Diarmaid MacCulloch traces the growth of an exuberant expression of faith that has spread across the globe - Evangelical Protestantism. Today, it is associated with conservative politics, but the whole story is distinctly more unexpected. It is easily forgotten that the evangelical explosion has been driven by a concern for social justice and the claim that one could stand in a direct emotional relationship with God. It allowed the Protestant faith to burst its boundaries from its homeland in Europe. In America, its preachers marketed Christianity with all the flair and swashbuckling enterprise of American commerce. In Africa, it converted much of the continent by adapting to local traditions, and now it is expanding into Asia. But is Korean Pentecostalism and its message of prosperity in the here and now an adaptation too far?
In 1979, artist Kit Williams turned Britain into a giant treasure map, promising a golden hare, buried in the earth, to the first person who solved the riddle of his book Masquerade. The hysteria that followed the hunt drove Williams underground, where he has continued to create complex and beautiful art, which he refuses to publicly exhibit.
In his first interview in two decades, Kit lifts the lid on life before and after Masquerade. Did the hare deprive us of one of our most gifted painters?
Author, actor, humorist and playwright Alan Bennett talks to Mark Lawson about his life and career.
'Your Dad and me have found an alcoholic drink we really like. Bitter lemon'. Disastrous excursions into leisurewear; failed attempts to entertain the vicar; and embarrassing post-church discussion groups - Alan Bennett's monologue describing the social aspirations of his parents is as touching as it is humorous.
Film version of Alan Bennett's National Theatre hit, directed by John Schlesinger.
A witty examination of the thesis that appearances can be deceptive. Sir Anthony Blunt leads a double life - interrogations by MI5 interspersed with visits to the palace where, on one memorable occasion, he is surprised by Her Majesty.
How much does she know about him and, as the Fifth Man asks, what's she really like?
A monologue by Alan Bennett about Muriel, the recently widowed wife of a stockbroker. Complete with twin-set and pearls, she starts to take control of her own life - past, present and future. But gradually she discovers that all her assets, and even her memories, have been stripped away.
A failed coup attempt ... a British mercenary in a grim African prison ... a dictator accused by the West of torture ... and beneath it all, a spectacular underwater oil reserve that the world's major powers would love to get their hands on.
It may sound like the latest John LeCarre bestseller, but it's the real-life intrigue behind Simon Mann's African Coup, Storyville's penetrating look at mysterious goings on in Equatorial Guinea, a tiny West African nation newly rich from oil and infamous for corruption. Filmed over eighteen months, with access to key players, the film offers a unique look inside a country that rarely allows in the foreign press.
The story proper begins in 2004, when a group of mercenaries, headed by Mann, is arrested in Zimbabwe. Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, accuses them of plotting a bloody coup d'etat to steal his country and its oil. When Mann is sentenced to 34 years in Equatorial Guinea's feared Black Beach jail, he claims to be only a part of a Western plot to grab the country's vast oil resources. This fast-paced thriller of a film travels the globe to unravel that plot, from South Africa to Spain, from London to Washington - promising to reveal the truth of what happened in the most controversial coup attempt in recent history.
But as this all plays out, another actor has its eye on Obiang's oil: China. The Chinese government showers the country with largesse. A new capital city rises from the jungle. Accused by the US of corruption and horrifying human rights abuses, President Obiang welcomes China as his new best friend. Simon Mann's African Coup sheds light on the uncomfortable realities of oil politics in the 21st century.
MONDAY 07 DECEMBER 2009
MON 19:00 World News Today (b00p8lhk)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 The Sky at Night (b00pcmhj)
The Winter Sky
Winter is approaching and, with longer nights, it is the perfect time to get outside to enjoy the wonders of the night sky. Sir Patrick Moore is joined by Dr Chris Lintott and Pete Lawrence, plus a host of stargazers searching for the best the winter skies have to offer.
MON 20:00 Timeshift (b00fh2bh)
Series 8
How to Solve a Cryptic Crossword
A look at the world of cryptic crosswords, offering up the secrets of these seemingly impenetrable puzzles.
Crossword setter Don Manley, AKA Quixote, reveals the tricks that compilers use to bamboozle and entertain solvers using a crossword he created especially for the programme.
We also find out why Britain became home to the cryptic crossword, how a crossword nearly put paid to the D-Day invasion and why London Underground is elevating the crossword to an art form.
Author Colin Dexter explains why Inspector Morse loved his crossword, Martin Bell reveals how his father became the first crossword setter of the Times without ever having solved one and the crossword editor of the Daily Telegraph opens up her postbag.
Also sharing their enthusiasm for cryptic crosswords are actors Prunella Scales and Simon Russell Beale, Val Gilbert of the Daily Telegraph and Jonathan Crowther, AKA Azed of the Times.
MON 21:00 Games Britannia (b00p90d8)
Dicing with Destiny
Three-part series presented by historian Benjamin Woolley about popular games in Britain from the Iron Age to the Information Age, in which he unravels how an apparently trivial pursuit is a rich and entertaining source of cultural and social history.
In part one, Woolley investigates how the instinct to play games is both as universal and elemental as language itself and takes us from 1st-century Britain to the Victorian era.
Ancient and medieval games were not just fun, they were fundamental, and often imbued with prophetic significance. By the late Middle Ages this spiritual element in games began to be lost as gaming became increasingly associated with gambling. Dice and card games abounded, but a moral backlash in Victorian times transformed games into moral educational tools.
This was also the era in which Britain established the world's first commercial games industry, with such classics as the Staunton Chess Set, Ludo and Snakes and Ladders leading the way, all adaptations of original games from other countries.
In the case of Snakes and Ladders, what once represented a Hindu journey to enlightenment was transformed into a popular but banal family favourite, and Woolley sees this as the perfect analogy for how the sacred energy which once imbued games had become gradually drained away by commercialisation.
MON 22:00 Bennett on Bennett (b00pd8xz)
Shy
'Our Alan's like us', Mam would say, 'Shy'. And so it was that this inherited 'condition' would haunt Alan Bennett for a large chunk of his adult life. In his customary understated, humorous yet honest manner, Alan Bennett explores the crippling burden of shyness.
MON 22:10 Talking Heads (b00p8lht)
Series 1
Bed Among the Lentils
Alan Bennett-penned monologue in which Maggie Smith plays the vicar's wife who finds a vision of God at the local off-licence.
MON 23:05 The Beatles on Record (b00ml584)
In 1962 an unknown group from Liverpool entered Abbey Road Studios to record their debut single. During the next eight years they created what is arguably regarded as the greatest collection of studio recordings of the 20th century.
This film charts The Beatles' extraordinary journey from Please Please Me to Abbey Road and reflects how they developed as musicians, matured as songwriters and created a body of work that sounds as fresh now as the time it was recorded.
Narrated entirely by John, Paul, George and Ringo and Sir George Martin, the documentary features rare footage and photos from The Beatles' archives and never heard before out-takes of music and studio chat from the Abbey Road recording sessions.
MON 00:05 Storyville (b00ml582)
How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin
Documentary which tells the extraordinary unknown story of how The Beatles helped to destroy the USSR.
In August 1962, director Leslie Woodhead made a two-minute film in Liverpool's Cavern Club with a raw and unrecorded group of rockers called The Beatles. He arranged their first live TV appearances on a local show in Manchester and watched as the Fab Four phenomenon swept the world.
Twenty-five years later while making films in Russia, Woodhead became aware of how, even though they were never able to play in the Soviet Union, The Beatles' legend had soaked into the lives of a generation of kids. This film meets the Soviet Beatles generation and hears their stories about how the Fab Four changed their lives, including Putin's deputy premier Sergei Ivanov, who explains how The Beatles helped him learn English and showed him another life.
The Soviet authorities were alarmed by the seditious potential of rock 'n' roll, with The Beatles a special target and denounced as 'bugs' in official papers. Their smuggled records were destroyed and their music was banned, but the myth blossomed as bootlegs and photos were covertly traded and even rented amongst fans.
Soon there were thousands of rock bands across the USSR trying to make music with crude homemade guitars. Speakers on lampposts installed to broadcast propaganda were grabbed by rock hopefuls, while reports that an electric pickup could be cannibalised from a telephone led to phone boxes being raided and disabled.
Millions of young people fell in love with The Beatles and the culture of the Cold War enemy, and defected emotionally from the Soviet system. The Beatles prepared the cultural way for the fall of the Berlin Wall and ultimately helped to wash away the foundations of that system.
MON 01:05 Games Britannia (b00p90d8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
MON 02:05 Timeshift (b00fh2bh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
MON 03:05 Games Britannia (b00p90d8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 08 DECEMBER 2009
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00p90d4)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Dusty Bluebells (b00gf2d7)
A nostalgic look back at games and songs from the streets of Belfast. This award-winning schools programme was made in 1971 by David Hammond and features the P7 class from St Mary's Primary School, Divis Street.
TUE 20:00 Life (b00p90d6)
Plants
Plants' solutions to life's challenges are as ingenious and manipulative as any animal's.
Innovative time-lapse photography opens up a parallel world where plants act like fly-paper, or spring-loaded traps, to catch insects. Vines develop suckers and claws to haul themselves into the rainforest canopy. Every peculiar shape proves to have a clever purpose. The dragon's blood tree is like an upturned umbrella to capture mist and shade its roots. The seed of a Bornean tree has wings so aerodynamic they inspired the design of early gliders. The barrel-shaped desert rose is full of water. The heliconia plant even enslaves a humming bird and turns it into an addict for its nectar.
TUE 21:00 Hop, Skip and Jump: The Story of Children's Play (b00p8lhr)
The Great Outdoors
Two-part series which tells the story of children's outdoor games in 20th-century Britain begins by looking at British children at play between the 1900s and the mid-1950s.
It is a journey into a secret world of adventure and imagination that blossomed in the nation's streets, back alleys and playgrounds. The children's songs and games were passed down from one generation to the next and remain an abiding memory for most grown-ups. Playing on the streets was the defining feature of a working class childhood.
But the freedom they enjoyed meant they often got into trouble; none more so than the tribal gangs of boys who named themselves after the places where they lived. The programme highlights how children's play varied between city and country, between the different social classes and between boys and girls.
TUE 22:00 We Need Answers (b00p90db)
Series 2
Love
Anarchic comedy game show in which celebrity guests answer questions set by the public.
Mark Watson hosts, Tim Key is in the questionmaster's chair and Alex Horne provides expert analysis from a booth. Two celebrities battle it out to be crowned the winner and avoid the shame of donning 'The Clogs of Defeat'.
The rules are simple - contestants must match their answer to the one given by a text answering service. Questions can range from 'How many gerbils would have to be stacked on top of each other to reach the moon?' to 'How heavy is the sky?' to 'Is gravy a condiment?'. Each show also features a cunning physical challenge which pits the contestants against each other.
Journalist and presenter Vanessa Feltz competes with actor and star of the The Inbetweeners, Simon Bird, and their challenge is called Sleeping Lions.
TUE 22:30 Bennett on Bennett (b00pd945)
Writing
'Yet another fruitless morning at the typewriter.' Most writers - Philip Larkin, Graham Greene among them - became far more famous when they weren't doing it than when they were. And when a writer does manage to squeeze out a piece of work, can he or she be identified lurking in the prose?
In this amusing and revealing monologue, Alan Bennett examines the delicate balance between writing and staring out of the window.
TUE 22:40 A Woman of No Importance (b00782fy)
Award-winning one-woman drama starring Patricia Routledge. What do Miss Schofield and the gang find to talk about at their table in the canteen? Yesterday they were discussing the rash Pauline Lucas's mother keeps getting on her elbows. Miss Schofield puts her social success down to that fact that she doesn't talk about herself, and she laughs of course, she always laughs. Written by Alan Bennett.
TUE 23:30 ... Sings The Beatles (b00ml7p5)
Recorded for the 40th anniversary of Abbey Road, The Beatles' final album, a journey through the classic and curious covers in the BBC archives.
Featuring Sandie Shaw singing a sassy Day Tripper, Shirley Bassey belting out Something, a close-harmony Carpenters cover of Help!, Joe Cocker's chart-topping With a Little Help from My Friends, Oasis reinventing the Walrus and a little Lady Madonna from Macca himself.
Plus a few 'magical' moments from Candy Flip, The Korean Kittens and Su Pollard.
TUE 00:30 Hop, Skip and Jump: The Story of Children's Play (b00p8lhr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUE 01:30 We Need Answers (b00p90db)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
TUE 02:00 ... Sings The Beatles (b00ml7p5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:30 today]
TUE 03:00 Hop, Skip and Jump: The Story of Children's Play (b00p8lhr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 09 DECEMBER 2009
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00p90dz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Versailles Stories (b0074sjg)
Fountains and Fireworks
Series exploring the history and modern evolution of one of France's great palaces through the stories of the people who work there today.
Louis XIV was a technological pioneer and nowhere is the legacy of his innovation more apparent than in the extraordinary and stunningly beautiful system of fountains at Versailles. Seven hundred jets are linked by a thirty five kilometre network of pipes, many of them still the originals designed and crafted by 18th century technicians. Now as then one of the main highlights for visitors to Versailles is the dramatic summer fountain display, the Grandes Eaux, incorporating water and music to extraordinary effect. But in the run up to this summer season the duration and frequency of the displays are under threat.
France is experiencing one of the worst droughts in living memory and the dedicated team of engineers responsible for keeping the fountains flowing is drawing on the very last reserves of water. The jewel in the crown of Louis' technological legacy is the Grandes Eaux Nocturnes, an evening pageant of water, music, historical drama and fireworks. But for the first time ever, the water shortage is such that the Nocturnes might not happen at all.
WED 20:00 Russia: A Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby (b00bv2yg)
Motherland
Jonathan Dimbleby explores ten thousand miles of Russia.
The symbol of Russian patriotism is the River Volga which runs from above Moscow through the heart of Russia to the Caspian Sea. Not far from the port of Astrakhan is a tiny village that was once the great capital of the Golden Horde. He arrives there in February when the biting wind chills to the bone, and is astonished to find how little remains of the western capital of Genghiz Khan's massive empire.
In Volgograd, the former Stalingrad, he meets Svetlana Argatseva, a woman who thinks Stalin has been misunderstood and discovers that she is not alone.
In Samara, once a secret armaments city closed to all foreigners, it is Victory Day. Traditionally families take offerings of food and drink to the graves of their departed loved ones in the city's cemeteries. Jonathan joins them and finds that a stranger is welcome even at this most intimate family occasion. It is also the time when new recruits are called up for military service.
A sobering meeting is with journalist Sergei Kurt-Adjiev. He works for Novaya Gazeta, one of the few publications that has refused to take the government line. Sergei is subject to constant harassment by the police.
Jonathan travels past Kazan - the place where Ivan the Terrible finally smashed the rule of the Mongols - towards Perm. Just beyond Perm is the site of one of the last camps for political prisoners. Jonathan meets a former inmate, who shows him round the solitary confinement block and describes what it was like in the subzero winters.
His final stop is in the Ural Mountains, now a place popular with off-roaders and hunters. This is the boundary between Europe and Asia, between ancient Russia and the land empire they conquered stretching to the Pacific.
WED 21:00 The Art of Russia (b00p90g8)
Out of the Forest
Series in which art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon presents the incredible story of Russian art - its mystery and magnificence - until now untold on British television.
He explores the origins of the Russian icon from its roots in Byzantium and the first great Russian icon, Our Lady of Vladimir, to the masterpieces of the country's most famous icon painter Andrei Rublev.
At the same time as being epic and awe-inspiring, and producing brilliant art, medieval Russia could be a terrifying place. Criss-crossing the epic landscape, Andrew visits the monastery founded by Ivan the Terrible, where Ivan's favourite forms of torture found inspiration in religious art.
One man would shine a light into Russia's 'dark' ages - Peter the Great who, surprisingly, took as his inspiration Deptford in South London.
WED 22:00 Bennett on Bennett (b00pd958)
Star Gazing
John Gielgud, Alec Guinness, Noel Coward ... and Alan Titchmarsh. Few escape the beady observations of Alan Bennett and eventual immortalisation in his diaries. In this compilation from the late 1990s and early 2000s, Bennett turns his gaze onto the showbiz world and the results are as moving as they are amusing.
WED 22:10 Talking Heads (b00p90gb)
Series 1
A Cream Cracker under the Settee
A monologue by Alan Bennett, starring Thora Hird as an independent old lady who has a fall that decides her future.
WED 22:45 We Need Answers (b00p90db)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Tuesday]
WED 23:15 Wallander (b00mk3sg)
Series 1
The Castle Ruins
When an old man is murdered at a luxury housing development by the sea, suspicions fall on the residents. It seems that their perfect lives are not so perfect after all.
In Swedish with English subtitles.
WED 00:40 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00p8lgg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
WED 01:45 We Need Answers (b00p90db)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Tuesday]
WED 02:15 The Art of Russia (b00p90g8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 03:15 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00p8lgg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
THURSDAY 10 DECEMBER 2009
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00p90kh)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Return to Pembrokeshire Farm (b00nk324)
Episode 4
Griff's restoration on the cottage is almost complete, except now there is a problem with the roof on both the mill and the cottage. Meanwhile, George is off to visit one of the last working water mills in Wales to get ideas for the interior of the mill.
THU 20:00 Hop, Skip and Jump: The Story of Children's Play (b00p8lhr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
THU 21:00 A History of Christianity (b00p90kk)
God in the Dock
Diarmaid MacCulloch's own life story makes him a symbol of a distinctive feature about Western Christianity - scepticism, a tendency to doubt which has transformed both Western culture and Christianity.
In the final programme in the series, he asks where that change came from. He challenges the simplistic notion that faith in Christianity has steadily ebbed away before the relentless advance of science, reason and progress, and shows instead how the tide of faith perversely flows back in.
Despite the attacks of Newton, Voltaire, the French Revolutionaries and Darwin, Christianity has shown a remarkable resilience. The greatest damage to Christianity was actually inflicted to its moral credibility by the two great wars of the 20th century and by its entanglement with Fascism and Nazism. And yet it is during crisis that the Church has rediscovered deep and enduring truths about itself, which may even be a clue to its future.
THU 22:00 Bennett on Bennett (b00pd99y)
Postscript
'Sometimes as I'm standing by their grave I try and get a picture of my parents, Dad in his waistcoat and shirtsleeves, Mam in her blue coat and shiny straw hat.' In this poetic monologue, Alan Bennett movingly describes visiting his parents' grave in his North Yorkshire village.
THU 22:10 Talking Heads (b0077mvh)
Series 2
Nights in the Gardens of Spain
Second series of monologues written by Alan Bennett. Rosemary takes over the care of a neighbour's garden after they have a brush with the law.
THU 22:50 Our Winnie (b00p90kp)
Alan Bennett's drama revolves around Winnie, a woman with learning difficulties who lives with her elderly mother Cora and Aunt Ida. While visiting the cemetery where Winnie's father is buried they meet two art students, one of whom, Liz, asks if she can take a photograph of the three women. She takes it while they are not prepared, making them look ridiculous. Cora is angry, so Liz takes another of them properly posed. But she enters the first photograph for a competition, where it wins a prize.
THU 23:35 The Thick of It (b00p90kr)
Series 3
Episode 7
Nicola Murray and her team are desperate to find a major sports personality to be the face of DoSAC's new Healthy Choices campaign. Malcolm's away on holiday and doesn't want to be disturbed, so they take advice from Steve Fleming, who's back on the scene as the PM's new fixer.
Is Steve really as nice as he seems? Everyone knows Malcolm never takes holidays, so what's he up to now?
THU 00:05 A History of Christianity (b00p90kk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 01:05 The Sky at Night (b00pcmhj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 on Monday]
THU 01:35 Timeshift (b00fh2bh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
THU 02:35 Return to Pembrokeshire Farm (b00nk324)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 03:05 A History of Christianity (b00p90kk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 11 DECEMBER 2009
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00p90nj)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Transatlantic Sessions (b0082hyv)
Series 3
Episode 5
Folk musicians come together in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever'. Featuring harpist Catriona McKay, fiddler Bruce Molsky and Tim O'Brien.
FRI 20:00 For Art's Sake - The Story of Ballets Russes (b00p90nl)
Celebrating the achievements of Ballets Russes under Diaghilev's guidance and their continuing influence on dance, art and music today.
The English National Ballet perform extracts from two Ballets Russes' masterpieces, Les Sylphides and Scheherazade, as well as a new version by David Dawson of the iconic Nijinsky ballet Afternoon Of A Faun.
Karl Lagerfeld talks about the influence of Coco Chanel and the design legacy of the Ballets Russes. The music from the period is discussed by great French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, who is joined by prolific English composer and broadcaster Howard Goodall.
Ninety-five-year-old Frederick Franklin recounts what it was like to see the scandalous ending of Nijinsky's Afternoon Of A Faun, while dancers, musicians, writers, critics, stylists and historians paint a vivid portrait of this unique dance company and discuss the legacy of Diaghilev's genius on the creative arts.
FRI 21:00 The Firebird with the Royal Ballet (b00p90nn)
Leanne Benjamin and Jonathan Cope star in The Firebird, Stravinsky's colourful fairytale masterpiece created for the Ballet Russes.
FRI 22:00 Storyville (b0074srv)
Gimme Shelter
Documentary by Albert and David Maysles recalling the events surrounding a free concert by the Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway outside San Francisco in 1969. Worried about the security, the Stones asked the Hell's Angels to keep order for them, but the day ended tragically as violence broke out and a fan was killed.
FRI 23:35 We Need Answers (b00p90db)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Tuesday]
FRI 00:05 Only Connect (b00mbt58)
Series 2
Chessman v Mathematicians - The Competition for Third Place
Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.
Three avid chess players take on a trio unified by their love of mathematics as they compete for the glory of third place in the series, trying to draw together the connections between elements which, at first glance, seem utterly random.
FRI 00:35 The Beatles on Record (b00ml584)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:05 on Monday]
FRI 01:35 Storyville (b00ml582)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:05 on Monday]
FRI 02:35 For Art's Sake - The Story of Ballets Russes (b00p90nl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRI 03:35 We Need Answers (b00p90db)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Tuesday]
FRI 04:05 Only Connect (b00mbt58)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:05 today]