SATURDAY 25 JANUARY 2025

SAT 19:00 Ulster in Focus (m0027fw3)
Herrings Alive

A look at the daily life of a County Down fisherman.


SAT 19:20 All Creatures Great and Small (p031d2r8)
Series 2

Judgement Day

The Darrowby Show is usually an enjoyable occasion, except when James takes on the job of duty vet and Tristan falls for a buxom barmaid.


SAT 20:10 All Creatures Great and Small (p031d2rg)
Series 2

Faint Hearts

The contrast between the daughters of wealthy Tavener and the lowly Alton is sharply pointed for James, as is the difference between a talking and a non-talking budgie.


SAT 21:00 Crá (m002587k)
Series 1

Episode 5

Tá Conall á choinneáil ina ghiall ag Ray, an té is mó atá faoi amhras sa chás dúnmharaithe. Ach maíonn sé féin go bhfuil an milleán á chur ag na Gardaí air gan chúis. Cé a chreidfidh Conall? An éireoidh le Conall agus le Ray éalú beo?

Conall is held hostage by Ray, the prime suspect, who is armed. Ray claims he is being framed by the police. Who will Conall believe? And will they both make it out alive?

Léiritheoirí/Producers: Ciarán Charles Ó Conghaile, Darach Ó Tuairisg
Stiúrthóir/Director: Philip Doherty


SAT 21:45 Crá (m002587m)
Series 1

Episode 6

I ndiaidh an léigir, scaiptear an scéal gurb é Ray atá ciontach as an dúnmharú. Ach ní chreideann gach duine an scéal oifigiúil. A bhuí leis an fhiosrúchán neamhoifigiúil, nochtar an fhírinne faoi bhás Sabine ar deireadh thiar thall. Déantar éagóracha stairiúla a chur ina gceart.

In the aftermath of the siege, the narrative is that Ray is guilty. But not everyone is convinced. The unofficial investigation finally uncovers the truth about what happened to Sabine. Historic wrongs are righted. Justice is served.

Léiritheoirí/Producers: Ciarán Charles Ó Conghaile, Darach Ó Tuairisg
Stiúrthóir/Director: Philip Doherty


SAT 22:30 Burns Night 2025 (m0027fw7)
Alistair Heather presents an incredible line-up of music and spoken word performances alongside the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Joining them are Deacon Blue’s Ricky Ross, Call the Midwife’s Laura Main, Nina Nesbitt, Nathan Evans, Dead Pony’s Anna Shields, Calum Bowie, Becky Sikasa and Jacob Alon.
With live recitals from Elaine C Smith and a commanding Immortal Memory delivered by Chief Commissioner Cameron Miekelson from Scot Squad.


SAT 23:30 Robert Burns: The People's Poet (b00h6s23)
Writer Andrew O'Hagan asks what made Robert Burns one of the world's favourite poets, as Scotland celebrates the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of its most famous sons. He travels through the landscape of modern Scotland in a poetic journey to the places that inspired Burns and to discover the story of his wild and dramatic life.


SAT 01:00 Beyond Burns (m000rs49)
Robert Burns's story has been told over and over, year after year, and with good reason. But in this programme, Scotland’s national poet Jackie Kay looks beyond Burns to some of the other extraordinary, and often overlooked, poets Scotland has produced. She brings them out from Rabbie's shadow to see how they have told, and continue to tell, our nation's story.

She looks at some of the poets who have influenced her including Robert Fergusson, Margaret Tait, Liz Lochhead and Norman MacCaig, and meets writers including Val McDermid, James Robertson, Hannah Lavery and Kevin MacNeil, to learn more about the overlooked poets and hear some of their stunning works.

The interrogation of identity and themes of belonging have always been at the heart of Kay’s work, and it’s a theme that has resonated with Scottish poets for centuries. Jackie candidly shares some painful stories and events from her past that have shaped her life and work, and this honest film never shies away from confronting the shameful issues of racism that stalked her growing up in Scotland.

Beyond Burns highlights the fact that, for a small nation, Scotland undeniably punches above its weight in poets. It also highlights the nations' breathtaking land and seascapes from the Isle of Lewis, Dunbar, Biggar and more.


SAT 02:00 All Creatures Great and Small (p031d2r8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:20 today]


SAT 02:50 All Creatures Great and Small (p031d2rg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:10 today]

SUNDAY 26 JANUARY 2025

SUN 19:00 Great Australian Railway Journeys (m0009v31)
Series 1

Port Augusta to Darwin: The Ghan

Michael Portillo ventures down under to experience one of the world’s greatest rail journeys aboard the legendary Ghan Railway. His 1913 Bradshaw’s Guide tells him 'a transcontinental railway is being constructed' and he traces its route from the southern harbour of Port Augusta to the port of Darwin on the north coast.

Along the way, Michael uncovers the history of the ambitious project, which stretches nearly 2,000 miles across Australia’s red centre, and learns why it took nearly a century to complete.

Steaming through the Flinders Ranges, Michael travels on the Pichi Richi heritage railway - the only remaining part of the Old Ghan line in operation - before boarding the luxurious modern passenger service at Alice Springs bound for Darwin. Nearly a kilometre in length, the Ghan is hauled by two locomotives and three power vans, contains four kitchens, five restaurants, five bars and 23 carriages of accommodation.

In the Outback city of Alice Springs, Michael meets the indigenous Arrente people of the region around their campfire, where he hears dreaming stories and shares their bush-tucker. He learns first-hand how their grandparents were mistreated at the time of his guidebook, when state policy required that children be taken from their families to be assimilated into white society.

Orphaned joeys Tilly and Max are pleased to see Michael at Brolga’s Kangaroo Sanctuary in Alice Springs. Max enjoys a cuddle, while a hungry Tilly wants to be fed.

Close by, at Bond Springs Cattle Station, Michael discovers the rags to riches story of the early 20th-century cattle king Sidney Kidman, and meets the family who today run one of his former ranches. Fellow passengers aboard the Ghan take Michael by surprise on his journey between Alice Springs and Katherine, where he alights to explore the traditional lands of aboriginal groups along the exquisite Katherine Gorge.

Arriving in Darwin, capital of the tropical Northern Territory, on the eve of ANZAC day, Michael joins Australians to mark the anniversary of the First World War battle that defined their nation.


SUN 20:00 Seven Worlds, One Planet (m000bj0s)
Series 1

Australia

Australia, a land cast adrift at the time of the dinosaurs. Isolated for millions of years, the weird and wonderful animals marooned here are like nowhere else on Earth. In the north of this island continent is the Daintree, one of the world’s oldest tropical forests. It’s home to the most dangerous bird on earth - the cassowary. A dinosaur-like bird standing 6 feet tall, they are formidable but their success is down to how well a father cassowary can carefully protect his tiny stripy chicks. Inland the continent is full of more surprises. The wombat, a tough short-legged marsupial, roams Australia’s mountain ranges surviving freezing snowstorms. In the hot gum tree forests is a newly discovered predator with a bizarre courtship ritual. And on the wide, open grasslands the dingo, Australia’s elusive and much persecuted wild dog, hunts kangaroos to provide food for its pups. Chases can cover many miles and are often unsuccessful. Life in Australia is tough and it’s getting tougher. Since its isolation the continent has been rapidly drifting north, getting hotter and drier – turning the forests and grasslands to dust. Over 70% of Australia is now arid land. In the sun scorched red centre, reptiles rule the desert. Giant perentie lizards patrol the dusty land in search of smaller lizards to eat and weird thorny devils drink using only their skin. At watering holes, huge flocks of wild budgerigars bring a splash of bright colour. This Island continent now lies so far north it is surrounded by warm, clear tropical waters - and here coral reefs thrive. They are home to a kaleidoscope of tiny colourful fish and the largest number of shark species in the world. Once every 10 years or more, thousands of sharks gather creating an amazing spectacle. But Australia’s animals face a challenge as a result of humans. More species of mammals have been lost here than anywhere else on the planet. An extensive site containing thousands of extraordinary ancient carvings is all that remains of some.
But on a secret offshore island, the enigmatic and rare Tasmaian devil, a pugnacious marsupial predator, has one of its last strongholds.


SUN 21:00 Rachel's Farm (m0027fw1)
Director and actress Rachel Ward is the last person you’d expect to join a farming revolution. Besieged by drought, bushfires and ecological despair, Rachel finds hope in the soil beneath her feet and begins a journey of discovery to regenerate the land on her Australian farm, and herself.


SUN 22:25 Joan Sutherland (m001snn8)
Soprano Joan Sutherland talks to Bernard Levin and sings scenes from some of her most celebrated roles. With the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Erich Gruenberg and conducted by Richard Bonynge.


SUN 23:30 Joan Sutherland: World Singer (m001snnb)
The famous Australian opera singer Joan Sutherland, introduced and accompanied by Gerald Moore.


SUN 23:50 The Australian Wars (p0gjfgjh)
Series 1

Episode 1

Intertribal conflict was a familiar fixture for Australia’s First Nations people, but nothing could prepare them for the conflict with the British and European arrivals over land and livelihood.

In the first part of this authored series, film-maker Rachel Perkins, who has both European and First Nations ancestry, examines these first encounters following the British arrival in 1788.

The British Empire’s presence in Sydney began as a small, contained, fortified venture in Sydney Harbour. New South Wales’s first governor, Arthur Phillip, was tasked with forming friendly alliances with locals. But with the lack of a treaty between occupying forces, a scarcity of resources to feed the growing population and neighbouring tribes not willing to surrender their land, conflict ensued. Successive governors ruled by force. The tactics of terror and intimidation, including some instances of the abuse of children and women, became one of the triggers of war.


SUN 00:50 The Australian Wars (p0gjfgv5)
Series 1

Episode 2

In the 1820s, the colonist population doubled in Tasmania, and so too did the death count as settlers came into conflict with Tasmanian Indigenous people resisting their arrival.

In the second part of this authored series, film-maker Rachel Perkins, who has both European and Indigenous Australian ancestry, examines why – despite detailed public records of the extensive conflict in Tasmania – there are no public memorials to those who died. Governor Arthur Phillip’s military background led the new approach to securing the Empire’s interests, including armed fortification of the ‘settled districts.’ But as the population grew, these areas expanded into prime hunting grounds of the First Nations groups who lived there.

The 1828 killing of a white woman by unknown warriors saw a fierce escalation in tensions and the introduction of martial law by Governor Arthur, enforced by armed parties of colonists and soldiers. Arthur also authorised a propaganda campaign highlighting supposed equality between black and white populations under the law. That equality was not the experience of warriors such as Tongerlongeter, or of the population of Tasmania, who fought down to almost the last person, before accepting the terms of an armistice.


SUN 01:50 The Australian Wars (p0gjfhg0)
Series 1

Episode 3

The abolition of slavery in the 1830s was a defining moment for the British Empire. Buoyed by their success, the abolitionists looked to the plight of Indigenous people. Their aim: to ensure the foundation of South Australia was done differently and access to land negotiated with First Nations people. But London was literally on the other side of the planet, and on the ground, no such arrangements or treaties were made as settler interests prevailed.

In the final part of this authored series, film-maker Rachel Perkins, who has both European and Indigenous Australian ancestry, follows the frontier conflict as it expands across the continent as the British administration gives way to state parliaments and the federated Commonwealth.

In Queensland, the new government established its own Native Police to help clear the way for the settlers. Designed to move with the frontier, they gradually made their way north. Over 50 years of its existence, it is estimated the Native Police may have killed perhaps 72,000 Indigenous people. Further north and west, the settlement pattern is repeated. Vast pastoral stations are carved out across Indigenous territories, and a process of ‘quietening the blacks’ begins - a process that First Nations people refer to as the ‘killing times’.


SUN 02:50 Great Australian Railway Journeys (m0009v31)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

MONDAY 27 JANUARY 2025

MON 19:00 Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank (b0078z27)
The Rebel Pharaoh

Dan Cruickshank travels the Nile, from magnificent Karnak to the desolate ruins of El Amarna, in search of the truth about Akhenaten, the most radical and mysterious pharaoh ever to rule Egypt, and his beautiful wife Nefertiti.

They were a golden couple, rich and all-powerful, but when Akhenaten had a personal religious conversion, it changed everything. Akhenaten decided to overturn the entire religious belief system of ancient Egypt and convert the whole nation to his own new religion. He swept aside centuries of worship of many gods and declared that there was only one god, the Sun - the 'Aten'. To the ancient Egyptians this was heresy, but as he was the pharaoh, no-one could stop him. He then built a vast new sacred city in the desert, far away from the ancient capital of Thebes, a city dedicated to the Aten, in which he and Nefertiti lived in splendour.

But, as Dan discovers, the royal couple's dreams would soon come to a tragic end. From the grand temples at Karnak, Dan traces the route of the heretic king and queen along the Nile to the site of their splendid new city at El Amarna, in Middle Egypt - now just a poignant, desolate ruin where Akhenaten and Nefertiti lived out their glorious but doomed lives.


MON 19:30 Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank (b0078z5p)
Building for Eternity

Dan Cruickshank discovers the ingenious techniques that the ancient Egyptians used to make their pyramids, temples and mummies last forever, driven by their obsession with magic and the afterlife.

The Egyptians believed they could live forever - that death was not necessarily the end. But to enjoy the afterlife depended on preserving the important things from this life - their bodies, possessions and monuments.

Dan explores how the ancient Egyptians pioneered remarkable ways of preparing for eternity. He visits the colossal, indestructible pyramids at Saqqara and Giza as well as the massive stone temple at Dendera, and examines the mummification process that allowed the Egyptians to keep their bodies intact long after death.

The religious belief in the afterlife dominated the lives and deaths of everyone in the land, and meant that hundreds of monuments were built to survive, and can now help us understand their beliefs. Above all, thousands of mummies found all over Egypt bear witness to how they thought, more than any other culture in history, that the preservation of the human body after death played a part in the everlasting survival of the spirit.


MON 20:00 Treasures of Ancient Egypt (p01mv1cv)
The Golden Age

On a journey through Ancient Egyptian art, Alastair Sooke picks treasures from its most opulent and glittering moment. Starting with troubling psychological portraits of tyrant king Senwosret III and ending with the golden mask of boy king Tutankhamun, Sooke also explores architectural wonders, exquisite tombs and a lost city - site of the greatest artistic revolution in Egypt's history where a new sinuous style was born under King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti. Along the way Egyptologists and artists reveal that the golden veneer conceals a touching humanity.


MON 21:00 Egypt's Lost Cities (b011pwms)
It is possible that only one per cent of the wonders of ancient Egypt have been discovered, but now, thanks to a pioneering approach to archaeology, that is about to change.

Dr Sarah Parcak uses satellites to probe beneath the sands, where she has found cities, temples and pyramids. Now, with Dallas Campbell and Liz Bonnin, she heads to Egypt to discover if these magnificent buildings are really there.


MON 22:30 The Windermere Children (m000dtcz)
August, 1945. A coachload of children arrive at the Calgarth Estate by Lake Windermere. They are child survivors of the Nazi Holocaust that has devastated Europe’s Jewish population. Carrying only the clothes they wear and a few meagre possessions, they bear the emotional and physical scars of all they have suffered.

Charged with looking after them is Oscar Friedmann, a German-born child psychologist. He and his team of counsellors have just four months to help the children reclaim their lives. By the lake, in sunshine and rain the children eat, learn English, play football and ride bikes. They yearn for news of their loved ones every day, and meanwhile they are invited to express their trauma through painting. Some locals taunt them but they are embraced by others. A number of the older children steal and they are haunted by nightmares. Nevertheless, it is in this environment that they begin to heal.

Eventually, letters from The Red Cross arrive with the terrible confirmation that for nearly all the children's siblings and parents have been murdered. One child, however, is convinced that his brother survived.

The Windermere Children is the stark, moving and ultimately redemptive story of the bonds they make with one another, and of how the friendships forged at Windermere become a lifeline to a fruitful future. In the absence of relatives, they find family in each other.


MON 00:00 The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words (m000dt7g)
The story of the pioneering project to rehabilitate child survivors of the Holocaust on the shores of Lake Windermere. In the year that marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust, this powerful documentary, which accompanies the BBC Two drama, The Windermere Children, reveals a little-known story of 300 young orphaned Jewish refugees, who began new lives in England’s Lake District in the summer of 1945.

With compelling testimony from some of the last living Holocaust survivors, the film explores an extraordinary success story that emerged from the darkest of times, all beginning with the arrival of ten Stirling bombers carrying the 300 children from Prague to Carlisle on 14 August 1945. The survivor interviews include extraordinary first-hand accounts of both their wartime experiences, separation from their families and the horrors they experienced, but also their wonder at arriving in Britain and their lives thereafter.

The children hailed from very different backgrounds, including rural Poland, metropolitan Warsaw Czechoslovakia and Berlin. Some had grown up in poverty, others in middle-class comfort. Their rehabilitation in England was organised by one charity, the Central British Fund (CBF). Leonard Montefiore, a prominent Jewish philanthropist, used his pre-war experience of the Kindertransport and successfully lobbied the British government to agree to allow up to 1,000 young Jewish concentration camp survivors into Britain. It was decided that the first 300 children would be brought from the liberated camp of Theresienstadt to Britain. And serendipitously, empty accommodation was found on the shores of Lake Windermere in a defunct factory. During the war, it had built seaplanes, but after D-Day the factory was closed, and the workers’ accommodation stood empty. With space to house them and in a truly beautiful setting, it was to prove the perfect location for these traumatised children.

The CBF, however, was in uncharted territory. A project to mass-rehabilitate a group of traumatised children had never been attempted before. But in the idyllic setting of Windermere and with just the right team assembled, the children were given the chance to unlearn the survival techniques they’d picked up in the camps. With the freedom to ride bikes, play football, learn English, socialise with local teenagers and swim in the lake, they began to come to terms with the horrors they had experienced and the fact that their mothers, fathers and siblings had perished.

Despite the fact that the UK government initially only offered two-year temporary visas, with strict immigration policies enforced in other countries and without families to return to, it soon became clear that there was nowhere else for most of the children to go. Many of the 300 stayed in the UK for their entire lives, becoming British citizens and raising children of their own.

Now, 75 years later, the close friendships that were forged in Windermere remain and many consider each other as family. Reflecting on the survivors’ lives after Windermere, the film includes touching home movie footage and remarkable success stories, like Sir Ben Helfgott’s incredible weightlifting career, representing Britain at the 1956 Olympics, only eleven years after arriving in the UK. The documentary also tells the story of the charity they formed, the 45Aid society. With footage of their annual reunions, the documentary gives a sense of the generations of families who all trace their British beginnings to Windermere.


MON 01:00 Tutankhamun's Egypt (m0027fwj)
Series 1

The Temple

Along the banks of the Nile stand some of the most spectacular buildings in the world - the temples of ancient Egypt. The great gateway of the temple at Edfu is higher and wider than the facade of St Paul's Cathedral, and at Karnac, man is dwarfed by the forest of vast columns in the main hall. Introduced by Cyril Aldred from the 1972 Tutankhamun Exhibition at the British Museum.


MON 01:20 Tutankhamun's Egypt (m0027fwl)
Series 1

Death and Burial

Mummies are the best-known relics of the ancient Egyptian civilisation. Together with the elaborate tombs of the pharaohs, they have created the impression that the Egyptians were a death-centred people with a very materialistic view of the after-life. In fact, their beliefs varied from age to age and from class to class within their society, and they were never really as sure about the next world as their monuments would have us believe.

Introduced by Cyril Aldred from the 1972 Tutankhamun Exhibition at the British Museum.


MON 01:40 Tutankhamun's Egypt (m0027fwn)
Series 1

The Warrior Pharaohs

When the horse-drawn chariot was introduced in the 18th century BC, it created a larger revolution in warfare than did the invention of the tank in our day. Not only was a formidable armoured weapon introduced into battle, but it also caused great social changes. The pharaoh himself now took to the field at the head of his armies - composed henceforth of professionals, as distinct from conscripted peasants. Introduced by Cyril Aldred from the Tutankhamun Exhibition at the British Museum.


MON 02:00 Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank (b0078z27)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 02:30 Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank (b0078z5p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 03:00 Treasures of Ancient Egypt (p01mv1cv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

TUESDAY 28 JANUARY 2025

TUE 19:00 Canal Boat Diaries (m000bk2g)
Series 1

Sowerby Bridge to Manchester

The real side of boat life with Robbie Cumming. Robbie runs aground on the Rochdale Canal - will he make it to Manchester?


TUE 19:30 Yorkshire Wolds Way (b088nwg0)
Episode 1

Adventurer Paul Rose explores the 79 miles of the Yorkshire Wolds Way, arguably Britain's least well-known national walking trail. The trail starts at the Humber Estuary and ends at the Yorkshire seaside resort of Filey. On the way, Paul takes in the views of the Yorkshire Wolds from the top of the Humber Bridge, learns to ride a penny farthing and searches out the spots made internationally famous by the artist David Hockney.


TUE 20:00 Going Straight (p00xb5tz)
Going Home

Fletch is about to be released from prison, will he be able to stop himself from going back? First he has to say goodbye to Mr MacKay the prison officer who has been the bane of his life. Follow-on from Porridge.


TUE 20:30 As Time Goes By (p0479t88)
Series 2

Visiting Rocky

Lionel takes Jean to Hampshire to meet his father - who has a surprise announcement to make.


TUE 21:00 Charles I: Downfall of a King (m0006p9x)
Series 1

A Nation Divided

The King’s proclamation has been sent around the country. Soon, over 200 MPs will return to Westminster to aid Charles; he simply has to run down the clock.

Pym tries to pass parliamentary bills limiting the King’s power. But in the Lords, the casting votes are held by the bishops, who are loyal to Charles. Pym knows that, in order to succeed, he must remove them.

In mid-December, Pym’s group goes for a political ambush, demanding that the Grand Remonstrance be published. They launch a surprise vote in the dead of night and win. Now the public will read of the King’s supposed misdemeanours. Making matters worse for Charles, rumours spread that the Queen was involved in the Irish rebellion. The royal family now look as if they are in league with the Catholic rebels.

Trying to regain control on 22 December, Charles puts Colonel Thomas Lunsford in charge of the Tower of London. He is a thug, believed ‘fierce enough to eat children’. Soon London goes wild with protests, swarming the Tower. After just a few days, with mobs braying at the palace gates, the King backtracks. This only encourages the rebels, who now see the King as weak and indecisive. Meanwhile, Charles’s backstop of bishops run in fear of the mobs; just two come to the Lords the next day. The King's political frontline is broken. The way for Pym is open.

In a last-ditch attempt to win Pym round, King Charles offers him the top job, chancellor of the exchequer. Will Pym be bought off?


TUE 22:00 Storyville (m0027fwg)
Your Fat Friend

A Storyville documentary following the rise of Aubrey Gordon from anonymous blogger to best-selling author, whose aim is to promote a paradigm shift in the way we view fatness.


TUE 23:35 Storyville (m001lczg)
Nelly and Nadine: Ravensbrück, 1944

A Storyville documentary about two women who fall in love in the Ravensbrück concentration camp.


TUE 01:05 The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words (m000dt7g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 00:00 on Monday]


TUE 02:05 Canal Boat Diaries (m000bk2g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


TUE 02:35 Charles I: Downfall of a King (m0006p9x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 29 JANUARY 2025

WED 19:00 Canal Boat Diaries (m000bpkr)
Series 1

Barton Swing Aqueduct to Liverpool Docks

Life on board a narrowboat with Robbie Cumming. There are engine issues and a leaky boat to fix before Robbie reaches Liverpool Docks.


WED 19:30 Yorkshire Wolds Way (b08bbmyb)
Episode 2

Adventurer Paul Rose continues his exploration of the Yorkshire Wolds Way, arguably Britain's least well-known national walking trail. The 79-mile trail starts at the Humber Estuary and ends at the Yorkshire seaside resort of Filey. In this episode, Paul takes to the skies to get a unique view of this stretch of chalk downland and gets a special invitation to a military base that's been keeping the country safe since the start of the Second World War.


WED 20:00 Himalaya with Michael Palin (b0074qn6)
North by Northwest

Intrepid adventurer Michael Palin embarks on an epic journey. He travels through Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, starting on the Khyber Pass and ending five miles from K2 on the Pakistan/China border. He passes through Darra, visits a street dentist in Peshawar, goes bull racing with a Pakistani aristocrat and is almost trampled to death, and finally crosses over the Lowari Pass into the buffer state of Chitral.


WED 21:00 The Beginning and End of the Universe (b075dxsq)
The End

Professor Jim Al-Khalili carries us into the distant future to try to discover how the universe will end - with a bang or a whimper? He reveals a universe far stranger than anyone imagined and, at the frontier of our understanding, encounters a mysterious and enigmatic force that promises to change physics forever.


WED 22:00 Babs (b08q8jcy)
Written by Tony Jordan, this is the heartwarming story of Dame Barbara Windsor, the Cockney kid with a dazzling smile and talent to match. Preparing to perform in the theatre one cold evening in 1993, the cheeky, chirpy blonde Babs recounts the people and events that have shaped her life and career over 50 years from 1943 to 1993.

She contemplates her lonely childhood and Second World War evacuation, her decision to go from Barbara Ann Deeks to Barbara Windsor - inspired by the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, her complicated relationship with her father, her doomed marriage to Ronnie Knight, capturing the attention of Joan Littlewood and becoming the blonde bombshell in the Carry On films. Babs, ever the consummate professional, never let her fans down whatever her personal anguish and steps on the stage to rapturous applause.


WED 23:30 Timeshift (p01k49cg)
Series 13

Bouffants, Beehives and Bobs: The Hairdos that Made Britain

It is said that the average woman gets through around 30 hairstyles in a lifetime, with some changing their look entirely every 15 months. Timeshift takes a loving and sometimes horrified look back at the iconic hairdos and 'must have' haircuts that both men and women in Britain have flirted with over the past 60 years.

And it's some journey... from the meringue-like confections of Raymond 'Teasy Weasy' via the geometric 'bob' cuts of Vidal Sassoon, stopping off to take in the 'big hair' heyday of bouffants and beehives, and not forgetting the mullet, the feather cut and the ultimate 'bad hair day' look of 1970s perms.

Our hair is the one part of our identity we can change in an instant and which speaks volumes about who we are, where we've come from and where we're going. Today, young women are revisiting hair fashions of an earlier generation - big hair and blowdrying are back in demand, whilst many young men sport Edwardian 'peaky blinder' short back and sides.

Narrated by Wayne Hemingway.


WED 00:30 Canal Boat Diaries (m000bpkr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 01:00 Yorkshire Wolds Way (b08bbmyb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 01:30 The Beginning and End of the Universe (b075dxsq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 02:30 Himalaya with Michael Palin (b0074qn6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

THURSDAY 30 JANUARY 2025

THU 19:00 Dangerous Earth (b0824cw7)
Avalanche

Dr Helen Czerski looks at the anatomy of an avalanche. From shocking eyewitness footage from within an avalanche to detailed CT scans showing the microscopic changes that cause them, we can now capture exactly what happens as snow transforms into a deadly and unpredictable danger.


THU 19:30 Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village (b0bsrqfw)
Series 1

North East

Archaeologist Ben Robinson unlocks the ancient roots of the Northumberland village of Warkworth. With the help of locals, he discovers clues that point back almost 1,000 years to the Norman conquest when the invaders laid the foundations of a planned community, still visible to this day.


THU 20:00 Porridge (b007b8zw)
Comedy. Detained at Her Majesty's pleasure, cellmates Fletcher and Godber become unwilling accomplices to an escape attempt in this cinema version of the popular BBC comedy.


THU 21:30 Wonder Boys (b0078nh3)
Pittsburgh English Professor Grady Tripp cannot finish his latest novel. Nor can he handle his wife leaving, his girlfriend's pregnancy announcement, the arrival of his editor or a strange talented student seeking mentorship. All in the same week.


THU 23:15 Wogan (m0027fxh)
Michael Douglas, Glen Campbell, Jean Muir and Tom Hulce

Terry Wogan in conversation with actor and producer Michael Douglas, country music singer Glen Campbell, dress designer Jean Muir and actor Tom Hulce.


THU 00:00 Joan Sutherland (m001snn8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:25 on Sunday]


THU 01:05 Joan Sutherland: World Singer (m001snnb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 on Sunday]


THU 01:25 Dangerous Earth (b0824cw7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 01:55 Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village (b0bsrqfw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 02:25 Egypt's Lost Cities (b011pwms)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]

FRIDAY 31 JANUARY 2025

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m0027fvx)
Jo Whiley presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 7 March 1997 and featuring Erasure, The Bee Gees, Peter Andre, Beck, Babyface, Aerosmith, No Doubt and Spice Girls.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m0027fvz)
Ian Broudie presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 14 March 1997 and featuring Ant & Dec, Kula Shaker, 3 Colours Red, Sash!, Alisha's Attic, No Mercy, Dodgy, Spice Girls and Fugees.


FRI 20:05 Top of the Pops (b0bbzsyc)
Gary Davies and Janice Long present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 30 January 1986 and featuring Billy Ocean, Madonna, Talk Talk, James Brown, Simple Minds, Grace Jones, Fine Young Cannibals and a-ha.


FRI 20:35 Top of the Pops (m000nnyl)
Bruno Brookes presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 2 February 1990 and featuring Sybil, Sinead O'Connor and The House of Love.


FRI 21:10 More ABBA at the BBC (m001y5lw)
As ABBA mark 50 years since winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, it's time to take another voyage into the archives for more of the Swedish supergroup’s best BBC moments.

As well as looking back, this collection brings things right up to date, capturing the excitement and sounds of their recent, technologically pioneering stage shows. Sitting alongside the new material are plenty of classics that highlight Benny and Bjorn’s fondness for a song title that repeats itself: Ring, Ring, Honey, Honey, Money, Money, Money and I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do.

And there's also an exclusive performance of the song So Long, which had been lost from the BBC archives and was assumed to be missing forever but has been recovered and restored and is shown again here for the first time since its original transmission in 1974.


FRI 22:10 When ABBA Came to Britain (m001y5m0)
Using previously unheard interviews with the band, this is the story of the Swedish super group’s 50-year relationship with the UK.

From their first visit, for the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton in April 1974, to their first ever UK concert in Birmingham in 1977, to the groundbreaking ABBA Voyage concerts in London - this documentary looks at Britain’s impact on the band and the legacy they have left on generations of fans in the UK, as well as the influence of British bands like The Beatles on ABBA.

Contributors include musicians who performed with ABBA, superfans whose lives were changed after hearing their music, the British Eurovision judge who scored them ‘nul points’ in 1974, the producers behind ABBA Voyage, and a now-famous member of the children’s choir which accompanied ABBA at their Wembley Arena concerts in 1979.

The documentary will also feature interviews with musicians who have been influenced by the band, including Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie and Blossoms.


FRI 23:10 ABBA in Switzerland (m0011p5h)
ABBA star in their first European TV special, recorded on location in the Swiss Alps. Also featuring special guests Kate Bush and Roxy Music.


FRI 00:05 Top of the Pops (m0027fvx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 00:35 Top of the Pops (m0027fvz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 01:10 Top of the Pops (b0bbzsyc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:05 today]


FRI 01:40 Top of the Pops (m000nnyl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:35 today]


FRI 02:15 More ABBA at the BBC (m001y5lw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:10 today]