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.

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



SATURDAY 13 AUGUST 2016

SAT 13:00 Olympics (b07p67sw)
2016

Day 8 BBC Four: 13.00-16.00

Ore Oduba and Jill Douglas introduce live athletics and track cycling. World champion Allyson Felix and 2008 Olympic gold medallist Christine Ohuruogu are involved in the opening round of the women's 400m and the medals will be decided in the men's discus.

At the velodrome, British 2013 world champion Becky James begins her bid to take the women's keirin crown left vacant by the retirement of Victoria Pendleton, while Jason Kenny hopes to continue the defence of his sprint title.


SAT 16:00 Olympics (b07p67t4)
2016

Day 8 BBC Four: 16.00-19.00

Continued coverage from Rio on the eighth day of the Olympic Games. Great Britain's Andy Murray takes on Japan's Kei Nishikori in the semi-finals of the men's singles tennis, while hosts Brazil face Spain in the men's beach volleyball.


SAT 19:00 Olympics (b07p67tc)
2016

Day 8 BBC Four: 19.00-22.00

More live Olympics action from across Rio, presented by Dan Walker. The men's singles tennis semi-finals take place in the Olympic Park, as Rafael Nadal takes on Juan Martin Del Potro.


SAT 22:00 Olympics (b07p67tm)
2016

Day 8 BBC Four: 22.00-02.00

The live sport continues from the Olympic Games in Rio, including Great Britain in the women's hockey and the latest medals decided in weightlifting.


SAT 02:00 Britain on Film (b01qnnqp)
Series 1

Country Living

The series looking at the culture, economics and society of 1960s Britain turns its attention to one of our great national treasures - the countryside. Drawing on the archive of high-quality colour films produced by the country's biggest cinema company, the Rank Organisation, this film shows how new technologies and production methods were changing the face of agriculture and records how country life was adapting to the new economic and moral realities of a fast-changing nation.


SAT 02:30 Sounds of the Sixties (b0074qcb)
Original Series

The Singer and the Song

Rock, pop and R'n'B performances from the BBC archives, with Sandie Shaw, Dusty Springfield, Long John Baldry, Lulu, Tom Jones, Brenton Wood, Cliff Richard, Cilla Black and Peter Sarstedt.


SAT 03:00 The Joy of Disco (b01cqt72)
Documentary about how a much-derided music actually changed the world. Between 1969 and 1979 disco soundtracked gay liberation, foregrounded female desire in the age of feminism and led to the birth of modern club culture as we know it today, before taking the world by storm. With contributions from Nile Rodgers, Robin Gibb, Kathy Sledge and Ian Schrager.



SUNDAY 14 AUGUST 2016

SUN 13:00 Olympics (b07pdhsl)
2016

Day 9 BBC Four: 13.00-16.00

Ore Oduba introduces coverage of badminton, volleyball and a live men's hockey quarter-final.


SUN 16:00 Olympics (b07pdhsn)
2016

Day 9 BBC Four: 16.00-19.00

Live coverage from the Olympic Golf Course, which stages the men's golf. The first Olympic golf champion for 112 years is decided today, and with more than half of the world's top ten opting not to compete, there were high hopes of success for Open champion Henrik Stenson and Brit Justin Rose.


SUN 19:00 Olympics (b07pdhsq)
2016

Day 9 BBC Four: 19.00-22.00

The action gets underway in the men's singles tennis final as Andy Murray of Great Britain takes on Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina. Medals are also decided in the women's gymnastics, while it's the quarter-final stage in the men's hockey and women's beach volleyball.


SUN 22:00 Olympics (b07pdmwz)
2016

Day 9 BBC Four: 22.00-02.00

Continued coverage from Rio, including quarter-final action from the men's hockey and the opening action from the evening session of athletics.


SUN 02:10 Wild (b0078z3l)
2005-06 Shorts

New Forest Adders

The New Forest is one of the few places in Britain where you can find all six of the UK's reptile species living together - but the leader of the pack has to be the infamous adder.

This film offers a rare insight into the life of the adder, following them and the other reptiles through a typical season. The male adders emerge early in the year in this stunning setting. They soon shed their dull winter coat, reveal their bright spring colours, and then they are ready to find a mate through one of the most amazing and rarely seen wildlife spectacles...the adders' dance.


SUN 02:20 Wild (b0078zg5)
2005-06 Shorts

Water Voles

Documentary presenting an intimate portrait of one of Britain's most charming wild animals, following a family of water voles living on a canal in Derbyshire though a typical year.

The picturesque Cromford canal used to serve the regions cotton mills. Now, having been deserted, it serves as a perfect water vole paradise. For these hyperactive little mammals, a year is nearly a lifetime. They spend their lives in a frenzy of activity, swimming, feeding and breeding - the latter most neccessary, since water voles are becoming a rarity these days.


SUN 02:30 Sounds of the Sixties (b0074qcm)
Original Series

Hip to the Trip

Ten-part series featuring rock, pop and R&B performances from the BBC archives.

This edition features psychedelia and counter-culture, with performances by The Who, Pink Floyd, Joe Cocker and the Greaseband, The Nice and The Jimi Hendrix Experience.


SUN 03:00 The Pendle Witch Child (b013fj47)
Simon Armitage presents the extraordinary story of the most disturbing witch trial in British history and the key role played in it by one nine-year-old girl. Jennet Device, a beggar-girl from Pendle in Lancashire, was the star witness in the trial in 1612 of her own mother, her brother, her sister and many of her neighbours and, thanks to her chilling testimony, they were all hanged.

Armitage explores the lethal power and influence of one child's words - a story of fear, magic and demonic pacts retold partly with vivid and innovative hand-drawn animation. He discovers how Jennet's appearance in the witness box cast its shadow way beyond Lancashire, impressing lawyers, politicians, clerics and even King James I himself, and setting a dark precedent for child testimony in witch trials as far away as America. Finally, in a dramatic twist to the tale, he reveals how, 22 years after the original trial, Jennet's own words were very nearly the death of her - when she herself was put on trial, accused of being a witch by a 10-year-old boy.

With the help of historians Malcolm Gaskill, Diane Purkiss and Ronald Hutton, Armitage attempts to get inside Jennet's head and understand how the illegitimate and illiterate youngest child of a family of beggars could become both pawn and player in a much bigger story of 17th-century religion, power, law, science and the monarchy.

What made Jennet speak out so everyone she knew would die? And how did the courts decide to admit her evidence and allow her example to create a precedent for accepting the testimony of other child witnesses who wanted to send their neighbours to the gallows?

Although the events in this film may date back 400 years, its issues resonate today as much as ever - when to believe our children, how the police and the court system should handle child witnesses and above all how, in times of crisis, fear of evil can easily lead us to behave in ways which may corrode the very values that we most wish to protect.



MONDAY 15 AUGUST 2016

MON 13:00 Olympics (b07pdlcr)
2016

Day 10 BBC Four: 13.00-16.00

Ore Aduba presents the latest action in canoe sprint, track cycling and the badminton and women's hockey quarter-finals.


MON 16:00 Olympics (b07pdlnt)
2016

Day 10 BBC Four: 16.00-19.00

British fighter Muhammad Ali is among those in action in the boxing ring. There is also action from one of the women's hockey quarter-finals.


MON 19:00 Olympics (b07pdlnw)
2016

Day 10 BBC Four: 19.00-22.00

Dan Walker presents the latest Olympic action from across Rio, including quarter-finals in men's beach volleyball and the badminton mixed doubles semi-finals.


MON 22:00 Olympics (b07pdmvc)
2016

Day 10 BBC Four: 22.00-02.00

The women's hockey quarter-finals continue in Rio, while weightlifting's strongmen compete for the under-105kg gold medal.


MON 02:00 Britain on Film (b021270b)
Series 2

Times of Change

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. During the 1960s - a decade that witnessed profound shifts across Britain's political, economic and cultural landscapes - many felt anxiety about the dizzying pace of change.

Look at Life reflected the increasing social and moral unease in films that tackled subjects ranging from contraception to immigration, from increasing stress at work to the preservation of the Sabbath, and from the environmental implications of waste management to the threat of nuclear weapons. Through these films, we can glimpse many of the seismic societal transformations of the Sixties developments that polarised the nation and changed life in Britain forever.


MON 02:30 Sounds of the Sixties (b0074qd8)
Original Series

In Living Colour

More from the BBC archive music programme. 1968 brought colour transmission to the BBC and artists such as The Kinks, The Moody Blues and The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band appear in all their polychrome glory.


MON 03:00 The Riviera: A History in Pictures (b01pwtvf)
The Golden Era

Richard E Grant explores how modern art and the Riviera grew up together when France's Cote D'Azur became the hedonistic playground and experimental studio for the great masters of 20th-century painting. With Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso resident on the coast, other artists from Jean Cocteau to Henri Lartigue, Raoul Dufy to Fernand Leger and Francis Picabia to Sergei Diaghilev were drawn to the area.

As transatlantic liners brought America's super-rich to the region, art and celebrity became integrally intertwined as cultural gurus and multimillionaires all partied on the beach. In an era of sunshine and bathing, of cinema and fast cars, of the Ballet Russes and Monte Carlo casinos, Grant discovers the extraordinary output of what became briefly the world's creative hub.



TUESDAY 16 AUGUST 2016

TUE 13:00 Olympics (b07pdnfg)
2016

Day 11 BBC Four: 13.00-16.00

Ore Oduba introduces Japan v South Korea in the semi-finals of the women's doubles badminton, followed by the track cycling women's sprint quarter-finals, the time trial in the women's omnium - featuring defending champion Laura Trott - and the first round of the men's keirin.


TUE 16:00 Olympics (b07pds2b)
2016

Day 11 BBC Four: 16.00-19.00

Live boxing, water polo, badminton and women's football, introduced by Ore Oduba.


TUE 19:00 Olympics (b07pds2d)
2016

Day 11 BBC Four: 19.00-22.00

Dan Walker introduces more semi-final action from the women's football, and the sailing medal race in the Nacra 17, a new Olympic class in which French pair Billy Besson and Marie Riou have won all four world championships to be staged.


TUE 22:00 Olympics (b07pds2g)
2016

Day 11 BBC Four: 22.00-02.05

Live diving from the men's individual 3m springboard final, followed by boxing, weightlifting and badminton.


TUE 02:05 Wild (b0078zqn)
2005-06 Shorts

Storm Geese

More than 50,000 geese fly out of stormy Atlantic skies to spend winter on the beautiful Scottish island of Islay, making for one of Britain's most impressive and least known winter wildlife spectacles - thousands of handsome barnacle geese and angel-like families of swans set against magnificent mountain and wild ocean backdrops.

Some say the haunting calls of the geese flying at night led to ancient Celtic legends of the hounds of hell yelping as they ran through the skies during very wild storms. The real story is just as remarkable - most of these birds have flown more than 2,000 miles all the way from Greenland.

Why should so many birds gather on one small island for winter? And what impact do they have when they all arrive?


TUE 02:15 Wild (b0078zwm)
2005-06 Shorts

Eider Duck Island

Each year the eider ducklings of Inner Farne undertake a great trek across the island. On their way they pass puffins being mugged by black-headed gulls and terns brooding their fluffy chicks. The eider families gather together in crèches for safety as the predatory gulls wheel overhead. But will they reach their ultimate and rather unlikely destination? Narrated by Simon King.


TUE 02:30 Sounds of the Sixties (b0074qd9)
Original Series

1968-69: The Progressive Tendency

The BBC's music archive programme reaches the end of the sixties and features Pink Floyd, Donovan, Fleetwood Mac and Joni Mitchell.


TUE 03:00 The Secret Life of Waves (b00y5jhx)
Documentary maker David Malone delves into the secrets of ocean waves. In an elegant and original film, he finds that waves are not made of water, that some waves travel sideways, and that the sound of the ocean comes not from water but from bubbles. Waves are not only beautiful but also profoundly important, and there is a surprising connection between the life cycle of waves and the life of human beings.



WEDNESDAY 17 AUGUST 2016

WED 13:00 Olympics (b07pf3bv)
2016

Day 12 BBC Four: 13.00-16.00

Ore Oduba brings the latest Olympic action from across Rio de Janiero, including the gold-medal match in the badminton mixed doubles, an event in which husband-and-wife pairing Chris and Gabby Adcock were Britain's best hope of a medal in the sport.

London Olympic bronze medallists Liam Heath and Jon Schofield make their bid to reach the 200m final in the canoe sprint kayak double, plus there's the best action from women's golf, handball and volleyball.


WED 16:00 Olympics (b07pf3bx)
2016

Day 12 BBC Four: 16.00-19.00

Netherlands take on Germany in the first semi-final of the women's hockey. There's also live action from the men's football semi-finals.


WED 19:00 Olympics (b07pf3bz)
2016

Day 12 BBC Four: 19.00-22.00

Dan Walker introduces the latest action from the Olympics, including women's golf, BMX, basketball and football.


WED 22:00 Olympics (b07pf3c1)
2016

Day 12 BBC Four: 22.00-02.00

It's the men's team final in table tennis, an event traditionally dominated by China. Plus action from the latter stages of the handball and water polo competitions.


WED 02:00 Britain on Film (b02w63mx)
Series 2

Island Nation

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. During the 1960s - a decade that witnessed profound shifts across Britain's political, economic and cultural landscapes - many felt anxiety about the dizzying pace of change.

Look at Life reflected the increasing social and moral unease in films that tackled subjects ranging from contraception to immigration; from increasing stress at work to the preservation of the Sabbath; and from the environmental implications of waste management to the threat of nuclear weapons. Through these films, we can glimpse many of the seismic societal transformations of the Sixties developments that polarised the nation and changed life in Britain forever.

This episode focuses on the films that examine the implications of Britain's identity as an island nation, a geographical reality that has influenced not just our coastal landscape but our national psyche too. Featuring footage from well-known offshore isles like Wight and Man to the more isolated, culturally-distinctive and splendidly-idiosyncratic places like Harris and Cromer, which was inhabited year-round by just a single family of four.


WED 02:30 Sounds of the 70s 2 (b01gymg9)
Reggae - Stir it Up

By the start of the 70s, the Windrush generation of immigrants who came to the UK from the Caribbean and West Indies were an established part of the British population and their influence and culture permeated UK society.

This second programme rejoices and revels in the reggae music exported from Jamaica and the home-grown reggae-influenced sounds that sprouted from the cities of England. Reggae's dominance of the UK charts is celebrated with performances from Ken Boothe, Dave and Ansel Collins, Steel Pulse, Althea and Donna, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Janet Kay, Susan Cadogan and The Specials.


WED 03:00 Carved with Love: The Genius of British Woodwork (b01pyfd2)
The Glorious Grinling Gibbons

Series about great British woodworkers continues by looking at the life and work of Grinling Gibbons. He isn't a household name, but he is the greatest woodcarver the British Isles has ever produced. Working in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London, Gibbons created delightful carved masterpieces for the likes of Charles II and William of Orange. This film explores the genius of the man they called the 'Michelangelo of wood'.



THURSDAY 18 AUGUST 2016

THU 13:00 Olympics (b07pj1jt)
2016

Day 13 BBC Four: 13.00-16.00

Golf and badminton dominate the schedule. There's British interest in the women's golf, while gold medals are decided in the men's and women's badminton doubles.


THU 16:00 Olympics (b07pj1jw)
2016

Day 13 BBC Four: 16.00-19.00

Continued live action from the Olympic Games, with coverage of the men's 400m hurdles final, decathlon pole vault, men's BMX cycling quarter-finals and the women's 49er sailing medal race.


THU 19:00 Olympics (b07pj1jy)
2016

Day 13 BBC Four: 19.00-22.00

Coverage of the opening stages of the men's hockey final, plus boxing, golf and taekwondo.


THU 22:00 Olympics (b07pj1k0)
2016

Day 13 BBC Four: 22.00-02.00

Dan Walker introduces live semi-final coverage of the women's basketball, an event traditionally dominated by the USA.


THU 02:05 Wild (b0078yps)
2005-06 Shorts

West Coast Otters

A charming portrait of two otters, a mother and daughter who are inseparable, living on the idyllic west coast of Scotland. With the young cub never more than a few feet from her mum, a very special relationship is intimately observed as the cub grows up, learning how to fish and fend for herself. As the cub faces the dangers of her first Scottish winter, Mum has to work hard to make sure that both survive.


THU 02:15 Wild (b0078z3l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 02:10 on Sunday]


THU 02:25 Pop Go the Sixties (b00crtxz)
Series 2

Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and The Trinity

Pop moments from the BBC's sixties archive. Recorded in 1968 for Top of the Pops, Julie Driscoll sings to the smoking hot accompaniment of keyboard wizard Brian Auger's Trinity on their hit version of Bob Dylan's This Wheel's On Fire.


THU 02:30 Sounds of the 70s 2 (b01h7pzm)
Troubadours – Peaceful Easy Feeling

In the early 70s as the UK got to grips with the new coinage and decimalisation and braced itself for strike after strike, a group of young troubadours were hanging out in Laurel Canyon and the environs of California USA having a ball and creating music that would define a generation. It's time to kick back and relax and enjoy performances from Crosby and Nash, Neil Young, America, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Carole King, The Eagles, and Seals and Crofts.


THU 03:00 Burma, My Father and the Forgotten Army (b036x83s)
Apart from a few fragmentary stories, Griff Rhys Jones's father never talked about his war. Yet as a medical officer to a West African division he travelled 15,000 miles from Wales to Ghana and the jungles of Burma. He and his men were part of an army of a million raised in Africa and Asia to fight the Japanese. To understand their story Griff travels first to Ghana and then, accompanied by 90-year-old veteran Joshua, he goes to jungles of Burma. It is known as the forgotten war, but Griff discovers how it transformed these West Africans from children of the British Empire into masters of their own destiny.



FRIDAY 19 AUGUST 2016

FRI 13:00 Olympics (b07pj3r6)
2016

Day 14 BBC Four: 13.00-16.00

Badminton titles are decided in the women's singles and men's doubles, and there's coverage of the men's singles semi-finals and the latest from the third round of the women's golf.


FRI 16:00 Olympics (b07pj3r8)
2016

Day 14 BBC Four: 16.00-19.00

The latest action from the women's golf, taekwondo, badminton and BMX cycling.


FRI 19:00 Olympics (b07pj3rb)
2016

Day 14 BBC Four: 19.00-22.00

Dan Walker is at the Olympic Park in Rio to introduce the women's football final and men's basketball semi-finals.


FRI 22:00 Olympics (b07pj3rd)
2016

Day 14 BBC Four: 22.00-02.00

Continued coverage of the women's football final from the iconic Maracana Stadium in Rio, followed by semi-final action in men's basketball.


FRI 02:00 Britain on Film (b033664h)
Series 2

Road, Rail and Runways

Throughout the 1960s, the Rank Organisation produced hundreds of short colour films on almost every aspect of British life. In a series reworking the best of this material to offer fascinating and often surprising insights into a transformative period of recent British history, this episode concentrates on the unprecedented upheavals in Britain's transport systems during a period when the popularity of air travel soared, rail networks were comprehensively dismantled and towns and cities were being reshaped to accommodate the unstoppable rise of the motor car.


FRI 02:30 Sounds of the 70s 2 (b01j8h0b)
Rock - The Boys Are Back in Town

Sounds of the 70s 2 series continues, and this programme features the boys with their guitars turned all the way up to eleven! It is time to don your double denim, let your hair down and headbang your way through half an hour of rock anthems including performances from Alice Cooper, The Faces, Nazareth, Bad Company, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake and Black Sabbath.


FRI 03:00 Singer-Songwriters at the BBC (b015swyr)
Series 2

Episode 3

The celebration of the singing-songwriting troubadours of the 1960s and 70s continues with a further trawl through the BBC archives for timeless and classic performances.

Starting proceedings is Scots-born Sunshine Superman, Donovan, with a rare performance from Julie Felix's show in 1968. Buffy Sainte-Marie performs Cripple Creek, and buddies Carole King and James Taylor perform classic Carole King songs.

Songwriting genius Jimmy Webb performs a gem in Didn't We, while a beautiful and sensuous Rod Stewart gives an intense performance of his song about his friend in The Killing of Georgie, from a Boxing Day edition of Top of the Pops in 1976. And from 1977 the inimitable and much-loved John Martyn, with help from Danny Thompson, rounds things off with a classic performance of Couldn't Love You More.




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

Britain on Film 02:00 SAT (b01qnnqp)

Britain on Film 02:00 MON (b021270b)

Britain on Film 02:00 WED (b02w63mx)

Britain on Film 02:00 FRI (b033664h)

Burma, My Father and the Forgotten Army 03:00 THU (b036x83s)

Carved with Love: The Genius of British Woodwork 03:00 WED (b01pyfd2)

Olympics 13:00 SAT (b07p67sw)

Olympics 16:00 SAT (b07p67t4)

Olympics 19:00 SAT (b07p67tc)

Olympics 22:00 SAT (b07p67tm)

Olympics 13:00 SUN (b07pdhsl)

Olympics 16:00 SUN (b07pdhsn)

Olympics 19:00 SUN (b07pdhsq)

Olympics 22:00 SUN (b07pdmwz)

Olympics 13:00 MON (b07pdlcr)

Olympics 16:00 MON (b07pdlnt)

Olympics 19:00 MON (b07pdlnw)

Olympics 22:00 MON (b07pdmvc)

Olympics 13:00 TUE (b07pdnfg)

Olympics 16:00 TUE (b07pds2b)

Olympics 19:00 TUE (b07pds2d)

Olympics 22:00 TUE (b07pds2g)

Olympics 13:00 WED (b07pf3bv)

Olympics 16:00 WED (b07pf3bx)

Olympics 19:00 WED (b07pf3bz)

Olympics 22:00 WED (b07pf3c1)

Olympics 13:00 THU (b07pj1jt)

Olympics 16:00 THU (b07pj1jw)

Olympics 19:00 THU (b07pj1jy)

Olympics 22:00 THU (b07pj1k0)

Olympics 13:00 FRI (b07pj3r6)

Olympics 16:00 FRI (b07pj3r8)

Olympics 19:00 FRI (b07pj3rb)

Olympics 22:00 FRI (b07pj3rd)

Pop Go the Sixties 02:25 THU (b00crtxz)

Singer-Songwriters at the BBC 03:00 FRI (b015swyr)

Sounds of the 70s 2 02:30 WED (b01gymg9)

Sounds of the 70s 2 02:30 THU (b01h7pzm)

Sounds of the 70s 2 02:30 FRI (b01j8h0b)

Sounds of the Sixties 02:30 SAT (b0074qcb)

Sounds of the Sixties 02:30 SUN (b0074qcm)

Sounds of the Sixties 02:30 MON (b0074qd8)

Sounds of the Sixties 02:30 TUE (b0074qd9)

The Joy of Disco 03:00 SAT (b01cqt72)

The Pendle Witch Child 03:00 SUN (b013fj47)

The Riviera: A History in Pictures 03:00 MON (b01pwtvf)

The Secret Life of Waves 03:00 TUE (b00y5jhx)

Wild 02:10 SUN (b0078z3l)

Wild 02:20 SUN (b0078zg5)

Wild 02:05 TUE (b0078zqn)

Wild 02:15 TUE (b0078zwm)

Wild 02:05 THU (b0078yps)

Wild 02:15 THU (b0078z3l)