SATURDAY 06 AUGUST 2011

SAT 19:00 The Blue Planet (b0074mlf)
Seasonal Seas

David Attenborough narrates a natural history of the oceans. This programme explores seasonal changes in the richest waters on Earth, where the annual cycle of the sun drives an explosion of life. Featuring an extraordinary variety of marine animals, including seals, dolphins, jellyfish and the bizarre walking handfish.


SAT 20:00 If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home (b010v8dx)
The Kitchen

Lucy Worsley, chief curator of the historic royal palaces, ends the series by looking at the room we now spend the most money on, but was once thought of as the most dirty, dangerous and undesirable room in the house - the kitchen. From baking bread in a Tudor kitchen to spit-roasting mutton with a dog to doing a week's Victorian re-cycling to trying out 1950s labour-saving gadgets, Lucy tracks the changes that have turned the kitchen from a room of hard work into the appliance-packed room we know today.


SAT 21:00 Wallander (b00srcxs)
Series 2

The Collector

Wallander and the Ystad police investigate the death of a woman during a house robbery. When Isabelle discovers she was an instructor at her gym, her personal and professional lives clash as her and Pontus's traineeship comes to an end.


SAT 22:30 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.


SAT 23:00 Hidcote: A Garden for All Seasons (b011s3pw)
Documentary telling the story of Hidcote - the most influential English garden of the 20th century - and Lawrence Johnston, the enigmatic genius behind it. Hidcote was the first garden ever taken on by the National Trust, who spent 3.5 million pounds in a major programme of restoration. This included researching Johnston's original vision, which in turn uncovered the compelling story of how Johnston created such an iconic garden.

Until recently, little was known about the secretive and self-taught Johnston. He kept few, if any, records on Hidcote's construction, but current head gardener Glyn Jones made it a personal mission to discover as much about the man as possible to reveal how, in the early 20th century, Johnston set about creating a garden that has inspired designers all over the world.


SAT 00:00 Top of the Pops (b0131lq1)
22/07/76

Dave Lee Travis introduces Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, David Dundas, Sheer Elegance, Johnny Wakelin and the Kinshasa Band, 5000 Volts, 1776, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Johnny Cash, Elton John and Kiki Dee and dance sequences from Ruby Flipper.


SAT 00:40 Caravans: A British Love Affair (b00hw3s0)
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.


SAT 01:40 The Great Outdoors (b00t9r89)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 today]


SAT 02:10 If Walls Could Talk: The History of the Home (b010v8dx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 03:10 The Blue Planet (b0074mlf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



SUNDAY 07 AUGUST 2011

SUN 19:00 BBC Proms (b0137tc5)
2011

French Night with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Donald Runnicles conducts the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a night of ravishing French music from the last century. From Ravel's Boléro and Daphnis and Chloë to Debussy's Prélude à L'après-midi d'un faune, the programme also includes the mysteriously beautiful cello concerto by composer Henri Dutilleux, performed by Lynn Harrell. Presented by Suzy Klein and Samira Ahmed.


SUN 21:15 Rick Stein and the Japanese Ambassador (b00794h0)
When the Japanese ambassador saw Rick Stein preparing sushi on a boat off Cornwall, he was not impressed. However, this sparked off an idea where Rick would go on a voyage of discovery to the ultimate seafood lover's destination - Japan. On his return he promised to create a banquet fit for an ambassador and his friends.


SUN 22:15 Still Walking (b0135jw3)
Drama in which a man and a woman return to visit their elderly parents, bringing their own families with them for a rare family reunion. They gather to commemorate the eldest son, who tragically drowned fifteen years earlier. Although the roomy house where they all grew up is as comforting and unchanging as the mother's homemade feast, everyone in the family has subtly changed.


SUN 00:05 Glastonbury (b012zntv)
2011

Elbow

Taking to the Pyramid Stage in the year of the release of their fifth album Build A Rocket Boys! and still flush with the Mercury Prize-winning success of 2008’s The Seldom Seen Kid, Elbow give a stunning celebration of One Day Like This as the sun sets over Glastonbury Tor.


SUN 01:05 Glastonbury (b012zntg)
2011

U2

Highlights of the set by the Dublin band who finally made their debut at Worthy Farm, headlining the Pyramid Stage on the first day of this year's festival.


SUN 02:05 BBC Proms (b0137tc5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



MONDAY 08 AUGUST 2011

MON 19:00 World News Today (b0135jzs)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Timeshift (b00dwflh)
Series 8

Between the Lines - Railways in Fiction and Film

Novelist Andrew Martin presents a documentary examining how the train and the railways came to shape the work of writers and film-makers.

Lovers parting at the station, runaway carriages and secret assignations in confined compartments - railways have long been a staple of romance, mystery and period drama. But at the beginning of the railway age, locomotives were seen as frightening and unnatural. Wordsworth decried the destruction of the countryside, while Dickens wrote about locomotives as murderous brutes, bent on the destruction of mere humans. Hardly surprising, as he had been involved in a horrific railway accident himself.

Martin traces how trains gradually began to be accepted - Holmes and Watson were frequent passengers - until by the time of The Railway Children they were something to be loved, a symbol of innocence and Englishness. He shows how trains made for unforgettable cinema in The 39 Steps and Brief Encounter, and how when the railways fell out of favour after the 1950s, their plight was highlighted in the films of John Betjeman.

Finally, Martin asks whether, in the 21st century, Britain's railways can still stir and inspire artists.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00xygp6)
Specials

Series 3 vs Series 4 Winners Special

Victoria Coren presents a special edition of the quiz show in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital. The Gamblers, the winners of series three, square up to the Epicureans, the winners of series four, connecting such subjects as Nero, Mary Portas, Alan Cumming and Elton John.


MON 21:00 Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words (b0135jzv)
The Grand Experiment

The question of how to run a good society has puzzled intellectuals for centuries. Should we allow governments to secure a better country, or place our trust in the individual?

In the 20th century, political and economic thinkers were able to take to our screens to preach their ideas on how they thought Britain should be run. This film features political and economic thinkers who were united by the belief that, for the first time in history, they'd at last found THE KEY to running a good society. And with the advent of broadcasting, these scholars even became national celebrities.

The series mines the BBC archive for footage of the great minds of the modern age - presenting these thinkers in their own words, and the film reveals these thinkers in a new and surprising light. It shows an emotional Isaiah Berlin describing seeing the horrors of the Russian Revolution first hand, as well as a furious Bertrand Russell raging against the nuclear arms race and previously unseen footage of William Beveridge, founder of the Welfare State.

From the feminism of Germaine Greer to the right-wing economics of Friedrich Hayek, this is a unique opportunity to hear some of the most famous thinkers of our times.


MON 22:00 Women in Love (b00zpdvr)
Episode 1

Adaptation of DH Lawrence's classic novels The Rainbow and Women in Love, focusing on the lives of two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen, as they struggle with love, passion and commitment in the build up to the First World War.


MON 23:30 Birth of the British Novel (b00ydj1p)
Author Henry Hitchings explores the lives and works of Britain's radical and pioneering 18th-century novelists who, in just 80 years, established all the literary genres we recognise today. It was a golden age of creativity led by Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Fanny Burney and William Godwin, amongst others. Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, Tom Jones and Tristram Shandy are novels that still sparkle with audacity and innovation.

On his journey through 18th-century fiction, Hitchings reveals how the novel was more than mere entertainment, it was also a subversive hand grenade that would change British society for the better. He travels from the homes of Britain's great and good to its lowliest prisons, meeting contemporary writers like Martin Amis, Will Self, Tom McCarthy and Jenny Uglow on the way.

Although 18th-century novels are woefully neglected today compared to those of the following two centuries, Hitchings shows how the best of them can offer as much pleasure to the reader as any modern classic.


MON 00:30 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.


MON 01:30 My Resignation (b0132xlg)
Through personal testimony, this programme follows the process of resigning: from the initial crisis to taking the decision to resign and handling the timing, to the costs, consequences and legacy of the resignation.

It shows that the honourable resignation is not dead. In all walks of life people grappling with moral issues still take that decision to resign. Consultant anaesthetist Stephen Bolsin felt he could only go public after he had resigned and left the country. Former home secretary Jacqui Smith was determined to do the honourable thing and resign immediately over her expenses, but she was thwarted by a prime minister with any eye on political timing. The honourable resignations of Lord Carrington and Richard Luce were put back on track by a hostile parliament and press.

The programme charts how resignation can act as a social barometer - affairs that were once a fast route to leaving are no longer a career fullstop. Max Mosley talks frankly about how determined he was not to bow to pressure to go after revelations over his extra-marital sex.

Interviewees talk about their experiences and what they have learned. Alastair Campbell describes almost 'lamping' demonstrators outside his house. Greg Dyke can't sleep after his resignation 'deal' with the BBC governors goes wrong. Daily Star journalist Richard Peppiatt is plunged into depression after his plan to publish his resignation letter in the Guardian falls apart.

My Resignation shows that however society changes, resigning remains a personal and often traumatic journey.


MON 02:30 Only Connect (b00xygp6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 03:00 Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words (b0135jzv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 09 AUGUST 2011

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b0135kkm)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Grand Tours of Scotland (b00vjs8z)
Series 1

Mind, Body and Spirit

Paul Murton follows in the footsteps of the first tourists to Scotland. With a Victorian guidebook in his hands, he travels across the country tracing the changes that have taken place since the birth of Scottish tourism 200 years ago.

In this episode, he goes in search of the stunning landscape of the Highlands that has attracted visitors for the last two hundred years with the promise of improving 'mind, body and spirit'.
In the 19th century, the Highlands were very much the preserve of the privileged elite, but as transport links improved in the 20th century, our mountains, lochs and glens were increasingly seen as a giant playground, where people of all classes could escape the dull routine of the modern world.

Paul traces the history of the great outdoors, travelling from the shores of Loch Tay in Perthshire, across the great wilderness of Rannoch Moor, climbs the iconic mountain of Buachaille Etive Mor, before ending his journey in the quaint spa town of Strathpeffer.


TUE 20:00 Youth Hostelling: The First 100 Years (b00k9c1p)
Nation on Film documentary telling the story of youth hostelling, which was founded in 1909 in Germany and was established in Britain in 1930, through fascinating archive films discovered in a storeroom at the Youth Hostel Association's headquarters in Derbyshire.

The films chart the progress of the movement, as well as the nation's changing attitudes towards 'youth' and the countryside. The images show young people enjoying a new sense of freedom - hiking, rock climbing, folk singing and even the odd bit of skinny-dipping.

The collection includes everything from silent movies through to video, and all promote the YHA's central mission of encouraging young people to enjoy the benefits of the countryside. Most of the films have not been broadcast before, as they were originally shown in cinemas, hostels and community halls.

Contributors include Lord Puttnam, hostel workers, film-makers, actors and historians.


TUE 21:00 Timeshift (b0135kkp)
Series 11

When the Circus Comes to Town

Roll up! Roll up! Join Timeshift under the big top for unique access to the University of Sheffield's National Fairground Archive which tells the story of the circus. From Billy Smart to Gerry Cottle and Archaos to Cirque du Soleil, the documentary captures the appeal of this enduring mass entertainment. Find out what a josser is, discover why clowns are one of the few acts to achieve lasting celebrity and marvel at the sheer spectacle of some of the biggest circuses of all time.

In an age when almost every form of popular entertainment owes something to the circus, this is a nostalgic journey into the origins of one of the ultimate expressions of human athleticism and showmanship.


TUE 22:00 Clowns (b009r2kf)
Daisy Asquith investigates the mysterious world of children's entertainers.

The idea for the film fcame to her whilst on a typical seaside holiday where a different children's entertainer would set up in the hotel ballroom at six o'clock each evening and perform a different act.

From animal petting to sea shanties to balloon buffoonery, it seemed an almost thankless task. Kids screaming, crying, badgering and demanding whilst performers attempted to maintain their professional cool and pull yet another hankie from their sleeve or fall face down again, knowing it's guaranteed to make a four-year-old laugh.

She started to wonder who these people were, how they ended up here, whether this was their life-long ambition and how they knew what the children wanted. Then those creeping doubts and stereotypical fears stated to rear their ugly heads: don't you have to be a bit weird to do this sort of thing, are they all failed adult entertainers and do they all still live with their mothers?

Back home, Daisy started to investigate further and soon found all her preconceptions challenged in a world of pirates and pumpkins, comedy handshakes and rabbits in hats. This is a film about what she found.


TUE 23:00 Men about the House (b00sxhl5)
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.


TUE 00:00 Still Walking (b0135jw3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:15 on Sunday]


TUE 01:50 Youth Hostelling: The First 100 Years (b00k9c1p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 02:50 Grand Tours of Scotland (b00vjs8z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 03:20 Timeshift (b0135kkp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 10 AUGUST 2011

WED 19:00 World News Today (b0135kxt)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Art of the Sea (b00s96xz)
In Words

Novelist Joseph Conrad described the sea as another planet. Majestic, dramatic and sometimes terrifying, the sea has held a real fascination for British writers. From Shakespeare to Coleridge, Robert Louis Stevenson to Patrick O'Brian, it has inspired some of our most gifted authors.

Poet and novelist Owen Sheers sets off to discover whether there is anything that unites the great British sea stories. In the company of both seafarers and sea writers, he explores the transformative effect that the sea has had on the human mind.


WED 20:30 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b0135m57)
The Luck of the Irish Sea

Untrained mariner Timothy Spall has spent a fortune on technology for his new challenge - the unpredictable Irish Sea - as he and his wife continue their mini-odyssey around Britain. From Cardiff they head west to Milford Haven at the end of the River Severn and all seems well. However, Captain Spall bungles his departure to Fishguard and ends up going nowhere at full speed due to the turning tides.

Shattered and in the dark of night, they eventually find Fishguard. They also visit Aberystwyth, a return home for his wife Shane, and then the 'discovery' of the trip so far, Porthdinllaen. Here they find the most beautiful cove they have ever seen, a beach pub and a ride in a lifeboat to see the stunning Welsh coastline in its full glory.

'Mr and Mrs Vasco de Gama' are back on their travels in this seductive and heartwarming series.


WED 21:00 Kidnapped: A Georgian Adventure (b0135m59)
In 1728, 12-year-old James Annesley was snatched from the streets of Dublin and sold into slavery in America - the victim of a wicked uncle hell-bent on stealing his massive inheritance. Dan Cruickshank traces James's astonishing journey from the top table of 18th century society to its murky depths. The story, which helped inspire Robert Louis Stevenson's book Kidnapped, reveals some disturbing home truths that cast a shadow over the century of the Enlightenment.


WED 22:00 Nurse Jackie (b010p0rk)
Series 2

Sleeping Dogs

Drama series about a no-nonsense New York nurse. In order to get a phony prescription, Jackie falsifies an MRI. In the meantime, the publicity campaign's end has its effects on Coop and Eddie is back as the hospital's pharmacist.


WED 22:30 The Children Who Built Victorian Britain (b00t6t3r)
The catalyst to Britain's Industrial Revolution was the slave labour of orphans and destitute children. In this shocking and moving account of their exploitation and eventual emancipation, Professor Jane Humphries uses the actual words of these child workers (recorded in diaries, interviews and letters) to let them tell their own story. She also uses groundbreaking animation to bring to life a world where 12-year-olds went to war at Trafalgar and six-year-olds worked the fields as human scarecrows.


WED 23:30 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b0135m57)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 00:00 Wallander (b00srcxs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


WED 01:30 Art of the Sea (b00s96xz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 02:30 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b0135m57)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 03:00 Kidnapped: A Georgian Adventure (b0135m59)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 11 AUGUST 2011

THU 19:00 World News Today (b0135mtt)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


THU 19:30 The Sky at Night (b07n82h4)
Dawn at Vesta

The Nasa spacecraft Dawn is getting up close and personal with the asteroid Vesta. Sir Patrick Moore discusses the first fly-by images of this most unusual asteroid, which will tell us more about how our solar system formed some 4.5 billion years ago. Paul Abel and Pete Lawrence present their guide to the August night sky, including the return of the red planet Mars.


THU 20:00 Carrot or Stick? A Horizon Guide to Raising Kids (b0135mty)
Child psychologist Laverne Antrobus delves into the Horizon archive to find out how science has shaped our approach to parenting and education over the last fifty years. From lessons in motherly love to tough discipline to bribery tactics, she asks what's the best approach when it comes to bringing up children.

Laverne also explores how extreme behaviour can sometimes be explained by underlying neurological problems and discovers whether children learn best in a more child-centred environment.


THU 21:00 A Renaissance Education: The Schooling of Thomas More's Daughter (b0135mv0)
The intellectual forces at work in the Tudor era ensured it was a pivotal period for children's education. Historian Dr Helen Castor reveals how the life and education of Margaret More, daughter of Thomas More, tell a story of the transforming power of knowledge. As a child in Tudor England, and educated to an exceptionally high level, Margaret embodies the intellectual spirit of the age - an era which embraced humanism, the birth of the Church of England and the English Renaissance. This film reveals what a revolutionary intellectual spirit Margaret More was and how the ideas that shaped her education helped change the cultural life of England forever.


THU 22:00 Paul Merton's Weird and Wonderful World of Early Cinema (b00rs132)
Paul Merton goes in search of the origins of screen comedy in the forgotten world of silent cinema - not in Hollywood, but closer to home in pre-1914 Britain and France.

Revealing the unknown stars and lost masterpieces, he brings to life the pioneering techniques and optical inventiveness of the virtuosos who mastered a new art form. With a playful eye and comic sense of timing, Merton combines the role of presenter and director to recreate the weird and wonderful world that is early European cinema in a series of cinematic experiments of his own.


THU 23:00 Timeshift (b0135kkp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 00:00 Clowns (b009r2kf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]


THU 01:00 Kidnapped: A Georgian Adventure (b0135m59)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]


THU 02:00 The Sky at Night (b07n82h4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 02:30 Carrot or Stick? A Horizon Guide to Raising Kids (b0135mty)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 03:30 A Renaissance Education: The Schooling of Thomas More's Daughter (b0135mv0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



FRIDAY 12 AUGUST 2011

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b0135npn)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


FRI 19:30 BBC Proms (b0137tj9)
2011

Film Music Night

Harry Potter, James Bond and Henry V rub shoulders in a concert of great music from the movies. It's all here, from the terror of the Psycho shower scene and the thrill of Star Wars to the heartbreaking beauty of Cinema Paradiso, and includes a special tribute to the late great John Barry. The BBC Concert Orchestra is joined by conductor Keith Lockhart, and the talented young British violinist Chloë Hanslip. Presented by Charles Hazlewood and Samira Ahmed.


FRI 21:40 Glastonbury (b0135npq)
2011

Beyonce

Highlights of Beyonce's triumphant song and dance headlining performance from Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage in June, with solo hits like Crazy In Love, Single Ladies and Halo alongside a cover of Etta James's At Last and a great Destiny's Child medley.


FRI 22:50 Glastonbury (b0135p24)
2011

Janelle Monae

Highlights from Janelle Monae's breakthrough set from the West Holts Stage at the Glastonbury Festival. Monae's acclaimed soul revue show enraptured BBC TV viewers and festival goers alike, as the Kansas City-born soul singer and band performed Tightrope and other songs from her debut album The ArchAndroid. Alongside fellow R&B queen Beyonce's Sunday night performance, this was one of the freshest and best sets at the festival.


FRI 23:40 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.


FRI 00:40 Festivals Britannia (b00wmdqs)
Continuing the critically acclaimed Britannia music series for BBC Four, this documentary tells the story of the emergence and evolution of the British music festival through the mavericks, dreamers and dropouts who have produced, enjoyed and sometimes fought for them over the last 50 years.

The film traces the ebb and flow of British festival culture from jazz beginnings at Beaulieu in the late 50s through to the Isle of Wight festivals at the end of the 60s, early Glastonbury and one-off commercial festivals like 1972's Bickershaw, the free festivals of the 70s and 80s and on through the extended rave at Castlemorton in 1992 to the contemporary resurgence in festivals like Glastonbury, Isle of Wight and Reading in the last decade.

Sam Bridger's film explores the central tension between the people's desire to come together, dance to the music and build temporary communities and the desire of the state, the councils and the locals to police these often unruly gatherings.

At the heart of the documentary is an ongoing argument about British freedom and shifts in the political, musical and cultural landscape set to a wonderful soundtrack of 50 years of great popular music which takes in trad jazz, Traffic, Roy Harper, the Grateful Dead, Hawkwind, Orbital and much more.

Featuring rare archive and interviews with Michael Eavis, Richard Thompson, Acker Bilk, Terry Reid, the Levellers, Billy Bragg, John Giddings, Melvin Benn, Roy Harper, Nik Turner, Peter Jenner, Orbital, amongst others.


FRI 02:10 BBC Proms (b0137tj9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]