B4

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

SATURDAY 02 JUNE 2018

SAT 19:00 The Burrowers: Animals Underground (b038lx3c)
Episode 1

Chris Packham sheds light on the magical underground world of three iconic British animals, badgers, water voles and rabbits. In one of the biggest natural history experiments ever undertaken, he investigates wild burrows to recreate full-scale replicas for the animals to live in and be observed, including the largest man-made rabbit warren of its kind ever built. This creates a window on their lives never witnessed before, from birth in winter to their emergence from the burrow in summer.

How do they create their burrows? How do they breed and give birth? Observe fascinating new science and new behaviour as the team design and build a rabbit warren, a badger sett and a water vole burrow with its own riverbank.

SAT 20:00 Patagonia: Earth's Secret Paradise (b06dpmyr)
Fire and Ice

Patagonia invites you into a rarely seen South American wilderness, home to surprising creatures who survive in environments that range from the mighty Andes Mountains to Cape Horn.

Discover the secret lives of pumas and hummingbirds. Soar with condors over glacial peaks and explore monkey puzzle forests from the time of dinosaurs. Ride with extreme kayakers over raging waterfalls, and with Patagonia's cowboys - the gauchos - as they round up wild horses.

SAT 21:00 Inspector Montalbano (b0b60y1x)
Love

A former prostitute has disappeared. Her sister tells Montalbano that she had recently fallen in love, so the police start their investigation by speaking to her lover, a meek and gentle man who is puzzled about where his partner could have possibly gone.

In Italian with English subtitles.

SAT 22:50 Sicily: The Wonder of the Mediterranean (b08dzx1h)
Series 1

Episode 2

Historian Michael Scott continues his journey through Sicily, tracing the island's story through the arrival of the Muslim Arabs and then the Normans - times in which religious and cultural tolerance was the order of the day. Michael explores the dark days of the Spanish Inquisition and then delves into the modern world - the unification with Italy and the rise of the Mafia.

Today, Sicily faces a new challenge. The island is on the frontline of Europe's migrant crisis but the Sicilian response, formed in part by their own turbulent history, may well surprise many northern Europeans.

SAT 23:50 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.

SAT 00:20 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.

SAT 00:50 Kate Bush at the BBC (b04f86xk)
Between 1978 and 1994, Kate Bush appeared on a variety of BBC programmes, including Saturday Night at the Mill, Ask Aspel, the Leo Sayer Show, Wogan and Top of the Pops. This compilation showcases her performances of hit songs such as Wuthering Heights, Babooshka, Running up That Hill and Hounds of Love, alongside other intriguing and lesser-known material in the BBC studios.

SAT 01:50 Hot Chocolate at the BBC (b06dl1c5)
Errol Brown, who died aged 71 in May 2015, was probably the most famous and ubiquitous black British pop star of the 70s and early 80s. He co-founded Hot Chocolate with Tony Wilson in 1970 and the band went on to have a hit every year between 1971 and 1984.

This compilation of BBC performances and rare interview extracts celebrates Errol and Hot Chocolate, showcasing their Top 10 hits alongside rarely seen early performances and cult fan favourites.

We journey through over 15 years of chart smashes showcasing all the infectious numbers - Every 1's a Winner, Emma, So You Win Again and It Started With a Kiss - and of course, The Full Monty scene-stealer You Sexy Thing, a song that was in the charts in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

There are reminders of just how many Top 10 moments they had, with Girl Crazy and No Doubt About It, the hit that got away - Mindless Boogie - and their first appearance on BBC television with Love Is Life. Hot Chocolate were that rarity, a 70s British pop band who largely wrote their own tunes and arrangements and a mixed race band who perhaps inadvertently helped foster an early sense of British multi-culturalism. In Errol, they had a frontman who was not only a great singer, songwriter and frontman, but also resolutely and undemonstratively always himself, at ease in his own skin.

SAT 02:50 How to Get Ahead (b03yfwk1)
At Renaissance Court

Writer, broadcaster and Newsnight arts correspondent Stephen Smith explores Renaissance Florence under the reign of Grand Duke Cosimo Medici. Cosimo's fledgling court prized the finer things in life and some of the greatest painters, sculptors and craftsmen in world history came to serve the Grand Duke. But successful courtiers had to have brains as well as brawn. The canniest of them looked to theorists like Niccolo Machiavelli for underhand ways to get ahead, whilst enlightened polymaths turned their minds to the heavens, and to ice cream.

SUNDAY 03 JUNE 2018

SUN 19:00 Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways (b01q7brf)
Episode 2

In the late 1830s, the railways arrived in London and linked the capital to Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. This was the start of a truly national network - and one of the greatest civil engineering projects in history.

The spread of the railways triggered a mania across Britain. Railway tycoons like Samuel Morton Peto and George Hudson made fortunes as the stock markets boomed around these new developments. Yet the bubble burst in 1847 and shares plummeted. Thousands of ordinary shareholders filled the bankruptcy courts. However as Dan Snow reveals, the legacy of the mania was an incredible rail network for 19th-century Britain and a revolution in the way people lived.

SUN 20:00 How to Build... (b00t3dc7)
Series 1

Britain's Secret Engineers

If you need to build a top-secret piece of equipment in the UK, there's one place many people choose to go: defence contractor QinetiQ.

We follow workers at this leading British company on a global journey, as they reveal a handful of their secretive projects. We meet the scientists and engineers building robots to defuse Afghanistan's deadly roadside bombs and learn how they're adapting them to help in dangerous civilian situations in the UK. We find out how British experts are using stealth technology to make wind turbines less visible to radar and, with unprecedented access, we follow the engineers racing to get Chinook helicopters ready for frontline service, including Afghanistan.

SUN 21:00 Normandy '44: The Battle Beyond D-Day (b0461mvr)
As veterans gather to relive one of the turning points of the Second World War, historian James Holland moves beyond the D-Day beaches to reassess the brutal 77-day Battle for Normandy that followed the invasion.

Challenging some of the many myths that have grown up around this vital campaign, Holland argues that we have become too comfortable in our understanding of events, developing shorthand to tell this famous story that does great injustice to those that saw action in France across the summer of 1944.

Including perspectives from those who fought on both sides, Holland examines not only the nature of the fighting and the higher aims of the campaign, but also the operational level - the nuts and bolts - and in so doing reveals the true complexity of this bitter and bloody battle.

This story is about the challenge for both sides to adapt to conditions in a campaign of carnage that has rarely been acknowledged.

More than just well trodden tales of heroic struggle, it is also the story of two competing military doctrines: one ill-prepared for the organisational demands of a long battle, the other in the process of building the greatest military machine ever seen.

SUN 22:00 The Jeremy Thorpe Scandal (b0b5y97j)
In 1979, Panorama reporter Tom Mangold led an investigation into the trial of Jeremy Thorpe and others for the alleged conspiracy to kill Thorpe's former lover Norman Scott. Convinced that the former Liberal Party leader would be found guilty, a special post-trial programme was prepared. This was scrapped, however, when the jury returned its verdicts of not guilty for all defendants, and the programme has remained unseen for almost 40 years.

Edited and updated with new information about a fresh 2017 police inquiry into the case, Tom Mangold's story shows how powerful political forces tried to protect Thorpe. The programme features revealing interviews from 1979 with Norman Scott, chief prosecution witness Peter Bessell and the alleged hitman Andrew 'Gino' Newton.

SUN 23:00 Amazon Abyss (b00hhf63)
Episode 7

Mike de Gruy and Kate Humble lead an international team of scientists and divers as they search for species new to science in the Amazon River.

It is the climax of the diving expedition as the team explores a 90-metre chasm at the very bottom of the Amazon River. Scientists have no idea what lurks within. The team also explores overgrown jungle streams in search of giant caiman and electric eels - a fish that can stun you with a 600-volt shock.

As the expedition draws to a close, the divers prepare to jump into the depths of the river to confront and film the extraordinary fish that lie in the abyss.

SUN 00:00 Civilisations Stories (b0b1bddh)
Series 1

The Empire

In days of empire - from the cloudy north west - the world must have seemed exotic and vividly coloured. Brits travelled the globe to bring back treasures such as mummies, art and even circus animals. Writer and broadcaster Stuart Maconie reveals how these discoveries influenced and reshaped our towns and cities from one of the most colourful - and controversial - chapters of our past.

SUN 00:30 Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways (b01q7brf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

SUN 01:30 How to Build... (b00t3dc7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

SUN 02:30 Return to Larkinland (b06hhlyl)
Writer and critic AN Wilson revisits the life and work of one of the greatest English poets of the 20th century, Philip Larkin - a poet soon to be honoured with a place in Poets' Corner at Westminster Abbey.

Wilson traces Larkin's life from his childhood in Coventry, through to his student days at Oxford and then his adult years working in university libraries, whilst writing some of the best-loved and notorious poems in the English language.

Wilson, who knew Larkin in his later life, remembers memorable encounters with the poet and this personal connection helps him to reveal a complex man with a complicated, and at times tortured, private life. As part of this candid exploration into Larkin's life, Wilson confronts the allegations of racism, bigotry and misogyny that emerged following the publication of his Selected Letters and authorised biography, and which have dogged his posthumous reputation.

However, Wilson concludes that it is Larkin's poems, not his faults, that have survived. Featuring readings of his work by Larkin himself, including the greatness of The Whitsun Weddings, Arundel Tomb, Church Going and Aubade, Wilson argues that Larkin spoke for Britain between the 1950s and 1970s perhaps more than any other writer.

MONDAY 04 JUNE 2018

MON 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0b5gk5p)
Series 1

04/06/2018

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

MON 19:30 Canals: The Making of a Nation (b06822p8)
Heritage

Liz McIvor explores the heritage of our canal network. After years of decline in the postwar period much of the network was eventually restored. Once places of labour and industry, they became places of leisure and tranquillity. The newly renovated canals were increasingly popular for boating holidaymakers. Liz visits the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales and travels to Birmingham where canals have become catalysts for property development and urban regeneration. Canals offer so many benefits today. Perhaps, Liz suggests, it is time to construct a few more?

MON 20:00 Castles: Britain's Fortified History (b04v85sy)
Defence of the Realm

Sam Willis explores how, by the Wars of the Roses, castles were under attack from a new threat - the cannon - but survived into the Tudor era only to find their whole purpose challenged. What had once been strategic seats of power now had to keep up with the fickle fashions of the court and become palaces to impress monarchs such as Elizabeth I.

Just as castles seemed to have lost their defensive function, the English Civil War erupted. The legacy of that tumultuous period resulted in castles no longer being associated with protection. Rather, their ruins took on a unique appeal, embodying a nostalgia for an age of chivalry that became a powerful part of the national psyche.

MON 21:00 South Downs: England's Mountains Green (b08fsbtk)
Peter Owen-Jones takes us into the heart of the UK's newest national park - the South Downs. Following the South Downs Way along the spine of the park, from the famous Seven Sisters cliffs to Winchester - the ancient capital of England - Peter experiences an extraordinary year exploring the park's stunning landscapes, rich history, wildlife and people. What emerges is a portrait of one of Britain's most iconic landscapes, described by William Blake as 'England's mountains green'.

MON 22:00 I Was There: Kate Adie on Tiananmen Square (b0b5y9l7)
Kate Adie re-examines her historic coverage of the massacre in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, in June 1989.

In a long-form interview, Kate recalls how she was wounded by gunfire and narrowly escaped death herself as she and her cameraman remained in the line of fire while an estimated 2,000 pro-democracy demonstrators were shot down by Chinese government troops.

Kate reviews the reports she made on the ground, with additional insight from leading historian Professor Steve Tsang, and draws on the BBC's archive to assess how film-makers have portrayed China before and after the upheaval.

MON 23:00 Versailles (b00lv83z)
The Dream of a King

Drama-documentary recreating the life and loves of France's most famous king, Louis XIV.

Dubbed the Sun King by his admiring court, Louis conquered half of Europe, conducted dozens of love affairs and dazzled his contemporaries with his lavish entertainments. But perhaps his greatest achievement - and certainly his longest lasting love - was the incredible palace he built at Versailles, one of the wonders of the world.

Filmed in the spectacular staterooms, bedrooms and gardens of Versailles itself, this beautifully photographed drama-documentary brings the reign of one of Europe's greatest and most flamboyant monarchs triumphantly to life, with the help of interviews with the world's leading experts on his reign.

MON 00:00 The Secret Life of the Motorway (b007xmdn)
The End of the Affair

When the first motorways opened they did so to national celebration. But after the first 1,000 miles had been built, their impact on both town and country was becoming apparent and people started to protest.

Middle England rose up and disrupted public inquiries to voice their frustration at motorway building, but it continued and over time the frustration gave way to concerns about saving the planet. In the early 1990s that meant young people willing to risk everything to stop the motorways being built. The programme shows how people began to question the promises made by the motorway, and along the way found their voice of protest.

MON 01:00 Ice Age Giants (p018cc8p)
Land of the Cave-Bear

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.

In this episode, Alice ventures to the parts of the northern hemisphere hit hardest by the cold - Europe and Siberia.

High in the mountains of Transylvania, a cave sealed for thousands of years reveals grisly evidence for a fight to the death between two starving giants, a cave bear and a cave lion. These animals, which would dwarf their modern-day relatives, were probably driven into conflict by the pressure on food supplies as the Ice Age gathered pace.

Yet Alice discovers that, for woolly rhinos and woolly mammoths, the Ice Age created a bounty. The Mammoth Steppe, a vast tract of land which went halfway round the world, provided food all year round for those that liked the cold. It was these mammoths that Europe's most dangerous predators - Neanderthals and our own ancestors - hunted for their survival.

MON 02:00 What a Performance! Pioneers of Popular Entertainment (b06rhpc7)
The Rise of Variety

In the second episode, Frank Skinner and Suzy Klein explore the golden age of variety theatre, from the start of the 20th century to the outbreak of the Second World War. They immerse themselves in the careers of megastars including George Formby and Gracie Fields, who both remain household names today. They also get to grips with some lesser-known artists, including La Loie Fuller, an innovative Chicago-born choreographer and dancer who took London by storm during the Edwardian era.

Two other stars of the pre-World War I era - the Scottish comedian and singer Sir Harry Lauder and the once hugely famous Vesta Tilley, a talented male impersonator - feature prominently as well, and Frank and Suzy attempt to recreate their acts, live on stage, at the end of the show.

MON 03:00 Castles: Britain's Fortified History (b04v85sy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

TUESDAY 05 JUNE 2018

TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0b5gk5w)
Series 1

05/06/2018

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

TUE 19:30 Iolo's Snowdonia (b09rjs4p)
Series 1

Episode 3

Over four seasons, Iolo Williams goes to his favourite locations in Snowdonia to look for stunning wildlife, and meets people who help him discover the national park's true nature. In this episode, it is autumn and Iolo takes us to hidden wildernesses with outstanding views of the season's colours and the big mountains of Snowdonia. On the lower slopes of the Carneddau range, red squirrels have returned to the national park after disappearing some 40 years ago. Below the magnificent Aber Falls, with its 37-metre drop from the high peaks, jays collect acorns in an ancient woodland. Iolo finds fascinating old sheepfolds and Wales's native black cattle breed on the high slopes - both relics of a time when many more people lived and worked on the uplands and evidence of Snowdonia's changing nature. However, some things remain the same - wild goats rut on the Rhinog Mountains, a tawny owl and bats take up residence in an old church near Dolgellau and, in a nearby wood, dormice fatten up for hibernation. Also, the first whooper swans arrive back from Iceland to a lake below Snowdon - a sure sign that winter is on its way.

TUE 20:00 Tomorrow's Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction (p026cd65)
Time

Dominic Sandbrook concludes his exploration of the most innovative and imaginative of all genres by considering science fiction's most alluring theme - time travel.

Having the power to change the past or see the future is a deep-seated human fantasy, and writers and film-makers have embraced its possibilities. From HG Wells's pioneering scientist in The Time Machine to Back to the Future's Marty McFly and Doctor Who's titular Time Lord, we've been presented with a host of colourful time travellers and their time machines. But is there always a price to be paid for meddling with the timeline?

Among the contributors are David Tennant, Karen Gillan and Steven Moffat (Doctor Who), actor Christopher Lloyd and screenwriter Bob Gale (Back to the Future), actor Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap) and novelist Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife).

TUE 21:00 Africa (b01pwtsj)
Savannah

East Africa is a land which is constantly changing. To survive here, creatures must be able to deal with unpredictable twists and turns - wet turning to dry, feast to famine, cold to hot - no matter how hostile it becomes.

From dense forests to snow-capped peaks, steamy swamps and endless savannah, this unique and varied land is also a haven for life, supporting large animals in numbers found nowhere else on Earth. But away from the familiar, forever-travelling herds, there are a huge cast of other characters - lizards that steal flies from the faces of lions, vast dinosaur-like birds who stalk catfish through huge wetlands, and an eagle who risks everything on the arrival of ten million bats from a far-off rainforest.

TUE 22:00 Africa's Great Civilisations (b0b64h37)
Series 1

The Cross and the Crescent

The award-winning film-maker and academic Henry Louis Gates Jr travels the length and breadth of Africa to examine the continent's epic history. This episode charts the emergence of Christianity and Islam and examines how the two religions reshaped Africa between the first and the 12th centuries AD, as well as for centuries thereafter.

Gates also recounts the strategic importance of the Horn of Africa - a meeting place between the Red and Arabian seas that has served as a vital trade corridor between Africa, the Middle East and Europe for millennia.

TUE 23:00 Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture (b00k3685)
Wheat

Documentary series about the history of 20th-century farming in Britain looks at wheat and tells how the country became self-sufficient in producing bread-making wheat after the Second World War.

Told through the working lives and home movie archives of three wheat-farming families from the east of England, it reveals how farmers went from horse power to machine power and how they used science and genetics to transform the size and yield of wheat and the rural landscape, with controversial outcomes for the countryside.

TUE 00:00 Secrets of Bones (b03x3zfs)
Into the Air

Ben Garrod finds out how the skeleton has allowed vertebrates to do the most remarkable thing of all - take to the air. He discovers why the humble pigeon is such an exceptional flier, uncovers bony secrets as to how the albatross makes mammoth migrations and finds out why some birds have dense bones. Finally, he reveals which surprising flier is his 'ultimate'.

TUE 00:30 Secrets of Bones (b03xsgwh)
Sensing the World

Ben Garrod delves into the surprising ways in which bone has evolved to help vertebrates sense the world around them. He reveals why predators like the wolf have eyes at the front of their skull whereas prey animals such as sheep usually have eye sockets on the sides of their heads. He finds out how the skull of the great grey owl has helped it develop such extraordinary hearing and uncovers the secret behind one bizarre creature's uniquely flexible nose.

TUE 01:00 Art of China (b04cryjg)
Episode 2

Andrew Graham-Dixon travels to the Yellow mountains in southern China to understand the power of Chinese landscape painting. The period from the 10th to the 15th centuries - from the Song to the Ming dynasties - was the golden age of art in China. Andrew discovers an emperor so in love with art and beauty that he neglected to rule his country and scholar artists who fled the Mongol invasion to immerse themselves in nature, combining wondrous landscape painting and calligraphy. While Europe was still in the Dark Ages, Chinese art was being reborn.

TUE 02:00 Tomorrow's Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction (p026cd65)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

TUE 03:00 Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries (b053pzv1)
Episode 2

The golden age of the British monastery was during the medieval period, when monks transformed British society and rose to a position of immense power. Fighting back after centuries of defeat and neglect, a wave of new monasteries spread across the nation, with over 500 British monastic houses established by the 14th century. Far from the inward-looking recluses of legend, monks were exceptionally creative, and became pioneers in the fields of medicine, science, scholarship, industry, farming, art and music. They didn't turn their back on the medieval world, but helped transform it.

Yet as the monasteries mingled with the world outside their cloisters they began to take on its corruption. They had begun with a vow of poverty, but eventually came to own a third of the nation's land. This wealth, combined with the sins of individual monks, sealed their fate, and as the medieval period ended the monks were on the brink of a catastrophic and total collapse.

From Viking-ravaged Lindisfarne to the astonishing achievements of Durham and Peterborough cathedrals (both built for monks), from cutting-edge hospitals to the rediscovery of the oldest collection of two-part music in the world, this is a story of astonishing success and spectacular artistic achievement that proved too good to last.

WEDNESDAY 06 JUNE 2018

WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0b5gk69)
Series 1

06/06/2018

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

WED 19:30 Canals: The Making of a Nation (b06829t1)
The Boat People

Presenter Liz McIvor tells the story of the people who operated the canal boats, carrying fuel and goods around the country. Conditions were tough, days were long. Victorian society began to grow suspicious of these 'outsiders' and they gained reputations for criminality, violence and drinking. But was this reputation really deserved? Liz discovers grisly canal crimes, investigates health and welfare onboard working boats, and looks at why canal children were last on the list to be offered safeguards and formal education. The Victorians eventually championed the needs of children who were forced to labour in factories and mines, but the boat children were often ignored. Liz discovers the campaigners who set out to tackle this injustice, including George Smith of Coalville, Leicestershire, and Sister Mary Ward of Stoke Bruerne.

WED 20:00 Caribbean with Simon Reeve (p02lbhhc)
Episode 3

Simon begins his journey on the remote Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, travels to the beautiful Honduran island of Roatan and encounters extreme violence on the mainland of Honduras, before finishing his adventure on the iconic island of Jamaica.

Nicaragua is a country on the brink of monumental change. It will soon be split in two by the world's biggest construction project: a new transoceanic waterway set to rival the Panama Canal. Simon visits the Rama-Kriol people who face losing their ancestral homes and, in the nearby town of Bluefields, he meets the city-dwellers who believe the canal will bring long-hoped-for prosperity and wealth to the country.

In Honduras, Simon dives into the crystal waters of the world's second-largest barrier reef and conducts an unusual underwater experiment in the dead of night. Back on shore, Simon discovers Hondurans living in the grip of some of the most violent criminal gangs in the world. San Pedro Sula, the country's second city, has the world's highest murder rate.

Simon's journey ends in the stunning Jamaica, where he discovers a country confronting its violent reputation head-on with a police force cracking down on corruption. Here, he spends time with young people who have rejected gang life, offering a model of hope for future generations.

WED 21:00 Big Sky, Big Dreams, Big Art: Made in the USA (b0b618m6)
Series 1

Episode 3

This episode looks at America's most controversial cultural territory - the interstitial America of small towns and trailer parks. As his road trip takes him from Iowa to Tennessee, Waldemar Januszczak discovers how this much maligned territory had an immensely beneficial impact on American art. From the small town brilliance of Grant Wood, to the small town alienation of Edward Hopper, to the spooky Dust Bowl symbolism of Alexandre Hogue, interstitial America inspired much that was great. The film culminates in the brilliant assemblages of David Smith, the leading sculptor of abstract expressionism.

WED 22:00 Black and British: A Forgotten History (b083rb2v)
Moral Mission

In part three of this groundbreaking series, historian David Olusoga explores the Victorian moral crusade against slavery. He finds out how Queen Victoria came to have a black god-daughter, why the mill workers of Rochdale stood in solidarity with enslaved Africans in the American South, and remembers the victims of a tragedy in Jamaica.

WED 23:00 Indian Hill Railways (b00qzzlm)
The Nilgiri Mountain 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 Nilgiri Mountain Railway is a romantic line, popular with honeymooners and driven by love and devotion as well as steam. It chugs through the south Indian jungle up to a hill station, once known as Snooty Ooty.

The current guard is Ivan. Married for twenty years, he is concerned about his friend Jenni, the ticket inspector, because he's still a bachelor - but Jenni has a secret.

In the engine shed, Shivani, the railway's first female diesel engineer, is working on a steam loco. She has to make it look its best, as in the year of filming, 1999, the railway celebrated its centenary. The high point is the Black Beauty competition to pick the best engine on the line, but rains and landslides threaten the proceedings and the tourist business. Will love win out in the end?

WED 00:00 D-Day: The Last Heroes (p0198pxz)
Original Series

Episode 1

In the first of a two-part series, historian Dan Snow examines how two years of meticulous planning, espionage and the analysis of millions of three-dimensional aerial photographs helped the Allied forces gain a foothold in northern France.

WED 01:00 D-Day: The Last Heroes (b02xdncc)
Original Series

Episode 2

The concluding part of historian Dan Snow's documentary series tells the powerful and heroic stories of those who risked their lives on the beaches of Normandy to save the world from Nazi Germany.

WED 02:00 Caribbean with Simon Reeve (p02lbhhc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

WED 03:00 Big Sky, Big Dreams, Big Art: Made in the USA (b0b618m6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THURSDAY 07 JUNE 2018

THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0b5gk6h)
Series 1

07/06/2018

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

THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0b61wt4)
Simon Bates and Janice Long present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 31 October 1985. Featuring Feargal Sharkey, Elton John, King, Jennifer Rush and Shakin' Stevens.

THU 20:00 Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey (b01djm9b)
Episode 2

Right now you're hurtling around the sun at 64,000 miles an hour (100,000 kms 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 second episode we travel from January to the March equinox. Kate Humble gets closer to the sun than she has ever been before, whilst Helen Czerski visits a place that gets some of the biggest and fastest snowstorms on Earth.

THU 21:00 City in the Sky (b07grng5)
Airborne

There are around a million people airborne at any one time and keeping that number of people safely aloft depends on complex global networks and astonishing technology that stretches our ingenuity to the absolute limit.

In this programme, science broadcaster Dallas Campbell and Dr Hannah Fry explore just what it takes to keep this city in the sky safe between take-off and landing. Dallas discovers how pilots find their way across thousands of miles of sky in the dead of night. Hannah meets the air traffic controllers who are responsible for the busiest airspace in the world - over Atlanta in south east America - and reveals just what is involved in co-ordinating the 100,000 flights that cross the globe every day, while avoiding collisions.

And it is not all about the planes themselves - whether it is the care of 64 horses that regularly fly around the globe to compete in showjumping competitions or inflight medical advice from ER doctors in Phoenix for passengers who fall ill at 35,000 feet. You will never look at your time aloft in the same way again.

THU 22:00 Missions (b0b64dqk)
Series 1

Fault

French sci-fi drama series. Fateful past decisions affect Komarov and Jeanne, while the Ulysses crew find themselves under threat from the impatient Z-2 military men.

THU 22:25 Missions (b0b64dqp)
Series 1

Phoenix

French sci-fi drama series. Jeanne, Simon and Gemma enter the sculpted mountain and discover underground tunnels and artefacts from a long-gone civilisation. On Ulysses, crew members are being threatened by Doisneau and Wayne, but Irene - the ship IA - unexpectedly wakes up.

THU 22:45 Horizon (b08ry9l9)
2018

Volcanoes of the Solar System

Volcanoes have long helped shape the Earth. But what is less well known is that there are volcanoes on other planets and moons that are even more extraordinary than those on our own home planet. Horizon follows an international team of volcanologists in Iceland as they draw fascinating parallels between the volcanoes on Earth and those elsewhere in the solar system. Through the team's research, we discover that the largest volcano in the solar system - Olympus Mons on Mars - has been formed in a similar way to those of Iceland, how a small moon of Jupiter - Io - has the most violent eruptions anywhere, and that a moon of Saturn called Enceladus erupts icy geysers from a hidden ocean. Computer graphics combined with original Nasa material reveal the spectacular sights of these amazing volcanoes.

Along the way, we learn that volcanoes are not just a destructive force, but have been essential to the formation of atmospheres and even life. And through these volcanoes of the solar system, scientists have discovered far more about our own planet - what it was like when Earth first formed, and even what will happen to our planet in the future.

THU 23:00 Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines (p01f53b9)
Poison

Dr Michael Mosley ends the series with a look at poisons, exploring the turning points when scientists went from finding antidotes to poisons to applying poisons as cures, and celebrating the eccentrics and mavericks whose breakthroughs were to pave the way for some of the most striking treatments of modern medicine. Of the medicines explored in this series, those that are derived from poisons are perhaps the most extraordinary. The story of turning poisons into medicines encompasses the planet's most deadly substances, in which we turned killers into cures.

THU 00:00 Top of the Pops (b0b61wt4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

THU 00:30 Horizon (b014kj65)
2011-2012

Are You Good or Evil?

What makes us good or evil? It's a simple but deeply unsettling question. One that scientists are now starting to answer.

Horizon meets the researchers who have studied some of the most terrifying people behind bars - psychopathic killers.

But there was a shock in store for one of these scientists, Professor Jim Fallon, when he discovered that he had the profile of a psychopath. And the reason he didn't turn out to be a killer holds important lessons for all of us.

We meet the scientist who believes he has found the 'moral molecule' and the man who is using this new understanding to rewrite our ideas of crime and punishment.

THU 01:30 Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey (b01djm9b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

THU 02:30 City in the Sky (b07grng5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

FRIDAY 08 JUNE 2018

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b0b5gk77)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0b61x50)
Steve Wright and Peter Powell present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 7 November 1985. Featuring A-ha, Far Corporation, Level 42, UB40, and Jennifer Rush.

FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b01pmbdy)
1978 - Big Hits

A pick 'n' mix of Top of the Pops classics from 1978, when in-yer-face punk and new wave rebellion co-existed with MOR suburban pop, disco fever, soul balladry, reggae and prog rock, and when two mega-successful movie soundtracks in the shape of Grease and Saturday Night Fever squared up on the dancefloor. Featuring shouty Sham 69, the cool rebellion of Ian Dury, Elvis Costello and Blondie, the media-savvy clowning of The Boomtown Rats, Kate Bush's debut with Wuthering Heights, alongside Brotherhood of Man's perky Figaro, Dan Hill's sentimental Sometimes When We Touch and the high camp of Boney M's Rasputin. Bob Marley shares chart space with 10cc's Dreadlock Holiday, and ELO and Manfred Mann's Earth Band keep on rockin'.

FRI 21:00 New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s (b0177bjb)
Prince: A Purple Reign

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

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

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

FRI 22:00 Africa: A Journey into Music (b0b5hjt4)
Series 1

South Africa

DJ and broadcaster Rita Ray travels to South Africa, home to distinctive vocal harmonies that have travelled all over the world. Visiting Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, she discovers the extraordinary songs and harmonies that have given this country a voice abroad. They have often carried messages about inequality and injustice at home, resulting in beautiful music with a real sense of purpose.

South Africa is a diverse nation, and each tribal group has its own musical traditions. Cutting-edge artists sing in ancient languages such as Xhosa, migrant workers stave off homesickness with traditional singing and dancing in the street, whilst four-part harmonies imported from the west are heard in every church, but given an unmistakable South African twist.

FRI 23:00 When Pop Went Epic: The Crazy World of the Concept Album (b079s0n0)
It's possibly one of the most denigrated inventions in the history of music, the greatest signifier of rock star pomposity. Indeed, in some quarters, the very mention of it is likely to provoke sniggering derision, conjuring up images of quadruple-gatefold album sleeves, songs that go on for weeks and straggly-haired rockers prattling on about mystical lands, unicorns, goblins and dystopian futures. But - back when people actually took the time to sit down and listen to records from beginning to end - for many, nothing delivered a more rewarding experience than the concept album. And for some, it's still a format that provides rock music with its high watermark moments.

This documentary explores the history of a musical format - usually based around a structured narrative, though sometimes tied together by a loose theme - that developed to become the equivalent of rock 'n' roll theatre, often on an operatic scale. The legendary cape-wearing keyboardmeister Rick Wakeman - himself the creator of several of history's most, ahem, 'elaborate' long players - presents this insightful and playful exploration of the greatest examples of the art form.

From social commentary to collected songs of loneliness, heartache and introspection, from tales of intergalactic rock stars to anthems of isolated youth, the film takes us on a journey - examining the roots of the concept album in its various forms, unpacking some of the most ambitious - and ridiculous - projects of the past fifty years, from Woody Guthrie's Dustbowl Ballads to Tales from Topographic Oceans by Yes; the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds to George Clinton's Mothership Connection; The Wall by Pink Floyd to The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

Some of the mavericks who made the maddest and most memorable big ideas happen are here to provide their own perspectives, including Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull); Laura Marling; George Clinton; Wayne Coyne (Flaming Lips); J Willgoose Esq (Public Service Broadcasting); Fish (Marillion); Tony Asher (co-writer of lyrics on Pet Sounds); graphic artists such as Roger Dean (designer of Yes album sleeves) and Aubrey Powell of design partnership Hipgnosis (Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and Animals, and Genesis's The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway).

FRI 00:00 Top of the Pops (b0b61x50)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

FRI 00:30 Oh You Pretty Things: The Story of Music and Fashion (b04jy2s1)
Image

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

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

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

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

FRI 01:30 Top of the Pops (b01pmbdy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

FRI 02:30 Africa: A Journey into Music (b0b5hjt4)
[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 (b0b64h37)

Africa: A Journey into Music 22:00 FRI (b0b5hjt4)

Africa: A Journey into Music 02:30 FRI (b0b5hjt4)

Africa 21:00 TUE (b01pwtsj)

Amazon Abyss 23:00 SUN (b00hhf63)

Art of China 01:00 TUE (b04cryjg)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 MON (b0b5gk5p)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 TUE (b0b5gk5w)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 WED (b0b5gk69)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 THU (b0b5gk6h)

Big Sky, Big Dreams, Big Art: Made in the USA 21:00 WED (b0b618m6)

Big Sky, Big Dreams, Big Art: Made in the USA 03:00 WED (b0b618m6)

Black and British: A Forgotten History 22:00 WED (b083rb2v)

Canals: The Making of a Nation 19:30 MON (b06822p8)

Canals: The Making of a Nation 19:30 WED (b06829t1)

Caribbean with Simon Reeve 20:00 WED (p02lbhhc)

Caribbean with Simon Reeve 02:00 WED (p02lbhhc)

Castles: Britain's Fortified History 20:00 MON (b04v85sy)

Castles: Britain's Fortified History 03:00 MON (b04v85sy)

City in the Sky 21:00 THU (b07grng5)

City in the Sky 02:30 THU (b07grng5)

Civilisations Stories 00:00 SUN (b0b1bddh)

D-Day: The Last Heroes 00:00 WED (p0198pxz)

D-Day: The Last Heroes 01:00 WED (b02xdncc)

Horizon 22:45 THU (b08ry9l9)

Horizon 00:30 THU (b014kj65)

Hot Chocolate at the BBC 01:50 SAT (b06dl1c5)

How to Build... 20:00 SUN (b00t3dc7)

How to Build... 01:30 SUN (b00t3dc7)

How to Get Ahead 02:50 SAT (b03yfwk1)

I Was There: Kate Adie on Tiananmen Square 22:00 MON (b0b5y9l7)

Ice Age Giants 01:00 MON (p018cc8p)

Indian Hill Railways 23:00 WED (b00qzzlm)

Inspector Montalbano 21:00 SAT (b0b60y1x)

Iolo's Snowdonia 19:30 TUE (b09rjs4p)

Kate Bush at the BBC 00:50 SAT (b04f86xk)

Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways 19:00 SUN (b01q7brf)

Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways 00:30 SUN (b01q7brf)

Missions 22:00 THU (b0b64dqk)

Missions 22:25 THU (b0b64dqp)

Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture 23:00 TUE (b00k3685)

New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s 21:00 FRI (b0177bjb)

Normandy '44: The Battle Beyond D-Day 21:00 SUN (b0461mvr)

Oh You Pretty Things: The Story of Music and Fashion 00:30 FRI (b04jy2s1)

Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey 20:00 THU (b01djm9b)

Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey 01:30 THU (b01djm9b)

Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines 23:00 THU (p01f53b9)

Patagonia: Earth's Secret Paradise 20:00 SAT (b06dpmyr)

Return to Larkinland 02:30 SUN (b06hhlyl)

Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries 03:00 TUE (b053pzv1)

Secrets of Bones 00:00 TUE (b03x3zfs)

Secrets of Bones 00:30 TUE (b03xsgwh)

Sicily: The Wonder of the Mediterranean 22:50 SAT (b08dzx1h)

South Downs: England's Mountains Green 21:00 MON (b08fsbtk)

The Burrowers: Animals Underground 19:00 SAT (b038lx3c)

The Jeremy Thorpe Scandal 22:00 SUN (b0b5y97j)

The Secret Life of the Motorway 00:00 MON (b007xmdn)

Tomorrow's Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction 20:00 TUE (p026cd65)

Tomorrow's Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction 02:00 TUE (p026cd65)

Top of the Pops 23:50 SAT (b0b5b8mf)

Top of the Pops 00:20 SAT (b0b5bj2g)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b0b61wt4)

Top of the Pops 00:00 THU (b0b61wt4)

Top of the Pops 19:30 FRI (b0b61x50)

Top of the Pops 20:00 FRI (b01pmbdy)

Top of the Pops 00:00 FRI (b0b61x50)

Top of the Pops 01:30 FRI (b01pmbdy)

Versailles 23:00 MON (b00lv83z)

What a Performance! Pioneers of Popular Entertainment 02:00 MON (b06rhpc7)

When Pop Went Epic: The Crazy World of the Concept Album 23:00 FRI (b079s0n0)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b0b5gk77)