American painter Bob Ross offers soothing words of encouragement to viewers and painting hobbyists in an enormously popular series that has captivated audiences worldwide since 1982. Ross is a cult figure, with nearly two million Facebook followers and 3,000 instructors globally. His soothing, nurturing personality is therapy for the weary, and his respect for nature and wildlife helps heighten environmental awareness.
Across the series, Ross demonstrates his unique painting technique, which eliminates the need for each layer of paint to dry. In real time, he creates tranquil scenes taken from nature, including his trademark ‘happy’ clouds, cascading waterfalls, snow-covered forests, serene lakes and distant mountain summits.
In this episode, see what can be achieved on a simple black canvas as Bob Ross paints a moonlit setting with crashing waves.
Many of Bob’s faithful viewers are not painters at all. They are relaxing and unwinding with Bob’s gentle manner and encouraging words, captivated by the magic taking place on the canvas.
Sharon Eyal, a former star dancer and in-house choreographer at Tel Aviv’s pioneering Batsheva Dance Company, has become one of the most exciting and powerful choreographers in contemporary dance. Her recent collaborations with fashion house Christian Dior and American art-rockers The National have brought Eyal and her dark, sensual work into mainstream culture.
This film sees Sharon and her dance company L-E-V at their most raw, rehearsing and premiering new work against the brutalist backdrop of Bold Tendencies in Peckham, south London, a multi-storey car park turned hip arts venue. It is an aesthetic and an attitude that echoes Eyal’s origins in the underground techno rave scene in Tel Aviv, and the film documents how this common ground creates a uniquely intimate and visceral performance for the London crowd.
With contributions from the dancers, musicians and Sharon Eyal herself, and with backstage access to the company in London and Israel, this film is a rare opportunity to observe the creative process of one of the dance world’s most admired figures.
The explosive story of chemistry is the story of the building blocks that make up our entire world - the elements. From fiery phosphorus to the pure untarnished lustre of gold and the dazzle of violent, violet potassium, everything is made of elements - the earth we walk on, the air we breathe, even us. Yet for centuries this world was largely unknown, and completely misunderstood.
In this three-part series, professor of theoretical physics Jim Al-Khalili traces the extraordinary story of how the elements were discovered and mapped. He follows in the footsteps of the pioneers who cracked their secrets and created a new science, propelling us into the modern age.
In part two, Professor Al-Khalili looks at the 19th-century chemists who struggled to impose an order on the apparently random world of the elements. From working out how many there were to discovering their unique relationships with each other, the early scientists' bid to decode the hidden order of the elements was driven by false starts and bitter disputes. But ultimately the quest would lead to one of chemistry's most beautiful intellectual creations - the periodic table.
Lucy Worsley's inside story of Britain's imported German dynasty, made with extensive access to the Royal Collection, reaches the reign of George II. She shows how he had to adapt to a growing 'middling rank' in society no longer content with being downtrodden subjects. Affairs of state were being openly discussed in coffee houses, while the king and his ministers were mocked in satirical prints and theatres.
George II was an easy target - grumpy, and frequently absent in Hanover. To his British subjects he became The King Who Wasn't There. But his wife, the enlightened Caroline, popularized a medical breakthrough against smallpox. However, it was their son, Frederick Prince of Wales, who really understood this new world - he had the popular touch monarchy would need to survive into the modern era.
After schools shut and A Levels are postponed, three teenagers use lockdown to come up with the next big viral craze.
Ray has been moved into a hotel for the foreseeable future yet he knows that survival is a lot more complicated than having a roof over your head.
When team meetings move online, an under-pressure team leader takes drastic measures to make sure targets are met.
A striking and poignant portrayal of time passing in a beautiful Sussex walled garden. Using real-time and time-lapse footage, the film explores the relationship between the seasons and the plants and people who work within the walls of the garden. Locked into the clock of the solar system, the garden performs its annual display, guided by those passionately engaged with its soil.
Dominic Sandbrook continues his exploration of the most innovative and imaginative of all genres with a look at science fiction's fascination with aliens. But what if we don't meet aliens in space and instead they come to earth - to conquer us?
Dominic and leading writers and film-makers look at science fiction's obsession with alien invasion, from all-out assault to sinister hidden threats, and how it has reflected real-life anxieties - whether they be the challenge to Victorian imperial power of HG Wells's War of the Worlds, the Cold War-era paranoia of Invasion of the Body Snatchers or more recent concerns about racism and immigration in District 9.
Among the contributors are David Tennant and Steven Moffat (Doctor Who), Richard Dreyfuss (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) and special effects maestros Phil Tippett (Jurassic Park) and Doug Trumbull (Close Encounters).
As the Industrial Revolution promised more and more inexplicable wonders of the modern world, Gothic art and literature became both backward and forward looking. In her novel Frankenstein, Mary Shelley warned of the dangers of how science could get out of control, while Sir Giles Gilbert Scott used Gothic architecture to memorialise Prince Albert as a medieval hero. Meanwhile, poets indulged in hallucinatory drugs to reach new Gothic heights. Where would it all end?
WEDNESDAY 27 MAY 2020
WED 19:00 The Joy of Painting (m000jjjl)
Series 1
Steep Mountains
American painter Bob Ross offers soothing words of encouragement to viewers and painting hobbyists in an enormously popular series that has captivated audiences worldwide since 1982. Ross is a cult figure, with nearly two million Facebook followers and 3,000 instructors globally. His soothing, nurturing personality is therapy for the weary, and his respect for nature and wildlife helps heighten environmental awareness.
Across the series, Ross demonstrates his unique painting technique, which eliminates the need for each layer of paint to dry. In real time, he creates tranquil scenes taken from nature, including his trademark ‘happy’ clouds, cascading waterfalls, snow-covered forests, serene lakes and distant mountain summits.
In this 30-minute masterclass, Bob Ross paints a statuesque ridge of peaks overlooking a little country home by the cove.
Many of Bob’s faithful viewers are not painters at all. They are relaxing and unwinding with Bob’s gentle manner and encouraging words, captivated by the magic taking place on the canvas.
WED 19:30 Danceworks (m000jjjn)
Series 2
Ballet Black: The Waiting Game
London’s Ballet Black is a professional dance company bringing ballet to a more diverse audience by promoting dancers of black and Asian descent. The company made headlines in 2019 when it performed during Stormzy’s bravura Glastonbury set.
This film explores the work of artistic director Cassa Pancho as she nurtures aspiring young dancers and gains recognition for her company’s collaborations with world-class choreographers. It also follows the creative process of South African dancer and choreographer Mthuthuzeli November as he creates a dynamic new ballet inspired in equal measure by Samuel Beckett’s seminal Waiting for Godot and African rhythms and language.
WED 20:00 Michael Wood's Story of England (b00vjmms)
Victoria to the Present Day
Groundbreaking series in which Michael Wood tells the story of one place throughout the whole of English history. The village is Kibworth in Leicestershire in the heart of England - a place that lived through the Black Death, the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution and was even bombed in World War Two.
In this final episode, helped by today's villagers Michael uncovers the secret history of a Victorian village more colourful than even Dickens could have imagined. Recreating their penny concerts of the 1880s, visiting World War I battlefields with the school and recalling the Home Guard, local land girls and the bombing of the village in 1940, the series finally moves into the brave new world of 'homes for heroes' and the villagers come together to leave a reminder of their world for future generations.
WED 21:00 Men at the Barre - Inside the Royal Ballet (m000jjjq)
What is it like to be a male ballet dancer in the modern world? Is there still a stigma for boys who enter what is commonly seen as a female domain? Award-winning film-maker Richard Macer hopes to find out as he gets invited to film with a golden generation of talented young male dancers at the Royal Ballet.
An American TV host got into hot water for ridiculing Prince George for taking ballet at school. But why is that men are still an easy target if they want to pull on a pair of tights instead of kicking a ball around a pitch?
Macer learns that, in the past, the man’s role was just to lift the ballerina into the air. But things have changed. Top male dancers have fan bases that rival those enjoyed by the best ballerinas. And choreography is starting to reflect masculinity in different ways. It is becoming more fluid, mirroring our changing perception of what it is to be man outside in the wider world.
Russian Vadim Muntagirov is considered by many to be the best dancer in the world today. He tends to open most classical ballets (Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake) at the Royal Opera house alongside his world-renowned dance partner, Marianela Nuñez. Matthew Ball, from Liverpool, is a younger principal who has a super fan attend his every performance and even give him notes on how many mistakes he made during the show!
Steven McRae has the biggest following on Instagram but tends to post more these days about his rehabilitation routine than his dancing, since he is coming back from two serious injuries. And then there is Ed Watson who has been at the top of his profession for many years but now, at the age of 42, is contemplating retirement.
We might assume ballet is a genteel, middle-class art form but some of the dancers at the Opera House dismantle this stereotype with personal stories that some viewers might finding surprising, such as that of Marcelino Sambé and Joseph Sissens, who both overcame considerable hardship before arriving in Covent Garden.
Nearly all the dancers Macer talks to share one main inspiration - Rudolf Nureyev. It was not just the Russian’s ability on the stage that struck such a chord with them, but also the aura he created, which transcended ballet and came to represent a new kind of machismo.
What we learn is that male ballet is incredibly competitive, just as it is for the women, with dancers pushing themselves towards a goal of perfection that, rather like utopia, remains always just out of reach. But for the men, there is often an added obstacle on their journey to success, the notion that society still sees ballet primarily as a female activity. So, for our golden generation, they have had to swim against the tide in a way their sisters have not. Perhaps, as Macer discovers, that is why these young men describe their occupation as a ‘calling’.
WED 22:00 Unprecedented (m000jjjs)
Series 1
Episode 2
Romantic Distancing by Tim Price
Love in the time of coronavirus: can technology bridge the emotional gap as well as the geographical?
Safer at Home by Anna Maloney
As families and couples are forced into isolation, Mike takes pride in looking after his pregnant partner Ellie. Mike’s mother Betsy is delighted - she is extremely fond of Ellie - but she starts to see things about their relationship that unsettle her.
House Party by April De Angelis
A street in south London get together on Houseparty for a virtual drinking session in the first week of isolation, but not everyone is in the mood for a party.
WED 22:30 BalletBoyz (m000jjjv)
Deluxe
Bradley 4:18
Bradley
4:18, choreographed by Punchdrunk’s Maxine Doyle, is a dance performance inspired by the lyrics of spoken word artist Kate Tempest’s Pictures on a Screen, which tell the story of Bradley, a seemingly successful young man struggling to connect with the world around him.
Set to a score by Mercury Award-nominated and Ivors Academy Award-winning London-based composer, arranger and alto-saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi, and composed in parallel with the choreographic creation, it is a highly atmospheric, filmic score with a modern jazz flavour. Bradley
4:18 presents the six BalletBoyz dancers as different iterations of the Bradley character Bradley and how he might act at
4:18 in the morning.
Celebrating their 20th anniversary, Bradley
4:18 is part of BalletBoyz’ new dance show Deluxe, a co-production with Sadler’s Wells that fuses beautiful dance with original music in the company’s unique and unmistakable style, including collaborations from some of the world’s most inventive and thought-provoking choreographers and composers.
BalletBoyz has made 38 pieces of new work for the stage, won 13 international awards and collaborated with 25 choreographers, ranging from some of the world’s finest and most established to emerging and unknown choreographers, including Christopher Wheeldon, Akram Khan, Kristen McNally, Matthew Bourne and Liv Lorent to name a few. BalletBoyz continues to be celebrated across four continents by audiences and critics alike. the company has performed its work more than 400 times around the UK and in 13 countries across the world, with over 350,000 people having seen one of their productions over the last 20 years.
‘Deluxe is a night of entertaining and thought-provoking theatre that’s been 20 years in the making. The beauty of our job has always been about finding and pursuing extraordinary talent and sharing that with as many people as we can. It’s that simple.’ (BalletBoyz Artistic Directors Michael Nunn and William Trevitt.)
WED 23:00 BalletBoyz (m000jjjz)
Deluxe
Ripple
Ripple marks the UK debut of Chinese choreographer Xie Xin, which she has set to a highly detailed electronic score by composer, lauded tap dancer and long-time collaborator Jiang Shao-feng.
The piece explores movement inspired by the memory of a person and the flow of energy that such memories and feelings possess. Beautifully fluid and lyrical, it sees the BalletBoyz company express new styles in contrast to their familiar athletic and strength- oriented work.
Celebrating their 20th anniversary, Ripple is part of BalletBoyz’ new dance show Deluxe, a co-production with Sadler’s Wells that fuses beautiful dance with original music in the company’s unique and unmistakable style, including collaborations from some of the world’s most inventive and thought-provoking choreographers and composers.
BalletBoyz has made 38 pieces of new work for the stage, won 13 international awards and collaborated with 25 choreographers, ranging from some of the world’s finest and most established to emerging and unknown choreographers, including Christopher Wheeldon, Akram Khan, Kristen McNally, Matthew Bourne and Liv Lorent to name a few. BalletBoyz continues to be celebrated across four continents by audiences and critics alike. the company has performed its work more than 400 times around the UK and in 13 countries across the world, with over 350,000 people having seen one of their productions over the last 20 years.
‘Deluxe is a night of entertaining and thought-provoking theatre that’s been 20 years in the making. The beauty of our job has always been about finding and pursuing extraordinary talent and sharing that with as many people as we can. It’s that simple.’ (BalletBoyz Artistic Directors Michael Nunn and William Trevitt.)
WED 23:30 Dance on Film: BBC Introducing Arts (m000jjk1)
Acclaimed dancer Carlos Acosta introduces a new generation of film makers who use b-boying, ballet and contemporary dance to tell their stories. Subjects range from dancing in a bingo hall, acid attacks, body image and wellbeing and the mystical world of baby eels. Each is a remarkable fusion of dance and film.
WED 00:30 A Timewatch Guide (b052vcbg)
Series 1
Roman Britain
Using years of BBC history archive film, Dr Alice Roberts explores how our views and understanding of Roman Britain have changed and evolved over the decades.
Along the way she investigates a diverse range of subjects from the Roman invasion, through Hadrian's Wall, the Vindolanda tablets and the eventual collapse of Roman rule. Drawing on the work of archaeologists and historians throughout the decades, Alice uncovers how and why our views of this much-loved period of our history have forever been in flux.
WED 01:30 The Joy of Painting (m000jjjl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
WED 02:00 Danceworks (m000jjjn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
WED 02:30 Men at the Barre - Inside the Royal Ballet (m000jjjq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 28 MAY 2020
THU 19:00 The Joy of Painting (m000jjj0)
Series 1
Tropical Seascape
American painter Bob Ross offers soothing words of encouragement to viewers and painting hobbyists in an enormously popular series that has captivated audiences worldwide since 1982. Ross is a cult figure, with nearly two million Facebook followers and 3,000 instructors globally. His soothing, nurturing personality is therapy for the weary, and his respect for nature and wildlife helps heighten environmental awareness.
Across the series, Ross demonstrates his unique painting technique, which eliminates the need for each layer of paint to dry. In real time, he creates tranquil scenes taken from nature, including his trademark ‘happy’ clouds, cascading waterfalls, snow-covered forests, serene lakes and distant mountain summits.
In this episode, palm trees sway in the warm breeze as Bob Ross shows how to paint a beautiful, sunny and exotic little ocean masterpiece.
Many of Bob’s faithful viewers are not painters at all. They are relaxing and unwinding with Bob’s gentle manner and encouraging words, captivated by the magic taking place on the canvas.
THU 19:30 Danceworks (m000jjj2)
Series 2
María Pagés: An Ode to Flamenco
A film that transports us to Spain and the mesmerising work of flamenco star María Pagés. María’s passion for flamenco is infectious. A child prodigy, she came of age in the golden era of professional flamenco and is now passing her inspiration and experience on to the next generation as she promotes modern flamenco at her new dance centre in a working-class suburb of Madrid.
The film explores the tension in María’s work between flamenco’s traditional roots in the streets of her birthplace of Seville and her theatrical shows, performances that push the boundaries of the dance style and tell bigger stories. The film culminates in a searing homecoming performance of a haunting new work for 2020 called Una Oda al Tiempo (An Ode to Time) back in flamenco’s heartland, Seville.
THU 20:00 Pride and Prejudice (b0074rny)
Episode 4
Rejected by Elizabeth, Darcy returns to Rosings Park and writes to her, revealing the truth about Wickham's character.
THU 21:00 Earth from Space (p072n8b8)
Series 1
Colourful Planet
We think of the Earth as a blue planet, but satellite cameras reveal it to be a kaleidoscope. The astonishing colours of the aurora are towering vertical streaks, hundreds of kilometres high, phytoplankton blooms turn the ocean into works of art, triggering a feeding frenzy, and for a few weeks a year China's Yunnan province is carpeted in yellow as millions of rapeseed flowers bloom.
This is our home, as we’ve never seen it before.
THU 22:00 Unprecedented (m000jjj4)
Series 1
Episode 3
Grounded by Duncan Macmillan
Liz is stressed by her parents’ cavalier attitude to the virus. Their age and health conditions put them heavily at risk. However, when overcome by the stress of her work, Liz is the one who needs looking after.
Fear Fatigue by Prasanna Puwanarajah
Based on conversations with NHS workers in March 2020, Fear Fatigue documents the feelings and fears of frontline staff in the days and weeks before the Coronavirus lockdown.
THU 22:30 Unprecedented (m000jqt0)
Series 1
Episode 4
Kat and Zaccy by Deborah Bruce
Zac is reluctant to come home from university during lockdown. How long can he ignore his mother’s emotional pleas for his return?
The Unexpected Expert by Matilda Ibini
This crisis will have a huge impact on Roxy’s social care package. The local authority thanks her for her understanding, yet she feels significantly misunderstood.
The Night After by Josh Azouz
A couple in their sixties try to make contact with the outside world. Is it a distress signal? Or a message to a specific loved one? Greek Gods, a noose and the past all threaten to overwhelm them. A touching tale of toast, taboos and toddlers.
THU 23:00 Chasing the Moon (m0006vr0)
Series 1
Earthrise (Part One)
What exactly was it going to take for America to beat the Soviets to the moon? Cold War tensions persisted, as rumours circulated that the Soviets were preparing to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon. Nasa quickly developed the Gemini program, sending astronauts into orbit around the Earth to practice critical manoeuvres for the eventual trip to the moon. Ed White became the first American to walk in space, an experience so exhilarating that, when Houston ordered him back in the space craft, he replied, ‘Not yet!’.
Nasa’s next-generation spacecraft, Apollo 1, was meant to dramatically launch the new era. Virgil Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were Apollo’s very first crew. On a cool January day in Florida, in 1967, the three men suited up for a pre-launch training run in the new command capsule. Two and a half hours through the training, somewhere in the closed capsule, a fire broke out. The hatch design opened inwards and all three men perished. Mission control was powerless. The disaster shook the nation and left the future of Apollo, Nasa and the entire race to the moon in doubt. The cost perhaps was too high.
A film By Robert Stone.
A Robert Stone Production for American Experience WGBH/PBS in association with Arte France.
THU 23:50 Invasion! with Sam Willis (b09jj0md)
Series 1
Episode 3
In this final programme, Sam Willis continues to tell the story of the invasions that have shaped Britain. He finds evidence of the rich legacy of the Huguenots who came to Britain bringing fine silks and the latest technological developments. He also discovers the ingenious French plans to invade Britain by balloon and the subterranean fortress built for troops in the 19th century when invasion paranoia was at fever pitch.
THU 00:50 Sleuths, Spies & Sorcerers: Andrew Marr's Paperback Heroes (p040pwl2)
Spies
What is the allure of the classic espionage story? As Andrew Marr argues in the conclusion to his series about the books we (really) read, the British spy novel is much more than a cloak-and-dagger affair. Rather, these books allow readers to engage with some pretty big questions about the human condition - principally, who are you? What or who would you be willing to betray? And for what cause would you lay your life on the line?
To help him decipher the rules of the classic espionage story, Andrew travels to Berlin in the footsteps of master spy novelist John le Carre, whose experience of witnessing the Berlin Wall being erected in 1961 inspired him to write the 20th century's greatest spy novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.
Andrew uncovers the various conventions that have governed the genre since it began. He shows how early spy novelists created a climate of fear, how they introduced the debonair gentleman spy, and how through the works of former secret agents such as Somerset Maugham they translated the often mundane details of espionage into their stories. The tradecraft of spywriting is gleaned from writers Frederick Forsyth, William Boyd, Gerald Seymour, Charles Cumming as well as novelist (and former director general of MI5) Dame Stella Rimington. And Andrew considers the future of the fictional spy in an age when the agent on the ground is being superseded by electronic surveillance.
THU 01:50 The Joy of Painting (m000jjj0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
THU 02:20 Danceworks (m000jjj2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 02:50 Earth from Space (p072n8b8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 29 MAY 2020
FRI 19:00 Classic Quartets at the BBC (b08jq8ll)
Clemency Burton-Hill celebrates the rich and ravishing world of the string quartet in a journey through 50 years of BBC archive. Some of the world's greatest ensembles including the Amadeus, Chilingirian, Borodin and Kronos quartets perform in myriad styles and settings, from stately homes to helicopters. Music ranges from Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert to Steve Reich, Elvis Costello and Pete Townshend, in a tradition which stretches back to Haydn in the 18th century.
FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m000jjj7)
Andy Crane and Simon Mayo present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 14 September 1989 and featuring Tina Turner, Black Box and Damian.
FRI 20:30 Kermode and Mayo’s Home Entertainment Service (m000jjj9)
Series 1
Episode 3
Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo help viewers navigate the wonderful, yet confusing, world of 21st-century home entertainment.
Up for discussion is Netflix series Space Force, starring Steve Carrell and Lisa Kudrow, as well as the hotly anticipated sci-fi thriller The Vast of Night, an Amazon Studios release. They also hear about what the nation has been watching at home and round up the best (and worst) of the rest of streaming culture across movies and premium television.
FRI 21:00 Top of the Pops (m000jjjc)
Nicky Campbell presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 21 September 1989 and featuring S'Express, London Boys and The Wonder Stuff.
FRI 21:30 Rock 'n' Roll America (b0615nmw)
Sweet Little Sixteen
In Cold War mid-1950s America, as the new suburbia was spreading fast in a country driven by racial segregation, rock 'n' roll took the country by surprise. Out of the Deep South came a rhythm-driven fusion of blues, boogie woogie and vocal harmony played by young black pioneers like Fats Domino and Little Richard that seduced young white teens and, pre-civil rights, got black and white kids reeling and rocking together.
This fledgling sound was nurtured by small independent labels and travelled up from the Mississippi corridor spawning new artists. In Memphis, Elvis began his career as a local singer with a country twang who rocked up a blues song and sounded so black he confused his white listeners. And in St Louis, black blues guitarist Chuck Berry took a country song and turned it into his first rock 'n' roll hit, Maybellene.
Movies had a big role to play thanks to 'social problem' films exploring the teenager as misfit and delinquent - The Wild One showed teens a rebellious image and a look, and Blackboard Jungle gave them a soundtrack, with the film's theme tune Rock Around the Clock becoming the first rock 'n' roll Number 1 in 1955.
Featuring Jerry Lee Lewis, Don Everly, Little Richard, Tom Jones, Wanda Jackson, Pat Boone, The Spaniels, PF Sloan, Joe Boyd, Jerry Phillips, Marshall Chess, JM Van Eaton (Jerry Lee Lewis's drummer), Charles Connor (Little Richard's drummer) and Dick Richards (Bill Haley's drummer).
FRI 22:30 Classic Albums (m0006pbp)
The Crickets: The 'Chirping' Crickets
When lanky and bespectacled 20-year-old Texan singer Buddy Holly walked into the independent studio of producer Norman Petty in February 1957, he thought he’d come to make some demos to save his already failing music career as a two-flop wonder. By the time he had left the next morning, he had recorded not only his first million-selling smash - the immortal That’ll Be the Day - but the beginnings of one of the first, and greatest, rock ’n’ roll albums of all time – The 'Chirping' Crickets.
Among the first half-dozen debuts by rock ’n’ roll’s original founders (preceded only by those of Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent, Little Richard and Chuck Berry), more significantly it was the first rock album credited to a band rather than a solo artist, as well as a landmark in the history of independent recording methods. It was the album that inspired John Lennon to form his first band with Paul McCartney, The Quarrymen, and one of the first LPs bought by 15-year-old Dartford schoolboy Keith Richards: famously, both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones would later cover songs from The 'Chirping' Crickets.
Crowned by four of Holly and The Crickets’ best-loved and biggest-selling singles - That’ll Be the Day, Not Fade Away, Maybe Baby and Oh, Boy! - the album was one of only two Buddy Holly recorded in his tragically brief career. He died in a plane crash at the age of only 22, just one year and ten weeks after the album’s release. Yet it survives as the purest testament to his skill and diversity as a singer, a pioneering guitar player and, not least, as a songwriter in an age when few of his peers composed their own material. As such, The 'Chirping' Crickets stands as one of the most influential and important long-playing pieces of vinyl in the evolution of popular music. Without it, the last six decades of rock ’n’ roll would look, and sound, dramatically different.
The 'Chirping' Crickets finally landed in November 1957, its cover presenting a unified front of the four members side by side, with no special emphasis on Holly. Yet all too soon, their leader’s fame would eclipse what had always been a clever, legally convenient illusion of democracy. Within a year of its release, after just one more Crickets single, Think It Over, Sullivan left and Holly, though still recording with Allison and Mauldin, was starting to be seen as a solo artist.
The Crickets nevertheless left behind not just a classic but also rock’s first group debut; the twelve-track, twelve-inch vinyl blueprint of the archetypal vocals-guitars-bass-and-drum formula that has kept the genre alive for 60 years since its release, and counting.
FRI 23:30 It's Only Rock 'n' Roll: Rock 'n' Roll at the BBC (b063m6wy)
A celebration of rock 'n' roll in the shape of a compilation of classic artists and songs, featuring the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Dion and Dick Dale who all featured in the Rock 'n' Roll America series, alongside songs that celebrate rock 'n roll itself from artists such as Tom Petty (Anything That's Rock 'n' Roll), Joan Jett (I Love Rock 'n' Roll) and Oasis (Rock 'n' Roll Star).
FRI 00:30 Singer-Songwriters at the BBC (b015f5c8)
Series 2
Episode 1
The celebration of the singing songwriting troubadours of the 1960s and 70s continues with a further trawl through the BBC archives for timeless and classic performances.
Don McLean performs his huge hit American Pie from 1972 and Tim Buckley provides some sublime sounds with a rendition of his song Happy Time. Also making an appearance is the long-lamented John Martyn, folk queen Sandy Denny and, in a duet with Joe Egan as Stealers Wheel, the late Gerry Rafferty. Stealers Wheel chum and one-time collaborator Rab Noakes also makes a contribution to this compilation.
Leonard Cohen and Julie Felix present a unique collaboration and performance of Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye, and there's an unforgettable performance of Case of You by Joni Mitchell. No celebration of this genre would be complete without contributions from songwriting heavyweights such as Elton John, Paul Simon, Loudon Wainwright III and Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens.
FRI 01:30 Country Music by Ken Burns (m000bpkc)
Series 1
The Hillbilly Shakespeare (1945-1953)
As country music adapted to the cultural changes of post-war society, Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs transformed traditional string band music into something more syncopated - bluegrass.
Out of the bars and juke joints came a new sound - honky-tonk - with electric guitars and songs about drinking, cheating and heartbreak. Its biggest star was Hank Williams, a singer who wrote songs of surprising emotional depth, derived from his troubled and tragically short life.
FRI 02:20 Rock 'n' Roll America (b0615nmw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:30 today]
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
A Timewatch Guide
23:30 SUN (b083dd1g)
A Timewatch Guide
00:30 WED (b052vcbg)
A Year in an English Garden: Flicker and Pulse
22:30 TUE (b09bdyrh)
A Year in the Wild
20:00 SUN (b01lvh65)
A Year in the Wild
02:30 SUN (b01lvh65)
All Creatures Great and Small
21:30 MON (p031d2mg)
All Creatures Great and Small
22:20 MON (p031d2mm)
Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain
20:00 MON (b007n1dx)
Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain
02:10 MON (b007n1dx)
Arena
00:10 MON (m000b8nj)
BBC Young Musician
19:00 SUN (m000jjjf)
BBC Young Musician
01:30 SUN (m000jjjf)
BalletBoyz
22:30 WED (m000jjjv)
BalletBoyz
23:00 WED (m000jjjz)
Chasing the Moon
23:00 THU (m0006vr0)
Chemistry: A Volatile History
20:00 TUE (b00qck1t)
Classic Albums
22:30 FRI (m0006pbp)
Classic Quartets at the BBC
19:00 FRI (b08jq8ll)
Country Music by Ken Burns
01:30 FRI (m000bpkc)
Dance on Film: BBC Introducing Arts
23:30 WED (m000jjk1)
Danceworks
19:30 MON (m000jjh7)
Danceworks
01:40 MON (m000jjh7)
Danceworks
19:30 TUE (m000jjgy)
Danceworks
02:00 TUE (m000jjgy)
Danceworks
19:30 WED (m000jjjn)
Danceworks
02:00 WED (m000jjjn)
Danceworks
19:30 THU (m000jjj2)
Danceworks
02:20 THU (m000jjj2)
Earth from Space
21:00 THU (p072n8b8)
Earth from Space
02:50 THU (p072n8b8)
Educating Rita
22:35 SAT (b007vyhh)
How Quizzing Got Cool: TV's Brains of Britain
21:00 SUN (b084fs6s)
Invasion! with Sam Willis
23:50 THU (b09jj0md)
It's Only Rock 'n' Roll: Rock 'n' Roll at the BBC
23:30 FRI (b063m6wy)
Kermode and Mayo’s Home Entertainment Service
20:30 FRI (m000jjj9)
Masters of the Pacific Coast: The Tribes of the American Northwest
20:00 SAT (b07m772h)
Masters of the Pacific Coast: The Tribes of the American Northwest
02:20 SAT (b07m772h)
Men at the Barre - Inside the Royal Ballet
21:00 WED (m000jjjq)
Men at the Barre - Inside the Royal Ballet
02:30 WED (m000jjjq)
Michael Wood's Story of England
20:00 WED (b00vjmms)
Oceans Apart: Art and the Pacific with James Fox
00:30 SUN (b0blhn4t)
Pride and Prejudice
20:00 THU (b0074rny)
Primates
19:00 SAT (m000j4x0)
Revisor by Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young
22:00 SUN (m000jjjj)
Rock 'n' Roll America
21:30 FRI (b0615nmw)
Rock 'n' Roll America
02:20 FRI (b0615nmw)
Singer-Songwriters at the BBC
00:30 FRI (b015f5c8)
Sleuths, Spies & Sorcerers: Andrew Marr's Paperback Heroes
00:50 THU (p040pwl2)
State of Happiness
21:00 SAT (m000jjgr)
State of Happiness
21:45 SAT (m000jjgt)
Talking Pictures
00:30 SAT (b04y4dsw)
The Art of Gothic: Britain's Midnight Hour
00:30 TUE (b04n1mrb)
The Cult of...
21:00 MON (b008x368)
The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain
21:00 TUE (b042twvq)
The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain
02:30 TUE (b042twvq)
The Joy of Painting
19:00 MON (m000jjh5)
The Joy of Painting
01:10 MON (m000jjh5)
The Joy of Painting
19:00 TUE (m000jjgw)
The Joy of Painting
01:30 TUE (m000jjgw)
The Joy of Painting
19:00 WED (m000jjjl)
The Joy of Painting
01:30 WED (m000jjjl)
The Joy of Painting
19:00 THU (m000jjj0)
The Joy of Painting
01:50 THU (m000jjj0)
Timeshift
23:10 MON (b03p7jh9)
Tomorrow's Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction
23:30 TUE (p026c7jt)
Top of the Pops
01:20 SAT (m000jb8f)
Top of the Pops
01:50 SAT (m000jb8k)
Top of the Pops
20:00 FRI (m000jjj7)
Top of the Pops
21:00 FRI (m000jjjc)
Unprecedented
22:00 TUE (m000jjh1)
Unprecedented
22:00 WED (m000jjjs)
Unprecedented
22:00 THU (m000jjj4)
Unprecedented
22:30 THU (m000jqt0)