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.
Action adventure series. The dynamic duo find themselves in a tangled web when the Black Widow hits town.
David Attenborough reveals the surprising truth about the cold-blooded lives of reptiles and amphibians. From steamy jungles to dry deserts, amphibians have taken their first footsteps onto land using their bizarre life histories to break their ties with the water and invade the earth.
This episode delves into the extraordinary and intimate lives of the soft skinned amphibians. This includes the marsupial frogs, a peculiar species where the father carries his young in pouches and then gives birth. It also features warring giant salamanders over a metre long and show-off newts that offer displays just like underwater birds of paradise.
Series about the brutal, bloody and dangerous history of surgery continues with a look at the development of heart surgery, which produced some extremely reckless experiments.
With a family history of heart problems, presenter Michael Mosley takes a personal interest in these pioneers, who teetered on the scalpel-edge between saviour and executioner. Michael has a go at heart surgery, meets a man with no heartbeat and witnesses an operation where the patient is cooled until their brain stops and has all of their blood sucked out.
Drama which follows student and devoted Catholic Michaela Klinger as she moves away to college and at first blossoms, despite her inhibitions and epilepsy. But an unwillingness to take her medication leads to complications and soon, as her life is spiralling out of control and she is convinced she is possessed, her devout parents fear she needs an exorcism.
Series telling the incredible stories of the guinea-pig doctors who transformed medicine. Presenter Dr Michael Mosley explores the curious and sometimes fatal ways in which pioneering doctors laid the foundations of modern medicine by experimenting on themselves.
In this first episode, Dr Mosley charts the development of pain-free surgery. He starts with the 18th century chemist Humphrey Davy, who inhaled up to 50 pints of laughing gas a day and yet missed its true significance. Conman-turned-dentist Dr William Morton slept with a skeleton by night and experimented with ether by day, 19th century Scottish national hero James Young Simpson's reckless enthusiasm for chloroform led to numerous deaths and Sigmund Freud's experiments with cocaine transformed anaesthetics.
Mosley also undergoes some of the historical experiments himself and meets researchers who are continuing the tradition of self-experimentation today.
Update on the 1980s series about a group of doctors just starting out on their careers. Dr Nick Hollings has devoted half of his life to the NHS, from an ambitious 18-year-old seeking a place at St Mary's Medical School, through 100 hour weeks as a junior doctor and 14 years of exams to become a consultant. Now an established consultant radiologist, Nick faces a worrying future. With long waiting lists for scans, the Department of Health is making tough decisions in the name of efficiency.
Update on the 1980s series about a group of doctors just starting out on their careers. Mark George was 17 when he set off on a path to become a consultant surgeon. He had to study hard, endure long hours, take exams into his 30s and sacrifice much of his life outside medicine. His hard work paid off and he is now a consultant colorectal surgeon in a top hospital, while also developing a lucrative private practice.
THURSDAY 28 AUGUST 2008
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00d63tc)
The latest news from around the world.
THU 19:30 Fossil Detectives (b00d63tf)
London
Series in which Open University associate lecturer Dr Hermione Cockburn leads a team of fossil experts and geologists around different regions of Britain to search for its best fossil treasures and mysteries, in an effort to uncover and make sense of our ancient past.
She visits the London home of David Attenborough to view his private fossil collection and find out why fossils have held such a special place in his heart since his childhood.
The fossil detective team also track down evidence of the capital's ancient past, a lost world where hippos were common. They take a trip to Kew Gardens to see living fossils - plants which existed in prehistoric times and still thrive today.
THU 20:00 Rebel Physician: Nicholas Culpeper's Fight for Medical Freedom (b0074syr)
Benjamin Woolley presents the gripping story of Nicholas Culpeper, the 17th century radical pharmacist who took on the establishment in order to bring medicine to the masses.
Culpeper lived during one of the most tumultuous periods in British history. When the country was ravaged by famine and civil war, he took part in the revolution that culminated in the execution of King Charles I.
But it is Culpeper's achievements in health care that made him famous. By practicing (often illegally) as a herbalist and publishing the first English-language texts explaining how to treat common ailments, he helped to break the monopoly of a medical establishment that had abandoned the poor and needy. His book The English Physician became the most successful non-religious English book of all time, remaining in print continuously for more than 350 years.
THU 21:00 Casualty 1906 (b007cjc2)
Ground-breaking drama that uses case notes, ward reports, autopsy records and intimate diaries from 100 years ago to bring actual doctors, nurses and patients at the Royal London Hospital vividly back to life.
THU 22:00 Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery (b00d63vq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Wednesday]
THU 23:00 Maestro (b00d6nnn)
Choral
Clive Anderson hosts Maestro's second studio challenge as six famous amateur conductors go head to head. The contenders are challenged with choral music as they conduct the BBC Concert Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Chorus. They perform in front of a panel of internationally renowned judges before they face the orchestra vote and one will leave the competition for good.
THU 00:00 BBC Four Sessions (b0074mt7)
Radio Tarifa and Javier Ruibal
Series of unique concerts featuring musicians from around the world. At the Union Chapel in Islington, north London, Madrid-based Radio Tarifa show off their unique combination of flamenco, ancient Iberian, Moorish, Yiddish, North African and Middle Eastern music.
Also, Spanish singer-songwriter Javier Ruibal is joined on stage by guitarist Tito Alcedo to perform numbers from Javier's album Las Damas Primeras.
THU 01:00 Fossil Detectives (b00d63tf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 01:30 Journeys from the Centre of the Earth (b0074qm9)
Architecture
Geologist Dr Iain Stewart presents a series showing how the rocks beneath our feet have shaped the human history of the Mediterranean. His whistle-stop tour takes in familiar tourist destinations in Egypt, Italy and Greece, but provides a unique geologist's insight which can't be found in the guidebooks.
He reveals how rocks influenced the Egyptians to build pyramids, the Greeks to build squares and the Romans to build perfect circles. It was how the rocks were formed millions of years ago that determined whether they were best suited as building materials for a pyramid, Parthenon or coliseum.
THU 02:30 Fossil Detectives (b00d63tf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 03:00 Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery (b00d63vq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Wednesday]
FRIDAY 29 AUGUST 2008
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00d63yw)
The latest news from around the world.
FRI 19:30 A Seaside Parish (b0078v5x)
Series 2
Episode 6
Documentary series following Rev Christine Musser in the Cornish parish of Boscastle. The villagers re-assess their lives after the disaster, with unexpected results. While Emily decides to pursue the ambition of a lifetime and Raymond re-launches his career as an artist, life at the rectory for Christine will never be quite the same again.
FRI 20:00 The Passions of Vaughan Williams (b00bfmt4)
Fifty years after his death, this musical and psychological portrait of Ralph Vaughan Williams explores the passions that drove a giant of 20th-century English music. It explores the enormous musical range of an energetic, red-blooded composer whose output extends well beyond the delicate pastoralism of his perhaps most famous piece, The Lark Ascending.
The film tells the story of his long marriage to his increasingly disabled wife Adeline and his long affair with the woman who eventually became his second wife, Ursula. The effect of these complicated relationships on his music is demonstrated in performances of orchestral and choral works, specially filmed at Cadogan Hall, London by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Richard Hickox and by the singers of Schola Cantorum of Oxford.
Among the contributors is the late Ursula Vaughan Williams, who was interviewed shortly before she died at the age of 96.
FRI 21:30 Cambridge Folk Festival (b00d63yy)
2008
Seth Lakeman plus Noah And The Whale
Mark Radcliffe presents coverage of the Cambridge Folk Festival, featuring the top artists from the world of folk, roots and acoustic music, either live in concert from the main stage or in exclusive backstage performances.
Featuring poster-boy Seth Lakeman and Noah and The Whale, two youthful examples of British folk. Seth is from a family of musicians who began busking for holiday money in France. His brother Sean produced his first album in their kitchen. Though uncompromisingly folk, it went onto sell 100,000 copies.
Former Mercury Prize Nominee Seth and his band are in concert on the main stage at Cambridge Folk Festival, performing his own dynamic brand of contemporary folk including Solomon Browne, Poor Man's Heaven and his hit, Kitty Jay. Woven through the performances are in-depth interviews with Seth and brother Sean and an impromptu acoustic peformance of The Hurlers out amongst the festival crowd.
Noah And The Whale are a four-piece from Twickenham, West London, with infectious folk-based tunes. Their single, Five Years Time, with its whistling, violin, ukulele and dance beats, has been a chirpy summer chart hit. The programme features an exclusive acoustic performance backstage in the festival's session tent, plus an intimate interview with frontman, songwriter, and rising star, Charlie Fink.
FRI 22:00 Cambridge Folk Festival (b00d6mqt)
2008
Martha Wainwright Featuring Devon Sproule
Mark Radcliffe presents coverage of the Cambridge Folk Festival, featuring the top artists from the world of folk, roots and acoustic music, either live in concert from the main stage or in exclusive backstage performances.
Martha Wainwright's performance of Comin' Tonight from the main stage at the festival is followed by three further performances from her set, interwoven with interview and an impromptu acoustic session by the festival's famous duck pond.
Guitarist and songwriter Devon Sproule combines Appalachian, folk and jazz influences and this introduction to her includes an exclusive performance of Plea For A Good Night's rest in the festival's intimate surroundings.
FRI 22:30 Cambridge Folk Festival (b00d6mqw)
2008
The Imagined Village
Mark Radcliffe presents coverage of the Cambridge Folk Festival, featuring the top artists from the world of folk, roots and acoustic music, either live in concert from the main stage or in exclusive backstage performances.
The Imagined Village is a multicultural project spearheaded by Simon Emmerson and including Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy, Billy Bragg, Sheila Chandra, Johnny Kalsi, Chris Wood, Francis Hylton, Andy Gangageen, Sheema Mukherjee, Barney Morse Brown and the Young Coppers.
Taking the English tradition and interweaving contemporary sounds and voices, it explores Simon's assertion that 'Englishness is the final frontier of world music'.
The programme features electric performances from the Imagined Village's headline set at the festival, including their signature song Cold Haily Rainy Night and Hard Times Of Old England Retold.
In conversation with Mark Radcliffe key protaganists of the project Simon Emmerson, Martin Carthy, Billy Bragg and contributor poet Benjamin Zephaniah explain and explore the genesis, power and aspiration of this impressive project.
FRI 23:00 The Avengers (b0074srj)
Series 4
A Surfeit of H2O
A village poacher is found drowned in a field, leading Steed and Emma to investigate the deadly goings-on.
FRI 23:50 The Avengers (b0074ss2)
Series 4
The Hour that Never Was
At Steed's RAF reunion he and Mrs Peel stumble on a mystery, and then she vanishes.
FRI 00:40 Call the Cops (b00d8hqm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Tuesday]
FRI 01:10 The Passions of Vaughan Williams (b00bfmt4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRI 02:40 Cambridge Folk Festival (b00d63yy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:30 today]
FRI 03:10 Cambridge Folk Festival (b00d6mqt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 03:40 Cambridge Folk Festival (b00d6mqw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]