SATURDAY 23 APRIL 2011
SAT 19:00 Yellowstone (b00jmqk1)
Autumn
Over the summer, Yellowstone has flourished - in late August there are more living things here than at any other time of the year. But winter is around the corner and there are just two months for all Yellowstone's animals to get ready or get out.
An early dusting of snow is a sign for elk to start moving down from the mountains to focus on finding food in the valleys. Although the wolves are waiting for them, the male elk are distracted, their haunting bugle call boasting that they are fired up and ready to fight each other to the death for the right to breed.
As temperatures fall further, beavers get busy in a rush to repair dams and stock underwater larders before ice freezes their ponds. Yellowstone's forests - the aspens, cottonwoods and maples - start to shut down for the winter, their colours painting the park a blaze of red and gold. Meanwhile, another tree is coming into its own, the whitebark pine. It offers up a bumper crop of pine nuts which fatten grizzly bears and squirrels alike. But its nuts are meant for another animal - the Clark's nutcracker, a small bird with a colossal memory and one that will reward the tree's efforts well by carrying its seeds far and wide, and even planting them.
As autumn ends, the snow and ice return and many animals now move out from the heart of Yellowstone and away from the protection of the national park. Their fight is not only to survive the cold, but also to find what little wild space remains in the modern world. All around Yellowstone, the human world is encroaching - it is now that the true value of the 'world's first national park' becomes clearer than ever.
Mike Kasic is a local sound recordist who got many of the natural sounds for the series, but in his spare time he dons snorkel and fins and jumps into the raging waters of one of the USA's wildest rivers to explore Yellowstone from the point of view of the unique Yellowstone cut-throat trout. Whilst his exploits might seem strange to the other park users - fly fishermen and bison alike - in becoming a fish, Mike not only uncovers an enchanting hidden Yellowstone, but finds out that things are not what they used to be for the cut-throat trout.
SAT 20:00 If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home (b010jslz)
The Bathroom
Lucy Worsley, chief curator of the historic royal palaces, focuses on the bathroom - a room that didn't even exist in many British homes until 50 years ago. From the medieval bath houses to London Bridge's communal loos to finding out how piped water got to our homes and finally getting to the bottom of the Crapper myth at Stoke's Toilet Museum, Lucy tracks how our attitude to washing has changed over the centuries and the development of what we think of now as the most essential room in the house.
SAT 21:00 Spiral (b010p4x2)
Series 3: The Butcher of La Villette
Episode 7
In spite of the evidence, and of protestations from members of her team, Captain Berthaud continues to believe that the Butcher of La Villette remains at large. At the same time, Bremont grows suspcious of her affections. Clement defends a young offender with a troubled past and feels sorry for him, while Judge Roban ploughs on with his corruption enquiry, sparing no-one in the process.
SAT 21:55 Spiral (b010p4x4)
Series 3: The Butcher of La Villette
Episode 8
With strong new evidence to back Captain Berthaud's theories, Judge Roban asks the CID team to become involved in the investigation again. But how will Laure deal with having to play second fiddle to work rival and lover Superintendent Bremont?
Police are out to substantiate a link between the leader of an international prostitution ring and their main murder suspect. Pierre goes above and beyond the call of duty to help his troubled young client, and Judge Roban's pupil Arnaud finds himself the target of blackmail.
SAT 22:50 Twenty Twelve (b010j64y)
Series 1
Episode 6
The decision to hold equestrian events in Greenwich Park is one of the most controversial choices made by the Olympic authorities. Among the many groups of people who are against it are local residents, led by self-styled maverick film director Tony Ward. Given that it is now over 30 years since he made his one and only successful film, Ward has had a lot of time on his hands to think about how angry he is and to plan his campaign of protest.
It starts with the arrival of an enormous pile of horse manure on the pavement outside the Olympic Deliverance Commission offices and climaxes with a live debate with Head of Deliverance Ian Fletcher on Radio 4's Today programme.
Meanwhile in Ian's personal life, manure of a different kind finally hits the fan. Fortunately his ever-loyal PA Sally is on hand and completely ready to pick up the pieces.
SAT 23:20 Top of the Pops (b010jsrm)
We travel back to 1976 to track the year that sculpted pop. 'Diddy' David Hamilton introduces performances from Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, John Miles, Harpo, Sheer Elegance, the Rubettes, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Abba and Brotherhood of Man.
SAT 23:50 Secrets of the Arabian Nights (b010jt2h)
The Arabian Nights first arrived in the West 300 years ago, and ever since then its stories have entranced generations of children and seduced adults with a vision of an exotic, magical Middle East. Actor and director Richard E Grant wants to know why the book he loved as a child still has such a hold on our imagination.
He travels to Paris to discover how the stories of Sinbad, Ali Baba and Aladdin were first brought to the West by the pioneering Arabist Antoine Galland in the early 18th century. The Nights quickly became an overnight literary sensation and were quickly translated into all the major European languages. Richard then travels to Cairo to explore the medieval Islamic world which first created them.
He quickly finds that some of the stories can still be deeply controversial, because of their sexually-explicit content. Richard meets the Egyptian writer and publisher Gamal al Ghitani, who received death threats when he published a new edition of the book.
He also finds that the ribald and riotous stories in the Nights represent a very different view of Islam than fundamentalism. Can the Nights still enrich and change the West's distorted image of the Arab world?
SAT 00:50 BBC Four Sessions (b008yw99)
kd lang
Series of unique concerts featuring musicians from around the world at St Luke's in London. Canadian country singer and four-times Grammy award winner kd lang performs together with a 30-strong strings section from the BBC Concert Orchestra. The set features songs from across her 25-year career, including her biggest hit Constant Craving, covers of Neil Young and Leonard Cohen songs, and material from her 2008 album Watershed.
SAT 01:50 Yellowstone (b00jmqk1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
SAT 02:50 If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home (b010jslz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
SUNDAY 24 APRIL 2011
SUN 19:00 A History of Christianity (b00nrtr8)
The First Christianity
When Diarmaid MacCulloch was a small boy, his parents used to drive him round historic churches. Little did they know that they had created a monster, with the history of the Christian Church becoming his life's work.
In a series sweeping across four continents, Professor MacCulloch goes in search of Christianity's forgotten origins. He overturns the familiar story that it all began when the apostle Paul took Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome. Instead, he shows that the true origins of Christianity lie further east, and that at one point it was poised to triumph in Asia, maybe even in China.
The headquarters of Christianity might well have been Baghdad not Rome, and if that had happened then western Christianity would have been very different.
SUN 20:00 Vatican: The Hidden World (b00tr2p3)
With unprecedented access to the Vatican and the people who live and work there, this is a unique profile of the heart of the Catholic Church and the world's smallest sovereign state.
Archivists reveal the Vatican's secrets, including the signed testimony of Galileo recorded by the Inquisition. A cardinal journeys deep below St Peter's Basilica to inspect the site claimed to be the tomb of the saint himself, and curators share a private viewing of Michelangelo's extraordinary decoration of the Sistine Chapel.
An intriguing behind-the-scenes look at the workings of one of the world's most powerful and mysterious institutions.
SUN 21:00 Holst: In the Bleak Midwinter (b010p530)
The first ever full-length film about Gustav Holst, composer and revolutionary - a man who taught himself Sanskrit; lived in a street of brothels in Algiers; cycled into the Sahara Desert; allied himself during the First World War with a 'red priest' who pinned on the door of his church 'prayers at noon for the victims of Imperial Aggression'; hated the words used to his most famous tune, I Vow to Thee My Country, because it was the opposite of what he believed; and distributed a newspaper called the Socialist Worker. Holst's music - especially the Planets - owed little or nothing to anyone, least of all the English folk song tradition, but he was a great composer who died of cancer, broken and disillusioned, before he was 60.
SUN 23:20 Timeshift (b00x7c3z)
Series 10
The Golden Age of Coach Travel
Documentary which takes a glorious journey back to the 1950s, when the coach was king. From its early origins in the charabanc, the coach had always been the people's form of transport. Cheaper and more flexible than the train, it allowed those who had travelled little further than their own villages and towns a first heady taste of exploration and freedom. It was a safe capsule on wheels from which to venture out into a wider world.
The distinctive livery of the different coach companies was part of a now-lost world, when whole communities crammed into coach after coach en route to pleasure spots like Blackpool, Margate and Torquay. With singsongs, toilet stops and the obligatory pub halt, it didn't matter how long it took to get there because the journey was all part of the adventure.
SUN 00:20 Rosslyn Chapel: A Treasure in Stone (b00v3y5s)
The exquisite Rosslyn Chapel is a masterpiece in stone. It used to be one of Scotland's best-kept secrets, but it became world-famous when it was featured in Dan Brown's the Da Vinci Code.
Art historian Helen Rosslyn, whose husband's ancestor built the chapel over 550 years ago, is the guide on a journey of discovery around this perfect gem of a building. Extraordinary carvings of green men, inverted angels and mysterious masonic marks beg the questions of where these images come from and who the stonemasons that created them were. Helen's search leads her across Scotland and to Normandy in search of the creators of this medieval masterpiece.
SUN 01:20 The Pharaoh Who Conquered the Sea (b00pq9gs)
Over 3,000 years ago legend has it that Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt's first female pharaoh, sent a fleet of ships to the wonderful, distant land of Punt. A bas-relief in the temple where she is entombed in Luxor shows them bringing back extraordinary treasures. But did this expedition really happen? And if it did, where exactly is the land of Punt?
Drawing upon recent finds, archaeologist Cheryl Ward sets out to recreate the voyage in a full-size replica of one of these ancient ships, sailing it in the wake of Hatshepsut's fleet in search of the mythical land of Punt. A human adventure as well as a scientific challenge, the expedition proves that, contrary to popular belief, the ancient Egyptians had the necessary tools, science and techniques to sail the seas.
SUN 02:20 Vatican: The Hidden World (b00tr2p3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
SUN 03:20 A History of Christianity (b00nrtr8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
MONDAY 25 APRIL 2011
MON 19:00 Clarissa and the King's Cookbook (b00b6vl6)
We Brits love our cookbooks - every year we buy millions of them and treat our celebrity chefs like royalty. But where did it all begin? Self-confessed medieval foodie Clarissa Dickson Wright tracks down Britain's oldest known cookbook, The Forme of Cury. This 700-year-old scroll was written during the reign of King Richard II from recipes created by the king's master chefs. How this ancient manuscript influenced the way people eat today? On her culinary journey through medieval history she reawakens recipes that have lain dormant for centuries and discovers dishes that are still prepared now.
MON 19:30 The Weather (b00jw9z6)
Snow
Documentary series about the weather. This episode looks at snow, that most fleeting and beautiful of elements which endlessly fascinates us.
Using rare footage, we journey into the microscopically small world of the snow crystal, finding out how a snowflake forms and why it is always six-sided.
The science of snow tests British Rail's claim that the snow that crippled their rolling stock in 1991 really was the 'wrong type of snow', and explains how, thanks to a scientific discovery, a British company became the world's leading producer of snow.
MON 20:30 The Beauty of Diagrams (b00wvd9x)
Pioneer Plaque
Series in which mathematician Marcus du Sautoy explores the stories behind some of the world's most familiar and influential scientific diagrams.
When the unmanned space probe Pioneer 10 took off from Cape Canaveral in March 1972, it had on board a remarkable diagram. The Pioneer Plaque was designed to communicate fundamental facts about Earth and its inhabitants to life on other planets. In carefully engraved graphic images and mathematical symbols, the plaque would reveal the Earth's location in the solar system and show extra-terrestrial intelligent life what human beings looked like.
But how could one single diagram do all that - what do you put in and what do you leave out? With its naked human figures, the plaque sparked arguments amongst feminists and conservatives.
So was it, in the end, a great intellectual game or was it the most enterprising, artistic and scientific diagram of all time, perhaps even the ultimate diagram?
MON 21:00 The Gene Code (b010p5ng)
Unlocking the Code
Dr Adam Rutherford takes the viewer on a rollercoaster ride as he explores the consequences of one of the biggest scientific projects of all time - the decoding of the entire human genome in 2000. Adam shows how decoding the genome has led us to begin to understand the very process by which our DNA makes us different; how it makes each one of us on earth unique and influences who we are and the traits we have. He reveals how, as we try and understand the relationship between who we are and our genes, we stand at the beginning of the most exciting scientific journey of all time.
MON 22:00 Chemistry: A Volatile History (b00q2mk5)
Discovering the Elements
The explosive story of chemistry is the story of the building blocks that make up our entire world - the elements. From fiery phosphorous to the pure untarnished lustre of gold and the dazzle of violent, violet potassium, everything is made of elements - the earth we walk on, the air we breathe, even us. Yet for centuries this world was largely unknown, and completely misunderstood.
In this three-part series, professor of theoretical physics Jim Al-Khalili traces the extraordinary story of how the elements were discovered and mapped. He follows in the footsteps of the pioneers who cracked their secrets and created a new science, propelling us into the modern age.
Just 92 elements made up the world, but the belief that there were only four - earth, fire, air and water - persisted until the 19th century. Professor Al-Khalili retraces the footsteps of the alchemists who first began to question the notion of the elements in their search for the secret of everlasting life.
He reveals the red herrings and rivalries which dogged scientific progress, and explores how new approaches to splitting matter brought us both remarkable elements and the new science of chemistry.
MON 23:00 Rubicon (b010jt2l)
Keep the Ends Out
Determined to get to the bottom of her husband's sudden suicide, Katherine Rhumour has further questions for his friend James Wheeler. Will is visited by David's estranged son who wants his father's motorcycle, and is led to another coded clue in the form of a long sequence of ten-digit numbers.
MON 23:45 Darwin's Struggle: The Evolution of the Origin of Species (b00hd1mr)
Documentary telling the little-known story of how Darwin came to write his great masterpiece On the Origin of Species, a book which explains the wonderful variety of the natural world as emerging out of death and the struggle of life.
In the 20 years he took to develop a brilliant idea into a revolutionary book, Darwin went through a personal struggle every bit as turbulent as that of the natural world he observed. Fortunately, he left us an extraordinary record of his brilliant insights, observations of nature, and touching expressions of love and affection for those around him. He also wrote frank accounts of family tragedies, physical illnesses and moments of self-doubt, as he laboured towards publication of the book that would change the way we see the world.
The story is told with the benefit of Darwin's secret notes and correspondence, enhanced by natural history filming, powerful imagery from the time and contributions from leading contemporary biographers and scientists.
MON 00:45 The Weather (b00jw9z6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
MON 01:45 The Beauty of Diagrams (b00wvd9x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
MON 02:15 Chemistry: A Volatile History (b00q2mk5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
MON 03:15 The Gene Code (b010p5ng)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 26 APRIL 2011
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b010jth0)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Birds Britannia (b00vzz1j)
Seabirds
The British people's relationship with seabirds is an ancient and turbulent one, like our relationship with the sea itself. It is an untold chapter in the history of our rise and fall as a seafaring people, a story of conflict, exploitation and, finally, understanding.
TUE 20:30 Johnny Kingdom's Year with the Birds (b00vtz42)
Episode 2
Johnny Kingdom, gravedigger-turned-amateur film-maker spends a year recording the bird life in and around his home on his beloved Exmoor.
Johnny has spent three years creating a wildlife habitat on his 52-acre patch of land on the edge of Exmoor. He has been busy nailing nest boxes on tree trunks, planting a wildflower meadow, dredging his pond, putting up remote cameras and wiring them up to a viewing station in his cabin on the land - all the time hoping against hope that not only will he attract new wildlife but also that he will be able to film it.
This year he is turning his attention to the bird life, hoping to follow some of the species he finds near his home and on his land, across the seasons. We see the transitions from the lovely autumn mists of the oak wood, through the sparkling snow-clad landscape of a north Devon winter, into spring's woodland carpet of bluebells and finally the golden glow of early summer.
The bulk of the series is from Johnny's own camera. Do not expect the Natural History Unit - instead expect passion, enthusiasm, humour and an exuberant love of the landscape and its wildlife.
Spring has arrived and it is the busiest time of year for the birds. Johnny tries to film as many of them that are nesting on his land as he can. The great spotted woodpeckers have abandoned their roosting site and found a new tree to nest in, but with 20 acres of woodland Johnny will have his work cut out to find it.
He also fixes remote cameras in place to film the nests of bluetits, blackbirds and swallows, but a period of unusually hot weather spells disaster for some of them. On a happier note, Johnny is delighted when a pair of Canada geese nest on the island on his pond and hatch out five goslings.
TUE 21:00 Royal Wedding (b00shk6q)
Drama. It is 1981, Charles loves Di, Toxteth is rioting and Margaret Thatcher is trying to reform the economy. In a small Welsh village beginning to feel the negative effects of Thatcher's free market policies, the royal wedding of Charles and Di gives the community and the Caddock family a chance to forget their problems and unite.
Idealistic 15-year-old Tammy Caddock has organised a royal wedding street party but during the course of the celebrations, events unfold which change the lives of her family and the community forever.
TUE 22:20 The Great British Wedding (b00kk4qr)
Mark Benton narrates a step-by-step guide to how the Brits tie the knot. From the stag do to the table plan, from the rings to the first dance, this is a look at how the Brits just about manage to rise to the occasion on one of the most momentous days of our lives - the wedding day.
TUE 23:20 Delphi: The Bellybutton of the Ancient World (b00w4jtx)
What really went on at the ancient Greek oracle at Delphi, how did it get its awesome reputation and why is it still influential today?
Michael Scott of Cambridge University uncovers the secrets of the most famous oracle in the ancient world. A vital force in ancient history for a thousand years, it is now one of Greece's most beautiful tourist sites, but in its time it has been a gateway into the supernatural, a cockpit of political conflict, and a beacon for internationalism. And at its heart was the famous inscription which still inspires visitors today - 'Know Thyself'.
TUE 00:20 Gods and Monsters: Homer's Odyssey (b00vtwnz)
Virginia Woolf said that Homer's epic poem the Odyssey was 'alive to every tremor and gleam of existence'. Following the magical and strange adventures of warrior king Odysseus, inventor of the idea of the Trojan horse, the poem can claim to be the greatest story ever told. Now British poet Simon Armitage goes on his own Greek adventure, following in the footsteps of one of his own personal heroes. Yet Simon ponders the question of whether he even likes the guy.
TUE 01:20 Greek Myths: Tales of Travelling Heroes (b00vzxv9)
Eminent classical historian Robin Lane Fox embarks on a journey in search of the origins of the Greek myths. He firmly believes that these fantastical stories lie at the root of western culture, and yet little is known about where the myths of the Greek gods came from, and how they grew. Now, after 35 years of travelling, excavation and interpretation, he is confident he has uncovered answers.
From the ancient lost city of Hattusas in modern Turkey to the smouldering summit of the Sicilian volcano Mount Etna, the documentary takes the viewer on a dazzling voyage through the Mediterranean world of the 8th century BC, as we follow in the slipstream of an intrepid and mysterious group of merchants and adventurers from the Greek island of Euboea. It's in the experiences of these now forgotten people that Lane Fox is able to pinpoint the stories and encounters, the journeys and the landscapes that provided the source material for key Greek myths.
And along the way, he brings to life these exuberant tales - of castration and baby eating, the birth of human sexual love, and the titanic battles with giants and monsters from which the gods of Greek myth were to emerge victorious.
TUE 02:50 Birds Britannia (b00vzz1j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUE 03:50 Johnny Kingdom's Year with the Birds (b00vtz42)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
WEDNESDAY 27 APRIL 2011
WED 19:00 World News Today (b010p5z1)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 At Home with the Georgians (b00wtwkf)
Safe as Houses
In this final part of the series about how the British obsession with our homes began 300 years ago, historian Amanda Vickery uses sources, from intimate diaries to Old Bailey records, to reveal how the 18th-century home was constantly under threat from theft, fire, divorce, poverty, illness, old age and death.
Georgian houses may seem like sanctuaries of calm elegance to us today, but at the time they were noisy chaotic places bursting with extended families, servants and lodgers and threatened by the lawlessness of Georgian streets. How did the Georgians make their houses havens of safety and security? How did the Englishman fight to make his home his castle?
WED 20:30 Petworth House: The Big Spring Clean (b010p5z3)
Natural Beauty
Andrew Graham-Dixon discovers an ingenious approach to caring for crumbling wood carvings, tackles Turner with a vacuum cleaner, sets sail across an 18th-century water feature and meets a world authority on the science of dust.
WED 21:00 If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home (b010p5z5)
The Bedroom
Lucy Worsley, chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces, focuses on the bedroom - a room which people now think of as one of the most private in the house and yet started for most as a noisy, busy communal space. From spending the night in a Tudor farmhouse to recreating a bedtime 'bundling' courtship ritual, and from being publicly dressed as Queen Caroline in Hampton Court to experiencing the glamour of the 1930s boudoir, Lucy discovers that birth, marriage and death have all played a big part in the story of the bedroom.
WED 22:00 Secrets of the Arabian Nights (b010jt2h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:50 on Saturday]
WED 23:00 Spiral (b010p4x2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Saturday]
WED 23:55 Spiral (b010p4x4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:55 on Saturday]
WED 00:50 The Gene Code (b010p5ng)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
WED 01:50 If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home (b010p5z5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 02:50 Petworth House: The Big Spring Clean (b010p5z3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
WED 03:20 At Home with the Georgians (b00wtwkf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THURSDAY 28 APRIL 2011
THU 19:00 World News Today (b010p6bm)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b010p6bp)
We travel back to 1976 to track the year that sculpted pop. Tony Blackburn introduces performances from Slik, E.L.O, Laurie Lingo and the Dipsticks and Brotherhood of Man.
THU 20:00 Queens of Heartache (b007ch35)
Documentary about a group of female singers whose voices make you weep, who sang songs of heartbreak and betrayal, had lives that seemed to mirror their music and deaths that came too soon and made myths of them all. Yet their voices triumph over tragedy and they became icons of the 20th century.
Edith Piaf, the Urchin Queen, stood small but strong and became the voice of her nation and of everyone who ever made mistakes. Billie Holiday, the Jazz Queen, her voice full of pain and yearning. Judy Garland, Showbiz Queen, raised in the film studio that fed her addiction to pills and to fame. Maria Callas, Drama Queen, whose voice brought out the heartache in opera and whose life echoed the roles she played. And Janis Joplin, Wild Queen, who offered up a 'piece of her heart' and died of drug abuse at just 27.
With contributions from Mickey Rooney, Charles Aznavour, Country Joe McDonald, KT Tunstall, Katie Melua and Corinne Bailey-Rae.
THU 21:00 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The True Story (b00sjbw1)
This iconic American story was written in 1900 by L Frank Baum, a Chicago businessman, journalist, chicken breeder, actor, boutique owner, Hollywood movie director and lifelong fan of all things innovative and technological. His life spanned an era of remarkable invention and achievement in America and many of these developments helped to fuel this great storyteller's imagination.
His ambition was to create the first genuine American fairytale and the story continues to fascinate, inspire and engage millions of fans of all ages from all over the world. This documentary explores how The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has come to symbolise the American Dream and includes previously unseen footage from the Baum family archives, still photographs and clips from the early Oz films, as well as interviews with family members, literary experts and American historians as it tells the story of one man's life in parallel to the development of modern America.
THU 22:00 Rubicon (b010p6br)
The Outsider
The outsider Will accompanies Spangler on a business trip to Washington DC, leaving his leaderless team to make an important operational decision with only unsubstantiated information available to them. Katherine receives Tom's possessions from the coroner and finds a voicemail on Tom's cell phone which further implicates his friend James Wheeler.
THU 22:45 The Cell (b00m425d)
The Hidden Kingdom
In a three-part series, Dr Adam Rutherford tells the extraordinary story of the scientific quest to discover the secrets of the cell and of life itself. Every living thing is made of cells, microscopic building blocks of almost unimaginable power and complexity.
The first part explores how centuries of scientific and religious dogma were overturned by the earliest discoveries of the existence of cells, and how scientists came to realise that there was, literally, more to life than meets the eye.
THU 23:45 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The True Story (b00sjbw1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 00:45 Queens of Heartache (b007ch35)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 01:45 Top of the Pops (b010p6bp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 02:15 The Cell (b00m425d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:45 today]
THU 03:15 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The True Story (b00sjbw1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 29 APRIL 2011
FRI 19:00 Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask (b00vv0zx)
The composer of Land of Hope and Glory is often regarded as the quintessential English gentleman, but Edward Elgar's image of hearty nobility was deliberately contrived. In reality, he was the son of a shopkeeper, who was awkward, nervous, self-pitying and often rude, while his marriage to his devoted wife Alice was complicated by romantic entanglements which fired his creative energy.
In this revelatory portrait of a musical genius, John Bridcut explores the secret conflicts in Elgar's nature which produced some of Britain's greatest music.
FRI 20:30 Sacred Music: The Story of Allegri's Miserere (b00g81g7)
Simon Russell Beale tells the story behind Allegri's Miserere, one of the most popular pieces of sacred music ever written. The programme features a full performance of the piece by the award-winning choir the Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers.
FRI 21:00 Legends (b00fzv3y)
Roy Orbison - The 'Big O' in Britain
Roy Orbison was the best singer in the world. That's what Elvis Presley said, and he should know.
To mark the 20th anniversary of Orbison's death, this programme celebrates the extraordinary talent of 'The Big O' and his relationship with his most loyal and enduring fans, British musicians and the British public. Through a combination of interview and archive, it charts Orbison's career in Britain, from the sell-out tour with the Beatles that sky-rocketed him to international superstardom, right up to the collaboration with lifelong friend George Harrison on the Travelling Wilburys project in the late 1980s. Effortlessly cool, musically sophisticated, Orbison was a rock and roll legend, whose legacy continues to captivate both the listeners and performers of today.
FRI 22:00 Roy Orbison Live in 1965: The Monument Concert (b010q7qs)
To honour what would have been Roy Orbison's 75th birthday on April 23rd, a celebration of the legend of the quiet Texan with the soaring voice who toured with the Beatles, sang some of the defining hits of the early 60s and brilliantly revived his career as a solo artist and member of the supergroup the Travelling Wilburys in the mid-80s.
Filmed in black and white in Holland in 1965, this short concert features the Big O performing hits from the classic catalogue of songs he recorded for the American independent label Monument in the early 60s. Filmed in what appears to be a gym or school hall in front of an appreciative but respectful audience, Orbison performs Only the Lonely, Running Scared, It's Over, Oh Pretty Woman and more.
FRI 22:25 Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night (b00g6349)
First broadcast in 1988 and filmed in black and white (hence the title!), this TV concert classic features Roy Orbison performing his classic songs with friends like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, kd lang, Jennifer Warnes and Bonnie Raitt.
The TCB Band which backs all featured artists was Elvis Presley's band till his death in 1977 and includes James Burton, Glen D Hardin, Jerry Scheff and Ronnie Tutt with musical drector T Bone Burnett.
Filmed at the Coconut Grove nightclub in Los Angeles, the show was first broadcast on HBO in 1988, the year of Roy Orbison's death.
FRI 23:30 Guitar Heroes at the BBC (b00pjk73)
Part IV
Series featuring legendary guitarists treading the boards and trading licks at the BBC studios.
This edition kicks off with big hits from The Rolling Stones and David Bowie before taking things down a notch with the acoustic picking of Michael Chapman and the Irish mysticism of Horslips.
However, it's not long before the likes of Motorhead, Nazareth and straight-up blues rocker George Thorogood turn the volume right back up to 11. A spot of flamenco from Paco De Lucia and a classic track from Strat master Eric Clapton round off the show.
Filmed in the 1970s for shows including Top of the Pops, Parkinson, Rock Goes to College and the Old Grey Whistle Test, these rocking tracks leave viewers wondering why pianos were ever invented.
FRI 00:30 Legends (b00fzv3y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 01:30 Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night (b00g6349)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:25 today]
FRI 02:35 Roy Orbison Live in 1965: The Monument Concert (b010q7qs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 03:00 Guitar Heroes at the BBC (b00pjk73)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:30 today]