TUESDAY 28 MARCH 2017

TUE 19:00 100 Days (b08kgjf1)
Series 1

28/03/2017

As President Trump takes office, Christian Fraser in London and Michelle Fleury in Washington report on the events that are shaping our world.


TUE 19:30 Great Irish Journeys with Martha Kearney (b05nyhq4)
Episode 3

Martha Kearney walks in the footsteps of a 19th-century artist and geologist who spent his life charting the landscape, people and buildings of Ireland. She retraces the journey of George Victor Du Noyer whose 35-year odyssey left a unique record of how Ireland looked during a period of great change.

In this episode, Martha examines places of power in Ireland as seen through Du Noyer's eyes. She traces the movement of power from Newgrange, through the Rock of Cashel, sees the magnificent Waterford Charter Roll, and ends up at the sumptuous Castletown House.


TUE 20:00 1066: A Year to Conquer England (b08h7zsb)
Series 1

Episode 1

In this three-part drama documentary series, Dan Snow explores the political intrigues and family betrayals between Vikings, Anglo-Saxons and Normans that led to war and the Battle of Hastings.

When King Edward the Confessor dies without an heir, it triggers a bitter race to succeed him as King of England. Earl Harold is on the spot and takes the crown. But in Normandy, Duke William believes the throne has been promised to him and decides to invade. Meanwhile, in Norway, the Viking king Harald Hardrada also fancies himself as King of England, and he too puts together an invasion force. Very soon, England will be under attack.


TUE 21:00 Gravity and Me: The Force That Shapes Our Lives (b08kgv7f)
Physics professor Jim Al-Khalili investigates the amazing science of gravity. A fundamental force of nature, gravity shapes our entire universe, sculpting galaxies and warping space and time. But gravity's strange powers, discovered by Albert Einstein, also affect our daily lives in the most unexpected ways. As Jim tells the story of gravity, it challenges his own understanding of the nature of reality.

The science of gravity includes the greatest advances in physics, and Jim recreates groundbreaking experiments in gravity including when the Italian genius Galileo first worked out how to measure it.

Gravity science is still full of surprises and Jim investigates the latest breakthrough - 'gravity waves' - ripples in the vast emptiness of space. He also finds out from astronauts what it's like to live without gravity.

But gravity also directly affects all of us very personally - making a difference to our weight, height, posture and even the rate at which we age. With the help of volunteers and scientists, Jim sets out to find where in Britain gravity is weakest and so where we weigh the least. He also helps design a smartphone app that volunteers use to demonstrate how gravity affects time and makes us age at slightly different rates.

And finally, Jim discovers that despite incredible progress, gravity has many secrets.


TUE 22:30 Television's Opening Night: How the Box Was Born (b0817s4g)
In a unique experiment, Dallas Campbell, Professor Danielle George and Dr Hugh Hunt join forces in an attempt to restage the very first official broadcast on British television, exactly 80 years after it made history.

The very first official broadcast came from Alexandra Palace on 2 November 1936 - but there are no surviving recordings. To find out just what went on, this 21st-century team attempts to piece back together and recreate every aspect of the show from scratch - from the variety acts to the cameras - using the original technology and filming techniques to capture the excitement of the day.

It's not going to be easy. At the dawn of TV, two rival camera technologies competed live on air to take control of the fledgling industry. The system that went first on opening night was a seven-foot tall mechanical monster built by John Logie Baird's company. It was called the 'Flying Spot' and at its heart was a huge steel disc spinning almost at the speed of sound - meaning mechanical engineer Hugh had better be careful as he attempts to resurrect it. Meanwhile, Danielle finds out how the rival and highly experimental, all-electronic camera system had problems of its own.

The team uncovers the mixed influences of high-minded radio and bawdy variety shows on early TV, at a time when it was still a science experiment and not a mass medium. They seek advice from pre-war television pioneers, including Logie Baird's former assistant, now aged 104 but still full of handy tips about how to build a mechanical camera.

Dallas learns just how much harder his job would have been 80 years ago, when the very first television announcer Leslie Mitchell was plastered in bizarre make-up and given a cue for 'action' that bordered on physical assault! Dallas also meets one of the performers in front of the camera on the original night - now in her nineties - to find out what it was like to be part of television history.

As they prepare for broadcast, the team discovers a story of cogs and gears, electron beams and dancing girls - and one mad night that, for better or worse, helped invent television as we know it.


TUE 00:00 Alan Johnson: The Post Office and Me (b06g5g5f)
Alan Johnson MP (and former postman) tells the story of 500 years of the Royal Mail, and discovers how the humble British postal system changed the course of British history. Alan started out as a postman in London when he was 18, in 1968. He would eventually rise to become general secretary of the Communication Workers Union before being elected as an MP. So the post office changed his life, and set him on the path to parliament.

In this film, he explores the rich history of this great institution, and reveals how it has been a force for progress in British society. The British post office led the world in creating a cheap, accessible mail system. This was the first true revolution in mass communication, and it changed society.

With the invention of the stamp - the famous Penny Black - in 1840, ordinary people could suddenly afford to write to each other. Businesses thrived thanks to mail order. And the volumes of mail skyrocketed - creating a postal system that would at its peak employ 250,000 people.

To tell this story - and to find out how the Royal Mail is adapting to the 21st century - Alan travels back in time to his old rounds, and into the future at a giant automated sorting office. He is given an exclusive tour of the Queen's private stamp collection to see the most precious Penny Blacks in the world. He takes a ride on a Travelling Post Office - one of the mail-sorting trains that used to criss-cross the nation through the night and that were immortalised in the film Night Mail.

He ventures beneath the streets of London to see the remains of the Royal Mail's secret underground railway, and he meets some 21st-century postmen and women to find out how the job has changed since he was doing it back in the 1960s.

Alan loved being a postman. But in the age of email, is there a future for the post?


TUE 01:00 POP! The Science of Bubbles (b01rtdy6)
Physicist Dr Helen Czerski takes us on an amazing journey into the science of bubbles. Bubbles may seem to be just fun toys, but they are also powerful tools that push back the boundaries of science.

The soap bubble with its delicate, fragile skin tells us about how nature works on scales as large as solar system and as small as a single wavelength of light. Then there are underwater bubbles, which matter because they are part of the how the planet works. Out at sea, breaking waves generate huge plumes of bubbles which help the oceans breathe.

From the way animals behave to the way drinks taste, Dr Czerski shows how bubbles affect our world in all sorts of unexpected ways. Whether it's the future of ship design or innovative new forms of medical treatment, bubbles play a vital role.


TUE 02:00 Gravity and Me: The Force That Shapes Our Lives (b08kgv7f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]