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 explores the most mysterious region on the whole map - Scotland, a nation so young it still had no capital, where wolves reigned over its highland wilderness and gangsters terrorised its border lands.
Kirsty Wark presents the grand final of the literary panel game, as Wendy Holden and Giles Coren do battle with Daisy Goodwin and David Aaronovitch.
1980s adaption of the John le Carre novel. With Magnus Pym working in Washington with Axel, the heads of GB and US intelligence argue over his loyalty. As Jack Brotherhood doggedly defends him, Pym finds sanctuary in a remote seaside town in England.
1980s adaption of the John le Carre novel. On hearing of Rick's death, Pym and Mary return to Vienna. Pym then rushes off to England but fails to return to Vienna as planned.
1980s adaption of the John le Carre novel. While Brotherhood and his agents search the Vienna house for clues to Pym's disapearance, Axel makes contact with Mary.
Historian Michael Wood presents a portrait of ordinary people living through extraordinary times, tracing the story of a real-life peasant of 14th-century Hertfordshire.
She wasn't a famous person, or of noble blood, yet Christina's story is important in understanding our own roots. In this time of war, famine, floods, climate change and the Black Death are the beginnings of the end of serfdom, the growth of individual freedom and the start of a market economy.
Wood recounts the history of medieval Britain told not from the top of society, but from the bottom. Through the lives of Christina and her fellow villagers, we see how the most volatile century in British history played a crucial role in shaping the character and destiny of a nation, and its people.
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.
SUNDAY 11 MAY 2008
SUN 19:00 Inside the Medieval Mind (b00b6w6m)
Power
Professor Robert Bartlett lays bare the brutal framework of the medieval class system, where inequality was part of the natural order, the life of serfs little better than those of animals and the knight's code of chivalry more one of caste solidarity than morality. Yet a social revolution would transform relations between those with absolute power and those with none.
SUN 20:00 Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (b0078p0y)
The Peasant
History series with Monty Python star and medieval enthusiast Terry Jones. The popular image of a medieval peasant is a person dirty, diseased and downtrodden, little more than a slave. However, Terry discovers that the medieval peasant was in fact literate, emancipated, highly political, legally savvy, house-proud and healthy (albeit with terrible breath).
SUN 20:30 Terry Jones' Medieval Lives (b0078p4l)
The Monk
Monty Python star and medieval enthusiast, Terry Jones, takes us on a tour of the Middle Ages, destroying old myths and discovering extraordinary stories of real people. This week, Terry investigates the truth behind the cloistered medieval monk, whose ideal of giving up the world for a life of prayer and isolation was all too often undermined by an ability to make money out of almost anything, from sheep to iron smelting.
SUN 21:00 Christina: A Medieval Life (b00b6ksc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:55 on Saturday]
SUN 22:00 Mad Men (b00bbslg)
Series 1
Indian Summer
Drama series set in the world of advertising in 1960s New York. While Peggy is assigned to a difficult project, Don grabs an opportunity provided by Roger's latest work problems. Pete has more problems at home and at the office. Betty's frustrations lead her to seek some new relief. Peggy goes on a blind date.
SUN 22:45 Fever: The Music of Peggy Lee (b00b6wf1)
Documentary charting the chequered life and legendary music of Peggy Lee. With contibutions from k.d.lang, Nancy Sinatra, Leiber and Stoller, Quincy Jones and Andy Williams, and featuring duets with Mel Torme, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby and Dean Martin.
SUN 23:45 Kings of Cool: The Crooners (b007c6n3)
Honor Blackman narrates a celebration of some of the most stylish musical icons of the last century, the crooners such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett and Andy Williams. Featuring interviews with friends, family members and the new breed of crooners such as Michael Buble and Jamie Cullum.
SUN 00:25 The World of Nat King Cole (b0074qxl)
A portrait of the popular entertainer Nat King Cole, which uses a combination of rare and unseen archive including home movies, performances, and interviews to shed an intimate new light on the man behind the silky voice. Interviewees include Stevie Wonder, Andre 3000 Benjamin of Outkast, Whoopi Goldberg, Carlos Santana, Harry Connick Jr, Tony Bennett, BB King, Jools Holland, Quincy Jones, Baz Luhrmann and the entire Cole family.
SUN 01:55 Inside the Medieval Mind (b00b6w6m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
SUN 02:55 Christina: A Medieval Life (b00b6ksc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:55 on Saturday]
MONDAY 12 MAY 2008
MON 19:00 World News Today (b00bf6dt)
The latest news from around the world.
MON 19:30 Living with Modernism (b0074shk)
Episode 1
Simon Davies presents a series looking at modernist homes in the UK and the people who live in them. This edition visits the Hertfordshire home of architect George Marsh, a distinctive building with an extraordinary paraboloid roof.
MON 20:00 The Life of Mammals (b007c0ys)
A Winning Design
David Attenborough looks at why mammals are the most successful creatures on the planet. Mammals have adapted to live almost anywhere - from freezing polar regions, to the hottest deserts and from steaming jungles, to the world's vast oceans. They survive on a great variety of different foods and it's what they eat that so often determines their behaviour - and that of course, includes our own.
In Australia, there are two mammals that still lay eggs, one being the bizarre-looking platypus. Before now no one had ever seen inside their breeding burrows but using the latest optical probes, David is able to watch, for the very first time, a platypus mother with her newly hatched baby and sees it feeding on that other uniquely mammalian substance- milk.
Most Australian mammals give birth to tiny, embryo-like babies, which crawl into the safety of their mother's pouch, where attached to a rich milk supply they complete their growth. These are the marsupials - the kangaroos and wombats, possums and numbats, rock-hopping wallabies and more, and they feed on everything from termites and nectar, to the most noxious eucalyptus leaves that would quickly kill any other animal except a koala! Grey kangaroos might be renowned for their hopping speed but big males are also the kick-boxing champions of the world.
There are also a few marsupials in South America, such as the strange yapok which catches fish in the dark purely by feel. But a different group of mammals, whose babies develop inside the womb and are nurtured through a remarkable organ - the placenta - has come to dominate the rest of the world.
MON 21:00 50 Not Out (b007wh7s)
Special programme exploring the multi-faceted career of Stephen Fry. Contributors including Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, Michael Parkinson and Russell Brand help celebrate Fry's status as one of the nation's best-loved performers. Includes clips from A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, Blackadder and QI.
MON 22:00 Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg Press (b009wynj)
Stephen Fry examines the story behind the first media entrepreneur, printing press inventor Johann Gutenberg, to find out why he did it and how, a story which involves both historical enquiry and hands-on craft and technology. Fry travels across Europe to find out how Gutenberg kept his development work secret, about the role of avaricious investors and unscrupulous competitors and why Gutenberg's approach started a cultural revolution. He then sets about building a copy of Gutenberg's press.
MON 23:00 Clarissa and the King's Cookbook (b00b6vl6)
We Brits love our cookbooks - every year we buy millions of them and treat our celebrity chefs like royalty. But where did it all begin? Self-confessed medieval foodie Clarissa Dickson Wright tracks down Britain's oldest known cookbook, The Forme of Cury. This 700-year-old scroll was written during the reign of King Richard II from recipes created by the king's master chefs. How this ancient manuscript influenced the way people eat today? On her culinary journey through medieval history she reawakens recipes that have lain dormant for centuries and discovers dishes that are still prepared now.
MON 23:30 Timeshift (b0074sh1)
Series 6
The Da Vinci Code - The Greatest Story Ever Sold
After Dan Brown's publishing phenomenon The Da Vinci Code was cleared of plagiarism charges, this documentary explores the climate which has permitted a fictional story to make such an effective challenge to conventional history that it has forced a counter-attack from the Church, the art world and academics. Has Brown cracked the most difficult code of all our 21st-century cultural DNA?
Contributors include Richard Leigh, author of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, art critic Brian Sewell, novelist Sarah Dunant, columnist David Aaronovitch and Opus Dei director Jack Valero.
MON 00:30 50 Not Out (b007wh7s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
MON 01:30 Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg Press (b009wynj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
MON 02:30 Living with Modernism (b0074shk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
MON 03:00 Timeshift (b0074sh1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:30 today]
TUESDAY 13 MAY 2008
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00bbt5g)
The latest news from around the world.
TUE 19:30 Pop Go the Sixties (b008790l)
Series 1
The Moody Blues
A colourful nugget of pop by the Moody Blues, mined from the BBC's archive.
TUE 19:35 Batman (b00bdv5w)
Series 2
Marsha, Queen of Diamonds
Fantasy adventure series. The evil Marsha, having stolen the priceless Pretzel diamond, forces Batman to marry her. Can our hero find a ring big enough?
TUE 20:00 Art of Spain (b008vsgz)
The Moorish South
Critic and art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon travels from southern to northern Spain to tell the story of some of Europe's most exciting and vital art. For 700 years, most of Spain was an Islamic state, and the south was its beating heart. Under the Moors, Spain became the most advanced, wealthy and populous country in Europe. Andrew travels to Cordoba, Seville and Granada, visiting beautiful Moorish palaces and mosques, telling the story of one of the most colourful and sophisticated cultures to ever appear in Europe.
TUE 21:00 What Happened Next? (b00bbt5j)
Global Village Trucking Co
Series which finds out what happened to people featured in past documentaries. In 1973 the BBC made a film about Global Village Trucking Co., a rock group living in a Norfolk commune with their families, friends, roadies and managers. Their aim was to be self-reliant, and to make it big without a record label. As they reunite for their first gig in 30 years, we find out what's become of the group's members and whether they sold out or maintained their alternative ideals.
TUE 22:00 Goodness Gracious Me (b00bbt5l)
Series 3
Episode 5
Comedy sketch show featuring Sanjeev Bhaskar, Meera Syal, Nina Wadia and Kulvinder Ghir.
TUE 22:30 A Real Friend (b00bbt5n)
Spanish horror. Estrella, who has been living with her widowed mother since her father died, is a lively child with a macabre imagination. She loves horror movies and has a whole host of imaginary friends. One day she meets a new friend, a vampire, but this time the friend is real.
TUE 23:40 Art of Spain (b008vsgz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
TUE 00:40 BBC Proms (b007xwcb)
2007
Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev - Prom 59
Petroc Trelawny introduces Valery Gergiev conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in an all Russian programme of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev. It features two fantasy overtures by Tchaikovsky inspired by Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, and Prokofiev's 7th Symphony in C Sharp Minor and his fiendishly virtuosic 2nd Piano Concerto played by Alexander Toradze.
TUE 03:10 What Happened Next? (b00bbt5j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 14 MAY 2008
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00bbth3)
The latest news from around the world.
WED 19:30 Pop Go the Sixties (b008791y)
Series 1
The Shadows
A colourful nugget of pop by The Shadows, mined from the BBC's archive.
WED 19:35 Batman (b00bdv8l)
Series 2
Marsha's Scheme of Diamonds
Fantasy adventure series. Is Marsha about to become Mrs Batman, or can the intrepid Alfred and Aunt Harriet save him? In the end, it all comes down to the Bat-antidote kit.
WED 20:00 Francesco's Venice (b0078sl0)
Blood
Francesco da Mosto tells the fantastic story of the birth of the most beautiful city in the world, Venice. Of how a city of palaces, of gold and jewels, of art and unrivalled treasures arose out of the swamp of a malaria-ridden lagoon.
Of how one city came to enjoy all the glory of a royal capital yet did away with kings and queens; of how a tomb violently robbed would make an entire people rich; and of how one man - tortured and blinded by his enemies - would lead Venice to a revenge so terrible it would go down in history as one of the worst crimes ever.
Da Mosto reveals the stunning interiors of the Doge's Palace, the Basilica of St Mark, the Ca da Mosto, the Ca D'Oro and the first low-level aerial shots of the city in years. As a Venetian by birth whose family has lived there for over a thousand years, Da Mosto also reveals secret Venice - beset by violence and political intrigue and yet a place which has become the most romantic destination on earth.
WED 21:00 Storyville (b00bbth5)
The Battle for Jerusalem
As part of a season marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel, Liran Atzmor's film documents a battle that took place in the Old City of Jerusalem in 1948 from three points of view - photojournalist John Philips, whose pictures for Life magazine depicted the Jews being evacuated from the Old City; Jack Padwa, the producer of a feature film which tells the story from a Jewish British perspective; and photographer Ali Zaarour, who tells the story from the Palestinian viewpoint.
WED 21:50 Storyville (b00bbth7)
My Israel
Part of a season marking the 60th Anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, a documentary about Yulie Cohen, a patriotic Israeli who survived a terrorist attack in London that killed a colleague. Her later friendship with a Palestinian changed her life and led her to attempt to free the surviving terrorist who attacked her, to question the myths of the state that she grew up in and to reconcile with her ultra-orthodox brother after 25 years of estrangement.
WED 23:10 Absolute Zero (b007v3c1)
The Conquest of Cold
Absolute Zero is the ultimate limit of cold – a Holy Grail as exciting for scientists as the North and South Poles were to the great polar explorers. The Conquest of Cold is an epic journey from dark beginnings to an ultra-cool frontier. For thousands of years it seemed like a malevolent force associated with death and darkness. Nobody had any idea what it was, much less how to harness its effects. Yet in the last hundred years cold has transformed the way we live and work. It is hard to imagine life without refrigeration, air conditioning and liquefied gases that are used in everything from MRI scanners to space rockets.
The Conquest of Cold charts the attempts of many great names in science such as Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, Michael Faraday and Antoinne Lavoisier to grapple with the perplexing mystery of cold. Beginning with the father of air conditioning, a 17th century alchemist, who turned summer into winter inside the Great Hall of Westminster; and ending with the father of frozen food, Clarence Birdseye, this film traces the remarkable history of how science enabled us to conquer the cold.
WED 00:10 What Happened Next? (b00bbt5j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 01:10 Storyville (b00bbth5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 02:00 Storyville (b00bbth7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:50 today]
WED 03:20 Absolute Zero (b007v3c1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:10 today]
THURSDAY 15 MAY 2008
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00bbxqp)
The latest news from around the world.
THU 19:30 In Search of Medieval Britain (b00bbxqr)
West Country
Medieval art historian, Dr Alixe Bovey, uses the oldest surviving route map of Britain to make a series of journeys through Britain asit was in the Middle Ages. In the West Country, she investigates some of the myths and legends depicted on the Gough Map and discovers how these were used to legitimise wars and empires.
THU 20:00 All About Thunderbirds (b008lz78)
Documentary telling the story of enduring 1960s children's animated marionette show, Thunderbirds. Creator Gerry Anderson, as well as cast, crew and fans, reveal how space travel and new technology promised an exciting future, as Thunderbirds captured the spirit of the age. There's a look at how Gerry's team created futuristic special effects from their humble studios in Slough and why the show was axed after just 32 episodes. Contributors include the voice of Lady Penelope, Sylvia Anderson.
THU 21:00 Storyville (b00bbxqt)
Flipping Out - Israel's Drug Generation
As part of a season marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel, Yoav Shamir's documentary looks at why so many young Israelis use their National Service discharge bonus to go backpacking in northern India and Goa, with a high proportion experimenting with drugs and consequently suffering mental breakdowns.
THU 22:00 Panorama (b009s80q)
The Challenge of the 60s
In 1960, an edition of Panorama saw Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day and James Mossman ask world leaders and scientists including Nehru and Bernard Lovell how they thought the world would change in the decade ahead. Now, current experts and diplomats including Lord Hurd, Christopher Mallaby and Lovell assess the predictions of January 1960 and recall their own, first-hand experiences of some of the most significant events of the decade, from the Cuba missile crisis to the first man on the moon.
THU 23:00 Mad Men (b00bbslg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Sunday]
THU 23:45 Monsoon Railway (b007rtzs)
Part 1
Director Gerry Troyna paints an affectionate portrait of the Indian railway culture.
Indian Railways is a vast organisation, employing 1,500,000 people and catering for every aspect of their lives from cradle to grave. The documentary follows three typical employees as they face the annual battle to keep trains running during the monsoon season.
THU 00:40 In Search of Medieval Britain (b00bbxqr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 01:10 Panorama (b009s80q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
THU 02:10 Monsoon Railway (b007rtzs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:45 today]
THU 03:05 In Search of Medieval Britain (b00bbxqr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 03:35 Panorama (b009s80q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRIDAY 16 MAY 2008
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00bbxxn)
The latest news from around the world.
FRI 19:30 Transatlantic Sessions (b00804d3)
Series 2
Episode 2
Music programme featuring the best of bluegrass, cajun, folk, country and more. Jerry Douglas demonstrates his Grammy-award-winning dobro skills. Other highlights include Eddi Reader with Tim O'Brien, Julie Fowlis with Donal Lunny, and Darrell Scott backed by Karen Matheson.
FRI 20:00 Eurovision Young Musicians (b00bbxxq)
2008
Some of Europe's most talented musicians gather in Vienna to compete for the coveted title of Eurovision Young Musician 2008. As they battle it out, will the UK entrant, harmonica player Philip Achille, be one of the lucky seven who make it through to the final to perform in front of 50,000 people in Vienna's City Hall Square?
FRI 21:00 Genesis: Come Rain or Shine (b00bbxxs)
Behind-the-scenes documentary following the re-formed Genesis's 22-date 2007 European stadium tour. With the first show in Helsinki eight months away, Tony Banks, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford get together in a rehearsal studio with the rest of the band, to see if they can recapture the old magic. The stakes are high, and as time runs out the preparations are dogged by technical problems and creative challenges, but there's a lot of merriment too.
FRI 22:00 When in Rome: Genesis in Concert (b00bbxxv)
Re-formed rock band Genesis recorded live at a free concert in front of 500,000 fans in Rome's ancient Circo Massimo. As darkness descends, it's a breathtaking spectacle, with a sweeping, curvaceous stage and huge graphics screens failing to dwarf the sound of a supergroup reborn. The band serve up plenty of old favourites like Land of Confusion, No Son of Mine, the post-Gabriel hit Follow You, Follow Me and Genesis's first-ever charting single, 1973's I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe).
FRI 23:30 The Avengers (b0074rz6)
Series 5
The Winged Avenger
Steed and Mrs Peel fly into action when a mysterious avenger - apparently with the ability to fly - murders evil, ruthless businessmen.
FRI 00:20 The Avengers (b0074s0f)
Series 5
The Living Dead
1960s crime drama series. Steed and Emma go into the country to investigate rumours that a ghost has been seen in the private chapel of the Duke of Benedict.
FRI 01:10 All About Thunderbirds (b008lz78)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Thursday]
FRI 02:10 Eurovision Young Musicians (b00bbxxq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRI 03:10 Transatlantic Sessions (b00804d3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]