SATURDAY 30 OCTOBER 2010

SAT 19:00 Life (b00nqbkb)
Fish

Fish dominate the planet's waters through their astonishing variety of shape and behaviour.

The beautiful weedy sea dragon looks like a creature from a fairy tale, and the male protects their eggs by carrying them on his tail for months. The sarcastic fringehead, meanwhile, appears to turn its head inside out when it fights.

Slow-motion cameras show the flying fish gliding through the air like a flock of birds and capture the world's fastest swimmer, the sailfish, plucking sardines from a shoal at 70 mph. And the tiny Hawaiian goby undertakes one of nature's most daunting journeys, climbing a massive waterfall to find safe pools for breeding.


SAT 20:00 Michael Wood's Story of England (b00vjmms)
Victoria to the Present Day

Groundbreaking series in which Michael Wood tells the story of one place throughout the whole of English history. The village is Kibworth in Leicestershire in the heart of England - a place that lived through the Black Death, the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution and was even bombed in World War Two.

In this final episode, helped by today's villagers Michael uncovers the secret history of a Victorian village more colourful than even Dickens could have imagined. Recreating their penny concerts of the 1880s, visiting World War I battlefields with the school and recalling the Home Guard, local land girls and the bombing of the village in 1940, the series finally moves into the brave new world of 'homes for heroes' and the villagers come together to leave a reminder of their world for future generations.


SAT 21:00 Wallander (b00pjk2l)
Series 1

The Secret

Original Swedish TV adaptation of Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander detective series.

Wallander and the Ystad police investigate the death of an eleven-year-old boy. Stefan wants to help with the case as he was friends with the boy's father but he's facing suspension pending a disciplinary procedure.

In Swedish with English subtitles.


SAT 22:30 Mad Men (b00vjmmv)
Series 4

The Summer Man

Don attempts to regain control over his life through physical changes and journal writing. Betty forbids him from attending Eugene's birthday party and is flustered when she and Henry run into Don and Bethany on a date. Don's persistence with Faye results in an impromptu dinner date. Joey's sexism creates friction with Joan, forcing Peggy to take action.


SAT 23:15 Getting On (b00vjm5z)
Series 2

Episode 1

Darkly comic series that offers a glimpse inside a world a million miles away from traditional hospital dramas. This is the dull, dreary, dog end of the health service with paperwork to fill in, bottoms to wipe and the drama played out in a thousand tiny acts of revenge and kindness, shining a light on the way workplace relationships play out and mapping out the life of a hospital through six shifts (five days and one night) on B4 ward.

Kim, Den and Pippa struggle through another normal day on B4. Kim has an unknown female to occupy her, Den has Hilary to cope with and Pippa has a ward round. New patient Mrs Fyvie is admitted, but it's her daughter Beedy who needs to be dealt with.


SAT 23:45 Night of the Living Dead (b0078pw1)
Low-budget horror classic in which radiation from a space probe reanimates the dead, who become ravenous for the flesh of the living. A small band of survivors barricade themselves inside an isolated farmhouse as zombies gather outside. One of the most influential horror films ever made, director George A Romero's low-budget masterpiece spawned two sequels, a 1990 remake and numerous imitators.


SAT 01:20 A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss (b00v9gy5)
Frankenstein Goes to Hollywood

Three-part series in which actor and writer Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen, Doctor Who, Sherlock) celebrates the greatest achievements of horror cinema.

A lifelong fan of the genre, Mark begins by exploring the golden age of Hollywood horror. From the late 1920s until the 1940s, a succession of classic pictures and unforgettable actors defined the horror genre - including The Phantom of the Opera starring Lon Chaney, Dracula with Bela Lugosi, and Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff.

Mark explains just how daring and pioneering these films were, and why they still send a chill down the spine today. He also traces how horror pictures evolved during this period, becoming camp and subversive (The Old Dark House and Bride of Frankenstein, both directed by Englishman James Whale), dark and perverse (films like Freaks, which used disabled performers), before a final flourish with the psychological horror of RKO Pictures' films (Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie), which still influence directors today. However, by the early 1950s the monsters were facing their biggest threat - the rise of science fiction films in the post-war atomic era.

Along the way, Mark steps into some of the great sets from these classic films, hears first-hand accounts from Hollywood horror veterans, discovers Lon Chaney's head in a box and finds out why Bela Lugosi met his match in Golders Green.


SAT 01:20 A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss (b00vffvs)
Home Counties Horror

Three-part series in which actor and writer Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen, Doctor Who, Sherlock) celebrates the greatest achievements of horror cinema.

Mark uncovers stories behind the films of his favourite period - the 1950s and 60s - which fired his lifelong enthusiasm for horror. These mainly British pictures were dominated by the legendary Hammer Films, who rewrote the horror rulebook with a revolutionary infusion of sex and full-colour gore - all shot in the English Home Counties.

Mark meets key Hammer figures to find out why their Frankenstein and Dracula films conquered the world, making international stars of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. He looks at the new boom of horror that followed in Hammer's wake, including the ravishing Italian movie Black Sunday, and talks to the influential American producer Roger Corman about his disturbing and dreamlike Edgar Allan Poe films. He also explores the intriguing cycle of British 'folk horror' films, such as The Wicker Man and Mark's personal favourite, Blood on Satan's Claw.

Mark also speaks to leading horror ladies Barbara Steele and Barbara Shelley about their most famous roles, makes a pilgrimage to Whitstable, home of Peter Cushing, and finds out why Dracula's bedroom activities got the British censor steamed up.


SAT 02:20 A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss (b00vjm4v)
The American Scream

Three-part series in which League of Gentleman star, Doctor Who and Sherlock writer Mark Gatiss celebrates the greatest achievements of horror cinema.

Mark explores the explosion of American films of the late 1960s and 70s which dragged horror kicking and screaming into the present day. With their contemporary settings and uncompromising content, films like Night of the Living Dead and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre remain controversial. But Mark argues that these films - often regarded as only being for hardcore fans with strong stomachs - have much to offer. Made by pioneering independent filmmakers, they reflected the social upheavals of American society and brought fresh energy and imagination to the genre.

Mark gets the inside story from a roster of leading horror directors, including George A Romero, whose Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead turned zombies into A-list monsters; Tobe Hooper, director of the notorious Texas Chain Saw Massacre; and John Carpenter, whose smash hit Halloween triggered the slasher movie boom.

Mark also celebrates the other great horror trend of the era - a string of satanically-themed Hollywood blockbusters, including Rosemary's Baby, the Exorcist and the Omen. Along the way Mark visits the Bates Motel, gets mobbed by zombies and finds out what happened to Omen star David Warner's decapitated head.


SAT 03:20 Timeshift (b0074t74)
Series 6

Transylvania Babylon

A comic exploration of the cult of Dracula. From Bela Lugosi to bloodsucking bikes, with a Mexican tag-wrestling version thrown in for good measure, this ghoulish compilation is an entertaining homage to the vampire tradition gifted us by Bram Stoker's famous Count.