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 31 AUGUST 2019

SAT 19:00 Britain's Secret Seas (b01168bh)
Giants of the West

The team uncovers the world of the giants that reside in and on our western seas.

A few metres off the Cornish shore, the team study Britain's largest fish, the basking shark. Despite the fact that they grow up to ten metres long, little is known about them, which makes effective conservation very difficult. In an exceptional encounter, the team is surrounded by up to 12 sharks as they feed on microscopic plankton.

Their shark expedition then takes them north to the Isle of Man. Working alongside local scientists, they take shark DNA samples using a kitchen scourer in order to assess the genetic health and long-term fitness of these great leviathans. The team also runs into a giant swarm of jellyfish.

In the waters of south Wales, Tooni encounters an invading army of giant spiny spider crabs. These creatures boast a leg span of over a metre across, and Tooni reveals that they come into the shallow waters every year to find a mate.

On Lundy Island off the Devon coast, Frank assesses whether the island's protected underwater No Take Zone could be used as a template to establish a nationwide network of marine nature reserves right around our island.

Frank also reveals how Great Britain still relies on the sea to import goods. He boards one of the biggest transatlantic container ships in the world, The Atlantic Companion, as the vast ship brings its cargo into Liverpool Docks.

In treacherous waters off the Isles of Scilly, Paul dives the largest shipwreck in British waters to assess the legacy of the worst ecological disaster to affect our shores so far; the ill-fated Torrey Canyon oil tanker.


SAT 20:00 The Private Life of... (b00t3tl1)
Chickens

Jimmy Doherty embarks on a quest to reveal the hidden lives of farmyard animals. He finds out about chickens: often taken for granted, what really goes on inside their brains? On a farm in Devon he finds out how chickens decide the pecking order. He also tries to find answers to questions such as how do chickens communicate with their chicks? How can chickens look in two directions at once? And can hens really change sex?


SAT 21:00 Darkness: Those Who Kill (m000856d)
Series 1

Episode 1

Jan Michelsen is investigating the disappearance of a young woman called Julie Vinding from a Copenhagen suburb. Six months later, Jan is the only one who believes that she is still alive.

Jan finds a ten-year-old case from the same neighbourhood where a 17-year-old girl, Natasha, disappeared on her way home from a party. Jan discovers the remains of Natasha in a lake. She was murdered. Suspecting a link between the two crimes, Jan brings in an expert on serial killers, Louise Bergstein.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 21:45 Darkness: Those Who Kill (m000856j)
Series 1

Episode 2

Jan and Louise’s investigation into Natasha’s death leads them to suspect Anders Kjeldsen, a man who has been arrested before for violent crimes including rape. Trapped in a basement, Emma tries to comfort a traumatised Julie, but soon needs comforting herself.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 22:35 The Vietnam War (b0992pm2)
Series 1

Chasing Ghosts (June 1968-May 1969)

Public support for the war declines, and American men of draft age face difficult decisions and wrenching moral choices. After police battle with demonstrators on the streets of Chicago, Richard Nixon wins the presidency, promising law and order at home and peace overseas. In Vietnam, the war goes on and soldiers on all sides witness terrible savagery and unflinching courage.


SAT 23:30 The Vietnam War (b0992pm4)
Series 1

A Sea of Fire (April 1969-May 1970)

With morale plummeting in Vietnam, President Nixon begins withdrawing American troops. As news breaks of an unthinkable massacre committed by American soldiers, the public debates the rectitude of the war, while an incursion into Cambodia reignites anti-war protests with tragic consequences.


SAT 00:25 Top of the Pops (m0007zd3)
Steve Wright and Mark Goodier present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 26 May 1988 and featuring Debbie Gibson, LA Mix, Ofra Haza, Climie Fisher, Aswad, The Style Council, Hothouse Flowers, Mica Paris, Scritti Politti, Wet Wet Wet and Heart.


SAT 00:55 Popular Voices at the BBC (b09ffzkd)
Series 1

Showstoppers

This compilation is a companion piece to the Showstoppers episode of Gregory Porter's Popular Voices, celebrating bravura singers who bring the house down with their showstopping vocal delivery and performances. We take a look back through the archives as some of the biggest names in popular music history have stopped by the BBC studios to dazzle us with their jaw-dropping brilliance.

From Mahalia Jackson's breathtaking gospel delivery to Ella Fitzgerald's rapid-fire scat; Tom Jones and Dusty Springfield's 60s big balladry to the soul divas of the 80s and beyond; alongside superb vocal eccentrics like Kate Bush and Bjork; and the staggering vocal range of Jeff Buckley, captured in his only BBC performance on The Late Show in 1994 - these performances all have the wow factor in common.

Featuring clips from various BBC programmes including How It is, Dusty, Top of the Pops, It's Lulu and Wogan, these are our showstoppers.


SAT 01:55 Britain's Secret Seas (b01168bh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 02:55 The Private Life of... (b00t3tl1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 01 SEPTEMBER 2019

SUN 19:00 BBC Proms (m00084zf)
2019

Happy Birthday Henry Wood!

Tom Service and Kwame Ryan introduce a 150th anniversary tribute to Sir Henry Wood, founder-conductor of the Proms, featuring many of the works he premiered and arranged across almost 50 years of the festival, and reflecting his wide musical tastes, from Wagner and John Ireland to Ravel and Percy Grainger.


SUN 21:00 Arena (m00084zh)
Kusama: Infinity

Japanese contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama’s work pushed boundaries that often alienated her from her peers and those in power in the art world. Kusama was an underdog with everything stacked against her: the trauma of growing up in Japan during World War II, life in a dysfunctional family that discouraged her creative ambitions, sexism and racism in the art establishment, and mental illness.

Kusama overcame countless odds to bring her radical vision to the world stage and created a legacy of artwork that spans the disciplines of painting, sculpture, performance art, film and literature. Born in 1929, Kusama still creates new work every day. Her Infinity Mirror Room installations, the first of which was created in 1965, continue to attract visitors in record numbers.


SUN 22:10 Ryan Gander: The Idea of Japan (b08v8jd1)
Ryan Gander OBE is a leading conceptual artist. He creates artworks full of symbolic meaning – images, sculpture, installations and films that may appear to be about one thing, but contain further messages for the thoughtful. And this, he believes, is why he is “big in Japan.” Ryan believes he is appreciated there because the country has a highly sophisticated visual culture, expressed through images and symbols that broadcast cultural messages to the world, as well as to the Japanese themselves. The Geisha and the Samurai are obvious examples; bullet train, tattoo art, and Tokyo street style are less so. The exploration of these signs and symbols takes him six thousand miles east of his Suffolk studio, to investigate how Japanese visual culture is closely linked to a special relationship with time, as the country’s past and future inform its present tense.

The journey begins at Tokyo and the famous Scramble Crossing at Shibuya, where crowds race across a huge junction. It looks like chaos, but it’s actually an affirmation of an unwritten Japanese code of civic conduct and an underlining of the power of Buddhism, and the state religion, Shinto. Visiting a series of temples Ryan investigates the teachings of Shinto, a word which means Way of the Gods and demands civic responsibility of citizens who have always lived cheek-by-jowl in Japanese cities.

Cleanliness is famously of special interest to the Japanese. In pursuit of the meaning behind everyday objects, Ryan visits a shop selling humble cleaning cloths that are nevertheless beautifully printed, raising chores to the level of art. At a primary school he observes students gleefully cleaning their classroom between lessons, aware of their shared obligations as citizens.

In a film that allows him to make unexpected connections between subjects, musing on a society that appears to march in step leads to those who don’t – the Yakuza. These gangsters are despised for their lack of civic sense, yet are frequently on hand with earthquake relief and in plain sight at religious festivals. Ryan’s interested in their tattoos, exquisite designs that in the West would be a source of pride, but which here exclude the wearer from beaches and bathhouses. He meets an art collector for whom he designed a simple tattoo that nevertheless suggests to other citizens that this law-abiding businessman is a friend to outlaws. Will perceptions ever shift? They might, as change is an important factor in Japanese culture. In Kyoto, Ryan discovers that the meaning of even the powerful Geisha has changed. He arrives expecting a therapist-entertainer-confidant, but learns that today these powerful businesswomen are now most frequently found in conference centres delivering PR messages. Their traditional role is now partly filled, he believes, by soft-spoken Host Boys in Tokyo night-clubs.

Dr Angus Lockyer, lecturer at the School of African and Oriental Studies, explains that the Japanese live in the present, savouring the moment, a mind-set reinforced by their home-grown religion, in a country that is in constant geological peril. This is the only nation to have experienced the horror of instant change by thermonuclear means, symbolised for Ryan by the small pocket watch stopped by the detonation, exhibited in a Hiroshima museum. Ryan makes another turn, noting the Japanese ability to move on, evidenced in their embrace of nuclear power within a decade of the bombings, and by the emergence, in 1954, of the mutant Godzilla. Spawned in nuclear disaster, the saurian was, to Japanese movie-goers, also an agent of change with messages about endings and new beginnings.

What Ryan labels a fixation on novelty is also explored through distinctive Tokyo street fashion, and with a deconstruction of the cherry blossom fever that breaks out every spring, impelling droves of city-dwellers to leap onto trains bound for the trees. Ryan links the interest in rejuvenation with an urgent issue facing the nation – they have the greatest population of aged citizens and a fast-falling birth-rate. Since the Japanese economic crisis of the nineties, the certainties of a corporate job for life are gone, and with it the hopes of up to a million would-be workers, the Hikokomori, who lock themselves in their bedrooms to avoid the new, uncertain world. Perhaps, says the artist, they should look to the past for inspiration, and the message of the Samurai. This A-list icon speaks of individualism, courage and iron will. But Ryan also finds him in toy stores in the form of robotic Gundam figures, and then, with the head of design at Nissan, injecting his aesthetic into auto bodies. The robots that we fear might be about to take over are welcomed in Japan, their futuristic qualities tempered by their ancient inheritance: here to protect and serve, nothing more.


SUN 23:10 Strangeways: Britain's Toughest Prison Riot (b05px4sk)
Nearly 30 years after the biggest riot in British penal history, this film brings together the ringleaders of the trouble with the prison guards they battled with over three weeks of anarchy that brought Strangeways to its knees.

The events are told through unparalleled access to the people at the heart of the riot, including the governor Brendan O'Friel, who was faced with the task of trying to regain control of his prison.

Former prisoners describe the explosion of violence that erupted on 1 April 1990, when 1,600 angry inmates escaped from their cells and ran amok through the prison. Many were seeking revenge and reform for what they saw as years of suffering under an archaic and sometimes brutal regime in the overcrowded Victorian prison.

In the bloody mayhem that followed, prison officers describe fearing for their lives as they were driven out of the building, leaving prisoners to settle scores and hunt down sex offenders, showing no mercy whilst the prison burned around them.

Candid testimony from ex-inmates, prison officers and the governor himself creates a compelling story of the struggle for power between the authorities and the hardcore prisoners who ultimately took their protest onto the prison roof. The stand-off that followed is documented until the final moments, when the siege was ended in a dramatic takedown in front of rolling news cameras.


SUN 00:10 Black Nurses: The Women Who Saved the NHS (b083dgtb)
Documentary which tells the story of the thousands of Caribbean and African women who answered the call 70 years ago to come to the UK to save the then ailing health service. It's a tale of a struggle to overcome racism, their fight for career progression and their battle for national recognition.


SUN 01:10 Secret Knowledge (b054fkzz)
The Private Life of a Dolls' House

Lauren Child, author, illustrator and creator of Charlie and Lola, has a secret passion - dolls' houses. She has worked on her own dolls' house for the past 30 years and her lifelong obsession continues to inspire her ideas and shape her work. But why do these interior worlds have the power to cast a spell beyond childhood?

Lauren explores the history of dolls' houses from some of the earliest examples to their modern incarnations, speaks to craftspeople who create perfect miniatures and meets ardent collectors willing to pay big money for tiny objects of desire.


SUN 01:40 Machines (b09g8cc9)
A mesmerising and unflinching look behind the doors of a textile factory in India, as director Rahul Jain observes the life of the workers and the oppressive environment they seldom escape from. Machines tells a story of the human cost of mass production in a globalised world, showing the gulf between rich and poor from both perspectives.


SUN 02:50 Arena (m00084zh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



MONDAY 02 SEPTEMBER 2019

MON 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m000858w)
Series 1

02/09/2019

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


MON 19:30 Johnny Kingdom's Year with the Birds (b00vnf8g)
Episode 1

Johnny Kingdom, gravedigger-turned-amateur filmmaker spends a year recording the bird life in and around his home on his beloved Exmoor.

Johnny has spent three years creating a wildlife habitat on his 52-acre patch of land on the edge of Exmoor. He's been busy nailing nest boxes on tree trunks, planting a wildflower meadow, dredging his pond, putting up remote cameras and wiring them up to a viewing station in his cabin on the land - all the time hoping against hope that not only will he attract new wildlife but also that he will be able to film it.

This year he is turning his attention to the bird life, hoping to follow some of the species he finds near his home and on his land, across the seasons. We see the transitions from the lovely autumn mists of the oak wood, through the sparkling snow-clad landscape of a north Devon winter, into spring's woodland carpet of bluebells and finally the golden glow of early summer.

The bulk of the series is from Johnny's own camera. Don't expect the Natural History Unit - instead expect passion, enthusiasm, humour and an exuberant love of the landscape and its wildlife.

The series begins at the end of autumn, with Johnny clearing out bird boxes and sorting out his new remote cameras in preparation for the winter. There are two birds in particular that he wants to film - the great spotted woodpecker and the wren. But the harsh winter looks as if it could spell trouble for the wrens and it will be spring before Johnny knows how well they have fared.

He has better luck with the woodpecker and eventually finds their roost. Meanwhile, at home, he struggles to get shots of a mistle thrush as his wife Julie and his neighbours disturb this shy bird as it feasts on a rowan tree.


MON 20:00 Rome: A History of the Eternal City (b01p65l8)
City of the Sacred

Simon Sebag Montefiore looks at how every event in ancient Rome revolved around religion. From the foundation myth through to the deification of emperors, nothing could happen without calling upon the pantheon of Roman gods. Simon investigates how the Romans worshipped and sacrificed to the gods. He discovers that sacredness defined what was Roman and it was the responsibility of every Roman to play their part in the cult. Even the ancient Roman sewer was holy ground!


MON 21:00 Great Indian Railway Journeys (b09x4pvh)
Series 1

Amritsar to Shimla

Guided by his Bradshaw's 1913 Handbook of Indian, Foreign and Colonial Travel, Michael Portillo travels across India. He embarks on a classic rail journey from Amritsar to Shimla. Along the way, he helps to feed the thousands at the world's largest free kitchen and travels the railway routes used by millions of migrants partition. He gives his trademark colourful wardrobe an Indian twist and reaches the foothills of the Himalayas, where the epic Kalka to Shimla hill railway carries him to the former summer seat of the British rulers of the Raj.

Published when the British Raj was at its height, Michael's guide leads him to some of the key locations in India's 20th-century story, from the massacre in Amritsar in 1919 to the bloody events of partition.

Beginning in the Sikh holy city, Michael is dazzled by the beauty of the Golden Temple and awed by the scale of its langar - the world's largest free kitchen.

His route then takes him through the Punjab, India's breadbasket. Michael samples traditional chapattis, has a colourful kurta made up in one of the Punjab's biggest cloth markets, and can't resist the foot-tapping rhythms of Punjabi bhangra dancing, made famous by Bollywood. Portillo's journey also reveals surprises. He uncovers a pioneering women's medical college in Ludhiana, before plunging into Chandigarh, designed by Le Corbusier as a modernist expression of India's post-independence future.

At Kalka, Michael glimpses the Himalayas for the first time and joins the 1906-built mountain railway for a stunning climb to Shimla. There, he relives the days when the creme de la creme of expatriate society went to socialise and rule - their exploits recorded by a young Rudyard Kipling.


MON 22:00 The Culture Show (b00ttbnb)
The Art of World War II: A Culture Show Special

To mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, the Culture Show presents a special on the art of World War II. Despite being locked into a life-or-death struggle, wartime Britain saw an extraordinary explosion of art. From portraits to posters, cartoons to huge canvases, art was suddenly everywhere. Among the works were some of the most intense and immediate creations of the 20th century.

Presenter Alastair Sooke explores the often overlooked history of Britain's wartime renaissance. He meets the Blitz survivors, factory workers and Land Girls who became the subject of iconic paintings and talks to contemporary war artists about the challenges of creating art in conflict zones. Travelling from the shipyards of the Clyde to the concentration camps of northern Germany Alastair discovers how art bore witness, rising above propaganda to create an enduring, deeply humane record of the 'People's War' and laying the groundwork for our own understanding of what art should be and do.


MON 23:00 Victoria: A Royal Love Story (b00rl81c)
Fiona Bruce traces the story of one of history's great royal love affairs: the love between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It was a love based on a powerful physical attraction, and it grew into a marriage that set the tone for the Victorian age.

Over the 20 years they spent together, until Albert's tragic death, they gave each other a dazzling collection of paintings, sculptures and jewellery. That collection was on show - much of it for the first time - at a major exhibition in London, and it reveals a new and passionate side of the royal couple.

Fiona meets HRH Prince Charles and travels to the royal palaces that Victoria and Albert made their own, as well as the royal workshops where artworks for the exhibition are being restored, to tell the story behind a collection that is one of the wonders of the nation.


MON 00:00 Walt Disney (b08605f7)
Episode 1

Documentary about the life and legacy of Walt Disney, featuring archival footage only recently released from the Disney vaults, alongside scenes from some of his greatest films and the sketches from which they were created.

Those who helped turn his dreams into reality - his friends, family, animators and designers - reveal the real man behind the legend. They disclose the previously unknown processes, single-mindedness and sometimes sheer unpleasantness and discrimination that lay behind his seemingly effortless masterpieces.

Through bankruptcy, strikes, great risk and more, Disney's refusal to accept failure and his determined pursuit of his creative vision produced cartoons and movies that would define an entire industry. Both an inspiring story and a cautionary tale about the price of ambition, this film offers an unprecedented look at the man who created a world and built an empire.

Part one explores Disney's early days, when he created Mickey Mouse, through to the triumph of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated film.


MON 01:00 Walt Disney (b0872yqs)
Episode 2

The life and legacy of Walt Disney, featuring archival footage only recently released from the Disney vaults, alongside scenes from some of his greatest films and the sketches which created them. Those who helped turn his dreams into reality - his friends, family and his animators and designers - reveal the real man behind the legend. They disclose the previously unknown processes, single-mindedness and sometimes sheer unpleasantness and discrimination that lay behind his seemingly effortless masterpieces. Through bankruptcy, strikes, great risk and more, Disney's refusal to accept failure and his single-minded pursuit of his creative vision produced cartoons and movies that would define an entire industry. Both and inspiring story and a cautionary tale about the price of ambition, Walt Disney offers an unprecedented look at the man who created a world and built an empire.

Part two explores Disney's later years as he makes films such as Cinderella and Mary Poppins, and realises his dream project, Disneyland.


MON 02:00 Metalworks! (b01fhmhp)
The Golden Age of Silver

Dan Cruickshank visits Britain's finest country houses, museums and factories as he uncovers the 18th- and 19th-century fascination with silver. Delving into an unsurpassed era of shimmering opulence, heady indulgence and conspicuous consumption, Dan discovers the Georgian and Victorian obsession with this tantalising precious metal which represented status, wealth and excellent taste. He gives us a glimpse of some of the most extensive collections and exquisite pieces of silverware to have ever been made on British shores.


MON 03:00 Rome: A History of the Eternal City (b01p65l8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



TUESDAY 03 SEPTEMBER 2019

TUE 19:00 BBC News Special (m0008k2j)
Brexit Debate: 03/09/2019

Christian Fraser presents live coverage of crucial House of Commons debate from Westminster.


TUE 20:00 New Forest: A Year in the Wild Wood (m0001y84)
Writer and environmentalist Peter Owen-Jones spends a year in the enchanting landscapes of the New Forest, exploring its wildlife, history and meeting the Commoners, the people whose ancient way of life has helped shaped the land since Neolithic times.

‘The New Forest is a timeless place - there are no fences and the animals roam free. I’ve always wondered how the forest and the commoning way of life have survived in the middle of southern England for so long. It’s been an incredible experience finding out.’ - Peter Owen-Jones.

Over the year, with its dramatic seasonal changes, Owen-Jones ventures out into the forest and immerses himself in the lives of the Commoners, a group of around 700 people who have retained grazing rights for their animals, which date back to medieval times. From the first foals born in spring to the release of the stallions and the annual herding of the ponies, he discovers a hardy people who, despite the urban development around them, and the pressures on the landscape of 13 million visitors a year, retain a deep love of the land and a determination to see their way of life survive.

The New Forest National Park covers an area of 566 square kilometres. It extends from the edge of Salisbury Plain through ancient forest, wild heathland and acid bog, down to the open sea. Here, Owen-Jones discovers hidden wildlife treasures. The rolling heathland is home to dazzling lizards, our largest dragonfly and carnivorous plants. And deep in the ancient woods, he finds goshawks that stalk their prey between the trees and an explosion of rare fungi. To his surprise, he discovers that many of the trees were planted by man to build battleships for the British Empire.

Owen-Jones delves into the history of the Commoners. He discovers how their pastoral way of life evolved from the practices of Neolithic herders and he reveals how the brutal Forest Laws imposed by William the Conqueror were used to crush them in order to preserve the forest as a royal hunting ground. Yet it was these same laws that inadvertently helped protect the New Forest that exists today. The Commoners now face perhaps their greatest threat. As the cost of property spirals and rents increase, their way of life, is under threat.

‘This has been an incredible year… I’ve met people who, against all odds, have retained this ancient way of life and a deep connection to and love of the land. It's what shapes and defines this extraordinary place.’ - Peter Owen-Jones

Peter Owen-Jones is a passionate author and environmentalist. He started life as a farm labourer, became an advertising executive, and then gave it all up to become an Anglican priest. Peter has presented a number of BBC programs, including Extreme Pilgrim and Around the World in 80 Faiths. South Downs: England’s Mountains Green’ was one of BBC4’s most watched films. Recent books include ‘Pathlands: 21 Tranquil Walks Among the Villages of Britain and Letters from an Extreme Pilgrim: Reflections on Life, Love and the Soul. Peter is deeply committed to and knowledgeable about the British countryside and its traditions.

The New Forest became a National Park in 2005. It is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in southern England.


TUE 21:00 Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered (b04n6scp)
What killed King Tutankhamun? Ever since his spectacular tomb was discovered, the boy king has been the most famous pharaoh of all ancient Egypt. But his mysterious death, at just 19 years old, has never been explained.

Dallas Campbell reports on new scientific research being carried out on his fragile remains in an attempt to get to the truth. Using CT scan data, the programme creates the first scientifically accurate image of the king's corpse. DNA analysis uncovers a secret about Tutankhamun's family background, and the genetic trail of clues leads to a new theory to explain his death.

This is an epic detective story that uncovers the extraordinary truth of the boy behind the golden mask.


TUE 22:00 The Search for Alfred the Great (b03sbp73)
Neil Oliver is given exclusive access to a team of historians and scientists investigating the final resting place of Alfred the Great. Alfred's bones have been moved so many times over the centuries that many people concluded that they were lost forever. Following a trail that goes back over 1,000 years, the team wants to unravel the mystery of Alfred's remains. Travelling from Winchester to Rome, Neil also tells the extraordinary story of Alfred's life - in the 9th century, he became one of England's most important kings by fighting off the Vikings, uniting the Anglo-Saxon people and launching a cultural renaissance. This was the man who forged a united language and identity, and laid the foundations of the English nation.

The film investigates the equally extraordinary story of what happened to Alfred's remains after his death in 899. They have been exhumed and reburied on a number of occasions since his original brief burial in the Anglo-Saxon Old Minster in Winchester. The Saxons, the Normans, Henry VIII's religious reformers, 18th-century convicts, Victorian romantics and 20th-century archaeologists have all played a part in the story of Alfred's grave.

Neil joins the team as they exhume the contents of an unmarked grave, piece the bones together and have them dated. With the discovery of some unexpected new evidence, the film reveals the extraordinary outcome of an important investigation.


TUE 23:00 Sheila Hancock Brushes Up: The Art of Watercolours (b00yzgtn)
Watercolours have always been the poor relation of oil painting. And yet the immediacy and freedom of painting in watercolours have made them the art of adventure and action - even war. It has been an art form the British have pioneered, at first celebrating the greatest landscapes of Europe and then recording the exotic beauty of the British Empire.

Sheila Hancock, an ardent fan of watercolours since her childhood and whose father was an amateur watercolourist, sets out on a journey to trace the art form. It takes in the glories of the Alps, the city of Venice and deepest India as she tracks the extraordinary story of professional and amateur watercolourists, and reveals some of the most beautiful and yet little-known pictures.


TUE 00:00 Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City (b018jlj0)
Judgement Day

Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world. For the Jewish faith, it is the site of the western wall, the last remnant of the second Jewish temple. For Christians, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the site of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For Muslims, the Al-Aqsa mosque is the third holiest sanctuary of Islam.

In the final part of his series, Simon explores how this unique city rose from a crumbling ruin after the crusades to be rebuilt as a world centre of Islamic pilgrimage. He explains how Jerusalem became the object of rivalry between the Christian nations of Europe, the focus of the longing of Jews from all over the world and, ultimately, the site of one of the world's most intractable conflicts.

Starting in the Middle Ages, Simon goes on a chronological journey to trace the revival of the city under the Mamluks and its conquest by the biggest of all the Islamic empires - the Ottomans. He examines how the distinctive national identity of the Arab population evolved under centuries of Turkish Ottoman rule and how the city came to be prized by the great powers of 19th-century Europe. The programme explores the emergence of Zionism and the growing Jewish population of the city and traces the origins of today's nationalist struggle.


TUE 01:00 British Art at War: Bomberg, Sickert and Nash (b04j2ywv)
Paul Nash: The Ghosts of War

In the years preceding 1914, David Bomberg, Walter Sickert and Paul Nash set out to paint a new world, but, as the century unfolded, found themselves working in the rubble.

On 25th May 1917, war artist Paul Nash climbed out of his trench to sketch the battlefields of Flanders near Ypres. So focused was he on his work he tripped and fell back into the trench, breaking his ribs. Stretchered back to England, Nash missed his regiment going over the top at the Battle of Passchendaele. His regiment was wiped out.

Nash was scarred by the war and the ghosts of those experiences haunted his work throughout his life. A lover of nature, Nash became one of Britain's most original landscape artists, embracing modern Surrealism and ancient British history, though always tainted by his experiences during two world wars. A private yet charismatic man, he brought British landscape painting into the 20th century with his mixture of the personal and visionary, the beautiful and the shocking. An artist who saw the landscape as not just a world to paint, but a way into his heart and mind.


TUE 02:00 Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered (b04n6scp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 03:00 New Forest: A Year in the Wild Wood (m0001y84)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 04 SEPTEMBER 2019

WED 19:00 BBC News Special (m0008565)
Brexit Debate: 04/09/2019

Christian Fraser presents live coverage of House of Commons debate from Westminster.


WED 19:30 Johnny Kingdom's Year with the Birds (b00vtz42)
Episode 2

Johnny Kingdom, gravedigger-turned-amateur film-maker spends a year recording the bird life in and around his home on his beloved Exmoor.

Johnny has spent three years creating a wildlife habitat on his 52-acre patch of land on the edge of Exmoor. He has been busy nailing nest boxes on tree trunks, planting a wildflower meadow, dredging his pond, putting up remote cameras and wiring them up to a viewing station in his cabin on the land - all the time hoping against hope that not only will he attract new wildlife but also that he will be able to film it.

This year he is turning his attention to the bird life, hoping to follow some of the species he finds near his home and on his land, across the seasons. We see the transitions from the lovely autumn mists of the oak wood, through the sparkling snow-clad landscape of a north Devon winter, into spring's woodland carpet of bluebells and finally the golden glow of early summer.

The bulk of the series is from Johnny's own camera. Do not expect the Natural History Unit - instead expect passion, enthusiasm, humour and an exuberant love of the landscape and its wildlife.

Spring has arrived and it is the busiest time of year for the birds. Johnny tries to film as many of them that are nesting on his land as he can. The great spotted woodpeckers have abandoned their roosting site and found a new tree to nest in, but with 20 acres of woodland Johnny will have his work cut out to find it.

He also fixes remote cameras in place to film the nests of bluetits, blackbirds and swallows, but a period of unusually hot weather spells disaster for some of them. On a happier note, Johnny is delighted when a pair of Canada geese nest on the island on his pond and hatch out five goslings.


WED 20:00 A History of Scotland (b00fz7tq)
Series 1

Project Britain

Neil Oliver describes how the ambitions of two of Scotland's Stuart monarchs were the driving force that united two ancient enemies, and set them on the road to the Great Britain we know today.

While Mary Queen of Scots plotted to usurp Elizabeth I and seize the throne of England, her son James dreamt of a more radical future: a Protestant Great Britain.


WED 21:00 Raiders of the Lost Past with Janina Ramirez (m0008567)
Series 1

The Sutton Hoo Hoard

Janina Ramirez explores the surprise discovery in a Suffolk garden of the Sutton Hoo Hoard – an incredible Anglo-Saxon ship-burial dating from the early 7th century AD and the final resting place of a supremely wealthy warrior-king.

The ship’s ruined burial chamber was packed with treasures: Byzantine silverware, sumptuous gold jewellery, a lavish feasting set and, most famously, an ornate iron helmet.

Now known as Britain’s Tutankhamun, the hoard transformed our understanding of the Dark Ages, revealing that 7th-century Britain was not the primitive place we had imagined, but a world of exquisite craftsmanship, extensive international connections, great halls, glittering treasures and formidable warriors.

The find captured the imagination of a nation on the brink of war, not just as incredible treasure, but as a symbol of pride and identity, and a representation of the Anglo-Saxon culture Britain was about to fight for.

Yet, as Janina discovers, the story of the hoard's survival and discovery is something of a miracle.


WED 22:00 A Timewatch Guide (b08ybzhc)
Series 4

Vikings: Foe or Friend?

On 8 June 793 Europe changed forever. The famous monastery at Lindisfarne on the Northumbrian coast was suddenly attacked and looted by seafaring Scandinavians. The Viking Age had begun.

Professor Alice Roberts examines how dramatically the story of the Vikings has changed on TV since the 1960s. She investigates how our focus has shifted from viewing them as brutal, pagan barbarians to pioneering traders, able to integrate into multiple cultures. We also discover that without their naval technology we would never have heard of the Vikings, how their huge trading empire spread, and their surprising legacy in the modern world.


WED 23:00 The Wonderful World of Blood - with Michael Mosley (b05nyyhf)
Of all the wonders of the human body, there's one more mysterious than any other. Blood: five precious litres that keep us alive. Yet how much do we really know about this sticky red substance and its mysterious, life-giving force?

Michael Mosley gives up a fifth of his own blood to perform six bold experiments. From starving it of oxygen to injecting it with snake venom, Michael reveals the extraordinary abilities of blood to adapt and keep us alive. Using specialist photography, the programme reveals the beauty in a single drop. Michael even discovers how it tastes when, in a television first, he prepares a black pudding with his own blood.

Down the ages, our understanding of blood has been as much myth as science, but Michael reveals there might be truth in the old vampire legends, as he meets one of the scientists behind the latest research that shows young blood might be able to reverse the ageing process - the holy grail of modern medicine.


WED 00:00 Timeshift (p0287mq6)
Series 14

Bullseyes and Beer: When Darts Hit Britain

Timeshift tells the story of how a traditional working-class pub game became a national obsession during the 1970s and 80s, and looks at the key role television played in elevating its larger-than-life players into household names.

Siobhan Finneran narrates a documentary which charts the game's surprising history, its cross-class and cross-gender appeal, and the star players that, for two decades, transformed a pub pastime into a sporting spectacle like no other.

Featuring legendary names such as Alan Evans and Jocky Wilson and including contributions from Eric Bristow, Bobby George, John Lowe and Phil Taylor.


WED 01:00 British Art at War: Bomberg, Sickert and Nash (b04hk9n8)
Walter Sickert and the Theatre of War

In the years preceding 1914, David Bomberg, Walter Sickert and Paul Nash set out to paint a new world, but, as the century unfolded, found themselves working in the rubble.

Walter Sickert's early career as an actor is long forgotten and he's now remembered for his art. But he never left the stage behind. Always shape-shifting between roles, Sickert's appearance never stayed still. And his art, too, was in perpetual transformation. Dazzlingly original, deeply unsettling, poised on the brink of violence. For most, proof that Sickert is the godfather of modern British art, but for a few at the fringes, evidence he's Jack the Ripper.

But Sickert was no perpetrator, just an unflinching witness, notably, to the cataclysm of World War One. Too old to fight in Flanders, Sickert painted edgy, compelling, subtle pictures of those who'd been left behind. He painted people trying to get on with lives that were being shattered by the conflict. Almost alone of his generation, Sickert truly understood that the theatre of war was not confined to the trenches.


WED 02:00 A History of Scotland (b00fz7tq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 03:00 Raiders of the Lost Past with Janina Ramirez (m0008567)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 05 SEPTEMBER 2019

THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m000856s)
Series 1

05/09/2019

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


THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (m000856v)
Peter Powell and Nicky Campbell present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 2 June 1988 and featuring Aswad, Desireless, Tiffany, the Timelords, Voice of the Beehive, Five Star, Aztec Camera, Rod Stewart, Wet Wet Wet and Belinda Carlisle.


THU 20:00 Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession (b00s2wvh)
Windows on the World

In a series about the extraordinary stories behind maps, Professor Jerry Brotton uncovers how maps aren't simply about getting from A to B, but are revealing snapshots of defining moments in history and tools of political power and persuasion.

Visiting the world's first known map, etched into the rocks of a remote alpine hillside 3,000 years ago, Brotton explores how each culture develops its own unique, often surprising way of mapping. As Henry VIII's stunning maps of the British coastline from a bird's-eye view show, they were also used to exert control over the world.

During the Enlightenment, the great French Cassini dynasty pioneered the western quest to map the world with greater scientific accuracy, leading also to the British Ordnance Survey. But these new scientific methods were challenged by cultures with alternative ways of mapping, such as in a Polynesian navigator's map which has no use for north, south and east.

As scientifically accurate map-making became a powerful tool of European expansion, the British carved the state of Iraq out of the Middle East. When the British drew up Iraq's boundaries, they had devastating consequences for the nomadic tribes of Mesopotamia.


THU 21:00 Lost Films of WWII (m000856x)
Series 1

Episode 1

The story of Britain during World War II, retold from a uniquely vivid and personal perspective using rarely seen home movies. Rediscovered and shown together for the first time, old cine films are interwoven with testimony from both members of the film-makers’ families and those who lived through the war to give a first-hand account of life during conflict.

From footage shot by a Middlesborough dentist, who witnessed the rise of Nazism on a family holiday to the continent in 1939, to the images of the evacuation of Dunkirk secretly recorded by a young naval officer, the films show momentous events through the eyes of the ordinary people caught up in them.

In the first episode, the progress of the first half of the war is told through a series of films that include fascinating footage of the Home Guard in training in the village of Thornton in Yorkshire, moving images and accounts of the devastation of Sheffield during the Blitz, and the astonishing moment a doctor in Kent turned his camera skywards to film the Battle of Britain from his garden.

The toll the war took on servicemen is revealed through poignant depictions of the RAF’s Coastal Command 502 Squadron’s participation in the Battle for the Atlantic. Meanwhile, images of the home front adapting to war as civilians recorded their changing life at home and at work are a striking reminder of Britain in a different era. With much of the footage in colour, the past leaps to life with immediacy and reveals how world events impacted on the individual.


THU 22:00 Timewatch (b016xjwh)
The Most Courageous Raid of World War II

Lord Ashdown, a former special forces commando, tells the story of the 'Cockleshell Heroes', who led one of the most daring and audacious commando raids of World War II.

In 1942, Britain was struggling to fight back against Nazi Germany. Lacking the resources for a second front, Churchill encouraged innovative and daring new methods of combat. Enter stage left, Blondie Hasler.

With a unit of 12 Royal Marine commandos, Major Blondie Hasler believed his 'cockleshell' canoe could be effectively used in clandestine attacks on the enemy. Their brief was to navigate the most heavily defended estuary in Europe, to dodge searchlights, machine-gun posts and armed river-patrol craft 70 miles downriver, and then to blow up enemy shipping in Bordeaux harbour.

Lord Ashdown recreates parts of the raid and explains how this experience was used in preparing for one of the greatest land invasions in history, D-day.


THU 23:00 Blackadder (b0078vmr)
Blackadder II

Bells

Classic historical comedy. The Blackadder genes resurface in Elizabethan England in the guise of Edmund, great-great-grandson of the repulsive original. Blackadder is struck by Cupid's arrow when he takes on a new servant - a girl named Bob.


THU 23:30 Blackadder (b015msyb)
Blackadder II

Head

When Edmund is appointed lord high executioner, he moves a beheading forward from Wednesday to Monday, so he and his staff can enjoy some time off. But he didn't take into account the queen's tendency to change her mind.


THU 00:00 Blackadder (b01nllvy)
Blackadder II

Potato

Historical sitcom set in Tudor England. To keep up with Sir Walter Raleigh, Edmund announces he will navigate the treacherous waters of the Cape of Good Hope.


THU 00:30 Top of the Pops (m000856v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 01:00 British Art at War: Bomberg, Sickert and Nash (b04jvlk2)
David Bomberg: Prophet in No Man's Land

In the years preceding 1914, David Bomberg, Walter Sickert and Paul Nash set out to paint a new world, but, as the century unfolded, found themselves working in the rubble.

David Bomberg is now recognised as the most startlingly original British painter of his generation, but died in obscurity more than half a century ago.

A Jewish immigrant from London's east end, his early modernist works pushed art to its limits. Fighting at the Somme, David Bomberg watched the world splinter and fall apart just like the works of art he had created. Bomberg spent the rest of his life searching for order in an increasingly disordered world, and his wanderings took him as far as Palestine, before he settled at the end of his life in Ronda, Spain.

When he died in 1957, embattled and in poverty, he seemed to be no more than a footnote in the history of British art. However, the works that survive David Bomberg tell their own story. Combative and iconoclastic, he remains the most elusively original British painter of the 20th century.


THU 02:00 Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession (b00s2wvh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 03:00 Lost Films of WWII (m000856x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 06 SEPTEMBER 2019

FRI 19:00 World News Today (m000856l)
The latest news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 BBC Proms (m000856n)
2019

Shanghai Symphony Orchestra

Suzy Klein welcomes the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra to the Royal Albert Hall for their Proms debut. Long Yu conducts the orchestra in a programme that includes Qigang Chen’s The Five Elements, Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances and, with 2018 Leeds International Piano Competition winner Eric Lu, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 23 in A major.


FRI 21:10 Smashing Hits! The 80s Pop Map of Britain and Ireland (b0bbyy1w)
Series 1

Episode 3

Two 80s icons explore the distinct sounds that came out of different parts of Britain and Ireland in one of pop's golden decades.

Midge Ure, lead singer of Ultravox and one of the men behind Band Aid, and Kim Appleby, who had a string of hits with her sister Mel in the Stock, Aitken and Waterman-produced band Mel and Kim, go on a journey back in time to the 80s to figure out why certain cities produced their own diverse tunes.

It's a fascinating tale. Emerging from the ashes of punk, British and Irish music ripped up the pop rule book in the 80s and topped the charts worldwide. But there was no definitive 'British' pop sound. Innovative chart-toppers were being produced by artists hailing from all over the UK and Ireland.

In this third and final episode, Midge and Kim visit London and Manchester, the two cities that did battle with each other for musical pre-eminence as 80s music turned towards the new sounds of dance.

Star interviewees include Denise Pearson from Five Star, Soul II Soul's Jazzie B, Mark Moore of S'Express, Shaun Ryder from The Happy Mondays and Peter Hook of New Order.

It's a tale of how studio technology changed music, with British bands putting their own unique spin on dance to produce contrasting northern and southern sounds.


FRI 22:10 BBC Proms (m000856q)
2019

Ellington's Sacred Music

Cerys Matthews introduces an evening of jazz, gospel and Broadway-style music inspired by Duke Ellington's three sacred concerts. In a Proms premiere, Peter Edwards conducts the Nu Civilisation Orchestra in a new version of these landmark works, written originally between 1965 and 1973.


FRI 23:50 Synth Britannia (b00n93c4)
Documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage.

In the late 1970s, small pockets of electronic artists including The Human League, Daniel Miller and Cabaret Voltaire were inspired by Kraftwerk and JG Ballard, and they dreamt of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.

The crossover moment came in 1979 when Gary Numan's appearance on Top of the Pops with Tubeway Army's Are 'Friends' Electric? heralded the arrival of synthpop. Four lads from Basildon known as Depeche Mode would come to own the new sound, whilst post-punk bands like Ultravox, Soft Cell, OMD and Yazoo took the synth out of the pages of NME and onto the front page of Smash Hits.

By 1983, acts like Pet Shop Boys and New Order were showing that the future of electronic music would lie in dance music.

Contributors include Philip Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant.


FRI 01:20 Synth Britannia at the BBC (b00n93c6)
A journey through the BBC's synthpop archives from Roxy Music and Tubeway Army to New Order and Sparks. Turn your Moogs up to 11 as we take a trip back into the 70s and 80s!


FRI 02:20 Smashing Hits! The 80s Pop Map of Britain and Ireland (b0bbyy1w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:10 today]




LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)

A History of Scotland 20:00 WED (b00fz7tq)

A History of Scotland 02:00 WED (b00fz7tq)

A Timewatch Guide 22:00 WED (b08ybzhc)

Arena 21:00 SUN (m00084zh)

Arena 02:50 SUN (m00084zh)

BBC News Special 19:00 TUE (m0008k2j)

BBC News Special 19:00 WED (m0008565)

BBC Proms 19:00 SUN (m00084zf)

BBC Proms 19:30 FRI (m000856n)

BBC Proms 22:10 FRI (m000856q)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 MON (m000858w)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 THU (m000856s)

Black Nurses: The Women Who Saved the NHS 00:10 SUN (b083dgtb)

Blackadder 23:00 THU (b0078vmr)

Blackadder 23:30 THU (b015msyb)

Blackadder 00:00 THU (b01nllvy)

Britain's Secret Seas 19:00 SAT (b01168bh)

Britain's Secret Seas 01:55 SAT (b01168bh)

British Art at War: Bomberg, Sickert and Nash 01:00 TUE (b04j2ywv)

British Art at War: Bomberg, Sickert and Nash 01:00 WED (b04hk9n8)

British Art at War: Bomberg, Sickert and Nash 01:00 THU (b04jvlk2)

Darkness: Those Who Kill 21:00 SAT (m000856d)

Darkness: Those Who Kill 21:45 SAT (m000856j)

Great Indian Railway Journeys 21:00 MON (b09x4pvh)

Jerusalem: The Making of a Holy City 00:00 TUE (b018jlj0)

Johnny Kingdom's Year with the Birds 19:30 MON (b00vnf8g)

Johnny Kingdom's Year with the Birds 19:30 WED (b00vtz42)

Lost Films of WWII 21:00 THU (m000856x)

Lost Films of WWII 03:00 THU (m000856x)

Machines 01:40 SUN (b09g8cc9)

Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession 20:00 THU (b00s2wvh)

Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession 02:00 THU (b00s2wvh)

Metalworks! 02:00 MON (b01fhmhp)

New Forest: A Year in the Wild Wood 20:00 TUE (m0001y84)

New Forest: A Year in the Wild Wood 03:00 TUE (m0001y84)

Popular Voices at the BBC 00:55 SAT (b09ffzkd)

Raiders of the Lost Past with Janina Ramirez 21:00 WED (m0008567)

Raiders of the Lost Past with Janina Ramirez 03:00 WED (m0008567)

Rome: A History of the Eternal City 20:00 MON (b01p65l8)

Rome: A History of the Eternal City 03:00 MON (b01p65l8)

Ryan Gander: The Idea of Japan 22:10 SUN (b08v8jd1)

Secret Knowledge 01:10 SUN (b054fkzz)

Sheila Hancock Brushes Up: The Art of Watercolours 23:00 TUE (b00yzgtn)

Smashing Hits! The 80s Pop Map of Britain and Ireland 21:10 FRI (b0bbyy1w)

Smashing Hits! The 80s Pop Map of Britain and Ireland 02:20 FRI (b0bbyy1w)

Strangeways: Britain's Toughest Prison Riot 23:10 SUN (b05px4sk)

Synth Britannia at the BBC 01:20 FRI (b00n93c6)

Synth Britannia 23:50 FRI (b00n93c4)

The Culture Show 22:00 MON (b00ttbnb)

The Private Life of... 20:00 SAT (b00t3tl1)

The Private Life of... 02:55 SAT (b00t3tl1)

The Search for Alfred the Great 22:00 TUE (b03sbp73)

The Vietnam War 22:35 SAT (b0992pm2)

The Vietnam War 23:30 SAT (b0992pm4)

The Wonderful World of Blood - with Michael Mosley 23:00 WED (b05nyyhf)

Timeshift 00:00 WED (p0287mq6)

Timewatch 22:00 THU (b016xjwh)

Top of the Pops 00:25 SAT (m0007zd3)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (m000856v)

Top of the Pops 00:30 THU (m000856v)

Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered 21:00 TUE (b04n6scp)

Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered 02:00 TUE (b04n6scp)

Victoria: A Royal Love Story 23:00 MON (b00rl81c)

Walt Disney 00:00 MON (b08605f7)

Walt Disney 01:00 MON (b0872yqs)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (m000856l)