SATURDAY 08 JANUARY 2022

SAT 19:00 Around the World in 80 Treasures (m0013c7w)
Series 1 Shorts

Japan - Samurai Sword

Dan is captivated by the sword of a Samurai warrior and the artistry employed to make this beautiful instrument of death. By contrast, he finds solace and tranquillity in a Japanese temple and meditation garden.


SAT 19:10 Britain's Outlaws: Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues (b06qgh3w)
Knights of the Road: The Highwayman's Story

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

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

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

Sam begins with the arrival of a new breed of gentleman criminal out of the ashes of the English Civil War - the highwayman. Heavily romanticised in literature, these glamorous gangsters became a social menace on the roads and a political thorn in the side of the creaking British state - threatening to steal our wallets and our hearts. But underneath the dashing image of stylish robbers on horseback lay a far darker reality.


SAT 20:10 Around the World in 80 Days (b007893t)
The Challenge

Actor and writer Michael Palin takes up the challenge to emulate the adventures of Phileas Fogg and circumnavigate the globe, travelling by land and sea. The intrepid traveller sets off from London's Reform Club for Venice.


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 Parkinson: The Interviews (b01hdcb3)
Series 1

Peter Cook

Michael Parkinson looks back at some of his many interviews with the comic genius that was Peter Cook.


SAT 23:25 The Ghan: Australia's Greatest Train Journey (b0bq3jnv)
The Ghan follows one of the world's great rail journeys, taking viewers on an immersive and visually stunning ride on Australia's most iconic passenger trains. Known as the Ghan, it travels for 2979 kilometres over 54 hours from the bottom to the top of the country. It begins in the suburban city of Adelaide, traversing a seemingly endless outback that includes the magnificent red centre, ending in the tropical coastal town of Darwin at the north western tip of Australia. The transcontinental train line led to the development of central Australia and the growth of towns along its path - Port Augusta, Alice Springs and Darwin. It took an epic 127 years to complete and was constructed by local Aboriginal surveyors and early immigrants, including the famous Afghan camel drivers, after whom the train is named.


SAT 02:25 Around the World in 80 Days (b007893t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:10 today]



SUNDAY 09 JANUARY 2022

SUN 19:00 Coast (b08s2bg7)
Series 8 Reversions

Episode 16

On the Isle of Wight Nick Crane discovers a tunnel in the cliff. Sarah Beynon examines dung beetles in cow pats on Ramsey Island, and sees Chuffs feeding on them. Up in Yorkshire, Nick Crane examines the receding cliffs and sees a massive WWII defensive structure now lying on the beach.He visits Aldeburgh, which is under threat from the sea, where many houses have already been condemned due to sea erosion. At Lyme Regis Cassie Newland examines old rubbish revealed from the old dump.


SUN 19:25 Matthew Bourne's The Red Shoes (m000qry2)
Matthew Bourne’s triumphant adaptation of the legendary film has won two Olivier Awards and dazzled audiences across the UK and the USA. This production is a recording of the stage performance made at Sadler’s Wells.

The Red Shoes is a tale of obsession, possession and one girl's dream to be the greatest dancer in the world. Victoria Page (Ashley Shaw) lives to dance, but her ambitions become a battleground between the two men, Boris Lermontov (Adam Cooper) and Julian Craster (Dominic North), who inspire her passion.

Set to the music of golden-age Hollywood composer Bernard Herrmann, The Red Shoes is orchestrated by Terry Davies and played by the New Adventures Orchestra, with cinematic designs by Lez Brotherston, lighting by Paule Constable, sound by Paul Groothuis and projection from Duncan McLean.


SUN 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’.


SUN 22:00 The Sky at Night (m0013c9c)
Dark Skies

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Professor Chris Lintott visit the Van Gogh Immersive Experience to seek inspiration in one of the world’s most famous works of art, Starry Night. How can we mitigate the effects of light pollution so that the beauty of the night sky captured by Van Gogh might be preserved in the real world for future generations?

Images and data from satellites have made it easy for us to visualise the extent of the growing effects of light pollution around the world, but speaking with Professor Kevin Gaston from the University of Exeter, Chris discovers that our current estimates show that global light pollution could be much worse than past data suggests. Without satellites capable of analysing the light emitted from the now-popular bluer LED lighting, he estimates that the true levels of light pollution could be around 200% more than was previously thought. Kevin and Chris discuss how light pollution is not just a problem for astronomers but can have devastating effects on animal behaviour and human health.

Pete Lawrence visits one of the few places in the UK where you might still be able to catch a glimpse of the Milky Way. In Moore’s Reserve, named after Sir Patrick Moore, Pete meets up with Dark Skies Officer and South Down National Park ranger Dan Oakley, whose public outreach and passion for astronomy helped to get Dark Sky Reserve status for the area. Together they talk about the way towns and cities might change to help create more dark sky areas for the public to enjoy.

In contrast, atop Television Centre in London - one of the country’s brightest cities – Chris joins the Baker Street Irregular Astronomers under a bright city night sky. The group demonstrate some tips and tricks to show us that, no matter where you are, you can still view and image some spectacular night sky objects.

And finally, Maggie looks at the latest risk to clear views of the night sky, mega-constellations and how satellite streaks that were once a novelty and easy to avoid are now becoming a nuisance to researchers and astronomers in many disciplines. Speaking to Tim Stevenson from the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, they discuss how mega-constellations disrupt radio telescopes that rely on a particular waveband to help their research of everything from galaxy formations and the chemical markers of life in the universe.


SUN 22:30 Bernard Haitink, The Enigmatic Maestro (m000n1jp)
After conducting for 65 years, Bernard Haitink retired in 2019 at the age of 90. The musicians he worked with are puzzled by the secrets of his technique. He himself says his job is to embrace the orchestra without suffocating them.


SUN 00:00 The Sky at Night (m00044x6)
Guides

Stars

For as long as humans have walked the Earth, the stars have fascinated us. But we have come a long way since the earliest days of astronomy when we had nothing but our eyes to observe the night sky. Since then we have designed an arsenal of ingenious machines to help us unlock the secrets of the stars – from how they work and move around the Universe to how they live and die. For more than 60 years, the Sky at Night has covered every major development in our understanding of the stars, and regular Sky at Night presenter, Professor Chris Lintott, uses this archive to reveal spectacular and surprising facts about these heavenly bodies. From the ancient myths of the constellations to today's cutting edge attempts to map our own Milky Way, this is a story of incredible ingenuity, extraordinary technology and spectacular discoveries. We will discover how stars work, from the nuclear reactions at their cores to the strange phenomena on their surfaces, and we will follow the life cycle of a star all the way through to its spectacular end – one of the most dramatic events in the Universe that also turns out to hold the key to our very existence.


SUN 01:00 Coast (b08s2bg7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 01:25 Men at the Barre - Inside the Royal Ballet (m000jjjq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


SUN 02:25 Britain's Outlaws: Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues (b06qgh3w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:10 on Saturday]



MONDAY 10 JANUARY 2022

MON 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vlk7)
Series 12

Farnborough to Winchester

Michael is heading for Farnborough, Hampshire, famous today for its airshow and home to what was then the Royal Aircraft Establishment. Richard Gardner of the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust tells Michael about the boffins who worked here and the inventions they came up with, such as retractable landing gear and flight-pressurised suits. Michael discovers that research here was so secret that the airfield was not marked on the map, let alone mentioned in his Bradshaw’s guide.

Michael continues west across Hampshire to Basingstoke to visit a glorious neo-Gothic stately home set in the North Wessex Downs. The magnificent Highclere Castle, seat of the Earls of Caernarvon, is perhaps best-known today as Downton Abbey. Michael meets the present Lady Carnarvon, wife of the eighth Earl, to find out more about her husband’s ancestor, a passionate Egyptologist who made a discovery that stunned the world: the tomb of Tutankhamun.

In the countryside around Highclere, Michael visits a chapel dedicated to the memory of Harry Willoughby Sandham, who died in 1919 as a result of his military service in Macedonia. 19 oil paintings by the artist Stanley Spencer fill this extraordinary and moving space. And in Ropley, there's a rendezvous with an old friend on the Mid Hants Railway, where Thomas the Tank engine is oozing steam on the Watercress Line.


MON 19:30 Winter Walks (m000qzmy)
Series 1

Sayeeda Warsi

Accompanied by the gentle soundscape of the great outdoors, Yorkshire peer Sayeeda Warsi takes time out from her political life to seek peace and calm in the Dales.

On her ramble through Wharfedale, the former government minister meets villagers in Kettlewell, a farmer preparing for lambing and a long-distance fell runner.

Sayeeda discovers an other-worldly hidden landscape. Filming herself and everything around her on a 360-degree camera, she wanders through beautiful countryside and finds inspiration along the way.


MON 20:00 Stealing Van Gogh (b09pqx4r)
Andrew Graham-Dixon confronts the worlds of high art and seriously organised crime to uncover the true story behind the greatest art heist of the 21st century. In December 2002, two priceless and historically important paintings were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, in a brutal and audacious robbery by experienced, professional thieves.

But what happened to the masterpieces, and what is their use to criminals who can never sell or display them on the open market? Andrew travels across Europe, moving between the worlds of high art and low crime and meeting policemen, prosecutors and art experts to uncover just how the world of violent and organised crime makes extensive use of stolen art - and how lost masterpieces like these can be successfully recovered.


MON 21:00 Art on the BBC (m0013c82)
Series 2

Van Gogh - Life and Art

Art historian Kate Bryan examines six decades of BBC archive to create a television history of the man who has become the embodiment of the ‘tortured artist’, Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh was 37 when he shot himself, but in the four years before he died, he painted some of the world’s most beloved works, using colour in ways that changed art forever.

In this programme, Kate discovers that film-makers have found it impossible to separate Van Gogh's work from his life – from his fraught relationship with fellow artist Paul Gauguin, to the heartbreaking struggle with his mental health that ended in tragedy. In their efforts to understand Van Gogh’s complex psyche, and where his talent and extraordinary feeling for colour came from, programme makers have explored the French countryside, where his most famous works were painted, set off on detective trails to solve the mystery of his severed ear, and delved into his personal letters, casting some of the world's most remarkable actors – from Benedict Cumberbatch to Kirk Douglas – to bring his words and work to life.

Drawing on archive broadcasts from Doctor Who to Simon Schama’s Power of Art, with contributions from experts and enthusiasts alike, from Jeremy Paxman to Andrew Graham-Dixon, Kate reveals how our interpretation of Van Gogh's work and his illness have undergone seismic changes through the decades.


MON 22:00 imagine... (b00rzj61)
Vincent Van Gogh: Painted with Words

Drama-documentary presented by Alan Yentob, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role as Van Gogh.

Every word spoken by the actors in this film is sourced from the letters that Van Gogh sent to his younger brother Theo, and of those around him. What emerges is a complex portrait of a sophisticated, civilised and yet tormented man.

The film won a Rockie for Best Arts Documentary at the Banff World Media Festival in 2011, receiving critical acclaim for its fascinating insight into the life of the artist and its unique approach to storytelling.


MON 23:20 John Berger: The Art of Looking (b082qynq)
Art, politics and motorcycles - on the occasion of his 90th birthday, this is an intimate portrait of the late writer and art critic whose groundbreaking work on seeing has shaped our understanding of the concept for over five decades. The film explores how paintings become narratives and stories turn into images, and rarely does anybody demonstrate this as poignantly as Berger.

Berger lived and worked for decades in a small mountain village in the French Alps, where the nearness to nature, the world of the peasants and his motorcycle, which for him deals so much with presence, inspired his drawing and writing.

The film introduces Berger's art of looking with theatre wizard Simon McBurney, film director Michael Dibb, visual artist John Christie, cartoonist Selçuk Demiral and photographer Jean Mohr, as well as two of his children - film critic Katya Berger and painter Yves Berger.

The prelude and starting point is Berger's mind-boggling experience of restored vision following a successful cataract removal surgery. There, in the cusp of his clouding eyesight, Berger re-discovers the irredeemable wonder of seeing.

Realised as a portrait in works and collaborations, this creative documentary takes a different approach to biography, with Berger leading in his favourite role of the storyteller.


MON 00:15 Winter Walks (m000qzmy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 00:45 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vlk7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 01:15 Art on the BBC (m0013c82)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 02:15 Stealing Van Gogh (b09pqx4r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



TUESDAY 11 JANUARY 2022

TUE 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vst1)
Series 12

Saxmundham to Dedham

Armed with his 1930s Bradshaw’s guide, Michael Portillo explores East Anglia between the wars. His railway journey begins at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, where archaeologists made a staggering discovery. Laura Howarth from the National Trust walks Michael to the top of a mound in a field, where in 1939 a 27-metre-long Anglo-Saxon ship was found buried in the earth. Buried along with the ship were precious objects from across the world.

At Leiston, Michael visits the oldest children’s democracy in the world, Summerhill School, founded in 1921 by a forward-thinking Scottish educator called A.S. Neill. Today, his daughter Zoe Readhead is school principal, and she introduces Michael to the school’s ethos and some of its pupils.

In the Essex village of Dedham, Michael unearths a nasty brush between painters. East Anglian art experts explain the antipathy between traditional artist Sir Alfred Munnings and the modern art school established in the village by Cedric Morris.

Michael takes the harbour ferry from Felixstowe to Harwich to find out about the young Jewish passengers who arrived in Harwich in 1938, having fled Nazi Germany as part of the Kindertransport. Siblings Ruth Jacobs and Harry Heber, now in their 80s, were among them, and Michael is moved to hear their story.


TUE 19:30 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074mbm)
Railways

Fred Dibnah visits the North East, which is rich in railway history.

At Bowes Railway he sees an early engineering project by George Stephenson, which was a stationary engine that pulled coal wagons uphill with a rope. At Darlington Railway Museum he admires Stephenson's original Locomotive No 1, the first to run from Darlington to Stockton. At the National Railway Museum, York, he rides on a replica of the Rocket, made by Stephenson's son Robert and at Ffestiniog Railway, he sees how a new locomotive is designed with computer aids and rides on the footplate and stokes the boiler of a Black Five at Llangollen Railway.


TUE 20:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b007bfxg)
Series 2

A Strange Man

Sitcom. Whilst Hyacinth lectures the milkman, she spies a man in Liz's house. She misunderstands the situation, and devises a plan involving Richard to flush him out.


TUE 20:30 Yes, Prime Minister (b03bx1vh)
Series 1

The Grand Design

Classic political sitcom. Jim Hacker considers cancelling the Trident programme after discovering some interesting facts about the UK's defence system.


TUE 21:00 Horizon (b04b763n)
2013-2014

What's Wrong with Our Weather?

Over the last few years, our weather in Britain has become more extreme.

The winter of 2013/14 was the wettest ever recorded, as deadly storms battered the country for weeks on end. But previous winters have seen bitter lows of -22, as Britain was plunged into a deep freeze.

Everyone wants to know why our weather is getting more extreme, whether we can expect to see more of it in the future, and if it has got anything to do with climate change.

Physicist Dr Helen Czerski and meteorologist John Hammond make sense of Britain's recent extreme weather and discover that there is one thing that connects all our recent extreme winters - the jet stream, an invisible river of air that powers along 10km above us. What's worrying is that recently it has been behaving rather strangely.

Scientists are now trying to understand what is behind these changes in the jet stream. Helen and John find out if extreme winters are something we may all have to get used to in the future.


TUE 22:00 Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History (b03l7kj8)
A World Turned Upside Down

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

Mutiny, murder and mayhem on the high seas as Sam Willis takes the story of shipwrecks into the Georgian age when Britain first began to rule the waves. But with maritime trade driving the whole enterprise, disasters at sea imperilled all this. As key colonies were established and new territories conquered, the great sailing ships became symbols of the power of the Georgian state - and the shipwreck was to be its Achilles' heel. By literally turning this world upside down, mutinous sailors, rebellious slaves and murderous wreckers threatened to undermine Britain's ambitions and jeopardise its imperial venture.


TUE 23:00 Cruel Sea: The Penlee Lifeboat Disaster (b00794gz)
In December 1981, the Penlee lifeboat was called out to help a stricken coaster off the coast of Cornwall. In hurricane winds and sixty foot waves, the crew of the Solomon Browne made a heroic attempt to rescue those on board the ill-fated Union Star. Using actual radio footage, eyewitness testimony and memories of bereaved family members, this film tells the story of that tragic night.

Originally shown in 2006 to mark the 25th anniversary of the disaster.


TUE 00:00 Horizon (b0813b03)
2016

The Wildest Weather in the Universe

We love talking about the weather - is it too hot or too cold, too wet or too windy? It's a national obsession. Now scientists have started looking to the heavens and wondering what the weather might be like on other planets. Today, we are witnessing the birth of extraterrestrial meteorology, as technology is allowing astronomers to study other planets like never before. They began with our solar system, sending spacecraft to explore its furthest reaches, and now the latest telescopes are enabling astronomers to study planets beyond our solar system.

Our exploration of the universe is revealing alien worlds with weather stranger than anyone could ever have imagined - we've discovered gigantic storm systems that can encircle entire planets, supersonic winds, extreme temperatures and bizarre forms of rain. On some planets, the temperatures are so hot that the clouds and rain are believed to be made of liquid lava droplets, and on other planets it is thought to rain precious stones like diamonds and rubies.

We thought we had extreme weather on Earth, but it turns out that it is nothing compared to what's out there. The search for the weirdest weather in the universe is only just beginning.


TUE 01:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vst1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


TUE 01:30 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074mbm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 02:00 Horizon (b04b763n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 03:00 Art on the BBC (m0013c82)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]



WEDNESDAY 12 JANUARY 2022

WED 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vswy)
Series 12

Colchester to Chadwell Heath

Michael Portillo continues his Bradshaw’s-inspired journey through East Anglia, where he discovers the Essex origins of the BBC, joins the Women’s Land Army to pick damsons at Tiptree, and visits homes fit for heroes in Becontree.

He begins close to Colchester at Abberton Reservoir, a man-made thousand-acre body of freshwater, begun in the year of his guidebook, 1936. He discovers how it was protected during the Second World War by hundreds of mines. It’s now an important wetland habitat for ducks, swans and water birds, and Michael spots a marsh harrier.

In the village of Tiptree, Michael finds out how, as war loomed once again and men were called up to fight, women stepped up to take their places on the farm as part of a revived Women’s Land Army.

From Chelmsford, Michael heads for the chocolate box village of Writtle, where he is surprised to discover Britain’s first regular scheduled radio broadcasting station in a tiny hut. Michael is intrigued by the technology of 1919.

Next stop is Chadwell Heath in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham. A massive building programme after the First World War resulted in what was, at the time, the largest municipal housing estate in the world. Michael learns about the estate from residents past and present.


WED 19:30 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074mbg)
Ships and Engineering

Fred Dibnah examines the skill of the shipbuilders and machine engineers who turned Britain into a great manufacturing nation.

In Bristol, Fred visits the SS Great Britain and pays tribute to the designer and his hero, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Fred also travels to Scotland to take a voyage on the paddle steamer Waverley. Back in England, he visits the Windermere Steamboat Museum, the Long Shop Museum in Leiston, Suffolk, and the Kew Bridge Steam Museum.

Plus, Fred drives his pride and joy, the Aveling & Porter steam roller, talking about its history and recalling one rather dramatic crash he had while driving it.


WED 20:00 New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands (b07lp34l)
Cast Adrift

Isolated since the time of the dinosaurs, New Zealand's wildlife has been left to its own devices, with surprising consequences. Its ancient forests are still stalked by predators from the Jurassic era. It's also one of the most geologically active countries on earth.

From Kiwis with their giant eggs, to forest-dwelling penguins and helicopter-riding sheep dogs, meet the astonishing creatures and resilient people who must rise to the challenges of their beautiful, dramatic and demanding home.


WED 21:00 The Last Survivors (b0c1ngrx)
This landmark documentary gathers together the compelling and, in some cases, never-before-heard testimony from the last Holocaust survivors living in Britain today. All of these extraordinary people were children during the Holocaust, but now in their later years, they reflect on their experiences with a different perspective and understanding of how this past trauma permeates through to their contemporary lives with increased significance.

The film is based in the present tense, building a picture of a small number of survivors in their day to day lives, whilst also giving an insight into why they hold on to particular memories of the Holocaust, as well as what concerns them most as they contemplate reaching the end of their lives.

Over the course of a year, director Arthur Cary also follows these individuals on personal and profound journeys - including the story of a man who returns to Auschwitz with his daughter, a German Jewish survivor addressing the Bundestag, and a man who returns to his German childhood hometown for the first time since 1946 to finally acknowledge the death of his little brother. These scenes are punctuated by compelling interviews with a wider group of survivors who reveal shared feelings as well as their own unique thoughts and experiences. Having lived through 'humanity's darkest hour', these are the last survivors.


WED 22:30 The Diary of Anne Frank (b00gndt1)
Series 1

Episode 1

June 1942. WWII Amsterdam is under Nazi occupation. Anne Frank, a teenage Jewish girl, is celebrating her 13th birthday with her family and friends by having a party. Amongst her birthday presents, she is given a red diary that she starts to write in immediately. Days later, call up papers arrive for her 16-year-old sister Margot and her parents, Otto and Edith, decide to hasten their plan to go into hiding from the Nazis to ensure that the family do not get separated.

The next morning, the Franks head to Otto's spice company. Once there, they are led past the warehouses by their helpers in the office and taken up to a secret annex at the back of the building that occupies the three top floors. Otto and Edith will sleep in one room, with Margot and Anne next door in another. They will soon be joined by their friends Mr and Mrs Van Daan and their teenage son Peter, who will live on the floor above, in the larger shared living area. At the very top of the building is a disused attic, too cold to sleep in but useful for storing food. They must obey strict rules in the annex, remaining completely silent during working hours while the warehouse men are in the building. Only the faithful office staff know of their existence and have agreed to help them survive.

At first, Edith and Margot find the confinement hard to bear and sink into depression, while Otto and Anne make themselves useful, arranging the furniture that has been hidden there for them, and sewing material together to make black-out curtains. The Van Daans soon arrive and liven things up, especially when Peter reveals that he has brought his pet cat Mouschi, while Anne was forced to leave her cat at home. Anne does not think much of Peter but decides she must try and be pleasant to him to keep the peace.


WED 23:00 The Diary of Anne Frank (b00gn81c)
Series 1

Episode 2

October 1942. World War II. In the secret annex where Anne Frank is in hiding from the Nazis with her family and close friends the Van Daan family, the toilet is blocked and her father, Otto, is forced to try and unblock it with a stick. When he fails, they have to resort to using jam jars until it is mended. Their helpers in the offices downstairs call a plumber, and the family are terrified that he will need to come up to the annex and they will be discovered. Fortunately, it is finally sorted from downstairs and all is well.

Anne finds Mrs Van Daan increasingly hard to bear, as she orders her around and criticises her in a way that her liberal parents never do. She also finds Peter Van Daan frustratingly dim, and never misses an opportunity to tell him so. But overall they are getting used to their incarceration, and the strict rules of daily quiet by which they must live. Otto oversees their school studies and everyone has their routine tasks to perform. Only at night when the bomb raids start is Anne so scared that she runs into her parents' room for comfort.

Anne invites Miep and her husband Jan to come to dinner in the annex and to stay overnight in her room, while she and Margot camp in their parents' room, and Miep agrees. Anne is thrilled and draws up a special menu in their honour, which Mrs Van Daan cooks for them. But Miep brings the bad news, which she tells only the Franks, that the Van Daans' apartment has been ransacked by the Nazis and all their property confiscated. When Mrs Van Daan asks Miep to bring her some more of her things, it is Anne who covers the difficult moment with a toast to the helpers.


WED 23:30 The Diary of Anne Frank (b00gnv10)
Series 1

Episode 3

Amsterdam, November 1942. The routine in the annex is now very established. Otto tries to keep up with company business by lying on the floor and listening to meetings downstairs, and he is shocked to discover that the building has had to be sold. They fear that the new owner will demand access to the annex and they will be discovered, but Mr Kleiman tells the owner that he has left the key at home. The lease won't be exchanged for months yet, and the war might be over by then, so for now the threat is over.

When Miep arrives she tells them their friendly grocer has gone missing, and they fear he might betray them to the Nazis as he has been providing extra supplies for the annex, but Miep trusts him. Miep also gives Mr Dussel the latest letter and food parcel from his fiance, which annoys Anne as she thinks he is putting them at greater risk with his letter exchanges. Her parents agree but do not want to say anything to him.

That evening Anne helps to wash her mother's hair and for once they are close, talking about how tiring she was as a small baby. It is Hanukkah and everyone in the annex gathers for the ceremony around the dinner table. But when drips start falling from the ceiling onto the food Peter dashes off to the attic, followed by Anne, where he admits that he forgot to put out the cat's litter tray. Anne is convinced he is a fool and teases him.

Food shortages are getting worse and Bep from the office now comes up to the annex for lunch every day. Anne asks Mr Dussel to let her use their shared bedroom for the agreed time but he isn't ready to give up the desk and they row. Otto talks to Dussel and persuades him how important writing is to Anne.


WED 00:00 The Sky at Night (m0013c9c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]


WED 00:30 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vswy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 01:00 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074mbg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 01:30 New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands (b07lp34l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:30 Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History (b03l7kj8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]



THURSDAY 13 JANUARY 2022

THU 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vsxt)
Series 12

Potters Bar to Cardington

Michael Portillo’s Bradshaw travels resume in leafy Hertfordshire, where he attempts a canoe slalom course at the Lee Valley White Water Centre, built for the London Olympics in 2012. Former competitive canoeist Sue Hornby tells Michael how British canoeists first competed at the politically-charged Berlin Games in 1936. Britain won a gold and a silver medal here at the London Olympics, and Michael’s hopes are high as he takes to the paddling lake.

Travelling north, Michael reaches Hatfield and the country estate of the queen of romance and author of 723 books, Dame Barbara Cartland. The novelist’s eldest son welcomes Michael to Camfield Place with a gift for his onward journey, 'A Train to Love'.

In Stevenage, Michael learns how, in 1935, a new enterprise boosted production of the nation’s daily loaf with a factory in the town. Allied Bakeries now produces 1.8 million loaves a week, and Michael marvels at the scale of the operation while enjoying the smell of freshly baked bread.

Crossing into Bedfordshire, Michael reaches Sandy, from which he heads for Cardington, where the level countryside is dominated by two breathtakingly vast sheds. In Hangar No 2, Michael hears the shocking story of the 'Titanic of the skies', the R101 airship, which crashed on its first long haul voyage, killing all aboard.


THU 19:30 Fred Dibnah's Magnificent Monuments (b0074mbx)
Forts and Castles

Another chance to join Fred Dibnah as he celebrates Britain's great building and engineering feats, from prehistoric stone circles to the Humber Bridge. Fred travels around Britain to discover how some of our great buildings were constructed. Along the way, he meets the craftsmen who are preserving these buildings for future generations.

In the programme, Fred considers the development of castles from early Iron Age Forts to secret underground tunnels used during the Second World War. At Hadrian's Wall, he marvels at the design of Roman toilets, while in Warwick he joins a band of medieval knights to test the castle's defences.


THU 20:00 How the West Was Won (b0077dtl)
Epic western about three generations of a pioneer family, showing how its fortunes fluctuated during the dynamic westward expansion of America during the 19th century. Three top directors each tackle separate episodes of the story, filmed in the short-lived three-camera Cinerama process, and with an all-star cast.


THU 22:25 The Sisters Brothers (m0013cbc)
1851. Eli and Charlie Sisters, the most feared and ruthless gunslingers in Oregon, are sent down the Pacific Northwest coast on the hunt for a prospector called Hermann Kermit Warm. First, they have to find his secret, then they have to kill him.


THU 00:20 How the Wild West Was Won with Ray Mears (b044jl70)
Mountains

Ray Mears looks at how the landscapes of America's three great mountain ranges - the Appalachians, the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada - challenged the westward push of the early pioneers.

As Ray travels through each landscape he discovers how their awe-inspiring geography, extreme weather, wild animals and ecology presented both great opportunities and great challenges for the native Indians, mountain men, fur traders, wagon trains and gold miners of the Wild West.

Ray begins his westward journey in the Appalachians where he explores how their timbered slopes fuelled the lumber industry and provided the fuel and building material for the emerging nation. Native Appalachian Barbara Woodall and lumberjack Joe Currie share their family history with him, and he gets to grips with the rare 'hellbender' salamander.

Further west, in the high jagged peaks of the Rocky Mountains, Ray goes mule trekking with modern-day mountain man Stu Sorenson and he has close encounters with beaver, elk and black bear.

Finally, in the desert mountains of the Sierra Nevada, he explores the tragic story of the Donner Party wagon train whose members allegedly turned to cannibalism to survive. His journey ends as he pans for gold with modern day gold prospector John Gurney, and explores the boom and bust story of ghost town, Bodie.


THU 01:20 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vsxt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 01:50 Fred Dibnah's Magnificent Monuments (b0074mbx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 02:20 The Last Survivors (b0c1ngrx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]



FRIDAY 14 JANUARY 2022

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (b04w0fz1)
1980 - Big Hits

British pop and the BBC's flagship chart show said goodbye to the 70s and trembled on the edge of a new era for the show, for British music and for British society. This meant a continuing love for the nutty boys, Madness, who feature in this compilation with My Girl, and the man with the best cheekbones in pop, Adam Ant, gave us Antmusic.

We get to check out The Pretenders' first number one, Brass in Pocket, alongside Dexys Midnight Runners' tribute to soul legend Geno Washington. There are the early stirrings of new romantic with Spandau Ballet, and it's a veritable mod revival with The Piranhas and 2-Tone with The Beat.

Plus Hot Chocolate, OMD, Motorhead and many more top hits proving the 80s were truly beginning.


FRI 19:15 The Shirley Bassey Show (m0013cfh)
Series 1

Episode 2

Shirley's guests are singer-sonwriters Johnny Nash and Gilbert O'Sullivan. Also on the show, The Shirley Bassey Dancers, choreographed by Nigel Lythgoe.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m0013cfk)
Tony Dortie and Claudia Simon present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 30 January 1992 and featuring The Pasadenas, Kicks Like a Mule, James, The Wonder Stuff, Dream Frequency, Julia Fordham, Manic Street Preachers, DNA featuring Sharon Redd and Wet Wet Wet.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m0013cfm)
Steve Anderson and Claudia Simon present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 13 February 1992 and featuring Color Me Badd, Michael Jackson, Ride, Bryan Adams, The Pasadenas, Simply Red, The Temptations, Pearl Jam and Wet Wet Wet.


FRI 21:00 Rolling Stones: Crossfire Hurricane (b01rrxkl)
Crossfire Hurricane, directed by Brett Morgen, provides a remarkable new perspective on the Stones' unparalleled journey from blues-obsessed teenagers in the early 60s to rock royalty. It's all here in panoramic candour, from the Marquee Club to Hyde Park, from Altamont to 'Exile, from club gigs to stadium extravaganzas.

With never-before-seen footage and fresh insights from the band themselves, Crossfire Hurricane places the viewer on the frontline of the band's most legendary escapades.

Taking its title from a lyric in Jumping Jack Flash, Crossfire Hurricane gives the audience an intimate insight, for the first time, into exactly what it's like to be part of the Rolling Stones, as they overcame denunciation, drugs, dissensions and death to become the definitive survivors.

The odyssey includes film from the Stones' initial road trips and first controversies as they became the anti-Beatles, the group despised by authority because they connected and communicated with their own generation as no-one ever had. 'When we got together,' says Wyman, 'something magical happened, and no one could ever copy that'.

Riots and the chaos of early tours are graphically depicted, as is the birth of the Jagger-Richards songwriting partnership. The many dramas they encountered are also fully addressed, including the Redlands drug bust, the descent of Brian Jones into what Richards calls 'bye-bye land', and the terror and disillusionment of 1969's Altamont Festival.

The film illustrates the Stones' evolution from being, as Mick vividly describes it, 'the band everybody hated to the band everybody loves': through the hedonistic 1970s and Keith's turning-point bust in Canada, to the spectacular touring phenomenon we know today. Richards also reveals the song that he believes defines the 'essence' of his writing relationship with Jagger more than any other.

The film combines extensive historical footage, much of it widely unseen, with contemporary commentaries by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood and former Stones, Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor.


FRI 22:50 The Rolling Stones: Totally Stripped (p09t8ld0)
Originally broadcast in 1995, a fly-on-the-wall account of The Rolling Stones that captures rehearsals, interviews, live shows and footage of the band in the studio, recording and performing stripped-down versions of some of their classic songs.


FRI 00:25 The Rolling Stones at the BBC (b01p1pmf)
To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of The Rolling Stones we delve into the BBC vaults to deliver some timeless Stones archive. From the early days of their career and some unforgettable performances on Top of the Pops with the Last Time, Let's Spend the Night Together and Get Off of My Cloud through the late 60s and early 70s era of prolific song writing when the band were knocking out a classic album every other year and offering up such classics as Honky Tonk Women and Gimme Shelter.

The late 70s brought a massively successful nod to disco with Miss You and the early 80s a stomping return to form with the rock 'n' roll groove of Start Me Up. Peppered amongst the performances are snippets of wisdom from the two main men - the Glimmer Twins, aka Mick and Keith. Plus as a special treat, some lost footage of the band performing 19th Nervous Breakdown on Top of the Pops in 1966 - recently discovered in a BBC documentary from the 1960s about women with depression.


FRI 01:10 Top of the Pops (m0013cfk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 01:40 Top of the Pops (m0013cfm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


FRI 02:10 The Shirley Bassey Show (m0013cfh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 today]


FRI 02:50 Top of the Pops (b04w0fz1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]