SATURDAY 27 JUNE 2026

SAT 19:00 Natural World (m0019tt6)
Short Versions

Jungle Animal Hospital

At the jungle animal hospital in Guatemala, the wards are full of exotic patients, many of them orphans rescued from the illegal pet trade.


SAT 19:05 Life on Earth (b01qgr5f)
Building Bodies

Bright blue starfish, crimson feather stars, shell-less snails in designs as extravagant as any Paris fashion show, shrimps of every colour, others that are transparent - just a sample of the animal wonders to be found in a small area of the Great Barrier Reef.


SAT 20:00 Voyages of Discovery (b0074t2w)
Circumnavigation

Explorer Paul Rose reveals the real story behind the first ever circumnavigation of the world.

Ferdinand Magellan set out 500 years ago to find the westward route to the riches of the Spice Islands. But, contrary to popular perception, he never reached them. Rose explains the dramatic sequence of events that led his scurvy-riddled crew to continue around the world without him. The incredible expedition was laced with bloody mutiny and murder, but its achievement was to fundamentally change the lives of the generations that followed, influencing life even today.


SAT 21:00 Goolagong (m002xfwr)
Series 1

Episode 3

Grieving for her father, Evonne rebuilds her life, fires Vic, marries Roger and overcomes injury to win Wimbledon as a mother in a historic victory.


SAT 21:55 Scrublands (p0gnmm2g)
Series 1

Episode 3

At teenager Allen's wake, Martin learns that the boy was not as innocent as first portrayed, with Robbie telling him he was persuaded by Byron Swift to drop minor drug charges against him. Martin is given reason to believe that Sgt Piccini could be right in thinking that her investigation is being thwarted from above.


SAT 22:40 Scrublands (p0gnmmcc)
Series 1

Episode 4

Martin believes he has found the link between the shooting victims and asks for Robbie’s help in accessing the case files. A further clue implicates one of the victims as being behind the murder of the missing couple, and young Jamie admits he has been keeping a horrible secret from everybody.


SAT 23:35 Keeping Up Appearances (b007b6dq)
Series 3

Iron Age Remains

Sitcom about an upwardly mobile housewife and her long-suffering husband. Hyacinth has to put her plans for Richard's retirement on hold when Rose starts behaving outrageously.


SAT 00:05 One Foot in the Grave (p008qx14)
Series 2

We Have Put Her Living in the Tomb

Victor and Margaret agree to look after Kylie the tortoise whilst Margaret's god daughter Jennifer goes on holiday.


SAT 00:35 Life on Earth (b01qgr5f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:05 today]


SAT 01:30 Voyages of Discovery (b0074t2w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:30 Cumbria's Red Squirrels (m001zqv6)
Cumbria is one of the last major strongholds for one of the British Isles’ iconic native mammals - red squirrels. An endangered species as well as a national favourite, affectionately known as 'red scamps', these beautiful creatures have lived here for thousands of years. Award-winning Cumbrian film-maker Terry Abraham reveals how Lakeland charities, volunteers, businesses and scientists are pulling together to protect these rare animals.

SUNDAY 28 JUNE 2026

SUN 19:00 Dolly: The Sheep That Changed the World (m0011xqp)
The story of the scientists who created Dolly, the sheep that changed the world.

This documentary tells the full story for the first time with never-before-seen archive, revealing how on a small Scottish farm, a handful of the world’s best genetic scientists worked in secret to crack the holy grail of life: cloning. The story, when it broke, caused a moral panic to sweep the world. But how did it happen? Who was behind it? What was the science? And, ultimately, what is Dolly’s legacy today?


SUN 20:00 BBC Proms (m002gk7z)
2025

The Great American Songbook with Samara Joy

A No 1 album and multiple Grammy wins has put singing sensation Samara Joy on the map, establishing the young American artist as ‘a legend in the making’, regularly compared to Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.

This much-anticipated Proms debut introduces audiences to her electric combination of youthful energy and old-soul musical style with classic songs and unique twists on timeless tunes, from bossa nova to the Great American Songbook. She salutes figures including Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus and Oscar Peterson.

Andi Oliver is the guide for an evening of charisma and musical glamour.


SUN 22:10 Music 625: Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky (m002yftg)
Igor Stravinsky conducts the New Philharmonia Orchestra in performances of his own works Variations in Memory of Aldous Huxley and The Firebird Suite. Introduced by Richard Baker.


SUN 23:15 How to Build a Cathedral (b00b09rb)
The great cathedrals were the wonders of the medieval world - the tallest buildings since the pyramids and the showpieces of medieval Christianity. Yet they were built at a time when most of us lived in hovels. Architectural historian Jon Cannon explores who the people were that built them and how they were able to achieve such a bold vision.


SUN 00:15 Dolly: The Sheep That Changed the World (m0011xqp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 01:15 This World (b03sr67n)
The Coffee Trail with Simon Reeve

Adventurer and journalist Simon Reeve heads to Vietnam to uncover the stories behind the nation's morning pick-me-up. While we drink millions of cups of the stuff each week, how many of us know where our coffee actually comes from? The surprising answer is that it is not Brazil, Colombia or Jamaica, but Vietnam. Eighty per cent of the coffee we drink in Britain isn't posh cappuccinos or lattes but instant coffee, and Vietnam is the biggest supplier.

From Hanoi in the north, Simon follows the coffee trail into the remote central highlands, where he meets the people who grow, pick and pack our coffee. Millions of small-scale famers, each working two or three acres, produce most of the coffee beans that go into well-known instant coffee brands.

Thirty years ago Vietnam only produced a tiny proportion of the world's coffee, but after the end of the Vietnam war there was a widescale plan to become a coffee-growing nation, and Vietnam is now the second biggest in the world. The coffee industry has provided employment for millions, making some people very rich indeed, and Simon meets Vietnam's biggest coffee billionaire. But he also learns that their rapid success has come at a cost to both the local people and the environment.


SUN 02:15 How to Build a Cathedral (b00b09rb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:15 today]

MONDAY 29 JUNE 2026

MON 19:00 University Challenge (m001lffh)
2022/23

Episode 33

The quarter-final stage approaches its close. Two teams who have both won one quarter-final and lost another have one last chance to qualify for the semi-finals. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.


MON 19:30 Only Connect (b00rbkkm)
Series 3

Brasenose Postgrads v Hitchhikers

Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.

In the second of the quarter-finals, three postgraduate students from Brasenose College, Oxford, pit their wits against a trio of Douglas Adams fans who call themselves the Hitchhikers, in honour of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

They compete to draw together the connections between elements which, at first glance, seem utterly random: P J Tracy, Nicci French, Ellery Queen and Grant Naylor.


MON 20:00 Cricket: Today at the Test (m002yfv2)
England v New Zealand 2026

Third Test, Day 5

Day 5 highlights from the third Test match between England and New Zealand.


MON 21:00 Hockney (b05gv4zf)
First broadcast in 2015, this film provides a unique portrait of one of the most significant artists of his generation. For the first time, David Hockney allowed access to his personal archive of photographs and film, resulting in an unparalleled visual diary of a long life.

'I'm interested in ways of looking and trying to think of it in simple ways. If you can communicate that, of course people will respond - after all, everybody does look.' We witness Hockney's long-term one-man campaign against the pessimism of the world, mastering new media - whether acrylic paint or iPad digits - in the search for a picture adequate to his sense of what it means to be alive.

The film chronicles Hockney's vast career, from his early life in working-class Bradford, where his love for pictures was developed through his admiration for cinema, to his relocation to Hollywood, where his life-long struggle to escape labels ('queer', 'working class', 'figurative artist') was fully realised. Hockney offers theories about art, the universe and everything. But as he reveals, it's the hidden self-interrogation that gives his famously optimistic pictures their unexpected edge and attack. The subject matter is a way into the picture to see something else, to open our eyes and our minds.

Acclaimed film-maker Randall Wright offers a unique view of this unconventional artist, who, in 2015, was reaching new peaks of popularity worldwide and remained as charismatic as ever.


MON 22:45 The Interview (m002b6gp)
Celebrities

David Hockney: A Life in Art

David Hockney was one of the world's most successful and influential artists of our time. At 11, he wanted to be an artist. At 87, he was still creating new works - happiest when making 'joyful' art and always innovating with his iPad. His art has sold for millions.

In a film originally broadcast in April 2025, ahead of his biggest show ever opening in Paris, the Bradford-born star talks to Katie Razzall about growing old, a recent visit from the King and his two big loves - smoking and painting.


MON 23:10 Hockney: Double Portrait (m002bx6s)
An intimate documentary profile of artist David Hockney as he returns to the theme of double portraits, three decades after some of his most iconic works, like Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy. From 2003.


MON 00:00 Face to Face (m000xh4r)
Revival

David Hockney

In an interview first broadcast in 1996, artist David Hockney talks to Jeremy Isaacs about painting, designing for the opera and his growing deafness.


MON 00:40 American Visions (p00g6wdj)
Streamlines and Breadlines

Robert Hughes considers America during the 1920s and 30s, including the skyscraper as the image of modernism, the Depression, regionalist art and black art.


MON 01:40 Only Connect (b00rbkkm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:10 Music 625: Stravinsky Conducts Stravinsky (m002yftg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:10 on Sunday]

TUESDAY 30 JUNE 2026

TUE 19:00 University Challenge (m001ltm6)
2022/23

Episode 34

It’s the last of the quarter-final matches. Two teams return, having won one quarter-final and lost another. Whoever wins will take the last place in the semi-finals. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.


TUE 19:30 Only Connect (b00rjs4c)
Series 3

Neuroscientists v Strategists

Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.

In the third of the quarter-finals, three studying for their PhDs at Oxford set out to challenge the brainpower of the strategists, a team unified by their love of sophisticated strategy board games. They compete to draw together the connections between things, which, at first glance, seem utterly random - from maypoles to horse racing to spoken theatre to mince pies.


TUE 20:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b007b6j7)
Series 3

Violet's Country Cottage

When Hyacinth and Richard go to stay in a country cottage for a couple of days, events take several unexpected turns. Richard goes in search of a dog, and finds himself caught up with more than he bargained for.


TUE 20:30 One Foot in the Grave (b007bv14)
Series 2

Dramatic Fever

Margaret joins the local amateur dramatic society and takes Victor to a Bergerac party. Meanwhile, Margaret's mother manages to get stuck in the bath with wallpaper paste.


TUE 21:00 Dave Allen: The Immaculate Selection (b03n322s)
An anthology of Dave Allen's finest, funniest and most irreverent material, compiled from his time at the BBC from 1971 to 1986.


TUE 22:00 Dave Allen: God's Own Comedian (b01s94tc)
Told by family and friends, with rare unseen archive, this documentary reflects on the career of Dave Allen, relative of poet Katharine Tynan, and a natural performer who cut his teeth at Butlins. He became a TV star in Australia in his twenties, before returning home to dominate the schedules here in Britain with his unique blend of sketches and stories in a career that took in films, plays, documentaries and chat shows, alongside award-winning comedy series.

Respected, admired and with unshakeable integrity, Dave Allen fought for what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. He was driven by simple honesty. It was this solitary and determined path that made his talents special and unusual and inspired a generation of comics that were to follow. For the first time, this rich and compelling career is celebrated on screen, giving a chance to reflect on his many achievements and on the private life that went alongside it. With contributions from Stephen Berkoff, Stephen Frears, and Dame Maggie Smith, among others.


TUE 23:00 Dave Allen (m002yfv5)
Series 1

Episode 6

Irish stand-up comedian Dave Allen entertains a studio audience with his unique wit, humour and satirical observations. First broadcast in 1990.


TUE 23:30 The American Revolution (m002wx9q)
Series 1

The Soul of All America (December 1777 – May 1780)

Washington’s Continental Army emerges from the harsh winter at Valley Forge to fight the British Army in the inconclusive Battle of Monmouth. But the alliance with France changes the war and moves it to other theatres, and armies advance into Indian country and the southern states. Together, the British Army and Navy capture Charleston.

A film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt.


TUE 00:30 London: A Tale of Two Cities with Dan Cruickshank (p00r36lv)
Dan Cruickshank follows in the footsteps of John Stow and John Strype, two of London's greatest chroniclers, to explore one of the most dramatic centuries in the history of London.

The 17th century saw London plunged into a series of devastating disasters. The Civil War, a murderous plague and the destruction that was the great fire should have seen the small medieval city all but destroyed. Yet somehow, London not only survived but emerged as one of the wealthiest and most influential cities in Europe.

Using two remarkable surveys written at either end of this momentous century, Dan discovers how a unique combination of innovation, ambition and sheer spirit of enterprise saw Londoners thrive. His journey reveals the twists and turns of a century that laid the foundations of one of the most important cities on the planet.


TUE 01:30 American Visions (p00g6wdj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 00:40 on Monday]


TUE 02:30 Only Connect (b00rjs4c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 03:00 The American Revolution (m002wx9q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 today]

WEDNESDAY 01 JULY 2026

WED 19:00 University Challenge (m001m0s9)
2022/23

Episode 35

The semi-finals of the tournament begin. The first of the four remaining teams do battle for a place in the series final. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.


WED 19:30 Only Connect (b00rm4j1)
Series 3

Gamblers v Bowlers

Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.

In the last of the quarter-finals, three committed gamblers take their chances against a team unified by their love of ten-pin bowling. They compete to draw together the connections between things, which, at first glance, seem utterly random - from birdsong to breakout to shotgun to takeover.


WED 20:00 Universe (p09ybycz)
Series 1

Black Holes: Heart of Darkness

Professor Brian Cox continues his epic exploration of the universe with a journey into darkness. The centre of our galaxy is home to an invisible monster of unimaginable power – a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A*. Weighing four million times the mass of the Sun, it’s an object with such an immense gravitational field that nothing can escape – not even light.

For decades, black holes existed purely in the minds of theoretical physicists – the idea was so absurd, scientists thought they couldn’t possibly exist in nature. But recent astronomical breakthroughs have confirmed not only that black holes like Sagittarius A* exist, but that these bizarre invisible objects may be the ultimate galactic protagonists.

Stunning CGI takes us back to witness the fiery origins of our galaxy’s black hole 13.6 billion years ago, when the early universe was home to colossal blue stars hundreds of times more massive than our sun. These stars lived fast and died young, and when they ran out of fuel, they collapsed under their own enormous mass, crushing down into an object so small and so dense it punched a hole in the fabric of the universe. That is how our galaxy’s black hole was born.

The story of Sagittarius A* is a tale of both destruction and creation. Over billions of years, it feasted on nearby gas and stars, and through cataclysmic mergers with other black holes it sent ripples through the fabric of the universe. But Brian reveals that we have recently come to understand how our black hole is also an agent of creation. A breakthrough discovery by Nasa’s Fermi gamma-ray telescope has shown that our black hole once had the power to sculpt the entire galaxy, creating vast bubbles of gas above and below our galaxy that persist to this day. We may even have Sagittarius A* to thank for our own existence.

In a mind-bending conclusion, Brian reveals how our modern understanding of black holes is challenging our concepts of reality to the breaking point. He takes us on a trip inside Sagittarius A*, where we discover that the interior of a black hole is not a tomb but a gateway to the end of the universe. And weirder still, in trying to understand the fate of objects that fall into Sagittarius A*, scientists have come to a stunning conclusion: space and time, concepts so foundational to how we experience the world around us, are not as fundamental as we once thought.


WED 21:00 The Nazis: A Warning from History (b0074kpz)
The Wild East

Nearly one in five Poles died during World War II after the Nazi invasion in 1939 ushered in one of the most brutal episodes of ethnic cleansing the world has ever seen. This film destroys the myth that Poland's Nazi leaders were acting under detailed 'orders' and that the country's Nazi administration was a model of German efficiency. Arthur Greiser and Albert Forster, the two Nazi leaders charged with Germanising Poland, could not even agree on who should be Germanised.

Featuring interviews with former Nazis, moving testimony from witnesses to SS atrocities in Poland, ethnic Germans and Polish Jews, the programme provides insights into how the Nazis' reign of terror in Poland was characterised by huge population upheavals, chaos, petty squabbles and sheer bloodlust.


WED 21:50 One Foot in the Past (m002yfv8)
One Foot in Larchill

Lucinda Lambton visits Europe's last ornamental farm, at Larchill, west of Dublin. It features rustic follies, great lakes and a glorious collection of animals.


WED 22:00 Remembers... (m001c1md)
Christopher Eccleston Remembers... Our Friends in the North

To mark the rescreening of Our Friends in the North, as part of the BBC’s centenary celebrations, Christopher Eccleston looks back on Peter Flannery’s acclaimed 1996 drama. Following the lives of four friends from Newcastle over a period of three decades, the series struck a chord with the nation’s viewers and turned its young cast into household names.

In this introduction to the series, Eccleston shares behind-the-scenes stories of how the drama was made and assesses the impact it had on audiences, himself and his fellow cast members.


WED 22:10 Our Friends in the North (p00y8syj)
Series 1

1970

Geordie works in Barratt's porn empire, Nicky is a political activist - the reunion is disaster. Both are wanted by the police. Tosker is a businessman, Mary a local politician.


WED 23:30 Our Friends in the North (p00yh2tj)
Series 1

1974

The world has turned sour for the four friends. Geordie is in jail, while Tosker works in a sausage factory. Tosker and Mary’s marriage is a sham.


WED 00:40 Only Connect (b00rm4j1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 01:10 The Nazis: A Warning from History (b0074kpz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 02:00 Universe (p09ybycz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

THURSDAY 02 JULY 2026

THU 19:00 University Challenge (m001m7y3)
2022/23

Episode 36

In the second of the series semi-finals, two more teams of students face off for a place in the grand final. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.


THU 19:30 Only Connect (b00rs1qh)
Series 3

Archers Admirers v Gamblers

Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.

In the first of the Semi Finals, three lovers of the pastoral world of Radio 4's The Archers face new opponents.

How will they respond to the threat of cavalier risk-taking from a team of confirmed Gamblers? They'll compete to draw together the connections between elements which at first glance seem utterly random, including purple dye and the Jules Rimet trophy.


THU 20:00 The Railway Children (b018jv82)
1904, England. When their father is mysteriously arrested, the Waterbury children and their mother downsize and move to the Yorkshire countryside. Bobbie, Phyllis and Peter discover the local steam railway, and on their adventures, they befriend the station porter, Mr Perks, and try to discover the truth about their father.

Lionel Jeffries's beloved film version of ES Nesbit's classic book.


THU 21:45 Big Screen Britain: The Railway Children (m002jy3n)
Ben Fogle travels to West Yorkshire with actress Sally Thomsett to visit the locations of key scenes from the classic 1970 film The Railway Children.


THU 22:00 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (m002l55s)
Out on a late night job alone, power repairman Roy Neary has an encounter with an alien spacecraft and becomes consumed with the desire to see it again. The government denies it, but other people have been seeing the UFOs and having strange experiences, too. Soon, Roy is on a one-way mission to expose the truth.


THU 00:15 Only Connect (b00rs1qh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 00:45 BBC Proms (m002gk7z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Sunday]

FRIDAY 03 JULY 2026

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m002yftm)
Jamie Theakston presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 21 January 2000 and featuring Pet Shop Boys, Donell Jones, Point Break, Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott, Eurythmics, Scooch, Justin and Manic Street Preachers.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m002yftr)
Jamie Theakston presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 28 January 2000 and featuring Donell Jones, Sting feat Cheb Mami, Nu Generation, Super Furry Animals, Hi-Gate, Manic Street Preachers, Scanty Sandwich and Britney Spears.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b0bng183)
Janice Long presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 3 July 1986. Featuring The Housemartins, Samantha Fox, Claire & Friends, Sly Fox, Gary Numan, Bucks Fizz and Wham!


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m000h3d8)
Nicky Campbell presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 6 July 1989 and featuring Sonia, Monie Love and The Beautiful South.


FRI 21:00 Words and Music (m002wxd4)
American Stories 2

Legendary and newer US singer-songwriters - including Jackson Browne, Nanci Griffith and Loudon Wainwright - perform one of their key songs and explain how they came to write it.


FRI 21:35 The Old Grey Whistle Test (m001qgbp)
Jackson Browne: 1976

Jackson Browne in a live concert from the BBC Television Theatre, London. Introduced by Bob Harris.


FRI 22:25 The Late Show (m002g80d)
Rosanne Cash, Nanci Griffith, Mary Chapin Carpenter

A Late Show special from 1992, featuring US singer-songwriters Nanci Griffith, Rosanne Cash and Mary-Chapin Carpenter in an acoustic performance at New York's The Bottom Line club.


FRI 23:10 BBC Four Sessions (b0074rp4)
Loudon Wainwright III

In a programme first broadcast in 2005, Loudon Wainwright III plays tracks from his album Here Come the Choppers alongside such classics as One Man Guy and Hard Day on the Planet to an enthusiastic audience.

Footage shot during his British tour that year is at once hilarious and moving, revealing a complex and talented character who has spent decades turning everyday personal matters into public art.


FRI 00:10 The Whistle Test Years (m002yftv)
1975

Bob Harris introduces clips from 1975. Featuring performances by Little Feat, Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance, Richard & Linda Thompson, John Lennon, Billy Joel, Jackson Browne and Lynyrd Skynyrd.


FRI 00:50 Top of the Pops (m002yftm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 01:20 Top of the Pops (m002yftr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 01:45 Top of the Pops (b0bng183)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 02:20 Top of the Pops (m000h3d8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


FRI 02:50 BBC Four Sessions (b0074rp4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:10 today]