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

Radio-Lists Home Now on BBC 4 Contact

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



SATURDAY 29 JULY 2017

SAT 19:00 The Secret Life of Rockpools (b01rtdr4)
Paleontologist Professor Richard Fortey embarks on a quest to discover the extraordinary lives of rock pool creatures. To help explore this unusual environment he is joined by some of the UK's leading marine biologists in a dedicated laboratory at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth. Here and on the beach in various locations around the UK, startling behaviour is revealed and new insights are given into how these animals cope with intertidal life. Many popular rock pool species have survived hundreds of millions of years of Earth's history, but humans may be their biggest challenge yet.


SAT 20:00 Britain's Treasure Islands (b077rl5m)
Ocean Odyssey

Naturalist Stewart McPherson's exploration of the British Overseas Territories begins in Bermuda in the North Atlantic, where he finds ancient castles and a bird that had been thought extinct for more than 300 years.

Stewart then travels to the British Indian Ocean Territory, which lies halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia, where he comes across the world's biggest land invertebrate. He eventually reaches Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific, where he meets the descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty.


SAT 21:00 I Know Who You Are (b08zn41x)
Series 1

Episode 5

Eleven days before she disappeared, Ana met with Alicia who informs her that she knows of her pregnancy, but Ana surprises Alicia by naming the father. Juan Elias is undergoing therapy to help him to regain his memory, but his session is being secretly watched by Eva Duran and David Vila. Fulfilling his bargain, Juan takes Pol to visit his grandfather in prison where Pol learns a painful family secret. Marc Castro willingly undergoes a re-enactment of his last moments with Ana.

In Spanish with English subtitles.


SAT 22:15 I Know Who You Are (b08zyfgd)
Series 1

Episode 6

We learn that Ana has indeed collected the 100,000 euros promised to her by Hector Castro, but she had to make a quick getaway when chased by a man on a motorcycle. David is disappointed when Eva proves that she no longer trusts him and is determined to discover the identity of the mole. Alicia and Heredia attempt to convince Juan Elias that he should not take the amnesia test, but Juan is determined to get to the truth.

In Spanish with English subtitles.


SAT 23:30 Rich Hall's Countrier Than You (b08j8lqb)
Award-winning comedian Rich Hall takes a country music journey from Tennessee to Texas to look at the movements and artists that don't get as much notoriety but have helped shape the genre over the years.

With the help of prominent performers and producers including Michael Martin Murphey, Robbie Fulks and Ray Benson, Rich explores the early origins of country music in Nashville and Austin. He visits the rustic studios where this much-loved sound was born and discovers how the genre has reinvented itself with influences from bluegrass, western swing and Americana.

Rich also explores how the music industries differ between these two cities and how they each generated their own distinct twist on the genre, from cosmic country and redneck country to the outlaw artists of the 1970s. Through Working Dog, a three-minute self-penned soap opera about a collie dog, Rich illustrates how different styles can change.

As he unearths the roots and inner workings of country music, Rich finds it's more than just music - it's a lifestyle.


SAT 01:00 Bob Harris: My Nashville (p0293k6w)
'Whispering' Bob Harris journeys to America's country music capital to reveal why Nashville became Music City USA. From the beginnings of the Grand Ole Opry on commercial radio, through the threatening onset of rock 'n' roll in the 50s, right up to the modern mainstream hits of Music Row, this is the story of how music has shaped Nashville and why today it's a place of pilgrimage for musicians from all over the world.

As well as iconic venues on Lower Broadway and the historic hit factories of 16th Avenue, Bob also explores the east Nashville music scene and discovers a rebellious flipside to the country coin. With exclusive performances from the city's top talent, Bob explains why country music owes its enduring success to Nashville's unique nurturing community of songwriters.

Includes interviews with Emmylou Harris, Duane Eddy, Dave Stewart and Rosanne Cash.


SAT 02:00 The Secret Life of Rockpools (b01rtdr4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 03:00 Britain's Treasure Islands (b077rl5m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 30 JULY 2017

SUN 19:00 Secret Knowledge (b05wps6k)
Nina Simone & Me with Laura Mvula

Over half a century since she first performed her songs, Nina Simone is more popular than ever. From Sinnerman to Mississippi Goddam, Feeling Good to My Baby Just Cares for Me, she is an artist with an extraordinary songbook that mixes jazz, blues, soul and even classical.

British soul singer Laura Mvula travels to New York to celebrate the Nina songs that mean most to her and explore their musical roots. Performing with a Harlem gospel choir, uncovering the influence of Nina's classical training and meeting Simone's long-time guitarist Al Shackman, Laura presents a personal tribute to the genius of her musical hero.


SUN 19:30 BBC Proms (b08zn4l9)
2017

Zhang's Beethoven

Beethoven's much-loved Ninth Symphony, with its passionate plea for unity, is performed by the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales and the CBSO Chorus, conducted by Xian Zhang. Its companion piece is the European premiere of A European Requiem, written in 2015 by the great Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan.


SUN 21:30 BBC Proms (b08zn4lc)
2017

Beethoven's Fidelio

A stirring story of justice and liberty, Beethoven's only opera Fidelio is performed by a stellar cast, including Stuart Skelton, Ricarda Merbeth, James Creswell and Louise Alder. The BBC Philharmonic is joined by Spanish choir Orfeon Donostiarra under conductor Juanjo Mena.


SUN 23:30 Norman Wisdom: His Story (b00vhmqq)
From street urchin to knight of the realm - the story of Norman Wisdom, who used to be one of the biggest film stars in the UK, portraying a man who rarely stepped out of character in public, and whose highly individual comic style hid the private tragedy of his early life.

The actor's life story is told through the people who knew him well - his son and daughter Nick and Jacqui Wisdom, his daughter-in-law Kim, film director Stephen Frears, actors Ricky Tomlinson, Leslie Phillips and Honor Blackman, and singer Dame Vera Lynn.


SUN 00:30 Horizon (b08w61hc)
2017

Ten Things You Need to Know about the Future

This episode looks at the issues that will change the way we live our lives in the future. Rather than relying on the minds of science fiction writers, mathematician Hannah Fry delves into the data we have today to provide an evidence-based vision of tomorrow. With the help of the BBC's science experts - and a few surprise guests - Hannah investigates the questions the British public want answered about the future.

Hannah tries to discover whether we could ever live forever or if there will ever be a cure for cancer. She finds out how research into the human brain may one day help with mental health, and if it is possible to ever ditch fossil fuels. Hannah and her guests also discover the future of transport - and when, if ever, we really will see flying cars. She discovers whether a robot will take your job or if, as some believe, we will all one day actually become cyborgs. The programme predicts what the weather will be like and discovers if we are on the verge of another mass extinction. Hannah's tenth prediction is something she - and Horizon - are confident will definitely happen, and that is to expect the unexpected!


SUN 01:30 Beautiful Thing: A Passion for Porcelain (p0192fqp)
Documentary in which Ros Savill, former director and curator at the Wallace Collection, tells the story of some incredible and misunderstood objects - the opulent, intricate, gold-crested and often much-maligned Sevres porcelain of the 18th century.

Ros brings us up close to a personal choice of Sevres masterpieces in the Wallace Collection, viewing them in intricate and intimate detail. She engages us with the beauty and brilliance in the designs, revelling in what is now often viewed as unfashionably pretty or ostentatious. These objects represent the unbelievable skills of 18th-century France, as well as the desires and demands of an autocratic regime that was heading for revolution.

As valuable now as they were when first produced, Sevres' intricacies and opulence speak of wealth, sophistication and prestige and have always been sought after by collectors eager to associate themselves with Sevres' power. Often the whims and capricious demands of monumentally rich patrons were the catalysts for these beautiful and incredible artistic innovations.

The film explores the stories of some of history's most outrageous patrons - Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, as well as their foreign counterparts like Catherine the Great, who willingly copied the French court's capricious ways. Ros tells how the French Revolutionaries actually preserved and adapted the Sevres tradition to their new order, and how the English aristocracy collected these huge dinner services out of nostalgia for the ancient regime. In fact, they are still used by the British royal family today.

Like the iPads of their day, these objects, ostentatious to modernist eyes, were the product of art and science coming together and creating something beautiful yet functional. Ros reconnects us with the fascinating lives and stories of the artists, artisans, painters and sculptors whose ingenuity, innovation and creativity went into making some of the most incredible and incredibly expensive ice cream coolers, vases and teapots of their day. We also see inside the factory, still open today, and witness the alchemic creation process for ourselves.

Taking us behind the museum glass and into some incredible private collections, the film reveals stories that are as louche, extravagant and over the top as some of the objects themselves. They might be unfashionable or even unpalatable to minimalist modernist tastes right now, but in this documentary we are taken back to a time when these objects were universally loved and adored, when they were the newest and most incredible things that had ever been created.


SUN 02:30 Treasures of the Anglo Saxons (b00t6xzx)
Art historian Dr Nina Ramirez reveals the codes and messages hidden in Anglo-Saxon art. From the beautiful jewellery that adorned the first violent pagan invaders through to the stunning Christian manuscripts they would become famous for, she explores the beliefs and ideas that shaped Anglo-Saxon art.

Examining many of the greatest Anglo Saxon treasures - such as the Sutton Hoo Treasures, the Staffordshire Hoard, the Franks Casket and the Lindisfarne Gospels - Dr Ramirez charts 600 years of artistic development which was stopped dead in its tracks by the Norman Conquest.


SUN 03:30 Secret Knowledge (b05wps6k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



MONDAY 31 JULY 2017

MON 19:00 World News Today (b08zmpps)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 The Boats That Built Britain (b00s96rt)
The Matthew

No ship has ever made a more important discovery than the Matthew. In 1497, explorer John Cabot left Bristol on this little boat and 3,000 miles later landed in what we now know is North America. His discovery would change Britain and the world forever.

Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe sails the Matthew for himself and finds out just how this incredible little boat made a journey into the unknown and came back to tell the story.


MON 20:00 Horizon (b08wwnwk)
2017

Dawn of the Driverless Car

The car has shrunk the world, increased personal freedom and in so many ways expanded our horizons, but there is a flipside. Fumes from car exhausts have helped to destroy our environment, poisoned the air we breathe and killed us in far more straightforward ways. But all that is going to change.

This episode enters a world where cars can drive themselves, a world where we are simply passengers, ferried about by wholesome green compassionate technology which will never ever go wrong. And it is almost here. Horizon explores the artificial intelligence required to replace human drivers for cars themselves, peers into the future driverless world and discovers that, despite the glossy driverless PR (and assuming that they really can be made to work reliably), the reality is that it might not be all good news. From the ethics of driverless car crashes to the impact on jobs, it might be that cars are about to rise up against us in ways that none of us are expecting.


MON 21:00 Two Types: The Faces of Britain (b0903ppd)
We are surrounded by types, the words on signs, buses, shops and documents which guide us through our lives. Two types in particular are regarded as the faces of Britain - Johnston and Gill Sans. Their story is told by typeface expert Mark Ovenden.


MON 22:00 Queers (p057t5dm)
Series 1

The Man on the Platform

In the first of eight short monologues written in response to the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act, a young man returning from the trenches of the First World War recollects a love that dared not speak its name.


MON 22:20 Queers (b08zz5pp)
Series 1

A Grand Day Out

In 1994, as the government votes on lowering the age of male homosexual consent, 17-year-old Andrew comes to London for the first time - with unexpected results.


MON 22:40 Storyville (p057n8sz)
Queerama

Created from a treasure trove of archive, Queerama traverses a century of gay experiences, encompassing persecution and prosecution, injustice, love and desire, identity, secrets, forbidden encounters, sexual liberation and pride. The soundtrack weaves the lyrics and music of John Grant, Goldfrapp and Hercules & Love Affair with the images and guides us intimately into the relationships, desires, fears and expressions of gay men and women in the 20th century- a century of incredible change.


MON 23:50 Sex and Sensibility: The Allure of Art Nouveau (b01dprb6)
Paris

The delicious objects of Parisian Art Nouveau are explored by cultural correspondent Stephen Smith. Uncovering how the luscious decorative style first erupted into the cityscape, Stephen delves into the city's bohemian past to learn how some of the 19th century's most glamorous and controversial figures inspired this extraordinary movement.

Revealing the story behind Alphonse Mucha's sensual posters of actress Sarah Bernhardt, looking at the exquisite jewellery designer Renee Lalique and visiting iconic art nouveau locations such the famous Maxim's restaurant, the programme builds a picture of fin-de-siecle Paris.

But Smith also reveals that the style is more than just veneer deep. Looking further into the work of glassmaker Emile Galle and architect Hector Guimard, he sees how some of art nouveau's stars risked their reputation to give meaning and purpose to work they thought could affect social change.


MON 00:50 Carved with Love: The Genius of British Woodwork (b01psbwz)
The Extraordinary Thomas Chippendale

Thomas Chippendale is the most famous furniture designer the world has ever produced, but what about the man behind the chairs? This episode shows how Chippendale worked his way up from humble roots to working for the nobility, but also how he was ruined by the very aristocrats he created such wonders for.


MON 01:50 Horizon (b08wwnwk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 02:50 Two Types: The Faces of Britain (b0903ppd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 01 AUGUST 2017

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b08zmpq1)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 The Boats That Built Britain (b00sbp0t)
The Pickle

HMS Pickle is the unsung hero of the British navy. In 1805 Britain had just won the most significant sea battle in history, Trafalgar. But how to get the message home to an expectant nation? Enter the Pickle, the smallest ship in the fleet, a little boat with a revolutionary new design that beat her bigger rivals back to Britain to deliver the news. Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe sets out in the Pickle and tells the story of a boat that, against all the odds, delivered the most important news in Britain's maritime history.


TUE 20:00 10 Things You Didn't Know About... (b008pr87)
Tsunamis

Iain Stewart journeys across the oceans to explore the most powerful giant waves in history, with ten remarkable stories about tsunamis.

These massive waves can be taller than the biggest skyscraper, travel at the speed of a jet plane and when they reach land, rear up and turn into a terrifying wall of water that destroys everything in its path. These unstoppable, uncontrollable forces of nature caused the ruin of an entire ancient civilization, may have played a small part in the demise of the dinosaurs, and in World War II were used as a weapon. Yet astonishingly, two men who surfed the tallest wave in history - half a kilometre high - survived.


TUE 21:00 A Timewatch Guide (b08zn5dg)
Series 4

Explorers: Conquest and Calamity

For centuries the story of exploration has been packed with incredible tales of adventure, but the last fifty years has seen a dramatic shift in our attitude towards explorers.

To find out how television has reflected this, Prof Fara Dabhoiwala delves into the BBC television archives, revealing that the pace of this change was faster than you would imagine. In the 1960s the BBC was still making programmes showing Christopher Columbus as an uncomplicated conquering hero. Barely a decade later, it made a documentary that delved into museum storerooms packed with artefacts brought back to Britain by Captain Cook, focusing on the perspective of the explored rather than the explorer.

As the story of exploration became as much about social calamity as conquest, television has been forced to find new ways to portray explorers. By the 21st century this included everything from focusing on adventurers like Ernest Shackleton, famous not for conquest but for saving the lives of his men, to using new technology to demystify exploration by making programmes from material shot by the explorers themselves.


TUE 22:00 Queers (b08zz70k)
Series 1

More Anger

Actors can easily feel typecast. But it's 1987, and with AIDS hitting the headlines a promising new part looks like a game-changer for Phil.


TUE 22:20 Queers (b08zz70m)
Series 1

Missing Alice

Alice and her husband share a secret, but with the publication of the Wolfenden Report in 1957 it may not need to be a secret anymore.


TUE 22:40 The Secrets of Scott's Hut (b010n2lm)
Ben Fogle joins an expedition across Antarctica to find Captain Scott's hut, frozen in time for a century. The hut was built to support Scott's 1911 attempt to be first to the South Pole, and was later abandoned together with 10,000 personal, everyday and scientific items.

Ben uncovers the hut and its contents, finding new information about his hero Scott and his famously tragic expedition. Scott's diaries are read by Kenneth Branagh.


TUE 00:10 Gunpowder 5/11: The Greatest Terror Plot (b04mhwfn)
For the first time, the inner secrets of the gunpowder plotters are dramatised using the actual words of their most senior captured leader Thomas Wintour, Guy Fawkes and state interrogators investigating the 18-month conspiracy in which a family circle of militant Catholic gentlemen tried to blow up king and parliament.

Wintour's insider account of this epic tale of faith, fanaticism, persecution and betrayal is told in detail, from his recruitment of both Fawkes and his own brother to his capture in a dramatic siege and bloody shoot-out on 8 November.

The hopes, fears and plans for a Midlands rebellion, royal kidnap, the plotters' penetration of the king's bodyguard and Fawkes's attendance, sword in hand, at a wedding attended by the king in December 1604 are shown, as well as a dramatisation of the thrilling, forgotten story of the final days after 5/11 as the conspirators are hunted down and then face the terrible punishments reserved for traitors.


TUE 01:10 10 Things You Didn't Know About... (b008pr87)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 02:10 Dangerous Earth (b0824cw7)
Avalanche

Dr Helen Czerski looks at the anatomy of an avalanche. From shocking eyewitness footage from within an avalanche to detailed CT scans showing the microscopic changes that cause them, we can now capture exactly what happens as snow transforms into a deadly and unpredictable danger.


TUE 02:40 A Timewatch Guide (b08zn5dg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 02 AUGUST 2017

WED 19:00 World News Today (b08zmpqf)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 The Boats That Built Britain (b00scqb3)
The Phoenix

The square rigger is arguably the most important vehicle in history. In the 19th century these boats transported finished goods and raw materials all over the world, transforming Britain from a second-rate European power into the richest and most powerful nation on earth.

Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe sets out on the Phoenix, a plank-perfect square rigger, to discover just how these incredible boats changed Britain and the world forever.


WED 20:00 Inside Einstein's Mind: The Enigma of Space and Time (b06s75vs)
The story of the most elegant and powerful theory in science - Albert Einstein's general relativity.

When Einstein presented his formidable theory in November 1915, it turned our understanding of gravity, space and time completely on its head. Over the last 100 years, general relativity has enabled us to trace the origins of the universe to the Big Bang and to appreciate the enormous power of black holes.

To mark the 100th anniversary of general relativity, this film takes us inside the head of Einstein to witness how his idea evolved, giving new insights into the birth of a masterpiece that has become a cornerstone of modern science. This is not as daunting as it sounds - because Einstein liked to think in pictures. The film is a magical visual journey that begins in Einstein's young mind, follows the thought experiments that gave him stunning insights about the physical world, and ultimately reaches the extremes of modern physics.


WED 21:00 Hyper Evolution: Rise of the Robots (b08zn62b)
Series 1

Episode 2

Professor Danielle George MBE, an electronics engineer from Manchester University and a robot supporter, and Dr Ben Garrod, an evolutionary biologist from Anglia Ruskin University and robo-sceptic, uncover whether the rise of the robots will enhance the progress of humanity or ultimately threaten the survival of the human race.

With extraordinary access to the world's leading robot-makers, they meet the trailblazing machines who pioneered key evolutionary leaps for robot-kind, and their most advanced descendants - to uncover just how far we've really come.

In this episode, Danielle and Ben investigate whether robots will ever become our friends, if we should trust them with our lives, and if one day they will even become conscious.

The programme uncovers the roots of an essential ingredient of any relationship - the art of conversation. The presenters come face to face with a whole range of creations - from one of the first talking robots, Alpha, a 1930s gun-toting womaniser; and the one-sided conversations with Siri; or Valkyrie - a heroic female robot designed to pave the way for us to set up home on Mars; to a little robot called Kirobo - designed to be a companion on the International Space Station. Unbearably cute, Kirobo even has the body language off pat - turning and nodding as he speaks.

Ben visits the first attempt to make a robotic brain - a 1940s tortoise born in Bristol - with a rudimentary awareness of its surroundings, before meeting its most advanced descendant - the driverless car. Can Ben overcome his inherent fear of robots and put his trust in a robotic car enough take his hands off the wheel?

Finally, we meet some astonishing robots who aren't simply pre-programmed with facts about the world, they learn about it for themselves. The one-metre-high iCub not only looks like a child, but he learns like one. Just like a two-year-old he is learning to count on his fingers and is forming his own unique understanding of the world.

As robots continue to evolve, Ben and Danielle consider the unsettling question of what it would mean if robots developed consciousness.


WED 22:00 Queers (b08zzbhb)
Series 1

I Miss the War

The 1967 Sexual Offences Act will revolutionise everything, won't it? Well, perhaps not as far as dapper gent Jackie is concerned.


WED 22:20 Queers (b08zzbhd)
Series 1

Safest Spot in Town

As the Blitz hits London, Fredrick is grateful that he survived in a very unlikely place of refuge.


WED 22:40 Horizon (b04knbny)
2014-2015

Is Your Brain Male or Female?

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

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

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


WED 23:40 The Joy of Logic (b03k6ypz)
A sharp, witty, mind-expanding and exuberant foray into the world of logic with computer scientist Professor Dave Cliff. Following in the footsteps of the award-winning The Joy of Stats and its sequel Tails You Win - The Science of Chance, this film takes viewers on a new rollercoaster ride through philosophy, maths, science and technology- all of which, under the bonnet, run on logic.

Wielding the same wit and wisdom, animation and gleeful nerdery as its predecessors, this film journeys from Aristotle to Alice in Wonderland, sci-fi to supercomputers to tell the fascinating story of the quest for certainty and the fundamentals of sound reasoning itself.

Dave Cliff, professor of computer science and engineering at Bristol University, is no abstract theoretician. 15 years ago he combined logic and a bit of maths to write one of the first computer programs to outperform humans at trading stocks and shares. Giving away the software for free, he says, was not his most logical move...

With the help of 25 seven-year-olds, Professor Cliff creates, for the first time ever, a computer made entirely of children, running on nothing but logic. We also meet the world's brainiest whizz-kids, competing at the International Olympiad of Informatics in Brisbane, Australia.

The film also hails logic's all-time heroes: George Boole who moved logic beyond philosophy to mathematics; Bertrand Russell, who took 360+ pages but heroically proved that 1 + 1 = 2; Kurt Godel, who brought logic to its knees by demonstrating that some truths are unprovable; and Alan Turing, who, with what Cliff calls an 'almost exquisite paradox', was inspired by this huge setback to logic to conceive the computer.

Ultimately, the film asks, can humans really stay ahead? Could today's generation of logical computing machines be smarter than us? What does that tell us about our own brains, and just how 'logical' we really are...?


WED 00:40 Voyages of Discovery (b0074t6g)
Hanging by a Thread

Explorer Paul Rose tells the story of the USS Squalus submarine which became stranded on the bottom of the Atlantic in 1937. No one had ever been saved from a stricken sub beneath the ocean before, but maverick designer Charles Momsen, who had been ignored by the navy top brass, was suddenly called into action to bring up the crew.

Rose meets the last living survivor from the sub and one of the men, now 103, who helped save him. The rescue kick-started a whole new era of technology, laying the foundation for modern deep-sea diving.


WED 01:40 Inside Einstein's Mind: The Enigma of Space and Time (b06s75vs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:40 Hyper Evolution: Rise of the Robots (b08zn62b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 03 AUGUST 2017

THU 19:00 World News Today (b08zmpqr)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b08zn99n)
Peter Powell and Gary Davies present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 19 April 1984. Featuring The Special AKA, Thompson Twins, Blancmange, Queen, Nik Kershaw, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Lionel Richie and Kool and the Gang.


THU 20:00 Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History (b03lytyp)
Civilising the Sea

Shipwrecks are the nightmare we have forgotten - the price Britain paid for ruling the waves from an island surrounded by treacherous rocks. The result is a coastline that is home to the world's highest concentration of sunken ships. But shipwrecks also changed the course of British history, helped shape our national character and drove innovations in seafaring technology, as well as gripping our imagination.

The terrible toll taken by shipwrecks was such that in the winter of 1820 some 20,000 seaman lost their lives in the North Sea alone. That's 20 jumbo jets. But in the final part of his series, maritime historian Sam Willis tells the stirring story of how the Victorians were finally driven into action, finding various ingenious solutions - from rockets that could fire rescue lines aboard stricken vessels to lifejackets, lifeboats and the Plimsoll Line, which outlawed overloading.

In Africa, he traces the legend of the Birkenhead Drill - the origin of 'women and children first'. Decorum even in disaster was the new Victorian way and it was conspicuously on hand to turn history's most iconic shipwreck - Titanic - into a tragic monument to British restraint.


THU 21:00 Prejudice and Pride: The People's History of LGBTQ Britain (b08zn99q)
Series 1

Episode 2

Every so often the world changes beyond your wildest dreams. In 1967 the Sexual Offences Act partially decriminalised homosexuality, offering lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people the opportunity to start living openly for the first time.

Presented by Stephen K Amos and Susan Calman, this unique series features LGBTQ people from across the UK as they share the objects that helped define their lives during 50 transformative years.

In episode two, these crowdsourced artefacts include a copy of the controversial schoolbook Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin, naval discharge papers and even a pair of Ugg boots.

We meet the nun-impersonating freedom fighters the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the writer behind TV's steamiest lesbian kiss and a Muslim man who set up an LGBT support group for Southeast Asians.

Ranging from 1987 to 2017, this was an era when public acceptance of homosexuality overtook the government's - a time when many celebrities came out and stood up for LGBTQ rights. But it is also the story of ordinary people in extraordinary times - told through their treasured possessions - charting the joys and heartbreaks of just being true to yourself.

Prejudice and Pride: The People's History of LGBTQ Britain is part of Gay Britannia, a season of programming produced in 2017 to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act.


THU 22:00 Queers (b08zzcm3)
Series 1

The Perfect Gentleman

Bobby is a swaggering man about town. But Bobby has a secret. Can it survive when it really matters?


THU 22:20 Queers (b08zzcm5)
Series 1

Something Borrowed

Steve, a groom-to-be, anxiously prepares his wedding speech. But now the big day is here, what has been won and what has been lost?


THU 22:40 Timeshift (b01rjr2y)
Series 12

How To Be A Lady: An Elegant History

Journalist Rachel Johnson goes in search of what seems an almost vanished social type - the lady. With a handful of vintage etiquette books to guide her and a generous helping of film archive, she wants to find out how the idea of the lady changed over time - and what it might mean to be one now. Along the way she tries out etiquette classes and side-saddle lessons, as well as discovering that debutante balls have been revived for export.


THU 23:40 Top of the Pops (b08zn99n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 00:15 King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons (b038rkw9)
Aethelstan: The First King of England

In this third episode, Alfred's grandson Aethelstan fulfils the family plan and creates a kingdom of all England.

Travelling from Devon to Cumbria, Scotland and Rome, Michael Wood tells the tale of Aethelstan's wars, his learning and his lawmaking, showing how he created a national coinage and tracing the origin of the English parliament to the king's new assembly politics. But there's also a dark side, with later legends that the king had his brother drowned at sea. In his last desperate struggle, Aethelstan defeated a huge invasion of Vikings and Scots in what became known as the Anglo-Saxon 'Great War'.

Wood argues that Aethelstan was one of the greatest English monarchs, and with his grandfather Alfred, his father Edward and his aunt Aethelflaed, a member of our most remarkable royal family and 'even more than the Tudors, the most gifted and influential rulers in British history'.


THU 01:15 Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History (b03lytyp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 02:15 Prejudice and Pride: The People's History of LGBTQ Britain (b08zn99q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 04 AUGUST 2017

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b08zmpr6)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b08znbn1)
Simon Bates and Janice Long present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 26 April 1984. Featuring Sandie Shaw and The Smiths, Duran Duran, Julio Iglesias & Willie Nelson, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Flying Pickets and Lionel Richie.


FRI 20:00 BBC Proms (b08znbn3)
2017

Ella and Dizzy Revisited

A special Proms tribute to jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie, in the centenary year of their births. Grammy Award-winning singer Dianne Reeves and sensational trumpeter James Morrison perform with the BBC Concert Orchestra under the baton of Hollywood music legend John Mauceri, as they showcase some of the music most closely associated with Ella and Dizzy.


FRI 22:10 Reginald D Hunter's Songs of the South (p02j959j)
Mississippi and Louisiana

In the final part of his road trip, Reginald D Hunter follows in the footsteps of Huckleberry Finn with a trip down the Mississippi from Memphis to New Orleans through the Delta to learn about the birth of blues and how it manifests itself today.

In Louisiana, Reg takes a detour to a bayou to learn about Creole culture and zydeco before winding up in New Orleans to meet the city's musical triumvirate of Dr John, Allen Toussaint and Irma Thomas.

Also featuring Stax musicians Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd.


FRI 23:10 Oh You Pretty Things: The Story of Music and Fashion (b04j1wxw)
Tribes

Just how did Britain become the place where the best music goes with the most eye-catching styles? Lauren Laverne narrates a series about the love affair between our music and fashion, looking at how musicians and designers came up with the coolest and craziest looks and how we emulated our idols.

British pop and rock is our great gift to the world, at the heart of the irrepressible creative brilliance of Britain. But it has never just been about the music. Across the decades we have unleashed a uniquely British talent for fusing the best sounds with stunning style and fashion to dazzling effect.

The series begins in the golden years of the 1960s. Mod legends The Small Faces became the best-dressed band in England, Cilla Black and fashion label BIBA were a perfect fit, while The Beatles and The Stones embraced the foppish hair and frilly shirts of psychedelia. Through rude boys and rockers, the relationship between music and fashion blossomed, becoming intimately entwined in the sound and vision of Roxy Music.

But this isn't just a story of brillant musicians and maverick designers, it's a story that touches us all because, at some point in our lives, we've all delved into the great dressing-up box and joined the pageant that is British music and fashion.


FRI 00:10 Oh You Pretty Things: The Story of Music and Fashion (b04j8ttm)
Idols

Just how did Britain become the place where the best music goes with the most eye-catching styles? Lauren Laverne narrates a series about the love affair between our music and fashion, looking at how musicians and designers came up with the coolest and craziest looks and how we emulated our idols.

British pop and rock is our great gift to the world, at the heart of the irrepressible creative brilliance of Britain. But it has never just been about the music. Across the decades we have unleashed a uniquely British talent for fusing the best sounds with stunning style and fashion to dazzling effect.

The second episode takes us through the 1970s, a decade of political, social and cultural upheaval reflected best in its music and fashion. Suzi Quatro on Top of the Pops unleashed her leather jumpsuit into the living rooms of Britain at the birth of the rock chick look. The fantastical world of prog rock emerged, with its golden-caped leader Rick Wakeman and his army of intellectual but corduroy-wearing followers journeying from the university campus to medieval and fantastical Arthurian worlds. Queen rocked the rainbow in their Zandra Rhodes-designed costumes, amazing the audience and cementing the band as one of the country's most loved and most flamboyant bands of all time.

But no other British music and fashion movement has had more reverberation than the international phenomena of punk, beginning (and, some say, ending) with The Sex Pistols' sweary appearance with Bill Grundy on the Today programme.

However, this isn't just a story of brilliant musicians and maverick designers, it's a story that touches us all because, at some point in our lives, we've all delved into the great dressing-up box and joined the pageant that is British music and fashion.


FRI 01:10 Oh You Pretty Things: The Story of Music and Fashion (b04jy2s1)
Image

Just how did Britain become the place where the best music goes with the most eye-catching styles? Lauren Laverne narrates a series about the love affair between our music and fashion, looking at how musicians and designers came up with the coolest and craziest looks and how we emulated our idols.

British pop and rock is our great gift to the world, at the heart of the irrepressible creative brilliance of Britain. But it has never just been about the music. Across the decades we have unleashed a uniquely British talent for fusing the best sounds with stunning style and fashion to dazzling effect.

The final episode in the series takes us into the 1980s - the decade when, thanks to the music video, image became everything. From Dexys Midnight Runners in their austere work wear and dungarees, through the flamboyant new romantics of London's Blitz club, the anti-fashion statements of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark to the band with the image that typified the decade - Duran Duran. The episode ends, as the decade did, with the emerging popularity of urban street wear led by Jazzie B and Soul II Soul.

But this isn't just a story of brilliant musicians and maverick designers, it's a story that touches us all because at some point in our lives, we've all delved into the great dressing-up box and joined the pageant that is British music and fashion.


FRI 02:10 Top of the Pops (b08znbn1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 02:50 Reginald D Hunter's Songs of the South (p02j959j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:10 today]




LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)

10 Things You Didn't Know About... 20:00 TUE (b008pr87)

10 Things You Didn't Know About... 01:10 TUE (b008pr87)

A Timewatch Guide 21:00 TUE (b08zn5dg)

A Timewatch Guide 02:40 TUE (b08zn5dg)

BBC Proms 19:30 SUN (b08zn4l9)

BBC Proms 21:30 SUN (b08zn4lc)

BBC Proms 20:00 FRI (b08znbn3)

Beautiful Thing: A Passion for Porcelain 01:30 SUN (p0192fqp)

Bob Harris: My Nashville 01:00 SAT (p0293k6w)

Britain's Treasure Islands 20:00 SAT (b077rl5m)

Britain's Treasure Islands 03:00 SAT (b077rl5m)

Carved with Love: The Genius of British Woodwork 00:50 MON (b01psbwz)

Dangerous Earth 02:10 TUE (b0824cw7)

Gunpowder 5/11: The Greatest Terror Plot 00:10 TUE (b04mhwfn)

Horizon 00:30 SUN (b08w61hc)

Horizon 20:00 MON (b08wwnwk)

Horizon 01:50 MON (b08wwnwk)

Horizon 22:40 WED (b04knbny)

Hyper Evolution: Rise of the Robots 21:00 WED (b08zn62b)

Hyper Evolution: Rise of the Robots 02:40 WED (b08zn62b)

I Know Who You Are 21:00 SAT (b08zn41x)

I Know Who You Are 22:15 SAT (b08zyfgd)

Inside Einstein's Mind: The Enigma of Space and Time 20:00 WED (b06s75vs)

Inside Einstein's Mind: The Enigma of Space and Time 01:40 WED (b06s75vs)

King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons 00:15 THU (b038rkw9)

Norman Wisdom: His Story 23:30 SUN (b00vhmqq)

Oh You Pretty Things: The Story of Music and Fashion 23:10 FRI (b04j1wxw)

Oh You Pretty Things: The Story of Music and Fashion 00:10 FRI (b04j8ttm)

Oh You Pretty Things: The Story of Music and Fashion 01:10 FRI (b04jy2s1)

Prejudice and Pride: The People's History of LGBTQ Britain 21:00 THU (b08zn99q)

Prejudice and Pride: The People's History of LGBTQ Britain 02:15 THU (b08zn99q)

Queers 22:00 MON (p057t5dm)

Queers 22:20 MON (b08zz5pp)

Queers 22:00 TUE (b08zz70k)

Queers 22:20 TUE (b08zz70m)

Queers 22:00 WED (b08zzbhb)

Queers 22:20 WED (b08zzbhd)

Queers 22:00 THU (b08zzcm3)

Queers 22:20 THU (b08zzcm5)

Reginald D Hunter's Songs of the South 22:10 FRI (p02j959j)

Reginald D Hunter's Songs of the South 02:50 FRI (p02j959j)

Rich Hall's Countrier Than You 23:30 SAT (b08j8lqb)

Secret Knowledge 19:00 SUN (b05wps6k)

Secret Knowledge 03:30 SUN (b05wps6k)

Sex and Sensibility: The Allure of Art Nouveau 23:50 MON (b01dprb6)

Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History 20:00 THU (b03lytyp)

Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History 01:15 THU (b03lytyp)

Storyville 22:40 MON (p057n8sz)

The Boats That Built Britain 19:30 MON (b00s96rt)

The Boats That Built Britain 19:30 TUE (b00sbp0t)

The Boats That Built Britain 19:30 WED (b00scqb3)

The Joy of Logic 23:40 WED (b03k6ypz)

The Secret Life of Rockpools 19:00 SAT (b01rtdr4)

The Secret Life of Rockpools 02:00 SAT (b01rtdr4)

The Secrets of Scott's Hut 22:40 TUE (b010n2lm)

Timeshift 22:40 THU (b01rjr2y)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b08zn99n)

Top of the Pops 23:40 THU (b08zn99n)

Top of the Pops 19:30 FRI (b08znbn1)

Top of the Pops 02:10 FRI (b08znbn1)

Treasures of the Anglo Saxons 02:30 SUN (b00t6xzx)

Two Types: The Faces of Britain 21:00 MON (b0903ppd)

Two Types: The Faces of Britain 02:50 MON (b0903ppd)

Voyages of Discovery 00:40 WED (b0074t6g)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b08zmpps)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b08zmpq1)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b08zmpqf)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b08zmpqr)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b08zmpr6)