SATURDAY 19 APRIL 2008

SAT 19:00 Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (b0078pc6)
The Minstrel

Monty Python star and medieval enthusiast Terry Jones takes us on a tour of the Middle Ages. He reveals that minstrels were medieval spin doctors and could be warriors, political movers and shakers and even spies, playing a key and often dangerous role in history.


SAT 19:30 In Search of Medieval Britain (b009wzw1)
Wales

Medieval art historian Dr Alixe Bovey uses the oldest surviving route map of Britain to make a series of journeys through Britain in the Middle Ages. She heads west from Gloucester to follow in the footsteps of the huge armies of Edward I into Wales and uncovers evidence of a lawless borderland, a Medieval arms race and clues to the origins of the map itself.


SAT 20:05 The Book Quiz (b009wyng)
Series 2

Episode 4

Kirsty Wark presents the literary panel game, as novelist India Knight and critic James Delingpole fight it out against writer Kate Mosse and journalist Rod Liddle for a place in the semi-finals.


SAT 20:35 Mrs Brown (b0078lkb)
Dramatisation of one of history's most unusual love stories. Queen Victoria is grieving over her husband's death and finds herself unable to carry out public duties. John Brown is summoned from Balmoral to walk the Queen's pony in the hope that she will start to become herself again. The confident Highlander displays a distinct lack of respect for court protocol and quickly becomes the Queen's most trusted companion.


SAT 22:15 The Best of Youth (b00b0950)
Episode 2

Drama series telling the story of an Italian family from the 1960s till the present day, set against major events in Italian history. Nicola and Giulia, now living in Turin, are expecting a baby. As Italy is shaken by political unrest, they also find themselves on a different side of the barricade from Nicola's brother Matteo, who has become a policeman. Following her baby's birth, Giulia's sense of personal and political dissatisfaction turns her political fervour into something more extreme.


SAT 23:50 Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa! (b0074s9v)
Witty drama adapted from Kenneth Williams's own words in his diaries. It's a spectacular journey inside the mind of one of British radio, TV and film's most popular, peculiar and comic performers. And one of its most tragic, too.

Spanning his entire life, this is the story of Williams's career and private life, a behind-the-scenes look at Williams, not only recreating some of his greatest performances, but also giving a candid and poignant insight into his professional hopes, personal upsets and sexual frustrations of a man who was uncomfortable in his own skin.

The screenplay is rude, arch, uncompromising and hilarious. Michael Sheen delivers a tour-de-force performance as ‘the man of a thousand voices’.


SAT 01:10 The Saint and the Hanged Man (b009wzcs)
Rob Brydon narrates a dramatised/animated documentary which reveals the clash at the heart of the Medieval mind - between the reason and the supernatural - using rational process to dissect the divine.

In 1307 the full weight of medieval justice descended on the sleepy town of Hereford. But this court wasn't summoned to prove innocence or guilt. The man on trial wasn't a murderer, or a criminal. In fact he wasn't even alive. This was a holy inquiry, called by the Catholic Church to prove whether a dead English bishop was actually a miracle-worker - and whether he should be made into a saint.

His case comprised several alleged miracles, the most notorious being the spectacular resurrection of a hanged man. A Welsh terrorist executed by the state, hanged twice just to make sure, this wanted criminal somehow came back from the dead. And now a papal court would use all the instruments of legal process - witness statements, forensic evidence, cross examination - to prove whether it was truly a miracle.


SAT 02:10 In Search of Medieval Britain (b009wzw1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


SAT 02:40 The Book Quiz (b009wyng)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:05 today]