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 26 MAY 2018

SAT 19:00 Biggest Weekend (b0b4ky12)
Neneh Cherry and First Aid Kit

Lauren Laverne and Joe Lindsay go Scandi with two Swedish-born outfits to restart coverage of the Biggest Weekend, including a performance from Neneh Cherry, who brought pop to hip-hop in the late 80s with a string of hook-laden global hits, such as Buffalo Stance and Man Child, but has lately turned to more experimental and jazz sounds.

Also featuring songs from First Aid Kit. Sisters Klara and Johanna, originally from outside of Stockholm, have four highly acclaimed records under their belt. Their latest album Ruins, made with legendary producer Tucker Martine, has helped to solidify them as a major force in alt-folk music.


SAT 20:00 Biggest Weekend (b0b4ky14)
Simple Minds and Chvrches

Lauren Laverne and Joe Lindsay host coverage of this 6 Music-curated festival with an epic set from Scottish post-punk, art-rock veterans Simple Minds. Stadium-fillers in their 80s heyday, they sold 60 million records globally. 2018 saw the release of their eighteenth studio album Walk Between Worlds, a return to vintage electropop mixed with their trademark posturing grandiose rock.

Also featuring a set from fellow Scots Chvrches - formed in 2011 and arguably one of Glasgow's best electropop exports. Their synthscape incorporates indietronica, indie pop and electronic dance. Their third and latest album Love Is Dead is released in May.


SAT 21:00 Biggest Weekend (b0b4ky16)
Franz Ferdinand and Wolf Alice

Lauren Laverne and Joe Lindsay host coverage of this 6 Music-curated festival from Titanic Slipway, Belfast, with a fantastic set from rejuvenated veteran Scottish indie rockers Franz Ferdinand. Formed in 2002, the award-winning original line-up has evolved as they return with a fifth studio album Always Ascending - another slice of their clever, distinctive, syncopated disco-rock.

Also featuring are alternative British rockers Wolf Alice. Originally an acoustic duo, the London-based four-piece bend the indie rulebook combining hypnotic-sweet melodies with sophisticated bare-teethed, feral grunge. They released their second studio album Visions of a Life in 2017.


SAT 22:00 Biggest Weekend (b0b4ky18)
Underworld

Lauren Laverne and Joe Lindsay bring Born Slippy to the Slipway at Titanic to bring Saturday night's Biggest Weekend coverage to a pulsating close. Underworld ruled the airwaves and dance floors at the height of the dance music boom of the mid-90s, providing the soundtrack moment of the iconic youth culture film Trainspotting. Credited with being among the first techno acts to fill stadiums, Karl Hyde and Rick Smith's live sets are legendary for their energy and connection with festival crowds.


SAT 23:20 Top of the Pops (b0b3lnml)
Janice Long and Dixie Peach present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 26 September 1985. Featuring Depeche Mode, Billy Idol, Jennifer Rush, The Style Council, Bonnie Tyler and David Bowie & Mick Jagger.


SAT 23:50 Ultimate Number Ones (b01nwfxv)
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UK chart, from the vaults of the BBC archive comes a selection of hits that attained the toppermost of the poppermost prize and made it to number one in the hit parade. From across the decades, we applaud the most coveted of all chart positions with smash hits and classics from The Bee Gees, T. Rex, Donna Summer, John Lennon, Culture Club, The Spice Girls, James Blunt, Rihanna, Adele and many more.


SAT 00:50 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 01:55 How to Get Ahead (b03xsgwk)
At Medieval Court

Writer, broadcaster and Newsnight arts correspondent Stephen Smith looks back at the Medieval Age to find out what it took to get ahead at the court of Richard II. Richard presided over the first truly sophisticated and artistic court in England. Painters, sculptors, poets, tailors, weavers and builders flocked to court to make their fortunes. But these were dangerous times. Being close to Richard brought many a courtier to a sticky end. Featuring David Tennant and Clarissa Dickson Wright.



SUNDAY 27 MAY 2018

SUN 19:00 Biggest Weekend (b0b541c8)
Billy Ocean, The Selecter and More

Jo Whiley and Trevor Nelson introduce highlights from the Radio 2-curated event in War Memorial Park in Coventry as part of the Biggest Weekend. Featuring performances from Trinidad-born singer and favourite of the charts in the early to mid-1980s Billy Ocean, local Coventry and two-tone ska revival outfit The Selecter, the anthem-laden outfits of Stereophonics and Snow Patrol, and much more!


SUN 20:30 How to Build... (b00t0yx9)
Series 1

A Jumbo Jet Engine

As Boeing's 787 Dreamliner makes its inaugural flight, Rolls-Royce engineers celebrate the performance of its revolutionary Trent 1000 jet engines. They're the latest in a family of sophisticated aero engines that have driven Rolls-Royce to become world leaders in the market for jumbo jet engines.

This is the story of the thousands of people who design, build and test engines at Rolls-Royce's manufacturing plants in Derby and across the UK, making Rolls-Royce a central part of life for the people who work there.

Exploring some of the astonishing technology behind the engines' advanced components, the programme meets the skilled engineers who design and build them, and experience the ups and downs of life on the assembly line.


SUN 21:30 Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways (b01pz9m7)
Episode 1

From their beginnings as a primitive system of track-ways for coal carts in the early 18th century, railways quickly developed into the driving force behind the industrial revolution and the pivotal technology for modern Britain, and a connected world.

Rapid industrial growth during the early 19th century, coupled with the prospect of vast profits, drove inventors and entrepreneurs to develop steam locomotives, metal tracks and an array of daring tunnels, cuttings and bridges that created a nationwide system of railways in just 30 years.

George Stephenson's Liverpool and Manchester Railway became the model for future inter-city travel for the next century and his fast, reliable locomotive, the Rocket, began a quest for speed that has defined our modern world.


SUN 22:30 Jonathan Meades on Jargon (b09xzsbp)
In this provocative television essay, writer and broadcaster Jonathan Meades turns his forensic gaze on that modern phenomenon that drives us all up the wall - jargon. In a wide-ranging programme he dissects politics, the law, football commentary, business, the arts, tabloid-speak and management consultancy to show how jargon is used to cover up, confuse and generally keep us in the dark.

He contrasts this with the world of slang, which unlike jargon actually gets to the heart of whatever it's talking about even if it does offend along the way. With plenty of what is called 'strong language', Meades pulls no punches in slaying the dragon of jargon.


SUN 23:30 Amazon Abyss (b00hh4ws)
Compilation 1

The bottom of the Amazon River is home to many of the strangest and fiercest creatures in the world. This is the first in a two-part series following the high-adrenaline adventures of a team of divers as they explore and film the depths of the world's greatest river system.

It is the first time an expedition has ever attempted anything so ambitious, and they discover an alien world, full of beautiful and bizarre creatures. Stingray, freshwater dolphins, talking fish and the mysterious Jau are all to be found in the river's depths.

Mike deGruy and Kate Humble lead the international team of scientists and divers as they search for species new to science and come face to face with the monsters of the deep.


SUN 00:30 Civilisations Stories (b0b19xlc)
Series 1

Innovation and Inspiration in Birmingham

Join presenter Mark Williams on the trail of three remarkable men from the 18th century. He uncovers tales of flamboyant dandies and dealmakers, inventors and innovators - and shares the secrets of what amputations were like in the days before anaesthetics. If you had thought Georgian England was just rich men in posh houses taking snuff, think again. Mark shows that the West Midlands was a hotbed of creativity and discovery, and the evidence can be seen in paintings and other art forms still with us today.


SUN 01:00 How to Build... (b00t0yx9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


SUN 02:00 Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways (b01pz9m7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]


SUN 03:00 Jonathan Meades on Jargon (b09xzsbp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]



MONDAY 28 MAY 2018

MON 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0b4kwxd)
Series 1

28/05/2018

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


MON 19:30 Natural World (b01rl4xr)
2006-2007

Wye - Voices from the Valley

The River Wye runs through some of Britain's most beautiful and varied countryside, from the mountain tops of mid Wales to the wide open spaces of the Severn Estuary. This film is a lyrical portrait of the valley through the eyes of four characters who make their living from the land: a cider maker, a salmon fisherman, a sheep farmer and a beekeeper. It might seem idyllic, but when you live this close to nature a change in the weather can make all the difference between success and failure.


MON 20:30 Biggest Weekend (b0b5422b)
Nigel Kennedy

Suzy Klein and Lloyd Coleman present Nigel Kennedy's headlining set from the Radio 3-curated day in Coventry for the Biggest Weekend. Kennedy performs with the BBC Concert Orchestra and his own group, with extracts of Kennedy's updated take on Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his breathtaking arrangements of the songs of Jimi Hendrix.


MON 22:05 Castles: Britain's Fortified History (b04tt2f9)
Kingdom of Conquest

Sam Willis tells the story of the English ruler who left the most indelible mark on the castle - the great Plantagenet king, Edward I, who turned it into an instrument of colonisation. Edward spent vast sums to subdue Wales with a ring of iron comprised of some of the most fearsome fortresses ever built. Castles like Caernarfon and Beaumaris were used to impose England's will on the Welsh. But when Edward turned his attention to Scotland, laying siege to castles with great catapults, things didn't go so well for him.


MON 23:05 The Secret Life of the Motorway (b007xmbm)
The Honeymoon Period

The second episode in this evocative series about Britain's motorways explores how they have transformed where we live, work and play in Britain over the last 50 years. From unbelievably glamorous early service stations to contemporary shopping centres with the infrastructure of a small town, this enthralling film is a journey through the wonderful, and the weird, places motorways have taken us. Contributors include seminal planner Sir Peter Hall, author Will Self, caravanners, hitchhikers and commuters, all on our eagerness to accelerate down the slip road, and the social changes that have followed.


MON 00:05 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 01:05 Ice Age Giants (p018cbd4)
Land of the Sabre-tooth

Professor Alice Roberts journeys 40,000 years back in time on the trail of the great beasts of the Ice Age. Drawing on the latest scientific detective work and a dash of graphic wizardry, Alice brings the Ice Age giants back to life.

The Ice Age odyssey begins in the 'land of the sabre-tooth' - North America, a continent that was half covered by ice that was up to two miles thick. Yet this frozen land also boasts the most impressive cast of Ice Age giants in the world.

High in a cave in the Grand Canyon, Alice discovers the mummified excrement of the loveable, grizzly bear-sized Shasta ground sloth. Lying in the sands of Arizona are the shelled remains of a glyptodon, surely the weirdest mammal that ever lived. On the coastal plains of California, Alice encounters the vast Columbian mammoth, an animal far larger than any elephant today.

These leviathans all have one thing in common: they were stalked by the meanest big cat that ever prowled the earth, armed with seven-inch teeth and hunting in packs - Smilodon fatalis, the sabre-toothed cat.


MON 02:05 What a Performance! Pioneers of Popular Entertainment (b06r7xz4)
Music Hall

Comedian Frank Skinner and music presenter Suzy Klein step out in the first part of this highly entertaining and thought-provoking three-part series which explores a century of popular entertainment from the Victorian age of the music hall, through the golden age of 20th-century variety to the working men's clubs of the 1950s.

The first episode looks at the birth of 19th-century music hall, the colourful and sometimes dangerous world of its entertainers and the audiences whose lives were changed by what was Britain's first mass entertainment industry. Together, Suzy and Frank get under the skin of some of its greatest stars - some of whom, like Marie Lloyd and Champagne Charlie, are household names to this day, while the eccentric Victorian comic Dan Leno, later copied by Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, have fallen into obscurity.

Not only do Frank and Suzy dig into the history of these stars and the world from which they emerged, but they also study their acts and try their hand at performing them at the end of the show.


MON 03:00 Castles: Britain's Fortified History (b04tt2f9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:05 today]



TUESDAY 29 MAY 2018

TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0b4kwxp)
Series 1

29/05/2018

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


TUE 19:30 Iolo's Snowdonia (b09qtryj)
Series 1

Episode 2

It's summer and peak season on the summit of Snowdon. It's time for Iolo to get away from the crowds to look for peaceful, stunning scenery and spectacular wildlife. In secret hidden sites, he finds buzzards nesting, beautiful dragonflies and night-flying moths being hunted by migrant nightjars from Africa. There's a colony of rare silver-studded blue butterflies who were once living by the sea but today have been isolated inland as the coastline has changed. Iolo also climbs Cadair Idris, the highest peak in the southern part of the park, and explores extraordinary sand dunes full of colourful orchids along Snowdonia's 30 miles of stunning coast. But summer isn't complete for Iolo without a day on the moors watching the most threatened bird of prey in Britain - the hen harrier.


TUE 20:00 Tomorrow's Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction (p026c7n7)
Robots

Dominic Sandbrook continues his exploration of the most innovative and imaginative of all genres and gets to science fiction's obsession with robots.

The idea of playing God and creating artificial life has fascinated us since the earliest days of science fiction - but what if our creations turn against us?

Dominic, leading writers and film-makers follow our hopes and fears from the first halting steps of Frankenstein's monster, via the threats of Doctor Who's Cybermen and The Terminator, the provocative ideas of Blade Runner and Battlestar Galactica, to the worlds of cyberspace and the Matrix, where humanity and technology merge.

Among the interviewees are Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner), actor Peter Weller (RoboCop), producer Gale Anne Hurd (The Terminator), Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker (Star Wars), actor Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica) and novelist William Gibson.


TUE 21:00 Africa (p010jc6r)
Kalahari

David Attenborough takes a breathtaking journey through the vast and diverse continent of Africa as it has never been seen before.

In Africa's ancient south west corner, two extraordinary deserts sit side by side. Water is in short supply, yet these deserts are somehow full of life because the creatures that live here have turned the rules of survival on their head. This film celebrates nature's ingenuity, no matter how tough it gets.

In the Kalahari scrublands, clever meerkats are outsmarted by a wily bird, solitary and belligerent black rhinos get together to party and giant insects stalk huge flocks of birds. Rain almost never falls in the Namib - instead it must make do with vaporous, vanishing fog. The creatures in this, the world's oldest desert, have gone to the extremes, as spiders wheel to escape and a desert giraffe fights to defend his scant resources in the greatest giraffe battle ever filmed.


TUE 22:00 Africa's Great Civilisations (b0b5b4w8)
Series 1

Origins

The award-winning film-maker and academic Henry Louis Gates Jr travels the length and breadth of Africa to explore the continent's epic history. In this first episode, Gates focuses on the origins of human existence and looks at the anthropological and scientific discoveries that point to Africa as the genetic home of all currently living humanity. He then traces the roots of agriculture, writing, artistic expression and iron working to their birthplaces on the African continent.


TUE 22:55 Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture (b00jzjs4)
Fruit and Veg

A look at the changes in the way fruit and veg was grown, picked and sold, told through three of the staples in the British landscape - apples, strawberries and tomatoes.

Home movies and archive footage reveal the extent of the revolution in how the fruit was picked and the impact supermarkets had on the fortunes of the small- and medium-sized growers.


TUE 23:55 Secrets of Bones (b03vrtzp)
Size Matters

Evolutionary biologist and master skeleton builder Ben Garrod begins a six-part journey to discover how bones have enabled vertebrates to colonise and dominate practically every habitat on Earth.

Ben shows us what bone is constructed from and how it can support animals that are both minuscule - a frog just a few millimetres long - and massive - the blue whale, two hundred million times bigger.


TUE 00:25 Secrets of Bones (b03wct07)
Down to Earth

Evolutionary biologist and master skeleton builder Ben Garrod discovers how the skeleton has adapted for vertebrates to move on land in a remarkable number of ways. They can swing through the trees, slide on the forest floor, dig through dark subterranean worlds and run at speed across the savannahs. Ben explores the role of the spine in both cheetahs and snakes, shows how adaptations to the pentadactyl limb have helped gibbons and horses thrive and how one unique bone in the animal kingdom has been puzzling scientists for years.


TUE 00:55 Art of China (b04c3cmw)
Episode 1

Andrew Graham-Dixon pieces together the spectacular recent discoveries of ancient art that are redefining China's understanding of its origins. He comes face to face with an extraordinary collection of sophisticated alien-like bronze masks created nearly four millennia ago and travels to the Yellow River to explore the tomb of a warrior empress where he discovers the origins of calligraphy.

Always seeking to understand art in its historical context, Andrew visits the tomb of the first emperor and comes face to face with the Terracotta Army. He ends his journey in western China, looking at the impact of the arrival of Buddhism from India on the wondrous paintings and sculptures of the Dunhuang caves.


TUE 01:55 Tomorrow's Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction (p026c7n7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 02:55 Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries (b052zxhm)
Episode 1

Dr Janina Ramirez explores how monasteries evolved from a cult of extreme isolation and self-deprivation into powerhouses of Anglo-Saxon art, industry and learning.

Janina begins her journey on the desolate rock of Skellig St Michael off the east coast of Ireland, home to the oldest surviving monastery in the British Isles. She investigates the harsh lives led by these early monks, and tells the story of the arrival of hermetic Irish monasticism in Anglo-Saxon Northumberland. Monasteries such as Lindisfarne and Whitby became beacons of civilisation and literature in the barbaric Anglo-Saxon world, creating wondrous works of art including the Lindisfarne Gospels and St Cuthbert's pectoral cross.

A rival form of regimented, communal monasticism was imported into southern Britain from Rome, and Janina reveals the holy struggle that ensued between these two opposing monastic ideals. The victors would transform the culture and landscape of England, until they too were destroyed by a new wave of barbarian invaders.



WEDNESDAY 30 MAY 2018

WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0b4kwxz)
Series 1

30/05/2018

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


WED 19:30 Canals: The Making of a Nation (b06823cv)
Geology

Liz McIvor discovers how carving up the landscape in order to build canals helped further our understanding of the earth below. The canal builders struggled with rocks. Without maps or geological surveys, construction often relied on guesswork. The Kennet and Avon had more than its fair share of problems. William Smith, a surveyor working on the connecting Somerset Coal Canal, discovered a way of ordering layers of rocks. He eventually created the first geological map of England and Wales - the so-called 'map that changed the world'.


WED 20:00 Caribbean with Simon Reeve (p02l52fy)
Episode 2

The second leg of Simon Reeve's journey around the Caribbean Sea sees him start at beautiful islands and travel along the coast of South America. On the beautiful and wealthy island of Barbados, he meets the owner of a traditional chattel house who has turned down offers of millions of dollars from luxury property developers and dives the reef on a hunt for invading lionfish which are disrupting the delicate ecosystem.

On the green volcanic slopes of St Vincent, Simon meets the marijuana growers hoping, like their prime minister, that the drug will soon be decriminalised. Venezuela is one of the most turbulent countries in the Caribbean and from a high-rise slum in Caracas to the lawless border lands, Simon tries to work out how a country so rich in oil has fallen so low.

Ending his epic journey in Colombia, Simon gains rare access to the Kogi - an indigenous people who have maintained their traditional forest lifestyle in the face of an encroaching and damaging modern world.


WED 21:00 Big Sky, Big Dreams, Big Art: Made in the USA (b0b49rq2)
Series 1

Episode 2

This episode is set in the American metropolis - the soaring new cities of the East Coast with their futuristic skylines and lofty skyscrapers. But instead of looking up at the futuristic towers, Waldemar Januszczak explores the squalid boxing rings painted by George Bellows, Reginald Mash's decadent awaydays on Coney Island and the crazy escape into theosophy and abstraction mounted by Thomas Wilfred. The film culminates in the harsh immigrant experience of Ellis Island and the profound impact that rootlessness had on the art of Mark Rothko.


WED 22:00 Black and British: A Forgotten History (b083bv43)
Freedom

In the second part of his four-part series, historian David Olusoga explores the business of slavery and remembers the black sailors who fought for Britain at Trafalgar.

He also celebrates a Georgian boxing superstar and the men and women who crossed continents in pursuit of freedom.


WED 23:00 Indian Hill Railways (b00qvk99)
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

From the Himalayas in the north to the Nilgiris in the south - for a hundred years these little trains have climbed through the clouds and into the wonderful world of Indian hill railways.

The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is a line so close to the people that it flows like a river through their lives. The relationship between the train and the people is changing, however, as a new generation of Gurkhas populates these hills, demanding an independent state and fighting for a new identity as they journey into the modern Indian world.


WED 00:00 Henry VII: The Winter King (b021ng66)
Author Thomas Penn takes an extraordinary journey into the dark and chilling world of the first Tudor, Henry VII. From his victory over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth, to his secret death and the succession of his son Henry VIII, the film reveals the ruthless tactics Henry VII used to win - and cling on to - the ultimate prize, the throne of England. Exploring magnificent buildings and long-lost documents, Penn reveals the true story of this suspicious, enigmatic and terrifying monarch.


WED 01:00 Architects of the Divine: The First Gothic Age (b04mq9x6)
Medieval historian Dr Janina Ramirez looks back to a time when British craftsmen and their patrons created a new form of architecture. The art and architecture of France would dominate England for much of the medieval age. Yet British stonemasons and builders would make Gothic architecture their own, inventing a national style for the first time - Perpendicular Gothic - and giving Britain a patriotic backdrop to suit its new ambitions of chivalry and power. From a grand debut at Gloucester Cathedral to commemorate a murdered king to its final glorious flowering at King's College Chapel in Cambridge, the Perpendicular age was Britain's finest.


WED 02:00 Caribbean with Simon Reeve (p02l52fy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 03:00 Big Sky, Big Dreams, Big Art: Made in the USA (b0b49rq2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 31 MAY 2018

THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0b4kwyc)
Series 1

31/05/2018

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


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0b5b8mf)
Gary Davies and Paul Jordan present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 3 October 1985. Featuring Colonel Abrams, Iron Maiden, Cameo, Rene & Angela and Midge Ure.


THU 20:00 Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey (b01d7kd5)
Episode 1

Right now you're hurtling around the sun at 64,000 miles an hour (100,000km an hour). In the next year you'll travel 584 million miles, to end up back where you started.

Presenters Kate Humble and Dr Helen Czerski follow the Earth's voyage around the sun for one complete orbit, to witness the astonishing consequences this journey has for us all.

In this first episode they travel from July to the December solstice, experiencing spectacular weather and the largest tides on Earth. To show how the Earth's orbit affects our lives, Helen jumps out of an aeroplane and Kate briefly becomes the fastest driver on Earth.


THU 21:00 City in the Sky (b07g710g)
Departure

What does it take to get a million people and their luggage off the ground and up in the air? From building the world's biggest passenger plane to navigating through the busiest airport on the planet, to the perils of getting airborne in the coldest city on earth, Dallas and Hannah go to extremes to get under the skin of the remarkable story of departure.

You will never look at flying in the same way again...


THU 22:00 Missions (b0b4nqct)
Series 1

Alliance

French sci-fi drama series. Jeanne struggles to recall what she learnt from Komarov. Visitor Gemma Williams, the Z-2's captain, prompts a string of revelations.


THU 22:25 Missions (b0b4nqrw)
Series 1

Irene

French sci-fi drama series. Is Komarov the 'unicorn' Earth-bound billionaire Goldstein hunts? Gramat tries a desperate gambit to regain the initiative on Mars.


THU 22:50 Horizon (p0327fp0)
2016

Tim Peake Special - How to be an Astronaut

In December 2015, Tim Peake became Britain’s first astronaut on board the International Space Station. For two years Tim had been filming a video diary for Horizon as he prepared to leave; from family life, to the rigorous training, this is an intimate portrait and remarkable insight into the world of an astronaut.


THU 23:00 Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines (b03ccs7k)
Pus

Infection can take over the entire human body, and if our immune systems aren't strong enough we will die - in fact, infectious disease has regularly wiped out millions of people across the planet. Dr Michael Mosley explores our earliest attempts to tackle infection and reveals the moment we began to harness the power of microbes to fight back. This is the story of how scientists, chemists and doctors helped us win the battle, from Louis Pasteur to Howard Florey, and how a small team of dedicated men and women wiped out one of mankind's deadliest diseases - smallpox.


THU 00:00 Horizon (b0148vph)
2011-2012

The Core

For centuries we have dreamt of reaching the centre of the Earth. Now scientists are uncovering a bizarre and alien world that lies 4,000 miles beneath our feet, unlike anything we know on the surface. It is a planet buried within the planet we know, where storms rage within a sea of white-hot metal and a giant forest of crystals make up a metal core the size of the moon.

Horizon follows scientists who are conducting experiments to recreate this core within their own laboratories, with surprising results.


THU 01:00 The Joy of Stats (b00wgq0l)
Documentary which takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride through the wonderful world of statistics to explore the remarkable power they have to change our understanding of the world, presented by superstar boffin Professor Hans Rosling, whose eye-opening, mind-expanding and funny online lectures have made him an international internet legend.

Rosling is a man who revels in the glorious nerdiness of statistics, and here he entertainingly explores their history, how they work mathematically and how they can be used in today's computer age to see the world as it really is, not just as we imagine it to be.

Rosling's lectures use huge quantities of public data to reveal the story of the world's past, present and future development. Now he tells the story of the world in 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers - in just four minutes.

The film also explores cutting-edge examples of statistics in action today. In San Francisco, a new app mashes up police department data with the city's street map to show what crime is being reported street by street, house by house, in near real-time. Every citizen can use it and the hidden patterns of their city are starkly revealed. Meanwhile, at Google HQ the machine translation project tries to translate between 57 languages, using lots of statistics and no linguists.

Despite its light and witty touch, the film nonetheless has a serious message - without statistics we are cast adrift on an ocean of confusion, but armed with stats we can take control of our lives, hold our rulers to account and see the world as it really is. What's more, Hans concludes, we can now collect and analyse such huge quantities of data and at such speeds that scientific method itself seems to be changing.


THU 02:00 Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey (b01d7kd5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 03:00 City in the Sky (b07g710g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 01 JUNE 2018

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b0b4kwzh)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0b5bj2g)
Peter Powell and Mike Read present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 17 October 1985. Featuring Shakin' Stevens, A-ha, Elton John, Colonel Abrams and Jennifer Rush.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b018zv8d)
1977 - Big Hits

The celebration of Top of the Pops 1977 continues with a selection of outstanding complete archive performances from Britain's silver jubilee year. 1977 was dominated by funk and punk, with Heatwave's Boogie Nights and The Stranglers' No More Heroes in the top ten. Classic top of the charts hits included Baccara's Yes Sir, I Can Boogie and Angelo by Brotherhood of Man. Some of the enduring heroes to take to the stage that year were David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Queen and Elvis Costello, with rare studio performances from The Jacksons and Bob Marley & The Wailers.


FRI 21:00 The Everly Brothers: Harmonies from Heaven (b077x1fh)
Documentary which celebrates, over the period covering the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 60s, the phenomenon of The Everly Brothers, arguably the greatest harmony duo the world has witnessed, who directly influenced the greatest and most successful bands of the 60s and 70s - The Beatles, The Stones, The Beach Boys and Simon & Garfunkel to name but a few.

Don and Phil Everly's love of music began as children, encouraged by their father Ike. Little Donnie and Baby Boy Phil sang on Ike's early morning radio shows in Iowa.

After leaving school, the brothers moved to Nashville where, under the wing of Ike Everly's friend, the highly talented musician Chet Atkins, Don and Phil signed with Cadence Records. They exploded onto the music scene in 1957 with Bye Bye Love, written by Boudleaux and Felice Bryant.

After Bye Bye Love came other hits, notably Wake Up Little Susie, followed by the worldwide smash hit All I Have to Do Is Dream and a long string of other great songs which also became hits.

By 1960, however, the brothers were lured away from Cadence to Warner Bros with a $1,000,000 contract. Their biggest hit followed, the self-penned Cathy's Clown, which sold 8 million copies. Remaining at Warner Bros for most of the 60s, they had further success with Walk Right Back, So Sad and the King/Greenfield-penned track Crying in the Rain.


FRI 22:00 Africa: A Journey into Music (b0b54cmq)
Series 1

Nigeria

DJ and broadcaster Rita Ray travels to Nigeria, home of some of the most influential African music of the last 60 years. The country's extraordinary polyrhythms have powered highlife, funk and Afrobeat for decades, and can still be heard in modern pop music.

Travelling to Lagos and beyond, Rita traces the importance of rhythm in Nigeria's music and discovers the many different musical styles it has created, from Yoruba juju music, to acoustic singer-songwriters and world-class pop.


FRI 23:00 Top of the Pops (b0b5bj2g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 23:30 Glam Rock at the BBC (b094mcwn)
A spangly celebration of the outburst of far-out pop and fuzz-filled rock that lit up the British charts in the early 1970s. Top of the Pops is our primary arena and its gloriously gaudy visual effects are used here aplenty! The compilation also utilises footage from a selection of BBC concerts as well as from Crackerjack and Cilla. It features classic BBC TV performances from T. Rex, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Alice Cooper, Suzi Quatro, Slade, The Sweet, Elton John, Queen, Sparks and many more.


FRI 00:30 Oh You Pretty Things: The Story of Music and Fashion (b04j8ttm)
Idols

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

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

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

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

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


FRI 01:30 The Everly Brothers: Harmonies from Heaven (b077x1fh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:30 Africa: A Journey into Music (b0b54cmq)
[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)

Africa's Great Civilisations 22:00 TUE (b0b5b4w8)

Africa: A Journey into Music 22:00 FRI (b0b54cmq)

Africa: A Journey into Music 02:30 FRI (b0b54cmq)

Africa 21:00 TUE (p010jc6r)

Amazon Abyss 23:30 SUN (b00hh4ws)

Architects of the Divine: The First Gothic Age 01:00 WED (b04mq9x6)

Art of China 00:55 TUE (b04c3cmw)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 MON (b0b4kwxd)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 TUE (b0b4kwxp)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 WED (b0b4kwxz)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 THU (b0b4kwyc)

Big Sky, Big Dreams, Big Art: Made in the USA 21:00 WED (b0b49rq2)

Big Sky, Big Dreams, Big Art: Made in the USA 03:00 WED (b0b49rq2)

Biggest Weekend 19:00 SAT (b0b4ky12)

Biggest Weekend 20:00 SAT (b0b4ky14)

Biggest Weekend 21:00 SAT (b0b4ky16)

Biggest Weekend 22:00 SAT (b0b4ky18)

Biggest Weekend 19:00 SUN (b0b541c8)

Biggest Weekend 20:30 MON (b0b5422b)

Black and British: A Forgotten History 22:00 WED (b083bv43)

Canals: The Making of a Nation 19:30 WED (b06823cv)

Caribbean with Simon Reeve 20:00 WED (p02l52fy)

Caribbean with Simon Reeve 02:00 WED (p02l52fy)

Castles: Britain's Fortified History 22:05 MON (b04tt2f9)

Castles: Britain's Fortified History 03:00 MON (b04tt2f9)

City in the Sky 21:00 THU (b07g710g)

City in the Sky 03:00 THU (b07g710g)

Civilisations Stories 00:30 SUN (b0b19xlc)

Glam Rock at the BBC 23:30 FRI (b094mcwn)

Henry VII: The Winter King 00:00 WED (b021ng66)

Horizon 22:50 THU (p0327fp0)

Horizon 00:00 THU (b0148vph)

How to Build... 20:30 SUN (b00t0yx9)

How to Build... 01:00 SUN (b00t0yx9)

How to Get Ahead 01:55 SAT (b03xsgwk)

Ice Age Giants 01:05 MON (p018cbd4)

Indian Hill Railways 23:00 WED (b00qvk99)

Iolo's Snowdonia 19:30 TUE (b09qtryj)

Jonathan Meades on Jargon 22:30 SUN (b09xzsbp)

Jonathan Meades on Jargon 03:00 SUN (b09xzsbp)

Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways 21:30 SUN (b01pz9m7)

Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways 02:00 SUN (b01pz9m7)

Missions 22:00 THU (b0b4nqct)

Missions 22:25 THU (b0b4nqrw)

Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture 22:55 TUE (b00jzjs4)

Natural World 19:30 MON (b01rl4xr)

Nelson's Caribbean Hell-hole: An Eighteenth Century Navy Graveyard Uncovered 00:05 MON (b01s6gjx)

Oh You Pretty Things: The Story of Music and Fashion 00:30 FRI (b04j8ttm)

Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey 20:00 THU (b01d7kd5)

Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey 02:00 THU (b01d7kd5)

Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines 23:00 THU (b03ccs7k)

Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries 02:55 TUE (b052zxhm)

Secrets of Bones 23:55 TUE (b03vrtzp)

Secrets of Bones 00:25 TUE (b03wct07)

Slade at the BBC 00:50 SAT (b01pdt89)

The Everly Brothers: Harmonies from Heaven 21:00 FRI (b077x1fh)

The Everly Brothers: Harmonies from Heaven 01:30 FRI (b077x1fh)

The Joy of Stats 01:00 THU (b00wgq0l)

The Secret Life of the Motorway 23:05 MON (b007xmbm)

Tomorrow's Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction 20:00 TUE (p026c7n7)

Tomorrow's Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction 01:55 TUE (p026c7n7)

Top of the Pops 23:20 SAT (b0b3lnml)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b0b5b8mf)

Top of the Pops 19:30 FRI (b0b5bj2g)

Top of the Pops 20:00 FRI (b018zv8d)

Top of the Pops 23:00 FRI (b0b5bj2g)

Ultimate Number Ones 23:50 SAT (b01nwfxv)

What a Performance! Pioneers of Popular Entertainment 02:05 MON (b06r7xz4)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b0b4kwzh)