The city comes together to celebrate a 500-year-old religious festival... with a rave. The waterways and canal banks are packed as Venetians eat, drink and get merry. There are drunken party-goers at risk of falling in the water, an unconscious patient that paramedics struggle to reach, argumentative revellers, and a giant firework display to end the series with a bang.
At the dawn of the first millennia, there was no Scotland or England. In the first episode of this landmark series, Neil Oliver reveals the mystery of how the Gaelic Scottish Kingdom - Alba - was born, and why its role in one of the greatest battles ever fought on British soil defined the shape of Britain in the modern era.
Lucy Worsley's inside story of Britain's imported German dynasty, made with extensive access to the Royal Collection, reaches the reign of George II. She shows how he had to adapt to a growing 'middling rank' in society no longer content with being downtrodden subjects. Affairs of state were being openly discussed in coffee houses, while the king and his ministers were mocked in satirical prints and theatres.
George II was an easy target - grumpy, and frequently absent in Hanover. To his British subjects he became The King Who Wasn't There. But his wife, the enlightened Caroline, popularized a medical breakthrough against smallpox. However, it was their son, Frederick Prince of Wales, who really understood this new world - he had the popular touch monarchy would need to survive into the modern era.
In the third episode Mary takes an in-depth look at the question of identity and citizenship within the Roman Empire. What did it mean to be, or to become, Roman, and how did the very different parts of the empire react to Roman rule?
In the beautifully preserved cities of Algeria, incomers and locals mixed to create flourishing communities with a distinct 'more Roman than Rome' frontier identity. Mary follows the trail of one such African Roman from his native land all the way to Britain, where he served as governor - proof that for all the brutality of conquest, there were opportunities too. Here in Britain another picture emerges, of resistance, hybrid culture and incipient British identity. In York and Newcastle, Mary finds the remains of Romans, but not as we might imagine them - a rich African lady, officers from central Europe and a camp follower from Syria.
Writer and hip-hop artist Akala voyages across the Mediterranean and beyond to solve some of the mysteries behind Homer's monumental poem, the Odyssey. Travelling between spectacular ruins, such as the sacred shrine of Delphi or the Greek colonies on Sicily, Akala's journey culminates on the small island of Ithaca, where he ponders the theory that this is the destination which Homer had in mind as he composed the epic.
Along the way, he finds out what Homer's works may have sounded like to their first audiences, discovers how the rhythm of those ancient words connect to the beats of modern hip-hop and comes face to face with the characters from the masterpiece. He also investigates how this epic poem became the cornerstone of Western literature and how his own experiences as an artist have been impacted by a 3,000-year-old classic. Akala has undertaken this quest as part of his mission to compose his own response to the Odyssey - a new hip hop track called Blind Bard's Vision, which turns the tale on its head all over again. This is Akala's Odyssey.
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).
Time travel is not forbidden by the laws of nature, but to build a time machine, we would need to understand more about those laws and how to subvert them than we do now. And every day, science does learn more. In this film Horizon meets the scientists working on the cutting edge of discovery - men and women who may discover how to build wormholes, manipulate entangled photons or build fully functioning time crystals. In short, these scientists may enable an engineer of the future to do what we have so far been only able to imagine - to build a machine that allows us travel back and forward in time at the touch of a button. It could be you! Science fiction? Watch this space.
THURSDAY 08 AUGUST 2019
THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m0007f4h)
Series 1
08/08/2019
The latest news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (m0007f4k)
Gary Davies and Nicky Campbell present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 28 April 1988 and featuring Pat and Mick, James Brown, Fairground Attraction, Brenda Russell, the Primitives, Luther Vandross, Joyce Sims, Bananarama, Will Downing, S'Express and Scott Fitzgerald.
THU 20:00 Skies Above Britain (b07qrd9t)
Conquering the Skies
Skies Above Britain continues with stories of the extraordinary challenges of the skies, both at NATS - the UK's air traffic nerve centre -and up in the air. At NATS, air traffic controllers guide a passenger jet with a major technical fault safely back to the ground and respond to an unidentified flying object detected on the radar screens.
The biggest air race in the world is taking place at Ascot and British Airways captain Paul Bonhomme, who is also one of Britain's fastest race pilots, is out to win the title for a second time before retiring. The aerial slalom course is high risk, with pilots flying at speeds of up to 230mph, metres above the ground.
Stefan is a YouTube video blogger with a new camera-drone, which he has bought to make his videos stand out. After an ill-advised flight in central London, he discovers to avoid arrest he must undertake special training.
Lynne is terrified of flying and hasn't boarded a plane in 17 years. Now she must overcome her fear and brave a flight to Australia to honour her late mother's wishes to have her ashes scattered there.
Ross was told he could never become a pilot because he has restricted growth but now, at 31, he is setting out to prove the doubters wrong by learning to fly.
THU 21:00 Operation Wild (b04dby18)
Episode 1
Clare Balding and vet Steve Leonard find out how developments in human medicine are transforming the way sick animals are treated around the world. Clare discovers how vets in China keep baby pandas alive. Plus, a pioneering operation in Cameroon could transform the life of Shufai the gorilla, and an elephant in Laos with a gunshot wound has to have an x-ray at a human hospital.
THU 22:00 From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature (b09rzqp3)
Series 1
Frozen Solid
Everything around us - from the tiniest insect on Earth to the most distant stars of the cosmos - exists somewhere on a vast scale from cold to hot. In this series, physicist Dr Helen Czerski explores the extraordinary science of temperature. She unlocks the extremes of the temperature scale, from absolute zero to searing heat of stars - and reveals how temperature works, how deep its influence on our lives is, and why it's the hidden force that has shaped our planet and the entire universe.
In episode one, Helen ventures to the bottom of the temperature scale, revealing how cold has shaped the world around us and why frozen doesn't mean what you might think. She meets the scientists pushing temperature to the very limits of cold, where the normal laws of physics break down and a new world of scientific possibility begins. The extraordinary behaviour of matter at temperatures close to absolute zero is driving the advance of technology, from superconductors to quantum computing.
THU 23:00 Joan of Arc: God's Warrior (b05x31w3)
Writer and historian Dr Helen Castor explores the life - and death - of Joan of Arc. Joan was an extraordinary figure - a female warrior in an age that believed women couldn't fight, let alone lead an army. But Joan was driven by faith, and today more than ever we are acutely aware of the power of faith to drive actions for good or ill.
Since her death, Joan has become an icon for almost everyone - the left and the right, Catholics and Protestants, traditionalists and feminists. But where in all of this is the real Joan - the experiences of a teenage peasant girl who achieved the seemingly impossible? Through an astonishing manuscript, we can hear Joan's own words at her trial, and as Helen unpicks Joan's story and places her back in the world that she inhabited, the real human Joan emerges.
THU 00:00 The Secret History of My Family (b0761pjq)
The Nelsons and Margaret Marchant
The story of an Edwardian family trapped in welfare dependency and a mother accused of a shocking crime against her own child. Did the handouts given to Susan Nelson's family by a prosperous charity visitor provide her descendants with the chance to move up in life or was it all down to their own hard graft?
More than a hundred years on, some of Susan's descendants are still locked in patterns of benefit dependency, while others have freed their families from the desperate poverty of their ancestor. Meanwhile, a descendant of Susan's benefactor discovers why her well-to-do ancestor decided to cut off financial support for Susan just when she needed it most.
THU 01:00 Top of the Pops (m0007f4k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 01:30 Immortal Egypt with Joann Fletcher (b06vpc9y)
The Road to the Pyramids
In the first episode, Professor Joann Fletcher goes in search of the building blocks of Egyptian civilisation and finds out what made ancient Egypt the incredible civilisation that it was.
Joann sees how people here changed, in just a few centuries, from primitive farmers to pyramid builders and finds the early evidence for Egypt's amazing gods and obsession with death and the afterlife.
On her search, Joann travels almost 20,000 years back in time to discover north Africa's earliest rock art, she discovers how the first writing was used to calculate taxes and explores one of the first stone structures on earth - Egypt's first pyramid. Joann ends her journey in the largest monument of them all - the Great Pyramid. Here, she explains how Egypt had now reached a pinnacle - the ultimate society, creating one of the wonders of the ancient world.
THU 02:30 Secret Knowledge (b05270hv)
In Search of Rory McEwen
Jools Holland tells the remarkable story of Rory McEwen - folk singer, blues guitarist, early TV presenter and artist. Rory was Jools's father-in-law, but the two men never met. He died in 1982, aged 50. Born into an aristocratic family in Scotland, Rory became a musician, touring the USA in the 1950s. He had a groundbreaking music show, Hullabaloo, and his Chelsea home was a hub of 1960s London music. Rory abandoned music and TV to focus on botanical art and his paintings are finally being recognised as masterpieces. With contributions from an eclectic cast including Van Morrison, David Dimbleby and Jonathan Miller.
THU 03:00 From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature (b09rzqp3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRIDAY 09 AUGUST 2019
FRI 19:00 World News Today (m0007f4p)
The latest news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m0007f4t)
Bruno Brookes and Adrian John present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 5 May 1988 and featuring Joyce Sims, New Order, Magnum, Harry Enfield, the Adventures, Narada, Prince, the Christians, the Primitives, S'Express and Star Turn on 45 Pints.
FRI 20:00 BBC Proms (m0007f4y)
2019
John Wilson Orchestra
Join Katie Derham for what has become one of the highlights in any Prom season. John Wilson’s virtuoso orchestra celebrates the music of one of the world's most famous film studios, Warner Brothers. The lush sounds of composers such as Max Steiner and Erich Korngold are among the many pieces played showcasing why this historic studio holds a special place in the hearts of lovers of film music.
FRI 22:15 BBC Proms (b07rkvp4)
2016
Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
Katie Derham introduces another chance to see one of the most memorable Proms from the BBC archive. This week, she is joined by special guest Stephen Fry for one of his favourite concerts of all time, from the 2016 season.
Daniel Barenboim conducts the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Liszt’s First Piano Concerto, performed by his childhood friend, legendary pianist Martha Argerich, along with epic orchestral extracts from three different operas by Richard Wagner.
FRI 22:30 BBC Proms (m0007f52)
2019
The Sound of Space
Cerys Matthews introduces a late-night Prom featuring music from sci-fi films. The award-winning London Contemporary Orchestra perform excerpts from cult soundtracks together with recent works by Hans Zimmer and Mica Levi. Fans of Alien: Covenant, Interstellar, Under the Skin and Gravity will immediately recognise and enjoy the repertoire.
FRI 23:45 Top of the Pops (m0007f4t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 00:15 Rock 'n' Roll Guns for Hire: The Story of the Sideman (b08xdlts)
Film shining a spotlight on the untold story of the sidemen, the musicians behind some of the greatest artists of all time. The sidemen are the forgotten 'guns for hire' that changed musical history. Featuring interviews with Mick Jagger, Billy Joel and Keith Richards, taking viewers from the 1960s to today, via global stars such as Prince, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and Beyonce.
FRI 01:45 Reggae Fever: David Rodigan (b0brzpsb)
David Rodigan's unlikely career as a reggae broadcaster and DJ has developed in parallel with the evolution of Jamaican music in the UK. His passion and his profession have given him a privileged, insiders' view of the UK's love affair with Jamaican music that began in the 1950s. His constant championing of it has afforded him national treasure status with generations of British Jamaicans and all lovers of reggae music.
This is a film about the career of David Rodigan but it's also a window through which to see a wider human story about social change in the UK: a story of immigration and integration, and music's role within it.
The beginning of his career conjures up a forgotten era when reggae was reviled by liberal, hippyish music fans because of its association with skinheads. At one point, his fellow students agreed to share a house with him only if Rodigan agreed not to play reggae. Instead, he would haunt London's specialist record shops and sneak out to Jamaican clubs alone.
His break first came on BBC Radio London, where his knowledge and infectious enthusiasm won him the gig. Since that first break, he's had shows on Capital, Kiss and now BBC Radio 1Xtra and BBC Radio 2. In the 80s, his radio show became such a Sunday lunchtime fixture in London's West Indian households that it was colloquially known as 'rice 'n' peas'. Bob Marley personally chose Rodigan's show to play out the world exclusive of Could You Be Loved.
As well as being a DJ, Rodigan also began to 'soundclash' on a global stage. This musical competition where crew members from opposing sound systems pit their skills against each other involves the playing of records in turn, with the crowd ultimately deciding who has 'killed' the other crew, by playing the better chosen track. But standard versions of tracks don't cut it in a clash, where the true currency is 'dubplates' - versions of tracks recut, often by the original artist, with lyrics changed to praise the playing crew or diss the opposing one.
In Jamaica, after he began clashing live on national radio with DJ Barry G, he became so famous that his name was even adopted by a Kingston gangster. He began competing on the World Soundclash stage alongside the likes of Jamaica's Stone Love and Japan's Mighty Crown as the soundclash became a global phenomenon. David is probably the only person ever to have been awarded an MBE and the title of World Clash Champion.
In recent years, Rodigan's live DJ appearances have started attracting a far younger audience. It can be seen as a reflection of the way different forms of music from the different cultures that have arrived in Britain over the last 70 years have integrated, taken root and spawned new scenes, attitudes and tastes.
As well as appearing at student unions across the country and continuing to clash by himself, he's also now a part of clash crew Rebel Sound, first assembled for Red Bull Culture Clash in 2014. In this environment, David found himself amidst a melting pot of beats, loops and popping, infectious bass-driven riddims - playing to the kids who are discovering him and therefore reggae music through other artists.
Now in his 40th professional year, David is quite rightly celebrating, his passion for the music he loves burning as brightly as ever. This film is a testament to this most unlikely of reggae aficionados - a celebration of a man whose story is strangely intertwined with not only the evolution of music in this country but also the evolution of the culture.
FRI 02:45 The Last Pirates: Britain's Rebel DJs (b096k6g1)
In the 1980s a new generation of pirate radio stations exploded on to Britain's FM airwaves. Unlike their seafaring swinging 60s forerunners, these pirates broadcast from London's estates and tower blocks to create a platform for black music in an era when it was shut out by legal radio and ignored by the mainstream music industry.
In the ensuing game of cat and mouse which played out on the rooftops of inner-city London across a whole decade, these rebel DJs used legal loopholes and technical trickery to stay one step ahead of the DTI enforcers who were tasked with bringing them down. And as their popularity grew they spearheaded a cultural movement bringing Britain's first multicultural generation together under the banner of black music and club culture.
Presented by Rodney P, whose own career as a rapper would not have been possible without the lifeblood of pirate radio airplay, this film also presents an alternative history of Britain in the 1980s - a time of entrepreneurialism and social upheaval - with archive and music that celebrates a very different side of Thatcher's Britain.
Featuring interviews with DJs, station owners and DTI enforcers - as well as some of the engineers who were the secret weapon in the pirate arsenal - this is the untold story of how Britain's greatest generation of pirate radio broadcasters changed the soundtrack of modern Britain forever.
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
A History of Scotland
20:00 WED (b00fgq72)
A History of Scotland
02:00 WED (b00fgq72)
Africa: A Journey into Music
03:00 MON (b0b5hjt4)
Akala's Odyssey
23:00 WED (b09sc141)
Archaeology: A Secret History
00:30 TUE (p0109jny)
Arena
23:25 SUN (b09gvgj8)
Arena
19:50 MON (b00dn7hf)
Art of Spain
02:00 MON (b008x4bp)
BBC Proms
20:00 SUN (m0007f46)
BBC Proms
22:00 SUN (m0007f48)
BBC Proms
20:00 FRI (m0007f4y)
BBC Proms
22:15 FRI (b07rkvp4)
BBC Proms
22:30 FRI (m0007f52)
Below the Surface
21:00 SAT (m0007f3x)
Below the Surface
21:45 SAT (m0007f40)
Beyond 100 Days
19:00 MON (m0007f3t)
Beyond 100 Days
19:00 TUE (m0007f4b)
Beyond 100 Days
19:00 WED (m0007f6h)
Beyond 100 Days
19:00 THU (m0007f4h)
Brighton: 50 Years of Gay
19:30 SUN (m0007f44)
Brighton: 50 Years of Gay
02:10 SUN (m0007f44)
Can You Feel It - How Dance Music Conquered the World
00:45 SAT (b0blhtcs)
Can You Feel It - How Dance Music Conquered the World
00:40 SUN (b0bm6tlp)
Cornwall's Native Poet: Charles Causley
00:00 MON (b097bcv3)
From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature
22:00 THU (b09rzqp3)
From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature
03:00 THU (b09rzqp3)
Horizon
01:00 WED (b0bb33ht)
Immortal Egypt with Joann Fletcher
01:30 THU (b06vpc9y)
James May's Toy Stories
21:00 MON (b04wtd18)
Joan of Arc: God's Warrior
23:00 THU (b05x31w3)
Life
22:00 MON (b00p1n00)
Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit
22:00 WED (b07bkn8x)
Merely Marvelous - The Dancing Genius of Gwen Verdon
22:30 SAT (m0007f42)
New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands
20:00 SAT (b07lp34l)
Operation Grand Canyon with Dan Snow
20:00 MON (p01m5pjg)
Operation Wild
21:00 THU (b04dby18)
Pedalling Dreams: The Raleigh Story
23:00 MON (b08j8mvl)
R.E.M. at the BBC
01:45 SAT (b019g9vf)
Reggae Fever: David Rodigan
01:45 FRI (b0brzpsb)
Revolutions: The Ideas that Changed the World
21:00 TUE (m0007f4d)
Revolutions: The Ideas that Changed the World
03:00 TUE (m0007f4d)
Rock 'n' Roll Guns for Hire: The Story of the Sideman
00:15 FRI (b08xdlts)
SAS: Rogue Warriors
20:00 TUE (b08fmysp)
SAS: Rogue Warriors
02:00 TUE (b08fmysp)
Secret Knowledge
02:30 THU (b05270hv)
Sinatra: All or Nothing at All
23:45 SAT (b066d739)
Size Matters
02:45 SAT (b0bbyjv0)
Size Matters
02:40 SUN (b0bcv22w)
Skies Above Britain
20:00 THU (b07qrd9t)
Storyville
22:00 TUE (b09gvnty)
The Culture Show
01:30 TUE (b03hcdr7)
The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain
21:00 WED (b042twvq)
The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain
03:00 WED (b042twvq)
The Last Pirates: Britain's Rebel DJs
02:45 FRI (b096k6g1)
The Last Seabird Summer?
19:00 SAT (b072wwv9)
The Queen Mary: Greatest Ocean Liner
23:30 TUE (b07d2wy4)
The Secret History of My Family
00:00 THU (b0761pjq)
Timeshift
01:00 MON (b08dwxhn)
Tomorrow's Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction
00:00 WED (p026cd65)
Top of the Pops
19:30 THU (m0007f4k)
Top of the Pops
01:00 THU (m0007f4k)
Top of the Pops
19:30 FRI (m0007f4t)
Top of the Pops
23:45 FRI (m0007f4t)
Venice 24/7
19:30 MON (b01f17z4)
Venice 24/7
19:30 TUE (b01fd4tm)
Venice 24/7
19:30 WED (b01fq2l6)
What Do Artists Do All Day?
19:00 SUN (b067fxfp)
What Do Artists Do All Day?
01:40 SUN (b067fxfp)
World News Today
19:00 FRI (m0007f4p)