SATURDAY 23 MAY 2026
SAT 19:00 The Good Old Days (b0888q72)
Leonard Sachs presents an edition of the old time music hall programme, first broadcast on 24 February 1977. With Larry Grayson, Fenella Fielding, Hinge and Bracket, Anna Sharkey and members of the Players' Theatre, London.
SAT 19:45 Dusty (m0015f8x)
Series 1
Episode 6
Dusty Springfield's 1960s variety show, first broadcast on 22 September 1966, with the voices of Madeline Bell, Lesley Duncan and Margaret Stredder. Her special guest is ventriloquist Señor Wences.
SAT 20:10 Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (b007b9bd)
Series 3
A Minor Operation
Drama series about a 60-year-old private detective. Hetty is in hospital - an unlikely place to find her most urgent case yet.
SAT 21:00 My Favourite Cake (m002wz2m)
One night. Two lonely hearts. Endless possibilities.
Seventy-year-old Mahin lives alone in Tehran since her husband's death and her daughter's departure for Europe, until an afternoon tea with friends leads her to break her solitary routine and revitalise her love life. But as Mahin opens herself up to romance, what begins as an unexpected encounter quickly evolves into an unpredictable, unforgettable evening.
The film explores themes of love, regret and second chances. It’s set against the backdrop of a country with strict rules and restrictions, especially when it comes to the rights and freedoms of women.
In Farsi with English subtitles.
SAT 22:35 King Otto and Football’s Greek Gods (m002053h)
In the summer of 2004, audiences looked on in disbelief as the Greek national football team, who had never previously won a single match or even scored a goal in a major tournament, took down the giants of world football to become the unlikeliest of European champions.
The architect behind this unprecedented triumph was legendary German football coach ‘King’ Otto Rehhagel. After accomplishing every major success in Germany, he made the bold decision to leave all he knew behind and work in a foreign country with the underachieving Greek national team. This is the story of how these two contrasting cultures came together to speak the same language and write a new chapter of Greek mythology.
SAT 23:50 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.
SAT 00:20 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.
SAT 00:50 The Good Old Days (b0888q72)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
SAT 01:35 Dusty (m0015f8x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:45 today]
SAT 02:00 Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (b007b9bd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:10 today]
SUNDAY 24 MAY 2026
SUN 19:00 Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village (b0bsrqbz)
Series 1
South West
Archaeologist Ben Robinson explores the Cornish fishing village of Port Isaac. Behind the quaint facade lies something far more gritty - a place where people exploited a range of natural resources, on land and at sea, to make a living and find profits far beyond Britain's shores.
SUN 19:30 Afoot Again in the Past (m002wz1b)
Inchmahome
Kirsty Wark visits the island of Inchmahome in Scotland, haven to Mary Queen of Scots, and ruminates on what it means to be Scottish.
SUN 19:35 Crooks Anonymous (m002wz1d)
Dandy Forsdyke, a habitual criminal, is engaged to Babette, who wants him to go straight. Initiated into Crooks Anonymous, Forsdyke is guided to give up his criminal ways, but temptations abound.
SUN 21:00 Being Stanley Baxter (m002p5fj)
In the 1970s and 1980s, TV stars didn’t shine any brighter than Stanley Baxter. His big-budget TV specials brought massive audiences and awards, while on stage, he was Scotland’s most beloved panto dame. Stanley’s elaborate sketches and film parodies, in which he did impressions of everyone from Judy Garland to the Queen, were innovative and risque, and earned him a reputation for the best legs on television.
Born in Glasgow in 1926, Stanley performed on stage from the age of seven. His mother encouraged him to do impressions of the biggest movie stars of the day. During National Service in the far east, he performed with the Combined Services Entertainment and returned home to join the Citizens repertory company for three years before starring in Scotland’s biggest pantomimes and variety shows.
In the 1950s, he moved to London to star in TV revue and films before returning to Scotland to make his own TV series. Long before Billy Connolly and Kevin Bridges, he put Glaswegian patter on the map with his famous Parliamo Glasgow sketches. London Weekend Television came calling, and he was given the freedom to create his big-budget TV spectaculars which made him one of the biggest TV stars of the day. But Stanley was a very big star with a very big secret. While professionally, he lived in the spotlight, privately, he lived in the shadows as a gay man.
Stanley’s passion in life was to entertain, but at a time when homophobia was rife and gay sex was criminal, he believed the only way to succeed in what he loved doing was to live a double life. He walked a tightrope, and his public success hid a life of secrecy and fear.
Made prior to his death in December 2025, the film is a fitting tribute to Stanley’s brilliance. With access to his personal archive and candid audio recordings, we reveal the man behind the public persona of one of Scotland’s biggest superstars. Featuring testimony from famous fans, colleagues, close friends and family, including Mark Gatiss, Alan Cumming, Rory Bremner, Suzy Izzard, Amanda Barrie, Elaine C Smith, Bill Paterson, Alex Norton and Stanley’s sister Alice Dale, speaking for the first time about her famous brother.
SUN 22:00 The Magic of Dance (p0gwdrjj)
Series 1
The Romantic Ballet
Margot Fonteyn traces the story of the Romantic ballet and its greatest exponents. In 1832, the most famous ballerina in the world was Marie Taglioni. One of the first ballerinas to dance on the tips of her toes, she epitomised the Romantic age - ethereal and sylph-like. Her most famous role was La Sylphide. By mid-century, however, there were new styles, and it was left to the Russians to revive the Romantic age in 1909, when they brought Les Sylphides to Paris.
SUN 23:00 Les Sylphides (m002vzh7)
A studio performance of the romantic ballet Les Sylphides, first broadcast on 3 April 1953 and starring Alicia Markova, John Field, Violetta Elvin and Svetlana Beriosova.
Created by Michel Fokine and set to music by Frédéric Chopin, the ballet premiered in 1909 and was unusual at the time for being non-narrative, where grace and movement carry the piece rather than a storyline.
The programme is introduced by renowned Russian prima ballerina Tamara Karsavina, who had danced in the first performance of the ballet in Paris on 2 June 1909.
Les Sylphides is the first complete ballet in the BBC archive and was recorded by pointing a film camera at a television screen and filming the result (a method used for all recording until the arrival of video tape in the 1960s).
SUN 23:35 Omnibus (m002vzhf)
Nureyev
Theatre and film director Lindsay Anderson in conversation with ballet superstar Rudolf Nureyev. First broadcast in 1974.
SUN 00:20 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 01:20 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.
SUN 02:05 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.
SUN 02:35 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.
MONDAY 25 MAY 2026
MON 19:00 University Challenge (m001fhj1)
2022/23
Episode 13
It’s the penultimate match of the first round. Newnham College, Cambridge, face the Courtauld Institute of Art for a place in the second round. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.
MON 19:30 Only Connect (b00fzjdk)
Series 1
Episode 13
Semi-final of the 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.
MON 20:00 India: Nature's Wonderland (b06b3klq)
Episode 2
The hidden wonders of India's spectacular natural world are revealed by wildlife expert Liz Bonnin, actress Freida Pinto and mountaineer Jon Gupta.
Experience a village of birds, masks that come alive, the world's greatest mountain range and baby turtles erupting out of the sand.
This is truly a land like no other.
MON 21:00 Art of Scandinavia (b075dxdv)
Democratic by Design
In the final instalment of Andrew Graham-Dixon's windswept journey through the art of the Norselands, we arrive in Sweden - home of Ikea and a tradition of brilliant furniture design stretching back to the early years of the 20th century. Sweden has made its modern democratic mission one of comfort and civilised living for the masses - but has it got there?
MON 22:00 American Visions (p00g6w7m)
The Republic of Virtue
Robert Hughes charts the foundation of a national identity that sought architectural inspiration from Greece and Rome. He also looks at America's earliest major painters.
MON 23:00 Art That Made Us (p0bvgvtw)
Series 1
Brilliant Isles
In the 1950s and 1960s, the generation of artists who recorded the shocks of global war gave way to an explosion of new voices from across the British Isles, reinventing the arts and creating a richer, more diverse culture. Young artists rebelled against the old establishment, kicking against the confines of class, sex, nation and race. Actress Lesley Sharp performs passages from Shelagh Delaney’s breakthrough play A Taste of Honey, which brought the ordinary lives and unheard voices of working class women to a mainstream audience, while Chila Kumari Singh Burman explores the career of pop artist Pauline Boty.
As British pop culture seduced the world, other voices lamented for something they felt was being lost. Writer and comedian David Baddiel reflects on Philip Larkin’s elegy for the countryside, Going, Going, and addresses the controversy today about Larkin’s attitude to immigration and race. Film director Amma Asante meets photographer Charlie Phillips, a photographic pioneer who recorded the fast-changing community of 1960s Notting Hill, and we look at the impact of Hanif Kureishi’s novel about second-generation immigrant life, The Buddha of Suburbia.
The most striking art of the 1990s chipped away at easy stereotyping and monolithic identities. In Scotland, Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, rooted in a raw Scots dialect and a brutal depiction of Edinburgh life, spoke for a world proudly distinct from its English neighbour, while the murals on and around the Belfast Peace Lines became loud spaces for declaration of distinct political allegiance.
With digital technology and installation art changing British culture, artist Liv Wynter explores the impact of Tracey Emin’s work and how it opened up attitudes to class and gender, while actor Michael Sheen remembers his ambitious 2011 production The Passion of Port Talbot, a fusion of traditional mystery play and a 21st-century social media event that could weld a community together. And poet Deanna Rodger reflects on how Stormzy and grime took hold of Glastonbury in 2019 and what it might mean for British identity and inclusion.
MON 00:00 King Otto and Football’s Greek Gods (m002053h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:35 on Saturday]
MON 01:15 Only Connect (b00fzjdk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
MON 01:45 Art That Made Us (p0bvgvtw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 today]
TUESDAY 26 MAY 2026
TUE 19:00 University Challenge (m001fqws)
2022/23
Episode 14
In the last of the first-round matches, Robert Gordon University return to the competition for the first time in 28 years to face the University of Roehampton, appearing for the first time ever. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.
TUE 19:30 Only Connect (b00g33jb)
Series 1
Episode 14
Semi-final of the 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.
TUE 20:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b007brhy)
Series 2
The Toy Store
Sitcom about an irrepressible snob. Hyacinth is forced to intervene when Daddy overspends in a toy department, dresses up as a spaceman and proceeds to go on the rampage. Unless the damage is paid for, the owners threaten to apprehend him as a security risk.
TUE 20:30 Sorry! (p00xchbt)
Series 2
Could Do Better
With Frank's wedding impending, Timothy sets his cap at bridesmaid Liz. Will our hero get his head out of the railings in time? Will he forget the ring? And if he gets married, will Mother come on the honeymoon?
TUE 21:00 A History of Britain by Simon Schama (b0078tr5)
Series 3
Forces of Nature
The French Revolution sent shockwaves through Britain. While some watched transfixed, others were horrified.
Simon Schama explores why the British proved immune to the siren call of liberty, equality and fraternity.
TUE 22:00 Reframed: Marilyn Monroe (p0fy6732)
Series 1
Episode 1
Norma Jeane attends an audition at 20th Century Fox, where the head of casting suggests she change her name to Marilyn Monroe. After connecting with Joseph Schenck, Marilyn is able to get a job at Columbia Pictures, where she receives her first starring role. Upon renewal of her contract, the head of the studio makes an unwelcome advance which leads to Marilyn’s dismissal.
TUE 22:45 Reframed: Marilyn Monroe (p0fy685w)
Series 1
Episode 2
Marilyn’s rise is nearly ruined when news breaks that she posed nude for a calendar earlier in her career. She uses this to her advantage to showcase her body confidence. Marilyn demonstrates her unique talent for comedy in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and reaches superstar status whilst using her position to push for pay parity.
TUE 23:25 Reframed: Marilyn Monroe (p0fy6974)
Series 1
Episode 3
Marilyn's forging a new identity for herself in NY, but when news breaks that she plans to create her own production company, Darryl Zanuck refuses to let her out of her contract.
TUE 00:10 Reframed: Marilyn Monroe (p0fy6b82)
Series 1
Episode 4
Marilyn shines in her most celebrated comedy yet, Some Like It Hot. In the weeks before her death, Marilyn is on the cusp of a new and exciting future, making front pages with her skinny dip portraits and securing a triumphant new deal with 20th Century Fox.
TUE 00:55 Being Stanley Baxter (m002p5fj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
TUE 01:55 Only Connect (b00g33jb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUE 02:25 India: Nature's Wonderland (b06b3klq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
WEDNESDAY 27 MAY 2026
WED 19:00 University Challenge (m001fyjg)
2022/23
Episode 15
Two of the four highest-scoring losing teams from the first round play for one of the two spots remaining in round two. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.
WED 19:30 Only Connect (b00g81rd)
Series 1
Episode 15
Final of the 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.
WED 20:00 From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature (b09t9txy)
Series 1
Playing with Fire
Dr Helen Czerksi explores the extraordinary science of heat. She reveals how heat is the hidden energy contained within matter, with the power to transform it from one state to another. Our ability to harness this fundamental law of science has led to some of humanity's greatest achievements, from the molten metals that enabled us to make tools, to the great engines of the Industrial Revolution powered by steam, to the searing heat of plasmas that offer almost unlimited power.
WED 21:00 Murder on the Victorian Railway (b01pjt19)
London 1864. On a Hackney bound train, a guard discovers blood in a first-class carriage - and a body on the railway embankment. For the first time, a murder has taken place on Britain's railways. Over a hundred years later, this single documentary for BBC Two uses the first-hand testimony of the people involved at the time to explore this unique event and how it provoked a huge public outcry and debate.
The story quickly became a news sensation as the dangers of the brave new world of the train were laid bare. Over a hundred years later, the witnesses to this story may be long dead but their words survive in court transcripts, memoirs, letters and vivid journalism. These testimonies are now used to tell the story, taking the documentary deep into the 19th century to meet an extraordinary cross section of real-life Victorian London - from the engine driver who found the body to the detective in charge of the investigation. Who killed Mr Briggs?
WED 22:00 A Very Peculiar Practice (p032kky2)
Series 1
Wives of Great Men
Stephen finds an enemy and then a friend when he tries to help the appropriately named Professor Furie overcome his tiredness.
WED 22:50 A Very Peculiar Practice (p032kky5)
Series 1
Black Bob's Hamburger Suit
The medical staff must write academic research papers. Bob seizes the opportunity to trial a tranquiliser that might kick off his career as a private consultant.
WED 23:45 Timeshift (b00ff170)
How to Write a Mills and Boon
What happens when a literary novelist tries to write popular romantic fiction? To mark 100 years of romance publishers Mills and Boon, literary novelist Stella Duffy takes on the challenge of writing for them.
Romantic fiction is a global phenomenon, and Mills and Boon are among the biggest names in the business. The company welcomes submissions from new authors, but as Duffy soon finds out, writing a Mills and Boon is harder than it looks.
Help is at hand from the publishers themselves, a prolific Mills and Boon author and some avid romance fans, as Duffy's quest to create the perfect romantic novel takes her from London to Italy on a journey that is both an insight into the art of romantic fiction and the joy and frustration of writing itself.
WED 00:45 From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature (b09t9txy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 01:45 Only Connect (b00g81rd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
WED 02:15 Murder on the Victorian Railway (b01pjt19)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 28 MAY 2026
THU 19:00 University Challenge (m001g6g6)
2022/23
Episode 16
Two more of round one’s highest-scoring losing teams have a second chance to qualify for the second round. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.
THU 19:30 Only Connect (b00lpk02)
Series 2
Cambridge Quiz Society v Oxford Librarians
Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take players so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.
A team of three lads from the Cambridge Quiz Society pit their wits against a trio of Oxford Librarians with specialisms as diverse as Comparative Slavonic Linguistics, Classics and Theology.
They compete to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random, from Goldeneye to The Kilns to Hill Top to Haworth Parsonage.
THU 20:00 Talking Pictures (m002wz3z)
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was, and perhaps will always be, Hollywood’s biggest female film icon and the sexiest of cinema's sex symbols, lighting up the screen in several cinema classics – including one of cinema’s greatest comedies, Some Like It Hot.
The aura surrounding her has been enhanced by a sense of mystery that comes from the fact she was very rarely interviewed. But anyone who knew or worked with her was guaranteed to be asked about their personal 'Marilyn moments'.
Here we tell Marilyn's story through the insights and anecdotes of friends, directors and fellow actors who spoke about her over the years on a selection of BBC programmes. With archive interviews featuring stars like Jane Russell, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, as well as directors like Billy Wilder and John Huston, and Marilyn's former husband Arthur Miller, these conversations paint a picture of a star who conquered Hollywood despite serious battles with her inner demons, and reveal what it was like for those who got to enter into the orbit of one of cinema's greatest stars.
THU 20:45 Some Like It Hot (m000cryx)
1929. Musicians Joe and Jerry accidentally witness the St Valentine's Day massacre. The boys decide to make a getaway by joining a jazz band heading for Florida. There's just one problem - it's an all-girl group.
A comic masterpiece from director Wilder, with memorable performances.
THU 22:45 Nobody's Perfect: The Making of Some Like It Hot (m002wz41)
Revealing documentary about the creation and shooting of the acclaimed comedy movie Some Like It Hot.
Stars Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis - and other members of the cast and crew, including producer Walter Mirisch - remember the making of writer-director Billy Wilder's classic film.
Using extraordinary behind-the-scenes colour footage and candid on-set photographs taken by stills photographer Richard Miller (also interviewed), the documentary provides a surprisingly intimate and revealing but nevertheless hilarious portrait of the making of one of Hollywood's best-loved and greatest films.
THU 23:35 My Week with Marilyn (b01nx8kb)
It is 1956, and The Prince and the Showgirl is being made at Pinewood Studios in London, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier, who has recruited one of the biggest Hollywood stars of all time, Marilyn Monroe, to co-star with him.
Colin Clark, a junior assistant on the production, is assigned the job of looking after Marilyn and keeps a journal about the week he spent with her. It proves to be a turbulent experience as Marilyn is going through marital problems with her husband and uses Colin as a much-needed sounding board for all her pent-up neurosis.
Acclaimed drama from BBC Films based on Clark's real-life diaries.
THU 01:05 The Prince, the Showgirl and Me (m002x6x0)
Documentary. Sir Laurence Olivier's personal assistant Colin Cark reveals the trials that beset The Prince and the Showgirl film with Marilyn Monroe.
THU 02:05 Only Connect (b00lpk02)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 02:35 Art of Scandinavia (b075dxdv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
FRIDAY 29 MAY 2026
FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m002wz4c)
Gail Porter presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 19 November 1999 and featuring Geri Halliwell, Travis, Ricky Martin, A1, Will Smith, Stereophonics, Prince and Robbie Williams.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m002wz4f)
Gail Porter presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 26 November 1999 and featuring Robbie Williams, Whitney Houston, Glamma Kid, Blur, Cliff Richard, Texas and Wamdue Project.
FRI 19:55 Top of the Pops (b0739zgh)
Simon Bates presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 28 May 1981 and featuring The Polecats, UB40, Hazel O'Connor, Coast to Coast, Adam & the Ants and Kim Carnes, plus a dance performance from Legs & Co.
FRI 20:35 Top of the Pops (b0bm6svx)
John Peel and Janice Long present this pop chart programme, first broadcast on 29 May 1986. Featuring Doctor and the Medics, Robert Palmer, The Real Thing, Tears for Fears, Pete Wylie, Spitting Image and Peter Gabriel.
FRI 21:05 Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (m000ggdf)
Miles Davis - horn player, bandleader, innovator. Elegant, intellectual, vain. Callous, conflicted, controversial. Magnificent, mercurial. Genius. The very embodiment of cool. The man with a sound so beautiful it could break your heart.
The central theme of Miles Davis's life was his restless determination to break boundaries and live life on his own terms. It made him a star. It also made him incredibly difficult to live with for the people who loved him most. Again and again, in music and in life, Miles broke with convention - and when he thought his work came to represent a new convention, he changed it again. Miles's bold disregard for tradition, his clarity of vision, his relentless drive and constant thirst for new experiences made him an inspiring collaborator to fellow musicians and a cultural icon to generations of listeners. It made him an innovator in music - from bebop to cool jazz, modern quintets, orchestral music, jazz fusion, rock ‘n’ roll and even hip-hop.
Featuring never-before-seen archival footage, studio outtakes and rare photos, this film tells the story of a truly singular talent and unpacks the music and the myth of the man behind the horn.
FRI 23:00 Remembers... (m001xz76)
Alan Yentob Remembers... Ella Fitzgerald
Alan Yentob shares the fascinating story of how the 1974 broadcast of the great Ella Fitzgerald singing in Ronnie Scott’s nightclub came about.
In a tale of tenacity combined with new camera technology, Alan recounts how, as a young TV producer, he managed to persuade Ella’s manager to let the BBC film Ella in full flight at London’s home of jazz, capturing forever what is now considered to be a performance of true musical significance.
FRI 23:05 Ella Fitzgerald's Other Show (m001xz7f)
Ella Fitzgerald in performance at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in 1974.
FRI 23:45 Cleo Laine at the BBC (m001dhjg)
A special celebration of Britain’s First Lady of Jazz’s finest moments on the BBC to coincide with her 95th birthday. Cleo Laine became a star after joining The John Dankworth Seven in the 1950s. Internationally renowned for her mastery of the ‘scat’ singing style, and with a voice that has been described as ‘one of the richest contraltos in recording history’, Cleo has now enjoyed over six decades of success and acclaim here and across the world.
These are the highlights of her extraordinary career, with classic songs like Send in the Clowns and I Love You, Porgy, and duets with John Williams, Dudley Moore, Tony Bennett, and of course, her musical partner and fellow jazz legend Johnny Dankworth.
FRI 00:45 Jazz 625 at the BBC (b045bscj)
Programme celebrating the archive of this legendary BBC jazz concert show from the mid 1960s, so titled because the newly launched BBC 2 was broadcasting on 625-UHF lines (the HD of the time) unlike the 405-VHF of BBC 1 and ITV. It features classic performances from legends such as Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck and Dizzy Gillespie and The Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley Sextet, alongside rarely seen sessions from the likes of Wes Montgomery, Marian McPartland, Chris Barber's Jazz Band and Willie 'The Lion' Smith.
FRI 01:50 Top of the Pops (m002wz4c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
FRI 02:20 Top of the Pops (m002wz4f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 02:45 Top of the Pops (b0739zgh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:55 today]
FRI 03:25 Top of the Pops (b0bm6svx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:35 today]