The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
A look back at the early days of the popular fly-on-the-tarmac series about the world's (then) biggest airport.
Twelve years after it took off, Airport's flamboyant Aeroflot supervisor Jeremy Spake and the other resident Heathrow characters reflect on the heady mix of semi-celebrity, near catastrophe and bags of confusion that created a TV sensation which changed their lives.
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.
Travel in time from the heady glamour of Britain's first terminal at Croydon to the signs and squiggles that direct pilots, as well as passengers, in today's airports. This series reveals how rivalry, skulduggery and sheer passion for flight gave birth to our airports, turning muddy airfields into the 24-hour mini-cities we know today. In the process, they've transformed Britain - giving us the freedom to travel anywhere we want and inspiring fear about our borders.
Rare archive, access to airports' hidden corners and contributors ranging from philosopher and author Alain de Botton to the man charged with scaring birds off Manchester's runways, reveal all.
Glyn Worsnip presents a history of RAF Hendon. Originally called London Aerodrome, this extraordinary airfield has been an RAF station since 1918. Pilots and former pilots talk about their memories of Hendon.
Series which revisits and updates stories from the classic documentary strand. In 1990, husband and wife team Roy and Merlyn Suckling, who had started the UK's smallest international airline, were about to double the size of their fleet - by acquiring a second plane. It was a classic tale of plucky British determination.
After a repeat of the original film we revisit the Sucklings to find out how they've fared in the face of cut-throat competition in the toughest industry of all.
Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Himalayas, this documentary follows the gripping adventure of six Tibetan teenagers on a climbing expedition up the 23,000 foot Lhakpa Ri, on the north side of Everest. A dangerous journey soon becomes a seemingly impossible challenge made all the more remarkable by the fact that the teenagers are blind.
Believed by many Tibetans to be possessed by demons, the children are shunned by their parents, scorned by their villages and rejected by society. Rescued by Sabriye Tenberken, a blind educator and adventurer who established the first school for the blind in Lhasa, the students invite the famous blind mountain climber Erik Weihenmayer to visit their school after learning about his conquest of Everest.
Erik arrives in Lhasa and inspires Sabriye and her students Kyila, Sonam Bhumtso, Tashi, Gyenshen, Dachung and Tenzin to let him lead them higher than they have ever been before. The resulting three-week journey is beyond anything any of them could have predicted.
TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2009
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00l7qpw)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Yellowstone (b00jc6p6)
Winter
Series following the fortunes of America's wildlife icons in Yellowstone, the most extensive thermal area on Earth.
In winter, Yellowstone is frozen solid - locked in snow as deep as a house for over six months. Whether you hunt for meat, live off stored body fat or whether you simply hibernate, you need to take every advantage, however slight, to save precious energy - then you might just make it through the winter to enjoy the green grass and balmy days of spring.
As we follow the grip of winter over the course of six freezing months, we chart the fortunes of Yellowstone's wildlife in a finely balanced fight to survive. Bison use their massively powerful heads to dig through some of the deepest snow in America to reach the grass beneath. A red fox listens out for mice scurrying six feet beneath the snow before diving headfirst into the drift to snap up its prey, while otters slide through Yellowstone's winter wonderland to find any remaining open water where they can fish. All the while, as the herds of elk and bison are gradually weakened by the cold, one animal gets stronger - the wolf.
But all is not as it first seems - there are larger powers at work. Whether a wolf, a bison or an elk makes it through is intimately linked to Yellowstone's greatest secret. Sleeping beneath the ice and snow-covered surface is one of the world's largest volcanoes. In an extraordinary twist of nature, everything from the freezing winter cold to the creation of a snowstorm is determined by the power of Yellowstone's volcanic heart.
TUE 20:30 The Pre-Raphaelites (b00l7qpy)
Episode 1
Series examining the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who brought notoriety to British art in the 19th century, bursting into the spotlight in 1848 and shocking their peers with a new kind of radical art.
The opening programme explores the origins of the Brotherhood and their initial achievements, and looks at some of their key early works, the hostile criticism they faced and the centuries of academic dogma their paintings overturned.
TUE 21:00 Comedy Songs: The Pop Years (b00g8t17)
Documentary tracing the modern history of the comedy pop song from the birth of the charts in 1952 to its reinvention in the new millennium.
We discover that George Martin was the missing link between the Goons and the Beatles, that the Barron Knights invented the parody song and that the Two Ronnies were not big fans of Not the Nine O'Clock News.
Almost everyone appears in the comedy song's chequered history of peaks and troughs, from the 1960s satire boom to the 1970s golden period of Monty Python and Billy Connolly and on through the wilderness years of 1980s novelty naffness and the genre's redemption in alternative comedy and the likes of Victoria Wood and Alexei Sayle.
TUE 22:30 Flight of the Conchords (b00l7qq0)
Series 2
Love is a Weapon of Choice
The boys both fall in love with a girl they meet while out jogging, and so begins a competition between them for her attention, culminating in a benefit gig for the victims of canine epilepsy.
TUE 22:55 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 23:25 Make 'em Laugh (b00l7qq2)
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break: The Wiseguys
Six-part series chronicling over 100 years of American comedy, introduced by Billy Crystal and narrated by Amy Sedaris.
America loves the wiseguy who defies convention by speaking the truth, no matter the consequences. Whether in the form of the curmudgeonly WC Fields of the 1930s or Larry David today, the wiseguy (or gal) always gets the last, and funniest, word.
Along with classic smart-alecks like Groucho Marx and conmen like Phil Silvers, other legendary names in this episode's 'Wiseguy Hall of Fame' include Jack Benny, Paul Lynde, Joan Rivers, Redd Foxx, Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock.
TUE 00:20 Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe (b00fpwb4)
Series 4
Episode 1
Charlie Brooker takes an irreverent look at all aspects of life on the small screen, including capsule reviews of the week's highs and lows.
He examines the state of television in the current economic climate and, with now-redundant home sale programmes clogging up the schedule, he explores what we can expect in their place.
Expensive dramas and the plethora of job-based shows are also in his sights, while there is light relief as he illustrates the penny-pinching tricks TV uses to meet budgets.
TUE 00:55 Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe (b00fqq3t)
Series 4
Episode 2
Charlie Brooker takes an irreverent look at all aspects of life on the small screen, including capsule reviews of the week's highs and lows.
In an advertising special, there are reports from a mysterious insider dishing the dirt on all that is bad in the industry, plus a potted history of advertising. Brooker reveals the changing psychology used to keep people buying, and how the portrayal of men and women in advertising has changed. Plus, poet Tim Key gives us an advert-related verse.
TUE 01:25 Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe (b00fvgj5)
Series 4
Episode 3
Charlie Brooker takes an irreverent look at all aspects of life on the small screen, including capsule reviews of the week's highs and lows.
In a writers' special, Brooker is joined by some of the best in the business to talk about how you make a TV programme actually happen. The people and pens behind Doctor Who, Father Ted, Peep Show, Life on Mars, Shameless and many more lead us through the joys and pitfalls of writing, with the added benefit of some of the best bits from the programmes.
TUE 02:15 Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe (b00fztgk)
Series 4
Episode 4
Charlie Brooker takes an irreverent look at all aspects of life on the small screen, including capsule reviews of the week's highs and lows.
Brooker takes a scalpel to 'mission' documentaries, the shows that begin with the presenter uttering 'I am on a mission to...' only to finish with a daft gimmick. After reviewing the current crop of mission documentaries, he goes on to make his own rather unusual version of the genre, highlighting the formats and tricks of the trade along the way.
TUE 02:45 Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe (b00g34fg)
Series 4
Episode 5
Charlie Brooker takes an irreverent look at all aspects of life on the small screen.
He turns his gaze to the state of kids' TV, giving a potted history of the genre and taking a look at psychedelic kids' shows both old and new. Brooker moves on to look at the newer trend for programmes to be made with the help of child psychologists and asks if it is a sinister development.
Plus, the reflections of a TV presenter, a poem from Tim Key and the revelation of dark TV tales from behind the scenes.
TUE 03:15 Make 'em Laugh (b00l7qq2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:25 today]
WEDNESDAY 17 JUNE 2009
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00l7r2s)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Poetry Please: Thirty Years of the People's Poetry (b00kk499)
A behind the scenes look at the world's longest running poetry request programme, following the programme-makers, presenter Roger McGough and ordinary listeners of the Radio 4 show. Poets, actors and famous fans including Rick Stein, Kenneth Cranham, Andrew Sachs, Andrew Motion, Tim Pigott-Smith and David Blunkett also share their insights on the secret of its success.
WED 20:00 The Pre-Raphaelites (b00l7qpy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Tuesday]
WED 20:30 Days that Shook the World (b0078vyg)
Series 2 (30 minutes)
Execution of Anne Boleyn
After just three years of marriage to King Henry VIII, Queen Anne Boleyn is under arrest in the Tower of London and about to become the first English Queen in history to be executed. This film reconstructs the harrowing story of Anne's final hours and reveals the circumstances that led to her execution.
When Anne was crowned Queen of England in May 1533, it was a triumphant moment for a woman who had gambled everything on the love of Henry VIII. Yet Henry's infatuation with his clever and outspoken second wife was not to last. From the moment she gave birth to their daughter Elizabeth, and not the son and heir he craved, Anne became vulnerable to the endless political machinations of a ruthless court system, in which politcal success or failure was the difference between life and death.
Anne fell victim to a swift and devastating coup masterminded by the King's first minister Thomas Cromwell. Within a fortnight of her arrest, Anne, her brother and several of her closest allies at court were convicted of treason and sent to their deaths.
The film tells the story of Anne's final hours, including; Henry's 'merciful' decision not to have Anne burnt at the stake, but to be beheaded with a sword by an executioner from Calais; Anne's declaration of innocence at her last sacrament; and the spies that surrounded her at the Tower and how their information contributed towards her downfall.
WED 21:00 Henry VIII: Patron or Plunderer? (b00l7qdh)
Episode 1
King Henry VIII had a fascinating and enlightening relationship with art. He came to the throne as the Renaissance swept across Europe, yet England's new king never lost sight of the medieval chivalry of his forefathers. In the first of a two-part documentary, architectural historian Jonathan Foyle looks at the palaces, tapestries, music and paintings created in Henry's name and questions whether the art he commissioned compensates for the religious treasures he would come to destroy.
WED 22:00 Days of Glory (b00l9j3v)
Said, Abdelkader, Messaoud and Yassir are among the many young men from the French African colonies who proudly enlist to help liberate the motherland in WWII. From their training and first engagements in north Africa to their courageous and vital missions in northern and eastern France, they endure hardships inflicted not only the Nazis, but also the institutional racism of their colonial master.
WED 00:00 Henry VIII: Patron or Plunderer? (b00l7qdh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 01:00 The Pre-Raphaelites (b00l7qpy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Tuesday]
WED 01:30 Batman (b008d37k)
Series 1
The Penguin Goes Straight
Vintage superhero adventures. The Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder face some dastardly competition in the form of the Penguin Protection Agency.
WED 01:55 Batman (b008d3lm)
Series 1
Not Yet He Ain't
Comic book capers. Penguin convinces Gotham City's leading citizens that Batman and Robin should be apprehended as criminals. The dynamic duo are cornered and gunned down by the police! With the crime fighters eliminated, the fish-eating fiend commandeers the Batmobile and sets off to plot a major robbery.
WED 02:20 Mad Men (b00jn88p)
Series 2
A Night to Remember
Drama series which takes an unflinching look at the world of advertising in 1960s New York.
To win over an imported beer brand as a new client, Duck and Don try to appeal to a new market demographic.
Harry is overwhelmed with his department's workload and finds assistance from an unlikely source, and Father Gill convinces Peggy to become part of a pro bono church project.
WED 03:05 Mad Men (b00jqjk1)
Series 2
Six Month Leave
Drama series set in the 1960s New York advertising world. Freddy Rumsen embarrasses himself in the office and Pete sees an opportunity to exploit it.
WED 03:55 Poetry Please: Thirty Years of the People's Poetry (b00kk499)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THURSDAY 18 JUNE 2009
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00l7r9g)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Return to... Airport (b00cnnnl)
Episode 2
Jeremy Spake and his fellow Heathrow residents take us back to the early days of the 'fly on the tarmac' series about the world's busiest airport. Take a bunch of highly strung celebrities, with entourage, a near catastrophe or two, add bags of confusion, and you've got the explosive mix which made 'Airport' such a hit.
THU 20:00 Hidden Histories (b00fgh94)
Series 1
Episode 1
A series looking at the work of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales celebrating its centenary year. Huw Edwards and the history detectives discover a lost church, search for the oldest castle gate in Europe and find out how the great engineer Thomas Telford built the highest aqueduct in the UK.
THU 20:30 Days that Shook the World (b0078kfv)
Series 1 (30 minutes)
Moon Landing
Documentary recalling 20 July 1969, when Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the surface of the moon.
THU 21:00 Crude Britannia: The Story of North Sea Oil (b00l7r9j)
Episode 1
Three-part series combining archive footage and eye-witness accounts to tell the dramatic narrative of North Sea oil and gas from the 1960s to the present. It charts the decades when the country made the most of its North Sea windfall, with scarcely a thought about where it came from or of the men and women who brought it to us. Through the story of oil, the series offers a fresh perspective on British politics and society and a timely insight into the state of our economy today.
Forty years ago, Britain was poised on the brink of an extraordinary discovery - oil, billions of gallons of it, deep beneath the harsh waters of the North Sea. This opening edition gives a voice to some of the men who made that discovery and who risked their lives in the North Sea to get the oil ashore.
Theirs is a tale of dramatic risk-taking and high politics as the government and the oil companies raced to get their hands on the bonanza. The promise of enormous riches inspired technical innovation on a scale never seen before, but did the haste of the North Sea project put at risk the lives of men who were working in some of the most extreme conditions in the world?
THU 22:00 The Secret Life of the Airport (b00l7q57)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
THU 23:00 The High Life (b00gsj9b)
Feart
It's Steve's 30th birthday and he feels stuck in a rut. Sebastian suggests they apply to be stewards on Air Scotia's glamours long-haul flights. But first they have to contend with Capitain Duff, who thinks he is Leonard Nimoy, and a plane full of Gaga Tours OAPs, including an incognito Air Scotia Inspector. Meanwhile, Shona meets someone from her past.
THU 23:30 Crude Britannia: The Story of North Sea Oil (b00l7r9j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 00:30 The Fallen: Legacy of Iraq (b00ktph9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Saturday]
THU 01:10 Forty Minutes On (b0074t1z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:35 on Monday]
THU 02:10 Timeshift (b0084l02)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
THU 03:10 Crude Britannia: The Story of North Sea Oil (b00l7r9j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 19 JUNE 2009
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00l7rfz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (b00l7p5m)
Concerts
Song Prize Title
All eyes are on Cardiff's St David's Hall as five singers compete for the first of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World's prestigious awards - the Song Prize, a testing examination with competitors performing solely with piano accompaniment. In 2007, England's Elizabeth Watts took the prize and has since gone on to a glittering singing career.
Joining presenter Petroc Trelawny to give her views is one of the world's great opera singers and interpreters of song, soprano Barbara Bonney.
Please note phonelines may now be closed, but you will still be charged for your call.
FRI 21:00 Leonard Cohen Live in London (b00l6dhm)
A recording of a concert from Leonard Cohen's 2008-2009 world tour.
For over four decades, Leonard Cohen has been one of the most important and influential songwriters of our time, a figure whose body of work achieves greater depths of mystery and meaning as time goes on. In 2008, Leonard Cohen embarked on his first tour in 15 years. His set included Hallelujah, Suzanne, Bird on the Wire, I'm Your Man, The Future, Democracy, Dance Me to the End of Love and First We Take Manhattan, and was quickly recognised as musical folklore in the making, leaving fans and critics alike hailing the show as a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
FRI 22:00 Omnibus (b00l9j6s)
Leonard Cohen - Songs from a Life
Portrait of Canadian singer, songwriter, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen, recorded in 1988. Featuring interviews, archive film and live performances from London, Paris, Athens and New York.
FRI 23:10 What Leonard Cohen Did for Me (b0074qt6)
Poet, singer, songwriter, lover of women, buddhist monk, in his seventies Leonard Cohen continues to fascinate his fans both old and new. Since his mid-50s his reputation has risen steadily, and he continues to give pleasure to the million or so people who buy his records.
As well as being a poet of iconic status, the godfather of gloom a musician's musician and a primary influence on generations of new artists. Cohen's songwriting says his most passionate fans set him above his contemporaries. And over the years there have been several tribute albums and covers by artists as diverse as Bono, Nina Simone, and REM.
This documentary celebrates the singer-songwriter's original career - from promising young poet and novelist in Canada, to international pop sensation. Musicians, writers and performers including Nick Cave, Ian McCulloch, Arthur Smith, Kathryn Williams and Paul Morley, pay tribute to his work.
FRI 23:40 Flight of the Conchords (b00l7qq0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 00:10 Sounds of the Sixties (b0074qbv)
Original Series
The Folk Revival
A trawl through the BBC's archives for 60s music with an acoustic bent. Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Tim Buckley feature.
FRI 00:40 Leonard Cohen Live in London (b00l6dhm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 01:40 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (b00l7p5m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 03:10 Leonard Cohen Live in London (b00l6dhm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]