SATURDAY 07 MARCH 2026
SAT 19:00 Design Classics (b0074tkm)
London Underground Map
Documentary about the London Underground Map. Created in 1931 by Underground employee Henry Beck, the graphically revolutionary map has become an icon of both London and British design.
SAT 19:25 The Good Old Days (b06rcprp)
Leonard Sachs chairs the old-time music hall programme, originally broadcast from Leeds in 1976. Guests include Les Dawson, Peggy Mount, Larry Parker, Jeannie Harris, Chantal & Dumont, Albert Aldred and members of the Player's Theatre London. Also includes a performance from the Jan Madd Magic Show.
SAT 20:10 Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (b008mcft)
Series 2
The Astral Plane
DCI Adams asks Hetty to investigate a dodgy spiritualist, but she is not prepared for what she finds. Geoffrey, meanwhile, is falling in love.
SAT 21:00 The Turkish Detective (m001zpfq)
Series 1
Episode 5
In a poverty-stricken neighbourhood of Istanbul, a serial killer appears to be targeting rubbish collectors. With Ikmen on leave looking after his new baby, Ayse leads the investigation instead, and Suleyman finally entrusts her with the secret she’s suspected for so long.
SAT 21:55 The Turkish Detective (m001zpfr)
Series 1
Episode 6
With his family still growing, Ikmen decides it’s time to grow up a bit and seek promotion. Suleyman goes undercover as a rubbish collector to try and find the killer before they strike again, while Ayse turns to an unlikely old acquaintance for help.
SAT 22:40 Brief History of a Family (m002sjbz)
Psychological drama. Enigmatic 15-year-old Yan Shuo is injured in an accident caused by Tu Wei, a classmate from an affluent family. Wei invites Shuo to his house, where he impresses the Tu family and begins to feel at home.
In Mandarin with English subtitles.
SAT 00:15 Keeping Up Appearances (b01djr8z)
Series 1
Stately Home
Sitcom about a snobbish housewife. Hyacinth is looking forward to visiting her favourite stately home, but the trip goes wrong when her family become involved.
SAT 00:45 Sorry! (b03vrw24)
Series 1
For Love or Mummy
Timothy Lumsden meets a girl at his amateur dramatics society and determines to go on a riverboat shuffle with her, despite all his mother's attempts to prevent him.
SAT 01:15 The Good Old Days (b06rcprp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:25 today]
SAT 02:00 Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (b008mcft)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:10 today]
SAT 02:50 Meet the Ancestors (b0074jhs)
Series 2
The Black Hand
In the early 1960s, a Cheshire farmer discovered a human jaw bone in his fields. It remained a mysterious find until the secret beneath the field was revealed. Julian Richards joins archaeologists as they excavate a long-lost chapel and the undisturbed burials of medieval landowners. Using science, genealogy and some good old-fashioned detective work, the team are able to bring a Hampshire teacher face to face with his ancestors.
SUNDAY 08 MARCH 2026
SUN 19:00 Travels with Pevsner (m002rjn5)
Series 1
North Yorkshire with Janet Street-Porter
Janet Street-Porter visits some of the architectural highlights of North Yorkshire, including Castle Howard and the Transporter Bridge in Middlesbrough.
SUN 19:50 One Hundred Great Paintings (m002sjcd)
The Land: Constable - Salisbury Cathedral
This was the last of many hauntingly beautiful sketches and paintings Constable made of Salisbury Cathedral. He worked on it for years. During a bout of rheumatic fever, he propped the picture up against the foot of his bed. In the end, he was satisfied... 'At last,' he wrote, 'I have got the Great Salisbury into the condition I wish to see it.'
SUN 20:00 Humphrey Burton: The Huw Wheldon Lecture (m002sjcg)
Huw Wheldon was founding editor and presenter of Monitor, the BBC's first television arts magazine. In a lecture to the Royal Television Society, first broadcast in 1991, music and arts broadcaster Humphrey Burton, who worked closely with Wheldon in the late 50s and early 60s, gives a first-hand account of the achievements of Monitor.
Among the examples used by Burton are films commissioned by Wheldon from two young directors who went on to greater things, Ken Russell and John Schlesinger, and studio interviews with Orson Welles and Ninette de Valois.
SUN 21:00 Humphrey Burton: Conversations with Glenn Gould (m002sjcj)
The launch of BBC Two in 1964 led to an explosion in coverage of music and arts on television. Humphrey Burton was at the centre, running the department and becoming a familiar face to audiences.
In this programme, first broadcast in 1966, Glenn Gould, the celebrated but idiosyncratic Canadian pianist, talks and plays to Burton. Gould explains why he decided to shun live performance and dedicate his time to the recording studio.
SUN 21:40 Humphrey Burton: Profile of a Quartet (m002sjcl)
A film story from 1960, directed by Humphrey Burton, that follows the Allegri String Quartet as they rehearse, prepare for concerts and record. It also looks at the part played by their agents and wives and families.
SUN 22:00 Arena (m002kbrz)
Theatre
Director Ronald Eyre presents the first episode of Arena, the long-running arts documentary series created by Humphrey Burton when he was head of Music and Arts at the BBC.
Eyre looks selectively and critically at what's coming on, or doing well, in theatres and recommends his own personal 'best buy'.
Also, Kenneth Tynan talks to Laurence Olivier about Lilian Baylis, the eccentric founder of The Old Vic, and there is a film about David Hockney's sets for The Rake's Progress, on tour after its success at Glyndebourne.
SUN 22:30 Ibsen (m002q7tc)
An Enemy of the People
The 1980 adaption of Henrik Ibsen's play, set in west Scotland. Adapted for television by Maggie Allen from the stage version by Lindsay Galloway.
SUN 23:50 Ibsen (m002q7tw)
Brand
The 1959 adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's verse tragedy about an uncompromising priest.
SUN 01:25 Humphrey Burton: The Huw Wheldon Lecture (m002sjcg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
SUN 02:25 Travels with Pevsner (m002rjn5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
MONDAY 09 MARCH 2026
MON 19:00 Seven Worlds, One Planet (m000b1tw)
Series 1
Asia
Asia is the largest and most extreme continent on our planet, stretching from the Arctic Circle in the north to the tropical forests on the equator. The animals here face the hottest deserts, tallest jungles and highest mountains found anywhere on Earth. But the continent has not always looked like this. These extreme worlds were created when India collided with the rest of Asia 30 million years ago, shaping the continent as we know it today. Animals here have adapted to the extreme environments in almost unbelievable ways.
In the frozen lands of the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia, bears seek out active volcanoes – despite the dangers. And on the Siberian coast, a remarkable spectacle appears for a few weeks during the summer – tens of thousands of walruses haul themselves on to a beach in one of the largest gatherings of mammals seen anywhere in the world. In China, mysterious blue-faced monkeys walk upright through some of the least-explored forests on Earth, whilst the baking deserts of Iran are home to what has to be the world's most bizarre snake. On the barren plateaus of India, garishly coloured lizards fight like miniature kung fu masters as they try to find a mate before they die.
The south of the continent couldn't be more different. When India collided with Asia, the Himalayas were formed. These mountains blocked clouds, helping to create the monsoon. Heavy rains fell and tropical forests, full of life, developed to the south. Here, baby orangutans learn to climb the tallest jungle trees on the planet and a female Sumatran rhino - one of the rainforest's rarest inhabitants – sings a mournful and haunting song. Will anyone return her call? These forests - home to thousands of incredible species - are in danger of being lost forever. Under threat from deforestation and human development, today the largest continent on Earth is running out of space for its wildlife. But there's hope in Asia's tropical waters, where endangered whale sharks gather to find food and get a helping hand from a surprising source.
MON 20:00 Raiders of the Lost Past with Janina Ramirez (m000str5)
Series 2
World's First City
Janina is in Turkey, tracking a young explorer who found the world’s oldest city and rewrote the beginning of civilisation – until his discovery became engulfed in scandal.
MON 21:00 Call My Bluff (m002sjcs)
Robert Robinson hosts as Frank Muir, Prunella Gee and Humphrey Burton take on Patrick Campbell, Hannah Gordon and Bryan Marshall in the panel game of definitions and deceptions.
MON 21:30 Face the Music (m002sjcw)
Question master Joseph Cooper invites viewers to match their musical wits against Joyce Grenfell, Brian Redhead, Alvar Lidell. With guest musician David Atherton.
MON 22:00 The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms (p030s6b3)
Without us noticing, modern life has been taken over. Algorithms run everything from search engines on the internet to satnavs and credit card data security - they even help us travel the world, find love and save lives.
Mathematician Professor Marcus du Sautoy demystifies the hidden world of algorithms. By showing us some of the algorithms most essential to our lives, he reveals where these 2,000-year-old problem-solvers came from, how they work, what they have achieved and how they are now so advanced they can even programme themselves.
MON 23:00 Bridget Riley - Painting the Line (m0011psx)
With exclusive behind-the-scenes access, seldom-seen footage from the archives, insights from admirers, experts and contemporaries including Tracey Emin, Michael Craig-Martin and Martin Freeman, and a revealing interview by Kirsty Wark, this is the story of a true visionary of British art.
Bridget Riley has been challenging our perception through painting for over 60 years, with radical work that has transformed how we look at art and invites us to feel with our eyes.
With simple black and white geometric shapes, repeated curves of colour or an array of muted dots, Riley’s work moves, shimmers and - in some cases - unsettles.
At the age of 90, Bridget Riley shows no signs of stopping. Her paintings command millions at auction, she has won prestigious awards and honours, and continues to innovate, paint, publish and exhibit around the world.
BBC cameras have filmed with Riley over the past few years in two of her studios, on the cliffs of Cornwall, where she spent the Second World War, and at the National Gallery in London during the installation of her enormous mural there in 2018.
In a rare and revealing interview with Kirsty Wark, Riley dispels the numerous misconceptions which have followed her throughout her career. Many consider her as a poster girl for the Swinging 60s, while others hail her as a titan of abstract art. However, Riley considers herself a traditional painter who has merely picked up the baton from those who have gone before her, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Monet, Cezanne and Matisse.
MON 00:00 Nature and Us: A History through Art (m0010jn6)
Series 1
Episode 1
In this first episode, art historian James Fox explores the art of the ancient world to reveal the story of our earliest relationships with nature. From the art of prehistoric hunters and the advent of agriculture and our first cities to the arrival the great faiths, including Hinduism and Christianity, James shows how we began to wrestle with our place in nature and tried to control the great forces that shape our world. Along the way, we journey from Arctic Norway to the jungles of Guatemala and the holy city of Varanasi in India.
Beginning with cave paintings of animals and a fascinating 12,000-year-old carving of a reindeer, James shows how we were once much closer to nature. We meet Nils Peder, a contemporary Sami Reindeer Herder in northern Norway. His way of life is still influenced by a belief in nature’s spiritual energy and power. But then as James studies an ancient Egyptian model of cattle, we reach a dramatic turning point in our relationship with nature - the advent of agriculture. At this point, humans collaborated with nature but ultimately took ‘control’. James takes this a step further with the extraordinary lion hunt carvings from the Assyrian palace of Nineveh. He demonstrates how it was at this time that humans began to set out to conquer nature. James then turns his attention to ways in which religion helped us make sense of the great shifts in our relationship with nature. We see the first human personifications of natural forces: the river Ganga in India and the ancient Greek god of the sky, Zeus. And we see how, in Christian art, nature becomes the backdrop for the very human-focused story of the crucifixion.
In this first great phase in human history, James reveals how we moved from caves to farms, to the emergence of the first civilisations and to global faiths. And through it all, he shows how we struggled to control nature and began to move away from it, no longer living as just one part of the natural world.
MON 01:00 Seven Worlds, One Planet (m000b1tw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
MON 02:00 Face the Music (m002sjcw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:30 today]
MON 02:30 Raiders of the Lost Past with Janina Ramirez (m000str5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
TUESDAY 10 MARCH 2026
TUE 19:00 Villages by the Sea (m0010chv)
Series 2
Bamburgh
Archaeologist Ben Robinson uncovers how the health and fortune of the village was shaped by those in charge of Bamburgh’s famous castle.
TUE 19:30 Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury (b0110ghh)
The Worcester and Birmingham Canal
Seasoned stomper Julia Bradbury dons her walking boots once again to explore her own British backyard, travelling along the country's network of canals and their accompanying towpath trails. Julia navigates Highland glens, rolling countryside and river valleys, as well as our industrial heartlands, and follows these magical waterways as they cut a sedate path through some of the country's finest scenery.
Julia starts this walk in Birmingham, which surprisingly boasts more miles of canal than Venice. But her mission isn't to seek out gondolas or ice cream - it's to discover how the city, through its canal network, became the centre of the Industrial Revolution. It's also the start of Julia's two-day walk along the historic and picturesque Worcester and Birmingham Canal, which cuts a 30-mile path through to the River Severn. The highlight of the canal is a dramatic two-mile flight of 30 locks which lower the canal by 220 feet. Negotiating this flight of locks is considered to be a rite of passage by boaters, and it's definitely one for the tick list for walkers.
TUE 20:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b01djsdp)
Series 1
The Charity Shop
Hyacinth is at her wits' end, what with the charity shop, Councillor Nugent and Rose's love life. Can she cope and keep the flag flying, as well as her sanity?
TUE 20:30 Sorry! (b03vrw27)
Series 1
Buttons
The latest girl in Timothy's life has a jealous boyfriend who doesn't take kindly to him trying to steal her away.
TUE 21:00 A History of Britain by Simon Schama (b0074ky2)
Series 1
Conquest
In nine short hours, William the Conqueror triumphed at the Battle of Hastings - and England was changed forever. Simon Schama recounts the saga of blood, betrayal and ambition that led up to this pivotal battle and describes the profound consequences that followed.
TUE 22:00 Storyville (m002sjdd)
Mistress Dispeller
An intimate and candid film that follows the course of an extra marital affair in modern China from the perspectives of the couple, the mistress and the woman hired to save the marriage.
The film explores a phenomenon that is increasingly popular in contemporary China and follows Mrs Li, who, after finding out her husband has a mistress, hires Teacher Wang (the so-called 'mistress dispeller') to bring the affair to an end.
Seen from the perspectives of all parties in the narrative, this Rashomon-inspired romance explores a love triangle from all sides. It follows a story that is universally familiar and yet uniquely specific to a country that is grappling with seismic shifts to society as a result of a rapidly expanding middle class and rising divorce rate.
Over two years and multiple trips to China, the producers built up a relationship with Teacher Wang and her business associate. A long casting followed before they found a case where all three characters were willing to give the extraordinary access the production was seeking.
The film follows the course of the affair from the point Mrs Li discovers her husband’s infidelity through to its aftermath. The audience is granted a front row seat to this incredibly private drama, as each of the protagonists reveals their experience in the moment with extraordinary honesty and candour.
TUE 23:30 Border Country: The Story of Britain's Lost Middleland (b040mkvp)
Episode 2
Hadrian's Wall cut a deep scar across Britain that would never be forgotten. A thousand years after the Romans left, the island split once again, near the line of the wall, into the Kingdoms of England and Scotland.
Historian and MP Rory Stewart tells the story of how Britain was torn in two. The border country dividing Britain's lost Middleland became a zone of anarchy, as violent as border areas in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan.
TUE 00:30 Bridget Riley - Painting the Line (m0011psx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 on Monday]
TUE 01:30 Villages by the Sea (m0010chv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
TUE 02:00 Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury (b0110ghh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUE 02:30 The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms (p030s6b3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Monday]
WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH 2026
WED 19:00 Villages by the Sea (m0010ckg)
Series 2
Staithes
Archaeologist Ben Robinson visits the village of Staithes in North Yorkshire and unearths its role in kickstarting the chemical industry in the north east of England.
WED 19:30 Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury (b01173hc)
The Kennet and Avon Canal
Seasoned stomper Julia Bradbury dons her walking boots once again to explore her own British backyard, travelling along the country's network of canals and their accompanying towpath trails. This sees her navigating Highland glens, rolling countryside and river valleys, as well as our industrial heartlands, following these magical waterways as they cut a sedate path through some of the country's finest scenery.
Julia starts this walk in the beautiful world heritage city of Bath, where the Kennet and Avon Canal provided a 19th-century 'canal superhighway' between the country's two most important ports, Bristol and London. But only forty years later the trade along the canal was usurped by rail travel, leaving the once great waterway neglected and derelict. Julia's 20-mile walk along what is arguably the most picturesque stretch of the canal tells the story of how the waterway was restored to its former glory after it was awarded the biggest ever lottery heritage grant. The walk ends at the spectacular Caen Hill flight of locks, listed as one of the seven wonders of British waterways.
WED 20:00 Timeshift (b08mp2l8)
Series 17
Dial 'B' for Britain: The Story of the Landline
Timeshift tells the story of how Britain's phone network was built. Incredibly, there was once a time when phones weren't pocket-sized wireless devices but bulky objects wired into our homes and workplaces. Over the course of 100 years, engineers rolled out a communications network that joined up Britain - a web of more than 70 million miles of wire. Telephones were agents of commercial and social change, connecting businesses and creating new jobs for Victorian women. Wires changed the appearance of urban skylines and the public phone box became a ubiquitous sight.
Yet despite ongoing technical innovation, the phone service often struggled to meet demand. When the mobile phone arrived, it appeared to herald the demise of the landline. Yet ironically, now we're more connected than ever, it's not the telephone that's keeping us on the landline.
In 1877, Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell returned to Britain from America to showcase a revolutionary new electric device - the telephone. After impressing no less than Queen Victoria, Bell helped drive uptake of the telephone in Britain, tapping into the growth of a growing commercial phenomenon - the office. Soon, whole networks of telephone lines were being built, connected together by exchange switchboards. Female switchboard operators were preferred by telephone companies as they were cheaper and perceived as more polite, opening up new employment opportunities for women in late Victorian Britain.
At first only the wealthiest people had phones in their homes, but the public call box soon emerged, although when the GPO - the General Post Office - took over the private networks, it initially struggled to find an acceptable design for its box and met some resistance to its now iconic bright red colour.
The introduction of direct dial telephones and automatic exchanges, as well as services like the 999 emergency number and the speaking clock, helped drive private uptake of phones in the 1930s. However, with the onset of World War Two, military concerns took priority. Gene Toms, a switchboard operator, recalls her time during the war, trying to work while wearing a helmet during air raids, dealing with self-important officers and doing her best to assist servicemen phoning home.
A renewed drive to restore, modernise and expand the network after the war kept a legion of engineers busy. Former GPO engineers Jim
Coombe, Bryan Eagan and Dez Flahey share their memories of dubious safety practices and difficult customers. Despite the expansion, the network still had limited capacity relative to demand, and one cheaper solution was the "party line", shared with another household, although it created problems of privacy.
The introduction of STD - subscriber trunk dialling - in the late 1950s enabled callers to make long distance calls without the help of an operator. But STD, like the network itself, was taking a long time to roll out; and despite the introduction of stylish coloured telephones and the Trimphone in the 1960s to tempt customers, the service acquired a bad reputation among many users. Even an episode of the children's series Trumpton reflected the general frustration. Archive footage shows the then postmaster general, Anthony Wedgwood Benn, being grilled by an interviewer about the shortcomings of the phone service.
But there was an exciting new symbol of the future under construction - the Post Office Tower, part of a network of towers designed to expand the capacity of the network using a wireless, microwave system. By the 1970s telephone supply was catching up with demand. People were increasingly moving home around the country, relocating for work, and young families expected to have a phone as a standard mod con. An advertising campaign featuring a talking cartoon bird - Buzby - encouraged customers to make more calls. What was once a service had become a thriving business, and British Telecommunications was privatised in 1984.
The arrival of the mobile phone soon threatened to supersede the landline - but the internet, a technology that the founding fathers of telephony could never have dreamed of, has given the landline a new lease of life.
WED 21:00 Children of the Tsunami (b01cx9gj)
On 11 March 2011, Japan was hit by the greatest tsunami in a thousand years.
Through compelling testimony from 7-10 year-old survivors, this film reveals how the deadly wave and the Fukushima nuclear accident have changed children's lives forever.
The story unfolds at two key locations: a primary school where 74 children were killed by the tsunami; and a school close to the Fukushima nuclear plant, attended by children evacuated from the nuclear exclusion zone.
WED 22:00 Boys from the Blackstuff (b00vff5g)
Series 1
Yosser's Story
After his wife leaves him, Yosser Hughes struggles to hold his family together. But with no work and the police and social services closing in, he is driven towards a final desperate act. Bernard Hill's moving portrayal of a man who has hit rock bottom earned him a BAFTA award for best actor.
WED 23:10 Boys from the Blackstuff (b00vjm2x)
Series 1
George's Last Ride
After his operation, George Malone walks out of hospital in his pyjamas. Chrissie, Loggo and George's sons return him, but he later leaves again. His wife knows that he wishes to die at home, so Chrissie takes George out in a wheelchair to the docks where he once worked.
WED 00:15 Light and Dark (b03jrxhv)
Dark
Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the story of how we went from thinking we were close to a complete understanding of the universe to realising we had seen almost none of it. Today, our best estimate is that more than 99 per cent of the cosmos is hidden in the dark, invisible to our telescopes and beyond our comprehension.
The first hints that there might be more out there than meets the eye emerged from the gloom in 1846 with the discovery of the planet Neptune. It was hard to find, because at four billion kilometres from the sun there was precious little light to illuminate it and, like 89 per cent of all the atoms in the universe, it gives off almost no light.
In the middle of the 20th century scientists discovered something even stranger - dark matter - stuff that wasn't just unseen, it was fundamentally un-seeable. In fact, to explain how galaxies are held together and how they formed in the first place, there needed to be four times as much dark matter as there was normal atomic matter.
In the late 1990s scientists trying to measure precisely how much dark matter there was in the universe discovered something even more elusive out there - dark energy, a mysterious new force driving the universe apart that is thought to make up a colossal 73 per cent of it.
Finally, Jim explores the quest to uncover the nature of dark energy and to see dark matter pull the first stars and galaxies together, a quest that involves peering into the darkest period in the cosmos's past.
WED 01:15 Villages by the Sea (m0010ckg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
WED 01:45 Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury (b01173hc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
WED 02:15 Timeshift (b08mp2l8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THURSDAY 12 MARCH 2026
THU 19:00 Villages by the Sea (m0010cg7)
Series 2
Thorpeness
Archaeologist Ben Robinson uncovers the secrets of the Edwardian village of Thorpeness in Suffolk, the first purpose-built seaside village in the UK.
THU 19:30 Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury (b011g6dw)
The Llangollen Canal
Seasoned stomper Julia Bradbury dons her walking boots once again to explore her own British backyard, travelling along the country's network of canals and their accompanying towpath trails. This sees her navigating Highland glens, rolling countryside and river valleys, as well as our industrial heartlands, following these magical waterways as they cut a sedate path through some of the country's finest scenery.
Julia's final walk takes her to north Wales, where 200 years ago the great engineer Thomas Telford had to overcome seemingly impossible challenges in order to access the valuable slate industries of Snowdonia. In doing so, he created a masterpiece of 19th-century engineering - an aqueduct 126 feet high and spanning 1,000 feet across the Vale of Llangollen. To find out why it has become a world heritage site, Julia follows the cut of the Llangollen Canal, starting at the picturesque Horseshoe Falls. Her six-mile walk takes her along the winding Dee Valley, ending on the aqueduct that Telford described as 'a stream through the skies'.
THU 20:00 The Normans (b00tfdsk)
Conquest
In the second of this three-part series, Professor Robert Bartlett explores the impact of the Norman conquest of Britain and Ireland. Bartlett shows how William the Conqueror imposed a new aristocracy, savagely cut down opposition and built scores of castles and cathedrals to intimidate and control. He also commissioned the Domesday Book, the greatest national survey of England that had ever been attempted.
England adapted to its new masters and both the language and culture were transformed as the Normans and the English intermarried. Bartlett shows how the political and cultural landscape of Scotland, Wales and Ireland were also forged by the Normans and argues that the Normans created the blueprint for colonialism in the modern world.
THU 21:00 Platoon (b0078h12)
Vivid, harrowing war drama following a 19-year-old college drop-out who signs up for service in Vietnam in September 1967 and finds himself plunged into the bloody chaos of life as a GI on the front line.
The winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture, this is an uncompromising and semi-autobiographical study of men at war from writer-director Oliver Stone.
THU 22:55 Face to Face (m002sjcn)
Revival
Oliver Stone
American film-maker Oliver Stone, director of Platoon and Wall Street, talks to Jeremy Isaacs about his career and politics. First broadcast in 1990.
THU 23:30 The Bridge at Remagen (m002bvxk)
February, 1945. The war in Europe enters its final stages as the Allies prepare to cross the Rhine. Hitler has ordered the destruction of all bridges across the river, but one small iron structure remains intact - the bridge at Remagen.
THU 01:25 Villages by the Sea (m0010cg7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
THU 01:55 Canal Walks with Julia Bradbury (b011g6dw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 02:25 The Normans (b00tfdsk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRIDAY 13 MARCH 2026
FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m002sjbj)
Gail Porter presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 28 May 1999 and featuring Texas, Sugar Ray, Travis, Shania Twain, Sixpence None the Richer, Hepburn and Shanks & Bigfoot.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m002sjbl)
Jamie Theakston presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 4 June 1999 and featuring Sixpence None the Richer, The Wiseguys, Garbage, Chicane feat Maire Brennan, Supergrass, Shed Seven, Jamiroquai and Shanks & Bigfoot.
FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b07m7wpq)
Simon Bates presents the chart show programme, first broadcast on 11 March 1982. Includes performances from Bow Wow Wow, Fun Boy Three & Bananarama, Depeche Mode, Julio Iglesias, Haircut 100, The Associates, Adrian Gurvitz and Tight Fit.
FRI 20:35 Top of the Pops (m000f8x5)
Simon Mayo, Sybil Ruscoe and Rod McKenzie present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 16 March 1989 and featuring New Order, Gloria Estefan, Chanelle, Fuzzbox, Madonna, Soul II Soul ft Caron Wheeler, Jason Donovan and Guns N' Roses.
FRI 21:05 St Patrick's Day at the BBC (m000t88d)
A collection of classic performances from the BBC archives to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, featuring some of the Emerald Isle’s finest and best-loved musical acts.
This selection reflects the huge impact that music from Ireland and Northern Ireland has made across the globe, with performances from U2, Sinead O’Connor, Van Morrison, The Pogues, The Corrs and The Cranberries. And it reminds us of the island's dominance of the world of pop, with the likes of boyband behemoths Boyzone and Westlife.
FRI 22:05 Other Voices 2026: Dingle, Ireland (m002sjbn)
For nearly 25 years, Other Voices has brought some of music’s brightest stars to the edge of the world to raise their voice and sing in the hallowed St James’ Church in Dingle, Co Kerry.
In a brand new episode, presented by Annie Macmanus, Huw Stephens and MayKay, Dermot Kennedy makes a return visit, joined by unstoppable folk trio Amble, rap star Travy and rising talents Florence Road and Jessy Blakemore. There are also striking debuts from alternative favourites Dry Cleaning, shame and Dove Ellis. Legendary songwriter and collaborator Miles Kane also makes the musical pilgrimage, alongside BRITs Critics’ Choice winner Jacob Alon and the mighty Wunderhorse.
FRI 23:05 Enya at the BBC (m00293tm)
Sail away into the calm with this celebration of Enya, Ireland's most successful solo artist.
She took the world by storm with her first single, Orinoco Flow, which stayed at the top of the UK charts for three weeks in 1988. Since then, she's released nine albums in the top ten, won multiple awards and has even had a fish named after her.
Enya brought New Age music to the masses, all while maintaining her privacy, rarely giving interviews and never touring. She is an artist releasing music on her own terms, quietly and powerfully shaping the musical landscape.
FRI 23:50 Radio 2 In Concert (b07xkvj2)
Van Morrison
Sir Van Morrison takes to the stage at the BBC Radio Theatre for a Radio 2 In Concert hosted by Jo Whiley.
The Grammy-winning Celtic soul troubadour has been in the business since the 1960s, fusing R&B, jazz, blues and Celtic folk. Belfast-born Van the Man is among popular music's true innovators and arguably one of the most influential vocalists in the history of rock 'n' roll.
He performs a selection of tracks, old and new, from his revered back catalogue of work to his album Keep Me Singing.
FRI 01:05 Sight and Sound in Concert (b03czdtl)
The Boomtown Rats
Pete Drummond introduces a 1984 concert by The Boomtown Rats from Goldiggers in Chippenham.
FRI 02:05 The Irish Rock Story: A Tale of Two Cities (b0555xv8)
Film telling the story of how rock music helped to change Ireland. The 40-year-old story of Irish rock and pop music is grounded in the very different musical traditions of the two main cities of the island, Belfast and Dublin.
This musical celebration charts the lives and careers of some of the biggest selling acts in Irish rock, punk and pop from Van Morrison and Thin Lizzy to The Undertones and U2. From the pioneers of the showbands touring in the late 50s through to the modern day, the film examines their lineage and connections and how the hardcore, rocking sound of Belfast merged with the more melodic, folky Dublin tradition to form what we now recognise as Irish rock and pop.
The film explores where these bands and musicians came from and the influence the political, social and cultural environments of the day had on them and how the music influenced those environments.
With contributions from many of the heavyweights of Irish rock and pop, including U2, Sinead O'Connor and Bob Geldof, it follows their careers as they forged an international presence and looks at how they helped change the island along the way.
FRI 03:05 Top of the Pops (m002sjbj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]