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 05 AUGUST 2017

SAT 19:00 Capability Brown's Unfinished Garden (b07xt6t9)
Capability Brown is known as the founder of landscape design. In the 1700s, he created some of the most magnificent landscapes in England. He travelled the length and breadth of the country, improving more than 200 of the greatest estates in the land for some of the most influential people of the 18th century.

But there is one plan that never got off the drawing board. The only land he ever owned was in Fenstanton, Cambridgeshire, but he died before he could carry out any plans for his own garden. Today it is a piece of flat land bisected by the A14 dual carriageway.

Landscape designer and Gardeners' Question Time regular Bunny Guinness travels across England to some of Capability's finest landscapes - Blenheim, Burghley, Milton Abbey and Castle Ashby - to understand what he might have created. Rediscovering plans and letters, and using the latest technology, Capability Brown's unfinished garden is brought to life.


SAT 20:00 Britain's Treasure Islands (b07882lk)
Southern Ocean

Stewart McPherson continues his quest to visit all of the UK's Overseas Territories.

His second journey begins on Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited island on earth and home to the entire world population of a spectacular albatross. From here, he travels to the Falkland Islands, coming face to face with a fearsomely intelligent bird of prey, and arrives in Stanley, the capital, in time for celebrations following the referendum in which the islanders decided overwhelmingly to remain part of Britain.

Leaving the Falklands, he follows in the wake of Shackleton and his ill-fated Antarctic expedition, first to South Georgia to witness one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on the planet, then on to the frozen wilderness of the Antarctic peninsula.


SAT 21:00 I Know Who You Are (b090w2mm)
Series 1

Episode 7

Three days before going missing, Ana Saura had recognised the man she had seen at Casa Castro, talking with Juan Elias on campus. Giralt learns that a colleague has interviewed the wife of a man who went missing on the same day as Ana and believes there to be a connection. Eva Duran keeps her promise to spend the day with Juan.

In Spanish with English subtitles.


SAT 22:05 I Know Who You Are (b0910bdz)
Series 1

Episode 8

Two days before Ana's disappearance she went with Charry to transfer the money given to her by Hector Castro to an address in Bangkok. Giralt discovers that Ezequiel Cortes has been staying in a hostel but has not been seen for days. Juan Elias is jailed for lying at his initial hearing.

In Spanish with English subtitles.


SAT 23:15 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.


SAT 23:50 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.


SAT 00:30 From Andy Pandy to Zebedee: The Golden Age of Children's Television (b06t3mhm)
Nigel Planer narrates the story of the struggle to make programmes for children in the days before everything went digital.


SAT 01:30 Slade at the BBC (b01pdt89)
Don your best platforms and sequinned hat and join Noddy, Jim, Dave and Don aka Slade for a trip down memory lane as we uncover some of Slade's finest appearances from the vaults of the BBC archive, introduced by none other than Noddy Holder himself.

Rock out to the classics of Coz I Luv You, Mama Weer All Crazee Now, Gudbuy T'Jane and C*m On Feel the Noize and see how Slade's all-important look evolves after their first TV appearance on the BBC back in 1969. Most performances come from their 70s heyday and from BBC studio shows like Top of the Pops, Crackerjack, Blue Peter and Cheggers Plays Pop.

Noddy both introduces the compilation and reflects on Slade's glory daze at the BBC.


SAT 02:30 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.


SAT 03:00 Britain's Treasure Islands (b07882lk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 06 AUGUST 2017

SUN 19:00 BBC Proms (b090ft1v)
2017

Ades Conducts Stravinsky

The National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain returns to the BBC Proms under the baton of renowned composer and conductor Thomas Ades. The formidable young musicians perform Stravinsky's thrilling ballet score The Rite of Spring, the London premiere of Mural by Francisco Coll and Ades's own work Polaris.


SUN 20:20 The Chopin Etudes (b008wmkw)
Opus 25, No 7

Chopin's Opus 25 no 7 performed by Freddy Kempf.


SUN 20:30 The Richard Burton Diaries (b01nw4wn)
Richard Burton's talent, presence and unforgettable voice made him a superstar of stage and screen. The Welsh actor was equally famous for his hellraising, womanising private life and his two marriages to Elizabeth Taylor. Private diaries he wrote at the height of his fame have been published in their entirety for the first time and present a unique opportunity to reassess the man behind the myth.

Narrated by Mali Harries, with extract readings by Josh Richards.


SUN 21:00 Frank Skinner on George Formby (b016fpz0)
George Formby was a huge star of stage and film. In his heyday he was as big as The Beatles, earning vast sums of money on stage and starring in films which broke box office records. Formby's trademark ukulele still inspires millions of dedicated fans, including comedian and performer Frank Skinner, who believes Formby was the greatest entertainer of his time.

Playing the ukulele and performing the songs that keep the Formby legend alive today, Skinner follows the music hall star's extraordinary rise to fame and fortune, explores his worldwide popularity and reveals the ruthless exploitation that surrounded his sudden and tragic death.


SUN 22:00 Babs (b08q8jcy)
Written by Tony Jordan, this is the heartwarming story of Dame Barbara Windsor, the Cockney kid with a dazzling smile and talent to match. Preparing to perform in the theatre one cold evening in 1993, the cheeky, chirpy blonde Babs recounts the people and events that have shaped her life and career over fifty years from 1943 to 1993.

She contemplates her lonely childhood and Second World War evacuation, her decision to go from Barbara Ann Deeks to Barbara Windsor - inspired by the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, her complicated relationship with her father, her doomed marriage to Ronnie Knight, capturing the attention of Joan Littlewood, and becoming the blonde bombshell in the Carry On films. Babs, ever the consummate professional, never let her fans down whatever her personal anguish and steps on the stage to rapturous applause.


SUN 23:30 Timeshift (p01k49cg)
Series 13

Bouffants, Beehives and Bobs: The Hairstyles That Shaped Britain

It is said that the average woman gets through around 30 hairstyles in a lifetime, with some changing their look entirely every 15 months. Timeshift takes a loving and sometimes horrified look back at the iconic hairdos and 'must have' haircuts that both men and women in Britain have flirted with over the past 60 years.

And it's some journey... from the meringue-like confections of Raymond 'Teasy Weasy' via the geometric 'bob' cuts of Vidal Sassoon, stopping off to take in the 'big hair' heyday of bouffants and beehives, and not forgetting the mullet, the feather cut and the ultimate 'bad hair day' look of 1970s perms.

Our hair is the one part of our identity we can change in an instant and which speaks volumes about who we are, where we've come from and where we're going. Today, young women are revisiting hair fashions of an earlier generation - big hair and blowdrying are back in demand, whilst many young men sport Edwardian 'peaky blinder' short back and sides.

Narrated by Wayne Hemingway.


SUN 00:30 Capability Brown's Unfinished Garden (b07xt6t9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 01:30 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.


SUN 02:30 Frank Skinner on George Formby (b016fpz0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



MONDAY 07 AUGUST 2017

MON 19:00 World News Today (b090b0ry)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 The Boats That Built Britain (b00scqsj)
The Reaper

The Reaper is the biggest sailing lugger ever to fish the seas. Seventy feet long and capable of pulling in ten tonnes of herring in a single haul, the Reaper was an awesome beast that fed Britain at a time when she needed it most.

Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe sails her for himself and finds out just how this giant of the seas came about.


MON 20:00 Tornado - the 100mph Steam Engine (b08rb16k)
The new A1 class steam engine Tornado tries to achieve 100mph on the main line. The secret speed attempt will be made in the dead of night. If it tops the ton it will be the first time in 50 years that steam has gone this fast. Tornado was built over two decades and financed by enthusiasts who want to show steam has a viable future on Britain's railways.


MON 20:30 The Return of the Flying Scotsman (b073c7r0)
After a ten-year restoration, we follow the Flying Scotsman, the world's most famous steam engine, as it returns to the tracks.

It's a locomotive legend. Whether people are interested in steam engines or not, everybody seems to love the Scotsman; it's simply a national treasure. A steel celebrity, a media darling... and after a painstaking restoration that has cost over four million pounds, the Scotsman is finally coming home to York.

There is going to be a real welcome back for the 93-year-old engine with its inaugural run from King's Cross Station in London, pulling a trainload of enthusiasts and supporters 200 miles north on the mainline. It is a triumphant return to the museum - and to a city synonymous with steam.

We are on board the train for its final test runs on the East Lancashire Railway and the scenic Settle-Carlisle railway, across Ribblehead Viaduct, before climbing on board for the inaugural trip. With cameras on the footplate, we capture the exhilaration, the excitement and the sheer hard work required to keep Scotsman on the line.

We join the celebrations - talking to historians, fans and enthusiasts about the engine... and marvel at how the Flying Scotsman has captured the imagination of so many people across the world since it first came to life in Doncaster in 1923.

The programme is narrated by John Shrapnel.


MON 21:00 Vikings (b01ms4xm)
Episode 1

Neil Oliver heads for Scandinavia to reveal the truth behind the legend of the Vikings. In the first programme, Neil begins by discovering the mysterious world of the Vikings' prehistoric ancestors. The remains of weapons-filled war boats, long-haired Bronze Age farmers and a Swedish site of a royal palace and gruesome pagan rituals conjure up an ancient past from which the Viking Age was to suddenly erupt.


MON 22:00 Nelson's Caribbean Hell-hole: An Eighteenth Century Navy Graveyard Uncovered (b01s6gjx)
Human bones found on an idyllic beach in Antigua trigger an investigation by naval historian Sam Willis into one of the darkest chapters of Britain's imperial past. As archaeologists excavate a mass grave of British sailors, Willis explores Antigua's ruins and discovers how the sugar islands of the Caribbean were a kind of hell in the age of Nelson.

Sun, sea, war, tropical diseases and poisoned rum.


MON 23:00 Sex and Sensibility: The Allure of Art Nouveau (b01f1959)
British Cities

Britain's art nouveau heritage is excavated as cultural correspondent Stephen Smith unearths the bright, controversial but brief career of Aubrey Beardsley.

On a mission to uncover lesser-known stars of Britain's version of this continental fin-de-siecle style, he explores the stunning work of Mary Watts and the massive influence of department store entrepreneur Arthur Liberty.

In Scotland, he celebrates the innovative art nouveau of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, but looks harder at the extraordinary and influential work of Mackintosh's wife, Margaret MacDonald.


MON 00:00 Carved with Love: The Genius of British Woodwork (b01pyfd2)
The Glorious Grinling Gibbons

Series about great British woodworkers continues by looking at the life and work of Grinling Gibbons. He isn't a household name, but he is the greatest woodcarver the British Isles has ever produced. Working in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London, Gibbons created delightful carved masterpieces for the likes of Charles II and William of Orange. This film explores the genius of the man they called the 'Michelangelo of wood'.


MON 01:00 Tornado - the 100mph Steam Engine (b08rb16k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 01:30 The Return of the Flying Scotsman (b073c7r0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 02:00 Vikings (b01ms4xm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 03:00 Nelson's Caribbean Hell-hole: An Eighteenth Century Navy Graveyard Uncovered (b01s6gjx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]



TUESDAY 08 AUGUST 2017

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b090b0s3)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 The Boats That Built Britain (b00sfshw)
Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter

Many consider the Bristol Channel pilot cutter to be the finest sailing boat design ever. Fast, seaworthy and beautiful to behold, the pilot cutter is the perfect combination of form and function - a thoroughbred perfectly adapted to a life in one of the Britain's most treacherous stretches of water. Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe explores the life of the pilots and sails a perfectly restored cutter to find out just what drove these men and their wonderful machines.


TUE 20:00 Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise (b087vgd6)
The Secrets of the South

Southern Thailand is the Thailand we think we all know. It is a place of both spectacular natural beauty and of wild parties, but behind this well-known image is also a place where spirituality pervades every bit of life. For the animals that live here, this is a natural wonderland.


TUE 21:00 Utopia: In Search of the Dream (b090c2pj)
Series 1

Blueprints for Better

In this first episode, Prof Richard Clay explores how utopian visions begin as blueprints for fairer worlds and asks whether they can inspire real change.

Charting 500 years of utopian visions and making bold connections between exploration and science fiction - from radical 18th-century politics to online communities like Wikipedia - Richard delves into colourful stories of some of the world's greatest utopian dreamers, including Thomas More, who coined the term 'utopia', Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, and Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek.

Richard builds a compelling argument that utopian visions have been a powerful way of criticising the present, and he identifies key values he believes the imagined better futures tend to idealise. He shows how the concept of shared ownership, a 'commons' of both land and digital space online, has fired utopian thinking, and he explores the dream of equality through the campaign for civil rights in the 1960s and through a feminist theatrical production in today's America.

Immersing himself in a terrifying '1984' survival drama in Vilnius, Lithuania, Richard also looks at the flip side, asking why dystopias are so popular today in film, TV and comic book culture. He explores whether dystopian visions have been a way to remind ourselves that hard-won gains can be lost and that we must beware of humanity's darker side if we are ever to reach a better place.

Across Britain, Germany, Lithuania and America, Richard talks about the meaning of utopia with a rich range of interviewees, including Katherine Maher, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols, explorer Belinda Kirk, football commentator John Motson and Hollywood screenwriter Frank Spotnitz.


TUE 22:00 Immortal? A Horizon Guide to Ageing (b01kxxys)
Is there any way to slow or even prevent the ravages of time? Veteran presenter Johnny Ball looks back over the 45 years that Horizon, and he, have been on air to find out what science has learned about how and why we grow old. Charting developments from macabre early claims of rejuvenation to the latest cutting-edge breakthroughs, Johnny discovers the sense of a personal mission that drives many scientists and asks whether we are really any closer to achieving the dream of immortality.


TUE 23:00 The Brain with David Eagleman (b06y8hyr)
What Is Reality?

Series in which Dr David Eagleman takes viewers on an extraordinary journey that explores how the brain, locked in silence and darkness without direct access to the world, conjures up the rich and beautiful world we all take for granted.

This episode begins with the astonishing fact that this technicolour multi-sensory experience we are having is a convincing illusion conjured up for us by our brains.

In the outside world there is no colour, no sound, no smell. These are all constructions of the brain. Instead, there is electromagnetic radiation, air compression waves and aromatic molecules, all of which are interpreted by the brain as colour, sound and smell.

We meet a man who is blind despite the fact that he has eyes that can see. His story reveals that it's the brain that sees, not the eyes. A woman with schizophrenia, whose psychotic episodes were her reality, emphasises the fact that whatever our brains tell us is out there, we believe it.

Visual illusions are reminders that what's important to the brain is not being faithful to 'reality', but enabling us to perceive just enough so that we can navigate successfully through it. The brain leaves a lot out of its beautiful rendition of the physical world, a fact that Dr Eagleman reveals using experiments and street demonstrations.

Each one of our brains is different, and so is the reality it produces. What is reality? It's whatever your brain tells you it is.


TUE 00:00 Timeshift (b06pm5vf)
Series 15

How Britain Won the Space Race: The Story of Bernard Lovell and Jodrell Bank

The unlikely story of how one man with some ex-WWII army equipment eventually turned a muddy field in Cheshire into a key site in the space race. That man was Bernard Lovell, and his telescope at Jodrell Bank would be used at the height of the Cold War by both the Americans and the Russians to track their competing spacecraft. It also put Britain at the forefront of radio astronomy, a new science which transformed our knowledge of space and provided the key to understanding the most mind-bending theory of the beginnings of the universe - the Big Bang.


TUE 01:00 Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise (b087vgd6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 02:00 Immortal? A Horizon Guide to Ageing (b01kxxys)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


TUE 03:00 Utopia: In Search of the Dream (b090c2pj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 09 AUGUST 2017

WED 19:00 World News Today (b090b0s8)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 The Boats That Built Britain (b00sfsqw)
World War Two Landing Craft

Looking more like a skip than a boat, the LCVP, or Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel, won't win any prizes for beauty. Yet the craft did more to win World War II than any other piece of machinery. There were once over 20,000 of these little boats, but only a handful remain. Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe puts one of them through its paces and finds out how the boat was developed for one momentous day in 1944.


WED 20:00 Fair Isle: Living on the Edge (b083xzhb)
Episode 1

Fair Isle is Britain's most remote inhabited island, situated halfway between the Shetland and Orkney Islands. It's an extraordinary place to live. There's no power at night, no pub and it can be cut off for days at any time of the year. Once home to nearly 400 people, today Fair Isle's population is just 55 - a perilously low number on an island where all essential jobs are carried out by the hard-working community, who are doing everything they can to increase their population and ensure the island's survival.

This intimate two-part series begins with the arrival of a new couple and follows them as they settle in and adapt to island life, and follows a family whose 11-year-old son has to leave home to board at secondary school on mainland Shetland.


WED 21:00 In Search of Arcadia (b090c4f6)
Dr Janina Ramirez goes 'In Search of Arcadia' discovering the origins of the English landscape movement in a 12-mile stretch of the Thames between Hampton and Chiswick with waterman and historian John Bailey.

In the early 18th century this stretch of the river was home to a group of writers, poets, artists and garden designers who were inspired by classical landscapes of antiquity and the ancient idea of Arcadia.

Janina discovers the people and the ideas at the heart of this transformative movement and the landscape of the Thames - Nicholas Poussin's painting Et in Arcadia Ego, the French formal gardens at Hampton Court, Pope's Grotto, Marble Hill House, Chiswick House, Syon Meadows and finally the view from Richmond Hill.

John unpacks the role the River Thames played in their story as he explores the natural riches of its shores. He has time for fishing and contemplation along the way with his guide - Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler.

Janina starts with the most famous of Arcadian paintings, Et in Arcadia Ego by Nicholas Poussin, at Garrick's Temple in Hampton. She explains the ancient concept of Arcadia - a lost paradise where man and nature lived in perfect harmony. It's an idea that emerges in many cultures, but in Britain in the 17th and 18th century this ancient philosophy inspired a revolution in painting, writing, architecture and garden design.

Janina and John set off down the Thames on a traditional Thames wherry. John gives Janina his copy of Izaak Walton's fishing manual The Compleat Angler. Published in 1653 it's a book that has been reprinted over 400 times. John and Janina discover the book is much more than a practical fishing manual. It is also a philosophic treatise in which Izaak Walton first proposed an Arcadian philosophy; a vision of a world where man and nature lived in perfect harmony. He suggested that through the studied contemplation of the landscape, mankind could achieve a higher moral wisdom and virtuous understanding of the universe.

Janina and John arrive at Hampton Court Palace. John experiences Walton's philosophy first-hand, angling with fellow Walton enthusiast Keith Elliott. Janina explores the magnificent but formal Privy Gardens, commissioned by William III in 1702. Janina contemplates how at odds this formal garden is with the idea of a pastoral Arcadia. The formal French garden is beautiful and perfect, but nature is enslaved in it. This is very different to Izaak Walton's idea of Arcadia where man and nature co-exist in a perfect pastoral idyll. Two of Britain's greatest writers and poets, Joseph Addison and Alexander Pope, started a quiet rebellion against this subjugation of nature by publishing satirical articles in the Spectator and the Guardian.

Janina meets Dr Ross Wilson, a professor of English literature, in one of the oldest pubs in Twickenham. He explains why Pope - a writer - is often considered the true architect of the Arcadian movement. Pope built a house and a garden in Twickenham. They were demolished years ago, but one feature of the original estate still remains - Pope's Grotto. This man-made cavern became a retreat for Pope and is often considered the first museum of geology in Britain.

Next is Marble Hill House, home of King George II's mistress Henrietta Howard, a great friend and patron of Pope and the arts. Dr Esme Whittaker explains that Henrietta's patronage helped to accelerate the spread of this emerging cultural movement which sought to recreate classical scenes in the landscape.

Meanwhile, John is at Ham Lands with a group of volunteers restoring an original avenue using 'Arcadian' methods.

Palladian architecture also perfectly matched the emerging taste for naturalised gardens. These ideas were taken to the next level by wealthy and influential patrons including Lord Burlington. At Chiswick, Janina visits his Palladian villa set in one of the last remaining early examples of an English landscape garden. Joined by John Watkins, a specialist in the English landscape movement, she finds out how the ideas first expressed in Pope's garden were translated by others to create the naturalised garden at Chiswick.

Lord Burlington designed these gardens with royal gardener Charles Bridgeman and William Kent, whose famous protege was Capability Brown. And to see how Brown took these ideas to the next level, John heads out on the river with landscape historian Jason Debney to see one of the last remaining 18th-century Arcadian landscapes at Syon Meadows.

Finally Janina and John meet Sir David Attenborough and Kim Wilkie, patron and founder of the Thames Landscape Strategy on Richmond Hill overlooking the only view in Britain protected by act of Parliament. This view inspired JMW Turner to paint his famous landscape Richmond Hill in 1820, and it has barely changed since then. So if you had to sum up Arcadia in a word, a poem, a painting or a view - perhaps this is it.


WED 22:00 Citizen Jane: Battle for the City (b090c4f8)
In 1960, Jane Jacobs's book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, sent shockwaves through the architecture and planning worlds, with its exploration of modern city-planning. Jacobs, a journalist, author and activist, was involved in many fights in mid-century New York, to stop 'master builder' Robert Moses from running roughshod over the city, demolishing historic neighbourhoods in pursuit of his modernist vision.

This film retraces those battles as contemporary urbanisation moves to the very front of the global agenda and examines the city of today through the life and work of one of its greatest champions.


WED 23:20 Scotland's Einstein: James Clerk Maxwell - The Man Who Changed the World (b06rd56j)
Professor Iain Stewart reveals the story behind the Scottish physicist who was Einstein's hero - James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell's discoveries not only inspired Einstein, but they helped shape our modern world - allowing the development of radio, TV, mobile phones and much more.

Despite this, he is largely unknown in his native land of Scotland. Scientist Iain Stewart sets out to change that, and to celebrate the life, work and legacy of the man dubbed 'Scotland's forgotten Einstein'.


WED 00:20 The Secret Life of Waves (b00y5jhx)
Documentary maker David Malone delves into the secrets of ocean waves. In an elegant and original film, he finds that waves are not made of water, that some waves travel sideways, and that the sound of the ocean comes not from water but from bubbles. Waves are not only beautiful but also profoundly important, and there is a surprising connection between the life cycle of waves and the life of human beings.


WED 01:20 Fair Isle: Living on the Edge (b083xzhb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:20 In Search of Arcadia (b090c4f6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 10 AUGUST 2017

THU 19:00 World News Today (b090b0sg)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b090tsr6)
Mike Read and Steve Wright present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 3 May 1984. Includes appearances from Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Blancmange, New Order, Kenny Loggins, Jocelyn Brown, Human League and Duran Duran.


THU 20:00 Sword, Musket & Machine Gun: Britain's Armed History (b087llsj)
Cut & Thrust

In the first of this three-part series, Dr Sam Willis charts the evolution of weaponry in Britain throughout the Middle Ages.

Beginning with the Battle of Ethandun in 878, when the future of Anglo-Saxon England lay in the balance, Sam examines the weapons and tactics used by King Alfred to keep the Viking raiders at bay, and gets hands-on experience as he joins re-enactors behind a shield-wall, used by the Anglo-Saxons en masse as an attacking weapon to drive back and defeat the Vikings.

Sam travels to France to examine the famous Bayeux Tapestry, with its depiction of the huge arsenal massed by William the Conqueror for his invasion of England in 1066. With the Norman mounted knight came innovations in weapon technology, chiefly stronger and lighter swords, and Sam is given a lesson in swordsmanship using the earliest known combat manual.

Sam also visits the Chateaux de Tancarville in Normandy to tell the story of William Marshal, said to be the greatest knight who ever lived, and how he forged his reputation using a new weapon - the lance - in the extreme sport of its day, the tourney. To get a real sense of the tourney, Sam watches a display of its later incarnation - the joust.

The increasing number of castles and sieges brought with it a new age of projectile missile weaponry, principally the crossbow. Holed up in a castle tower, Sam gets to test-fire different crossbows and discovers why they became outlawed by the pope as instruments of the devil. Visiting the battlefield sites of Halidon Hill in Northumberland and Crecy in northern France, and again getting hands-on with the weapon in question, Sam examines how King Edward III strategically deployed the traditional longbow in vast numbers to devastating effect against the Scots and the French, and as such how it came to be regarded as the chief weapon of the Middle Ages.


THU 21:00 Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain (b00np25k)
A New Dawn

In the first of a six-part series, Andrew Marr revisits Britain at the dawn of the 20th century. He finds the country mourning the death of Queen Victoria, fighting an intractable war against the Boers in South Africa, enjoying the bawdy pleasures of music hall and worrying about the physical and moral strength of the working class.

There are stories of political intrigue between David Lloyd George and his arch-enemy Joseph Chamberlain, as well as the beginning of the struggle for women's suffrage. Plus an account of the day Mr Rolls met Mr Royce and kicked off a revolution in motoring.

With powerful archive and vivid anecdotes, Andrew gets to the heart of Edwardian Britain. He brings to life Britain's struggle to maintain its imperial power in the world in the years before the First World War.


THU 22:00 Wilde (b0074nq6)
Poignant dramatisation of Oscar Wilde's life, telling the story of the devoted husband and kind father who also happened to be attracted to men - in particular to the spoilt Alfred Lord Douglas, or 'Bosie'. Their relationship outraged Bosie's father, the maniacal Marquess of Queensberry, and led to a sensational trial which spelled Wilde's downfall, vividly highlighting the brutal homophobia of the Victorian legal system.


THU 23:50 Top of the Pops (b090tsr6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 00:20 From Andy Pandy to Zebedee: The Golden Age of Children's Television (b06t3mhm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 00:30 on Saturday]


THU 01:20 Everyday Miracles: The Genius of Sofas, Stockings and Scanners (b04fd6s9)
Home

Professor Mark Miodownik shows us what is so great about stuff. All the things of modern life around us that we maybe take for granted are revealed to be little pieces of domestic magic - everyday miracles - from razor blades to tights, via plywood and foam rubber. On the road and in the lab with explosive experiments, Mark reveals why the everyday, and even the mundane, is anything but.


THU 02:20 Sword, Musket & Machine Gun: Britain's Armed History (b087llsj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



FRIDAY 11 AUGUST 2017

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b090b0sq)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b090tsv5)
David Jensen and John Peel present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 10 May 1984. Includes appearances from Belle and the Devotions, Queen, The Flying Pickets, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Terri Wells, The Pointer Sisters and Duran Duran.


FRI 20:00 BBC Proms (b090ftl8)
2017

Oklahoma!

Cowboys and farm girls are let loose in the Royal Albert Hall as the John Wilson Orchestra transports us to the Great American Plains in Oklahoma! Rodgers and Hammerstein's first ever musical was an instant hit when it premiered on Broadway in 1943 and it's not hard to see why - it's chock-full of toe-tapping classics, including Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin', People Will Say We're in Love, and of course the title song itself. With a stellar cast, sensational dance numbers and the unique energy of the John Wilson Orchestra, the magic of the original lives on in 2017.


FRI 22:55 Glen Campbell: The Rhinestone Cowboy (b01pwxs8)
In 2011, Glen Campbell announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and that he would be bowing out with a final album and farewell tour across Britain and America. This documentary tells Campbell's remarkable life story, from impoverished childhood in Arkansas to huge success, first as a guitarist and then as a singer, with great records like Wichita Lineman and Rhinestone Cowboy. With comments from friends and colleagues, including songwriter Jimmy Webb and Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees, it is a moving story of success, disgrace and redemption as rich as any of the storylines in Campbell's most famous songs.

The peak of Glen Campbell's career was in 1975, when he topped the charts around the world with Rhinestone Cowboy, but his musical journey to that point is fascinating. A self-taught teenage prodigy on the guitar, by his mid-twenties Campbell was one of the top session guitarists in LA, a key member of the band of session players now known as The Wrecking Crew. He played on hundreds of tracks while working for producers like Phil Spector and Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, including Daydream Believer by The Monkees, You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling by The Righteous Brothers, Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra and Viva Las Vegas by Elvis Presley.

But Campbell always wanted to make it under his own name. A string of records failed to chart until, in 1967, he finally found his distinctive country pop sound with hits like Gentle on My Mind and By the Time I Get to Phoenix. The latter was written by Jimmy Webb, and together the two created a string of great records like Wichita Lineman and Galveston. Campbell pioneered country crossover and opened the way for artists like Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.

By the end of the 1960s, Campbell was the fastest rising star in American pop with his own television show and a starring role in the original version of True Grit. Over the following ten years, he had more success with Rhinestone Cowboy and Southern Nights, but his private life was in turmoil. Divorce, drink and drugs saw this clean-cut all-American hero fall from grace and a tempestuous relationship with country star Tanya Tucker was front-page news.

Despite a relapse in 2003, when he was arrested for drunk driving and his police mug shot was shown around the world, the last two decades have been more settled. He remarried, started a new family and renewed his Christian faith, and was musically rediscovered by a new generation. Like his friend Johnny Cash, he released acclaimed new albums with young musicians, covering songs by contemporary artists like U2 and The Foo Fighters. Therefore the diagnosis with Alzheimer's was all the more poignant, but his dignified farewell has made him the public face of the disease in the USA.

The film includes contributions by many of Campbell's friends and colleagues, including his family in Arkansas, fellow session musicians Carol Kaye and Leon Russell, long-time friend and collaborator Jimmy Webb, former Monkee Mickey Dolenz, broadcaster Bob Harris, lyricist Don Black and country music writer Robert Oermann.


FRI 23:55 An Evening with Glen Campbell (b01pyfht)
A special concert recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in 1977, where 80 musicians played new arrangements of Glen Campbell's hit songs.


FRI 01:15 New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s (b0177bjb)
Prince: A Purple Reign

Film which explores how Prince - showman, artist, enigma - revolutionised the perception of black music in the 1980s with worldwide hits such as 1999, Kiss, Raspberry Beret and Alphabet Street. He became a global sensation with the release of the Oscar-winning, semi-autobiographical movie Purple Rain in 1984, embarking on an incredible journey of musical self-discovery that continued right up to his passing in April 2016, aged 57.

From the psychedelic Around the World in a Day to his masterpiece album Sign O' the Times and experiments with hip-hop and jazz, Prince was one of most ambitious and prolific songwriters of his generation. He tested the boundaries of taste and decency with explicit sexual lyrics and stage shows during his early career, and in the 1990s fought for ownership of his name and control of his music, played out in a public battle with his former label, Warner. Highly regarded as one of the most flamboyant live performers ever, Prince was a controversial and famously elusive creative force.

Contributors include Revolution guitarist Dez Dickerson, Paisley Park label president Alan Leeds, hip-hop legend Chuck D and Prince 'Mastermind' and UK soul star Beverley Knight.


FRI 02:15 Top of the Pops (b090tsv5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 02:45 The Girl from Ipanema: Brazil, Bossa Nova and the Beach (b07mlkzl)
Documentary in which Katie Derham travels to Rio de Janeiro (where her father was born) to explore the story behind Brazil's most famous and enduring song. Written in 1962 by Antonio Carlos Jobim with lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes, and a later English translation by Norman Gimbel, The Girl from Ipanema defines the moment Brazil charmed the world with a laid-back song about a haunting woman.

It's a vibrant musical journey to the stunning beaches, majestic mountains and buzzy clubs of Rio, where Katie meets key musicians and architects of bossa nova, including Carlos Lyra, Roberto Menescal, Joyce, Daniel Jobim and Marcos Valle, witnesses intimate musical performances, and uncovers the genesis and story behind Brazil's most successful musical export.

The Girl from Ipanema is quintessential bossa nova and tracing its roots reveals the fascinating story of this unique musical style. Invented by a gang of young bohemians in Rio in the late 50s, bossa grew into a 60s phenomenon, especially in the US where it became a youth craze and later a significant part of the modern jazz repertoire. The Girl from Ipanema, as sung by Astrud Gilberto with sax from Stan Getz, went top five in the US and became a major international hit in 1964.

Nothing sums up Rio as well as the simple and seductive lyrics to The Girl from Ipanema. What better way to get to understand the city, its people and its mid-60s zeitgeist than through its most famous song?




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

An Evening with Glen Campbell 23:55 FRI (b01pyfht)

Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain 21:00 THU (b00np25k)

BBC Proms 19:00 SUN (b090ft1v)

BBC Proms 20:00 FRI (b090ftl8)

Babs 22:00 SUN (b08q8jcy)

Britain's Treasure Islands 20:00 SAT (b07882lk)

Britain's Treasure Islands 03:00 SAT (b07882lk)

Capability Brown's Unfinished Garden 19:00 SAT (b07xt6t9)

Capability Brown's Unfinished Garden 00:30 SUN (b07xt6t9)

Carved with Love: The Genius of British Woodwork 00:00 MON (b01pyfd2)

Citizen Jane: Battle for the City 22:00 WED (b090c4f8)

Everyday Miracles: The Genius of Sofas, Stockings and Scanners 01:20 THU (b04fd6s9)

Fair Isle: Living on the Edge 20:00 WED (b083xzhb)

Fair Isle: Living on the Edge 01:20 WED (b083xzhb)

Frank Skinner on George Formby 21:00 SUN (b016fpz0)

Frank Skinner on George Formby 02:30 SUN (b016fpz0)

From Andy Pandy to Zebedee: The Golden Age of Children's Television 00:30 SAT (b06t3mhm)

From Andy Pandy to Zebedee: The Golden Age of Children's Television 00:20 THU (b06t3mhm)

Glen Campbell: The Rhinestone Cowboy 22:55 FRI (b01pwxs8)

I Know Who You Are 21:00 SAT (b090w2mm)

I Know Who You Are 22:05 SAT (b0910bdz)

Immortal? A Horizon Guide to Ageing 22:00 TUE (b01kxxys)

Immortal? A Horizon Guide to Ageing 02:00 TUE (b01kxxys)

In Search of Arcadia 21:00 WED (b090c4f6)

In Search of Arcadia 02:20 WED (b090c4f6)

Nelson's Caribbean Hell-hole: An Eighteenth Century Navy Graveyard Uncovered 22:00 MON (b01s6gjx)

Nelson's Caribbean Hell-hole: An Eighteenth Century Navy Graveyard Uncovered 03:00 MON (b01s6gjx)

New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s 01:15 FRI (b0177bjb)

Scotland's Einstein: James Clerk Maxwell - The Man Who Changed the World 23:20 WED (b06rd56j)

Secret Knowledge 02:30 SAT (b05wps6k)

Sex and Sensibility: The Allure of Art Nouveau 23:00 MON (b01f1959)

Slade at the BBC 01:30 SAT (b01pdt89)

Sword, Musket & Machine Gun: Britain's Armed History 20:00 THU (b087llsj)

Sword, Musket & Machine Gun: Britain's Armed History 02:20 THU (b087llsj)

Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise 20:00 TUE (b087vgd6)

Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise 01:00 TUE (b087vgd6)

The Boats That Built Britain 19:30 MON (b00scqsj)

The Boats That Built Britain 19:30 TUE (b00sfshw)

The Boats That Built Britain 19:30 WED (b00sfsqw)

The Brain with David Eagleman 23:00 TUE (b06y8hyr)

The Chopin Etudes 20:20 SUN (b008wmkw)

The Girl from Ipanema: Brazil, Bossa Nova and the Beach 02:45 FRI (b07mlkzl)

The Return of the Flying Scotsman 20:30 MON (b073c7r0)

The Return of the Flying Scotsman 01:30 MON (b073c7r0)

The Richard Burton Diaries 20:30 SUN (b01nw4wn)

The Secret Life of Waves 00:20 WED (b00y5jhx)

Timeshift 23:30 SUN (p01k49cg)

Timeshift 01:30 SUN (b01rjr2y)

Timeshift 00:00 TUE (b06pm5vf)

Top of the Pops 23:15 SAT (b08zn99n)

Top of the Pops 23:50 SAT (b08znbn1)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b090tsr6)

Top of the Pops 23:50 THU (b090tsr6)

Top of the Pops 19:30 FRI (b090tsv5)

Top of the Pops 02:15 FRI (b090tsv5)

Tornado - the 100mph Steam Engine 20:00 MON (b08rb16k)

Tornado - the 100mph Steam Engine 01:00 MON (b08rb16k)

Utopia: In Search of the Dream 21:00 TUE (b090c2pj)

Utopia: In Search of the Dream 03:00 TUE (b090c2pj)

Vikings 21:00 MON (b01ms4xm)

Vikings 02:00 MON (b01ms4xm)

Wilde 22:00 THU (b0074nq6)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b090b0ry)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b090b0s3)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b090b0s8)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b090b0sg)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b090b0sq)