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

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



SATURDAY 24 JUNE 2017

SAT 19:00 Glastonbury (b08w9fzm)
2017

Kaiser Chiefs and Liam Gallagher

Mark Radcliffe and Alice Levine open up proceedings on the second day of the world-famous festival. In this slot, there are highlights of shows from Kaiser Chiefs, followed by Oasis man Liam Gallagher who is making his return as a solo artist at the festival, and along with debuting some of his much-anticipated new songs will no doubt lead the Other Stage crowd in a singalong or two.


SAT 20:00 Glastonbury (b08w9fzp)
2017

The National

Mark Radcliffe and Alice Levine introduce the Pyramid Stage performance by Ohio-raised, Brooklyn-based band The National.


SAT 21:00 Glastonbury (b08w9fzr)
2017

Father John Misty

Mark Radcliffe and Alice Levine present live coverage of the performance from the John Peel Stage by US singer-songwriter Josh Tillman, aka Father John Misty, who will no doubt perform a track or two from his recent third album Pure Comedy, which takes a hard look at narcissism, internet addiction and PC culture in the age of Trump.


SAT 22:05 Glastonbury (b08w9fzt)
2017

The Jacksons

Live performance by the most famous family in musical history, the legendary outfit will no doubt have the West Holts crowd showing off their moves within seconds of coming on stage when they work through their megahits from across the years.


SAT 23:40 Top of the Pops (b08vxkqb)
Simon Bates and Peter Powell present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 19 January 1984. Featuring Whitesnake, Big Country, Fiction Factory, China Crisis, Gloria Gaynor, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.


SAT 00:15 Northern Soul: Living for the Weekend (b04bf1lf)
The northern soul phenomenon was the most exciting underground British club movement of the 70s. At its high point, thousands of disenchanted white working class youths across the north of England danced to obscure, mid-60s Motown-inspired sounds until the sun rose. A dynamic culture of fashions, dance moves, vinyl obsession and much more grew up around this - all fuelled by the love of rare black American soul music with an express-train beat.

Through vivid first-hand accounts and rare archive footage, this film charts northern soul's dramatic rise, fall and rebirth. It reveals the scene's roots in the mod culture of the 60s and how key clubs like Manchester's Twisted Wheel and Sheffield's Mojo helped create the prototype that would blossom in the next decade.

By the early 70s a new generation of youngsters in the north were transforming the old ballrooms and dancehalls of their parents' generation into citadels of the northern soul experience, creating a genuine alternative to mainstream British pop culture. This was decades before the internet, when people had to travel great distances to enjoy the music they felt so passionate about.

Set against a rich cultural and social backdrop, the film shows how the euphoria and release that northern soul gave these clubbers provided an escape from the bleak reality of their daily lives during the turbulent 70s. After thriving in almost total isolation from the rest of the UK, northern soul was commercialised and broke nationwide in the second half of the 70s. But just as this happened, the once-healthy rivalry between the clubs in the north fell apart amidst bitter in-fighting over the direction the scene should go.

Today, northern soul is more popular than ever, but it was back in the 70s that one of the most fascinating and unique British club cultures rose to glory. Contributors include key northern soul DJs like Richard Searling, Ian Levine, Colin Curtis and Kev Roberts alongside Lisa Stansfield, Norman Jay, Pete Waterman, Marc Almond, Peter Stringfellow and others.


SAT 01:15 Classic Soul at the BBC (b0074pvv)
A collection of some of the greatest soul performances from the BBC's archive, featuring Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Dusty Springfield, Isaac Hayes, Solomon Burke and Percy Sledge.


SAT 02:15 Otis Redding: Soul Ambassador (b020tphg)
Documentary about the legendary soul singer Otis Redding, following him from childhood and marriage to the Memphis studios and segregated southern clubs where he honed his unique stage act and voice. Through unseen home movies, the film reveals how Otis's 1967 tour of Britain dramatically changed his life and music. After bringing soul to Europe, he returned to conquer America, first with the 'love crowd' at the Monterey Festival and then with Dock of the Bay, which topped the charts only after his death at just 26.

Includes rare and unseen performances, intimate interviews with Otis's wife and daughter and with original band members Steve Cropper and Booker T Jones. Also featured are British fans whose lives were changed by seeing him, among them Rod Stewart, Tom Jones and Bryan Ferry.



SUNDAY 25 JUNE 2017

SUN 19:00 Glastonbury (b08w9gw1)
2017

Rag'n'Bone Man and Shaggy

Alice Levine and MistaJam introduce two artists who will no doubt be hugely popular with the festival crowds. First up, from East Sussex, 2016 breakthrough artist Rory Graham, aka Rag'n'Bone Man, makes his debut on the Other Stage, and he is followed by Mr Boombastic himself, Shaggy, the hugely successful dancehall reggae superstar who has hits a-plenty including Oh Carolina, Angel and It Wasn't Me to get the West Holts Stage dancing.


SUN 20:05 Glastonbury (b08w9gw3)
2017

The Killers

A secret set on the John Peel Stage sees Brandon Flowers and co on perfect form


SUN 21:00 Glastonbury (b08xx6qc)
2017

Biffy Clyro

Lauren Laverne presents further coverage from Glastonbury as Biffy Clyro take to the Pyramid Stage.


SUN 22:00 Storyville (b04m3k1q)
Russia's Toughest Prison: The Condemned

With unprecedented access, this documentary looks into the hidden world of one of Russia's most impenetrable and remote institutions - a maximum security prison exclusively for murderers. Deep inside the land of the gulags, this is the end of the line for some of Russia's most dangerous criminals - 260 men who have collectively killed nearly 800 people. The film delves deep into the mind and soul of some of these prisoners.

In brutally frank and uncensored interviews the inmates speak of their crimes, life and death, redemption and remorselessness, insanity and hope. The film tracks them though their unrelenting days over several months, lifting the veil on one of Russia's most secretive subcultures to reveal what happens when a man is locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours every day, for life.

A startling insight into inscrutable minds and the forbidding world they have been condemned to.


SUN 23:20 Horizon (b08tj2zr)
2017

Antarctica - Ice Station Rescue

Britain's state-of-the-art Antarctic research base Halley VI is in trouble. Built on the Brunt Ice Shelf, it sits atop a massive slab of ice that extends far beyond the Antarctic shoreline. But the ice is breaking apart and just 6km from the station is a ginormous crevasse, which threatens to separate Halley from the rest of the continent, setting the £28 million base adrift on a massive iceberg.

So Halley needs to move. But this is probably the toughest moving job on earth, and the team of 90 who have been tasked with the mission aren't just architectural or engineering experts. They are plumbers, mechanics and farmers from across the UK and beyond - ordinary men and women on an extraordinary adventure. Their practical skills will be what makes or breaks this move. The rescue mission has one thing in its favour: Halley was built on giant skis that mean it can be moved - in theory. But no-one has actually done it before. Embedded with the team, BBC film-maker Natalie Hewit spent three months living on the ice, following these everyday heroes as they battle in the most extreme environment on earth to move this vital polar research station.


SUN 00:20 The Comet's Tale (b008d2x7)
Ancient civilisations thought comets were gods. They believed them to be bringers of life or harbingers of doom - strange, magical, mysterious things that moved through the sky, fiery streaks of light that tore across the heavens.

Isaac Newton was the first to make sense of comets and to him they were the key to unlocking the secrets of gravity - nothing to do with an apple. Hundreds of years later, a new breed of space missions are visiting comets, travelling millions of miles to touch down on these tiny balls of rock flying through space at 20,000 mph. The spectacular images we now have are showing us what comets are really made of, where they come from, and their often surprising influence on events on Earth.

What they reveal is that our ancestors may have been right all along and that comets and meteors really are like gods, or at least they can exert tremendous influence over our world. They have brought terrible destruction to the Earth and may one day do so again. But they also may have brought life itself to the planet.


SUN 01:20 Timeshift (b00x7c3z)
Series 10

The Golden Age of Coach Travel

Documentary which takes a glorious journey back to the 1950s, when the coach was king. From its early origins in the charabanc, the coach had always been the people's form of transport. Cheaper and more flexible than the train, it allowed those who had travelled little further than their own villages and towns a first heady taste of exploration and freedom. It was a safe capsule on wheels from which to venture out into a wider world.

The distinctive livery of the different coach companies was part of a now-lost world, when whole communities crammed into coach after coach en route to pleasure spots like Blackpool, Margate and Torquay. With singsongs, toilet stops and the obligatory pub halt, it didn't matter how long it took to get there because the journey was all part of the adventure.


SUN 02:20 David Attenborough's Zoo Quest in Colour (p03qxfsg)
Thanks to a remarkable discovery in the BBC's film vaults, the best of David Attenborough's early Zoo Quest adventures can now be seen as never before, in colour, and with it the remarkable story of how this pioneering television series was made.

First broadcast in December 1954, Zoo Quest was one of the most popular television series of its time and launched the career of the young David Attenborough as a wildlife presenter. It completely changed how viewers saw the world, revealing wildlife and tribal communities that had never been filmed or even seen before.

Broadcast ten years before colour television was seen in the UK, Zoo Quest was thought to have been filmed in black and white, until now. Using this extraordinary new-found colour film, together with new behind-the-scenes stories from David Attenborough and cameraman Charles Lagus, this special showcases the very best of Zoo Quest to West Africa, Zoo Quest to Guiana and Zoo Quest for a Dragon in stunning HD colour for the very first time.



MONDAY 26 JUNE 2017

MON 19:00 100 Days+ (b08w9466)
Series 1

26/06/2017

Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping our world.


MON 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b050mgr4)
Series 6

Middlesbrough to Hexham

Following his Bradshaw's Handbook, Michael Portillo begins this leg of his journey from Derby to Lindisfarne in the Victorian ironopolis of Middlesbrough. He visits one of the last cast-iron foundries in the city and helps cast a carrot valve for a steam engine.

His next stop is Darlington, spiritual home of the railways, where he learns how the city profited from its fast connections to the capitals of England and Scotland by developing a newspaper industry. Michael meets the editor of the Northern Echo and finds out about the colourful history of one of his predecessors, WT Stead.

At Jarrow, Michael visits the monastery to learn about its famous monk, the father of English history, Bede. His last stop on this leg of his journey is Hexham, where he visits a historic ginger-beer emporium.


MON 20:00 Britain and the Sea (b03k2g3r)
Invasion and Defence

David Dimbleby continues his voyage round Britain, sailing his boat Rocket along the south east coast from Hampshire to Kent. This was the front line coast, the edge of Britain essential to its defence and the first point of attack for invasion forces. From the great battleships of Nelson to the sea forts of Henry VIII, this is a story that embraces Britain's darkest and most heroic moments.


MON 21:00 The Art of Japanese Life (p054mdmy)
Series 1

Home

In the final episode, Dr James Fox explores the art of the Japanese home. The clean minimalism of the Japanese home has been exported around the world, from modernist architecture to lifestyle stores like Muji. But the origins of this ubiquitous aesthetic evolved from a system of spiritual and philosophical values, dating back centuries. James visits one of Japan's last surviving traditional wooden villages, and the 17th-century villa of Rinshunkaku, and reveals how the unique spirit of Japanese craftsmen (shokunin) turned joinery into an artform - creating houses without the need for nails, screws or even glue.

Exploring some of the traditional arts of the Japanese home (where even food and flower arranging have been elevated to the level of art), James also investigates attitudes to domestic culture in modern Japan, meeting photographer Kyoichi Tsuzuki, chronicler of Japan's crowded cities and tiny apartments.

Other highlights include a performance by calligrapher and artist Tomoko Kawao and a visit to the hometown of Terunobu Fujimori, one of the most singular and playful contemporary architects working in Japan today.


MON 22:00 Handmade in Japan (p054mcvv)
Series 1

Mingei Pottery

The final episode features one of Japan's most famous family of potters - the Hamadas. Shoji Hamada was a major figure in the Mingei folk art movement of the 1920s and '30s and helped turn the town of Mashiko into a major centre of ceramics, famous for its thick and rustic pottery. He also spent time in Britain where he taught renowned St Ives potter Bernard Leach the art of Japanese pottery.

Today, his grandson Tomoo Hamada continues the family tradition and this film follows him at work, painstakingly shaping his pots and firing them in an old-style wood-fuelled kiln. We also hear how Tomoo played a vital role in saving Mashiko as a pottery centre after many of its kilns were destroyed in the 2011 earthquake.


MON 22:30 Lucy Worsley's Reins of Power: The Art of Horse Dancing (b06ccpzz)
Strictly Come Prancing: Lucy Worsley learns to ride - in fact, she learns how to dance on horseback before putting on a show for the paying public!

Now, if this sounds mad, horse ballet or manege was once the noblest of pursuits practised by everyone from courtier to king in the first half of the 17th century. Having become fascinated by this horsey hobby whilst writing her PhD, Lucy is on a quest to find out why this peculiar skill was once so de rigeur - learning the lost art from its modern masters, visiting the Spanish Riding School in Vienna to witness spectacular equestrian shows, exploring its military origins through donning Henry VIII-style jousting armour, and discovering horse ballet's legacies in competitive dressage and, more surprisingly, in the performances of the Royal Horse Artillery, the King's Troop today.


MON 23:30 Natural World (b0147dw3)
2011-2012

The Woman Who Swims with Killer Whales

The killer whale is one of the most feared predators in the ocean and most would consider it madness to enter the water with one. But New Zealander Dr Ingrid Visser thinks differently - and by swimming with her beloved whales she has come to know almost all of them by sight. But there's been an unusual number of deaths recently and Ingrid is on a mission to find out what is going on. Her findings reveal disturbing new information about the health of our oceans.


MON 00:30 The Fantastical World of Hormones with Professor John Wass (b03wctdg)
Hormones shape each and every one of us, affecting almost every aspect of our lives - our height, our weight, our appetites, how we grow and reproduce, and even how we behave and feel.

This documentary tells the wonderful and often weird story of how hormones were discovered.

Presenter John Wass, one the country's leading experts on hormones, relates some amazing stories - how as recently as the 19th century boys were castrated to keep their pure soprano voice, how juices were extracted from testicles in the hope they would rejuvenate old men and how true medical heroes like Frederick Banting discovered a way to make insulin, thus saving the lives of countless diabetes sufferers.

And hormones remain at the cutting edge of medicine as we try and deal with modern scourges like obesity.


MON 01:30 Britain and the Sea (b03k2g3r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 02:30 Handmade in Japan (p054mcvv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


MON 03:00 The Art of Japanese Life (p054mdmy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 27 JUNE 2017

TUE 19:00 100 Days+ (b08w946f)
Series 1

27/06/2017

Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping our world.


TUE 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b050mj7y)
Series 6

Newcastle to Lindisfarne

With his Bradshaw's guidebook in hand, Michael Portillo journeys from Newcastle up the north east coast to Lindisfarne. He finds out about the world's earliest swing bridge and its inventor, Newcastle engineer Sir William Armstrong, and discovers how the city's Victorian industrial heritage has found a new cultural purpose.

From Seahouses by boat, amid puffins and cormorants, Michael goes in search of a darling of the Victorian press who, with her father, rescued nine people from tumultuous seas.

On the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, Michael explores the lime kilns and finds out how, in the 7th century, Christianity spread from here across northern England.


TUE 20:00 Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines (p01f53b9)
Poison

Dr Michael Mosley ends the series with a look at poisons, exploring the turning points when scientists went from finding antidotes to poisons to applying poisons as cures, and celebrating the eccentrics and mavericks whose breakthroughs were to pave the way for some of the most striking treatments of modern medicine. Of the medicines explored in this series, those that are derived from poisons are perhaps the most extraordinary. The story of turning poisons into medicines encompasses the planet's most deadly substances, in which we turned killers into cures.


TUE 21:00 Hokusai: Old Man Crazy to Paint (b08w9lv6)
The first UK film biography of the world-renowned Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), whose print The Great Wave is as globally famous as Leonardo's Mona Lisa. With Andy Serkis reading the voice of Hokusai, the film features artists David Hockney and Maggi Hambling, and passionate scholars who study, admire and venerate this great Japanese master.

The film focuses on Hokusai's work, life and times in the great, bustling metropolis of Edo, now modern Tokyo. Using extraordinary close-ups and pioneering 8K Ultra HD video technology, Hokusai's prints and paintings are examined by world experts. In the process they reveal new interpretations of famous works and convey the full extent of Hokusai's extraordinary achievement as a great world artist.

Hokusai spent his life studying and celebrating our common humanity as well as deeply exploring the natural and spiritual worlds, using the famous volcano Mount Fuji as a protective presence and potential source of immortality. He knew much personal tragedy, was struck by lightning and lived for years in poverty, but never gave up his constant striving for perfection in his art. Hokusai influenced Monet, Van Gogh and other Impressionists, is the father of manga, and has his own Great Wave emoji.


TUE 22:00 Storyville (b08w9lvb)
Tokyo Girls

Girl bands and pop music permeate Japanese life. This film gets to the heart of a cultural phenomenon driven by an obsession with young female sexuality and internet popularity.

Meet Rio - a bona fide Tokyo idol who takes us on her journey toward fame. Now meet her 'brothers' - a group of adult male superfans who devote their lives to following her, in the virtual world and in real life. Once considered to be on the fringes of society, the brothers who gave up salaried jobs to pursue an interest in female idol culture have since become mainstream via the internet, illuminating the growing disconnect between men and women in hypermodern societies.

Tokyo Girls explores the Japanese pop music industry and its focus on traditional beauty ideals, confronting the nature of gender power dynamics at work. As the female idols become younger and younger, the film looks at the veil of internet fame and the new terms of engagement that are playing out in real life around the globe.


TUE 23:00 Who Should We Let In? Ian Hislop on the First Great Immigration Row (b08w2cvq)
As Brexit Britain prepares to draw up new rules on who is welcome here, Ian Hislop takes an entertaining and provocative look at the decades from the Victorian era to the First World War, when modern Britain introduced its first peacetime restrictions on immigration.

The Victorians had a completely open door to foreigners, drawing no distinction between economic migrant and asylum seeker. But as Hislop explores, rising immigration in the late 19th century triggered a fierce - and very familiar - debate fuelled by clashing values, economic anxiety and the media.

When 100,000 Jewish refugees arrived, indigenous working-class hackles rose at higher rents, lower wages and changing inner-city neighbourhoods. Hislop uncovers the surprising case of Mancherjee Bhownagree, an Indian immigrant who stood for parliament in 1895 - and won - on an anti-immigration ticket. Another young MP, Winston Churchill, spoke out against the tough curbs proposed by the 1902 Royal Commission, lambasting it as the work of prejudice and racism. But the 1905 Aliens Act restricted peacetime immigration for the first time.

Ian also examines the role of the press in stoking fear and prejudice against migrants, focusing on Britain's tiny Chinese community which fell prey to a full-scale 'yellow peril' media scare. But he also uncovers extraordinary British generosity towards refugees - telling the story of the unprecedented First World War humanitarian relief effort when ordinary Britons selflessly opened their homes to a quarter of a million Belgians.

Ian discusses attitudes to immigration then and now with former home secretary Alan Johnson, former Tory chair Baroness Warsi and controversial columnist Katie Hopkins. He also takes the temperature of the nation - in animated conversation with native and foreign-born Brits in London, Liverpool and Folkestone.


TUE 00:00 Majesty and Mortar: Britain's Great Palaces (b0488trx)
Opening the Palace Doors

With the widowhood of Queen Victoria, the glorious life of palaces almost came to an abrupt end. There would be just one final flowering of palatial style just before the First World War, on an imperial scale - the redesign of Buckingham Palace and The Mall. The interwar period was a difficult time for many of Britain's best palaces, forced into a half-life of grace-and-favour accommodation for exiled royalty and aristocracy down on their luck. But more recent times would see restoration and conservation on a new scale and, with it, detective work to uncover palace secrets.


TUE 01:00 The Treasure Hunters (b040zb5q)
Man-made Treasure

Ellie Harrison and Dallas Campbell reveal the greatest treasures we've ever created.

Dallas braves vicious currents to dive on a shipwreck where gold, silver and 5,000 emeralds have been found. Ellie tells the tale of intrigue and obsession surrounding a jewelled room in Russia decorated with millions of pounds worth of amber. She enters the secretive world of the diamond cutters - each lives with the knowledge that a slip of the hand could cost them millions of pounds.


TUE 02:00 Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines (p01f53b9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 03:00 Hokusai: Old Man Crazy to Paint (b08w9lv6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017

WED 19:00 100 Days+ (b08w946n)
Series 1

28/06/2017

Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping our world.


WED 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b0517pyg)
Series 6

Pembroke Dock to Swansea

Michael Portillo embarks on a new journey from west Wales to East Anglia. Beginning at Pembroke Dock, Michael visits the dockyard where Queen Victoria's royal yachts were built. He investigates what caused riotous rebels to dress up as women in Narberth and spends the night at an inn in Carmarthen where Admiral Lord Nelson once met Lady Emma Hamilton. After flagging down the steam train to ride on the Carmarthen-to-Aberystwyth railway, Michael pitches in with the volunteers who look after the Gwili heritage line. In Swansea, on the estate of one of the pioneers of British photography, Michael learns how to pose for a photograph in Victorian style.


WED 20:00 Sound of Cinema: The Music That Made the Movies (b03b965y)
Pop Goes the Soundtrack

Composer Neil Brand explores how, in the second half of the 20th century, composers and film-makers embraced jazz, pop and rock to bring fresh energy and relevance to film scores.

He shows how in the 1960s, films as diverse as the James Bond movies, spaghetti westerns and Disney's musicals drew on the talents of pop arrangers and composers like John Barry, Ennio Morricone and the Sherman Brothers to create unforgettable soundtracks. But the role of the film composer would subsequently be challenged by directors like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, who showed that a soundtrack consisting of carefully chosen pop songs could be as effective as a specially written one.

Neil's journey sees him meet leading film-makers and composers including Martin Scorsese and composers Richard Sherman (Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book), Lalo Schifrin (Bullitt) and David Arnold (Casino Royale).


WED 21:00 Spies of Warsaw (b01psbj3)
Episode 1

Classic tale of spying, intrigue and romance, based on the novels of Alan Furst.

A German engineer arrives in Warsaw. Tonight he will be with his Polish mistress, tomorrow at a workers' bar in the city's factory district to meet with Colonel Mercier in a backstreet cafe. Information is exchanged for money.

Mercier loathes the niceties of ambassadorial lunches, cocktail parties and banquets of a world not yet at war, but one in which the drums of war can be heard ever more insistently in the background. However, they take on an altogether more interesting dimension when he meets the enigmatic and beautiful Anna Skarbek.

While secretly observing panzer exercises in the Black Forest, Mercier sees a simple trick performed with a length of pipe strapped across a car and draws his own conclusions about exactly what it is the Germans are planning.

When the Nazis find out what he's been doing, his own life becomes their target.


WED 22:30 The Flying Scotsman: A Rail Romance (b008m6wb)
As it celebrates its 90th birthday, Barbara Flynn narrates the story of the nation's love affair with the Flying Scotsman, the steam locomotive that symbolises all that was great about British engineering.


WED 23:30 Andrew Marr on Churchill: Blood, Sweat and Oil Paint (b06714yz)
Andrew Marr discovers the untold story of Winston Churchill's lifelong love for painting and reveals the surprising ways in which his private hobby helped shape his public career as politician and statesman, even playing an unexpected part in his role as wartime leader.

Marr is himself a committed amateur painter and art has played an important role in his recovery from a serious stroke in 2013. His fascination with the healing powers of art fuels a journey that opens a new perspective on one of Britain's most famous men.

Andrew travels to the south of France and Marrakech, where Churchill loved to paint, and discovers how his serious approach to the craft of painting led to friendships with major British artists of the 20th century. He finds out how a single painting in the 1940s may have influenced the course of the Second World War, and meets Churchill's descendants to discover what his family felt about a private hobby that helped keep him sane through his wilderness years. And he discovers how, 50 years after Churchill's death, his art is being taken more seriously than ever before, with one painting being sold for almost £2 million in 2014.


WED 00:30 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 01:30 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.


WED 02:30 The Flying Scotsman: A Rail Romance (b008m6wb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]



THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017

THU 19:00 100 Days+ (b08w946t)
Series 1

29/06/2017

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 (b08w9n0w)
John Peel and David Jensen present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 2 February 1984. Includes appearances from Musical Youth, Queen, Matthew Wilder, Fiction Factory, Thomas Dolby, Thompson Twins, Juan Martin and Duran Duran.


THU 20:00 Castles: Britain's Fortified History (b04t6n19)
Instruments of Invasion

Sam Willis looks at the history of the castle from its first appearance with the Normans in 1066 to the longest siege on English soil at Kenilworth Castle 200 years later. The castle arrived as an instrument of invasion but soon became a weapon with which unruly barons challenged the Crown. Tintagel Castle, the place where King Arthur is said to have been conceived, is also on the itinerary. It remains one of the most evocative of castles to this day, drawing visitors from around the world with its tales of myth and legend.


THU 21:00 Japan: Earth's Enchanted Islands (p02n9vgl)
Hokkaido

Hokkaido is Japan's northernmost - and wildest - island, a place totally unlike the rest of the country. Every year, it swings from a bitter Siberian winter into the warmth of a Mediterranean-like summer, when the thaw reveals a landscape changed beyond all recognition. It takes tough animals and tough people with real ingenuity to survive, and even thrive, in this ever-changing place.


THU 22:00 Frank Skinner on Muhammad Ali (b08sr6ql)
Frank Skinner goes on a journey to explore the life of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, meeting Ali's family and friends and visiting key locations in his life.

To discover more about his idol, Frank travels around the UK and US, visiting key locations and people in Ali's life. In Ali's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, he meets the neighbour who witnessed the teenage boxer's single-minded dedication to his craft. He meets Ali's younger brother Rahaman, a key figure in the boxer's entourage and his closest confidante, and Ali's wife Khalilah, who was alongside Ali during the turbulent years when he was banned from boxing for refusing to fight in Vietnam and which saw him become an icon of the civil rights movement.

Frank pays a visit to Ali's training compound in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania, somewhere he has always longed to see. This is where Ali and his team prepared for one of his most famous fights of all time - the Rumble in the Jungle. From Ali's business manager, Gene Kilroy, Frank learns how Ali's unshakeable self-confidence and ability to manipulate the crowd were powerful weapons against his opponent George Foreman. He finds out what it was like behind the scenes in the Ali camp by talking to Ali's old sparring partner and friend Larry Holmes, who later faced him in the ring.

Frank also delves into some of the lesser-known aspects of Ali's life, meeting the bare-knuckle boxer from an Oxfordshire council estate who became one of Ali's dearest friends and the actor who played alongside Ali in a little-known musical on Broadway.


THU 23:00 Boxing at the Movies: Kings of the Ring (b01r5mhb)
Danny Leigh explores the elemental drama of the boxing movie. For over 120 years, boxing and film have been entwined and the fight film has been used to address powerful themes such as redemption, race and corruption. Film writer Leigh examines how each generation's fight films have reflected their times and asks why film-makers from Stanley Kubrick to Martin Scorsese have returned time and again to tales of the ring.

Interviewees include former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, Rocky director John G Avildsen and Thelma Schoonmaker, editor of Raging Bull.


THU 00:00 Top of the Pops (b08w9n0w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 00:30 A Brief History of Graffiti (b067fxfr)
Dr Richard Clay goes in search of what it is that has made us scribble and scratch mementoes of our lives for more than 30,000 years. From the prehistoric cave paintings of Burgundy in France, through gladiatorial fan worship in Roman Lyons to the messages left on the walls of Germany's Reichstag in 1945 by triumphant Soviet troops, time and again we have wanted to leave a permanent record of our existence for our descendants. And it may be that this is where what today we call art comes from - the humble scratch, graffiti.


THU 01:35 Castles: Britain's Fortified History (b04t6n19)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 02:35 Japan: Earth's Enchanted Islands (p02n9vgl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 30 JUNE 2017

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b08w946z)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b08w9nk3)
Simon Bates and Peter Powell introduce the pop chart programme. Featuring Slade, Thompson Twins, Style Council, Shannon, Matt Bianco and Nena.


FRI 20:00 The Good Old Days (b08w9nk6)
Leonard Sachs presents a 1979 edition of the old-time music hall programme from the stage of the City Varieties Theatre, Leeds. Featuring John Inman, Rita Morris, The Balladiers, John Wade, Julie Royce, Duo Barodies, Raymond Bowers and members of the Players' Theatre, London.


FRI 20:50 Sounds of the Seventies (b00lydy0)
Shorts

The Moody Blues, The Faces and David Bowie

Three vintage rock performances from the BBC archives, featuring The Moody Blues, The Faces and David Bowie originally recorded for It's Lulu, Sounds for Saturday and The Old Grey Whistle Test.


FRI 21:00 Tom Jones's 1950s: The Decade That Made Me (b0788qph)
In this personal journey through his formative years in south Wales in the 1950s, Tom Jones takes us on a trip through the decade of his childhood and adolescence, the years that shaped his ambition, his talent and his tastes and that witnessed an explosion of popular culture and the sweeping aside of the old order.

Television, the movies, the radio and - most importantly - the music of the first rock 'n' roll years give us a unique insight into both the country and the decade that would shape Tom's talent and, in the 60s, make him a star. Tom Jones's 1950s in Pontypridd are told first hand by the man himself as he travels back to his birthplace.

Tom's take on the decade is amplified and explored by a Greek chorus of contributors who share their account of their 50s. Joan Bakewell, Katherine Whitehorn and Michele Hanson share their experiences both as women and from differing class backgrounds, historians Alwyn Turner, Martin Johnes, Francis Beckett and Tony Russell draw the social and political landscape of a rapidly changing decade, while musicians Bruce Welch, Clem Cattini, Marty Wilde and Tom McGuinness talk of how that decade began their musical journeys and changed their lives forever, all illustrated by a rich seam of archive that captures a decade we mostly saw in black and white.

The result is a rich mix of humour, confession and reflection - all brought to life by Tom Jones himself, our guide through the lives and times of a young generation struggling to find its own voice.


FRI 22:00 Tom Jones at the BBC (b00vz5ml)
An archive celebration of Tom Jones's performances at the BBC from the start of his pop career in the mid-60s to Later...with Jools Holland in 2010 and all points in between, including Top of the Pops and The Dusty Springfield Show. A chronological celebration of Sir Tom through the years that is also a history of music TV at the BBC over most of the past 50 years.


FRI 23:00 Dusty Springfield at the BBC (b01qyvw7)
A selection of Dusty Springfield's performances at the BBC from 1961 to 1995. Dusty was one of Britain's great pop divas, guaranteed to give us a big melody in songs soaring with drama and yearning.

The clips show Dusty's versatility as an artist and performer and include songs from her folk beginnings with The Springfields; the melodrama of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me; Dusty's homage to Motown with Heatwave and Nowhere to Run; the Jacques Brel song If You Go Away; the Bacharach and David tune The Look of Love; and Dusty's collaboration with Pet Shop Boys in the late 1980s.

There are also some great duets from Dusty's career with Tom Jones and Mel Torme.


FRI 00:00 Top of the Pops (b08w9nk3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 00:25 Tom Jones's 1950s: The Decade That Made Me (b0788qph)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 01:25 Tom Jones at the BBC (b00vz5ml)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 02:20 Dusty Springfield at the BBC (b01qyvw7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]


FRI 03:20 Sounds of the Seventies (b00lydy0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:50 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 (b08w9466)

100 Days+ 19:00 TUE (b08w946f)

100 Days+ 19:00 WED (b08w946n)

100 Days+ 19:00 THU (b08w946t)

A Brief History of Graffiti 00:30 THU (b067fxfr)

Andrew Marr on Churchill: Blood, Sweat and Oil Paint 23:30 WED (b06714yz)

Boxing at the Movies: Kings of the Ring 23:00 THU (b01r5mhb)

Britain and the Sea 20:00 MON (b03k2g3r)

Britain and the Sea 01:30 MON (b03k2g3r)

Castles: Britain's Fortified History 20:00 THU (b04t6n19)

Castles: Britain's Fortified History 01:35 THU (b04t6n19)

Classic Soul at the BBC 01:15 SAT (b0074pvv)

David Attenborough's Zoo Quest in Colour 02:20 SUN (p03qxfsg)

Dusty Springfield at the BBC 23:00 FRI (b01qyvw7)

Dusty Springfield at the BBC 02:20 FRI (b01qyvw7)

Fighting for King and Empire: Britain's Caribbean Heroes 00:30 WED (b05v08b7)

Frank Skinner on Muhammad Ali 22:00 THU (b08sr6ql)

Glastonbury 19:00 SAT (b08w9fzm)

Glastonbury 20:00 SAT (b08w9fzp)

Glastonbury 21:00 SAT (b08w9fzr)

Glastonbury 22:05 SAT (b08w9fzt)

Glastonbury 19:00 SUN (b08w9gw1)

Glastonbury 20:05 SUN (b08w9gw3)

Glastonbury 21:00 SUN (b08xx6qc)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 MON (b050mgr4)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 TUE (b050mj7y)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:30 WED (b0517pyg)

Handmade in Japan 22:00 MON (p054mcvv)

Handmade in Japan 02:30 MON (p054mcvv)

Hokusai: Old Man Crazy to Paint 21:00 TUE (b08w9lv6)

Hokusai: Old Man Crazy to Paint 03:00 TUE (b08w9lv6)

Horizon 23:20 SUN (b08tj2zr)

Japan: Earth's Enchanted Islands 21:00 THU (p02n9vgl)

Japan: Earth's Enchanted Islands 02:35 THU (p02n9vgl)

Lucy Worsley's Reins of Power: The Art of Horse Dancing 22:30 MON (b06ccpzz)

Majesty and Mortar: Britain's Great Palaces 00:00 TUE (b0488trx)

Natural World 23:30 MON (b0147dw3)

Northern Soul: Living for the Weekend 00:15 SAT (b04bf1lf)

Otis Redding: Soul Ambassador 02:15 SAT (b020tphg)

Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines 20:00 TUE (p01f53b9)

Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines 02:00 TUE (p01f53b9)

Sound of Cinema: The Music That Made the Movies 20:00 WED (b03b965y)

Sounds of the Seventies 20:50 FRI (b00lydy0)

Sounds of the Seventies 03:20 FRI (b00lydy0)

Spies of Warsaw 21:00 WED (b01psbj3)

Storyville 22:00 SUN (b04m3k1q)

Storyville 22:00 TUE (b08w9lvb)

The Art of Japanese Life 21:00 MON (p054mdmy)

The Art of Japanese Life 03:00 MON (p054mdmy)

The Comet's Tale 00:20 SUN (b008d2x7)

The Fantastical World of Hormones with Professor John Wass 00:30 MON (b03wctdg)

The Flying Scotsman: A Rail Romance 22:30 WED (b008m6wb)

The Flying Scotsman: A Rail Romance 02:30 WED (b008m6wb)

The Good Old Days 20:00 FRI (b08w9nk6)

The Treasure Hunters 01:00 TUE (b040zb5q)

Timeshift 01:20 SUN (b00x7c3z)

Tom Jones at the BBC 22:00 FRI (b00vz5ml)

Tom Jones at the BBC 01:25 FRI (b00vz5ml)

Tom Jones's 1950s: The Decade That Made Me 21:00 FRI (b0788qph)

Tom Jones's 1950s: The Decade That Made Me 00:25 FRI (b0788qph)

Top of the Pops 23:40 SAT (b08vxkqb)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b08w9n0w)

Top of the Pops 00:00 THU (b08w9n0w)

Top of the Pops 19:30 FRI (b08w9nk3)

Top of the Pops 00:00 FRI (b08w9nk3)

Visions of the Valleys 01:30 WED (b05p706x)

Who Should We Let In? Ian Hislop on the First Great Immigration Row 23:00 TUE (b08w2cvq)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b08w946z)