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 12 MARCH 2016

SAT 19:00 Human Planet (b00rrd7r)
Arctic - Life in the Deep Freeze

The Arctic is the harshest environment on Earth - little food grows, it's dark for months on end and temperatures stay well below freezing for much of the year. Yet four million people manage to survive here. This film tells the remarkable stories of extraordinary people who make their homes in nature's deep freeze.

In springtime, Amos and Karl-Frederik set out across the sea ice with their dogs to catch a real-life sea monster - a Greenland shark. Inuit mussel-gatherers venture underneath the sea ice at low tide for a perilous race against time as they gather their food.

The children of Churchill, Manitoba, set out on the most dangerous trick or treating Halloween in the world, risking coming face-to-face with deadly polar bears on the streets of their town. Who will get the tastiest snack?


SAT 20:00 Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures (b01bgnmq)
Fugitive from the Fire

It is estimated that 99 per cent of species have become extinct and there have been times when life's hold on Earth has been so precarious it seems it hangs on by a thread.

This series focuses on the survivors - the old-timers - whose biographies stretch back millions of years and who show how it is possible to survive a mass extinction event which wipes out nearly all of its neighbours. The Natural History Museum's professor Richard Fortey discovers what allows the very few to carry on going - perhaps not for ever, but certainly far beyond the life expectancy of normal species. What makes a survivor when all around drop like flies? Professor Fortey travels across the globe to find the survivors of the most dramatic of these obstacles - the mass extinction events.

In episode two, Fortey focuses on the 'KT boundary'. 65 million years ago, a 10km-diameter asteroid collided with the Earth and saw the end of the long reign of the dinosaurs. He investigates the lucky breaks and evolutionary adaptations that allowed some species to survive the disastrous end of the Cretaceous Age when these giants did not.


SAT 21:00 Trapped (b073mpdx)
Series 1

Episode 9

Having found the key to the padlock of Hrafn's shed, Andri has a definitive clue to the identity of the murderer, but it's not who he was expecting. The identity of the killer will send shockwaves through the town and Andri faces some very difficult decisions.

In Icelandic and English with English subtitles.


SAT 21:50 Trapped (b073mpdz)
Series 1

Episode 10

After an exhausting and traumatic search, at some personal cost, the local police are finally close to solving the murder that set off the string of terrible events in their little town.

In Icelandic and English with English subtitles.


SAT 22:40 From Andy Pandy to Zebedee: The Golden Age of Children's Television (b06t3mhm)
Nigel Planer narrates the story of the struggle to make programmes for children in the days before everything went digital.


SAT 23:40 Duets at the BBC (b01c2xwt)
The BBC delves into its archive for the best romantic duets performed at the BBC over the last 50 years. Whether it is Robbie and Kylie dancing together on Top of the Pops or Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge singing into each other's eyes on the Whistle Test, there is plenty of chemistry. Highlights include Nina and Frederik's Baby It's Cold Outside, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, Sonny and Cher, Shirley Bassey and Neil Diamond, Peaches and Herb, and a rare performance from Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush.


SAT 00:40 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).


SAT 01:40 Top of the Pops (b0739zgh)
Simon Bates introduces the pop programme, featuring The Polecats, UB40, Hazel O'Connor, Coast to Coast, Adam & the Ants and Kim Carnes, plus a dance performance from Legs & Co.


SAT 02:20 Top of the Pops (b073b5wt)
Richard Skinner introduces the pop programme, featuring Siouxsie & the Banshees, Imagination, Phil Collins, Squeeze, The Jam, Toyah and Adam & the Ants, plus a dance performance from Legs & Co.


SAT 02:55 Virtuoso Violinists at the BBC (b072x1qh)
Violinist Nicola Benedetti explores 60 years of BBC archive to celebrate the world of the violin and its most outstanding performers. From Nathan Milstein, Mischa Elman and Isaac Stern to Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman and Nigel Kennedy, Nicola gives us a violinist's perspective on what makes a great performance in a tradition which stretches back to the 19th-century virtuoso Paganini. Filmed at the Royal Academy of Music Museum, London.



SUNDAY 13 MARCH 2016

SUN 19:00 Jigs and Wigs: The Extreme World of Irish Dancing (b070w5kk)
Series 2

Made in Belfast

Belfast-born Gavin Doherty is known internationally for his innovative dress designs and teaching techniques. Here, he shares the secrets of his success and introduces us to prodigy Ethan White from Carrickfergus.


SUN 19:30 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b073mny3)
Dennis Morris

Dennis Morris is one of Britain's most successful photographers, whose images of Bob Marley and the Sex Pistols helped define the art of rock photography. He started out taking pictures on the streets of Hackney and his early photography offers a striking documentary portrait of London's black community in the 1960s and 70s.

In the year punk turns 40, and with an exhibition of his work with Public Image Limited opening at the ICA, this film follows Dennis at work, photographing an up-and-coming new punk band. We also follow Dennis back to the places that inspired his early work, and he recounts life on the road with Bob Marley and the Sex Pistols.


SUN 20:00 Pappano's Classical Voices (b06154q3)
Soprano

Series in which conductor Sir Antonio Pappano explores the great roles and the greatest singers of the last 100 years through the prism of the main classical voice types - soprano, tenor, mezzo-soprano, baritone and bass. Through discussion, demonstrations and workshops, Pappano explores every aspect of the art of great singing.

Behind every great voice is not just a rock-solid technique, but also a unique personality. As well as specially shot interviews and workshops with stars such as Jose Carreras, Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, Joyce DiDonato, Bryn Terfel, Juan Diego Florez, Christa Ludwig, Thomas Allen, Felicity Palmer, John Tomlinson and Sarah Connolly, Pappano examines key performances from some of history's great operatic icons - Enrico Caruso, Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland - as well as those of singers from the more recent past, such as Luciano Pavarotti, Jon Vickers, Peter Pears and Janet Baker.

Antonio explores such topics as what is going on in a singer's body to produce a great voice; how one 'projects' a Brünnhilde over large orchestral forces; whether great singers also need to be great actors; what is vibrato, legato, staccato; what are chest and head voices - how do they work and when does one use them? He examines passaggio, colorature and support, and shows why a tenor's high C hits can pin you to the back of your seat.

He begins with the soprano - at the heart of nearly every opera, although she isn't always alive come the final curtain. Tragic heroines, warriors, feisty servants, divas - the soprano sings some of the most fabulous roles in opera. But while the prima donna may suffer on stage, she doesn't suffer fools off it. The great sopranos have always been larger-than-life characters, adored by their public and, in the case of Maria Callas, famous far beyond the opera house, her private life of as much fascination to the press as her singing.

But how does the soprano carry off these vocally and dramatically demanding roles? How does the body work to produce the sound, and what techniques are at play? How do you make yourself heard up in the gods if you're competing with a huge orchestra? What is going on in a soprano's throat, indeed her whole body? How does she sing coloratura? What effect does vibrato have on us, the listeners?

To find out, Pappano looks in detail at performances from some of the legendary sopranos of the modern era - Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, Birgit Nilsson, Leontyne Price, and Renata Tebaldi. And sharing their secrets are some of the leading sopranos of today - Anna Netrebko, Barbara Hannigan, Carolyn Sampson, Diana Damrau, and Eva-Maria Westbroek.


SUN 21:00 Horizon (b05527mp)
2014-2015

Secrets of the Solar System

New planets are now being discovered outside our solar system on a regular basis, and these strange new worlds are forcing scientists to rewrite the history of our own solar system. Far from a simple story of stable orbits, the creation of our solar system is a tale of hellfire, chaos and planetary pinball.

It's a miracle our Earth is here at all.


SUN 22:00 The Sky at Night (b073rfc0)
Five Greatest Images of the Solar System

For 50 years we have been sending probes to gather close-up images of the other planets and moons of the solar system. The Sky at Night presents the five greatest images captured by those spacecraft. From a view of the surface of Mars, to live pictures of the sun and a unique picture of our own planet, these are the images that have transformed our perception of the solar system we live in.


SUN 22:30 In the House (b038p77x)
When a precocious student begins submitting stories about infiltrating his classmate's family his teacher is shocked at first, but is quickly drawn into - and complicit in - the story, even as it crosses the line into dangerous territory.


SUN 00:10 Len Goodman's Big Band Bonanza (b04w7zlm)
Len Goodman investigates the rise and fall of British big band music and charts its recent revival. Before the war, popular jazz and dance band music enjoyed universal appeal, capable of reaching out to people across the generations.

Len spent many of his early days listening, and of course dancing, to the music of Ted Heath, Glenn Miller and Joe Loss. He has an enormous affection for the days when swing was king and top of the pile were the big bands. Len returns to some of his old stamping grounds and discovers why we continue to love this bold and brassy art form.

The film looks at how the bands survived, and indeed thrived, in the years after the war. Eventually, though, the world around them moved on. The rise of teenager culture, rock 'n' roll, pop and other forms of jazz, blues and folk meant big bands were struggling to compete in a crowded market, one that catered for an incredibly diverse range of musical tastes.

Today we've come full circle. The big bands are enjoying something of a revival, and once again have universal appeal. Bands live on in towns and cities across the UK. Artists such as Robbie Williams have also introduced a new generation to the sound of swing and popular big band jazz. And, as Len says: 'Everyone seems to have an affection for it - and, you know what - when I hear Glenn Miller's music drifting lazily through the air, I can really understand why...'.


SUN 01:10 A Blackpool Big Band Boogie: Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra (b0645530)
Concert specially recorded for BBC Four on 24 June 2015 at the Empress Ballroom Blackpool, where Jools Holland and his band were joined by special guests Rumer, Marc Almond and Ruby Turner.

More than 14,000 people applied for tickets and a lucky 800 were in the audience, and by the end of the concert Jools and his orchestra had almost every one of them on their feet.

The concert celebrates the golden age of big band music from the 1930s to the 1950s and Jools presents his interpretations of standards from the greats such as Count Basie, Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman. Jools's orchestra includes some of the best musicians in the business and the concert combines the incomparable power and sophistication of the big band sound with brilliant individual performances.

Highlights include Rumer's joyful Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive, Marc Almond's stunning rendition of Edith Piaf's Hymn Le Amour and singer Ruby Turner's extraordinary vocals.


SUN 02:10 The Story of British Pathé (b013g7dm)
The Birth of the News

For more than half a century, the film and newsreel company British Pathé documented almost every aspect of everyday life in Britain and around the world. Covering everything from major world events and exotic foreign travelogues to the pageantry of state occasions and gritty social issues, the company amassed a unique documentary record of 20th-century life. This series delves into British Pathé's amazing treasure trove of images, beginning with the work of the buccaneering cameramen behind Pathé's newsreels - men who witnessed pivotal moments in history and created many of the conventions of news programming that we still use today.


SUN 03:10 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b073mny3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]



MONDAY 14 MARCH 2016

MON 19:00 World News Today (b073mckt)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b0140vqb)
Scotch Mist

As summer comes to a close, Timothy Spall's trip around the coast of his beloved Britain reaches the halfway mark. He encounters several Scottish ports and islands, but mostly in the famous Scottish misty drizzle. Before the weather worsens he winds his way through the Scottish western islands and takes his barge Princess Matilda back to her roots by venturing up the Caledonian Canal, a short cut from the west of Scotland to the east which sets up next year's trip down the east coast and back home to London. This year Timothy and his wife Shane have travelled further than in any other of their previous six years at sea. All they need is somewhere to moor up for winter.


MON 20:00 Digging for Britain (b073b1xn)
Series 4

West

This episode heads to the west of Britain.

Marden Henge: The communal sweat lodges and feasting remains that illuminate the lost rituals of Stonehenge.

Durotriges: A glimpse into the bizarre animal sacrifice rituals offered to their gods by a mysterious Celtic tribe of the first century BC.

Trellech: An enormous lost Welsh city is discovered seven centuries after it disappeared from historical record.

Kent's Cavern: A team swaps trowels for pneumatic drills in a search for the hidden entrance of the site where Britain's earliest human remains have been found.

Jersey: Archaeologists are fighting against mother nature to find the evidence of a Stone Age hunter-gatherer campsite.

Staffordshire Hoard: Conservators painstakingly reassemble the elaborate weaponry of Anglo-Saxon warriors previously not known about.


MON 21:00 Art of Scandinavia (b073mp87)
Dark Night of the Soul

Scandinavia - a land of extremes, on the edge of Europe. Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the extraordinary art to come out of the dark Norwegian soul, most famous for producing The Scream by Edvard Munch.


MON 22:00 Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story (b007cllb)
The Carpenters were one of the biggest selling pop artists of the 1970s, but what seemed on the surface as the perfect, wholesome brother and sister duo hid a destructive complex truth that was unknown to the world.

Featuring behind the scenes footage, interviews with brother Richard, family and friends, this documentary traces the story that ended in tragedy with sister Karen's untimely death aged just 32.


MON 23:00 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 00:30 Human Planet (b00rrd7r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


MON 01:30 The Fight for Saturday Night (b04v85k6)
Michael Grade tells a tale of television skullduggery and dirty dealings in the battle to win the Saturday night ratings crown.


MON 03:00 Art of Scandinavia (b073mp87)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 15 MARCH 2016

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b073mckz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places (b01r6zdv)
Ruins

Presenter and Welsh poet Ifor ap Glyn explores the wealth of Britain's extraordinary holy places on a pilgrimage that spans almost 2,000 years of history.

Travelling across the breadth of the UK, Ifor uncovers the stories and rich history behind many of our most famous sites, explaining the myths and legends of some of Britain's most sacred places. Over six episodes, Ifor visits crumbling ruins, tranquil healing pools, sacred caves, island refuges, towering mountain hideaways and ancient shrines to find out what these historical sites tell us about who we are today. From the divine to the unexpected, the series uncovers Britain's extraordinary variety of inspirational, surprising and half-forgotten holy places and brings to life our spiritual history.

In the first episode, Ifor explores why ruins are among the best-preserved and most-loved holy sites in Britain. He visits the famous ruins of St Andrews Cathedral, the mystical atmosphere of Wales's best-preserved Roman site, the battered remains of Coventry's iconic cathedral and the Gothic majesty of North Yorkshire's Whitby Abbey - the inspiration behind Bram Stoker's Dracula. Along the way, he asks why we're drawn to holy ruins long after their religious use is over. Is it just nostalgia or something much deeper that fuels our obsession and enduring fascination with the decaying grandeur of a ruin?


TUE 20:00 The River Taff with Will Millard (b070t48y)
Series 1

Episode 3

Writer and fisherman Will Millard reaches the end of his journey down the River Taff in south Wales. This beautiful wild river, once neglected and polluted, has now come back to life. Will goes wild swimming with a group of eccentrics trying to change the image of this forgotten river. He meets retired Somali sailors drawn to Cardiff in the city's glory days as a thriving port and tells the story of how the industrial docks have been transformed. Finally, he sets out to catch the king of fish, migratory salmon returning to the river where they were born.


TUE 20:30 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b06wyxfx)
Series 1

Summer

It's the busy summer season. A fox family is playing below the Carmarthen Fans, lizards bask in the sun on limestone pavements in the upper Swansea valley and hundreds of dragonflies emerge from pools in the uplands near Brecon.

Iolo Williams is on the Black Mountain foothills as sheep are gathered by shepherds on horseback and a group of dedicated volunteers tries to repair a mountain.

Ancient botanical cures for ailments and old steam railways are two of many hidden histories.


TUE 21:00 The Other Pompeii: Life and Death in Herculaneum (b01rrld8)
Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill presents a documentary following the scientific investigation that shows what life was like in the small Roman town of Herculaneum, moments before it was destroyed by a volcanic eruption.

Just 10 miles from Pompeii, 12 vaults tell a new story about what life was like before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. They contain the skeletons of 340 people, 10 per cent of the local population, killed by the volcano. Amongst them are the first new skeletons to be found in the area for 30 years which are now the subject of a ground-breaking scientific investigation. The finds included a toddler holding his dog, a two-year-old girl with silver earrings and a boy embracing his mother.

Those found inside the vaults were nearly all women and children. Those found outside on the shoreline were nearly all men. Why?

It is revealed that the local population went to their deaths not as in often portrayed in Pompeii's popular myth, but more like the passengers of the Titanic, where women and children were put first.

Professor Andrew Wallace-Hadrill takes us to meet the scientists leading the forensic project - Luca Bondioli and Luciano Fattore - and then on a tour of the town. He uncovers houses, wooden furniture (including their beds and the only surviving baby's cradle from the Roman world), and food and human waste, preserved by a layer of ash up to five times deeper than Pompeii, as well as perfectly preserved court transcripts scratched on wooden tablets telling of slaves challenging their status in the town's courts. New scientific analysis has enabled us to unearth not just what they ate, but how they ate it, it seems they had a penchant for eating fish whole including their heads, a tradition, that has survived in Herculaneum to this day.


TUE 22:00 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).


TUE 23:20 Indian Hill Railways (b00qzzlm)
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway

From the Himalayas in the north to the Nilgiris in the south - for a hundred years these little trains have climbed through the clouds and into the wonderful world of Indian Hill Railways.

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway is a romantic line, popular with honeymooners and driven by love and devotion as well as steam. It chugs through the south Indian jungle up to a hill station, once known as Snooty Ooty.

The current guard is Ivan. Married for twenty years, he is concerned about his friend Jenni, the ticket inspector, because he's still a bachelor - but Jenni has a secret.

In the engine shed, Shivani, the railway's first female diesel engineer, is working on a steam loco. She has to make it look its best, as in the year of filming, 1999, the railway celebrated its centenary. The high point is the Black Beauty competition to pick the best engine on the line, but rains and landslides threaten the proceedings and the tourist business. Will love win out in the end?


TUE 00:20 The Story of British Pathé (b013rl1w)
The Voice of Pathé

For more than half a century, the film and newsreel company British Pathé documented almost every aspect of life - the remarkable and the run-of-the mill, the extraordinary and the everyday.

The company's output really came into its own during the Second World War, when the distinctively clipped and relentlessly chipper commentaries by its announcer Bob Danvers-Walker provided stirring encouragement during the Blitz - and offered authoritative advice on how housewives struggling to feed their families on the ration could overcome privation and to 'make do and mend'.

As this programme reveals, for generations of cinemagoers it was the voice of British Pathé that expressed the values and the spirit of Britain.


TUE 01:20 The Prosecutors (b072wyvj)
Real Crime and Punishment

The Trial

The Crown Prosecution Service is often under scrutiny for its decision-making. Now for the first time the CPS has allowed cameras in. Filmed over 18 months with prosecutors in Merseyside, Cheshire and the South East, including the director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, this groundbreaking series goes behind the scenes to reveal how our criminal justice system really works and what it takes to secure a conviction. Each episode focuses on a different part of the process, following prosecutions and those involved in the case from start to finish.

In the final episode, prosecutors in the Complex Casework units of CPS Mersey-Cheshire and CPS South-East are preparing for trials in separate historic cases.

In 1993, a few days after her 16th birthday, Claire Tiltman was murdered in an alleyway. Since Colin Ash-Smith admitted to other knife attacks in the same area, he has been the main suspect for the crime. In 1996 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for those offences. But without direct evidence, he was not charged with the murder of Claire Tiltman.

Claire's parents died before seeing her killer brought to justice and a group of her school friends took up the campaign to keep the case in the public eye. Now, using a change in the law which might allow the jury to know about Ash-Smith's other attacks and the similarities between them, prosecutor Nigel Pilkington is trying to build a circumstantial case against Colin Ash-Smith.

In Mersey-Cheshire, a non-recent sex abuse case is being prepared for trial. Keith Cavendish Coulson is facing 42 counts of indecent assault on boys in the 1970s and 80s. He says they're lying and that it never happened. The CPS's handling of non-recent sex abuse cases is often highly controversial and Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, is involved in overseeing the case.

Cases committed a long time ago are charged and sentenced according to the law at the time. As Cavendish Coulson's offences were in the 1970s and 80s, they can only charge him under the old law of 1956. Historic cases also present challenges, as the memories of witnesses might have faded and evidence might no longer be available. But moving testimony from Cavendish Coulson's accusers suggests they have far from forgotten these offences.


TUE 02:20 Sound of Cinema: The Music That Made the Movies (b03b965y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 00:40 on Saturday]


TUE 03:20 Britain on Film (b01p2pd4)
Series 1

Dedicated Followers of Fashion

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 the films that recorded developments in one of 1960s Britain's most dynamic, innovative industries - the glamorous and fast-moving world of fashion.



WEDNESDAY 16 MARCH 2016

WED 19:00 World News Today (b073mcl4)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places (b01r9s6j)
Water

Presenter and Welsh poet Ifor ap Glyn explores the wealth of Britain's extraordinary holy places on a pilgrimage that spans almost 2,000 years of history. Travelling across the breadth of the UK, Ifor uncovers the stories and rich history behind many of our most famous sites, explaining the myths and legends of some of Britain's most sacred places.

In the second episode, Ifor explores why water crops up again and again as the essential element in many of our most holy places. Why has a yearning for pure natural water always been bound up with our spiritual beliefs?

His journey takes him to our oldest mass baptismal pool which marks the place that Scottish Picts first came into the Christian fold, the site on Loch Ness where Celtic missionaries battling the forces of paganism first encountered the legendary monster, a healing well where a young woman was reputedly brought back to life by having her severed head re-attached to her body, and a 2,000-year-old holy spring that has become a major international brand.


WED 20:00 Hidden Kingdoms (b03rmckl)
Secret Forests

This is the story of two tiny animals coming of age.

In the wild woods of North America, a young chipmunk is gathering a vital store of nuts ahead of his first winter - in his way are ruthless rivals and giant predators.

In the steaming rainforest, a young tree shrew is forced deep into the jungle to find food. She must draw on all her intelligence and agility if she is to escape the ultimate jungle predator - a reticulated python!


WED 21:00 Seven Ages of Starlight (p00yb434)
This is the epic story of the stars, and how discovering their tale has transformed our own understanding of the universe.

Once we thought the sun and stars were gods and giants. Now we know, in a way, our instincts were right. The stars do all have their own characters, histories and role in the cosmos. Not least, they played a vital part in creating us.

There are old, bloated red giants, capable of gobbling up planets in their orbit, explosive deaths - supernovae - that forge the building blocks of life and black holes, the most mysterious stellar tombstones. And, of course, stars in their prime, like our own sun.

Leading astronomers reveal how the grandest drama on tonight is the one playing above our heads.


WED 22:30 Horizon (b03tz705)
2013-2014

Swallowed by a Sinkhole

In February 2013, a hole opened up beneath a home in Florida and swallowed a man.

Jeff Bush was asleep when a sinkhole opened up beneath his bedroom. Despite the efforts of his brother to rescue him, Jeff was never seen again and his body was never recovered.

Professor Iain Stewart travels to Florida to try and understand what killed Jeff, and why the geology of this state makes it the sinkhole capital of the world.


WED 23:30 Ancient Egypt - Life and Death in the Valley of the Kings (p01538rx)
Original Series

Death

What was it like to live and die in ancient Egypt, 3,500 years ago? Egyptologist Dr Joann Fletcher goes on a fascinating journey in search of people like us - not the great Pharaohs but the ordinary people who built and populated this incredible ancient civilisation.

This episode reveals a strange and mysterious world - the ancient Egyptian afterlife. To them life was just a dress rehearsal for the perfect afterlife they were trying to reach. Joann clambers into rarely visited tombs, explores a treasure trove of long-buried objects and examines spectacular mummies to discover just why the Egyptians spent a fortune preparing for death - and what they hoped to find when they got there.


WED 00:30 Hidden Kingdoms (b03rmckl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 01:30 Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain (b038rj1b)
Making Connections

Using her skills to uncover long-forgotten and abandoned plans, architectural investigator Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner explores the fascinating and dramatic stories behind some of the grandest designs that were never built. In this episode she looks at two of the most radical civil engineering projects proposed in the last century and explores how international politics and vested interests both drove, and derailed, plans to better connect Britain to the continent.

In the early 1900s Britain was anticipating the threat of war. As concern grew about Germany expanding its naval fleet and investing in its infrastructure, there were calls to find a way for Britain's navy to be able to react swiftly to protect our waters. The solution proposed was to create a ship canal big enough for warships to cross from the Firth of Clyde on the west of Scotland to the Firth of Forth on the east. This enormous civil engineering endeavour would have completely changed the central belt of Scotland - the favoured route was through Loch Lomond, now considered one of the most treasured wilderness areas in the country.

There was huge support for the building of the canal, not least from members of parliament who recognised the potential for creating jobs and wealth in their constituencies. The debate over whether to invest £50m of the public purse in building the canal dragged on for years in both the House of Commons and Lords, with opinion split on whether it really was a strategic imperative. In the end, technology decided the fate of the canal. By 1918, all of the naval fleet was fuelled by oil rather than coal and so instead of a canal an oil pipeline was built from the mouth of the Clyde to Grangemouth on the east, and Royal Navy destroyers never did - and never will - sail up Loch Lomond.

Fifty years later, instead of seeking to protect Britain from attacks from the continent, thoughts had turned to how to connect our island to the rest of Europe. There had been talk of building a channel tunnel between England and France for centuries. In contrast with the Mid-Scotland Canal, where strategic advantages stimulated building, it was national security concerns that cut short the first proposal for a Channel Tunnel. The idea was presented to the British by Napoleon in 1802, but was rejected over concerns that the French had covert plans to invade England.

But 170 years later, the idea was to become a reality. Britain had finally joined mainland Europe through her membership of the Common Market in 1973, and both the French and British governments agreed it made sense build a tunnel together. But in 1975, construction was again abandoned because the British prime minister, Harold Wilson, had to look for economies in a financial crisis caused by dramatically rising world oil prices. Once more, the bid to connect with the continent had failed.

The idea was resurrected yet again in the early 1980s, with several competing schemes for consideration. The boldest of these, sponsored by British Steel, was a vast structure combing a double-decker bridge and tunnel, linked to an artificial island in the middle of the English Channel. The materials for the construction of this vast project would keep the steel mills of England and Scotland busy for a decade - but the politicians chose in favour of the Eurotunnel bid and British industry lost out.

Both these grandiose schemes defined how Britain saw its relationship with Europe. In an age when the headline 'Fog in Channel - Europe Isolated' made sense, a naval ship canal that would protect our island fortress from continental rivals was considered to be in the national interest. But just 60 years later, the fog had lifted and securing Britain's national interests became dependent on a physical connection with countries previously regarded as hostile. However, both plans foundered on the conflict of politics and vested interest.


WED 02:30 Soup Cans & Superstars: How Pop Art Changed the World (b067ftp7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Monday]



THURSDAY 17 MARCH 2016

THU 19:00 World News Today (b073mcl9)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 The Sky at Night (b073rfc0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]


THU 20:00 Indian Hill Railways (b00r5wk7)
The Kalka-Shimla Railway

From the Himalayas in the north to the Nilgiris in the south - for a hundred years these little trains have climbed through the clouds and into the wonderful world of Indian hill railways.

Shimla was once the summer capital of the Raj. They built churches, schools, a town hall and the railway and left behind their symbols of empire and an ethos of duty, loyalty and ambition - but they also left a divided subcontinent.

Characters featured include Maqsood, a refugee and a porter from Kashmir, and John Whitmarsh-Knight, a teacher looking for a home. Sanjay the stationmaster is hoping for promotion, and his boss Bataljit is waiting for a transfer, but everybody is waiting for the snow.


THU 21:00 Digging for Britain (b073mr9r)
Series 4

East

Professor Alice Roberts explores the year's most exciting archaeological finds in the east of Britain. A team unearths a mass grave, divers search the Thames for clues to a 17th-century tragedy, and a metal detectorist makes the find of a lifetime.


THU 22:00 Timeshift (p0287mq6)
Series 14

Bullseyes and Beer: When Darts Hit Britain

Timeshift tells the story of how a traditional working-class pub game became a national obsession during the 1970s and 80s, and looks at the key role television played in elevating its larger-than-life players into household names.

Siobhan Finneran narrates a documentary which charts the game's surprising history, its cross-class and cross-gender appeal, and the star players that, for two decades, transformed a pub pastime into a sporting spectacle like no other.

Featuring legendary names such as Alan Evans and Jocky Wilson and including contributions from Eric Bristow, Bobby George, John Lowe and Phil Taylor.


THU 23:00 Sappho: Love & Life on Lesbos with Margaret Mountford (b05tc6w7)
With a PhD in papyrology, Margaret Mountford goes in search of the truth behind the legend of Sappho, the most controversial writer of the ancient world and the first authentic woman's voice in western history.

The sensational discovery of a lost papyrus containing the words to songs unheard for 1,700 years sends Margaret on a journey of exploration.

From the fragmentary documents, ruined temple architecture and surviving oriental jewellery, the programme conjures the real world of the woman, whose erotic writings gave us the words 'sapphic' and 'lesbian', after the island of Lesbos the place of her birth.

Was she indeed the first lesbian, a priestess, prostitute, a stern schoolmistress or an aristocratic lady of leisure as readers over the centuries have variously alleged. Plus how each generation's view of the archetypal liberated woman of letters tells us as much about us and our fears and concerns as it does about her.


THU 00:00 Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story (b007cllb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]


THU 01:00 Duets at the BBC (b01c2xwt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:40 on Saturday]


THU 02:00 Pappano's Classical Voices (b06154q3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Sunday]


THU 03:00 Digging for Britain (b073mr9r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 18 MARCH 2016

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b073mclg)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b073rgxz)
Peter Powell introduces the pop programme, featuring Linx, Phil Collins, Odyssey, The Specials, Imagination and Smokey Robinson, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.


FRI 20:00 John Williams at the BBC (b073mrky)
Fifty years of spellbinding performances from one of the guitar's greatest players, John Williams. Gold from the BBC's archive that takes in classical masterworks, the prog rock of Sky and comedy with Eric Sykes, as well as duets with fellow guitar maestro Julian Bream.


FRI 21:00 Arena (b073rgy1)
Loretta Lynn - Still a Mountain Girl

Legendary country music singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn is loved by fans from across the world. She has sold over 45 million albums worldwide and won more awards than any other female country music star. With affectionate and irreverent contributions from her extended family of self-confessed rednecks, now in her early eighties and still going strong, Loretta looks back at her long and extraordinary life, from being born a coal miner's daughter in Kentucky to receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2013. Featuring Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Jack White, Sissy Spacek and, of course, Loretta herself.


FRI 22:30 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 23:30 Glastonbury (b04d8xv8)
2014

Dolly Parton

From the Glastonbury Festival, the complete set by the undisputed queen of country music Dolly Parton from the Pyramid Stage in the now-traditional legends spot on Sunday afternoon. As the Somerset sunshine shone, and in front of one of the biggest and most enthusiastic crowds that the Pyramid Stage has ever seen, Dolly performed a rousing and crowd-pleasing set including self-penned classics such as Jolene, Coat of Many Colours, 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream and I Will Always Love You. A legendary moment that the Glastonbury crowd and hopefully Dolly Parton will never forget.


FRI 00:40 Top of the Pops (b073rgxz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 01:15 Arena (b073rgy1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:45 Country Queens at the BBC (p028vwnv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]




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

A Blackpool Big Band Boogie: Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra 01:10 SUN (b0645530)

Ancient Egypt - Life and Death in the Valley of the Kings 23:30 WED (p01538rx)

Arena 21:00 FRI (b073rgy1)

Arena 01:15 FRI (b073rgy1)

Art of Scandinavia 21:00 MON (b073mp87)

Art of Scandinavia 03:00 MON (b073mp87)

Britain on Film 03:20 TUE (b01p2pd4)

Country Queens at the BBC 22:30 FRI (p028vwnv)

Country Queens at the BBC 02:45 FRI (p028vwnv)

Digging for Britain 20:00 MON (b073b1xn)

Digging for Britain 21:00 THU (b073mr9r)

Digging for Britain 03:00 THU (b073mr9r)

Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain 01:30 WED (b038rj1b)

Duets at the BBC 23:40 SAT (b01c2xwt)

Duets at the BBC 01:00 THU (b01c2xwt)

From Andy Pandy to Zebedee: The Golden Age of Children's Television 22:40 SAT (b06t3mhm)

Glastonbury 23:30 FRI (b04d8xv8)

Hidden Kingdoms 20:00 WED (b03rmckl)

Hidden Kingdoms 00:30 WED (b03rmckl)

Horizon 21:00 SUN (b05527mp)

Horizon 22:30 WED (b03tz705)

Human Planet 19:00 SAT (b00rrd7r)

Human Planet 00:30 MON (b00rrd7r)

In the House 22:30 SUN (b038p77x)

Indian Hill Railways 23:20 TUE (b00qzzlm)

Indian Hill Railways 20:00 THU (b00r5wk7)

Jigs and Wigs: The Extreme World of Irish Dancing 19:00 SUN (b070w5kk)

John Williams at the BBC 20:00 FRI (b073mrky)

Len Goodman's Big Band Bonanza 00:10 SUN (b04w7zlm)

Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story 22:00 MON (b007cllb)

Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story 00:00 THU (b007cllb)

Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places 19:30 TUE (b01r6zdv)

Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places 19:30 WED (b01r9s6j)

Pappano's Classical Voices 20:00 SUN (b06154q3)

Pappano's Classical Voices 02:00 THU (b06154q3)

Sappho: Love & Life on Lesbos with Margaret Mountford 23:00 THU (b05tc6w7)

Seven Ages of Starlight 21:00 WED (p00yb434)

Sound of Cinema: The Music That Made the Movies 00:40 SAT (b03b965y)

Sound of Cinema: The Music That Made the Movies 02:20 TUE (b03b965y)

Soup Cans & Superstars: How Pop Art Changed the World 23:00 MON (b067ftp7)

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

Storyville 22:00 TUE (b04ndsb3)

Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures 20:00 SAT (b01bgnmq)

The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams 20:30 TUE (b06wyxfx)

The Fight for Saturday Night 01:30 MON (b04v85k6)

The Other Pompeii: Life and Death in Herculaneum 21:00 TUE (b01rrld8)

The Prosecutors 01:20 TUE (b072wyvj)

The River Taff with Will Millard 20:00 TUE (b070t48y)

The Sky at Night 22:00 SUN (b073rfc0)

The Sky at Night 19:30 THU (b073rfc0)

The Story of British Pathé 02:10 SUN (b013g7dm)

The Story of British Pathé 00:20 TUE (b013rl1w)

Timeshift 22:00 THU (p0287mq6)

Timothy Spall: Back at Sea 19:30 MON (b0140vqb)

Top of the Pops 01:40 SAT (b0739zgh)

Top of the Pops 02:20 SAT (b073b5wt)

Top of the Pops 19:30 FRI (b073rgxz)

Top of the Pops 00:40 FRI (b073rgxz)

Trapped 21:00 SAT (b073mpdx)

Trapped 21:50 SAT (b073mpdz)

Virtuoso Violinists at the BBC 02:55 SAT (b072x1qh)

What Do Artists Do All Day? 19:30 SUN (b073mny3)

What Do Artists Do All Day? 03:10 SUN (b073mny3)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b073mckt)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b073mckz)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b073mcl4)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b073mcl9)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b073mclg)