B4

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

SATURDAY 27 JANUARY 2018

SAT 19:00 The Children of the Holocaust (b05173wp)
Eyewitness accounts from history, brought to life in animation.

Elderly survivors recount their childhood experiences of Nazi atrocities, their escape from occupied mainland Europe to Britain, adapting to life in the UK and the impact on their lives subsequently.

Ruth is a five-year-old girl escaping from eastern Germany and from Nazi-occupied Prague. She arrives in England the moment war is declared.

Martin is an eight-year-old boy, expelled from Germany to Poland in the middle of the night by the Nazis, who escapes to England only to experience the worst of the Blitz in Coventry.

Trude is a frightened nine-year-old brought to England without her family on the Kindertransport, who struggles to adapt to life in Britain away from her parents.

Heinz is a 13-year-old boy who witnesses the effects of anti-Jewish laws, Nazi demonstrations and pogroms, and escapes persecution in Germany only to be arrested as an 'enemy alien' in Britain.

Resourceful 14-year-old Arek survives against all odds in appalling conditions in the concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Suzanne, aged six, is violently separated from her parents in Nazi-occupied Paris. Deprived of her family, freedom and education, she is hidden in the countryside and forced to work on a farm.

We also get a chance to meet the real-life survivors today in short, on-camera interviews, which reflect on the effect these experiences have had on their adult lives. They discuss why it is important to keep the memory alive of those who were murdered by the Nazis, the importance of Holocaust education, and an appeal to humanity to keep vigilant so that such horrors could never happen again.

SAT 20:00 Surviving the Holocaust - Freddie Knoller's War (b050cvdd)
In a disarmingly frank interview, Holocaust survivor Freddie Knoller (now in his 90s) tells his personal story of being a young Jewish man during World War II. Speaking directly to camera and accompanied by extensive archive footage, he relives his past and draws on intense memories to navigate the extraordinary adventure of his early life. Freddie's story is a dramatic - and often surprisingly funny - real-life account.

It takes us from his family life in 1930s Vienna through the German occupation of Austria and his flight to Belgium. Then on to Nazi-occupied Paris, where Freddie lived and worked in red-light Pigalle, entertaining German officers and socialising with dancing girls, before an interrogation by the Gestapo meant he had to move on again. After a brief spell in the Resistance, the war eventually caught up with him and his life in Auschwitz began.

SAT 21:00 Spiral (b09q4f9s)
Series 6

Episode 9

Violence flares after a cop's shooting of an unarmed man. A sense of injustice fuels Josephine's aggression in the Bodin case and Tintin's feelings on being kept in the dark.

In French with English subtitles.

SAT 22:00 Spiral (b09q4f9v)
Series 6

Episode 10

No closer to arresting Drissa Camara or the corrupt cops, Laure and her team seek missing teen Maria. Roban is rattled to be testifying in court in his own defence, cross-examined by Josephine.

In French with English subtitles.

SAT 22:55 Top of the Pops (b09p7cnx)
Peter Powell and Janice Long present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 31 January 1985. Featuring Big Sound Authority, Art Of Noise, Bruce Springsteen and Foreigner.

SAT 23:25 Top of the Pops (b09p7cqn)
Richard Skinner and Gary Davies present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 7 February 1985. Featuring King, Bryan Adams, Phil Collins, Kirsty MacColl, Howard Jones, Billy Ocean, and Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson.

SAT 00:05 The Easybeats to AC/DC: The Story of Aussie Rock (b0705t5j)
A film about the sound of Australian rock and the emergence of one of the world's greatest rock bands - AC/DC, or Acca Dacca as they are known in Australia, and the legendary music company, Albert Music (Alberts) that helped launched them on to the global rock scene.

Through the 1960s, 70s and 80s, Alberts created a house of hits in Australia that literally changed the sound of Australian popular music.

It started with The Easybeats and their international hit Friday on My Mind back in the 60s. In the 1970s when Australia was in the midst of a deep recession, a rough and ready pub rock sound emerged, characterised by bands like Rose Tattoo who were promoted by family-run company Alberts. The raw power and fat guitar sound that characterised Aussie rock was pioneered by the Alberts and took Australia and the world by storm.

The sound of Aussie rock really exploded when the Alberts, a well-to-do family from the Sydney suburbs, joined forces with the Youngs, a Glasgow family who had emigrated to Australia. The result was AC/DC.

The documentary tells the story of how brothers Angus and Malcolm Young were produced by their older brother George and fellow Easybeats member Harry Vanda. Vanda and Young produced the band at Albert Studios and they were soon joined by the wild and charismatic lead singer Bon Scott.

Head of Alberts was Ted Albert - a quietly confident risk-taker. He backed AC/DC for many years with rock-solid conviction when their type of music and fashion seemed completely at odds with a UK and US music scene dominated by punk. Then, in 1980, AC/DC's Back in Black album was a massive success around the world and the rest is history. The film retraces the band's explosion in popularity, the relentless touring and the tragic death of Bon Scott.

Even after Bon's death, and with the addition of Brian Johnson, the band went from strength to strength and remain hugely popular and one of the world's most legendary bands. Today, the Albert family remains a potent force in Australian music.

SAT 01:05 New York Rock at the BBC (b007mwcf)
From the streets of New York City to the studios of the BBC comes the cream of the New York rock scene, including classic archive performances from The Ramones, New York Dolls, Television, Blondie, Lou Reed and many more.

SAT 02:05 The Joy of the Guitar Riff (b049mtxw)
The guitar riff is the DNA of rock 'n' roll, a double helix of repetitive simplicity and fiendish complexity on which its history has been built. From Chuck Berry through to The White Stripes, this documentary traces the ebb and flow of the guitar riff over the last 60 years of popular music. With riffs and stories from an all-star cast including Brian May, Dave Davies, Hank Marvin, Joan Jett, Nile Rodgers, Tony Iommi, Robert Fripp, Johnny Marr, Nancy Wilson, Kevin Shields, Ryan Jarman, Tom Morello and many more. Narrated by Lauren Laverne.

SUNDAY 28 JANUARY 2018

SUN 19:00 Only Connect (b09pvxjk)
Series 13

Meeples v Inquisitors

Victoria Coren Mitchell hosts the series where knowledge will only take you so far. Patience and lateral thinking are also vital.

The Meeples and the Inquisitors return for a last chance to stay in the tournament. They compete to find the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random. So join Victoria to see what connects Ice Field, Eton Rugby, English Carom and League Union.

SUN 19:30 University Challenge (b09pvy1c)
2017/18

Episode 24

In the last of the second-round matches, students representing two more universities battle it out for a place in the quarter-finals. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.

SUN 20:00 This World (b03sr67n)
The Coffee Trail with Simon Reeve

Adventurer and journalist Simon Reeve heads to Vietnam to uncover the stories behind the nation's morning pick-me-up. While we drink millions of cups of the stuff each week, how many of us know where our coffee actually comes from? The surprising answer is that it is not Brazil, Colombia or Jamaica, but Vietnam. Eighty per cent of the coffee we drink in Britain isn't posh cappuccinos or lattes but instant coffee, and Vietnam is the biggest supplier.

From Hanoi in the north, Simon follows the coffee trail into the remote central highlands, where he meets the people who grow, pick and pack our coffee. Millions of small-scale famers, each working two or three acres, produce most of the coffee beans that go into well-known instant coffee brands.

Thirty years ago Vietnam only produced a tiny proportion of the world's coffee, but after the end of the Vietnam war there was a widescale plan to become a coffee-growing nation, and Vietnam is now the second biggest in the world. The coffee industry has provided employment for millions, making some people very rich indeed, and Simon meets Vietnam's biggest coffee billionaire. But he also learns that their rapid success has come at a cost to both the local people and the environment.

SUN 21:00 Timeshift (b00nnm7k)
Series 9

The Men Who Built the Liners

Many of the most famous passenger liners in history were built in the British Isles, several in the shipyards along the banks of the Clyde. Timeshift combines personal accounts and archive footage to evoke a vivid picture of the unique culture that grew up in the Clyde shipyards. Despite some of the harshest working conditions in industrial history and dire industrial relations, it was here that the Queen Mary, the Queen Elizabeth and the QE2 were built. Such was the Clyde shipbuilders' pride in their work, and the strength of public support, that in 1971 they were able to defy a government attempt to close them down and win the right to carry on shipbuilding.

SUN 22:00 Machines (b09g8cc9)
A mesmerising and unflinching look behind the doors of a textile factory in India, as director Rahul Jain observes the life of the workers and the oppressive environment they seldom escape from. Machines tells a story of the human cost of mass production in a globalised world, showing the gulf between rich and poor from both perspectives.

SUN 23:05 BBC Proms (b093m2wx)
2017

Stax with Jools Holland

Founded in 1957, Memphis-based Stax Records was synonymous with southern soul - a distinctive blend of funk, gospel and R&B that brought listeners across America together at a time of racial conflict and political unrest. In this Late Night Prom, Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra pay tribute to the pioneering label and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stax/Volt Revue's first tour of the UK, in a concert featuring some of the label's greatest surviving artists. Stax legends Booker T Jones and Sam Moore appear alongside Sir Tom Jones, a longtime fan and interpreter of the Stax songbook.

Both Jones and Moore were part of the 1967 tour and join fellow Stax artists William Bell, Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd in this unique coming-together. They are joined by more fans of the Stax sound in Beverley Knight, James Morrison, Nadia Rose & Sweetie Irie and Ruby Turner.

Classic songs performed include the likes of Green Onions, Knock on Wood, Soul Man, Try a Little Tenderness and many more!

SUN 00:25 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.

SUN 01:25 Art, Passion & Power: The Story of the Royal Collection (b09p6mr9)
Series 1

Paradise Regained

In the year 1660, something miraculous began to happen. After the execution of Charles I, the Royal Collection had been sold off and scattered to the four winds. But now, with the restoration of Charles II, the monarchy was back. And with it their driven, sometimes obsessive, passion for art. Slowly but surely, new pieces were acquired, as others were returned out of fear of reprisal. The Royal Collection had sprung back to life.

Andrew Graham-Dixon tells the story of the Royal Collection's remarkable resurrection, following its fortunes from Charles II through to the 18th century and the enlightened purchases of George III. This is when some of the Queen's greatest treasures were collected - a magnificent silver-gilt salt cellar in the form of castle, kept in the Tower of London, a gold state coach, adorned with cherubs and tritons, and masterpieces by Vermeer, Canaletto and Leonardo da Vinci.

Andrew discovers the extraordinary peace offerings given to the 30-year-old Charles II by fearful citizens, because they had backed the Parliamentarians in the Civil War. And then there are works given by other countries, hoping to curry favour with the restored monarch - Holland gave sculptures, a yacht, a bed and a collection of paintings worth nearly £30 million in today's money, including two magnificent masterpieces by Titian that are still in the Collection.

At Windsor Castle, Andrew reveals Charles II's life of extravagance - this was a king who dined in public, as if he was a god, in an attempt to rival France's Louis XIV, the Sun King. His palace walls were hung with paintings of beautiful young women, the 'Windsor Beauties'. Even Charles's furniture speaks of excess - tables and mirrors completely covered in silver.

But Charles was also a king who bought wisely and Andrew is astonished by the recent discoveries of Royal Collection Trust conservators. Blank pages from Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks (most likely acquired in Charles II's reign) come alive under ultraviolet light, revealing drawings unseen for centuries.

Andrew shows how the Collection grew during the 18th century, despite philistine kings like George II ('I hate painting', he once shouted in his German accent). Under George III, royal collecting soared to new heights, driven by the new king's enlightened curiosity in the wider world and his desire to understand how it worked. Andrew travels to Venice to tell the story of one of the greatest purchases in the Royal Collection's history - as a young king, George III paid £20,000 to Canaletto's agent Consul Joseph Smith for a superb collection including over 50 paintings by the Venetian master.

George III, like Charles II, would be feted with gifts including the Padshahnama - an illustrated Indian chronicle of the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan (famous for commissioning the Taj Mahal). Andrew discovers the incredible painting, so delicate that it was, legend tells us, painted with brushes made with hairs taken from the necks of baby kittens. Because of his restless curiosity, by the end of his reign George III had overseen some of the greatest acquisitions in the Royal Collection's history.

SUN 02:25 Timeshift (b00nnm7k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

MONDAY 29 JANUARY 2018

MON 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09pzfh6)
Series 1

29/01/2018

The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

MON 19:30 Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank (b0078z5p)
Building for Eternity

Dan Cruickshank discovers the ingenious techniques that the ancient Egyptians used to make their pyramids, temples and mummies last forever, driven by their obsession with magic and the afterlife.

The Egyptians believed they could live forever - that death was not necessarily the end. But to enjoy the afterlife depended on preserving the important things from this life - their bodies, possessions and monuments.

Dan explores how the ancient Egyptians pioneered remarkable ways of preparing for eternity. He visits the colossal, indestructible pyramids at Saqqara and Giza as well as the massive stone temple at Dendera, and examines the mummification process that allowed the Egyptians to keep their bodies intact long after death.

The religious belief in the afterlife dominated the lives and deaths of everyone in the land, and meant that hundreds of monuments were built to survive, and can now help us understand their beliefs. Above all, thousands of mummies found all over Egypt bear witness to how they thought, more than any other culture in history, that the preservation of the human body after death played a part in the everlasting survival of the spirit.

MON 20:00 Highlands - Scotland's Wild Heart (p03q49v7)
Highlanders

The final part of the landmark wildlife series narrated by Ewan McGregor.

The Highlands may appear a wild and unforgiving place, but for millennia people have lived alongside wild animals here, sharing the same weather, seasons and landscapes.

For many years, the impact of humans on the landscape has been damaging, with forests cut down, seas warming and many iconic species like the wolf and bear vanishing.

But now things are changing and people are working to put back what we've lost. Humans are finding ways of protecting the Highlands' precious ospreys, eagles, red kites, seabirds and dolphins. Never before has so much work been done to restore the wild Highlands to its full glory.

MON 21:00 Storyville (b09q4ggq)
Trophy: The Big Game Hunting Controversy

Endangered African species like elephants, rhinos and lions come closer to extinction each year; since 1970 the world has lost 60 per cent of all wild animals. Their devastating decline is fuelled in part by a global desire to hunt and kill these majestic animals. This film investigates the industry of big-game hunting, breeding and wildlife conservation.

Through the eyes of impassioned individuals who drive this business - from a Texas trophy hunter on a mission to kill 'the big five', to the world's largest private rhino breeder in South Africa, who believes he is saving these extraordinary beasts from becoming extinct - the film grapples with the consequences of imposing economic value on animals. What are the implications of treating animals as commodities? Does breeding, farming and hunting offer the option of conserving endangered animals? Trophy raises provocative debate about the rights and wrongs of killing animals for sport and for profit, and questions the value of these pursuits in saving the planet's great species from extinction.

MON 22:30 Hidden Killers (b03lyv9x)
The Edwardian Home

The dawn of the 20th century and the reign of a new king ushered in an era of fresh inventions and innovations that transformed the way we lived. Electricity, refrigeration and a whole host of different materials promised to make life at home brighter, easier and more convenient. But a lack of understanding of the potential hazards meant that they frequently led to terrible accidents, horrendous injuries and even death.

Dr Suzannah Lipscomb takes us back to an age when asbestos socks and radioactive toothpaste were welcomed into British homes. She reveals how their lethal qualities were discovered and why some of us are still living with the consequences of our Edwardian forebears' enthusiasm for untried and untested products.

MON 23:30 The Victorians (b00j4b2q)
Series 1

Dreams and Nightmares

Jeremy Paxman discovers how, in the dying years of Victoria's reign, artists led a revolt against Victorian values of money and morality, preferring to create a world filled with medieval knights and damsels, dreams and fairies, sex and death.

He meets a pair of spiritualist mediums, visits a collection of Victorian nudes and is allowed into Broadmoor hospital in search of mad Victorian artist Richard Dadd.

MON 00:30 Rule Britannia! Music, Mischief and Morals in the 18th Century (b040w7xx)
Episode 2

Broadcaster and writer Suzy Klein explores the remarkable music that became the soundtrack to the roaring 18th century.

As money poured in from a flourishing trade empire, the British rediscovered a taste for pleasure and fun, and music was at the very centre of it. Aspiring young girls played the keyboard to attract a good husband and nothing beat dancing a minuet if you wanted a place in the best society.

Europe's best composers and performers descended upon Britain, certain that the 'rage for music' would make them rich. Music had become a tool for social mobility, but it was also starting to shape the physical fabric of Britain - concert halls, assembly rooms and pleasure gardens sprang up across the country as the thirst for entertainment grew.

MON 01:30 Top of the Pops (b0763rc3)
Simon Bates introduces the pop programme, featuring Duran Duran, Soft Cell, Aneka, Shakin' Stevens, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Electric Light Orchestra and Bill Wyman, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.

MON 02:05 Top of the Pops (b0788q6h)
Richard Skinner introduces the pop programme, featuring Startrax, Ultravox, Cliff Richard, The Rolling Stones, Aneka and Genesis, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.

MON 02:40 Highlands - Scotland's Wild Heart (p03q49v7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

TUESDAY 30 JANUARY 2018

TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09pzfhc)
Series 1

30/01/2018

The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

TUE 19:30 Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank (b0078z93)
Pharaoh's Wives

Dan delves into the dark side of the court of Ramesses III, tracing the conspiracy that spread through his harem and may have led to his mysterious death.

At Ramesses III's temple at Medinet Habu, the pharaoh wrote his own legacy in stone - huge wall carvings celebrating the glories and achievements of his reign - an attempt to match his illustrious predecessor, Ramesses the Great. But behind the propaganda, Ramesses III was far from being a strong pharaoh in control of his country; he was not even in control of his own harem. One papyrus bundle has survived to tell us of dark intrigue swirling around this pharaoh in crisis. With Ramesses unable to decide whether to take Isis or Tye for his queen, the harem women took things into their own hands, starting a rebellion that spread through the court and the army and possibly led to his murder.

TUE 20:00 Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain (b00p3yn1)
Little Britain

Andrew Marr's epic series charting the events that shaped Britain.

For Andrew Marr, the story of Britain in the 1930s was one of betrayal, political extremism, unemployment and... hats. Bowlers, trilbies, top hats and flat caps were everywhere, as the country descended into chaos when the financial crash on Wall Street engulfed Britain. Solutions to the national crisis were offered by Britain's most unlikely paramilitaries, the Greenshirts.

Another way forward came from the Blackshirts, led by Britain's very own pantomime villain Oswald Mosley. With fascists on the march in Europe, Britain perfected the ability to look the other way and hope for the best. Dazzled by Gracie Fields and delighted by Butlins, Britain also had one nostalgic eye on the past, building mock Tudor homes for the new commuter class.

With vivid anecdotes and fascinating archive, Andrew argues that appeasement, not confrontation, was the British way. Only the lone voice of Winston Churchill warned of the horrors ahead. In an age of big, bad ideas, Britain in the 1930s could appear small-minded and reticent, but Andrew invites us to look a little harder and see how 'Little Britain' was tested, and faltered, before finally coming of age as modern Britain was born.

TUE 21:00 Art, Passion & Power: The Story of the Royal Collection (b09q02kn)
Series 1

Palaces and Pleasuredomes

Andrew Graham-Dixon continues his exploration of the Royal Collection, the vast collection of art and decorative objects owned by the Queen. In the third episode he has reached the age of the Romantics - the flamboyant George IV who created so much of the visual look of the modern monarchy, and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, for whom collecting was an integral part of their happy marriage.

As Prince of Wales, George was a famously loose cannon - a spendaholic prince whose debts ballooned in tandem with the royal waistline. But as a collector, Andrew argues, George was one of the great artistic figures of the Romantic age. His tastes were very much formed by the fallout from the French Revolution; as the great French aristocratic collections were broken up, an exodus of great art flooded into London's auction rooms - and George was there to buy them. He assembled a world-class collection of Dutch and Flemish masters, including key works by Rembrandt, Cuyp and de Hooch, as well as some of the greatest examples of French furniture ever produced, which Andrew sees in the state rooms of Buckingham Palace.

George IV was a natural showman and Andrew argues that his visit to Edinburgh in 1822 helped pioneer the modern monarchy's use of spectacle. But, like Henry VIII and Charles before him, George had the sense to partner up with an artist of genius - Sir Thomas Lawrence. The result of their collaboration is seen in a series of stirring battlefield portraits that line Windsor Castle's Waterloo Chamber.

Queen Victoria is often depicted as the uptight opposite of her louche uncle, but Andrew argues that, for her, art was just as important. This was a passion that she could share with her beloved husband, Prince Albert, who believed that learning how to make art was the best way to understand it.

Andrew visits Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, still filled with their art possessions, including marble facsimiles of the arms and legs of her infant children, commissioned by Victoria herself.

Andrew argues that Albert was a natural curator; he instilled a love for collecting in his children and compiled an early 'database' of the complete works of Raphael which he kept in his new 'print room' in Windsor Castle as a tool for art historians. But it is on the streets of South Kensington ('Albertopolis') that Andrew discovers Albert's real legacy - the museums and educational institutions here are a testimony to his vision for the area, purchased with the help of profits from the Great Exhibition.

TUE 22:00 The Stuarts (b03vhjm8)
A Family at War

The final, dramatic act of the Stuart century saw the Stuarts fatally divided by religion: brother versus brother, and two daughters supporting the overthrow of their father. After Charles II's brother, the Catholic James VII and II, was deposed by protestant William of Orange in 1688, Britain became a constitutional monarchy.

However, the so-called 1688 'Glorious Revolution' came at a price, as Scotland lost her sovereignty and became part of Great Britain in 1707, whilst Ireland had been reduced from a kingdom to a colony. The politics of resentment has continued to trouble Ireland until the present day.

TUE 23:00 The Culture Show (b03wyfpk)
The Lost Portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Culture Show Special

In 2009, art detective Dr Bendor Grosvenor caused a national scandal by proving that the Scottish National Portrait Gallery's iconic portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie, the rebel Stuart who almost seized power in 1745, was not in fact him. Keen to make amends, and suspecting that a long-lost portrait of the prince by one of Scotland's greatest artists, Allan Ramsay, might still survive, Bendor decides to retrace Charles's journey in the hope of unravelling one of the greatest mysteries in British art.

TUE 00:00 Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited (b01s74g9)
Pagans of Roman Britain

Series in which archaeologist Julian Richards returns to some of his most important digs to discover how science, conservation and new finds have changed our understanding of entire eras of ancient history.

Julian goes back to the excavation of two burials from Roman Britain - a wealthy man from Roman Winchester and a lavishly appointed grave of a woman from the heart of London that holds a special and unexpected secret only recently unlocked.

TUE 01:00 Top of the Pops (b078m2lw)
Peter Powell introduces the pop programme, featuring The Teardrop Explodes, OMD, Modern Romance, Dollar, Soft Cell, Gary Numan and Funkapolitan, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.

TUE 01:40 Top of the Pops (b079ckkc)
Steve Wright introduces the pop programme, featuring performances from Gidea Park, Beggar & Co, Sheena Easton, Godley and Creme, The Pointer Sisters, Bucks Fizz and Adam & The Ants, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.

TUE 02:20 Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain (b00p3yn1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 31 JANUARY 2018

WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09pzfhj)
Series 1

31/01/2018

The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

WED 19:30 Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank (b0078zdw)
The Death of Ancient Egypt

On a lonely island in the River Nile, Dan visits the last-known hieroglyphic inscription in Egypt and discovers the surprising truth about those responsible for the final, brutal collapse of this great civilisation, a culture that had lasted more than 3,000 years.

Travelling the length of the country, from Alexandria in the north to the beautiful temples of Dendera and Philae, Dan traces the key dramatic events that marked the decline in the fortunes of the ancient Egyptians and reveals the rich cast of characters - from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra - who all played a part in this powerful drama.

WED 20:00 Handmade: By Royal Appointment (b07ht061)
Steinway

Travelling between the factory in Hamburg, where Steinway pianos are still made largely by hand, and Steinway Hall in London, where a team of technicians maintain and restore the pianos, this film offers a portrait of the craftsmen behind the famous instrument.

From the stoic German factory workers bending the frames and polishing the veneers, to long-standing British restorer Jeff about to retire from the company, the film lifts the lid on the dedication and skills required to make and maintain a prestige piano.

Holders of a royal warrant since the days of Queen Victoria, Steinway supplies pianos to the royal household as well as many leading performers, and the film also follows renowned pianist Lang Lang preparing for a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

WED 20:30 A Stitch in Time (b09q047h)
Series 1

The Black Prince

Fusing biography, art and the history of fashion, Amber Butchart explores the lives of historical figures through the clothes they wore. She looks at Edward the Black Prince.

WED 21:00 Six Wives with Lucy Worsley (b086zd44)
Episode 3

This episode follows Henry's marriage annulment to Anne of Cleves due to non-consummation. Middle-aged Henry then marries teenager Catherine Howard two weeks later, only for her to be convicted of treason and beheaded.

Henry's last wife, Katherine Parr, is a good stepmother to his children, but her religious views differ greatly from the king's. Her book, Prayers or Meditations, is the first book to be written in English by a woman, but its popularity threatens Henry's advisors. Lucy observes as Katherine narrowly escapes being arrested for treason.

Henry dies and his son Edward VI takes the throne. Katherine remarries and gets pregnant but tragically dies a week after the baby is born.

WED 22:00 Do We Really Need the Moon? (b00yb5jp)
The moon is such a familiar presence in the sky that most of us take it for granted. But what if it wasn't where it is now? How would that affect life on Earth?

Space scientist and lunar fanatic Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock explores our intimate relationship with the moon. Besides orchestrating the tides, the moon dictates the length of a day, the rhythm of the seasons and the very stability of our planet.

Yet the moon is always on the move. In the past, it was closer to the Earth and in the future it will be farther away. That it is now perfectly placed to sustain life is pure luck, a cosmic coincidence. Using computer graphics to summon up great tides and set the Earth spinning on its side, Aderin-Pocock implores us to look at the Moon afresh: to see it not as an inert rock, but as a key player in the story of our planet, past, present and future.

WED 23:00 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b07g6zpk)
Series 1 - Reversions

Episode 2

In this episode it's the summer and autumn. A fox family is playing below the Carmarthen Fans, lizards bask in the sun on limestone pavements in the upper Swansea valley and hundreds of dragonflies emerge from pools in the uplands near Brecon.

On the Black Mountain foothills, sheep are gathered by shepherds on horseback and a group of dedicated volunteers are trying to repair the mountaintop. The autumn is the season when the landscape is at its most colourful. It's also a time when thousands of fieldfares arrive from Europe to escape the colder continent. Some feed on berries in trees surrounding the smallest church in Wales.

In the Usk valley, bats feed before they hibernate in caves and migrating ducks on Talybont reservoir ready for winter. Underground, cave spiders are lurking and in the rivers, sea trout are heading upstream to spawn.

WED 00:00 The Tube: An Underground History (b01sjtzw)
In 2013 London Underground is 150 years old. The world's first underground railway is spending its anniversary year celebrating its own history. They're sending a steam train back underground, and there's a royal visit to prepare for. On the tube, history is everywhere - it's down every tunnel, in every tunnel, in every sign and design, and in the lives of the unsung people who built it and run it today.

This programme tells the story of the underground through the eyes of the people who work for it. Farringdon station supervisor Iain MacPherson reveals why his station - the original terminus - was constructed in the 1860s, and recalls the dark days of King's Cross in the 1980s. Piccadilly line driver Dylan Glenister explains why every Edwardian station on his line has its own unique tiling pattern and how, in the 1930s, the construction of new stations expanded the borders of London. And there's head of design and heritage, Mike Ashworth, whose predecessor pioneered the art of branding in the 1920s and customer service assistant Steve Parkinson, who was part of a wave of new recruits from the Caribbean from the 50s.

With privileged access to disused stations and rare archive footage, this is the tube's hidden history, revealing why it was first built and how it has shaped London ever since.

WED 01:00 Top of the Pops (b07bfnxc)
Simon Bates introduces the pop chart programme, featuring performances from Slade, Depeche Mode, Madness, Imagination, Alvin Stardust, Linx and Adam & The Ants, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.

WED 01:40 Top of the Pops (b07c3ywt)
Weekly pop chart programme presented by Mike Read, first broadcast on 1 October 1981. Includes appearances from The Tweets, Toyah, Altered Images, Gidea Park, The Creatures, Bad Manners, Dollar and Adam & The Ants, plus a dance sequence by Legs & Co.

WED 02:20 Six Wives with Lucy Worsley (b086zd44)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THURSDAY 01 FEBRUARY 2018

THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09pzfhp)
Series 1

01/02/2018

The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b09q38h2)
Simon Bates and Janice Long present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 14 February 1985. Featuring Dead Or Alive, The Colour Field, Killing Joke, The Smiths, and Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson.

THU 20:00 How We Got to Now with Steven Johnson (b0551rj1)
Cold

For at least 100,000 years, humans have known how to make fire. But the skill to make cold is a very modern technique. Innovation expert Steven Johnson traces the unsung heroes of cold, like the doctor who was desperate to beat fever and created a refrigerator, the rookie heating engineer who discovered how to cool our homes and set off a mass migration to the desert, and the young man who cut ice from a lake and transported it thousands of miles. Steven sees how their inventions had far-reaching and unexpected consequences for creating the modern world.

THU 21:00 Forces of Nature with Brian Cox (b07l1zvw)
The Moth and the Flame

Professor Brian Cox shows how Earth's basic ingredients, like the pure sulphur mined in the heart of a deadly volcano in Indonesia, have become the building blocks of life. Hidden deep in a cave in the Dominican Republic lies a magical world created by the same property of water that makes it essential to life. Clinging to a precipitous dam wall in Italy, baby mountain goats seek out Earth's chemical elements essential to their survival. In the middle of the night in a bay off Japan, Brian explains how the dazzling display of thousands of glowing squid shows how life has taken Earth's chemistry and turned it into the chemistry of life.

THU 22:00 Prehistoric Autopsy (b01nlzsh)
Lucy

It is the final day at the Prehistoric Autopsy HQ in Glasgow. Anatomist Professor Alice Roberts and biologist Dr George McGavin continue their journey back into our evolutionary past.

They meet probably the most famous of all our early ancestors. She is called Lucy from the species Australopithecus afarensis and she lived 3.2 million years ago. Lucy's species had traded life in the trees for life on the ground, but this ability to routinely walk upright came at a price and it is one we are still paying today.

Once again with the help of a team of international experts, this follows the rebuilding of this iconic prehistoric ancestor from the bones up.

To make the reconstructions as accurate as possible Alice and George have travelled the globe, gathering evidence from the world's leading scientists. In the lab at the Prehistoric Autopsy HQ, scientists put the latest theories to the test to see how similar or different we really are to our ancient ancestors, while experimental archeologists look for clues as to how they lived.

All the research has been fed to a team of model makers who have spent months painstakingly reconstructing skeletons, muscles, skin and hair.

At HQ, the team studies evidence that reveals how Lucy and her kind walked, what they ate and even how they gave birth. They also examine the fossilised remains of the world's oldest child to see what clues it can reveal about Lucy's species and the origins of childhood.

At the end of this extraordinary evolutionary journey the team will have travelled back nearly four million years. On the way they will have come face to face with a Neanderthal, a Homo erectus and finally one of our earliest prehistoric ancestors - Lucy.

THU 23:00 Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life (b00hd5mf)
David Attenborough is a passionate Darwinian, and sees evolution as the cornerstone of all the programmes and series he has ever made. Here, he shares his personal view on Darwin's controversial idea. Taking us on a journey through the last 200 years, he tracks the changes in our understanding of the natural world. Ever since Darwin, major scientific discoveries have helped to underpin and strengthen Darwin's revolutionary idea so that today, the pieces of the puzzle fit together so neatly that there can be little doubt that Darwin was right. As David says: 'Now we can trace the ancestry of all animals in the tree of life and demonstrate the truth of Darwin's basic proposition. All life is related.'

David asks three key questions: how and why did Darwin come up with his theory of evolution? Why do we think he was right? And why is it more important now than ever before?

David starts his journey in Darwin's home at Down House in Kent, where Darwin worried and puzzled over the origins of life. He goes back to his roots in Leicestershire, where he hunted for fossils as a child and where another schoolboy unearthed a significant find in the 1950s, and he revisits Cambridge University, where both he and Darwin studied and where many years later the DNA double helix was discovered, providing the foundations for genetics.

At the end of his journey in the Natural History Museum in London, David concludes that Darwin's great insight revolutionised the way in which we see the world. We now understand why there are so many different species, and why they are distributed in the way they are. But above all, Darwin has shown us that we are not set apart from the natural world and do not have dominion over it. We are subject to its laws and processes, as are all other animals on earth to which, indeed, we are related.

THU 00:00 Top of the Pops (b09q38h2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

THU 00:35 Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity (b054v27d)
In the early 1980s, Culture Club was one of the biggest bands in the world, selling 150 million records worldwide. Formed in London, the band was comprised of Boy George on vocals, Mikey Craig on bass, Roy Hay on guitar and keyboards and Jon Moss on drums. As well as their UK success, the band was huge in the USA - notching up ten top 40 hits. Being part of Band Aid cemented them as stalwarts of the 80s, a band that broke down barriers and left a huge legacy for the stars that came later, before they disbanded in 1986.

However, they are a band with a past as colourful as their music. George had a secret affair with his drummer Jon Moss and when they acrimoniously split, the band fell apart and George descended into heroin addiction. Over the years there have been numerous failed attempts to reunite the band.

In 2014 Culture Club decided to come back together to record a new album and embark on a UK and US tour. Director Mike Nicholls has unique access, following the band as they first meet in George's London home to write new material. However, it's not long before creative differences and tensions from their past begin to emerge. Faultlines develop further when the band travel to Spain to record the new album, spending two weeks working and living together in a remote recording studio.

As the band return to London to prepare for the tour, they suffer a Twitter mauling after their first big public performance on Strictly Come Dancing. Relations are even more strained when George and the band sign to separate managers and a sudden illness threatens the whole reunion.

The film looks at the band's troubled past, examining the themes of success, fame and ego, and reveals the personalities behind one of the most iconic bands of all time.

THU 01:35 How We Got to Now with Steven Johnson (b0551rj1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

THU 02:35 Forces of Nature with Brian Cox (b07l1zvw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

FRIDAY 02 FEBRUARY 2018

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b09pzfj4)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b09q3ccs)
Mike Read and Bruno Brookes present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 21 February 1985. Featuring Howard Jones, Sharpe and Numan, Don Henley, Bryan Adams and Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson.

FRI 20:10 The Good Old Days (b09q04tq)
Leonard Sachs presents the old-time music hall programme, first broadcast on 09 July 1981. Featuring Bernard Cribbins, The King's Singers, Sheila Steafel, Rita Morris, Jenny Wren, Bertice Reading and members of the Players' Theatre, London.

FRI 21:00 Hits, Hype & Hustle: An Insider's Guide to the Music Business (b09q04ts)
Series 1

Revivals and Reunions

Part three of this entertaining, behind-the-scenes series about how the music business works, explores the phenomenon of band reunions.

With unique revelations, rare archive and backstage access to an impressive line-up of old favourites strutting their stuff once more, music PR legend Alan Edwards tells the story of why so many bands are getting back together, what happens when they do - and how it's changing the music business.

Alan Edwards, who has looked after everyone from Prince to The Rolling Stones, from David Bowie to The Spice Girls, is our musical guide. He's been in the business long enough to see countless acts enjoy pop stardom, split up, fall out, only to re-emerge triumphant decades later, to the joy of their fans.

Alan starts by telling the story of the UK's first revival concert which took place over 40 years ago at Wembley Stadium. Featuring some of the biggest acts from the birth of rock 'n' roll - Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis - the concert opened the eyes of promoters to the power of yesterday's hitmakers to reach an audience and make serious money.

From there, Alan takes us on a musical journey through some of the biggest reunions of the last thirty years. Highlights include Glen Matlock, ex-bassist in The Sex Pistols who talks candidly about their 1996 reunion. Called the Filthy Lucre tour, Glen reveals how one section of the band had to travel on a separate tour bus just to keep the fragile band reunion on track so they could finish the tour.

Alan also meets the three remaining members of Blondie, who tell him how they've navigated their reunion. Debbie Harry reveals how she didn't want to get back together with the band at first, had to be persuaded to do it, but then teared up when they first played together - 'when we put the band back together for the first time and everybody started playing I sort of teared up because, oh there really is that sound, that really does exist, we do have an identity and that is probably the really successful band is to have a successful uniqueness to it.'

Stewart Copeland, the drummer in The Police, tells us about their reunion tour, one the most successful of all time. In rare archive of the band's rehearsals, Stewart tells us these 'were hell'. Copeland also reveals how the band had therapy during their comeback tour, 'we started to say things that I, we'd never said. I heard things from him (Sting) that just blew my mind, that's what you've been thinking for thirty years.'

Melanie C talks about The Spice Girls' reunion and reveals which of the girls called to ask her to give it another go. Alex James from Blur gives us the inside track on how Blur's revival happened and Shaun Ryder, with typical bluntness, tells us why he decided to take The Happy Mondays back on the road. We also hear from OMD, who for the first time reveal what really happened during their bitter break-up.

Eighties musical phenomenon Musical Youth take us behind the scenes of their rebirth and tell us why they still do it, and one of the biggest bands of the 60s, The Zombies, tell the remarkable story of how good old-fashioned 'word of mouth' played a big part in their rebirth.

The programme also looks at how to stage a reunion when no members of the band want to get involved. Alan Edwards explores how pop music is increasingly popping up in West End musicals and at how bands are staging their own exhibitions as a way to come back without actually having to stage a reunion.

And finally, Alan ponders the ultimate comeback - from beyond the grave - and asks whether technology and the arrival of hologram performances mean that in the future bands will never really break up, they'll just keep on regenerating.

FRI 22:00 Biggest Band Break Ups and Make Ups (b05q472d)
Mark Radcliffe presents a look at the highs and lows of band life - the creative tension that produces great music and the pressures that come with success and fame, and pull most bands apart. Radcliffe lifts the lid on the main reasons why bands break up and the secrets of bands that manage to stay together.

FRI 23:00 Agnetha: ABBA and After (b02x9zwc)
In this documentary, the BBC have exclusive access to Agnetha Faltskog, 'The Girl with the Golden Hair' as the song goes, celebrating her extraordinary singing career which began in the mid-60s when she was just 15. Within just two years, she was a singing sensation at the top of the charts in Sweden.

Along came husband Bjorn Ulvaeus and the phenomenal band ABBA that engulfed the world in the 70s, featuring Agnetha's touching voice and striking looks. Agnetha lacked confidence on stage as the global demand for the group grew and grew, while being away from her young children caused her great turmoil.

With special behind-the-scenes access to the making of her comeback album, the film follows this reluctant star - the subject of much tabloid speculation since she retreated from the stage post-ABBA - as she returns to recording aged 63. Included in the film is her first meeting with Gary Barlow, who contributes a duet to the new album.

The programme features interviews with Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Gary Barlow, Tony Blackburn, Sir Tim Rice and record producers Peter Nordahl and Jorgen Elofsson.

FRI 00:00 Top of the Pops (b09q3ccs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

FRI 00:30 Fleetwood Mac: Don't Stop (b00nq7q9)
Fleetwood Mac are one of the biggest-selling bands of all time and still on the road. Their story, told in their own words, is an epic tale of love and confrontation, of success and loss.

Few bands have undergone such radical musical and personal change. The band evolved from the 60s British blues boom to perfect a US West Coast sound that saw them sell 40 million copies of the album Rumours.

However, behind-the-scenes relationships were turbulent. The band went through multiple line-ups with six different lead guitarists. While working on Rumours, the two couples at the heart of the band separated, yet this heartache inspired the perfect pop record.

FRI 01:30 Hits, Hype & Hustle: An Insider's Guide to the Music Business (b09q04ts)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

FRI 02:30 Biggest Band Break Ups and Make Ups (b05q472d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]

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

A Stitch in Time 20:30 WED (b09q047h)

Agnetha: ABBA and After 23:00 FRI (b02x9zwc)

Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain 20:00 TUE (b00p3yn1)

Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain 02:20 TUE (b00p3yn1)

Art, Passion & Power: The Story of the Royal Collection 01:25 SUN (b09p6mr9)

Art, Passion & Power: The Story of the Royal Collection 21:00 TUE (b09q02kn)

BBC Proms 23:05 SUN (b093m2wx)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 MON (b09pzfh6)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 TUE (b09pzfhc)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 WED (b09pzfhj)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 THU (b09pzfhp)

Biggest Band Break Ups and Make Ups 22:00 FRI (b05q472d)

Biggest Band Break Ups and Make Ups 02:30 FRI (b05q472d)

Boy George and Culture Club: Karma to Calamity 00:35 THU (b054v27d)

Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life 23:00 THU (b00hd5mf)

Classic Soul at the BBC 00:25 SUN (b0074pvv)

Do We Really Need the Moon? 22:00 WED (b00yb5jp)

Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank 19:30 MON (b0078z5p)

Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank 19:30 TUE (b0078z93)

Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank 19:30 WED (b0078zdw)

Fleetwood Mac: Don't Stop 00:30 FRI (b00nq7q9)

Forces of Nature with Brian Cox 21:00 THU (b07l1zvw)

Forces of Nature with Brian Cox 02:35 THU (b07l1zvw)

Handmade: By Royal Appointment 20:00 WED (b07ht061)

Hidden Killers 22:30 MON (b03lyv9x)

Highlands - Scotland's Wild Heart 20:00 MON (p03q49v7)

Highlands - Scotland's Wild Heart 02:40 MON (p03q49v7)

Hits, Hype & Hustle: An Insider's Guide to the Music Business 21:00 FRI (b09q04ts)

Hits, Hype & Hustle: An Insider's Guide to the Music Business 01:30 FRI (b09q04ts)

How We Got to Now with Steven Johnson 20:00 THU (b0551rj1)

How We Got to Now with Steven Johnson 01:35 THU (b0551rj1)

Machines 22:00 SUN (b09g8cc9)

New York Rock at the BBC 01:05 SAT (b007mwcf)

Only Connect 19:00 SUN (b09pvxjk)

Prehistoric Autopsy 22:00 THU (b01nlzsh)

Rule Britannia! Music, Mischief and Morals in the 18th Century 00:30 MON (b040w7xx)

Six Wives with Lucy Worsley 21:00 WED (b086zd44)

Six Wives with Lucy Worsley 02:20 WED (b086zd44)

Spiral 21:00 SAT (b09q4f9s)

Spiral 22:00 SAT (b09q4f9v)

Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited 00:00 TUE (b01s74g9)

Storyville 21:00 MON (b09q4ggq)

Surviving the Holocaust - Freddie Knoller's War 20:00 SAT (b050cvdd)

The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams 23:00 WED (b07g6zpk)

The Children of the Holocaust 19:00 SAT (b05173wp)

The Culture Show 23:00 TUE (b03wyfpk)

The Easybeats to AC/DC: The Story of Aussie Rock 00:05 SAT (b0705t5j)

The Good Old Days 20:10 FRI (b09q04tq)

The Joy of the Guitar Riff 02:05 SAT (b049mtxw)

The Stuarts 22:00 TUE (b03vhjm8)

The Tube: An Underground History 00:00 WED (b01sjtzw)

The Victorians 23:30 MON (b00j4b2q)

This World 20:00 SUN (b03sr67n)

Timeshift 21:00 SUN (b00nnm7k)

Timeshift 02:25 SUN (b00nnm7k)

Top of the Pops 22:55 SAT (b09p7cnx)

Top of the Pops 23:25 SAT (b09p7cqn)

Top of the Pops 01:30 MON (b0763rc3)

Top of the Pops 02:05 MON (b0788q6h)

Top of the Pops 01:00 TUE (b078m2lw)

Top of the Pops 01:40 TUE (b079ckkc)

Top of the Pops 01:00 WED (b07bfnxc)

Top of the Pops 01:40 WED (b07c3ywt)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b09q38h2)

Top of the Pops 00:00 THU (b09q38h2)

Top of the Pops 19:30 FRI (b09q3ccs)

Top of the Pops 00:00 FRI (b09q3ccs)

University Challenge 19:30 SUN (b09pvy1c)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b09pzfj4)