B4

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

SATURDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2016

SAT 19:00 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.

SAT 20:00 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.

SAT 21:00 Deep Water (b083h101)
Episode 3

Reeling with guilt, Nick and Tori investigate the death of Toohey and his past links to the Pointers gang. With the THRUSTR killer still on the prowl, crime scene officer Brenda discovers DNA which not only confirms Tori's suspicions about her brother's murder - but puts ex-gang member turned local businessman Hammers firmly in the spotlight. Confiding in Oscar, Tori doesn't realise he will be hellbent on revenge, and make a dangerous attempt to take matters into his own hands.

SAT 21:50 Deep Water (b083h103)
Episode 4

With Oscar surviving a brutal attack, Nick and Tori desperately reach back into the past and discover a vital lead previously masked by dodgy detective work. Despite a confession by Hammers, the THRUSTR killer is still out there - he has taken another victim and now he is going after Oscar.

SAT 22:45 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.

SAT 23:45 Electric Proms (b00vzzsw)
2010

Neil Diamond

Neil Diamond in concert from London's Roundhouse with his six-piece band performing tracks from his 2010 album Dreams, which explores the 60s and 70s songs he loves, and reinventing his classics. This is Neil Diamond stripped down with strings in his most intimate performance for years.

SAT 00:50 ...Sings Neil Diamond (b00vzzsy)
A compilation from the BBC archive of performances featuring songs written by, or associated with, Neil Diamond. Featuring Lulu, UB40, Vince Hill, Robert Wyatt, Gladys Knight, Urge Overkill, Lena Zavaroni, The Hollies and a duet by Neil Diamond and Shirley Bassey.

SAT 01:20 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.

SAT 01:55 John Denver: Country Boy (b03j4cz2)
Documentary exploring the private life and public legacy of John Denver, America's original country boy. With exclusive accounts from those closest to him, the man behind the music is revealed in an intimate profile in his 70th birthday anniversary year.

SAT 02:55 Country at the BBC (b08qgkzv)
Grab your partner by the hand - the BBC have raided their archive and brought to light glittering performances by country artists over the last four decades.

Star appearances include Tammy Wynette, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash and, of course, Dolly Parton. All the greats have performed for the BBC at some point - on entertainment shows, in concert and at the BBC studios. Some of the rhinestones revealed are Charley Pride's Crystal Chandeliers from The Lulu Show, Emmylou Harris singing Together Again on The Old Grey Whistle Test and Glen Campbell's Rhinestone Cowboy from The Val Doonican Music Show.

We're brought up to date with modern country hits from Top of the Pops and Later...with Jools Holland.

SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2016

SUN 19:00 Chamber Music at the BBC (b03p7p6q)
Yehudi Menuhin at the BBC

Petroc Trelawny presents music performances at the BBC by the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin, including his appearance with Stephane Grappelli on Parkinson and his performance of Cesar Franck's Sonata in A for Violin and Piano with his sister Hephzibah. Also included is an extract from the Walton Viola Concerto conducted by the composer and a performance from Blue Peter as Menuhin joined Valerie Singleton for an item about Paganini's violin. Petroc also talks to programme maker and Menuhin biographer Humphrey Burton about this extraordinary musician.

SUN 20:00 Young, Gifted and Classical: The Making of a Maestro (b083d749)
Sheku Kanneh-Mason made history in 2016 when he became the first black winner of the BBC Young Musician competition. Sheku has six musically gifted siblings and this film explores their extraordinary talents and issues of diversity in classical music.

We follow Sheku and his brothers and sisters and examine the sacrifices that parents Stuart and Kadie make in order to support their children in pursuing their musical dreams. Told through the prism of family life we get an understanding of what it is that drives this family to be the best musicians they can be.

At the heart of the story is 17-year-old Sheku, and we see him coming to terms with his Young Musician win and the pressures and opportunities it brings. His life is changing dramatically as he now has to learn to deal with the challenges of becoming a world-renowned cellist.

He gets advice from those who have trodden this path already, including international violinist Nicola Benedetti and renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, discovering what it takes to be a famous international solo musician.

The documentary culminates with Sheku's biggest performance to date, playing at the world-famous Royal Festival Hall in London, with Britain's first all-black and ethnic minority orchestra, Chineke!. As the preparations for this groundbreaking concert begin, the film explores what it means to be a young, black, classical musician in today's society.

SUN 21:00 Henry VIII's Enforcer: The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell (b01t03ky)
Thomas Cromwell has gone down in history as one of the most corrupt and manipulative ruffians ever to hold power in England. A chief minister who used his position to smash the Roman Catholic church in England and loot the monasteries for his own gain. A man who used torture to bring about the execution of the woman who had once been his friend and supporter - Anne Boleyn.

Diarmaid MacCulloch, professor of the history of the church at Oxford University, reveals a very different image of Cromwell. The award-winning novels of Hilary Mantel began the revival of Cromwell's reputation, and now Professor MacCulloch presents Henry VIII's chief minister as a principled and pioneering statesman who was driven by radical evangelism.

Cromwell's extraordinary career blossomed after a childhood marked by poverty and violence. The unschooled son of a brewer, he travelled across Europe as a young man and mysteriously taught himself to speak several languages in addition to accounting and knowledge of the law. When Henry VIII failed to persuade the pope to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Cromwell engineered an incredible solution. Using his political skills he persuaded Parliament and the people to accept a mythological rewriting of the history of England in which the English monarch was as an emperor whose power superseded that of the pope.

Professor MacCulloch describes Cromwell as an evangelical reformer, determined to break the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic church and introduce the people of England to a new type of Christianity in which each individual makes direct contact with God.

SUN 22:00 Storyville (b083d74c)
Jim - The James Foley Story

Documentary telling the story of how a young journalist came to be the first American to be executed by ISIS.

On 22 November 2012, photojournalist James 'Jim' Foley was kidnapped in Syria. Two years later, the infamous video of his public execution introduced much of the world to ISIS.

The film documents Jim's life through intimate interviews with his family, friends and fellow journalists - while former hostages reveal never-before-heard details of his captivity with a chilling intimacy that reveals their untold story of perseverance.

Made with unparalleled access, including footage Foley shot himself, childhood friend and director Brian Oakes reveals Jim's enormous courage during his captivity in this powerful chronicle of bravery, compassion and pain.

SUN 23:25 Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution (b06zdkds)
Madeira: Island Ark

In the final episode, Richard Fortey travels to Madeira to examine what happens to a volcanic island as it nears the end of its life cycle and starts sinking back into the sea. Here, in the island's laurisilva forest, he examines the remains of an ancient forest that once carpeted all of Europe, finds island lizards that live to be four times older than their mainland counterparts, and meets a huge wolf spider. With the help of local divers, he also discovers an unexpectedly rich marine habitat populated by whales, dolphins and unusual deep-sea species that have much to tell us about the changing nature of our seas.

SUN 00:25 Impact! A Horizon Guide to Plane Crashes (b03d690n)
It's a macabre paradox, but almost every advance in aviation safety has been driven by a crash. After every crash, investigators determine its cause and scientists make every effort to ensure the same mistakes never happen again. Dallas Campbell delves into the Horizon archives to chart the deadly disasters that have helped make air travel today the safest it has ever been.

SUN 01:25 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.

SUN 02:25 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.

MONDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2016

MON 19:00 World News Today (b083d4z8)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

MON 19:30 World War I at Home (b045ghms)
The Trawlermen

Miranda Krestovnikoff examines the role of east coast fishermen in World War I and in particular finds out about the Grimsby trawler captain who left a zeppelin crew to die and was accused by the Germans of being a war criminal.

MON 20:00 Monkey Planet (p01s0yd4)
Meet the Family

Our primate family is incredibly varied and surprising. From the ninja tarsier, a spring-loaded ambush predator the size of a tennis ball, to the magnificent herds of geladas in the mountains of Ethiopia, primates have adapted to environments across the planet.

In this episode, Dr George McGavin gets up close and personal with Siswi, an orangutan who uses soap to improve her personal hygiene. He strips off to experience the mind-numbing cold of the Japanese Alps and heads 100 metres underground to a secluded monkey dormitory.

Then there are baboons with a thirst for flamingo flesh, macaques with criminal minds, fluorescent mandrills who wear war paint to do battle, and Ardry, a real-life gremlin who sees the unseeable with her extraterrestrial fingers.

MON 21:00 Infested! Living with Parasites (b03vrwj8)
Dr Michael Mosley explores the bizarre and fascinating world of parasites by turning his body into a living laboratory and deliberately infesting himself with them. He travels to Kenya to give himself a tapeworm - a parasite that can grow to many metres inside the human gut. He also encounters lice, leeches and the deadly malaria parasite, before swallowing a pill-camera to reveal what is growing within him. By the end of his infestation Michael learns a new-found respect for these extraordinary creatures, which can live off and even take control of their hosts for their own survival.

MON 22:00 Photographing Africa (b03xsjb9)
Photographer and film director Harry Hook, who grew up in Sudan and Kenya and has been documenting life in Africa for 40 years, uses his images to tell a personal story as he crosses the continent to visit remote tribal groups.

Harry tracks down five Samburu women he first photographed in Kenya 30 years ago. His aim is to give them a copy of their portrait and discover how their lives have changed over three decades. The search will be no small task - Samburuland covers an area the size of Wales and, as a semi-nomadic group, the women may well have moved great distances.

During his search Harry witnesses a Lenkarna Lmuget, a once-in-a-decade coming-of-age ceremony for Samburu warriors, as they are initiated to become elders.

There are not many parts of Africa where the lure of the city life is not felt. Harry ventures to isolated communities and encounters people living with one foot rooted in a rich cultural past, but who also embrace the here and now of contemporary Africa.

MON 23:00 The First World War (b01rnq76)
Revolution

Increasingly, governments faced the risk of their men mutinying, morale cracking and civilians rising up in strikes and civil disobedience. As governments worried about containing unrest at home, they set agents working to foment revolution among the enemy. Britain sponsored the Arab revolt through Lawrence of Arabia, Germany backed Irish independence with arms for the Easter Rising and funded Lenin's Russian coup d'etat in 1917.

Revolution became a weapon of war, hitting the enemy from within. When Lenin pulled Russia out of the war, it vindicated all Germany's efforts to use subversion, releasing half a million German soldiers for the Western Front.

MON 23:50 Dan Cruickshank's Adventures in Architecture (b00b5pv7)
Connections

Dan sets out to reveal how architecture enables people to live together across the world. He finds vibrant communities in extraordinary buildings and towns across the globe - but why do some places succeed and others fail?

He visits Brasilia, an ideal city built by communists, which is now the preserve of the super-rich. In the Middle East he travels to Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, to unravel the secrets of its longevity.

The Rockefeller Centre in New York is one of the city's most famous skyscrapers - but how did a building borne from the American Depression become a 'city within a city'? And Dan explores Dharavi in Mumbai, the biggest slum in India - a functioning home to millions, but now under threat of demolition.

MON 00:50 Visions of the Valleys (b05p706x)
Kim Howells celebrates 250 years of art in the Welsh valleys, looking at how the place became a magnet for artists drawn by its natural splendour and the spectacle of the industries that grew up there. The former MP and Labour arts minister looks at how the south Wales valleys have been portrayed by artists from the end of the 18th century to the present day.

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

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

MON 01:50 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.

MON 02:50 Young, Gifted and Classical: The Making of a Maestro (b083d749)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Sunday]

TUESDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2016

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b083d4zv)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

TUE 19:30 World War I at Home (b045ghyr)
When the Whistle Blew

Rugby world cup winner Josh Lewsey tells the story of the ultimate sacrifice made by rugby and football players during the First World War, and how they shaped the game as we know it today. To commemorate those who lost their lives, he dons his boots one more time to play a centenary rugby match.

TUE 20:00 Treasures of Ancient Greece (b05ql1sf)
The Age of Heroes

In the first episode Alastair Sooke explores the surprising roots of Greek art, beginning his journey in Crete at the palace of Knossos, legendary home of the Minotaur. He travels to Santorini to the 'Greek Pompeii', and finds gold in the fabled stronghold of Mycenae and dazzling remains from Greece's Dark Ages. Alastair discovers the beginnings of a defining spirit in Greek art, embracing mythology, a passion for symmetry, and an obsession with the human body.

TUE 21:00 A Timewatch Guide (b083dd1g)
Series 3

Russia: A Century of Suspicion

At the outbreak of war in 1939, wondering whether Russia would join the fight with the Allies, Sir Winston Churchill famously described this nation as 'a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma'. These words have almost come to define Britain's view of Russia ever since: an inscrutable power that always plays by its own rules.

Military historian Saul David draws on classic Timewatch documentaries and a wide range of BBC archive to examine how television has portrayed Russia through the years. From our trusted World War II ally to the red oppressor of the Cold War, from a potential free-market friend when Communism crumbled to a new 21st-century foe under Putin, Russia has swung from friend to foe and back again - either way, we find it incredibly hard to understand her.

This programme explores how arguably Britain's most complex international relationship has played out on television.

TUE 22:00 The Secret History of Our Streets (b01kcpfh)
Series 1

Portland Road

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.

This episode features Portland Road in Notting Hill, the archetypal London banker street, dominated by homes worth as much as £6,000,000. Yet when Booth visited in 1899, it was the worst slum in London and, even today, the bottom five per cent by income in Britain are living on the same street as the top one per cent.

Told through the personal stories of Portland Road's diverse range of residents both past and present, including lords, bankers and slum dwellers, this film tells the story of one of the most divided streets in Britain.

TUE 23:00 India's Frontier Railways (b05nhjht)
The Samjhauta Express

Freedom came to the subcontinent in August 1947. The British hastily partitioned British India before they left. Independence was attended by a million deaths and 14 million people were displaced.

Yet despite three wars, Pakistan and Indian railways have established a cross-border train, known as the Samjhauta Express - Samjhauta meaning agreement.

Amongst the passengers on the Samjhauta Express from Lahore to Delhi are Bilal and his father Abiz. Seventeen-year-old Bilal was the victim of an accident which damaged his eye. Unable to source the right treatment in Pakistan, father and son trawled the internet and finally found a suitable clinic. But it was in India. They have never stepped outside Pakistan, so they are a little nervous. Will they be successful in getting Bilal's eye treated?

Also on the train is Rahat Khan, the hockey queen. She's a Pakistan international and a railway hockey champion. She is travelling with her Pakistan girls' hockey team to play a match in India. But not everything goes to plan.

For the Sikh community, the Punjab is home. The golden temple of Amritsar is the holy of holies. But each year, on Guru Nanak's birthday, the railway runs special trains across the border to the guru's birthplace in Pakistan, despite the security concerns.

TUE 00:00 Seven Ages of Starlight (p00yb434)
This is the epic story of the stars, and how discovering their tale has transformed our own understanding of the universe.

Once we thought the sun and stars were gods and giants. Now we know, in a way, our instincts were right. The stars do all have their own characters, histories and role in the cosmos. Not least, they played a vital part in creating us.

There are old, bloated red giants, capable of gobbling up planets in their orbit, explosive deaths - supernovae - that forge the building blocks of life and black holes, the most mysterious stellar tombstones. And, of course, stars in their prime, like our own sun.

Leading astronomers reveal how the grandest drama on tonight is the one playing above our heads.

TUE 01:30 Treasures of Ancient Greece (b05ql1sf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

TUE 02:30 Storyville (b083d74c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]

WEDNESDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2016

WED 19:00 World News Today (b083d50b)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

WED 19:30 World War I at Home (b045gjnt)
Whose Side Are You On?

Historian Professor Jean Seaton uncovers the story of industrial conflict in Devon during World War One.

WED 20:00 A Timewatch Guide (b083dd1g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]

WED 21:00 Arena (b01pjlhv)
Screen Goddesses

Documentary about the early female movie stars: Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe - immortal goddesses made by Hollywood to reign over the silver screen.

With the beginnings of Hollywood, the star system was born with an archetypal bad girl - the vampish Theda Bara - and the good girl - the blazingly sincere Lillian Gish. From the 1920s, vivacious Clara Bow and seductive siren Louise Brooks are most remembered, but none made the impact of Marlene Dietrich, an icon of mystery, or Greta Garbo, with her perfect features and gloomy introspection.

From the power of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis to the seductiveness of Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner, Hollywood studios produced their own brand of beautiful, sassy and confident women. But it wasn't to last. The era drew to a close with the supreme fame of Elizabeth Taylor and the tragic death of Marilyn Monroe.

Narrated by Elizabeth McGovern.

WED 22:00 My Week with Marilyn (b01nx8kb)
It is 1956 and The Prince and the Showgirl is being made at Pinewood Studios in London, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier, who has recruited one of the biggest Hollywood stars of all time, Marilyn Monroe, to co-star with him.

Colin Clark, a junior assistant on the production, is assigned the job of looking after Marilyn and keeps a journal about the week he spent with her. It proves to be a turbulent experience as Marilyn is going through marital problems with her husband and uses Colin as a much-needed sounding board for all her pent-up neurosis.

WED 23:30 How to Be Bohemian with Victoria Coren Mitchell (b0607p4y)
Episode 3

Are we all bohemian now or are none of us? Just one of the questions Victoria discusses with a colourful array of modern-day bohemians in the final episode of her series exploring unconventional living. This time she runs the postwar gamut from artist, drinker and sexual masochist Francis Bacon to the modern-day, latte-sipping hipster.

The birth of pop music and the sexual revolution spread bohemian values from an arty elite to ordinary folk in the suburbs. But were these watered down with mass take-up in the 1970s, becoming little more than a lifestyle choice, signalled perhaps by a taste for eccentric clothes, recreational drugs and a willingness to talk frankly about sex? Perhaps, Victoria wonders, it was punks who were the true bohemians of their day, because like their 19th-century French predecessors, they set out to shock. And she asks, were the new bohemians those who flamboyantly championed gay rights in the 1980s, then equally shocking to mainstream society?

And what of today? Do today's artists and wannabe artists still identify with either the values or the pose of bohemians past? Or has the idea of the 'alternative' lifestyle, like everything else in our post-industrial culture, become a commodity to such an extent that the concept has been robbed of any value? Does a fine beard really signal a free spirit? Or is the life of the hipster worlds apart from those few daring individuals still determined to plough their own furrow?

Victoria quizzes a range of entertaining and colourful interviewees over the course of the episode - hearing the hedonistic sexploits of artist Molly Parkin, uncovering the punk past of critic AA Gill, and asking former pop star-turned-vicar Richard Coles about his drug and sex-fuelled party years. She also talks to fine artists Grayson Perry and Maggi Hambling, drag artists Jonny Woo and the Virgin Xtravaganzah, poet John Cooper Clarke and writer Will Self. And she visits the squat where the self-styled 'Bohemians 4 Soho' are seeking to prevent corporate redevelopment of one of London's iconic music venues.

WED 00:30 The Secret History of Our Streets (b01kcpfh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]

WED 01:30 Great Artists in Their Own Words (b01sg9ls)
Out of the Darkness (1939-1966)

Second in a series unlocking the BBC archives to tell the story of modern art in the words of the artists themselves - from the tortured images of Francis Bacon born of the horror of the Second World War to the joyous, sometimes ironical celebration of consumer affluence in the pop art of Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol to the hedonistic freedom of the paintings of David Hockney.

WED 02:30 How to Be Bohemian with Victoria Coren Mitchell (b0607p4y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 today]

THURSDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2016

THU 19:00 World News Today (b083d50m)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b083hsd2)
Peter Powell presents the weekly chart show, first broadcast on 9 September 1982. Includes Evelyn King, Gillan, Dire Straits, Survivor, David Christie and Shakin' Stevens. Also includes a dance performance from Zoo.

THU 20:00 Dangerous Earth (b083dgt5)
Lightning

Dr Helen Czerski examines the hottest natural phenomenon on the planet - lightning. Bolts of lightning five times hotter than the surface of the sun strike our planet over three million times every day - and yet we still know little about this deadly force of nature. Now, specialist photography is revealing how lightning travels through the air, high-speed cameras are unlocking the secrets of upward lightning that's triggered by our urban landscapes, and scientific expeditions are capturing rare images of intense electrical discharges over 80 kilometres wide.

THU 20:30 Hive Minds (b083dgt8)
Series 2

Cruciverbalists v Belgae

Cruciverbalists take on Belgae, in the second semi-final of the series.

THU 21:00 Black Nurses: The Women Who Saved the NHS (b083dgtb)
Documentary which tells the story of the thousands of Caribbean and African women who answered the call 70 years ago to come to the UK to save the then ailing health service. It's a tale of a struggle to overcome racism, their fight for career progression and their battle for national recognition.

THU 22:00 Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom (p01hsd4k)
Episode 3

For the first time in 50 years, wildlife film-makers and scientists venture deep into the impenetrable jungles of Burma. Their aim is to discover if these jungles are still home to animals that are disappearing from the rest of the world.

For the last leg of their journey, the team search for the most iconic animal of them all, the tiger. To find it, they must split up. Wildlife camerawoman Justine Evans and the science team head to the tangled jungles of northern Burma, one of the largest swathes of unbroken forest in Southeast Asia. Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan heads to the only other place in Burma where tigers may still exist, the far south. The forests of Karen State were once home to a thriving population of tigers, but this region has been isolated by war for over 60 years and little is known about the fate of the animals.

The team must overcome intense physical hardship and tough field conditions to find the evidence they need to help preserve this unique and largely untouched wilderness. What they discover could change the future of Burma's forests forever.

THU 23:00 Horizon: 40 Years on the Moon (b00llgs8)
Professor Brian Cox takes a look through nearly 50 years of BBC archive at the story of man's relationship with the moon.

From the BBC's space fanatic James Burke testing out the latest Nasa equipment to 1960s interviews about the bacon-flavoured crystals that astronauts can survive on in space, to the iconic images of man's first steps on the moon and the dramatic story of Apollo 13, Horizon and the BBC have covered it all.

But since President Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s was reached, no-one has succeeded in reigniting the public's enthusiasm for space travel and lunar voyages. Why?

On his journey through the ages, Professor Cox explores the role that international competition played in getting man to the moon and asks if, with America no longer the world's only superpower, we are at the dawn of a bright new space age.

THU 00:00 Tails You Win: The Science of Chance (p00yh2rc)
Smart and witty, jam-packed with augmented-reality graphics and fascinating history, this film, presented by professor David Spiegelhalter, tries to pin down what chance is and how it works in the real world. For once this really is 'risky' television.

The film follows in the footsteps of The Joy of Stats, which won the prestigious Grierson Award for Best Science/Natural History programme of 2011. Now the same blend of wit and wisdom, animation, graphics and gleeful nerdery is applied to the joys of chance and the mysteries of probability, the vital branch of mathematics that gives us a handle on what might happen in the future. Professor Spiegelhalter is ideally suited to that task, being Winton professor for the public understanding of risk at Cambridge University, as well as being a recent Winter Wipeout contestant on BBC TV.

How can you maximise your chances of living till you're 100? Why do many of us experience so many spooky coincidences? Should I take an umbrella? These are just some of the everyday questions the film tackles as it moves between Cambridge, Las Vegas, San Francisco and... Reading.

Yet the film isn't shy of some rather loftier questions. After all, our lives are pulled about and pushed around by the mysterious workings of chance, fate, luck, call it what you will. But what actually is chance? Is it something fundamental to the fabric of the universe? Or rather, as the French 18th century scientist Pierre Laplace put it, 'merely a measure of our ignorance'.

Along the way Spiegelhalter is thrilled to discover One Million Random Digits, probably the most boring book in the world, but one full of hidden patterns and shapes. He introduces us to the cheery little unit called the micromort (a one-in-a-million chance of dying), taking the rational decision to go sky-diving because doing so only increases his risk of dying this year from 7000 to 7007 micromorts. And in one sequence he uses the latest infographics to demonstrate how life expectancy has increased in his lifetime and how it is affected by our lifestyle choices - drinking, obesity, smoking and exercise.

Did you know that by running regularly for half an hour a day you can expect to extend your life by half an hour a day? So all very well... if you like running.

Ultimately, Tails You Win: The Science of Chance tells the story of how we discovered how chance works, and even to work out the odds for the future; how we tried - but so often failed - to conquer it; and how we may finally be learning to love it, increasingly setting uncertainty itself to work to help crack some of science's more intractable problems.

Other contributors include former England cricketer Ed Smith, whose career was cut down in its prime through a freak, unlucky accident; Las Vegas gambling legend Mike Shackleford, the self-styled 'Wizard of Odds'; and chief economist of the Bank of England, Spencer Dale.

THU 01:00 Top of the Pops (b083hsd2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

THU 01:35 Electric Proms (b00vzzsw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:45 on Saturday]

THU 02:35 Black Nurses: The Women Who Saved the NHS (b083dgtb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

FRIDAY 25 NOVEMBER 2016

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b083d50s)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b083xvgg)
Simon Bates presents the weekly chart show, first broadcast on 16 September 1982. Includes appearances from Mari Wilson, Simple Minds, Shakatak, The Jam, Adam Ant and Survivor. Also includes a dance performance from Zoo.

FRI 20:00 The Good Old Days (b083mybs)
Leonard Sachs presents an edition of the old time music hall programme, first broadcast on 20 January 1977. With Val Doonican, Sheila Steafel, Rita Morris, Dailey & Wayne, and members of the Players' Theatre, London.

FRI 20:45 Pop Go the Sixties (b008bxxt)
Series 1

The Move

A colourful nugget of pop mined from the BBC's archive, featuring Birmingham's The Move.

FRI 20:50 Pop Go the Sixties (b008790l)
Series 1

The Moody Blues

A colourful nugget of pop by the Moody Blues, mined from the BBC's archive.

FRI 20:55 Pop Go the Sixties (b0088xv2)
Series 1

Helen Shapiro

A colourful nugget of pop mined from the BBC's archive, as Helen Shapiro performs Walking Back to Happiness.

FRI 21:00 Classic Albums (b007b6hv)
Paul Simon: Graceland

Since its release in 1986, Paul Simon's Graceland has had an enormous impact on rock music with its blend of rock and African rhythms. Simon and engineer Roy Halee demonstrate the multi-tracking and mixing of the album and reveal the inspiration behind the songs, and composer Philip Glass assesses the album's place in musical history. Featuring interviews with major artists involved in the album, including Joseph Shabalala of Ladysmith Black Mambazo and guitarist Ray Phiri, who shatter the myth about their relationship with Simon.

FRI 22:00 The People's History of Pop (b083dj11)
1986-1996 All Together Now

Lauren Laverne celebrates the decade 1986-1996 when music had the power to unite fans - even sworn rivals - like never before. It's a decade that starts with a turn to the alternative, even among the fans of mega pop bands.

We hear from Depeche Mode fans who were invigorated by the band's darker sounds in Black Celebration - and have saved a lot of memorabilia from the gigs they went to see back then. We also hear from a fan of hip hop who discovered a burgeoning UK hip hop scene when he moved to London and shares footage of his friends MCing and DJing at home.

In 1988, the acid house wave hit and the show meets those who lived through it and loved it. They have saved flyers and photos from the halcyon days of raving that completely changed their lives, including one man who went from football hooligan to raver to club promoter.

Out of the clubs came mega pop bands. The programme meets an avid Take That fan who bought every type of merchandise she could as a teenager - saving pretty much all of it. Another fan takes viewers back to the site of her first ever Blur gig in 1994 and the show finishes by talking to fans of the most successful girl group of all time - The Spice Girls.

Pop treasures uncovered along the way include one of the first Hacienda membership cards, covered with signatures of Hacienda dignitaries, from New Order to Dave Haslam, A Guy Called Gerald, Bez and, of course, Tony Wilson. The programme also meets a club promoter who shares rare footage of one of The Prodigy's early rave-inspired gigs. And Lauren also meets someone with a rare Oasis demo tape from a gig at the Boardwalk in London in January 1992.

FRI 23:00 Gary Numan: Android in La La Land (b083dj13)
At the end of the 1970s a nervy young musician topped the music charts and quickly became one of the most famous men on the planet.

Three decades of groundbreaking and hugely influential music followed, then came six long years of silence.

This documentary follows the godfather of electronic music on a one-way trip to crack America, break into Hollywood and return to the studio for the first time in nearly a decade.

It is also an intimate story of love and second chances for Numan, wife Gemma and their family as they set up home in Los Angeles.
Full of humour and candid moments, the film explores the many contradictions and misconceptions that have cropped up in Numan's life.

A revealing portrait that uncovers the human side of one of Britain's most iconic and fascinating musicians.

FRI 00:25 Top of the Pops (b083xvgg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

FRI 01:10 The People's History of Pop (b083dj11)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]

FRI 02:10 Gary Numan: Android in La La Land (b083dj13)
[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)

...Sings Neil Diamond 00:50 SAT (b00vzzsy)

A Timewatch Guide 21:00 TUE (b083dd1g)

A Timewatch Guide 20:00 WED (b083dd1g)

Arena 21:00 WED (b01pjlhv)

Beautiful Equations 01:25 SUN (b00wltbm)

Black Nurses: The Women Who Saved the NHS 21:00 THU (b083dgtb)

Black Nurses: The Women Who Saved the NHS 02:35 THU (b083dgtb)

Chamber Music at the BBC 19:00 SUN (b03p7p6q)

Classic Albums 21:00 FRI (b007b6hv)

Country at the BBC 02:55 SAT (b08qgkzv)

Dan Cruickshank's Adventures in Architecture 23:50 MON (b00b5pv7)

Dangerous Earth 20:00 THU (b083dgt5)

Deep Water 21:00 SAT (b083h101)

Deep Water 21:50 SAT (b083h103)

Electric Proms 23:45 SAT (b00vzzsw)

Electric Proms 01:35 THU (b00vzzsw)

Fighting for King and Empire: Britain's Caribbean Heroes 01:50 MON (b05v08b7)

Gary Numan: Android in La La Land 23:00 FRI (b083dj13)

Gary Numan: Android in La La Land 02:10 FRI (b083dj13)

Great Artists in Their Own Words 01:30 WED (b01sg9ls)

Henry VIII's Enforcer: The Rise and Fall of Thomas Cromwell 21:00 SUN (b01t03ky)

Hive Minds 20:30 THU (b083dgt8)

Horizon: 40 Years on the Moon 23:00 THU (b00llgs8)

How to Be Bohemian with Victoria Coren Mitchell 23:30 WED (b0607p4y)

How to Be Bohemian with Victoria Coren Mitchell 02:30 WED (b0607p4y)

Impact! A Horizon Guide to Plane Crashes 00:25 SUN (b03d690n)

India's Frontier Railways 19:00 SAT (b05mp8mt)

India's Frontier Railways 23:00 TUE (b05nhjht)

Infested! Living with Parasites 21:00 MON (b03vrwj8)

John Denver: Country Boy 01:55 SAT (b03j4cz2)

Monkey Planet 20:00 MON (p01s0yd4)

My Week with Marilyn 22:00 WED (b01nx8kb)

Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution 23:25 SUN (b06zdkds)

Photographing Africa 22:00 MON (b03xsjb9)

Pop Go the Sixties 20:45 FRI (b008bxxt)

Pop Go the Sixties 20:50 FRI (b008790l)

Pop Go the Sixties 20:55 FRI (b0088xv2)

Seven Ages of Starlight 00:00 TUE (p00yb434)

Storyville 22:00 SUN (b083d74c)

Storyville 02:30 TUE (b083d74c)

Tails You Win: The Science of Chance 00:00 THU (p00yh2rc)

The First World War 23:00 MON (b01rnq76)

The Good Old Days 20:00 FRI (b083mybs)

The People's History of Pop 22:00 FRI (b083dj11)

The People's History of Pop 01:10 FRI (b083dj11)

The Secret History of Our Streets 22:00 TUE (b01kcpfh)

The Secret History of Our Streets 00:30 WED (b01kcpfh)

The Undiscovered Peter Cook 22:45 SAT (b0830jyr)

Timeshift 20:00 SAT (b082v57b)

Top of the Pops 01:20 SAT (b082wd74)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b083hsd2)

Top of the Pops 01:00 THU (b083hsd2)

Top of the Pops 19:30 FRI (b083xvgg)

Top of the Pops 00:25 FRI (b083xvgg)

Treasures of Ancient Greece 20:00 TUE (b05ql1sf)

Treasures of Ancient Greece 01:30 TUE (b05ql1sf)

Visions of the Valleys 00:50 MON (b05p706x)

Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom 02:25 SUN (p01hscs5)

Wild Burma: Nature's Lost Kingdom 22:00 THU (p01hsd4k)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b083d4z8)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b083d4zv)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b083d50b)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b083d50m)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b083d50s)

World War I at Home 19:30 MON (b045ghms)

World War I at Home 19:30 TUE (b045ghyr)

World War I at Home 19:30 WED (b045gjnt)

Young, Gifted and Classical: The Making of a Maestro 20:00 SUN (b083d749)

Young, Gifted and Classical: The Making of a Maestro 02:50 MON (b083d749)