Anne Boleyn is one of the most famous and controversial women in British history. In 1536, she became the first queen in Britain's history to be executed. The brutal speed of her downfall and the astonishing nature of the charges against her - treason, adultery, even incest - make her story shocking even to this day.
Yet whilst we know how Anne died, the story of why she had to go and who authored her violent end has been the subject of fiery debate across six centuries. In a radical new approach to televised history, a stellar cast of writers and historians, including Hilary Mantel, David Starkey, Philippa Gregory and others, battle out the story of her last days and give their own unique interpretations of her destruction.
Trevor Nelson and Clara Amfo continue Glastonbury festival coverage on day three with two performances from the Pyramid stage. First up is US singer-songwriter Gregory Porter, whose gift for uniting jazz, soul, gospel and R&B has awarded him a Grammy and worldwide critical acclaim. Adding a touch of glamour to the proceedings is Hereford-born pop star Ellie Goulding.
Mark Radcliffe introduces Dorset-born multi-instrumentalist PJ Harvey as she takes to the Other stage on day three of Pilton's world-famous Glastonbury festival, performing tracks from her forever evolving past work and latest album triumph The Hope Six Demolition. Expect a dynamic set of electronica, folk, indie and experimental rock from this unique singer-songwriter.
It's down to Trevor Nelson and funk legends Earth, Wind & Fire to conclude this year's Glastonbury coverage with the ultimate celebratory disco knees-up. The Grammy-winning jazz, funk, gospel and big band giants will no doubt pay tribute to their late founder Maurice White amongst a whirl of uplifting feelgood music, multi-coloured lights and costumes for a party to end all parties.
1964 saw the birth of a very British institution. Spanning over four decades, Top of the Pops has produced many classic moments in pop culture.
Digging deep within the darkest depths of the BBC's archive, this compilation offers some memorable performances from 1964 through to 1975 from the likes of The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Status Quo, Procol Harum, Stevie Wonder, Queen and The Kinks, and opens the vintage vaults to rare performances from Stealers Wheel, Julie Driscoll, Peter Sarstedt and The Seekers.
In the third episode, Professor Brian Cox takes on the story of the force that sculpts the entire universe - gravity.
Gravity seems so familiar, and yet it is one of the strangest and most surprising forces in the universe. Starting with a zero-gravity flight, Brian experiences the feeling of total weightlessness, and considers how much of an effect gravity has had on the world around us.
But gravity also acts over much greater distances. It is the great orchestrator of the cosmos. It dictates our orbit around the sun, our relationship with the other planets in our solar system, and even the way in which our solar system orbits our galaxy.
Yet the paradox of gravity is that it is actually a relatively weak force. Brian takes a face distorting trip in a centrifuge to explain how it is that gravity achieves its great power, before looking at the role it plays in one of the most extraordinary phenomena in the universe - a neutron star. Although it is just a few kilometres across, it is so dense that its gravity is 100,000 million times as strong as on Earth.
Over the centuries our quest to understand gravity has allowed us to understand some of the true wonders of the universe, and Brian reveals that it is scientists' continuing search for answers that inspires his own sense of wonder.
Professor Iain Stewart uncovers clues hidden within the New York skyline, the anatomy of American alligators and inside Bolivian silver mines, to reconstruct how North and South America were created. We call these two continents the New World, and in a geological sense they are indeed new worlds, torn from the heart of an ancient supercontinent - the Old World of Pangaea.
Iain starts in New York, where the layout of the city's skyscrapers provide a link to a long-lost world. Deep within their foundations is evidence that 300 million years ago New York was at the heart of a huge mountain range - part of the vast supercontinent called Pangaea.
Trekking into the Grand Canyon, Iain uncovers a layer of sandstone from Pangaean times that shows there was a vast desert either side of the mountains. Footprints in the rocks of the Grand Canyon reveal that there was only one type of animal that could thrive here - a newly evolved group called the reptiles. Iain meets the closest living relative of those early reptiles - the alligator.
Two hundred million years ago, Pangea underwent a transformation. North and South America were carved from Pangaea, and pushed westwards as separate island continents. To see how this westward movement shaped South America's often bloody human history, Iain travels to Potosi in Bolivia. Cerro Rico is one of the most dangerous mines in human history. Iain goes to the heart of this extinct volcano to reveal the process that has shaped South America - subduction.
Subduction has also created the longest continual mountain range in the world - the Andes. At its heart lies the stunning ethereal landscape of the Salar de Uyuni, a vast salt flat where a lake has been uplifted thousands of metres above sea level. The lithium found here may be a new source of mineral wealth for Bolivia, for use in mobile phones.
The last chapter in the story of the Americas is told through that most typically Andean animal, the llama. But like much of South America's wildlife it originated in North America, and only came south when the two island continents of North and South America joined three million years ago.
Since that momentous joining the story of the Americas has been a shared one. Together they continue their westward drift away from the Old World. However, on a cultural and economic level you could argue that the opposite is the case. In our new global economy the Americas are at the very heart of our connected world.
Ellie Harrison and Dallas Campbell reveal the greatest treasures we've ever created.
Dallas braves vicious currents to dive on a shipwreck where gold, silver and 5,000 emeralds have been found. Ellie tells the tale of intrigue and obsession surrounding a jewelled room in Russia decorated with millions of pounds worth of amber. She enters the secretive world of the diamond cutters - each lives with the knowledge that a slip of the hand could cost them millions of pounds.
MONDAY 27 JUNE 2016
MON 19:00 World News Today (b07hsqbd)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 Orangutan Diary (b007clxj)
Series 1
Episode 5
Michaela Strachan and Steve Leonard present a series featuring orphaned and rescued orangutans in Borneo. All over the island, their forest homes are being cleared to create space for palm oil plantations - sterile places where orangutans just cannot live.
Steve rescues a big female who has dislocated her ankle fleeing from her captors. Back at the centre, there is better news for Michaela when she sees her favourite little orphan Lomon finally learn to climb a tree. There is also a moving conclusion to the story of Zorro, a huge male orangutan who spent 13 years in a tiny cage before being released on to a forested island.
MON 20:00 Canals: The Making of a Nation (b06822p8)
Heritage
Liz McIvor explores the heritage of our canal network. After years of decline in the postwar period much of the network was eventually restored. Once places of labour and industry, they became places of leisure and tranquillity. The newly renovated canals were increasingly popular for boating holidaymakers. Liz visits the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales and travels to Birmingham where canals have become catalysts for property development and urban regeneration. Canals offer so many benefits today. Perhaps, Liz suggests, it is time to construct a few more?
MON 20:30 Handmade: By Royal Appointment (b07ht061)
Steinway
Travelling between the factory in Hamburg, where Steinway pianos are still made largely by hand, and Steinway Hall in London, where a team of technicians maintain and restore the pianos, this film offers a portrait of the craftsmen behind the famous instrument.
From the stoic German factory workers bending the frames and polishing the veneers, to long-standing British restorer Jeff about to retire from the company, the film lifts the lid on the dedication and skills required to make and maintain a prestige piano.
Holders of a royal warrant since the days of Queen Victoria, Steinway supplies pianos to the royal household as well as many leading performers, and the film also follows renowned pianist Lang Lang preparing for a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
MON 21:00 A Timewatch Guide (b051h0gy)
Series 1
The Mary Rose
Historian Dan Snow explores the greatest maritime archaeology project in British history - the Mary Rose. Using 40 years of BBC archive footage Dan charts how the Mary Rose was discovered, excavated and eventually raised, and what the latest research has revealed about this iconic ship and her crew. Dan also investigates how the Mary Rose project helped create modern underwater archaeology, examining the techniques, challenges and triumphs of the divers and archaeologists involved.
MON 22:00 Wonders of the Universe (b0101h6w)
Messengers
In the last episode of Professor Brian Cox's epic journey across the universe, he travels from the fossils of the Burgess Shale to the sands of the oldest desert in the world to show how light holds the key to our understanding of the whole universe, including our own deepest origins.
To understand how light holds the key to the story of the universe, you first have to understand its peculiar properties. Brian considers how the properties of light that lend colour to desert sands and the spectrum of a rainbow can lead to profound insights into the history and evolution of our universe.
Finally, with some of the world's most fascinating fossils in hand Brian considers how, but for an apparently obscure moment in the early evolutionary history of life, all the secrets of light may have remained hidden. Because although the universe is bathed in light that carries extraordinary amounts of information about where we come from, it would have remained invisible without a crucial evolutionary development that allowed us to see. Only because of that development can we now observe, capture and contemplate the incredible wonders of the universe that we inhabit.
MON 23:00 Rise of the Continents (b036ks6f)
Eurasia
Two hundred million years ago the continent we know as Eurasia - the vast swathe of land that extends from Europe in the west to Asia in the east - didn't exist.
To reveal Eurasia's origins, Professor Iain Stewart climbs up to the 'eternal flames' of Mount Chimera in southern Turkey, blazing natural gas that seeps out of the rock. Formed on the seafloor, it shows that where the south of Eurasia is today, there was once a 90-million-square-kilometre ocean known as the Tethys. It is the destruction of the Tethys Ocean that holds the key to Eurasia's formation.
In the backwaters of Kerala in southern India, he finds evidence of how that happened, in the most unlikely of places: the bones of the local fishermen's catch. The freshwater fish called karimeen shares anatomical features with another group of fish that live in Madagascar, evidence that India and Madagascar were joined. India was once 4,000 kilometres south of its current position on the other side of the Tethys.
As it moved north, the ocean in front of it closed. And as it collided with the rest of Eurasia the impact built the Himalayas, the greatest mountain range on Earth. Professor Stewart reveals how the mountains aren't simply pieces of the land pushed upwards. In fact the rock that forms them was once the floor of the Tethys Ocean.
As Eurasia assembled, Arabia, Greece and Italy too moved north, completing the continent we know today and creating a mountain chain that spans the continent. And it was in the shadow of these mountains that the continent's first civilisations rose.
But the formation of Eurasia is just the beginning, because the process that formed it is still active today. On the island of Stromboli, Italy's most continually active volcano, the spectacular eruptions show that the ocean floor is being pulled beneath Eurasia. It is this process that closed the Tethys, and today is closing the Mediterranean, revealing Eurasia's future. 250 million years in the future all of the continents will collide together once more, forming a new Pangea, with Eurasia at its heart.
MON 00:00 Edwardian Insects on Film (b01rd376)
In 1908, amateur naturalist Percy Smith stunned cinema goers with his surreal film The Acrobatic Fly. Featuring a bluebottle juggling a series of objects, the film became front page news. Now wildlife cameraman Charlie Hamilton-James attempts to recreate this fascinating film.
Along the way, Hamilton-James (helped by Sir David Attenborough, who saw Smith's films as a boy) tells the story of Percy's remarkable career and reveals the genius behind this forgotten pioneer of British film.
MON 01:00 A Timewatch Guide (b051h0gy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
MON 02:00 Sex and Sensibility: The Allure of Art Nouveau (b01dprb6)
Paris
The delicious objects of Parisian Art Nouveau are explored by cultural correspondent Stephen Smith. Uncovering how the luscious decorative style first erupted into the cityscape, Stephen delves into the city's bohemian past to learn how some of the 19th century's most glamorous and controversial figures inspired this extraordinary movement.
Revealing the story behind Alphonse Mucha's sensual posters of actress Sarah Bernhardt, looking at the exquisite jewellery designer Renee Lalique and visiting iconic art nouveau locations such the famous Maxim's restaurant, the programme builds a picture of fin-de-siecle Paris.
But Smith also reveals that the style is more than just veneer deep. Looking further into the work of glassmaker Emile Galle and architect Hector Guimard, he sees how some of art nouveau's stars risked their reputation to give meaning and purpose to work they thought could affect social change.
MON 03:00 Timeshift (b044yw1d)
Series 14
Mods, Rockers and Bank Holiday Mayhem
A trip back to the days when 'style wars' were just that - violent confrontations about the clothes you wore. Spring 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the bank holiday 'battles of the beaches', when hundreds of mods and rockers flocked to seaside resorts on scooters and motorbikes in search of thrills and spills.
Timeshift tells the story of how this led to violence, arrests and widespread concern about the state of British youth. But mods and rockers had more in common than was first obvious - they were the first generation of baby boomers to reach their teenage years at a time when greater prosperity and wider freedoms were transforming what it meant to be young.
TUESDAY 28 JUNE 2016
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b07hsqbr)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 The Wonder of Animals (b04dq5tb)
Penguins
At first sight, penguins seem ill-suited to their environment - rotund abdomens, stubby little legs and stiff wings appear to make the going tough. But in fact it is these very traits that enable this bird to thrive.
Chris explores details of the penguin's anatomy, using new scientific research to reveal how its legs, wings and body shape have allowed it to conquer an extraordinary range of habitats, from deep forests to tropical waters, bustling cities and even the toughest place on the planet - Antarctica.
TUE 20:00 Tankies: Tank Heroes of World War II (b01pvbds)
Episode 1
The Second World War was the ultimate conflict of the machine age, and the tank was its iconic symbol. The 'tankies' who fought inside had experience of much of the conflict from the fall of France to the deserts of Africa, from the invasion of Italy to D-Day, and on to the final victory in Germany.
In this two-part series, historian, BBC diplomatic editor and former officer in the Royal Tank Regiment, Mark Urban tells the story of six remarkable men from one armoured unit - the Fifth Royal Tank Regiment, also known as the Filthy Fifth.
Using first-hand testimony from the last surviving veterans alongside previously unseen letters and diaries, Mark brings the story of an extraordinary 'band of brothers' to life, in visceral detail. At the same time he analyses the evolution of tank production in Britain and illustrates how we fell far behind our German enemies in both technology and tactics, relying instead on dogged determination and a relentless drive to victory, whatever the costs.
In part one, Mark begins his journey in northern France, introducing our band of brothers in the midst of the fall of France and the retreat to Dunkirk. Characters such as 'rookie' tank driver Gerry Solomon join veterans, themselves still only in their twenties, such as and Jake Wardrop and Harry Finlayson.
Mark then follows in the tankies' footsteps across the deserts of North Africa. Here he looks at the game-changing tank battles of Sidi Rezegh, Alam Halfa and, of course, the battle that changed the course of the Second World War - Alamein. He then takes us back to England where the tankies expect a well-earned rest, instead they are confronted with the news that as battle-hardened troops they must fight again, this time on the beaches of Normandy.
With spectacular archive footage, including rarely seen colour footage, it brings to life the Second World War from a unique point of view.
TUE 21:00 Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility (b07hx40t)
Dr Michael Mosley investigates Britain's most secretive and controversial military research base, Porton Down, on its 100th anniversary. He comes face to face with chemical and biological weapons old and new, reveals the truth about shocking animal and human testing, and discovers how the latest science and technology are helping to defend us against terrorist attacks and rogue nations.
TUE 22:00 Seven Ages of Britain (b00rfqpk)
Age of Money
In the 18th century, the triumph of commerce led to the emergence of a new 'middle' class, a group of people who craved pleasure and novelty, and developed its own tastes in art. The result was a golden age in painting, with Hogarth, Reynolds and Gainsborough reinventing the British style.
The story ends in 1805 with the burial of Horatio Nelson, a commoner, at the heart of St Paul's: the supremacy of the middle class assured.
TUE 23:00 Genius of the Modern World (b07h0hg9)
Nietzsche
The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was one of the most brilliant and dangerous minds of the 19th century. His uncompromising and often brutal ideas smashed the comfortable presuppositions and assumptions of religion, morality and science. His was a world not just bereft of God but almost of humanity, breathtaking in both its post-religious starkness and its originality.
Bettany Hughes goes in search of the beliefs of a man whose work is amongst the most devastatingly manipulated and misinterpreted in philosophical history. Nietzsche's dislike of systems and of seeking truths left his ideas ambiguous and sometimes incoherent. It was this that made him vulnerable to interpretation, and as a result his thoughts - which warned against the very notion of a political system like totalitarianism - were manipulated to strengthen its ideals.
Vocally opposed to anti-Semitism, his anti-Semitic sister made sure he became the poster boy for Hitler's drive for an Aryan ideal. Anti-nationalistic, he came to symbolise a regime he would have loathed. His philosophical quest led him to isolation and ultimately madness, but his ideas helped shape the intellectual landscape of the modern world.
TUE 00:00 Boxing at the Movies: Kings of the Ring (b01r5mhb)
Danny Leigh explores the elemental drama of the boxing movie. For over 120 years, boxing and film have been entwined and the fight film has been used to address powerful themes such as redemption, race and corruption. Film writer Leigh examines how each generation's fight films have reflected their times and asks why film-makers from Stanley Kubrick to Martin Scorsese have returned time and again to tales of the ring.
Interviewees include former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, Rocky director John G Avildsen and Thelma Schoonmaker, editor of Raging Bull.
TUE 01:00 Tankies: Tank Heroes of World War II (b01pvbds)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
TUE 02:00 Timeshift (b01n8hl9)
Series 12
Magnificent Machines: The Golden Age of the British Sports Car
Timeshift sets its rear-view mirror to look back at the golden age of the British sports car. It's the story of how - in the grey austerity of the postwar years - iconic marques like Jaguar, Austin-Healey, MG and Triumph sparked a manufacturing frenzy that helped to democratise speed and glamour.
From the MG Midget, much loved by American GIs, through to the more affordable Austin Healey 'frog-eye' Sprite and the E-Type Jaguar, seen by many as the ultimate sports car, this is a tale of how, for a brief time, Britain was home to two-seater heaven.
TUE 03:00 Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility (b07hx40t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 29 JUNE 2016
WED 19:00 World News Today (b07hsqbx)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 The Wonder of Animals (b04dzrtp)
Bears
Bears can live in practically every habitat on Earth, from tropical jungles to the Arctic Ocean. Wherever they are found, they are capable of surviving extreme conditions and extracting the highest-quality food.
Detailing the latest research, Chris Packham explores the specialised adaptations that have enabled bears to thrive, including how a polar bear's hollow fur allows it to feed throughout the gruelling Arctic winter, whilst a state of 'walking hibernation' sees it through the summer months.
WED 20:00 Tankies: Tank Heroes of World War II (b01pzv78)
Episode 2
In the last of this two-part series, historian and former tank commander Mark Urban continues the story of six remarkable men from the Fifth Royal Tank Regiment in World War II.
Surviving veterans and previously unseen letters and diaries relate in visceral detail how an extraordinary 'band of brothers' fought throughout the war.
This episode picks up the story with the regiment's triumphant return from north Africa and victory at Alamein. Expecting a well-earned rest, instead they are joined by new recruits and re-equipped with brand new British-made Cromwell Tanks in preparation for D-Day - the invasion of Europe.
Fighting in the hedgerows in northern France is a shock to the men of the Fifth Tanks, who were used to fighting in the wide-open spaces of the desert. German soldiers lie in ambush behind hedgerows with hand-held anti-tank weapons. Veteran Gerry Solomon, one of the most experienced tank commanders, tells how his tank is knocked out and he is wounded.
The new Cromwell tank proves no match against the German Tiger tank. At the battle of Villers Bocage, a single Tiger brings the advance of the whole British Army to a standstill. But it meets its match when it comes up against another new British tank - the Sherman Firefly.
Veterans describe how for two months they fought a battle of attrition, losing hundreds of tanks in the British Army's biggest ever tank battle, but keeping the German tanks fighting in the British sector so the Americans could break out of their sector into open countryside beyond.
The Fifth Tanks advance rapidly, the first to liberate Ghent in Belgium. Pushing on into Germany just days before the end of the war, some of the regiment's most experienced veterans, who had been fighting since the beginning, are tragically killed.
WED 21:00 Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies (b01m81f5)
Military Marvels
In the heady postwar years of the 1950s and 60s, British flying was at its zenith and its aircraft industry flourished in a dazzling display of ingenuity and design brilliance. Having invented the jet engine, Britain was now set to lead the world into the jet age with a new generation of fighters and bombers. The daring test pilots who flew them were as well known as the football stars of today, while their futuristic-looking aircraft, including the Meteor, Canberra, Valiant, Vulcan and the English Electric Lightning, were the military marvels of the age.
WED 22:00 Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility (b07hx40t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 23:00 The Secrets of Quantum Physics (b04tr9x9)
Einstein's Nightmare
Professor Jim Al-Khalili traces the story of arguably the most important, accurate and yet perplexing scientific theory ever - quantum physics.
The story starts at the beginning of the 20th century with scientists trying to better understand how light bulbs work. This simple question led them deep into the hidden workings of matter, into the sub-atomic building blocks of the world around us. Here they discovered phenomena unlike any encountered before - a realm where things can be in many places at once, where chance and probability call the shots and where reality appears to only truly exist when we observe it.
Albert Einstein hated the idea that nature, at its most fundamental level, is governed by chance. Jim reveals how, in the 1930s, Einstein thought he had found a fatal flaw in quantum physics, because it implies that sub-atomic particles can communicate faster than light in defiance of the theory of relativity.
For 30 years, his ideas were ignored. Then, in the 1960s, a brilliant scientist from Northern Ireland called John Bell showed there was a way to test if Einstein was right and quantum mechanics was actually mistaken. In a laboratory in Oxford, Jim repeats this critical experiment. Does reality really exist or do we conjure it into existence by the act of observation?
The results are shocking!
WED 00:00 Natural World (b01qsfk7)
2012-2013
Giant Otters of the Amazon
Diablo the giant otter lives in a lake in the jungles of Peru, with his unruly family of six cubs. Even at the tender age of six months, they need to learn how to survive in this dangerous paradise. Their dad teaches them to swim and eventually to catch piranha for themselves, but they must also learn to stay away from the neighbours from hell - the giant caiman. These large members of the crocodile family are a real threat to the giant otter family and Diablo must go to extraordinary lengths to try to protect his cubs.
Renowned cameraman and otter specialist Charlie Hamilton-James returns to the place he first filmed Diablo 13 years ago. Following the family over several months, sometimes in very difficult conditions, he discovers how perilous a home this is for the cubs and watches them develop under the careful guidance of their father. He also films remarkable scenes of the giant otters fighting caimans.
WED 01:00 Tankies: Tank Heroes of World War II (b01pzv78)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 02:00 Seven Ages of Britain (b00rfqpk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Tuesday]
WED 03:00 Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies (b01m81f5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 30 JUNE 2016
THU 19:00 World News Today (b07hsqc2)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Wimbledon (b07l37jd)
2016
Day 4, Part 3 - Bouchard v Konta
Continued live coverage of day four of Wimbledon 2016, featuring the conclusion of the match between Eugenie Bouchard and Johanna Konta.
THU 20:30 Top of the Pops (b07h0j5m)
David Jensen presents the pop chart show, first broadcast on 21st January 1982. Includes appearances from Gillan, the Mobiles, XTC, Jon & Vangelis, Phil Lynott, Meat Loaf, OMD, Christopher Cross, Foreigner, Bucks Fizz and Zoo.
THU 21:00 Genius of the Modern World (b07ht3cd)
Freud
Bettany Hughes travels to Vienna on the trail of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Freud's influence surrounds us. In our vocabulary - repression, penis envy, the Freudian slip - and in the freedom we take for granted, to talk openly about our deepest feelings and insecurities.
A pioneer in the study of the human mind, Freud's psychoanalytic methods addressed emotional issues, seldom even discussed in the 19th century. Talking to his patients inspired his radical understanding of the unconscious mind, as a repository of hidden repressed emotions and irrational primal desires.
THU 22:00 Horizon (b03wyr3c)
2013-2014
How You Really Make Decisions
Horizon uncovers the truth about how you really make decisions.
Every day you make thousands of decisions, big and small, and behind all them is a powerful battle in your mind, pitting intuition against logic.
This conflict affects every aspect of your life - from what you eat to what you believe, and especially to how you spend your money.
And it turns out that the intuitive part of your mind is a lot more powerful than you may realise.
THU 23:00 Nigel Slater: Life Is Sweets (p00y4hd1)
Chocolate limes, buttered brazils, sherbert dib-dabs and marshmallows. Food writer Nigel Slater charts the origins of British sweets and chocolates from medicinal, medieval boiled sweets to the chocolate bars that line the supermarket shelves today.
With adverts of the sweets everyone remembers and loves, this nostalgic, emotional and heartwarming journey transports Nigel back to his childhood by the powerful resonance of the sweets he used to buy with his pocket money. Nigel recalls the curiously small toffee that inspired him to write his memoir, the marshmallow, which he associates with his mother, and the travel sweet, which conjures up memories of his father. He marvels at the power of something as incidental as a sweet to reveal emotions, character and the past.
THU 00:00 The Last Days of Anne Boleyn (p015vhp1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
THU 01:00 Top of the Pops (b07h0j5m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
THU 01:40 10 Things You Didn't Know About... (b008s99l)
Earthquakes
Iain Stewart looks at some of the world's most dramatic earthquakes and reveals the stories and science behind them. In seconds, these powerful forces of nature which cannot be predicted or prevented can shake a town to destruction and shift the landscape forever. We discover why quakes can last 60 times longer on the moon than on Earth, how one particular earthquake fault line can produce hallucinations, and how 1960s Cold War spying gave scientists a crucial clue to understanding them.
THU 02:40 Genius of the Modern World (b07ht3cd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 01 JULY 2016
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b07hsqc7)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b07jbqvh)
Simon Bates presents the pop chart show, first broadcast on 28 January 1982. Includes appearances from Tight Fit, Stiff Little Fingers, Elkie Brooks, Alton Edwards, Haircut 100, Olivia Newton John, The Stranglers and Shakin' Stevens.
FRI 20:00 The Good Old Days (b07j7j40)
Leonard Sachs presents the old-time music hall programme, filmed from the stage of the City Varieties Theatre, Leeds in 1975. Guests include Georgia Brown, Barry Cryer, Katinka Seiner, John Inman, Barry Howard, Marie Ange Brillet and the 3 Hurricanes.
FRI 20:45 Sounds of the Seventies (b00c45nf)
Solos
Roxy Music
Vintage rock, pop and soul performances from the BBC archives. Roxy Music perform Ladytron in 1972.
FRI 20:50 Pop Go the Sixties (b00cyz6x)
Series 2
Julie Felix
Pop moments from the BBC's sixties archive. A 1966 performance from the singing star of The Frost Report. Going to the Zoo calls for audience participation and the audience wind themselves up into a near-monochrome frenzy as they sway slightly in their seats and softly join in.
FRI 20:55 Pop Go the Sixties (b00d24n3)
Series 2
Status Quo
Pop moments from the BBC's sixties archive. A youthful Status Quo, complete with ruffled shirts and sideburns, sing their first hit single, Pictures of Matchstick Men, on a 1968 episode of Top of the Pops.
FRI 21:00 Punk Britannia (p00s81jz)
Pre-Punk 1972-1976
Narrated by Peter Capaldi, this opener of a three-part documentary series in BBC FOUR's celebrated 'Britannia' strand is scheduled to chime with the 35th anniversary of the Queen's Silver Jubilee and the arrival of punk as national and then international music culture. The film explores the road to punk in Britain, which begins in the early 70s with a young generation already conscious that they have 'missed the 60s party' and are stuck in a Britain heading for economic woes and dwindling opportunities. Meanwhile the music of the day - prog and super rock - seems to ask not for their interest and involvement, but only their awe and their money.
But before the punk generation finally arises to have its say during 1976 come a group of pub rockers, a generation of bands sandwiched between 60s hippies and mid-70s punks who will help pave the way towards the short, sharp shock of punk, only to be elbowed aside by the emergence of the Sex Pistols, the Clash et al.
An unlikely cast of characters set the scene for punk in early 70s Britain. Reacting against overblown super rock of the day and the glam their younger sisters like on Top of the Pops, pub rock set the template for punk. Small venues, fast retro rock 'n' roll and bags of attitude typified bands like Dr Feelgood, Ducks Deluxe, Kilburn and the High Roads and Eddie and the Hotrods. These bands engendered a small London scene which is sometimes forgotten and helped define the Pistols, the Clash and the Damned, both positively and negatively.
Featuring copious unseen archive footage and interviews with John Lydon, Paul Weller, Mick Jones, Wilko Johnson, Nick Lowe, Adam Ant, Brian James and many more.
FRI 22:00 Punk Britannia (b01jmwjd)
Punk 1976-1978
Daydreaming England was about to be rudely awoken as punk emerged from the London underground scene. A nation dropped its dinner in its lap when the Sex Pistols swore on primetime television. Punk had finally found its enemy- the establishment. In Manchester, the Buzzcocks' self-released Spiral Scratch was a clarion call for a do-it-yourself generation, while the Clash's White Riot tour took punk's message across Britain. Moral outrage followed the Pistols around the country, effectively outlawing punk - but there was one refuge for the music. Nestled in the wasteland of 70s Covent Garden, the Roxy was punk's cathedral. Punk interlopers the Jam raised the bar for lyricism, challenging punk's London elite.
Punk also began to extend its three-chord vocabulary through an alliance with reggae, memorably captured by the Clash on White Man in Hammersmith Palais. With their second single, God Save the Queen, the Pistols scored a direct hit at the establishment in summer '77, but a disastrous PR stunt on a Thames barge would mark a turning point. The darker underbelly of the summer of '77 would see race riots in Lewisham. This street turbulence was the backdrop for a rawer, working class sound. If the Pistols and the Clash had been the theory, a second wave led by Sham 69 was the reality.
By '78 punk was becoming a costume - the very pop orthodoxy it had originally sought to destroy. For many punk ended when the Pistols split, beset by internal problems, following an abortive tour of the USA in January '78. Those practitioners who would go on to enjoy sustained success sought to modify their sound to survive, such as Siouxsie Sioux. Punk had shown what it was against, now it was time to show what it was for in the post-punk era.
With John Lydon, Mick Jones, Siouxsie Sioux and Paul Weller.
FRI 23:00 Punk Britannia (b01jv7f2)
Post-Punk 1978-1981
Punk had shown what it was against - now what was it for? In the wake of the Pistols' demise a new generation of musicians would re-imagine the world they lived in through the music they made. Freed up by punk's DIY ethos, a kaleidoscope of musical influences broke three chord conformity.
Public Image Limited allowed Johnny Rotten to become John Lydon the artist. In Manchester, Magazine would be first to record in the wake of the Pistols' split, Mark E Smith made street poetry while Ian Curtis turned punk's external rage into an existential drama. A raft of left-wing art school intellectuals like Gang of Four and Wire imbued post-punk with a sense of radical politics and conceptualism while the Pop Group infused funk with anti-capitalist sentiment in the early days of Thatcher. Flirting with fascism and violence, the working class Oi! movement tried to drag punk from the Kings Road into the heart of the East End whilst Anarcho punks Crass embarked on the most radical vision of any.
In a time beset by dread and tension perhaps the biggest paranoia was Mutually Assured Destruction essayed perfectly by Young Marble Giants' Final Day. Released in the height of Thatcherism, Ghost Town by The Specials marked a parting of the post-punk waves. Some would remain avowedly uncommercial whilst others would explore pop as a new avenue in the new decade. The song that perhaps summed up post-punk's journey was Orange Juice's Rip It Up and Start Again.
With John Lydon, Howard Devoto, Mark E Smith, Peter Hook, Jerry Dammers, The Raincoats, Wire, Jah Wobble, Mark Stewart, Edwyn Collins, Young Marble Giants and many more.
FRI 00:00 Top of the Pops (b07jbqvh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 00:30 Punk Britannia (p00s81jz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 01:30 Punk Britannia (b01jmwjd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 02:30 Punk Britannia (b01jv7f2)
[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)
10 Things You Didn't Know About...
01:40 THU (b008s99l)
A Timewatch Guide
21:00 MON (b051h0gy)
A Timewatch Guide
01:00 MON (b051h0gy)
Boxing at the Movies: Kings of the Ring
00:00 TUE (b01r5mhb)
Canals: The Making of a Nation
20:00 MON (b06822p8)
Edwardian Insects on Film
00:00 MON (b01rd376)
Egypt's Lost Cities
21:00 SAT (b011pwms)
Genius of the Modern World
23:00 TUE (b07h0hg9)
Genius of the Modern World
21:00 THU (b07ht3cd)
Genius of the Modern World
02:40 THU (b07ht3cd)
Glastonbury
19:00 SAT (b07kd954)
Glastonbury
20:00 SAT (b07kd956)
Glastonbury
22:30 SAT (b07j7jfl)
Glastonbury
20:00 SUN (b07j7jm3)
Glastonbury
21:00 SUN (b07j7jm5)
Glastonbury
22:00 SUN (b07j7jm7)
Handmade: By Royal Appointment
20:30 MON (b07ht061)
Horizon
22:00 THU (b03wyr3c)
Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility
21:00 TUE (b07hx40t)
Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility
03:00 TUE (b07hx40t)
Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility
22:00 WED (b07hx40t)
Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies
21:00 WED (b01m81f5)
Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies
03:00 WED (b01m81f5)
Natural World
00:00 WED (b01qsfk7)
Nigel Slater: Life Is Sweets
23:00 THU (p00y4hd1)
Orangutan Diary
19:30 MON (b007clxj)
Pop Go the Sixties
20:50 FRI (b00cyz6x)
Pop Go the Sixties
20:55 FRI (b00d24n3)
Punk Britannia
21:00 FRI (p00s81jz)
Punk Britannia
22:00 FRI (b01jmwjd)
Punk Britannia
23:00 FRI (b01jv7f2)
Punk Britannia
00:30 FRI (p00s81jz)
Punk Britannia
01:30 FRI (b01jmwjd)
Punk Britannia
02:30 FRI (b01jv7f2)
Rise of the Continents
02:00 SUN (b0368kb2)
Rise of the Continents
23:00 MON (b036ks6f)
Seven Ages of Britain
22:00 TUE (b00rfqpk)
Seven Ages of Britain
02:00 WED (b00rfqpk)
Sex and Sensibility: The Allure of Art Nouveau
02:00 MON (b01dprb6)
Sounds of the Seventies
20:45 FRI (b00c45nf)
Synth Britannia at the BBC
00:45 SAT (b00n93c6)
Tankies: Tank Heroes of World War II
20:00 TUE (b01pvbds)
Tankies: Tank Heroes of World War II
01:00 TUE (b01pvbds)
Tankies: Tank Heroes of World War II
20:00 WED (b01pzv78)
Tankies: Tank Heroes of World War II
01:00 WED (b01pzv78)
The Good Old Days
20:00 FRI (b07j7j40)
The Last Days of Anne Boleyn
19:00 SUN (p015vhp1)
The Last Days of Anne Boleyn
00:00 THU (p015vhp1)
The Secrets of Quantum Physics
23:00 WED (b04tr9x9)
The Treasure Hunters
03:00 SUN (b040zb5q)
The Wonder of Animals
19:30 TUE (b04dq5tb)
The Wonder of Animals
19:30 WED (b04dzrtp)
Timeshift
03:00 MON (b044yw1d)
Timeshift
02:00 TUE (b01n8hl9)
Top of the Pops
01:45 SAT (b07h0hg5)
Top of the Pops
23:30 SUN (b00zwrn5)
Top of the Pops
20:30 THU (b07h0j5m)
Top of the Pops
01:00 THU (b07h0j5m)
Top of the Pops
19:30 FRI (b07jbqvh)
Top of the Pops
00:00 FRI (b07jbqvh)
When Albums Ruled the World
02:15 SAT (b01qhn70)
Wimbledon
19:30 THU (b07l37jd)
Wonders of the Universe
01:00 SUN (b00zv39p)
Wonders of the Universe
22:00 MON (b0101h6w)
World News Today
19:00 MON (b07hsqbd)
World News Today
19:00 TUE (b07hsqbr)
World News Today
19:00 WED (b07hsqbx)
World News Today
19:00 THU (b07hsqc2)
World News Today
19:00 FRI (b07hsqc7)