Victoria Coren Mitchell hosts the series where knowledge will only take you so far. Patience and lateral thinking are also vital.
It is the first of the semi-finals as two returning teams compete to find the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random. So join Victoria Coren Mitchell if you want to know what connects Wolf Man, Dora, Rat Man and Little Hans.
In the last of the semis and the penultimate match in the series, find out which team reaches a place in the grand final of the quiz for students. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.
Documentary revealing the spectacular wildlife of Cuba, home to the bee hummingbird - the world's smallest bird - Cuban crocodiles, swarms of purple land crabs, sea turtles and giant iguanas.
Almost sixty years on, Castro's Cuban revolution continues to split world opinion as decisively as it did when that small band of bearded guerrillas first entered Havana.
In the second part of Julien Temple's film we hear from the citizens of this extraordinary city how these young revolutionaries put their dreams into practice. With access to remarkable archive footage, we see how they set about building a brave new socialist world on America's doorstep. Now with Obama gone, Trump in the White House, Fidel dead and his brother Raul stepping down from the presidency, Havana too is about to step into the unknown.
Documentary which follows the story of the cigar - from the tobacco fields west of the Cuban capital of Havana into the factories where poetry and daily newspapers are read aloud to the workers, to Hollywood cigar bars and the gentlemen's haunts of St James's, London. With the worldwide cigar market growing, smoking cigars is perceived as glamorous and yet this is occurring at a time when it is nearly impossible to smoke a cigarette in any public place in the United States. Cigar clubs are opening up in America despite the fact that Cuban cigars are banned. The film looks at the rituals and traditions of cigar smoking, the history of cigars and famous cigar smokers from all walks of life. With Lord Grade, Kenneth Clarke, James Belushi, George Wendt and Peter Weller.
The first of a four-part series revealing the deep musical and social impact of Latin music in the USA.
The massive success of Santana's innovative Latin-blues at the Woodstock Festival leads back in time to the first Cuban immigrants arriving, with their Afro-Cuban music, into the States. Using feature film clips, rare archive and location filming, the programme examines how Afro-Cuban music has impacted - since early last century - on jazz, pop rhythms and dance styles.
From Cuban rumba to New York mambo, Latin music enthralled 1950s America, challenging racial attitudes and changing the stereotypes projected in movies like West Side Story. It influenced Hollywood, TV sitcoms and 60s rock 'n' roll, as the Beatles and many American R&B bands absorbed Latin rhythms into the wider worlds of rock music, fashion and culture.
Featuring Carlos Santana, Cachao, Tito Puente, Dizzy Gillespie and the greatest names in Afro-Cuban music.
In episode two, the journey through bohemian history reaches the early 20th century, when the Bloomsbury Group and others were determined to challenge sexual taboos - sometimes in their work and often in their private lives. They threw off their inhibitions, and frequently their clothes, and set the tone for generations of bohemians who followed. But what did the pursuit of freedom do for these artists, their art, and the people around them?
Victoria considers the very open relationships of the Bloomsbury set, famously known as 'a circle who lived in squares and loved in triangles'. She also visits Charleston, the rural love nest of painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. She explores the story of Edward Carpenter, the poet and proto-hippy who dared to campaign for gay liberation in Edwardian England, and examines the 'King of Bohemia', painter Augustus John, who was alleged to have sired at least 99 children - one of whom Victoria meets.
This episode also features the Bright Young Things - the glamorous, party-loving bohemians of the Roaring Twenties, who provided the inspiration for photographer Cecil Beaton and writer Evelyn Waugh. Victoria discusses them with Stephen Fry, who directed the film of Waugh's novel Vile Bodies. She also uncovers the forgotten life of Nina Hamnett, a painter who spent too much time down the pub to fulfil her early promise. Finally she grapples with the truly shocking sexual conduct of one of the greatest English artists of the century, Eric Gill, whose actions for many embody the most unpalatable excesses of bohemian behaviour, living beyond any boundaries.
Along the way Victoria also meets artists Grayson Perry and Maggi Hambling, and seeks the wisdom of the Rev Richard Coles and author Will Self.
MONDAY 23 APRIL 2018
MON 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0b0by41)
Series 1
23/04/2018
Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London return to report on the events that are shaping the world.
MON 19:30 Nature's Microworlds (b01qnp5c)
Yellowstone
In the spectacular Yellowstone where wolves, bears, coyotes, bison and elk roam vast grasslands, wetlands and forests, Steve Backshall looks for the answer to a puzzle. Wolves and beavers have little to do with each other so why, when wolves were returned after an absence of 70 years, did the beaver population increase? The revelation is as magical as it is surprising.
MON 20:00 Turkey with Simon Reeve (b08ll1wy)
Series 1
Taurus Mountains to Istanbul
Simon Reeve sets off on the second leg of his two-part journey around Turkey, a dramatic and beautiful country that now finds itself at the centre of world events.
In the Taurus Mountains Simon stays with descendants of the original Turks, nomads known as Yoruks, whose lifestyle is under threat from the modern world and an increasingly religious government. They're not the only minority at odds with the authorities in Turkey; Simon sees first-hand the devastating effects of fighting in the country's Kurdish region. In an area where the government has detained foreign journalists, Simon gathers unique footage in the aftermath of a crackdown on Kurdish militants - the wholesale destruction of the historic centre of one of Turkey's oldest cities.
Away from the conflict in the south, Simon heads towards the Black Sea coast. He meets a wildlife conservationist protecting Turkey's population of brown bears, and villagers who still communicate over long distances using an ancient bird language. In the country's capital he meets a victim of President Erdogan's authoritarian purge of people accused of complicity in the failed coup against him.
Finally Simon's journey comes full circle when he returns to Istanbul - home to the new craze of 'Ottomania', a celebration of the vast empire that preceded modern Turkey. Simon visits the set of one of the world's most popular TV dramas - even getting a speaking role - based in the court of an Ottoman sultan.
MON 21:00 An Art Lovers' Guide (b0b0g5cj)
Series 2
Baku
In the final episode of the series, Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke set off on their most adventurous trip yet - to Baku, capital of Azerbaijan.
A former Soviet state, bordering the Caspian Sea, Baku offers a tantalising mix of the ancient and modern - at the crossroads of east meets west, on the ancient silk trading route. It is also an authoritarian state, where cultural life is tightly controlled. So, not their regular city break...
But it is a city looking westwards, eager to turn itself into a tourist destination. They discover a city for which oil has been both a blessing and a curse. The profits from oil transformed its architecture twice - first in the late nineteenth century, and again in the twentieth.
As a result, Baku is full of buildings that feel like 19th-century Paris, but also gleaming new structures by architectural stars like Zaha Hadid. And all around, the traces of Soviet rule offer other surprising clashes of art and architecture.
Nina and Alastair pick their way through this maze of influences and travel back in time, seeking the roots of Azerbaijani identity. Alastair visits the world's first museum devoted entirely to rugs while Nina marvels at stunning prehistoric rock art on the city's outskirts. Together they wander the medieval old city, discovering the early impact of Islamic culture.
And in the stunning Heydar Aliyev Centre designed by Zaha Hadid, they discover an exhibition devoted to Heydar Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, whose government exerts a strong influence on the city's art and culture. But Alistair also meets Sabina Shikhlinskaya, an artist with a truly independent voice.
As night falls they discover why Azerbaijan is known as the 'Land of Fire' when they visit Yanar Dag, a spectacular 10-metre long natural gas fire which blazes continuously. And they end their visit to Baku with a performance of Maugham, Azerbaijan's ancient, haunting folk music as they reflect on their time in a city that has fascinated and surprised them both.
MON 22:00 The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors (b03dwq95)
Episode 2
Continuing his fascinating journey to rediscover the central role played by the Ottoman empire in Europe and the Middle East, Rageh Omaar explores the huge contrasts in the times of two very different Ottoman sultans. The famed Suleiman the Magnificent in the golden age of the 16th century and the troubled reign of Abdul Hamid II in the 19th century, when the Ottomans were dubbed 'the Sick Man of Europe'.
To find out what a Muslim world run from Europe was really like, Rageh examines the cultural legacy of the empire, as well as the physical, religious and political architecture of Ottoman rule. It reveals the backdrop to the relationship between Islam and Europe today, how the Ottomans became central in the power politics of the continent and what could have happened had they succeeded in their successive bids to seize Vienna, then a key European capital.
MON 23:00 Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British (b07d7sdp)
The Flat
If modern Britain lives in a terrace house and loves a cottage, it cannot make its mind up about the high-rise flat. Is the skyscraper a blot on the landscape, or the answer to the national housing crisis?
For Dan Cruickshank, the idea of living high above the city streets really is the future once again. 21st-century London is the site of an extraordinary building boom. Hundreds of residential high-rise towers are being built at record speed, many hugely controversial, as private developers cotton on to what social housing idealists realised 60 years ago.
Dan is in Bow in east London, charting the extraordinary history of one estate - the Lincoln. Designed in 1960 for the London County Council by a young idealistic architect, the 19-storey Lincoln was once the tallest residential building in London. Inside every flat were the latest space-age gadgets - a lift, a shower and a fitted kitchen. But the dream turned sour. The Lincoln became notorious for drugs and violence. There was even a brutal murder. It was the same all over Britain - the flat was a byword for deprivation and social exclusion. But then, just as everything looked lost, the Lincoln was saved and with, perhaps, the hopes of an entire generation for that most precious of things - a home. For Dan, as perhaps for Britain, 'the only way is up'.
MON 00:00 Turkey with Simon Reeve (b08ll1wy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
MON 01:00 Top of the Pops (b08k52y1)
Simon Bates and Peter Powell introduce the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 23 June 1983. Featuring Freeez, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Shakatak, Mike Oldfield, H20 and The Police.
MON 01:30 Top of the Pops (b08kvpvx)
Richard Skinner and Tommy Vance present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 30 June 1983. Featuring Shalamar, Nick Heyward, Irene Cara, Paul Young, Tom Robinson, Bucks Fizz and Rod Stewart.
MON 02:05 An Art Lovers' Guide (b0b0g5cj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 24 APRIL 2018
TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0b0by51)
Series 1
24/04/2018
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Sea City (b03yvs67)
Series 2
Episode 1
It is a big weekend for Red Funnel ferries, as thousands of people head for one of Britain's biggest music festivals on the Isle of Wight. Hard-pressed staff must deal with chock-a-block sailings and trying to stick to their timetables.
On board the QM2, interiors specialist Jo Raven is keeping Cunard's flagship vessel ship-shape, while at the cruise terminal the Reverend Roger Stone is helping a crew member from India to find his grandfather's grave.
TUE 20:00 King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons (b038dbd5)
The Lady of the Mercians
In this second episode, Alfred's children continue the family plan to create a kingdom of all the English.
The tale begins with a savage civil war in a bleak decade of snow and famine, culminating in an epic victory over the Vikings near Wolverhampton in 910. Filmed in the Fens and Winchester, Gloucester, Oxford and Rome, the key figure in this episode is Alfred's daughter Aethelflaed, the ruler of Mercia. Michael Wood recovers her story from a copy of a lost chronicle written in Mercia in her lifetime which, in the film, we hear read in Old English.
One of the great forgotten figures in British history, Aethelflaed led armies, built fortresses, campaigned against the Vikings and was a brilliant diplomat. Her fame spread across the British Isles, beloved by her warriors and her people she was known simply as 'the Lady of the Mercians'. Without her, concludes Wood, 'England might never have happened'.
TUE 21:00 The Story of the Jews (b03bvnf9)
Over the Rainbow
Simon Schama plunges us into the lost world of the shtetl, the Jewish towns and villages sewn across the hinterlands of eastern Europe which became the seedbed of a uniquely Jewish culture.
Shtetl culture would make its mark on the modern world, from the revolutionary politics of the Soviet Union to the mass culture of Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood. It was also the birthplaces of Hasidism, the most visible, iconic and, arguably, most misunderstood expression of Jewish faith and fervour.
This episode takes us from the forests of Lithuania, where Simon's own family logged wood and fought wolves, to the boulevards of Odessa, where shtetl kids argued the merits of revolutionary socialism over Zionism. From the Ukrainian city of Uman, where today thousands of the Hasidim chant and sing over the tomb of the wonder-working Rabbi Nachman, to the streets of Manhattan's lower east side, where the sons of shtetl immigrants wrote the American songbook. We return, with grim inevitability, to eastern Europe in 1940 where the genocidal mechanisms of the 'final solution' were beginning to grind the shtetl world into dust and ash.
TUE 22:00 Majesty and Mortar: Britain's Great Palaces (b0488trx)
Opening the Palace Doors
With the widowhood of Queen Victoria, the glorious life of palaces almost came to an abrupt end. There would be just one final flowering of palatial style just before the First World War, on an imperial scale - the redesign of Buckingham Palace and The Mall. The interwar period was a difficult time for many of Britain's best palaces, forced into a half-life of grace-and-favour accommodation for exiled royalty and aristocracy down on their luck. But more recent times would see restoration and conservation on a new scale and, with it, detective work to uncover palace secrets.
TUE 23:00 Chivalry and Betrayal: The Hundred Years War (b01qyvbm)
Agents of God
Henry V has claimed the crown of France for his heirs, but to secure it the English must conquer all of France. Potent French resistance comes in the most unlikely form - an illiterate young peasant girl, Joan of Arc. Dr Janina Ramirez explores the longest and bloodiest divorce in history.
TUE 00:00 Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe (b0079238)
The Land of My Mother
Francesco da Mosto visits the south and Sicily, home of his mother's family for more than 500 years. Easter celebrations in the south involve the streets running red with celebrants' blood and the locals indulging in frantic dances to ward off the threat of the tarantula.
On Sicily, the brooding majesty of Etna terrifies Francesco as he stares into the volcano, but there's beauty and art at the Villa Bagheria and an explosion of baroque decadence at Noto. Finally for Francesco, there's an emotional reunion with his family, who have come down from Venice.
TUE 01:00 Top of the Pops (b08kvpwj)
John Peel and David Jensen present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 7 July 1983. Featuring Roman Holliday, Freeez, The Cure, Funk Masters and Jimmy the Hoover.
TUE 01:40 Top of the Pops (b08l6rjw)
Peter Powell and Andy Peebles present another edition of the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 14 July 1983. Featuring Paul Young, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Heaven 17, Echo & the Bunnymen and Bananarama.
TUE 02:15 The Story of the Jews (b03bvnf9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 25 APRIL 2018
WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0b0by72)
Series 1
25/04/2018
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Sea City (b03z285x)
Series 2
Episode 2
Hundreds of people who keep the port running are often hidden from view. Peter Roberts is a bunkering tanker skipper providing fuel for ships around the port, while Chase Wyeth's job as a tug skipper may involve some very unsavoury tasks. But the water is at the heart of people's pastimes as well as their work. Volunteers on a vintage steamship view it as an 'allotment at sea', while weekend sailors also uphold a bastion of English eccentricity - the annual cricket match at the Bramble Bank in the middle of the Solent.
Narrated by John Altman.
WED 20:00 The Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart (b00qmf71)
Water
Visible from space, Africa's Great Rift Valley runs three thousand miles from the Red Sea to the mouth of the Zambezi. It's a diverse terrain of erupting volcanoes, forest-clad mountains, spectacular valleys, rolling grasslands, huge lakes and mighty rivers, and is home to crocodiles, hippos, lions, elephants, flocks of flamingos and a diversity of indigenous peoples.
Using state-of-the-art high definition filming techniques, this series investigates the geological forces which shaped east Africa's Great Rift and which make it one of the world's most wildlife-rich landscapes.
The Great Rift Valley channels a huge diversity of waterways - rivers, lakes, waterfalls, caustic springs and coral seas - from Egypt to Mozambique. Some lake and ocean deeps harbour previously unseen life-forms, while caustic waters challenge life to the extreme. But where volcanic minerals enrich the Great Rift's waterways, they provide the most spectacular concentrations of birds, mammals and fish in all Africa.
WED 21:00 Elizabeth I's Secret Agents (b09c6q44)
Series 1
Episode 1
In this episode, we find England alone - a Protestant nation in a largely Catholic Europe. Then, 12 years into Elizabeth's reign, the pope declares her a heretic, which in the hearts of England's Catholics gives them permission to kill her. Queen Elizabeth looks to her spymaster William Cecil to stop the Catholic assassins getting through. Cecil establishes a huge espionage network - England's first secret service. His spies break Catholic conspiracies at home and abroad.
Cecil's network is put on high alert by intelligence from a source in Catholic Europe. As a result he catches a courier carrying coded letters that lead Cecil to unravel a plot to assassinate Elizabeth and install her cousin Mary, Queen of Scots on the English throne. Now Cecil will not rest until Mary, the figurehead for every Catholic threat and repository of Catholic hopes, is eliminated. In order to protect a queen, Cecil must kill one.
Cecil now creates an elaborate Elizabethan sting. He incubates a Catholic plot to assassinate the queen and lures Mary into it. But will Mary fall for the bait and seal her fate. Mary does walk right into Cecil's trap, but even then the spymaster's aim is thwarted by a queen who refuses to execute her own cousin. Cecil knows Mary must die if Elizabeth is to live, but now that means he must defy his own queen and risk the end of his career - and perhaps his life.
WED 22:00 The Plantagenets (b03zrdw3)
Series 1
The Death of Kings
Professor Robert Bartlett charts the downfall of the Plantagenet dynasty. In the last century of their rule, four Plantagenet kings are violently deposed and murdered by members of their own family. It is the bloodiest episode in the entire history of the English monarchy. As the Plantagenets turn in on themselves, England is dragged into decades of brutal civil war.
WED 23:00 Drills, Dentures and Dentistry: An Oral History (b05p7194)
Professor Joanna Bourke charts how, over the past five centuries, dentistry has been transformed from a backstreet horror show into a gleaming modern science.
During her journey into dentistry's past, Joanna uncovers how a trip to the dentist's in medieval England could mean much more than a haircut, reveals how a First World War general's toothache would transform British oral surgery, and discovers the strange story of how the teeth of soldiers killed at Waterloo ended up in the mouths of London's rich.
WED 00:00 A Timewatch Guide (b06z59g7)
Series 2
Stonehenge
Using 70 years of BBC history archive film, Professor Alice Roberts uncovers how the iconic ancient monument of Stonehenge has been interpreted, argued over and debated by some of Britain's leading historians and archaeologists. She reveals how new discoveries would discredit old theories, how astronomers and geologists became involved in the story and why, even after centuries of study, there's still no definitive answer to the mystery of Stonehenge.
WED 01:00 Top of the Pops (b08l6sly)
Mike Read and Janice Long present another edition of the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 28 July 1983. Featuring KC and the Sunshine Band, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, The Lotus Eaters and Bananarama.
WED 01:30 Top of the Pops (b08m9f47)
Another edition of the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 11 August 1983. Presented by Richard Skinner and Tommy Vance, featuring tracks by David Grant, Level 42 and Depeche Mode.
WED 02:00 The Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart (b00qmf71)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 03:00 Elizabeth I's Secret Agents (b09c6q44)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 26 APRIL 2018
THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0b0by77)
Series 1
26/04/2018
Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London return to report on the events that are shaping the world.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0b0g88s)
John Peel and Janice Long present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 29 August 1985. Featuring Dan Hartman, D Train, Madness, and The Thompson Twins.
THU 20:00 Dive WWII: Our Secret History (b025h06b)
Episode 2
A deep water dive team search the seabed off the coast of Northern Ireland for the forgotten shipwrecks of World War II's Battle of the Atlantic. Jules Hudson helps identify the wrecks, and reveals how the city was critical to Allied victory.
Maritime historian and underwater explorer Ian Lawler leads a team of deep water divers to the seabed off Northern Ireland. He and the team are searching for the forgotten shipwrecks of the war's longest, most epic naval campaign.
Presenter Jules Hudson joins Ian and two naval experts as they attempt to piece together the stories of the wrecks from the dive team's underwater footage. What they discover reveals the unique role played by the city of Derry-Londonderry in fighting the battle. And while the divers continue their mission at sea, Jules hunts on land for the final clues to the forgotten story of the battle.
In this episode, Jules explores how an airbase in Derry provided the vital air cover the Allies needed to win the Battle of the Atlantic. And at sea, the divers uncover the German U-boat wrecks that reveal how the battle finally swung in the Allies favour. They also find the remains of submarines sunk as part of the German surrender in Derry, and dive to the wreck of Hitler's deadliest U-boat.
THU 21:00 Putin, Russia and the West (b01c12sd)
New Start
The final episode tells the inside story of two relationships - Barack Obama's campaign to win over Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, and Medvedev's own complex dealings with Vladimir Putin.
Obama became president determined to rid the world of nuclear weapons. To begin the process he needed Russian help. So he set out to reset relations with Russia. Ignoring Putin, whom many considered still in charge, he concentrated on Medvedev.
Top officials on both sides take viewers deep inside the negotiations. They describe how a phone call between the two young lawyer-presidents finally clinched the agreement - which cut their countries' nuclear arsenals in half.
But inside Russia, Medvedev had a harder time. He responded to the 2008 global financial crisis by setting out to make Russia into a modern democratic economy. He made little progress. He told Obama that Russia's most famous dissident, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, would get a fair trial. It did not happen.
In the end, Medvedev stepped aside and nominated Putin to be their party's presidential candidate for the 2012 election. Top Kremlin insiders, including Medvedev and Putin, tell how the deal was done - and how it set in train a process that made Vladimir Putin look vulnerable for the first time.
THU 22:00 Horizon (b03tz705)
2013-2014
Swallowed by a Sinkhole
In February 2013, a hole opened up beneath a home in Florida and swallowed a man.
Jeff Bush was asleep when a sinkhole opened up beneath his bedroom. Despite the efforts of his brother to rescue him, Jeff was never seen again and his body was never recovered.
Professor Iain Stewart travels to Florida to try and understand what killed Jeff, and why the geology of this state makes it the sinkhole capital of the world.
THU 23:00 Law and Order (b00jqjk3)
A Brief's Tale
Four-part drama series about the British judicial system, dealing with an investigation presented from the perspectives of the police force, the criminal, the solicitor and the prison system.
The solicitor takes centre stage in this edition.
THU 00:20 Top of the Pops (b0b0g88s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 00:50 Danny Baker's Great Album Showdown (b01qlcss)
File under: R&B
What is the essence of a great R&B album? Danny Baker celebrates the golden age of the analogue, vinyl LP with soul singer Mica Paris, actor and soul aficionado Martin Freeman and DJ Trevor Nelson. Opinionated and impassioned, Baker and his guests select their favourite soul and funk albums and discuss how the great R&B LPs of the 60s and 70s were a product of their times - and often rapturously received by their audience.
THU 01:50 Putin, Russia and the West (b01c12sd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 02:50 Dive WWII: Our Secret History (b025h06b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRIDAY 27 APRIL 2018
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b0b0by7d)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 BBC Young Musician (b0b0g900)
2018
Brass Category Final
With three places already decided in this year's semi-final, BBC Young Musician 2018 continues with coverage of the brass category final. Josie d'Arby is on hand at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and is joined by euphonium soloist David Childs, himself a finalist in the competition back in 2000.
This year's brass finalists are: 18-year-old trombonist Isobel Daws, who studies in Manchester; Will Thomas, who is 17, plays trumpet and flugelhorn and comes from London; 18-year-old bass trombonist Michaias Berlouis, a student at the Royal Academy of Music in London; Annemarie Federle, a French horn player from Cambridge who at 15 is the youngest player in tonight's competition; and Sam Dye, an 18-year-old trombonist studying in London.
The programme introduces us to the finalists, takes us behind the scenes and presents extended highlights of the performances. On the judging panel are two distinguished figures from the brass-playing community: Simon Cowen, principal trombonist with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and Simon Cox, trumpeter, arranger and publisher. They join composer, performer and writer Kerry Andrew.
BBC Young Musician has been showcasing the very best British classical music talent for the past 40 years. This is the fourth of five category finals showing weekly on BBC Four and the winners from strings, percussion, woodwind, brass and keyboard will take their place in the semi-final. There they will compete for the chance to perform in the grand final at Symphony Hall, Birmingham with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mark Wigglesworth. One will be named BBC Young Musician 2018.
FRI 21:00 Jeff Beck: Still on the Run (b0b0g902)
For many people, musicians and fans alike, Jeff Beck is the greatest ever British guitarist. For more than 50 years he has blazed an uncompromising trail across the musical landscape. Always an innovator, never a follower, Jeff has steadfastly refused to pander to the demands of the record industry. This maverick attitude required some difficult career decisions; he left The Yardbirds at the height of their popularity, deserted his own group days before their billed appearance at Woodstock and often shifted his attention to his other great passion of building hot rods rather than continuing a tour or returning to the studio.
Jeff's adventurous spirit led him to embrace a wide range of musical styles and he is one of a handful of artists who have transcended and redefined the limitations of their instrument, be it the Fender Telecaster, Esquire, Strat or Gibson Les Paul. He pioneered the use of feedback on record and his ability to capture the zeitgeist made The Yardbirds forerunners of psychedelic blues. With The Jeff Beck Group and the album Truth, he nurtured two of rock music's finest performers, Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, and gave birth to a sound that would later mutate into heavy metal.
He turned even the loss of Rod Stewart to his advantage by almost single-handedly inventing the guitar instrumental album with the release of Blow By Blow, which embraced the influences of Jan Hammer and John McLaughlin whilst developing a sound that was uniquely his own. Moving forward Jeff continued to push the envelope, amassing a fantastic body of work spanning many musical genres whilst constantly developing and evolving his inimitable approach and technique.
This film tells Jeff's story from his earliest days growing up in Wallington, Surrey with his homemade guitars, teenage friendship with Jimmy Page and the influences of guitarists such as Les Paul, Cliff Gallup and James Burton. With essential tracks from throughout his career it follows his journey from art school and early bands, through his various groups, musical ventures and passion for hot rods, to the release of his latest album and sell-out show at the Hollywood Bowl. We hear testimony to the genius of Jeff Beck from musicians who have recorded and played alongside him such as Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Jennifer Batten, Beth Hart, Joe Perry and Slash, who all shine a light on his ever-evolving guitar style and reveal why to this day he remains not only a musical visionary but also the most influential and highly rated guitarist of his generation.
FRI 22:25 Latin Music USA (b00qjnxf)
Salsa
The second in a four-part series revealing the deep musical and social impact of Latin music in the USA.
Filmed in Cuba, Puerto Rico and New York City, it reveals the untold story of salsa music, which burst onto the New York scene in the late 1960s. It first evolved in the clubs of Havana, Cuba and soon became the vibrant sound of the New York barrios, where Puerto Ricans and Cubans settled amid poverty and discrimination.
Yet out of adversity came a thrilling and innovative dance music that became the voice and spirit of the Latin people in the 70s. From rebellious Latin Boogaloo to the shadowy empire of Fania Records, the story unfolds through the intimate memories of the 'Fania Family' - the greatest salsa musicians of their generation and the purveyors of a music that lives on today.
Featuring Ruben Blades, Willie Colon, Eddie Palmieri, Johnny Pacheco and the Fania All-Stars.
FRI 23:25 Rollermania: Britain's Biggest Boy Band (b06bbct4)
In 1975, The Bay City Rollers were on the brink of global superstardom. The most successful chart act in the UK with a unique look and sound were about to become the biggest thing since the Beatles. Featuring interviews with Les McKeown and other members of the classic Bay City Roller line-up, and using previously unseen footage shot by members of the band and its entourage, this is the tale of five lads from Edinburgh who became the world's first international teen idols and turned the whole world tartan.
FRI 00:30 Motown at the BBC (b00hq4qr)
To mark the 50-year anniversary of Motown in 2009, a compilation of some of the iconic record label's greatest names filmed live in the BBC studios. Visitors from Hitsville USA over the years have included Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops and The Jackson 5.
FRI 01:30 Jeff Beck: Still on the Run (b0b0g902)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:55 Latin Music USA (b00qjnxf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:25 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 Timewatch Guide
00:00 WED (b06z59g7)
An Art Lovers' Guide
21:00 MON (b0b0g5cj)
An Art Lovers' Guide
02:05 MON (b0b0g5cj)
Arena
22:30 SUN (b0077dwt)
Arena
02:20 SUN (b0077dwt)
Atlantic: The Wildest Ocean on Earth
19:00 SAT (p02wnhfh)
Atlantic: The Wildest Ocean on Earth
00:35 SAT (p02wnhfh)
BBC Young Musician
19:30 FRI (b0b0g900)
Beyond 100 Days
19:00 MON (b0b0by41)
Beyond 100 Days
19:00 TUE (b0b0by51)
Beyond 100 Days
19:00 WED (b0b0by72)
Beyond 100 Days
19:00 THU (b0b0by77)
Chivalry and Betrayal: The Hundred Years War
23:00 TUE (b01qyvbm)
Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British
23:00 MON (b07d7sdp)
Danny Baker's Great Album Showdown
00:50 THU (b01qlcss)
Dive WWII: Our Secret History
20:00 THU (b025h06b)
Dive WWII: Our Secret History
02:50 THU (b025h06b)
Drills, Dentures and Dentistry: An Oral History
23:00 WED (b05p7194)
Elizabeth I's Secret Agents
21:00 WED (b09c6q44)
Elizabeth I's Secret Agents
03:00 WED (b09c6q44)
Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe
00:00 TUE (b0079238)
Horizon
22:00 THU (b03tz705)
How to Be Bohemian with Victoria Coren Mitchell
01:20 SUN (b05z5hc2)
Jeff Beck: Still on the Run
21:00 FRI (b0b0g902)
Jeff Beck: Still on the Run
01:30 FRI (b0b0g902)
King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons
20:00 TUE (b038dbd5)
Latin Music USA
23:30 SUN (b00qbzxs)
Latin Music USA
22:25 FRI (b00qjnxf)
Latin Music USA
02:55 FRI (b00qjnxf)
Law and Order
23:00 THU (b00jqjk3)
Majesty and Mortar: Britain's Great Palaces
22:00 TUE (b0488trx)
Motown at the BBC
00:30 FRI (b00hq4qr)
Natural World
20:10 SUN (b0078z71)
Natural World
00:30 SUN (b0078z71)
Nature's Microworlds
19:30 MON (b01qnp5c)
Only Connect
19:00 SUN (b0b06sqj)
Plunder
23:05 SAT (b0b0y5d5)
Plunder
03:05 SAT (b0b0y5d5)
Putin, Russia and the West
21:00 THU (b01c12sd)
Putin, Russia and the West
01:50 THU (b01c12sd)
Rollermania: Britain's Biggest Boy Band
23:25 FRI (b06bbct4)
Room 101
22:35 SAT (b0077t92)
Room 101
02:35 SAT (b0077t92)
Salamander
21:00 SAT (b09pbk04)
Salamander
21:45 SAT (b09pz653)
Sea City
19:30 TUE (b03yvs67)
Sea City
19:30 WED (b03z285x)
Spike Milligan: Assorted Q
23:35 SAT (b04v644f)
Spike Milligan: Assorted Q
00:05 SAT (b04tt1yl)
The Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart
20:00 WED (b00qmf71)
The Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart
02:00 WED (b00qmf71)
The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors
22:00 MON (b03dwq95)
The Plantagenets
22:00 WED (b03zrdw3)
The Story of the Jews
21:00 TUE (b03bvnf9)
The Story of the Jews
02:15 TUE (b03bvnf9)
Top of the Pops
01:00 MON (b08k52y1)
Top of the Pops
01:30 MON (b08kvpvx)
Top of the Pops
01:00 TUE (b08kvpwj)
Top of the Pops
01:40 TUE (b08l6rjw)
Top of the Pops
01:00 WED (b08l6sly)
Top of the Pops
01:30 WED (b08m9f47)
Top of the Pops
19:30 THU (b0b0g88s)
Top of the Pops
00:20 THU (b0b0g88s)
Turkey with Simon Reeve
20:00 MON (b08ll1wy)
Turkey with Simon Reeve
00:00 MON (b08ll1wy)
University Challenge
19:30 SUN (b0b06sql)
Wild Tales from the Village
20:00 SAT (b086k8db)
Wild Tales from the Village
01:35 SAT (b086k8db)
World News Today
19:00 FRI (b0b0by7d)
imagine...
21:00 SUN (b0b0g3qk)