SATURDAY 31 JANUARY 2026
SAT 19:00 Meet the Ancestors (b0074jd5)
Series 2
At the Sign of the Eagle
Archaeologist Julian Richards joins an excavation team as they uncover a rare find from a fourth-century Roman cemetery: a lead coffin, only the second ever to be found in Roman Winchester. Unexpected clues found inside the coffin bring to light the pagan beliefs of a wealthy Roman buried in a Christian cemetery.
SAT 19:30 Wild (b00793km)
2006-07 Shorts
Ravens Return
The true nature of the much-maligned raven is almost as remarkable as the story of its recent recovery. These surprisingly intelligent birds mate for life, so their choice of partner is all the more important. In a unique forest on the edge of the stunning west coast of Anglesey in north Wales, the ravens gather each year to play the dating game. Newborough Forest is home to one of the biggest raven roosts in Europe. Built to stabilise huge shifting sand dunes, this man-made habitat has proved a hit with the ravens. Onshore breezes rise up over the dunes, providing the perfect conditions for aerial acrobatics. The young ravens soon show that there is a fun side to their character as well.
SAT 19:40 The Good Old Days (b08f1d8m)
Leonard Sachs chairs the old-time music hall programme, first broadcast on 31st January 1978. With Les Dawson, Lorna Luft, Stephanie Voss, Bryan Burdon, Bill Drysdale, Chrissie Cartwright, Valente-Valente and Peter Reeves.
SAT 20:30 Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (b008m8h5)
Series 1
A High Profile
Hetty agrees to help an anxious mother whose schizophrenic adult son has disappeared.
SAT 21:20 Blackshore (m002q7dh)
Series 1
Episode 5
The Blackwater Whiskey Festival has arrived, and it appears that the Roisin Hurley case has been solved. However, Fia knows there is more to this story. With her partner, Cian Furlong, now firmly on her side, Fia takes the law into her own hands in order to get to the truth.
SAT 22:10 Blackshore (m002q7dw)
Series 1
Episode 6
Fia is still struggling to find the evidence she needs to bring the case to a close. With her investigation at a standstill, she is unsure if she can confirm what she knows to be true.
SAT 23:00 Afire (m002qx4r)
Self-centred young author Leon is trying to finish his novel at his friend Felix’s holiday home by the Baltic coast, but he faces unwelcome distractions: fellow guest Nadja, hunky Devid and a wildfire raging in the region. Prize-winning movie drama from writer-director Christian Petzold.
In German with English subtitles.
SAT 00:40 Parkinson (m002qx4t)
Terry Wogan, Betty Boothroyd and Harry Enfield
Chat show hosted by Michael Parkinson, featuring guests Terry Wogan, Betty Boothroyd and Harry Enfield.
SAT 01:40 Yes, Prime Minister (b0074s27)
Series 2
A Conflict of Interest
Classic sitcom. When a scandal breaks in the City, Jim Hacker and Sir Humphrey cannot agree on who should be the new governor of the Bank of England.
SAT 02:10 Yes, Prime Minister (b0074s2b)
Series 2
Power to the People
Classic political sitcom. Jim Hacker meets a local councillor who has radical ideas about local government. The PM likes what he hears, unlike Sir Humphrey.
SAT 02:40 Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (b008m8h5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
SUNDAY 01 FEBRUARY 2026
SUN 19:00 Come Dancing (m002qx5r)
1978 Grand Final
Terry Wogan hosts as Midlands and West take on North West in the 1978 Come Dancing grand final from the Lyceum Ballroom, London. With commentary by Barri Haynes.
SUN 19:40 Blankety Blank Classic (m001p8hz)
Wogan's Best of Blankety Blank
Episode 9
Terry Wogan introduces a classic edition of the celebrity word game, featuring guest panellists Lorraine Chase, Val Doonican, David Hamilton, Dickie Henderson, Karen Kay and Elaine Stritch.
SUN 20:10 Wogan: The Best Of (b05q003b)
Actors
Sir Terry Wogan remembers some memorable moments from the Wogan show. This episode features some of Britain's finest acting talents, with a cast that includes Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, Bob Hoskins, Pierce Brosnan, Christopher Lee and Kenneth Branagh. There's also music from Sting and Kate Bush.
SUN 20:55 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b01dpph9)
Terry Wogan
Mark Lawson talks to legendary broadcaster Terry Wogan about his life and 50-year career. In this thoughtful interview Terry explores his early years growing up in Ireland, recalls how the shaky beginnings of Irish television provided him with a great training ground for a career in live broadcast and talks about how, because of his gentle demeanour, he has eluded the censors more than any of his peers.
Wogan made a name for himself as a DJ for Raidió Teilifís Éireann in Ireland in the 1960s. When Irish television started up in 1962, he began his career in front of the camera, transferring across the Irish Sea in 1967 as one of the first DJs for the BBC's new station Radio 1. Loved for his genial charm and cheeky optimism, he has seduced audiences and listeners for over half a century. His stamina and ambition to be a major player in live broadcast continues well into his 70s, as the face of BBC's Children in Need and the front of his ever-popular Radio 2 show.
SUN 21:55 Ibsen (m002q7n9)
The Lady from the Sea (1974)
The 1974 adaption of Henrik Ibsen's story of Ellida Wangel, her marriage issues and her pursuit of happiness and love elsewhere.
SUN 23:45 Mañana (m002qx5t)
Broadcast on 1 February 1956, composer Arthur Benjamin's Mañana was the first opera commissioned by the BBC.
SUN 01:00 Sound Waves: The Symphony of Physics (b08h06tq)
Series 1
Making Sound
Dr Helen Czerski investigates the extraordinary science behind the sounds we're familiar with and the sounds that we normally can't hear.
She begins by exploring the simplest of ideas: what is a sound? At the Palace of Westminster, Helen teams up with scientists from the University of Leicester to carry out state-of-the-art measurements using lasers to reveal how the most famous bell in the world - Big Ben - vibrates to create pressure waves in the air at particular frequencies. This is how Big Ben produces its distinct sound. It's the first time that these laser measurements have been done on Big Ben.
With soprano singer Lesley Garrett CBE, Helen explores the science of the singing voice - revealing in intimate detail its inner workings and how it produces sound. Lesley undergoes a laryngoscopy to show the vocal folds of her larynx. At University College London, Lesley sings I Dreamed a Dream inside an MRI scanner to reveal how her vocal tract acts as a 'resonator', amplifying and shaping the sound from her larynx.
Having explored the world of sounds with which we are familiar, Helen discovers the hidden world of sounds that lie beyond the range of human hearing. At the summit of Stromboli, one of Europe's most active volcanoes, Helen and volcanologist Dr Jeffrey Johnson use a special microphone to record the extraordinary deep tone produced by the volcano as it explodes - a frequency far too low for the human ear to detect. Helen reveals how the volcano produces sound in a similar way to a musical instrument - with the volcano vent acting as a 'sound resonator'.
Finally, at the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, Helen meets a scientist who has discovered evidence of sound waves in space, created by a giant black hole. These sounds are one million billion times lower than the limit of human hearing and could be the key in figuring out how galaxy clusters, the largest structures in the universe, grow.
SUN 02:00 Come Dancing (m002qx5r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
SUN 02:40 Wogan: The Best Of (b05q003b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:10 today]
MONDAY 02 FEBRUARY 2026
MON 19:00 Wild China (b00bwky1)
Tibet
Documentary capturing pioneering images to exhibit the dazzling array of mysterious and wonderful creatures that live in China's most beautiful landscapes.
The vast Tibetan Plateau is one of the world's most remote places and home to chiru antelopes, wild yaks, foxes and bears. It has a remarkable culture shaped by over one 1,000 years of Buddhism, while its mountains and glaciers provide a vital life support system for half the planet.
MON 20:00 Art of Persia (m000kjj2)
Series 1
Episode 3
In the last episode, Samira Ahmed travels to the crumbling ruins of an ancient walled city and goes back to when Persia faced her gravest threat, Genghis Khan. But from the death and destruction there emerged a golden age of Persian poetry and art.
In the fabled city of Isfahan, Samira encounters the dynasty of shahs that succeeded the Mongols - the Safavids, who gave Iran a powerful new identity through Shia Islam and carved its message in stone, brick and tile.
Finally, Samira travels to Persepolis to tell the story of Iran’s last shah and his ill-fated attempt to link his dynasty to Persia’s ancient kings, with momentous consequences for the world.
MON 21:00 Call My Bluff (m002qx44)
13 /03/1979
Robert Robinson hosts the panel game of word definitions and deceptions. Team captains Frank Muir and Patrick Campbell are joined by Joanna Lumley, Miles Kington, Rula Lenska and Ian Wooldridge.
MON 21:30 Face the Music (m002qx46)
Joseph Cooper invites viewers to match their musical wits against guests Joyce Grenfell, Richard Baker and Robin Ray. With guest musician Lina Lalandi.
MON 22:00 Brian Cox: Seven Days on Mars (m0018cd1)
Professor Brian Cox fulfils a childhood dream by going behind the scenes at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), mission control for Mars 2020 – one of the most ambitious missions ever launched that may finally reveal if life ever existed on the red planet.
In 1980, a young Brian Cox wrote to JPL asking for photos from some of their missions to the planets. The pictures they sent him from Voyager and the Viking mission to Mars were a source of inspiration that set him on the path to becoming a physicist.
Now, over 40 years later, he has been granted privileged access to JPL, including key mission areas that are usually off-limits to film crews. Brian spends a week following the team who guide the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter - the first powered aircraft ever sent to another planet - across the surface of Mars during a critical stage of the mission.
Perseverance’s goal is to search for signs of long extinct life on the surface of Mars in an area called Jezero Crater, which, 3.8 billion years ago, was filled by a vast lake. If it finds evidence of that life, it could change everything we know about life in the universe - and even transform our understanding of our own origins.
MON 23:30 Voyage to Mars: The Longest Goodbye (p0g5bpg2)
Nasa intends to send astronauts to Mars. To succeed, crew members will have to overcome unprecedented, life-threatening challenges, and while many of these hazards are physical, the most elusive are psychological.
Throughout the expected three-year absence, crew members won’t be able to communicate with Earth in real time due to the immense distance. The psychological impact of this level of disconnectedness and isolation – both from mission control and loved ones – is impossible to predict and endangers the mission itself. Directed to mitigate this threat is Dr Al Holland, a Nasa psychologist whose job is to keep astronauts mentally stable in space.
The Longest Goodbye follows Holland, rookie astronauts Kayla Barron and Matthias Maurer and former astronaut Cady Coleman, among others, as they grapple with the tension between their dream of reaching new frontiers and the basic human need to stay connected to home.
MON 00:55 Tomorrow's World (p02861k4)
Series 22
The Race to Mars
First transmitted in 1987, what is the future of manned space flight one year after the US Challenger disaster?
MON 01:25 Face the Music (m002qx46)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:30 today]
MON 01:55 Meet the Ancestors (b0074jd5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
MON 02:25 Art of Persia (m000kjj2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
TUESDAY 03 FEBRUARY 2026
TUE 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m001nc4r)
Series 14
Waterloo to Regent's Park
Michael Portillo continues his railway exploration of the postwar Britain of his youth on a journey from London to Cambridge.
He begins on the capital’s South Bank, where during 1951, a Festival of Britain drew more than eight and a half million visitors to admire fantastical buildings designed to inspire and celebrate the best of British in art, science and industry.
After a spin on the London Eye, built to celebrate the millennium, Michael takes the London Underground to Chelsea to find out about one of the most influential cookery writers of the 20th century, Elizabeth David. In Covent Garden, he learns how Vidal Sassoon’s classic bob hairstyle took the fashion world by storm.
Finally, in Regent’s Park, Michael visits a long-awaited mosque, first mooted in 1900 and completed in 1977 to a modernist design by architect Frederick Gibberd.
TUE 19:30 Coastal Path (b07qb61p)
Episode 1
Explorer Paul Rose sets off on the walk of a lifetime - 630 miles of the South West Coast Path. He discovers wildlife, wild traditions and wild adventure at every turn on this spectacular peninsula.
TUE 20:00 Yes, Prime Minister (b0074s30)
Series 2
The Patron of the Arts
Jim is the guest of honour at the British Theatre Awards, but the Arts Council grant is going to be cut. Jim wants to avoid bad publicity, and Sir Humphrey, National Theatre board member, wants to avoid cuts - who will win?
TUE 20:30 Yes, Prime Minister (b0074s32)
Series 2
The National Education Service
Jim Hacker decides to abolish the Department of Education and Science to reduce bureaucracy and save money, giving cash directly to schools. Sir Humphrey, of course, is appalled.
TUE 21:00 A Timewatch Guide (b06zdll0)
Series 2
Queen Elizabeth I
Vanessa Collingridge examines the life of Elizabeth Tudor, with particular interest in how documentary television and the BBC has examined her legacy and interrogated her reign. Using Timewatch and other BBC archive stretching back over 60 years, Vanessa looks at her upbringing, her conflicts with her enemies including Mary, Queen of Scots, and her greatest victory against the Spanish Armada. The programme seeks to understand how Elizabeth I created a legacy that we still live with today, and examines how that legacy has changed over the centuries.
TUE 22:00 Storyville (p08yrl5s)
Price of Gold
The world could not keep its eyes off two athletes at the 1994 Winter Games – Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. Just weeks before the Olympics in 1994, at the US Figure Skating Championships, Kerrigan was injured by an unknown assailant. Harding's ex-husband had plotted the attack with his misfit friends to eliminate Kerrigan from the competition.
The Price of Gold takes a fresh look at the scandal that elevated the popularity of professional figure skating, with Harding still facing questions over what she knew and when she knew it.
TUE 23:15 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 01:10 Great British Railway Journeys (m001nc4r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
TUE 01:40 Coastal Path (b07qb61p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUE 02:10 Wild China (b00bwky1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Monday]
WEDNESDAY 04 FEBRUARY 2026
WED 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m001nc69)
Series 14
Paddington to Ongar
Michael Portillo ventures deep underground onto London’s newest railway: the Elizabeth Line. Emerging into the sunshine in Bedford Square, he recalls the choking smogs which plagued the capital during the 1950s.
Back on the Elizabeth Line, Michael travels east to Stratford to visit the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, where pioneering director Joan Littlewood produced groundbreaking plays such as Oh! What a Lovely War.
At Shenfield, Michael transfers to the Epping Ongar Heritage Railway. His destination is a nondescript 1950s bungalow, which hides the entrance to an underground bunker designed for use in the event of nuclear war.
WED 19:30 Coastal Path (b07tbxp6)
Episode 2
Paul Rose explores the rugged north Cornish coast, taking a grand tour of Tintagel Castle, joining in the hustle and bustle of Padstow's Obby Oss festival and channelling his inner Turner in St Ives.
WED 20:00 Brian Cox's Adventures in Space and Time (m000wnk3)
Series 1
Aliens: Are We Alone?
Brian Cox looks at our attempts to answer one of the most profound questions we can ask – are we alone in the universe? With scientists sending space probes to the furthest reaches of our solar system and beyond, the scientific search for alien life has begun.
Inspired by a childhood love of science fiction, Brian still hopes to hear from ET. In this film, he explains why this search deserves to be taken seriously, and he explores the chances of it happening.
WED 21:00 Tribe (2005) (b007y1j3)
Series 3
Nenets
Explorer Bruce Parry travels to the frozen tundra of Northern Siberia, spending a month with a brigade of Nenet reindeer herders during their winter migration. The herders travel hundreds of miles in temperatures that can drop to -40.
WED 22:00 Smiley's People (b007hfx4)
Episode 5
Seminal 1982 spy drama series. Smiley is hot on the trail leading to Karla but must make the ultimate sacrifice - cutting off his wife Ann.
WED 23:00 Smiley's People (b007l43k)
Episode 6
Seminal 1980s spy drama series. The final confrontation between Smiley and Karla takes place. But in this game there are no victors, only losers.
WED 00:00 Sleuths, Spies & Sorcerers: Andrew Marr's Paperback Heroes (p040pwl2)
Spies
What is the allure of the classic espionage story? As Andrew Marr argues in the conclusion to his series about the books we (really) read, the British spy novel is much more than a cloak-and-dagger affair. Rather, these books allow readers to engage with some pretty big questions about the human condition - principally, who are you? What or who would you be willing to betray? And for what cause would you lay your life on the line?
To help him decipher the rules of the classic espionage story, Andrew travels to Berlin in the footsteps of master spy novelist John le Carre, whose experience of witnessing the Berlin Wall being erected in 1961 inspired him to write the 20th century's greatest spy novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.
Andrew uncovers the various conventions that have governed the genre since it began. He shows how early spy novelists created a climate of fear, how they introduced the debonair gentleman spy, and how through the works of former secret agents such as Somerset Maugham they translated the often mundane details of espionage into their stories. The tradecraft of spywriting is gleaned from writers Frederick Forsyth, William Boyd, Gerald Seymour, Charles Cumming as well as novelist (and former director general of MI5) Dame Stella Rimington. And Andrew considers the future of the fictional spy in an age when the agent on the ground is being superseded by electronic surveillance.
WED 01:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m001nc69)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
WED 01:30 Tribe (2005) (b007y1j3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 02:30 Brian Cox's Adventures in Space and Time (m000wnk3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THURSDAY 05 FEBRUARY 2026
THU 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m001nbgd)
Series 14
Felixstowe to Norwich
Michael Portillo continues his rail exploration of the east of England, beginning with the seafront at Felixstowe, where in January 1953, the town was engulfed in the worst flooding to hit England in the 20th century. In Ipswich, Michael inspects new flood defences and is invited to operate the barrier which protects the town centre.
From Orford, Michael makes tracks for what was Britain’s most secret military complex during World War II, Orford Ness. He hears how researchers stress tested nuclear bombs during the Cold War.
In Norwich, Michael admires the Norman cathedral before heading to the city’s mail centre, where he traces the history of the postcode. At the city’s plate glass University of East Anglia, Michael investigates a master's degree course which launched many creative writers to stardom.
THU 19:30 Coastal Path (b07v8bhz)
Episode 3
Paul Rose explores the spectacular South Cornwall coastline where he discovers one of the world's finest stages at the Minack Theatre, tries the high-octane sport of coasteering on the Lizard and fires Tudor cannons at Pendennis Castle in Falmouth.
THU 20:00 The Man Who Would Be King (b00j275m)
Colourful, historical epic set in the 1880s. Tired of life as disreputable con men, Dravot and Carnehan - former British Army sergeants who have remained in India - plan to venture beyond the North West Frontier into Kurfuristan. There, as the first Europeans since Alexander the Great, they aim to find fame and fortune by setting themselves up as kings. They do indeed become godlike rulers, but their success depends on sustaining the illusion that they are more than mere mortals. From a story by Rudyard Kipling.
THU 22:05 Talking Pictures (b050cng3)
Sean Connery
A look at the life of Sean Connery, using rarely seen television interviews and classic archive clips to tell the story of his life and career. Narrated by Sylvia Syms.
THU 22:50 A Bridge Too Far (m0026dj0)
The Allies have a daring plan to stop World War II by the end of 1944. Called Operation Market Garden, it involves parachuting 35,000 troops into occupied Holland to capture a strategic line of bridges. Could it work? Or are they going a bridge too far?
THU 01:40 Great British Railway Journeys (m001nbgd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
THU 02:10 Brian Cox: Seven Days on Mars (m0018cd1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Monday]
FRIDAY 06 FEBRUARY 2026
FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m002qx5k)
Jamie Theakston presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 19 March 1999 and featuring Steps, The Beautiful South, Roxette, Travis, Britney Spears, REM, Manic Street Preachers and Boyzone.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m002qx5m)
Jayne Middlemiss presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 26 March 1999 and featuring Andy Williams, Kele Le Roc, Steps, Underworld, Whitney Houston, Boyzone, Tina Cousins and B*Witched.
FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b01qnqp7)
Peter Powell presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 9 February 1978 and featuring Tonight, Baccara, Brotherhood of Man, ELO, Lulu, Yellow Dog, Dusty Springfield, The Stranglers, David Castle and Legs & Co.
FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m000dl2j)
Mike Read and Sybil Ruscoe present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 9 February 1989 and featuring Samantha Fox, Rick Astley, Yazz, Hue and Cry, Def Leppard, Poison, Texas, Michael Ball, Bobby Brown, Morrissey, Marc Almond and Gene Pitney, and Mike and the Mechanics.
FRI 21:00 Top of the Pops (b011wh1d)
Tony Blackburn presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 3 June 1976 and featuring New Edition, JJ Barrie, Our Kid, Cliff Richard, Mud, Thin Lizzy, Dolly Parton and The Rolling Stones.
FRI 22:15 Nana Mouskouri at the BBC (b00fvhg4)
A vintage collection of Nana Mouskouri's performances from the BBC archive, including her entry in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest and musical collaborations with Michel Legrand, Charles Aznavour and Cliff Richard.
FRI 23:15 Nana Mouskouri (m00240zs)
Demis Roussos, The King's Singers and James Galway
Nana Mouskouri is joined by Demis Roussos, The King's Singers and James Galway.
FRI 00:00 Presenting Nana Mouskouri (m00240zv)
International Greek singing star Nana Mouskouri performs a selection of songs, accompanied by her backing group, The Athenians.
FRI 00:30 Nana Mouskouri (m00240zx)
Olivia Newton-John, The Athenians, Calchakis and The King’s Singers
Nana Mouskouri and her backing group The Athenians are joined by special guests Olivia Newton-John, Calchakis and The King’s Singers in a programme first broadcast in 1974.
FRI 01:20 Nana Mouskouri (m00240zz)
Wayne Sleep, The Spinners and Morris Albert
Nana Mouskouri presents her own special kind of music and is joined by guests Morris Albert, The Spinners and Wayne Sleep.
FRI 02:05 Top of the Pops (m002qx5k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
FRI 02:35 Top of the Pops (m002qx5m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 03:05 Top of the Pops (b01qnqp7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]