B4

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

SATURDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2015

SAT 19:00 India's Frontier Railways (b05nhjht)
The Samjhauta Express

Freedom came to the subcontinent in August 1947. The British hastily partitioned British India before they left. Independence was attended by a million deaths and 14 million people were displaced.

Yet despite three wars, Pakistan and Indian railways have established a cross-border train, known as the Samjhauta Express - Samjhauta meaning agreement.

Amongst the passengers on the Samjhauta Express from Lahore to Delhi are Bilal and his father Abiz. Seventeen-year-old Bilal was the victim of an accident which damaged his eye. Unable to source the right treatment in Pakistan, father and son trawled the internet and finally found a suitable clinic. But it was in India. They have never stepped outside Pakistan, so they are a little nervous. Will they be successful in getting Bilal's eye treated?

Also on the train is Rahat Khan, the hockey queen. She's a Pakistan international and a railway hockey champion. She is travelling with her Pakistan girls' hockey team to play a match in India. But not everything goes to plan.

For the Sikh community, the Punjab is home. The golden temple of Amritsar is the holy of holies. But each year, on Guru Nanak's birthday, the railway runs special trains across the border to the guru's birthplace in Pakistan, despite the security concerns.

SAT 20:00 Timeshift (b017zqw8)
Series 11

The Golden Age of Trams: A Streetcar Named Desire

Move along the car! Timeshift takes a nostalgic trip on the tram car and explores how it liberated overcrowded cities and launched the era of the commuter. The film maps the tram's journey from early horse-drawn carriages on rails, through steam, and to electric power.

Overhead wires hung over Britain's towns and cities for nearly 50 years from the beginning of the 20th century until they were phased out everywhere except Blackpool. Manchester, the last city to lose its trams was, however, among the first to reintroduce them as the solution to modern-day traffic problems.

The film includes a specially recorded reading by Alan Bennett of his short story Leeds Trams, and contributions from Ken Dodd and Roy Hattersley.

SAT 21:00 Beck (b06dl009)
Room 302

The body of a young woman is found in a Stockholm hotel room. It appears that she has been strangled after a night partying with two young men, but the room was paid for using the credit card of a mugging victim whose alibi doesn't add up. Martin and Gunvald investigate under the supervision of their new boss Klas Freden.

In Swedish with English subtitles.

SAT 22:30 A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley (p01ftzs2)
The New Taste for Blood

Lucy Worsley investigates the dark and revealing history of our curious relationship with killing. She explores notorious real-life crimes from the first half of the 19th century, finding out how these murders were transformed into popular entertainments.

SAT 23:30 ... Sings Motown (b05nyyv5)
Archive compilation celebrating the incredible body of work by Detroit's finest songwriting teams and artists for perhaps America's greatest ever record label, Motown.

This compilation of Motown covers spans the 1960s to the present day and features: Paul Weller and Amy Winehouse with I Heard It Through the Grapevine on Jools's Hootenanny, Roberta Flack's version of Stevie Wonder's Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer from an early edition of the OGWT, early adopter Dusty Springfield with Nowhere to Run on her 60s BBC TV show and The Flying Lizards with Barrett Strong's Money (That's What I Want) from Top of the Pops in 1979.

Of course, there are quite a few 80s hit covers from the decade that rediscovered Motown as a hitmaking machine, many of them from Top of the Pops including Kim Wilde's You Keep Me Hangin' On and Paul Young's 1983 Number 1 with Marvin Gaye's 1962 B-side, Wherever I Lay My Hat.

Then it's on into the 90s with Mercy Mercy Me from the late lamented Robert Palmer and Mariah Carey's take on The Jackson Five's I'll Be There. Plus of course, Phil Collins but, rightly or wrongly, not with You Can't Hurry Love but with his 21st-century reading of Stevie Wonder's Blame It on the Sun from Later with Jools.

SAT 00:30 Northern Soul: Living for the Weekend (b04bf1lf)
The northern soul phenomenon was the most exciting underground British club movement of the 70s. At its high point, thousands of disenchanted white working class youths across the north of England danced to obscure, mid-60s Motown-inspired sounds until the sun rose. A dynamic culture of fashions, dance moves, vinyl obsession and much more grew up around this - all fuelled by the love of rare black American soul music with an express-train beat.

Through vivid first-hand accounts and rare archive footage, this film charts northern soul's dramatic rise, fall and rebirth. It reveals the scene's roots in the mod culture of the 60s and how key clubs like Manchester's Twisted Wheel and Sheffield's Mojo helped create the prototype that would blossom in the next decade.

By the early 70s a new generation of youngsters in the north were transforming the old ballrooms and dancehalls of their parents' generation into citadels of the northern soul experience, creating a genuine alternative to mainstream British pop culture. This was decades before the internet, when people had to travel great distances to enjoy the music they felt so passionate about.

Set against a rich cultural and social backdrop, the film shows how the euphoria and release that northern soul gave these clubbers provided an escape from the bleak reality of their daily lives during the turbulent 70s. After thriving in almost total isolation from the rest of the UK, northern soul was commercialised and broke nationwide in the second half of the 70s. But just as this happened, the once-healthy rivalry between the clubs in the north fell apart amidst bitter in-fighting over the direction the scene should go.

Today, northern soul is more popular than ever, but it was back in the 70s that one of the most fascinating and unique British club cultures rose to glory. Contributors include key northern soul DJs like Richard Searling, Ian Levine, Colin Curtis and Kev Roberts alongside Lisa Stansfield, Norman Jay, Pete Waterman, Marc Almond, Peter Stringfellow and others.

SAT 01:30 Love Me Do: The Beatles '62 (b01nfbt2)
On October 5th 1962 the Beatles released their first single, Love Me Do. It was a moment that changed music history and popular culture forever. It was also an extraordinary year in social and cultural history, not just for Liverpool but for the world, with the Cuban missile crisis, John Glenn in space and beer at a shilling a pint.

Stuart Maconie explores how the Beatles changed from leather and slicked back hair to suits and Beatle mops, and how their fashion set the pace for the sixties to follow. Pop artist Sir Peter Blake, Bob Harris and former Beatles drummer Pete Best join friends to reflect on how the Beatles evolved into John, Paul, George and Ringo - the most famous band in the world.

SAT 02:30 TOTP2 (b007897x)
70s Special

A 'then and now' special featuring a number of 1970s artistes as they were in 2002. As well as archive footage, the show also includes previously unseen performances by Donny Osmond, David Cassidy, Page and Plant and Alice Cooper.

SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2015

SUN 19:00 BBC Proms (b06dktd5)
2015

Last Night at the Proms from Around the UK

Across the nations, a stellar line-up of artists entertain audiences with a mix of classical, jazz and contemporary repertoire to celebrate the Last Night of the Proms. Presenter Josie d'Arby joins the party at Titanic Slipways in Belfast, where Riverdance are among the artists entertaining the crowd. X Factor winner Alexandra Burke takes to the stage in Glasgow, while in Swansea the internationally-acclaimed operatic soprano Rebecca Evans joins West End star Luke McCall. And topping the bill in Hyde Park are American music legends the Jacksons.

SUN 20:30 Secret Knowledge (b06csx20)
The Art of the Impossible: MC Escher and Me

World-leading cosmologist Professor Sir Roger Penrose is more than just a fan of MC Escher's mind-bending art. During the course of a long creative collaboration, the British mathematician and the Dutch artist exchanged ideas and inspirations. Some of Escher's most iconic images have their origin in Penrose's mathematical sketches - while the artist's work has served as a starting point for the professor's own explorations of new scientific ideas. To coincide with the first ever Escher retrospective in the UK, Penrose takes us on a personal journey through Escher's greatest masterpieces - marvelling at his intuitive brilliance and the penetrating light it still sheds on complex mathematical concepts.

SUN 21:00 Storyville (b04ndsb3)
Exposed: Magicians, Psychics and Frauds

Renowned magician James 'The Amazing' Randi has been wowing audiences with his jaw-dropping illusions, escapes and sleight of hand for over 50 years. When he began seeing his cherished art form co-opted by all manner of con artists, he made it his mission to expose the simple tricks charlatans have borrowed from magicians to swindle the masses.

This entertaining film chronicles Randi's best debunkings of faith healers, fortune tellers and psychics. It documents his rivalry with famed spoon-bender Uri Geller, whom Randi eventually foiled on a high-profile television appearance. Another target was evangelist Peter Popoff, whose tent-show miracles and audience mind-reading were exposed as chicanery when Randi revealed a recording of Popoff's wife feeding him information through a radio-transmitter earpiece.

In telling Randi's strange, funny and fascinating life story, the film shows how we are all vulnerable to deception - even, in a surprising twist, 'The Amazing' Randi himself.

This documentary is part of Louis Theroux: Docs That Made Me, a collection of his favourite documentaries.
As someone who interviewed Uri Geller a number of times and came close to making a film about him, it's easy to see why this Storyville film grabbed Louis Theroux. The themes of 'fakery and quackery' and the charismatic figure of arch skeptic James Randi make this an entertaining look into how we separate fact from fiction.

Exposed: Magicians, Psychics & Frauds is the winner of multiple awards... The Audience Award (AFI Docs Festival, 2014), Jury Award (Dallas Video Festival, 2014), Best Documentary (Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, 2014), Jury Prize (Key West Film Festival, 2014), Jury Award (Napa Valley Film Festival, 2014), Jury Award (Newport Beach Film Festival, 2014).

SUN 22:20 BBC: The Secret Files (b06455ch)
Episode 1

Penelope Keith uncovers the secrets behind some of the BBC's greatest artists and programmes as she delves into the corporation's written archives.

SUN 23:20 Al Murray's Great British War Movies (b04fmfrg)
Comedian and history buff Al Murray is joined by historian Dan Snow, writer Natalie Haynes and broadcaster and film expert Matthew Sweet for a fresh look at a subject very close to his heart - the great British war movie. This roundtable discussion looks at both the films themselves, from A Bridge too Far to Zulu, and uses them as a lens on British history, cultural attitudes and our changing views on conflict over the decades.

With dozens of clips from classic films such as Where Eagles Dare, The Dam Busters, In Which We Serve, Escape to Victory and The Eagle Has Landed, nostalgic memories of Bank Holiday afternoons in front of the telly and lashings of tea, rousing speeches and stiff upper lips, Al and his guests explore why the British are so obsessed with films about war - and what this says about us.

SUN 00:20 Mumbai High: The Musical (p02z82jn)
A dizzying and unique musical extravaganza. Set in a school in Dharavi, Mumbai - the biggest slum in Asia - it combines observational footage of the children's daily lives, with songs reflecting their hopes and dreams.

Fourteen-year-old Mary lives with her parents and two sisters on the pavement of a busy road. They have a rudimentary shelter and they all sleep on the floor, sometimes with rats running over them. Mary and the other characters have their dreams and ambitions and believe they can achieve them through education. They are clever, bright, motivated and they sing!

This is no ordinary documentary, this is the very first Bollywood-style documentary musical. Mixed in with the traditional observational footage of the school are specially composed and choreographed song and dance numbers which the children (and teachers!) perform with incredible skill and charm.

No film has ever been made like this, it's a perfect way to capture the unbreakable optimism and exuberance of youth. But this is not a depressing examination of extreme poverty, it's an uplifting celebration of human spirit and endeavour, and it sets out to tell a wider tale of India.

SUN 01:20 Bought with Love: The Secret History of British Art Collections (b0376y1l)
The Pioneers

Britain's country houses are home to astonishing world-class art collections full of priceless old masters and more. In this three-part series art historian Helen Rosslyn opens the doors of some of our most impressive country houses to tell the story of how so many great paintings came to Britain and of the adventurous men and women who brought them here.

In the first episode she reveals the immense influence of the 17th-century pioneer collectors such as Thomas Howard, the 'Collector' Earl of Arundel, King Charles I and his entourage known as the Whitehall Group. Rosslyn explores how this group also brought a taste for the Baroque to Britain, commissioning continental artists such as Rubens, Van Dyck and later Antonio Verrio.

Featuring Verrio's extraordinary Hell Staircase at Burghley House in Cambridgeshire, as well as highlights from the collections at Arundel Castle in Sussex and Wilton House in Wiltshire, the series offers not only a visual treat but a surprising narrative to our national treasures.

SUN 02:25 A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley (p01ftzs2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 on Saturday]

MONDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2015

MON 19:00 World News Today (b06cqkgx)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

MON 19:30 Great Continental Railway Journeys (b05pvb44)
Series 3 - Reversions

La Coruna to Lisbon

Armed with his 1913 Bradshaw's, Michael Portillo explores a very different Spain from the one he knows best and ventures across its border with Britain's oldest ally, Portugal.

In Galicia, Michael discovers the city of La Coruna, a fashionable destination for Edwardian Britons, for whom the principal attraction was the tomb of a British military hero. Michael uncovers the Celtic roots of the people and tries to master the bagpipes.

On the pilgrims' trail to Santiago de Compostela, Michael meets walkers from all over the world heading for the cathedral, and he is led into the archive to see one of the world's first guidebooks, dating from the 12th century.

Aboard the West Galician Railway, Michael hears how a 19th-century British railwayman sought his fortune in Galicia and ended up running the company. A visit to a sardine cannery has Michael scrubbing octopus tentacles, and setting sail with local fishermen to see if he can trap one.

Arriving at the ornately tiled Sao Bento station in Porto, he finds out about the birth of Britain's long alliance with the Portuguese. A glass of 1953 port awaits him at the city's Factory House, before he embarks on the Linha da Douro along the spectacular Douro Valley.

At Coimbra, Michael is moved by the mournful strains of the fado sung by university students, then boards the high-speed train to Lisbon.

Following in the footsteps of King Edward VII, who visited his cousin King Carlos in 1903, Michael explores the city from the Santa Justa lift to the harbour at Belem. An attempt to make Portugal's national sweetmeat proves challenging, but help is at hand.

At the Palace Square, Michael hears how turbulent events at the time of his guide saw the Portuguese royal family almost wiped out.

MON 20:00 Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries (b053pzv1)
Episode 2

The golden age of the British monastery was during the medieval period, when monks transformed British society and rose to a position of immense power. Fighting back after centuries of defeat and neglect, a wave of new monasteries spread across the nation, with over 500 British monastic houses established by the 14th century. Far from the inward-looking recluses of legend, monks were exceptionally creative, and became pioneers in the fields of medicine, science, scholarship, industry, farming, art and music. They didn't turn their back on the medieval world, but helped transform it.

Yet as the monasteries mingled with the world outside their cloisters they began to take on its corruption. They had begun with a vow of poverty, but eventually came to own a third of the nation's land. This wealth, combined with the sins of individual monks, sealed their fate, and as the medieval period ended the monks were on the brink of a catastrophic and total collapse.

From Viking-ravaged Lindisfarne to the astonishing achievements of Durham and Peterborough cathedrals (both built for monks), from cutting-edge hospitals to the rediscovery of the oldest collection of two-part music in the world, this is a story of astonishing success and spectacular artistic achievement that proved too good to last.

MON 21:00 The Inca: Masters of the Clouds (b04xdpjy)
Foundations

Dr Jago Cooper reassesses the achievements of the Inca Empire. He begins in Peru, where evidence is still being uncovered that challenges preconceptions about its origins and significance. Venturing from the coast to the clouds, he reveals how the Inca transformed one of the most challenging landscapes in the world to ward off the worst effects of the climate, and created sophisticated systems of communication. He shows how one of many independent societies became a commanding empire - not through force, but by using subtle methods of persuasion.

MON 22:00 Archaeology: A Secret History (p0109k4g)
The Power of the Past

Archaeologist Richard Miles presents a series charting the history of the breakthroughs and watersheds in our long quest to understand our ancient past. He shows how 20th-century attention turned from civilisation and kings to the search for the common man against a background of science and competing political ideologies.

MON 23:00 Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past (b01g7tkp)
Episode 2

Dan Cruickshank and Charlie Luxton uncover the incredible hidden stories behind historic buildings as they are dismantled brick by brick, and meticulously resurrected in new locations.

Every year thousands of ordinary buildings are demolished, smashed down to make way for the new, but some are so special they are snatched from the bulldozers and carefully dismantled. When a new home can be found for them, they are lovingly and painstakingly rebuilt. These are not grand edifices, but everyday buildings that give an extraordinary insight into the lives of the people who lived and worked in them. Deep within their fabric are preserved astonishing stories about how we lived and worked.

Architectural designer Charlie Luxton explores how these vast and hugely complex jigsaw puzzles are pieced back together, trying his hand at the array of ancient crafts required. Meanwhile, architectural historian Dan Cruickshank investigates the building's history, proving that even seemingly humble buildings have incredible stories to tell.

This episode follows the construction of a fully working coal-fired Edwardian fish and chip shop at Beamish Museum. Charlie helps with the refurbishment of one of the world's oldest surviving frying ranges, and gets a horse-drawn fish and chip cart back on the road. Meanwhile, Dan discovers the surprising origins of our national dish and explores its rise from squalid back-street outlets to grand fish and chip palaces.

MON 00:00 Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer (b00jhv9g)
Cleopatra - the most famous woman in history. We know her as a great queen, a beautiful lover and a political schemer. For 2,000 years almost all evidence of her has disappeared - until now.

In one of the world's most exciting finds, archaeologists believe they have discovered the skeleton of her sister, murdered by Cleopatra and Mark Antony.

From Egypt to Turkey, Neil Oliver investigates the story of a ruthless queen who would kill her own siblings for power. This is the portrait of a killer.

MON 01:00 Timeshift (b017zqw8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday]

MON 02:00 Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries (b053pzv1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

MON 03:00 The Inca: Masters of the Clouds (b04xdpjy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2015

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b06cqkh2)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

TUE 19:30 Great Continental Railway Journeys (b05qjwhw)
Series 3 - Reversions

La Coruna to Lisbon - Part 2

Armed with his 1913 Bradshaw's, Michael Portillo explores a very different Spain from the one he knows best and ventures across its border with Britain's oldest ally, Portugal.

Beginning in Galicia, Michael discovers the elegant city of La Coruna, a fashionable destination for Edwardian Britons, for whom the principal attraction was the tomb of a British military hero. Michael uncovers the Celtic roots of the Galician people and tries to master the bagpipes but finds himself upstaged by a six-year-old.

On the pilgrims' trail to Santiago de Compostela, Michael meets walkers from all over the world heading for the cathedral, and he is led into the archive to see one of the world's first guidebooks, dating from the 12th century.

Aboard the West Galician Railway, Michael hears how a 19th-century British railwayman sought his fortune in Galicia and ended up running the company. A visit to a sardine cannery has Michael scrubbing octopus tentacles, and a taste for the cephalopod sees Michael set sail with local fishermen to see if he can trap one.

Arriving at the ornately tiled Sao Bento station in Porto, he finds out about the birth of Britain's long alliance with the Portuguese. A glass of 1953 port awaits him at the city's Factory House, before he embarks on the Linha da Douro along the spectacular Douro Valley.

At Coimbra, Michael is moved by the mournful strains of the fado sung by students of the university, then boards the high-speed train to the Portuguese capital Lisbon.

Following in the footsteps of King Edward VII, who visited his cousin King Carlos in 1903, Michael explores the city from the Santa Justa lift to the harbour at Belem. An attempt to make Portugal's national sweetmeat proves challenging, but help is at hand.

At the handsome Palace Square, Michael hears how turbulent events at the time of his guide saw the Portuguese royal family almost wiped out.

TUE 20:00 Canals: The Making of a Nation (b0685bp2)
The Workers

This is the story of the men who built our canals - the navigators or 'navvies'. They represented an 'army' of hard physical men who were capable of enduring tough labour for long hours. Many roved the countryside looking for work and a better deal. They gained a reputation as troublesome outsiders, fond of drinking and living a life of ungodly debauchery. But who were they? Unreliable heathens and outcasts, or unsung heroes who used might and muscle to build canals and railways? We focus on the Manchester Ship Canal - the swansong for the navvies and hailed as the greatest engineering feat of the Victorian Age. The navvies worked at a time of rising trade unionism. But could they organise and campaign for a better deal?

TUE 20:30 Hive Minds (b06csxcf)
Series 1

Trivium v Lutrophiles

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.

Trivium play Lutrophiles in the first semi-final.

TUE 21:00 John Simpson: Stories from the Frontline (b06dl0nq)
BBC world affairs editor John Simpson takes viewers behind the scenes of reporting from the frontline. He and his guests - Jon Snow, Christiane Amanpour and Max Hastings - discuss the difficulties, moral ambiguities and challenges of this increasingly dangerous job, with a series of clips from conflicts in the Falklands, Bosnia, Iraq and Syria, highlighting some of the best work of the past 50 years.

TUE 22:00 Wheeler on America (b06dl0ns)
Lyndon Johnson's War

A look back at the classic series Wheeler on America from 1996. Charles Wheeler traces changes in US society since the liberal revolution in the 1960s. Along the way he looks at how President Johnson was destroyed by the Vietnam war, and a conspiracy by the Nixon presidential campaign.

TUE 22:55 Storyville (b03zq89v)
Which Way is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington

Moving and deeply personal documentary about Tim Hetherington, the award-winning British war photographer and film-maker killed in 2011 during the Libyan civil war. Director Sebastian Junger gracefully weaves together footage of Hetherington at work and emotional interviews with his family and colleagues to capture his collaborator and friend's compassion and intense curiosity about the human spirit.

The film maps a career in which Hetherington searched for the humanity within wartime, as evidenced in their Oscar-nominated film Restrepo, about an American platoon in Afghanistan. Hetherington's footage of rebel army life during Liberia's civil war conveys a rare sense of intimacy in sharp contrast to the violence surrounding him. Although he spent most of his time travelling to the centre of war zones, he was seeking truths rather than adventure.

A tribute to this remarkable, talented young man, Which Way is the Frontline from Here? also addresses fundamental questions about the very nature of conflict.

TUE 00:10 The Falklands Legacy with Max Hastings (b01fkc3v)
Thirty years after the Falklands War, journalist and military historian Max Hastings explores the conflict's impact and its legacy.

Hastings, who sailed with the Task Force in 1982 and reported on the Falklands campaign first-hand, looks at how victory in the South Atlantic revived the reputation of our armed forces and renewed Britain's sense of pride and its image abroad after years of decline as an imperial and military power.

Hastings examines how the Falklands provided a model of a swift and successful war that was matched by other conflicts Britain fought at the end of the 20th century. In contrast, the long campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have left the British public sceptical about sending our armed forces in large numbers to war again.

The Falklands could well be the last popular war Britain fights, and certainly the country's last imperial hurrah.

TUE 01:10 Canals: The Making of a Nation (b0685bp2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

TUE 01:40 Hive Minds (b06csxcf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]

TUE 02:10 The Secret Life of Rubbish (b01p65qn)
Episode 2

With tales from old binmen and film archive that has never been broadcast before, this two-part series offers an original view of the history of modern Britain - from the back end where the rubbish comes out.

The second programme deals with the 1970s and 1980s, when two big ideas emerged in the waste management industry.

The first was privatisation of public services. We meet Ian Ross, who made millions by taking over the refuse collection contract from the council that had once employed him as a binman. 'It was scary', Ian Ross admits, 'but you have one chance don't you, and you've got to take it.'

The other idea that emerged was environmentalism. Ron England goes back to the supermarket car park in Barnsley, South Yorkshire where he set up the world's first bottle bank. 'Everyone said I was a crank', recalls Ron.

But the waste stream continued to expand. This was great news for the Earls of Aylesford. The present Earl shows how his palace was saved with money earned from the enormous landfill in the grounds.

This is the story of a society hooked on wastefulness - and of the people who clear up the mess.

TUE 03:10 Britain on Film (b01q6pzr)
Series 1

War and Peace

Throughout the 1960s, the Rank Organisation produced hundreds of short, quirky documentaries that examined all aspects of life in Britain. Shot on high-quality colour film stock, they were screened in cinemas, but until now very little of the footage has been shown on television. This series draws on this unique archive to offer illuminating and often surprising insights into a pivotal decade in modern British history.

This episode examines Look at Life's coverage of what was the most important political conflict of the era - the Cold War. With international tensions rising, the series recorded the enormous anti-nuclear protests in London; the experiences of British forces stationed in Berlin; and visited Eastern Europe, to observe everyday life for the people living behind the Iron Curtain.

WEDNESDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2015

WED 19:00 World News Today (b06cqkh7)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

WED 19:30 Great Continental Railway Journeys (b05qjwhy)
Series 3 - Reversions

Lyon to Marseille: Part 1

Michael Portillo follows in the footsteps of Edwardian travellers to trace a route recommended in his Bradshaw's guide, journeying from the heart of France to the Mediterranean coast.

His journey begins in the capital of cuisine, Lyon, where he finds out about the early 20th-century Meres Lyonnaises, to whom the city owes its gastronomic reputation. Ever keen to try his hand, Michael takes instruction from a top chef on how to make an omelette, but his efforts fail to impress.

At the Palais de la Bourse, Michael hears how, at the time of his guide, the city was still reeling from the assassination of the country's president and how a shocked French nation rallied in support of the Third Republic.

Cycling in tandem with his guide, Michael discovers Lyon's role in the country's most famous sporting event, the Tour de France. Forsaking the saddle, Michael takes to the skies and pilots a light aircraft as he learns of one of France's pioneering aviators.

In Avignon, Michael savours the scent of Provence in the region's lavender fields before relaxing with a glass of the city's famous tipple, Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Moving south to the city of Arles, he learns how its light and the famous mistral drew artists from all over Europe.

His journey ends at the gateway to the former French empire, Marseilles. In the vast port, Michael joins a pilot boat as it leads a supertanker to its berth.

WED 20:00 Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past (b01gk31g)
Episode 3

Dan Cruickshank and Charlie Luxton uncover the incredible hidden stories behind historic buildings as they are dismantled brick by brick, and meticulously resurrected in new locations.

Every year thousands of ordinary buildings are demolished, smashed down to make way for the new, but some are so special they are snatched from the bulldozers and carefully dismantled. When a new home can be found for them, they are lovingly and painstakingly rebuilt. These are not grand buildings, but everyday buildings that give an extraordinary insight into the lives of the people who lived and worked in them. Deep within their fabric are preserved astonishing stories about how we lived and worked.

Architectural designer Charlie Luxton explores how these vast and hugely complex jigsaw puzzles are pieced back together, trying his hand at the array of ancient crafts required. Meanwhile, architectural historian Dan Cruickshank investigates the building's history, proving that even seemingly humble buildings have incredible stories to tell.

A mysterious medieval building on the quayside at Haverfordwest was dismantled 30 years ago by a team of young apprentices. Charlie helps those same men reconstruct the seemingly fortified vaulted house at the Welsh National History Museum. Dan sets out to discover what the building actually was and uncovers stories of wealthy merchants, pirates and the English invasion of South Wales.

WED 21:00 Timeshift (b06csy8c)
Series 15

The Engine that Powers the World

The surprising story of the hidden powerhouse behind the globalised world, the diesel engine, a 19th-century invention that has become indispensable to the 21st century. It's a tortoise-versus-hare tale in which the diesel engine races the petrol engine in a competition to replace ageing steam technology, a race eventually won hands down by diesel.

Splendidly, car enthusiast presenter Mark Evans gets excitedly hands-on with some of the many applications of Mr Diesel's - yes, there was one - original creation, from vintage submarines and tractors to locomotive trains and container ships. You'll never feel the same about that humble old diesel family car again.

WED 22:00 Cosmonauts: How Russia Won the Space Race (b04lcxms)
When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon in 1969, America went down in popular history as the winner of the space race. However, the real pioneers of space exploration were the Soviet cosmonauts.

This remarkable feature-length documentary combines rare and unseen archive footage with interviews with the surviving cosmonauts to tell the fascinating and at times terrifying story of how the Russians led us into the space age. A particular highlight is Alexei Leonov, the man who performed the first spacewalk, explaining how he found himself trapped outside his spacecraft 500 miles above the Earth. Scary stuff.

WED 23:00 Storyville (b04ndsb3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]

WED 00:20 Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past (b01gk31g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

WED 01:20 The Inca: Masters of the Clouds (b04xdpjy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]

WED 02:20 Timeshift (b06csy8c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THURSDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2015

THU 19:00 World News Today (b06cqkhd)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

THU 19:30 Great Continental Railway Journeys (b05qjxcy)
Series 3 - Reversions

Lyon to Marseille: Part 2

Michael Portillo follows in the footsteps of Edwardian travellers to trace a route recommended in his Bradshaw's guide, journeying from the heart of France to the Mediterranean coast.

His journey begins in the capital of cuisine, Lyon, where he finds out about the early 20th-century Meres Lyonnaises, to whom the city owes its gastronomic reputation. Ever keen to try his hand, Michael takes instruction from a top chef on how to make an omelette, but his efforts fail to impress.

At the Palais de la Bourse, Michael hears how, at the time of his guide, the city was still reeling from the assassination of the country's president and how a shocked French nation rallied in support of the Third Republic.

Cycling in tandem with his guide, Michael discovers Lyon's role in the country's most famous sporting event, the Tour de France. Forsaking the saddle, Michael takes to the skies and pilots a light aircraft as he learns of one of France's pioneering aviators.

In Avignon, Michael savours the scent of Provence in the region's lavender fields before relaxing with a glass of the city's famous tipple, Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Moving south to the city of Arles, he learns how its light and the famous mistral drew artists from all over Europe.

His journey ends at the gateway to the former French empire, Marseilles. In the vast port, Michael joins a pilot boat as it leads a supertanker to its berth.

THU 20:00 Ian Hislop's Age of the Do-Gooders (b00wmpc0)
Suffer the Little Children

Ian Hislop continues his celebration of the dynamic and eccentric Victorian reformers who brought about the most remarkable period of social change in British history. Here Ian looks at the do-gooders' dramatic struggle to give youngsters a proper childhood, sending them to school instead of up chimneys, helping rather than hanging juvenile delinquents and raising the age of consent.

Dr Barnardo founded one of the most famous charities of his era. But his methods were decidedly dodgy: he was guilty of misleading advertising, photo-fakery and even child abduction. Yet, we owe our own concept of child protection - that children have rights independently from their parents - to Thomas Barnardo.

Indefatigable Bristol spinster Mary Carpenter's radical approach to helping young offenders was years ahead of its time. But even her patience ran out with some of the errant teenage girls at her pioneering reformatory school. Maverick newspaper editor WT Stead shocked the nation with his lurid expose of child prostitution - an exclusive which involved him buying a 13-year-old virgin for five pounds. His style and methods make today's tabloid newspapers seem tame. Stead managed to get the age of consent raised to 16, where it remains to this day.

Thanks to the Earl of Shaftesbury, children as young as five stopped being sent down mines. His lifetime's work for children is celebrated in the famous monument at Piccadilly Circus - not actually Eros (sexual love) but Anteros (selfless love).Charles Kingsley's best-selling The Water Babies was crucial in banning the practice of sending small boys up chimneys. To him children were innocent, not tainted with original sin. Yet after him, Victorians sentimentalized children to a degree which we today find hard to stomach.

Ian discovers how these Victorian do-gooders' ideas might have something to offer us today, with the help of Kids' Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh, Barnardo's boss Martin Narey and the current Lord Shaftesbury, 30-year-old former DJ Nicholas Ashley Cooper.

THU 21:00 The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms (p030s6b3)
Without us noticing, modern life has been taken over. Algorithms run everything from search engines on the internet to satnavs and credit card data security - they even help us travel the world, find love and save lives.

Mathematician Professor Marcus du Sautoy demystifies the hidden world of algorithms. By showing us some of the algorithms most essential to our lives, he reveals where these 2,000-year-old problem-solvers came from, how they work, what they have achieved and how they are now so advanced they can even programme themselves.

THU 22:00 Horizon (b01rbynt)
2012-2013

The Creative Brain: How Insight Works

It is a feeling we all know - the moment when a light goes on in your head. In a sudden flash of inspiration, a new idea is born.

Today, scientists are using some unusual techniques to try to work out how these moments of creativity - whether big, small or life-changing - come about. They have devised a series of puzzles and brainteasers to draw out our creative behaviour, while the very latest neuroimaging technology means researchers can actually peer inside our brains and witness the creative spark as it happens. What they are discovering could have the power to make every one of us more creative.

THU 23:00 Detectorists (b04jy45z)
Series 1

Episode 1

A new comedy about two friends - Andy and Lance - who go searching for their hearts' desire with a couple of metal detectors.

Following a chance encounter with a young history student, Lance and Andy embark on a journey towards the discovery of a lifetime. All they need to do is get permission from the local landowner, the mad one who is rumoured to have done away with his wife.

THU 23:30 Detectorists (b04kzw1l)
Series 1

Episode 2

Lance and Andy haven't told anyone that they are hot on the trail of the holy grail of metal detecting - the final resting place of King Sexred of the East Saxons. But members of the rival detecting club already seem to know all about it. Who is the mole?

THU 00:00 Archaeology: A Secret History (p0109k4g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]

THU 01:00 Natural World (b00xxf9f)
2010-2011

Miracle in the Marshes of Iraq

It's the largest and most ambitious habitat recreation project ever known - to bring back to life one of the world's greatest marshlands. And it's happening in Iraq.

Considered to be the original Garden of Eden, the marshes were once Iraq's wildlife jewel, where man and nature thrived for 5,000 years. But in the 1990s, Saddam Hussein drained these gigantic wetlands and turned them into a desert, destroying a home to thousands of people and millions of birds.

Donning his body armour, film-maker David Johnson travels to the Mesopotamian marshes to follow the work of Azzam Alwash, the visionary Iraqi engineer at the centre of this extraordinary scheme to reflood hundreds of miles of desert and bring back life to the sands. This is a view of Iraq the world never sees, a world of huge reed beds and vast flocks of birds that fill the sky.

THU 02:00 Horizon (b01rbynt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]

THU 03:00 The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms (p030s6b3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

FRIDAY 25 SEPTEMBER 2015

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b06cqkhy)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

FRI 19:30 Leeds International Piano Competition (b06cvzqr)
2015

Part Two

Petroc Trelawny presents the second programme from the final of the Leeds International Piano competition. There are full concertos from two more of the six finalists, accompanied by Sir Mark Elder and the Halle Orchestra. With Petroc are international concert pianists Noriko Ogawa and Artur Pizarro, both former finalists at Leeds. There is also an interview with the competition's global ambassador, keyboard superstar Lang Lang. Young concert pianist Nicholas McCarthy is out and about reporting on how the competition impacts on the city of Leeds.

FRI 21:00 The Joy of Disco (b01cqt72)
Documentary about how a much-derided music actually changed the world. Between 1969 and 1979 disco soundtracked gay liberation, foregrounded female desire in the age of feminism and led to the birth of modern club culture as we know it today, before taking the world by storm. With contributions from Nile Rodgers, Robin Gibb, Kathy Sledge and Ian Schrager.

FRI 22:00 Hot Chocolate at the BBC (b06dl1c5)
Errol Brown, who died aged 71 in May 2015, was probably the most famous and ubiquitous black British pop star of the 70s and early 80s. He co-founded Hot Chocolate with Tony Wilson in 1970 and the band went on to have a hit every year between 1971 and 1984.

This compilation of BBC performances and rare interview extracts celebrates Errol and Hot Chocolate, showcasing their Top 10 hits alongside rarely seen early performances and cult fan favourites.

We journey through over 15 years of chart smashes showcasing all the infectious numbers - Every 1's a Winner, Emma, So You Win Again and It Started With a Kiss - and of course, The Full Monty scene-stealer You Sexy Thing, a song that was in the charts in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

There are reminders of just how many Top 10 moments they had, with Girl Crazy and No Doubt About It, the hit that got away - Mindless Boogie - and their first appearance on BBC television with Love Is Life. Hot Chocolate were that rarity, a 70s British pop band who largely wrote their own tunes and arrangements and a mixed race band who perhaps inadvertently helped foster an early sense of British multi-culturalism. In Errol, they had a frontman who was not only a great singer, songwriter and frontman, but also resolutely and undemonstratively always himself, at ease in his own skin.

FRI 23:00 TOTP2 (b007v15w)
Boogie Fever: A TOTP2 Disco Special

Get your dancing shoes on for a show of disco mania as Steve Wright and the TOTP2 team take you back to the dancefloor for some boogie fever. The Bee Gees are here in all their glory, along with Gloria Gaynor, Liquid Gold, Sylvester, The Village People, The Weather Girls and The Three Degrees.

There's classic dance fodder from Chic, George McCrae, Hi-Tension, Heatwave, The JALN Band, Earth Wind and Fire, Tina Charles, The Gibson Brothers and Edwin Starr, disco pop from Blondie, Yazz, Boney M and Linx, while Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Infernal bring the story up to date.

And then there's the Disco Duck. Sorry...

FRI 00:30 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.

FRI 01:30 The Joy of Disco (b01cqt72)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

FRI 02:30 Hot Chocolate at the BBC (b06dl1c5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]

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

... Sings Motown 23:30 SAT (b05nyyv5)

A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley 22:30 SAT (p01ftzs2)

A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley 02:25 SUN (p01ftzs2)

Al Murray's Great British War Movies 23:20 SUN (b04fmfrg)

Archaeology: A Secret History 22:00 MON (p0109k4g)

Archaeology: A Secret History 00:00 THU (p0109k4g)

BBC Proms 19:00 SUN (b06dktd5)

BBC: The Secret Files 22:20 SUN (b06455ch)

Beck 21:00 SAT (b06dl009)

Bought with Love: The Secret History of British Art Collections 01:20 SUN (b0376y1l)

Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past 23:00 MON (b01g7tkp)

Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past 20:00 WED (b01gk31g)

Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past 00:20 WED (b01gk31g)

Britain on Film 03:10 TUE (b01q6pzr)

Canals: The Making of a Nation 20:00 TUE (b0685bp2)

Canals: The Making of a Nation 01:10 TUE (b0685bp2)

Cleopatra: Portrait of a Killer 00:00 MON (b00jhv9g)

Cosmonauts: How Russia Won the Space Race 22:00 WED (b04lcxms)

Detectorists 23:00 THU (b04jy45z)

Detectorists 23:30 THU (b04kzw1l)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 19:30 MON (b05pvb44)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 19:30 TUE (b05qjwhw)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 19:30 WED (b05qjwhy)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 19:30 THU (b05qjxcy)

Hive Minds 20:30 TUE (b06csxcf)

Hive Minds 01:40 TUE (b06csxcf)

Horizon 22:00 THU (b01rbynt)

Horizon 02:00 THU (b01rbynt)

Hot Chocolate at the BBC 22:00 FRI (b06dl1c5)

Hot Chocolate at the BBC 02:30 FRI (b06dl1c5)

Ian Hislop's Age of the Do-Gooders 20:00 THU (b00wmpc0)

India's Frontier Railways 19:00 SAT (b05nhjht)

John Simpson: Stories from the Frontline 21:00 TUE (b06dl0nq)

Leeds International Piano Competition 19:30 FRI (b06cvzqr)

Love Me Do: The Beatles '62 01:30 SAT (b01nfbt2)

Mumbai High: The Musical 00:20 SUN (p02z82jn)

Natural World 01:00 THU (b00xxf9f)

Nile Rodgers: The Hitmaker Remastered 00:30 FRI (b01rk2tm)

Northern Soul: Living for the Weekend 00:30 SAT (b04bf1lf)

Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries 20:00 MON (b053pzv1)

Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries 02:00 MON (b053pzv1)

Secret Knowledge 20:30 SUN (b06csx20)

Storyville 21:00 SUN (b04ndsb3)

Storyville 22:55 TUE (b03zq89v)

Storyville 23:00 WED (b04ndsb3)

TOTP2 02:30 SAT (b007897x)

TOTP2 23:00 FRI (b007v15w)

The Falklands Legacy with Max Hastings 00:10 TUE (b01fkc3v)

The Inca: Masters of the Clouds 21:00 MON (b04xdpjy)

The Inca: Masters of the Clouds 03:00 MON (b04xdpjy)

The Inca: Masters of the Clouds 01:20 WED (b04xdpjy)

The Joy of Disco 21:00 FRI (b01cqt72)

The Joy of Disco 01:30 FRI (b01cqt72)

The Secret Life of Rubbish 02:10 TUE (b01p65qn)

The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms 21:00 THU (p030s6b3)

The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms 03:00 THU (p030s6b3)

Timeshift 20:00 SAT (b017zqw8)

Timeshift 01:00 MON (b017zqw8)

Timeshift 21:00 WED (b06csy8c)

Timeshift 02:20 WED (b06csy8c)

Wheeler on America 22:00 TUE (b06dl0ns)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b06cqkgx)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b06cqkh2)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b06cqkh7)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b06cqkhd)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b06cqkhy)