The BBC has announced that it has a sustainable plan for the future of the BBC Singers, in association with The VOCES8 Foundation.
The threat to reduce the staff of the three English orchestras by 20% has not been lifted, but it is being reconsidered.
See the BBC press release here.

Radio-Lists Home Now on BBC 4 Contact

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



SATURDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2016

SAT 19:00 India's Frontier Railways (b0555xgw)
The Maitree Express

Filmed during the holy month of Ramadan, this is a journey from India into Bangladesh on a train that reunites the region of Bengal. Partitioned in 1947, Bengal was divided in half, creating East Pakistan - a satellite state ruled by Pakistan. It was an unwelcome occupation. In 1971, they fought a war of independence and East Pakistan became the People's Republic of Bangladesh. 37 years later, the first train ran between India and Bangladesh - the Maitree Express. Maitree means friendship.

It takes 12 hours to make the 392km journey from Kolkata to Dhaka, and staffing on the train is almost the same on both sides of the border. They speak the same language, share a history and all love fish.

Amirul, once a freedom fighter in the war of independence, now plays announcements and religious tapes on the Maitree. Aalo supports his family by selling chocolates on the train, but has a problem with the 30-degree heat. Sixteen-year-old Abdullah ran away from home and a madrasa. Now he sells papers on Dhaka's trains and platforms, hoping for a brighter future. Gautam Bannerjee is a guard on the Maitree and a respected astrologer. Can his calculations foretell the future? Urmi Rahman, a writer, was born in Bangladesh, married an Indian and lives in Kolkata, but she is very clear about her identity. Krishendu Basu is happy with his life. Not only a guard, he is also a tabla player, photographer and self-confessed foodie. But music is his passion.

These stories of people who work, travel or depend on the Maitree Express take us on a journey through history, sharing their hopes, needs and desires - on India's frontier railways.


SAT 20:00 The Incredible Human Journey (b00l7pmr)
The Americas

For Stone Age people, reaching North and South America seems impossible - on each side vast oceans, and to the north an impenetrable ice sheet that covered the whole of Canada. So how did the first Americans get there?

Dr Alice Roberts discovers evidence for an ancient corridor through the Canadian ice sheet that may have allowed those first people through. But there are problems - in particular some very ancient finds in southern Chile seem to suggest a very different way in to the Americas. Amazingly, an ancient human skull discovered in Brazil even points to an Australasian origin of the Americans. Could a route from Australia across the Pacific have been possible? A surprising answer to the problem eventually comes from a Canadian forensic scientist more used to solving murder cases.


SAT 21:00 Deep Water (b083bjm7)
Episode 1

When the mutilated corpse of a young man is found in a beachfront apartment in Bondi, Tori Lustigman and Nick Manning are assigned the case. Is this brutal murder a domestic, a robbery gone wrong, or something more sinister?


SAT 21:55 Deep Water (b083dblw)
Episode 2

As Nick prepares to face the Critical Incident Investigation Team, another body is discovered with the same hallmarks, confirming that the dating app THRUSTR is being used to lure victims. With evidence that former football legend Christopher Toohey has links to the past crimes, Nick and Tori go to extraordinary lengths to persuade him to talk... with tragic consequences.


SAT 22:50 Jeff Lynne's ELO at Hyde Park (b04ltd74)
On a sunny day in September 2014, Jeff Lynne, head honcho of 70s hit-making band ELO took to the stage in London's Hyde Park and, with the help of his backing band and the strings of the BBC Concert Orchestra, brought to a close Radio 2's Live in Hyde Park annual festival. After an absence from the live stage for 28 years, this headline set by Jeff Lynne's ELO was a much-anticipated and talked-about event, and he did not disappoint.

In front of 50,000 people, Lynne delivered a rousing and crowd-pleasing string of the Electric Light Orchestra's chart-topping hits, including Livin' Thing, Sweet Talkin' Woman, Don't Bring Me Down, Mr Blue Sky, and Roll Over Beethoven. And there was also a special treat, Jeff's touching tribute to his band buddies from the ultimate supergroup of all time, the Traveling Wilburys, with his performance of their 1988 hit Handle With Care.

All in all, a memorable night and a fantastic return to the live arena for Mr Jeff Lynne's ELO!


SAT 00:15 Tubular Bells: The Mike Oldfield Story (b03cw8g0)
In 1973, an album was released that against all odds and expectations went to the top of the UK charts. The fact the album launched a record label that became one of the most recognisable brand names in the world (Virgin), formed the soundtrack to one of the biggest movies of the decade (The Exorcist), became the biggest selling instrumental album of all time, would eventually go on to sell over 16 million copies and was performed almost single-handedly by a 19-year-old makes the story all the more incredible. That album was Tubular Bells, and the young and painfully shy musician was Mike Oldfield.

This documentary features contributions from Sir Richard Branson, Danny Boyle, Mike's family and the original engineers of the Tubular Bells album among others. The spine of the film is an extended interview with Mike himself, where he takes us through the events that led to him writing Tubular Bells - growing up with a mother with severe mental health problems; the refuge he sought in music as a child, with talent that led to him playing in folk clubs aged 12 and signing with his sister's folk group at only 15; his frightening experience of taking LSD at 16; and finally arriving at the Manor Recording Studios as a young session musician where he gave a demo tape to a recording engineer who passed it along to young entrepreneur Richard Branson.

After the album's huge success, Mike retreated to a Hereford hilltop, shunned public life and became a recluse until he took part in a controversial therapy which changed his life.

In 2012 Mike captured the public's imagination once again when he was asked to perform at the London Olympic Opening Ceremony, where Tubular Bells was the soundtrack to 20 minutes of the one-hour ceremony.

Filmed on location at his home recording studio in Nassau, Mike also plays the multiple instruments of Tubular Bells and shows how the groundbreaking piece of music was put together.


SAT 01:15 Top of the Pops (b0824cw5)
David Jensen presents the weekly pop chart show, first broadcast on 5 August 1982. Includes appearances by Madness, Junior, Brat, Belle Stars, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Bad Manners, The Stranglers, Dexys Midnight Runners and Donna Summer, and a dance performance by Zoo.


SAT 01:50 Top of the Pops (b0824dd3)
John Peel presents the weekly chart show, first broadcast on 12 August 1982. Includes Toto Coelo, Yazoo, The Associates, Haysi Fantayzee, Wavelength, Fun Boy Three, Sheena Easton, Boys Town Gang and The Firm, and a dance performance by Zoo.


SAT 02:30 Jeff Lynne's ELO at Hyde Park (b04ltd74)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:50 today]



SUNDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2016

SUN 19:00 Canals: The Making of a Nation (b068c3zh)
Engineering

Liz McIvor tells the story of the early canal builders who struggled with the rugged terrain of England's Pennine hills. Creating a network of canals in this landscape was an uphill challenge - sometimes literally! But connecting the powerhouses of Yorkshire and Lancashire was a great prize at the time of the industrial revolution. What should the engineers do? Should they build over, under or around the hills? Who succeeded, and who struggled?


SUN 19:30 Books That Made Britain (b0801p1t)
The Yorkshire Coast

Poet and academic John Wedgwood Clarke takes a trip through Whitby and Scarborough towards Hull, following in the footsteps of Bram Stoker, the Brontes, Winifred Holtby and Philip Larkin and discovering how they were inspired by the beautiful Yorkshire coast.

On his journey, he meets novelist Val Wood, whose books explore the coast's fishing heritage, and he shows how swimming in the North Sea helps provide the inspiration for his own poetry.


SUN 20:00 Jeremy Deller: We're here because we're here (b083bk7n)
Documentary which sees Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller give an exclusive insight into the live, nationwide memorial that he created to mark the centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 2016.

The groundbreaking event made in collaboration with Rufus Norris, director of the National Theatre, saw hundreds of volunteers dressed as First World War soldiers appear unexpectedly in areas across the UK. The project titled 'We're here because we're here' was commissioned by 14-18 NOW and produced by Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the National Theatre, together with 26 organisations from around the country.


SUN 20:30 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00dtp4b)
The Peak Express

Julia Bradbury has her backpack on to explore the great outdoors. Julia's walks follow the old tracks, overgrown cuttings and ancient viaducts of Britain's lost rail empire, visiting disused lines across England, Scotland and Wales. Through stunning landscapes and urban backstreets, each contrasting walk has a unique story to tell, offering Julia a window into industrial Britain and how the rise and fall of the railways has altered lives and localities across the country.

Julia begins her exploration of Britain's lost rail empire in Derbyshire, the heart of the Peak District, with a walk along the popular Monsal Trail. Limestone cliffs and gorges abound, not to mention the tunnels and soaring viaducts of the Midland Railway - one of the most dramatic and unlikely main lines ever built.


SUN 21:00 Destination Titan (b0109ccd)
It's a voyage of exploration like no other - to Titan, Saturn's largest moon and thought to resemble our own early Earth. For a small team of British scientists this would be the culmination of a lifetime's endeavour - the flight alone, some two billion miles, would take a full seven years.

This is the story of the space probe they built, the sacrifices they made and their hopes for the landing. Would their ambitions survive the descent into the unknown on Titan's surface?


SUN 22:00 The Sky at Night (b083c3c0)
Life on Mars

The Sky at Night team investigates the ongoing hunt for life on Mars. It is one of the great scientific questions of our time, but are we any closer to finding an answer? As well as uncovering the cause of the recent crash of the Schiaparelli lander, the team looks at the next missions designed to hunt for life on the red planet - from a rover designed to drill deep into the surface, to the orbiter sniffing for signs of methane in the atmosphere. Adam Rutherford joins the team to ask if we have been deliberately avoiding the most likely places to find life on Mars.


SUN 22:30 The Wednesday Play (b007492r)
Cathy Come Home

Landmark 1960s TV play about a young couple and their children who are cruelly overtaken by events which lead them into an unrelenting trap of debt, homelessness and poverty.


SUN 23:50 Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution (b06yrgvr)
Madagascar: A World Apart

Professor Richard Fortey travels to the rainforests of Madagascar - an ancient island that has spawned some of the most extraordinary groups of plants and animals anywhere in the world. From beautiful Indri lemurs, toxic frogs, and the cat-like giant mongoose called the fossa, to evolutionary oddities like the giraffe-necked weevil and the otherworldly aye-aye, he uncovers the secrets of the evolutionary niche - examining how, given millions of years, animals and plants can adapt to fill almost any opportunity they find.


SUN 00:50 Stuff: A Horizon Guide to Materials (b01g996c)
Engineer Jem Stansfield looks back through the Horizon archives to find out how scientists have come to understand and manipulate the materials that built the modern world. Whether it is uncovering new materials or finding fresh uses for those man has known about for centuries, each breakthrough offers a tantalising glimpse of the holy grail of materials science - a substance that is cheap to produce and has the potential to change the world.

Jem explores how a series of extraordinary advances has done just that - from superconductors to the silicon revolution.


SUN 01:50 Destination Titan (b0109ccd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


SUN 02:50 Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom (p01hscjy)
Episode 1

For the first time in over 50 years, a team of wildlife film-makers from the BBC's Natural History Unit and scientists from the world-renowned Smithsonian Institution has been granted access to venture deep into Burma's impenetrable jungles. Their mission is to discover whether these forests are home to iconic animals, rapidly disappearing from the rest of the world - this expedition has come not a moment too soon.

On the first leg of their journey, wildlife film-makers Gordon Buchanan and Justine Evans set out to discover whether the mountains of western Burma are home to a population of Asian elephants that could prove critical to the survival of the species. Finding elephants in a dense bamboo forest is a challenge. Notoriously grumpy, Asian elephants are likely to charge if caught unaware. It is a race against time as the world eyes up Burma's natural riches - what the team finds could change the future of Burma's wilds forever.



MONDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2016

MON 19:00 World News Today (b082s50r)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 World War I at Home (b045gj40)
Despatches from Tyneside

Chris Jackson follows a community project creating a unique picture of the impact of conflict on those living and working on Tyneside with rarely seen footage. Chris hears that Tyneside bore not just physical but deep emotional scars from World War I.


MON 20:00 Forest, Field & Sky: Art out of Nature (b079ckkf)
Dr James Fox takes a journey through six different landscapes across Britain, meeting artists whose work explores our relationship to the natural world. From Andy Goldsworthy's beautiful stone sculptures to James Turrell's extraordinary sky spaces, this is a film about art made out of nature itself. Featuring spectacular images of landscape and art, James travels from the furthest reaches of the Scottish coast and the farmlands of Cumbria to woods of north Wales. In each location he marvels at how artists' interactions with the landscape have created a very different kind of modern art - and make us look again at the world around us.


MON 21:00 Timeshift (b082v57b)
Series 16

Penny Blacks and Twopenny Blues: How Britain Got Stuck on Stamps

Timeshift charts the evolution of the British postage stamp and examines how these sticky little labels became a national obsession. Like many of us, writer and presenter Andrew Martin collected stamps when he was young, and now he returns to that lost world to unpeel the history of iconic stamps like the Penny Black and the Blue Mauritius, study famous collectors like King George V and the enigmatic Count Phillip de Ferrary, and to meet present-day philatelists at a stamp club.


MON 22:00 Timeshift (b0126vfd)
Series 11

Hotel Deluxe

Timeshift invites you to make a reservation in the world of hotels for the super rich. The Savoy, the Ritz, the Dorchester - the very names of Britain's grand hotels spell luxury around the world. The film charts how luxury hotels have met the needs of new forms of wealth, from aristocrats to rock stars and beyond, with comfort, innovation and, above all, service.


MON 23:00 The First World War (b01rnq6t)
Blockade

The British expected a second Trafalgar, but within days German submarines turned the North Sea into a no-go area for Britain's great battleships. The British responded with a blockade of Europe to starve the enemy out. Germany launched submarine attacks against civilian ships, including the Lusitania with 1,200 lives lost. American acted as arsenal and banker to the warring nations, but, though targeted by spies and saboteurs, was deeply reluctant to join in. Then top secret British code-breakers deciphered the Zimmermann Telegram which revealed that Germany was encouraging Mexico to attack America. Now America joined the First World War.


MON 23:50 Dan Cruickshank's Adventures in Architecture (b00b2zdt)
Disaster

Historian and writer Dan Cruickshank celebrates the creative force of architecture as he explores the world's greatest cities, buildings and monuments.

Some of the world's greatest architecture has been forged in the face of adversity, terror and war. Dan explores buildings shaped and threatened by disaster.

He risks his life to visit the Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan, a monument to peace and tolerance in the midst of a war zone. He goes to Dresden, the great German baroque city that was almost obliterated during World War II, but where a heroic reconstruction project is taking place. San Francisco is preparing for a cataclysmic earthquake - what role can architecture play in saving lives? And venturing into ancient history, Dan reveals the tragic tale of Palmyra in Syria, a great city laid to waste by the Roman Empire.


MON 00:50 Constable: A Country Rebel (b04gv42q)
The Haywain by John Constable is such a comfortingly familiar image of rural Britain that it is difficult to believe it was ever regarded as a revolutionary painting, but in this film, made in conjunction with a landmark exhibition at the V&A, Alastair Sooke discovers that Constable was painting in a way that was completely new and groundbreaking at the time.

Through experimentation and innovation he managed to make a sublime art from humble things and, though he struggled in his own country during his lifetime, his genius was surprisingly widely admired in France.


MON 01:50 Forest, Field & Sky: Art out of Nature (b079ckkf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 02:50 Timeshift (b082v57b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2016

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b082s515)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 World War I at Home (b045gjql)
The Equine Army

Saul David follows the story of hundreds of thousands of animals prepared in the West Country for the frontline. From cavalry horses to mules, he rediscovers the lost camps set up to train the animals, what life in them was like and the changes they made to society as a whole.


TUE 20:00 Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency (b014jbyr)
The Many and the Few - A Divided Decade

In this final programme, Lucy Worsley examines the backlash against the excesses of the Prince Regent and the elite world he represented, as George finds himself in a Britain on the brink of revolution in the closing years of his Regency. This was a moment when the power of the word - in radical writings and speeches - briefly challenged the power of the sword. Percy Bysshe Shelley, and future wife Mary, openly supported revolutionary ideas and Mary's famous novel Frankenstein can be seen as a vehicle for the fears surrounding the creation of an uncontrollable new industrial world.

Lucy reveals that even Lord Byron was not always the snake-hipped seducer of legend. He and fellow writers and poets were active supporters of the grass roots movement for reform. Byron made an impassioned speech in Parliament in defence of Luddite machine-breakers. New industrial cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester were being established yet, under the archaic electoral system of the day, not one returned an MP. The vote was in fact limited to a small land-owning class. The demands for democratic change were to end in tragedy in Manchester with a bloody massacre of unarmed men, women and children at St Peter's Fields - an event dubbed, with bitter reference to the triumph of Waterloo, as 'Peterloo'.

Lucy also describes the technological changes that transformed the Regency landscape and experiences - she enjoys the thrills of a mail coach ride, complete with armed guard; learns how to operate the world's oldest steam engine; and partakes in the Regency craze of balloon flight.

The programme ends with the Prince Regent finally being crowned as George IV at Westminster Abbey in 1821 while his estranged wife Caroline batters the main doors demanding entry. A colourful ending to a decade of elegance and extravagance.


TUE 21:00 A Timewatch Guide (b0824wgr)
Series 3

Women, Sex and Society

We are living through one of the greatest revolutions in history. One that has changed how we live in Britain forever, and yet many of us don't even notice it is happening.

This revolution is the ongoing transformation of the rights and role of women. Historian and broadcaster Helen Castor examines the fundamental shifts that have taken place in Great Britain in this Timewatch Guide to Women, Sex and Society.

Drawing on the Timewatch strand through the years plus decades of BBC archive, Helen investigates how this period of tumultuous change in our culture has been documented on television. From the heroic suffragette struggle for the female vote in the early part of the last century, right through the social and sexual rebellion of the 1960s and beyond, Helen explores how change has been driven by successive waves of feminism and activism, with each wave redefining what women want.


TUE 22:00 The Secret History of Our Streets (b01jzpm3)
Series 1

Camberwell Grove

In 1886 Charles Booth embarked on an ambitious plan to visit every one of London's streets to record the social conditions of residents. His project took him 17 years.

Once he had finished he had constructed a groundbreaking series of maps which recorded the social class and standing of inhabitants. These maps transformed the way Victorians felt about their capital city.

This series takes six archetypal London streets as they are now, discovering how they have fared since Booth's day.

Booth colour-coded each street, from yellow for the 'servant keeping classes', down to black for the 'vicious and semi-criminal'. With the aid of maps the series explores why certain streets have been transformed from desperate slums to become some of the most desirable and valuable property in the UK, whilst others have barely changed.

This landmark series features residents past and present, exploring how what happened on the street in the last 125 years continues to shape the lives of those who live there now.

Today, Camberwell Grove is an elegant oddity - a broad, leafy street of fine Georgian houses set in the seething inner city.

The street has come full circle, from middle-class prosperity to tight-knit working-class community and back to middle-class affluence again. Through the lively, often passionate accounts of residents past and present the film tells the story of the changing faces of this remarkable street and the people who have lived in and loved its beautiful houses. These stories also reveal how the fate of the Grove was intimately bound up with the monstrous growth of the Victorian city of London and the birth of the modern conservation movement.


TUE 23:00 India's Frontier Railways (b05mp8mt)
The Last Train in Nepal

In 1927 a British civil servant drew a line on a map to define the border between their Indian empire and the kingdom of Nepal. Today, that border line is only marked by a chain of boundary stones and pillars - it's a border that is almost invisible.

This is the story of an international railway line. It runs for 20 miles from the little-known town of Janakpur in Nepal and crosses over the border to Jaynagar junction in India.

But now the last train in Nepal is under threat of closure. Starved of funds from central government, the train and the track are in a dilapidated state. Derailments are common and the engine often breaks down. Yet it's a lifeline both for the community and the railway workers - their little train is held together with determination, invention and love.

Regina is strong, independent Nepali woman, married at 12 and pregnant at 13. Deserted by her husband, she's now a single mother of two teenage boys. She makes a living as a smuggler of small household goods. But it's illegal, so even when the train is running there's always the chance of getting caught.

Aarman is a ticket collector in Janakpur station. Married with three small children, he's the sole breadwinner for an extended family and he hasn't been paid for three months. Already deeply in debt, he wanted to send his kids to school, but if the line closes he's out of job - and no job means no money.

This is the story of the last train in Nepal and the community and railway workers who struggle every day to keep their train and their hopes alive.


TUE 00:00 Beautiful Equations (b00wltbm)
Artist and writer Matt Collings takes the plunge into an alien world of equations. He asks top scientists to help him understand five of the most famous equations in science, talks to Stephen Hawking about his equation for black holes and comes face to face with a particle of anti-matter.

Along the way he discovers why Newton was right about those falling apples and how to make sense of E=mc2. As he gets to grips with these equations he wonders whether the concept of artistic beauty has any relevance to the world of physics.


TUE 01:00 Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency (b014jbyr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 02:00 Timeshift (b0126vfd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]


TUE 03:00 A Timewatch Guide (b0824wgr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2016

WED 19:00 World News Today (b082s51m)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 World War I at Home (b045gjnp)
The Spies Who Loved Folkestone

Writer Anthony Horowitz learns how Folkestone became a hotbed of espionage and discovers the men, women and children who risked their lives operating as spooks during the First World War.


WED 20:00 Fighting for King and Empire: Britain's Caribbean Heroes (b05v08b7)
This programme is based on a film entitled Divided By Race - United in War and Peace, produced by The-Latest.com.

During the Second World War, thousands of men and women from the Caribbean colonies volunteered to come to Britain to join the fight against Hitler. They risked their lives for king and empire, but their contribution has largely been forgotten.

Some of the last surviving Caribbean veterans tell their extraordinary wartime stories - from torpedo attacks by German U-boats and the RAF's blanket-bombing of Germany to the culture shock of Britain's freezing winters and war-torn landscapes. This brave sacrifice confronted the pioneers from the Caribbean with a lifelong challenge - to be treated as equals by the British government and the British people.

In testimony full of wit and charm, the veterans candidly reveal their experiences as some of the only black people in wartime Britain. They remember encounters with a curious British public and confrontation with the prejudices of white American GIs stationed in Britain.

After the war, many veterans returned to the Caribbean where they discovered jobs were scarce. Some came back to Britain to help rebuild its cities. They settled down with jobs and homes, got married and began to integrate their rich heritage into British culture. Now mostly in their 80s and 90s - the oldest is 104 - these pioneers from the Caribbean have helped transform Britain and created an enduring multicultural legacy.

With vivid first-hand testimony, observational documentary and rare archive footage, the programme gives a unique perspective on the Second World War and the history of 20th-century Britain.


WED 21:00 Horizon (b04knbny)
2014-2015

Is Your Brain Male or Female?

Dr Michael Mosley and Professor Alice Roberts investigate whether male and female brains really are wired differently.

New research suggests that the connections in men and women's brains follow different patterns, patterns which may explain typical forms of male and female behaviour. But are these patterns innate, or are they shaped by the world around us?

Using a team of human lab rats and a troop of barbary monkeys, Michael and Alice test the science and challenge old stereotypes. They ask whether this new scientific research will benefit both men and women - or whether it could drive the sexes even further apart.


WED 22:00 The Undiscovered Peter Cook (b0830jyr)
Following the death of one of Britain's greatest satirists, Peter Cook, in 1995, his widow Lin locked the door of his house and refused all access to the media - until more than twenty years later, when she invited her friend Victor Lewis-Smith and a BBC crew inside to make a documentary about the man she knew and loved, with unprecedented access to Peter's private recordings, diaries, letters, photographs and much more.


WED 23:00 How to Be Bohemian with Victoria Coren Mitchell (b05z5hc2)
Episode 2

In episode two, the journey through bohemian history reaches the early 20th century, when the Bloomsbury Group and others were determined to challenge sexual taboos - sometimes in their work and often in their private lives. They threw off their inhibitions, and frequently their clothes, and set the tone for generations of bohemians who followed. But what did the pursuit of freedom do for these artists, their art, and the people around them?

Victoria considers the very open relationships of the Bloomsbury set, famously known as 'a circle who lived in squares and loved in triangles'. She also visits Charleston, the rural love nest of painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. She explores the story of Edward Carpenter, the poet and proto-hippy who dared to campaign for gay liberation in Edwardian England, and examines the 'King of Bohemia', painter Augustus John, who was alleged to have sired at least 99 children - one of whom Victoria meets.

This episode also features the Bright Young Things - the glamorous, party-loving bohemians of the Roaring Twenties, who provided the inspiration for photographer Cecil Beaton and writer Evelyn Waugh. Victoria discusses them with Stephen Fry, who directed the film of Waugh's novel Vile Bodies. She also uncovers the forgotten life of Nina Hamnett, a painter who spent too much time down the pub to fulfil her early promise. Finally she grapples with the truly shocking sexual conduct of one of the greatest English artists of the century, Eric Gill, whose actions for many embody the most unpalatable excesses of bohemian behaviour, living beyond any boundaries.

Along the way Victoria also meets artists Grayson Perry and Maggi Hambling, and seeks the wisdom of the Rev Richard Coles and author Will Self.


WED 00:00 No Body's Perfect with Rankin and Alison Lapper (b0824cwc)
Documentary. International fashion photographer Rankin and artist Alison Lapper explore how the explosion of digital photography, social media and selfie culture has affected people's sense of identity. Rankin and Alison challenge four individuals who all hate the camera for a variety of reasons to be photographed up-close to investigate different perceptions of self-worth, image and beauty.


WED 01:00 The Secret History of Our Streets (b01jzpm3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]


WED 02:00 Great Artists in Their Own Words (b01sfl03)
The Future Is Now (1907-1939)

The first episode of the series unlocks the BBC archives to tell the story of the birth of modern art, in the words of the artists who created a cultural revolution - from the startling innovations of Picasso to the explosion of colour in the paintings of Matisse, to LS Lowry's industrial cityscapes and the often shocking work of surrealists like Max Ernst, Magritte and Dali.


WED 03:00 How to Be Bohemian with Victoria Coren Mitchell (b05z5hc2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]



THURSDAY 17 NOVEMBER 2016

THU 19:00 World News Today (b082s534)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 The Sky at Night (b083c3c0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]


THU 20:00 Dangerous Earth (b083bm5m)
Volcano

Helen looks at volcanoes. With shocking eyewitness footage of eruptions, and new thermal imagery and ultra high-speed photography, we can now capture on camera the complex processes crucial to understanding how and why these forces of nature erupt.


THU 20:30 Hive Minds (b0834bpb)
Series 2

Ortographobes v Prime

Quiz where players not only have to know the answer, they must find it in a hive of letters. Ortographobes take on Prime, in the first semi-final.


THU 21:00 Bob and Roberta's Excellent Protest Adventure (b0830jx3)
Bob and Roberta Smith, an artist known for eye-catching placards with slogans like 'Make Art Not War', has for years waged his own eccentric political campaigns. In recent years, he'd begun to lose faith in protest but suddenly it's all the rage. From the Brexit vote to Black Lives Matter it seems the world is reclaiming its right to protest. In this film, Bob sets out to discover what's getting everyone so angry in a wry, opinionated and passionate investigation into our age of activism.

From dramatic scenes at the Republican National Convention just days after the killing of three police officers, to taking tea with pensioners fighting fracking in Yorkshire, Bob travels among this international protest movement, asking whether occupations, direct action and endless marches ever actually achieve anything. Or whether the social media revolution is transforming modern protest and the way our democracy works.

Along the way, Bob meets an eclectic mix of experts to help him make sense of it all, among them Noam Chomsky and British philosopher Roger Scruton. He talks protest songs with Billy Bragg, seeks sage advice from the latest celebrity protestor, anti-fracking activist, Bez, and gets involved in some grass roots activism, trying to help the village of Newnham save their pub.


THU 22:00 Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom (p01hscs5)
Episode 2

For the first time in over 50 years, a team of wildlife film-makers from the BBC's Natural History Unit and scientists from the world-renowned Smithsonian Institution has been granted access to venture deep into Burma's impenetrable jungles. Their mission is to discover whether these forests are home to iconic animals, rapidly disappearing from the rest of the world - this expedition has come not a moment too soon.

On the second leg of their journey, wildlife film-makers Gordon Buchanan and Justine Evans, along with a team of scientists, head deep into the mountains of western Burma. This is where they hope to find the shy sun bear and two of the world's rarest and most beautiful cats: the Asian golden cat and the clouded leopard.

Meanwhile, zoologist Ross Piper and the science team are on a mission to create a wildlife survey to present to the government of Burma to persuade them that these forests are so unique they must be protected. High on the forest ridges, Gordon finds evidence to suggest that Burma's wildlife might be in danger. Undercover filming in a border town known as the 'Las Vegas of the jungle' leads to a shocking discovery.


THU 23:00 The Incredible Human Journey (b00l7pmr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday]


THU 00:00 Horizon (b04knbny)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]


THU 01:00 A Timewatch Guide (b0824wgr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 02:00 A Renaissance Education: The Schooling of Thomas More's Daughter (b0135mv0)
The intellectual forces at work in the Tudor era ensured it was a pivotal period for children's education. Historian Dr Helen Castor reveals how the life and education of Margaret More, daughter of Thomas More, tell a story of the transforming power of knowledge. As a child in Tudor England, and educated to an exceptionally high level, Margaret embodies the intellectual spirit of the age - an era which embraced humanism, the birth of the Church of England and the English Renaissance. This film reveals what a revolutionary intellectual spirit Margaret More was and how the ideas that shaped her education helped change the cultural life of England forever.


THU 03:00 Bob and Roberta's Excellent Protest Adventure (b0830jx3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2016

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b082s53l)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b082wd74)
David Jensen presents the weekly chart show, first broadcast on 19 August 1982. Includes appearances from Modern Romance, Haircut 100, Captain Sensible, Kids from Fame, Soft Cell, Dexys Midnight Runners, Survivor, Talk Talk and Duran Duran.


FRI 20:00 The Good Old Days (b083bnm5)
Leonard Sachs presents an edition of the old-time music hall programme, first broadcast on 13 January 1977. With Bernard Cribbins, Patricia Hayes, John Inman, Jayne Sullivan and members of the Players' Theatre, London.


FRI 20:45 Pop Go the Sixties (b0088nyx)
Series 1

The Kinks

Another mind-bendingly colourful nugget of pop mined from the BBC's archive.


FRI 20:50 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 20:55 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 21:00 New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s (b0177bjb)
Prince: A Purple Reign

Film which explores how Prince - showman, artist, enigma - revolutionised the perception of black music in the 1980s with worldwide hits such as 1999, Kiss, Raspberry Beret and Alphabet Street. He became a global sensation with the release of the Oscar-winning, semi-autobiographical movie Purple Rain in 1984, embarking on an incredible journey of musical self-discovery that continued right up to his passing in April 2016, aged 57.

From the psychedelic Around the World in a Day to his masterpiece album Sign O' the Times and experiments with hip-hop and jazz, Prince was one of most ambitious and prolific songwriters of his generation. He tested the boundaries of taste and decency with explicit sexual lyrics and stage shows during his early career, and in the 1990s fought for ownership of his name and control of his music, played out in a public battle with his former label, Warner. Highly regarded as one of the most flamboyant live performers ever, Prince was a controversial and famously elusive creative force.

Contributors include Revolution guitarist Dez Dickerson, Paisley Park label president Alan Leeds, hip-hop legend Chuck D and Prince 'Mastermind' and UK soul star Beverley Knight.


FRI 22:00 Disco at the BBC (b01cqt74)
A foot-stomping return to the BBC vaults of Top of the Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test and Later with Jools as the programme spins itself to a time when disco ruled the floor, the airwaves and our minds. The visual floorfillers include classics from luminaries such as Chic, Labelle and Rose Royce to glitter ball surprises by The Village People.


FRI 23:00 The Genius of Funk (b04t9cjz)
A selection of some of funk's best artists from the BBC archives and beyond, beginning in the 1970s. Includes performances from acts such as Earth, Wind & Fire, Kool & the Gang, Average White Band and Herbie Hancock.


FRI 00:00 Top of the Pops (b082wd74)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 00:35 New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s (b0177bjb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 01:35 Disco at the BBC (b01cqt74)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 02:35 The Genius of Funk (b04t9cjz)
[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)

A Renaissance Education: The Schooling of Thomas More's Daughter 02:00 THU (b0135mv0)

A Timewatch Guide 21:00 TUE (b0824wgr)

A Timewatch Guide 03:00 TUE (b0824wgr)

A Timewatch Guide 01:00 THU (b0824wgr)

Beautiful Equations 00:00 TUE (b00wltbm)

Bob and Roberta's Excellent Protest Adventure 21:00 THU (b0830jx3)

Bob and Roberta's Excellent Protest Adventure 03:00 THU (b0830jx3)

Books That Made Britain 19:30 SUN (b0801p1t)

Canals: The Making of a Nation 19:00 SUN (b068c3zh)

Constable: A Country Rebel 00:50 MON (b04gv42q)

Dan Cruickshank's Adventures in Architecture 23:50 MON (b00b2zdt)

Dangerous Earth 20:00 THU (b083bm5m)

Deep Water 21:00 SAT (b083bjm7)

Deep Water 21:55 SAT (b083dblw)

Destination Titan 21:00 SUN (b0109ccd)

Destination Titan 01:50 SUN (b0109ccd)

Disco at the BBC 22:00 FRI (b01cqt74)

Disco at the BBC 01:35 FRI (b01cqt74)

Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency 20:00 TUE (b014jbyr)

Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency 01:00 TUE (b014jbyr)

Fighting for King and Empire: Britain's Caribbean Heroes 20:00 WED (b05v08b7)

Forest, Field & Sky: Art out of Nature 20:00 MON (b079ckkf)

Forest, Field & Sky: Art out of Nature 01:50 MON (b079ckkf)

Great Artists in Their Own Words 02:00 WED (b01sfl03)

Hive Minds 20:30 THU (b0834bpb)

Horizon 21:00 WED (b04knbny)

Horizon 00:00 THU (b04knbny)

How to Be Bohemian with Victoria Coren Mitchell 23:00 WED (b05z5hc2)

How to Be Bohemian with Victoria Coren Mitchell 03:00 WED (b05z5hc2)

India's Frontier Railways 19:00 SAT (b0555xgw)

India's Frontier Railways 23:00 TUE (b05mp8mt)

Jeff Lynne's ELO at Hyde Park 22:50 SAT (b04ltd74)

Jeff Lynne's ELO at Hyde Park 02:30 SAT (b04ltd74)

Jeremy Deller: We're here because we're here 20:00 SUN (b083bk7n)

Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution 23:50 SUN (b06yrgvr)

New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s 21:00 FRI (b0177bjb)

New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s 00:35 FRI (b0177bjb)

No Body's Perfect with Rankin and Alison Lapper 00:00 WED (b0824cwc)

Pop Go the Sixties 20:45 FRI (b0088nyx)

Pop Go the Sixties 20:50 FRI (b00d24n3)

Pop Go the Sixties 20:55 FRI (b00cyz6x)

Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury 20:30 SUN (b00dtp4b)

Stuff: A Horizon Guide to Materials 00:50 SUN (b01g996c)

The First World War 23:00 MON (b01rnq6t)

The Genius of Funk 23:00 FRI (b04t9cjz)

The Genius of Funk 02:35 FRI (b04t9cjz)

The Good Old Days 20:00 FRI (b083bnm5)

The Incredible Human Journey 20:00 SAT (b00l7pmr)

The Incredible Human Journey 23:00 THU (b00l7pmr)

The Secret History of Our Streets 22:00 TUE (b01jzpm3)

The Secret History of Our Streets 01:00 WED (b01jzpm3)

The Sky at Night 22:00 SUN (b083c3c0)

The Sky at Night 19:30 THU (b083c3c0)

The Undiscovered Peter Cook 22:00 WED (b0830jyr)

The Wednesday Play 22:30 SUN (b007492r)

Timeshift 21:00 MON (b082v57b)

Timeshift 22:00 MON (b0126vfd)

Timeshift 02:50 MON (b082v57b)

Timeshift 02:00 TUE (b0126vfd)

Top of the Pops 01:15 SAT (b0824cw5)

Top of the Pops 01:50 SAT (b0824dd3)

Top of the Pops 19:30 FRI (b082wd74)

Top of the Pops 00:00 FRI (b082wd74)

Tubular Bells: The Mike Oldfield Story 00:15 SAT (b03cw8g0)

Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom 02:50 SUN (p01hscjy)

Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom 22:00 THU (p01hscs5)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b082s50r)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b082s515)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b082s51m)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b082s534)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b082s53l)

World War I at Home 19:30 MON (b045gj40)

World War I at Home 19:30 TUE (b045gjql)

World War I at Home 19:30 WED (b045gjnp)