The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.
Three dedicated chess players pit their strategic prowess against a team who have honed their lateral thinking skills writing puzzles to raise money for their local hospice. They compete to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random.
Paul Atterbury embarks on an alluring journey into the golden age of ocean liners, finding out how these great ships made such a mark on the popular imagination and why they continue to enchant to this day.
Paul's voyage takes him around Britain and reveals a story of design, politics, propaganda, Hollywood glamour and tragedy. Along the way, he uncovers some amazing survivals from the liners of the past - a cinema in Scotland built from the interiors of the SS Homeric, a house in Poole in which cabins from the Mauretania are lovingly preserved - as well as the design inspiration behind the first great liners.
Father may be the head of the family, a potent symbol of authority, but he has always been the butt of some of our biggest laughs in British sitcom. Over the last five decades some of our most iconic comedy dads have been bewildered by a changing world and struggled with the work/life balance. These dads have coped with every curveball their writers threw at them and in the process changed the course of British comedy. They remain our most enduring Men About The House.
Documentary series about grandparents in Britain today introduces Londoner Ian Batten - fashion designer, father of four and grandfather of seven.
Ian takes all seven of his grandchildren, ranging from toddlers to teenagers, for a weekend by the sea for the first time. As a 1960s dad who brought his own children up in the liberal spirit of the time, his approach seems to be a hit with the children. Bedtimes are relaxed and the kids happily chip in, but do his own children recall their upbringings as similarly idyllic, and how has the free, liberal approach influenced their own views on parenting?
Through interviews spanning three generations, the family's archive footage and observation, the film looks at how the philosophies of the 1960s influence Ian as a grandfather whilst celebrating the enduring traditions of grandparenting through the 20th century.
Andrew Davies' adaptation of George and Weedon Grossmith's novel about the diary of archetypal 'little man' Charles Pooter - endearing, yet obsessed with his own importance.
In the rollercoaster lead up to Christmas, Pooter suffers embarrassment in the card shop, receives an insulting Christmas card and a punch in the head at a rather raucous evening with the Holloway Comedians.
Lupin falls in and out of love with Daisy Mutler, and both father and son receive some very good news.
In a moving and often funny documentary, award-winning film-maker Sean Langan is off to east Africa to ride the rails of the Tazara railroad, whose passenger and goods trains travel through spectacular scenery and a game park teeming with wild animals.
The railway was built by the Chinese just after independence to link Zambia's copper belt to the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, and once carried the region's hopes and dreams. But now it is in crisis. Every day there are derailments, trains running out of fuel and mechanical breakdowns.
Langan meets the train crews, controllers and maintenance crews who battle to keep it going - and at Tazara HQ he is on the track of Tazara's elusive Chinese railway advisors to find out why it is in such a parlous state.
THURSDAY 01 JULY 2010
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00sxj5s)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Only Connect (b00m3zhp)
Series 2
Mathematicians v Cambridge Quiz Society - Semi-Final
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 semi-final, three mathematicians pit their logical skills against the wits of the Cambridge Quiz Society. They compete to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly bereft of associations. How does Lord Kelvin of Largs link to George Orwell via the Ebola virus and India?
THU 20:00 Glamour's Golden Age (b00ndzw0)
The Luxe Experience
Hermione Norris narrates a three-part series on the 1920s and 30s, which creates a portrait of a golden age so daring, so influential, so exciting that it still shapes who we are today.
The decades between the world wars saw a cultural revolution in music, fashion, design and the arts. Mass media, mass production and the resulting mass exposure to an alluring, seductive glamour saw the world changing at a dizzying pace, amid which many of our modern obsessions were born.
The first part looks at how architecture and design both created and reflected the spirit of the time. The fun and frivolity of art deco sat alongside the pure functionality of modernism and helped democratise style. Streamlining followed, making sleek, sophisticated, elegant design part of ordinary people's everyday lives. At home, the radio became a beautiful object. In the urban environment a new aesthetic changed the way buildings looked, while planes, trains and automobiles started to shrink the world.
Featuring photographs of the Hoover Factory, Saltdean Lido, the Midland Hotel, the Savoy Theatre, the De La Warr Pavilion, the New Victoria Palace cinema, plus archive newsreel of the Mallard, the Queen Mary, the Schneider Trophy and Bluebird.
THU 21:00 Storyville (b007m47h)
Children of the Chinese Circus
Documentary looking at Shanghai Circus school, where the gruelling training regimes result in some of the best acrobats and circus performers in the world.
Children as young as eight have their unformed bodies stretched and tested to breaking point as they learn to master the most taxing feats of acrobatic grace and daring. Harsh demands are also made of teachers and parents as their proteges strive to be number one in the circus, the Chinese way.
THU 22:00 Storyville (b0082681)
Why Democracy?
Please Vote for Me
Chinese Director Weijun Chen's charming film takes us into the world of Chinese schoolchildren, learning about democracy for the first time as they try to vote for their class monitor.
Elections are pretty uncommon in China, so when the children in a school in Wuhan, Central China are presented with the chance to choose their own class monitor they don't quite know what to make of it. It doesn't take them long to get into the swing of it, though, and soon all sorts of dirty tricks are going on. Urged on by their parents, the candidates launch elaborate campaigns of bribery and coercion. After tantrums and tears, it's finally time for the vote, and who will win - the sweet girl who woos her voters with her flute playing, the bully who beats his classmates, or the boy who has the best sweets.
THU 22:55 Diary of a Nobody (b007hfz6)
Episode 4
Andrew Davies' adaptation of George and Weedon Grossmith's novel about the diary of archetypal 'little man'.
Pooter is a proud man when Lupin gains a position at the firm Perkupp and Co. But after he he loses them their most valued client and is sacked, he becomes engaged to an unsuitable young lady. However, Pooter acknowledges that the young must make their own way in life. He is then struck by the most wonderful good fortune and is rewarded beyond his wildest dreams.
THU 23:25 The History of Safari with Richard E Grant (b00s6b8q)
Episode 1
For almost 100 years, big game hunters - from Theodore Roosevelt to the British Royal Family - came to British East Africa to bag the 'big five'. Now, luxury 'eco safaris' continue to drive its economy. It has been both East Africa's damnation and its salvation that wildlife is the greatest natural resource it possesses.
Richard E Grant - who grew up in Swaziland - examines the controversial history of the safari. Exploring the world of the big game hunters and the luxury of today's safaris, he goes on a personal journey to experience how the beauty of the bush made Africa the white man's playground.
Plotting the major landmarks in the development of the safari, Grant uncovers a world of danger, glamour and gung-ho. He reveals how the safari was continually reinvented as explorers and ivory hunters were replaced by white settlers, guns gave way to cameras and direct British rule to independence.
He discovers how safari became one of the central constructs through which British rule over East Africa was imposed, provided the social touchstone for the white settlers and was eventually transformed by the glamour of Hollywood, the power of the dollar and the traveller's desire for an 'authentic African experience'.
As someone born and raised in the privileged world of the ex-pats, Grant takes an insider's perspective on the scandals and adventures of the elite class of Brits who ran the show. He meets their descendents and delves into the rich material archives of their family homes, discovering that for the remaining whites in the region this history is still very much alive.
As the trophy hunt became an icon of high society, everyone from Ernest Hemingway to British nobility and Hollywood stars were soon clamouring for a piece of the action. And as hunters decimated Africa's wildlife, they also surprisingly introduced the first conservation laws, if only to protect the supply of animals to shoot.
Embarking on safari himself, Grant experiences the beauty and the danger of being up close to the big game animals and accompanies modern hunters on safaris, where animals are still killed and the patrons still argue that hunting equals conservation.
The film is full of frontier colonial characters whose lives, exploits and attitudes describe a very particular time in Britain's relationship to Africa and its wildlife, when the continent was part Wild West, part idyll and part colonial experiment - where life could be lived between the crack of rifles at dawn and the setting of the sun at cocktail hour, largely oblivious to the indigenous Africans themselves.
Through creative use of film and photographic archive, as well as actuality with those involved in big game hunting and luxury safaris today, the documentary evokes the spirit of decadence, exploration and adventure of the safari. Ultimately, it reveals how safari has been and continues to be a barometer of our attitudes to travel, our colonial inheritance and Africa itself.
THU 00:55 Storyville (b007m47h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 01:55 Men about the House (b00sxhl5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Wednesday]
THU 02:55 Glamour's Golden Age (b00ndzw0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 03:55 Storyville (b007m47h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 02 JULY 2010
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00sxjc3)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Only Connect (b00m6n2p)
Series 2
Chessmen v Rugby Boys - Semi-Final
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 second semi-final, three quietly strategic chess players pit their wits against the brawn of the Rugby Boys. Who will win the battle, as they compete to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random? How does Carmilla link to Neo via Lord Voldemort and Sir Leigh Teabing?
FRI 20:00 The Birth of British Music (b00kntl1)
Handel - The Conquering Hero
In the second of four programmes, conductor Charles Hazlewood explores the glorious music of Handel, who made his home in Britain and became a celebrity and national icon in the process.
Millions across the world heard Handel's 'Zadok the Priest' when Elizabeth II was crowned Queen at Westminster Abbey in 1953, but he was immensely popular in his own lifetime too, as his memorial in Westminster Abbey shows. World-renowed soloists Danielle de Niese and Ian Bostridge join Charles Hazlewood's ensemble, Army of Generals, in some of the best-loved music in our history.
Also included in this programme is an unusual take on John Gay's 'The Beggar's Opera', the 18th-century smash hit that poked fun at Handel's world. Charles invites comedian Phill Jupitus to take a new approach to the music along with acclaimed folk singers Rachel and Becky Unthank, guitarist Adrian Utley from Portishead, and distinguished jazz drummer Martin France.
The Foundling Hospital Museum and Handel's birthplace in Halle are two of the many places Charles visits to explore the stories behind this fascinating composer who has had such a profound influence on our cultural heritage.
FRI 21:00 TOTP2 (b0078fth)
Rolling Stones
Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood introduce their greatest hits during an exclusive interview for TOTP2 whilst on tour in New York.
FRI 21:30 Forever Young: How Rock 'n' Roll Grew Up (b00sxjls)
Documentary which looks at how rock 'n' roll has had to deal with the unthinkable - namely growing up and growing old, from its roots in the 50s as music made by young people for young people to the 21st-century phenomena of the revival and the comeback.
Despite the mantra of 'live fast, die young', Britain's first rock 'n' roll generations are now enjoying old age. What was once about youth and taking risks is now about longevity, survival, nostalgia and refusing to grow up, give up or shut up. But what happens when the music refuses to die and its performers refuse to leave the stage? What happens when rock's youthful rebelliousness is delivered wrapped in wrinkles?
Featuring Lemmy, Iggy Pop, Peter Noone, Rick Wakeman, Paul Jones, Richard Thompson, Suggs, Eric Burdon, Bruce Welch, Robert Wyatt, Gary Brooker, Joe Brown, Chris Dreja of The Yardbirds, Alison Moyet, Robyn Hitchcock, writers Rosie Boycott and Nick Kent and producer Joe Boyd.
FRI 22:30 Storyville (b00sxgsn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Monday]
FRI 23:50 Still Crazy (b007ckzx)
In 1998, disbanded 1970s rockers Strange Fruit have the chance to reunite and return from obscurity.
However, the surviving members' old rivalries are also revived, making rehearsals and a European try-out tour a trial for hopeful keyboard player Tony and the band's number one fan Karen, both determined to prove the 'Fruits' are not past their sell-by date.
FRI 01:20 Timeshift (b00sxh8c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
FRI 02:20 The Birth of British Music (b00kntl1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRI 03:20 Forever Young: How Rock 'n' Roll Grew Up (b00sxjls)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:30 today]