B4

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

SATURDAY 09 NOVEMBER 2019

SAT 19:00 Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution (b06zdkds)
Madeira: Island Ark

In the final episode, Richard Fortey travels to Madeira to examine what happens to a volcanic island as it nears the end of its life cycle and starts sinking back into the sea. Here, in the island's laurisilva forest, he examines the remains of an ancient forest that once carpeted all of Europe, finds island lizards that live to be four times older than their mainland counterparts, and meets a huge wolf spider. With the help of local divers, he also discovers an unexpectedly rich marine habitat populated by whales, dolphins and unusual deep-sea species that have much to tell us about the changing nature of our seas.

SAT 20:00 Wild China (b00bybp3)
Tides of Change

Documentary series featuring pioneering images that capture the dazzling array of mysterious and wonderful creatures populating China's most beautiful landscapes.

Ancient tea-growing cultures, traditional seaweed-thatched villages, bird-filled wetlands, rare white dolphins, snake-infested islands and futuristic cities jostle along China's fertile eastern seaboard, which marks the front line in the scramble for resources and space between 700 million people and a surprising wealth of wildlife.

SAT 21:00 Spiral (m000b8lb)
Series 7

Episode 9

With his role in the investigation irreparably tarnished, Roban loses his grip on the case. Laure and Gilou go ever further out on a limb with a rogue decision to reactivate the now-dormant money-laundering operation. Josephine, who now works for Solignac, continues to set traps.

In French with English subtitles.

SAT 22:00 Spiral (m000b8ld)
Series 7

Episode 10

Laure and Gilou sink deeper into taking illegal measures, risking yet more grave repercussions. Their former team member Tintin is tasked with investigating their methods. Meanwhile, Josephine does her best to protect Lola. However, she proves to be a most uncooperative defendant - for reasons that Josephine understands only too well.

In French with English subtitles.

SAT 22:50 Blackadder (p00bf6s9)
Blackadder Goes Forth

Plan D - Private Plane

Edmund, George and Baldrick join the Royal Flying Corps. However, Edmund and Baldrick are shot down soon afterwards and are taken prisoner by the Red Baron. George persuades dashing pilot Lord Flashheart to mount a rescue attempt, but when they hear what the Red Baron has planned for them, Blackadder and Baldrick are in no hurry to be saved.

SAT 23:20 Blackadder (p00bf6vt)
Blackadder Goes Forth

Plan E - General Hospital

Melchett orders Blackadder to unmask a spy working in the hospital where George is recovering from a bomb blast. Edmund sets to work, interrogating Darling, seducing a nurse and asking Baldrick to keep an eye on a patient with a pronounced German accent.

SAT 23:50 Blackadder (b0078nnr)
Blackadder Goes Forth

Plan F - Goodbyeee

Sitcom set in the trenches of the First World War. When Blackadder, George and Baldrick are told they are going over the top the next day, Blackadder decides to feign madness.

SAT 00:20 Top of the Pops (m000b1gy)
Gary Davies and Mark Goodier present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 29 September 1988 and featuring Sinitta, U2, Hazell Dean, Alexander O'Neal, Duran Duran, Erasure, Whitney Houston, Bananarama The Hollies and T'Pau.

SAT 00:50 Top of the Pops (m000b1sn)
Simon Mayo and Richard Skinner present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 6 October 1988 and featuring The Pasadenas, Bobby McFerrin, The Wee Papa Girl Rappers, Spear of Destiny, The Beatmasters with PP Arnold, Kim Wilde, Erasure, Rick Astley, U2 and Duran Duran.

SAT 01:20 Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution (b06zdkds)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

SAT 02:20 Wild China (b00bybp3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

SAT 03:20 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.

SUNDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2019

SUN 19:00 Track Cycling World Cup (m000b8nf)
2019

Second Round Highlights

The best of the action from the second round of the 2019 Track Cycling World Cup series in Glasgow, where crucial Olympic Games qualifying points are at stake.

With Tokyo 2020 in mind, a star-studded British team is expected at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, along with the best cyclists from the rest of the world. The Glaswegian crowd will certainly roar on Scottish star Katie Archibald, an Olympic gold medallist in the team pursuit at the Rio Games in 2016.

SUN 20:00 Dan Cruickshank's Monuments of Remembrance (b0brk994)
Dan Cruickshank reveals the extraordinary story behind the design and building of iconic First World War memorials and explores the idea behind the creation of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

SUN 21:00 Arena (m000b8nj)
Everything Is Connected - George Eliot's Life

Contemporary artist Gillian Wearing celebrates the legacy of Victorian novelist George Eliot.

Just as Eliot’s novel Middlemarch explored the lives of ordinary men and women, this experimental film is made up of a diverse cast of people from different backgrounds and features Jason Isaacs and Sheila Atim as the narrators.

SUN 22:00 The Sky at Night (m000b8nl)
Rosetta: The Comet's Tale

The Rosetta mission to comet 67P was the first time a spacecraft landed on a comet's surface. What has this icy body taught us about the dawn of the solar system and the origins of life on earth?

SUN 22:30 Palace for the People (m000b8nn)
Documentary that showcases five of Soviet Europe’s most grandiose architectural enterprises. Created to embody the ‘collective good’, the buildings, made with courage and a bit of lunacy, were used to remind the people of the power and brighter future that awaited them.

Each building was designed to be either the tallest or the largest, or to have the biggest clock on earth or the most advanced technology of its time. Now that socialism is over, film-makers Missirkov and Bogdanov revisit five of communism’s most splendid palaces to reveal their hidden secrets through the eyes of the people who designed, built and worked in them. Featuring the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Moscow State University, the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade and the Palace of the Republic in Berlin.

SUN 23:45 Great War Horses (b094f4tl)
The horses that provided the backbone of the Australian Light Horse regiments in World War I were popularly known as Walers. Bred for Australia's tough Outback conditions, Walers were well-equipped for the harsh climate and terrain of the Middle East, where the ANZAC forces faced the armies of the Ottoman Empire.

Great War Horses is a powerful, moving account of the men and horses of the Australian Light Horse and the pivotal role they played in World War I at the Battle of Romani (1916), the celebrated Light Horse charge at the Battle of Beersheba (1917) and the capture of Damascus in 1918.

SUN 00:45 The Sinner (m0001qr0)
Series 1

Episode 7

Cora remembers the first time she met Frankie at the Beverwyck Club and the events that triggered her actions.

SUN 01:25 Pappano's Classical Voices (b062hmz6)
Mezzo-Soprano

Series in which conductor Sir Antonio Pappano (music director of the Royal Opera House since 2002) explores the great roles and the greatest singers of the last hundred years through the prism of the main classical voice types - soprano, tenor, mezzo-soprano, baritone and bass. Through discussion, demonstrations and workshops, Pappano explores every aspect of the art of great singing.

The lowest female voice type, and the one closest to a woman's natural speaking voice, the mezzo-soprano only rarely plays the name part. But when she does - in Carmen, Samson et Dalila, and La Cenerentola - the fireworks begin. More often, she is the rival, and the villainess.

Antonio explores the particular effect the mezzo voice has on the audience. Her low, sultry tones make her voice perfect for the earth goddess, but also the enchantress, the siren. But she has to sing nearly as high as the soprano. So how does she do it? What is the 'chest voice' and what effect does it have? How do you sing ugly to convey the evil of a character without destroying your voice, and at the same time unearth some redeeming qualities?

Antonio finds out what makes the mezzo tick by looking at great performances from Giulietta Simionato, Kathleen Ferrier, Marian Anderson, Shirley Verrett, Cecilia Bartoli and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and taking soundings from Janet Baker, Christa Ludwig, Joyce DiDonato, Felicity Palmer and Sarah Connolly.

SUN 02:25 Secret Knowledge (b01rml7t)
Bolsover Castle

Lucy Worsley tells the story of Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire. Built in the early 17th century, it became the pleasure palace of playboy Cavalier and ambitious courtier William Cavendish.

Guiding us on a tour of the castle and its remarkable collection of artworks, Lucy brings to life the spectacular masque held by Cavendish to win the favour of King Charles I.

And from within the walls of this eccentric architectural gem emerges a colourful tale, capturing the tensions of early 17th-century England that would eventually lead the nation to civil war.

SUN 02:55 Dan Cruickshank's Monuments of Remembrance (b0brk994)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

MONDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2019

MON 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m000b8n9)
Series 1

11/11/2019

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

MON 19:30 World War I at Home (b045gjw5)
Cadburys at War

Brothers Laurence and Egbert Cadbury saw plenty of action during the First World War, but only one of them was a fighter. Former world champion boxer Richie Woodhall investigates the untold story of the chocolate king's sons, a tale full of conflict and conscience.

MON 20:00 Great Barrier Reef (b019xxhh)
Reef and Beyond

The Great Barrier Reef is vitally linked to the rest of the planet in many ways. Creatures travel for thousands of miles to visit in spectacular numbers, including tiger sharks, great whales, sea birds and the largest green turtle gathering on earth.

Alien creatures that are rarely seen, like nautilus, also rise out of the deep to visit the reef's warm waters. Weather systems travelling from across the Pacific also affect the whole reef, including mighty cyclones that bring destruction and chaos to the coral and the creatures that live on it. And it is weather patterns and climate change on a global scale that are likely to shape the future of the Great Barrier Reef and all its wildlife.

MON 21:00 Storyville (m000b8nd)
Maiden: War on the Waves

The inspirational story of how Tracy Edwards, a 24-year-old cook on charter boats, became the skipper of the first all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989.

Tracy’s dream was opposed on all sides: her male competitors thought an all-women crew would never make it, the chauvinistic yachting press took bets on her failing, and potential sponsors rejected her, fearing the girls would die at sea and generate bad publicity.

Tracy, however, refused to give up: she remortgaged her home and bought a second-hand boat, putting everything on the line to ensure the team made it to the starting line. With the support of her remarkable crew, she went on to shock the yachting world and prove that women are the equal of men.

MON 22:30 PQ17: An Arctic Convoy Disaster (b03n3297)
Jeremy Clarkson tells the dramatic story of the Arctic convoys of the Second World War, from Russia to the freezing Arctic Ocean.

Accompanied by moving first hand testimony from the men who served on these convoys, Clarkson reveals the incredible hazards faced by members of the Merchant and Royal Navy who delivered vital war supplies via the Arctic to the Soviet Union: temperatures of minus 50 degrees, huge icebergs, colossal waves, not to mention German U-boats and the Luftwaffe. It is no wonder that Churchill described the Arctic Convoys as 'the worst journey in the world.'

Between 1941 and 1945, more than 70 convoys delivered 4 million tonnes of material to the USSR, yet one convoy in partiuclar would come to symbolise the dangers faced by the men who served on them. Codenamed PQ17, this convoy of 35 merchant ships would be described by Churchill as one of the most melancholy naval episodes of the war.

Retracing the route of PQ17 from the Arctic to the Russian winter port of Archangel, Clarkson reveals how, on the night of July 4th 1942, this joint Anglo-American convoy became one of the biggest naval disasters of the 20th century. To make matters worse, the cause of the disaster lay not in the brutal conditions of the Arctic, or the military might of the Germans, but a misjudgement made in the corridors of the Admiralty in London.

MON 23:30 Genius of the Modern World (b07ht3cd)
Freud

Bettany Hughes travels to Vienna on the trail of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis. Freud's influence surrounds us. In our vocabulary - repression, penis envy, the Freudian slip - and in the freedom we take for granted, to talk openly about our deepest feelings and insecurities.

A pioneer in the study of the human mind, Freud's psychoanalytic methods addressed emotional issues, seldom even discussed in the 19th century. Talking to his patients inspired his radical understanding of the unconscious mind, as a repository of hidden repressed emotions and irrational primal desires.

MON 00:30 Timewatch (b00jj523)
2008-2009

WWI Aces Falling

Edward Mannock VC and James McCudden VC rose from modest backgrounds to become two of Britain's greatest fighter aces in World War One.

As the number of their victories grew, so did their chances of dying in flames. Timewatch tells the story of their battle to survive against the odds, and of the 90-year-old mystery surrounding the death of one of them.

MON 01:30 Pappano's Classical Voices (b0638jby)
Baritone and Bass

Series in which conductor Sir Antonio Pappano explores the great roles and the greatest singers of the last hundred years through the prism of the main classical voice types - soprano, tenor, mezzo-soprano, baritone and bass. Through discussion, demonstrations and workshops, Pappano explores every aspect of the art of great singing.

Gods, demons, drunks, lechers, silly old codgers, double-dyed villains - life on stage for the bass is rarely dull. The baritone, meanwhile, is the most common male voice type, and yet the parts he sings - especially in the operas of Verdi - are anything but.

Pappano explores the lowest male voice types, and the roles they play, in comedy as well as tragedy. How do basses sing so low? What different qualities does a baritone bring to a Schubert song? He meets the Russian 'oktavists', who sing a whole octave lower than the standard bass. With the help of leading practitioners - Bryn Terfel, John Tomlinson, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Christian Gerhaher, Alessandro Corbelli and Willard White - Pappano uncovers the tricks of the trade. He examines in detail some key performances from the legendary basses and baritones of the past - Feodor Chaliapin, Tito Gobbi, Paul Robeson, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Boris Christoff , Nicolai Ghiaurov and Ezio Pinza.

MON 02:35 Great Barrier Reef (b019xxhh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

TUESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2019

TUE 19:00 Women's Football: Internationals (m000b8nw)
2019

Czech Republic v England

Live coverage from the Czech city of České Budějovice as England play their final game of 2019, looking to end a memorable year on a high. The Lionesses reached the World Cup semi-finals in the summer.

Results since their defeat to the USA at that tournament have been mixed. Phil Neville’s side did return to winning ways in their most recent away game, a 1-0 victory against Portugal, but they will be hoping for an improved performance against the Czechs.

TUE 21:15 A Timewatch Guide (b06zdll0)
Series 2

Queen Elizabeth I

Vanessa Collingridge examines the life of Elizabeth Tudor, with particular interest in how documentary television and the BBC has examined her legacy and interrogated her reign. Using Timewatch and other BBC archive stretching back over 60 years, Vanessa looks at her upbringing, her conflicts with her enemies including Mary, Queen of Scots, and her greatest victory against the Spanish Armada. The programme seeks to understand how Elizabeth I created a legacy that we still live with today, and examines how that legacy has changed over the centuries.

TUE 22:15 Scuffles, Swagger and Shakespeare: The Hidden Story of English (m000b8ny)
The English language is spoken by 450 million people around the globe, with a further one billion using it as a second language. It is arguably Britain’s most famous export. The man often given credit for the global triumph of English, and the invention of many of our modern words, is William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare’s plays first hit the stage four centuries ago, as the explorers of Elizabethan England were laying the foundations for the British empire. It was this empire that would carry English around the world. Language historian and BBC New Generation Thinker Dr John Gallagher asks whether the real story of how English became a global linguistic superpower is more complex.

John begins by revealing that if you had stopped an Elizabethan on the streets and told them their language was going to become the most powerful one in the world, they would have laughed in your face. When Shakespeare began writing, the English language was obscure and England an isolated country. John’s quest to find out how English became a global language sees him investigate everything from what it was like to be an immigrant in Elizabethan Britain to how new technology is transforming our understanding of Shakespeare.

TUE 22:45 Sleuths, Spies & Sorcerers: Andrew Marr's Paperback Heroes (p040pvpp)
Detectives

In the first episode of a series that explores the books we (really) read, Andrew Marr investigates the curious case of detective fiction. This is a genre that been producing best-sellers since the 19th century, and whose most famous heroes - Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Inspector Rebus - are now embedded in our collective psyche. But how does detective fiction work- and how do the best crime writers keep us compulsively turning the pages?

Andrew deconstructs detective stories by looking at their 'rules' - the conventions we expect to be present when we pick up a typical mystery. Because detective fiction is an interactive puzzle, these rules are the rules of a game - a fiendish battle of wits between the reader and the writer. What is remarkable is that instead of restricting novelists (as you might expect), these rules stimulate creativity, and Andrew reveals how clever writers like Agatha Christie have used them to create a seemingly infinite number of story-telling possibilities.

The fictional detective is a brilliant invention, a figure who takes us to (often dark) places that we wouldn't normally visit. While we are in their company, no section of society is off-limits or above suspicion, and Andrew shows how writers have used crime fiction not merely to entertain, but also to anatomise society's problems.

Andrew interviews modern-day crime writers including Ian Rankin, Sophie Hannah and Val McDermid, while profiling important pioneers such as Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett and Ruth Rendell. Along the way, he decodes various great set-pieces of the detective novel such as Hercule Poirot's drawing room denouements, and the 'locked room' mysteries of John Dickson Carr.

TUE 23:45 MAKE! Craft Britain (b09whc5t)
Series 1

Episode 1

The first episode follows two groups of novice crafters as they master the art of hooky rugmaking and traditional letterpress. Meanwhile, origami artist Sam Tsang teaches how to make something beautiful from a single sheet of paper, folding an origami lily which can then be made into LED fairy lights.

On the north east coast in Bamburgh village, world-renowned rugmaker Heather Ritchie welcomes six amateur crafters to her two-day workshop in the local cricket pavilion. She teaches them how to 'hook' their own personalised seat cushions, inspired by their favourite places.

Heather has been hooking rugs for over 30 years. She discovered rugmaking in the early 70s after moving into a cold, flagstoned cottage in the Yorkshire Dales. The hooking technique allowed her to use recycled fabrics to produce rugs that insulated her home. After getting 'hooked' on the basic technique, her functional household rugs soon developed into intricate works of art, each one capturing a memory from her past.

The workshop is attended by married couple Adam and Tracy, dentist Indra, A&E doctor Lucy and local farmers Mary and John, who bring some sheep fleece along to use in their work.

Meanwhile, in south London, wordsmith and typographer Kelvyn Smith invites five students into his print studio for a one-day masterclass in letterpress printmaking. The 350-year-old printing process is new to all of Kelvyn's students, so over the course of the day they learn how to use a composing stick, how to set type and build a form, before proofing and printing their own pieces of work.

The workshop is attended by engaged couple Ant and Bianca, gravestone engraver Neil and his carpenter son Otis, and textiles student Lorna.

Lorna initially struggles with the concept of writing 'upside down and left to right', but has a breakthrough when she's given a mirror to hold up against her work. In the end her poster - a written tribute to her dad, a poet - exceeds all hopes. 'It's come out better than I could have expected.'

Back in Bamburgh, the hooky seat cushions are ready to go on chairs, and the students take a stroll to the beach for a celebratory slice of cake and cup of tea to try them out for size.

Sheep farmer John's work really impresses teacher Heather - 'now who'd have thought a sheep farmer could make something as beautiful and artistic as that?'.

TUE 00:45 Horizon (b03tz705)
2013-2014

Swallowed by a Sinkhole

In February 2013, a hole opened up beneath a home in Florida and swallowed a man.

Jeff Bush was asleep when a sinkhole opened up beneath his bedroom. Despite the efforts of his brother to rescue him, Jeff was never seen again and his body was never recovered.

Professor Iain Stewart travels to Florida to try and understand what killed Jeff, and why the geology of this state makes it the sinkhole capital of the world.

TUE 01:45 Arena (m000b8nj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]

TUE 02:45 A Timewatch Guide (b06zdll0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:15 today]

WEDNESDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2019

WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m000b8nq)
Series 1

13/11/2019

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

WED 19:30 World War I at Home (b04gkn55)
Royal Victoria Hospital

Shocking stories of the World War I Hampshire hospital doctors who faked footage on cures for shellshock. Author Philip Hoare examines the evidence and reveals some other real-life human tragedies at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Netley.

WED 20:00 Six Wives with Lucy Worsley (b086zd44)
Episode 3

This episode follows Henry's marriage annulment to Anne of Cleves due to non-consummation. Middle-aged Henry then marries teenager Catherine Howard two weeks later, only for her to be convicted of treason and beheaded.

Henry's last wife, Katherine Parr, is a good stepmother to his children, but her religious views differ greatly from the king's. Her book, Prayers or Meditations, is the first book to be written in English by a woman, but its popularity threatens Henry's advisors. Lucy observes as Katherine narrowly escapes being arrested for treason.

Henry dies and his son Edward VI takes the throne. Katherine remarries and gets pregnant but tragically dies a week after the baby is born.

WED 21:00 Britain's Lost Masterpieces (m000b8ns)
Series 4

Cardiff

Art detectives Bendor Grosvenor and Emma Dabiri travel to the National Museum Cardiff to investigate a badly overpainted Madonna, currently attributed to a follower of Botticelli, that shows signs of being worthy of investigation. Bendor believes the picture is good enough to warrant an attribution to Botticelli’s workshop, and conservation may reveal evidence of the hand of the master himself. Cleaning the picture confirms that a faker had tried to artificially age the panel.

Bendor then travels to Florence to explore the early Renaissance, and the life and work of Botticelli, hoping to find evidence that will support a new attribution. Meanwhile, Emma Dabiri explores the story of the two immensely wealthy Welsh sisters who donated the work to the museum, and discovers how they tried to bring about their own renaissance in the cultural life of their native Wales.

WED 22:00 An Art Lovers' Guide (b08qkvcq)
Series 1

St Petersburg

In the final episode of their entertaining series of cultural city breaks, Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke explore St Petersburg through its dazzling art and architecture. They want to see how art has been used to enhance prestige and power in this city, ever since it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great.

Surrounded by vast palaces, gilded domes and imposing Soviet monuments, Janina and Alastair make a flying visit to their personal selection of imperial, communist and modern-day sights. They discover a city where art has always taken centre stage, from the intoxicating beauty of the state rooms at the Winter Palace to the bejewelled confections of Faberge, and from the dark tunnels where curators guarded precious artefacts during the deadly siege of the city in the Second World War to the apartment piled high with protest art painted by the outspoken 'dissident babushka'.

WED 23:00 imagine... (b093tw95)
Margaret Atwood: You Have Been Warned!

For decades, Margaret Atwood has been universally acclaimed as Canada's greatest living writer. Fearlessly outspoken in life and in her work, Atwood has always been an unrelenting provocateur. At the age of 77, her renown grew still further with the explosive television adaptation of her best-known work The Handmaid's Tale, which was first published in 1985. It is a dystopian work of speculative fiction set in the future, which has drawn comparison with aspects of Donald Trump's leadership, in particular the charges of misogyny which have inflamed anti-Trump campaigners across America.

Alan Yentob meets Margaret Atwood in Toronto and discovers how a childhood spent between the Canadian wilderness and the city helped shape her vision of herself and the world, set alight her imagination and set her forth on a path to literary success.

WED 00:00 Treasures of Heaven (b012248j)
Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the ancient Christian practice of preserving holy relics and the largely forgotten art form that went with it, the reliquary. Fragments of bone or fabric placed inside a bejewelled shrine, a sculpted golden head or even a life-sized silver hand were, and still are, objects of religious devotion believed to have the power to work miracles. Most precious of all, though, are relics of Jesus Christ, and the programme also features three reliquaries containing the holiest of all relics - those associated with the Crucifixion.

The story of relics and reliquaries is a 2,000-year history of faith, persecution and hope, reflected in some of the most beautiful and little-known works of art ever made. Featuring interviews with art historian Sister Wendy Beckett and Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum.

WED 01:00 The Renaissance Unchained (b0726fyv)
Silk, Sex and Sin

Waldemar Januszczak focuses on Venice and its extraordinary impact on art history. He celebrates colour, drama and vitality by looking at the delicate colours of Bellini, the mystery of Giorgione, the splendour of Titian, the drama and chaos of Tintoretto and the glorious banquets of Veronese.

WED 02:00 The Renaissance Unchained (b072wvy9)
Hell, Snakes and Giants

In the final episode Waldemar Januszczak looks at the surprising climax of the Renaissance as it spiralled into madness and distortion. This was a period full of war, confusion and darkness, which was captured perfectly in the art of Leonardo, Bosch, Arcimboldo, Palissy, the Italian Mannerists and El Greco.

WED 03:00 Britain's Lost Masterpieces (m000b8ns)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THURSDAY 14 NOVEMBER 2019

THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m000b8p0)
Series 1

14/11/2019

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

THU 19:30 The Sky at Night (m000b8nl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]

THU 20:00 Wonders of the Solar System (b00rf172)
Original Series

Empire of the Sun

Professor Brian Cox visits some of the most stunning locations on earth to describe how the laws of nature have carved natural wonders across the solar system.

In this first episode Brian explores the powerhouse of them all, the sun. In India he witnesses a total solar eclipse - when the link to the light and heat that sustains us is cut off for a few precious minutes.

But heat and light are not the only power of the sun over the solar system. In Norway, Brian watches the battle between the sun's wind and earth, as the night sky glows with the northern lights.

Beyond earth, the solar wind continues, creating dazzling aurora on other planets. Brian makes contact with Voyager, a probe that has been travelling since its launch 30 years ago. Now 14 billion kilometres away, Voyager has just detected the solar wind is beginning to peter out. But even here we haven't reached the end of the sun's rule.

Brian explains how its greatest power, gravity, reaches out for hundreds of billions of kilometres, where the lightest gravitational touch encircles our solar system in a mysterious cloud of comets.

THU 21:00 Climategate: Science of a Scandal (m000b8p2)
Documentary that reveals the truth behind a notorious incident in 2009, when a growing international consensus on climate change was derailed by one of the biggest scandals in modern science.

For the first time, all the key players recount the events and what really happened during 'Climategate'. Thousands of emails hacked from the world-renowned Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia seemed to suggest that climate scientists had been deliberately manipulating data to exaggerate evidence of climate change, a conspiracy that was the holy grail of climate change deniers.

The battle between the scientists and their critics over climate science and data transparency resulted in a media storm, public misinformation, a criminal investigation, multiple inquiries and death threats. The email controversy has continued to be cited by climate change sceptics - among them President Donald Trump. This documentary provides an insight into the battle over fact and scientific enquiry, and the realities of climate change.

THU 22:00 Unlocking Nature's Secrets: The Serengeti Rules (m000b8p4)
One of the most important yet untold science stories of our time, a tale with profound implications for the fate of life on our planet.

Beginning in the 1960s, a small band of young scientists headed out into the wilderness, driven by an insatiable curiosity about how nature works. Immersed in some of the most remote and spectacular places on earth - from the majestic Serengeti to the Amazon jungle, from the Arctic Ocean to Pacific tide pools – they discovered a single set of rules that govern all life.

Now in the twilight of their eminent careers, these five unsung heroes of modern ecology share the stories of their adventures, reveal how their pioneering work flipped our view of nature of its head, and give us a chance to reimagine the world as it could and should be.

THU 23:20 Climate Change by Numbers (p02jsdrk)
At the heart of the climate change debate is a paradox - we've never had more information about our changing climate, yet surveys show that the public are, if anything, getting less sure they understand what's going on.

This programme aims to remedy that, with a new perspective on the whole subject. Presented by three mathematicians - Dr Hannah Fry, Prof Norman Fenton and Prof David Spiegelhalter - it hones in on just three key numbers that clarify all the important questions around climate change. The stories behind these numbers involve an extraordinary cast of characters, almost all of whom had nothing to do with climate change, but whose work is critical to our understanding of the climate.

The three numbers are:
0.85 degrees (the amount of warming the planet has undergone since 1880)
95 per cent (the degree of certainty climate scientists have that at least half the recent warming is man-made)
1 trillion tonnes (the total amount of carbon we can afford to burn - ever - in order to stay below 'dangerous levels' of climate change)

Understanding how scientists came up with these three numbers gives a unique perspective on what we know about the past, present and future of our changing climate.

THU 00:35 Africa's Great Civilisations (b0b8rg4x)
Series 1

The Atlantic Age

The award-winning film-maker and academic Henry Louis Gates Jr travels the length and breadth of Africa to explore the continent's epic history.

The Atlantic Age examines the tremendous changes that took place in Africa between the 15th and 18th centuries - including the seismic transformation as West African kingdoms encountered European mariners travelling farther and farther south along Africa's Atlantic coast, and the impact of European colonisation of the New World. Across the continent, kingdoms and empires rose and fell, with some 12.5 million Africans suffering enslavement in the crossfire.

THU 01:30 Africa's Great Civilisations (b0b9tt9y)
Series 1

Clash of Civilisations

The award-winning film-maker and academic Henry Louis Gates Jr travels the length and breadth of Africa to explore the continent's epic history.

In the final part of Africa's Great Civilisations, Henry Louis Gates Jr reviews the 19th century, when a fierce competition for resources and trade stimulated ingenuity but also enticed European powers, triggering the 'scramble for Africa' and inciting conflicts that threatened the stability and wellbeing of the continent.

THU 02:20 Wonders of the Solar System (b00rf172)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

FRIDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2019

FRI 19:00 World News Today (m000b8p6)
The news programme for audiences who want more depth to their daily coverage. With a focus on Europe, Middle East and Africa.

FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m000b8p8)
Steve Wright and Caron Keating present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 20 October 1988 and featuring D Mob ft Gary Haisman, The Christians, Enya, Deacon Blue, Milli Vanilli, Erasure, Kylie Minogue, Whitney Houston and The Wee Papa Girl Rappers.

FRI 20:00 A Blackpool Big Band Boogie: Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra (b0645530)
Concert specially recorded for BBC Four on 24 June 2015 at the Empress Ballroom Blackpool, where Jools Holland and his band were joined by special guests Rumer, Marc Almond and Ruby Turner.

More than 14,000 people applied for tickets and a lucky 800 were in the audience, and by the end of the concert Jools and his orchestra had almost every one of them on their feet.

The concert celebrates the golden age of big band music from the 1930s to the 1950s and Jools presents his interpretations of standards from the greats such as Count Basie, Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman. Jools's orchestra includes some of the best musicians in the business and the concert combines the incomparable power and sophistication of the big band sound with brilliant individual performances.

Highlights include Rumer's joyful Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive, Marc Almond's stunning rendition of Edith Piaf's Hymn Le Amour and singer Ruby Turner's extraordinary vocals.

FRI 21:00 Top of the Pops (m000b8pb)
Simon Mayo and Anthea Turner present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 27 October 1988 and featuring Milli Vanilli, The Art of Noise and Tom Jones, Royal House, Tanita Tikaram, Robert Palmer, Yazz, Deacon Blue, Enya, and The Beatmasters with PP Arnold.

FRI 21:30 Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes (m000b8pd)
A revelatory, thrilling and emotional journey behind the scenes of Blue Note Records, the pioneering label that gave voice to some of the finest jazz artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

When German Jewish refugees Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff started Blue Note in 1939 in New York, the two Berliners allowed their artists complete freedom and encouraged them to compose new music. Their visionary and uncompromising approach led to releases that did not just revolutionise jazz; they left an indelible imprint on art and music, including hip hop.

The present provides a point of departure from which the film recovers the past. Legendary artists Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter come together with today’s generation of groundbreaking Blue Note artists such as Robert Glasper and Ambrose Akinmusire to record an all-stars album.

These reflections lead us back to the highly influential figures of the past on which the legacy of Blue Note has been built, including Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Horace Silver and Miles Davis. Rare archival interviews and conversations with Blue Note musicians provide an intimate look into the creation and philosophy behind some of the most seminal tracks in jazz history.

The film reveals the values that jazz embodies and that Blue Note has promoted since its inception: freedom of expression, equality, dialogue - values we can learn from and that are as relevant today as they were when the label was founded.

FRI 23:00 David Bowie: Finding Fame (m0002jlw)
This is the David Bowie story you don’t know. The story of how David Robert Jones became David Bowie, how David Bowie became Ziggy Stardust and how Ziggy became immortal, changing the musical landscape as he did so. The story that finally makes sense of one of the greatest icons of the 20th and 21st centuries. Part three of Francis Whately’s Bowie trilogy.

FRI 00:30 Peaky Blinders (p01fj94w)
Series 1

Episode 1

Birmingham, 1919. Thomas Shelby controls the Peaky Blinders, one of the city's most feared criminal organisations, but his ambitions go beyond running the streets.

When a crate of guns goes missing, Thomas recognises an opportunity to move up in the world.

FRI 01:30 Peaky Blinders (b03bgw2m)
Series 1

Episode 2

Birmingham, 1919. Thomas Shelby controls the Peaky Blinders, one of the city's most feared criminal organisations, but his ambitions go beyond running the streets.

Thomas fixes a horse race, provoking the ire of local kingpin Billy Kimber. He also starts a war with gypsy family the Lees. Meanwhile, Inspector Campbell carries out a vicious raid of Small Heath in search of the stolen guns.

FRI 02:30 Peaky Blinders (b03bsw9p)
Series 1

Episode 3

Thomas Shelby plans to go to Cheltenham races in order to get closer to Billy Kimber. Knowing the gangster's appetite for beautiful women, Thomas invites Grace to accompany him.

Meanwhile some IRA sympathisers approach Thomas with an offer to buy the stolen guns.

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

A Blackpool Big Band Boogie: Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra 20:00 FRI (b0645530)

A Timewatch Guide 21:15 TUE (b06zdll0)

A Timewatch Guide 02:45 TUE (b06zdll0)

Africa's Great Civilisations 00:35 THU (b0b8rg4x)

Africa's Great Civilisations 01:30 THU (b0b9tt9y)

An Art Lovers' Guide 22:00 WED (b08qkvcq)

Arena 21:00 SUN (m000b8nj)

Arena 01:45 TUE (m000b8nj)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 MON (m000b8n9)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 WED (m000b8nq)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 THU (m000b8p0)

Blackadder 22:50 SAT (p00bf6s9)

Blackadder 23:20 SAT (p00bf6vt)

Blackadder 23:50 SAT (b0078nnr)

Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes 21:30 FRI (m000b8pd)

Britain's Lost Masterpieces 21:00 WED (m000b8ns)

Britain's Lost Masterpieces 03:00 WED (m000b8ns)

Chalkie Davies: Rock Photographer 03:20 SAT (b05xd4yv)

Climate Change by Numbers 23:20 THU (p02jsdrk)

Climategate: Science of a Scandal 21:00 THU (m000b8p2)

Dan Cruickshank's Monuments of Remembrance 20:00 SUN (b0brk994)

Dan Cruickshank's Monuments of Remembrance 02:55 SUN (b0brk994)

David Bowie: Finding Fame 23:00 FRI (m0002jlw)

Genius of the Modern World 23:30 MON (b07ht3cd)

Great Barrier Reef 20:00 MON (b019xxhh)

Great Barrier Reef 02:35 MON (b019xxhh)

Great War Horses 23:45 SUN (b094f4tl)

Horizon 00:45 TUE (b03tz705)

MAKE! Craft Britain 23:45 TUE (b09whc5t)

Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution 19:00 SAT (b06zdkds)

Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution 01:20 SAT (b06zdkds)

PQ17: An Arctic Convoy Disaster 22:30 MON (b03n3297)

Palace for the People 22:30 SUN (m000b8nn)

Pappano's Classical Voices 01:25 SUN (b062hmz6)

Pappano's Classical Voices 01:30 MON (b0638jby)

Peaky Blinders 00:30 FRI (p01fj94w)

Peaky Blinders 01:30 FRI (b03bgw2m)

Peaky Blinders 02:30 FRI (b03bsw9p)

Scuffles, Swagger and Shakespeare: The Hidden Story of English 22:15 TUE (m000b8ny)

Secret Knowledge 02:25 SUN (b01rml7t)

Six Wives with Lucy Worsley 20:00 WED (b086zd44)

Sleuths, Spies & Sorcerers: Andrew Marr's Paperback Heroes 22:45 TUE (p040pvpp)

Spiral 21:00 SAT (m000b8lb)

Spiral 22:00 SAT (m000b8ld)

Storyville 21:00 MON (m000b8nd)

The Renaissance Unchained 01:00 WED (b0726fyv)

The Renaissance Unchained 02:00 WED (b072wvy9)

The Sinner 00:45 SUN (m0001qr0)

The Sky at Night 22:00 SUN (m000b8nl)

The Sky at Night 19:30 THU (m000b8nl)

Timewatch 00:30 MON (b00jj523)

Top of the Pops 00:20 SAT (m000b1gy)

Top of the Pops 00:50 SAT (m000b1sn)

Top of the Pops 19:30 FRI (m000b8p8)

Top of the Pops 21:00 FRI (m000b8pb)

Track Cycling World Cup 19:00 SUN (m000b8nf)

Treasures of Heaven 00:00 WED (b012248j)

Unlocking Nature's Secrets: The Serengeti Rules 22:00 THU (m000b8p4)

Wild China 20:00 SAT (b00bybp3)

Wild China 02:20 SAT (b00bybp3)

Women's Football: Internationals 19:00 TUE (m000b8nw)

Wonders of the Solar System 20:00 THU (b00rf172)

Wonders of the Solar System 02:20 THU (b00rf172)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (m000b8p6)

World War I at Home 19:30 MON (b045gjw5)

World War I at Home 19:30 WED (b04gkn55)

imagine... 23:00 WED (b093tw95)