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 02 APRIL 2016

SAT 19:00 Treasures of the Indus (b069g53h)
The Other Side of the Taj Mahal

This is the story of the Indian subcontinent told through the treasures of three very different people, places and dynasties that have shaped the modern Indian world.

The Mughals created the most famous and dazzling empire that India has ever seen, from the Taj Mahal to fabulously intricate miniatures of court life.

But in the process, did they bring civilisation to India or tear it apart?

From the moment the first Mughal emperor Babur arrived from Afghanistan the debate began - were the Mughals imposing their own religion of Islam on a Hindu country, or were they open to the religion and art of the country they were conquering?

The artworks the Mughals left behind over their 200-year empire - even the very buildings which have traces of Hindu architecture as well as Muslim - clearly show how this debate played out, and Sona Datta traces how this most spectacular of all Indian civilisations also sowed the seeds of discord.


SAT 20:00 Human Planet (b00rrd87)
Grasslands - Roots of Power

Grasslands feed the world. Over thousands of years, we humans have learned to grow grains on the grasslands and domesticate the creatures that live there. Our success has propelled our population to seven billion people.

But this episode reveals that, even today, life in the 'Garden of Eden' is not always rosy. We walk with the Dorobo people of Kenya as they bravely attempt to scare off a pride of hungry lions from their freshly caught kill. We gallop across the Steppe with extraordinary Mongolian horsemen who were 'born in the saddle'. And in a perfect partnership with nature built up over generations, Maasai children must literally talk to the birds. The honeyguide leads them to find sweet treats, but they'll have to repay the favour.


SAT 21:00 Follow the Money (b0740xq8)
Series 1

Episode 5

Mia is approached by a whistleblower and focuses her energy on finding out the truth about Energreen. Sander and Mr Christensen worry that Mia's findings could jeopardise their listing on the stock exchange, and they plan to stop her with Claudia's help. Mads and Alf follow one of Mia's leads to Energreen's research facility in Poland, and Mads is glad to get away from his chaotic home life. Jan wants to help Nicky and Bimse out with the Serbs and introduces them to Erik, their new accountant.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 22:00 Follow the Money (b0740xqb)
Series 1

Episode 6

Despite Energreen's best attempts, Mia's article is published and puts the company on the spot as they try to find investors before going public. The article isn't Sander's only problem, since Nicky tries to blackmail him with the contents of the stolen iPad. Claudia is troubled with doubt about Sander. Mads and Alf are desperately looking for the whistleblower who was Mia's source.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 23:00 TOTP2 (b00sfz04)
80s Special

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


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

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

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

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

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


SAT 01:00 Top of the Pops (b075f6my)
Richard Skinner introduces the pop programme, featuring the Vapors, Tight Fit, Gidea Park, Sheena Easton, Visage and the Specials, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.


SAT 01:35 Top of the Pops (b075f6zc)
Steve Wright introduces the pop programme, featuring Kim Wilde, The Undertones, Duran Duran, Bill Wyman, Stevie Wonder, Spandau Ballet, The Specials and Shakin' Stevens, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.


SAT 02:10 One-Hit Wonders at the BBC (b05r7nxx)
Compilation of some indelible hits by artists we hardly heard from again, at least in a chart sense. Featuring Peter Sarstedt's Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)? - a number one in 1969 and a hit he never really matched, Trio's 1982 smash Da Da Da, Phyllis Nelson's 1985 lovers rock-style classic Move Closer, and The New Radicals' 1999 hit You Get What You Give.

We travel through the years selecting some of your favourite number ones and a few others that came close, revealing what's happened to the one-off hitmakers since and exploring the unwritten laws that help make sense of the one-hit wonder phenomenon.


SAT 03:10 Sounds of the 70s 2 (b01glwkz)
Arthouse Glam - Get in the Swing

Performances from The Kinks, Roxy Music, Elton John, New York Dolls, Queen, Sparks, Rod Stewart and the rediscovered David Bowie performance of The Jean Genie from January 1973.

Welcome to gender-bending, boys getting in the swing and girls who would be boys and boys who would be girls in this mixed-up, shook-up 70s world.



SUNDAY 03 APRIL 2016

SUN 19:00 Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: Master and Maverick (b0760h88)
Tom Service presents a tribute to the provocative composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, who died in March at the age of 81. Extraordinary performances and documentary from the BBC's television archive that follow Max's journey from his radical origins as an Angry Young Man in the 1950s to his later life and work on his adopted home in the Orkney Islands and his surprise appointment as Master of the Queen's Music in 2004. With performances by the Fires of London, the Sixteen and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.


SUN 20:00 Pappano's Classical Voices (b062hmz6)
Mezzo-Soprano

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 lowest female voice type, and the one closest to a woman's natural speaking voice, the mezzo-soprano only rarely plays the name part. But when she does - in Carmen, Samson et Dalila, and La Cenerentola - the fireworks begin. More often, she is the rival, and the villainess.

Antonio explores the particular effect the mezzo voice has on the audience. Her low, sultry tones make her voice perfect for the earth goddess, but also the enchantress, the siren. But she has to sing nearly as high as the soprano. So how does she do it? What is the 'chest voice' and what effect does it have? How do you sing ugly to convey the evil of a character without destroying your voice, and at the same time unearth some redeeming qualities?

Antonio finds out what makes the mezzo tick by looking at great performances from Giulietta Simionato, Kathleen Ferrier, Marian Anderson, Shirley Verrett, Cecilia Bartoli and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and taking soundings from Janet Baker, Christa Ludwig, Joyce DiDonato, Felicity Palmer and Sarah Connolly.


SUN 21:00 Bob Geldof on WB Yeats: A Fanatic Heart (b076qphj)
Musician and advocate Bob Geldof examines the life and work of one of the 20th century's greatest poets, William Butler Yeats. Geldof argues that as a poet and statesman, at the vanguard of a cultural revolution, Yeats brought about immense change in Ireland's struggle for independence, without firing a bullet.

Written by Geldof and Roy Foster, this incisive and moving documentary features readings by Bill Nighy, Van Morrison, Richard E Grant, Colin Farrell, Bono, Edna O'Brien, Ardal O'Hanlon, Noel Gallagher and Liam Neeson.


SUN 22:40 Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas (b049xvn6)
Drama set in the 16th century. Horse trader Michael Kohlhaas is wrongfully taxed by a corrupt baron, his horses taken from him and his servant attacked. Thwarted in his attempts to seek compensation through the courts, he raises an army and begins a revolt in search of justice.

In French with English subtitles.


SUN 00:35 Dan Cruickshank's Warsaw: Resurrecting History (b06r12fd)
Dan Cruickshank returns to his childhood home of Warsaw for the first time in almost 60 years. In a personal and moving film, he recalls his boyhood memories to explore the memories of the city and the memories of its people. No city in Europe suffered so much destruction in the Second World War, no city rose up so heroically from the ashes. The Nazis had razed Warsaw to the ground, but after the war the people fought hard to bring their city back from the dead in one of the greatest reconstruction jobs in history. As a boy, Cruickshank lived in the rebuilt old town and it inspired his love of architecture and made him the man he is today.


SUN 01:35 Sounds of the 70s 2 (b01glwkz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 03:10 on Saturday]


SUN 02:05 Bob Geldof on WB Yeats: A Fanatic Heart (b076qphj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



MONDAY 04 APRIL 2016

MON 19:00 World News Today (b0763psh)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Welsh Railways (b018gs4c)
Beating Beeching: Part 2

The steam railways of Wales seemed lost forever with the Beeching cuts of the 1960s, but this series celebrates their revival with wonderful colour archive film combined with the memories of passengers and railwaymen from the age of steam.

In this episode we meet the last generation of Welsh steam railwaymen and visit the heritage railway that keeps their glorious past alive.


MON 20:00 Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways (b01pz9m7)
Episode 1

From their beginnings as a primitive system of track-ways for coal carts in the early 18th century, railways quickly developed into the driving force behind the industrial revolution and the pivotal technology for modern Britain, and a connected world.

Rapid industrial growth during the early 19th century, coupled with the prospect of vast profits, drove inventors and entrepreneurs to develop steam locomotives, metal tracks and an array of daring tunnels, cuttings and bridges that created a nationwide system of railways in just 30 years.

George Stephenson's Liverpool and Manchester Railway became the model for future inter-city travel for the next century and his fast, reliable locomotive, the Rocket, began a quest for speed that has defined our modern world.


MON 21:00 James May: The Reassembler (b076np2b)
Series 1

Lawnmower

James is faced with the 331 pieces that make up a 1959 petrol lawnmower. The Suffolk Colt helped make mowing accessible to the masses by producing a smaller and affordable machine to keep our nation's lawns at regulation height. As this is a petrol lawnmower, James's first task is to put the engine back together before he gets to grips with the gearing, the clutch and the blades themselves. Armed only with his toolbox and an endless supply of tea, James experiences the highs and lows only possible when attempting to put history back together again, piece by piece.


MON 21:30 Decisive Weapons (b0078dxf)
Series 1

The P-51 - Cadillac of the Skies

In 1943, the large and slow Flying Fortresses, used in the US Air Force's daylight bombing raids, were being shot out of the sky at a rate of up to 60 per day. Only one fighter plane could save them - the single-seat P51 Mustang. The P51 enabled American pilots to fly eight-hour missions - by the end of the war, it accounted for half of all German planes destroyed, either in the air or on the ground. American and German veterans recount the legend that was the Mustang.


MON 22:00 Engineering Giants (b01l1w71)
Jumbo Jet Strip-Down

Engineer turned comedian Tom Wrigglesworth and rising star of mechanical engineering Rob Bell climb on board Victor X-ray, a 200-ton, £200 million Boeing 747. This jumbo jet has flown over 36 million miles in its 14-year life with British Airways. Now it will be broken into tens of thousands of parts in the airline's maintenance hangar in Cardiff, before being painstakingly reassembled and certified fit to fly again. This is the first time this complex process has ever been filmed and it provides fascinating insights into just how a 747 works.

Rob and Tom also visit the UK's largest plane salvage centre in the Cotswolds to discover what happens to a 747 when it reaches the end of its working life, and discover how valuable parts are stripped for resale before the carcass is torn apart to be recycled.


MON 23:00 The Tube: An Underground History (b01sjtzw)
In 2013 London Underground is 150 years old. The world's first underground railway is spending its anniversary year celebrating its own history. They're sending a steam train back underground, and there's a royal visit to prepare for. On the tube, history is everywhere - it's down every tunnel, in every tunnel, in every sign and design, and in the lives of the unsung people who built it and run it today.

This programme tells the story of the underground through the eyes of the people who work for it. Farringdon station supervisor Iain MacPherson reveals why his station - the original terminus - was constructed in the 1860s, and recalls the dark days of King's Cross in the 1980s. Piccadilly line driver Dylan Glenister explains why every Edwardian station on his line has its own unique tiling pattern and how, in the 1930s, the construction of new stations expanded the borders of London. And there's head of design and heritage, Mike Ashworth, whose predecessor pioneered the art of branding in the 1920s and customer service assistant Steve Parkinson, who was part of a wave of new recruits from the Caribbean from the 50s.

With privileged access to disused stations and rare archive footage, this is the tube's hidden history, revealing why it was first built and how it has shaped London ever since.


MON 00:00 Ancient Greece: The Greatest Show on Earth (b039fpnk)
Democrats

Classicist Dr Michael Scott journeys to Athens to explore how drama first began. He discovers that from the very start it was about more than just entertainment - it was a reaction to real events, it was a driving force in history and it was deeply connected to Athenian democracy. In fact, the story of theatre is the story of Athens.


MON 01:00 Treasures of the Indus (b069g53h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


MON 02:00 Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways (b01pz9m7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 03:00 James May: The Reassembler (b076np2b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 03:30 Decisive Weapons (b0078dxf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]



TUESDAY 05 APRIL 2016

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b0761czg)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Brushing up on... (b01s0zpm)
Series 1

British Bridges

Danny Baker endeavours to present the definitive guide to Britain's bridges in 30 minutes, armed only with a few VHS tapes and some ham-fisted research. Buckle up!


TUE 20:00 Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways (b01q7brf)
Episode 2

In the late 1830s, the railways arrived in London and linked the capital to Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. This was the start of a truly national network - and one of the greatest civil engineering projects in history.

The spread of the railways triggered a mania across Britain. Railway tycoons like Samuel Morton Peto and George Hudson made fortunes as the stock markets boomed around these new developments. Yet the bubble burst in 1847 and shares plummeted. Thousands of ordinary shareholders filled the bankruptcy courts. However as Dan Snow reveals, the legacy of the mania was an incredible rail network for 19th-century Britain and a revolution in the way people lived.


TUE 21:00 James May: The Reassembler (b076wf8f)
Series 1

Telephone

James tackles a 1957 Bakelite dial telephone - 211 pieces, most of them very small indeed, must be reassembled in the correct order if this telephone is ever to ring again. From the receiver with its carbon filings that enable speech to be amplified, to the electrical pulses created by the dial itself that connect the phone to the outside world, James soon discovers that every single piece of the telephone played a crucial role in revolutionising communication around the world.


TUE 21:30 Decisive Weapons (b0077dqn)
Series 1

T34: The Queen of Tanks

The story of the Soviet T34 tank, the manufacture of which heralded the largest industrial migration in history. In 1941, the Soviets faced almost certain defeat by the Germans, until the arrival of the Red Army's ultra-secret new tank, the T-34. In the hands of those who built and then drove it, this was the tank that led the fightback, all the way to Hitler's bunker in 1945.


TUE 22:00 The Bridge: Fifty Years Across the Forth (b04g80p8)
A unique amateur film provides the centrepiece of a documentary celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of Scotland's great landmarks, the Forth Road Bridge. The documentary traces the memories of the people who built the bridge, the biggest of its kind in Europe at the time, as well as those who ran the Forth ferries that stopped running when it opened in 1964.


TUE 23:00 Timewatch (b00j3hz3)
2008-2009

QE2 - The Final Voyage

Timewatch joins the crew and passengers on board Britain's favourite ship as the QE2 leaves Southampton for the last time and glides gracefully into retirement.

The world's longest-serving and best-loved cruise ship has come a long way since her humble beginnings as piles of steel and
timber on the River Clyde. Overcoming technical problems, rogue waves and even bomb threats, she has enjoyed an eventful and colourful career that has won the hearts of millions.

A proud reminder of the dazzling golden era of ocean liners, she is a time capsule offering a tantalising peek into a distant age of discovery and decadence. Built at the end of the swinging sixties, she defied cultural trends and became a reassuring bastion of Britishness and tradition in an ever-changing world.

In this warm, celebratory film, we bid a fond farewell to the QE2 and - with exclusive access to the final voyage - look back over four glittering decades on the high seas.


TUE 23:55 Timewatch (b00jcgpm)
2008-2009

Captain Cook: The Man Behind the Legend

In the late 18th century, Captain James Cook led three great voyages of discovery which pushed the borders of the British Empire to the ends of the earth. In just over a decade, his ability as a navigator and chartmaker would add one-third to the map of the known world. For many he was the greatest explorer in history, but for others he was a ruthless conqueror.

While the exploits of Captain Cook are well documented, much less is known about James Cook the man. Presenter Vanessa Collingridge sets out on her own voyage of discovery - travelling in his footsteps to uncover the forces that drove him to success, and ultimately to his own death.


TUE 00:55 How to Get Ahead (b03z08mx)
At Versailles

Stephen Smith explores the flamboyant Baroque court of the Sun King, Louis XIV. Louis created the Palace of Versailles so he could surround himself with aristocrats, artists, interior designers, gardeners, wigmakers, chefs and musicians. Hordes of ambitious courtiers scrambled to get close to the king, but unseemly goings-on in the royal bedchamber reflected the quickest path to power.


TUE 01:55 Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways (b01q7brf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 02:55 James May: The Reassembler (b076wf8f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 03:25 Decisive Weapons (b0077dqn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]



WEDNESDAY 06 APRIL 2016

WED 19:00 World News Today (b0761czp)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Brushing up on... (b01s1c4y)
Series 1

British Tunnels

Danny Baker considers some tunnel-based archive footage and endeavours to give a quick brush up on these mysterious, subterranean realms.


WED 20:00 Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways (b01qh3z3)
Episode 3

Over just 50 years, Britain's railways grew from a handful of small lines carrying coal to the biggest industry in the strongest nation on the planet. A nation had built the railways and now those railways would build a nation, influencing working conditions for its employees, proving a valuable export across the globe and even changing warfare.

Yet the story of railways up until the beginning of the Second World War concerned who they really belonged to - the private rail companies who were obsessed with profit, the public who rode them, or the government, who needed them at times of crisis but was reluctant to regulate.


WED 21:00 James May: The Reassembler (b076wgvx)
Series 1

Electric Guitar

James concludes his quest to truly understand everyday objects by putting them back together piece by piece with an electric guitar.

147 pieces must be reassembled carefully and in the correct order, which will entail soldering, extensive use of James's precision Japanese screwdrivers and some fiddly electronics.

The electric guitar transformed the music industry and society itself and, channelling his namesake Brian, James will plug in his reassembled guitar and hope he put all the bits together correctly as he gets ready to perform one of most unexpected guitar solos of all time.


WED 21:30 Decisive Weapons (b0077c0f)
Series 1

The Harrier - Jumping Jet Flash

Untested in combat and generally derided by the British military establishment, the Harrier proved itself in the Falklands conflict when just 20 of them took on a 200-strong Argentinian air force.


WED 22:00 How to Build... a Nuclear Submarine (b00syt1w)
Fourteen years in the making and costing over a billion pounds, the Astute nuclear submarine is one of the most technologically advanced machines in the world, and for over a year the BBC filmed its construction inside one of the most secure and secret places in the country.

An amazing piece of British engineering or a controversial waste of tax payers' money? This documentary allows viewers to make up their own minds.

Among many of the workers, the film features Erin Browne, a 19-year-old apprentice electrician who wires up the boat; Commander Paul Knight, responsible for the safety of the nuclear reactor; and Derek Parker, whose job involves moving massive pieces of the submarine that weigh hundreds of tons into position before the welding team join them together.

Amazing computer graphics take us inside the construction of the submarine itself, giving a blueprint of the design, the life support systems and the weaponry, and help illustrate the areas that national security precluded filming in.

The story also takes a dramatic turn when an unforeseen event means the submarine has to sail into the open sea - for the first time - during one of the wettest and windiest weekends of the year.


WED 23:00 The Golden Age of Steam Railways (b01p8w38)
Small Is Beautiful

Two-part documentary telling the remarkable story of a band of visionaries who rescued some of the little narrow gauge railways that once served Britain's industries. These small railways and the steam engines that ran on them were once the driving force of Britain's mines, quarries, factories and docks. Then, as they disappeared after 1945, volunteers set to work to bring the lines and the steam engines back to life and started a movement which spread throughout the world. Their home movies tell the story of how they helped millions reconnect with a past they thought had gone forever.


WED 00:00 Natural World (b00p9210)
2009-2010

A Highland Haven

This stunningly beautiful film reveals the unique wildlife of the Scottish Highlands, seen through the eyes of film-maker Fergus Beeley.

Based for a year at Loch Maree and the surrounding hills in Scotland's far north west, Beeley presents his personal view of the shy animals whose lives are ruled by the rains. He follows the fortunes of rare black-throated divers and white-tailed sea eagles, which both breed there, while capturing the red deer and salmon whose lives also revolve around the loch.

With an evocative score provided by local musician Phil Cunningham, this enchanting film captures the magic of a very special place.


WED 01:00 The Comet's Tale (b008d2x7)
Ancient civilisations thought comets were gods. They believed them to be bringers of life or harbingers of doom - strange, magical, mysterious things that moved through the sky, fiery streaks of light that tore across the heavens.

Isaac Newton was the first to make sense of comets and to him they were the key to unlocking the secrets of gravity - nothing to do with an apple. Hundreds of years later, a new breed of space missions are visiting comets, travelling millions of miles to touch down on these tiny balls of rock flying through space at 20,000 mph. The spectacular images we now have are showing us what comets are really made of, where they come from, and their often surprising influence on events on Earth.

What they reveal is that our ancestors may have been right all along and that comets and meteors really are like gods, or at least they can exert tremendous influence over our world. They have brought terrible destruction to the Earth and may one day do so again. But they also may have brought life itself to the planet.


WED 02:00 Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways (b01qh3z3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 03:00 James May: The Reassembler (b076wgvx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 03:30 Decisive Weapons (b0077c0f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]



THURSDAY 07 APRIL 2016

THU 19:00 World News Today (b0761czy)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0763rc3)
Simon Bates introduces the pop programme, featuring Duran Duran, Soft Cell, Aneka, Shakin' Stevens, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Electric Light Orchestra and Bill Wyman, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.


THU 20:00 The Flying Scotsman: A Rail Romance (b008m6wb)
As it celebrates its 90th birthday, Barbara Flynn narrates the story of the nation's love affair with the Flying Scotsman, the steam locomotive that symbolises all that was great about British engineering.


THU 21:00 Storyville (b076nqjb)
Being Evel Knievel

An enjoyable look at the first globally famous stunt performer, exploring the charisma and showmanship at the heart of Evel Knievel's improbable success. Knievel made a career out of ridiculous stunts and rose to fame with multiple television appearances of his daredevil stunts that captured the public's imagination throughout the late 1960s and 70s.

With fantastic archive, the film takes the audience on a rollercoaster ride from his early motorcycle stunts, through to his attempt to be fired across Snake River Canyon, to his time in jail for brutally assaulting his business partner.

The darker side of Knievel's larger-than-life persona also emerges, especially among those who knew him best. Friends, family and business colleagues paint a complex portrait of a man who preferred to be seen as a self-styled myth. His love of alcohol, womanising, and temper were all eclipsed by an obsession with insane stunts bordering on a death wish.


THU 22:30 Timeshift (b03fv7sl)
Series 13

Full Throttle: The Glory Days of British Motorbikes

Timeshift returns with an exploration of the British love of fast, daring and sometimes reckless motorbike riding during a period when home-grown machines were the envy of the world. From TE Lawrence in the 1920 to the 'ton-up boys' and rockers of the 1950s, motorbikes represented unparalleled style and excitement, as British riders indulged their passion for brands like Brough Superior, Norton and Triumph.

But it wasn't all thrills and spills - the motorbike played a key role during World War II and it was army surplus bikes that introduced many to the joy and freedom of motorcycling in the 50s, a period now regarded as a golden age. With its obsession with speed and the rocker lifestyle, it attracted more than its fair share of social disapproval and conflict.

Narrated by John Hannah.


THU 23:30 Top of the Pops (b0763rc3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 00:05 Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity (b054v27d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 00:00 on Saturday]


THU 01:05 Pappano's Classical Voices (b062hmz6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Sunday]


THU 02:10 Brushing up on... (b01s0zpm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 on Tuesday]


THU 02:40 Timeshift (b03fv7sl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]



FRIDAY 08 APRIL 2016

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b0761d05)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 BBC Young Musician (b076ntq1)
2016

Keyboard Final

The UK's brightest and best musical talent are showcased as the search begins for the BBC Young Musician 2016. Clemency Burton-Hill and Alison Balsom - herself a finalist in 1998 - present highlights from the first category final in this year's coverage.

Five exceptional players perform music from Beethoven, Liszt and Chopin in the keyboard final. The competitors are: 19-year-old Royal Academy of Music student Yuanfan Yang; 17-year-old A level student Tomoka Kan; from Salford 15-year-old Jackie Campbell; Julian Trevelyan, who is 17 and comes from St Albans; and this year's youngest category finalist, 13-year-old Harvey Lin from Berkshire.

Filmed at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff the programme includes profiles of the competitors, extensive highlights of their performances and behind-the-scenes access. We also catch up with Martin James Bartlett, the winner of BBC Young Musician 2014, to find out what impact the competition has had on his career to date.


FRI 21:00 Rollermania: Britain's Biggest Boy Band (b06bbct4)
In 1975, The Bay City Rollers were on the brink of global superstardom. The most successful chart act in the UK with a unique look and sound were about to become the biggest thing since the Beatles. Featuring interviews with Les McKeown and other members of the classic Bay City Roller line-up, and using previously unseen footage shot by members of the band and its entourage, this is the tale of five lads from Edinburgh who became the world's first international teen idols and turned the whole world tartan.


FRI 22:00 TOTP2 (b01cyxhs)
Boybands

Showcasing the boy band, from its origins in 60s beat groups and R&B outfits to the new wave of 80s boy bands and beyond. Defined by their vocal harmonies, synchronised dance steps and groups of men, each with 'their own distinct appeal', this compilation celebrates the best of boy bands down the ages.

From JLS to The Four Tops, The Monkees to Westlife, and Village People to Blazin' Squad, relive your teenage years with the boys that mattered most.


FRI 23:00 Hot Chocolate at the BBC (b06dl1c5)
Errol Brown, who died aged 71 in May 2015, was probably the most famous and ubiquitous black British pop star of the 70s and early 80s. He co-founded Hot Chocolate with Tony Wilson in 1970 and the band went on to have a hit every year between 1971 and 1984.

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

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

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


FRI 00:00 Nile Rodgers: The Hitmaker Remastered (b01rk2tm)
The last two years have seen Nile Rodgers launched back into the limelight following the massive success of Daft Punk's single Get Lucky, his distinctive guitar work helping the French dance music duo to one of their biggest hits.

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

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

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

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

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


FRI 01:00 Rollermania: Britain's Biggest Boy Band (b06bbct4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:00 TOTP2 (b01cyxhs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 03:00 Hot Chocolate at the BBC (b06dl1c5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]




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

Age of Uprising: The Legend of Michael Kohlhaas 22:40 SUN (b049xvn6)

Ancient Greece: The Greatest Show on Earth 00:00 MON (b039fpnk)

BBC Young Musician 19:30 FRI (b076ntq1)

Bob Geldof on WB Yeats: A Fanatic Heart 21:00 SUN (b076qphj)

Bob Geldof on WB Yeats: A Fanatic Heart 02:05 SUN (b076qphj)

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

Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity 00:05 THU (b054v27d)

Brushing up on... 19:30 TUE (b01s0zpm)

Brushing up on... 19:30 WED (b01s1c4y)

Brushing up on... 02:10 THU (b01s0zpm)

Dan Cruickshank's Warsaw: Resurrecting History 00:35 SUN (b06r12fd)

Decisive Weapons 21:30 MON (b0078dxf)

Decisive Weapons 03:30 MON (b0078dxf)

Decisive Weapons 21:30 TUE (b0077dqn)

Decisive Weapons 03:25 TUE (b0077dqn)

Decisive Weapons 21:30 WED (b0077c0f)

Decisive Weapons 03:30 WED (b0077c0f)

Engineering Giants 22:00 MON (b01l1w71)

Follow the Money 21:00 SAT (b0740xq8)

Follow the Money 22:00 SAT (b0740xqb)

Hot Chocolate at the BBC 23:00 FRI (b06dl1c5)

Hot Chocolate at the BBC 03:00 FRI (b06dl1c5)

How to Build... a Nuclear Submarine 22:00 WED (b00syt1w)

How to Get Ahead 00:55 TUE (b03z08mx)

Human Planet 20:00 SAT (b00rrd87)

James May: The Reassembler 21:00 MON (b076np2b)

James May: The Reassembler 03:00 MON (b076np2b)

James May: The Reassembler 21:00 TUE (b076wf8f)

James May: The Reassembler 02:55 TUE (b076wf8f)

James May: The Reassembler 21:00 WED (b076wgvx)

James May: The Reassembler 03:00 WED (b076wgvx)

Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways 20:00 MON (b01pz9m7)

Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways 02:00 MON (b01pz9m7)

Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways 20:00 TUE (b01q7brf)

Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways 01:55 TUE (b01q7brf)

Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways 20:00 WED (b01qh3z3)

Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways 02:00 WED (b01qh3z3)

Natural World 00:00 WED (b00p9210)

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

One-Hit Wonders at the BBC 02:10 SAT (b05r7nxx)

Pappano's Classical Voices 20:00 SUN (b062hmz6)

Pappano's Classical Voices 01:05 THU (b062hmz6)

Rollermania: Britain's Biggest Boy Band 21:00 FRI (b06bbct4)

Rollermania: Britain's Biggest Boy Band 01:00 FRI (b06bbct4)

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies: Master and Maverick 19:00 SUN (b0760h88)

Sounds of the 70s 2 03:10 SAT (b01glwkz)

Sounds of the 70s 2 01:35 SUN (b01glwkz)

Storyville 21:00 THU (b076nqjb)

TOTP2 23:00 SAT (b00sfz04)

TOTP2 22:00 FRI (b01cyxhs)

TOTP2 02:00 FRI (b01cyxhs)

The Bridge: Fifty Years Across the Forth 22:00 TUE (b04g80p8)

The Comet's Tale 01:00 WED (b008d2x7)

The Flying Scotsman: A Rail Romance 20:00 THU (b008m6wb)

The Golden Age of Steam Railways 23:00 WED (b01p8w38)

The Tube: An Underground History 23:00 MON (b01sjtzw)

Timeshift 22:30 THU (b03fv7sl)

Timeshift 02:40 THU (b03fv7sl)

Timewatch 23:00 TUE (b00j3hz3)

Timewatch 23:55 TUE (b00jcgpm)

Top of the Pops 01:00 SAT (b075f6my)

Top of the Pops 01:35 SAT (b075f6zc)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b0763rc3)

Top of the Pops 23:30 THU (b0763rc3)

Treasures of the Indus 19:00 SAT (b069g53h)

Treasures of the Indus 01:00 MON (b069g53h)

Welsh Railways 19:30 MON (b018gs4c)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b0763psh)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b0761czg)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b0761czp)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b0761czy)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b0761d05)