Update on the 1980s series about a group of doctors just starting out on their careers. Dr Nick Hollings has devoted half of his life to the NHS, from an ambitious 18-year-old seeking a place at St Mary's Medical School, through 100 hour weeks as a junior doctor and 14 years of exams to become a consultant. Now an established consultant radiologist, Nick faces a worrying future. With long waiting lists for scans, the Department of Health is making tough decisions in the name of efficiency.
Katie Derham introduces another extraordinary Prom from the BBC archive. This week she's joined by the conductor of what has been described as the greatest Prom of all time, Gustavo Dudamel. Together they look back at his debut Prom in 2007 with the Simon Bolivar National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, who dazzled the music world with their performance of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and a feast of musical gems from Latin American composers Márquez, Ginastera and Gutiérrez
Documentary series. Dr Iain Stewart reveals the role natural forces have played in the creation of the planet Earth. The first episode discusses volcanoes. Although they appear to be destructive, volcanoes have been crucial to the development of life on this planet. Iain's journey takes him to Ethiopia to discover lava lakes, to Iceland to scuba dive between continents and to New Zealand to sample some hot springs.
Three-part documentary series telling the history of British social dancing in the 20th century, using rare archive film and interviews. In the 1900s, the huge new dancehalls made social dancing affordable for British working people for the first time. American jazz freed up our movements, as the Charleston made the nation go dance crazy. This was followed by ballroom dancing, the jitterbug and, in the countryside, the Folk Dance Society was founded to save the art of Morris dancing.
Three-part documentary series telling the history of British social dancing in the 20th century, using rare archive film and interviews. The post-war 'baby boomer' generation were the first-ever teenagers and they rejected ballroom dancing, falling in love with rock and roll and juke boxes instead. The Twist in 1960 was a revolution, and dancing became sexier as Brits copied the moves of black American soul artists. The mods invented the Shake, and the hippies almost danced inside their heads.
MONDAY 07 JANUARY 2008
MON 19:00 World News Today (b008q0fy)
The latest news from around the world.
MON 19:30 The Sky at Night (b008njrp)
Cosmic Debris
The Earth is bombarded by extra terrestrial material every day, but what is this cosmic debris? Sir Patrick Moore investigates comet tails, meteorites and asteroids and discovers the terrible consequences of a cosmic collision with the Earth. Also, the latest stunning images from Mars Express.
MON 20:00 Top of the Pops: The True Story (b007bs5w)
Jamie Theakston presents the history of Britain's best-loved music show, spanning four decades of great music and including archive footage of classic performances and backstage antics. As well as interviews with former presenters, such as Jimmy Savile and John Peel, there are also contributions from artists who have appeared on the show, including Pan's People, Robin Gibb, Noddy Holder, Blondie, Holly Johnson, Suggs, Noel Gallagher, Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams.
MON 21:00 Top of the Pops (b008njrq)
Classic edition of Top of the Pops from 1968, presented by Jimmy Savile and Dave Cash. Artists featured include The Foundations, The Alan Price Set, Brenton Wood, Hermans Hermits, Status Quo, The Move and Amen Corner.
MON 21:30 Juke Box Jury (b008njrr)
Classic 1950s and 60s pop music show in which a panel votes hit or miss on the new releases they are played. David Jacobs presents, with Nina and Frederick, Jill Ireland and David McCallum on the panel.
MON 22:00 Story of Light Entertainment (b0074tnd)
Pop and Easy Listening
Music had always been at the heart of variety, encompassing everything from operetta and balladeers to big bands and crooners, but in the 1950s rock 'n' roll and pop arrived on the scene, the concept of the teenager was born and things became more divided. Television didn't really know how to cope with pop - so the viewer in the 60s was fed a diet of Val Doonican and Engelbert Humperdinck, and Top of the Pops was predicted to be a flash in the pan.
During the 70s bona fide pop stars such as Cilla and Cliff hosted their own Saturday night shows until punk reared its head and split the scene once again. The 80s and 90s saw pop in the clutches of the young and cool, and families didn't gather round to watch shows like The Tube and The White Room, but a new century saw the situation change yet again.
Now, after years in the wilderness, pop has made a triumphant return to Saturday night TV screens. Popstars, Pop Idol and X Factor are light entertainment's success stories. This is the story of pop music's journey back to the heart of light entertainment.
Including interviews with Cliff Richard, Cilla Black, Nana Mouskouri, Englebert Humperdinck, Simon Cowell, Pete Waterman, Nigel Lythgoe, Marty Wilde and The Vernons Girls.
MON 23:30 The Old Grey Whistle Test Story (b0074t7r)
Jo Brand narrates a profile which celebrates the life and times of the BBC's first flagship live music programme, The Old Grey Whistle Test, which ran from 1971 to 1987. It looks at the music, the presenters, the TV rivals, the sparse studio and the legacy, finds out why Bob Harris whispered, what Sid Vicious tried to do to him and what Camel did with a woodwind quartet and why. All these questions are answered and many more, followed by loving compilations of those early 70s years, the era that time forgot.
MON 00:10 When the Stranglers Met Roland Rat (b007m4wt)
Documentary which goes in search of the colliding worlds of pop and kids' TV, including the embarrassing moments, strange kids and bizarre incidents that illuminated the many facets of the genre. With interviews from past programme makers, presenters, pop stars and record company executives, including Sarah Greene, Mike Read, Stephen Gately, Tommy Boyd, Searchers and Emma Forbes.
MON 01:10 Dance Britannia (b008m3tf)
Dangerous Dancing
Three-part documentary series telling the history of British social dancing in the 20th century, using rare archive film and interviews. From the 1970s, allegiance to music types created separate dance scenes, from punk to soul to disco. Sex and drugs were more essential than ever to dance, whether it was reggae dancehall's sexualised moves or rave's love affair with ecstasy. The rave scene was a home-grown phenomenon, provoking government legislation and induction into the cultural mainstream.
MON 02:10 Last Man in Hammersmith Palais (b008l3rx)
Documentary which recounts the story of west London venue the Hammersmith Palais, immortalised in song by the Clash, which closed down in April 2007. It began in 1919 when a disused roller skating rink saw the start of thousands of nights of jazz, swing, reggae, pop, rock, bhangra and ska. Artists and Palais goers alike, including include Dame Vera Lynn, Mick Jones, Andy Summers, Phill Jupitus recall fond memories of great evenings at the Palais, and there's plenty of archive footage.
MON 03:10 Brits Can't Dance (b008lz2h)
A celebration of the not-so-successful example of Brits hoofing on TV, from Step This Way to Strictly Come Dancing.
MON 03:40 The Sky at Night (b008njrp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUESDAY 08 JANUARY 2008
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b008q0xz)
The latest news from around the world.
TUE 19:30 Masterpieces of Vienna (b008m61x)
The Tempest: Kokoschka
Series about Vienna's cultural artefacts looks at Oskar Kokoschka's expressionist masterpiece The Tempest, the product of a passionate love affair between the impoverished Viennese artist and a wealthy, older woman. The film tells the extraordinary story of their relationship and the bizarre behaviour it inspired from the rebellious Kokoschka.
TUE 20:00 Atom (b007tr91)
The Clash of the Titans
The first of three programmes in which nuclear physicist Professor Jim Al-Khalili tells the story of the greatest scientific discovery ever - that everything is made of atoms.
As scientists delved deep into the atom, into the very heart of matter, they unravelled nature's most shocking secrets. They had to abandon everything they believed in and create a whole new science, which today underpins the whole of physics, chemistry, biology and maybe even life itself.
The series tells a story of geniuses like Albert Einstein and Werner Heisenberg who were driven by their thirst for knowledge and glory. It is a story of false starts and conflicts, ambition and revelation, a story which leads us through some of the most exciting and exhilarating ideas ever conceived by the human race.
TUE 21:00 Be My Baby: The Girl Group Story (b007chbr)
Documentary which tells the dramatic stories of six celebrated girl groups - the Supremes, the Three Degrees, Sister Sledge, Bananarama, the Bangles and the Spice Girls. Members of all the bands tell their own stories, and there's comment from managers, producers and singers like Martha Reeves and Kim Wilde.
TUE 22:00 Pop! What is it Good For? (b008njys)
Music writer and self-confessed pop addict Paul Morley journeys to the heart of his obsession. At 50, Morley is just about as old as pop music itself and he argues that pop has played a central role in the culture of the nation over the past half century. Featuring a diverse cast of fellow pop obsessives including poet Simon Armitage, artist Peter Blake, the Sugababes and Suggs, Morley's documentary explores and celebrates the beauty and mystery of the three-minute pop single.
TUE 23:00 Classic Albums (b0078zlx)
Queen: A Night at the Opera
Series looking at the creation of some classic rock albums. A Night At The Opera, the fourth Queen album released in late 1975, is a mix of hard rock, pop, opera, music hall camp and traditional folk, utilising multi layered guitars, crunching riffs, vocals harmonies, piano flourishes, a harp, a ukulele and no synthesisers.
TUE 23:50 Arcade Fire at Reading (b008p9h0)
Montreal band Arcade Fire's performance at the 2007 Reading Festival, featuring tracks from their albums Funeral and Neon Bible.
TUE 00:35 Pop! What is it Good For? (b008njys)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
TUE 01:35 Masterpieces of Vienna (b008m61x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUE 02:05 Atom (b007tr91)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
TUE 03:05 Pop! What is it Good For? (b008njys)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 09 JANUARY 2008
WED 19:00 World News Today (b008qnhl)
The latest news from around the world.
WED 19:30 Masterpieces of Vienna (b008m62t)
Freud's Couch
Series about Vienna's cultural artefacts looks at Sigmund Freud's couch - now an iconic piece of furniture and the emblem of psychoanalysis. The film tells the story of how its arrival in Freud's Viennese apartment triggered a revolution in 20th-century thinking.
WED 20:00 Atom (b007vbql)
The Key to the Cosmos
The second in Professor Jim Al-Khalili's three-part documentary about the basic building block of our universe, the atom. He shows how, in our quest to understand the tiny atom, we unravelled the mystery of how the universe was created. It's a story with dramatic twists and turns, taking in world-changing discoveries like radioactivity, the atom bomb and the big bang. All this forms part of an epic narrative in which the greatest brains of the 20th century competed to answer the biggest questions of all - why are we here and how were we made?
WED 21:00 Classic Albums (b008nk4g)
Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
Series looking at the creation of some classic rock albums. This programme considers the significance of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours.
WED 22:00 How Pop Songs Work (b008nk4h)
Celebration of the magic of pop music and the skill and musical dexterity that goes into writing, performing and producing hit records. Conductor Charles Hazlewood explores the mechanics of pop songs such as Imagine, Tomorrow Never Knows and Back to Black by breaking them down into six key areas, aided by contributions from a cast of writers, producers and arrangers including Guy Chambers, Martin Fry, Steve Levine, Richard Niles, Nick Ingman, John Altman and Rob Davis.
WED 23:00 Mojo (b0078sxs)
Drama centring on a nightclub singer in 1950s London, who is tipped for success. The owner of the nightclub and a local gangster compete for control of the singer's career. Adapted from Jez Butterworth's play.
WED 00:30 How Pop Songs Work (b008nk4h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WED 01:30 Masterpieces of Vienna (b008m62t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
WED 02:00 Atom (b007vbql)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 03:00 How Pop Songs Work (b008nk4h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
THURSDAY 10 JANUARY 2008
THU 19:00 World News Today (b008qnly)
The latest news from around the world.
THU 19:30 Masterpieces of Vienna (b008m65f)
Schiele's Death and the Maiden
Series about Vienna's cultural artefacts looks at Egon Schiele's haunting 1915 picture of two lovers clinging to each other, his tribute to the woman who stood by him in his darkest hour but then discarded ruthlessly.
THU 20:00 Atom (b007vz5n)
The Illusion of Reality
The final part of Professor Jim Al-Khalili's documentary series about the basic building block of our universe, the atom.
Al-Khalili explores how studying the atom forced us to rethink the nature of reality itself, encountering ideas that seem like they are from science fiction but in fact are a central part of modern science. He discovers that there might be parallel universes in which different versions of us exist and finds out that empty space is not empty at all, but seething with activity.
The world we think we know - the solid, reassuring world of our senses - turns out to be a tiny sliver of an infinitely weirder and more wonderful universe than we had ever conceived in our wildest fantasies.
THU 21:00 Six Five Special (b008p9hf)
Josephine Douglas and Pete Murray introduce a classic 1960s pop programme. Features Eric Delaney and his band, Chris Barber and his Jazz Band, Don Lang and his Frantic Five, Michael Holliday, Spike Milligan, Freddie Mills and Deep River Boys.
THU 22:00 Pop on Trial (b008nkpx)
1950s
Stuart Maconie puts pop in the dock to decide which has been the most influential musical decade. Judgement is made on the 1950s as rock and roll begins with Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Bill Haley and Lonnie Donegan.
THU 23:00 Absolute Beginners (b008nkpy)
An energetic musical set in London's Soho in the late 1950s. In a colourful evocation of Colin MacInnes's cult novel of teenage cool, the movement, colour and music have an infectious enthusiasm and vitality that appeal to the senses, though characterisations and the ambitious attempt to represent social issues are less well realised. The musical score was supervised by Gil Evans.
THU 00:40 Pop on Trial (b008nkpx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
THU 01:40 Masterpieces of Vienna (b008m65f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 02:10 Atom (b007vz5n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 03:10 Pop on Trial (b008nkpx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRIDAY 11 JANUARY 2008
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b008qqrt)
The latest news from around the world.
FRI 19:30 Sounds of the Sixties (b008pfhf)
Reversions
1964-6 The Beat Room
Featuring vintage performances from Tom Jones, the Kinks and the Moody Blues.
FRI 19:40 Beat Girl (b008nkvp)
Grim crime story about rootless, disaffected youth in the early 1960s. When a rebellious teenager - apparently shy and withdrawn but in fact leading a double life - falls under the spell of a Soho strip-club owner, the result is murder.
FRI 21:10 Classic Albums (b0074sf2)
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon
Series looking at the creation of some classic rock albums. This edition looks at the legendary Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon with interviews with Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason.
FRI 22:00 Pop Britannia (b008nkvq)
A Well Respected Man
Three-part documentary series telling the story of British popular music and its place in British culture since the 1950s. In the 60s Britain went pop mad. The architects were a group of artists and entrepreneurs who would prise pop out of the grasp of showbiz interests to create a truly authentic British sound of the Beatles, Stones and Who and at the same time prepared the way for a new, more corporate pop business. With Pete Townsend, Sir George Martin, Bryan Ferry, Sandie Shaw and Lulu.
FRI 23:00 Storyville (b0074nrj)
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Classic rock film documenting David Bowie's last public appearance as his androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust. This memorable final concert at the Hammersmith Odeon was filmed by DA Pennebaker, famous for such 1960s rock documentaries as Don't Look Back and Monterey Pop. The 17 songs performed include Changes, Time and Suffragette City.
FRI 00:25 Omnibus (b007m3vz)
Cracked Actor: David Bowie
A rockumentary from the Omnibus archives about the extraordinary rock star David Bowie. Shot in 1974 and transmitted in January 1975, it follows Bowie in Hollywood as he begins to discard the elaborate costume and make-up of his legendary character Ziggy Stardust and assume a new, more enigmatic role.
FRI 01:20 Pop Britannia (b008nkvq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 02:20 Pop! What is it Good For? (b008njys)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Tuesday]
FRI 03:20 Pop Britannia (b008nkvq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]