SATURDAY 12 JULY 2008
SAT 19:00 Tiger - Spy in the Jungle (b009r259)
Episode 1
Elephants carrying Trunkcam, Tuskcam and other spy cameras tell the story of four cubs growing up in the Indian jungle.
From the day their eyes open and they tumble out of the den, Tiger - Spy in the Jungle captures the lives of four tiger cubs as they grow up alongside their devoted mother. The elephants continue to film the young stars as they grow into adult hunters. Over two years, the elephants help capture the most intimate portrayal of tigers ever filmed. They also reveal the secret life of the other extraordinary creatures of the Indian jungle.
In the first programme, the elephants come upon the four 10-day-old tiger cubs. This is their mother's first litter and she has her paws full as they tumble from the den, only to be carried back to safety in her massive jaws.
As they grow they move from her milk onto meat. Fortunately the tigress is a skilled hunter. Charger, their imposing father, keeps his distance but helps to protect his vulnerable offspring from rogue male tigers and leopards. As they grow, they face encounters with sloth bears, pythons and pangolins. Their mother keeps them safe, until one day the cubs are left home alone and their arch rival, an Indian leopard, is about.
SAT 20:00 Fitzcarraldo (b00cl39k)
Werner Herzog's 1982 classic set in early 20th century Peru. To achieve his dream of building an opera house in the Peruvian rainforest, Brian 'Fitzcarraldo' Fitzgerald leases an inaccessible tract of land rich in rubber, hoping to mine it. But to reach it, deep in the Amazon, he must enlist the help of the natives in an outlandish plan to move his steamship across land from one river to another.
SAT 22:30 Aguirre, Wrath of God (b0074rnc)
Spectacularly set in the jungles of South America, Werner Herzog's historical adventure charts a Spanish conquistador's descent into madness as he seizes control of a group of 16th-century explorers and leads them on an obsessive quest for El Dorado, the lost city of gold.
SAT 00:05 imagine... (b00ccgp3)
Summer 2008
Imagine... Werner Herzog: Beyond Reason
Alan Yentob meets the renowned German film director, Werner Herzog. Legendary for his refusal to compromise in his search for 'the real truth,' Herzog has a reputation for pushing cast, crew and studios to the absolute limit.
With footage from the director's extensive back-catalogue, including Rescue Dawn, Grizzly Man, Even Dwarfs Started Small and Fitzcarraldo, Yentob gives an insight into one of modern cinema's most surprising and complex fimmakers.
SAT 01:05 The Carpenters: A World of Music (b00cjn9c)
Karen and Richard Carpenter concluded their 1976 British tour with this specially-recorded programme. Songs include There's A Kind of Hush, I Need to be in Love, Close to You, Strike up the Band, Top of the World, Only Yesterday, I Won't Last a Day Without You, Hurting Each Other, Superstar, Goodbye to Love, We've Only Just Begun and Yesterday Once More.
SAT 01:50 Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story (b007cllb)
The Carpenters were one of the biggest selling pop artists of the 1970s, but what seemed on the surface as the perfect, wholesome brother and sister duo hid a destructive complex truth that was unknown to the world.
Featuring behind the scenes footage, interviews with brother Richard, family and friends, this documentary traces the story that ended in tragedy with sister Karen's untimely death aged just 32.
SAT 02:50 The Carpenters (b00cjn99)
1971 concert featuring the Carpenters performing Close to You, Help, Love is Surrender, Superstar, And When He Smiles, Rainy Days and Mondays, Sacre Bleu, A Bacharach and David Medley, For All We Know, Sometimes and We've Only Just Begun.
SUNDAY 13 JULY 2008
SUN 19:00 Tiger - Spy in the Jungle (b009v6nv)
Episode 2
Wildlife documentary. David Attenborough narrates the lives of four growing tiger cubs using footage collected by hidden-camera-carrying elephants.
The half-grown cubs are learning the hunting and fighting skills they will need as adults. Play-fighting erupts between them - it looks nasty, but their claws are never drawn. These bouts of boxing, caught on ele-cams, create an extraordinary spectacle.
Other jungle characters are filmed with logcams. Leopards are a real threat to the growing cubs while the deer make good hunting practice. The young tigers have huge appetites and their mother must hunt every day if she is to keep them fit.
When they are not eating, playing or fighting, the cubs sleep - and tigers love water, so a water hole is the perfect spot to cool off on a steaming day. The spy-cams also show that the jungle pools are a magnet for a whole array of forest animals, including wild boars and sloth bears.
The cubs are starting to behave as individuals and take personal hunting tuition from their mother. Then disaster strikes when both their parents are injured and a rogue male tiger puts in an appearance. They still have a lot to learn.
SUN 20:00 Himalaya with Michael Palin (b0074qsf)
Bhutan to Bay of Bengal
In Bhutan, Palin finds himself back in the land of yaks for a last look at the high Himalaya. Trekking to Chomolhari base camp he meets a nomad with a penchant for yak songs before heading down to Paro to witness the Buddhist festival or Tsechu. In a bar in Thimphu, he discusses reincarnation and the pursuit of happiness with Benji and Khendum, two of the king's cousins, and en route to Bangladesh is taken by Benji to see the rare black-neck cranes.
On his journey south through Bangladesh, Michael visits the ship-breaking beaches of Chittagong and grid-locked Dhaka. He meets a man who made a fortune in Birmingham in the poultry business, and a woman who lends money only to women. On a 1920s paddle steamer he is serenaded with the words of Bengal's Shakespeare, and he completes his epic Himalayan journey aboard a fishing boat that carries him out into the Bay of Bengal and a westering sun.
SUN 21:00 Joanna Lumley in the Kingdom of the Thunder Dragon (b00cl3zb)
Documentary following Joanna Lumley as she retraces the steps of her grandfather to Bhutan, the last of the Buddhist kingdoms untouched by western technology. In 1931, Colonel Weir, bestowed on the King of Bhutan the Knight Commander of the Indian empire.
SUN 22:10 Natural World (b0077xh7)
1995-1996
Himalaya
A look at the variety of wildlife in the Himalayas, from the valleys of Bhutan to the glaciers of Karakoram to the lush forests of Nepal to frozen wastes of Tibet.
SUN 23:00 Tribe (b007zml8)
Series 3
Layap
Bruce Parry treks into the high mountains in the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan to live with the isolated Layap people - devout Buddhists and yak herders who are cut off from the outside world for six months a year by deep snow. Bruce begins a spiritual journey as he tries to understand the life of a devout Buddhist.
SUN 00:00 The Accidental Angler (b00793yb)
Bhutan
Charles Rangeley-Wilson journeys across the world to locate unusual fish and the stories behind them. In the early 1900s brown trout were introduced to Bhutan's rivers from a Scottish loch and it is here that Charles travels, hoping to find his fishing Shangri-la. His permit granted by the King allows him a week's fishing and he tries the beautiful spring-fed stream of the Gangtey Valley and on to the torrential Tang River, the most sacred in Bhutan.
SUN 01:00 Born to Be Wild (b00ccfft)
Mammals
All over Britain, there is a secret army of dedicated people. They spend millions of hours watching over our wildlife. In the first of this six-part series, mammal watchers come under the spotlight. Mammal enthusiasts have to be truly dedicated, because most of our furry creatures are extremely difficult to see. Many are elusive and fast moving, so it takes real skill just to find them. We go into the rafters of a haunted mansion to spot bats, into the depths of a wood to discover a sleepy dormouse, stand out in the pouring rain to catch a glimpse of a brown hare - and for the elusive otter, our poor naturalist has to be content with its poo.
Britain has a long tradition of amateur naturalists taking to the wilds to pursue their passions. Due to them, we have the best-known wildlife of any country on Earth. Our mammal watchers are playing their part, each providing unique information about their beloved animal.
SUN 01:30 Everest: Getting to the Bottom of the Mountain (b0074nz8)
A look at the world's highest mountain in its various guises - Mother Goddess, symbol of human achievement, ruthless killer and latter-day tourist attraction. Contributors include Chris Bonington, Rheinhold Messner and Doug Scott.
SUN 02:30 Everest ER (b0074svy)
Documentary following a team of volunteer doctors caring for the climbers and Sherpas at Everest Base Camp in Nepal. Over the ten-week Everest season, they coordinate dramatic helicopter rescues and treat hundreds of climbers for altitude sickness and frostbite.
SUN 03:30 Born to Be Wild (b00ccfft)
[Repeat of broadcast at
01:00 today]
MONDAY 14 JULY 2008
MON 19:00 World News Today (b00cl4pc)
The latest news from around the world.
MON 19:30 Pop Go the Sixties (b0088xv2)
Series 1
Helen Shapiro
A colourful nugget of pop mined from the BBC's archive, as Helen Shapiro performs Walking Back to Happiness.
MON 19:35 Batman (b00cmthf)
Series 2
Penguin Is a Girl's Best Friend
Batman and Robin are coerced by Penguin to appear in a movie, with Batman forced to do 100 takes of a kissing scene with Marsha, Queen of Diamonds.
MON 20:00 The Life of Mammals (b007c1vc)
Food for Thought
David Attenborough concludes his documentary series with a programme about our closest animal relatives, the intelligent great apes, and finds out how their large brains enabled one of their kind, an upright ape, to go on to dominate the planet. David travels to the forests of Borneo to meet a remarkable orangutan with a passion for DIY and a talent for rowing boats. He shifts continent to Africa and takes part in a special nut-cracking lesson with a group of chimps learning survival skills. He discovers how food - and the ways apes find it - has been key to the evolution of our large brains.
Filmed for the first time, the chimps of Ngogo hunt down monkeys to supplement their vegetarian diet with meat. Our ancestors must have also hunted for meat, but with one crucial difference - they did so on two feet. David meets an extraordinary group of wading chimps that give us a unique window into our past, the moment when we took a step away from being apes and a step towards humanity. As soon as they stood upright, humans began to manipulate their environment, transforming the very surface of the planet by domesticating plants and animals. This most successful of all mammals has been able to increase the supply of food beyond that which occurred naturally. As a result the number of human beings could increase. David travels to the ruins of the capital of the Maya people to trace the rise and fall of an entire human civilisation. The temples of Tikal used to be the highest buildings in the Americas until the skyscrapers of New York were built. So why did the Maya civilisation collapse? Will modern city-dwellers suffer a similar fate?
MON 21:00 The Royle Family (b007chx2)
The Queen of Sheba
Tension mounts in the Royle household as the family contemplate the prospect of becoming fully laminated throughout. Dr Mahmoud prescribes new medication for Nana in the form of yellow tablets; coincidentally they turn out to be the same colour as the tablets that Joe was prescribed for the swelling when he got his mickey stuck in his zip. Meanwhile, a mysterious ginger visitor reminds Nana of her favourite musical.
MON 22:00 I Didnt Know You Cared (b00cnd29)
Series 1
Large or Small, Big or Tall
Sitcom starring the dour Yorkshire-based Brandon family. Mr and Mrs Brandon plan a second honeymoon for their silver wedding anniversary. However, the arrival of the three great aunts from Glossop threatens to put a stop to the celebrations. Luckily, Mrs Brandon has another plan up her sleeve.
MON 22:30 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00cl4ph)
Liz Smith
Mark Lawson talks to the actress Liz Smith about her life and career. She reflects on her lonely childhood and her days as a single mother struggling to make ends meet as well as her determination to become an actress.
Smith got her big break at the age of 50, after being discovered by the film director Mike Leigh, but perhaps she's best known as the nations favourite gran - Nana in the iconic series The Royle Family.
MON 23:30 Play For Today (b00cl4pk)
Series 3
Hard Labour
Mike Leigh's play centres around a middle-aged housewife and charwoman who is abused and exploited by almost everybody, including her daughter-in-law.
MON 00:40 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00cl4ph)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
MON 01:40 All About Abigail's Party (b008569h)
To celebrate its 30th anniversary, a documentary which tells the story of how one of our best-loved plays came into being and explores its enduring appeal.
With interviews with writer Mike Leigh and the cast including Alison Steadman, Janine Duvitski, John Salthouse and Tim Stern, it features the hidden stories behind the play - from the inspiration for the character of Beverly to the suburban houses which influenced the set design – and the reason Mike Leigh can't watch the play today.
MON 02:40 Abigail's Party Pack (b008569j)
A nostalgic dip into the archives to provide the essential music and styles key to anyone hoping to capture the essence of Mike Leigh's play, Abigail's Party. Features Demis Roussos, Tom Jones and Donna Summer, plus fashion and lifestyle gems from the 1970s.
MON 03:10 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00cl4ph)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
TUESDAY 15 JULY 2008
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00cl4vy)
The latest news from around the world.
TUE 19:30 Pop Go the Sixties (b008d011)
Series 1
The Scaffold
A colourful nugget of pop mined from the BBC's archive.
TUE 19:35 Batman (b00cmtjg)
Series 2
Penguin Sets a Trend
Adventures with the Dynamic Duo. Can Batman and Robin foil Penguin's plans to steal classified military information from the Hexagon?
TUE 20:00 Voyages of Discovery (b0074t2w)
Circumnavigation
Explorer Paul Rose reveals the real story behind the first ever circumnavigation of the world.
Ferdinand Magellan set out 500 years ago to find the westward route to the riches of the Spice Islands. But, contrary to popular perception, he never reached them. Rose explains the dramatic sequence of events that led his scurvy-riddled crew to continue around the world without him. The incredible expedition was laced with bloody mutiny and murder, but its achievement was to fundamentally change the lives of the generations that followed, influencing life even today.
TUE 21:00 What Happened Next? (b00cl4w0)
The Skipper
Series which revisits past BBC documentaries looks at a 1993 film about Roger Nowell, skipper of a Cornish trawler. While Roger was in his element on the high seas, back on dry land he was facing bankruptcy. In an update, we find out if he managed to keep his head above water in the intervening 15 years.
TUE 22:00 The Armstrong and Miller Show (b008bycn)
Series 1
Episode 4
Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller star in a sketch show in which scratching beneath the surface of po-faced British respectability reveals a wealth of great characters.
TUE 22:30 Beau Brummell - This Charming Man (b0074smm)
Fast-paced period drama chronicling the rise and fall of the 18th-century dandy and man-about-town. Long before the age of celebrity, Brummell was causing a stir amongst the glitterati of London, with the Prince Regent among his closest friends. Yet his meteoric rise to fame preceded an equally spectacular descent, and he was forced to flee England in 1816.
TUE 23:50 The Twenties in Colour: The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn (b008d3vw)
The Twenties in Colour
The End of a World
Series examining Albert Kahn's 'Archives of the Planet' project, in which he sent photographers around the world to document major events. Features the films shot by Lucien Le Saint with the French fishing fleets in the waters of Newfoundland; the film and colour autochromes shot by Frederic Gadmer during his visit to record voodoo religious practices in Benin; and the experimental colour films produced by Camille Sauvageot in 1928 depicting the lives of French farmers, gypsies and bullfighters.
TUE 00:50 What Happened Next? (b00cl4w0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUE 01:50 Beau Brummell - This Charming Man (b0074smm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
TUE 03:10 Voyages of Discovery (b0074t2w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 16 JULY 2008
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00cl57k)
The latest news from around the world.
WED 19:30 Pop Go the Sixties (b008d06d)
Series 1
Alan Price
A colourful nugget of pop mined from the BBC's archive.
WED 19:35 Batman (b00cmtkh)
Series 2
Penguin's Disastrous End
Penguin has stolen old WWII plans, but why? Marsha performs the dance of the seven veils at the Treasury to help Penguin steal gold bullion.
WED 20:00 Sahara with Michael Palin (b0078zpm)
A Line in the Sand
Series in which Michael Palin explores nine fascinating countries and their cultures during a trek across the Sahara Desert.
It is the size of the United States with the population of Norfolk, but first Michael has to get there. Gibraltar is the launching pad, and with a 21-gun salute in honour of the Queen's birthday ringing in his ears, he crosses the Straits to Tangier in Morocco.
It is only after pausing in Fez and Marrakech, and scaling the High Atlas, that Michael enters real desert. This is hard, hot country, controlled by the Polisario Front who have been in confrontation with the Moroccans for over 25 years. But this inhospitable land is softened by the warmth shown by the Sahawari people, who guide Michael south to the Mauritanian border. Here he climbs aboard the 'longest train in the world', breaking his journey at Chinguetti.
There is just time for Michael to defeat the local champion at a game of desert draughts, played with stalks and camel droppings, before he gets literally taken over by the 24th Paris-Dakar Rally and its sole surviving British entrant, Dave Hammond from Cirencester.
WED 21:00 The Thirties in Colour (b00cl57m)
A World Away
Four-part series using rare, private and commercial film and photographic archives to give poignant and surprising insights into the 1930s, a decade which erupted into colour as polychromatic photographic technology came of age and three important processes - Dufaycolour, Technicolor and Kodachrome - were patented and brought to the market.
This opening part looks at the work of socialite and amateur film-maker, Rosie Newman, who used her high society contacts to secure extraordinary access to the social elite. Between 1928 and her retirement in the 1960s, Newman criss-crossed the globe and shot some of the most important colour documentary footage of the period.
Some of her colour films have been seen before, but this programme features some of Newman's work that has never been broadcast and has not been seen publicly for over 70 years.
WED 22:00 The Bothersome Man (b00cl57p)
Andreas, a middle aged man, arrives in a mysterious and idyllic city with no memory of having travelled there. He is given a nice job with friendly people, but realises there's something decidedly odd about his new surroundings because the food has no taste, his body regenerates every time he injures himself and some grey caretakers are always around.
WED 23:30 The Thirties in Colour (b00cl57m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 00:30 What Happened Next? (b00cl4w0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 01:30 Samuel Johnson Prize (b00cccyc)
2008
The Contenders
A look at the candidates for the prestigious non-fiction literary prize.
WED 02:30 The Thirties in Colour (b00cl57m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 03:30 What Happened Next? (b00cl4w0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
THURSDAY 17 JULY 2008
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00cl5ty)
The latest news from around the world.
THU 19:30 Born to Be Wild (b00cl5v0)
Reptiles and Amphibians
The amateur naturalists are hot on the trail of cold-blooded animals. Reptiles and amphibians are often thought of as slimy and creepy. They're hard to keep a watch over because they're hard to see. But for the dedicated few, it's well worth the effort. One enthusiast has turned his garden into a lizard empire, all with the aim of helping sand lizards back from the brink. Another has turned sleuth, keeping an eye over her local woodland for Britain's most feared wild animal, the adder. One couple have transformed the landscape to create a home fit for the king of newts. And one man stalks the dank marshes at night to hear the melodic chorus of his own population of toads.
The naturalists' passion for these elusive wild animals gives a window onto a hidden world. This programme shows why it's surprisingly easy to get hot under the collar about cold-blooded creatures.
THU 20:00 Alistair Cooke: Postcards from America (b0074nn6)
Alistair Cooke broadcast his Letter from America on Radio Four for more than 50 years. Using film archive and excerpts from his broadcasts, the film covers such events as Kennedy's assassination, the Civil Rights movement and the terrorist atrocities of September 11th.
THU 21:00 The Unseen Alistair Cooke (b00cl5v2)
Marking the 2008 centenary of Alistair Cooke's birth, this documentary is a revealing portrait of one of the most celebrated broadcasters of the 20th Century, whose Radio 4 programme Letter from America spanned 58 years.
Seen for the first time are extraordinary 8mm home movies shot by Cooke from 1933 onwards, charting his discovery of America, his passions and his friendships. This is a chance to see America as Cooke first saw it - the raw material for a lifetime of journalism. Some of the most fascinating of these films were made during his close friendship with Charlie Chaplin. Thought lost for years, they show Chaplin at leisure on his yacht with Paulette Goddard and Cooke, and are among the most candid footage ever shot of the star.
Cooke's story is told in his own voice and in interviews with family and close friends. Both first wife Ruth Emerson Cooke and Jane Cooke - his wife from 1946 - share their memories, and actress Lauren Bacall also recalls their friendship.
THU 22:00 Journeys into the Ring of Fire (b0074sq2)
Series 1
Indonesia
Iain Stewart tours the perilous and spectacular landscape of the Pacific rim to discover how the rocks beneath our feet have shaped human history.
In this edition, he visits the world's most awesome volcanoes in Indonesia. One huge eruption may have wiped out up to three quarters of the world's population. Other mighty explosions caused famine in Europe and the US and influenced everything from the invention of the bicycle to art, religion and literature.
THU 23:00 BBC Four Sessions (b0074tnz)
Ray LaMontagne
Concert of soul-infused country-folk by American singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne and his band, recorded at St Luke's in East London at the conclusion of a UK tour. Bolstered by specially assembled string and brass sections, it features familiar favourites like Trouble and Jolene, alongside tracks from the album Till the Sun Turns Black. Also featuring Three More Days and Can I Stay?
THU 00:00 Born to Be Wild (b00cl5v0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 00:30 The Unseen Alistair Cooke (b00cl5v2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 01:30 Journeys into the Ring of Fire (b0074sq2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
THU 02:30 Born to Be Wild (b00cl5v0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 03:00 The Unseen Alistair Cooke (b00cl5v2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 18 JULY 2008
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00cl625)
The latest news from around the world.
FRI 19:30 A Seaside Parish (b0078prh)
Series 1
Episode 8
Documentary series following Rev Christine Musser in her new Cornish parish. The local coastguard scour the bay for a missing person, daughter Sarah is faced with a life changing decision, and Christine's parishioners come up with a bizarre fundraising idea - a slave auction.
FRI 20:00 Soweto Strings (b008pr86)
An immensely moving and inspiring account of a British music teacher's adventure in the black township of Soweto, enabling kids to transcend the constraints of their environment, and find hope through creative involvement in music.
Under the heavily polluted shadow of one of the giant gold-mining slag heaps near Diepfloof, Soweto, in a township still dominated by violence, AIDS, and poverty, children of all ages play Bach, Mozart and Bartok with a verve and flair unique in the world. They play not because of some neo-missionary do-gooder's devotion, but because they feel drawn to music that is at once exotic and deeply familiar.
The Buskaid Music School in Soweto was founded by a distinguished British viola player Rosemary Nalden, who originally came to South Africa at the invitation of a local music teacher. She was so inspired by what she found there that she stayed, and eventually set up her own school, which struggles to keep going on little funding, but which has established itself as an unusual centre of excellence. The Buskaid String Orchestra has toured Europe and the USA several times and received unanimous praise. The Orchestra was invited to play at the 2007 Proms, where the young Sowetans received standing ovations.
FRI 21:00 Sophiatown (b0074q4t)
Documentary recalling a vanished era in South Africa. During the 1940s and 50s, Sophiatown was an enclave of tolerance amid the insanity of apartheid. Surrounded by whites-only suburbs, this urban centre became the Harlem of Johannesburg - a mixing-pot of music, literature and politics, and a home to gangsters, jazz singers, painters and dreamers.
FRI 22:25 Arena (b0074rmv)
Voices from the Island
Nelson Mandela and his fellow ex-prisoners recall their incarceration on South Africa's Robben Island. For three decades, the island housed not only political prisoners but convicts, lepers and the mentally ill. Yet amidst the hopelessness, Nelson Mandela and his comrades devised strategies and subterfuges with which they transformed life on the island, while the vision of a new South Africa began to take shape. (1994)
FRI 23:55 The Avengers (b0074sg6)
Series 5
The Positive Negative Man
Steed and Emma are called in when an electronics expert from the Ministry of Science is murdered.
FRI 00:45 The Avengers (b0074sgn)
Series 5
Murdersville
Suave detective John Steed marries the delectable Emma Peel, and becomes a father into the bargain. What on earth can be going on?
FRI 01:35 Sophiatown (b0074q4t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 03:00 Soweto Strings (b008pr86)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]