The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
Stephen Fry explores the world of manic depression, a mental illness which affects up to 4 million people in the UK, including himself. He sets out to uncover more about a misunderstood condition which drives those who have it from extreme highs to crippling lows.
Stephen describes the impact on his own life and meets up with ordinary people and celebrities such as Robbie Williams, Carrie Fisher, Tony Slattery and Rick Stein to discuss what triggers it and why it often takes years to diagnose.
Three-part documentary series featuring one of Britain's best loved actors, Timothy Spall, as he and his wife sail from to Cornwall to south Wales in a Dutch barge.
The voyage continues with Timothy and Shane having to cope with the highly dangerous waters around Lizard Point if he is to complete the journey by winter. Although in a state of some anxiety, Timothy manoeuvres the Princess Matilda around the infamous Lizard before mooring in Newlyn, a focus of the Cornish fishing industry. But tying up for the night is never straightforward.
The Spalls get advice from the eighteen-strong crew of the Penlee Lifeboat on how to tackle Land's End, another tough test lying in wait, and Timothy marvels at their seafaring skills and bravery in tackling the elements in order to save lives at sea.
His own voyage attracts plenty of interest. 'They all think we're mad, but they're not stopping us!' laughs Tim at one point.
Documentary which tells the fascinating and poignant story of the closure of Britain's mental asylums. In the post-war period, 150,000 people were hidden away in 120 of these vast Victorian institutions all across the country. Today, most mental patients, or service users as they are now called, live out in the community and the asylums have all but disappeared. Through powerful testimonies from patients, nurses and doctors, the film explores this seismic revolution and what it tells us about society's changing attitudes to mental illness over the last sixty years.
Stephen Poliakoff's drama about an unexpected pact which develops between two women - Lillian, who's been away in a 'home' since she was a rebellious girl half a century ago, and sophisticated, 'happily married Harriet. Brought reluctantly together when Lillian is returned to the world, the pair find a common purpose which has hilarious and risky consequences for those around them.
Three-part series combining archive footage and eye-witness accounts to tell the dramatic narrative of North Sea oil and gas from the 1960s to the present. It charts the decades when the country made the most of its North Sea windfall, with scarcely a thought about where it came from or of the men and women who brought it to us. Through the story of oil, the series offers a fresh perspective on British politics and society and a timely insight into the state of our economy today.
As the oil industry boomed in the early 1980s, workers up and down the country vied for jobs offshore. Under Margaret Thatcher, dozens of new platforms were built in the North Sea, bringing in millions of barrels of oil and billions of pounds of taxes to the Treasury. The economy was transformed as the fortunes of oil and banking soared, while Britain's traditional manufacturing industries declined.
But before the decade was out the boom would turn to bust with the collapse of the global price of oil, and the industry would be rocked a succession of tragedies, culminating in the destruction of the Piper Alpha platform by fire and the deaths of 167 men.
Peter Bogdanovich's epic portrait of one of America's great heartland rock 'n' roll bands.
Hailing from Gainesville, Florida, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers got together in the mid-70s, moved to California and released their self-titled debut album in 1976. The album was a hit in the UK where its concise, rock 'n' roll traditionalism sat well with the emerging punk and new wave scenes.
The film uses extensive interviews with the band and friends like Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks and Rick Rubin to chart their stubborn, independent-minded and often highly-successful journey towards the present day - breaking up occasionally, stopping off with the Travelling Wilburys, various Petty solo outings and periods backing the likes of Dylan, but fundamentally sticking together as one of America's greatest live and recording rock 'n' roll bands.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released Mojo, their first album together in eight years, in June 2010.
TUESDAY 18 MAY 2010
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00sfsht)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Behind the Scenes at the Museum (b00scr08)
Commercial Vehicle Museum
Series in which acclaimed filmmaker Richard Macer visits three different museums struggling to connect with a modern audience.
At the British Commercial Vehicle Museum in Lancashire, a mutiny is brewing over the appointment of a new leader. The museum is the last link to Leyland Trucks, one of the nation's great manufacturing giants, but just as Leyland fell victim to industrial action in the 70s and 80s now history is in danger of repeating itself at the Commercial Vehicle Museum too.
The first thing new leader Stephen Bullock wants to do is bring back the Leyland festival. For many years this was the town's way of celebrating its industrial might with a procession of lorries and buses, but after the factory closed the carnival was cancelled.
However, not everyone approves of these new changes at the museum. Some of the many longstanding volunteers are vehicle enthusiasts who think the museum should stay just the way it is. But will it survive if it doesn't change?
Macer spent six months filming amidst the gleaming lorries and double decker buses and observed as a bitter row erupted between the new leader and the head of the volunteers.
TUE 20:30 The Boats That Built Britain (b00sfshw)
Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter
Many consider the Bristol Channel pilot cutter to be the finest sailing boat design ever. Fast, seaworthy and beautiful to behold, the pilot cutter is the perfect combination of form and function - a thoroughbred perfectly adapted to a life in one of the Britain's most treacherous stretches of water. Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe explores the life of the pilots and sails a perfectly restored cutter to find out just what drove these men and their wonderful machines.
TUE 21:00 Sea Fever (b00sfshy)
Gone Fishing
Series which focuses on Britain's maritime history, culture, economics and science concludes with the remarkable story of Britain's fishermen, using home movie archive.
At the beginning of the 20th century thousands made a good living working in conditions of unimaginable danger. But technology and avarice in some areas created problems of over-fishing and the century ended with the port of Hull laid to waste. Hull skipper Ken Knox and filmmaker/engineer Alan Hopper watch Alan's astonishing films and tell how the sophisticated technologies companies used to send crews to distant Atlantic waters in the 50s and 60s in the hunt for white fish. Hull's men had already fished out local waters using a technique called box fleet fishing, a dangerous method remembered by one who did it in the 1930s, Robert Rowntree.
Smaller ports survived and small scale family fishing was part of the secret of their success. In Peterhead, Donald Anderson filmed the exploits of his crew, including his young son, as the fleets hunted herring shoals.
In St Ives, the Stevens fishing family were filmed by a local film-maker on their boat the Sweet Promise back in the 1950s. Watching this film today is David Stevens, the son of the skipper and 15 at the time, and crew member Donald Perkin, the last of six brothers who worked as fishermen in St Ives from the 30s to the 80s.
Historian from the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, Tony Pawlyn, helps explain how these men fished and why they survived while the Hull men went under. These men are our last link with a tradition of hunter-gathering.
The programme goes to Skye in Scotland and asks if the new way of fishing - farming - is the ultimate threat to livelihoods of these hunter-gatherer fishermen.
TUE 22:00 Flight of the Conchords (b00l22n4)
Series 2
Unnatural Love
When Bret and Jemaine go out nightclubbing with Dave, Jemaine accidentally goes home with an Australian girl. At first plagued by shame and self-doubt, he comes to care about her, much to Bret and Murray's annoyance. Can their love cross the racial divide?
TUE 22:30 The Wrecking Season (b0074rj7)
After seeing this film, stepping onto a beach may never be the same again. Until his untimely death, playwright, beachcomber and lobsterman Nick Darke lived on Cornwall's rugged and beautiful north coast. He came from a long line of seafarers and he still practised the right of 'wrecking', an ancient pastime that intriguingly put him in touch, through phone calls and the internet, with fishermen and oceanographers round the world.
This haunting film, photographed by Nick's artist wife Jane, which uses atmospheric and evocative archive shot by his father, captures a unique portrait of his daily work as he combed the wild seashore for the wonderful hardwoods, exotic sea beans, fishing paraphernalia and fascinating artefacts deposited on Cornwall's beaches by the ocean's long haul drift.
It's an uplifting tribute to a remarkable man whose house, garden and whole existence are full of the wonderful things he found and whose data and observations feed into important global ocean research and investigations.
TUE 23:30 Crude Britannia: The Story of North Sea Oil (b00lh03b)
Episode 3
Three-part series combining archive footage and eye-witness accounts to tell the dramatic narrative of North Sea oil and gas from the 1960s to the present. It charts the decades when the country made the most of its North Sea windfall, with scarcely a thought about where it came from or of the men and women who brought it to us. Through the story of oil, the series offers a fresh perspective on British politics and society and a timely insight into the state of our economy today.
The first Gulf War of 1991 brought home the fragility of global supplies of energy. Suddenly our North Sea oil and gas were more important than ever, but there were problems looming on the horizon. As oil reserves were used up, oil companies were about to face their biggest challenge yet.
Getting rid of redundant platforms brought them into a dramatic confrontation with an environmental movement that was growing in confidence and influence. As the flow of oil began to slow down, the oil men and women had to venture into ever deeper waters in the search for new supplies. Their quest would inspire a new generation of awe-inspiring underwater technology.
With North Sea oil and gas still supplying most of Britain's energy, it may be that the extraordinary national adventure, which began 40 years ago in the North Sea, is far from over.
TUE 00:30 The Deadliest Crash: the Le Mans 1955 Disaster (b00sfptx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
TUE 01:30 Sea Fever (b00sfshy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUE 02:30 The Boats That Built Britain (b00sfshw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
TUE 03:00 The Wrecking Season (b0074rj7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
TUE 04:00 Sea Fever (b00sfshy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 19 MAY 2010
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00sfsqt)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive (b007934k)
Episode 2
Stephen Fry explores the world of manic depression, a mental illness which affects up to four million people in the UK, including himself.
In the second of two programmes, Stephen reveals in detail for the first time how this illness overwhelmed him in the 1990s and caused him to attempt suicide, and also why he disappeared from a West End play. Since then, he has had to figure out ways of living with it.
WED 20:30 The Boats That Built Britain (b00sfsqw)
World War Two Landing Craft
Looking more like a skip than a boat, the LCVP, or Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel, won't win any prizes for beauty. Yet the craft did more to win World War II than any other piece of machinery. There were once over 20,000 of these little boats, but only a handful remain. Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe puts one of them through its paces and finds out how the boat was developed for one momentous day in 1944.
WED 21:00 Sectioned (b00sg94v)
Powerful documentary which, for the first time, follows three people who have been sectioned on their journey through the mental health system. With unprecedented access to one of the largest mental health trusts in the UK, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, the film focuses on Andrew, Richard and Anthony as they battle to regain control of their lives, bringing into sharp focus the huge challenges faced by patients and staff alike.
WED 22:00 Timothy Spall: Somewhere at Sea (b00sfsqy)
Race Against the Tide
Three-part documentary series featuring one of Britain's best loved actors, Timothy Spall, as he and his wife sail from to Cornwall to south Wales in a Dutch barge.
In the concluding leg, having navigated the Princess Matilda around the dangerous waters of Land's End and into the relative calm of the port of St Ives, Tim is still troubled. He now has to negotiate some of the most extreme tides in Britain as he plans his route through the Bristol Channel. Not only that, but it occurs to him that his anchor is faulty as he and Shane discover the delights of nearby Padstow, which attracts a million visitors a year for its seafood and other local attractions.
From Padstow, Timothy and Shane moor overnight at Watchet in Somerset, but first have to navigate its notoriously difficult approach, and as they are behind schedule they have to cope with this in the dark. They eventually complete this task with only a few bumps and bruises and then make it over to the Cardiff Barrage and nearby Penarth Marina for the winter.
WED 22:30 Outnumbered (b00sf9ph)
Series 3
Episode 5
The last time Mum's sister, Auntie Angela, came to visit, it ended in disaster. Now she is back, to show off the American therapist she has married, and Dad is determined to avoid a major incident as they all go out to dinner. Ben tells everyone about his sex education class, and Karen puts Auntie Angela's husband straight on therapy, but then there is a bigger problem between Mum and Dad.
WED 23:00 Flight of the Conchords (b00l7qq0)
Series 2
Love is a Weapon of Choice
The boys both fall in love with a girl they meet while out jogging, and so begins a competition between them for her attention, culminating in a benefit gig for the victims of canine epilepsy.
WED 23:30 Electric Dreams (b00n1j8n)
1970s
A family and their home are stripped of all their modern technology to live a life of decades past.
The family must live through the digital wilderness of the 1970s at a rate of a year per day, starting in 1970. They have their very own technical support team to source and supply them with the vintage technology that would have been available to British households during the decade.
By modern standards the 1970s are decidedly low-tech and the family face many challenges. They endure a spell without central heating and get to grips with the suburban favourite, the teasmade. They see the effects of 70s industrial unrest on their home when they experience a power cut and home entertainment becomes even more limited when their newly-arrived colour television breaks down.
But it's not all grim - the arrival of chopper bikes, the first video game and a mix-tape expert who shows them how to create the soundtrack for their very own slide show all help to prove that life in the 1970s had its upside too.
WED 00:30 Podfather (b00n90j0)
Documentary telling the story of silicon chip inventor Robert Noyce, godfather of today's digital world.
Re-living the heady days of Silicon Valley's seminal start-ups, the film tells how Noyce also founded Intel, the company responsible for more than 80 per cent of the microprocessors in personal computers. Noyce defined the unconventional, innovative culture of Silicon Valley - the likes of Apple and Google would be influenced by his egalitarian management style, which was inspired by his religious upbringing.
Podfather shows why Noyce may be the most important person most people have never heard of. Contributors include industry giants Gordon Moore and Andy Grove.
WED 01:30 Sectioned (b00sg94v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 02:30 The Boats That Built Britain (b00sfsqw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
WED 03:00 Timothy Spall: Somewhere at Sea (b00sfsqy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WED 03:30 Flight of the Conchords (b00l7qq0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 today]
WED 04:00 Mental: A History of the Madhouse (b00sfpvf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
THURSDAY 20 MAY 2010
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00sftd1)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 South Africa Walks (b00s8fy1)
The Kruger
Having tackled treks across the UK, Julia Bradbury embarks on a grand adventure in South Africa, setting out on four very different walks that explore its claim to be 'a world in one country'.
Julia is a regular visitor to the Rainbow Nation, but this is her chance to go far beyond the normal tourist destinations to a series of increasingly remote locations. However, these are all walks that any reasonably adventurous walker could embark on, and they offer a fresh and personal perspective on a friendly and fascinating country that is so often misunderstood.
Having progressed from South African coast to mountains, Julia ups the ante as she prepares to head out on foot in one of the world's most famous game reserves. Call it exhilarating or foolhardy, this is a walking adventure amongst the biggest and most dangerous beasts in Africa. But Julia is well looked after by Jaco, an expert game ranger who proves that the Kruger is far more than just big cats and elephants. This is a unique opportunity to roam freely in one of the world's true wildernesses.
THU 20:00 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.
THU 21:00 Behind the Scenes at the Museum (b00sftd3)
Freud Museum
The Freud Museum in Hampstead, London is where the father of psychoanalysis lived his final year after escaping the Nazis in Austria. Sigmund Freud managed to smuggle out all his possessions, including the famous couch where his patients lay. This iconic piece of furniture is now a shrine to therapists and Freud fans from all over the world.
But despite its gravitas this small museum is struggling to stay relevant. In recent years Freud's thinking has fallen out of fashion and theories like Penis Envy and the Oedipus Complex have been discredited by many in the psychology world. Now the museum is appointing a new director with the mission to make Freud less elitist and more appealing to ordinary people.
One of the first things the museum does is to hold a dating evening. A number of games are created for the night, based on Freud's obsession with human sexuality. Another activity seizes on Freud's groundbreaking theory of dream interpretation, with scholar Ivan Ward getting partygoers together to discuss their dreams with one another.
But the process of making change is slow because no one can agree. Everyone has an opinion on how best to serve Freud, including the caretaker Alex who has lived at the museum since its beginning.
THU 22:00 Wallander (b00sfpt6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Saturday]
THU 23:30 Electric Dreams (b00n59t4)
1980s
A family and their home are stripped of all their modern technology to live a life of decades past.
The family must live through the digital wilderness of the 1980s at a rate of a year per day, starting in 1980. They have their very own technical support team who source and supply them with the vintage technology that would have been available to British households during the decade, including iconic technology such as the Walkman, Game and Watch and the CD player.
For a modern family it is a decade of challenges. In 1980 they attempt to cook a roast dinner in a microwave oven, as consumers of the time were encouraged to do. They are faced with a bewildering choice of home computers in 1982 and the arduous task of finding a rental shop that still supplies films on video cassette for their newly-arrived VHS player.
Dad takes a spin in the most famous technological flop of the decade, the Sinclair C5, but the family do experience an 80s success story when New Wave icons Ultravox pay a surprise visit to demonstrate the synthesiser technology which soundtracked the era.
THU 00:30 Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe (b00n1j8q)
Charlie Brooker sets his caustic sights on video games. Expect acerbic comment as he looks at the various genres, how they have changed since their early conception and how the media represents games and gamers. Features interviews with Dara O Briain, sitcom scribe Graham Linehan and Rab and Ryan from Consolevania.
THU 01:20 Behind the Scenes at the Museum (b00sftd3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 02:20 Sacred Music (b00rm59l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 03:20 South Africa Walks (b00s8fy1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 03:50 Behind the Scenes at the Museum (b00sftd3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 21 MAY 2010
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00sftvr)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Eurovision Young Musicians (b00sftvt)
2010
Peter Moore, the 14-year-old trombonist who famously became the youngest ever winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2008, is the UK's representative in the Eurovision Young Musician 2010 Competition.
This biennial competition was launched in 1982 and this year the final takes place in Vienna's spectacular Town Hall square in front of an audience of approximately 45,000 people. Peter's progress through the competition in Austria is followed and there's a catch-up on what has happened to him since winning the BBC Young Musician competition.
Peter carries the hopes of the nation as he aims to be one of seven finalists looking to win the prestigious title. If he makes it through to the final, he will perform with Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Cornelius Meister.
FRI 20:30 In Concert (b0074sq9)
Carole King
Vintage footage of the singer/songwriter performing her songs I Feel the Earth Move, (You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman, So Far Away, It's Too Late, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow and Up on the Roof for a BBC live studio performance in 1971. James Taylor guests on guitar.
FRI 21:00 Carole King and James Taylor: Live at the Troubadour (b00sftvw)
Carole King and James Taylor reunited at the intimate Hollywood venue in concert in 2007 to play their era-defining hits, nearly four decades after they first performed at the Troubadour in November 1970, a year before their Tapestry and Sweet Baby James' albums stormed the American charts. King and Taylor are backed by the Section, the same band that propelled those albums into homes around the world.
James Taylor had released his first album on the Beatles' Apple label, Carole King was struggling to forge a new solo career after being one half of Goffin-King, one of the great Brill Building songwriting partnerships of the early 60s. Their musical friendship blossomed with Taylor's support for King and his cover of her song You've Got a Friend. The Troubadour became the centre of a new singer-songwriter culture that also featured the likes of Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and many more.
FRI 22:00 Neil Young: Don't Be Denied (b00f815m)
Neil Young grants rare and unprecedented access to the BBC for a documentary in which he traces his musical journey in his own words.
The film was made from three hours of interview shot in New York and California, and uses previously unseen performance footage from the star's own extensive archives. It also features cohorts Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Nils Lofgren and James Taylor.
From his early transcontinental American quest for recognition, through the first flush of success with Buffalo Springfield, to the bi-polar opposites of mega-stardom with Crosby, Stills and Nash and the soulful rock of Crazy Horse, Young's career has enjoyed many guises.
Perhaps his most famous period was as a 1970s solo artist making albums that became benchmarks. After The Goldrush, recorded in his Topanga Canyon home, and Harvest, part-recorded on his northern Californian ranch, saw Young explore the confessional side of song-writing. But never one to rest on his laurels, he would continually change direction.
In the mid-seventies, two of Young's closest friends died as a result of heroin abuse. What followed was music's answer to cinema verite, with Tonight's The Night a spine-chilling wake for his dead friends.
As New Wave arrived, Young was keen to explore new ideas. A collaboration with Devo on what became his art-house epic, Human Highway, saw the genesis of Rust Never Sleeps, a requiem for the seventies.
In the eighties, Young explored different genres, from electronica to country, and in recent times he has returned to Crazy Horse and Crosby, Stills and Nash, but only when it has suited him.
The film ends with Young still refusing to be denied, on tour in the USA with CSNY, playing anti-Bush songs to a Republican audience in the South.
FRI 23:00 In Concert (b007rm8l)
James Taylor
A classic concert from 1971 by American singer-songwriter James Taylor.
FRI 23:40 Electric Dreams (b00n90xc)
1990s
A family and their home are stripped of all their modern technology to live a life of decades past.
The family must live through the communication and home entertainment revolution of the 1990s, at a rate of a year per day, starting in 1990. They have their own Technical Support Team to source and supply them with the vintage technology that would have been available to British households during the decade.
They attempt to stay in touch using pagers and take a giant mobile phone and a rudimentary digital camera on a day trip to Paris in honour of the opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994. Workplace technology becomes increasingly portable, but a home without access to the internet proves frustrating and the arrival of the 1990s world wide web is a far cry from what the kids are used to.
The 1990s see a whirlwind of technological progress and the family are inundated with gadgets and upgrades that infiltrate every area of their home. They are left reeling by the pace of change and surprised by the impact of 1990s tech on family life.
FRI 00:40 Upgrade Me (b00n1hwj)
Poet and gadget lover Simon Armitage explores people's obsession with upgrading to the latest technological gadgetry.
Upgrade culture drives millions to purchase the latest phones, flatscreen TVs, laptops and MP3 players. But is it design, functionality, fashion or friends that makes people covet the upgrade, and how far does the choice of gadgets define identity? Simon journeys across Britain and to South Korea in search of answers.
FRI 01:40 Carole King and James Taylor: Live at the Troubadour (b00sftvw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:40 Neil Young: Don't Be Denied (b00f815m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 03:40 Eurovision Young Musicians (b00sftvt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]