The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
Series in which mathematician Marcus du Sautoy explores the stories behind some of the world's most familiar scientific diagrams.
In the mid-1660s, Isaac Newton bought a pair of prisms at a fair near Cambridge, which were to be the basis of a series of experiments that would unlock a secret that had occupied scientists for centuries - the nature of light itself.
To explain what he had done, Newton created a diagram. It is called The Crucial Experiment and is a pivotal image in scientific history, a graphic moment when the ancient world was overturned by modern science. Newton demonstrated that white light is not pure, but made up of a number of different colours, the colours of the rainbow.
Newton's ideas transformed our knowledge of what we see and how we see, and the prism and its refracted colours became a captivating image. From fibre-optics to the cover of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album, Newton's work went on to influence centuries of science and art.
The art colony of St Ives in Cornwall became as important as Paris or London in the history of modernism during a golden creative period between the 1920s and 1960s. The dramatic lives and works of eight artists who most made this miracle possible, from Kit Wood and Alfred Wallis to Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, are featured in a documentary which offers an alternative history of the 20th century avant-garde as well as a vivid portrayal of the history and landscapes of Cornwall itself.
Poignant drama telling the real-life story of a man left paralysed in the prime of his life who went on to show incredible reserves of spiritual strength to author his memoirs. The editor of France's Elle magazine, Jean-Dominique Bauby was struck down in his 40s by a stroke that left him unable to move a muscle, yet did not affect his mental reflexes. He went on to write his autobiography just by blinking patterns - the only physical activity he could still perform - which followed an alphabetical code.
FRIDAY 03 DECEMBER 2010
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00wbp62)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Opera Italia (b00spgk8)
The Triumph of Puccini
Three-part series tracing the history of Italian opera presented by Antonio Pappano, conductor and music director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. The series features sumptuous music, stunning Italian locations and some of the biggest names in opera as contributors.
The final episode is devoted to Puccini, the worthy successor to Verdi. Puccini's operas are cinematic in their scale with ravishing, passionate and clever music, as he took Italian opera into the 20th century.
Pappano looks at five of Puccini's most popular operas - La Boheme, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Gianni Schicchi and Turandot. He travels to Rome to meet stage director Franco Zeffirelli and talk about Puccini and Zeffirelli's famous production of Turandot.
Pappano also talks to one of the great Puccini interpreters, the soprano Renata Scotto, about the composer, Madame Butterfly and the role of Mimi in La Boheme. Also featured are soprano Angela Gheorghiu, tenors Jonas Kaufmann and Roberto Alagna and baritone Sir Thomas Allen.
FRI 20:30 The Highland Sessions (b0074rwf)
Episode 3
Six-part series celebrating the historical and contemporary links between Scottish and Irish Gaelic song by bringing together top exponents of both traditions to sing and play together with no audience except themselves, using a house band of their peers.
This edition features Liam O'Maonlai of the rock band Hothouse Flowers, Scots Gaelic diva Margaret Stewart and James Graham.
FRI 21:00 Arena (b00wbp64)
Dave Brubeck - In His Own Sweet Way
Three young men who emerged in the 1950s - Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Dave Brubeck - not only captured the public's imagination, but in their own unique way determined the evolution of jazz as we know it today.
This Clint Eastwood co-produced documentary tells Dave Brubeck's personal story, tracing his career from his first musical experiences to the overwhelming success of the Dave Brubeck Quartet and the iconic status he and his varied forms of musical expression have achieved.
It is told with contemporary interviews, vintage performances, previously unseen archive and additional performances filmed especially for the documentary. The story is also told by Dave and Iola Brubeck, both in their own words and by musical example. Contributors include Bill Cosby, Jamie Cullum, Yo-Yo Ma, George Lucas and Eastwood himself.
In 2009 Brubeck was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors, with Robert De Niro, Bruce Springsteen, Grace Bumbry and Mel Brooks. He played with his sons for President Obama at the White House, and 55 years ago became the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time magazine. His classic Take Five is as familiar today as in 1959 when it was a Top 10 hit all over the world.
Brubeck has an unlikely origin for a jazz giant, growing up on a ranch in Monterey, California. Monterey resident Clint Eastwood introduced Brubeck and his Cannery Row Suite at the 2006 Monterey Jazz Festival and each were so inspired by the success of the event they agreed to move forward with this full-length documentary together.
FRI 22:30 Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany (b00nf10k)
Documentary which looks at how a radical generation of musicians created a new German musical identity out of the cultural ruins of war.
Between 1968 and 1977 bands like Neu!, Can, Faust and Kraftwerk would look beyond western rock and roll to create some of the most original and uncompromising music ever heard. They shared one common goal - a forward-looking desire to transcend Germany's gruesome past - but that didn't stop the music press in war-obsessed Britain from calling them Krautrock.
FRI 23:30 Quincy Jones: The Many Lives of Q (b00c18jl)
From the Jazz Age to Hollywood - 1933-1974
In a career spanning six decades, American jazz musician, composer, arranger, record producer and entrepreneur Quincy Jones has won more Grammy awards than any other artist. His list of other honours includes an Emmy for his work on the seminal American television series Roots and an Oscar for his humanitarian work.
This two-part documentary celebrates the life and career of the man who helped make Michael Jackson the king of pop, arranged Frank Sinatra's Fly Me To The Moon, wrote the score for The Italian Job, produced the world's top selling album and single and helped launch the careers of Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith.
At the heart of both films is a wide-ranging interview with Quincy himself, in which he talks candidly about his work and personal life, covering the highs and lows, the triumphs and the tragedies. Family, friends and stars from the music and film industries provide an insight into the man and his unique genius. Both programmes feature archive illustrating the key stages in Quincy's life, including previously unseen home movies and studio footage from his personal archive.
This first part, From the Jazz Age to Hollywood: 1933-1974, spans Quincy's childhood in Chicago, reveals how he discovered music almost by chance and features his first professional engagement at the age of 18, playing trumpet in the Lionel Hampton band. It also charts his Hollywood career writing music for some of the most iconic films of the 1970s and concludes with his life-threatening brain aneurysm.
Contributors include Quincy himself, brother Richard, Harry Belafonte, Michel Legrand, Herbie Hancock, Michael Caine, jazz photographer Herman Leonard, children Martina and Quincy Jones III and former wife Peggy Lipton, and there is footage of Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and Ray Charles.
FRI 00:30 Quincy Jones: The Many Lives of Q (b00c517s)
From the King of Pop to Hip Hop: 1975-2008
Second of a two-part documentary which celebrates the life and career of top American jazz musician, composer, arranger, record producer and entrepreneur, Quincy Jones.
It charts Quincy's recovery from a brain anyeurism and looks at how he went on to produce the biggest selling album of all time, Michael Jackson's Thriller. He also produced and conducted 1985's We Are the World - the American music industry's response to the Ethiopian famine - which is still the biggest selling single of all time. That same year he ventured into new territory, turning Hollywood producer for The Color Purple.
Quincy returned to music with the iconic 1989 album Back on the Block, cross-fertilising the talents of 66 artists including Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Patti Austin and six young rappers. The programme also looks at the launch of his television company, his conducting of Phil Collins's Big Band, his remixing of the iconic British dance hit Blue Monday, his humanitarian work in Africa and his mentoring younger musicians.
Contributors include Quincy himself, Lionel Richie, Phil Collins, Bob Geldof, Bernard Sumner, Patti Austin, the major players on Thriller - Rod Temperton (British songwriter), Bruce Swedien (recording engineer), Steve Lukather (guitarist) and daughter Kidada. There's also footage of 1980s Michael Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and ex-partner actress Nastassja Kinski.
FRI 01:30 Originals (b0074hkn)
Dinah Washington - Evil Gal Blues
Dinah Washington was perhaps the best American blues singer of the 1940s, jazz singer of the 50s and pop singer of the early 60s, and has been called the female Ray Charles. Raised on gospel and blues in black Chicago, she had just crossed over into the white mainstream with songs like What a Difference a Day Makes and Mad About the Boy when she died at just 39. It was a life of excess - too many pills, parties, mink coats and husbands. In this film, her life and music are assessed by people who knew her well and singers who love her, such as Amy Winehouse.
FRI 02:30 Arena (b00wbp64)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]