SATURDAY 16 MAY 2026
SAT 19:00 Wild (b00jd9yx)
Scotland
Otters, Puffins and Seals
Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan explores his native Mull and some of the nearby islands, filming otters, deer, puffins, seals and a minke whale.
SAT 19:15 The Good Old Days (b07g9rby)
Leonard Sachs presents the old-time music hall programme, filmed from the stage of the City Varieties Theatre, Leeds in 1975. Guests include Ken Dodd, Barry Kent, Lyn Kennington, John Bouchier and Saxburger.
SAT 20:00 Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (p05b5z2c)
Series 3
Pursuit by Proxy
When Hetty represents her neighbour at a creditor’s meeting, she is hired to find a man who may have stolen from the neighbour.
SAT 20:50 Michael Palin: The Art of Travel (m001kjgv)
Series 1
GWR
Michael Palin discovers that the Great Western Railway had the most sophisticated public relations machine of all the railway companies between the two world wars, producing high-quality publications and promotional gimmicks.
SAT 21:00 The Teachers' Lounge (m002wnjl)
Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) is a dedicated, idealistic young teacher in her first job at a German middle school. Her relaxed rapport with her seventh-grade students is put under stress when a series of thefts occur at the school, and a staff investigation leads to accusations and mistrust among outraged parents, opinionated colleagues and angry students. Caught in the middle of these complex dynamics, Carla tries to mediate, but the more she tries to do everything right, the more desperate her position becomes.
In German with English subtitles.
SAT 22:35 Keeping Up Appearances (b007bg0k)
Series 2
Onslow's Birthday
Hyacinth is dreading being invited to Onslow's birthday party almost as much as he dreads her agreeing to come. However, she changes her mind when she learns that Rose's new boyfriend, a well-to-do Greek businessman, will be picking her and Richard up from their home in his limousine.
In true Hyacinth fashion, she decides to hold a cocktails and canapes party starting an hour before the limousine's planned arrival time so that the invited crowd will see the prestigious form of transport being used. Sadly, things do not go quite as she expected...
SAT 23:05 Sorry! (p00xch7t)
Series 2
Great Expectations
Mother is out to get Aunt Esme's money for Timothy, and Timothy has encounters with a garage owner and his dogs.
SAT 23:35 Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails (b00drtpj)
Ian Hislop brings his customary humour, analysis and wit to the notorious Beeching Report of 1963, which led to the closure of a third of the nation's railway lines and stations and forced tens of thousands of people into the car and onto the road.
Was author Dr Richard Beeching little more than Genghis Khan with a slide rule, ruthlessly hacking away at Britain's rail network in a misguided quest for profitability, or was he the fall guy for short-sighted government policies that favoured the car over the train?
Ian also investigates the fallout of Beeching's plan, discovering what was lost to the British landscape, communities and ways of life when the railway map shrank, and recalls the halcyon days of train travel, celebrated by John Betjeman.
Ian travels from Cornwall to the Scottish borders, meeting those responsible and those affected and questioning whether such brutal measures could be justified. Knowing what we know now, with trains far more energy efficient and environmentally sound than cars, perhaps Beeching's plan was the biggest folly of the 1960s?
SAT 00:35 The Good Old Days (b07g9rby)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:15 today]
SAT 01:20 Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (p05b5z2c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
SAT 02:10 Personal Cinema: Maggie Smith (m002np32)
In a programme first broadcast in 1970, Maggie Smith talks to Michael Aspel about her career and chooses scenes from some of her favourite films, including Way Out West, The Last Hurrah, On the Waterfront, Some Like It Hot and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
SAT 02:40 Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails (b00drtpj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:35 today]
SUNDAY 17 MAY 2026
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 A Wild Year (m000kxy7)
Series 1
The North York Moors
In the north east of England lies a wild and remote moorland - 550 square miles of windswept heather-clad uplands and deep, sheltered valleys or dales. These are the North York Moors.
Over millennia, this spectacular landscape has been shaped by the elements - by water and ice - and more recently by people.
Remote farmsteads are dotted all across the high country. On Dale Head Farm, the Barraclough family raise tough Swaledale and Cheviot sheep, animals bred for the moorland life. They can be left out on the hill year-round because over many generations they have built up an intimate knowledge of their patch - each flock is ‘hefted’ to the land.
The flocks are brought down off the moors to the shelter of the dales a couple of times each year - in the spring for lambing and again in the summer to be shorn of their heavy winter coats. The best shearers can clip 300 sheep in a day.
SUN 20:15 Romeo and Juliet with Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn (m002vzh2)
Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev star in this film, first broadcast in 1977, of the Royal Ballet's production of one of the great modern classics. Introduced by Robin Ray.
SUN 22:15 The Magic of Dance (p0gwdnr0)
Series 1
What Is New?
In almost every age the world of dance has produced its own pioneers - leading dancers and choreographers who have experimented with new styles and new forms. Margot Fonteyn looks at the work of some of the greatest of the pioneers, from the Commedia dell'Arte in 17th-century Italy to Martha Graham in 20th-century America. The programme includes a performance by Fonteyn and Baryshnikov of Fokine's famous ballet, Le Spectre de la Rose.
SUN 23:15 Margot Fonteyn (m002w028)
A tribute to Dame Margot Fonteyn, first broadcast shortly after her death in 1991. Featuring interviews with colleagues and friends and extracts from the ballets she performed in throughout her career.
SUN 00:15 Living Famously (m002vzjw)
Rudolf Nureyev: Living Famously
A profile of Rudolf Nureyev, whose electrifying performances and enigmatic personality made him ballet's first major star. First broadcast in 2003.
SUN 01:15 The Classical Collection (m001gc8t)
Series 1
Neglected Masterpieces
A celebration of the newly recognised glories of classical music, featuring a wealth of works written by largely forgotten or neglected composers, including Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence B Price, Grace Williams and Erich Korngold.
SUN 02:15 A Wild Year (m000kxy7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:15 today]
MONDAY 18 MAY 2026
MON 19:00 University Challenge (m001djp4)
2022/23
Episode 9
The first round of the quiz competition for students continues with Oriel College, Oxford playing Christ's College, Cambridge for a place in the second round. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.
MON 19:30 Only Connect (b00fh2bf)
Series 1
Episode 9
Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital. It is all about making connections between things which may appear, at first glance, not to be connected at all.
MON 20:00 India: Nature's Wonderland (p02z83jc)
Episode 1
Wildlife expert Liz Bonnin, actor Freida Pinto and mountaineer Jon Gupta reveal the hidden wonders of India's surprising natural world. This is a land where the tea comes with added elephants, gibbons sing to greet the morning, tigers dance and lions roam.
MON 21:00 Art of Scandinavia (b074hh79)
Once Upon a Time in Denmark
In episode two of Andrew Graham-Dixon's epic journey through Scandinavian art and landscape, Denmark emerges from modest beginnings to become one of the greatest powers and arbiters of taste in northern Europe - a story of incredible transformation befitting the homeland of the great fairytale spinner Hans Christian Andersen, creator of The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor's New Clothes.
MON 22:00 Gluck: Who Did She Think He Was? (p057nlsd)
The untold story of Britain's cross-dressing high society painter.
Gluck was one of the British Establishment's go-to portrait painters of the 1930s. Her shows were attended by royalty, aristocrats and celebrities. She also dressed as a man and called her exhibitions 'one-man shows'. Her lovers were all women, including flower arranger to the stars Constance Spry, and Edith Heald, the ex-mistress of WB Yeats.
How did Gluck get away with it?
MON 23:00 An Art Lovers' Guide (b0b0g5cj)
Series 2
Baku
In the final episode of the series, Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke set off on their most adventurous trip yet - to Baku, capital of Azerbaijan.
A former Soviet state, bordering the Caspian Sea, Baku offers a tantalising mix of the ancient and modern - at the crossroads of east meets west, on the ancient silk trading route. It is also an authoritarian state, where cultural life is tightly controlled. So, not their regular city break...
But it is a city looking westwards, eager to turn itself into a tourist destination. They discover a city for which oil has been both a blessing and a curse. The profits from oil transformed its architecture twice - first in the late nineteenth century, and again in the twentieth.
As a result, Baku is full of buildings that feel like 19th-century Paris, but also gleaming new structures by architectural stars like Zaha Hadid. And all around, the traces of Soviet rule offer other surprising clashes of art and architecture.
Nina and Alastair pick their way through this maze of influences and travel back in time, seeking the roots of Azerbaijani identity. Alastair visits the world's first museum devoted entirely to rugs while Nina marvels at stunning prehistoric rock art on the city's outskirts. Together they wander the medieval old city, discovering the early impact of Islamic culture.
And in the stunning Heydar Aliyev Centre designed by Zaha Hadid, they discover an exhibition devoted to Heydar Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, whose government exerts a strong influence on the city's art and culture. But Alistair also meets Sabina Shikhlinskaya, an artist with a truly independent voice.
As night falls they discover why Azerbaijan is known as the 'Land of Fire' when they visit Yanar Dag, a spectacular ten-metre long natural gas fire which blazes continuously. And they end their visit to Baku with a performance of Maugham, Azerbaijan's ancient, haunting folk music, as they reflect on their time in a city that has fascinated and surprised them both.
MON 00:00 Art That Made Us (p0bvgvtr)
Series 1
Wars and Peace
Art goes to war during the first half of the 20th century: war with the old imperial order, war with convention and war with the very idea of what it means to be human. This is a story of artists grappling with the destruction, fighting back and transforming the culture of the Isles.
Actress Michelle Fairley performs WB Yeats’s poem Easter 1916, with its resonant phrase ‘a terrible beauty is born’ marking a turning of the tide against the British Empire. Contemporary war photographer Oliver Chanarin traces the story of William Orpen’s subversive protest image, To the Unknown British Soldier in France, picturing a lone draped coffin amid the magnificence of the Palace of Versailles, where peace delegates met in 1919.
Some artists rejected war with their bohemian lifestyles or their utopian visions of a better future for the people. Artist Lachlan Goudie explores the great interwar shipbuilding project, the Queen Mary ocean liner, with its fusion of Glaswegian engineering and art deco luxury.
As refugees flee Germany in the 1930s ahead of a new war, comedian Eddie Izzard appreciates the radical modernist vision of the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill, designed by German and Russian Jewish émigrés, and photographer Hannah Starkey reflects on the outsider’s point of view photographer Bill Brandt brought to his images of 1930s poverty, including the seminal Coal-Searcher Going Home to Jarrow.
With the Second World War bringing new horrors, artists grappled with Nazi atrocities. Film director Andrew MacDonald explores the controversy sparked by The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, a highly original take on the British war effort written and produced by his grandfather Emeric Pressburger. Artist Ryan Gander examines how sculptor Barbara Hepworth tried to make sense of war by reaching for beauty in abstract human forms, and Denzil Forrester looks ahead to the postcolonial aftermath of war, signalled by Indian artist FN Souza’s suffering black Christ in his 1959 painting Crucifixion.
MON 01:00 Margot Fonteyn (m002w028)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:15 on Sunday]
MON 02:00 Art That Made Us (p0bvgvtr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:00 today]
TUESDAY 19 MAY 2026
TUE 19:00 University Challenge (m001ds7m)
2022/23
Episode 10
Jesus College, Cambridge and St Catherine's College, Oxford are both hoping to earn themselves a place in the second round. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.
TUE 19:30 Only Connect (b00fm5vv)
Series 1
Episode 10
Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital. It is all about making connections between things which may appear, at first glance, not to be connected at all.
TUE 20:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b007b9px)
Series 2
Singing for Emmet
Hyacinth finds herself with an ideal opportunity to impress Emmet with her singing when she discovers that he is involved in a concert at the church hall.
However, Richard has other things on his mind, dreading the thought of early retirement and having to spend more time with his wife.
TUE 20:30 Sorry! (p00xch96)
Series 2
The Next Best Man
Timothy, after some initial complications, is asked to be best man at his friend Frank's wedding. He ends up in trouble as a result of trying to encourage the idea of marriage in spite of his parents.
TUE 21:00 A History of Britain by Simon Schama (b0074lsn)
Series 2
The Wrong Empire
Simon Schama traces the steps of the empire-makers to tell the extraordinary story of how this small set of islands came to rule an empire that stretched around the globe. How did a trading enterprise based on the idea of liberty become an empire built on the enslavement of millions of Africans? How did Britain lose control of its own colony - America - yet go on to conquer India? On a journey that takes him to Barbados, North America, Canada and India, Schama reveals how Britain came to rule 'the wrong empire'.
TUE 22:00 The Corinthians: We Were the Champions (m002wnjw)
The incredible real-life story of the original rebel girls of football, Corinthians Ladies FC from Manchester, who defied the English Football Association’s 50-year ban on women playing to become global champions.
Told exclusively by ten surviving players, this is the first feature-length documentary film to reveal how a gang of working-class girls from Manchester took on the all-male establishment and won.
While women were banned from playing on any official football pitches in England from 1921 to 1971, the Corinthians found fame in top stadiums around the world. Beating Germany to an unofficial European Cup in 1957, and winning what the press dubbed an unofficial ‘World Cup for women’ in 1960, they were one of the most successful women’s teams the UK ever had. Yet, for decades, their world-beating triumphs were forgotten.
Now, the full raucous, rebellious story is revealed, entirely in the words of the women who kept the game alive.
TUE 23:30 Berlusconi: Condemned to Win (m002vzgg)
Series 1
Episode 3
Silvio Berlusconi dodges corruption charges, wins again with Milan and blurs the line between football and politics as controversy and his cult grow.
TUE 00:20 Gluck: Who Did She Think He Was? (p057nlsd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Monday]
TUE 01:20 An Art Lovers' Guide (b0b0g5cj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 on Monday]
TUE 02:20 India: Nature's Wonderland (p02z83jc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WEDNESDAY 20 MAY 2026
WED 19:00 University Challenge (m001f1qk)
2022/23
Episode 11
Balliol College, Oxford, takes on the University of Southampton in another first round match in the quiz competition for students, with a place in round two at stake. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.
WED 19:30 Only Connect (b00fqpmy)
Series 1
Episode 11
Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital. It is all about making connections between things which may appear, at first glance, not to be connected at all.
WED 20:00 From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature (b09sc7yj)
Series 1
A Temperature for Life
Physicist Dr Helen Czerski explores the narrow band of temperature that has led to life on Earth. She reveals how life began in a dramatic place where hot meets cold, and how every single living creature on Earth depends on temperature for its survival. She uncovers the extraordinary natural engineering that animals have evolved to keep their bodies at the right temperature. And she witnesses the remarkable surgery that's using temperature to push the human body to the very brink of life.
WED 21:00 The Ruth Ellis Files: A Very British Crime Story (b09w8jp0)
Series 1
Episode 3
In April 1955 Ruth Ellis shot her lover David Blakely dead. It's a case that shocked the nation and it still fascinates today. It has its place in ushering in the defence of diminished responsibility and the eventual abolishment of capital punishment. We all think we know the story, but why, when it was seemingly such an open and shut case, does it still divide opinion on whether Ruth Ellis got the justice she deserved?
Film-maker Gillian Pachter wants to find out. The result is a fresh investigation with fascinating true-crime twists and turns that also shines a unique light on attitudes to class, gender and sex in 1950s London.
In episode three, Gillian turns her attention to Ruth's execution and the last-minute attempts to save her life, even though Ruth herself was determined to die. Despite this, Ruth decides to change her solicitor, and Gillian is intrigued as to the reasons why. When Ruth does finally admit that someone else was involved in the murder, her new solicitor races to the Home Office in a bid to stop the execution.
He isn't alone in not wanting to see Ruth hanged. Gillian looks at the hundreds of letters that were sent by the British public to the government asking for Ruth to be reprieved. It's a fascinating snapshot of British attitudes in the 1950s: the letters point to Ruth's mental state, the domestic violence she'd suffered and even the trauma experienced by those who'd lived through the Blitz.
The police are sent to track down Ruth's other lover, Desmond Cussen, who Ruth now claims gave her the gun and drove her to the scene of the murder. But they can't find him and won't take Ruth's word for it. The Home Office decides to press on with the execution; they worry that if they don't follow through on such a high-profile murder case, it will accelerate the abolition of capital punishment.
Ruth is hanged and Gillian explores the role of her case in the introduction of the defence of diminished responsibility in England and its place in the eventual abolition of capital punishment in Britain in 1965. But Ruth's personal legacy is much more tragic as Gillian explores the effects of the events of 1955 on Ruth's family. This takes Gillian to a taped conversation recorded by Ruth's son in the 1980s, where his despair at what happened when he was ten is movingly clear; Andre lost his mother and he lost David, whom he loved. He took his own life in the 1980s and today his ashes are close to his mother's in a cemetery in Hertfordshire not far from where David Blakely was buried. Three victims of a truly tragic set of circumstances.
WED 22:00 Remembers... (m002wnkh)
Andrew Davies Remembers... A Very Peculiar Practice
Screenwriter Andrew Davies, best known for his adaptations of classic novels, reflects on one of his own original works - A Very Peculiar Practice - a wickedly funny comedy drama series set in a university health centre in the late 1980s.
Inspired by his own experiences in formal education, the series drew heavily on the political landscape of the time and features some wonderfully funny turns from actors such as Peter Davison, Barbara Flynn and Graham Crowden.
Davies discusses the show’s origins, its cult status and how its dark humour paved the way for his later work.
WED 22:15 A Very Peculiar Practice (p032kkxy)
Series 1
A Very Long Way from Anywhere
Newly separated from his wife, Stephen Daker starts his new job as GP at the very peculiar Lowlands Medical Centre.
WED 23:05 A Very Peculiar Practice (p032kky0)
Series 1
We Love You, That's Why We're Here
It's the first day of term, and Stephen must give a lecture to the students, as Bob plans to tell them they are a waste of money.
WED 00:00 Andrew Davies: Rewriting the Classics (b0bx6h0p)
Controversial, witty, irreverent – Britain’s best-known screenwriter, Andrew Davies, has created some of the most iconic small-screen dramas of the past 50 years. This profile, first broadcast in 2018, sees him following his smash hit adaptation of War and Peace with another global epic, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.
As he watches the production come to life, Davies looks back at the influence of his childhood in Cardiff. And he explores how he boils down and spices up his dramas – transforming our best-loved novels into prime-time television. Contributors include Sarah Waters, Helen Fielding and Dominic West.
WED 01:00 From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature (b09sc7yj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 02:00 The Ruth Ellis Files: A Very British Crime Story (b09w8jp0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 21 MAY 2026
THU 19:00 University Challenge (m001f7yq)
2022/23
Episode 12
As the first round of the quiz competition for students draws to a close, teams from the universities of Bangor and Nottingham put fingers on buzzers for the first time. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.
THU 19:30 Only Connect (b00fvgdn)
Series 1
Episode 12
Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take players so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital. It is all about making connections between things which may appear, at first glance, not to be connected at all.
THU 20:00 Eve and Marilyn (m002wnk8)
'She had a total understanding and control of the still camera... she was intelligent enough and sharp enough and beautiful enough to be able to manipulate almost any situation, so it became something which was totally her own...'
Eve Arnold, one of the world's leading photo-journalists, remembers photographing Marilyn Monroe over the ten crucial years of Marilyn's stardom and decline. Going back to the original contact sheets and colour material, she tells of their friendship and what it was like as a woman to photograph Marilyn Monroe.
THU 20:30 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (m0019tn6)
Classic comedy musical. A transatlantic trip brings romantic problems for showgirls Lorelei and Dorothy, seeking different things from men.
THU 22:00 Scene by Scene (m0019tn4)
Jane Russell
A rare interview with former Hollywood sex symbol Jane Russell. She talks about her difficult childhood as the eldest and only girl of six siblings, her film career and working with Marilyn Monroe.
THU 22:45 How to Marry a Millionaire (m001n49g)
Three New York models, looking for rich husbands, rent a luxurious apartment together to impress affluent bachelors, but things do not go to plan.
THU 00:15 Talking Pictures (b06vp212)
Sex Symbols
Sylvia Syms looks at the handsome heroes and gorgeous heroines, pin-ups and bombshells who came to be known as cinema's greatest sex symbols. They were the actors who made audiences' hearts beat fastest - the men and women whom the camera just seemed to love that little bit more than most.
The programme hears from the stars themselves talking about what their sex symbol status meant to them, and the good-looking line-up includes Gary Cooper, Jane Russell, Brigitte Bardot, Paul Newman, Robert Redford and Hollywood's ultimate sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe.
THU 00:55 Eve and Marilyn (m002wnk8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 01:30 Scene by Scene (m0019tn4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
THU 02:15 Art of Scandinavia (b074hh79)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
FRIDAY 22 MAY 2026
FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m002wnjp)
Jamie Theakston presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 5 November 1999 and featuring Macy Gray, Phil Collins, Diana Ross, Ian Brown, Mariah Carey, Semisonic, Ricky Martin and Five.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m002wnjr)
Jayne Middlemiss presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 11 November 1999 and featuring Tin Tin Out feat Emma Bunton, Savage Garden, Beck, Another Level, Jennifer Lopez, Mr Vegas, Children's Promise and Geri Halliwell.
FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b0blht78)
Gary Davies and Peter Powell present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 22 May 1986. Featuring Jaki Graham, Billy Ocean, Simply Red, Spitting Image, The B52's, Patti La Belle and Michael McDonald, The Matchroom Mob and Chas & Dave.
FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m000y8wv)
Gary Davies presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 23 May 1991 and featuring T'Pau, Simple Minds and Deacon Blue.
FRI 21:00 ...Sings Dylan (b0074rpk)
A look through the archives at some of the many artists who have come into BBC studios to sing their versions of Bob Dylan songs. Featured performers include Peter, Paul and Mary, Lulu, The Byrds, Joan Baez, Eric Clapton, Madeleine Peyroux, Bryan Ferry, UB40, Julie Felix, Manfred Mann, The Brian Auger Trinity and Pops Staples.
FRI 21:40 ...Sings Dylan II (b06nszhz)
A feast of cover versions of Bob Dylan songs from the BBC archives, with classic tracks old and new and some surprises from the 1960s to the present.
From the essential folk queen Joan Baez to punk princess Siouxsie and the Banshees, from The Hollies to Adele, taking in the likes of Julie Felix, Richie Havens, Bryan Ferry and KT Tunstall along the way, the programme reflects Dylan's long career of writing extraordinary songs and the fascination of other artists with them.
Peter, Paul and Mary's sublime The Times They Are A-Changin' rubs shoulders with the close harmony of Cliff Richard and The Nolan Sisters' smooth interpretation of the protest classic Blowin' in the Wind. The Blues Band's energetic 1980s updating of Maggie's Farm contrasts with Tom Jones's powerful rootsy What Good Am I?
A treat for the Dylan fan and the Dylan novice alike.
FRI 22:40 Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom (m001t5bk)
A showcase of Bob Dylan with his band in an intimate setting as he performs songs from his extensive body of work, including Forever Young, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, It's All Over Now Baby Blue and many more.
This film marks Bob Dylan's first concert since 2019 and the first performance since his acclaimed album Rough and Rowdy Ways.
FRI 23:30 Tangled Up with Dylan: The Ballad of AJ Weberman (b01174k6)
Documentary chronicling the life, times and crimes of notorious Bob Dylan obsessive and garbology inventor AJ Weberman. It's an irreverent and witty exploration into one man's obsessions, a bohemian life lived on the New York fringes and a uniquely twisted take on the American dream.
Bob Dylan once said 'I don't think I'm gonna be really understood until maybe 100 years from now'. Author of the Dylan To English Dictionary, a Dylanologist and originator of garbology (the practice of rooting through rubbish in order to gain insight into prominent people's lives), Weberman has made it his life's work to understand Dylan.
At times both hilarious and disturbing, the film is not only a great companion piece to Scorsese's No Direction Home but an interesting observation on our unbalanced desires to know more about celebrities and how far we are willing to go to get that information or even become a part of their lives.
Weberman does not see himself as a stalker and insists that Dylan should be grateful that he is around: 'how was I to know I would have been to Dylan what Verlaine was to Rimbaud'. It's hard to see this as a tale of poet and critic, but rather a look at the bizarre relationship between the obsessed and the object of his obsession and how it can completely take over a man's life.
Beginning in the 1960s when Dylan was at the height of his early fame and regarded as something close to a prophet or a seer by the American counter-culture, Weberman has sought to try and climb inside Dylan's head by going through his rubbish. Back then he pursued his obsession relentlessly.
An amusing telephone conversation between Weberman and Dylan, recorded in the 1970s, punctuates the film in the form of animations, creating connections between Weberman's past and present.
The film also features an unforgettable cast of supporting characters close to Weberman, including New York street singer David Peel, former child dancer Jay Byrd and Aaron Kay aka 'The Pieman', and enjoys a vivid Americana soundtrack performed by cast members, adding an extra veneer of strangeness to Weberman and his universe.
FRI 00:45 Top of the Pops (m002wnjp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
FRI 01:15 Top of the Pops (m002wnjr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 01:45 Top of the Pops (b0blht78)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRI 02:20 Top of the Pops (m000y8wv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
FRI 02:50 ...Sings Dylan II (b06nszhz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:40 today]