B4

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

SATURDAY 07 MARCH 2020

SAT 19:00 Rick Stein's Long Weekends (b082wf36)
Lisbon

Rick Stein visits Lisbon on the banks of the River Tagus, a city in love with its seafood and possibly the best custard tarts in the world. The culinary effects of Portugal's historic explorations are still seen in its dishes with hints of cinnamon and freshly chopped coriander from the east, and tomatoes and chillies from the Americas.

Rick is inspired to cook the city's favourite snack - salt cod fritters, delicious almond tart and pork with clams, a favourite dish throughout Portugal. With seafood at the forefront of his mind, he makes sure he arrives just in time for Lisbon's famous St Anthony's Day parade and sardine festival.

SAT 20:00 South Pacific (b00kwdqr)
Ocean of Volcanoes

Witness the birth, growth and death of an island in the greatest ocean on Earth. Millions of years are condensed into an hour revealing unforgettable images of an erupting underwater volcano; rivers of lava exploding below the waves; roads and houses buried by molten rivers of rock. From these violent beginnings emerge coral reefs of unparalleled richness, supporting large groups of grey reef sharks and giant manta rays.

The rising lands of the South Pacific have also given life to some very strange creatures, from the vampire bug that thrives in tropical snow, and the megapode, a bird that uses volcanic springs to incubate its eggs, to vast swarms of jellyfish trapped forever by a coral mountain. This is the Pacific as you've never seen it before.

SAT 21:00 Hidden (m000g2tk)
Series 2

Episode 4

Cadi questions Karl Lewis, who admits that the accusations he brought against Ellis were false. Cadi returns her attention to Mia Owen, the witness whose false testimony led to Karl's arrest.

SAT 21:55 Clive James (m000g6m0)
Postcard from Miami

Clive James goes to Miami in search of vice. He's given a boat tour of the Miami islands by an ex-CIA agent, speeds out into the Gulf with US Customs to track down drug runners, and cruises through Coconut Grove in a Miami Police patrol car.

He also meets Miami Vice star Don Johnson, Gloria Estefan of the Miami Sound Machine, columnist for the Miami Herald Dave Barry, and Joel Hirschhorn, who defends alleged drug barons.

SAT 22:50 Clive James (m000g6m2)
Postcard from Chicago

Chicago is America's best-kept secret. Clive James discovers there's more to it than memories of Al Capone and Mayor Daley.

SAT 23:40 6 Music Festival (m000g6m4)
2020

The Selecter and EOB at the 6 Music Festival

The Selecter and Ed O’Brien from Radiohead play live at the Roundhouse for this year's 6 Music Festival in Camden, London.

May contain flashing images.

SAT 00:25 Top of the Pops (m000fzly)
Nicky Campbell and Sybil Ruscoe present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 20 April 1989 and featuring Transvision Vamp, Inner City, Holly Johnson, Metallica, Midnight Oil, The Cure, Simple Minds, Bangles and The Beatmasters with Merlin.

SAT 01:00 Top of the Pops (m000fzm0)
Gary Davies presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 27 April 1989 and featuring London Boys, Natalie Cole, De La Soul, Fine Young Cannibals, Morrissey, The Beatmasters with Merlin, Yazz, Bangles and Poison.

SAT 01:30 South Pacific (b00kwdqr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

SAT 02:30 Rick Stein's Long Weekends (b082wf36)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

SUNDAY 08 MARCH 2020

SUN 19:00 Wild (b0078yps)
2005-06 Shorts

West Coast Otters

A charming portrait of two otters, a mother and daughter who are inseparable, living on the idyllic west coast of Scotland. With the young cub never more than a few feet from her mum, a very special relationship is intimately observed as the cub grows up, learning how to fish and fend for herself. As the cub faces the dangers of her first Scottish winter, Mum has to work hard to make sure that both survive.

SUN 19:10 SheBelieves Cup (m000g6lq)
2020

Japan v England – Second Half

Kelly Somers introduces live coverage as England continue their defence of the SheBelieves Cup against Japan, in Harrison, New Jersey.

England have won their last two matches against 2011 world champions Japan. Phil Neville’s side beat them 3-0 in their final game of the 2019 SheBelieves tournament to seal the title, while they also claimed a 2-0 victory in their group game against Japan in last year’s World Cup to progress to the knockout stage. Ellen White scored both goals that day.

Japan reached the last 16 of last year’s World Cup, where they lost to eventual finalists the Netherlands.

SUN 20:30 Bloody Queens: Elizabeth and Mary (b06wdzd1)
Of all the dangers Elizabeth I had to survive - the Spanish Armada, a Catholic continent plotting against her incessantly, restless nobles uneasy at serving a queen who refused to marry - none was so personally intense as her rivalry with another woman - her cousin and fellow queen, Mary, Queen of Scots. This was her longest, most gruelling battle - lasting over two decades, it threatened to tear apart both Elizabeth and her kingdom. In the end, it would force her to make the hardest decision of her life.

The two queens stared across the ultimate divides of their time: Protestant and Catholic, Tudor and Stuart, English and Scottish. Their fascination with one another grew into the greatest queenly face-off in our entire history. And yet, in 26 years of mutual obsession, they never actually met. Their confrontation was carried out through letters - a war of words so heartfelt and revealing that the two queens' passions can still be felt.

For the first time on television, this chronicle of love turned to hatred, of trust betrayed by plot and bloodshed, is dramatised purely from the original words of the two queens and their courtiers. Expert historians examine, interpret and argue over the monarchs' motives for their 'duel to the death' - for in the end only one queen could survive such emotional combat.

SUN 21:30 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.

SUN 23:00 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b07l57yy)
Shirley Hughes

For over five decades, Shirley Hughes has been entertaining young children with her lovingly illustrated picture books. From the adventures of Alfie to the stories of Dave and his favourite toy Dogger, Shirley has created some of our most popular children's books. In 2007, Dogger was voted the nation's all-time favourite illustrated children's book and, aged 89, Shirley shows no signs of slowing down.

This programme sees Shirley working on the final page of her latest Alfie book, discussing her love of illustrating, the challenges of coming up with new ideas, and why she has no plans to retire.

SUN 23:30 6 Music Festival (m000g6ls)
2020

6 Music Festival Celebrates International Women's Day

Join Lauren Laverne as the 6 Music Festival heads to the Roundhouse in Camden, London on International Women's Day, with live performances from Roisin Murphy, Kate Tempest, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, Jehnny Beth from Savages, Anna Meredith and Nadine Shah.

May contain flashing images.

SUN 00:15 Unsung Heroines: Danielle de Niese on the Lost World of Female Composers (b0b6znwz)
Danielle de Niese explores the lives and works of five female composers - from the Middle Ages to the late 20th century - who were famous in their lifetimes, but whose work was then forgotten.

Western classical music has traditionally been seen as a procession of male geniuses, but the truth is that women have always composed. Hildegard of Bingen, Francesca Caccini, Clara Schumann, Florence Price and Elizabeth Maconchy - all these women battled to fulfil their ambitions and overcome the obstacles that society placed in their way. They then disappeared into obscurity, and only some have found recognition again.

SUN 01:15 Darcey Bussell: Looking for Margot (b0868lnk)
Margot Fonteyn has inspired generations of ballerinas. She was beautiful, brilliant, talented and never put a foot wrong on stage. Her late flowering partnering with a much younger man, Rudolf Nureyev, created the most dazzling ballet partnership in history.

And yet behind the scenes, as Darcey Bussell discovers, Margot's life was marked by tragedy and disappointment. She barely knew her father and was dominated by her well-meaning, yet fiercely ambitious, mother. She couldn't find love and never had children. And when she finally did marry, to a man she loved from afar for many years, he turned out to be very different from what she expected: a hero to his people, but not always to his wife.

Darcey goes behind the scenes at the Royal Opera House and the Royal Ballet, and travels from London to New York and Panama looking for Margot. She finds how Margot lost out in love, got drawn into a failed foreign revolution, danced on for far too long and died alone and in poverty, miles from home. Along the way, Darcey speaks to many people who have not spoken out before about Margot. In the end, Darcey learns that by following her heart, Margot did find a kind of happiness, even though it came at a very high price.

SUN 02:15 Kiri Te Kanawa at the BBC (b08h918x)
The charismatic New Zealand soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa looks back at her life in song through forty years of classic performances from the BBC archives, from her first TV performance on The Harry Secombe Show in 1971 to her appearances on Top of the Pops to sing the rugby anthem World in Union in 1991, plus performances from the Last Night of the Proms and Terry Wogan's chat show.

Dame Kiri's dramatic and operatic skills are captured in the Royal Opera's production of Puccini's Manon, she describes working with Leonard Bernstein, Georg Solti and on Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio, and she recalls the royal wedding in 1981 at which she sang Handel's Let the Bright Seraphim to a global TV audience of 700 million.

There's documentary footage of the house where Kiri grew up in New Zealand (now a car park), she vividly evokes the East End of London, where she studied as a student when she first came to London, and we see her goofing around on the golf course with Placido Domingo.

As Dame Kiri says in her candid new interview for this programme in which she reflects on her BBC appearances, "If I look back what you have is snippets of my life, I suppose.".

MONDAY 09 MARCH 2020

MON 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m000g6mg)
Series 1

09/03/2020

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

MON 19:30 Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage (b00csp3w)
The Cyclades

Francesco da Mosto continues his sea tour around the Mediterranean from Venice to Istanbul by visiting the magical, mystical Greek islands known as the Cyclades.

First stop is the most sacred island of all, Delos, the birthplace of the god Apollo. Francesco encounters the lions of Delos and the great phalli of Dionysus.

On Tinos, a place of miracle and pilgrimage, he meets a woman who crawls on her hands and knees for a kilometre uphill to give thanks to the Virgin Mary for the recovery of her sick husband.

The island of Naxos was a key port for the Venetian empire and even the houses feel Italian - a home-from-home for the travel-weary Francesco, who enjoys the island's traditional and very strong liqueur.

After a spot of octopus hunting, Francesco arrives at the great sunken, flooded volcano of Santorini which boasts a civilisation older than the Classical world and the best sunset in Greece.

MON 20:00 Dynasties (p06mvpsw)
Series 1

Chimpanzee

In Senegal, west Africa, live a group of chimpanzees led by an alpha male named David. He has already been alpha for three years - a time when leaders here are usually overthrown. To make matters worse, David has no allies - no-one to help him defend his leadership. As the dry season sets in, the group are forced closer together to survive. But David is now surrounded by rivals who all want his crown and are prepared to kill him for it.

David faces brutal battles, has his world engulfed in flames and has to pull off an extraordinary act of deception. In a story of power and politics, can David overcome the threats to his leadership and hold on to the alpha position long enough to sire a possible future heir to his throne?

MON 21:00 Age of the Image (m000g6mj)
Series 1

Power Games

James Fox explores how mass communication and new technology helped 20th-century image-makers transform society, as films, photographs, TV, art and advertising all became weapons in the ideological battles of the age.

James tells the story of Marlene Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl, who each used cinema to pursue very different visions of power and freedom. We discover how Jewish comic book artists in New York created superheroes as their act of resistance to the Nazi threat. And we find out why a Muhammad Ali magazine cover is one of the most powerful political images of the last century.

In the UK he reveals how Picture Post photographers and directors such as Ken Loach empowered the lives of ordinary people through a new style of film-making and reportage. Travelling from the Normandy beaches where Robert Capa took his famous D-Day photographs to the Nasa control room that first witnessed live images from the moon landings, it’s an exhilarating look at how image-makers discovered the power to influence and change our lives.

MON 22:00 Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley (b0b5y4zg)
2018 marks 100 years since the first women over the age of 30, who owned property, were allowed to vote in the UK. The fight for the vote was about much more than just the Pankhurst family or Emily Davison's fateful collision with the king's horse. In this film, Lucy is at the heart of the drama, alongside a group of less well known, but equally astonishing, young working-class suffragettes who decided to go against every rule and expectation that Edwardian society had about them.

Lucy explores the actions of these women as their campaign becomes more and more dangerous, while their own words are delivered in simple but strikingly emotive pieces of dramatised testimony. Lucy also tells this story from a range of iconic original locations, from the Houses of Parliament and 10 Downing Street to the Savoy Hotel, and has access to an amazing range of artefacts, from hunger-striking medals to defused bombs and private letters between the government and the press.

In this Edwardian history drama, Lucy and her group of suffragettes from the Women's Social Political Union reveal what life was like for these young women, as she follows the trail of increasingly illegal and dangerous acts they would end up committing. For while they would start with peaceful protests, but they would go from to obstruction to vandalism and finally to arson and bomb making.

Lucy investigates what drove them to break the law, to the prison conditions they experienced, including violent force feedings and the subsequent radicalisation of these women that occurred, driving them to more and more extreme actions. Lucy looks at the ways in which the press responded to the suffragettes and their own use of PR and branding to counteract the negative portrayals - from WSPU postcards to pennants and exhibitions.

The decisive and largely negative role that members of Parliament played is unpacked, as they would throw out numerous attempts to give women the vote. The role of the police is explored, both in the ways in which the suffragettes' demonstrations were handled and the covert and sometimes violent tactics that were used against them.

As the actions of the suffragettes became increasingly extreme, it would take a world-changing event to stop their campaign in its tracks and allow some form of equality at the ballot box.

MON 23:30 Art of France (b08f1bw0)
Series 1

This Is the Modern World

In the final episode, Andrew begins with the impressionists. He plunges into one of the most wildly creative periods in the history of art, when France was changing at a rapid pace and angry young artists would reinvent how to paint, finding their muses in the bars, brothels and cabarets of belle epoque Paris and turning the world of art on its head. Monet, Degas and friends launched a febrile conversation about the role of painting in the modern world that would pave the way for just about every modern art movement of note, from the cubists to the Fauves, from the surrealists to the existentialists and from conceptual artists to the abstract expressionists.

MON 00:30 Britain's Outlaws: Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues (b06rfl46)
Rogues Gallery

Few figures in British history have captured the popular imagination as much as the outlaw. From gentleman highwaymen, via swashbuckling pirates to elusive urban thieves and rogues, the brazen escapades and the flamboyance of the outlaw made them the anti-hero of their time - feared by the rich, admired by the poor and celebrated by writers and artists.

In this three-part series, historian Dr Sam Willis travels the open roads, the high seas and urban alleyways to explore Britain's 17th and 18th-century underworld of highwaymen, pirates and rogues, bringing the great age of the British outlaw vividly to life.

Sam shows that, far from being 'outsiders', outlaws were very much a product of their time, shaped by powerful national events. In each episode, he focuses not just on a particular type of outlaw, but a particular era. The series as a whole offers a chronological portrait of the changing face of crime in the 17th and 18th centuries.

In the final episode, Sam looks at urban crime, fraud and corruption in the 18th century, uncovering a fascinating rogues’ gallery of charmers, fraudsters and villains. Charmers like thief and serial escaper Jack Sheppard, so notorious that almost a quarter of a million people turned up to witness his hanging. Almost as controversial in her lifetime was Mary Toft, a fraudster who managed to convince no less than King George I and his surgeon that she had given birth to rabbits, making her, perhaps, the original 'con' artist.

MON 01:30 Rude Britannia (b00sss1g)
You Never Had It So Rude

The final part of a series exploring British traditions of satire and bawdy humour brings the story of a naughty nation up to date and explores how a mass democracy of rude emerged, beginning with the 1960s revolutions and continuing with the today's controversies.

There is a look at how a tradition of rude cartooning came back to life, as cartoonists draw the iconic political figures of the last 50 years: Gerald Scarfe captures Harold Macmillan, Steve Bell does Margaret Thatcher and Martin Rowson depicts Tony Blair.

The rude comic art of Viz is revealed in the characters of Sid the Sexist and the Fat Slags, and the rude theatre of Joe Orton, the rude radio of Round the Horne and the hippy rudeness of underground magazine Oz are also investigated.

And the history of rude television is traced from Till Death Us Do Part to Little Britain via Spitting Image. Finally, there is a look at how rude comedy begins to be seen as offensive in sexist and racist ways.

MON 02:30 Age of the Image (m000g6mj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 10 MARCH 2020

TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m000g6mb)
Series 1

10/03/2020

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

TUE 19:30 Gareth Edwards’ Great Welsh Adventure (m0009hyp)
Series 1

Episode 1

Gareth Edwards, once voted the greatest rugby player of all time, is not quite so coordinated when put in charge of a seventy-foot narrowboat. Now in his 70s, the rugby legend is busier than ever and constantly racing from one thing to the next. Which is why his wife, childhood sweetheart Maureen, has determined he needs to chill out more. She’s hatched a plan to whisk him away to explore the four Welsh canals. As no narrowboat is allowed to go more than three miles an hour, she figures that exploring the Welsh canals is the one way to finally get him to relax. But the plan is not entirely successful as Gareth’s stress levels go through the roof once he is in charge of his narrowboat. Even though everything around them happens slowly, avoiding hitting obstacles along the way proves no easy feat. Maureen, meanwhile, has some previous experience of driving a barge so knows the perils but also struggles when she jumps in the driving seat. After a pub lunch, Gareth and Maureen return to find their boat has drifted off and blocked the entire canal.

Somehow, Wales’s much-loved couple still find time to appreciate the breathtaking scenery. The Llangollen canal is one of the most scenic canals in Britain, with stunning landscapes and the 300m long Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. The aqueduct was designed by Thomas Telford in 1795 and carries the canal over the River Dee on 19 vast arches. In its day it was radical new technology. Even now it’s not for the faint-hearted, and a good head for heights is needed before setting out to cross the 200-year-old structure.

Gareth takes an opportunity to catch up with an old friend who lives near the canal. Dai Davies was goalkeeper for Wales between 1969 and 1987, but he and Gareth go back further than that. While young men, still dreaming of sporting success, they were flatmates. Now Dai has left international sporting success behind him to focus on alternative therapies. Maureen hopes Dai will finally manage to slow Gareth down. Even if she doesn’t succeed, this warm and funny duo will have still enjoyed some of the best landscapes you can imagine on this spectacular route.

TUE 20:00 Timeshift (b06jnzjx)
Series 15

The People's Liners - Britain's Lost Pleasure Fleets

Timeshift casts off for a colourful voyage of 'high teas on the high seas' in the company of passengers and crew of the vintage steamers which were once a common sight on the rivers and coastal waters around Britain.

Far more than a means of transport, these steamers attracted a devoted following, treating their passengers, whatever their pocket, to the adventure and trappings of an ocean voyage whilst actually rarely venturing out of sight of land. A highlight of the great British seaside holiday from the 1820s until the early 1960s - and open to all - they were 'the people's liners'.

TUE 21:00 Ian Hislop's Olden Days (b040rqjm)
Heroes for All Times

Ian Hislop explores perhaps the most distinctive, peculiar and deep-seated trait of the British, our obsession with the past. Over three films he reveals how and why, throughout our history, we have continually plundered 'the olden days' to make sense of and shape the present.

This opening episode reveals how, ever since 1066, we have harked back to the Dark Ages. In particular, Ian turns his gaze on two of our most inspiring kings - King Arthur and King Alfred - one quite possibly entirely fictional, the other entirely historical, and yet each the stuff of legend.

On the trail of legendary King Arthur, Ian visits Tintagel Castle, the fantastic Round Table at Winchester and even the sacred 'burial place' of Arthur and Guinevere at Glastonbury Abbey. He finds out how this storybook king has changed, from wild Celtic warlord to chivalric hero; from piously questing king to national totem of Victorian Wales. Ian also discovers why the king of Camelot inspired Henry VIII as much as today's New Age druids.

King Alfred repelled the Vikings, reorganised the army and was an educational pioneer... not, Ian notes wryly, as exciting as pulling a sword from a stone, but rather more useful. And yet, peeling away the evidence, there is more fiction involved in this 'historic' king than meets the eye - manipulated to suit the diverse purposes of tricksy mediaeval lawyers, a Tudor archbishop for whom we have the cake-burning story to thank, and even a Georgian prince of Wales, he gradually becomes blessed with almost every virtue. By Victorian times, Alfred the Great, has evolved into 'the most perfect man in history', one-man embodiment of everything that is great about Great Britain.

Winston Churchill summoned up the spirit of Alfred to inspire the nation in the dark days of 1940. Meanwhile Arthur reigns supreme today in movies, TV series and even online gaming. Ian even gets to meet Arthur Uther Pendragon, self-declared reincarnation of King Arthur himself, to find out what is on Arthur's mind in the 21st century.

The multiple historical makeovers of these Dark Age kings provide a fascinating insight into the evolution of our sense of national identity. Thoroughly forensic, always curious and witty, this is an exploration of high and low culture over 1,000 years. As ever with Ian Hislop's cultural histories, it focuses on the 'story' bit of history and holds up a most revealing mirror to ourselves.

TUE 22:00 Lost Sitcoms (b07tczcn)
Till Death Us Do Part

Series which recreates three British classic lost sitcoms with a stellar new cast. In this episode of Till Death Us Do Part originally broadcast in 1967, Alf arrives home to find that a burnt supper is the least of his worries.

TUE 22:25 Armada: 12 Days to Save England (b05yxltf)
Series 1

Endgame

The final episode of a three-part drama-documentary series telling the story of how England came within a whisker of disaster in summer 1588.

Newly discovered documents reveal a remarkable web of misunderstandings that stopped the Spanish from invading, and show how the English victory forged the reputation of Elizabeth.

TUE 23:25 Inside the Medieval Mind (b00b6w6m)
Power

Professor Robert Bartlett lays bare the brutal framework of the medieval class system, where inequality was part of the natural order, the life of serfs little better than those of animals and the knight's code of chivalry more one of caste solidarity than morality. Yet a social revolution would transform relations between those with absolute power and those with none.

TUE 00:25 A Victorian Scandal: The Rudest Book in Britain (m0005prc)
Dr Fern Riddell is a young historian and author who goes back to the archives to challenge more traditional historical views of Victorian society.

Her investigation into a sensational Victorian high court trial, which took place in 1877, sheds new light on the ‘no sex please, we are British’ cliché often associated with Victorian England.

TUE 00:55 Sex, Chips & Poetry: 50 Years of the Mersey Sound (b097bl8c)
Fifty years ago, Penguin published its 1967 hit pop poetry book The Mersey Sound, introducing Roger McGough, Brian Patten and Adrian Henri to the world, thereby securing Liverpool as the cultural centre of the UK and bringing poetry to pop audiences. With the help of famous friends and fellow writers, McGough and Patten tell the inside story of this modern classic and how they made poetry cool.

TUE 01:55 Genius of the Ancient World (b066d0v5)
Confucius

In the final episode, Bettany travels to China on the trail of Confucius, a great sage of Chinese history whose ideas have fundamentally shaped the country of his birth for around 2,500 years.

TUE 02:55 Ian Hislop's Olden Days (b040rqjm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH 2020

WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m000g6m6)
Series 1

11/03/2020

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

WED 19:30 Handmade on the Silk Road (b079cgml)
The Weaver

The Uyghur community in north west China have been making atlas silk for thousands of years. Mattursun Islam and his family are continuing the tradition, using a combination of handmade techniques and mechanised looms. From designing the patterns to colouring, dyeing and weaving the thread, this film follows each stage in absorbing detail. We also get an engaging glimpse into how their family and working life are closely connected. With rival companies often copying his designs, Mattursan is proud of his reputation. But he and his wife also enjoy a good-natured rivalry over who really runs things.

WED 20:00 The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts (b0c06nv7)
Series 1

Episode 2

Anita Rani is joined by internationally renowned potter Keith Brymer Jones and Arts & Crafts expert and dealer Patch Rogers as the six 21st-century crafters are faced with a new challenge as they restore their home for the month, room by room.

This week the crafters are returning to nature as they not only restore the master bedroom to all its Arts & Crafts glory - but also take part in some fresh water swimming and an authentic Victorian picnic. Using original tools and techniques they are set to craft from scratch an Arts & Crafts double bed and bed spread, a bed side clock and plaster wall decoration and all in just a week - all the while eating, working and living within the philosophies first outlined by the likes of John Ruskin and William Morris. Will their 1890s communal life help them to better understand the depth and scale of the Arts & Crafts movement both as a power for artistic and social change?

But a week into the experience and the highs and lows of living and working together as a creative commune are beginning to take its toll and the some of the crafters are beginning to crack as creative tensions start to show.

WED 21:00 SheBelieves Cup (m000g6m8)
2020

England v Spain

Eilidh Barbour introduces live coverage as defending champions England play their final game of the 2020 SheBelieves Cup against tournament debutants Spain, in Frisco, Texas.

England have won five of the previous 12 meetings between the sides compared to Spain’s two, with five matches drawn. Phil Neville’s team were 2-1 victors when the nations last met ahead of the 2019 World Cup, courtesy of goals from Beth Mead and Ellen White.

Spain reached the round of 16 in last year’s World Cup, where they were eliminated by eventual winners, USA.

WED 23:30 Blood and Gold: The Making of Spain with Simon Sebag Montefiore (b06ssjfk)
Nation

Simon explores Spain's golden age under Philip II through to the Spanish Civil War and dictatorship under Franco, from which Spain has emerged as a modern democratic monarchy.

WED 00:30 Treasures of Ancient Greece (b05rj5xj)
The Long Shadow

Alastair Sooke explores the extraordinary afterlife of the Greek masterpieces that changed the course of western culture. Succeeding centuries have found in ancient Greek art inspiration for their own ideals and ambitions. Filming in Italy, Germany, France and Britain, Alastair's investigation includes The Venus of Knidos, the first naked woman in western art, the bronze horses of St Mark's in Venice which became a pawn in an imperial game and the naked discus thrower, the Discobolus, personally bought by Adolf Hitler and used by him as a symbol of Aryan supremacy.

WED 01:30 Anni Albers: A Life in Thread (m0007vft)
Anni Albers enrolled in 1922 at the legendary Bauhaus school with hopes of becoming a painter. However, its founder feared that too many women might damage his new school’s reputation so Anni and the majority of female applicants were swiftly funnelled into the weaving class and workshop.

This film documents Anni’s rise and the turbulent final years of the Bauhaus when Anni was forced to flee Germany due to her Jewish heritage and start a new life in America. She went on to become the undisputed leader in her field, but while her husband Josef Albers’ paintings saw him become one of the world’s most famous living artists, Anni’s textiles were always side-lined as a feminine craft. She has since been recognised as a great artist.

WED 02:00 Handmade on the Silk Road (b079cgml)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

WED 02:30 The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts (b0c06nv7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

THURSDAY 12 MARCH 2020

THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m000g6ly)
Series 1

12/03/2020

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

THU 19:30 The Wonder of Animals (b04dq5tb)
Penguins

At first sight, penguins seem ill-suited to their environment - rotund abdomens, stubby little legs and stiff wings appear to make the going tough. But in fact it is these very traits that enable this bird to thrive.

Chris explores details of the penguin's anatomy, using new scientific research to reveal how its legs, wings and body shape have allowed it to conquer an extraordinary range of habitats, from deep forests to tropical waters, bustling cities and even the toughest place on the planet - Antarctica.

THU 20:00 Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History (b03knrvm)
Home Waters to High Seas

Shipwrecks are the nightmare we have forgotten - the price Britain paid for ruling the waves from an island surrounded by treacherous rocks. The result is a coastline that is home to the world's highest concentration of sunken ships. But shipwrecks also changed the course of British history, helped shape our national character and drove innovations in seafaring technology, as well as gripping our imagination.

In this three-part series, maritime historian Dr Sam Willis looks at how and why the shipwreck came to loom so large. He begins with the embarrassing story of the top-heavy Mary Rose, the freak wrecking of the Spanish Armada and the terrifying real-life disasters at sea that inspired two of the greatest of all castaway tales - Shakespeare's The Tempest and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.

THU 21:00 Can Science Make Me Perfect? with Alice Roberts (b0b6q3qy)
Anatomist Alice Roberts embarks on an audacious scientific stunt - to rebuild her own body from scratch, editing out errors left behind by evolution; to create the perfect body. With the help of one of the world's best virtual sculptors, Scott Eaton, and top SFX model maker Sangeet Prabhaker, Alice creates a life-size model of the perfect human body, to be revealed in front of 150 people at London's Science Museum.

Through natural selection, animals have evolved incredible biological designs, from supersharp senses to superpowered limbs. Alice is on a hunt to find the very best designs the natural world has to offer and use them to fix the flaws in our own human anatomy.

By meeting leading medical and animal experts, Alice finds out what the body's biggest problems are, and how amazing adaptations in the rest of the animal kingdom could provide inspiration for her perfect body. Using incredible CGI to morph her existing body into new forms, she demonstrates how rethinking our bodies could overcome millennia of natural selection.

Finally, in an epic reveal, Alice unveils the life-sized model of her perfect self in the Science Museum. There, in front of an audience, Alice meets the 'perfect human' version of herself for the first time.

Ambitious, audacious and packed with cutting-edge science, Can Science Make Me Perfect? With Alice Roberts challenges everything you thought you knew about the perfect body.

THU 22:30 Horizon (b07fys2y)
2016

Why Are We Getting So Fat?

Over 62 per cent of adults in the UK are currently overweight or obese and this figure is set to rise. A common attitude is that obese people should be ashamed - it is their fault, they have no will power and if they could just 'eat less and exercise more', the problem would soon be solved. Yet, despite millions of pounds being spent on this simple message, the UK is getting fatter every year.

Cambridge geneticist Dr Giles Yeo believes that for many obese people, simply eating less is a lot harder than you might think - and he is taking a road trip around the UK and America to uncover why. He meets the real people behind some of the more shocking newspaper headlines and, through their stories, reveals surprising truths which dispel commonly held myths about obesity. He gains access to scientists and doctors trialling cutting-edge techniques to tackle the crisis - from a 'miracle' hormone injection to a transfusion of faecal matter, and even learns a thing or two about his own size and relationship with food.

THU 23:30 An Art Lovers' Guide (b09yndw6)
Series 2

Lisbon

In the first of a series of city adventures, Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke head to Lisbon, rapidly becoming one of Europe’s most popular tourist destinations.

Winding through the city’s cobbled streets, from its steep hills to the picturesque shore line, the cultural riches they encounter reveal the city's fascinating history.

From a spectacular monument, to the maritime globetrotting of Portugal’s ‘golden age and the work of a photographer documenting the city's large African population, they discover a complex history of former glories and a darker, slave-trading past.

Their journey also uncovers the impact of twentieth century dictatorship on the city's artistic and cultural life, through the work of contemporary artists Paula Rego and Joana Vasconcelos.

And they discover how the city's location on the west coast of Europe, looking out to the Atlantic, has shaped the cosmopolitan spirit of the city: in one of the city's Fado clubs, Alastair and Nina enjoy the popular Portugese folk music, whose beautiful melodies celebrate a yearning for home, once sung by sailors dreaming of their return.

THU 00:30 Our Classical Century (b0bs6xv8)
Series 1

1918 - 1936

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

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

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

THU 01:30 Love and Betrayal in India: The White Mughal (p02z8109)
Historian and author William Dalrymple travels to the Deccan Plains of India to trace the romantic love affair between a British diplomat and a young Muslim princess. James Achilles Kirkpatrick was the British East India Company resident at the court of Hyderabad when he risked everything, converting to Islam and, sources suggest, even becoming a double agent, to marry Khair un Nissa 'Most Excellent among Women.'

Pursuing this compelling story of seduction and betrayal through the archives across both continents, Dalrymple unearths a world almost entirely unexplored by history. Kirkpatrick's behaviour might appear to breach the conventional boundaries of empire, but it was not unique. At the turn of the 18th century, one in three British men in India, known as white mughals, lived with Indian women, wore local dress and adopted Indian ways, much to the embarrassment of successive colonial administrations. To protect them from growing disapproval their mixed race children were sent back to England for their education and were ultimately absorbed into Victorian society.

Dalrymple tells the story of the Kirkpatricks and their children through the art and architecture of the time - from the classic Georgian portraiture of George Chinnery and Thomas Hickey to the fantastical Deccani miniatures of Venkatchellam and Tajully Ali Shah. And in this melding of influences, he asks why Christian and Islamic cultures cannot be at one again when once they made great marriages and produced such outstanding art.

THU 02:30 Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History (b03knrvm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

FRIDAY 13 MARCH 2020

FRI 19:00 World News Today (m000g6lg)
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 (m000g6lj)
Andy Crane and Jenny Powell present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 4 May 1989 and featuring Edelweiss, Midnight Oil, Debbie Gibson, Bon Jovi, Roxette, Kylie Minogue, Poison, Live Report, Bangles and Chaka Khan.

FRI 20:00 Queens of Soul (b05nhjsx)
The sisters are truly doing it for themselves in this celebration of the legendary female singers whose raw emotional vocal styles touched the hearts of followers worldwide. Featuring the effortless sounds of Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Gladys Knight, Randy Crawford, Angie Stone, Mary J Blige and Beyonce, to name a few.

The Queens of Soul presents the critically acclaimed and influential female singers who, decade by decade, changed the world one note at a time.

FRI 21:00 Top of the Pops (m000g6ll)
Bruno Brookes presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 11 May 1989 and featuring Swing Out Sister, Chaka Khan, Yazz, Queen, Hue and Cry, Natalie Cole, Stevie Nicks, London Boys, Kylie Minogue and Stefan Dennis.

FRI 21:30 Metal Britannia (b00r600m)
Nigel Planer narrates a documentary which traces the origins and development of British heavy metal from its humble beginnings in the industrialised Midlands to its proud international triumph.

In the late 60s a number of British bands were forging a new kind of sound. Known as hard rock, it was loud, tough, energetic and sometimes dark in outlook. They didn't know it, but Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and, most significantly, Black Sabbath were defining what first became heavy rock and then eventually heavy metal.

Inspired by blues rock, progressive rock, classical music and high energy American rock, they synthesised the sound that would inspire bands like Judas Priest to take metal even further during the 70s.

By the 80s its originators had fallen foul of punk rock, creative stasis or drug and alcohol abuse. But a new wave of British heavy metal was ready to take up the crusade. With the success of bands like Iron Maiden, it went global.

Contributors include Lemmy from Motorhead, Sabbath's Tony Iommi, Ian Gillan from Deep Purple, Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden and Saxon's Biff Byford.

FRI 23:00 Slipknot Unmasked: All Out Life (m000g6ln)
A unique and fascinating insight into the career and controversies of one of the most successful and contentious heavy metal bands of all time: Slipknot. The film combines new interviews, backstage access and an exclusive live session from the nine-piece group, performing six career-defining tracks at the legendary Maida Vale Studios in front of an intimate audience.

The six tracks, one from each of the band’s albums, transport the group, acknowledged by many as one of the most extreme live acts ever, from their usual arena-sized shows to a uniquely intimate and intense setting. The film highlights the group’s phenomenal 25-year career, revealing how one of the most relentless and intense-sounding groups ever have struggled with drink, drugs, depression and the death of a band member, topped the charts, outsold their peers and picked up a Grammy along the way, whilst staying as bold, fearless and exhilarating as ever.

FRI 00:00 Guitar, Drum and Bass (m0002700)
Series 1

On Guitar... Lenny Kaye!

Lenny Kaye, Patti Smith’s guitarist, explains how the quest for new guitar sounds has driven the history of popular music, from Les Paul’s first guitar to Bo Diddley’s tremolo, Duane Eddy’s whammy bar, Keith Richards’s fuzz pedal, The Who’s feedback, The Byrds’ 12-string, Hendrix’s wah-wah pedal, Uli Roth and Van Halen’s shredding, The Edge’s digital delay, Ry Cooder’s slide, and KT Tunstall and Ed Sheeran’s looper pedals. With Duane Eddy, Roger McGuinn, The Edge, Bonnie Raitt, Seasick Steve, KT Tunstall, Joe Bonamassa, Uli Roth, Vernon Reid, Heart’s Nancy Wilson, The Runaways’ Lita Ford and producer Shel Talmy.

FRI 01:00 Showbands: How Ireland Learned to Party (m00038lv)
Ardal O'Hanlon looks at what started the showband era in Ireland, the people involved, and how it came to an end in the 1980s.

FRI 02:00 Contagion: The BBC Four Pandemic (p059y0p1)
The government rates the global outbreak of a deadly flu virus as a major threat to the UK. It could happen at any time. To predict the impact of the next pandemic more accurately than ever before, new data is needed - and lots of it. Dr Hannah Fry is on the case.

She sets out to recruit the nation to download the BBC Pandemic app in a ground-breaking experiment to help plan for when the next deadly virus comes to the UK. How quickly will it spread? How many could it kill? What can we do about it? The BBC Four Pandemic experiment will find out.

Hannah masterminds the experiment and adopts the role of Patient Zero by walking the streets of Haslemere in Surrey to launch the outbreak. Meanwhile, emergency physician Dr Javid Abdelmoneim finds out why flu is still such a danger to society a century after Spanish flu killed up to 100 million people worldwide. He meets researchers trying to discover what makes some people more contagious than others and visits a factory that will produce vaccine when the next pandemic flu virus emerges.

Armed with the information he gathers and the results of the BBC Four Pandemic experiment, Hannah and Javid make a shocking revelation.

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

6 Music Festival 23:40 SAT (m000g6m4)

6 Music Festival 23:30 SUN (m000g6ls)

A Victorian Scandal: The Rudest Book in Britain 00:25 TUE (m0005prc)

Age of the Image 21:00 MON (m000g6mj)

Age of the Image 02:30 MON (m000g6mj)

An Art Lovers' Guide 23:30 THU (b09yndw6)

Anni Albers: A Life in Thread 01:30 WED (m0007vft)

Armada: 12 Days to Save England 22:25 TUE (b05yxltf)

Art of France 23:30 MON (b08f1bw0)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 MON (m000g6mg)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 TUE (m000g6mb)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 WED (m000g6m6)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 THU (m000g6ly)

Blood and Gold: The Making of Spain with Simon Sebag Montefiore 23:30 WED (b06ssjfk)

Bloody Queens: Elizabeth and Mary 20:30 SUN (b06wdzd1)

Britain's Outlaws: Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues 00:30 MON (b06rfl46)

Can Science Make Me Perfect? with Alice Roberts 21:00 THU (b0b6q3qy)

Clive James 21:55 SAT (m000g6m0)

Clive James 22:50 SAT (m000g6m2)

Contagion: The BBC Four Pandemic 02:00 FRI (p059y0p1)

Darcey Bussell: Looking for Margot 01:15 SUN (b0868lnk)

Dynasties 20:00 MON (p06mvpsw)

Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage 19:30 MON (b00csp3w)

Gareth Edwards’ Great Welsh Adventure 19:30 TUE (m0009hyp)

Genius of the Ancient World 01:55 TUE (b066d0v5)

Guitar, Drum and Bass 00:00 FRI (m0002700)

Handmade on the Silk Road 19:30 WED (b079cgml)

Handmade on the Silk Road 02:00 WED (b079cgml)

Hidden 21:00 SAT (m000g2tk)

Horizon 22:30 THU (b07fys2y)

Ian Hislop's Olden Days 21:00 TUE (b040rqjm)

Ian Hislop's Olden Days 02:55 TUE (b040rqjm)

Inside the Medieval Mind 23:25 TUE (b00b6w6m)

Kiri Te Kanawa at the BBC 02:15 SUN (b08h918x)

Lost Sitcoms 22:00 TUE (b07tczcn)

Love and Betrayal in India: The White Mughal 01:30 THU (p02z8109)

Metal Britannia 21:30 FRI (b00r600m)

Our Classical Century 00:30 THU (b0bs6xv8)

Queens of Soul 20:00 FRI (b05nhjsx)

Rick Stein's Long Weekends 19:00 SAT (b082wf36)

Rick Stein's Long Weekends 02:30 SAT (b082wf36)

Rude Britannia 01:30 MON (b00sss1g)

Sex, Chips & Poetry: 50 Years of the Mersey Sound 00:55 TUE (b097bl8c)

SheBelieves Cup 19:10 SUN (m000g6lq)

SheBelieves Cup 21:00 WED (m000g6m8)

Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History 20:00 THU (b03knrvm)

Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History 02:30 THU (b03knrvm)

Showbands: How Ireland Learned to Party 01:00 FRI (m00038lv)

Slipknot Unmasked: All Out Life 23:00 FRI (m000g6ln)

South Pacific 20:00 SAT (b00kwdqr)

South Pacific 01:30 SAT (b00kwdqr)

Storyville 21:30 SUN (m000b8nd)

Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley 22:00 MON (b0b5y4zg)

The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts 20:00 WED (b0c06nv7)

The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts 02:30 WED (b0c06nv7)

The Wonder of Animals 19:30 THU (b04dq5tb)

Timeshift 20:00 TUE (b06jnzjx)

Top of the Pops 00:25 SAT (m000fzly)

Top of the Pops 01:00 SAT (m000fzm0)

Top of the Pops 19:30 FRI (m000g6lj)

Top of the Pops 21:00 FRI (m000g6ll)

Treasures of Ancient Greece 00:30 WED (b05rj5xj)

Unsung Heroines: Danielle de Niese on the Lost World of Female Composers 00:15 SUN (b0b6znwz)

What Do Artists Do All Day? 23:00 SUN (b07l57yy)

Wild 19:00 SUN (b0078yps)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (m000g6lg)