Pop moments from the BBC's sixties archive. Recorded in 1968 for Top of the Pops, Julie Driscoll sings to the smoking hot accompaniment of keyboard wizard Brian Auger's Trinity on their hit version of Bob Dylan's This Wheel's On Fire.
The Riddler robs Batman's charity dinner, and the Gotham City Bank, to raise funds to purchase a destructive De-Molecularizer. Thinking they are posing for life-size marshmallow figures of themselves, Batman and Robin discover they are sinking into quicksand atop a giant cake.
Explorer Paul Rose tells the story of one of the greatest ever sea adventures, which transformed Captain James Cook into a national hero and dramatically changed the course of history. Two and a half centuries later, Captain Cook is still a household name, but his achievements are often misunderstood, contrary to popular perception, he did not discover New Zealand and Australia. Intrepid Rose follows his journey down under and uncovers the real story of Captain Cook.
A look at the life and career of President John F Kennedy. Veteran BBC correspondent Charles Wheeler speaks to key figures of the 60s including Walter Cronkite and Robert McNamara, and he travels across the US and to Berlin, where he himself was based at the time of the assassination.
Charles Wheeler presents a documentary uncovering how Czechoslovakia drove millions of ethnic Germans from their homes in 1945, a mass expulsion sanctioned by wartime Allies which cost thousands of lives.
Scratch beneath the surface of po-faced British respectability and you'll find a wealth of great characters, as evidenced in Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller's sketch show.
Adaptation of Michael Frayn's award-winning drama, based on a pivotal meeting in 1941 between physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, whose work together had paved the way for the building of the atomic bomb but who now found themselves on opposite sides in the war.
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.
WEDNESDAY 23 JULY 2008
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00cp454)
The latest news from around the world.
WED 19:30 Pop Go the Sixties (b00crz39)
Series 2
Herman's Hermits
Pop moments from the BBC's sixties archive. Britain's inoffensive pop conquerors of America, who anticipated the sound that the Monkees would later call their own, perform Something Is Happening on the Wednesday Show in 1968. Peter Noone leads the band on the song that made number six in the Swiss charts.
WED 19:35 Batman (b00cr99t)
Series 2
A Riddling Controversy
More tongue-in-cheek action with the caped crusader and his faithful sidekick. Can the duo escape from the cakey quicksand? With the aid of Batrockets they might. Meanwhile, the Riddler has captured a general and the molecular deconstructor. What will he do with it?
WED 20:00 Sahara with Michael Palin (b0074p4m)
Destination Timbuktu
Series charting Michael Palin's trek across the Sahara Desert. Leaving the desert behind, Michael briefly savours the delights of cosmopolitan Senegal - jazz clubs, wrestling competitions, dance troupes and the queen of the Senegalese soaps, Marie-Madeleine.
Joining the so-called Bamako Express, he endures two days and nights on the train, but in the process gets to know a schoolmistress who is nothing if not forthright about the disadvantages of polygamy.
In Bamako he finds renowned kora player, Toumani Diabate, and delights in a master class before heading off to Dogon country.
The Dogon people have one of the most distinctive and celebrated cultures of West Africa and they nearly kill him with a combination of excessively complex origin myths, an exploding flintlock and boiling hot millet.
Celebrating the Muslim 'Tabaski' feast in the beautiful city of Djenne with a man called Pygmy and securing a passage on a cargo boat with a Norwegian missionary called Kristin, the rest of the journey down the Niger River to Timbuktu seems plain sailing, until the boat runs aground a day from its destination.
WED 21:00 The Thirties in Colour (b00cp456)
Wright Around the World
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 brought to the market.
Together with his younger brother Bolling, the American industrialist Harry Wright was wealthy enough to indulge his twin passions for travel and filmmaking. Both siblings collected and shot films that captured the world at a pivotal time in history.
They captured astonishing images acquired and filmed in the islands of the South Pacific, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, as well as South Africa, Morocco, Palestine, and several countries in Europe, including Britain. These destinations were visited during the golden age of ocean travel, when the well-off could escape the Great Depression and travel the world on luxury cruise ships.
The sea had become a playground but it would soon become a battleground, as the world lurched towards the bloodiest war in history.
WED 22:00 Storyville (b00cr1ff)
The Chuck Show
Documentary exploring the contradictions and passions of painter Chuck Connelly. Riding the same 1980s wave as Julian Schnabel and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Connelly seemed destined for art-world stardom. But unable to straightjacket his strong opinions and unorthodox behaviour, Connelly sabotaged his career and squandered his talent. Through interviews, intimate family videos and lively representations of Connelly's work, director Jeff Stimmel vividly captures the paradox of Connelly's repellent yet compelling personality.
WED 23:00 BBC Scotland Investigates (b00byhfh)
2008
Truth, Lies, Oil and Scotland
On 3rd of November 1975 the first barrel of oil was pumped from the North Sea on to Scotland's shores. It was an event that would change the course of history. This landmark film shows how the modern history of Scotland is intrinsically linked to the black gold being pumped out of the North Sea.
BBC Scotland News business reporter Hayley Millar puts forward the theory that you cannot understand the last 40 years of Scotland's past, its present and its future without understanding oil. And vital to understanding oil is separating the myths from the facts and the truth from the lies that surround possibly the most important natural resource in the world.
Drawing on the personal testimony of the key players in the story of North Sea oil in the last four decades, from the politicians to the oil men, the film will celebrate some of Scotland's great unsung achievements surrounding oil and examine some of the mistakes that have been made along the way. It reveals the role oil has played in every aspect of Scottish life from its economic development, political struggles and independence.
WED 00:00 Coal House (b01rv68p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
WED 00:30 The Thirties in Colour (b00cp456)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 01:30 Storyville (b00cr1ff)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WED 02:30 The Thirties in Colour (b00cp456)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 24 JULY 2008
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00cp4ns)
The latest news from around the world.
THU 19:30 Born to Be Wild (b00cp4nv)
Birds
Four amateur naturalists get to grips with Britain's birds. Millions of Brits count themselves as bird lovers, but these enthusiasts take their passion to extreme lengths. One devotee wades through acres of reed beds, up to twice his height, in pursuit of a tiny, brown, long distance flier. Another scales the heights, clambering up mountains and scouring quarries to study the Peregrine falcon. Two men journey to an uninhabited rock, 40 miles off the North coast of Scotland, to research puffins. Another walks hundreds of miles around local farms, scouting them out for bird life.
Devoting hundreds of hours of their spare time to birds, these characters are truly inspirational. Our enthusiasts, and hundreds of other people like them, feed all the information they gather back to national organisations like the RSPB and the British Trust for Ornithology, helping to build a picture of Britain's birdlife.
THU 20:00 The Way We Travelled (b0074t9g)
The Way We Travelled
First in a three-part series of documentaries on how holiday and travel programmes have changed the British public's attitude to other countries and cultures over the years. Including clips from shows such as Richard Dimbleby's Passport, Cliff Michelmore's Holiday in 1969, and from the reports of Alan Whicker.
THU 21:00 Travellers' Century (b00crnkq)
Eric Newby
Benedict Allen follows the travels of quintessential British amateur traveller Eric Newby. Born in suburban Hammersmith between the wars, Newby was dismissed by his public school as 'not clever', and his life became a catalogue of challenges. As a teenager, he went to sea to serve as a deck hand, sailing around Cape Horn. During the WW2 he joined the Special Boat Squadron, and was captured by the enemy. After escaping from an Italian POW camp, he met his future wife Wanda.
Newby itched to discover the world and, in the mid-1950s, abandoned an unhappy career in the rag trade to head off with diplomat Hugh Carless into remotest Afghanistan and climb Mir Samir. The journey was immortalised in A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.
Fifty years on, Benedict Allen finds this lost corner of Afghanistan little changed - and comes away full of admiration for the author. Newby failed to reach the summit, but for all his sardonic understatement and self-deprecation, he was just a hair's breadth away. And all with the aid of a map drawn on the back of an envelope.
THU 22:00 Journeys into the Ring of Fire (b0074sql)
Series 1
California
Iain Stewart tours the perilous and spectacular landscape of the Pacific Rim to discover how the rocks beneath our feet have shaped human history. He asks why Californians are prepared to live with potentially disastrous earthquakes, landslides and firestorms. Is their risk-taking culture a throwback to the days of the 19th century fortune seekers who came in search of gold?
THU 23:00 BBC Four Sessions (b0074swt)
Rosanne Cash
Series of unique concerts featuring musicians from around the world. This edition features American singer and songwriter Rosanne Cash, who reflects on her 25-year musical career. Her acclaimed album Black Cadillac confronts the recent losses of her father Johnny Cash, her mother Vivian Liberto and her stepmother June Carter Cash. The concert features songs from Black Cadillac, 80s country hits and covers of Johnny Cash's Tennessee Flat Top Box and Big River.
THU 00:00 Born to Be Wild (b00cp4nv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 00:30 Travellers' Century (b00crnkq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 01:30 Journeys into the Ring of Fire (b0074sql)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
THU 02:30 Born to Be Wild (b00cp4nv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 03:00 Travellers' Century (b00crnkq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 25 JULY 2008
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00cp52n)
The latest news from around the world.
FRI 19:30 A Seaside Parish (b0078twf)
Series 2
Episode 1
Documentary series following Rev Christine Musser in her Cornish parish. Events leading up to the flash flood on 16 August 2004 that devastated the village and its aftermath.
FRI 20:00 Classic Britannia (b007qnlt)
The Landscape Changes
Three-part series looking at British classical musical life from the end of World War Two to the present day. The immediate post-war years were two decades of change characterised by rivalries between composers of genius, by the rise of extraordinary and influential performers and by an audience hungry for new experiences in a country searching for a peacetime identity.
FRI 21:00 Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story (b00cp52q)
Respect Yourself is an authoritative film about one of the great stories in rock and roll. The story is about Stax Records whose hits include Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay, Soul Man, If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Wanna Be Right), Knock On Wood and Respect.
A white brother and sister establish a recording studio in a black Memphis neighbourhood in the 1960s and their open-door policy created an interracial house band - Booker T. and the MGs - who made hits for whomever came through those doors.
Those Stax stars included Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, The Dramatics, Albert King, Luther Ingram, Rufus Thomas and Jesse Jackson. The legacy has never been stronger and Stax songs have been recorded by scores of artists-- Aretha Franklin, Neil Young, Wu Tang Clan, Michael Bolton and almost every artist wanting to express their soul.
Respect Yourself includes never before seen footage, including home movies by the Stax artists, outtakes from WattStax, lost performances by Otis Redding, Booker T. and the MGs, Isaac Hayes and others.
Interviews include all the key players plus Jesse Jackson, Elvis Costello, Bono, Chuck D, Peter Townsend, Dan Aykroyd, Justin Timberlake.
FRI 22:55 Otis Redding & Friends: Stax Volt Revue '67 (b00cp52s)
Classic concert filmed in Norway during the 1967 Stax tour featuring performances from the soul legends signed to this famous US record label. Includes live sets by Booker T & The MGs (Green Onions and Red Beans And Rice), Arthur Conley (Sweet Soul Music and In The Midnight Hour), Sam and Dave (Hold On and I'm Coming), Eddie Floyd (Raise Your Hand), the Mar-Keys (Philly Dog and Last Night) and a barnstorming, five-song set by Otis Redding that includes Try A Little Tenderness, (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, My Girl and Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song).
FRI 23:55 The Avengers (b0074sh6)
Series 5
Mission... Highly Improbable
60s-style action adventure. Steed discovers size does matter when tackling a scientist's devious deputy.
FRI 00:45 The Avengers (b0074shs)
Series 6
The Forget-Me Knot
Adventure series. An amnesiac agent leads to Emma's disappearance and Steed's reliance on an enthusiastic new recruit, Tara King. The swansong episode for Emma Peel.
FRI 01:35 Timeshift (b0074q17)
Series 3
Charles Wheeler: Edge of Frame
A look at the decisive moments of the latter 20th century through the eyes of the late Charles Wheeler. One of journalism's most dedicated yet modest professionals, Wheeler was at the forefront of world news reporting for over 50 years. Contributors include Jeremy Paxman, John Simpson and son-in-law Boris Johnson.
FRI 02:25 Charles Wheeler: Shadow over Europe (b0074nnt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 03:05 Classic Britannia (b007qnlt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]