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 06 APRIL 2019

SAT 19:00 Great Bear Stakeout (p0176ql9)
Episode 1

In this episode we meet Parsnip, a first-time grizzly mum, and her young cub, Pushki. Only half of new bear cubs make it through the season, and they are both struggling to survive in this vast Alaskan wilderness.

This area is ruled by a massive male bear, Van, and his partner Alice, a prized female bear with an aggressive and sinister side. Hungry adult bears will kill cubs, so Parsnip's summer is full of unexpected adventure; she must escape Van's clutches and learn from her mistakes if she and her cub are to survive the season.


SAT 20:00 Italy's Invisible Cities (b088nl33)
Series 1

Venice

Documentary series. Using the latest 3D scanning technology, Alexander Armstrong and Dr Michael Scott explore the watery wonderland of Venice.

They uncover how a city built in a swamp became one of the most powerful in medieval Europe and dive into its canals to experience how the city remains standing. Plus, they reveal how the city's beauty once masked a ruthless secret state and a world of excess and vice.


SAT 21:00 Follow the Money (m00041t7)
Series 3

Episode 1

Nicky is back in Denmark after two years in Spain. An ambitious businessman, he supplies a large amount of the country’s hash whilst fronting a juice bar to launder the money. He works for the mysterious Spanish kingpin Marco and dreams of retiring to the Spanish coast, but out of the blue he hears surprising news about his five-year-old son Milas, whom he has not seen for two years.

Police officer Alf has started a new job in the Police Task Force, but he struggles settling into it. He is battling PTSD and insomnia after having survived a murder attempt two years ago. He is in a secret relationship with his colleague Isa and is given a new role in the task force after an unexpected find in a basement.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 21:55 Follow the Money (m00041tb)
Series 3

Episode 2

Anna, an efficient bank adviser at Kredit Nord, is passed over for a long-awaited promotion in favour of a younger colleague. Underappreciated at work and at home, when she discovers that her husband’s business is on the brink of bankruptcy, she takes matters into her own hands.

Alf tries to keep his daily life together with medication. He’s the case lead on the tragic basement case, which turns out to have a connection to the mysterious kingpin Marco.

Nicky’s family is torn, and his son is paying the price while he tries to keep his businesses going.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 22:55 Top of the Pops (m0003vj5)
Gary Davies presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 30 June 1987 and featuring Hue and Cry, Heart, Freddie McGregor, Bananarama, Stock Aitken Waterman, Spagna, The Gap Band, New Order, Marillion, Los Lobos and Beastie Boys.


SAT 23:25 EMI: The Inside Story (b07c6fj7)
One record company has been a constant presence in popular music throughout our lives.

EMI brought The Beatles to the world and in every decade since has been instrumental in producing some of Britain's most celebrated and enduring music.

But behind the success lay a very British institution often at odds with the music it released. It had to come to terms with psychedelia, face punk head-on and find huge sums of money to feed the excesses of the 1980s.

Interviews with EMI artists including members of Queen, Pink Floyd, The Sex Pistols and Pet Shop Boys reveal how their demands for more and more control ultimately led to drastic changes at EMI. Former EMI employees share the gossip and goings-on in an industry infamous for its extravagance.

The British music industry is world-renowned. It has produced decades of memorable music that have reached all corners of the globe. EMI has always been at the forefront and has left an indelible mark on our culture forever.


SAT 00:25 Chalkie Davies: Rock Photographer (b05xd4yv)
In the late 70s Chalkie Davies was a photographer at the New Musical Express, taking pictures of bands like Thin Lizzy, the Clash, the Sex Pistols and many more. Now, as his first major exhibition opens at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, and showing as part of BBC Music Day, he looks back on an extraordinary life, and old friends like Elvis Costello reflect on how Chalkie's images are so enduring.

Chalkie Davies was born in Sully just outside Cardiff and his first job was as an engineer at Heathrow Airport. But he was always a keen amateur photographer and when he won a camera club competition in 1973 the door opened onto a career in rock 'n' roll.

He was allowed in to take pictures on the last night of David Bowie's legendary Ziggy Stardust tour and the results were so good he never looked back. Joining the New Musical Express in the mid-70s, he was in the right place at the right time and became a favourite amongst the punk and new wave bands including the Clash, The Specials, Squeeze and Elvis Costello.

Chalkie's pictures summed up the era and many are classics of rock and roll photography. But by the mid-80s he'd become disenchanted with the music business, where image mattered more than music. The death of his close friend Phil Lynott, leader singer of Thin Lizzy, led Chalkie to quit rock music.

For 25 years Chalkie's collection of rock images remained hidden away until an invitation from the National Museum of Wales led him to bring them out for a new generation. This documentary follows Chalkie as he prepares for the exhibition, revisits his childhood haunts and reflects on an extraordinary career.

There are contributions from many of the musicians he photographed including Elvis Costello, Chris Difford of Squeeze, songwriter Nick Lowe, the Specials mainman Jerry Dammers and punk poet John Cooper Clarke.


SAT 00:55 Line of Duty (b08l60l3)
Series 4

Episode 1

DCI Roz Huntley is under intense pressure from her superiors to apprehend a serial murderer after months of fruitless investigation. When another young woman is abducted, Roz is on the scene to track down and charge a 24-year-old man. But doubts around the young man's guilt lead the chief forensic investigator to ask AC-12 to investigate. Is Roz ignoring forensic evidence that might prove the young man's innocence? AC-12's Supt Hastings places DS Kate Fleming undercover inside Roz's team to dig deeper into the case. With DS Steve Arnott piling on pressure from the outside, Roz is forced to act decisively. A mother of two and wife to Nick, Roz will do anything to stop her life from unravelling.


SAT 01:55 Line of Duty (b08lmz22)
Series 4

Episode 2

A dismembered body is discovered, and worries grow when DCI Roz Huntley fails to report for duty. AC-12 crank up their investigation into Operation Trapdoor, concerned that Michael Farmer will go to jail for crimes he didn't commit. With suspicions that Roz may have withheld crucial evidence, a new DCI is drafted in to run Operation Trapdoor.

Kate makes progress in her undercover role, but AC-12's investigation falters when they realise that their main informant, forensic investigator Tim Ifield, has also gone missing.


SAT 02:55 Line of Duty (b08mflh4)
Series 4

Episode 3

As AC-12 wrestle with the new forensic evidence casting doubt over Tim Ifield, Kate is approached by another woman claiming to have been assaulted by Michael Farmer. While Steve fumes over this contradictory testimony, Kate uses her newfound respect to inveigle herself with the Trapdoor team.

Meanwhile, Steve challenges Roz's husband Nick to vouch for his wife's whereabouts on the night Tim Ifield went missing. With Nick proving evasive, Steve senses a whole new angle on the investigation.



SUNDAY 07 APRIL 2019

SUN 19:00 The Battle for Britain's Breakfast (b03zf2mk)
A tale of skulduggery, dirty tricks and strong coffee in the cut-throat world that marked the dawn of breakfast television. Narrated by Peter Snow.


SUN 20:00 Discovering... (m00041td)
Series 1

The Bridge on the River Kwai - Malcolm Arnold

Sir Malcolm Arnold was a prolific composer of music in many genres. Over five decades his output included concertos, ballet music, dance suites, overtures and nine symphonies. He was also at home composing for the film studio, his sweeping score for David Lean’s 1957 feature film, The Bridge on the River Kwai, being perhaps his best known film soundtrack. It won him an Oscar.

Here Katie Derham presents the BBC Concert Orchestra performing The Bridge on the River Kwai in full from the Watford Colosseum with conductor Christopher Seaman. Before the performance, Katie speaks to Christopher and to several members of the orchestra to learn more about the composer and the symphonic qualities he brought to the score. Understanding the instruments of the orchestra as well as Arnold did makes his music extremely satisfying to play.

Katie discovers how Arnold managed to create such an iconic soundtrack in only ten days, and composer Debbie Wiseman, who herself composes prolifically for cinema, uses scenes from The Bridge on the River Kwai to demonstrate how the music is interwoven with the rest of the film’s soundtrack. We see how Arnold’s understanding of the orchestra allowed him to use the right instruments in the right registers to complement to action on screen.

Katie also learns the fascinating story of Arnold’s own life - a pacifist who shot himself in the foot to get medically discharged during World War II, and a diagnosed schizophrenic who suffered with mental illness and alcoholism throughout his life. We see how he nonetheless remained an outgoing, engaging and well-loved figure, before hearing his Bridge on the River Kwai suite performed in full.


SUN 21:00 Our Classical Century (m00041tg)
Series 1

1953 - 1971

From the films Brief Encounter and Bridge on the River Kwai, to the glamorous classical stars Jacqueline du Pré and Daniel Barenboim, this is the story of how classical music thrived in post-war Britain and found vast popular audiences. Suzy Klein and broadcaster and music lover Joan Bakewell explore a new world of musical collaborations with classical music – from Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar, Rick Wakeman and David Bowie, and Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic.

Elizabeth II’s coronation was a remarkable showcase for British classical music. It was watched by millions on their new TV sets. Suzy explores how the BBC transformed the Last Night of the Proms into a live TV extravaganza under the baton of the dynamic ‘Flash Harry’, Malcolm Sargent. Joan Bakewell meets Sylvia Darley, his private secretary for 20 years, who reveals the ‘love affair’ between Sir Malcolm and the promenaders.

TV was one medium that had grasped the potential of classical music – now film did too. David Lean had already co-opted Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto to unforgettable effect in Brief Encounter. Suzy reveals how Lean commissioned the piece which brought Oscar glory for Best Score to British composer Malcom Arnold in 1958, for Lean’s cinematic tour de force Bridge on the River Kwai. Arnold – an eclectic, dynamic and prolific composer - produced a powerful score for this film about prisoners in a Japanese camp building a bridge for the Burma Railway. Composer Neil Brand reflects on Arnold’s ability to conjure the pain and hardship of wartime imprisonment and forced labour.

As the Sixties began, a piece deeply inspired by the wartime experience - The War Requiem - helped seal the reputation of composer Benjamin Britten. It was written for Coventry, a city devastated by WW2 bombing. An experiment in the healing power of music, it was a controversial choice for the reopening of Coventry Cathedral, as Britten was a conscientious objector. Against the backdrop of the Cold and fears of apocalyptic nuclear war, Britten created a piece that resounded with his deeply held opposition to war. Joan Bakewell visits the Red House in Aldeburgh where Britten wrote the piece, and examines Britten’s hand-written score that warns of the inhumanity and consequences of war. Suzy meets a member of the original 1962 audience who recalls the stunned silence that greeted its first performance, and Roderick Williams sings a powerful extract.

As the Sixties arrived and classical music thrived on TV, in cinemas, on records – a glamorous new classical star for a new age burst onto the scene – the dynamic, virtuoso Jacqueline du Pré. With cellists Moray Welsh and Julian Lloyd Webber, Joan Bakewell explores the secrets of du Pré’s magnetic style and the piece that she made her own: the Elgar Cello Concerto. Written in the aftermath of WW1, Du Pré invested the piece with a virtuosic romanticism that sold millions of records. Acclaimed young cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays excerpts and reveals the impact Du Pré’s version had on him as a young player.

The sixties saw a new era of musical collaborations, one famously involving Yehudi Menuhin of whom Albert Einstein said, "The day of miracles is not over. Our dear old Jehovah is still on the job." Menuhin’s musical curiosity lead him to collaborate with Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar. Brilliant contemporary musician Nitin Sawhney helps Suzy examine the secrets of Shankar’s brilliance and the ingredients of their memorable collaboration in their legendary album ‘West Meets East’. The record won a Grammy and brought Indian musical tradition to a western audience. On 24th September 1969 another epic musical collaboration took place between Jon Lord with the heavy metal band Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold at the Royal Albert Hall. Ian Gillan describes how the orchestra turned up their noses at a collaboration with a heavy metal band.

This was the era of experimentation, and in 1971 David Bowie – a fan of Stravinsky and Holst – involved classically-trained Rick Wakeman in the classic Life on Mars. With Rick at the keyboard, Suzy explores the making of this revolutionary song, in which classical music collides with pop brilliance.

In the 70s, political uncertainty and industrial disputes dominated. With advertising guru Sir Frank Lowe, Joan Bakewell looks at how classical music was co-opted by advertisers to hark back to more certain times. Lowe explains how he took a brass band version of the theme from Dvorak’s New World Symphony and transformed it into a nostalgic tune to sell Hovis bread. The programme reveals how the piece was written by a middle European as he travelled through the American West, and was deeply influenced by African-American spirituals.

As post-war Britain changed, opened up to new media and new global cultural influences, so Britain fell in love with classical music in new ways


SUN 22:00 Wayne McGregor: Atomos (m00041tj)
In Atomos, bodies, movement, film, sound and light are atomised into miniature shards of intense sensation. Taking creative points of departure from atomised film, music and biometric data, Wayne McGregor’s choreography is woven into an intense 70-minute film, performed by the incredible dancers of Company Wayne McGregor in his distinctive style - sculptural, rigorous, jarring and hauntingly beautiful.

Known for his unique, tenacious questioning across the interface of art and science and through the body and mind, multi-award-winning choreographer and director Wayne McGregor CBE has remained at the forefront of contemporary arts for the past 25 years. He is artistic director of Studio Wayne McGregor, based at Here East on east London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the creative engine of his life-long choreographic enquiry into thinking through and with the body. It encompasses his own touring company of dancers, Company Wayne McGregor, creative collaborations across dance, film, music, visual art, technology and science; and highly specialized learning, engagement and research programmes.

McGregor is also resident choreographer at the Royal Ballet, and is in demand by the most important ballet companies in the world as well as for his choreography across theatre, opera and film (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Tarzan, Fantastic Beasts, Sing, Mary Queen of Scots), music videos (Grammy Award-nominated Lotus Flower by Radiohead, Wide Open by The Chemical Brothers), fashion shows (Gareth Pugh, London Fashion Week 2017), TV (The BRIT Awards’ opening sequence in 2016) and site-specific performances (Big Dance Trafalgar Square 2012).

Following a highly successful national and international tour of the original stage production, McGregor has extended and translated his acclaimed work Atomos into a unique film experience, directed by McGregor and long-time collaborator Ravi Deepres.

Atomos features a soaring score by A Winged Victory for the Sullen, dynamic lighting design by Lucy Carter, original footage by Ravi Deepres, and costumes designed by wearable technology specialists Studio XO and Moritz Junge.


SUN 23:10 Timewatch (b008pyps)
2007-2008

In Search of the Wreckers

History Series. In January, the MSC Napoli ran aground, spilling its cargo on Branscombe beach in Devon. The public were delighted, but the authorities were determined to police opportunists. Looters of the Napoli were reviving a centuries' old tradition: 'wrecking'. Author Bella Bathurst discovers the social history of a national crime.


SUN 00:00 Engineering Giants (b01llr67)
Ferry Strip-Down

Engineer turned comedian Tom Wrigglesworth and rising star of mechanical engineering Rob Bell climb on board the Pride of Bruges, a massive 25,000-tonne North Sea ferry as it is brought into dry dock in Newcastle.

It has been ploughing the route from Hull to Zeebrugge for over a quarter of a century and is now in need of the biggest overhaul of its life in an attempt to prolong its seaworthiness for another decade. Tom and Rob also travel to Europe's largest ship-breaking yard in Belgium, to discover what happens to ships at the end of their lives. As they watch massive hulls being torn apart, they gain more insights into how a ship works and how their massive carcasses are recycled.


SUN 01:00 Line of Duty (b08ndwff)
Series 4

Episode 4

Roz's husband Nick is brought in for questioning by AC-12. But while Nick denies any involvement in Steve's attack, his suspicions about Roz mount. Meanwhile, AC-12 discover new anomalies in the forensic evidence and issue DCI Roz Huntley with a second Reg 15 notice. AC-12's case appears watertight until Roz starts dismantling their evidence with inside information of her own.


SUN 02:00 Line of Duty (b08nwx5r)
Series 4

Episode 5

Police drama series. DCI Roz Huntley struggles to allay her husband's suspicions. AC-12 find a new angle to pursue their case against her.


SUN 03:00 Line of Duty (b08plvy6)
Series 4

Episode 6

Police drama series. While Nick Huntley faces lengthy questioning, AC-12 remain convinced of Roz's involvement.



MONDAY 08 APRIL 2019

MON 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m00042l7)
Series 1

08/04/2019

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


MON 19:30 National Treasures of Wales (b04q1h03)
Series 1

Tredegar House

Griff Rhys Jones visits one of the grandest Restoration houses in Britain to find out why they have taken on what was once known as 'the most expensive council house in Britain'.

Just off the M4 motorway in south Wales lies the jewel in the crown of Newport - Tredegar House - home to generations of the glittering Morgan dynasty and now a feather in the cap of National Trust Wales. But alongside the benefits of running this stunning visitor attraction comes the responsibility of maintenance - as well as a remit to work with the local community who live cheek by jowl with the big house.

Griff investigates how the Trust manages this while also carrying on the painstaking work of unearthing the hidden history of the house and its beautiful gardens.


MON 20:00 Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World (b00qbvqw)
Series 1

The Golden Ocean

Historian and sailor Dan Snow presents the second episode in this four-part series examining the remarkable story of how the country's greatest institution - her navy - has shaped her history. In The Golden Ocean, Snow charts the period from 1690 to 1759 and reveals how England - soon to be Britain - and her navy rose from the depths of military and economic disaster to achieve global supremacy.

In 1690, France ruled the waves and the Royal Navy was in tatters. King William III had taken England into a disastrous war against the most powerful country in Europe. If England was to survive, it needed a new navy, one capable of carrying the fight to its enemies anywhere in the world.

To achieve this would require a national effort unlike anything that had been seen before. King William III's determination to achieve mastery of the seas unleashed a chain reaction of revolutions in finance, industry and agriculture which reshaped the landscape and created the country's first great credit boom. Fifty years before the Industrial Revolution, the Royal Navy became the engine of global change, propelling Britain into the modern world.

It had the desired effect at sea. By 1759, French forces around the world were capitulating to Britain's superior Navy. For the first time in her history, Britannia really did rule the waves.


MON 21:00 Operation Stonehenge: What Lies Beneath (b04hc5v7)
Episode 1

Stonehenge is an icon of prehistoric British culture, an enigma that has seduced archaeologists and tourists for centuries. Why is it here? What is its significance? And which forces inspired its creators? Now a group of international archaeologists led by the University of Birmingham and the Ludwig Boltzman Institute in Vienna believe that a new state-of-the-art approach is the key to unlocking Stonehenge's secrets. For four years the team have surveyed and mapped every monument, both visible and invisible, across ten square kilometres of the sacred landscape to create the most complete digital picture of Stonehenge and the surrounding area over millennia. Known monuments have yielded more data than ever before, revealing hidden structures within, and new finds are revolutionising the very timeline of Stonehenge.

Operation Stonehenge takes the viewer on a prehistoric journey from 8000BC to 2500BC as the scientists uncover the very origins of Stonehenge, learning why this landscape is sacred, preserved and has been revered by following generations. Evidence of war and conflict, as well as the cultivation of ideas and industry, is explored to reveal complex communities with international trade links as far-reaching as Spain and central Europe.

Using CGI to reveal the monuments hidden beneath Stonehenge and featuring factually sourced dramatic reconstructions, the stories of the buildings and the people that occupied this sacred landscape over four millennia ago are revealed in comprehensive detail.


MON 22:00 Storyville (m00042l9)
Pervert Park

Pervert Park is a film about the people no-one wants as a neighbour. It follows the everyday lives of sex offenders, living in a trailer-park community and struggling to reintegrate into society. The film-makers deep access allows us to get inside the minds and pasts of some of the residents and to gain a deeper understanding of the devastating ongoing cycle of sex crimes and the lives it destroys.


MON 23:15 World's Greatest Food Markets (b04smwd2)
New York

Following a dream of visiting - and trading in - the world's greatest food markets, Billingsgate trader Roger Barton heads across the Atlantic to New York's New Fulton market, the biggest and roughest fish market in America. Can he compete with its ruthless traders and the worst winter storms in decades to make a profit?


MON 00:15 David Hurn: A Life in Pictures (b0993mqr)
The world-renowned Magnum photographer David Hurn is Wales's most important living photographer. This year he is donating his archive to the National Museum Wales, alongside a unique collection of 700 photographs by other photographers, including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bill Brandt and Dorothea Lange. It is a remarkable gift to the nation.

As Magnum Photos celebrates 70 years at the forefront of photojournalism, this film celebrates one of its longest-serving members and profiles David's extraordinary portfolio and bequest from a career spanning 60 years.

David has spent his whole career capturing moments in time. Now 83, the film shows him pursuing new goals in his photography, in Wales and abroad, and reunites him with actress Jane Fonda, 50 years after he photographed her on the film set of Barbarella. David's photographic career began when he photographed the Hungarian uprising against the Soviet state in 1956. His images were published in Picture Post. By the 60s he was one of London's leading young photographers. He took the iconic poster shot of Sean Connery as James Bond, was alongside The Beatles when they filmed A Hard Day's Night and was on set with Jane Fonda.

David was filmed for BBC's Monitor programme by his friend Ken Russell and was at the epicentre of a creative circle including fellow photographers Sir Don McCullin and Philip Jones Griffiths.

David reflects on this dynamic group, his younger self and that period in his life when he was at the heart of the Swinging Sixties.


MON 00:55 Mountain (b0b1xs2d)
Jaw-dropping exploration of our obsessions with high places and how they have come to capture our imagination. Only three centuries ago, climbing a mountain would have been considered close to lunacy. The idea scarcely existed that wild landscapes might hold any sort of attraction. Peaks were places of peril, not beauty. Why, then, are we now drawn to mountains? Filmed by the world's leading high-altitude cinematographers and set to a specially curated musical performance by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Mountain captures the fierce beauty of some of the world's most treacherous landscapes and the awe they inspire.


MON 01:55 Our Classical Century (b0bs6xv8)
Series 1

1918 - 1936

Our Classical Century brings together the greatest moments in classical music in Britain over the last 100 years in a four-part series that celebrates moments of extraordinary music ambition and excellence, deep emotion and of great pleasure, and the artists who have brought audiences this music. Over the course of the series, viewers see and hear how, over the past one hundred years, classical music has shown dazzling virtuosity and innovation, and how music provided a unifying soundtrack to the times when national identity and destiny was at stake.

Presented by Suzy Klein and Sir Lenny Henry, this first programme captures the profound influence of the First World War on our classical music - how it affected a generation of musicians and composers and how the music they created became a crucial part of the nation’s sense of identity. From the martial might of Mars in Gustav Holst’s The Planets to the pastoral beauty of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ much-loved The Lark Ascending, this film tells the story of the music which brought together the United Kingdom.

Suzy and Lenny reveal the phenomenal popularity of the musical extravaganza Hiawatha by the now relatively unknown Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and examine the enduring impact of the American Jazz Age with George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. They also look at how Hubert Parry’s wartime composition to William Blake’s poem Jerusalem became the anthem of the Suffragette movement and at how the opening of Glyndebourne saw the start of a new chapter for opera in Britain.


MON 02:55 The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story (m0003m05)
Series 1

Episode 1

Documentary series opening, in 1975, with the first three years of the investigation into finding the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe. The location of the first two murders in Chapeltown - then well known as Leeds’s main red light district - leads the police to decide that prostitution is the connection between the attacks, but also to them coming up with a neat theory about the killer’s motivation. After the second murder in January 1976, the police announce that they are hunting a ‘prostitute killer’, which had significant implications for how the investigation proceeded.

Speaking to the children of some of the very first murder victims and to police officers who worked on the investigation, as well as to journalists who covered the murders, Liza Williams explores the difference between the way the women were characterised by the investigation and how they are remembered by those who knew and loved them. Meeting a survivor of one of Sutcliffe’s earlier attacks, as well as the daughter of another, Liza finds out how their vital eyewitness evidence was ignored because neither were prostitutes and did not, as a result, fit the victim profile the police had decided upon.

While the police ploughed on with their theory of that the murderer was targeting prostitutes, the killer remained at large. Between February 1977 and May 1978 Peter Sutcliffe murdered seven more women.



TUESDAY 09 APRIL 2019

TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m00042kn)
Series 1

09/04/2019

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


TUE 19:30 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 20:00 Blue Planet II (b09f8vtb)
Series 1

The Deep

The deep is perhaps the most hostile environment on Earth, at least to us - a world of crushing pressure, brutal cold and utter darkness. We have barely begun to explore it, and yet it is the largest living space on the planet. Scientists already think that there is more life in the deep than anywhere else on Earth.

This episode takes us on an epic journey into the unknown, a realm that feels almost like science fiction. We discover alien worlds, bizarre creatures and extraordinary new behaviours never seen before. We encounter savage hordes of Humboldt squid hunting lanternfish in the depths and coral gardens flourishing in absolute darkness, with more species of coral to be found in the deep than on shallow tropical reefs.

On the desert wastes of the abyss, a whale carcass generates a frenzy as slow-moving sharks as big as great whites fight for what may be their first meal in a year. Food is hard to come by and finding a mate is even harder, but life adapts in ingenious ways. There are fish that walk instead of swim, worms that feed exclusively on bones and shrimps that spend almost their entire lives imprisoned with their mate in a cage of crystal sponge.

The deeper you go, the more extreme conditions become. The sheer weight of water above creates almost unendurable pressures. Yet even eight kilometres down, where the basic chemistry of life was once thought impossible, we find strange species swimming through the darkness. From here we journey on down to the deepest place on earth - the Mariana Trench - almost 11 kilometres from the surface, a vast chasm that ruptures the deep sea floor. Only three human beings have ever reached here, and yet there is still life to be found in these deep sea trenches.

The deep can be a violent place. Tectonic plates rip apart or collide in mighty clashes. And at these volcanic hotspots, extraordinary micro-worlds blossom into life, completely divorced from the energy of the sun. Hair-covered crabs feed on gushing plumes of otherwise toxic hydrogen sulphide. Shrimps hover on the fringes of billowing clouds of volcanic chemicals, so hot they could melt lead. We discover new species every time we visit these strange new worlds.

One of these geysers might even hold the secret to all life on earth. At a hydrothermal vent system in the middle of the Atlantic, seawater and rock react under extreme pressures and temperatures to produce complex hydrocarbons - the building blocks of life itself. Scientists have named this strange place the Lost City, and many believe that it was at a place just like this that life on earth first began, four billion years ago.


TUE 21:00 Looking for Rembrandt (m00042kq)
Series 1

Episode 1

Rembrandt arrives in Amsterdam ‘like a thunderclap’ and his star rises as he is courted by the city’s wealthy elite. But he has grander plans to be a great history painter. His meticulous attention to emotion means he takes far too long to complete important commissions, bringing him into conflict with Amsterdam’s most powerful patrons.

He falls in love with and marries Saskia van Uylenburgh. Together they enjoy their new-found riches, amassing an incredible personal collection of artwork, exotic curios, stuffed animals and valuable prints, much of which Rembrandt buys at auctions with alarming regularity. He begins to attract a reputation – one that would dog him throughout his life and even after his death – for being a spendthrift. Yet he continues to create works that declare himself to be among the great old masters like Titian, Raphael and Michelangelo. A hubris which is dramatically paralleled with personal tragedies – the deaths of three of his children in infancy, and Saskia – which nonetheless influence some of his most poignant and moving works


TUE 22:00 The Day the Dinosaurs Died (b08r3xhf)
The Day the Dinosaurs Died investigates the greatest vanishing act in the history of our planet - the sudden disappearance of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

Experts suspect that the dinosaurs were wiped out after a city-sized asteroid smashed into the Gulf of Mexico causing a huge crater. But until now, they haven't had any proof. In a world first, evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod joins a multimillion-pound drilling expedition into the exact spot the asteroid hit to get hard evidence of the link. The team overcomes huge obstacles as it attempts to drill 1,500 metres beneath sea level to pull up rock from the Chicxulub crater.

Meanwhile, paleopathologist Professor Alice Roberts travels the globe meeting top scientists and gaining exclusive access to a mass fossil graveyard in New Jersey - believed to date from the same time the asteroid hit. Alice also treks by horseback across the remote plains of Patagonia, to see if the effects of the asteroid impact could have wiped out dinosaurs across the world - almost immediately.

Alice and Ben's investigations reveal startling new evidence of a link between the asteroid and the death of the dinosaurs, presenting a vivid picture of the most dramatic 24 hours in our planet's history. They illustrate what happened in the seconds and hours after the impact, revealing that had the huge asteroid struck the Earth a moment earlier, or later, the destruction might not have been total for the dinosaurs. And if they still roamed the world, we humans may never have come to rule the planet.


TUE 23:00 Expedition Volcano (b09hv9g1)
Series 1

Episode 2

In the heart of Africa, deep in the Congo, are some of the most spectacular volcanoes on Earth. They threaten the lives of more than a million people, in a region already left shattered by decades of violence.

Now, a team of international and local scientists are here to investigate these rarely visited volcanoes to try and predict when they will next erupt, and to examine how the volcanic forces at work here affect every aspect of life.

For the past week, the expedition has focused on Nyiragongo. Now Chris Jackson and his fellow geologists are heading to the nearby volcano Nyamulagira - one of the most active yet least explored volcanoes on the planet. Few have visited this volcano, for a good reason - the forests that blanket its slopes hide a number of armed groups. The team travel on a UN helicopter flight at treetop level to avoid being hit by groundfire, before landing as close to the active crater as they can. They then have only a few hours to gain as much data as possible to help predict future eruptions.

Beyond Nyamulagira lies a spectacular but dangerous volcanic landscape. The expedition will also explore the hidden dangers and natural wonders contained there - from deadly gases lurking under the vast Lake Kivu, to giant craters left over from sudden explosive eruptions.

Meanwhile, Dr Xand van Tulleken travels across the region to discover how the volcanoes influence every aspect of life here. He sees the legacy of violence created by the volcanic mineral riches. He also explores other natural resources that have the potential to break this cycle of violence, best represented by the mountain gorillas that live on the flanks of the volcanoes. And he meets the people most affected by the ongoing battle to wrest control of these natural resources away from criminal gangs and militias - the widows of park rangers killed in the struggle. Their commitment to protect their natural environment represents the best hope for the future of this troubled region.

Meanwhile, the work the scientists have done will enable local people to better manage the risks of living in such a dangerous part of the world.


TUE 00:00 Dissected (p01mv2md)
The Incredible Human Hand

In a purpose-built dissection lab, Dr George McGavin is joined by leading anatomy experts to dissect a real hand, taking it apart layer by layer to reveal what makes it unique in the animal kingdom. We discover what gives our hands an unrivalled combination of power and precision, and meet people who use their hands in extraordinary ways - from magicians to rock climbers - to discover what gives them such astonishing abilities.


TUE 01:00 Blue Planet II (b09f8vtb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 02:00 Our Classical Century (m0002dx7)
Series 1

1936 - 1953

Suzy Klein and John Simpson explore the power of classical music between the coronations of George VI and Elizabeth II, through WWII and into peacetime, to console, unite and inspire the nation.

Our Classical Century brings together the greatest moments in classical music in Britain over the last 100 years in a four-part series celebrating extraordinary pieces of music and performance, revealing how music has provided a unifying soundtrack when national identity and destiny are at stake.

In this episode presenter Suzy Klein is joined by music lover and BBC world affairs editor John Simpson to explore how classical music underscored the coronations of George VI and Elizabeth II, how it provided succour and inspiration during WWII and how it responded to social change as we emerged into peace. They explain how William Walton, creator of the radical, witty piece Facade with Edith Sitwell in the 1920s, composed Crown Imperial for George VI’s coronation, full of Elgarian pomp and circumstance. With the outbreak of war, Suzy investigates the remarkable legacy of pianist Myra Hess, her signature tune, Bach’s Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, and how Kenneth Clark encouraged her to create a series of morale-boosting lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery in the heart of war-torn London. An audience member remembers the moving and inspiring impact of Myra’s music on those enduring the Blitz. From the tragic destruction of Queen’s Hall, traditional home to the Proms, the episode charts the triumph of the first Prom in its new home, the Royal Albert Hall. John talks about the remarkable reception that greeted one of the pieces played at the prom, the first performance of Shostakovich’s 7th Symphony, the Leningrad. Written under siege, the piece only arrived in Britain after the score was elaborately smuggled on film out of Russia via Iran to London. Paul Patrick, the BBC Philharmonic’s principal percussionist, tells how he prepares for the demanding task of recreating the sound of war in the symphony.

The war over, our presenters chart the emergence of our love of classical music in peacetime, with the unexpected success of young composer Benjamin Britten’s complex opera Peter Grimes and its hugely popular performance at Sadler's Wells. Tenor Stuart Skelton performs excerpts and reflects on why it struck such a chord. A new Labour government believed music should be part of everyone’s experience and the 1944 Butler Education Act helped put music on the school curriculum for the very first time. Our presenters explore the creation of Britten’s classic The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra in 1945, and Malcolm Sargent’s film of it, unforgettably introducing classical music to generations of children. Through the Festival of Britain, which brought music to the heart of the nation, this episode arrives at the 1953 Coronation. By then two and a half million homes had TVs and, with an audience of 20 million, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II became a showcase of our best classical music for its biggest audience ever: Elgar, Holst, Vaughn Williams, Purcell, Handel’s Zadok the Priest, and the whole event crowned by William Walton’s Orb and Sceptre, a fresh youthful-sounding coronation march for a young queen.

Between the coronations of Elizabeth II and her father, the nation had undergone immense trauma, social and political change. This programme charts the role classical music played in sustaining our cultural life and responding to the challenges of a new era.


TUE 03:00 The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story (m0003m04)
Series 1

Episode 2

Documentary series exploring the Yorkshire Ripper investigation. Following the murder of Josephine Whitaker in April 1979, Peter Sutcliffe’s crimes started to make headlines across the country and the investigation became consumed by a series of letters and a tape that claimed to come from the killer himself.

The letters and tape, addressed directly to George Oldfield, West Yorkshire’s chief constable, were sent by a man calling himself Jack the Ripper. Oldfield was so certain that they came from the killer that other suspects were ruled out on the basis of their handwriting or whether they had a north-east accent like the one on the tape. Director Liza Williams discovers that Oldfield’s character and his hunches have a lot to answer for when it comes to the direction of the investigation and what evidence was ruled in or out.

Survivors and relatives of those who were attacked recount how they were not listened to when their descriptions of the attacker did not match the voice on the tape. Liza also speaks to police officers who tell her about other promising lines of inquiry, tracing clues left behind at murder scenes. The ‘Wearside Jack’ tapes, however, took centre stage.

While the police disregarded evidence and focused on the tapes, terror grew and the killer started to become a kind of cult figure, with Yorkshire Ripper chants at football matches and Thin Lizzy’s Killer on the Loose topping the charts. As Liza discovers, this myth-making provoked anger from women and the police’s failure to catch the killer led to a demonstration on the streets of Leeds.

Ending with the arrest of Peter Sutcliffe, the episode reveals how his name was already in multiple police files. He had been interviewed nine times during the course of the investigation. He did not have a Wearside accent like the voice on the tape, but was born and bred in Yorkshire. Had the police arrested him the first time he was questioned in November 1977, seven women’s lives might have been saved.



WEDNESDAY 10 APRIL 2019

WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m00042kz)
Series 1

10/04/2019

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


WED 19:30 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.


WED 20:00 The Sky at Night (m00044x6)
Guides

Stars

For as long as humans have walked the Earth, the stars have fascinated us. But we have come a long way since the earliest days of astronomy when we had nothing but our eyes to observe the night sky. Since then we have designed an arsenal of ingenious machines to help us unlock the secrets of the stars – from how they work and move around the Universe to how they live and die. For more than 60 years, the Sky at Night has covered every major development in our understanding of the stars, and regular Sky at Night presenter, Professor Chris Lintott, uses this archive to reveal spectacular and surprising facts about these heavenly bodies. From the ancient myths of the constellations to today's cutting edge attempts to map our own Milky Way, this is a story of incredible ingenuity, extraordinary technology and spectacular discoveries. We will discover how stars work, from the nuclear reactions at their cores to the strange phenomena on their surfaces, and we will follow the life cycle of a star all the way through to its spectacular end – one of the most dramatic events in the Universe that also turns out to hold the key to our very existence.


WED 21:00 How to See a Black Hole: The Universe's Greatest Mystery (m00042l4)
For two years BBC cameras have followed, Dr Sheperd Doeleman of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the work of the Event Horizon Telescope project team, a collective of the top scientific minds from around the world. The project combines radio observatories and telescope facilities from around the world to make up a virtual telescope with a diameter spanning the entire planet. This mega-telescope’s ultimate mission is to capture the first image ever of a black hole. Although the concept of black holes has been long assumed to be fact, the Event Horizon Telescope’s success would definitively prove the existence of this scientific phenomena for the first time – and provide clear visual evidence.

The programme brings viewers into the laboratories, behind the computer screens and beside the telescopes of what may prove to be one of the great astrophysical achievements in human history.


WED 22:00 Gravity and Me: The Force That Shapes Our Lives (b08kgv7f)
Physics professor Jim Al-Khalili investigates the amazing science of gravity. A fundamental force of nature, gravity shapes our entire universe, sculpting galaxies and warping space and time. But gravity's strange powers, discovered by Albert Einstein, also affect our daily lives in the most unexpected ways. As Jim tells the story of gravity, it challenges his own understanding of the nature of reality.

The science of gravity includes the greatest advances in physics, and Jim recreates groundbreaking experiments in gravity including when the Italian genius Galileo first worked out how to measure it.

Gravity science is still full of surprises and Jim investigates the latest breakthrough - 'gravity waves' - ripples in the vast emptiness of space. He also finds out from astronauts what it's like to live without gravity.

But gravity also directly affects all of us very personally - making a difference to our weight, height, posture and even the rate at which we age. With the help of volunteers and scientists, Jim sets out to find where in Britain gravity is weakest and so where we weigh the least. He also helps design a smartphone app that volunteers use to demonstrate how gravity affects time and makes us age at slightly different rates.

And finally, Jim discovers that despite incredible progress, gravity has many secrets.


WED 23:30 Horizon (b00nslc4)
2009-2010

Who Is Afraid of a Big Black Hole?

Black holes are one of the most destructive forces in the universe, capable of tearing a planet apart and swallowing an entire star. Yet scientists now believe they could hold the key to answering the ultimate question: what was there before the big bang?

The trouble is that researching black holes is next to impossible. They are by definition invisible and there is no scientific theory able to explain them. Horizon meets the astronomers and theoretical physicists who, despite these obvious obstacles, are attempting to image a black hole for the very first time and get ever closer to unlocking its mysteries. It is a story that goes into the heart of a black hole and to the very edge of what is thought to be known about the universe.


WED 00:30 Horizon (b08r3xr3)
2017

Strange Signals from Outer Space!

For decades some have suspected that there might be others out there, intelligent beings capable of communicating with us, even visiting our world. It might sound like science fiction, but today scientists from across the globe are scouring the universe for signals from extraterrestrials.

In 2006, husband and wife team Duncan Lorimer and Maura McLaughlin discovered an enigmatic signal from space, known as a fast radio burst. It was a pulse of radiation so bright, it didn't appear to be caused by any known object in the universe. Explanations ranged from colliding neutron stars to communication signals from an alien civilisation far more advanced from our own.

Scientists have been searching the cosmos for strange signals like the Lorimer Burst for more than 50 years. The film ends with scientists' latest search for extraterrestial intelligence. Horizon obtained exclusive access to film researchers at the Green Bank Telescope searching for radio signals from Tabby's Star, a star so mysterious that some scientists believe it might be surrounded by a Dyson Sphere, a vast energy collector built by advanced aliens.


WED 01:30 How to See a Black Hole: The Universe's Greatest Mystery (m00042l4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 02:30 Secrets of Bones (b03wct07)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 03:00 The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story (m0003m0l)
Series 1

Episode 3

Documentary series exploring the Yorkshire Ripper investigation. In this final episode, Liza Williams charts the arrest of Peter Sutcliffe in January 1981, his subsequent trial and conviction, and the legacy for the relatives of his victims and the survivors of his attacks.

Speaking to one of Sutcliffe’s defence team, as well as a leading barrister from the prosecution and journalists who covered the trial, Liza traces the story from the moment of arrest. Witnesses were offered money for exclusives, potentially jeopardising the trial, and once it began long queues formed for the public gallery and front row seats in court were given to VIPs.

Peter Sutcliffe pleaded not guilty to murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility because of his mental state. The prosecution, however, argued that he should be found guilty of murder. Sutcliffe had confessed to all 13 murders and seven attacks, so there was no doubt who was to blame. However, looking back at court transcripts, Liza discovers that the women Sutcliffe attacked were once more classed as either prostitutes or ‘innocent’ victims. Meeting a woman who led a demonstration outside the Old Bailey, Liza finds out about the outrage they felt when the humanity of the murdered women was ignored.

On 22 May 1981, the Yorkshire Ripper trial reached its conclusion. Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty of murder and sentenced to a minimum term of 30 years. But as Liza discovers, that is not the end of the case. After Sutcliffe’s conviction, the failures of the police investigation start to be made public as a wide-ranging government report details mistake after mistake. Liza learns just how many clues and witnesses were ignored. But also, more powerfully, she discovers that the failings all link back to the police’s original theory about a ‘prostitute killer’ that took them in the wrong direction right from the start and led them to disregard vital evidence.

Going back to the survivors and relatives of Sutcliffe’s victims, at the end of the final episode and the conclusion of the series, Liza explores the legacy left behind by his crimes and what it has been like to live as the child of a Ripper murder victim.



THURSDAY 11 APRIL 2019

THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m00042kv)
Series 1

11/04/2019

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


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (m00042ky)
Gary Davies presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast 6 August 1987 and featuring New Order, Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram, Sinitta, Samantha Fox, Wet Wet Wet, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Spagna, Los Lobos and Stock Aitken Waterman.


THU 20:00 A History of Ancient Britain (b00ysr2l)
Series 1

Age of Ancestors

Neil Oliver continues the story of how today's Britain and its people were forged over thousands of years of ancient history. It's 4,000 BC and the first farmers arrive from Europe, with seismic consequences for the local hunter-gatherers.


THU 21:00 Britain Beneath Your Feet (b061v75n)
Series 1

On the Move

Dallas Campbell reveals a fascinating and secret world hidden below Britain. In this episode he explores how what goes on underground keeps our country on the move. He delves into the past to discover how a secret wartime pipeline is now delivering fuel to Heathrow Airport. Extraordinary computer graphics lay bare the underwater engineering genius that allowed the iconic Forth Rail Bridge to be built in the 19th century.

Along the way Dallas meets some of the hidden army of workers that keep Britain running from underground, from the drivers of the largest tunnelling machines in the world to the engineers running a vast power station under a mountain in Wales. In one memorable scene, he helps dislodge a 'fatberg' that's blocking one of London's sewers. And he does some secret filming of badgers that are threatening the foundations of a primary school and helps to relocate the whole sett.


THU 22:00 Egypt's Lost Cities (b011pwms)
It is possible that only one per cent of the wonders of ancient Egypt have been discovered, but now, thanks to a pioneering approach to archaeology, that is about to change.

Dr Sarah Parcak uses satellites to probe beneath the sands, where she has found cities, temples and pyramids. Now, with Dallas Campbell and Liz Bonnin, she heads to Egypt to discover if these magnificent buildings are really there.


THU 23:30 Top of the Pops (m00042ky)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 00:00 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.


THU 01:00 Timeshift (b01q6xh6)
Series 12

Eyes Down! The Story of Bingo

It is one of Britain's most popular leisure pursuits, but high street bingo came about almost by accident as the result of a loophole in an obscure piece of gambling legislation. Almost overnight, in January 1961 what had been a quiet parlour game or occasional seaside flutter was turned into a brash multimillion-pound business.

As Timeshift affectionately recalls in this documentary, soon nearly a quarter of the population were playing and becoming fluent in the rhyming slang of 'bingo lingo' - from 'Legs Eleven' to 'Clickety Click, Sixty Six'. This explosion of interest quickly led to a moral panic about the dangers of easy prize money, but bingo was defiantly here to stay - and not just as the preserve of older women, as today's mega-halls full of hen night parties show.


THU 02:00 A History of Ancient Britain (b00ysr2l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 03:00 Looking for Rembrandt (m00042kq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]



FRIDAY 12 APRIL 2019

FRI 19:00 World News Today (m000433f)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m000433j)
Peter Powell and Simon Bates present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 13 August 1987 and featuring Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Rick Astley, Wet Wet Wet, Wax, Kim Wilde, Sherrick, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pseudo Echo and Hue and Cry.


FRI 20:00 Easy Listening Hits at the BBC (b011g943)
Compilation of easy listening tracks that offers the perfect soundtrack for your cocktail party. There's music to please every lounge lizard, with unique performances from the greatest easy listening artists of the 60s and 70s, including Burt Bacharach, Andy Williams, Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, The Carpenters and many more.


FRI 21:00 Rock Island Line: The Song That Made Britain Rock (m000433l)
In January 1956, a new pop phenomenon appeared in the UK charts: a British artist playing a guitar. His name was Lonnie Donegan and the song he sang was Rock Island Line.

Donegan’s rough-and-ready style was at odds with the polished crooners who dominated the charts. He played the guitar in a way that sounded like anyone could do it. Rock Island Line sounded like nothing else on the radio and it inspired a generation of British youths to pick up guitars and begin a journey that would take them to the top of the American charts.

Rock Island Line, the biggest hit of the skiffle craze, spoke directly to a generation of British teenagers who had grown up during post-war rationing. Within 18 months of its release, sales of acoustic guitars in the UK had rocketed from 5,000 to over 250,000 a year.

The song began its life in the 1920s as a jingle in the workshops of the Rock Island Line railroad in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1933, John A Lomax visited Cummins Prison Farm, south of Little Rock, collecting work songs for the Library of Congress. On the day of the recording, a group of eight prisoners, led by Kelly Pace, came up to Lomax’s mic and sang Rock Island Line. Lomax’s driver was the African-American musician who became the celebrated folk singer Lead Belly. He was so impressed that he learned the tune, added verses and made it a staple of his own repertoire.

In the late 1940s, young music fans in the UK began to seek out recordings from the early years of jazz, becoming obsessed with the New Orleans style (known as Trad Jazz) that favoured collective interaction over the prevailing emphasis on soloists. Blowing on their instruments very hard, they found that their lips were numb after half an hour. So as to not lose their audience, they put down their instruments and picked up guitars, a double bass and a washboard.

These ‘breakdown sessions’ were initiated by Ken Colyer, a trumpet player who sought out his heroes in New Orleans. Because he was so familiar with their recordings, he was able to sit in with them, but a white kid playing with black musicians soon drew attention and when he went to renew his visa, he was arrested and held in jail for over two months. Returning to the UK, his brother pulled together a bunch of musicians to form a band that included Chris Barber on trombone, Monty Sunshine on clarinet and, on banjo, Lonnie Donegan. Lonnie was a natural front man, with a voice that sounded American. He stood at the back with the rhythm section during the jazz numbers, but when he came to the front during the breakdown, he grabbed the audience with his renditions of Lead Belly’s most famous songs, Rock Island Line prominent among them. Asked what kind of music they were playing, they replied that it was skiffle.

Now known as Chris Barber’s Jazz Band, they secured an offer to make a record for Decca. When they gathered in the label’s studios on 13 July 1954, it became apparent that the band did not have enough material to fill an album so it was decided that they should record songs from the band’s popular skiffle breakdown. They cut an incendiary version of Rock Island Line as well as another Lead Belly standard, John Henry.

The British record industry was scrambling to find artists who might jump on the rock bandwagon, and someone at Decca remembered Lonnie Donegan. Here was a chap who looked the part - open-necked shirt, acoustic guitar, sounding like an American cowboy, singing about railroads. More importantly, his song had the word ‘rock’ in the title.

In January 1956, Rock Island Line hit the top ten and the skiffle craze was born. Donegan sent a revolutionary message to the youth of Britain: you don’t have to be a trained musician to play this music. When Lonnie toured in late 1956, he took skiffle to the masses. During his six-night stand at the Liverpool Empire, thirteen-year-old George Harrison went every night. His pal, fourteen-year-old Paul McCartney also saw Donegan and promptly asked his dad to buy him a guitar. It is not known if John Lennon saw the show, but just two weeks later he had formed his own skiffle group, The Quarrymen.

Schoolboys in their thousands picked up guitars and formed skiffle groups. The pop charts began to feature other skiffle artists, mostly following Donegan’s Rock Island Line blueprint by recording songs about the American railroad like Freight Train by Chas McDevitt and Nancy Whiskey.

The skiffle craze was short-lived, lasting barely eighteen months, but in that time it inspired a generation of British boys to pick up a guitar and play. It was DIY, self-empowering and set out to challenge the bland chart music of the day. Skiffle provided a nursery for the British invasion of the American charts in the 1960s. We have taken it for granted that British kids always played guitars and wrote their own songs. It was skiffle that put guitars into the hands of the war babies – and all of skiffle’s influence can be traced back to Rock Island Line.


FRI 22:00 Chas & Dave: Last Orders (b01nkdsv)
Documentary which highlights cockney duo Chas & Dave's rich, unsung pedigree in the music world and a career spanning 50 years, almost the entire history of UK pop. They played with everyone from Jerry Lee Lewis to Gene Vincent, toured with The Beatles, opened for Led Zeppelin at Knebworth - and yet are known mainly just for their cheery singalongs and novelty records about snooker and Spurs.

The film also looks at the pair's place among the great musical commentators on London life - and in particular the influence of music hall on their songs and lyrics.

The film crew followed Chas & Dave on their final tour, having called it a day after the death of Dave's wife, and blends live concert footage with archive backstory, including some astonishing early performances and duets with the likes of Eric Clapton. Among the experts and zealous fans talking about their love of the duo are Pete Doherty, Jools Holland and Phill Jupitus. Narrated by Arthur Smith.


FRI 22:55 50s Britannia (b01sgbw2)
Rock 'n' Roll Britannia

Long before the Beatles there was British rock 'n' roll. Between 1956 and 1960 British youth created a unique copy of a distant and scarce American original whilst most parents, professional jazz men and even the BBC did their level best to snuff it out.

From its first faltering steps as a facsimile of Bill Haley's swing style to the sophistication of self-penned landmarks such as Shakin' All Over and The Sound of Fury, this is the story of how the likes of Lord Rockingham's XI, Vince Taylor and Cliff Richard and The Shadows laid the foundations for an enduring 50-year culture of rock 'n' roll.

Now well into their seventies, the flame still burns strong in the hearts of the original young ones. Featuring Sir Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde, Joe Brown, Bruce Welch, Cherry Wainer and The Quarrymen.


FRI 23:55 Top of the Pops (m000433j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 00:30 Easy Listening Hits at the BBC (b011g943)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 01:30 Rock Island Line: The Song That Made Britain Rock (m000433l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:30 Chas & Dave: Last Orders (b01nkdsv)
[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)

50s Britannia 22:55 FRI (b01sgbw2)

A History of Ancient Britain 20:00 THU (b00ysr2l)

A History of Ancient Britain 02:00 THU (b00ysr2l)

An Art Lovers' Guide 00:00 THU (b0b0g5cj)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 MON (m00042l7)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 TUE (m00042kn)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 WED (m00042kz)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 THU (m00042kv)

Blue Planet II 20:00 TUE (b09f8vtb)

Blue Planet II 01:00 TUE (b09f8vtb)

Britain Beneath Your Feet 21:00 THU (b061v75n)

Chalkie Davies: Rock Photographer 00:25 SAT (b05xd4yv)

Chas & Dave: Last Orders 22:00 FRI (b01nkdsv)

Chas & Dave: Last Orders 02:30 FRI (b01nkdsv)

David Hurn: A Life in Pictures 00:15 MON (b0993mqr)

Discovering... 20:00 SUN (m00041td)

Dissected 00:00 TUE (p01mv2md)

EMI: The Inside Story 23:25 SAT (b07c6fj7)

Easy Listening Hits at the BBC 20:00 FRI (b011g943)

Easy Listening Hits at the BBC 00:30 FRI (b011g943)

Egypt's Lost Cities 22:00 THU (b011pwms)

Empire of the Seas: How the Navy Forged the Modern World 20:00 MON (b00qbvqw)

Engineering Giants 00:00 SUN (b01llr67)

Expedition Volcano 23:00 TUE (b09hv9g1)

Follow the Money 21:00 SAT (m00041t7)

Follow the Money 21:55 SAT (m00041tb)

Gravity and Me: The Force That Shapes Our Lives 22:00 WED (b08kgv7f)

Great Bear Stakeout 19:00 SAT (p0176ql9)

Horizon 23:30 WED (b00nslc4)

Horizon 00:30 WED (b08r3xr3)

How to See a Black Hole: The Universe's Greatest Mystery 21:00 WED (m00042l4)

How to See a Black Hole: The Universe's Greatest Mystery 01:30 WED (m00042l4)

Italy's Invisible Cities 20:00 SAT (b088nl33)

Line of Duty 00:55 SAT (b08l60l3)

Line of Duty 01:55 SAT (b08lmz22)

Line of Duty 02:55 SAT (b08mflh4)

Line of Duty 01:00 SUN (b08ndwff)

Line of Duty 02:00 SUN (b08nwx5r)

Line of Duty 03:00 SUN (b08plvy6)

Looking for Rembrandt 21:00 TUE (m00042kq)

Looking for Rembrandt 03:00 THU (m00042kq)

Mountain 00:55 MON (b0b1xs2d)

National Treasures of Wales 19:30 MON (b04q1h03)

Operation Stonehenge: What Lies Beneath 21:00 MON (b04hc5v7)

Our Classical Century 21:00 SUN (m00041tg)

Our Classical Century 01:55 MON (b0bs6xv8)

Our Classical Century 02:00 TUE (m0002dx7)

Rock Island Line: The Song That Made Britain Rock 21:00 FRI (m000433l)

Rock Island Line: The Song That Made Britain Rock 01:30 FRI (m000433l)

Secrets of Bones 19:30 TUE (b03vrtzp)

Secrets of Bones 19:30 WED (b03wct07)

Secrets of Bones 02:30 WED (b03wct07)

Storyville 22:00 MON (m00042l9)

The Battle for Britain's Breakfast 19:00 SUN (b03zf2mk)

The Day the Dinosaurs Died 22:00 TUE (b08r3xhf)

The Sky at Night 20:00 WED (m00044x6)

The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story 02:55 MON (m0003m05)

The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story 03:00 TUE (m0003m04)

The Yorkshire Ripper Files: A Very British Crime Story 03:00 WED (m0003m0l)

Timeshift 01:00 THU (b01q6xh6)

Timewatch 23:10 SUN (b008pyps)

Top of the Pops 22:55 SAT (m0003vj5)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (m00042ky)

Top of the Pops 23:30 THU (m00042ky)

Top of the Pops 19:30 FRI (m000433j)

Top of the Pops 23:55 FRI (m000433j)

Wayne McGregor: Atomos 22:00 SUN (m00041tj)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (m000433f)

World's Greatest Food Markets 23:15 MON (b04smwd2)