Fantasy adventure series. Another crimebusting caper for the cloaked avenger and his able accomplice Robin. Mr Freeze kidnaps Miss Iceland, freezes Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara and discredits Batman and Robin by routing wimpy doubles of the Dynamic Duo. The genuine crimefighters find Mr Freeze in a seemingly abandoned Cold Storage Plant but are jumped and then placed in giant frozen popsicle containers, soon to be turned into Famous Frosty Freezies.
David Attenborough reveals the fascinating lives of snakes, the most misunderstood group of reptiles. A CCTV stakeout of wild rattlesnakes hunting shows, for the first time, what sophisticated predators they truly are. Attenborough is also on the receiving end of a spitting cobra's chemical weapons system, while the surprisingly beautiful and tender side of snakes is displayed in the sinuous courtship of kingsnakes, and the water birth of 15 beautiful yellow anaconda babies.
Documentary series about a group of children at three schools in rural China. Xiuning county may be 1000 miles from Beijing, but that hasn't stopped Olympic fever reaching its schools ahead of China's first time hosting the games. It's Autumn and, after the heat of summer and exams, students hit the sports field. With 3400 students, Haiyang Middle school is the largest school in the county so sports day is a mammoth undertaking for the deputy head teacher; for school radio DJ Zha Yujie, it's the highlight of the year. Ping Min primary school holds its first sports day ever. Young champion Dai Deli is determined to take gold.
Award-winning British Asian comedy sketch show, starring Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia.
Psychological horror in which five children find a woman dressed in a Santa costume at the bottom of a pit deep in the woods. At first they intend to help her, but they soon find out that she is a dangerous criminal with lots of cash. Since they want her money, they decide to let her stay in the pit until she reveals where she has hidden the money, but they are unprepared for a dramatic turn of events when she escapes.
Verity Sharp introduces baritone Matthias Goerne singing a selection from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony conducted by Paavo Jarvi. Also, Weber's Oberon Overture and Schoenberg's orchestration of Brahms's ambitious Piano Quartet.
WEDNESDAY 30 APRIL 2008
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00b40vj)
The latest news from around the world.
WED 19:30 Pop Go the Sixties (b0088xvn)
Series 1
The Johnny Harris Orchestra
A colourful nugget of pop mined from the BBC's archive, as the Johnny Harris Band perform Satisfaction.
WED 19:35 Batman (b00b5q6q)
Series 2
Deep Freeze
Fantasy adventure series. The Dynamic Duo set their sights on thwarting Mr Freeze, who has threatened to turn the city into a giant glacier unless he is given one billion dollars.
WED 20:00 Life in Cold Blood (b00936vz)
Armoured Giants
David Attenborough meets the reptile heavyweights - the tortoises, turtles and crocodiles, showing what it's like to live within a suit of armour, and revealing a dynamic, warm and caring side to these ancient giants.
Mating giant tortoises fit together like spoons, green turtles passionately mate in tropical seas, a mother spectacled caiman rescues a huge creche of babies and sophisticated saltwater crocodiles ambush fish just like bears catching salmon.
WED 21:00 A History of Britain by Simon Schama (b0074l0y)
Series 1
King Death
Simon Schama continues his look at British history with the Black Death, the horror of medieval Britain. Those it did not kill were condemned to suffer decades of anarchy and unrest, not least King Richard II. But it created an unlikely breed of survivor - the country gent.
WED 22:00 El Cid (b0077tfh)
The epic story of the 11th-century Spanish hero Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, better known as El Cid. Involved in a tempestuous marriage to the beautiful Chimene, Rodrigo plots against various royal factions to gain power after the death of King Ferdinand, but his greatest campaign is to rid Spain of its Moorish invaders. He drives the Moors to their last outpost - Valencia - for a tumultuous and decisive battle.
WED 00:50 Selling the Sixties (b009364s)
Documentary about Madison Avenue, home of the American advertising business, a semi-mythical place where the dreams of a new, affluent society were spun in the early 1960s. These were the 'days of heaven', when the country felt to many like a land of plenty and a land of hope - politics was reinvigorated thanks to a product known as new, improved JFK, consumerism was on the up and the challenges of Vietnam, feminism and the counter-culture still lay in the future.
Includes contributions from advertising legend George Lois and writer Gay Talese.
WED 01:50 David Ogilvy: Original Mad Man (b009pg3d)
Documentary about pioneering British advertising executive and self-proclaimed genius, David Ogilvy, who led a revolution in advertising, feeding dreams and shaping aspirations with famous campaigns, slogans and jingles. He started what eventually would become conglomerate Ogilvy and Mather in 1948 and the film reveals the extremes and eccentricities of the man through interviews with those who knew him and worked with him, including his widow and son and authors Peter Mayle and Fay Weldon.
WED 02:50 Timeshift (b0094yzq)
Series 7
The Rise and Fall of the Ad Man
Cultural commentator Peter York takes a characteristically insightful and witty look at the changing fortunes of British advertising through the story of the personalities who led it through its highs and lows.
Inspired by the maverick US advertisers of Madison Avenue, a new generation of British ad men created a unique style of advertising based on authentic British culture. It tapped into home-grown humour and marketed itself as almost a branch of the arts. During the 1970s, British ads came to be regarded as the best in the world.
But as York shows, the same combination of ambition, big spending and oversized egos which fed British advertising's glorious rise also led to a disastrous fall when the business climate changed in the 1980s. Now the British ad man has had to reinvent himself for a new, global market.
York gets the extraordinary inside story from top British advertising figures past and present including Alan Parker, David Puttnam, Tim Bell, Frank Lowe and the most successful ad man in the world today, Martin Sorrell.
THURSDAY 01 MAY 2008
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00b413l)
The latest news from around the world.
THU 19:30 In Search of Medieval Britain (b00b413n)
Heartlands
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. Exploring the life of the commoner, she discovers the origins of precedent in common law and uncovers the foundations of modern parliament in a bloody power struggle.
THU 20:00 Sacred Music (b03d09b3)
Series 1
The Gothic Revolution
Documentary series in which actor and former chorister Simon Russell Beale explores the flowering of Western sacred music.
He begins his journey at Notre Dame in Paris, where an enigmatic medieval music manuscript provides the key to the early development of polyphony - music of 'many voices'. Featuring music performed by members of the award-winning choir The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers.
THU 21:00 Inside the Medieval Mind (b00b413s)
Belief
Leading authority on the Middle Ages, Professor Robert Bartlett, presents a series which examines the way we thought during medieval times. Our forebears believed they shared the world with the dead and that angels and demons battled for control of human souls. As the church's grip on our beliefs increased, men and women were dragged before religious courts and multitudes were killed in the name of God.
THU 22:00 Crusades (b00b413v)
Jihad
Terry Jones describes how the crusaders lost Jerusalem in 1144 to Zengi, the Arab leader. A second crusade fell foul of Zengi's son, Nur el-Din, who planned to surround the crusaders by gaining control of Egypt. For this he employed a Kurdish general - Shirkuh - and his nephew Saladin. After Nur el-Din's mysterious death, Saladin succeeded him in Damascus, a daunting figure who was wholly committed to the jihad, or holy war.
THU 22:50 Mad Men (b00b3zd3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Sunday]
THU 23:40 Chinese School (b00b40pk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
THU 00:40 In Search of Medieval Britain (b00b413n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 01:10 Inside the Medieval Mind (b00b413s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 02:10 The Book Quiz (b00b3zk8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Monday]
THU 02:40 In Search of Medieval Britain (b00b413n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 03:10 Inside the Medieval Mind (b00b413s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 02 MAY 2008
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00b41h0)
The latest news from around the world.
FRI 19:30 Transatlantic Sessions (b0080w4g)
Series 3
Episode 4
Folk musicians come together in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever'. Iris DeMent and Phil Cunningham are among the performers. There is also a piping duet from Scotland's Fred Morrison and Ireland's Michael McGoldrick with backing from Donal Lunny.
FRI 20:00 Darcey Bussell's Ten Best Ballet Moments (b008l3dd)
Darcey Bussell, who retired from the Royal Ballet in 2007, introduces and demonstrates some of her favourite ballet moments with dancers Roberto Bolle and Jonathan Cope.
Featuring some of her own performances and archive highlights, with music ranging from Scott Joplin to Tchaikovsky.
The ballets include Giselle, The Nutcracker and a classic performance by Margot Fonteyn in Swan Lake.
FRI 21:00 James Taylor: One Man Band (b00b41h2)
Singer-songwriter James Taylor showcases material from the past 40 years including You've Got A Friend and Sweet Baby James in a series of concerts at the Colonial Theatre in the Berkshires, while interviews and rare archive footage tell the stories behind some of Taylor's most beloved hits.
FRI 22:05 Hotel California: LA from the Byrds to the Eagles (b0074t87)
Documentary looking at the music and mythology of a golden era in Californian culture, and telling the story of how Los Angeles changed from a kooky backwater in the early 1960s to become the artistic and industrial hub of the American music industry by the end of the 1970s.
Alongside extensive and never before seen archive footage, the programme features comprehensive first-hand accounts of the key figures including musicians (David Crosby, Graham Nash, J. D. Souther, Bernie Leadon and Bonnie Raitt, music industry bosses (David Geffen, Jac Holzman, Ron Stone and Peter Asher) and legendary LA scenesters including Henry Diltz, Pamela Des Barres and Ned Doheny.
The film explores how the socially-conscious folk rock of young hippies with acoustic guitars was transformed into the coked-out stadium excess of the late 1970s and the biggest selling album of all time.
FRI 23:40 In Concert (b007rm8l)
James Taylor
A classic concert from 1971 by American singer-songwriter James Taylor.
FRI 00:20 The Avengers (b0074tgk)
Series 5
The See-Through Man
Fantasy drama series. An invisible guest pays a visit to the Ministry's records office, while Steed and Mrs Peel follow a trail to an inventor who has made an extraordinary breakthrough.
FRI 01:10 James Taylor: One Man Band (b00b41h2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:10 Darcey Bussell's Ten Best Ballet Moments (b008l3dd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRI 03:10 Transatlantic Sessions (b0084lmp)
Series 3
Episode 6
Folk musicians come together in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever'. Features Cara Dillon with Paul Brady, Darrell Scott, Aly Bain, Jerry Douglas, Michael McGoldrick, Donal Lunny and Bruce Molsky.