SATURDAY 26 APRIL 2025
SAT 19:00 London to Brighton: Side by Side (b00f2zxt)
In 1953, the BBC made a point-of-view film from the London to Brighton train. In 1983, they did the same again. This is a film made of both runs at once, with every bridge, siding, tunnel and station running side by side in unlikely synchronisation.
SAT 19:05 Life of a Mountain (b08f1cc0)
A Year on Blencathra
The sequel to Life of a Mountain: Scafell Pike sees award-winning film-maker Terry Abraham return to the Lake District to showcase 'the people's mountain' - Blencathra.
This spectacular documentary looks at the lives of local residents, schoolchildren and visitors to the mountain with contributions from comedian Ed Byrne, broadcaster Stuart Maconie, mountaineer Alan Hinkes OBE and record-breaking fell runner Steve Birkinshaw.
Abraham's breathtaking photography and stunning time-lapse sequences of this unique landscape will inspire newcomers and regular visitors alike.
SAT 20:05 Snooker: World Championship (m002blmx)
2025
Day 8, Evening Session
Second-round coverage continues from Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre.
SAT 22:00 Snooker: World Championship (p03gxy98)
The '85 Final
The '85 Black Ball Final: Final Frame
A full replay of the final, dramatic frame of the 1985 World Snooker Championship, between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor. With the scores level at 17-17, the winner of the final frame in this best of 35 match would be crowned World Champion. Steve Davis, ranked number one in the world and the reigning champion, had started in ruthless fashion, racing towards an 8-0 lead. But he faced a determined comeback from Dennis Taylor, ranked number 11 and a losing finalist six years previously. Now, after some 14 hours of play in the final, the scores were even with the one frame remaining. The match gripped the British sport-watching population to the extent that 18.5 million were still tuned in as the marathon game played out past midnight on BBC Two.
SAT 23:15 Davis v Taylor: The '85 Black Ball Final (b00s9dg4)
A look back at one of British sport's golden moments - the 1985 World Championship Snooker final. At its peak, over 18 and a half million people sat glued to their sets as Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor battled past midnight to a final and deciding black ball, BBC Two's biggest ever audience.
Colin Murray journeys around the UK filling in the gaps on the first time that he was allowed to see the other side of midnight. Along the way he finds answers to questions such as where did Dennis's 'upside-down glasses' actually come from? What really went on behind those dressing room doors? How did you spread the news in a world without mobile phones? And how different would the lives of the two protagonists have been if the result had been reversed that night?
Featuring contributions from Barry McGuigan, Ted Lowe, Stephen Hendry and Barry Hearn.
SAT 00:15 On Cue with Steve Davis: 1985 World Championship Final (m002blmz)
Steve Davis looks back on the memorable 1985 World Snooker Championship final between himself and Dennis Taylor.
SAT 00:50 imagine... (b08bfww6)
Autumn 2016
Listen to Me Marlon
Stevan Riley's award-winning documentary Listen to Me Marlon uses hundreds of hours of Marlon Brando's own archival audio tapes and home movie footage, combined with excerpts from his extraordinary performances to create an exceptionally emotive and vivid portrayal of a man and actor who was by turns tremendously talented, tenacious and tormented.
Covering the full breadth of his life and career, this is a rare opportunity to experience the notoriously private Marlon Brando's feelings and fears in his own words, in order to see behind the actor's mask and meet the man that was Brando.
SAT 02:30 Lee Miller: A Life on the Front Line (m000hy2p)
When Lee Miller returned to New York from Europe in October 1932, newspaper reporters were waiting to greet her as her ship docked. Disembarking in a smart beret and fur-collared coat, she smiled for the journalist from the New York World-Telegram. When he referred to her as 'one of the most photographed girls in Manhattan', she retorted, 'I'd rather take a picture than be one.'
Lee Miller is one of the most remarkable female icons of the 20th century. A model turned photographer turned war reporter, Miller chose to live her life by her own rules.
This film celebrates a subject who defied anyone who tried to pin her down, put her on a pedestal or pigeonhole her in any way. It tells the story of a trailblazer, often at odds with the morality of the day, who refused to be subjugated by the dominant male figures around her.
SUNDAY 27 APRIL 2025
SUN 19:00 The Classical Collection (m001gn00)
Series 1
Nature
The natural world has always been a powerful inspiration to composers. From vast forests and tiny fish to wild storms and epic seascapes, this programme takes us on an evocative journey through some of the best-loved musical responses to our living planet.
SUN 19:15 South Pacific in London (m002blm8)
A programme from 1986 that follows the production of a new recording of the music from South Pacific, the Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein musical that boasts many of their best and most enduring numbers.
Television cameras were at the Henry Wood Hall in London to watch the classic musical given a new lease of life by José Carreras, Kiri Te Kanawa, Sarah Vaughan and Mandy Patinkin.
SUN 20:15 Snooker: World Championship (m002blmb)
2025
Day 9, Evening Session
Seema Jaswal introduces continued second-round action from Sheffield.
SUN 22:00 Omnibus (m001tc5w)
Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story
Prizewinning account of how a classic recording was made. In September 1984, in a New York recording studio, West Side Story composer Leonard Bernstein conducted a complete performance of his 1957 musical for the first time. Omnibus cameras covered the five hectic and exhilarating days of rehearsing and recording to make this documentary.
SUN 23:30 Bryn on Broadway (m002blmd)
Bryn Terfel sings a selection of his favourite Broadway songs. He is joined by mezzo-soprano Ruby Philoogene and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Sian Edwards.
SUN 00:20 South Pacific in London (m002blm8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:15 today]
SUN 01:20 Bryn on Broadway (m002blmd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:30 today]
SUN 02:10 Lee Miller: A Life on the Front Line (m000hy2p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
02:30 on Saturday]
MONDAY 28 APRIL 2025
MON 19:00 Britain's Greatest Generation (b05tr94p)
Coming of Age
We meet some of the extraordinary last survivors of the generation who fought or lived through World War II. Now in their nineties and hundreds - the oldest is 110 - they come from both rich and poor backgrounds. We find out how these men and women of Britain's Greatest Generation were shaped by their childhood experiences.
For no generation of Britons in modern history has war been such a defining feature than in the lives of those born just before, during, or soon after the First World War. The euphoria of victory in 1918 had imbued many with an overwhelming sense of patriotism and pride in Britain that would remain deep-rooted for years to come.
But national unity was seriously tested in the 1920s and 30s, as Britain became a country riven with class conflict and inequality. As unemployment soared, there was widespread civil unrest.
Despite these upheavals, those growing up in the interwar years remember much that was positive about life in Britain at the time. Their stories reveal that personal qualities of courage, initiative, obedience and fairness - seeded by parents of all classes - were highly valued. Most strikingly, they shared a delight in exercising freedom and independence - attributes that would come in useful as another world war approached.
When war broke out in September 1939, the men and women of this generation had just come of age and were ready to risk their lives for their country. But the evacuation of the British Army from the beaches of Dunkirk was a wake-up call for those who expected a swift victory. By the summer of 1940, Britain stood alone, with the Nazis massed across the English Channel. The Battle of Britain was about to begin - and the men and women of Britain's Greatest Generation were ready to fight it.
MON 20:00 Snooker: World Championship (m002blmg)
2025
Day 10, Evening Session
The second round reaches its conclusion, completing the quarter-final line-up. Seema Jaswal introduces coverage from the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
MON 22:00 VE Day 70 (b05tr0py)
Remembering Victory
On 8 May 1945, Churchill broadcast the long-awaited announcement that the war in Europe was over. To celebrate, Britain threw the biggest street party the country had ever seen. Seventy years on, some of Britain's best-loved entertainers recall the jubilation of that unforgettable day. The extraordinary archive of celebrations all over Britain helps bring back the memories.
Britain's celebrities - including Sir Bruce Forsyth, Honor Blackman, Anne Reid, Sir Patrick Stewart, Kenny Lynch, Miriam Margolyes, Una Stubbs and Dame Cleo Laine - share their memories of the tea parties, bonfires, joyful tears and dancing in the streets. After the heady days of celebration, it was back to the realities of food rationing and unheated homes, but gradually the nation got back on its feet. The gloom of austerity was replaced by a new era of optimism and prosperity. This is the story of the Victory Generation.
MON 23:30 Auerbach at the Biennale (p00b6bls)
Frank Auerbach talks about his work, produced from his small studio flat in London, in the year he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale.
MON 23:55 Omnibus (p02t9jbw)
Lucian Freud
For much of his career, Lucian Freud allowed his paintings to speak for themselves, but in 1988 he talked for the first time - to Omnibus - about his work and ambitions.
'The greatest living realist painter' is critic Robert Hughes' description of Lucian Freud, whose major retrospective at London's Hayward Gallery in 1988, brought together the paintings of a lifetime. The exhibition was seen as a revelation, just as it had been in Washington and Paris.
MON 00:35 My Life as a Rolling Stone (p0cgmxq2)
Series 1
Ronnie Wood
Ronnie Wood is a cultural icon, guitar hero, artist and the living embodiment of the vibrancy of British-born rock 'n' roll. In this documentary, Ronnie talks exclusively about his career in music and his life as a Rolling Stone, with its exhilarating highs and sometimes dangerous lows.
Through vivid archive footage, brilliant music and interviews with a stellar cast of musicians, the film reveals how he binds the band together through his musical virtuosity and his irresistible, positive personality.
MON 01:35 My Life as a Rolling Stone (p0cgmxq6)
Series 1
Charlie Watts
Charlie Watts was, for 60 years, the steady heartbeat of the Rolling Stones. When he died in 2021, the band lost the man who had laid the foundation for songs loved by millions.
Here, a stellar cast of musicians describe Charlie’s brilliance as a drummer and his influence on rock music. Through vivid archive footage and a soundtrack of classic Stones tracks, the film explores the unique personality of a man who always had mixed feelings about the excess that came with his life as a Rolling Stone.
MON 02:35 Snooker: World Championship (p03gxy98)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Saturday]
TUESDAY 29 APRIL 2025
TUE 19:00 Britain's Greatest Generation (b05vrjf7)
Their Finest Hour
We meet one of the last surviving pilots of the Battle of Britain. We hear from men who did some of the most dangerous war work of all - getting the convoys through. And we find out what kept people going when defeat was staring them in the face. This would be the defining moment of Britain's Greatest Generation - when an indomitable spirit helped turn our darkest hour into our finest hour.
The early years of the war between 1940 and 1942 are widely remembered as a time when people from all classes of society - and from all over the country - came together to fight Hitler. Though many deep-seated social problems and injustices remained, Britain's battle for survival came to be called 'the people's war'. Popular memory suggests that there was indeed a strong shared sense of purpose. Britain's young men and women were about to face the biggest test of their lives. They were needed to come to the defence of the realm.
The desperate need for labour opened the doors to women who had before the war been excluded from doing many jobs. Now there were opportunities for them to serve in everything from anti-aircraft gun batteries in London to the steel works of Sheffield.
The terror of the Blitz also brought out the best in men and women in bombed cities all over Britain. During air raids, rescue workers, volunteers and neighbours risked everything to save people trapped in the rubble of bombed houses. It was painstaking work. But there was always hope that loved ones would be found alive.
For many of the last survivors who remember when Britain stood alone, the defiant spirit that brought the nation together remains one of the proudest moments of their life. Britain was not invaded and not defeated, but was now looking across the channel to help liberate Europe.
TUE 20:00 Snooker: World Championship (m002bln1)
2025
Day 11, Evening Session
Continued coverage from the night's quarter-finals.
TUE 22:00 Classic British Cars: Made in Coventry (m000w6sp)
To celebrate the award of UK City of Culture 2021 to Coventry, local boy Mark Evans tells the full history of the classic cars made in Coventry,
This passionate retrospective runs from the industry's beginnings in 1897 through to the present day. It includes interviews and archive footage detailing the stories behind the creation of classic marques such as the Daimler, the Triumph, the Riley and the Jaguar and the companies and people behind them.
TUE 23:00 The Great American Buffalo (m001vfc4)
Series 1
Episode 2
By the late 1880s, the buffalo have been reduced to fewer than 1,000, and teeter on the brink of extinction. But a diverse and unlikely collection of Americans have started a few private herds in different locations, and for different reasons. In the early 1900s, their efforts grow into a movement that rescues the national mammal from disappearing forever.
TUE 00:55 Omnibus (p02t9jbw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:55 on Monday]
TUE 01:35 Auerbach at the Biennale (p00b6bls)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:30 on Monday]
TUE 02:00 imagine... (b08bfww6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:50 on Saturday]
WEDNESDAY 30 APRIL 2025
WED 19:00 Britain's Greatest Generation (b05wdp6g)
Fight for Freedom
This film interweaves stories of extraordinary courage, terrible suffering and miraculous survival from servicemen and women between 1942 and 1945. We meet the bomber boys who flew on some of the most dangerous missions of the war. We discover what it was like for the soldiers who helped turn the tide against the Germans - from El Alamein to the beaches of Normandy. We hear from the frontline nurses who risked everything to care for them. And we find out what it took to survive years of hard labour, disease and punishment as a prisoner in the far east. The fight for freedom was finally won in 1945 - only then did the full truth about the extermination of Jews in German concentration camps finally come to light.
We begin with the extraordinary story of Fergus Anckorn, who was once the youngest member of the Magic Circle and - at 96 - is now the oldest. He was captured and taken prisoner by the Japanese in Singapore, then miraculously survived a massacre of wounded British soldiers. He was put to work on the Burma Railway, but - starved and beaten - he used his magic to entertain the Japanese troops, who rewarded him with food which helped keep him and his fellow prisoners alive.
Alongside Fergus, we hear other equally remarkable stories, like that of the last surviving Dambuster Jonny Johnson. Raised on a farm in the East Anglian countryside, he was to play a vital role in the Dambuster raid. Another bomber boy, Bob Frost, emotionally recalls how his plane was shot down and how he secretly made his way back across Europe to Britain, to be reunited with his mother who feared he was dead.
We hear some deeply moving, untold stories from D-Day, the great turning point in the war in Europe. Fred Glover, a boy soldier who lied about his age to join the Parachute Regiment, tells the story of how he survived one of the dangerous missions of all. We see rare footage of nurses like Betty Evans - one of the unsung female heroes of D-Day - treating the injured troops behind the lines.
Today, these modest last survivors feel proud of the role they played in helping to win the war. Their experience made them value the simple things in life - freedom most of all.
WED 20:00 Snooker: World Championship (m002bln5)
2025
Day 12, Evening Session
Hazel Irvine introduces continued coverage from Sheffield, where the remaining two quarter-finals are reaching their conclusions.
WED 22:00 Remembers... (m002bln7)
Jimmy McGovern Remembers... Priest
Screenwriter Jimmy McGovern looks back on his acclaimed, but controversial, 1995 drama Priest, explaining how an initial desire to explore the notion of celibacy for Catholic priests became a tale tackling homosexuality.
He discusses the writing of what were then eye-opening sex scenes and talks about the film’s far darker storyline, exploring child sexual abuse and the sanctity of confession.
On its release, Priest would be boycotted by some but embraced by many others, from surprising quarters, and it remains to this day one of the screenplays that Jimmy is most proud of.
WED 22:15 Priest (b00w8n3x)
Jimmy McGovern-penned drama in which a conservative Catholic priest is torn between his calling and his secret life as a homosexual man with a gay lover, frowned upon by the Church. Upon hearing the confession of a young girl of her incestuous father, Greg enters an intensely emotional spiritual struggle deciding between choosing morals over religion and one life over another.
WED 00:00 Tutankhamun in Colour (m000k48q)
A century after the world’s most exciting archaeological find - the tomb of Tutankhamun - we can witness the dramatic scenes of its discovery and marvel at its extraordinary treasures exactly as they were first seen - in colour.
Oxford University Egyptologist, Elizabeth Frood, is our guide to the discovery of the tomb on 4 November 1922 by British Egyptologist Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon. It provided much-needed good news, following the Great War and the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1919, and we have been transfixed ever since.
Colourisation provides a fantastic insight into the artefacts themselves and the context that they were found in. Many photos were taken using glass plate negatives, which have fantastic resolution and which, with colourisation, reveal detail not seen for a century.
Liz’s story begins in 1891, with an old black and white family photo of the young Carter. Colourisation brings him to life as he arrived in Egypt as a 17-year-old artist. Carter met two people who would change his life: British Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, who inspired him to be an archaeologist, and Lord Carnarvon, a keen amateur Egyptologist who hired Carter to help him.
Liz travels to Highclere Castle to meet the current Countess of Carnarvon. Carnarvon and Carter both yearned to find what nobody had ever discovered before, a pharaoh’s tomb with its treasures still intact. Carter became convinced that Tutankhamun’s tomb lay undiscovered in an ancient royal burial ground known as The Valley of the Kings, and in 1914 Carnarvon was granted a concession to start excavating there.
But the First World War intervened. Colourisation reveals a changing Egypt. Egyptians were soon pushing for independence from Britain, which claimed Egypt as a protectorate. The politics of the time were to have a profound effect on Carter and Carnarvon.
In December 1917, the meticulous Carter divided the valley up into a grid and began excavating each sector, right down to the bedrock. Colourisation reveals the astonishing scale of the operation that was required.
On 4 November 1922, a water-boy in Carter’s team, Hussein Abdul Rasoul, discovered a flight of steps descending into the bedrock. Carter broke into the tomb to discover first a rubble-filled passageway, then another sealed entrance. As Carter peered in, he declared, ‘It is wonderful.’ The extraordinary collection of objects he saw, including gilded couches, chariots, jewels, statues, and even ancient lunchboxes containing food for the afterlife, were captured in black and white by expert photographer Harry Burton. Using colourisation, we are now able to experience the scene that met their eyes, in incredible detail, almost as though it’s right in front of us.
On 16 February 1923, Carter and Carnarvon broke through into Tutankhamun’s burial chamber. A large blue and gilt shrine filled the room. Opening its doors, Carter discovered sealed doors to another three shrines, one within the next. Within these was a sarcophagus made from yellow quartzite and, within this, a nest of three coffins, also one within the next. For the first time in a century, we reveal each stage in amazing coloured detail. The outermost coffin was gilt, adorned with a garland of flowers. The middle one was inlaid with gold and coloured glass and the innermost was - incredibly - crafted from solid gold.
Finally, within this, was Tutankhamun’s mummy wearing the famous solid gold mask. Colourisation of the rather messy-looking black and white photograph reveals that his wrapped body was actually festooned with colourful jewellery.
The discovery of Tutankhamun’s body also revealed that he died very young, aged 19. This changed the way Tutankhamun was seen around the world. In Europe, the death of a young man hit a chord with so many who had lost their sons in the First World War. In his own country, Tutankhamun became a young and vibrant symbol of a powerful and independent Egypt.
WED 01:00 Life of a Mountain (b08f1cc0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:05 on Saturday]
WED 02:00 Davis v Taylor: The '85 Black Ball Final (b00s9dg4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:15 on Saturday]
WED 03:00 On Cue with Steve Davis: 1985 World Championship Final (m002blmz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:15 on Saturday]
THURSDAY 01 MAY 2025
THU 19:00 Britain's Greatest Generation (b05xbv48)
A Better World
This final episode of Britain's Greatest Generation follows the lives of some of the servicemen and women of the Second World War across seventy years of British history, from 1945 up to the present day. This episode features Arctic convoy survivor Austin Byrne, former Fleet Air Arm pilot and Scotland football manager Bobby Brown and ex-prisoner of war Jim Purcell - just a few of the extraordinary and inspiring members of Britain's Greatest Generation who recall their stories and memories.
Also appearing will be individuals who played their part in creating a more culturally diverse postwar Britain, such as pioneering actor Earl Cameron, gay rights activist George Montague and Brian Rix, who has campaigned passionately on the issue of disability.
Whilst for some, life was getting better after the Second World War, there were still many people in society who were victims of prejudice. Earl Cameron was determined to change this and recalls how he broke through the colour bar in the British film industry. Novelist Diana Athill also played an important role in the movement towards both sexual and racial openness in the 1960s and speaks about how she flouted the taboo on mixed-race relationships at that time.
One of the defining features of many of our greatest generation is a commitment to their local community. People such as Gladys Parry, who became a local magistrate in Manchester after the Second World War, and former railwayman Bill Graves who served as a local councillor in Bristol, are typical.
Others who displayed a strong sense of civic duty are Dorothy Hughes, who has made numerous public appearances as one of the first female Chelsea Pensioners and Jim Purcell, who is a local legend in his home town of Jarrow. He raised money for charity through running several marathons while in his 60s and still takes part in long-distance races in memory of his partner Betty.
THU 20:00 Snooker: World Championship (m002bln3)
2025
Day 13, Evening Session
Semi-final action continues from Sheffield.
THU 22:00 West Side Story (m0005hx1)
Classic Broadway musical.
The tensions between rival gangs the Jets, whose members include 'white' Americans, and a Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks, reach boiling point in a hot New York summer. At a neighbourhood dance, Tony, the co-founder of the Jets, meets Maria, the sister of Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks. Their romance is thwarted by the gang rivalries.
THU 00:20 Omnibus (m001tc5w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Sunday]
THU 01:50 Classic British Cars: Made in Coventry (m000w6sp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Tuesday]
THU 02:50 Tutankhamun in Colour (m000k48q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:00 on Wednesday]
FRIDAY 02 MAY 2025
FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m002blmk)
Mary Anne Hobbs presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 31 October 1997 and featuring 911, N-Trance feat. Rod Stewart, Spice Girls, Dannii Minogue, Double 99, The Charlatans and Aqua.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m002blmm)
Zoë Ball presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 7 November 1997 and featuring Backstreet Boys, Natalie Imbruglia, Embrace, Peter Andre, Toni Braxton, Michael Bolton, Pulp and Aqua.
FRI 20:00 Snooker: World Championship (m002blmp)
2025
Day 14, Evening Session
Semi-final action continues at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre.
FRI 22:00 Top of the Pops (b01s9kd5)
David Jensen presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 4 May 1978 and featuring The Dooleys, Manhattan Transfer, John Paul Young, Ruby Winters, Tonight, Hi-Tension, Darts, The Boomtown Rats and Legs & Co.
FRI 22:45 Electric Proms (b009zj8p)
2006
The Who
Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are on blistering form in a session recorded at the Roundhouse in north London, as the grand finale of the BBC's Electric Proms in 2006. The setlist showcases a sprinkling of songs from their new mini-opera Wire and Glass, but it's also packed with big singalong tunes like My Generation, Who Are You, Baba O'Riley and Pinball Wizard.
FRI 23:35 The Lively Arts (m002blmr)
Jethro Tull
A film, first broadcast in 1980, that portrays the many-sided talents of hugely successful British rock group Jethro Tull - at home, in the recording studio and on tour in America.
FRI 00:35 Top of the Pops (m002blmk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
FRI 01:00 Top of the Pops (m002blmm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 01:30 Electric Proms (b009zj8p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:45 today]
FRI 02:20 The Lively Arts (m002blmr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:35 today]