B4

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

SATURDAY 01 AUGUST 2020

SAT 19:00 Snooker: World Championship (m000lj40)
2020

Day 2: Evening Session

Live coverage of the World Snooker Championship, featuring two matches played to their conclusion.

Three-time champion Mark Williams and 2018 semi-finalist Kyren Wilson will both be aiming to overcome qualifiers and book their places in round two.

SAT 21:00 The Last Wave (m000lj42)
Series 1

Revolt

Brizan is in a state of alert. A tidal wave has carried the lighthouse away and an arm of the sea has split the small town in two, a spectacle Lena foresaw in her dreams.

While the inhabitants panic, Faust Ketchak sees in these phenomena a revolt of nature, a punishment against the devastating behaviour of men. Meanwhile, Lena and Ben uncover pollution on Brizan's construction site.

In French with English subtitles.

SAT 21:55 The Last Wave (m000lj44)
Series 1

Blast

While Lena tries to come to terms with her unexplained pregnancy, Ben tells her that the authorities are going to try to disperse the cloud with the help of a drone. He, however, is convinced that the plan will endanger the surfers.

With the exception of Faust Ketchak, none of the residents accept Ben's theory, and the entire community wants only one thing - to get rid of the cloud. Alone and against the odds, Ben attempts to prevent the drone from being launched.

In French with English subtitles.

SAT 22:45 Aretha Franklin: Respect (b0bht4g1)
This tribute pays respect to the voice and life of Aretha Franklin who died on Thursday at 76. The daughter of legendary preacher C.L. Franklin who hailed from the same Deep South as many of the blues legends, Aretha was raised in Detroit where her father preached at the New Bethel Baptist Church and where she grew up singing gospel. She had two children in her early teens, signed to Columbia in 1960 and her career ignited when she signed to Atlantic in 1967. Global hits such as I Say A Little Prayer and Respect then quickly established her as The Queen of Soul while her majestic delivery and regal presence made her an iconic figure in the emerging Civil Rights movement. Aretha enjoyed renewed success in the 1980s when collaborating with Luther Vandross, cameoing in The Blues Brothers and then duetting with the likes of Annie Lennox and George Michael. Franklin was the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and has sold over 75 million records. As recently as 2015 she stunned audiences at the with her extraordinary performance of (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman in front of President Barack Obama and its co-writer Carole King at the Kennedy Center.
Contributors include Sir Tom Jones, Beverly Knight, Clarke Peters and Trevor Nelson.

SAT 23:15 Gospel according to Mica – The Story of Gospel Music in Six Songs (m000l9tk)
British soul singer Mica Paris was brought up on gospel music and sang in church from an early age. In her teens, she became an international star, singing pop and soul and having worldwide hits. Now though, Mica is curious about the origins of the songs she sang so easily as a child, why some of her contemporaries have returned to their gospel roots as well as thinking about her own faith and her own big teenage decision to leave the church and sing secular music.

Mica revisits her childhood church in Lewisham to start exploring the meaning and origins of these famous gospel songs. She examines songs such as Amazing Grace and discovers the complex reasoning behind the words. She sings with The Kingdom Choir, made famous by the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan, and travels to the cotton fields of America, where gospel was used to make the work of enslaved Africans more bearable.

She meets the choir at Fisk University in Tennessee, who formed just after slavery was abolished and sang for Queen Victoria, and finds herself overwhelmed by her emotions when she finds out how the slavery freedom fighters used gospel to communicate.

Mica also delves into the history of Sam Cooke and Thomas A Dorsey, who both encountered tragedy in and out of the church, and she sings with bluesman Jools Holland to contemporise a favourite gospel tune.

Finally, Mica comes right up to date with the music of current artists, such as Stormzy, who have no fear of church versus secular music, are open about their faith and are combining the two with great success.

SAT 00:15 Mahalia Jackson in Concert (m000lj46)
A legendary concert recorded especially for the BBC by Mahalia Jackson, one of the world’s greatest gospel singers, while on a flying visit to London in 1964. Her performance includes The Whole World in His Hands, Silent Night and Didn’t it Rain.

SAT 00:50 TOTP2 (b05y09mh)
FA Cup

Mark Radcliffe rounds up the best and worst football records from the TOTP archives. Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea, Gazza and West Ham all feature alongside Arsenal.

SAT 01:15 Top of the Pops (m000l9th)
Review of the 80s

Mike Read and Paul Gambaccini present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 28 December 1989 and featuring Kim Wilde, Aswad and Band Aid.

SAT 02:15 Gershwin's Summertime: The Song that Conquered the World (b017nf05)
An intriguing investigation into the extraordinary life of Gershwin's classic composition, Summertime. One of the most covered songs in the world, it has been recorded in almost every style of music - from jazz to opera, rock to reggae, soul to samba. Its musical adaptability is breathtaking, but Summertime also resonates on a deep emotional level. This visually and sonically engaging film explores the composition's magical properties, examining how this song has, with stealth, captured the imagination of the world.

From its complex birth in 1935 as a lullaby in Gershwin's all-black opera Porgy and Bess, this film traces the hidden history of Summertime, focusing on key recordings, including those by Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin, Mahalia Jackson, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald. It reveals how musicians have projected their own dreams and desires onto the song, reimagining Summertime throughout the 20th century as a civil rights prayer, a hippie lullaby, an ode to seduction and a modern freedom song.

Back in the 1930s, Gershwin never dreamt of the global impact Summertime would have. But as this film shows, it has magically tapped into something deep inside us all - nostalgia and innocence, sadness and joy, and our intrinsic desire for freedom. Full of evocative archive footage as well as a myriad versions of Summertime - from the celebrated to the obscure - the film tells the surprising and illuminating tale behind this world-famous song.

SUNDAY 02 AUGUST 2020

SUN 19:00 BBC Proms (b0940c1p)
2017

Chineke! Orchestra with Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Jeanine De Bique

Katie Derham introduces another unforgettable Prom from the BBC archive. This week she is joined by one of the brightest young stars of classical music, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. They look back on a Prom that made history in 2017 when Chineke! became the first British majority BME symphony orchestra ever to take to the Proms stage. Including music by Dvorak, Handel and Rimsky-Korsakov, and featuring Sheku himself, soprano Jeanine De Bique and conductor Kevin John Edusei, it was a night that broke new boundaries for all involved.

SUN 20:30 Canal Boat Diaries (m000bpkr)
Series 1

Barton Swing Aqueduct to Liverpool Docks

Life on board a narrowboat with Robbie Cumming. There are engine issues and a leaky boat to fix before Robbie reaches Liverpool Docks.

SUN 21:00 Alex Higgins: The People's Champion (b00tmzfb)
One man transfixed television viewers during snooker's golden age - Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins. This poignant documentary charts the remarkable rise and fall of the snooker genius, from his early days growing up in Belfast to his climb to the top of the sport as two-time world champion.

Higgins was pure showbiz, a mercurial talent at the table who played the game like nobody had done before. Boxing had Muhammad Ali, football was blessed by George Best - snooker had Alex Higgins. Yet like Best, Higgins's brilliance was flawed by his demons. We chart the depressing lows - the alcohol abuse, threatening to have fellow Ulsterman Dennis Taylor shot, headbutting a senior member of snooker's hierarchy and falling out of a top floor window and living to tell the tale after a row with his then-girlfriend.

The Higgins story is completed with the final chapter of his life spent battling throat cancer; desperate hours spent in pubs and working men's clubs trying to rekindle his halcyon days; finally unable to eat properly because he'd lost his teeth and in the end, ultimately found dead alone in sheltered accommodation.

At times uplifting, but at other moments very sad - this is a rollercoaster journey charting the life of snooker's 'rock and roll star'.

Contributors include Jimmy White, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Dennis Taylor, Barry Hearn, Steve Davis, Ray Reardon and members of the Higgins family.

SUN 22:00 Chas & Dave: Last Orders (b01nkdsv)
Documentary which highlights cockney duo Chas & Dave's rich, unsung pedigree in the music world and a career spanning 50 years, almost the entire history of UK pop. They played with everyone from Jerry Lee Lewis to Gene Vincent, toured with The Beatles, opened for Led Zeppelin at Knebworth - and yet are known mainly just for their cheery singalongs and novelty records about snooker and Spurs.

The film also looks at the pair's place among the great musical commentators on London life - and in particular the influence of music hall on their songs and lyrics.

The film crew followed Chas & Dave on their final tour, having called it a day after the death of Dave's wife, and blends live concert footage with archive backstory, including some astonishing early performances and duets with the likes of Eric Clapton. Among the experts and zealous fans talking about their love of the duo are Pete Doherty, Jools Holland and Phill Jupitus. Narrated by Arthur Smith.

SUN 22:55 What We Were Watching (m000l9vc)
Summer TV Classics

No programme information found

SUN 23:55 Ibiza: The Silent Movie (m000777b)
A 90-minute feature film that drills into the soul of this extraordinary, magical Island and releases the story of 3,000 years of Ibizan history. Julien Temple’s iconic trademark style sends its audience on the ultimate, emotionally exhilarating and groundbreaking time-travel ride through the psyche of this jewel of the Mediterranean.

This is a story of extremes and the fight for the very soul of the White Island. A story of sensuality, hedonism, spirituality, ancient ways of life and new ways of living. An island, despite wave after wave of brutal occupation, whose free spirit of tolerance and acceptance of others has somehow managed to survive, absorbing, welcoming and sheltering people and cultures from around the Mediterranean and the world beyond. Ibiza’s bohemian heart now faces its strongest challenge yet: to continue to beat strongly in the face of the ever-growing annual invasion of wealthy socialites and the gentrification of the island in the name of progress.

The film re-enacts, with cameo Hollywood performances, forgotten epic moments in the history of the island. From irresistible sirens who seduced and shipwrecked Odysseus with their honeyed songs to the Carthaginians, Romans, Vikings and Moors; from the refugees of Franco's civil war to the McCarthy blacklists of Hollywood; from the early hippy beat paradise of the 1950s to the pan-European free zone that is Ibiza today; from the sexual rites of the Phoenician love goddess Tanit to disco sunrises at super-clubs like Pacha, Space, Amnesia and DC-10, Ibiza has always been out there on the frontier of human experience. This island has seen it all and so will our audience.

Adopted home of Orson Welles, Errol Flynn, Denholm Elliott, Sid Vicious, Joni Mitchell, Robert Plant, Terry-Thomas, master forger Elmyr de Hory, convicted fraudster Clifford Irving and, of course Elle, Naomi and Kate, Ibiza has always proved irresistible to celebrities on the run from themselves. Today’s residents including Jade Jagger and Guy Laliberte (founder and owner of Cirque du Soleil), and regular visitors to the island that include Madonna and Leonardo Di Caprio, all play a part in maintaining the continued fascination of this magical isle.

To match the unique nature of the island itself, the film breaks new ground by delivering the first culture movie for audiences to dance to. The visual feast of original footage and archive, delivered silently with animation, graphics and text to enhance the narrative, combines with a pulsating non-stop soundtrack mixed by some of the world’s top DJs, enabling audiences to immerse themselves both physically and emotionally in the experience.

SUN 01:30 EastEnders 2008 (b00bbybh)
Peggy's matchmaking is overshadowed by Roxy's mysterious fainting spells, while Dawn's romantic interference ends in disaster. Ian tries to get his family back to normal, but Lucy has other ideas. Ricky plays man of the house when Liam bunks off.

SUN 02:00 EastEnders 2008 (b00bbzbs)
Roxy keeps a shocking secret close to her chest. A visiting relative throws the Masood house into chaos. Shirley tries to get to the truth about Heather and Minty.

SUN 02:30 EastEnders 2008 (b00bbzkt)
Roxy battles with her demons and a difficult decision. Shabnam makes a terrible discovery and takes action. Whitney goes on a dog-hunt but gets more than she bargained for.

SUN 03:00 EastEnders 2008 (b00bbzhc)
When Roxy's secret is revealed, Ronnie's own demons come to the surface. Bad behaviour sees Shirley and Heather end up in the slammer and the floodgates finally open. Zainab teaches Shabnam a lesson about the meaning of shame.

MONDAY 03 AUGUST 2020

MON 19:00 Snooker: World Championship (m000lj4d)
2020

Day 4: Evening Session

Continued live coverage of the World Snooker Championship from Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre, featuring three-time champion Mark Selby.

MON 21:00 Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise (b088pcls)
The Central Heartland

In central Thailand's forests, fertile plains and even city streets, nature finds a way of living alongside people. Spirituality can be found in human and animal relationships, both likely and unlikely. This bustling region is known as the nation's rice bowl - but even here, there are magical places to be found.

MON 22:00 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000h9x8)
Series 1 - 60-Minute Versions

Chiang Mai to the River Kwai

Steered by his 1913 Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael Portillo embarks on a two-part rail adventure through Thailand, from the northern city of Chiang Mai to Kanchanaburi on the River Kwai and from Bangkok to the southern beach resort of Hua Hin.

On this leg, Michael helps out at an elephant hospital, where they care for animals wounded by landmines and other injuries. He tries his hand at the art of umbrella-making and learns about northern Thai cuisine.

Michael explores the walled and moated city of Chiang Mai, former capital of the Lanna Kingdom before it was annexed by the king of Siam. Travelling south to Lampang, Michael discovers the former centre of the teak wood business and investigates how successive Thai kings preserved their independence from the rival colonial powers of Britain and France. He discovers the history of a British governess at the royal court and learns how Britain used her consulate to promote her influence in the kingdom.

At what was once one of the greatest cities in Asia, the former Siamese capital Ayutthaya, Michael admires the gigantic ruined temples.

There is a trip to an unusual market - a must for any self-respecting train-lover. And Michael finishes this leg of his Thai journey close to the border with Myanmar to ride one of the world’s most notorious railway lines and, for him, the most poignant - the Death Railway.

MON 23:00 Games Britannia (b00phmrs)
Joystick Generation

Three-part series presented by historian Benjamin Woolley about popular games in Britain from the Iron Age to the Information Age, in which he unravels how an apparently trivial pursuit is a rich and entertaining source of cultural and social history.

In the final part, Woolley explores the journey games have taken from the board to the screen, reflecting the rapidly changing history of modern Britain.

In the 1980s, the power of our imagination was harnessed in early video games like Elite, putting the audience at the heart of a space adventure they could influence. The British boom years of the 90s introduced characters like Lara Croft to a world beyond video games and players were propelled into the internet age.

Woolley's investigation leads to the present day, where he finds our morality tested in the world of Grand Theft Auto and our identity becoming transported to the digital domain with virtual realms like Runescape and World of Warcraft.

MON 00:00 Storyville (b09c1rch)
The Work: Four Days to Redemption

Set inside one room in Folsom Prison in California, this film follows three men from outside as they take part in a four-day group therapy retreat with convicts serving long sentences for violent or gang-related crimes including murder, assault and robbery.

Over four days, each man takes his turn at delving into his past. This experience exceeds their expectations, ripping them out of their comfort zones and forcing them to see themselves and the prisoners in unexpected ways. This film reveals a radical process of redemption and rehabilitation.

MON 01:25 Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture (b00ydp2y)
Masons of God

Alastair Sooke reveals the astonishing range of our medieval sculpture, from the imposing masterpieces of our Gothic cathedrals to the playful misericords underneath church stalls.

He shows how the sculpture of the era casts a new light on medieval Britain, a far more sophisticated, fun-loving and maverick place than we in the modern world commonly believe. But despite the technical and emotional power of these works, the notion of a 'sculptor' did not even exist; most carving of the time was done by teams of itinerant masons and artisans working for the Church. The names of some, like William Berkeley, are known but most are lost to history.

This first golden age came to an end with Henry VIII's Reformation of the Church, unleashing a wave of destruction from which it would take centuries to recover.

MON 02:25 Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise (b088pcls)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 04 AUGUST 2020

TUE 19:00 Snooker: World Championship (m000lj5q)
2020

Day 5: Evening Session

Number four seed Mark Allen aims to book his place in the second round against a qualifier, with the first player to ten frames progressing through the next stage of the tournament.

TUE 21:00 Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley (b06wrgzw)
The Road to Revolution

Lucy Worsley concludes her history of the Romanov dynasty, investigating how the family's grip on Russia unravelled in their final century. She shows how the years 1825-1918 were bloody and traumatic, a period when four tsars tried - and failed - to deal with the growing pressure for constitutional reform and revolution.

Lucy finds out how the Romanovs tried to change the system themselves - in 1861, millions of enslaved serfs were freed by the Tsar-Liberator, Alexander II. But Alexander paid the ultimate penalty for opening the Pandora's box of reform when he was later blown up by terrorists on the streets of St Petersburg.

Elsewhere, there was repression, denial, war and - in the case of the last tsar, Nicholas II - a fatalistic belief in the power of God, with Nicholas's faith in the notorious holy man Rasputin being a major part in his undoing. Lucy also details the chilling murder of Nicholas and his family in 1918, and asks whether all of this horror have been avoided.

Lucy also shows how there was a growing movement among the people of Russia to determine their own fate. She traces the growth of the intelligentsia, writers and thinkers who sought to have a voice about Russia. Speaking out came with a risk - after Ivan Turgenev wrote about the appalling life of the serfs in 1852, he was sentenced to house arrest by tsar Nicholas I. Lucy also shows how anger against the Romanov regime created a later generation of radicals committed to overturning the status quo. Some would turn to terrorism and, finally, revolution.

As well as political upheaval there is private drama, and Lucy explains how Nicholas II's family life played into his family's downfall. His son and heir Alexei suffered from haemophilia - the secrecy the family placed around the condition led them into seclusion, further distancing them from the Russian people. It also led them to the influence of man who seemed to have the power to heal their son, and who was seen as a malign influence on Nicholas - Rasputin.

TUE 22:00 Treasures of Ancient Rome (b01msf6r)
The Empire Strikes Back

In the third and final part of the series, Alastair Sooke charts the decline and fall of the Roman Empire through some of its hidden and most magical artistic treasures. He travels to Leptis Magna in Libya shortly after the overthrow of Gaddafi and finds one of the best preserved Roman cities in the world and the cradle of later Roman art. Sooke discovers glorious mosaics which have never been filmed before, but also finds evidence of shocking neglect of Libya's Roman heritage by the Gaddafi regime.

His artistic tour takes him to Egypt and the northern frontiers of the empire where he encounters stunning mummy paintings and exquisite silver and glassware. As Rome careered from one crisis to another, official art became more hard boiled and militaristic and an obscure cult called Christianity rose up to seize the mantle of Western art for centuries to come.

TUE 23:00 The Last Wave (m000lj42)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]

TUE 23:55 The Last Wave (m000lj44)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:55 on Saturday]

TUE 00:45 The Riviera: A History in Pictures (b01pwtvf)
The Golden Era

Richard E Grant explores how modern art and the Riviera grew up together when France's Cote D'Azur became the hedonistic playground and experimental studio for the great masters of 20th-century painting. With Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso resident on the coast, other artists from Jean Cocteau to Henri Lartigue, Raoul Dufy to Fernand Leger and Francis Picabia to Sergei Diaghilev were drawn to the area.

As transatlantic liners brought America's super-rich to the region, art and celebrity became integrally intertwined as cultural gurus and multimillionaires all partied on the beach. In an era of sunshine and bathing, of cinema and fast cars, of the Ballet Russes and Monte Carlo casinos, Grant discovers the extraordinary output of what became briefly the world's creative hub.

TUE 01:45 Treasures of Ancient Rome (b01msf6r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]

TUE 02:45 Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley (b06wrgzw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 05 AUGUST 2020

WED 19:00 Snooker: World Championship (m000lj48)
2020

Day 6: Evening Session

Scotland’s Stephen Maguire, winner of June’s Tour Championship, plays the concluding session of his match, with the final place in the second round at stake. On table two, eight frames are played in a round-of-16 encounter.

WED 21:00 Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield (b065x080)
Lying on the remote north west coast of England is one of the most secret places in the country - Sellafield, the most controversial nuclear facility in Britain. Now, Sellafield are letting nuclear physicist Professor Jim Al-Khalili and the television cameras in to discover the real story. Inside, Jim encounters some of the most dangerous substances on earth, reveals the nature of radiation and even attempts to split the atom. He sees inside a nuclear reactor, glimpses one of the rarest elements in the world - radioactive plutonium - and even subjects living tissue to deadly radiation. Ultimately, the film reveals Britain's attempts - past, present and future - to harness the almost limitless power of the atom.

WED 22:00 Hiroshima (m000lj4b)
A fully dramatised reconstruction of the story of the first atomic bomb deployed in an act of war.

Interviews with both the aircrew who dropped the bomb and the survivors, special visual effects and archive all bring to life the fateful mission of the Enola Gay and the devastating impact of the bomb on the people of Hiroshima.

WED 23:30 Storyville (b065y1dx)
Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise

The bombing of Hiroshima showed the appalling destructive power of the atomic bomb. Mark Cousins's bold documentary looks at death in the atomic age, but life too. Using only archive film and a new musical score by the band Mogwai, the film shows us an impressionistic kaleidoscope of our nuclear times - protest marches, Cold War sabre-rattling, Chernobyl and Fukishima - but also the sublime beauty of the atomic world, and how x-rays and MRI scans have improved human lives. The nuclear age has been a nightmare, but dreamlike too.

WED 00:40 The Beauty of Anatomy (b04dq8kl)
Galen and Leonardo

Adam Rutherford begins his series investigating the close relationship between discoveries in anatomy and the works of art that illustrate them by looking at the work of the 2nd-century Roman anatomist Claudius Galen and the artist and part-time dissector Leonardo da Vinci.

WED 01:10 The Beauty of Anatomy (b04dzrtr)
Andreas Vesalius

In 1537, the 23-year-old Andreas Vesalius became the most famous anatomist in Europe. He went on to produce the first complete account of the human body and how to dissect it, his drawings setting the gold standard for anatomical art for centuries to come and earning him the title of 'the founder of modern anatomy'. Adam Rutherford tells his story.

WED 01:40 Secret Knowledge (b0376h9w)
Stradivarius and Me

The name of 17th-century violin maker Antonio Stradivari - or Stradivarius as he is usually known - is one that sends shivers down the spine of music lovers the world over. During his lifetime Stradivari made over 1,000 instruments, about 650 of which still survive. Their sound is legendary and for any violinist the opportunity to play one is a great privilege.

Clemency Burton-Hill indulges in her lifelong passion for the instrument as she explores the mysterious life and lasting influence of Stradivari - through four special violins on display at this summer's Stradivarius exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. She is joined by 2002 Young Musician of the Year winner Jennifer Pike to put some of the violins in the exhibition through their paces.

WED 02:10 Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield (b065x080)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THURSDAY 06 AUGUST 2020

THU 19:00 Snooker: World Championship (m000lj5n)
2020

Day 7: Evening Session

Live action from the Crucible to decide the first player through to the quarter-finals.

THU 21:00 Emma (b00nks3z)
Episode 4

What was intended as a day of fun turns into a day of agony for everyone on the Box Hill excursion.

Things come to a head when, egged on by Frank, Emma behaves badly, insulting Miss Bates. She is berated by Knightley, and realises that her behaviour was shameful. She tries to repair things with Jane and Miss Bates, but Jane will not see her - although Miss Bates tells her that Jane has accepted a job as a governess, and cried all night.

Meanwhile, Knightley goes to stay with his brother in London, and will be away for a while. When Frank's controlling aunt dies, the Westons expect him to propose to Emma - but his actions set in motion a chain of events that both shock Emma and make her realise something that has been in plain sight all along.

THU 22:00 What We Did on Our Holiday (b061sk00)
When Doug and Abi travel to Scotland for a birthday celebration, they have to try to hide the fact from their family that they are going through a divorce.

THU 23:30 Billy Connolly: Portrait of a Lifetime (p0535lq5)
Celebrating Billy Connolly's 75th birthday and 50 years in the business, three Scottish artists - John Byrne, Jack Vettriano and Rachel MacLean - each create a new portrait of the Big Yin. As he sits with each artist, Billy talks about his remarkable life and career, which has taken him from musician and pioneering stand-up to Hollywood star and national treasure.

THU 00:30 Art, Passion & Power: The Story of the Royal Collection (b09qrbvd)
Series 1

Modern Times

Andrew Graham-Dixon explores how royal collecting has changed since the days of Queen Victoria. This is a story of the British monarchy's remarkable survival, while elsewhere the crown heads of Europe crumbled in the face of world wars and revolutions. But it is also an age when women took charge of royal collecting; from Victoria to Elizabeth II, queens and queen consorts have used art to steady the ship of monarchy during this uncertain age.

It's one of the curiosities of the Royal Collection that as the monarchy's power diminished, so too did the objects they collected. Gone were epic canvases, instead came objects of exquisite, delicate and intimate beauty. Andrew marvels at a selection of the royal family's collection of Faberge jewellery - one of the greatest in the world - that includes the Mosaic Egg from 1914. So taken were Edward VII and his wife Queen Alexandria with the works of Peter Carl Faberge, that the jeweller opened a London shop to service the demands of royal clientele.

And then there's Queen Mary's Dolls' House - presented to George V's queen to thank her for her steadfastness during the first world war, the Dolls' House is an astonishing artistic collaboration by over 1,500 people and companies, replete with books containing new stories by authors like Arthur Conan Doyle, tiny champagne bottles filled with real champagne and even mini shotguns that can be broken, loaded and fired. More than just a dolls' house, this is a three-dimensional archive of a vanished artistic age.

The Collection reveals fresh insights into these remarkable women, in particular HM the Queen Mother, who loved art and collected with flair. At Clarence House, Andrew discovers a surprising collection of contemporary British art that she assembled in the 1930s and 1940s, including works by Walter Sickert, LS Lowry, Paul Nash and Augustus John. Andrew traces her greatest commission, a series of 26 paintings of Windsor Castle by John Piper, painted during the Second World War. With Windsor at risk of being bombed, Piper created an eerie dreamscape filled with black skies and foreboding.

Andrew also brings royal collecting up to date. From the outset Elizabeth II's priorities had been focused on preserving and displaying the Collection, and Andrew shows how one of the key events in its recent history - the Windsor Castle fire - was an unlikely catalyst in the reform of the Collection's care. Concluding his exploration, Andrew meets HRH the Prince of Wales to view two of his recent commissions, powerful portraits of veterans of the Battle of Britain and the D-Day landings, and to discuss the continued importance of this remarkable collection.

THU 01:30 Secret Knowledge (b03d6b1j)
The Hidden Jewels of the Cheapside Hoard

In 1912, workmen demolishing a building in London's Cheapside district made an extraordinary discovery - a dazzling hoard of nearly 500 Elizabethan and Jacobean jewels. For the first time since its discovery, all the pieces from this priceless treasure trove were on display at the Museum of London in an exhibition in October 2013.

With exclusive close-up access to the fabulous collection, award-winning jewellery designer Shaun Leane goes behind the scenes during the run-up to the exhibition to uncover some of the secrets of the hoard. Who did the jewels belong to? Why were they buried? And why were they never retrieved?

As Shaun uncovers a world of astonishing skill and glittering beauty, he also reveals a darker story of forgery, intrigue and even murder.

THU 02:00 Secret Knowledge (b03z08mv)
Hogarth - One Man and His Pug

To mark 250 years since William Hogarth's death, ceramics expert and self-confessed Hogarth fanatic Lars Tharp is determined to solve a mystery that has consumed his personal and professional life - the case of Hogarth's lost pug.

In this unique shaggy dog story, Tharp explains Hogarth's obsession with this most characterful of breeds and the pivotal role it played in his life and his work. A canine odyssey that only examines one of his most iconic works of art, but leads us into a world of satire, salaciousness and secrets. From harlots and rakes to the shadowy machinations of the freemasons, Tharp's ultimate goal is to lead an appeal to the nation to help him recover a rare piece of long-lost Hogarth memorabilia - a precious terracotta sculpture of his beloved pet pug.

For Tharp, this is the perfect moment in which to pay tribute to a man whom he regards as our greatest and most influential artist - and what better way to explore a man famed for his wit and humour than on the trail of his most iconic and idiosyncratic four-legged companion.

THU 02:30 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000h9x8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]

FRIDAY 07 AUGUST 2020

FRI 19:00 Snooker: World Championship (m000lj5s)
2020

Day 8: Evening Session

The third session of a second-round, best-of-25 frame encounter. A place in the quarter-finals beckons for the winner.

FRI 21:00 Everything - The Real Thing Story (m000lj5v)
The Real Thing were four working-class boys from one of Liverpool’s toughest neighbourhoods, who became Britain’s most enduring soul and funk act ever. With a string of hits, they dominated the international charts throughout the 1970s with iconic songs like You to Me Are Everything, Can’t Get By Without You and Can You Feel the Force.

But the group’s meteoric success was also tempered with personal tragedy, drug addiction and racial prejudice. They were – and still are – The Real Thing – and this is their incredible true story.

FRI 22:30 Beats, Bass & Bars – The Story of Grime (b0bmq2tq)
Presented by Rodney P, the 'Godfather of British rap', who has been making hip hop with a British accent since the 1980s, this one hour film celebrates the extraordinary story of how Grime rose from the council estates of a few streets in East London to become the most important British musical movement since punk.

Through personal encounters with key pioneers from the last four decades of British black music, Rodney discovers that the success of Grime rests upon the original styles and contributions of previous generations of artists and learns that Grime can only be truly understood when viewed as part of a broader social narrative and ever-evolving musical culture that goes back to the 1980s.

As the first generation of British born black youth came of age in the 1970s and ‘80s, the natural medium for their artistic expression was the sound system culture brought over from Jamaica by their parents and grandparents. The first major breakthrough in the evolution of a homegrown sound came in the 1980s when young reggae MCs started telling their stories in a blend of patois and cockney, reflecting the mixed multicultural environments of the British inner cities they grew up in.

By the time Rodney became a rapper in the mid 1980s the new sound of the streets was American hip hop. Nowadays it would be unthinkable for a Grime artist to adopt an American twang but back then when Rodney’s crew London Posse started rapping in their own south London accents it was a breakthrough, establishing another plank of Grime. In the early 90s, reggae toasting, British accents and sped up hip hop beats came together for the first uniquely British black music genre - Jungle. And as the decade wore on another new sound – UK Garage reflected the aspiration and optimism of Blair’s cool Britannia. But the feel good party music of UKG was never a platform for stories of struggle and hardship, and for the new generation of kids growing up on the grim council estates of east London a harder sound was needed. Made on phones in bedroom studios a new sparser and more aggressive sound emerged. Spread via the networks of illegal pirate radio stations and promoted by underground DVDs in the pre-YouTube era, London at the turn of the millennium saw the arrival of a new grimier sound where tracks were built for MC crews to rhyme over. At first no one knew what to call it but Grime had been born.

Almost 20 years on from those first beginnings, Grime how dominates the charts and the awards ceremonies, and even influences politics. Some of its biggest names are now international celebrities and many of them remain independent, signed to their own labels and controlling their own careers. Grime is now not just a genre, it’s a way of life and, built on the foundations laid down by black British artists over the decades, it represents a defiant spirit and an independent attitude that is here to stay.

FRI 23:30 BBC Proms (b065yp93)
2015

1Xtra Grime Symphony

Following 2013's Urban Classic Prom, BBC Radio 1Xtra joins the BBC Proms in a high-octane Late Night celebration of the thriving urban music scene, from hip-hop to grime. Rappers Wretch 32, Stormzy and Krept & Konan join presenters MistaJam and Sian Anderson on stage to set the Royal Albert Hall dancing to new remixes that blend classical and urban styles, with a little help from Jules Buckley and his Metropole Orkest.

FRI 00:50 The Defiant Ones (m0002k6p)
Series 1

Episode 4

In this episode, Dr Dre talks about recording his debut solo LP, The Chronic, with Death Row Records, a post-NWA label he created with Suge Knight, the D.O.C. and Dick Griffey.

Blown away by Dre’s singular talent, Jimmy discusses cutting a deal with Death Row for Interscope to become the label’s distributor. The Chronic became a huge hit and spawned even bigger LPs from Dre’s protege Snoop Dogg and new Death Row signee Tupac Shakur.

The programme explores the hostility that was mounting across America towards the misunderstood violent influence of rap music. Interscope and Time Warner (which owned 25% of the company) found themselves in the crosshairs of an angry political mainstream. And Jimmy talks about resisting overtures to sell Interscope’s stake in Death Row.

Series directed by Allen Hughes.
A Silverback 5150 production in association with Alcon Television Group for HBO.
Acquired by BBC Music for BBC Four.

FRI 01:30 Guitar Heroes at the BBC (b00dzzv2)
Part I

Concentrating on the 1970s (1969 to 1981 to be exact) and ransacking a host of BBC shows from The Old Grey Whistle Test to Sight & Sound, this compilation is designed to release the air guitarist in everyone, combining great electric guitarists like Carlos Santana, Mark Knopfler, The Edge and Peter Green with acoustic masters like John Martyn, Pentangle and Paco Pena.

FRI 02:25 Beats, Bass & Bars – The Story of Grime (b0bmq2tq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]

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

Alex Higgins: The People's Champion 21:00 SUN (b00tmzfb)

Aretha Franklin: Respect 22:45 SAT (b0bht4g1)

Art, Passion & Power: The Story of the Royal Collection 00:30 THU (b09qrbvd)

BBC Proms 19:00 SUN (b0940c1p)

BBC Proms 23:30 FRI (b065yp93)

Beats, Bass & Bars – The Story of Grime 22:30 FRI (b0bmq2tq)

Beats, Bass & Bars – The Story of Grime 02:25 FRI (b0bmq2tq)

Billy Connolly: Portrait of a Lifetime 23:30 THU (p0535lq5)

Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield 21:00 WED (b065x080)

Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield 02:10 WED (b065x080)

Canal Boat Diaries 20:30 SUN (m000bpkr)

Chas & Dave: Last Orders 22:00 SUN (b01nkdsv)

EastEnders 2008 01:30 SUN (b00bbybh)

EastEnders 2008 02:00 SUN (b00bbzbs)

EastEnders 2008 02:30 SUN (b00bbzkt)

EastEnders 2008 03:00 SUN (b00bbzhc)

Emma 21:00 THU (b00nks3z)

Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley 21:00 TUE (b06wrgzw)

Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley 02:45 TUE (b06wrgzw)

Everything - The Real Thing Story 21:00 FRI (m000lj5v)

Games Britannia 23:00 MON (b00phmrs)

Gershwin's Summertime: The Song that Conquered the World 02:15 SAT (b017nf05)

Gospel according to Mica – The Story of Gospel Music in Six Songs 23:15 SAT (m000l9tk)

Great Asian Railway Journeys 22:00 MON (m000h9x8)

Great Asian Railway Journeys 02:30 THU (m000h9x8)

Guitar Heroes at the BBC 01:30 FRI (b00dzzv2)

Hiroshima 22:00 WED (m000lj4b)

Ibiza: The Silent Movie 23:55 SUN (m000777b)

Mahalia Jackson in Concert 00:15 SAT (m000lj46)

Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture 01:25 MON (b00ydp2y)

Secret Knowledge 01:40 WED (b0376h9w)

Secret Knowledge 01:30 THU (b03d6b1j)

Secret Knowledge 02:00 THU (b03z08mv)

Snooker: World Championship 19:00 SAT (m000lj40)

Snooker: World Championship 19:00 MON (m000lj4d)

Snooker: World Championship 19:00 TUE (m000lj5q)

Snooker: World Championship 19:00 WED (m000lj48)

Snooker: World Championship 19:00 THU (m000lj5n)

Snooker: World Championship 19:00 FRI (m000lj5s)

Storyville 00:00 MON (b09c1rch)

Storyville 23:30 WED (b065y1dx)

TOTP2 00:50 SAT (b05y09mh)

Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise 21:00 MON (b088pcls)

Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise 02:25 MON (b088pcls)

The Beauty of Anatomy 00:40 WED (b04dq8kl)

The Beauty of Anatomy 01:10 WED (b04dzrtr)

The Defiant Ones 00:50 FRI (m0002k6p)

The Last Wave 21:00 SAT (m000lj42)

The Last Wave 21:55 SAT (m000lj44)

The Last Wave 23:00 TUE (m000lj42)

The Last Wave 23:55 TUE (m000lj44)

The Riviera: A History in Pictures 00:45 TUE (b01pwtvf)

Top of the Pops 01:15 SAT (m000l9th)

Treasures of Ancient Rome 22:00 TUE (b01msf6r)

Treasures of Ancient Rome 01:45 TUE (b01msf6r)

What We Did on Our Holiday 22:00 THU (b061sk00)

What We Were Watching 22:55 SUN (m000l9vc)