Rivers provide the essentials of life: fresh food and water. They often provide natural highways and enable us to live in just about every environment on earth. But rivers can also flood, freeze or disappear altogether!
Human Planet joins Sam Niang, a Laotian fisherman, as he walks a high wire strung above the raging Mekong River rapids on an extraordinary commute to work.
There's also a look at the remarkable partnership between Samburu tribesmen and wild elephants in their search for water in the dried-out river beds of northern Kenya.
Also in the programme, a father takes his two children on a six-day trek down a frozen river as part of the most dangerous school run on Earth, and the ice dam busters of Ottowa provide a dynamite solution to a city centre hold-up.
Dallas Campbell delves into the Horizon archive to discover how our understanding of intelligence has transformed over the last century. From early caveman thinkers to computers doing the thinking for us, he discovers the best ways of testing how clever we are - and enhancing it.
Fazio is missing. He's not at home, his mobile is switched off and his father is worried. Believing that the young officer had been working a secret investigation on his own, Montalbano fears that Fazio may be in serious trouble and a frantic search is mounted in an effort to find him alive.
This is the story of the most extraordinary journey in human exploration, the Voyager space mission. In 1977 two unmanned spacecraft were launched by NASA, heading for distant worlds. It would be the first time any man-made object would ever visit the farthest planets of the solar system - Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. On the way the Voyagers would be bombarded by space dust, fried by radiation and discover many of the remarkable wonders of the solar system.
Now, at the end of 2012, 35 years and 11 billion miles later, they are leaving the area of the sun's influence. As they journey out into the galaxy beyond they carry a message from Earth, a golden record bolted to the side of each craft describing our civilisation in case of discovery by another. This is the definitive account of the most intrepid explorers in Earth's history.
Professor Jim Al-Khalili investigates one of the most important concepts in the world today - information. He discovers how we harnessed the power of symbols, everything from the first alphabet and the electric telegraph through to the modern digital age. But on this journey he learns that information is not just about human communication, it is woven very profoundly into the fabric of reality.
Ed Stewart looks at the weekly pop chart from 1977 and introduces Rose Royce, David Soul, Peter Blake, Ram Jam, David Essex, the Stylistics, Donna Summer, Golden Earring and a Legs & Co dance sequence.
SUNDAY 28 OCTOBER 2012
SUN 19:00 The Grammar School: A Secret History (b019c88d)
Episode 2
This is the story of the golden age of the grammar schools in the 1950s and 60s and their sudden demise. They gave talented children from modest backgrounds, like Michael Wood, Neil Kinnock and Edwina Currie, the chance to go to the very best schools in the country. This revealing history explains how and why the grammar schools were suddenly phased out by the very people who had benefited from them.
SUN 20:00 Michael Wood: The Story of India (b007y1kx)
The Power of Ideas
Michael Wood's epic series moves on to the revolutionary years after 500BC - the Age of the Buddha. Travelling by rail to the ancient cities of the Ganges plain, by army convoy through northern Iraq and on down the Khyber Pass, he shows how Alexander the Great's invasion of India inspired her first empire. Michael visits India's earliest capital, Patna, and using archaeology, legend and 'India's Rosetta stone', he shows how the ideas of the Buddha - 'India's first and greatest protester' - were turned into political reality by an Indian emperor who sowed the seeds of 'the most dangerous idea in history'.
SUN 21:00 Rich Hall's Inventing the Indian (b01nqbqk)
Comedian Rich Hall goes in search of the real American Indian, a people who have too often been stereotyped. This image portrayed through cinema and literature is not a true representation of the Native American, giving Rich the opportunity to redress the balance.
With the help of a Native American, Dallas Goldtooth, Rich explores a different idea of what the American Indian is and what life is like for them today. He not only questions the screen image of the 'savage Indian' in films such as Soldier Blue, Stagecoach and A Man Called Horse, but looks at the written one, through literature such as The Last of the Mohicans, Black Elk Speaks and Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
The programme takes Rich from the Navajo Reservation in Arizona to the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota and incorporates interviews with tribal elders and activists, archive clips of some of cinema's finest films, historical photographs and footage, all brought together with Rich's customary wit and intelligence.
A documentary which uncovers the truth about the American Indian and gives us a different perspective on the people who set foot on American soil first.
SUN 22:30 Timeshift (b01nj3xx)
Series 12
The British Army of the Rhine
The affectionate story of British servicemen and their families who had to make Germany a home from home in the decades after the Second World War. For nearly 70 years, generations would grow up on bases with special schools, shops, housing and even their own radio station, as parts of the Rhineland became little bubbles of Britishness.
Featuring a nostalgic soundtrack of German language versions of period pop hits and contributions from military historians such as Max Hastings and former BBC sports commentator Barry Davies - himself a former British Army of the Rhine soldier - as well as those of military wives and children.
Once the front line in the Cold War, the BAOR is now being called home as the Ministry of Defence begins preparations to finally pull British forces out.
SUN 23:30 Michael Wood: The Story of India (b007y1kx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
SUN 00:30 Chas & Dave: Last Orders (b01nkdsv)
Documentary which highlights cockney duo Chas & Dave's rich, unsung pedigree in the music world and a career spanning 50 years, almost the entire history of UK pop. They played with everyone from Jerry Lee Lewis to Gene Vincent, toured with The Beatles, opened for Led Zeppelin at Knebworth - and yet are known mainly just for their cheery singalongs and novelty records about snooker and Spurs.
The film also looks at the pair's place among the great musical commentators on London life - and in particular the influence of music hall on their songs and lyrics.
The film crew followed Chas & Dave on their final tour, having called it a day after the death of Dave's wife, and blends live concert footage with archive backstory, including some astonishing early performances and duets with the likes of Eric Clapton. Among the experts and zealous fans talking about their love of the duo are Pete Doherty, Jools Holland and Phill Jupitus. Narrated by Arthur Smith.
SUN 01:30 Jools Holland: London Calling (b01jxzfq)
Jools Holland embarks on a personal journey through the streets, historical landmarks, pubs, music halls and rock 'n' roll venues of London to uncover a history of the city through its songs, the people who wrote them and the Londoners who joined in the chorus.
Unlike Chicago blues or Memphis soul, London has no one definitive sound. Its noisy history is full of grime, clamour, industry and countless different voices demanding to be heard. But there is a strain of street-wise realism that is forever present, from its world-famous nursery rhymes to its music hall traditions, and from the Broadside Ballad through to punk and beyond.
Jools's investigation - at once probing and humorous - identifies the many ingredients of a salty tone that could be called 'the London sound' as he tracks through the centuries from the ballads of Tyburn Gallows to Broadside publishing in Seven Dials in the 18th century, to Wilton's Music Hall in the late 19th century, to the Caribbean sounds and styles that first docked at Tilbury with the Windrush in 1948, to his own conception to the strains of Humphrey Lyttelton at the 100 Club in 1957.
Along the way, he meets musicians such as Ray Davies, Damon Albarn, Suggs, Roy Hudd, Lisa Hannigan, Joe Brown and Eliza Carthy who perform and talk about such classic songs as London Bridge is Falling Down, While London Sleeps, Knocked 'Em in the Old Kent Road, St James Infirmary Blues and Oranges and Lemons.
MONDAY 29 OCTOBER 2012
MON 19:00 World News Today (b01nms9n)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 Timothy Spall: Somewhere at Sea (b00sfsqy)
Race Against the Tide
Three-part documentary series featuring one of Britain's best loved actors, Timothy Spall, as he and his wife sail from to Cornwall to south Wales in a Dutch barge.
In the concluding leg, having navigated the Princess Matilda around the dangerous waters of Land's End and into the relative calm of the port of St Ives, Tim is still troubled. He now has to negotiate some of the most extreme tides in Britain as he plans his route through the Bristol Channel. Not only that, but it occurs to him that his anchor is faulty as he and Shane discover the delights of nearby Padstow, which attracts a million visitors a year for its seafood and other local attractions.
From Padstow, Timothy and Shane moor overnight at Watchet in Somerset, but first have to navigate its notoriously difficult approach, and as they are behind schedule they have to cope with this in the dark. They eventually complete this task with only a few bumps and bruises and then make it over to the Cardiff Barrage and nearby Penarth Marina for the winter.
MON 20:00 London on Film (b01kf64g)
The Suburbs
From the start, suburban London has been captured on film. For some it is a gracious retreat while for others an unwelcome exile. This is a confusing world of tidy semis, old villages and sprawling estates, of commuters, hidden lives and conflict - revealed entirely through archive images.
MON 20:30 Only Connect (b01nmsw5)
Series 6
Footballers v Cinephiles
A team of committed football fans encounter three film lovers in the second of the quarter-finals, competing to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random. So join Victoria if you want to know what connects sachertorte, valrhona chocolate, custard cream biscuits and polo mints.
MON 21:00 How the Devil Got His Horns: A Diabolical Tale (b01nmt3q)
Art historian and critic Alastair Sooke reveals how the Devil's image was created by artists of the Middle Ages. He explores how, in the centuries between the birth of Christ and the Renaissance, visual interpretations of the Devil evolved, with the embodiment of evil appearing in different guises - tempter, tyrant, and rebellious angel. Alastair shows how artists used their imaginations to give form to Satan, whose description is absent from the Bible.
Exploring some of the most remarkable art in Europe, he tells the stories behind that art and examines the religious texts and thinking which inspired and influenced the artists. The result is a rich and unique picture of how art and religion have combined to define images of good and evil.
MON 22:00 Roundhead or Cavalier: Which One Are You? (b01hr7k9)
In the middle of the 17th century, Britain was devastated by a civil war that divided the nation into two tribes - the Roundheads and the Cavaliers. In this programme, celebrities and historians reveal that modern Britain is still defined by the battle between the two tribes. The Cavaliers represent a Britain of panache, pleasure and individuality. They are confronted by the Roundheads, who stand for modesty, discipline, equality and state intervention.
The ideas which emerged 350 years ago shaped our democracy, civil liberties and constitution. They also create a cultural divide that influences how we live, what we wear and even what we eat and drink. Individuals usually identify with one tribe or the other, but sometimes they need some elements of the enemy's identity - David Cameron seeks a dash of the down-to-earth Roundhead, while Ed Miliband looks for some Cavalier charisma.
Featuring contributions from Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, AS Byatt, Julian Fellowes, Philippa Gregory, Anne Widdecombe and Clarissa Dickson Wright.
Are you a Roundhead or a Cavalier?
MON 23:00 Seven Ages of Starlight (p00yb434)
This is the epic story of the stars, and how discovering their tale has transformed our own understanding of the universe.
Once we thought the sun and stars were gods and giants. Now we know, in a way, our instincts were right. The stars do all have their own characters, histories and role in the cosmos. Not least, they played a vital part in creating us.
There are old, bloated red giants, capable of gobbling up planets in their orbit, explosive deaths - supernovae - that forge the building blocks of life and black holes, the most mysterious stellar tombstones. And, of course, stars in their prime, like our own sun.
Leading astronomers reveal how the grandest drama on tonight is the one playing above our heads.
MON 00:30 Painting the Queen: A Portrait of Her Majesty (b01nj44m)
Directed by Academy Award-nominee Hubert Davis, this film follows the renowned Toronto painter Phil Richards as he is asked by the Canadian government to create a portrait of Her Majesty the Queen on the occasion of her diamond jubilee.
But this historic commission also poses enormous challenges for Richards, who is accustomed to spending long hours with his subjects, in person. Richards must take a dramatically different approach for this most unique artistic subject. After a brief photo session with Her Majesty, he sets about creating an amazing world of studies, even doll-like sculptures of Queen Elizabeth, all to help him capture her likeness on canvas.
Months of solitary study and preparation complete, Richards returns to Buckingham Palace for an all-important second meeting with Her Majesty, to see if she approves of his vision and approach. She does, to his great relief, and work can now finally begin on the Queen's official portrait. As all the months of study and preparation come to fruition, Her Majesty's likeness takes shape before our eyes.
MON 01:10 London on Film (b01kf64g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
MON 01:40 Only Connect (b01nmsw5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
MON 02:10 How the Devil Got His Horns: A Diabolical Tale (b01nmt3q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 30 OCTOBER 2012
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b01nms9t)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 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.
TUE 20:00 Unnatural Histories (b011wzrc)
Yellowstone
As the world's first national park, Yellowstone has long served as a model for the protection of wilderness around the world. For Americans it has become a source of great national pride, not least because it encapsulates all our popular notions of what a wilderness should be - vast, uninhabited, with spectacular scenery and teeming with wildlife. But Yellowstone has not always been so. At the time of its creation in 1872, it was renowned only for its extraordinary geysers, and far from being an uninhabited wilderness it was home to several American Indian tribes.
This film reveals how a remote Indian homeland became the world's first great wilderness. It was the ambitions of railroad barons, not conservationists, that paved the way for a brand new vision of the wild, a vision that took native peoples out of the picture. Iconic landscape paintings show how European Romanticism crossed the Atlantic and recast the American wilderness, not as a satanic place to be tamed and cultivated, but as a place to experience the raw power of God in nature. Forged in Yellowstone, this potent new version of wilderness as untouched and deserving of protection has since been exported to all corners of the globe.
TUE 21:00 Horror Europa with Mark Gatiss (b01nmsw7)
Actor and writer Mark Gatiss embarks on a chilling voyage through European horror cinema. From the silent nightmares of German Expressionism in the wake of World War I to lesbian vampires in 1970s Belgium, from the black-gloved killers of Italy's bloody giallo thrillers to the ghosts of the Spanish Civil War, Mark reveals how Europe's turbulent 20th century forged its ground-breaking horror tradition. On a journey that spans the continent from Ostend to Slovakia, Mark explores classic filming locations and talks to the genre's leading talents, including directors Dario Argento and Guillermo del Toro.
TUE 22:30 Lilyhammer (b01nmt3s)
Trolls
On learning that Jonas has been kidnapped by Mafia henchmen, Frank and Torgeir attempt to rescue him without Sigrid finding out that he is gone.
TUE 23:15 The Grammar School: A Secret History (b019c88d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
TUE 00:15 Inspector Montalbano (b01nmslk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Saturday]
TUE 02:10 Horror Europa with Mark Gatiss (b01nmsw7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 31 OCTOBER 2012
WED 19:00 World News Today (b01nms9z)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b013fj45)
Mad about the Buoys
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.
Entering Liverpool means navigating their first big city since leaving London, but reaching dry land can be daunting in a small boat when dodging tankers and ferries. It's even more difficult when the coastguard sends him round in circles because he's on the wrong side of the marker buoys.
On his way to Glasson Dock in Lancashire, Tim is tricked again by another buoy. Misunderstanding his sea chart results in an unplanned dropped anchor in the middle of the Irish Sea, where they have to wait all night before he can enter the port.
Their next destination finds them in the company of royalty - Piel Island near Barrow-in-Furness has the unusual honour of having its own king and queen, a tradition which goes back centuries.
WED 20:00 Britain's Best Drives (b00j0gsq)
North Cornish Coast
Actor Richard Wilson takes a journey into the past, following routes raved about in motoring guides of 50 years ago.
Richard struggles to get to grips with a retro VW camper van as he drives the coast road from St Ives to Land's End.
He learns of St Ives's 1950s abstract art heyday and meets a 95-year-old painter still at work in Porthmeor Studios. He discovers why DH Lawrence was expelled from the county, hears legends of Cornish mermaids and gets to know his van on a blustery clifftop campsite.
WED 20:30 Tales from the Wild Wood (b01nmt7g)
Episode 3
In the middle of winter, Rob Penn needs to make some money. He visits one of Britain's largest clear-felling conifer plantations, before making an ambitious attempt to fell one of the largest trees in Strawberry Cottage Wood. Tangled branches cause everything to go wrong. Can he extract the timber without destroying himself or the neighbouring trees?
WED 21:00 Guts: The Strange and Wonderful World of the Human Stomach (p07801ts)
What's really going on inside your stomach? In this one-off special, Michael Mosley offers up his own guts to find out. Spending the day as an exhibit at the Science Museum in London, he swallows a tiny camera and uses the latest in imaging technology to get a unique view of his innards digesting his food. He discovers pools of concentrated acid and metres of writhing tubing which is home to its own ecosystem. Michael Mosley lays bare the mysteries of the digestive system and reveals a complexity and intelligence in the human gut that science is only just beginning to uncover.
WED 22:00 Getting On (b01nmt7j)
Series 3
Episode 3
Hypochondriacal Mrs Dethick is re-admitted, adding to Den's problems. Kim finds help from an unexpected quarter, while Hilary is a man on a mission as the different designations of waste offer him a way back onto the ward. Megan is having trouble drumming up support for the forthcoming strike, while Pippa benefits from previously unseen talents hidden away on K2. The lights go down on another shift at K2 leaving Mrs Dethick in the dark and Den in a dark place. With Megan moody and Pippa scornful, Kim reluctantly turns to Damaris for help with her studies and sparks off an unexpected alliance.
WED 22:30 Frost on Interviews (b01dc5ft)
Television interviews seem to have been around forever - but that's not the case. They evolved in confidence and diversity as television gradually came of age. So how did it all begin? With the help of some of its greatest exponents, Sir David Frost looks back over nearly 60 years of the television interview.
He looks at political interviews, from the earliest examples in the postwar period to the forensic questioning that we now take for granted, and celebrity interviews, from the birth of the chat show in the United States with Jack Paar and Johnny Carson to the emergence of our own peak-time British performers like Sir Michael Parkinson and Sir David himself.
Melvyn Bragg, Joan Bakewell, Tony Benn, Clive Anderson, Ruby Wax, Andrew Neil, Stephen Fry, AA Gill, Alastair Campbell and Michael Parkinson all help trace the development of the television interview. What is its enduring appeal and where does the balance of power actually lie - with the interviewer or the interviewee?
WED 23:30 Human Planet (b00rrd7w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
WED 00:30 Tales from the Wild Wood (b01nmt7g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
WED 01:00 Britain's Best Drives (b00j0gsq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 01:30 Getting On (b01nmt7j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WED 02:00 Frost on Interviews (b01dc5ft)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
WED 03:00 Guts: The Strange and Mysterious World of the Human Stomach (b01kpt6c)
What's really going on inside your stomach? In this documentary, Michael Mosley offers up his own guts to find out. Spending the day as an exhibit at the Science Museum in London, he swallows a tiny camera and uses the latest in imaging technology to get a unique view of his innards digesting his food. He discovers pools of concentrated acid and metres of writhing tubing which is home to its own ecosystem.
Michael lays bare the mysteries of the digestive system - and reveals a complexity and intelligence in the human gut that science is only just beginning to uncover.
THURSDAY 01 NOVEMBER 2012
THU 19:00 World News Today (b01nmsb4)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b01nmt90)
06/10/77
Noel Edmonds looks at the weekly pop chart from 1977 and introduces Smokie, Danny Mirror, Deniece Williams, Steve Gibbons Band, the Emotions, the Stranglers, Baccara, Yes, David Soul and a Legs & Co dance sequence.
THU 20:00 Horizon (b0148vph)
2011-2012
The Core
For centuries we have dreamt of reaching the centre of the Earth. Now scientists are uncovering a bizarre and alien world that lies 4,000 miles beneath our feet, unlike anything we know on the surface. It is a planet buried within the planet we know, where storms rage within a sea of white-hot metal and a giant forest of crystals make up a metal core the size of the moon.
Horizon follows scientists who are conducting experiments to recreate this core within their own laboratories, with surprising results.
THU 21:00 The Year the Town Hall Shrank (b01nqc0g)
Winners and Losers
Documentary series telling the story of how the city of Stoke-on-Trent struggles to cope with the impact of the largest funding cuts to local government ever imposed by central government.
The depth of the cuts forces not just the council to reconsider what they do and how they do it, but the people of Stoke to ask themselves what they expect their local authority to do for them. This is not just the story of Stoke, it is the story of us all as it goes behind the rhetoric of whether we are all in it together in this age of austerity, or whether it is right to take tough choices because we have become over-dependent on services that we can simply no longer afford.
With in-depth access to the council and its decision makers and following the human consequences of decisions taken in the town hall and Whitehall, this is a gripping and moving tale of power, competing priorities and the intimate human costs of cuts recorded over the course of a year.
The first episode begins in December 2010 as the city council discovers it faces a £36m shortfall to its £210m annual budget. No service is safe from the axe in Stoke.
The leader of the council, Mohammed Pervez, who is leading his own local coalition, is left with the unenviable task of deciding what to chop.
THU 22:00 Nazis: A Warning from History (b0074kqm)
The Road to Treblinka
"We used to shoot them, give them up as lost and that was it." - Petras Zelionka, former member of the Nazi killing squad.
How could it happen? How was it possible that the Nazis created killing factories in order to exterminate the Jews and others they thought 'undesirable'?
Filmed in Poland, Germany and Lithuania, this documentary demonstrates how the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, in the fulfilment of Hitler's ideological vision, was a crucial catalyst to the radicalisation of the Nazi policy against the Jews.
With the help of archive discoveries and frank interviews with victims, bystanders and a former member of a Nazi killing squad, The Road to Treblinka traces the decision-making process that led to one of the greatest crimes the world has ever seen - the Holocaust.
THU 22:50 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 23:50 Tales from the Wild Wood (b01nmt7g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Wednesday]
THU 00:20 Lilyhammer (b01nmt3s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 on Tuesday]
THU 01:05 Top of the Pops (b01nmt90)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 01:35 Horizon (b0148vph)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 02:35 The Year the Town Hall Shrank (b01nqc0g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 02 NOVEMBER 2012
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b01nmsb9)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Lang Lang Live at the Roundhouse (b01nmx7q)
Chinese pianist Lang Lang's live concert from London's Roundhouse, recorded at the iTunes festival in July 2011. He performs a remarkable Franz Liszt recital as the only classical music artist in a true rock-star surrounding, next to international pop stars like Coldplay, Adele or Linkin Park.
Filmed and directed by Thomas Grube, using dolly, crane and fourteen HD cameras as well as specially-created video projections on large LED screens supplemented by an amazing light show, this concert offers a spectacular and unique audiovisual experience, featuring nine of Liszt's finest solo piano pieces.
Including: Liszt's La Campanella, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15 'Rakoczy March, Un sospiro, Standchen, Consolation No 2, Hungarian Rhapsody No 6, Widmung, Ave Maria (Schubert) and more.
FRI 20:20 The Birth of British Music (b00kfqgq)
Purcell - The Londoner
In this series, conductor Charles Hazlewood explores the development of British music through the lives, times and works of four great composers, each with a major anniversary in 2009.
The first programme celebrates the music of Henry Purcell, one of the most seminal but mysterious figures of British musical history. Charles investigates what life would have been like for a composer in 17th-century London through a wide range of Purcell's music, from the vast but often overlooked output of tavern songs to his glorious sacred music and pioneering stage works such as Dido and Aeneas. He discovers how Purcell's work is still central to British life today, visiting the Grenadier Guards at Wellington Barracks and attending the Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph.
Music is performed by Charles Hazlewood's own ensemble, Army of Generals, as well as renowned musicians including Sir John Tomlinson and the Choir of Westminster Abbey.
FRI 21:20 Weller at the BBC (b01nj61v)
Compilation of performances from the BBC archive spanning 35 years of Paul Weller, from the Jam to the Style Council to his solo career.
From the heady days of mod-punk trio the Jam there's In The City on TOTP, The Eton Rifles on teen pop culture show Something Else and more, up to their final single Beat Surrender.
Jazz-funk-soul collective the Style Council take over with first single Speak Like a Child on Sight & Sound and a storming Walls Come Tumbling Down on the Whistle Test.
Weller's persistently successful solo career is chronicled on Later with Jools Holland - where he's the most frequently featured artist in the show's history - with Sunflower to the Attic (from 2012's Sonik Kicks album), plus an acoustic rendition of the Jam classic That's Entertainment with Noel Gallagher.
Amongst other treats are a rarely-seen performance from the Electric Proms of Etta James's Don't Go to Strangers, where the changingman is joined onstage at the Roundhouse by Amy Winehouse.
FRI 22:20 BBC Four Sessions (b00fh55j)
Paul Weller
In an exclusive BBC4 session filmed at BBC Television Centre, Paul Weller performs numbers from his album 22 Dreams, solo hits including From the Floorboards Up and Peacock Suit, and a couple of classics from The Jam's back catalogue.
Weller performs with his regular five-piece band and is joined on some numbers by the Wired Strings and a brass section. He also has special guests, including Oasis guitarist Gem Archer on Echoes Round the Sun, fiddle player Eliza Carthy on Wild Wood and Where'er You Go and Blur guitarist Graham Coxon on Black River.
FRI 23:20 Bee Gees: In Our Own Time (b08ktv7w)
Documentary following the fascinating, and at times turbulent, story of the Bee Gees, one of the most successful bands of all time. This is the story of three very close brothers, tied together by familial love and a natural aptitude and obsession for all things musical.
Born on the Isle of Man but raised in Manchester the Brothers Gibb, eldest brother Barry and twins Robin and Maurice were whisked to Australia by their parents at an impressionable age in search of a better life. Australia, for the Gibb family, was the start of a new adventure and a new career.
From childhood stardom to the first flashes of fame on the coat tails of 1960s Beatlemania, the Bee Gees enjoyed number one successes with hits like Massachusetts and I've Got To Get A Message to You.
The early 1970s saw a spell in the musical wilderness, but eventually led to the Bee Gees discovering a whole new musical direction and, more importantly, the discovery of Barry's unique falsetto voice. The phenomenon of Saturday Night Fever in 1977 brought the band worldwide success, and identified them as the band that defined disco.
A career as songwriters, and success with Barbra Streisand and number one hits like Islands in the Stream by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, meant a brief hiatus for the Bee Gees as a group. But, true to form, they returned with number one successes in the late 1980s with hits such as You Win Again.
The unexpected and sudden death of Maurice in 2003 meant the end of the Bee Gees as we know it, and the end of an era.
Bee Gees: In Our Own Time is the story of a consistently successful, talented and musically prolific band of brothers.
FRI 00:55 Weller at the BBC (b01nj61v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:20 today]
FRI 01:55 BBC Four Sessions (b00fh55j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:20 today]