Based on the best selling novel by Alexander McCall Smith, The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a poignant and amusing story chronicling the adventures of Precious Ramotswe, the traditionally built, eminently sensible and wise proprietor of the only female-owned detective agency in Botswana.
Botswana's No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency is in desperate need of clients. To boost business, Mma Makutsi prints up flyers, which seem to do the trick. Mma Ramotswe soon finds herself hunting down an absconding apostolic, finding a disappearing dog, and checking up on a definitely disturbed dentist.
History books tell us that Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, but that's not the whole story. This drama uncovers the forgotten team involved in the development and manufacture of the drug that transformed medicine.
Series chronicling the turbulent changes of the 20th century from the point of view of the people who lived through them.
Medical advances were made during the 1950s, when better public hygiene and new medicines overcame epidemic diseases that had been man's oldest enemies. Doctors and sufferers relate how old fears disappeared - but as the world's population grew, new threats arose.
Documentary looking at the history of the laboratory mouse and its role in some of the most important medical breakthroughs of the 20th century, from the development of penicillin to transplant surgery.
It's March 2009 and the Queen's Dragoon Guards, known as the Welsh Cavalry, are coming to the end of their bloodiest tour of duty in 50 years. The Taliban is a determined enemy but the regiment has succeeded in keeping them at bay both in the south and north of Helmand Province.
This programme follows them during some of their final operations, including one on St David's Day, which turned into a vicious firefight in a village near Garmsir. A third of the boys in one troop are only 18 and face a huge range of dangers. But their sergeant, Butch Davies from Swansea, does everything he can to ensure their safety.
The Guinea Pig Club is an exclusive drinking club with gruesome initiation rights. You have to have been a WWII pilot, cheated death and have a disfigurement to prove it.
The president of the club was Archibald McIndoe, a plastic surgeon who pioneered experimental surgery in order to rebuild their faces and hands to give them a chance of a normal life.
MONDAY 03 AUGUST 2009
MON 19:00 World News Today (b00lz2rt)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 The Sky at Night (b0074s8k)
Mapping the Moon
Patrick Moore presents a guide to the most familiar body in the night sky, whilst Chris Lintott gives tips on how to observe the moon.
MON 20:00 The Sky at Night (b00m0z9d)
Coronas of the Sun
Sir Patrick Moore, with the help of Pete Lawrence and the latest pictures, investigates the longest total eclipse of the sun for many years, which took place recently in India and China.
In orbit around Saturn, the Cassini probe has sent back amazing new images, and there's a new discovery on the moon Enceladus. Chris Lintott reports from the latest Cassini conference in London and finds out why there is a sprinkling of table salt in the rings of Saturn.
MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00lzzz3)
Series 2
Chessmen v Charity Puzzlers
Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.
Three dedicated chess players pit their strategic prowess against a team who have honed their lateral thinking skills writing puzzles to raise money for their local hospice. They compete to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random.
MON 21:00 Wallander (b00m0hzx)
Series 1
The African
When a Liberian immigrant is found murdered in a train yard, Wallander and the Ystad team follow the trail to an African dancing class and a cuckolded former white supremacist.
All of this happens against the backdrop of an election and the possibility of Kurt's childhood friend, the democratic candidate, being elected and 'opening the doors' to more immigrants.
In Swedish with English subtitles.
MON 22:30 The Secret Life of the Motorway (b007x58q)
Falling in Love
Documentary series which celebrates the birth of motorways and hails the achievements of those behind the 'road revolution'. The first episode takes us from the excitement of the building of the first motorway in Britain, the M6 Preston By-pass, to the celebration of the most complex, Spaghetti Junction.
With amazing archive and often hilarious public information films, we take a trip back to a time when not only were motorways exciting and new, but there was also no speed limit. Interviews with the engineers who designed them, the navvies who built them and the people who drove on them bring to life and celebrate an achievement that we now take so much for granted.
MON 23:30 The Secret Life of the Motorway (b007xmbm)
The Honeymoon Period
The second episode in this evocative series about Britain's motorways explores how they have transformed where we live, work and play in Britain over the last 50 years. From unbelievably glamorous early service stations to contemporary shopping centres with the infrastructure of a small town, this enthralling film is a journey through the wonderful, and the weird, places motorways have taken us. Contributors include seminal planner Sir Peter Hall, author Will Self, caravanners, hitchhikers and commuters, all on our eagerness to accelerate down the slip road, and the social changes that have followed.
MON 00:30 The Secret Life of the Motorway (b007xmdn)
The End of the Affair
When the first motorways opened they did so to national celebration. But after the first 1,000 miles had been built, their impact on both town and country was becoming apparent and people started to protest.
Middle England rose up and disrupted public inquiries to voice their frustration at motorway building, but it continued and over time the frustration gave way to concerns about saving the planet. In the early 1990s that meant young people willing to risk everything to stop the motorways being built. The programme shows how people began to question the promises made by the motorway, and along the way found their voice of protest.
MON 01:30 Only Connect (b00lzzz3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
MON 02:00 Ozwald Boateng: Why Style Matters (b00gmj5m)
For many, Savile Row menswear designer Ozwald Boateng embodies modern British style and in this documentary he unpicks and re-stitches his own relationship with style, looking to answer questions about what style is, where it comes from and why it is worth having.
Boateng pinpoints the places on his life-long journey through fashion where he added a new thought or influence to his look and reveals just how much being stylish has influenced his success. He talks about style with family, friends, colleagues and journalists and travels to Milan to meet one of his heroes, the master of modern menswear, Giorgio Armani.
MON 03:00 The Sky at Night (b00m0z9d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
MON 03:30 The Sky at Night (b0074s8k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUESDAY 04 AUGUST 2009
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00lz2v4)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Only Connect (b00lzzz3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Monday]
TUE 20:00 South Pacific (b00l5jl0)
Strange Islands
Flightless parrots, burrowing bats, giant skinks and kangaroos in trees; on the isolated islands of the South Pacific, the wildlife has evolved in extraordinary ways. But island living can carry a high price, for when new species arrive all hell breaks loose. And there lies a puzzle - why do animals perfectly adapted to island life simply give up the ghost? The answer is revealed by the remarkable stories of some unlikely animals that survived on tiny islands off the coast of New Zealand. The human history of the region is further evidence that, however idyllic it may appear, life on a South Pacific island may never be very far from catastrophe.
TUE 21:00 We Need Answers (b00hkbc6)
Series 1
Reading
Mark Watson, Tim Key and Alex Horne lead a comic quiz show with a difference, adapted from their award-winning Edinburgh show. Celebrity guests Germaine Greer and Michael Rosen take part to find out which one of them is the smartest, the funniest and the best at surreal physical challenges. All the questions come from the audience members and text-messaging services.
TUE 21:30 Cowards (b00gvhjn)
Episode 1
Cowards is a new 4-man sketch show packed with surprise and invention.
Scenarios include disaffected judges, office bullying via Skype, Russian roulette at the dinner table, a jobseeker aiming to become Mick Hucknall’s PA and a dog with a secret – all delivered with the unique Cowards brand of joyful deadpan absurdity.
The team of Tom Basden, Stefan Golaszewski, Tim Key and Lloyd Woolf have honed their voice over two acclaimed Edinburgh Festival shows, a returning series on Radio 4 and the first online sketch show for BBC3. Their highly-accomplished TV debut is a thrilling new arrival in the comedy landscape.
With top comedy director Steve Bendelack (League of Gentlemen, Little Britain, The Royle Family, Mighty Boosh) at the helm, Cowards is a funny, visually-arresting show performed with skill and subtlety by four of the best young writer-performers around.
TUE 22:00 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 22:30 Getting On (b00llg8k)
Series 1
Episode 1
Ward B4 is a world of slips, trips and hips, where healthcare is at its least glamorous. Sister Den Flixter, Nurse Kim Wilde and Dr Pippa Moore assemble for ward round. The daily grind of new admissions and discharges has begun. But Hilary Loftus, the new, male, modern matron has just started work and an unsavoury stool sample and a dead patient give him cause for concern.
TUE 23:00 Early Doors (b0078k4l)
Series 1
Episode 2
Comedy series set in a small Manchester public house, co-written by and starring The Royle Family's Craig Cash. Joe's marriage is in crisis. Melanie's boyfriend has a big surprise for her. The hospital denies all knowledge of Sheila's husband.
TUE 23:30 Breaking the Mould: The Story of Penicillin (b00ly0t1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Sunday]
TUE 00:55 Getting On (b00llg8k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
TUE 01:25 We Need Answers (b00hkbc6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUE 01:55 Cowards (b00gvhjn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:30 today]
TUE 02:25 The Pre-Raphaelites (b00l7qpy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
TUE 02:55 Only Connect (b00lzzz3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Monday]
TUE 03:25 Cowards (b00gvhjn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:30 today]
WEDNESDAY 05 AUGUST 2009
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00lz31w)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Once a Soldier (b0079sts)
Series 1
Soldiering On
Documentary series about the Chelsea Pensioners, former British soldiers who live in the Royal Hospital in Chelsea.
The hospital needs to raise money to maintain its Grade 1 listed building and for the construction of a new infirmary. It becomes the backdrop to a Bollywood movie and a period drama, but the soldiers also need to rely on friends in high places to fund a long-term survival plan. Pensioner Windy Gale needs nursing care so he is moving berth and clearing out 60 years of memories.
WED 20:00 Casualty 1907 (b009x109)
Episode 3
Drama that uses case notes, ward reports, autopsy records and diaries from 1907 to bring doctors, nurses and patients at the Royal London Hospital back to life. With the hospital facing imminent financial collapse, chairman Sydney Holland launches an inspired campaign to raise money. The cost of building the modern city is revealed when workers on the new Rotherhithe Tunnel are admitted with agonising diver's bends. Ethel, working in the receiving room, contracts scarlet fever from a patient.
WED 21:00 Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen (b00lz31y)
Drama illuminating one doctor's pioneering efforts to protect the people of Manchester from the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic.
Set against the background of the Armistice in November 1918 as millions of exhausted soldiers return home from the Great War, the film tells the little-known story of Dr James Niven, Manchester's medical health officer for thirty years, and his heroic efforts to combat a second wave of fatal influenza as it spreads across the city and the UK.
WED 22:00 In Search of Spanish Flu (b00dwf49)
Documentary in which a team of top UK virologists exhume the body of statesman, military officer and diplomat Sir Mark Sykes from a country churchyard in an attempt to detect the genetic footprint of one of the most dangerous viruses the world has ever seen, the Spanish Flu. It may be that an aristocrat who died nearly 90 years ago holds the key to preventing a modern bird flu pandemic.
WED 22:30 The Story of the Open University (b00lz2p5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Saturday]
WED 23:30 Timeshift (b0074tg9)
Series 6
Carry On Campus
Over the past sixty years, a university education has gone from being the preserve of the privileged few to an expected rite of passage for more than a million young adults a year. This spectacular expansion transformed the expectations of generations and provided the crucible for everything from sexual liberation to political revolution, and it inspired a unique literary phenomenon rich in controversy and comedy - the campus novel.
This documentary takes a fond look at the growing pains of the university through the eyes of the writers who immortalised it in everything from Brideshead Revisited and Lucky Jim to The History Man and Nice Work, telling the story of how universities were opened to all and of the quest to build an alternative to the ivory towers of Oxbridge out of concrete and glass.
Featuring interviews with David Lodge, Germaine Greer, Laurie Taylor, Frederic Raphael, Arthur Smith and Howard Jacobson.
WED 00:30 Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen (b00lz31y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 01:30 The Story of the Open University (b00lz2p5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Saturday]
WED 02:30 Timeshift (b0074tg9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:30 today]
WED 03:30 Once a Soldier (b0079sts)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THURSDAY 06 AUGUST 2009
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00lz38z)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 BBC Proms (b00lzl3j)
2009
Prom 29: Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony
In a tribute to his native Italy, conductor Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic perform Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies's Roma Amor, Respighi's Pines of Rome and two Rossini arias performed by the Alaskan mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux. Suzy Klein presents.
THU 22:00 Wallander (b00m0hzx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
THU 23:25 Later... with Jools Holland (b00b6xws)
Series 32
Episode 6
Jools Holland hosts music and chat from Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Spiritualized, Emmylou Harris, Santogold, the Fratellis, Chris Difford and many more.
THU 00:30 The Guinea Pig Club (b0074q2f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
01:35 on Sunday]
THU 01:30 BBC Proms (b00lzl3j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRIDAY 07 AUGUST 2009
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00lz3dq)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 BBC Proms (b00lz3ds)
2009
Prom 30: Knussen Conducts Knussen
One of the towering forces in British music today, Oliver Knussen, conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a colourful programme that includes Stravinsky's musical poker-game Jeu de Cartes, Respighi's Fountains of Rome, the Proms premiere of Virga by the young Scot Helen Grime, Balakirev's oriental fantasy Islamey and Knussen's own Horn Concerto, performed by Martin Owen. Presented by Suzy Klein.
FRI 21:20 In Concert (b00hd37d)
Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee
Blues singers Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee on stage in the 1970s, featuring Sonny's signature harmonica showpiece.
FRI 22:00 Blues at the BBC (b00k36m5)
Collection of performances by British and American blues artists on BBC programmes such as The Beat Room, A Whole Scene Going, The Old Grey Whistle Test and The Late Show.
Includes the seminal slide guitar of Son House, the British R&B of The Kinks, the unmistakeable electric sound of BB King and Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton and John Lee Hooker, as well as less familiar material from the likes of Delaney and Bonnie, Freddie King and Long John Baldry.
FRI 23:00 Blues Britannia: Can Blue Men Sing the Whites? (b00kc752)
Documentary telling the story of what happened to blues music on its journey from the southern states of America to the heart of British pop and rock culture, providing an in-depth look at what this music really meant to a generation of kids desperate for an antidote to their experiences of living in post-war suburban Britain.
Narrated by Nigel Planer and structured in three parts, the first, Born Under a Bad Sign, focuses on the arrival of American blues in Britain in the late 50s and the first performances here by such legends as Muddy Waters, Sonnie Terry and Brownie McGhee.
Part two, Sittin' on Top of the World, charts the birth of the first British blues boom in the early 60s, spearheaded by the Rolling Stones and groups such as the Yardbirds, Manfred Mann, the Animals and the Pretty Things.
The final section, Crossroads, looks at the next, more hardcore British blues boom of the mid-to-late 60s, with guitarists Eric Clapton and Peter Green and the international dominance of their respective bands, Cream and Fleetwood Mac.
Featuring archive performances and interviews with Keith Richards, Paul Jones, Chris Dreja, Bill Wyman, Phil May, John Mayall, Jack Bruce, Mick Fleetwood, Ian Anderson, Tony McPhee, Mike Vernon, Tom McGuinness, Mick Abrahams, Dick Taylor, Val Wilmer, Chris Barber, Pete Brown, Bob Brunning, Dave Kelly and Phil Ryan.
FRI 00:30 Bobby Bland: Two Steps from the Blues (b00k99g4)
Documentary telling the story of the life and music of Bobby 'Blue' Bland, one of America's classic vocalists, listed high in Rolling Stone magazine's Top 100 greatest voices and admired by Elvis Presley, Van Morrison and Mick Hucknall among others.
In 1947, Bland's mother brought her son from the country town of Rosemark to Memphis in search of a better life. A year later, Gladys Presley and her son made a similar journey from neighbouring Tupelo. At that time, Memphis was a musical melting pot and BB King reports that 'everyone who was anyone' turned up there sooner or later. Bland offered his services as a driver, but soon secured a spot singing with King's band, while the young Elvis hung around Beale Street taking it all in.
The film traces Bobby's musical path from its gospel roots, through jazz and into the blues, which he infused with a unique sophistication, becoming a major singing star in black America in the 50s and 60s. His songs were covered by the Allman Brothers, the Grateful Dead and many others, and drummer Jab'o Starks recalls recording classic tracks like Stormy Monday, with which Bobby achieved great chart success.
Contributors include Van Morrison, Quincy Jones, BB King, Mick Hucknall, Dan Penn and Grammy nominee Susan Tedeschi.
FRI 01:30 Blues at the BBC (b00k36m5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 02:30 BBC Proms (b00lz3ds)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]