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 19 MARCH 2016

SAT 19:00 Human Planet (b00rrd83)
Jungles - People of the Trees

The rainforest is home to more species of plants and animals than any other habitat on the planet. But for humans, life there is not as easy as it looks. Life in the trees requires great skill, ingenuity and sheer bravery.

The Matis of Brazil carve 4m-long blowpipes to hunt monkeys in near total silence. Deep in the Congo forests, Tete defies death by scaling a giant tree using nothing more than a liana vine and he must then negotiate an angry swarm of bees - all to collect honey for his family.

Three children from Venezuela's Piaroa tribe venture deep into the jungle to hunt tarantulas to toast for lunch. In West Papua the Korowai tribe show off their engineering skills by building a high-rise home 35 metres up in the tree tops.

Most memorable of all, in Brazil we join a unique monitoring flight in search of an uncontacted tribe.


SAT 20:00 Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures (b01bs7jq)
Frozen in Time

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 forever, 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 three, Fortey looks at the ice age. 2.8 million years ago - triggered by slight changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun and shifts in its ocean currents - the world began to cool. Within a few thousand years much of the planet was shrouded in a dense cloak of ice that would come and go until only 10,000 years ago. We call this age of ice - the Pleistocene Age - and it transformed the hierarchy of nature. This is the story of how a few specialist species that evolved to live in the biting cold survived into the present day.


SAT 21:00 Follow the Money (b072hbbl)
Series 1

Episode 1

Danish drama series set in the world of economic crime in the banks, on the stock exchanges, and in the boardrooms. It is the story of speculators, swindlers, corporate moguls and the crimes they commit in their hunt for wealth. It is the story of ambition that corrupts, and of the way organized criminals launder their ill-gotten gains. A story of our world the economic crisis almost overturned five years ago, and which is still holding its breath as it waits for the next bubble to burst and for the next economic tsunami to strike. And of course, it is the story of us human beings - the rich, the poor, the greedy, the fraudulent, the robbers who'll go to any lengths to build the lives of our dreams.

When the body of a man is washed ashore near a wind farm, police detective Mads is called out to investigate. At first, it merely looks like an industrial accident, but the case implicates the upper echelons of Energreen - one of Denmark's most successful and leading energy companies. The CEO of Energreen is the charismatic Sander, and young lawyer Claudia is working hard to advance in the company. Nicky, a former car thief and mechanic, works at his father-in-law's garage. He has put his life of crime behind him for his girlfriend's sake, but his new colleague Bimse tempts Nicky with a chance to make a quick buck.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 22:00 Follow the Money (b072hbbn)
Series 1

Episode 2

Claudia is given new responsibilities at Energreen, starting with a case about insider trading that could damage the company. Mads enlists help from Alf at the fraud squad to find a connection between the death at the wind farm and Alf's impression of Energreen as being a little too clever. At home, Mads is trying to keep his family and home running smoothly despite his wife's recent multiple sclerosis attack. Bimse and Nicky's car theft gives surprising results.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 23:00 Arena (b0074prh)
Ken Dodd's Happiness

A tribute to Liverpudlian comic Ken Dodd, in which he discusses his career and the influences of his comedy style.

Features film clips of his early performances and footage of him on tour in more recent times.


SAT 00:00 The Bee Gees at the BBC... and Beyond (b04v8679)
Classic Bee Gees studio performances from the BBC and beyond including all the big hits, rare 60s performances from European TV, including a stunning I Started a Joke, a rarely seen Top of the Pops performance of World, the big hits of the 70s and some late performances from the 90s, with the brothers Gibb in perfect harmony.


SAT 01:00 The Joy of the Bee Gees (b04v8677)
Guilty pleasure or genius, misfits or mavericks, noble or naff - how do we really feel about the Bee Gees? Are the brothers Gibb a cacophony of falsettos or songwriting maestros, the soundtrack to every office party or masters of melancholy and existential rage? Are they comedy or Tragedy? How deep is our love and how deep are the Bee Gees?

With a back catalogue that includes hits like How Do You Mend a Broken Heart, Massachusetts, Islands in the Stream, Stayin' Alive, Chain Reaction, How Deep Is Your Love, Gotta Get a Message to You, Words, To Love Somebody and Night Fever, the Bee Gees are second only to the Beatles in the 20th-century songwriting pantheon, but while their pop success spans several decades, there are different Bee Gees in different eras. Is there a central glue that unites the brothers and their music and, if so, what is it?

The Joy of the Bee Gees features a rare interview with the last remaining Bee Gee brother, Barry Gibb, many of those musicians and industry figures who have worked with them closely over the years, and a surprising cast of Bee Gees aficionados including John Lydon, Ana Matronic, Guy Chambers, Mykaell Riley and Alexis Petridis, who together share their stories and their insights into the band whose music and image moved us in the 60s and defined pop culture in the mid-to-late 1970s.

The film explores how the band were iconoclasts and outsiders, brothers in the family business, who worked best when together but who grew up and played out their fraternal struggles in public. The brothers went from child stars on the Australian variety circuit to competitors with the Beatles in the UK charts in the late 60s, scoring number one hits while still only teenagers.

In the mid-70s, the former 'beat group' reimagined themselves as a close-knit soul boy trio. The Saturday Night Fever album shot them to global superstardom and every radio station played a song written, produced or sung by the Bee Gees. The saturation of their music and their iconic 'medallion man' image would ultimately elbow them out of fashion, even make them figures of fun...

But you can't keep a good band down and in the 80s they became writing guns-for-hire to stars such as Kenny & Dolly, Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross. 1987 saw the band come back yet again and hit the top of the charts. The deaths of Maurice and then Robin brought the Bee Gees' reign to an end, but Barry and their music live on.

Let's enjoy finding out why and how: welcome to The Joy of the Bee Gees.


SAT 02:00 Sound of Cinema: The Music That Made the Movies (b03bm2fy)
New Frontiers

In the last of three programmes in which composer Neil Brand celebrates the art of cinema music, Neil explores how changing technology has taken soundtracks in bold new directions and even altered our very idea of how a film should sound.

Neil tells the story of how the 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet ended up with a groundbreaking electronic score that blurred the line between music and sound effects, and explains why Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds has one of the most effective soundtracks of any of his films - despite having no music. He shows how electronic music crossed over from pop into cinema with Midnight Express and Chariots of Fire, while films like Apocalypse Now pioneered the concept of sound design - that sound effects could be used for storytelling and emotional impact.

Neil tracks down some of the key composers behind these innovations to talk about their work, such as Vangelis (Chariots of Fire, Blade Runner), Carter Burwell (Twilight, No Country for Old Men) and Clint Mansell (Requiem for a Dream, Moon).


SAT 03:00 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.



SUNDAY 20 MARCH 2016

SUN 19:00 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.


SUN 20:00 Pappano's Classical Voices (b061f4gb)
Tenor

Series in which conductor Sir Antonio Pappano (music director of the Royal Opera House since 2002) explores the great roles and the greatest singers of the last hundred 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.

The tenor is opera's glamour boy, the king of the high Cs, the leading man. Whether the tragic hero or the young romantic lead, whether dramatic or lyric, the tenor usually gets the girl, even if they rarely live happily ever after. Antonio examines the techniques behind the bravura performances, featuring great tenors such as Enrico Caruso, Luciano Pavarotti, Franco Corelli, Fritz Wunderlich, Jon Vickers, Peter Pears and Mario Lanza.

With contributions from leading tenors of today - Jonas Kaufmann, Juan Diego Florez and Jose Carreras - and a voice lesson from Thomas Allen, Antonio seeks out the tricks of the trade. How does a tenor 'colour' his voice? Why do his high notes provoke an animal response in audiences? How does he sing from bottom to top of his two-octave range without seeming to change gear? Why did the tenor only come centre stage in the 1830s? Why is Enrico Caruso still regarded as the greatest and most influential tenor ever? And what does it do to your nerves to sing a high C?


SUN 21:00 Darcey Bussell Dances Hollywood (b018nwbx)
Darcey Bussell steps into the shoes of her Hollywood heroes to celebrate the enduring legacy of classic dance musicals.

In the age of Strictly Come Dancing and Streetdance 3D, Darcey, one of Britain's greatest living dancers and Hollywood musical superfan, discovers that the key to understanding where this dance-mad culture comes from lies in classic movie musicals. She takes famous dance routines from her favourite Hollywood musicals and reveals how they cast their spell, paying tribute to the legends of the art form and discovering the legacy they left.

Darcey pays homage to Fred Astaire in an interpretation of Puttin' on the Ritz, plays Ginger Rogers in a rendition of Cheek to Cheek, pays tribute to the exuberant Good Morning from Singin' in the Rain, and stars in a new routine inspired by Girl Hunt Ballet from The Band Wagon.

Darcey works with leading choreographer Kim Gavin and expert conductor John Wilson, who has painstakingly reconstructed the original scores, as she discovers how dance in the movies reached a pinnacle of perfection and reveals how the legacy of the golden age lives on.


SUN 22:30 I'm So Excited! (b03jj6hr)
Camp sex comedy from maverick Spanish director Pedro Almodovar.

When a Spanish flight headed for Mexico runs into technical difficulties, the crew decide to drug everyone in economy class and to devote themselves to cheering up the small group of passengers in business class, as well as themselves, by all available means.

In Spanish with English subtitles.


SUN 23:55 Len Goodman's Dance Band Days (b03n2sck)
Len Goodman takes a step back in time to the heyday of British dance bands, a golden age of music that laid the foundations for 20th-century pop. In the years between the wars, band leaders such as Bert Ambrose and Jack Hylton were household names and the country danced its socks off. It was a time of radio and records, when Britain absorbed black American music and gave it a unique twist.

Many of the bands played in the posh society hotels of London's West End. Some were making big money and enjoying the high life. They were also keen to broadcast to the nation via the new BBC. Len discovers that 'Auntie' had a tricky relationship with the bands - though they formed a key part of the corporation's entertainment output, during the 1920s and 1930s there were concerns about the influence of American culture, song-plugging and commercialisation.

Crooning was also developed as a new style of singing, thanks in part to the development of better microphones. But this new 'intimate' form of singing did not impress everyone at the corporation. Despite the BBC's concerns the vocalists continued to enjoy huge success and fame, as did the bands. Len follows the story of vocalist Al Bowlly, a man of huge talent who attracted great public adoration. Al was killed in London's blitz and buried in a mass grave - a sad and symbolic moment in the history of dance bands.

Len discovers how we went dance band crazy and asks why, within just two decades, our love affair with this music began to fall flat.


SUN 00:55 The Bee Gees at the BBC... and Beyond (b04v8679)
[Repeat of broadcast at 00:00 on Saturday]


SUN 01:55 The Joy of the Bee Gees (b04v8677)
[Repeat of broadcast at 01:00 on Saturday]


SUN 02:55 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.



MONDAY 21 MARCH 2016

MON 19:00 World News Today (b074hcbq)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places (b01rd37d)
Trees and Mountains

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.

Ifor visits trees and mountains as a way of understanding the journey Britain undertook from the old Pagan religion to Christianity. His journey starts in Glastonbury, site of the famous tor and the Thorns, the most holy trees in the country. He discovers how even now these symbols are causing friction and discord.

His journey continues at Knowlton in Dorset, a place where a Norman church has been built right in the centre of an earthen henge. There he meets a druid who explains how Pagan sites were often overwritten in this way by the new Christian religion before they both discover that, at least here, earth magic seems to be making a comeback.

Ifor visits a bleeding yew tree that has divided opinion for 600 years and, in Snowdonia, a mountain where the devil is said to have gone toe to toe with an early Christian missionary. He travels to a rocky Cornish crag where St Michael himself is said to reside before finishing his journey at Pendle Hill, inspiration behind the most stripped down and anti-Pagan religious denomination of all time. But even here, did Christianity really manage to break free of Paganism?


MON 20:00 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.


MON 21:00 Art of Scandinavia (b074hh79)
Once Upon a Time in Denmark

In episode two of Andrew Graham-Dixon's epic journey through Scandinavian art and landscape, Denmark emerges from modest beginnings to become one of the greatest powers and arbiters of taste in northern Europe - a story of incredible transformation befitting the homeland of the great fairytale spinner Hans Christian Andersen, creator of The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor's New Clothes.


MON 22:00 Horizon (b0404861)
2013-2014

Living with Autism

When pioneering developmental psychologist Professor Uta Frith started her training back in the 1960s, she met a group of beautiful, bright-eyed young children who seemed completely detached from the rest of the world.

It turned out they had just been given the then-new diagnosis of autism. Uta passionately wanted to know more about these children, and they inspired her to dedicate the rest of her career to studying the autistic mind.

Horizon reveals how Uta's lifetime study of people with autism has transformed our understanding of this mysterious condition.

Uta shows how people with autism perceive the world and interact with their surroundings and how, for them, another kind of reality exists. She meets people with autism who have extraordinary talents, and explains why they often fail to understand jokes. She also explores whether many of us could be just a little bit autistic.


MON 23:00 Darcey Bussell Dances Hollywood (b018nwbx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]


MON 00:30 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.


MON 01:30 Alexander Armstrong's Real Ripping Yarns (b03zqgk1)
Our dashing hero Alexander Armstrong explores the literature that inspired Michael Palin and Terry Jones's classic TV comedy Ripping Yarns, a loving parody of the Boys' Own books and magazines of their childhood. Featuring clips from Ripping Yarns, archive and interviews with experts, modern-day adventurers and Palin and Jones's own memories. In this affectionate and entertaining film Armstrong celebrates a long-lost slice of Britishness.


MON 02:30 Art of Scandinavia (b074hh79)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 03:30 Britain on Film (b01qhl0b)
Series 1

Animal Magic

In 1959, Britain's biggest cinema company, the Rank Organisation, decided to replace its newsreels with a series of short, quirky, topical documentaries that examined all aspects of life in Britain. For the next ten years, Look at Life chronicled - on high-grade 35mm colour film - the changing face of British society, industry and culture. Britain on Film draws upon the 500 films in this unique archive to offer illuminating and often surprising insights into what became a pivotal decade.

This episode examines Britain's ambiguous relationships with animals. Look at Life's coverage - which ranges from the fur trade, fox hunting and animal-based entertainments in circuses to our passion for pets - shows just how far attitudes to other species have shifted since the 1960s.



TUESDAY 22 MARCH 2016

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b074hcc8)
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 (b01rk2fp)
Shrines

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.

Ifor sets out to understand the appeal of shrines. For those outside the Catholic and Orthodox church there is something vaguely unsettling about shrines. How can venerating the bones of a dead person bring you closer to God?

From the unlikely starting point of Marc Bolan's roadside shrine in Barnes, Ifor embarks upon perhaps his most surprising journey. Along the way he learns that Scotland's largest city only exists because of a shrine and visits the newly-renovated shrine of St David in Wales.

At St Albans Cathedral, he learns that shrines are slowly but surely starting to creep back into the Anglican mainstream and that rather than meeting resistance, they are being actively embraced. After viewing a genuinely shocking relic in Westminster Cathedral, Ifor meets with the Catholic archbishop Vincent Nichols, who has a radical theory about how the return of shrines represents the final chapter of the Reformation, and that is all down to Princess Diana.

Finally, after seeing some of the finest cathedrals in the land, Ifor ends his journey at a tiny church on the fringe of Snowdonia, one which is home to a shrine that many people consider the holiest place in Britain.


TUE 20:00 The Return of the Flying Scotsman (b073c7r0)
After a ten-year restoration, we follow the Flying Scotsman, the world's most famous steam engine, as it returns to the tracks.

It's a locomotive legend. Whether people are interested in steam engines or not, everybody seems to love the Scotsman; it's simply a national treasure. A steel celebrity, a media darling... and after a painstaking restoration that has cost over four million pounds, the Scotsman is finally coming home to York.

There is going to be a real welcome back for the 93-year-old engine with its inaugural run from King's Cross Station in London, pulling a trainload of enthusiasts and supporters 200 miles north on the mainline. It is a triumphant return to the museum - and to a city synonymous with steam.

We are on board the train for its final test runs on the East Lancashire Railway and the scenic Settle-Carlisle railway, across Ribblehead Viaduct, before climbing on board for the inaugural trip. With cameras on the footplate, we capture the exhilaration, the excitement and the sheer hard work required to keep Scotsman on the line.

We join the celebrations - talking to historians, fans and enthusiasts about the engine... and marvel at how the Flying Scotsman has captured the imagination of so many people across the world since it first came to life in Doncaster in 1923.

The programme is narrated by John Shrapnel.


TUE 20:30 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b06ynxk8)
Series 1

Autumn

Autumn is the season when the landscape is at its most colourful. Iolo Williams finds himself in the midst of a flock of thousands of fieldfares arriving from Europe to escape the colder continent. They gorge themselves on berries in trees surrounding the smallest church in Wales. In the Usk Valley, bats feed before they hibernate in caves, and migrating ducks gather on Talybont Reservoir, ready for winter. Underground, cave spiders are lurking, and sea trout are heading upstream to spawn in the rivers.


TUE 21:00 The Beginning and End of the Universe (b0754t74)
The Beginning

Professor Jim Al-Khalili takes us back in time to tackle the greatest question in science: how did the universe begin? Uncovering the origins of the universe is regarded as humankind's greatest intellectual achievement. By recreating key experiments Jim unravels the cosmic mystery of science's creation story before witnessing a moment, one millionth of a second, after the universe sprang into existence.


TUE 22:00 Louis Theroux (b01gk4xc)
Extreme Love

Autism

Louis visits one of the best schools in America for autism. He meets the students and their families to get a glimpse of what life is like for them and to experience the pleasures and the strains of one of the most extraordinary kinds of relationship.


TUE 23:00 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.


TUE 00:00 The Story of British Pathé (b0141mmz)
Entertaining Britain

While the company was famous for its pioneering news reports, it also produced immensely popular 'cinemagazines', which entertained cinemagoers for decades. Initially made to boost the nation's morale after the First World War, entertaining strands such as Pathe Pictorial and Eve's Film Review were designed to appeal to women who were interested in fashion, celebrities and movie stars - and offered plenty of handy hints for those running the home. In the 1930s, the arrival of synchronised sound increased the popularity of cinemagazines, and the company launched Pathetone Weekly - a strand that featured what Pathe believed were the 'novel, amusing and strange' dimensions of our national life.


TUE 01:00 How to Get Ahead (b03xsgwk)
At Medieval Court

Writer, broadcaster and Newsnight arts correspondent Stephen Smith looks back at the Medieval Age to find out what it took to get ahead at the court of Richard II. Richard presided over the first truly sophisticated and artistic court in England. Painters, sculptors, poets, tailors, weavers and builders flocked to court to make their fortunes. But these were dangerous times. Being close to Richard brought many a courtier to a sticky end. Featuring David Tennant and Clarissa Dickson Wright.


TUE 02:00 Sound of Cinema: The Music That Made the Movies (b03bm2fy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 02:00 on Saturday]


TUE 03:00 The Beginning and End of the Universe (b0754t74)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 23 MARCH 2016

WED 19:00 World News Today (b074hccf)
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 (b01rqbnm)
Islands

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.

Ifor sets out to understand the appeal of islands as holy retreats. It may seem obvious that we would feel closer to the divine when surrounded by the stunning natural beauty of an island, but Ifor soon discovers there is a far deeper reason they became such a major aspect of religion.

His journey takes him from the Lake District to the Mappa Mundi in Hereford Cathedral, from our most famous holy island at Lindisfarne to the Western Isles in Scotland where an ancient Christian holy island has been reborn as a Buddhist monastery. He visits the island where the Welsh version of St Valentine lived and finally heads out west to the barren island of Bardsey, at the very furthest tip of Wales. This is known as the Island of 20,000 Saints, a place that exists halfway between this world and the next.


WED 20:00 Hidden Kingdoms (b03t7wlq)
Urban Jungles

This is the ultimate hidden kingdom - the urban jungle.

In the colourful and chaotic streets of Rio, a young marmoset is separated from his street gang and forced to confront of the dangers of the city alone.

In the futuristic metropolis of Tokyo, a rhinoceros beetle escapes his captors and begins an extraordinary journey through this alien world to find sanctuary.


WED 21:00 Chef v Science: The Ultimate Kitchen Challenge (b0752bbd)
Materialist scientist Professor Mark Miodownik challenges two-Michelin-star chef Marcus Wareing to the ultimate cookery competition. Over the course of 90 minutes they cook up some of the nation's best-loved dishes, from starter to dessert, in a head-to-head contest to see who can create the most flavoursome food. Marcus has flair, passion, and experience, while Mark an understanding of cooking at the molecular level and access to state-of-the-art technology. Ultimately the question they will try to answer is this: is cooking a science or an art?


WED 22:30 Timeshift (b03p7jh9)
Series 13

Hurricanes and Heatwaves: The Highs and Lows of British Weather

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

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


WED 23:30 Hidden Kingdoms (b03t7wlq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 00:30 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.


WED 01:30 Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain (b0394j6q)
A Revolution in the City

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.

Destruction, whether intentional or circumstantial, often creates a clean slate and demands a fresh outlook in which we come to think the unthinkable. This programme looks at bold, and in some cases shocking, plans to make revolutionary changes to Britain's biggest cities.

In the mid 17th century, the capital was reeling from the devastation caused by the Great Fire of London. But amid the destruction, a huge opportunity arose to completely remodel and modernise London and make it into a very different city than the one we know today.

London was effectively a blank sheet of paper and, within a week of the city being razed to the ground, architect Sir Christopher Wren presented King Charles II with a vision to create a completely new city. Wren wanted the winding streets and old courtyards that had existed almost unchanged since medieval times to be replaced by monumental Parisian-style avenues in a formal grid pattern with large piazzas. This was a unique opportunity to improve on the past but, while Wren's design for St Paul's Cathedral did become a reality, London was reconstructed on essentially the same street plan as before the fire.

Three centuries later, Glasgow was the second city of the empire and the industrial powerhouse of the nation, but was struggling to cope with overcrowding and slum housing. Many believed the only solution was to start again. The city's leading planner, Robert Bruce, proposed demolishing the entire city centre - the celebrated buildings of Mackintosh and Greek Thompson would all have been bulldozed - to create a 1940s vision of the future. The new Glasgow would have been built as a system of regular tower blocks, ringed by a motorway, built in districts according to function. Bruce's justification for these drastic proposals was the creation of a new 'healthy and beautiful city'. Although his plan was not realised in its entirety, many of his ideas were carried out, and the M8 motorway which cuts right through the city centre is probably the most visible legacy of the 'Bruce Report'.

In both plans, destruction was the driving force behind creating a new city on a fresh slate. Separated in time by 300 years, these two radical thinkers, Christopher Wren and Robert Bruce, devised colossal, transformative schemes for their respective cities in a bid to create their very personal vision of the 'perfect city'.


WED 02:30 Visions of the Valleys (b05p706x)
Kim Howells celebrates 250 years of art in the Welsh valleys, looking at how the place became a magnet for artists drawn by its natural splendour and the spectacle of the industries that grew up there. The former MP and Labour arts minister looks at how the south Wales valleys have been portrayed by artists from the end of the 18th century to the present day.

He begins with JMW Turner, who visited the Vale of Neath in the 1790s to paint the spectacular waterfalls, but soon discovers that it was the drama of industry that attracted the next generation of painters. By the 20th century, artists became more concerned with social issues, showing the despair brought on by the Great Depression. But after the Second World War the mood changed and painters reflected the postwar optimism.

Finally, Kim looks at the current generation of artists, including Valerie Ganz and David Carpanini, who portray the after-effects of industry and the natural beauty that's returned to the valleys.


WED 03:30 Britain on Film (b01qbz9f)
Series 1

This Sceptered Isle

In 1959, Britain's biggest cinema company, the Rank Organisation, decided to replace its newsreels with a series of short, quirky, topical documentaries that examined all aspects of life in Britain. For the next ten years, Look at Life chronicled - on high-grade 35mm colour film - the changing face of British society, industry and culture. Britain on Film draws upon the 500 films in this unique archive to offer illuminating and often surprising insights into what became a pivotal decade.

This episode examines Look at Life's quirky films that documented unusual or eccentric British customs, rituals and traditions. In an era where many Britons embraced change as never before, these revealing and highly entertaining films show that people were determined to preserve the idiosyncratic aspects of our national life.



THURSDAY 24 MARCH 2016

THU 19:00 World News Today (b074hcd7)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b074hn32)
Simon Bates introduces the pop programme, featuring The Evasions, Randy Crawford, Depeche Mode, Elaine Paige, Kirsty MacColl and Gillan, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.


THU 20:00 Timeshift (b00dzzdc)
Series 8

Last Days of Steam

The surprising story of how Britain entered a new age of steam railways after the Second World War and why it quickly came to an end.

After the war, the largely destroyed railways of Europe were rebuilt to carry more modern diesel and electric trains. Britain, however, chose to build thousands of brand new steam locomotives. Did we stay with steam because coal was seen as the most reliable power source, or were the railways run by men who couldn't bear to let go of their beloved steam trains?

The new British locomotives were designed to stay in service well into the 1970s, but in some cases they were taken off the railways and scrapped within just five years. When Dr Richard Beeching took over British Railways in the 1960s the writing was on the wall, and in 1968 the last steam passenger train blew its whistle.

But while steam use declined, steam enthusiasm grew. As many steam engines lay rusting in scrapyards around Britain, enthusiasts raised funds to buy, restore and return them to their former glory. In 2008, the first brand new steam locomotive to be built in Britain in nearly 50 years rolled off the line, proving our enduring love of these machines.


THU 21:00 Digging for Britain (b074hn34)
Series 4

North

Professor Alice Roberts explores the year's most exciting archaeological finds in the north of Britain. A team discovers clues to Scotland's first kingdoms, metal detectorists unearth a hoard of Viking treasure, and a new housing development reveals a graveyard of Iron Age warriors.


THU 22:00 A Timewatch Guide (b052vcbg)
Series 1

Roman Britain

Using years of BBC history archive film, Dr Alice Roberts explores how our views and understanding of Roman Britain have changed and evolved over the decades.

Along the way she investigates a diverse range of subjects from the Roman invasion, through Hadrian's Wall, the Vindolanda tablets and the eventual collapse of Roman rule. Drawing on the work of archaeologists and historians throughout the decades, Alice uncovers how and why our views of this much-loved period of our history have forever been in flux.


THU 23:00 The Beginning and End of the Universe (b0754t74)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 00:00 Top of the Pops (b074hn32)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 00:30 Arena (b0074prh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Saturday]


THU 01:30 Sounds of the Eighties (b0074shx)
Episode 1

The 80s saw many great contributions to the fields of art and culture. Not the least of these was floppy hair. Floppy hair dominates this episode of pop morsels from the BBC archive, featuring Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran, Culture Club, ABC, Wham!, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Bananarama and Kylie Minogue.


THU 02:00 Pappano's Classical Voices (b061f4gb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Sunday]


THU 03:00 Digging for Britain (b074hn34)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 25 MARCH 2016

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (b074hntc)
Peter Powell introduces the pop programme, featuring Spandau Ballet, Saxon, Dexys Midnight Runners, Third World, Kate Bush, Bad Manners and The Specials, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.


FRI 19:30 The Good Old Days (b0754tsp)
Leonard Sachs presents an edition of the old-time music hall programme, filmed in 1977 from the stage of the City Varieties Theatre, Leeds. With Ken Dodd, Beatrice Aston, John Bouchier, Bill Drysdale, Christine Cartwright and members of the Players Theatre, London.


FRI 20:15 The Good Old Days (b0754tsr)
Leonard Sachs presents an edition of the old-time music hall programme, filmed in 1977 from the stage of the City Varieties Theatre, Leeds. With Frankie Vaughan, Mike & Bernie Winters, Maryetta Midgley, Zena Millar and members of the Players Theatre, London.


FRI 21:00 Janis Joplin: Little Girl Blue (b0755ms6)
This extraordinary documentary brings to life the paradox of Janis Joplin - both insecure and brazen - with interviews from old band members, unseen audio and video, plus readings from Janis's letters home to her parents. It offers new understanding of a bright, complex woman whose surprising rise and sudden demise changed music forever.

Janis Joplin is one of the most revered singers of all time. She thrilled millions of listeners with her powerful, soulful voice and blazed new creative trails before her death in 1971 at the age of 27. The film includes some of her most iconic performances which embodied the musical and cultural revolution of the 1960s.

Yet her onstage bravado and uninhibited sexual persona hid hurt and insecurity stemming from her childhood in conservative Texas. On relocating to San Francisco and discovering the blues, Janis found an outlet for her loneliness and fell into a community that would embrace and celebrate her talent.


FRI 22:30 Girls in Bands at the BBC (b06mxpjc)
Compilation celebrating some guitar band performances at the BBC that feature some of the best female musicians in rock. Beginning with the oft-forgotten American group Fanny performing You're the One, it's a journey along rock's spectrum from the 1970s to now.

The selection includes the powerful vocals of Elkie Brooks on Vinegar Joe's Proud to Be a Honky Woman, the mesmerising poetry of Patti Smith's Horses and the upbeat energy of The Go-Go's on We Got the Beat.

Mighty basslines come courtesy of Tina Weymouth on Psycho Killer and Kim Gordon on Sugar Kane, whilst we trace the line of indie rock from the Au Pairs through Lush, Elastica and Garbage to current band Savages.


FRI 23:30 Girl in a Band: Tales from the Rock 'n' Roll Front Line (b06l17fn)
All too often, every great female rock musician has to answer a predictable question - what is it like being a girl in a band?

For many, the sight of a girl shredding a guitar or laying into the drums is still a bit of a novelty. As soon as women started forming their own bands they were given labels - the rock chick, the girl band or one half of the rock 'n' roll couple.

Kate Mossman aims to look beyond the cliches of fallen angels, grunge babes and rock chicks as she gets the untold stories from rock's frontline to discover if it has always been different for the girl in a band.


FRI 00:30 Top of the Pops (b074hntc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 01:05 Janis Joplin: Little Girl Blue (b0755ms6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:35 Girls in Bands at the BBC (b06mxpjc)
[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 Timewatch Guide 22:00 THU (b052vcbg)

Alexander Armstrong's Real Ripping Yarns 01:30 MON (b03zqgk1)

Arena 23:00 SAT (b0074prh)

Arena 00:30 THU (b0074prh)

Art of Scandinavia 21:00 MON (b074hh79)

Art of Scandinavia 02:30 MON (b074hh79)

Britain on Film 03:30 MON (b01qhl0b)

Britain on Film 03:30 WED (b01qbz9f)

Chef v Science: The Ultimate Kitchen Challenge 21:00 WED (b0752bbd)

Darcey Bussell Dances Hollywood 21:00 SUN (b018nwbx)

Darcey Bussell Dances Hollywood 23:00 MON (b018nwbx)

Digging for Britain 20:00 MON (b073mr9r)

Digging for Britain 21:00 THU (b074hn34)

Digging for Britain 03:00 THU (b074hn34)

Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain 01:30 WED (b0394j6q)

Follow the Money 21:00 SAT (b072hbbl)

Follow the Money 22:00 SAT (b072hbbn)

Girl in a Band: Tales from the Rock 'n' Roll Front Line 23:30 FRI (b06l17fn)

Girls in Bands at the BBC 22:30 FRI (b06mxpjc)

Girls in Bands at the BBC 02:35 FRI (b06mxpjc)

Hidden Kingdoms 20:00 WED (b03t7wlq)

Hidden Kingdoms 23:30 WED (b03t7wlq)

Horizon 22:00 MON (b0404861)

How to Get Ahead 01:00 TUE (b03xsgwk)

Human Planet 19:00 SAT (b00rrd83)

I'm So Excited! 22:30 SUN (b03jj6hr)

Indian Hill Railways 23:00 TUE (b00r5wk7)

Janis Joplin: Little Girl Blue 21:00 FRI (b0755ms6)

Janis Joplin: Little Girl Blue 01:05 FRI (b0755ms6)

John Williams at the BBC 19:00 SUN (b073mrky)

Len Goodman's Dance Band Days 23:55 SUN (b03n2sck)

Louis Theroux 22:00 TUE (b01gk4xc)

Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places 19:30 MON (b01rd37d)

Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places 19:30 TUE (b01rk2fp)

Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places 19:30 WED (b01rqbnm)

Pappano's Classical Voices 20:00 SUN (b061f4gb)

Pappano's Classical Voices 02:00 THU (b061f4gb)

Sappho: Love & Life on Lesbos with Margaret Mountford 00:30 MON (b05tc6w7)

Sound of Cinema: The Music That Made the Movies 02:00 SAT (b03bm2fy)

Sound of Cinema: The Music That Made the Movies 02:00 TUE (b03bm2fy)

Sounds of the Eighties 01:30 THU (b0074shx)

Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures 20:00 SAT (b01bs7jq)

The Bee Gees at the BBC... and Beyond 00:00 SAT (b04v8679)

The Bee Gees at the BBC... and Beyond 00:55 SUN (b04v8679)

The Beginning and End of the Universe 21:00 TUE (b0754t74)

The Beginning and End of the Universe 03:00 TUE (b0754t74)

The Beginning and End of the Universe 23:00 THU (b0754t74)

The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams 20:30 TUE (b06ynxk8)

The Good Old Days 19:30 FRI (b0754tsp)

The Good Old Days 20:15 FRI (b0754tsr)

The Joy of the Bee Gees 01:00 SAT (b04v8677)

The Joy of the Bee Gees 01:55 SUN (b04v8677)

The Return of the Flying Scotsman 20:00 TUE (b073c7r0)

The Story of British Pathé 02:55 SUN (b013rl1w)

The Story of British Pathé 00:00 TUE (b0141mmz)

Timeshift 22:30 WED (b03p7jh9)

Timeshift 00:30 WED (p0287mq6)

Timeshift 20:00 THU (b00dzzdc)

Top of the Pops 03:00 SAT (b073rgxz)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b074hn32)

Top of the Pops 00:00 THU (b074hn32)

Top of the Pops 19:00 FRI (b074hntc)

Top of the Pops 00:30 FRI (b074hntc)

Visions of the Valleys 02:30 WED (b05p706x)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b074hcbq)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b074hcc8)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b074hccf)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b074hcd7)