Mammals' ability to learn new tricks is the key to survival in the knife-edge world of hunters and hunted. In a TV first, a killer whale off the Falklands does something unique: it sneaks into a pool where elephant seal pups learn to swim and snatches them, saving itself the trouble of hunting in the open sea.
Slow-motion cameras reveal the star-nosed mole's newly-discovered technique for smelling prey underwater: it exhales then inhales a bubble of air ten times per second. Young ibex soon learn the only way to escape a fox - run up an almost vertical cliff face - and young stoats fight mock battles, learning the skills that make them one of the world's most efficient predators.
Documentary marking the centenary of sculptor Henry Moore's birth, using film footage and notebook extracts to build up a picture from Moore's early life and student days in Leeds to his wartime experiences. His love of natural forms and his placing of sculpture in the landscape led to a reputation that brought him international success.
An elderly bird-watcher falls to his death in a meticulously-planned and brutal murder. In an apparently unconnected case, a local man disappears and Wallander gets too close to one of the suspects. Wallander believes he is on the trail of a serial killer bent on revenge.
Sketch show starring Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller. A vicar goes to hilarious lengths to boost his congregation, and a time traveller meets Michael Faraday and tells him everything he knows...
Charlie Brooker squeezes more fun out of the news with the usual mix of comedians, reports and gags, this time looking at celebrities in the news. Will simply mentioning the likes of Russell Brand, Jedward and Megan Fox in this billing make people more likely to tune in?
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 introduces penultimate finalist Alexej Gorlatch from Ukraine, who plays Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 5. Special guests Cristina Ortiz and Lucy Parham add expert comment, while Clemency Burton-Hill reports on the competitor's preparation.
The works of two contrasting composers fill the Royal Albert Hall, played by the Halle Orchestra under the baton of their Music Director, Sir Mark Elder.
The rousing overture to Berlioz's opera, Benvenuto Cellini, is followed by his dramatic cantata, La Mort de Cleopatra, sung by mezzo soprano Susan Graham. Then after the interval, anniversary composer Mendelssohn's 2nd Symphony, the Lobgesang or Hymn of Praise.
Documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage.
In the late 1970s, small pockets of electronic artists including The Human League, Daniel Miller and Cabaret Voltaire were inspired by Kraftwerk and JG Ballard, and they dreamt of the sound of the future against the backdrop of bleak, high-rise Britain.
The crossover moment came in 1979 when Gary Numan's appearance on Top of the Pops with Tubeway Army's Are 'Friends' Electric? heralded the arrival of synthpop. Four lads from Basildon known as Depeche Mode would come to own the new sound, whilst post-punk bands like Ultravox, Soft Cell, OMD and Yazoo took the synth out of the pages of NME and onto the front page of Smash Hits.
By 1983, acts like Pet Shop Boys and New Order were showing that the future of electronic music would lie in dance music.
Contributors include Philip Oakey, Vince Clarke, Martin Gore, Bernard Sumner, Gary Numan and Neil Tennant.
SUNDAY 21 MARCH 2010
SUN 19:00 Caramel (b00rm420)
Romantic comedy set around a beauty salon in Beirut. Layale is obsessed with a married man, oblivious to the attention of a local policeman. Nisrine is worried her fiance will find out he is not her first man. Rima has eyes for a gorgeous new customer. Jamal, an aspiring actress, will do anything to appear younger than she is. Rose, a tailor, falls for a charming customer, but is worried how her mother may react. In the salon, these women come together to share their experiences and friendship.
SUN 20:30 Clarissa and the King's Cookbook (b00b6vl6)
We Brits love our cookbooks - every year we buy millions of them and treat our celebrity chefs like royalty. But where did it all begin? Self-confessed medieval foodie Clarissa Dickson Wright tracks down Britain's oldest known cookbook, The Forme of Cury. This 700-year-old scroll was written during the reign of King Richard II from recipes created by the king's master chefs. How this ancient manuscript influenced the way people eat today? On her culinary journey through medieval history she reawakens recipes that have lain dormant for centuries and discovers dishes that are still prepared now.
SUN 21:00 The Man Who Ate Everything (b00rh9cw)
Andrew Graham-Dixon presents a personal profile of the legendary food writer Alan Davidson, one of the unsung heroes of the culinary world.
Davidson's greatest work, The Oxford Companion to Food, took him 20 years to write. It's an encyclopaedia of everything a human being can eat, from aardvark to zucchini, all catalogued in 2,650 separate entries. But it is much more than just a food reference book; it is a portrait of the whole human race, its many cultures, customs and histories, all revealed through the stories of what we eat. If you want to understand why the Genoese enjoy dolphin, how to cook a warthog, why the French call dandelions 'piss-en-lit' or who invented Spam, then 'The Companion', as it is known by aficionados, is the place to look.
Alan Davidson died in 2003, just four years after his magnum opus was published. He had already achieved guru status among foodies and professional chefs but, in fact, he became a writer almost by accident. His first career had been as a British diplomat, serving in various overseas offices. A visit by his wife to a Tunisian fish market first piqued his interest in writing about seafood, and a later posting to Laos convinced him to resign from the Foreign Service and become a full-time writer.
Through interviews with Davidson's colleagues, admirers, family and friends, Graham-Dixon creates a portrait of a remarkable man who not only compiled a unique record of humanity's eating habits, but also helped turn the study of food into a serious academic discipline by instigating an annual symposium at Oxford University where visitors can learn about, amongst other things, the role of vegetables in the conquest of space and how to make a musical carrot.
SUN 22:00 Storyville (b00rhbcv)
Kings of Pastry
Imagine a scene never before witnessed - 16 French pastry chefs gathered in Lyon for three intense days of mixing, piping and sculpting everything from delicate chocolates to six-foot sugar sculptures in hope of being declared one of the best by the country's President.
This is the prestigious Meilleurs Ouvriers de France competition (Best Craftsmen in France). The blue, white and red striped collar worn on the jackets of the winners is more than the ultimate recognition for every pastry chef - it is a dream and an obsession. The finalists, France's culinary elite, risk their reputations as well as sacrifice family and finances in pursuit of this lifelong distinction of excellence. Similar to the Olympics, the three-day contest takes place every four years and it requires that the chefs not only have extraordinary skill and nerves of steel but also a lot of luck.
Filmmakers DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus secured exclusive access to shoot this epic, never-before-filmed test of France's finest artisans. The film follows chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, co-founder of Chicago's French Pastry School, as he journeys back to his childhood home of Alsace to practice for the contest.
Two other finalists are profiled in the documentary - Regis Lazard, who was competing for the second time (he dropped his sugar sculpture the first time), and Philippe Rigollot from Maison Pic, France's only three-star restaurant owned by a woman.
During the gruelling final competition, chefs work under constant scrutiny by master judges and the critical palates of some of the world's most renowned chefs evaluate their elaborate pastries. Finally, these pastry marathoners racing the clock must hand-carry all their creations including their fragile sugar sculptures through a series of rooms to a final buffet area without shattering them.
The film captures the high-stakes drama of the competition - passion, sacrifice, disappointment and joy - all in the quest to become one of the Kings of Pastry.
SUN 23:25 Mad Men (b00rh64w)
Series 3
Wee Small Hours
Drama series set in 1960s New York. Sal suffers when he refuses the advances of a client. Betty finds herself drawn towards Henry, while Don begins another affair.
SUN 00:10 Apollo Wives (b00lkvtt)
Ten extraordinary women, all in their seventies, come to Arizona for a special reunion. They are each different but have one thing in common - each was married to an Apollo astronaut. These women were right at the heart of the most ambitious journey ever made, as America shot for the moon.
In exclusive interviews, they tell how it felt to watch their husband blast off into space and about the death, danger and divorce as many of their men struggled to come back to Earth.
SUN 01:15 France on a Plate (b00fvfmf)
Why does food mean so much more to the French than it does to us British? One reason is that from the time of Louis XIV to the present day, French kings, emperors, and presidents have used it as a tool of power and prestige.
In this unusual programme, cultural historian Andrew Hussey takes us on a gastronomic tour through French history - from Versailles, the spiritual centre of French power politics, and the birthplace of French cuisine, via the French Revolution and the creation of the Michelin guide, through to nouvelle cuisine and ethnic fusion food.
For Hussey, France emerges as 'the Republic of Food', a place where the health of both its democracy and its civilisation can at any one time be gauged by how well its people are being fed. Some of France's top chefs, including Paul Bocuse and Pierre Gagnaire are among those he meets on the way.
SUN 02:15 Mad Men (b00rh64w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:25 today]
SUN 03:00 BBC Proms (b00lwm69)
2009
Prom 20: Stravinsky and Schumann
Stellar young conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin makes his Proms debut with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
The concert celebrates two anniversaries; the centenary year of Stravinsky's first collaboration with the Ballet Russes and the bicentenary of Mendelssohn's birth.
The music from Pulcinella, one of Stravinsky's eleven ballets, will open the programme, followed by the ever popular Schumann Piano Concerto in A Minor played by Nicholas Angelich. Mendelssohn's Fifth Symphony provides the climax to the evening.
Presented by Petroc Trelawny.
MONDAY 22 MARCH 2010
MON 19:00 World News Today (b00rm4hz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 Vivaldi's Women (b0074sbz)
In the early 18th century, Antonio Vivaldi composed music for La Pieta in Venice, a home for children who were abandoned at birth. The institution had its own all-female orchestra and choir who provided entertainment in the church for visiting tourists. This film tells the story of that extraordinary partnership through the eyes of a modern group of female singers and musicians as they travel to Venice to recreate Vivaldi's music in the Pieta as it sounded 300 years ago.
MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00rm4j1)
Series 3
Gamblers vs Bowlers
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 last of the quarter-finals, three committed gamblers take their chances against a team unified by their love of ten-pin bowling. They compete to draw together the connections between things, which, at first glance, seem utterly random - from birdsong to breakout to shotgun to takeover.
MON 21:00 Women (b00rm4j3)
Activists
Acclaimed filmmaker Vanessa Engle turns her attention to sexual politics in a three-part documentary series about feminism and its impact on women's lives today.
The concluding part looks at a small group of passionate and committed young activists, who believe that the need for feminist politics is now more urgent than ever. The film follows them as they prepare for their first ever conference as well as a march through central London.
MON 22:00 Elizabeth David: a Life in Recipes (b0074t02)
Elizabeth David is the most important cookery writer of the 20th century. Cited as a major inspiration by chefs as diverse as Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, she was the original domestic goddess. We eat what we eat today thanks to her.
When David published her first book of Mediterranean food in 1950, post-war rationing was still in place and olive oil was something one bought from a chemist in a bottle marked 'for external use only'. British housewives were making do with Spam, dried egg and over-boiled cabbage.
David changed all that. Her books, with their beautiful descriptions of mouth-watering Mediterranean cuisine, introduced the country to the previously unheard of delights of olives, apricots, avocados and basil. She revolutionised the way the British think about food. David went on to write eight more books that have sold more than two million copies worldwide.
David's public image was of an elegant, respectable and somewhat austere figure. In reality she was a deeply unconventional person with a profound passion for food, life and men.
This drama tells the compelling story of the woman behind the persona, the tale of a life-long infatuation with food and a turbulent love life which she kept very private.
At the heart of the drama is the one true love affair of David's life - the affair which she claimed drove her to success as a food writer - and the moment where it all came crashing down. Her misery at losing this great love was so extreme that she suffered a devastating brain haemorrhage. Tragically, one of the legacies of this illness was that David lost the ability to taste salt, making it impossible for her to cook even the simplest recipe.
MON 23:30 The Secret World of Haute Couture (b0074t0r)
Margy Kinmonth meets millionaire customers and world-famous designers as she explores the anachronistic but little-explained pocket of the fashion industry known as haute couture.
MON 00:30 A Woman in Love and War: Vera Brittain (b00flklr)
Dramatisation of the life of Vera Brittain, a young woman who lived through the First World War, presented by Jo Brand.
In 1914 Vera Brittain was young, in love and preparing to study at Oxford. She was at the heart of an intense friendship that bound five youngsters (four young men and Vera) together, full of ambition and excitement. Four years later, her life and the life of her whole generation had changed unimaginably. The war saw her companions killed. As a volunteer nurse in London and on the Front she witnessed horrors that turned her idealistic passion for a 'just war' to dust. This is the story of the First World War as seen through a woman's eyes.
Through Vera's letters, memoirs and her celebrated autobiography Testament of Youth, Jo Brand retells the story of Vera's war that saw her brother Edward, her fiance Roland Leighton and their friends Victor Richardson and Geoffrey Thurlow killed, along with an army of boys recruited through their schools. What emerges is a profoundly moving portrait. The correspondence is unmatched in the depth and breadth of its perspective, showing the war as it was for the young officer in the trenches, the volunteer nurse in military hospitals at home and abroad, and the civilian population on the home front. It is unique, yet tells the experience of thousands of people in Britain at the time.
Jo uses these letters, school reports, army and hospital records to trace Brittain's experiences. She visits the sites of hospitals in Camberwell and France, the home and university that served as refuge, and talks with Baroness Shirley Williams, Brittain's daughter, about the war's impact on her mother. Dramatic reconstructions reproduce key moments from the story.
MON 01:30 Women (b00rm4j3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
MON 02:30 Only Connect (b00rm4j1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
MON 03:00 A Woman in Love and War: Vera Brittain (b00flklr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:30 today]
MON 04:00 Vivaldi's Women (b0074sbz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUESDAY 23 MARCH 2010
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00rm4wx)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Hannah Glasse: The First Domestic Goddess (b0074sns)
People may think that Mrs Beeton was the mother of English cooking, but Clarissa Dickson Wright insists that it was Hannah Glasse who truly revolutionised the way we eat.
Glasse's celebrated cookery book, The Art of Cookery, was reprinted 33 times within 50 years and was the best-selling cookery book of the 18th century, introducing fine dining to the masses and crowning Hannah Glasse as queen of the aspirational middle-classes.
Glasse invented the dinner party as we know it, and by teaching the housewife how to cook, she gave her the ticket to sophistication and style in the kitchen. Given that dinner parties were the best way to impress, keep up with the Joneses and move up in the world, Glasse helped the middle classes to be upwardly mobile.
In this sumptuous documentary, Clarissa Dickson Wright finds out what it was like to cook in an 18th century kitchen with no running water, gas or electricity. And she puts one of Hannah Glasse's most influential recipes to the test - the first curry recipe published in Britain. Will it live up to the expectations of today's foodies?
Today we have Delia Smith and Nigella Lawson, but Hannah Glasse was the very first domestic goddess and Britain's first celebrity cook.
TUE 20:00 Carluccio and the Leopard (b00g31qr)
Antonio Carluccio travels to Sicily to discover more about one of the most successful novels ever written in the Italian language, The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Whilst tracing the locations that inspired the book, Antonio cooks the food that is such an integral part of the lives of its characters.
Giuseppe Tomasi, Prince of Lampedusa, who died in 1957, had seen his family fortune disappear during his lifetime. The Palermo palace he lived in as a child had been destroyed by American bombing in the Second World War and the family's country villa was reduced to rubble by an earthquake. Lampedusa was acutely nostalgic for the aristocratic world of his childhood and at the end of his life he wrote a novel, based on the life of his great grandfather, that recreated this lost paradise.
Basing himself in the kitchen of a 16th century villa, Antonio recreates the meals of the 1860s that Lampedusa describes with such artistry. He explores the history of Italian unification that forms the background of the novel and ventures into the vibrant city of Palermo to find the street food that is still an important part of the Sicilian way of life. Antonio discovers the way that food is central to Sicilian culture, with Greek, Arab, Norman and Spanish invaders all having contributed to the island's unique cuisine.
He also meets Lampedusa's adopted son and learns how this eccentric and impoverished nobleman died before his only novel was published, causing a sensation in Italy and sparking a national debate on the eve of the centenary of the unification it described.
TUE 21:00 Fat Man in a White Hat (b00rm4wz)
Episode 2
Is French cuisine the best in the world or has it lost its magic? Bestselling New Yorker magazine writer Bill Buford dons a white hat and works in a series of French kitchens to investigate whether French food is all it's cracked up to be.
Bill leaves fancy French food behind and goes back to basics at the foot of the French Alps. He works in a bakery, kills a pig, makes cheese, gathers herbs and cooks in a small family restaurant in order to understand how to cook simple French food to perfection.
TUE 22:00 Storyville (b00rm4x1)
Barbados at the Races
Run Cat Run!
Four-part series looking at Barbados today through the lives, at work and at play, of the island's horse racing community. The series is centred on the Barbados Turf Club and follows the stories of a colourful cast of characters, from the big white owners at the top of the tree right down to the poor black exercise riders and grooms. The Club and its racecourse have been based at the former British army garrison on the edge of the island's capital, Bridgetown, for over a hundred years. The quirky and, at times, spiritually-minded series looks at how the culture of Barbados today, its institutions and the mindset of its people, have been shaped by the colonial past and the legacy of slavery.
It is not so long ago that the stands at the Barbados Turf Club were racially segregated, and until very recently the club was the preserve of the mainly white, wealthier classes. Now, however, the race track has attracted a new breed of small trainer determined to break into this exclusive gentleman's club. This is a tale of two trainers - one big, powerful and white, one small, cash-strapped and black - and shows that in the world of horse racing everyone can find themselves out of their depth.
TUE 22:30 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (b00rm4x3)
Episode 3
Jess, one year older and seemingly rehabilitated, returns to grace, taking Pastor Finch's sermon at the Blackpool Beach Mission. She meets Katy who replaces Melanie in her affections when it becomes obvious that Melanie has put the past behind her. Her one true friend Elsie is ailing and Cissy Fields, the local undertaker, takes her in when Mother and flock disown her, finally deciding that she is lost. But Jess dreams of books and Oxford.
TUE 23:30 Beryl's Last Year (b007mw91)
The novelist Dame Beryl Bainbridge thinks she's going to die at the age of 71, because everyone in her family died when they were that age, from her mother and father to her grandparents, aunts and uncles. Opening with her 71st birthday, this uniquely personal film, made by Beryl's eldest grandson Charlie Russell, follows Beryl as she lives out her 'last year', prepares for her death and tries to write her final novel.
Beryl wants to make a record of her life before it's too late - from her volatile upbringing in Formby in the 1940s to her time as an actress in the Liverpool Playhouse and her failed relationships with several men. Beryl bases her novels on the events of her past, but she's having trouble remembering exactly who she was when she was her grandson's age.
During her 'last year' Beryl falls ill and Charlie has to consider the very real possibility of his grandmother dying. Beryl is told she has to give up smoking or her leg will fall off, but she has smoked for fifty years and when she stops she gets the worse case of writer's block she's ever had.
Full of the amazing true stories of Beryl's incredible life, from almost losing her virginity to a German POW to the time when she tried to kill herself, the film is a moving, frequently hilarious and unique insight into how one of Britain's greatest living authors goes about writing a book, confronting her past and facing up to her own mortality.
TUE 00:30 Storyville (b00rm4x1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
TUE 01:00 Carluccio and the Leopard (b00g31qr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
TUE 02:00 Beryl's Last Year (b007mw91)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:30 today]
TUE 03:00 Fat Man in a White Hat (b00rm4wz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUE 04:00 Carluccio and the Leopard (b00g31qr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 24 MARCH 2010
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00rm506)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 It's Only a Theory (b00nxks7)
Episode 7
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 Dermot Murnaghan and the experts are Dr George McGavin and Andrew Keen.
WED 20:00 Christina: A Medieval Life (b00b6ksc)
Historian Michael Wood presents a portrait of ordinary people living through extraordinary times, tracing the story of a real-life peasant of 14th-century Hertfordshire.
She wasn't a famous person, or of noble blood, yet Christina's story is important in understanding our own roots. In this time of war, famine, floods, climate change and the Black Death are the beginnings of the end of serfdom, the growth of individual freedom and the start of a market economy.
Wood recounts the history of medieval Britain told not from the top of society, but from the bottom. Through the lives of Christina and her fellow villagers, we see how the most volatile century in British history played a crucial role in shaping the character and destiny of a nation, and its people.
WED 21:00 Timeshift (b00rm508)
Series 9
Bread: A Loaf Affair
The aptly-named Tom Baker narrates a tale of aspiration, industrialisation and plain old-fashioned snobbery in a documentary which unwraps the story of the rise of the popular loaf and how it has shaped the way we eat.
Historically, to know the colour of one's bread was to know one's place in life. For centuries, ordinary people ate brown bread that was about as easy on the teeth as a brick. Softer, refined white bread was so expensive to make that it became the preserve of the rich. Affordable white bread was the baker's holy grail - but almost as soon as it became possible to achieve, dietary experts began to trumpet the virtues of brown. Not surprisingly, the British public proved reluctant to give up their white loaves, and even a war couldn't change their eating habits.
WED 22:00 Mad Men (b00rm50b)
Series 3
The Color Blue
Betty discovers Don's cache of photographs, revealing his past life. The arrival of the brother of Don's new mistress complicates his affair, while Pryce is told that his boss is selling Sterling Cooper.
WED 22:45 Women (b00rm4j3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
WED 23:45 How Do You Solve a Problem Like Lolita? (b00pcnng)
Documentary following writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith on the trail of Vladimir Nabokov, the elusive man behind the controversial novel and 1962 film, Lolita.
The journey takes him from the shores of Lake Geneva to Nabokov's childhood haunts in the Russian countryside south of St Petersburg to the streets of New York City and a road trip through the anonymous world of small-town America.
Along the way Smith meets fellow Nabokov admirer Martin Amis and puts in a cheeky visit to Playboy's literary editor who is publishing an extract of Nabokov's last work.
WED 00:45 Timeshift (b00rm508)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 01:45 It's Only a Theory (b00nxks7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
WED 02:15 Timeshift (b00rm508)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 03:15 Women (b00rm4j3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
WED 04:15 Sacred Music (b00rjsc4)
Series 2
Faure and Poulenc
Simon Russell Beale travels through the urban and rural landscapes of France to explore the story behind Faure's Requiem, one of the best-loved pieces of sacred music ever written.
With Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, he goes on to discover how this work laid the foundations for a distinctively French style, a tradition continued by the compelling music of the outrageously fashionable Francis Poulenc, working in the heart of jazz-age Paris.
THURSDAY 25 MARCH 2010
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00rm55n)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Only Connect (b00rm4j1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Monday]
THU 20:00 The Secret Life of Chaos (b00pv1c3)
Chaos theory has a bad name, conjuring up images of unpredictable weather, economic crashes and science gone wrong. But there is a fascinating and hidden side to Chaos, one that scientists are only now beginning to understand.
It turns out that chaos theory answers a question that mankind has asked for millennia - how did we get here?
In this documentary, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to uncover one of the great mysteries of science - how does a universe that starts off as dust end up with intelligent life? How does order emerge from disorder?
It's a mindbending, counterintuitive and for many people a deeply troubling idea. But Professor Al-Khalili reveals the science behind much of beauty and structure in the natural world and discovers that far from it being magic or an act of God, it is in fact an intrinsic part of the laws of physics. Amazingly, it turns out that the mathematics of chaos can explain how and why the universe creates exquisite order and pattern.
And the best thing is that one doesn't need to be a scientist to understand it. The natural world is full of awe-inspiring examples of the way nature transforms simplicity into complexity. From trees to clouds to humans - after watching this film you'll never be able to look at the world in the same way again.
THU 21:00 In Search of the Perfect Loaf (b00rm55q)
Documentary which follows award-winning artisan baker Tom Herbert in his search to bake a loaf that will win him first prize at the National Organic Food Awards.
Tom Herbert's family have been baking bread in the Cotswolds for five generations. Tom started baking with his father and grandfather and at 16 began his formal apprenticeship. Fresh out of college, he won Young Baker of the Year and now, at 32, Tom continues to win awards for the family firm, Hobbs House Bakery.
Tom is passionate about handmade bread and critical of what he describes as the 'plastic-wrapped pap' of the mass-produced bread market. However, given that sales of handmade bread only account for 2 per cent of the market, Tom has his work cut out if he is to convert more people to the joys of handmade bread.
Tom's quest to make the perfect loaf takes him to Cornwall to meet archaeologist Jacquie Wood, to learn how our ancestors might have baked bread. At the medieval water mill at Stanway House in Gloucestershire he meets Professor Brian Reuben, a leading authority on the history of bread, and he visits Brackman's Jewish bakery in Salford run by third generation baker, Andrew Adelman. Here, Tom learns how to make the specialist Jewish bread challah and meets the rabbi who, on his daily inspection of the baking methods and ingredients, ensures that they conform to Jewish religious law.
Tom's journey helps him to come up with what he hopes will be a competition-winning loaf for the National Organic Food Awards - a huge two-kilo, white, spelt, sourdough loaf made using his family's 40-year-old sourdough, organic spelt from Somerset, Cornish sea salt and Cotswold water from a local spring. Tom names it 'The Shepherd's Loaf'. But while it's his perfect loaf, will the judges agree?
THU 22:00 Fast Food Nation (b00rqqpv)
Drama set in the fast food industry and based on material from the book of the same name written by Eric Schlosser, an incendiary non-fiction exploration of the industry.
Don Henderson - marketing executive at Mickey's Fast Food restaurant chain, home of 'The Big One' - has a problem. Contaminated meat is getting into the frozen patties of the company's best-selling burger. To find out why, he'll have to take a journey to the dark side of the All-American meal.
Leaving the cushy confines of the company's southern California boardroom for the immigrant-staffed slaughterhouses, teeming feedlots and cookie cutter strip malls of Middle America, what Don discovers is a 'Fast Food Nation' of consumers who haven't realised it is they who are being consumed by an industry with a seemingly endless appetite for fresh meat.
THU 23:50 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00cl4ph)
Liz Smith
Mark Lawson talks to the actress Liz Smith about her life and career. She reflects on her lonely childhood and her days as a single mother struggling to make ends meet as well as her determination to become an actress.
Smith got her big break at the age of 50, after being discovered by the film director Mike Leigh, but perhaps she's best known as the nations favourite gran - Nana in the iconic series The Royle Family.
THU 00:50 In Search of the Perfect Loaf (b00rm55q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 01:50 BBC Proms (b00mgw03)
2009
Prom 65: Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester
Charles Hazlewood presents as the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, conducted by Jonathan Nott, perform Mahler's heartbreaking Songs on the Death of Children with baritone soloist Matthias Goerne, and two works made famous by Stanley Kubrick's film 2001 - Strauss's visionary Also sprach Zarathustra and Ligeti's Atmospheres.
THU 04:00 In Search of the Perfect Loaf (b00rm55q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 26 MARCH 2010
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00rm59j)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Sacred Music (b00rm59l)
Series 2
Gorecki and Part
Simon Russell Beale visits Poland and Estonia to discover why the sacred music of the two highly spiritual composers Gorecki and Part strikes such a chord in today's noisy and fast-moving world.
Alongside music performed by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, Simon's journey takes him through the turbulent religious and political history of Eastern Europe as he explores the important symbolic role of sacred music in the struggle against Communism.
FRI 20:30 Storyville (b00rm4x1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Tuesday]
FRI 21:00 Synth Britannia (b00n93c4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
03:00 on Saturday]
FRI 22:30 Synth Britannia at the BBC (b00n93c6)
A journey through the BBC's synthpop archives from Roxy Music and Tubeway Army to New Order and Sparks. Turn your Moogs up to 11 as we take a trip back into the 70s and 80s!
FRI 23:30 Newswipe (b00qpkdg)
Series 2
Episode 4
A caustic mix of gags and finger-pointing as Charlie Brooker finds fun and fault with the news. They say politics is an instant turn off, so it's a good job this episode doesn't focus on that. No it doesn't. Not at all.
FRI 00:00 Young Guns Go for It (b00shyg4)
Series 1
The Human League
Members past and present talk about the three distinct groups that have existed under the banner of the Human League, the Sheffield synthesiser band that enjoyed huge commercial success.
FRI 00:30 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.
FRI 01:30 Synth Britannia (b00n93c4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
03:00 on Saturday]
FRI 03:00 Synth Britannia at the BBC (b00n93c6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
FRI 04:00 Sacred Music (b00rm59l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]