Adaptation of Flora Thompson's memoir of her Oxfordshire childhood. The residents rally around Susan Braby when they realise her husband Sam has hit her. Meanwhile, Timothy commissions Matthew to make new gates for the manor, Adelaide becomes frustrated with how much time Tim is spending with Dorcas and decides to cancel the order for the gates, and Laura brings Phillip home for tea.
Adaptation of Flora Thompson's memoir of her Oxfordshire childhood. A violent storm hits Lark Rise and Candleford, and the arrival of a new teacher, Mr Delafield, causes divisions in the two communities.
Mr Delafield's radical views raise plenty of eyebrows in Candleford, while in Lark Rise he endears himself to the residents. When Dorcas delivers some books to Mr Delafield they initially rub each other up the wrong way, but this tension soon turns to chemistry.
In the first part of this series about the romantic novel, presenter Daisy Goodwin looks at the enormous industry romantic fiction has become today, and asks why this most derided of literary genres remains so enduringly popular.
She performs a scientific experiment to prove that reading romantic novels can lower your stress levels and also finds that they can improve your sex life and make you sleep better. Contributors include Jilly Cooper, Joanna Trollope, Sophie Kinsella and Marian Keyes.
Acclaimed American legal drama following a ruthless lawyer's class action suit against an allegedly corrupt former company CEO. Frobisher urges Ray Fiske to apply more pressure to Patty, but the relationship between the pair is becoming increasing fractious.
Acclaimed American legal drama following a ruthless lawyer's class action suit against an allegedly corrupt former company CEO. Patty uses all her tact to find out Gregory's secrets, while Frobisher, after an incident at a basketball game, tears up the playbook in his efforts to salvage his reputation.
Drama series which takes an unflinching look at the world of advertising in 1960s New York. Top executive Don Draper's position is under threat from his competitors. An assignment to sell cigarettes after a medical report about their dangers has just been published doesn't help.
Four youngsters travel back in time to watch programmes from the past five decades, courtesy of BBC Children's Television, and also try out the clothes, games and food from each era. In return they offer candid observations on the programmes from yesteryear.
Documentary which goes in search of the colliding worlds of pop and kids' TV, including the embarrassing moments, strange kids and bizarre incidents that illuminated the many facets of the genre. With interviews from past programme makers, presenters, pop stars and record company executives, including Sarah Greene, Mike Read, Stephen Gately, Tommy Boyd, Searchers and Emma Forbes.
SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2008
SUN 19:00 The Story of Maths (b00f3n43)
The Frontiers of Space
Four-part series about the history of mathematics, presented by Oxford professor Marcus du Sautoy.
By the 17th century, Europe had taken over from the Middle East as the world's powerhouse of mathematical ideas. Great strides had been made in understanding the geometry of objects fixed in time and space. The race was now on to discover the mathematics to describe objects in motion.
Marcus explores the work of Rene Descartes and Pierre Fermat, whose famous Last Theorem would puzzle mathematicians for more than 350 years. He also examines Isaac Newton's development of the calculus, and goes in search of Leonard Euler, the father of topology or 'bendy geometry', and Carl Friedrich Gauss who, at the age of 24, was responsible for inventing a new way of handling equations - modular arithmetic.
SUN 20:00 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.
SUN 21:00 In Love with Barbara (b00f7zg2)
Drama inspired by the life of arguably the most prolific author of the 20th century, Dame Barbara Cartland, which looks beyond the pink facade to tell the story of what made her the resilient and renowned Queen of Romance.
Despite her devotion to true love, her own life was blighted by heartbreak, with her first marriage ending in a scandalous society divorce. In the aftermath of this humiliation, she successfully campaigned to have her beloved brother Ronald elected to parliament, but he was killed at Dunkirk before he could fulfil his promise.
In the 1970s, at the height of her commercial powers, Cartland formed an unlikely friendship with Lord Louis Mountbatten and they collaborated on a romantic novel.
SUN 22:25 The Book Programme (b00f7zg4)
Barbara Cartland
Robert Robinson interviews Barbara Cartland, writer of romantic novels and health books, at her home in Hertfordshire in 1979.
She talks about her beginnings in journalism in the 1920s, sex and morals, health foods and vitamins, the sort of people who read her books, her record of love songs, prayer and her attitude to death.
Includes sequences of Cartland dictating to a secretary, talking to her chef, working with her secretaries, showing Robinson her collection of dust jackets from her novels and reciting a prayer to her sycophantic publisher.
SUN 23:00 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00dwcp6)
John le Carre
John le Carre converses with Mark Lawson about his fragmented childhood, life in the diplomatic service, working with Alec Guinness and his book A Most Wanted Man. Le Carre worked as an intelligence officer in the 1970s before turning to writing full time. His personal experiences during the Cold War informed a string of best-selling espionage novels including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. He also wrote the corporate corruption thriller The Constant Gardener, which became a Oscar-winning film.
SUN 00:00 Electric Proms (b00f3p6g)
2008
Goldfrapp
Goldfrapp in performance at London's Cecil Sharp House.
The band has designed a special 'twisted village fete' set for this unique performance of songs from their current album, Seventh Tree, along with acoustic re-workings of a few old favourites. Alison Goldfrapp and band will be accompanied by a string section and choir. Expect a true visual and musical spectacular lighting up the intimate home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
SUN 00:30 Electric Proms (b00f3p6j)
2008
Maddy Prior
Maddy Prior returns to her English traditional roots to perform songs from her current album, Seven For Old England, and from her repertoire, at the English Folk Dance and Song Society headquarters in London's Camden Town.
It's a special moment at Cecil Sharp House, where Maddy researched both her first and her most recent albums. The concert sees her reunited with former Steeleye Span bandmate Tim Hart, and with June Tabor of her Silly Sisters era, and also features Rose Kemp, Maddy's daughter. This promises to be a special night for English folk and the Electric Proms.
SUN 01:00 Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scott's (b00dwfyw)
Filmed over five nights at the intimate Ronnie Scott's venue, Jeff Beck performs some his greatest music alongside guest artists Joss Stone, Imogen Heap and Eric Clapton.
SUN 02:00 In Love with Barbara (b00f7zg2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
SUN 03:25 The Story of Maths (b00dwf4f)
The Language of the Universe
After showing how fundamental mathematics is to our lives, Marcus du Sautoy explores the mathematics of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece.
In Egypt, he uncovers use of a decimal system based on ten fingers of the hand, while in former Mesopotamia he discovers that the way we tell the time today is based on the Babylonian Base 60 number system.
In Greece, he looks at the contributions of some of the giants of mathematics including Plato, Euclid, Archimedes and Pythagoras, who is credited with beginning the transformation of mathematics from a tool for counting into the analytical subject we know today.
MONDAY 27 OCTOBER 2008
MON 19:00 World News Today (b00f7zsd)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 Nation on Film (b00f3pgc)
The British Transport Films
After World War Two, a group of film-makers were paid by the government to persuade people to use public transport. Some of their critics called their work expensive propaganda, but the British Transport Film unit produced some of our finest post-war documentaries and captured a golden era on the railways, before the Beeching cuts.
MON 20:10 Elizabethan Express (b00f68t1)
A classic from the British Transport Films collection.
Made in 1954, this documentary follows the summertime express from Kings Cross, London to Waverley Station, Edinburgh. The steam train covered 393 miles in six and a half hours.
The film celebrates the glamour of steam.
MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00f7zsg)
Series 1
Episode 7
Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital. It is all about making connections between things which may appear, at first glance, not to be connected at all.
MON 21:00 The Story of Maths (b00f7zsk)
To Infinity and Beyond
Marcus du Sautoy concludes his investigation into the history of mathematics with a look at some of the great unsolved problems that confronted mathematicians in the 20th century.
After exploring Georg Cantor's work on infinity and Henri Poincare's work on chaos theory, he looks at how mathematics was itself thrown into chaos by the discoveries of Kurt Godel, who showed that the unknowable is an integral part of maths, and Paul Cohen, who established that there were several different sorts of mathematics in which conflicting answers to the same question were possible.
He concludes his journey by considering the great unsolved problems of mathematics today, including the Riemann Hypothesis, a conjecture about the distribution of prime numbers. A million-dollar prize and a place in the history books await anyone who can prove Riemann's theorem.
MON 22:00 Storyville (b00f7zsn)
When Borat Came to Town
Documentary which follows the trials and tribulations of the villagers of Glod, Romania as they attempt to clear their name after being unkindly portrayed as incestuous relatives and friends of Borat in his movie.
The likes of 17-year-old Carmen and her grandad are outraged and it is not long before lawyers arrive from the United States with the intention of persuading the residents of Glod to try and take on Hollywood.
MON 23:00 Bombay Railway (b007t30p)
Pressures
Documentary about Bombay's vast suburban rail network, which serves six-and-a-half million commuters every day. As Bombay's population swells by tens of thousands each week, the railway and the people whose lives revolve around it struggle to cope with the pressure and the peaktime 'super-dense crush load'. From the train driver to the illegal hawker and the homeless shoe-shine boy, each has a story to tell about this remarkable railway system, often described as the lifeline of India.
MON 00:00 Only Connect (b00f7zsg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
MON 00:30 The Story of Maths (b00f7zsk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
MON 01:30 Nation on Film (b00f3pgc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
MON 02:10 Elizabethan Express (b00f68t1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:10 today]
MON 02:30 Storyville (b00f7zsn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
MON 03:30 The Story of Maths (b00f7zsk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 28 OCTOBER 2008
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00f7zy7)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00f3pg9)
The Whisky Train
Julia Bradbury's first walking foray into Scotland has a very distinct flavour to it - whisky! The Speyside Way is one of Scotland's great walking routes, and between the villages of Craigellachie and Ballindaloch it follows the route of the railway that once served a remote area and a world-famous drinks industry.
TUE 20:00 1914-1918 (b00f7zy9)
What If...Total War
Documentary series telling the history of the Great War. With deadlock in the trenches, the great powers searched for other ways to break through.
TUE 20:50 Bottom Up: The Chauffeur's Tale (b00f7zyc)
Record-breaking novelist Barbara Cartland acquired millions of devoted readers, many accolades and a few eccentricities in her nine decades. Former chauffeur/butler Robert Alderson gives an affectionate view of what it takes to keep the sheen on such a glossy character.
TUE 21:00 That Mitchell and Webb Look (b0091xzy)
Series 2
Episode 2
Off-beat comedy sketch show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. A historian has trouble controlling his arms, a super-villain gets bogged down in health and safety, and there's the world's least politically correct panto. And a look behind the scenes at the admirable work the comedy duo do in the local pheasant hospital.
TUE 21:30 Flight of the Conchords (b0088ynb)
Series 1
Girlfriends
Comedy series about Kiwi folk musicians Bret and Jemaine as they to try to make it big New York. Bret gets a girlfriend but doesn't want things to go too fast, while Jemaine would be only too pleased if things would get a bit faster for him. Murray gets a CD deal for the guys that seems too good to be true. Features the songs Foux Da Fa Fa and A Kiss is Not a Contract.
TUE 22:00 The Book Quiz (b009wyng)
Series 2
Episode 4
Kirsty Wark presents the literary panel game, as novelist India Knight and critic James Delingpole fight it out against writer Kate Mosse and journalist Rod Liddle for a place in the semi-finals.
TUE 22:30 In Love with Barbara (b00f7zg2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
TUE 23:55 Storyville (b00f7zsn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Monday]
TUE 00:55 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00f3pg9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUE 01:25 In Love with Barbara (b00f7zg2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
TUE 02:50 Only Connect (b00f7zsg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Monday]
TUE 03:20 Flight of the Conchords (b0088ynb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:30 today]
TUE 03:50 The Book Quiz (b009wyng)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 29 OCTOBER 2008
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00f80tf)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 The Sky at Night (b008fmdp)
Sputnik's Children
Dr Chris Lintott finds out how British technology is leading the way in satellite science, while Sir Patrick Moore investigates the threat from space debris that astronauts face in space.
WED 20:00 Britain from Above (b00d62qx)
Satellite Earth
Documentary telling the story of one satellite's journey into space and how global agencies and individuals are using satellites in all kinds of ways - farming their land from space, locating ancient water supplies hidden deep beneath the most arid desert regions and tracking ocean currents and the global mechanisms of climate change.
As every conceivable aspect of our world is being 'sensed' and recorded, from the skies above our heads to the rocks beneath our feet, here is an in-depth look at the biggest technological revolution since the invention of the steam engine.
WED 21:00 The Satellite Story (b008fmdq)
Documentary celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first satellite, Sputnik, which launched the space age in 1957. The film explores how satellites have affected almost every aspect of our lives, from spy satellites and GPS transforming the military to the communications revolution kickstarted by Telstar. But recent events in China have revealed just how vulnerable we might be, for they suggest we might be on the verge of another new age, one of satellite terrorism.
WED 22:00 A Year in Tibet (b00936pn)
The Visit
Intimate documentary series following a year in the life of the society living in and around Gyantse, Tibet's third largest town. The Panchen Lama, the highest ranking Buddhist living in Tibet today, pays an unexpected visit to the local monastery and throws the monks into turmoil. A local hotel owner is worried about the lack business. In the nearby village of Tangmai, a young farmers wife is rushed into hospital with complications with her pregnancy.
WED 23:00 The Lost World of Tibet (b0093677)
Dan Cruickshank presents a documentary revealing the story of the Dalai Lama, his secret Himalayan kingdom and the story of his exile, using eyewitness accounts from Tibetans including the Dalai Lama himself and colour archive footage of Tibet from the 1930s to 50s.
WED 00:00 Earth from the Air (b0074n8s)
French aerial photographer Yann Arthus Bertrand spent ten years making a photographic inventory of the earth's surface. From majestic landscapes to rubbish dumps, the images are shockingly beautiful, but for Yann the most important part is the powerful environmental message which accompanies each image.
Yann takes on various photographic assignments, amongst them locations such as Russia and the Lebanon, learning on the way about the ecological issues that drive him.
WED 01:00 The Sky at Night (b008fmdp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
WED 01:30 The Satellite Story (b008fmdq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 02:30 Britain from Above (b00d62qx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 03:30 Earth from the Air (b0074n8s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:00 today]
THURSDAY 30 OCTOBER 2008
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00f80z2)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:40 1914-1918 (b00f80z4)
Slaughter
Documentary series telling the history of the Great War, in which nine million people perished. The battles of Verdun, the Somme and Passchendaele were three of the worst of the war, yet soldiers sought to keep their sanity with music, sport and theatre.
THU 20:30 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00f80z6)
Harbouring History
The backstreets of Weymouth seem an unlikely spot to explore railway history, but Julia discovers there was once a short railway that ran south from Weymouth and across the unique coastal features of Chesil Beach and Portland. The walk is the ideal platform for learning about the history of Portland Harbour and the tied isle's most famous export, Portland stone.
THU 21:00 In Love with Barbara (b00f7zg2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
THU 22:25 Robbie: A Ripe Old Age (b00f9qt1)
Barbara Cartland
1980 series in which Fyfe Robertson investigates the lives of people who work on after their retirement age.
Barbara Cartland, 78-year-old prolific writer of romantic fiction must do things quickly to fit everything in. Her mother lived to be 98, which she feels was due to vitamin pills that Cartland also takes daily. She thinks her early journalistic experience helped to make her books readable, believes people want real romance and has just brought out album of love songs accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
THU 22:55 The Time of Your Life (b00f9kk1)
1985 programme in which Noel Edmonds recreates the sounds and sights of summer 1931 for his guest Barbara Cartland, the romantic novelist.
Cartland, in pink evening gown and wearing jewellery, is driven on in a car and she talks about organising a race for ladies at Brooklands, her interest in aviation and her belief in vitamins. Other topics include her 49 marriage proposals, her 396 books, how she was upset by her official biography and the loss of family doctors.
THU 23:40 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00f80z6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
THU 00:10 BBC Four Sessions (b0074nct)
David Byrne
From the Union Chapel in Islington, an exclusive performance from multi-talented former Talking Heads frontman and world music guru David Byrne. Featuring classic Talking Heads numbers, songs from his solo album Look into the Eyeball, as well as excerpts from the opera La Traviata and Cape Verde's Cesaria Evora, and a special version of his hit single with X-Press 2, Lazy.
THU 01:10 BBC Four Sessions (b007vm27)
Ryan Adams
Series of unique concerts featuring musicians from around the world. Ryan Adams, with his band The Cardinals, performs a unique session from the intimate setting of LSO St Luke's, London. Songs include Winding Wheel, Goodnight Hollywood Blvd, Two, Halloween Head and a cover of Alice in Chains' Down in a Hole.
THU 02:10 In Love with Barbara (b00f7zg2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
THU 03:35 Railway Walks with Julia Bradbury (b00f80z6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
FRIDAY 31 OCTOBER 2008
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00f815h)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 London to Brighton in Three and a Half Minutes (b00fc2m9)
In 1953 the BBC produced a short black and white film of a train journey from London to Brighton in four minutes. Here, the journey is repeated in colour and takes 30 seconds less.
FRI 19:35 Nathan Milstein: Master of Invention (b00f815k)
Part 1
First in a two-part documentary by celebrated filmmaker Christopher Nupen which provides a fascinating and intimate portrait of one of the finest violinists of the 20th century, Nathan Mironovich Milstein.
Respected by his contemporaries, his career was one of the longest in the history of classical music, spanning a remarkable 73 years. Throughout his life, Milstein scrupulously avoided publicity and it took Nupen three years to persuade this most modest of musicians to take part in this film.
FRI 20:30 Only Connect (b00f7zsg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Monday]
FRI 21:00 In Concert (b0074sf0)
The Eagles
Footage of Californian country rockers The Eagles from 1973, performing classic US hits such as Peaceful Easy Feeling, Witchy Woman and Take it Easy.
At the time were they the epitome of the California sound, with a sweet blend of sophisticated country music that took them to the top of the charts in the US.
FRI 21:30 In Concert (b0074t8p)
Neil Young
First shown in 1971 and featuring the Canadian singer-songwriter on guitar, harmonica and piano, this in-studio concert features many of what he describes as new songs that were eventually to feature on his classic album Harvest, including Heart of Gold, A Man Needs a Maid and Old Man.
FRI 22:00 Neil Young: Don't Be Denied (b00f815m)
Neil Young grants rare and unprecedented access to the BBC for a documentary in which he traces his musical journey in his own words.
The film was made from three hours of interview shot in New York and California, and uses previously unseen performance footage from the star's own extensive archives. It also features cohorts Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Nils Lofgren and James Taylor.
From his early transcontinental American quest for recognition, through the first flush of success with Buffalo Springfield, to the bi-polar opposites of mega-stardom with Crosby, Stills and Nash and the soulful rock of Crazy Horse, Young's career has enjoyed many guises.
Perhaps his most famous period was as a 1970s solo artist making albums that became benchmarks. After The Goldrush, recorded in his Topanga Canyon home, and Harvest, part-recorded on his northern Californian ranch, saw Young explore the confessional side of song-writing. But never one to rest on his laurels, he would continually change direction.
In the mid-seventies, two of Young's closest friends died as a result of heroin abuse. What followed was music's answer to cinema verite, with Tonight's The Night a spine-chilling wake for his dead friends.
As New Wave arrived, Young was keen to explore new ideas. A collaboration with Devo on what became his art-house epic, Human Highway, saw the genesis of Rust Never Sleeps, a requiem for the seventies.
In the eighties, Young explored different genres, from electronica to country, and in recent times he has returned to Crazy Horse and Crosby, Stills and Nash, but only when it has suited him.
The film ends with Young still refusing to be denied, on tour in the USA with CSNY, playing anti-Bush songs to a Republican audience in the South.
FRI 23:00 Deja Vu (b00f815p)
In 2006, the Iraq War was the flashpoint of the upcoming US election, a subject which divided the country. 1960s supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, who campaigned against the Vietnam War, hit the road again to bring their anti war message to a new generation.
FRI 00:30 Hotel California: LA from the Byrds to the Eagles (b0074t87)
Documentary looking at the music and mythology of a golden era in Californian culture, and telling the story of how Los Angeles changed from a kooky backwater in the early 1960s to become the artistic and industrial hub of the American music industry by the end of the 1970s.
Alongside extensive and never before seen archive footage, the programme features comprehensive first-hand accounts of the key figures including musicians (David Crosby, Graham Nash, J. D. Souther, Bernie Leadon and Bonnie Raitt, music industry bosses (David Geffen, Jac Holzman, Ron Stone and Peter Asher) and legendary LA scenesters including Henry Diltz, Pamela Des Barres and Ned Doheny.
The film explores how the socially-conscious folk rock of young hippies with acoustic guitars was transformed into the coked-out stadium excess of the late 1970s and the biggest selling album of all time.
FRI 02:00 Only Connect (b00f7zsg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Monday]
FRI 02:30 Neil Young: Don't Be Denied (b00f815m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 03:30 In Concert (b0074t8p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:30 today]