing up fast, but with the dry season approaching, she is about to face her biggest test yet. Meanwhile, Breeze's teenage brother Buster seems intent on getting himself and Breeze into trouble.

Outside the reserve, more trouble is brewing as people and elephants come into conflict. Elephant expert Iain Douglas-Hamilton sends daughter Saba on a mission to help one of their best-known elephants - Mountain Bull - who is on a collision course with farmers and villagers.

Elsewhere, a marauding group of bulls cause havoc by breaking into fields and raiding crops. The team think they might have an unusual solution and will need the help of some African honey bees.

Back in the reserve, a devastating drought takes hold and Breeze and her family are forced to compete with other elephants for food and water. Will baby Breeze survive these hard times?


SAT 20:00 Lost Kingdoms of Central America (b04hkb5p)
Kingdom of the Jaguar

Dr Jago Cooper explores the rise and fall of the forgotten civilisations of Central America.

His quest takes him from the crystal-blue seas of the Caribbean to the New World's most impressive pyramids, flying over the smoking volcanoes of Costa Rica and travelling deep underground in the caves of central Mexico.

He travels in the footsteps of these peoples to reveal their secrets and unearth the astonishing cultures that flourished amongst some of the most dramatic landscapes in the world.

Jago begins by journeying through southern Mexico to investigate the rise and fall of America's oldest civilisation, the Olmec, which thrived over 3,000 years ago. He encounters colossal stone heads and the oldest rubber balls in the world and descends deep inside an ancient cave network in search of a were-jaguar.


SAT 21:00 Hostages (b03z806l)
Episode 5

Yael has to perform life-saving emergency surgery on Eyal. The kidnappers now have the soldier captive in the basement. Adam has to bring his team back into line before Alex jeopardises the lives of one of the hostages.

In Hebrew with English subtitles.


SAT 21:35 Hostages (b03z806s)
Episode 6

With Noa's boyfriend still captive in the cellar and Eyal still recovering from being shot, Adam is suddenly called away from the house. Yael uses the hospital records to try to identify him. Assaf strikes a private bargain with one of their captors.

In Hebrew with English subtitles.


SAT 22:10 Hostages (b03z81h7)
Episode 7

Yonatan is determined to get Noa out of the house, even if it means leaving her parents behind. Yael challenges Eyal about his secret money problems. She finds an ally outside the house but cannot risk anything by telling him she is being held hostage.

In Hebrew with English subtitles.


SAT 22:45 Pompeii: The Mystery of the People Frozen in Time (b01rn6c2)
The city of Pompeii uniquely captures the public's imagination - in AD79 a legendary volcanic disaster left its citizens preserved in ashes to this very day. Yet no-one has been able to unravel the full story that is at the heart of our fascination - how did those bodies become frozen in time?

For the first time, the BBC has been granted unique access to these strange, ghost-like body casts that populate the ruins and, using the latest forensic technology, the chance to peer beneath the surface of the plaster in order to rebuild the faces of two of the people who were killed in this terrible tragedy.

Margaret Mountford turns detective to tell a new story at the heart of one of history's most iconic moments, as she looks at the unique set of circumstances that led to the remarkable preservation of the people of Pompeii. By applying modern-day forensic analysis to this age-old mystery, Margaret dispels the myths surrounding the events in AD79. She also explores the lives of the individuals who once lived in this vibrant and enigmatic city and recreates the last moments of the people caught up in this tragedy.


SAT 23:45 TOTP2 (b00sfz04)
80s Special

Mark Radcliffe presents a look back at some of the most memorable Top of the Pops performances from the 80s including Adam Ant, Kylie and Jason, Culture Club, Bucks Fizz, Yazz, Duran Duran and Wham!


SAT 00:45 Sounds of the Sixties (b0074qcb)
Original Series

The Singer and the Song

Rock, pop and R'n'B performances from the BBC archives, with Sandie Shaw, Dusty Springfield, Long John Baldry, Lulu, Tom Jones, Brenton Wood, Cliff Richard, Cilla Black and Peter Sarstedt.


SAT 01:15 Top of the Pops (b0544glm)
Simon Bates presents chart hits of the week, with performances from Matchbox, Keith Michell, the Flying Lizards, Elvis Costello, Michael Jackson, Dave Edmunds, Jon & Vangelis, Marti Webb and Kenny Rogers, and a dance sequence by Legs & Co.


SAT 01:50 The Secret Life of Elephants (b00gvl9w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 02:50 Lost Kingdoms of Central America (b04hkb5p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 08 MARCH 2015

SUN 19:00 The Great War (b0074p3g)
Hell Cannot Be So Terrible

In 1964, the BBC broadcast one of its most important and ambitious series ever. The Great War was to be the definitive account of the world-shattering events of 1914-1918. The eleventh part of this 26-part classic series looks at Verdun, one of the bloodiest battles known to history, continuing with almost non-stop violence for ten months during 1916. The French and Germans suffered over 700,000 casualties, and when the war ended, some 150,000 unidentified corpses were collected from the battlefield. In 1962, Lord Montgomery commented: 'I doubt if the French army ever recovered from Verdun; it certainly had not by 1940'.


SUN 19:40 Wild (b0079gl2)
2006-07 Shorts

New Forest Badgers

The badger is one of Britain's best-loved animals, and yet it is rarely seen. In the New Forest, the first evidence of the badgers are the setts which they occupy. But once an occupied sett has been spotted, many hours of patience are needed just to get the smallest glimpse of these elusive animals. This intimate portrait follows the badgers through their busiest time of year, giving an insight into their lives.


SUN 19:50 Wild (b00796w0)
2006-07 Shorts

Dancing Cranes of Sweden

Wildlife documentary. Each year in the heart of southern Sweden, a special lake hosts a natural spectacle. It's a stop-off point for more than 10,000 cranes migrating northwards. The sight of these huge birds milling around on the icy banks of the lake is a remarkable sight in itself, but the best is yet to come. As the spring sunshine melts the snow and ice, the cranes start to dance. Once seen, the dance of the cranes is never forgotten.


SUN 20:00 Royal Television Society Huw Wheldon Memorial Lecture (b05534nw)
Public Service Broadcasting: A House of Cards?

Lord Dobbs of Wylye - Michael Dobbs, creator of House of Cards - examines the UK's tradition of public service broadcasting, and asks whether in a rapidly changing broadcast market, public service broadcasters will continue to play an important role in our culture and society into the future.


SUN 20:45 Wild (b00jd9yx)
Scotland

Otters, Puffins and Seals

Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan explores his native Mull and some of the nearby islands, filming otters, deer, puffins, seals and a minke whale.


SUN 21:00 Natural World (b01nmdh3)
2012-2013

A Wolf Called Storm

Storm is an extraordinary wolf - the head of a pack in Canada's frozen north that hunts the giant buffalo herds. This pack came to fame in Frozen Planet, and now cameraman Jeff Turner spends a year with Storm and his wolf family, learning how they survive in this harsh wilderness and whether Storm can pass his hunting skills on to the new generation of wolf cubs.


SUN 22:00 Storyville (b05534p0)
India's Daughter

The story of the brutal gang rape and murder of 23-year-old medical student Jyoti on a moving bus in Delhi in 2012, and the unprecedented protests and riots which this horrific event ignited throughout India, leading to the demand for changes in attitudes towards women. The film examines the values and mindsets of the rapists, and interviews the two lawyers who defended the men convicted of Jyoti's rape and murder.


SUN 23:00 Bright Days Ahead (b045xh53)
Romantic comedy. Caroline, a married woman, falls for a much younger man when she attends his computer class. The feeling is mutual and, as they embark on an affair, she begins to rediscover herself.

In French with English subtitles.


SUN 00:30 Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity (b054v27d)
In the early 1980s, Culture Club was one of the biggest bands in the world, selling 150 million records worldwide. Formed in London, the band was comprised of Boy George on vocals, Mikey Craig on bass, Roy Hay on guitar and keyboards and Jon Moss on drums. As well as their UK success, the band was huge in the USA - notching up ten top 40 hits. Being part of Band Aid cemented them as stalwarts of the 80s, a band that broke down barriers and left a huge legacy for the stars that came later, before they disbanded in 1986.

However, they are a band with a past as colourful as their music. George had a secret affair with his drummer Jon Moss and when they acrimoniously split, the band fell apart and George descended into heroin addiction. Over the years there have been numerous failed attempts to reunite the band.

In 2014 Culture Club decided to come back together to record a new album and embark on a UK and US tour. Director Mike Nicholls has unique access, following the band as they first meet in George's London home to write new material. However, it's not long before creative differences and tensions from their past begin to emerge. Faultlines develop further when the band travel to Spain to record the new album, spending two weeks working and living together in a remote recording studio.

As the band return to London to prepare for the tour, they suffer a Twitter mauling after their first big public performance on Strictly Come Dancing. Relations are even more strained when George and the band sign to separate managers and a sudden illness threatens the whole reunion.

The film looks at the band's troubled past, examining the themes of success, fame and ego, and reveals the personalities behind one of the most iconic bands of all time.


SUN 01:30 Nile Rodgers: The Hitmaker Remastered (b01rk2tm)
The last two years have seen Nile Rodgers launched back into the limelight following the massive success of Daft Punk's single Get Lucky, his distinctive guitar work helping the French dance music duo to one of their biggest hits.

This 2013 documentary has been brought up to date to tell the story of his work with Daft Punk and how his band Chic has been introduced to a brand new audience.

As the co-founder, songwriter, producer and guitarist of Chic he helped define the sound of the 70s, as disco took the world by storm. But the music that had made Chic would also break them, thanks to the 'Disco Sucks' backlash. What could have been the end for Nile Rodgers would actually be a new beginning as a producer, helping create some of the biggest hits of the '80s for the likes of Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna and Duran Duran.

The ever-charismatic Rogers contributes an engaging and often frank interview to tell the tale of how, born to beatnik, heroin-addict parents in New York, he picked up a guitar as a teenager and embarked on a journey to learn his craft as a musician, before becoming one of disco's most successful artists.

In the '70s and '80s he lived the party lifestyle thanks to his success with Chic and as one of the music industry's hottest producers. Drugs and alcohol would become part of everyday life for Nile, contributing in part to the break-up of Chic in the early '80s. The band would reform in the mid '90s, but their return was quickly marked by tragedy with the death of Nile's long-time friend and musical partner Bernard Edwards in 1996.

The film recounts a captivating and moving story of a man who has been making hit music for nearly four decades and has found himself back in the limelight once again.


SUN 02:30 The New Romantics: A Fine Romance (b007btt3)
Culture Club, Spandau Ballet, Visage, Marilyn, Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran, ABC... At the dawn of the 80s, a whole host of strangely dressed men in make-up burst forth onto the music scene brandishing synthesisers and kicking against the visual ugliness of punk.

They came mainly from the London club scene, led by gender-bending host Steve Strange and pioneering electronic DJ Rusty Egan, and conquered the charts with classic tracks such as Do You Really Want to Hurt Me, To Cut a Long Story Short, Kings of the Wild Frontier, Planet Earth, Fade to Grey, Calling Your Name and Poison Arrow.

Magenta Devine narrates this gay and colourful behind-the-scene documentary of sex and drugs and frocks and hair-rollers, which includes interviews with Boy George, Gary Kemp, Adam Ant, Nick Rhodes, Steve Strange, Rusty Egan, Marilyn, Jonathan Ross, Caryn Franklin, Fiona Bruce and Robert Elms.


SUN 03:20 Sounds of the Eighties (b0074sk2)
Episode 3

Musical memories from the BBC archives. This edition concentrates on the soul and funk artists who found success in the British charts of the 1980s, with performances from Kool and the Gang, The Pointer Sisters, Grace Jones, Cameo, Bobby Womack, Sade, Alexander O'Neal and Whitney Houston.



MONDAY 09 MARCH 2015

MON 19:00 World News Today (b0552v2p)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Great Continental Railway Journeys (b03x10q8)
Series 2 - Reversions

Dresden to Kiel: Part 2

Steered by his 1913 railway guide, Michael Portillo explores Germany, the powerhouse of today's European Union, and learns how tourists in the early 20th century would have been visiting quite a new country, which they admired and envied but also feared.

Beginning in Dresden, Michael explores the city of one of his favourite opera composers, Richard Wagner. He learns about the health craze of the time and attempts the equivalent of a 1913 Jane Fonda workout. He travels to Leipzig on a historic railway line, built by British engineers in 1839. In Brunswick, he learns how the arrival of the railway added its own flavour to the local beer before moving on to Hamburg, where he discovers model railway-making on the grandest of scales.

In Kiel, Michael learns about the intense rivalry between Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany and his uncle, British King Edward VII, at the Kiel Week yacht races. Michael boards an early 20th-century yacht to experience the thrill for himself and learns how British yachtsmen spied on the German navy.


MON 20:00 Horizon (b014kj65)
2011-2012

Are You Good or Evil?

What makes us good or evil? It's a simple but deeply unsettling question. One that scientists are now starting to answer.

Horizon meets the researchers who have studied some of the most terrifying people behind bars - psychopathic killers.

But there was a shock in store for one of these scientists, Professor Jim Fallon, when he discovered that he had the profile of a psychopath. And the reason he didn't turn out to be a killer holds important lessons for all of us.

We meet the scientist who believes he has found the 'moral molecule' and the man who is using this new understanding to rewrite our ideas of crime and punishment.


MON 21:00 The Mystery of Murder: A Horizon Guide (b0555v7v)
There are about 600 murders each year in the UK. So, what drives people to kill? Are some people born to kill or are they driven to it by circumstances?

Michael Mosley delves into the BBC archives to chart scientists' progress as they probed the mind of the murderer to try to understand why people kill, and to find out whether by understanding murder we can prevent it.


MON 22:00 Storyville (b0555v7x)
Rocking Cambodia: Rise of a Pop Diva

In a Phnom Penh karaoke bar in 2009, Australian musician Julien Poulson hears the extraordinary voice of poor village girl Srey Thy. The result is romance and the birth of the Cambodian Space Project, a thrilling musical explosion that wows audiences worldwide with sounds from the 1960s and 70s golden age of Cambodian rock. Filmed over five years, this intimate documentary tells the story of performers whose struggle to overcome poverty, trauma and obscurity has never been easy.


MON 23:00 Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries (b054fmzl)
Episode 3

In the final episode of the series, Dr Janina Ramirez discovers how the immensely rich and powerful monasteries that had dominated British society for 1,000 were annihilated in less than five years.

In the 15th century, 800 monasteries in England owned one-third of the nation's land. Many monks were living in palatial monasteries and were patrons of the finest art and architecture. Janina examines monastery kitchen records and the bones of a medieval monk to discover the truth behind accusations of monastic gluttony and vice. She also explores how the arrival of the printing press put paid to the monasteries' monopoly of publishing and education.

Janina then traces the story of the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell. She explores whether the dissolution was the violent action of a greedy and overbearing monarch or if it was the inevitable 'end of days' for a rotten and outmoded institution.

She uncovers stories of shocking corruption alongside examples of extraordinary pious sacrifice. Although not a single monastery survived the systematic liquidation, Janina shows the lasting impact Britain's millennium of monasteries had on our society and culture.


MON 00:00 Rise of the Continents (b036ks6f)
Eurasia

Two hundred million years ago the continent we know as Eurasia - the vast swathe of land that extends from Europe in the west to Asia in the east - didn't exist.

To reveal Eurasia's origins, Professor Iain Stewart climbs up to the 'eternal flames' of Mount Chimera in southern Turkey, blazing natural gas that seeps out of the rock. Formed on the seafloor, it shows that where the south of Eurasia is today, there was once a 90-million-square-kilometre ocean known as the Tethys. It is the destruction of the Tethys Ocean that holds the key to Eurasia's formation.

In the backwaters of Kerala in southern India, he finds evidence of how that happened, in the most unlikely of places: the bones of the local fishermen's catch. The freshwater fish called karimeen shares anatomical features with another group of fish that live in Madagascar, evidence that India and Madagascar were joined. India was once 4,000 kilometres south of its current position on the other side of the Tethys.

As it moved north, the ocean in front of it closed. And as it collided with the rest of Eurasia the impact built the Himalayas, the greatest mountain range on Earth. Professor Stewart reveals how the mountains aren't simply pieces of the land pushed upwards. In fact the rock that forms them was once the floor of the Tethys Ocean.

As Eurasia assembled, Arabia, Greece and Italy too moved north, completing the continent we know today and creating a mountain chain that spans the continent. And it was in the shadow of these mountains that the continent's first civilisations rose.

But the formation of Eurasia is just the beginning, because the process that formed it is still active today. On the island of Stromboli, Italy's most continually active volcano, the spectacular eruptions show that the ocean floor is being pulled beneath Eurasia. It is this process that closed the Tethys, and today is closing the Mediterranean, revealing Eurasia's future. 250 million years in the future all of the continents will collide together once more, forming a new Pangea, with Eurasia at its heart.


MON 01:00 Wallander (b00pjk2l)
Series 1

The Secret

Original Swedish TV adaptation of Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander detective series.

Wallander and the Ystad police investigate the death of an eleven-year-old boy. Stefan wants to help with the case as he was friends with the boy's father but he's facing suspension pending a disciplinary procedure.

In Swedish with English subtitles.


MON 02:30 The Mystery of Murder: A Horizon Guide (b0555v7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 10 MARCH 2015

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b0552v2v)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Great Continental Railway Journeys (b03x12nk)
Series 2 - Reversions

Copenhagen to Oslo: Part 1

Armed with his 1913 railway guide, Michael Portillo explores Scandinavia and discovers the royal roots of early-20th-century British travellers' close dynastic ties with the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway. After braving one of the world's oldest rollercoasters in Copenhagen's famous Tivoli Gardens, Michael takes the train across the Oresund Bridge linking Denmark to Sweden, where he retraces the tracks of a train which carried a revolutionary Russian passenger on an epic voyage.

In Lund, he samples a smorgasbord before having a Highland fling in Gothenburg, where he test drives a vintage Volvo. Crossing the border again into Norway, Michael discovers how in 1913 this young nation expressed its own distinctively modern identity in plays, paintings and polar exploration.


TUE 20:00 Doris Day - Virgin Territory (b0074rwd)
Doris Day has often been dismissed as an actress and overlooked as a singer, despite career highs such as Calamity Jane and Pillow Talk. Covering her early years as a band singer, and her troubled private life, this documentary re-evaluates one of the screen's most enduring legends.


TUE 21:00 Sex, Lies and Love Bites: The Agony Aunt Story (b0555vjj)
Psychotherapist and agony aunt Philippa Perry presents a witty and revealing look at the problem page's enduring appeal. In the documentary Philippa picks her way through three centuries of advice on broken hearts, cheating partners and adolescent angst to uncover a fascinating portrait of our social history.

She talks to fellow agony aunts and uncles like the Telegraph's Graham Norton and the Sun's Deidre Sanders about their experiences, as well as exploring the work of advice columnists past, like the 17th-century inventor of the problem page, John Dunton. The advice may change, but she discovers that, when it comes to subjects like love and courtship, the same old problems keep on cropping up.

Through the work of generations of advice columnists Philippa charts the developing battle of the sexes, the rise of the middle classes and a revolution in social attitudes. For much of the 20th century, agony aunts avoided any mention of trouble in the bedroom. Philippa explores the pioneering work of agony aunts like Claire Rayner, who began to offer frank sex advice in the 1960s. Today, sex takes pride of place on the problem page, as Philippa discovers for herself when she takes a starring role in the Sun's photo casebook, which is famous for its real-life problems illustrated with pictures of semi-clad ladies.

At a time when advice is more easily available than ever before, Philippa reflects on why agony aunts are often still our first port of call, and on what makes reading about other people's problems so irresistible.


TUE 22:00 Inside Claridge's (b01p7nd3)
Episode 1

Claridge's, in the heart of London's Mayfair, is a five-star luxury hotel favoured by royalty and celebrities. For the first time in its long history, this famously discreet institution has opened its doors to documentary cameras. Director Jane Treays has spent a year behind the scenes, upstairs and downstairs, following staff and their guests, some of whom are prepared to pay the price of a small family car for one night's stay.

We're with the chambermaids and housekeepers as they spend days transforming the entire third floor into a palace for foreign royalty who could cancel at a moment's notice. We observe the annual two-week stay of the Melchors from California who have been coming for over 40 years, rekindling their relationship with personal butler Michael Lynch, and we follow the energetic general manager Thomas Kochs as he travels to New York to drum up new business from the top US travel agents.


TUE 23:00 Natural World (b01nmdh3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


TUE 00:00 Climate Change: A Horizon Guide (b054fg05)
Today, the topic of climate change is a major part of daily life, yet 40 years ago it was virtually unheard of. Since then, Horizon and the BBC have followed scientists as they have tried to unpick how the climate works and whether it is changing. Dr Helen Czerski delves into this unique archive to chart the transformation of a little-known theory into one of the greatest scientific undertakings in history. It has been a constantly surprising journey of discovery that has revolutionised our understanding of climate, and seen scientists face unprecedented controversy and criticism.


TUE 01:00 Doris Day - Virgin Territory (b0074rwd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 02:00 Hidden Killers (b01rp5hh)
The Victorian Home

While the Victorians confronted the challenges of ruling an empire, perhaps the most dangerous environment they faced was in their own homes. Householders lapped up the latest products, gadgets and conveniences, but in an era with no health and safety standards they were unwittingly turning their homes into hazardous death traps.

In a genuine horror story, Dr Suzannah Lipscomb reveals the killers that lurked in every room of the Victorian home and shows how they were unmasked. What new innovation killed thousands of babies? And what turned the domestic haven into a ticking time bomb?


TUE 03:00 Sex, Lies and Love Bites: The Agony Aunt Story (b0555vjj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH 2015

WED 19:00 World News Today (b0552v30)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Great Continental Railway Journeys (b03x1211)
Series 2 - Reversions

Copenhagen to Oslo: Part 2

Armed with his 1913 railway guide, Michael Portillo explores Scandinavia and discovers the royal roots of early 20th-century British travellers' close dynastic ties with the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway. After braving one of the world's oldest rollercoasters in Copenhagen's famous Tivoli Gardens, Michael takes the train across the Oresund Bridge linking Denmark to Sweden, where he retraces the tracks of a train which carried a revolutionary Russian passenger on an epic voyage.

In Lund, he samples a smorgasbord before having a highland fling in Gothenburg, where he test-drives a vintage Volvo. Crossing the border again into Norway, Michael discovers how in 1913 this young nation expressed its own distinctively modern identity in plays, paintings and polar exploration.


WED 20:00 Timeshift (b03p7jh9)
Series 13

Hurricanes and Heatwaves: The Highs and Lows of British Weather

A glorious national obsession is explored in this archive-rich look at the evolution of the weather forecast from print via radio to TV and beyond - and at the changing weather itself. It shows how the Met Office and the BBC have always used the latest technology to bring the holy grail of accurate forecasting that much closer - even if the odd messenger like TV weatherman Michael Fish has been shot along the way.

Yet as hand-drawn maps have been replaced by weather apps, the bigger drama of global warming has been playing itself out as if to prove that we were right all along to obsess about the weather. Featuring a very special rendition of the shipping forecast by a Cornish fishermen's choir.


WED 21:00 Timeshift (b053pzmd)
Series 14

Spicing Up Britain: How Eating Out Went Exotic

Timeshift looks at how postwar Britain went from a place where eating out was more of a chore than a pleasure to a nation of food adventurers, now spending up to a third of our food budget on restaurant meals. It's the story of the British palate being slowly introduced to a range of what would then have been 'exotic' cuisines by successive generations of migrants opening eateries - first Italians, then Chinese and Indians. By encouraging us to try something new - be it spaghetti, stir fry or samosa - they spiced up not just our food but our high streets and our lives.


WED 22:00 In and Out of the Kitchen (b055krmb)
The Diet

Cookery writer Damien Trench has all the ingredients for a perfect life. He lives in a delightful house in a nice part of London with his committed partner Anthony, and between writing cookery books, 'keeping house', and monitoring the work being carried out by his builder, Mr Mullaney, he barely has time to fit in anything else. He certainly hasn't time to give any thought to writing a column for a supermarket, Waitsbury's, that his agent Iain Frobisher is keen for him to do, especially as it's the builder's birthday coming up, and of course, he has to bake him a cake.

But when Anthony takes up a new diet - a twist on the 'cabbage soup' diet, involving copious quantities of courgettes - Damien is piqued into taking the Waitsbury's job to rail against fad diets, and his world starts to collapse like a slowly cooling souffle.


WED 22:30 Top of the Pops (b01pkjy6)
The Story of 1978

In 1978, Top of the Pops began to turn the credibility corner. As the only major pop show on television, Top of the Pops had enjoyed a unique position in the nation's hearts since the 1960s - the nation's teenagers who were now fed up with the show's predominantly light entertainment blend still tuned in every week in the hope of seeing one of the new young outfits thrown up by punk, new wave and disco. In 1978 it seemed the kids' time had come again for the first time since glam rock. Yet the biggest-selling singles of 1978 were by the likes of Boney M, John Travolta & Olivia Newton John, Rod Stewart, The Bee Gees and Abba.

Punk never quite fitted in with the mainstream - it had been treated with disdain by Top of the Pops and largely ignored by the show. Britain's teenagers had to endure the all-round family entertainment on offer when all they wanted was teenage kicks. Along came a generation of young post-punk and new wave bands armed with guitar and bass, ready to storm the Top of the Pops stage - from The Undertones, The Buzzcocks, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Skids and Ian Dury and the Blockheads to The Boomtown Rats, Elvis Costello, The Jam and Squeeze - some weeks teenagers would get to see one of their bands, very rarely they got two, but there they were on primetime TV.

With contributions from The Boomtown Rats, Squeeze, Boney M, Sham 69, Brian & Michael, The Barron Knights, Mike Read, Kid Jensen, Kathryn Flett, Richard Jobson, Ian Gittins and Legs & Co.


WED 23:20 Storyville (b03tj0n0)
Mad Dog: Gaddafi's Secret World

Colonel Gaddafi was called 'mad dog' by Ronald Reagan. His income from oil was a billion dollars a week. He washed his hands in deer's blood. No other dictator had such sex appeal and no other so cannily combined oil and the implied threat of terror to turn western powers into cowed appeasers.

When he went abroad - bedecked in fake medals from unfought wars - a bulletproof tent was flown ahead, along with camels that would be tethered outside. His sons lived a Dolce & Gabbana lifestyle - one kept white tigers, while another commissioned a $500 million cruise liner with a shark pool.

Like other tyrants, Gaddafi used torture and murder to silence opposition, but what made his rule especially terrifying was that death came so casually. A man who complained that Gaddafi had an affair with his wife was allegedly tied between two cars and torn in half. On visits to schools and orphanages Gaddafi would tap underage girls on the head to show his henchmen which ones he wanted. They would be taken to his palace and abused. Young boys were held in tunnels under the palace.

Yet because of his vast oil lake there seemed no limit to western generosity. British intelligence trapped one of his enemies overseas and sent him to Libya as a gift. The same week, Tony Blair arrived in Libya and a huge energy deal was announced.

Filmed in Cuba, the Pacific, Brazil, the US, South Africa, Libya and Australia, the cast of this documentary consists of palace insiders and those who gave shape to Gaddafi's dark dreams. They include a fugitive from the FBI who helped kill his enemies worldwide; the widow of the Libyan foreign minister whose body Gaddafi kept in a freezer; and a female bodyguard who adored him until she saw teenagers executed.

Gaddafi was a dictator like no other; their stories are stranger than fiction.


WED 00:45 Horizon (b014kj65)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


WED 01:45 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 02:45 Inside Claridge's (b01p7nd3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]



THURSDAY 12 MARCH 2015

THU 19:00 World News Today (b0552v35)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0555xgt)
Peter Powell presents hits of the week. Guests include Shakin' Stevens, Blondie, the Beat, the Buggles, the Tourists, Fern Kinney, Cliff Richard, the Ramones, Iron Maiden and Kenny Rogers. Also includes a dance Sequence by Legs & Co.


THU 20:00 Could We Survive a Mega-Tsunami? (b01s0zqv)
Starting off a kilometre high, travelling at the speed of a jet aircraft, and heading for us. It doesn't make for a good outcome. Hollywood-style graphics and real-life archive bring home an imagined near-future scenario, all based on cutting-edge science.


THU 21:00 India's Frontier Railways (b0555xgw)
The Maitree Express

Filmed during the holy month of Ramadan, this is a journey from India into Bangladesh on a train that reunites the region of Bengal. Partitioned in 1947, Bengal was divided in half, creating East Pakistan - a satellite state ruled by Pakistan. It was an unwelcome occupation. In 1971, they fought a war of independence and East Pakistan became the People's Republic of Bangladesh. 37 years later, the first train ran between India and Bangladesh - the Maitree Express. Maitree means friendship.

It takes 12 hours to make the 392km journey from Kolkata to Dhaka, and staffing on the train is almost the same on both sides of the border. They speak the same language, share a history and all love fish.

Amirul, once a freedom fighter in the war of independence, now plays announcements and religious tapes on the Maitree. Aalo supports his family by selling chocolates on the train, but has a problem with the 30-degree heat. Sixteen-year-old Abdullah ran away from home and a madrasa. Now he sells papers on Dhaka's trains and platforms, hoping for a brighter future. Gautam Bannerjee is a guard on the Maitree and a respected astrologer. Can his calculations foretell the future? Urmi Rahman, a writer, was born in Bangladesh, married an Indian and lives in Kolkata, but she is very clear about her identity. Krishendu Basu is happy with his life. Not only a guard, he is also a tabla player, photographer and self-confessed foodie. But music is his passion.

These stories of people who work, travel or depend on the Maitree Express take us on a journey through history, sharing their hopes, needs and desires - on India's frontier railways.


THU 22:00 Timeshift (b00xf6xk)
Series 10

The Modern Age of the Coach

Documentary which brings the story of the coach up to date, as it explores the most recent phase of Britain's love affair with group travel on four wheels - from school trips and football away-days to touring with bands and 'magic bus' overland treks to India.

The establishment of the National Coach Company may have standardised the livery and the experience of mainstream coach travel in the 1970s, but a multitude of alternative offerings meant the coach retained its hold on the public imagination, with even striking miners and New Age travellers getting in on a very British act.


THU 23:00 The Mystery of Murder: A Horizon Guide (b0555v7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


THU 00:00 Top of the Pops (b0555xgt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 00:35 In and Out of the Kitchen (b055krmb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Wednesday]


THU 01:05 Could We Survive a Mega-Tsunami? (b01s0zqv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 02:05 Secret Knowledge (b054fkzz)
The Private Life of a Dolls' House

Lauren Child, author, illustrator and creator of Charlie and Lola, has a secret passion - dolls' houses. She has worked on her own dolls' house for the past 30 years and her lifelong obsession continues to inspire her ideas and shape her work. But why do these interior worlds have the power to cast a spell beyond childhood?

Lauren explores the history of dolls' houses from some of the earliest examples to their modern incarnations, speaks to craftspeople who create perfect miniatures and meets ardent collectors willing to pay big money for tiny objects of desire.


THU 02:35 The French Revolution: Tearing up History (b042ttxl)
A journey through the dramatic and destructive years of the French Revolution, telling its history in a way not seen before - through the extraordinary story of its art. Our guide through this turbulent decade is the constantly surprising Dr Richard Clay, an art historian who has spent his life decoding the symbols of power and authority.

Dr Clay has always been fascinated by vandalism and iconoclasm, and believes much of the untold story of the French Revolution can be discovered through the stories of great moments of destruction. Who were the stone masons in the crowd outside Notre Dame that pulled down the statues of kings? Why do the churches of Paris still carry all the coded signs of anti-Christian state legislation? What does it mean, and who was carrying this out?

Telling the story of the French Revolution - from the Storming of the Bastille to the rise of Napoleon - as the significant modern outbreak of iconoclasm, Clay argues that it reveals the destructive and constructive roles of iconoclasts and how this led directly to the birth of the modern Europe.



FRIDAY 13 MARCH 2015

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b0552v3b)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Sounds of the Sixties (b0074qcm)
Original Series

Hip to the Trip

Ten-part series featuring rock, pop and R&B performances from the BBC archives.

This edition features psychedelia and counter-culture, with performances by The Who, Pink Floyd, Joe Cocker and the Greaseband, The Nice and The Jimi Hendrix Experience.


FRI 20:00 Being James Galway (b0555wj1)
An intimate portrait of Sir James Galway, regarded by many as the finest flautist of his generation.

The programme charts his remarkable rise to the top of the classical music world from humble beginnings with a Belfast flute band, and is given unique access to Galway at home and on tour.

Galway was born in Belfast at the outbreak of the Second World War and established himself performing with the top London orchestras in the 1960s before becoming first flute with the Berlin Philharmonic. In the mid-70s he took the unusual step of leaving to launch a solo career and became a household name with the release of his instrumental version of John Denver's Annie's Song. He has sold more than 30 million albums and at the age of 75 continues to tour the world performing to packed houses and giving masterclasses to the next generation of world-class flute players.

In the programme Galway speaks frankly about his life and career and puts his success down to hard work and daily practice. The documentary captures Galway backstage, in rehearsal and performing, and at his home overlooking Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, with his wife and fellow flautist, Jeanne.

The programme is narrated by Jeremy Irons and contributors include broadcaster Melvyn Bragg, Riverdance composer Bill Whelan and the conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin.


FRI 21:00 The Irish Rock Story: A Tale of Two Cities (b0555xv8)
Film telling the story of how rock music helped to change Ireland. The 40-year-old story of Irish rock and pop music is grounded in the very different musical traditions of the two main cities of the island, Belfast and Dublin.

This musical celebration charts the lives and careers of some of the biggest selling acts in Irish rock, punk and pop from Van Morrison and Thin Lizzy to The Undertones and U2. From the pioneers of the showbands touring in the late 50s through to the modern day, the film examines their lineage and connections and how the hardcore, rocking sound of Belfast merged with the more melodic, folky Dublin tradition to form what we now recognise as Irish rock and pop.

The film explores where these bands and musicians came from and the influence the political, social and cultural environments of the day had on them and how the music influenced those environments.

With contributions from many of the heavyweights of Irish rock and pop, including U2, Sinead O'Connor and Bob Geldof, it follows their careers as they forged an international presence and looks at how they helped change the island along the way.


FRI 22:00 Irish Rock at the BBC (b0556qc9)
A whistle-stop tour of rock from over the water, taking in some of the finest Irish rock offerings from the early 70s to the present day, as captured on a variety of BBC shows from The Old Grey Whistle Test and Top of the Pops to Later... with Jools Holland.

Kicking off with Thin Lizzy's 1973 debut hit Whiskey in the Jar, the programme traces Irish rock's unfolding lineage. Performances from guitar maestro Rory Gallagher, Celtic rock godfathers Horslips and John Peel favourites The Undertones feature alongside rivals Stiff Little Fingers, with their Top of the Pops performance of Nobody's Hero, followed by post-punk U2's 1981 debut UK performance of I Will Follow from The Old Grey Whistle Test.

Then there is Sinead O'Connor's debut single performance of Mandinka, and The Pogues play the Ewan MacColl classic Dirty Old Town from 1986. Into the 90s, there is The Frank and Walters and Therapy? on Top of the Pops, along with early performances on Later... with Jools Holland from Ash and The Divine Comedy.

There is rockabilly with Imelda May's debut hit Johnny Got a Boom Boom, and then more recently Cavan's The Strypes and Hozier, whose Take Me to Church completes this hit-driven tour through Irish rock.


FRI 23:00 The Strypes: Best Thing Since Cavan (b0556q3x)
A Julien Temple film about the Strypes, the young Irish band from Co Cavan bringing blistering R&B and rock 'n' roll to a whole new generation. The film explores the band's evolution from toddlerhood, when they first began playing together, through the hard work and twists of fate that have catapulted them straight out of their small rural hometown to screaming crowds.

Theirs is a success story of the digital age. Born in the late 90s, the boys have never known a world without computers and smartphones. Going on the same musical coming-of-age quest as their early heroes, the Beatles, Stones and Kinks, they searched out the origins of R&B and the wellspring of the blues to produce their own distinctive, hard-edged sound.

A deeply human story of four young childhood friends, with a profoundly shared passion and goal, as they become adults in the world of 21st-century rock 'n' roll success.

The film is produced by Parallel Films and Elton John's Rocket Pictures.


FRI 00:00 The Irish Rock Story: A Tale of Two Cities (b0555xv8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 01:00 Irish Rock at the BBC (b0556qc9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 02:00 The Strypes: Best Thing Since Cavan (b0556q3x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]


FRI 03:00 Sounds of the Sixties (b0074qcm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]




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

Being James Galway 20:00 FRI (b0555wj1)

Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity 00:30 SUN (b054v27d)

Bright Days Ahead 23:00 SUN (b045xh53)

Climate Change: A Horizon Guide 00:00 TUE (b054fg05)

Could We Survive a Mega-Tsunami? 20:00 THU (b01s0zqv)

Could We Survive a Mega-Tsunami? 01:05 THU (b01s0zqv)

Doris Day - Virgin Territory 20:00 TUE (b0074rwd)

Doris Day - Virgin Territory 01:00 TUE (b0074rwd)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 19:30 MON (b03x10q8)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 19:30 TUE (b03x12nk)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 19:30 WED (b03x1211)

Hidden Killers 02:00 TUE (b01rp5hh)

Horizon 20:00 MON (b014kj65)

Horizon 00:45 WED (b014kj65)

Hostages 21:00 SAT (b03z806l)

Hostages 21:35 SAT (b03z806s)

Hostages 22:10 SAT (b03z81h7)

In and Out of the Kitchen 22:00 WED (b055krmb)

In and Out of the Kitchen 00:35 THU (b055krmb)

India's Frontier Railways 21:00 THU (b0555xgw)

Inside Claridge's 22:00 TUE (b01p7nd3)

Inside Claridge's 02:45 WED (b01p7nd3)

Irish Rock at the BBC 22:00 FRI (b0556qc9)

Irish Rock at the BBC 01:00 FRI (b0556qc9)

Lost Kingdoms of Central America 20:00 SAT (b04hkb5p)

Lost Kingdoms of Central America 02:50 SAT (b04hkb5p)

Narnia's Lost Poet: The Secret Lives and Loves of CS Lewis 01:45 WED (b03jrw5j)

Natural World 21:00 SUN (b01nmdh3)

Natural World 23:00 TUE (b01nmdh3)

Nile Rodgers: The Hitmaker Remastered 01:30 SUN (b01rk2tm)

Pompeii: The Mystery of the People Frozen in Time 22:45 SAT (b01rn6c2)

Rise of the Continents 00:00 MON (b036ks6f)

Royal Television Society Huw Wheldon Memorial Lecture 20:00 SUN (b05534nw)

Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries 23:00 MON (b054fmzl)

Secret Knowledge 02:05 THU (b054fkzz)

Sex, Lies and Love Bites: The Agony Aunt Story 21:00 TUE (b0555vjj)

Sex, Lies and Love Bites: The Agony Aunt Story 03:00 TUE (b0555vjj)

Sounds of the Eighties 03:20 SUN (b0074sk2)

Sounds of the Sixties 00:45 SAT (b0074qcb)

Sounds of the Sixties 19:30 FRI (b0074qcm)

Sounds of the Sixties 03:00 FRI (b0074qcm)

Storyville 22:00 SUN (b05534p0)

Storyville 22:00 MON (b0555v7x)

Storyville 23:20 WED (b03tj0n0)

TOTP2 23:45 SAT (b00sfz04)

The French Revolution: Tearing up History 02:35 THU (b042ttxl)

The Great War 19:00 SUN (b0074p3g)

The Irish Rock Story: A Tale of Two Cities 21:00 FRI (b0555xv8)

The Irish Rock Story: A Tale of Two Cities 00:00 FRI (b0555xv8)

The Mystery of Murder: A Horizon Guide 21:00 MON (b0555v7v)

The Mystery of Murder: A Horizon Guide 02:30 MON (b0555v7v)

The Mystery of Murder: A Horizon Guide 23:00 THU (b0555v7v)

The New Romantics: A Fine Romance 02:30 SUN (b007btt3)

The Secret Life of Elephants 19:00 SAT (b00gvl9w)

The Secret Life of Elephants 01:50 SAT (b00gvl9w)

The Strypes: Best Thing Since Cavan 23:00 FRI (b0556q3x)

The Strypes: Best Thing Since Cavan 02:00 FRI (b0556q3x)

Timeshift 20:00 WED (b03p7jh9)

Timeshift 21:00 WED (b053pzmd)

Timeshift 22:00 THU (b00xf6xk)

Top of the Pops 01:15 SAT (b0544glm)

Top of the Pops 22:30 WED (b01pkjy6)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b0555xgt)

Top of the Pops 00:00 THU (b0555xgt)

Wallander 01:00 MON (b00pjk2l)

Wild 19:40 SUN (b0079gl2)

Wild 19:50 SUN (b00796w0)

Wild 20:45 SUN (b00jd9yx)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b0552v2p)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b0552v2v)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b0552v30)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b0552v35)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b0552v3b)