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 22 AUGUST 2015

SAT 19:00 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.


SAT 20:00 Sicily Unpacked (b0196wpw)
Episode 1

In the first episode, Andrew Graham-Dixon and Giorgio Locatelli take viewers on a journey into the heart of Sicily and introduce one another to the things they love about the island.

Their first stop takes them to Giorgio's friend Vittorio and his restaurant near the seaside village of Porto Paolo. There is no menu - you are served whatever is best that day. It is Giorgio's favourite restaurant in the world. For him, the larger-than-life Vittorio represents the best of Sicily.

Sicily may be less famous for art than its northern neighbours, but Andrew wants to change that. He takes Giorgio to see one of his favourite works of art in the capital Palermo, a typically Sicilian chapel hidden away down one of the city's many narrow streets. Created by the Palermitan sculptor Giacomo Serpotta, for Andrew it is a stunning example of the Sicilian approach to art and architecture.

Palermo is an urban jungle, and Andrew and Giorgio attempt to navigate the traffic to visit the colourful markets of this buzzing city. Like the rest of Sicily, food is at the heart of everyday life here, and they sample one of the city's signature dishes - pasta with fresh sardines.

They also travel back to the 12th century and enter the Arab world while visiting the Zisa palace, check out the gilded Palatine chapel and attend a traditional wedding, and explore some of the city's more surprising attractions, such as the Unesco-protected Cuticchio Puppet Theatre.

Plus the pair explore how, amongst the buzz and great beauty of the island, the shadowy presence of the mafia lurks around almost every corner.

To round off their stay in Palermo, Giorgio and Andrew have one last drink at a Palermitan bar before heading off on the next leg of their journey through Sicily.


SAT 21:00 The Young Montalbano (b03c67d4)
Series 1

Mortally Wounded

Some unusual posters appear around Vigata in which the moral status of one of its female inhabitants is questioned. This soon becomes the talk of the town, and Montalbano finds himself attempting to navigate the local gossip and resulting squabbles. But a murder forces more serious events onto the agenda, as Montalbano investigates the private and business life of the victim, uncovering a string of unsavoury facts in the process. Fazio returns to Vigata police station asking to be reinstated in his job following a bout of serious ill health. Salvo's father makes the acquaintance of new girlfriend Livia.

In Italian with English subtitles.


SAT 22:50 Top of the Pops (b03mpphy)
1979 - Big Hits

1979 Top of the Pops collection, offering 60 minutes of the year's greatest, cheesiest and oddest performances. 1979 was the year music went portable with the launch of the Sony walkman and another year Top of the Pops, the BBC's flagship music show, managed to still draw over 15 million viewers every Thursday night.

The mod revival and 2 Tone was in full stomp, featured here with the Jam, the Specials, Madness and the Selecter. If new wave was your bag there is Elvis Costello, Squeeze and Gary Numan. In 1979 there was little chance of seeing a show on TV featuring Dame Edna's performance of Waltzing Matilda alongside the Ruts with Babylon's Burning, but the British public's eclectic taste predicted the chart and thus saw them together on TOTP in June.

With singles sales at their peak, it was a regular occurrence for groups like Racey and The Nolans to sell over a million copies and their performances may tell us why, or maybe not! Plus new wave pop from Lene Lovich, disco from Chic and a peek at the nation's favourite, Chas & Dave, singing Gertcha.


SAT 23:50 Status Quo: Live and Acoustic (b052yq1f)
Throughout Status Quo's six decades of rockin' and double denim, they have notched up 65 hit singles, sold over 100m records worldwide and have spent 415 weeks in the British singles chart, so it's no wonder Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt were awarded OBEs in 2010 for their services to music. And now, in a rare departure from their usual heads-down and boogie approach, they've gone acoustic!

Autumn 2014 saw the release of their 31st studio album and, in a complete departure from their usual rock sound, they transformed many of their legendary songs into acoustic, stripped-down versions. To celebrate this unique enterprise, they then performed many of the songs live at north London's legendary Roundhouse. Sitting down!

This concert features many of their classic tracks including Pictures of Matchstick Men, Down Down, What You're Proposing, Whatever You Want, Marguerita Time, Rockin' All Over the World and many more, performed with a string section, percussion, accordion, backing vocals and a front line of five acoustic guitars. Throughout the show Francis and Rick reminisce about taking this bold step and remind us of some of the stories behind some of their classic songs.


SAT 00:50 Sounds of the Eighties (b0074sm9)
Episode 5

Flouncy-haired pop merchants and indie stalwarts on The Old Grey Whistle Test and its younger, more colourful sibling, The Whistle Test dominate this trawl through the 80s. Featuring The Teardrop Explodes, Orange Juice, Robert Wyatt, Aztec Camera, Billy Bragg, The Fall, The Pogues, Robyn Hitchcock and the ever-smiling Style Council.


SAT 01:15 Sicily Unpacked (b0196wpw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:15 Lost Land of the Volcano (b00mwcqx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 03:15 Sounds of the Eighties (b0074sm9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 00:50 today]



SUNDAY 23 AUGUST 2015

SUN 19:00 BBC Proms (b067fm5y)
2015

BBC Proms Sunday Symphony: Nielsen's Second

Sir Mark Elder continues his Sunday Symphony series with music from Denmark's greatest composer, Carl Nielsen. The Danish National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Fabio Luisi, perform Nielsen's Second Symphony, The Four Temperaments, in an evening that celebrates 150 years since Nielsen's birth. Presented from the Royal Albert Hall by Katie Derham.


SUN 20:05 When Lucy Met Roy: Sir Roy Strong at 80 (b067fm60)
Sir Roy Strong is the man who made museums fashionable. In his own words, "a young man from nowhere, who went somewhere!" - exploding a post-war world of privilege and cultural snootiness to put art at the heart of London's swinging sixties. After his time at the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A, nothing would ever quite be the same again. Yet now, Sir Roy is an ardent critic of falling cultural standards in Britain. On the eve of his 80th birthday, he looks back with pride at his genius for popularising the arts and ponders the question - was it all his fault?


SUN 21:05 Darcey Bussell's Looking for Audrey (b04w7mfk)
Behind Audrey Hepburn's dazzling image, Darcey Bussell unravels an epic tale of betrayal, courage, heartache and broken dreams.

For as long as she can remember, Darcey has been fascinated by Audrey Hepburn - style icon, star of Breakfast at Tiffany's and an Oscar winner at 24. Now, Darcey follows in Audrey's footsteps through Holland, London, Rome, Switzerland and Hollywood to find out more. She discovers that Audrey started out as a dancer, risked her life in the Second World War and, although adored the world over, was always looking for love.


SUN 22:05 Sinatra: All or Nothing at All (b066d737)
Series 1

Episode 3

An up-close and personal examination of the life, music and career of the legendary entertainer. In 1971, Frank Sinatra sang his legendary 'retirement concert' in Los Angeles, featuring music which was said to reflect his own life. Told in his own words from hours of archived interviews, along with commentary from those closest to him, this definitive four-part series weaves the legendary songs he chose with comments from friends and family, as well as never-before-seen footage from home movies and concert performances.

An unprecedented tribute to the beloved showman, with the full participation of the Frank Sinatra Estate, the third episode sees Sinatra turn his career around, the birth of the Rat Pack, his connection with the mob and the unravelling of his high-profile relationship with the Kennedys.


SUN 23:05 Sinatra: All or Nothing at All (b066d739)
Series 1

Episode 4

An up-close and personal examination of the life, music and career of the legendary entertainer. In 1971, Frank Sinatra sang his legendary 'retirement concert' in Los Angeles, featuring music which was said to reflect his own life. Told in his own words from hours of archived interviews, along with commentary from those closest to him, this definitive four-part series weaves the legendary songs he chose with comments from friends and family, as well as never-before-seen footage from home movies and concert performances.

An unprecedented tribute to the beloved showman, with the full participation of the Frank Sinatra Estate, the final episode recounts the kidnap of his son, Frank Jr, his marriage to Mia Farrow and his successful return from retirement.


SUN 00:05 Juliette Binoche: Antigone at the Barbican (b05sj2j6)
Cameras exclusively capture the Oscar-winning French actress Juliette Binoche playing the title role in Sophocles's tale of family loyalty, courage and tragedy. The Barbican's visionary new English language translation by TS Eliot Prize-winning poet and classicist Anne Carson is directed by renowned Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove.


SUN 01:35 When Lucy Met Roy: Sir Roy Strong at 80 (b067fm60)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:05 today]


SUN 02:35 Andrew Marr on Churchill: Blood, Sweat and Oil Paint (b06714yz)
Andrew Marr discovers the untold story of Winston Churchill's lifelong love for painting and reveals the surprising ways in which his private hobby helped shape his public career as politician and statesman, even playing an unexpected part in his role as wartime leader.

Marr is himself a committed amateur painter and art has played an important role in his recovery from a serious stroke in 2013. His fascination with the healing powers of art fuels a journey that opens a new perspective on one of Britain's most famous men.

Andrew travels to the south of France and Marrakech, where Churchill loved to paint, and discovers how his serious approach to the craft of painting led to friendships with major British artists of the 20th century. He finds out how a single painting in the 1940s may have influenced the course of the Second World War, and meets Churchill's descendants to discover what his family felt about a private hobby that helped keep him sane through his wilderness years. And he discovers how, 50 years after Churchill's death, his art is being taken more seriously than ever before, with one painting being sold for almost £2 million in 2014.



MONDAY 24 AUGUST 2015

MON 19:00 World News Today (b067b7hb)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Great Continental Railway Journeys (b03ty8pl)
Series 2 - Reversions

Turin to Venice: Part 1

Steered by his 1913 railway guide, Michael Portillo takes the train from the former political capital of Italy, Turin, to Casanova's capital of romance, Venice.

Along the way, he recreates the famous Italian Job on an historic Fiat test track and follows fashion in Milan before investigating the early 20th-century British love affair with Lake Como in a seaplane. In Verona, Michael discovers the 'House of the Capulets', bought to attract Edwardian tourists to the scene of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. He then heads over the rail bridge across the lagoon to Venice, where he finds a microcosm of pre-First World War Europe in the Venice Biennale art exhibition.


MON 20:00 Who Were the Greeks? (b036b0yl)
Episode 1

Classicist Dr Michael Scott uncovers the strange, alien world of the ancient Greeks, exploring the lives of the people who gave us democracy, architecture, philosophy, language, literature and sport.

Travelling across Greece today, Michael visits ancient cities and battlefields, great ruins and wild countryside, all in his search to uncover how the ancient Greeks thought and lived. What he finds is that ancient Greece was a seething tornado of strange, unsettling and downright outrageous customs and beliefs, inhabited by a people who could be as brutal as they were brilliant.


MON 21:00 Soup Cans & Superstars: How Pop Art Changed the World (b067ftp7)
Alastair Sooke champions pop art as one of the most important art forms of the 20th century, peeling back pop's frothy, ironic surface to reveal an art style full of subversive wit and radical ideas.

In charting its story, Alastair brings a fresh eye to the work of pop art superstars Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein and tracks down pop's pioneers, from American artists like James Rosenquist, Claes Oldenburg and Ed Ruscha to British godfathers Peter Blake and Allen Jones.

Alastair also explores how pop's fascination with celebrity, advertising and the mass media was part of a global art movement, and he travels to China to discover how a new generation of artists are reinventing pop art's satirical, political edge for the 21st century.


MON 22:30 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b067fxfm)
Derek Boshier

A day with artist Derek Boshier at his studio as he works on a new painting and reflects on his life and career. Boshier burst onto the British art scene in the sixties as one of the young artists who pioneered the British pop art movement. He studied at the Royal College of Art and starred in Pop Goes the Easel, Ken Russell's seminal BBC film about the pop art scene. Now in his seventies and living and working in LA, Derek remains as energetic and prolific as ever.


MON 23:00 World War Two: 1942 and Hitler's Soft Underbelly (b01ndj09)
The British fought the Second World War to defeat Hitler. This film asks why, then, did they spend so much of the conflict battling through North Africa and Italy?

Historian David Reynolds reassesses Winston Churchill's conviction that the Mediterranean was the 'soft underbelly' of Hitler's Europe. Travelling to Egypt and Italian battlefields like Cassino, scene of some of the worst carnage in western Europe, he shows how, in reality, the 'soft underbelly' became a dark and dangerous obsession for Churchill.

Reynolds reveals a prime minister very different from the jaw-jutting bulldog of Britain's 'finest hour' in 1940 - a leader who was politically vulnerable at home, desperate to shore up a crumbling British empire abroad, losing faith in his army and even ready to deceive his American allies if it might delay fighting head to head against the Germans in northern France.


MON 00:30 Death Camp Treblinka: Survivor Stories (b01m1l9w)
The dark heart of the Nazi holocaust, Treblinka was an extermination camp where over 800,000 Polish Jews perished from 1942. Only two men can bear final witness to its terrible crimes. Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman were slave labourers who escaped in a dramatic revolt in August 1943. One would seek vengeance in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, while the other would appear in the sensational trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961. This film documents their amazing survivor stories and the tragic fate of their families, and offers new insights into a forgotten death camp.


MON 01:30 Sound of Cinema: The Music That Made the Movies (b03b965y)
Pop Goes the Soundtrack

Composer Neil Brand explores how, in the second half of the 20th century, composers and film-makers embraced jazz, pop and rock to bring fresh energy and relevance to film scores.

He shows how in the 1960s, films as diverse as the James Bond movies, spaghetti westerns and Disney's musicals drew on the talents of pop arrangers and composers like John Barry, Ennio Morricone and the Sherman Brothers to create unforgettable soundtracks. But the role of the film composer would subsequently be challenged by directors like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, who showed that a soundtrack consisting of carefully chosen pop songs could be as effective as a specially written one.

Neil's journey sees him meet leading film-makers and composers including Martin Scorsese and composers Richard Sherman (Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book), Lalo Schifrin (Bullitt) and David Arnold (Casino Royale).


MON 02:30 Soup Cans & Superstars: How Pop Art Changed the World (b067ftp7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 25 AUGUST 2015

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b067b7hh)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Great Continental Railway Journeys (b03ty8t3)
Series 2 - Reversions

Turin to Venice: Part 2

Steered by his 1913 railway guide, Michael Portillo takes the train from the former political capital of Italy, Turin, to Casanova's capital of romance, Venice.

Along the way, he recreates the famous Italian Job on an historic Fiat test track and follows fashion in Milan before investigating the early 20th-century British love affair with Lake Como in a seaplane. In Verona, Michael discovers the 'House of the Capulets', bought to attract Edwardian tourists to the scene of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. He then heads over the rail bridge across the lagoon to Venice, where he finds a microcosm of pre-First World War Europe in the Venice Biennale art exhibition.


TUE 20:00 Great Continental Railway Journeys (b03ty91g)
Series 2 - Reversions

Dresden to Kiel: Part 1

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.


TUE 20:30 Hive Minds (b067fw3q)
Series 1

Trivium v Araucarians

Fiona Bruce presents the quiz show where players not only have to know the answers, but have to find them hidden in a hive of letters. It tests players' general knowledge and mental agility, as they battle against one another and race against the clock to find the answers.

In this second-round match, Trivium play Araucarians for a place in the semi-finals.


TUE 21:00 A Day in the Life of Andy Warhol (b067fw3w)
Andy Warhol created some of the most instantly recognisable art of the 20th century. But perhaps his greatest work of art was himself - the cool, enigmatic pop art superstar.

In this film, Stephen Smith sets out to discover the real Andy Warhol - in the hour-by-hour detail of his daily life.

Taking a playful approach, mixing archive and entertaining encounters with Warhol's closest friends and confidantes, Stephen pieces together a typical day in the mid 1960s.

By 1964, Warhol had established himself as a famous pop artist and his creative ambitions were exploding in new directions in a creative frenzy of art, films - and even music.

From an early-hours chat with John Giorno, Warhol's lover and star of his notorious film Sleep, to recreating Warhol's intimate telephone conversations with Factory superstar Brigid Berlin, Stephen immerses himself in the round-the-clock whirl of Warhol's daily life.

Visiting the church where Warhol worshipped with his mother, discussing the day-to-day running of the Factory with Warhol's assistant Gerard Malanga, talking to Bibbe Hansen and Jane Holzer, stars of his famous Screen Tests, the film offers a fresh and illuminating new portrait of Warhol.

And from the obsessive desire to document his everyday life to the endless fascination with fame and his own celebrity image, a day with Andy Warhol appears surprisingly familiar to 21st century eyes.

"In his lifetime", concludes Stephen, "some people thought Warhol came from another planet. But in fact he hailed from somewhere equally exotic - the future.".


TUE 22:00 Sean Connery: In His Own Words (b0674mg5)
Featuring archive interviews with Sean Connery from over 50 years in the business. Friends, actors and directors including Robert Carlyle, Dougray Scott, Laurence Fishburne, Terry Gilliam and George Lucas pay tribute to Scotland's greatest movie star.


TUE 23:00 Top of the Pops (b03mpphy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:50 on Saturday]


TUE 00:00 Timeshift (b044yw1d)
Series 14

Mods, Rockers and Bank Holiday Mayhem

A trip back to the days when 'style wars' were just that - violent confrontations about the clothes you wore. Spring 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the bank holiday 'battles of the beaches', when hundreds of mods and rockers flocked to seaside resorts on scooters and motorbikes in search of thrills and spills.

Timeshift tells the story of how this led to violence, arrests and widespread concern about the state of British youth. But mods and rockers had more in common than was first obvious - they were the first generation of baby boomers to reach their teenage years at a time when greater prosperity and wider freedoms were transforming what it meant to be young.


TUE 01:00 Hive Minds (b067fw3q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


TUE 01:30 World War Two: 1942 and Hitler's Soft Underbelly (b01ndj09)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Monday]


TUE 03:00 A Day in the Life of Andy Warhol (b067fw3w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 26 AUGUST 2015

WED 19:00 World News Today (b067b7hn)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 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.


WED 20:00 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.


WED 20:30 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b067fxfp)
Sir Peter Blake

Often described as the godfather of British pop art, over the past sixty years artist Sir Peter Blake has enjoyed a celebrated career. Famous for his Beatles' Sgt Pepper's album cover, he has produced a vast body of paintings, collages and album covers. In 2015, aged 82, Peter was commissioned to produce his largest work to date, the re-design of a Mersey ferry. In this film, we spend time with Peter at work in his studio and follow the process of the ferry's pop art makeover, from Peter's early drawings to the launch in Liverpool, revealing an iconic British artist still as active today as he ever was.


WED 21:00 A Brief History of Graffiti (b067fxfr)
Dr Richard Clay goes in search of what it is that has made us scribble and scratch mementoes of our lives for more than 30,000 years. From the prehistoric cave paintings of Burgundy in France, through gladiatorial fan worship in Roman Lyons to the messages left on the walls of Germany's Reichstag in 1945 by triumphant Soviet troops, time and again we have wanted to leave a permanent record of our existence for our descendants. And it may be that this is where what today we call art comes from - the humble scratch, graffiti.


WED 22:00 The Man Who Would Be King (b00j275m)
Colourful, historical epic set in the 1880s. Tired of life as disreputable con men, Dravot and Carnehan - former British Army sergeants who have remained in India - plan to venture beyond the North West Frontier into Kurfuristan. There, as the first Europeans since Alexander the Great, they aim to find fame and fortune by setting themselves up as kings. They do indeed become godlike rulers, but their success depends on sustaining the illusion that they are more than mere mortals. From a story by Rudyard Kipling.


WED 00:05 Timewatch (b00791l6)
2006-2007

The Princess Spy: Timewatch

In 1943 Noor Inayat Khan became the first woman wireless operator to be sent into war torn France. It was the most dangerous job in SOE (Churchill's secret army) and she was not expected to survive more than 6 weeks. The daughter of an Indian mystic and a writer of children's stories in pre-war Paris, she was a curious choice for a secret agent. But London was desperate. They had a traitor in their midst and that summer Noor would become their vital link with Nazi-occupied Paris. Betrayed, captured and tortured, Noor revealed nothing of SOE before she was executed. Awarded the George Cross for her bravery, Timewatch tells the story of the Princess Spy.


WED 00:55 Timeshift (b03mp53s)
Series 13

The Ladybird Books Story: The Bugs that Got Britain Reading

To millions of people, Ladybird books were as much a part of childhood as battery-powered torches and warm school milk. These now iconic pocket-sized books once informed us on such diverse subjects as how magnets work, what to look for in winter and how to make decorations out of old eggshells. But they also helped to teach many of us to read via a unique literacy scheme known as 'key words'. Ladybird books were also a visual treat - some of the best-known contemporary illustrators were recruited to provide images which today provide a perfect snapshot of the lost world of Ladybirdland: a place that is forever the gloriously ordinary, orderly 1950s.


WED 01:55 Heritage! The Battle for Britain's Past (p014fycm)
From Old Bones to Precious Stones

Charting the birth of the heritage movement and the first arguments of radical thought, from figures including John Lubbock MP, Lieutenant General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers, Charles Darwin and John Ruskin. These remarkable individuals asked important questions and came up with the building blocks of a new world that valued the past. Their actions led to the first piece of legislation to safeguard prehistoric and ancient structures which until then had often fallen prey to the short-term interests of farmers and landowners.


WED 02:55 A Brief History of Graffiti (b067fxfr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 27 AUGUST 2015

THU 19:00 World News Today (b067b7ht)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 BBC Proms (b067g1dw)
2015

The Bach Recitals: Alina Ibragimova Plays Violin Sonatas and Partitas - Part Two

The solo Bach series continues with violinist Alina Ibragimova's second recital of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas. This final section includes one of Bach's best-known solo violin works, the Chaconne from the technically dazzling Partita No 2 in D minor. In completing the cycle, Ibragimova became the first musician to play the complete cycle of Bach works for solo violin at the Proms. Presented by Samira Ahmed.


THU 21:00 The Secrets of Quantum Physics (b04v85cj)
Let There Be Life

Physicist Jim Al-Khalili routinely deals with the strangest subject in all of science - quantum physics, the astonishing and perplexing theory of sub-atomic particles. But now he's turning his attention to the world of nature. Can quantum mechanics explain the greatest mysteries in biology?

His first encounter is with the robin. This familiar little bird turns out to navigate using one of the most bizarre effects in physics - quantum entanglement, a process which seems to defy common sense. Even Albert Einstein himself could not believe it.

Jim finds that even the most personal of human experiences - our sense of smell - is touched by ethereal quantum vibrations. According to the latest experiments, it seems that our quantum noses are listening to smells. Jim then discovers that the most famous law of quantum physics - the uncertainty principle - is obeyed by plants and trees as they capture sunlight during the vital process of photosynthesis.

Finally, Jim asks if quantum physics might play a role in evolution. Could the strange laws of the sub-atomic world, which allow objects to tunnel through impassable barriers in defiance of common sense, effect the mechanism by which living species evolve?


THU 22:00 Horizon: 40 Years on the Moon (b00llgs8)
Professor Brian Cox takes a look through nearly 50 years of BBC archive at the story of man's relationship with the moon.

From the BBC's space fanatic James Burke testing out the latest Nasa equipment to 1960s interviews about the bacon-flavoured crystals that astronauts can survive on in space, to the iconic images of man's first steps on the moon and the dramatic story of Apollo 13, Horizon and the BBC have covered it all.

But since President Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s was reached, no-one has succeeded in reigniting the public's enthusiasm for space travel and lunar voyages. Why?

On his journey through the ages, Professor Cox explores the role that international competition played in getting man to the moon and asks if, with America no longer the world's only superpower, we are at the dawn of a bright new space age.


THU 23:00 Lost Land of the Volcano (b00mwcqx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


THU 00:00 Who Were the Greeks? (b036b0yl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


THU 01:00 The Secrets of Quantum Physics (b04v85cj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


THU 02:00 Horizon: 40 Years on the Moon (b00llgs8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


THU 03:00 Treasures of Heaven (b012248j)
Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the ancient Christian practice of preserving holy relics and the largely forgotten art form that went with it, the reliquary. Fragments of bone or fabric placed inside a bejewelled shrine, a sculpted golden head or even a life-sized silver hand were, and still are, objects of religious devotion believed to have the power to work miracles. Most precious of all, though, are relics of Jesus Christ, and the programme also features three reliquaries containing the holiest of all relics - those associated with the Crucifixion.

The story of relics and reliquaries is a 2,000-year history of faith, persecution and hope, reflected in some of the most beautiful and little-known works of art ever made. Featuring interviews with art historian Sister Wendy Beckett and Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum.



FRIDAY 28 AUGUST 2015

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b067b7hz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 BBC Proms (b067g1ls)
2015

Friday Night at the Proms: The Story of Swing

Following the success of 2014's Battle of the Bands Prom, Clemency Burton-Hill and Clarke Peters present the inimitable and talented jazz singer Clare Teal who returns with a line-up of musicians to showcase the very best of the current UK swing and big band scene.

Clare is joined by trumpeter and composer extraordinaire Guy Barker and trombonist and multi-instrumentalist Winston Rollins to tell the story of the birth of swing, including tributes to 'King of Swing' Benny Goodman and the great trombonist and bandleader Tommy Dorsey. Special guests include saxophonist jazz supremo Denys Baptiste, English singer Elaine Delmar and the compelling deep baritone voice of American singer Jamie Davis.


FRI 21:45 Queens of Jazz: The Joy and Pain of the Jazz Divas (b01sbxqw)
A celebration of some of the greatest female jazz singers of the 20th century. It takes an unflinching and revealing look at what it actually took to be a jazz diva during a turbulent time in America's social history - a time when battle lines were being constantly drawn around issues of race, gender and popular culture.

The documentary tracks the diva's difficult progress as she emerges from the tough, testosterone-fuelled world of the big bands of the 30s and 40s, to fill nightclubs and saloons across the US in the 50s and early 60s as a force in her own right. Looking at the lives and careers of six individual singers (Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone and Annie Ross), the film not only talks to those who knew and worked with these queens of jazz, but also to contemporary singers who sit on the shoulders of these trailblazing talents without having to endure the pain and hardship it took for them to make their highly individual voices heard above the prejudice of mid-century America.

This is a documentary about how these women triumphed - always at some personal cost - to become some of the greatest artists of the 20th century, women who chose singing above life itself because singing was their life.


FRI 22:45 Reading and Leeds Festival (b06828hj)
2015

Mumford & Sons

Mumford & Sons return to the Reading Festival after their last performance there back in 2010, taking to the Main Stage as the first headliners of the weekend.


FRI 00:45 Country Kings at the BBC (p028vxj4)
Classic male country singers from the BBC vaults, journeying from The Everly Brothers and Jerry Lee Lewis to Garth Brooks and Willie Nelson, and featuring classic songs and performances by Glen Campbell, Charley Pride, George Hamilton IV, Kenny Rogers, Clint Black, Johnny Cash, Eric Church and more. This 50 years-plus compilation is a chronological look at country kings as featured on BBC studio shows as varied as In Concert, Wogan, The Late Show and Later with Jools Holland, plus early variety shows presented by the likes of Lulu, Harry Secombe and Shirley Abicair.


FRI 01:45 Country Queens at the BBC (p028vwnv)
Classic female country stars in action on a variety of BBC studio shows and featuring Bobbie Gentry, Anne Murray, Emmylou Harris, Tammy Wynette, Billie Jo Spears, Crystal Gayle, Taylor Swift, Lucinda Williams with Mary Chapin Carpenter and more. A chronological celebration of country queens at the BBC whether on Top of the Pops, OGWT, Later with Jools Holland, Parkinson or their own entertainment specials.


FRI 02:45 Sounds of the Sixties (b0074qbv)
Original Series

The Folk Revival

A trawl through the BBC's archives for 60s music with an acoustic bent. Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Tim Buckley feature.




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

A Brief History of Graffiti 21:00 WED (b067fxfr)

A Brief History of Graffiti 02:55 WED (b067fxfr)

A Day in the Life of Andy Warhol 21:00 TUE (b067fw3w)

A Day in the Life of Andy Warhol 03:00 TUE (b067fw3w)

Andrew Marr on Churchill: Blood, Sweat and Oil Paint 02:35 SUN (b06714yz)

BBC Proms 19:00 SUN (b067fm5y)

BBC Proms 19:30 THU (b067g1dw)

BBC Proms 19:30 FRI (b067g1ls)

Country Kings at the BBC 00:45 FRI (p028vxj4)

Country Queens at the BBC 01:45 FRI (p028vwnv)

Darcey Bussell's Looking for Audrey 21:05 SUN (b04w7mfk)

Death Camp Treblinka: Survivor Stories 00:30 MON (b01m1l9w)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 19:30 MON (b03ty8pl)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 19:30 TUE (b03ty8t3)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 20:00 TUE (b03ty91g)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 19:30 WED (b03x10q8)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 20:00 WED (b03x12nk)

Heritage! The Battle for Britain's Past 01:55 WED (p014fycm)

Hive Minds 20:30 TUE (b067fw3q)

Hive Minds 01:00 TUE (b067fw3q)

Horizon: 40 Years on the Moon 22:00 THU (b00llgs8)

Horizon: 40 Years on the Moon 02:00 THU (b00llgs8)

Juliette Binoche: Antigone at the Barbican 00:05 SUN (b05sj2j6)

Lost Land of the Volcano 19:00 SAT (b00mwcqx)

Lost Land of the Volcano 02:15 SAT (b00mwcqx)

Lost Land of the Volcano 23:00 THU (b00mwcqx)

Queens of Jazz: The Joy and Pain of the Jazz Divas 21:45 FRI (b01sbxqw)

Reading and Leeds Festival 22:45 FRI (b06828hj)

Sean Connery: In His Own Words 22:00 TUE (b0674mg5)

Sicily Unpacked 20:00 SAT (b0196wpw)

Sicily Unpacked 01:15 SAT (b0196wpw)

Sinatra: All or Nothing at All 22:05 SUN (b066d737)

Sinatra: All or Nothing at All 23:05 SUN (b066d739)

Sound of Cinema: The Music That Made the Movies 01:30 MON (b03b965y)

Sounds of the Eighties 00:50 SAT (b0074sm9)

Sounds of the Eighties 03:15 SAT (b0074sm9)

Sounds of the Sixties 02:45 FRI (b0074qbv)

Soup Cans & Superstars: How Pop Art Changed the World 21:00 MON (b067ftp7)

Soup Cans & Superstars: How Pop Art Changed the World 02:30 MON (b067ftp7)

Status Quo: Live and Acoustic 23:50 SAT (b052yq1f)

The Man Who Would Be King 22:00 WED (b00j275m)

The Secrets of Quantum Physics 21:00 THU (b04v85cj)

The Secrets of Quantum Physics 01:00 THU (b04v85cj)

The Young Montalbano 21:00 SAT (b03c67d4)

Timeshift 00:00 TUE (b044yw1d)

Timeshift 00:55 WED (b03mp53s)

Timewatch 00:05 WED (b00791l6)

Top of the Pops 22:50 SAT (b03mpphy)

Top of the Pops 23:00 TUE (b03mpphy)

Treasures of Heaven 03:00 THU (b012248j)

What Do Artists Do All Day? 22:30 MON (b067fxfm)

What Do Artists Do All Day? 20:30 WED (b067fxfp)

When Lucy Met Roy: Sir Roy Strong at 80 20:05 SUN (b067fm60)

When Lucy Met Roy: Sir Roy Strong at 80 01:35 SUN (b067fm60)

Who Were the Greeks? 20:00 MON (b036b0yl)

Who Were the Greeks? 00:00 THU (b036b0yl)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b067b7hb)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b067b7hh)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b067b7hn)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b067b7ht)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b067b7hz)

World War Two: 1942 and Hitler's Soft Underbelly 23:00 MON (b01ndj09)

World War Two: 1942 and Hitler's Soft Underbelly 01:30 TUE (b01ndj09)