SATURDAY 02 AUGUST 2008
SAT 19:00 Pop Go the Sixties (b00cyyqt)
Series 2
Sandie Shaw
Pop moments from the BBC's 60s archive. From a rehearsal for a Top of the Pops performance, Sandie gives an accidentally aloof ice-queen rendering of Long Live Love so the cameras can practice their positions. An otherworldly performance of her number 1 hit from 1965.
SAT 19:05 Play For Today (b0074sk5)
Series 13
Another Flip for Dominick
Sequel to the popular Flipside of Dominick Hide, a time-warp drama written by Jeremy Paul and Alan Gibson.
The man from the future travels on a mission to the past to rescue one of his students, Pyrus Bonnington, who has disappeared into 1982 in a bid to emulate Hide's adventures. There he is reunited with his fomer love Jane, who lets him meet their son.
SAT 20:30 Metroland (b00cyyqw)
An exploration of the English rural idyll with John Betjeman's 1973 meditation on the residential suburbs which grew up alongside the Metropolitan Line, the first steam underground in the world.
SAT 21:20 Arena (b0074tkl)
The Underground
Documentary about the Tube, the world's oldest underground system. Three million passengers use it every day, and over the past 150 years it has developed its own history, along side literature, music and film that has been inspired by the Underground. Includes contributions from the Underground's staff.
SAT 22:20 40 Minutes (b0074tkn)
Heart of the Angel
Acclaimed observational documentary by BAFTA award winning director Molly Dineen set at London’s Angel tube station in 1989, three years before its desperately needed renovation.
The programme provides a humorous account of 48 hours in the life of the tube station, from the daily round of fraught commuters, overburdened lifts and cancelled trains to the nightly activities when 'fluffers', women who clean human hair and rubbish of the tracks to avoid a fire hazard and ‘the Permanent Way’, gangs of men who work with pickaxes in almost pitch-black conditions to renovate parts of the track, spring into action to prepare the line for the following day. (1989)
SAT 23:00 Design Classics (b0074tkm)
London Underground Map
Documentary about the London Underground Map. Created in 1931 by Underground employee Henry Beck, the graphically revolutionary map has become an icon of both London and British design.
SAT 23:25 Under Night Streets (b0074tkj)
Documentary of a night in the life of the London Underground, filmed in 1958 by British Transport Films, following the 800 night-shift workers and includes the discovery of a broken rail in the middle of the night.
SAT 23:45 Arena (b0074tkl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:20 today]
SAT 00:45 The Martians and Us (b0074t1k)
From Apes to Aliens
Series about the history of British science fiction. This edition looks at our relationship with aliens, from Wells's invading Martians to the Daleks, via 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Midwich Cuckoos, and the Mekon.
It also explores the genre's preoccupation with the big questions of evolution, and includes interviews with Arthur C Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Doris Lessing and Steve Jones.
SAT 01:45 The Martians and Us (b0074t2l)
Trouble in Paradise (Dystopias)
Series about the history of British science fiction. A look at the utopian dreams and dystopian nightmares of books such as Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and 1984 by George Orwell.
One is a vision of the future full of sex and shopping, the other is a story of oppression and violence. But why have the British been better than anyone at imagining these future heavens and hells? Contributors include Margaret Atwood and Iain M Banks.
SAT 02:45 The Martians and Us (b0074t3b)
The End of the World as We Know It
Series about the history of British science fiction. A look at the genre of destruction, where the writers abandon time travel and alien invasion and declare the end of the world as we know it.
Including floods, plagues, poisonous clouds and walking plants, from late Victorian disasters like The Purple Cloud, through Day of the Triffids and TV series like Survivors.
SUNDAY 03 AUGUST 2008
SUN 19:00 Coal House (b0084t2r)
Series 1
Episode 3
It's not just the coal-mining men who are finding things hard. Their wives start to feel the pinch of life in 1927 with mouths to feed and a cleaning routine to stick to. But there's some light relief as the Cartwrights, Phillips and Griffiths families enjoy a rare night out, and celebrate a very special birthday.
SUN 19:30 BBC Proms (b00cwg52)
2008
Prom 23: Beethoven and Mahler
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Donald Runnicles, will perform Beethoven's 1st Symphony. This is followed by Das Lied von der Erde, Song of the Earth, a work which Mahler called a symphony for tenor, mezzo-soprano and orchestra. Johan Botha is the tenor, Karen Cargill is the mezzo soprano.
SUN 21:40 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.
SUN 22:40 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.
SUN 23:40 The Thirties in Colour (b00csk9m)
Adventures in the Americas
Four-part series using rare, private and commercial colour film and photographs to give poignant and surprising insights into the 1930s.
One of the most prolific collectors of colour film in the period was the American industrialist Harry Wright. A self-made millionaire with a passion for film, he acquired and commissioned hundreds of films, which he screened for guests at the private cinema he had built in his home in Mexico City.
The programme examines Wright's extraordinary colour films of Africa and Central America, including his so-called Ethnographic Series of Unknown Mexican Indians, a unique visual record of the lives and customs of indigenous peoples living in the remote rural regions of Mexico.
SUN 00:40 Glastonbury (b00cskgk)
2008
Neil Diamond
The teatime set by the US singer-songwriter Neil Diamond on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2008. Including classic songs such as I'm a Believer, Sweet Caroline and Red Red Wine, plus a couple of numbers from his recent No 1 album Home Before Dark.
SUN 01:40 Born to Be Wild (b00cskdd)
Butterflies
Series on amateur naturalists focuses on those immersed in the strange and colourful world of butterflies and moths. Changes in the numbers of these creatures reflect wider changes in the British countryside, so studying them is both a consuming passion and a conservation challenge.
One enthusiast has walked hundreds of miles to count butterflies; another has devoted his time and his greenhouse to growing one rare butterfly; a third is fanatical about moths and has learned to identify all 2,500 British species; and one has been getting his hands dirty to restore a chalk down and its butterfly star to their former glory.
The programme reveals the highs and lows of British butterflies and moths and gives a window onto the lives of four of the passionate people that are fighting to save them.
SUN 02:10 BBC Proms (b00cwg52)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
MONDAY 04 AUGUST 2008
MON 19:00 World News Today (b00cwg8w)
The latest news from around the world.
MON 19:30 BBC Proms (b00cwg8y)
2008
Prom 17: World Music Celebration Programme 1
In the first of two programmes, the Proms welcomes for the first time the winners of the Radio 3 Awards for World Music, reflecting a kaleidoscopic range of cultural traditions. Music includes Cape Verdean songs from newcomer Mayra Andrade, Malian lute music from Bassekou Kouyate and flamenco fusion from Son de la Frontera. Presented by Verity Sharp.
MON 21:00 Storyville (b007m47h)
Children of the Chinese Circus
Documentary looking at Shanghai Circus school, where the gruelling training regimes result in some of the best acrobats and circus performers in the world.
Children as young as eight have their unformed bodies stretched and tested to breaking point as they learn to master the most taxing feats of acrobatic grace and daring. Harsh demands are also made of teachers and parents as their proteges strive to be number one in the circus, the Chinese way.
MON 22:20 Arena (b0074tkl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:20 on Saturday]
MON 23:20 Travellers' Century (b00cskdg)
Laurie Lee
Explorer, writer and broadcaster Benedict Allen retraces part of author Laurie Lee's journey across Spain in 1935, which became the basis for his celebrated travelogue As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning.
Lee thought of himself first and foremost as a poet, and the book reveals a poet's sensibility in its meticulous, distilled observations of the country and people he quickly came to love.
Allen tries to find out whether Lee's evocative prose actually works as travel writing and Lee is revealed as an enigmatic, mercurial figure in the tradition of the wandering minstrel or troubadour, with a huge array of talents and an astonishing facility to charm.
MON 00:20 The Man Who Walked Across the World (b007z9v3)
Wanderlust
Series of documentary travelogues in which Tim Mackintosh-Smith follows in the footsteps of 14th Century Moroccan scholar Ibn Battutah, who covered 75,000 miles, 40 countries and three continents in a 30-year odyssey. Beginning in north Africa, Tim visits Battutah's birthplace of Tangier in Morocco, and stumbles on a performance of medieval trance music. In Egypt, he goes to a remote village where Battutah had an astonishing prophetic dream and visits the world's oldest university in Cairo.
MON 01:20 Storyville (b007m47h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
MON 02:40 BBC Proms (b00cwg8y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUESDAY 05 AUGUST 2008
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00cwgmp)
The latest news from around the world.
TUE 19:30 Pop Go the Sixties (b00cyz26)
Series 2
Peter and Gordon
Pop moments from the BBC's sixties archive. From a 1964 edition of Crackerjack, pop folk duo Peter Asher and Gordon Waller sing A World without Love written by Paul McCartney - who was going out with Peter's sister at the time.
TUE 19:35 Batman (b00cyjfc)
Series 2
Catwoman Goes to College
Adventures with the caped crusader. Catwoman is out on parole - and her parole officer is none other than Bruce Wayne.
TUE 20:00 The Sky at Night (b06s6y7g)
Double Vision
The Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona promises a revolutionary way to look at the night sky. The light from its two eight-and-a-half metre mirrors will produce images of unprecedented clarity and power, offering a glimpse beyond our solar system to the very beginning of time.
Dr Chris Lintott visits Arizona to see the telescope first hand, while Sir Patrick Moore talks to the astronomers who will use it.
TUE 20:30 The Cult of... (b00934wz)
Sunday Night
The Onedin Line
The series which unearths the history and anecdotes behind cult British Sunday night dramas looks at the 1970s seafaring saga The Onedin Line, which followed the fortunes of James Onedin and his flagship, the Charlotte Rhodes.
Its theme music, Khachaturian's Spartacus, became forever associated with the sea, and Peter Gilmore's sideburns became objects of desire. But if it wasn't for German viewers The Onedin Line would have run aground after a single series. A massive 60,000 pounds over budget, producer Peter Graham Scott was being shunned in the BBC canteen before the sale of the series to Germany wiped out the overspend.
The programme reveals the reasons behind Philip Bond's premature departure from the series; tells exactly how the storm-at-sea sequences were filmed; uncovers the impact of Peter Gilmore's struggle to remember his lines; and shows how The Onedin Line was directly responsible for Jane Seymour being cast as Solitaire in the Bond film Live and Let Die.
TUE 21:00 Voyages of Discovery (b0074t5l)
The Figure of the Earth
Explorer Paul Rose tells the story of three Frenchmen who couldnt stand each other, yet set off on an eight-year scientific mission in one of the most hostile places on the planet. Their plan, to settle an international row by measuring the shape of the planet, took them to the disease-ridden rainforests and oxygen-starved peaks of the Ecuadorian Andes.
Rose follows in the footsteps of the 18th-century explorers who were complete innocents abroad and had no idea of the horrors they were letting themselves in for. Despite disease, death and some highly disastrous sexual liaisons, the men made discoveries that fundamentally changed all our lives.
TUE 22:00 The Armstrong and Miller Show (b008h4dh)
Series 1
Episode 7
Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller play a wealth of great characters in their classic sketch show.
TUE 22:30 A Waste of Shame (b0074rw5)
Drama by William Boyd based on Shakespeare's sonnets, exploring the identities of the Bard's 'fair youth' and 'dark lady'.
TUE 23:55 The Man Who Walked Across the World (b0074tdt)
Magicians and Mystics
In an effort to smash the west's monolithic view of Islam, Tim Mackintosh-Smith follows in the footsteps of 14th century Moroccan scholar Ibn Battutah, who covered 75,000 miles, 40 countries and three continents in a 30-year odyssey. In Turkey, Tim watches an illegal whirling dervish ceremony, and in the Taurus mountains he meets the last of the Turkoman nomads. He chats to Tatars in Crimea, while in Delhi he watches a Muslim magician performing the Indian rope trick.
TUE 00:55 The Sky at Night (b06s6y7g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
TUE 01:25 A Waste of Shame (b0074rw5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
TUE 02:55 Voyages of Discovery (b0074t5l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 06 AUGUST 2008
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00cwgxh)
The latest news from around the world.
WED 19:30 Pop Go the Sixties (b00cyz6x)
Series 2
Julie Felix
Pop moments from the BBC's sixties archive. A 1966 performance from the singing star of The Frost Report. Going to the Zoo calls for audience participation and the audience wind themselves up into a near-monochrome frenzy as they sway slightly in their seats and softly join in.
WED 19:35 Batman (b00cyjg6)
Series 2
Batman Displays His Knowledge
Fantasy adventure series. Catwoman embarks on a plan to steal priceless amber jewels.
WED 20:00 Sahara with Michael Palin (b0074p5v)
Dire Straits
Series charting Michael Palin's trek across the Sahara Desert. Michael arrives at the border of Niger and Algeria, the most desolate crossing, and then turning north Michael passes through the mountains of the Hoggar massif before pausing in the oil and gas fields of central Algeria. Then onto Libya to attend the very last reunion of the Desert Rats of Tobruk, before turning west along the north coast past deserted classical sites at Apollonia, Cyrene and Leptis Magna.
Crossing into Tunis, Michael relives the filming of The Life of Brian in Monastir, before taking the Maghreb Express to the dangerous city of Algiers, and then west to Algeria's second city, Oran.
Just along the coast is Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on Morocco's coast, where Michael talks to would-be immigrants before returning to Gibraltar. En route he learns of the terrible fate that has engulfed many Saharan people who attempt the eight-mile crossing.
WED 21:00 The Thirties in Colour (b00cwgxk)
End of an Era
Last in the four part series using rare, private and commercial colour film and photographs to give poignant and surprising insights into the 1930s.
It was Golden Age for international travel, a decade when advanced transport systems allowed people to journey all over the world. Travellers with the means recorded their experiences by using the new colour film technologies. Often unintentionally, their home movies captured defining moments at a time when the nations of Europe were about to be plunged into the disaster that was the Second World War.
The final episode features colour films shot by travelling film-makers in Europe, including footage shot on the streets of Berlin decked in red swastikas at the time of the Olympic Games, rare pictures of the Jewish quarter in Warsaw just weeks before the Nazi invasion and, in London, tourists wearing gas masks amid fears of imminent bombing raids by the German Luftwaffe.
WED 22:00 Storyville (b00cwgxm)
The Burning Season
Documentary following the efforts of one young Australian entrepreneur to save the rainforests, and make himself a fortune in the process. Dorjee Sun develops a scheme to create carbon credits from 'avoided deforestation', allowing big business to offset their emissions by protecting the vast swathes of Indonesia that are cut and burned each year - an area equivalent to 300 football fields an hour - and make the country the third largest carbon polluter in the world.
He faces serious challenges: the farmers who live off the land need to earn a wage; the government isn't too keen on the scheme; and he needs the world to endorse the system at the tumultuous Climate Change Conference in Bali. Can he save the forests, the wildlife which lives in them and the farmers who depend on them? Can he make himself a Carbon Credit billionaire?
WED 23:20 Coal House (b0084t2r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
WED 23:50 The Man Who Walked Across the World (b0074tfv)
Trade Winds
In an effort to change the West's monolithic view of Islam, Tim Mackintosh-Smith follows in the footsteps of 14th Century Moroccan scholar Ibn Battutah, who covered 75,000 miles, 40 countries and three continents in a 30-year odyssey. He explores the place of Islam in Hindu-dominated India and communist China, and tells the story of the Islamic trade empire of the 14th century. In Cina, he meets a clan who trace their ancestry back to Arabs, and witnesses an illegal Arabic lesson.
WED 00:50 The Thirties in Colour (b00cwgxk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 01:50 Storyville (b00cwgxm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WED 03:10 The Thirties in Colour (b00cwgxk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 07 AUGUST 2008
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00cwh00)
The latest news from around the world.
THU 19:30 Born to Be Wild (b00cwh02)
Coastal Creatures
Series on amateur naturalists follows four intrepid people who study coastal creatures.
The coast is not the easiest place to watch wildlife, but perseverance pays off. One man has been studying sea birds for 30 years, another has galvanised his community into spending hours on the cliff tops, watching for dolphins, and another dives into the depths in search of sea urchins. Finally, one couple's passion for seals is revealing new things about this well-loved animal.
THU 20:00 The Way We Travelled (b0074tbz)
The Way We Travelled
Last 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. The rise of independent travel programmes such as Rough Guide is featured, along with the more intrepid likes of Michael Palin and Benedict Allen.
THU 21:00 Travellers' Century (b00cp4nx)
Patrick Leigh Fermor
Benedict Allen follows Patrick Leigh Fermor's epic 1931 quest across Europe, tracing the inns, haystacks and castles the young adventurer stayed in as he foot-slogged his way through Holland, Germany, Hungary and Romania towards Byzantium.
With his academic career punctuated by numerous school expulsions, the young Patrick Leigh Fermor put aside his troubles and set out across Europe to reach Constantinople in Turkey. It was the original backpacker journey, but also a quest in the romantic tradition of Lord Byron - that of the man of action and the intellectual combined.
His two accounts of that journey, A Time of Gifts and Between the Woods and Water, are a masterly portrait of a Europe about to be swept aside by war, and also an insight into the brilliant, classically educated mind of the author.
It is in remotest Greece that Benedict Allen finally tracks down the great man himself to discuss the nature, purpose and future of travel writing.
THU 22:00 Journeys into the Ring of Fire (b0074sr5)
Series 1
Episode 4
Iain Stewart tours the perilous and spectacular landscape of the Pacific Rim to discover how the rocks beneath our feet have shaped human history.
This edition finds him in Japan, a land of hostile mountain peaks which force the huge population onto a few overcrowded strips of coastal plain. This geological curse has affected everything from living space to etiquette and entertainment. Is the lack of space also behind the Japanese fascination for all things miniature?
THU 23:00 BBC Four Sessions (b0074pq4)
Bert Jansch
Legendary Scottish singer, songwriter and guitarist Bert Jansch performs a career retrospective concert at LSO St Luke's in East London to celebrate his 60th birthday. Guests include ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, Ralph McTell and fellow Pentangle member Jacqui McShee.
Bert Jansch was one of the key trailblazers of the British folk scene of the 1960s. As a soloist, and then with folk-jazz outfit Pentangle, Jansch blazed a trail for an iconoclastic blend of folk, blues, jazz and original songs that has made him a hero to the likes of Neil Young and Jimmy Page. His guitar and singing style remain unique.
This concert features many of the songs that Jansch has played throughout his career, including Davy Graham's Anji, Jackson C Frank's Blues Run The Game and traditional material like Blackwaterside, together with more recent songs like Riverbank and Crimson Moon.
THU 00:00 Born to Be Wild (b00cwh02)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 00:30 Travellers' Century (b00cp4nx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 01:30 Journeys into the Ring of Fire (b0074sr5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
THU 02:30 Born to Be Wild (b00cwh02)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 03:00 Travellers' Century (b00cp4nx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 08 AUGUST 2008
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00cwh7y)
The latest news from around the world.
FRI 19:30 A Seaside Parish (b00cyzbg)
Series 2
Episode 3
Documentary series following Rev Christine Musser in her Cornish parish. After the floods, large amounts of donations are arriving at the rectory, and Christine is working flat out to cope with the crisis. Then the village receives sad news.
FRI 20:00 Classic Britannia (b007rvrv)
Adapt or Die
Three-part series looking at British classical music from the end of World War Two to the present day. By the end of the 1970s new music was facing real difficulties when the already small audiences were seeping away.
But music was about to undergo a massive resurgence in popularity with a new generation of composers pushing the boundaries of what music could be, establishing Britain as one the most distinctive and original voices in the classical music world.
FRI 21:00 Legends (b0088zmg)
Ella Fitzgerald: First Lady of Song
Profile of jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, one of the most popular artists of the 20th century. The film looks at Fitzgerald's 50-year career from her winning turn at the Harlem Apollo's amateur night in 1934, through her rise as the definitive exponent of scat singing, her celebrated Songbook albums and triumphant stage career which continued almost up until her death in 1996. Features archive footage of Ella in full flight, alongside interviews with her closest friends and collaborators.
FRI 22:00 Glastonbury (b00cwh80)
2008
Joan Armatrading
Coverage from the Glastonbury festival. Classic British songwriter Joan Armatrading performs on the Jazz World stage, with songs from her back catalogue, plus a couple of numbers from her recent Blues inspired album Into The Blues.
FRI 23:00 Glastonbury (b00cydt5)
2008
Manu Chao
Coverage from the Glastonbury festival. The European musical superstar Manu Chao dazzles the Pyramid Stage audience with his energetic and punchy sound that combines punk, spanish and world sounds.
FRI 00:00 The Avengers (b0074sqm)
Series 4
The Cybernauts
Cult adventure series. Steed and Mrs Peel discover that a business contract links a string of murders - and that the only man still in the running is the crippled Dr Armstrong.
FRI 00:50 The Avengers (b0074sqr)
Series 4
Death at Bargain Prices
Steed fights in ladies' underwear, while Emma tries feinting.
FRI 01:40 Legends (b0088zmg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:40 Classic Britannia (b007rvrv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]