The BBC has announced that it has a sustainable plan for the future of the BBC Singers, in association with The VOCES8 Foundation.
The threat to reduce the staff of the three English orchestras by 20% has not been lifted, but it is being reconsidered.
See the BBC press release here.

Radio-Lists Home Now on BBC 4 Contact

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



SATURDAY 17 OCTOBER 2020

SAT 19:00 Francesco's Venice (b0078ssj)
Sex

Francesco da Mosto continues his story of Venice with its most outrageous period of partying and licentiousness. This is the age of Casanova, the age of the courtesan - when Venice was the red-light district of Europe, attracting rich and hopeful dandies from across the continent.

Ostensibly the young men would come in search of art - and there was plenty for them, with Vivaldi, Canaletto and Canova at work in the city creating art on a scale never before seen. These were artists who responded directly to their public - Vivaldi churning out score after score as tourist-patrons demanded them, Canaletto painting the most upmarket postcards of the age for the growing number of rich visitors to the city, and Canova taking the human figure in marble to a level of perfection not seen since the time of Michelangelo.

Yet storm clouds were gathering and for the Venetians who saw them coming it could only seem as though the wrath of God was about to descend upon the city. The city had grown decadent and careless of its security. Guaranteed a safe haven for a thousand years by the hidden sandbanks of the lagoon, now new technology gave the enemies of Venice long-distance guns that could hit the city from beyond the shallows.

A new monster was rising in Europe - Napoleon Bonaparte, who saw Venice as rich pickings with which to fund his revolution. He would bring disaster to the city beyond any other it had known in its thousand-year history.


SAT 20:00 Full Circle with Michael Palin (p00xb81f)
Japan and Korea

Michael Palin undertakes a 50,000-mile journey around the Pacific Rim through 18 countries. On arriving in Japan, he tracks down Japan's most loyal Monty Python fan, visits a reproduction Dutch village, and stands on the site of the epicentre of the Nagasaki atom bomb. In South Korea, however, he faces obstacles to his trip and must find an alternative route to China.


SAT 21:00 Inspector Montalbano (m000nnzg)
The Safety Net

A Swedish film troupe arrives to shoot a period drama in Vigata. Augello immediately takes a shine to the production's female lead.

When Montalbano intervenes in a case of bullying at a local school, a town resident asks the inspector to unearth the story behind a collection of mysterious home movies found in his dead father's attic.

In Italian with English subtitles.


SAT 22:40 The Bridge (b06fh90b)
Series 3

Episode 3

The Malmo police have received a ransom video from Hans's kidnapper. Saga is beginning to show signs of the strain she is under when her mother arrives at the station unannounced. Henrik interrupts the less-than-maternal meeting to say that victim Helle Anker's car has been found, which in turn leads to gruesome find at an amusement park.

In Swedish and Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 23:40 The Bridge (b06gnr77)
Series 3

Episode 4

Rikard Jonsson has escaped after violently attacking another victim. Saga believes that he may attempt to visit Lise Friis Andersen, but on visiting her house discovers that he has taken a hostage. Jeanette picks up a bag from Malmo railway station as requested by Lukas, but is distraught when two heavies block her in traffic and take the bag for themselves.

In Swedish and Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 00:40 Top of the Pops (m000ng79)
Nicky Campbell presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 18 January 1990 and featuring Halo James, The Quireboys and Martika.


SAT 01:10 Top of the Pops (m000ng7c)
Simon Mayo and Jakki Brambles present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 26 January 1990 and featuring Phil Collins, Sinead O'Connor and Yell!


SAT 01:45 Full Circle with Michael Palin (p00xb81f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:35 Francesco's Venice (b0078ssj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



SUNDAY 18 OCTOBER 2020

SUN 19:00 Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture (b00jzjs4)
Fruit and Veg

A look at the changes in the way fruit and veg was grown, picked and sold, told through three of the staples in the British landscape - apples, strawberries and tomatoes.

Home movies and archive footage reveal the extent of the revolution in how the fruit was picked and the impact supermarkets had on the fortunes of the small- and medium-sized growers.


SUN 20:00 Yellowstone (b00jrh7r)
Summer

As the spring melts the winter snow, the full extent of Yellowstone is gradually revealed. Now, from the surrounding lowlands herds of elk, pronghorn and bison return from their winter feeding grounds to take advantage of America's richest natural grasslands - right in the heart of Yellowstone. In only a few weeks, a brutally harsh deep freeze has been transformed into a flower-decked nursery perfect for the year's newborn animals. There is also a new cast of characters that emerge bleary-eyed from hibernation as grizzly bears begin to teach their young the secrets of survival in Yellowstone - how to hunt fish in the still-frozen rivers and, as the season progresses, when to move out through valleys and grasslands into summer forests and up into Yellowstone's alpine peaks. In this spectacular wilderness, over 10,000ft high, they slide and scrabble, hunting millions of tiny moths buried under rocks on the barren slopes.

But summer here is fickle - even on Midsummer's Day, winter can descend from the surrounding mountains bringing punishing snows to fragile flower meadows. August is the only month in the year when it does not snow, but then, just as it seems the easy living of summer has finally arrived, it is brought to an abrupt end as fires sweep through the forest, laying Yellowstone to waste.

Yellowstone is the most geothermally active place on earth. There are 10,000 boiling springs, bubbling mudpots and fumeroles there, and more geysers than in all the rest of the world put together. For some, nature's fountains are more than just a marvel, they are an obsession. 'Geyser Gazers' have seen them all and can even imitate them.


SUN 21:00 Full Circle with Michael Palin (p00xb849)
China

Michael Palin undertakes a journey around the Pacific Rim through 18 countries. Arriving in Qingdao, Michael checks into his hotel - which is curiously like a Bavarian castle - and finds himself in a room that was once Chairman Mao's. Having climbed China's holiest mountain, he travels to Shanghai to see the new face of the nation, then takes a steamboat trip on the Yangtze River


SUN 22:00 Collateral (b09s7hxt)
Series 1

Episode 1

When a pizza delivery driver is shot dead in South London, a tenacious detective goes after the people traffickers behind his murder and unravels a conspiracy that goes to the top.


SUN 22:55 Collateral (b09sym6m)
Series 1

Episode 2

DI Kip Glaspie knows that Abdullah's sisters hold the key to his death, but why is a sinister MI5 officer doing his best to derail the investigation?


SUN 23:55 EastEnders 2008 (b00csh53)
Dawn's world unravels after Jake's disappearance. Harmony in the Slater household proves short-lived when Jean and Roxy discover Sean's secret.


SUN 00:25 EastEnders 2008 (b00cshbz)
Roxy and Sean's bombshell throws the Slater household into chaos. Shirley resolves to teach Phil a lesson.


SUN 00:55 EastEnders 2008 (b00csgxw)
Roxy's big day arrives, but there is no sign of Sean. Shirley risks Phil's wrath in order to help Ben achieve his dreams.


SUN 01:25 EastEnders 2008 (b00csgg5)
Ronnie makes it to the church, but will she succeed in halting Roxy and Sean's wedding? Shirley takes on Phil following Ben's appearance in the talent show.


SUN 02:00 Mud, Sweat and Tractors: The Story of Agriculture (b00jzjs4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 03:00 Yellowstone (b00jrh7r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



MONDAY 19 OCTOBER 2020

MON 19:00 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074m97)
Wind, Water and Steam

Documentary series celebrating Britain's rich industrial heritage, presented by Fred Dibnah. The tour of treasured sites of industrial history begins on the old Bolton, Bury and Manchester Canal, looks at the early use of wind and water power, and traces the development of the steam engine. Fred visits a man who has built a windmill in his own back garden, and hunts for examples of early beam engines that are still functioning today.


MON 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000nnzj)
Series 3

Peaceful Haven

The undaunted splendour of the sky, trees and a lake, beautifully portrayed in another Bob Ross creation.

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.

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.


MON 20:00 Fake or Fortune? (b07ljhsm)
Series 5

Freud

Fake or Fortune returns for a fifth series, beginning with one of the most challenging cases the team has ever encountered. Can art detectives Philip Mould and Fiona Bruce prove that a painting of a man in a black cravat is one of the first pictures ever painted by celebrated and controversial British artist Lucian Freud, even though Freud himself denied painting it?

London-based designer Jon Turner is eager to prove that a painting he inherited from two friends is in fact an early portrait painted by Freud whilst at art school in 1939. If it's genuine, it could be worth around half a million pounds. But who is the mysterious man in the portrait - and why did Freud deny it was his work?

As the team hunt for clues, they are drawn into a world of feuds, rivalries and intrigue. Can those who knew Freud best help unlock the painting's secrets?


MON 21:00 The Billion Dollar Art Hunt (m000nnzl)
In June 2019, arts journalist John Wilson received an extraordinary tip-off – one billion dollars’ worth of stolen art may be about to be recovered. Included are a unique Rembrandt - his only seascape - and a Vermeer considered the most valuable stolen painting in the world. The art was taken from the walls of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in the early hours of 18 March 1990. It remains the world’s biggest unsolved art heist. For John, to follow the recovery of the paintings, as it happens, would be the biggest art story of the century.

What makes the tip-off more surprising is where it is believed the art might be found - behind a wall in a house in west Dublin. That’s 3,000 miles from where the FBI have always believed they would find it. For the last 30 years, their investigations have focused on Boston on the premise that the thieves were Italian-American and that the art has never left America.

John’s source is Charley Hill, a former detective in the Metropolitan Police Art Squad with a record of recovering famous paintings estimated at $100 million, including Munch’s The Scream and a Vermeer stolen from an Irish stately home. He works privately now but is convinced that his intelligence about the Boston art theft is solid. A notorious Dublin gangster cultivated by Charley for years says he knows where the art can be found and wants to claim the $10 million reward.

Documenting the journey promises to be a fast moving, high profile story. But Charley has a warning for John too: ‘The problem is, and it’s a serious problem, is no-one gets maimed or murdered.’ That worry is never far away as John goes into a very different art world, one where good art is in the hands of bad men.


MON 22:00 Collateral (b09tqwpx)
Series 1

Episode 3

When the killers claim another victim, DI Kip Glaspie decides to break the rules to get to the bottom of the mystery.


MON 23:00 Collateral (b09vg8x7)
Series 1

Episode 4

As the net draws in, DI Kip Glaspie enters a dangerous power play with MI5. But is it too late to save everyone involved?


MON 00:00 Inside Cinema (m000ng7r)
Black History Month

Barry Jenkins

An exploration of the work of Barry Jenkins, a trailblazing film director whose Best Picture winner Moonlight made Oscar night history in 2017, beating La La Land to Best Picture following a dramatic and unprecedented envelope mix-up.

Grace Barber-Plentie, a writer and programmer specialising in depictions of people of colour, particularly black women, in pop culture. explores Jenkins’s body of work, from his charming low-fi breakout, romantic drama Medicine for Melancholy, to his current status as only the second black director to make a film which has won the Oscar for Best Picture.

His first film, Medicine for Melancholy, marked the first time Jenkins worked with cinematographer James Laxton, a professional relationship that would see the director and his favourite director of photograph work together on every subsequent project. Medicine for Melancholy was influenced by the work of French director Claire Denis, in particular her film Vendredi soir, with Jenkins positioning his work as part of an outward-looking, cosmopolitan cinematic tradition with its roots in European cinema.

His next film, Moonlight, was a higher profile project, with a cast of stars including Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris and popstar Janelle Monae. Moonlight also wears its cinematic influences on its sleeve, including the work of director Wong Kar-wai, again showing that his work is culturally open, speaking a global language of references. Jenkins was also influenced by directors such as Kahlil Joseph and his heightened, hyper-real depiction of black lives in music videos like Until the Quiet Comes.

Moonlight manages to be two things - specific and universal. Jenkins, a black film-maker, makes a film for and about black people, but like any good coming-of-age story, Moonlight captured its audience's hearts because it was universal, with people from all walks of life able to relate to it.

Jenkins’s return to cinema after Moonlight’s dramatic Oscar win was 2018’s If Beale Street Could Talk, looking at the prison industrial complex through the words of pioneering African-American author James Baldwin, the first film adaptation of Baldwin’s fiction. The film follows star-crossed young lovers Tish and Fonny in 1960s New York, who are separated after Fonny is imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit.

Inside Cinema: Barry Jenkins shows how this director takes heavy, thought-provoking subject matter and weaves it into stories all about love, drawing together a plethora of international influences to tell uniquely black American stories.


MON 00:15 Inside Cinema (m000ng7t)
Black History Month

Ryan Coogler

An exploration of the work of Ryan Coogler, a record-breaking film director, whose Oscar-winning and box office-conquering superhero adventure Black Panther scaled new heights for big-budget black cinema in Hollywood. Written and voiced Kambole Campbell, a writer and film critic for Empire Magazine, Little White Lies and Sight & Sound, this short profile documentary follows Coogler’s career from independent drama Fruitvale Station through Rocky franchise spin-off Creed to comic-book epic Black Panther.

Campbell argues that while Coogler’s films have grown exponentially in size, ambition and budget, they are united by common themes and personal touches. Each is an examination of contemporary black masculinity, from the family legacy that rests on Adonis Creed’s shoulders to the central conflict of Black Panther, between the brute strength of the insurgent villain, Killmonger, and the grace and vulnerability of Black Panther himself, King T’Challa.

While his career to date has marked him out as a distinctive film-maker, Coogler favours sharing the limelight with his returning collaborators, to award-winning effect. Rachel Morrison’s cinematography on Fruitvale Station made a low-key drama more intimate and compelling, while Maryse Alberti’s work on Creed hinged around a showcase sequence: Adonis’s first bout, shot in long, elaborate takes, revealing the tactical battle of boxing as the combatants’ fatigue grows. Then, Black Panther broke the Marvel movie mould, crafting an Oscar-winning Afrofuturist aesthetic, from Hannah Bleachler’s sets to Ruth Carter’s costumes and Ludwig Goransson’s score, all mixing sci-fi superhero style with traditional African accents, imagining a high-tech African utopia, untouched by European colonial influence.

What ties all of Coogler’s films together is his rewriting of the way black stories are told. Fruitvale Station flipped the script on portrayals of black victims in mainstream media. Creed re-centred a traditionally white-led sports franchise on a young black boxer, viewing the sports genre through the prism of black culture. And, finally, Black Panther was Coogler’s grand rewrite of colonialism itself, presenting an Afrofuturist fantasy of Africa untouched by colonialism and imperial greed, as well as a spectacular reinvention of the white-dominated superhero genre.

Throughout his films, no matter how large the budget or creative canvas, Ryan Coogler’s work is unified by an interest in black lives: their shared history, their identities and their representation on the big screen.


MON 00:30 Fake or Fortune? (b07ljhsm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 01:30 The Joy of Painting (m000nnzj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:00 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074m97)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 02:30 The Billion Dollar Art Hunt (m000nnzl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 20 OCTOBER 2020

TUE 19:00 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074m9h)
Mills and Factories

Documentary series celebrating Britain's rich industrial heritage, presented by Fred Dibnah.

Fred traces the development of Britain's textile industry from the picturesque Scottish countryside of New Lanark to the urban mill town of Burnley and talks to ex-weavers about life in the mills, and meets a group of volunteers who have spent 30 years saving mill engines from the scrapheap.


TUE 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000np09)
Series 3

Mountain Exhibition

Mountains seem to sing in harmony with the sky as Bob Ross’s brushes tell a story in breathtaking hues and depth.

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.

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.


TUE 20:00 Vikings (b01ms4xm)
Episode 1

Neil Oliver heads for Scandinavia to reveal the truth behind the legend of the Vikings. In the first programme, Neil begins by discovering the mysterious world of the Vikings' prehistoric ancestors. The remains of weapons-filled war boats, long-haired Bronze Age farmers and a Swedish site of a royal palace and gruesome pagan rituals conjure up an ancient past from which the Viking Age was to suddenly erupt.


TUE 21:00 Blood of the Clans (m000lw7z)
Series 1

The Year of Victories

Neil Oliver presents a drama-documentary series telling the tale of Scotland’s 17th-century civil war. When the Scottish Parliament, led by the chief of Clan Campbell, declares war on Charles I, clans loyal to the King rise up in rebellion. At the heart of this epic struggle lies an ancient feud between the Campbells and the MacDonalds, and all hell is unleashed as the royalist clans use the war to wreak bloody vengeance on their rivals in an epic conflict that threatens the stability of the newly emerging British state.


TUE 22:00 Play For Today (p0424x3z)
Series 10

A Hole in Babylon

Play by Jim Hawkins and Horace Ove based on the events surrounding the ‘Spaghetti House’ siege, an armed robbery that went disastrously wrong.


TUE 23:05 Arena (m000kbk6)
I Am Not Your Negro

Narrated entirely in the words of James Baldwin, through both personal appearances and the text of his final unfinished book project, this film touches on the lives and assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr and Medgar Evers. The film brings powerful clarity to how the images and reality of black lives in America today are fabricated and enforced.


TUE 00:35 Yellow Is Forbidden (m000h3dv)
Documentary providing an intimate glimpse into an exclusive world of luxury and immense wealth, where global power dynamics, art and commerce meet - a modern-day Cinderella story.

The diminutive and daring Guo Pei dresses China’s new elite but dreams of conquering Paris, the exclusive yet savage capital of haute couture.


TUE 01:25 The Joy of Painting (m000np09)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 01:55 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074m9h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


TUE 02:25 Blood of the Clans (m000lw7z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 21 OCTOBER 2020

WED 19:00 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074m9s)
Iron and Steel

Fred traces the development of the production of iron and steel, beginning his journey at Ironbridge. Travelling throughout Britain, he concludes his journey in Sheffield, the home of steel.


WED 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000np0k)
Series 3

Emerald Waters

Bob Ross uses beautiful shades of green that burst forth in an exciting, realistic display of nature’s wonder.

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.

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 20:00 Castles: Britain's Fortified History (b04v85sy)
Defence of the Realm

Sam Willis explores how, by the Wars of the Roses, castles were under attack from a new threat - the cannon - but survived into the Tudor era only to find their whole purpose challenged. What had once been strategic seats of power now had to keep up with the fickle fashions of the court and become palaces to impress monarchs such as Elizabeth I.

Just as castles seemed to have lost their defensive function, the English Civil War erupted. The legacy of that tumultuous period resulted in castles no longer being associated with protection. Rather, their ruins took on a unique appeal, embodying a nostalgia for an age of chivalry that became a powerful part of the national psyche.


WED 21:00 The Flying Scotsman: A Rail Romance (b008m6wb)
As it celebrates its 90th birthday, Barbara Flynn narrates the story of the nation's love affair with the Flying Scotsman, the steam locomotive that symbolises all that was great about British engineering.


WED 22:00 Timeshift (b00dzzdc)
Series 8

Last Days of Steam

The surprising story of how Britain entered a new age of steam railways after the Second World War and why it quickly came to an end.

After the war, the largely destroyed railways of Europe were rebuilt to carry more modern diesel and electric trains. Britain, however, chose to build thousands of brand new steam locomotives. Did we stay with steam because coal was seen as the most reliable power source or were the railways run by men who couldn't bear to let go of their beloved steam trains?

The new British locomotives were designed to stay in service well into the 1970s, but in some cases they were taken off the railways and scrapped within just five years. When Dr Richard Beeching took over British Railways in the 1960s the writing was on the wall, and in 1968 the last steam passenger train blew its whistle.

But while steam use declined, steam enthusiasm grew. As many steam engines lay rusting in scrapyards around Britain, enthusiasts raised funds to buy, restore and return them to their former glory. In 2008, the first brand new steam locomotive to be built in Britain in nearly 50 years rolled off the line, proving our enduring love of these machines.


WED 23:00 A Very British History (b0bty31k)
Series 1

The First Black Brummies

Poet Sue Brown looks at what life was like in the post-war years for Birmingham’s Caribbean community. Sue, whose parents came to Britain in the 50s from Jamaica, meets people who remember and experienced the hostile environment that faced many of the early migrants. She explores her home city to discover the cultural significance of local black churches, music and the rise of Rastafarianism. She also meets legendary singer Jimmy Cliff to discuss his hit song Many Rivers to Cross. Cliff and others have written about the challenges faced by many early ‘settlers’. Sue recalls how migration literally divided families, including her own, and meant people lived thousands of miles apart.


WED 00:00 The Billion Dollar Art Hunt (m000nnzl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


WED 01:00 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b06qnn2d)
Yinka Shonibare

Best known for 'Nelson's Ship in a Bottle', which appeared on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, Yinka Shonibare MBE is one of Britain's foremost contemporary artists, rising to fame as part of the 'Sensation' generation along with Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin in the early 1990s.

Since then Shonibare has created a unique body of work. Often influenced by his Nigerian origins and combining darkness and humour, his art challenges our ideas about cultural identity and the post-colonial world.

For the last 20 years Shonibare has created a series of distinctive 'mannequin' figures - anonymous, headless and dressed in African batik fabrics. This film follows Shonibare creating his latest figure and talking about his life and career.


WED 01:30 The Joy of Painting (m000np0k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 02:00 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074m9s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 02:30 Castles: Britain's Fortified History (b04v85sy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER 2020

THU 19:00 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074mb5)
Mining

In this programme Fred Dibnah takes a look at mining. His tour takes him from Cornwall to Scotland, exploring how tin, slate, lead, and coal were all extracted from the ground. Along the way he visits old mine workings, drives, winding engines, and descends a mine shaft strapped to the top of the cage.


THU 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000nnzp)
Series 3

Mountain Summit

Snowy peaks point towards the heavens as Bob Ross surrounds a scene in a happy gathering of landscape finery.

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.

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 20:00 She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (b007894r)
In the second in John Ford's cavalry trilogy, a US cavalry officer suffers a setback on his last mission and is 'retired' before he can take further action. To avert a full-scale war, he decides to act alone.


THU 21:40 How the Wild West Was Won with Ray Mears (b045nz9q)
Deserts

Ray Mears looks at how the landscapes of America's five great deserts challenged the westward push of the early pioneers.

As Ray travels through the cold high mountain Great Basin desert and the hot Sonoran desert of southern Arizona, he discovers how their hostile geography and rich geology shaped the stories of fortune hunting and lawlessness in the Wild West, and were the setting for the last wars between the US Army and the Apache warrior tribes.

Ray's journey begins in Monument Valley, whose dramatic desert landscape has become synonymous with the Wild West years. He explores how plants and animals survive in this waterless climate and how the Navajo Indian people adapted to the conditions. In Tucson, he meets up with desert coroners Bruce Anderson and Robin Reineke, who show him how the desert still kills people today.

He explores how the Apache adapted their warfare methods to the desert and how the US cavalry struggled in the hot arid landscape. In Tombstone, he gets to grips with the myths around lawmakers and lawlessness and how it flourished in the remote desert regions of the Old West. He discovers how this forbidding landscape was the perfect refuge for bandits and pursues the outlaw trail to Butch Cassidy's hideout at Robber's Roost. His journey ends with the story of Geronimo's surrender which marked the end of the Indian Wars, and of the Old West.


THU 22:40 Glen Campbell: The Rhinestone Cowboy (b01pwxs8)
In 2011, Glen Campbell announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and that he would be bowing out with a final album and farewell tour across Britain and America. This documentary tells Campbell's remarkable life story, from impoverished childhood in Arkansas to huge success, first as a guitarist and then as a singer, with great records like Wichita Lineman and Rhinestone Cowboy. With comments from friends and colleagues, including songwriter Jimmy Webb and Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees, it is a moving story of success, disgrace and redemption as rich as any of the storylines in Campbell's most famous songs.

The peak of Glen Campbell's career was in 1975, when he topped the charts around the world with Rhinestone Cowboy, but his musical journey to that point is fascinating. A self-taught teenage prodigy on the guitar, by his mid-twenties Campbell was one of the top session guitarists in LA, a key member of the band of session players now known as The Wrecking Crew. He played on hundreds of tracks while working for producers like Phil Spector and Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, including Daydream Believer by The Monkees, You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling by The Righteous Brothers, Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra and Viva Las Vegas by Elvis Presley.

But Campbell always wanted to make it under his own name. A string of records failed to chart until, in 1967, he finally found his distinctive country pop sound with hits like Gentle on My Mind and By the Time I Get to Phoenix. The latter was written by Jimmy Webb, and together the two created a string of great records like Wichita Lineman and Galveston. Campbell pioneered country crossover and opened the way for artists like Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.

By the end of the 1960s, Campbell was the fastest rising star in American pop with his own television show and a starring role in the original version of True Grit. Over the following ten years, he had more success with Rhinestone Cowboy and Southern Nights, but his private life was in turmoil. Divorce, drink and drugs saw this clean-cut all-American hero fall from grace and a tempestuous relationship with country star Tanya Tucker was front-page news.

Despite a relapse in 2003, when he was arrested for drunk driving and his police mug shot was shown around the world, the last two decades have been more settled. He remarried, started a new family and renewed his Christian faith, and was musically rediscovered by a new generation. Like his friend Johnny Cash, he released acclaimed new albums with young musicians, covering songs by contemporary artists like U2 and The Foo Fighters. Therefore the diagnosis with Alzheimer's was all the more poignant, but his dignified farewell has made him the public face of the disease in the USA.

The film includes contributions by many of Campbell's friends and colleagues, including his family in Arkansas, fellow session musicians Carol Kaye and Leon Russell, long-time friend and collaborator Jimmy Webb, former Monkee Mickey Dolenz, broadcaster Bob Harris, lyricist Don Black and country music writer Robert Oermann.


THU 23:40 Blood of the Clans (m000lw7z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 00:40 Big Sky, Big Dreams, Big Art: Made in the USA (b0b49rq2)
Series 1

Episode 2

This episode is set in the American metropolis - the soaring new cities of the East Coast with their futuristic skylines and lofty skyscrapers. But instead of looking up at the futuristic towers, Waldemar Januszczak explores the squalid boxing rings painted by George Bellows, Reginald Mash's decadent awaydays on Coney Island and the crazy escape into theosophy and abstraction mounted by Thomas Wilfred. The film culminates in the harsh immigrant experience of Ellis Island and the profound impact that rootlessness had on the art of Mark Rothko.


THU 01:40 The Joy of Painting (m000nnzp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 02:10 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074mb5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 02:40 How the Wild West Was Won with Ray Mears (b045nz9q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:40 today]



FRIDAY 23 OCTOBER 2020

FRI 19:00 The Sound of Movie Musicals with Neil Brand (m0001jgs)
Episode 1

In this first episode of a three-part series, presenter and musician Neil Brand argues that the movie musical was the most important form of cinema from the advent of the age of sound. Beginning with the very first film musical, 1929’s Broadway Melody, Brand looks at the huge and lasting impact of the musical and, in his trademark analysis of songs at the piano, takes us through some of the most important numbers in this first golden age.

The remarkable success of Broadway Melody winning one of the first ever Academy Awards meant that film studios were eager to cash in on the possibilities of musical film. But, as Brand reveals, this was not always to guaranteed success. He shows how the first big-budget, all-colour musical, 1930’s King of Jazz, failed to capture the box office. He discusses how its lack of actual African American jazz musicians was one of its problems, by looking at the first dedicated African American musical - King Vidor’s Hallelujah. With the help of a gospel choir from the Mother AME Zion Church in New York, he examines how much Hallelujah actually reflected life in the Deep South in 1920s America.

Continuing the theme, Brand goes on to explain how the Great Depression in 1930s US actually inspired some of the most progressive and memorable examples of the first golden age of movie musicals: MGM’s 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933. These were remarkably socially aware films, and as Neil demonstrates, songs such as We’re in the Money and Remember My Forgotten Man were both beautifully tuneful and lyrically poignant.

In an unexpected turn, the programme shifts focus to the USSR, where a little-known story of musical film is uncovered. From the early 1930s, Joseph Stalin actually commissioned a series of film musicals to promote the ideology of the Soviet Union. Beginning with the slapstick of 1934’s The Jolly Fellows, two years later came Circus, one of the most extraordinary musical films in Russian history. A tale of an exiled American woman with a mixed-race child, Circus was a remarkable piece of propaganda promoting the Soviet Union as a country of racial inclusion, exactly as Stalin began his 'great purge' - to silence any dissenters from his communist plan.

Back in Hollywood, the musical was surging forward with a whole new level of song and dance movie star; most significantly, the incredible partnership of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers. Brand visits the Royal Ballet in London, where principal dancer Steven McRae dances and analyses one of Astaire’s most jaw-dropping numbers, No Strings. Neil also guides us through the music of Top Hat’s iconic song Cheek to Cheek.

Finally, we explore how the introduction of fantasy and fairy tale invigorated the movie musical in the latter years of the 1930s. Walt Disney’s Snow White was a gamble that took three years to make but became one of the highest grossing films of all time, followed by MGM’s unforgettable The Wizard of Oz, released to cinemas a mere two weeks before the outbreak of the Second World War.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m000nnyl)
Bruno Brookes presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 2 February 1990 and featuring Sybil, Sinead O'Connor and The House of Love.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m000nnyn)
Gary Davies presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 8 February 1990 and featuring Phil Collins, The Beloved and Beats International.


FRI 21:00 Count Basie Through His Own Eyes (m000nnyq)
Documentary, told in Count Basie’s own words, which reveals for the first time the private passions and ambitions that inspired the world-famous bandleader and pianist.

Until now, little was known about Basie’s private and family life, but director Jeremy Marre has found a treasure trove of home movies and photo albums that show Basie’s remarkable relationship with his wife Catherine, whose pioneering support for African-American causes placed her at the side of Martin Luther King. Through Basie’s intimate footage and letters - and interviews with friends like Quincy Jones and Annie Ross - we discover the count’s protective love for his disabled daughter Diane who ‘was never out of his heart and mind - the hidden core of his creative life’.

Basie’s musical achievements were remarkable. He was the first African-American musician to win a Grammy. He brought the blues to the big band podium. He was ‘King of the Swing Kings’. We see rare performances with Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis Jr and many others. But this film digs deeper, uncovering the inner motivation and passions that drove Basie’s career as he became a unique link between jazz and America’s turbulent social history.


FRI 22:20 Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes (m000b8pd)
A revelatory, thrilling and emotional journey behind the scenes of Blue Note Records, the pioneering label that gave voice to some of the finest jazz artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

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

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

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

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


FRI 23:45 Jazz Piano Gold (b01cc76p)
A real treat for anyone who loves listening to the tinkling of the jazz piano, with classics from Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Abdullah Ibrahim, Stan Tracey and Jacques Loussier to Duke Ellington, Return to Forever and Herbie Hancock. The performances are culled from cult classic programmes such as Jazz 625, Show of the Week, Late Night Line Up, Love You Madly, Birdland, The Late Show and Later... with Jools Holland, and date from 1964 to 2009. Be it bebop, swing or contemporary, Jazz Piano Gold is a must for all jazz piano fans.


FRI 00:45 Hot Chocolate at the BBC (b06dl1c5)
Errol Brown, who died aged 71 in May 2015, was probably the most famous and ubiquitous black British pop star of the 70s and early 80s. He co-founded Hot Chocolate with Tony Wilson in 1970 and the band went on to have a hit every year between 1971 and 1984.

This compilation of BBC performances and rare interview extracts celebrates Errol and Hot Chocolate, showcasing their Top 10 hits alongside rarely seen early performances and cult fan favourites.

We journey through over 15 years of chart smashes showcasing all the infectious numbers - Every 1's a Winner, Emma, So You Win Again and It Started With a Kiss - and of course, The Full Monty scene-stealer You Sexy Thing, a song that was in the charts in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

There are reminders of just how many Top 10 moments they had, with Girl Crazy and No Doubt About It, the hit that got away - Mindless Boogie - and their first appearance on BBC television with Love Is Life. Hot Chocolate were that rarity, a 70s British pop band who largely wrote their own tunes and arrangements and a mixed race band who perhaps inadvertently helped foster an early sense of British multi-culturalism. In Errol, they had a frontman who was not only a great singer, songwriter and frontman, but also resolutely and undemonstratively always himself, at ease in his own skin.


FRI 01:45 Count Basie Through His Own Eyes (m000nnyq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 03:00 The Sound of Movie Musicals with Neil Brand (m0001jgs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]