The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
Julia Bradbury has her backpack on to explore the great outdoors. Julia's walks follow the old tracks, overgrown cuttings and ancient viaducts of Britain's lost rail empire, visiting disused lines across England, Scotland and Wales. Through stunning landscapes and urban backstreets, each contrasting walk has a unique story to tell, offering Julia a window into industrial Britain and how the rise and fall of the railways has altered lives and localities across the country.
Julia begins her exploration of Britain's lost rail empire in Derbyshire, the heart of the Peak District, with a walk along the popular Monsal Trail. Limestone cliffs and gorges abound, not to mention the tunnels and soaring viaducts of the Midland Railway - one of the most dramatic and unlikely main lines ever built.
As the credit crunch bites and a global economic crisis threatens, Robert Peston reveals how the super-rich have made their fortunes, and the rest of us are picking up the bill.
Comedy sketch show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Includes a chance to swim with, and ultimately get eaten by, a very angry great white shark called Owen; the latest quiz show, the Hole In the Ring, where members of the public get insulted for no good reason; a mysterious lost tribe living in the heart of a suburban garden centre.
Comedy series about Kiwi folk musicians Bret and Jemaine as they to try to make it big in their adopted home of New York. Bret and Jemaine's ex-girlfriend Sally returns and begins dating Jemaine again, causing tension between Bret and Coco. Features the songs Business Time and Sally.
Kirsty Wark presents as Daisy Goodwin and David Aaronovitch fight it out with AL Kennedy and Simon Hoggart for a place in the semi-finals of the literary panel game.
Andrew Davies's two-part adaptation of John Cleland's infamous, classic 18th-century novel, Fanny Hill. In need of money, Fanny becomes mistress to the enigmatic Mr H. Jealous of Fanny's love for Charles, he expels Fanny from his home and she seeks refuge in Mrs Cole's brothel. However, Fanny is thrown on to the streets when the brothel is closed. Rescuing the elderly Mr Goodyear, Fanny receives a handsome inheritance for her companionship. Charles pursues Fanny and they plan their future.
Documentary which looks back at Britain during the 18th century, a time of sexual excess and liberation, particularly in London. Vast amounts of erotic art and literature were produced – from the debauches of Fanny Hill, the orgies pictured by Thomas Rowlandson and accounts of the activities of the Hellfire Club. Presenter Matthew Sweet argues that the creators of this erotic enlightenment were not merely grubby pornographers, but that they conjured new ways of understanding human subjectivity.
Comedy series about Kiwi folk musicians Bret and Jemaine as they to try to make it big in their adopted home of New York. Bret and Jemaine's ex-girlfriend Sally returns and begins dating Jemaine again, causing tension between Bret and Coco. Features the songs Business Time and Sally.
WEDNESDAY 08 OCTOBER 2008
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00dwf7n)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Britain from Above (b00d1kd1)
The City
Revealing the transformation of Britain's most important city: her capital, London. Starting with amazing Luftwaffe aerial photographs of the very first bombs of the Blitz falling on a vulnerable city, we track the changes that came out of five years of bombing.
Comparing exhaustive footage of London in the 40s with the city of today, we see how great plans for urban renewal were stillborn and, instead, London rebuilt itself in an ad hoc way along old street patterns.
The only exception to this was the dramatic city that rose from the derelict docklands. Where Canary Wharf had a blank canvas and used it to create an American style grid of streets and huge buildings, the city itself was faced with squeezing ever more bizarrely-shaped buildings into its confused medieval street plan.
The story of a capital that has been transformed from a low-rise, smog-ridden industrial city into an upwardly mobile, rapidly changing hub of leisure, retail and finance.
WED 20:00 Britain from Above (b00d24qq)
24 Hour Britain
Andrew Marr goes on an epic journey through a day in the life of Britain, as seen from the skies.
From helicopters, planes, hang gliders and satellites, we see the picture of a nation constantly on the move with beautiful, varied and often mysterious landscapes. Swooping over towns and cities allows Andrew Marr to see them from a new angle as he meets the people whose work takes them high above us to monitor and manage the networks that keep the country working.
WED 21:00 Wilderness Explored (b00dwf7q)
Arctic
Two hundred years ago, the Arctic was largely a great blank on the map for would-be explorers. It captured their imagination as a place of sublime beauty and yet also as a desolate frozen landscape, home to the deadly polar bear. It was a place where heroes attempted to find the North-West passage and where whole expeditions disappeared without trace.
In the last century, the polar sea has become a region of vital strategic significance where the great powers built secret bases, transforming the lifestyle of the Inuit. Now, as the Arctic ice melts, the polar bear has become an emblem for the fragility of our planet.
WED 22:00 Kingdom of the Ice Bear (b007xnzs)
The Frozen Ocean
First part of an award-winning trilogy of programmes about the Arctic, narrated by Hywel Bennett. This film reveals the gentle side of polar bears as they lovingly tend their cubs, and captures the underwater chorus of eerie cries beneath the ice as the one-horned narwhals share rich feedings with belugas and harp seals.
WED 22:55 Kingdom of the Ice Bear (b00dyhkj)
The Land of Beyond
Hywel Bennett narrates the second of an award-winning trilogy of films about the Arctic. The winter is long and harsh, but for eight weeks of the year the midnight sun warms the frozen earth, nurturing lush vegetation and a rich variety of flowers, and transforming the barren wastelands into fecund breeding grounds so the life of the Arctic can renew itself.
WED 23:50 Wilderness Explored (b00dwf7q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 00:50 Frank Hurley: The Man who Made History (b0074qjq)
A look at the life and work of photographer Frank Hurley, who captured some of the earliest images of the world's most remote places. The cinematographer on Ernest Shackleton's doomed Endurance expedition to the Antarctic, Hurley also photographed both World Wars and explored New Guinea. But today's experts believe some of his pictures to be elaborate fakes – was he a giant of photography or just a conjurer with a camera?
WED 01:50 The Worst Journey in the World (b0079s9p)
Drama telling an often overlooked story of epic endurance. The story of Captain Scott's second polar expedition (1910-1913) remains a testament to an age of tragic heroism, but it is rarely remembered that prior to that fateful journey Scott and his men spent over two years conducting scientific experiments in that harsh environment.
One such task saw three of his men set forth in the snow, facing the harshest of conditions and risking their lives and their sanity - all for a penguin egg - in the winter journey of July 1911. Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Dr Bill Wilson and Lieutenant 'Birdie' Bowers faced the worst journey in the world to bring back Emperor penguin eggs which they hoped would prove an evolutionary link between reptiles and birds.
The expedition nearly cost the three men their lives, and it proved at once the pinnacle of Apsley Cherry-Garrard's life and his downfall.
This charming and moving film guides us through this quintessentially British tale of an ill-equipped, under-prepared and resolutely amateur team of adventurers almost overwhelmed by the elements.
WED 02:55 Wilderness Explored (b00dwf7q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 09 OCTOBER 2008
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00dwfl7)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Fossil Detectives (b00dx3p1)
South of England
Series in which Hermione Cockburn leads a team of fossil experts and geologists around regions of Britain to search for its best fossil treasures and mysteries.
The team finds out why southern England is the best place to go dinosaur hunting in the UK, as they excavate their own dinosaur at a secret location on the Isle of Wight. They search for the iguanodon, the discovery that made scientists realise that dinosaurs existed, while Billy Bragg and his son Jack share their best fossil finds.
THU 20:00 Steam Days (b00dwflc)
The Fishing Line
First transmitted in 1986, Miles Kington experiences the power of a London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier 'Black Five' on a journey from Fort William across the western Highlands via Glenfinnan to Mallaig.
While observing breathtaking scenery and stunning engineering achievements, including Glenfinnan viaduct, Kington uncovers what the West Highland Line meant to the traditional crofting communities that had been devastated by the Highland clearances.
THU 20:30 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00dwflf)
Discovering Snowdonia
Julia walks along the stunning Mawddach estuary in north Wales. The area between Dolgellau and the coastal resort of Barmouth is one of the least visited parts of Snowdonia, but in the 1860s it received a great rush of holidaymakers, taking advantage of the new railway that connected the valley to the cities of England.
THU 21:00 Timeshift (b00dwflh)
Series 8
Between the Lines - Railways in Fiction and Film
Novelist Andrew Martin presents a documentary examining how the train and the railways came to shape the work of writers and film-makers.
Lovers parting at the station, runaway carriages and secret assignations in confined compartments - railways have long been a staple of romance, mystery and period drama. But at the beginning of the railway age, locomotives were seen as frightening and unnatural. Wordsworth decried the destruction of the countryside, while Dickens wrote about locomotives as murderous brutes, bent on the destruction of mere humans. Hardly surprising, as he had been involved in a horrific railway accident himself.
Martin traces how trains gradually began to be accepted - Holmes and Watson were frequent passengers - until by the time of The Railway Children they were something to be loved, a symbol of innocence and Englishness. He shows how trains made for unforgettable cinema in The 39 Steps and Brief Encounter, and how when the railways fell out of favour after the 1950s, their plight was highlighted in the films of John Betjeman.
Finally, Martin asks whether, in the 21st century, Britain's railways can still stir and inspire artists.
THU 22:00 The Lady Vanishes (b0078kyh)
One moment Miss Froy was sitting there, on the train, London-bound from Tyrol. The next she had vanished. Some passengers claim she was never there, but Iris is certain she saw her. Was it her imagination?
THU 23:35 The Signalman (b0074ptz)
Charles Dickens's ghost story in which a lonely signalman is haunted by a hooded figure who seems to warn of danger.
THU 00:15 Saki: Who Killed Mrs De Ropp? (b0079spj)
Drama adapted from works by Edwardian short story writer Saki. On a train journey, Saki meets Mrs De Ropp, oppressive aunt and guardian to an unruly brood. Inspired by the meeting, he imagines a tale of repressed children who find solace in their childish wonder, and are saved by their imagination. This innovative drama mixes live action and animation and is both a dark social satire of Edwardian attitudes to children and a fairytale for grown-ups.
THU 01:15 Timeshift (b00dwflh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 02:15 Fossil Detectives (b00dx3p1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 02:45 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00dwflf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
THU 03:15 Timeshift (b00dwflh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 10 OCTOBER 2008
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00dwfyr)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Itzhak Perlman: Virtuoso Violinist (b00dwfyt)
Celebrated film-maker Christopher Nupen's profile of Itzhak Perlman, who battled polio to become a virtuoso of the violin and one of the world's leading players. Nupen's account of Perlman's formative years is a story of the triumph of talent, determination, character and tenacity over seemingly insurmountable odds.
FRI 20:30 Only Connect (b00dwf5x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Monday]
FRI 21:00 Legends (b0074pbq)
Julian Bream
Andrew McGregor introduces a compilation of performances from the BBC archives of 1962-1979 by the legendary classical guitarist Julian Bream. As well as playing solo, Bream also collaborates with fellow guitarist John Williams and jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli.
FRI 22:00 Later... with Jools Holland (b00dwfyy)
Guitar Heroes
Guitar heroes from as far away as Mexico and as close to home as Chiswick have all come to rock the Later studio since 1995. This collection of performances brings together the best of them, from the legendary Buddy Guy to the homegrown guitar superstars he inspired, such as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend. Joining them on the bill are Santana, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The White Stripes, Radiohead and more.
FRI 23:00 imagine... (b00dyhyt)
The Story of the Guitar
In the Beginning
Alan Yentob embarks on a three-part personal journey to discover how the guitar became the world's favourite musical instrument. Beginning with the rise of the acoustic guitar, the series takes him from an ancient Middle Eastern ancestor of the lute, to the iconic guitars draped round the necks of Bill Hailey and Elvis Presley and beyond.
Featuring interviews with Bert Weedon - the man who taught Britain to 'Play in a Day', Pete Townshend, Bill Bailey, flamenco player Paco Pena and classical guitarist John Williams.
FRI 00:00 The Avengers (b0074t0z)
Series 4
Small Game for Big Hunters
60s drama series. A rare African cult is encountered in the Home Counties.
FRI 00:50 The Avengers (b0074t1w)
Series 4
The Girl from Auntie
Classic 60s crime drama. Steed returns from holiday to find a shapely blonde impersonating Emma. The imposter leads Steed to a succession of corpses.
FRI 01:40 Legends (b0074pbq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:45 Later... with Jools Holland (b00dwfyy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 03:40 Legends (b0074pbq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]