Fish dominate the planet's waters through their astonishing variety of shape and behaviour.
The beautiful weedy sea dragon looks like a creature from a fairy tale, and the male protects their eggs by carrying them on his tail for months. The sarcastic fringehead, meanwhile, appears to turn its head inside out when it fights.
Slow-motion cameras show the flying fish gliding through the air like a flock of birds and capture the world's fastest swimmer, the sailfish, plucking sardines from a shoal at 70 mph. And the tiny Hawaiian goby undertakes one of nature's most daunting journeys, climbing a massive waterfall to find safe pools for breeding.
From the Himalayas in the north to the Nilgiris in the south - for a hundred years these little trains have climbed through the clouds and into the wonderful world of Indian Hill Railways.
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway is a romantic line, popular with honeymooners and driven by love and devotion as well as steam. It chugs through the south Indian jungle up to a hill station, once known as Snooty Ooty.
The current guard is Ivan. Married for twenty years, he is concerned about his friend Jenni, the ticket inspector, because he's still a bachelor - but Jenni has a secret.
In the engine shed, Shivani, the railway's first female diesel engineer, is working on a steam loco. She has to make it look its best, as in the year of filming, 1999, the railway celebrated its centenary. The high point is the Black Beauty competition to pick the best engine on the line, but rains and landslides threaten the proceedings and the tourist business. Will love win out in the end?
On Midsummer's Eve, three teenagers dressed in eighteenth-century fancy dress are shot dead in a secluded wood. One of Inspector Kurt Wallander's colleagues turns up dead, someone whose help he hoped to rely on to help solve the crime.
Wallander knows the murders are related. But with his only clue a photograph of a woman no one in Sweden seems to know, he cannot begin to imagine how.
Wallander is locked in a desperate effort to catch the killer before he strikes again. Wallander always seems to be just one step behind.
Drama series about Jackie Peyton, a no-nonsense emergency room nurse based in New York who has to balance her frenzied job with a complicated home life. Kevin asks Jackie to meet for a rendezvous at midnight, and Eddie threatens to tell the truth about Jackie's family. The comatose movie critic wakes up but his tastes have radically changed and O'Hara's ailing mother is admitted.
Sketch show starring Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller. Featuring the return of the RAF pilots, and new characters including disastrous arts TV presenter Dennis Lincoln-Park.
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?
Every three years since 1963, Leeds plays host to the cream of young international concert pianists who travel there to take part in the city's International Piano Competition. Past winners have included musical greats like Rada Lupu and Murray Perahia.
Huw Edwards presents the full concerto from the second of 2009's six finalists, aided by expert comments from concert pianists Cristina Ortiz and Lucy Parham. Clemency Burton-Hill meets the competitors and goes behind the scenes.
Charles Hazlewood introduces a concert commemorating the 75th anniversary of Elgar's death, with his Second Symphony played by the BBC Philharmonic and conducted by Vassily Sinaisky.
Two intriguing English rarities start the programme - Ernest Moeran's G Minor Symphony and Gerald Finzi's Grand Fantasia and Toccata, with piano soloist Leon McCawley.
SUNDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2010
SUN 19:00 The Great Offices of State (b00r0sf5)
The Secret Treasury
Three-part series in which award-winning reporter Michael Cockerell uncovers the secret world of Whitehall, showing what the trio of great offices - Home, Foreign and Treasury - are really like.
The Treasury is the oldest and most secretive of the three. Cockerell's film recounts the many battles Chancellors have fought over the years with their top officials and it shows how often the Treasury has been locked in conflict with Number 10.
He blends fresh filming with rare and unseen archive, and features candid interviews with former Chancellor Alastair Darling, many of his predecessors and their normally camera-shy mandarins.
The programme shows how Treasury officials see themselves as the Whitehall elite, brighter and quicker than other civil servants, whereas critics claim they are congenitally cautious and nerdy. Successive prime ministers have sought to combat what they call 'the dead hand of the Treasury', but a senior mandarin claims that over the years the Treasury has discovered a hundred different ways of saying no.
SUN 20:00 Indian Hill Railways (b00r5wk7)
The Kalka-Shimla Railway
From the Himalayas in the north to the Nilgiris in the south - for a hundred years these little trains have climbed through the clouds and into the wonderful world of Indian hill railways.
Shimla was once the summer capital of the Raj. They built churches, schools, a town hall and the railway and left behind their symbols of empire and an ethos of duty, loyalty and ambition - but they also left a divided subcontinent.
Characters featured include Maqsood, a refugee and a porter from Kashmir, and John Whitmarsh-Knight, a teacher looking for a home. Sanjay the stationmaster is hoping for promotion, and his boss Bataljit is waiting for a transfer, but everybody is waiting for the snow.
SUN 21:00 On Expenses (b00r3qf4)
Drama about American journalist Heather Brooke's fight for the disclosure of MPs' expenses under the Freedom of Information Act, resulting in one of the defining political scandals of the decade.
SUN 22:00 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00r3qf8)
Brian Cox
Mark Lawson talks to Brian Cox, ahead of his lead role in the BBC4 Westminster drama, On Expenses. In this candid interview, Cox talks about his passion for portraying complex and difficult characters, but also about his personal psychological battles and the low point in his career when he almost gave up acting.
SUN 23:00 Mad Men (b00r0rnm)
Series 3
Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency
It's the Fourth of July and the new British bosses want the staff to come in to meet their dashing new blade Guy MacKendrick, but will he be put to the sword? Joan tenders her resignation only to find that she has been too rash.
SUN 23:45 Storyville (b00r06j5)
Your Father's Murderer: A Letter To Zachary
On the evening of 5th November 2001, 28-year-old Dr Andrew Bagby was murdered in a parking lot in western Pennsylvania. The prime suspect, his ex-girlfriend Dr Shirley Turner, promptly fled the United States for St. John's, Newfoundland where she announced that she was pregnant with Bagby's child, a boy she named Zachary.
Filmmaker Kurt Kuenne, Bagby's childhood friend, originally began this film as a way for Zachary to learn about his father. But when Turner was allowed to walk free on bail in Canada and given custody of Zachary while awaiting extradition to the US, its focus shifted to the desperate efforts of Zachary's grandparents, David and Kathleen Bagby, to win custody of the boy.
A film that prompted standing ovations at film festivals across North America, it is the recipient of numerous honours and citations, was named one of the top five documentaries of 2008 by the National Board of Review and named in Best Films of 2008 lists by more than three dozen critics.
SUN 01:15 On Expenses (b00r3qf4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
SUN 02:15 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00r3qf8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
SUN 03:15 Mad Men (b00r0rnm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 today]
MONDAY 01 MARCH 2010
MON 19:00 World News Today (b00r5wmp)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 Syrian School (b00r0rnk)
Being Inspired
Five-part series following a year in the life of four schools in Damascus, a high pressure crossroads in the Middle East.
It concentrates on some remarkable characters finding their way in a country that has never before opened ordinary life up to the cameras in this way, challenges the usual cliches of Arab life and charts the highs and lows of the school year.
As a teenage girl it isn't easy to find ways to express yourself in Syria, but there's one outlet that is releasing a wave of emotion in Zaki Al-Arsouzi Girls' High School - the poetry society. Under the stimulating teaching of Mr Muhanned the girls can talk freely about their dreams, of love and hope, away from the constraints of wider society.
Now they will do it in public, at the school's writers' showcase. Ala hopes her heartfelt love poems, inspired by a failed relationship she struck up by mobile phone, are good enough for the big stage, while a trip to the October War Panorama museum drives Lemiss to write of the love she feels for her country.
MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00r5ww7)
Series 3
Archers Admirers v Exeter Alumni
Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.
In the first of the quarter-finals, three fans of the Archers radio series take on the combined knowledge of three flatmates who all met up at Exeter University. They compete to draw together the connections between things, which, at first glance, seem utterly random - from Castor and Pollux to Brahma to Yoshi to Orville the Duck.
MON 21:00 Zimbabwe's Forgotten Children (b00r5ww9)
Shot entirely undercover over the course of nine months, a beautiful and moving documentary which tells the stories of three children growing up in today's Zimbabwe.
12-year-old Grace rummages through rubbish dumps in Harare to find bones to sell for school fees; nine-year-old Esther has to care for her baby sister and her mother who is dying of HIV/AIDS; and 13-year-old Obert pans for gold to make enough money to buy food for himself and his gran, while dreaming of somehow getting the education he craves.
From BAFTA-winning director Jezza Neumann and BAFTA-winning producer, Xoliswa Sithole, a powerful tale unfolds of the gaping chasm between what these children hope for and what their country can currently provide.
MON 22:30 Storyville (b00r5wwc)
Rise Up Reggae Star
On an island where reggae is considered the voice of the people and an outlet for survival, Rise Up Reggae Star follows three aspiring artists who seek to 'rise up' from obscurity for their chance at success. This documentary takes the viewer off the beaten path, far from any tourist attractions and sandy beaches; yet it is still able to capture the beauty and magic that the Island has to offer. From the deep countryside to the whirlwind ghettos of Kingston, no matter where you are, the film makes it evident that music is the heartbeat of the culture.
In a society where talent abounds and opportunity is scarce, Rise Up follows the very different lives of three artists struggling in their own unique way for their big break at stardom. Turbulence, the conscious ghetto youth with enough determination to move mountains; Ice, the young faux-gangster dancehall artist from the upper class; and Kemoy, the beautifully innocent country girl who barely realizes her amazing vocal gifts - their stories unfold as the film seamlessly interweaves their lives behind the backdrop of the bustling underground reggae scene of Jamaica. Five years in the making, Rise Up is able to capture the pure artistry and creativity of these three musicians in raw form while at the same time, able to bring the viewer into their personal lives, inside their most private moments, as they struggle to find their voice and discover their ability to overcome life's obstacles.
MON 23:30 Getting Our Way (b00r06j3)
Values
Sir Christopher Meyer, former British Ambassador to the USA, presents a three-part series telling the behind-the-scenes story of British diplomacy over 500 years of intrigue and adventure.
The final episode is devoted to values, as Meyer explores the troubled history behind the idea of an 'ethical foreign policy'. Should we intervene to stop atrocities or instigate regime change to rid the world of dictators?
The film shows that these are not new dilemmas. There was public outcry in Britain when 19th-century Ottoman Turkey suppressed an uprising in Bulgaria, and the British ambassador in Constantinople was caught in the crossfire between realpolitik and values - ultimately losing his job for pointing out that the moral high ground was the opposite of the British national interest.
Fifty years later, after World War One, statesmen liked to boast they had ushered in a new era of altruistic international cooperation, where principles of human rights would dictate foreign policy. But the so-called 'new diplomacy' ran into trouble almost immediately and the League of Nations proved powerless to save Haile Selassie's Abyssinia from the clutches of Mussolini. Britain's attempt 'to buy Mussolini off' left the Foreign Office tainted with the dread charge of appeasement.
Finally, Meyer revisits the catastrophic failures of British and international diplomacy to prevent genocide in Bosnia in the 1990s. Whether it is ethnic cleansing in the Balkans or Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the last two decades have shown that infusing British foreign policy with values is far from straightforward.
Inteviewees include Henry Kissinger, America's Balkans envoy Richard Holbrooke, EU peace envoy David Owen and our man in Belgrade during the Bosnian war, Ivor Roberts.
MON 00:30 Only Connect (b00r5ww7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
MON 01:00 Zimbabwe's Forgotten Children (b00r5ww9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
MON 02:30 Getting Our Way (b00r06j3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:30 today]
MON 03:30 Storyville (b00r5wwc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
TUESDAY 02 MARCH 2010
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00r5x0t)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 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.
TUE 20:00 Skippy: Australia's First Superstar (b00qvl9g)
Documentary telling the story of Australia's most cherished TV star, Skippy the bush kangaroo, the crime-busting marsupial who conquered the world in the late 60s and early 70s.
The 91 episodes of Skippy were sold in 128 countries and watched by hundreds of millions. It put Australia on the map and - for those of a certain generation - the heroic marsupial is synonymous with their childhood, often in more profound ways than they realise.
Includes interviews with every surviving member of the cast and some of the key crew - not least those responsible for getting the best performances out of the temperamental star.
TUE 21:00 Paws, Claws and Videotape (b00r0rds)
Hugh Dennis reveals a host of artists from the animal kingdom who found fame on TV and in the cinema. While their human co-stars may have passed into obscurity, it is Flipper, Skippy, Lassie, Beauty, Hammy and Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion who live on. As the humans reveal the off screen gossip, this is the ultimate guide to being a thespian top dog, top dolphin or even top hamster.
TUE 22:00 The Lives of Others (b00r0sf7)
Award-winning political thriller set in 1980s East Germany. Captain Wiesler works for the Stasi, the secret police, and is asked to keep surveillance on a playwright, Georg Dreyman, whose loyalty to the party is under question. During the surveillance Weisler is slowly drawn into Georg's life and begins to question his own ideals.
TUE 00:10 Skippy: Australia's First Superstar (b00qvl9g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
TUE 01:10 Paws, Claws and Videotape (b00r0rds)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUE 02:10 Storyville (b00r5wwc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 on Monday]
TUE 03:10 Paws, Claws and Videotape (b00r0rds)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 03 MARCH 2010
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00r5xxy)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 It's Only a Theory (b00nk9yy)
Episode 4
Comedians Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter host a series in which qualified professionals and experts submit their theories about life, the universe and everything for examination by a panel of Hamilton, Hunter and a guest celebrity, who then make a final decision on whether the theory is worth keeping.
The guest celebrity is broadcaster Clare Balding and the experts are Prof Geoff Beattie and Marcus Chown.
WED 20:00 Mediterranean Tales (b0074q1n)
Damascus
Writer and journalist Irma Kurtz takes a journey around the Mediterranean, following in the path of Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad. This edition finds her in Damascus.
WED 20:10 Footsteps: The Rose-Red City (b00r5xy0)
David Drew follows in the footsteps of Jean-Louis Burckhardt, who set out to find the source of the Niger disguised as an Arab to travel more easily, and almost accidentally discovered the fabled city of Petra near the south shores of the Dead Sea.
WED 21:00 Syrian School (b00r5xy2)
Syria's Got Talent
Five-part series following a year in the life of four schools in Damascus, a high pressure crossroads in the Middle East.
It concentrates on some remarkable characters finding their way in a country that has never before opened ordinary life up to the cameras in this way, challenges the usual cliches of Arab life and charts the highs and lows of the school year.
It's time for the country's nationwide search to find Syria's brightest and best primary school students. Thousands of pupils will battle it out in every conceivable discipline, over three hard-fought rounds of competition to become National Pioneers of the Ba'ath Party - Syria's ruling party.
At Al Muleiha Primary School for Boys, head teacher Soha skilfully steers her boys towards the Pioneer final, guiding her most gifted pupils into some of the less competitive disciplines. 11-year-old Imad has his eyes on the prize, for cardboard modelling.
And at Jeramana Middle School, Ward has his own challenge. He's a gifted boy who has been picked to represent his country in one of the toughest international chess tournaments in the world - in Beirut.
WED 22:00 Mad Men (b00r5xy4)
Series 3
Seven Twenty-Three
Conrad Hilton wants Don under exclusive contract, but Don doesn't want to sign. Peggy is wooed by Duck. Betty gets involved with local politics and meets a man who will change her life. Don gets an eclipse of the heart at his children's school.
WED 22:45 Zimbabwe's Forgotten Children (b00r5ww9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
WED 00:15 It's Only a Theory (b00nk9yy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
WED 00:45 Syrian School (b00r5xy2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 01:45 The Lives of Others (b00r0sf7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Tuesday]
THURSDAY 04 MARCH 2010
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00r5ylp)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Only Connect (b00r5ww7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Monday]
THU 20:00 Chemistry: A Volatile History (b00q2mk5)
Discovering the Elements
The explosive story of chemistry is the story of the building blocks that make up our entire world - the elements. From fiery phosphorous to the pure untarnished lustre of gold and the dazzle of violent, violet potassium, everything is made of elements - the earth we walk on, the air we breathe, even us. Yet for centuries this world was largely unknown, and completely misunderstood.
In this three-part series, professor of theoretical physics Jim Al-Khalili traces the extraordinary story of how the elements were discovered and mapped. He follows in the footsteps of the pioneers who cracked their secrets and created a new science, propelling us into the modern age.
Just 92 elements made up the world, but the belief that there were only four - earth, fire, air and water - persisted until the 19th century. Professor Al-Khalili retraces the footsteps of the alchemists who first began to question the notion of the elements in their search for the secret of everlasting life.
He reveals the red herrings and rivalries which dogged scientific progress, and explores how new approaches to splitting matter brought us both remarkable elements and the new science of chemistry.
THU 21:00 The Man with the Golden Gavel (b00r5ylr)
The stuffy gloom of the auction world is pierced by one bright star - Swiss aristocrat and art entrepreneur Simon de Pury. He has revitalised ancient auction house Phillips and turned the salesroom into a party venue, attracting a hip crowd to sales of the hottest contemporary artworks so new they are called Wet Art. But then the biggest boom in art history turns to bust. Can the man they call the salesroom Mick Jagger find even more cutting edge art to keep his house afloat?
THU 22:00 Paws, Claws and Videotape (b00r0rds)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
THU 23:00 Iron Maiden: Flight 666 (b00r5ylv)
A film that documents the first leg of Iron Maiden's Somewhere Back in Time world tour, which took them 50,000 miles around the planet playing 23 concerts on five continents in just 45 days.
One of the stars of the movie is the customised Boeing 757, Ed Force One, which carried the band, their crew and 12 tons of stage equipment and was piloted by airline captain and Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson.
The film gives a close-up, behind-the-scenes look at what happened on and off stage, when Maiden gave full access to a camera crew for the first time, and contains some of the most spectacular live footage yet seen of the band.
Taking the viewer from Mumbai to Santiago, LA to Sydney, Tokyo to San Paolo and all points between, through exhaustion and fan pandemonium, travelling with band and crew on the plane, to and from shows, in the bar and during leisure time, this really is Access All Areas.
THU 00:55 The Man with the Golden Gavel (b00r5ylr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 01:55 Paws, Claws and Videotape (b00r0rds)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
THU 02:55 Chemistry: A Volatile History (b00q2mk5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRIDAY 05 MARCH 2010
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00r600h)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Franz Peter Schubert: The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow (b00r600k)
Franz Schubert was undervalued in his own lifetime and for at least the next century because he died young and, for all the appreciation of his intimate circle of friends, he failed to achieve public recognition and financial success. He was the first great composer in western music to live by his art alone, without patronage, but he enjoyed only one public concert of his music in his lifetime.
Christopher Nupen's documentary uses Schubert's words and music to help us feel closer to what the composer himself was trying to say. The film begins with the funeral of Beethoven, at which Schubert was a torch bearer, and the story is told almost entirely in music that Schubert wrote between then and his death.
It includes quotations from his letters and diaries and the words that he chose to set in some of his songs. The title, The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow, is taken from a dream which Schubert wrote down on July 3rd 1822 and which is quoted in full in the film.
There are no actors, just words, music, musicians and an anonymous storyteller predominantly using Schubert's own words. It features Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano), Andreas Schmidt (baritone), Michael Sanderling (cello), Antje Weithaas (violin), the Petersen Quartet and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch.
FRI 21:00 Metal Britannia (b00r600m)
Nigel Planer narrates a documentary which traces the origins and development of British heavy metal from its humble beginnings in the industrialised Midlands to its proud international triumph.
In the late 60s a number of British bands were forging a new kind of sound. Known as hard rock, it was loud, tough, energetic and sometimes dark in outlook. They didn't know it, but Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and, most significantly, Black Sabbath were defining what first became heavy rock and then eventually heavy metal.
Inspired by blues rock, progressive rock, classical music and high energy American rock, they synthesised the sound that would inspire bands like Judas Priest to take metal even further during the 70s.
By the 80s its originators had fallen foul of punk rock, creative stasis or drug and alcohol abuse. But a new wave of British heavy metal was ready to take up the crusade. With the success of bands like Iron Maiden, it went global.
Contributors include Lemmy from Motorhead, Sabbath's Tony Iommi, Ian Gillan from Deep Purple, Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden and Saxon's Biff Byford.
FRI 22:30 Metal at the BBC (b00r600p)
Compilation of memorable heavy metal performances from BBC TV shows, including Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Motorhead.
FRI 23:00 Iron Maiden: Live in Concert (b00r8z1n)
A 60-minute concert filmed in different cities around the world in early 2008 in which this British rock and roll export demonstrate why they are perhaps the global force in metal with songs like Fear of the Dark, Wasted Years, Number of the Beast and Hallowed Be Thy Name. Taken from the concert film Somewhere Back In Time Live.
FRI 00:00 Rock Family Trees (b0077lp7)
Series 2
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Formed in the late 60s, Black Sabbath's lyrics, looks and lifestyle got them into trouble with moral guardians on both sides of the Atlantic. This programme charts the band's career, showing how friendships forged between the four original members 40 years ago have survived to the present.
FRI 00:50 Metal Britannia (b00r600m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:20 Metal at the BBC (b00r600p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
FRI 02:50 Franz Peter Schubert: The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow (b00r600k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]