Iain Stewart journeys across the oceans to explore the most powerful giant waves in history, with ten remarkable stories about tsunamis.
These massive waves can be taller than the biggest skyscraper, travel at the speed of a jet plane and when they reach land, rear up and turn into a terrifying wall of water that destroys everything in its path. These unstoppable, uncontrollable forces of nature caused the ruin of an entire ancient civilization, may have played a small part in the demise of the dinosaurs, and in World War II were used as a weapon. Yet astonishingly, two men who surfed the tallest wave in history - half a kilometre high - survived.
Echo is the gentle matriarch of a sprawling family of elephants that live in a Kenya's Amboseli National Park, nestling in the shadow of Kilimanjaro. Watched by research zoologist Cynthia Moss, Echo has led her family through good times and bad. This is the chronicle of eighteen eventful months in Echo's life.
The army is in Ystad all week for a training exercise, and Wallander is called to the site of a grim and premeditated double murder, with emotional resonance for him. As the murders continue, Wallander and his team investigate deeper and are forced to concede there may be a link with the troops.
Real-time sitcom following the lives of a middle-aged couple during their first half-hour home from work. Roger is a botanist at the Winter Gardens and Val is a food technology teacher at a local school. With no children, the couple rely only on each other for distraction.
Roger returns home to find Val searching for the lost guarantee for their vacuum cleaner. Sooner or later they are going to have to face up to the fact that it's probably somewhere in the big drawer in the garage.
Roger has had a great day at work, having successfully taken on his bosses over unfair working conditions for the cleaning staff. He feels he's made a strong impression on the Head of Legal, Esther, and on the spur of the moment he decides to call her to see if his statutory rights might not entitle him to a free replacement hoover, even without an actual guarantee.
Val gets down to the business of sifting through all the paperwork and other junk in The Big Drawer, and the resultant nostalgia trip results in the pair of them revisiting their early years together and also speculating as to who will clear out the drawer after they've gone.
Candid and poignant drama about the comedian Frankie Howerd and the relationship with his long-term, long-suffering manager, and gay partner, Dennis Heymer. Despite his overtly camp persona, Howerd kept his companionship with Heymer under wraps for 35 years, until his death in 1992. Yet through career disaster, social stigma, illegality, numerous infidelities and Howerd's own deep-seated issues about his homosexuality, their love endured.
Featuring the evocative memories and unseen archive of generations of enthusiasts, a documentary which tells the intriguing story of how sleeping under canvas evolved from a leisure activity for a handful of adventurous Edwardian gents to the quintessentially British family pastime that it is today.
Documentary about the love affair between the British and their caravans, which saw the country establish the world's largest caravan manufacturer and transformed the holiday habits of generations of families.
In telling the intriguing story of caravanning in Britain from the 1950s through to the present day, the film reveals how caravans were once the plaything of a privileged minority, but after World War II became a firm favourite with almost a quarter of British holidaymakers.
It explores how changes in caravanning across the years reflect wider changes in British society, in particular the increased availability of cars during the 1950s and 60s, but also the improved roads network and changing attitudes towards holidaymaking and leisure time.
Enthusiasts and contributors include Dorrie van Lachterop from the West Midlands and Christine Fagg from Hertfordshire, remarkable and adventurous women who started touring alone in their caravans during the 1950s.
Alice Roberts embarks on a quest to discover what lies behind the passion for wild swimming, now becoming popular in Britain. She follows in the wake of Waterlog, the classic swimming text by journalist and author Roger Deakin.
Her journey takes in cavernous plunge pools, languid rivers and unfathomable underground lakes, as well as a skinny dip in a moorland pool. Along the way Alice becomes aware that she is not alone on her watery journey.
SUNDAY 08 AUGUST 2010
SUN 19:00 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.
SUN 20:00 English Heritage (b00k89m5)
Romancing the Stone
What is the largest listed building in Europe? Not a cathedral, not a castle. It is Park Hill Estate in Sheffield, a crumbling 1950s concrete monolith that dominates the city's skyline. Saving Park Hill was supposed to be about bringing English Heritage, the national heritage agency, bang up to date, in a modernisation.
Instead, it plunges English Heritage and its chief executive Simon Thurley into an unexpected public row. The decision to list Park Hill was hugely unpopular locally, and rapidly became the defining issue in the local elections: the Liberal Democrats, chaired by Paul Scriven, were running on an anti-English Heritage ticket, collecting 50,000 signatures on a petition calling for the decision to list the estate to be reversed.
Listing Park Hill meant the council could not knock it down - as they had the three other similar estates in their care. Now they had to redevelop it, or face a 50 million pound restoration bill.
They and English Heritage approve a scheme proposed by hip Manchester developers Urban Splash - and English Heritage even promise 500,000 pounds toward the restoration of Park Hill's defining concrete grid. However, there's bad news to come: the credit crunch.
SUN 21:00 Women's Institute (b007r82f)
The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Three-part documentary about the Women's Institute as it finds its way into the 21st century, revealing the lives of a formidable group of women who are holding communities together across Britain.
The Women's Institute movement started in Britain in 1915. One of its latest additions is a group in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, launched in 2006 and headed up by Amy. At 38 she is 20 years younger than the average WI member and is horrified by the stereotypical grey-haired image. She is determined to modernise the WI by 'pushing the boundaries' and adding a bit of 'stardust and glamour'.
Amy and her best friend Bunny (56) have corralled everyone they know into joining their new WI, which has quickly become the biggest group in the country. Amy's ladies meet in the Royal Solent Yacht Club and have invited a top divorce lawyer to talk at one of their monthly meetings, much to the disgust of some husbands. But Amy hasn't quite bargained for what it takes to implement change in an established organisation with 90 years of tradition.
This film follows her group’s determined attempts to establish a new generation of WI, from a very polite protest against excess packaging outside the local supermarket to an extravagant champagne-fuelled fundraiser, and offers a rare glimpse into a world of well-heeled women of a certain age.
SUN 22:00 The Silence of Lorna (b00td44k)
Award-winning drama about an Albanian immigrant living in Belgium, in a fake marriage to a local drug addict. She dreams of leaving her dull job to set up a snack bar with her boyfriend, but just how far will she go to achieve her dream?
SUN 23:40 Glastonbury (b00t9rzf)
2010
The Scissor Sisters
A look back at the set by disco-pop New Yorkers The Scissor Sisters on the Pyramid Stage at the 2010 festival. Featuring many of their big hits such as Laura, Take Your Mama and I Don't Feel Like Dancin', plus numbers from their most recent album Night Work, including Any Which Way, on which they are joined by pop princess Kylie Minogue.
SUN 00:40 Once Upon a Time in New York: The Birth of Hip Hop, Disco and Punk (b007mw93)
How the squalid streets of '70s New York gave birth to music that would go on to conquer the world - punk, disco and hip hop.
In the 1970s the Big Apple was rotten to the core, yet out of the grime, grit and low rent space emerged new music unlike anything that had gone before.
Inspired by the Velvet Underground, a new wave of 'punk' rock emerged in lower Manhattan including The New York Dolls, The Ramones and the Patti Smith Group. Meanwhile, downtown loft parties held by gay New Yorkers heralded the birth of disco, which would eventually spawn the ultimate club for the privileged few: Studio 54. The swanky mid-town discos were out of bounds to black New York so in the Bronx DJs such as Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa created their own parties, heralding the birth of hip hop.
With David Johansen, Patti Smith, John Cale, Richard Hell, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Herc, Nile Rodgers, Chuck D, Tommy Ramone, Chris Stein, Fab 5. Freddy, Lenny Kaye, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, Syl Sylvain, Nicky Siano, David Mancuso, DJ AJ, David Depino, Jayne County, Leee Childers, Nelson George, Victor Bokris and Vince Aletti.
SUN 01:40 New York Rock at the BBC (b007mwcf)
From the streets of New York City to the studios of the BBC comes the cream of the New York rock scene, including classic archive performances from The Ramones, New York Dolls, Television, Blondie, Lou Reed and many more.
SUN 02:40 On Hannibal's Trail (b00t9qv6)
Crossing the Rhone
History and travel documentary series in which three Australian brothers - Danny, Ben and Sam Wood - set out cycling on the trail of Hannibal, the Carthaginian warrior who marched from Spain to Rome at the head of an invading army accompanied by elephants.
From the Roman amphitheatre of Arles, the brothers retrace Hannibal's steps through the south of France to the foothills of the Alps. They recreate Hannibal's historic crossing of the River Rhone before cycling on to the town of Maillane, where the remains of one of Hannibal's elephants were found in the 19th century. They then race up the 2000-metre-high Mont Ventoux before setting off into the Alps.
SUN 03:10 Britain by Bike (b00t9r0n)
The Isle of Wight
Clare Balding sets out on a two-wheel odyssey to re-discover Britain from the saddle of a touring cycle.
In a six-part series, Clare follows the wheeltracks of compulsive cyclist and author Harold Briercliffe whose evocative guide books of the late 1940s lovingly describe by-passed Britain - a world of unspoiled villages, cycle touring clubs and sunny B roads.
Carrying a set of Harold's Cycling Touring Guides for company and riding his very own Dawes Super Galaxy bicycle, Clare goes in search of the world he described with such affection.
Her journey to the Isle of Wight explores its unique sense of otherness - a strange power which could cure Dickens's writer's block, repel the deadly attentions of the Luftwaffe and give Victorian poet laureate Tennyson a comforting sense of his own death.
MONDAY 09 AUGUST 2010
MON 19:00 World News Today (b00td4jq)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 Visions of the Future (b0087fn6)
The Intelligence Revolution
Theoretical physicist and futurist Michio Kaku shows how, in the 21st century, artificial intelligence is going to become as ubiquitous as electricity, how robots with human-level intelligence may finally become a reality, and how we'll even be able to merge our minds with machine intelligence. As the challenges and choices are literally mind-bending, Dr Kaku asks how far we will ultimately go.
MON 20:30 On Hannibal's Trail (b00td4n6)
Over the Alps
History and travel series in which three Australian brothers - Danny, Ben and Sam Wood - set out cycling on the trail of Hannibal, the Carthaginian warrior who marched from Spain to Rome at the head of an invading army accompanied by elephants.
The brothers take on the most challenging leg of their trek - crossing the Alps. Historians disagree about which route Hannibal took across the mountains, and the Woods split up and each cycle a different path. They brave snow, altitude and sheer exhaustion as they carry their bikes across some of the highest peaks in the Alps. Finally, they meet up in northern Italy, ready to take on Rome.
MON 21:00 In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (b0074lb3)
Episode 1
A major re-appraisal of the life and work of travel writer and novelist Bruce Chatwin. A highly charismatic and contradictory character, books like In Patagonia changed the nature of travel writing.
Nicholas Shakespeare journeys the five continents in Chatwin's footsteps, revealing where his fiction meets the truth of his life. Featuring contributions from the real-life characters of Chatwin's novels, plus his wife Elizabeth, Salman Rushdie, Colin Thubron, Robert Erskine and Francis Wyndham.
MON 22:00 In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (b0074lbq)
Episode 2
In the conclusion of a two-part documentary marking the 10th anniversary of travel writer Bruce Chatwin's death, his biographer Nicholas Shakespeare continues his journey. Travelling to Africa, South America and Australia, he meets the likes of Werner Herzog, Thomas Keneally and Patrick Leigh Fermor. Since his death from AIDS in 1989, Chatwin's books have been published in 30 languages and inspired three feature films, and his thougths about 'The Nomad' have become the model for global travellers everywhere.
MON 23:00 The Great Outdoors (b00t9r89)
Episode 2
Christine is now deputy leader of the club and is soon winning the hearts and minds of the group, especially Bob's best friend Tom. Meanwhile, stressed businesswoman Sophie makes a desperate leap on Victor and the group must face down the rambler's worst enemy - a farmer who keeps blocking public rights of way.
MON 23:30 South Africa in Pictures (b00s6bdh)
British fashion photographer Rankin explores South Africa's rich photographic tradition, discovering how its leading photographers have captured this complex, often turbulent, nation through remarkable images and charting the unique role photography has played in documenting the story and people of this fascinating country.
Through encounters with legendary conflict photographers the Bang Bang Club, documentary photographer David Goldblatt and photojournalist Alf Kumalo amongst others, Rankin goes on a compelling and moving photographic journey to see the nation through their gaze.
MON 00:30 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.
MON 02:00 On Hannibal's Trail (b00td4n6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
MON 02:30 In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (b0074lb3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
MON 03:30 In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (b0074lbq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
TUESDAY 10 AUGUST 2010
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00td4sd)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Last Chance to See (b00n7ggx)
Series 1
Kakapo
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine head to the ends of the earth in search of animals on the edge of extinction.
In New Zealand the travellers make their way through one of the most dramatic landscapes in the world. They are on a journey to find the last remaining kakapo, a fat, flightless parrot which, when threatened with attack, adopts a strategy of standing very still indeed.
TUE 20:30 Britain by Bike (b00td4sg)
West Yorkshire
Clare Balding sets out on a two-wheel odyssey to re-discover Britain from the saddle of a touring cycle.
In a six-part series, Clare follows the wheeltracks of compulsive cyclist and author Harold Briercliffe whose evocative guide books of the late 1940s lovingly describe by-passed Britain - a world of unspoiled villages, cycle touring clubs and sunny B roads. Carrying a set of Harold's Cycling Touring Guides for company and riding his very own Dawes Super Galaxy bicycle, she goes in search of the world he described with such affection.
As she cycles through Bronte Country on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border, Clare uncovers a unique photographic collection depicting the hidden daily life of a Yorkshire mill town, a string of truly remarkable women and a secret club for henpecked husbands.
TUE 21:00 Treasures of the Anglo Saxons (b00t6xzx)
Art historian Dr Nina Ramirez reveals the codes and messages hidden in Anglo-Saxon art. From the beautiful jewellery that adorned the first violent pagan invaders through to the stunning Christian manuscripts they would become famous for, she explores the beliefs and ideas that shaped Anglo-Saxon art.
Examining many of the greatest Anglo Saxon treasures - such as the Sutton Hoo Treasures, the Staffordshire Hoard, the Franks Casket and the Lindisfarne Gospels - Dr Ramirez charts 600 years of artistic development which was stopped dead in its tracks by the Norman Conquest.
TUE 22:00 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.
TUE 23:00 Heist (b00b0bdh)
Drama based on the true story of an outrageous medieval heist, told in the style of Ocean's 11.
When Dick Puddlecote is released from a Flanders jail in 1302 to discover his friends, his livelihood and his woman are all in hock to the king, he decides to exact a very modern form of revenge - break into the vault at Westminster Abbey and steal the king's gold. There’s just one catch - failure would earn him and his gang ruthless torture, swift punishment and potentially an eternity in hell.
A true story sourced from original trial records, this bold comedy-drama combines the energy of a British heist comedy with the veracity of factual dramas and the bawdiness of Chaucer, breathing life into a strange and foreign world full of priests and prostitutes.
TUE 00:10 The Silence of Lorna (b00td44k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Sunday]
TUE 01:50 Britain by Bike (b00td4sg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
TUE 02:20 Last Chance to See (b00n7ggx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUE 03:20 Treasures of the Anglo Saxons (b00t6xzx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 11 AUGUST 2010
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00td53d)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 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.
WED 20:00 Treasures of the Anglo Saxons (b00t6xzx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 21:00 The Great Outdoors (b00td53g)
Episode 3
On the annual trip to the south coast, Bob and Christine's rivalry finally comes to a head. Meanwhile, Victor is hoping he will finally get his promised kiss from Hazel and Tom plucks up courage for his own romance.
WED 21:30 Cowards (b00h6syx)
Episode 2
Four-man sketch show packed with surprise and invention. Scenarios include disaffected judges, office bullying via Skype, Russian roulette at the dinner table, a jobseeker aiming to become Mick Hucknall's PA and a dog with a secret - all delivered with a unique brand of joyful deadpan absurdity.
WED 22:00 Dan Snow's Norman Walks (b00td53j)
Herefordshire and Monmouthshire - the March of Wales
As part of the BBC's Norman season, historian Dan Snow puts his walking boots on and sets off to see what the great British landscape can teach us about our Norman predecessors. From their violent arrival on these shores, to their most sustaining legacies, Dan's three walks follow an evolutionary path through the Normans' era from invasion, to conquest, to successful rule and colonization.
On the Sussex coast, along the Welsh border and on the edge of the North York Moors, Dan explores the landscape and whatever evidence might remain; earthmounds, changing coastlines, viewpoints, and of course the giant stone castles and buildings that were the great symbol of Norman rule. All these elements offer clues as to how the Norman elite were ultimately able to dominate and rule our Anglo-Saxon kingdom.
As Dan discovers, there are a great many unknowns about events in 1066 and thereafter. But one thing is clear - wherever they went, the varied British landscape and its diverse people offered a fresh challenge to the Normans.
Dan's second walk explores what the invaders did next, as they aimed to cement their rule across a diverse nation. Despite William the Conqueror being confirmed as king, the Normans had only completed stage one of their colonization, and few areas were as unstable as the Welsh borders. Challenging topography and a multitude of local chieftains made for an uncivilized region and Dan’s walk around the Monnow river system is dominated by the motte and bailey castles that sprang up throughout the Norman era. These were the handiwork of ambitious barons who made their mark on the 'march' – a border zone from which the Normans pushed their influence west into Wales and Ireland. Dan's very rural walk is still touched by the agriculture, forests and common ground established by the Normans, and he discovers that one of the present-day landowning families has held its lands for almost a thousand years.
WED 22:30 Inside the Medieval Mind (b009wzw3)
Sex
Leading authority on the Middle Ages, Professor Robert Bartlett presents a series which examines the way we thought during medieval times. He unearths remarkable evidence of the complex passions of medieval men and women. The Church preached hatred of the flesh, promoted the cult of virginity and condemned woman as the sinful heir to Eve. Yet this was the era that gave birth to the idea of romantic love.
WED 23:30 Michael Wood on Beowulf (b00kpv23)
Historian Michael Wood returns to his first great love, the Anglo-Saxon world, to reveal the origins of our literary heritage. Focusing on Beowulf and drawing on other Anglo-Saxon classics, he traces the birth of English poetry back to the Dark Ages.
Travelling across the British Isles from East Anglia to Scotland and with the help of Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney, actor Julian Glover, local historians and enthusiasts, he brings the story and language of this iconic poem to life.
WED 00:30 The Great Outdoors (b00td53g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 01:00 Dan Snow's Norman Walks (b00td53j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WED 01:30 Treasures of the Anglo Saxons (b00t6xzx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 02:30 The Genius of Omar Khayyam (b00rs21m)
Filmed in part across Iran during the run up to the 2009 election and presented by Sadeq Saba.
Born almost 1000 years ago in Persia, Omar Khayyam was an astronomer, mathematician and poet. His contribution to algebra and geometry has sealed his reputation as one the greatest mathematicians of all time; and a lunar crater has been named after him for his advances in astronomy.
Omar Khayyam lived during a medieval golden age of science and learning in the East. He was among a group of pioneering scientists who were influenced by ideas from ancient Greece, India and China. The film reveals how Islam and the advancement of science went hand in hand.
In the West, Khayyam is best known for the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam most famously translated by a Victorian man of letters called Edward Fitzgerald. Published in 1859, the same year as Darwin's On the Origin of Species, the film shows how and why the Rubaiyat became one of the most famous poems in the English language, attracting a who's who of literary admirers including Thomas Hardy, TS Eliot and Arthur Conan Doyle.
A decade after its success in England, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam was published in America where its message of live for the day instantly captured the public imagination. Its popularity spawned all sorts of products including Omar tooth powder, playing cards, and the first illustrated editions of the Rubaiyat. America's favourite poet, Walt Whitman was a fan, and soldiers took miniature copies of the Rubaiyat to the battleground.
Omar Khayyam remains a significant figure in present day Iran, and the film explores why despite his apparent religious scepticism, Khayyam's philosophy continues to resonate with modern Iranians.
WED 03:30 The Great Outdoors (b00td53g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 04:00 Dan Snow's Norman Walks (b00td53j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
THURSDAY 12 AUGUST 2010
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00td5f9)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 BBC Proms (b00td5fc)
2010
Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto
A classic archive performance of Beethoven's monumental Fifth Piano Concerto from 1989, with the legendary American pianist Murray Perahia and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner. Introduced by Charles Hazlewood in conversation with pianist Paul Lewis, who is performing a complete cycle of Beethoven Piano Concertos at the 2010 BBC Proms.
THU 20:30 Barenboim on Beethoven (b0074swl)
Part 2
Second of two programmes in which pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim gives a masterclass on the Beethoven piano sonatas, coaching some of the world's rising stars of the piano who already have international careers. Shai Wosner plays the first movement of the Tempest Sonata, Op 31 No 2, and Jonathan Biss with the third movement of Sonata in E, Op 109.
THU 21:30 Florence Nightingale (b00c0nqz)
Drama about the life of Florence Nightingale, based largely on her own words, which tells the true and unexpected story behind this most unusual woman - adored by the masses, hated by the few and credited by historians as the brilliant birth-mother of modern nursing.
Bringing to life the story of Florence Nightingale's spiritual and emotional revolution after the Crimean War - a moment of crisis, doubt and failure that ultimately inspired her career in medicine - the film features a raucous music hall troupe, who dip in and out of the action with songs in the style of the times.
Bent on vengeance, Florence badgers the authorities into allowing her to investigate the ineptitude of the military commanders through a Royal Commission. This ultimately leads to despair, however, and forces Florence to withdraw from even her closest family following a complete breakdown and a massive crisis of faith.
THU 22:30 Rick Stein's Taste of Italian Opera (b00sm1g0)
Chef Rick Stein takes a light-hearted look at the role that food played in the creation of Italian opera and shows how music and food are intrinsically linked in Italy. He draws parallels between cooking and composing, noting how both involve the skilful combination of ingredients and how they share the common purpose of bringing pleasure to many. Rick also explains why he thinks the music of Verdi, Rossini and Puccini are linked to the food of the regions where they lived and worked.
THU 23:30 Dan Snow's Norman Walks (b00td53j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Wednesday]
THU 00:00 Britain by Bike (b00td4sg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Tuesday]
THU 00:30 On Hannibal's Trail (b00td4n6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Monday]
THU 01:00 Florence Nightingale (b00c0nqz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:30 today]
THU 02:00 Barenboim on Beethoven (b0074swl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
THU 03:00 BBC Proms (b00td5fc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRIDAY 13 AUGUST 2010
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00td5y1)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 BBC Proms (b00td5y3)
2010
James Ehnes plays the Bruch Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic
The dynamic young Canadian virtuoso James Ehnes performs Bruch's popular Violin Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic under their chief conductor Gianandrea Noseda, live from the Royal Albert Hall. The programme also includes Verdi's Force of Destiny Overture, Schumann's Fourth Symphony and Dallapiccola's Partita with soloist Sarah Tynan.
FRI 21:40 Glastonbury (b00td5y5)
2010
Ray Davies
A look back at the performance by the legendary British singer/songwriter Ray Davies from the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury festival. He and his band kick off proceedings with the likes of Dedicated Follower of Fashion and Sunny Afternoon and are then joined by the 40+ Crouch End Festival Chorus in choral renditions of classic Kinks' numbers such as You Really Got Me, Victoria and Waterloo Sunset.
FRI 22:40 Brothers in Arms (b007cblj)
They say that blood is thicker than water and this documentary puts that to the test by examining the brothers who have formed and fronted rock bands. From the Everlys to the Gallaghers via the Kinks and Spandau Ballet, it tells the stories of the bands of brothers who went from their bedrooms to become household names - often with a price to pay.
With contributions from Martin Kemp, Matt Goss, Dave Davies, Phil Everly, David Knopfler and the Campbell brothers of UB40.
FRI 23:40 Pop Britannia (b008nkvq)
A Well Respected Man
Three-part documentary series telling the story of British popular music and its place in British culture since the 1950s. In the 60s Britain went pop mad. The architects were a group of artists and entrepreneurs who would prise pop out of the grasp of showbiz interests to create a truly authentic British sound of the Beatles, Stones and Who and at the same time prepared the way for a new, more corporate pop business. With Pete Townsend, Sir George Martin, Bryan Ferry, Sandie Shaw and Lulu.
FRI 00:40 Glastonbury (b00td5y5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:40 today]
FRI 01:40 BBC Proms (b00td5y3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]