As President Trump takes office, Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping our world.
Melvyn Bragg, accompanied by a vintage mobile cinema, travels across the country to show incredible footage preserved by the British Film Institute and other national and regional film archives, to tell the history of modern Britain.
Melvyn visits Park Hill in Sheffield to look back to the 1960s and a time when high-rise housing promised a better way of living.
Architect and historian Charlie Luxton explains how urban planners tackled the housing problem they faced after the Second World War. Anne Kimuyu shares her own experiences of high-rise living in Nottingham's Hyson Green estate, as the flats failed to fulfil their promise of a better way of living. And former Park Hill resident Charlie Lindley comes face to face with his family when they were filmed by the BBC in 1966 soon after moving into their new flat.
In the heady years following World War II, Britain was a nation in love with aviation. Having developed the jet engine in wartime, British engineers were now harnessing its power to propel the world's first passenger jets. By 1960 the UK's passenger airline industry was the largest in the world, with routes stretching to the furthest-flung remnants of Empire.
And the aircraft carrying these New Elizabethans around the globe were also British - the Vickers Viscount, the Bristol Britannia and the world's first pure jet-liner, the sleek, silver De Havilland Comet, which could fly twice as high and twice as fast as its American competitors. It seemed the entire nation was reaching for the skies to create the shape of things to come for air travel worldwide. But would their reach exceed their grasp?
Margaret Mountford travels to Egypt's Valley of the Kings to discover the story of an unsung hero of British photography - Harry Burton, the man whose images of the Tutankhamun excavation created a global sensation in the 1920s.
As she explores the spectacular locations where Burton worked, including Tutankhamun's tomb, she investigates how his photographs inspired a craze for Egyptian designs and made the archaeologist Howard Carter an international celebrity. She discovers why Burton's images are still studied today by Egyptologists around the world. And she works with a present-day photographer, Harry Cory Wright, to find out how Burton pushed the boundaries of photographic art to create his extraordinary and influential pictures of the world's most famous archaeological discovery.
A look at the dazzling array of mysterious and wonderful creatures that live in China's most beautiful landscapes.
The extreme landscapes north of the Great Wall have shaped some of China's most colourful people and wildlife. From nomadic tribes hunting with eagles to camel trains crossing the Silk Road, from frozen Siberian wastes to baking deserts of central Asia, life in northern China is always on the edge.
Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison is America's first lady of literature. Her books encompass black American history but live and breathe in the present, rich in vivid characters, haunted by ghosts. Born poor in Ohio in 1931, she now lives in New York.
In a film first shown in 2015, she tells Alan Yentob how her father hated whites so much he wouldn't let them in the house. Her masterpiece, Beloved, shows the horrors of slavery perhaps better than any other artwork. She talks as she writes - with warmth and wit. Contributors include Angela Davis (whose biography she edited) and singer Jessye Norman.
Actor and writer Mark Gatiss embarks on a chilling voyage through European horror cinema. From the silent nightmares of German Expressionism in the wake of World War I to lesbian vampires in 1970s Belgium, from the black-gloved killers of Italy's bloody giallo thrillers to the ghosts of the Spanish Civil War, Mark reveals how Europe's turbulent 20th century forged its ground-breaking horror tradition. On a journey that spans the continent from Ostend to Slovakia, Mark explores classic filming locations and talks to the genre's leading talents, including directors Dario Argento and Guillermo del Toro.
THURSDAY 09 MARCH 2017
THU 19:00 100 Days (b08h8d5m)
Series 1
09/03/2017
As President Trump takes office, Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping our world.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b08h9ct9)
John Peel and David Jensen present another edition of the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 28 April 1983. Featuring Galaxy, The Creatures, Tears for Fears, Kissing the Pink and Spandau Ballet.
THU 20:00 Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise (b08bg31f)
The Mysterious North
Northern Thailand is dominated by mountains and cloaked in forest. It hides ancient creatures and surprising partnerships. To survive here, both the wildlife and people rely on maintaining the natural harmony of the mysterious north.
THU 21:00 Sound Waves: The Symphony of Physics (b08h9ctd)
Series 1
Using Sound
Dr Helen Czerski examines the extraordinary messages sound waves carry and how they help us understand the world around us.
Visiting a hidden location buried beneath the hills of Scotland, Helen experiences some of the most extreme acoustics in the world. Here she learns just how much information can be carried by sound. She discovers how sound has driven the evolution of truly incredible biological systems and complex relationships between creatures that exploit sound for hunting - and escaping from predators. Helen demonstrates how sound waves diffract (bend around objects) and in doing so help us sense danger and locate it.
Through the story of a cochlea implant patient Helen explores the complicated way our ears can translate sound waves - a physical vibration in the air - into an electrical signal our brain can understand.
Helen explains how we are not limited to passively detecting sound waves, we can also use them to actively probe the world. From detecting submarines to uncovering the secrets of our planet, sound waves are instrumental in revealing things hidden from the world of light. On the cold North Sea, Helen investigates how marine archaeologists are using sound waves to uncover the remarkable human stories buried beneath the sea. Yet we are not limited to using sound waves here on Earth, as Helen explains how sound has been used to better understand distant, alien worlds in the outer solar system.
THU 22:00 Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur (p03dwy5z)
David Attenborough tells the story of the discovery and reconstruction in Argentina of the world's largest-known dinosaur, a brand new species of titanosaur. Measuring 37m long - close to four London buses put end to end - and weighing 70 metric tons, it now holds the record as the biggest animal ever to walk the earth.
In 2014, a shepherd spotted the tip of a gigantic fossil bone sticking out of a rock in La Flecha Farm in the Chubut Province in the Argentinian desert. Palaeontologists soon uncovered a massive 2.4m long thigh bone (femur), the largest ever found. By the end of the dig they had uncovered more than 220 bones. As the programme reveals, these all belong to a new species of the giant plant-eating titanosaur.
Filmed over the next two years, the documentary follows the twists and turns of this forensic investigation. Attenborough witnesses the uncovering and examination of these stupendous fossils and the dramatic construction of the complete skeleton. And using state-of-the-art graphics, the film also reveals the internal secrets of this dinosaur and what it means to be a giant.
THU 23:00 Nazis: A Warning from History (b0074kr5)
Fighting to the End
After the Battle of Stalingrad in the autumn of 1942 and the winter of 1943, the German people experienced nothing but disaster. So why, when the war seemed lost, did the Nazis fight on?
This programme examines why Germany had to suffer so much, and in her suffering inflict destruction on countless others. Between July 1944 and May 1945 more Germans would perish than in the previous four years of the war put together.
The film shows how fear and hatred of Bolshevism drove many Germans to fight to the bitter end. The extent to which Germany had also become a dramatically racist country also played a part. A former member of the Hitler Youth reveals why he approved of the brutal treatment of Polish forced workers in Geramny, and a former slave worker at the IG Farben concentration camp at Auschwitz tells his dramatic story.
Germans who lived in the former Eastern bloc also talk openly about the whirlwind of death and destruction unleashed by the collapse of the Nazi regime. Their stories include a dramatic eye-witness account of when more than 900 inhabitants of a German village committed suicide by drowning rather than risk facing the occupying Soviet army.
THU 23:50 A Timewatch Guide (b071gx2c)
Series 2
World War Two
Professor Saul David uses the BBC archive to chart the history of the world's most destructive war, by chronicling how the story of the battle has changed. As new information has come to light, and forgotten stories are remembered, the history of World War Two evolves. The BBC has followed that evolution, and this programme examines the most important stories, and how our understanding of them has been re-defined since the war ended over 70 years ago.
THU 00:50 Top of the Pops (b08h9ct9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 01:25 Sounds of the Eighties (b0074sk2)
Episode 3
Musical memories from the BBC archives. This edition concentrates on the soul and funk artists who found success in the British charts of the 1980s, with performances from Kool and the Gang, The Pointer Sisters, Grace Jones, Cameo, Bobby Womack, Sade, Alexander O'Neal and Whitney Houston.
THU 01:55 Sound of Song (b050rbz8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
THU 02:55 Sound Waves: The Symphony of Physics (b08h9ctd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 10 MARCH 2017
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b08h8d5v)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b08h9j0j)
Mike Read and Tommy Vance present another edition of the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 12 May 1983. Featuring Modern Romance, Hall & Oates, Hot Chocolate, Galaxy, The Creatures, Men at Work and Spandau Ballet.
FRI 20:00 The Good Old Days (b08h9j0l)
Leonard Sachs presents the old-time entertainment show, first broadcast on 21 February 1978. Features Ron Moody, Hinge & Bracket, Duggie Brown, Rita Morris, Alan Randall, Peter Gale, Les Missiles, Albert Aldred and Bernard Hermann.
FRI 21:00 The People's History of Pop (b08h9j0n)
1997-2010 Closer Than Close
Sara Cox looks at the time when the internet opened up new worlds for music fans and brought them closer to their musical heroes than ever before.
It starts in the years leading up to the year 2000 - a time when information overload and uncertainty about new technologies was creating an anxiety about the future.
We hear from fans who loved a band that were tackling this millennial angst head-on with a new album - Radiohead with their 1997 album OK Computer.
As this new technology enters our lives, we meet people who are starting to change the relationship between fans and bands - a fan who saves his favourite band Travis from the bad press reviews of their second album with a letter written to Melody Maker in 1999 and a chart pop fan who manages to meet his favourite pop heroes with an ingenious, homemade piece of memorabilia.
From the same period, we get an insight into the new clubbing trends - from the outfits, photos and magazine articles saved by a pioneer of a new, fan-powered tribe on the dancefloor - the Crasher Kids - who become the identity of Sheffield club Gatecrasher, to a fan whose flyers chart the rise of grassroots sound UK garage, which went from the airwaves of pirate radio and Sunday night clubs scene in London to the top of the charts.
In the 2000s, fans could now decide who their pop stars were going to be and we meet a mother and daughter whose lives were changed by Will Young, who in turn change his life by voting for him in Pop Idol.
With the arrival of file sharing in the early 2000s, a fan recounts how the unconventional rise of The Arctic Monkeys was all thanks to fans sharing music on online forums and Myspace. And as technology develops, we see how a fan's canny use of YouTube opened up the grime scene of east London to the world.
Along the way we hear the remarkable stories behind photos and signed set-lists from Amy Winehouse, the one-off fan club magazine from The Libertines and footage of a gig in Pete Doherty's flat, and footage of the moment when Adele gave her stage over to two very surprised fans.
FRI 22:00 Classic Albums (b010v8kh)
Primal Scream: Screamadelica
Primal Scream's seminal album Screamadelica was released in 1991, and synthesized the band's rock 'n' roll roots with the dance culture of that time; for many, the album's sound and imagery came to be regarded as quintessential symbols of the acid house era, perfectly catching the spirit and mood of the early 90s.
Using rare archive footage and special performances, this film tells the story of Screamadelica and its hit singles and dance anthems Loaded, Movin' On Up, Come Together and Don't Fight It, Feel It. From the formation of the band in Glasgow to winning the first-ever Mercury prize, the band members explain the record's inception with insights from main producer Andrew Weatherall, Creation Records founder Alan McGee and many others involved with or inspired by this joyful record.
Screamadelica both defines a generation and transcends its time, and is a true Classic Album.
FRI 23:00 Unfinished: The Making of Massive Attack (b07thrcg)
The story of how Bristol found its musical identity and tracing the creation of the city's most famous band. The documentary looks at the emergence of the 'Bristol Sound' in the 1980s culminating in the release of Massive Attack's first album. Narrated by actor Paul McGann - who was a part of Bristol's creative scene throughout this period - it traces the history of the scene. From the sound system culture that arrived in the city with the immigrants from the Caribbean, and how that mixed with the existing punk and new wave scene in Bristol, to hip-hop which arrived in Bristol from New York before any other city in Britain was aware of it.
It explores how this clash of cultures and musical styles gave the city a musical identity which to that point it lacked, unlike other industrial cities in Britain such as Liverpool and Manchester. Featuring contributions from key influencers of the creative scene including Milo Johnson of The Wild Bunch, Mark Stewart of The Pop Group, DJ and Producer Roni Size, and Neil Davidge - producer of Massive Attack's later work.
FRI 23:30 Amy Winehouse In Her Own Words (p02ty1n4)
A portrait of Amy Winehouse the artist threaded together from extracts from interviews she gave to the BBC for a variety of documentary projects including the Jazz and Soul Britannia series on FOUR, much of which material is previously unbroadcast, blended with performances from across her career, including some which are also previously unbroadcast and unseen.
Winehouse had a strong relationship with many parts of the BBC from when she launched herself as an artist back in 2004. In her short musical career, the north London native changed the landscape of modern pop culture, won countless awards, achieved critical acclaim and garnered global success before tragically dying at the tender age of 27.
On the eve of the release of Asif Kapadia's Amy documentary film which explores Winehouse's life and death, here is an exploration of her music and her influences in her own words.
Consisting of performances and interviews entirely from the BBC archives, this film celebrates Amy's music, her influences, her challenges as an artist and her eternal brutal honesty in her own words. Featuring exclusive unseen and rarely seen songs from her triple platinum selling album Frank and revered Grammy-winning album Back to Black, the programme pays homage to the tattooed rebellious rock 'n' roll-spirited songstress who wrote smart, sad, soulful and original pop songs that became instant classics and inspired a generation.
FRI 23:55 Britpop at the BBC (b0409s91)
In the mid-90s, Britpop stamped its presence onto the British music scene and made boys wearing eyeliner cool again. What better reason to raid the BBC archives for a rich treasure trove of the joy and the time that was Britpop?
Featuring the girls (Elastica, Sleeper) and the boys (Suede, Menswear) and many of the other bright young things that contributed to five years of Cool Britannia, Blur v Oasis and Camden being the centre of the universe. Britpop at the BBC reminds us all why we were all so proud to be British again in the 1990s.
FRI 00:55 Top of the Pops (b08h9j0j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 01:30 The People's History of Pop (b08h9j0n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:30 Classic Albums (b010v8kh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 03:30 Unfinished: The Making of Massive Attack (b07thrcg)
[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)
100 Days
19:00 MON (b08h8d4k)
100 Days
19:00 TUE (b08h8d4s)
100 Days
19:00 WED (b08h8d58)
100 Days
19:00 THU (b08h8d5m)
A Timewatch Guide
23:50 THU (b071gx2c)
Alexander Armstrong's Real Ripping Yarns
01:55 TUE (b03zqgk1)
Amy Winehouse In Her Own Words
23:30 FRI (p02ty1n4)
Ancient Greece: The Greatest Show on Earth
01:50 MON (b039fpnk)
Art of China
00:50 MON (b04cryjg)
Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur
22:00 THU (p03dwy5z)
Britain in Focus: A Photographic History
21:00 MON (b08h95jk)
Britain in Focus: A Photographic History
02:50 MON (b08h95jk)
Britain in Focus: A Photographic History
00:05 WED (b08h95jk)
Britpop at the BBC
23:55 FRI (b0409s91)
Classic Albums
22:00 FRI (b010v8kh)
Classic Albums
02:30 FRI (b010v8kh)
Every Breath We Take: Understanding Our Atmosphere
23:50 SUN (b04bdqsz)
Follow the Money
21:00 SAT (b089xq1y)
Follow the Money
22:00 SAT (b08bmgsl)
Horror Europa with Mark Gatiss
01:05 WED (b01nmsw7)
Indian Hill Railways
19:00 SAT (b00r5wk7)
Indian Hill Railways
23:55 TUE (b00r5wk7)
Janis Joplin: Little Girl Blue
01:05 SAT (b0755ms6)
Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies
20:00 WED (b01m9vjl)
Kiri Te Kanawa at the BBC
20:00 SUN (b08h918x)
Kiri Te Kanawa at the BBC
02:50 SUN (b08h918x)
Mumbai High: The Musical
01:45 SUN (p02z82jn)
Nazis: A Warning from History
23:00 THU (b0074kr5)
Oceans
23:50 MON (b00ftbl1)
Planet Earth II
21:00 TUE (b0861m8b)
Planet Earth II
02:55 TUE (b0861m8b)
Queens of Soul
02:35 SAT (b05nhjsx)
Reel History of Britain
19:30 MON (p00jwr9w)
Reel History of Britain
19:30 WED (p00jwrcn)
She-Wolves: England's Early Queens
20:00 SAT (b01bgpm7)
Sound Waves: The Symphony of Physics
22:50 SUN (b08h06tq)
Sound Waves: The Symphony of Physics
21:00 THU (b08h9ctd)
Sound Waves: The Symphony of Physics
02:55 THU (b08h9ctd)
Sound of Song
19:00 SUN (b050rbz8)
Sound of Song
01:55 THU (b050rbz8)
Sounds of the Eighties
01:25 THU (b0074sk2)
Storyville
22:00 TUE (b08h92d7)
Tales from the Royal Wardrobe with Lucy Worsley
20:00 TUE (b048wss8)
Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise
20:00 THU (b08bg31f)
The Attack: Terror in the UK
22:50 MON (b08h1ft5)
The Big Painting Challenge
20:00 MON (b08h92d5)
The Good Old Days
20:00 FRI (b08h9j0l)
The Hunt
21:00 SUN (b03jjbmw)
The Man Who Shot Tutankhamun
21:00 WED (b08h99sb)
The Man Who Shot Tutankhamun
02:35 WED (b08h99sb)
The People's History of Pop
21:00 FRI (b08h9j0n)
The People's History of Pop
01:30 FRI (b08h9j0n)
The Secret Science of Pop
00:05 SAT (b08gk664)
Timeshift
00:50 SUN (b03p7jh9)
Timewatch
22:00 MON (b00f6m71)
Top of the Pops
23:00 SAT (b08gk6z6)
Top of the Pops
23:30 SAT (b08gk7wl)
Top of the Pops
19:30 THU (b08h9ct9)
Top of the Pops
00:50 THU (b08h9ct9)
Top of the Pops
19:30 FRI (b08h9j0j)
Top of the Pops
00:55 FRI (b08h9j0j)
Unfinished: The Making of Massive Attack
23:00 FRI (b07thrcg)
Unfinished: The Making of Massive Attack
03:30 FRI (b07thrcg)
Weird Nature
19:30 TUE (b0078hh5)
What a Performance! Pioneers of Popular Entertainment
00:55 TUE (b06s5zw9)
Wild China
22:00 WED (b00bz1cf)
World News Today
19:00 FRI (b08h8d5v)
imagine...
23:00 WED (b062mp6k)