The Dark Ages have been misunderstood. History has identified the period following the fall of the Roman Empire with a descent into barbarism - a terrible time when civilisation stopped.
Waldemar Januszczak disagrees. In this four-part series he argues that the Dark Ages were a time of great artistic achievement, with new ideas and religions provoking new artistic adventures. He embarks on a fascinating trip across Europe, Africa and Asia, visits the world's most famous collections and discovers hidden artistic gems, all to prove that the Dark Ages were actually an 'Age of Light'.
In the final episode, Waldemar looks towards the north of Europe. The Carolingians saw themselves as successors to Rome, reflected in their art. Elsewhere, the Vikings were constructing long ships with intricate decoration and marking their territory with powerful rune stones. And on the British Isles, the Irish and Anglo-Saxons were creating unique works of manuscript illumination and remarkable jewellery.
Kirsty Wark and her cultural jury of crime writer Denise Mina, journalist Sarfraz Manzoor and novelist and broadcaster Marcel Theroux discuss the new BBC drama The White Queen; Austrian director Ulrich Seidl's controversial Paradise film trilogy; the Perfect American, a new opera by Philip Glass; a trio of art exhibitions that range from the traditional to the maverick with The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Not The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and the Hayward's Alternative Guide to the Universe; and in books the latest novel from Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane and James Robertson's The Professor of Truth.
Fatherhood has proved a great subject for a variety of artists - some celebratory, some conflicted, but all inspired by what dad does and doesn't do. Here's a mixture of songs that celebrate and probe the emotional complexities generated by the sometime head of the household. Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Cat Stevens, Emmylou Harris, Paul Simon, Madonna, Peter Gabriel, Mike and the Mechanics, Suggs and the Blockheads, Neil Young, James Brown, Pigbag and even Ozzy Osbourne and his daughter Kelly put in an appearance, making a cracking compilation for Father's Day.
Comedy drama about Germain, a semi-literate odd-job man, who is treated as the village idiot in his small French town. When he meets an old lady, Margueritte, they strike up a friendship as she teaches him the joys of French literature by reading aloud from her favourite books. When Germain discovers Margueritte's eyesight is failing he learns to read so that he may return the favour.
Marvin Gaye is one of the great and enduring figures of soul music, but his life was one of sexual confusion, bittersweet success and ultimately death by the hand of his own father. Through Marvin's own words and intimate memories gathered from rare film and recordings, director Jeremy Marre tells the story of a 'life of outer grace and inner torment'.
Including interviews with the singer's family, friends and musical colleagues, with re-enactments and archive film of Marvin on stage, at home and in the recording studio.
Documentary telling the story of late-flowering 62-year-old soul singer Charles Bradley, whose debut album No Time for Dreaming rocketed him from a hard life in the projects to Rolling Stone magazine's top 50 albums of 2011.
Abandoned by his mother as a child, Bradley faced homelessness, illiteracy, violence, the murder of his beloved brother and a nearly fatal illness. He worked odd jobs across the country and performed as a James Brown impersonator and, through it all, never gave up on his life-long dream to make it big in the music industry. Spanning the exciting, painful and uncertain months prior to the release of his debut album, the film documents one man's ultimate triumph over an impossible dream 48 years in the making.
Bradley's two albums, No Time for Dreaming and 2013's Victim of Love, are on the Brooklyn-based Daptone label which helped inspire the sound of Amy Winehouse's Back to Black and his emotionally intense, fervent old-school soul singing and retro production from collaborator and co-writer Tom Brennek have made him critically acclaimed and a live draw across the world.
MONDAY 17 JUNE 2013
MON 19:00 World News Today (b02xf5l8)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (b02xgf56)
Concerts
Celebrating 30 Years
Thirty years after the competition's inception, the search for the next BBC Cardiff Singer of the World is under way. Widely regarded as the most important international singing competition, it has been responsible for helping launch the careers of some of the greatest names in opera today.
This programme looks back at Cardiff Singer of the World's history, from its start in 1983 when the Finnish soprano Karita Mattila lifted the trophy, and celebrates some of the competition's greatest moments including 1989's legendary battle of the baritones between Bryn Terfel and Dmitri Hvorostovsky.
As singers from all over the globe descend on Cardiff, the programme also reflects on the truly international nature of the competition and how the eyes of the operatic world's most influential names are focused on the St David's Hall stage, in anticipation of who will be crowned BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2013.
MON 20:00 Britain on Film (b02xgf58)
Series 2
The World of Work
In the 1960s, Britain's biggest film company, the Rank Organisation, produced hundreds of short colour films on almost every aspect of British life. This fascinating material had lain largely dormant in an archive until Britain on Film accessed it and reworked it into a series that offers richly informative and often surprising insights into a decisive period of modern British history.
This episode is devoted to the activity that occupies so many of our waking hours - our working lives. During a period when new technology was transforming our factories and fierce competition from overseas was forcing many employers to make far-reaching changes to production processes and patterns of working, these films hint at the enormous challenges confronting workers in Britain's increasingly fragile industrial economy.
MON 20:30 Only Connect (b02xgf5b)
Series 7
General Practitioners v Festival Fans
Three GPs and a trio of festival fans return for a second chance at making the semi-finals, competing to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random. So join Victoria Coren Mitchell if you want to know what connects Freda Fry, Metropolis, Gromit and 4'33".
MON 21:00 Precision: The Measure of All Things (b02xgf5d)
Mass and Moles
Deep underground in a vault beneath Paris lives the most important lump of metal in the world - Le Grand K. Created in the 19th century, it's the world's master kilogramme, the weight on which every other weight is based. But there is a problem with Le Grand K - it is losing weight. Professor Marcus du Sautoy explores the history of this strange object and the astonishing modern day race to replace it.
MON 22:00 Storyville (b02yywn4)
The Law in These Parts
Documentary looking at justice in the land inhabited by Palestinians and captured by Israel in the 1967 war. The occupation began with the idea that Israel's presence would be temporary. Israelis dispensed justice through military courts, but these still exist. The film explores the challenges of administering this military justice system as seen through the eyes of those responsible for doing so. Do Palestinians receive the same level of justice that they would if they were Israeli citizens? Are these military courts adequate? Israeli authorities have always insisted that they are.
Israeli filmmaker Ra'anan Alexandrowicz interrogates Israeli judges and officials in a haunting and factual film about the quality of justice under the occupation of the West Bank.
MON 23:30 Christina: A Medieval Life (b00b6ksc)
Historian Michael Wood presents a portrait of ordinary people living through extraordinary times, tracing the story of a real-life peasant of 14th-century Hertfordshire.
She wasn't a famous person, or of noble blood, yet Christina's story is important in understanding our own roots. In this time of war, famine, floods, climate change and the Black Death are the beginnings of the end of serfdom, the growth of individual freedom and the start of a market economy.
Wood recounts the history of medieval Britain told not from the top of society, but from the bottom. Through the lives of Christina and her fellow villagers, we see how the most volatile century in British history played a crucial role in shaping the character and destiny of a nation, and its people.
MON 00:30 Pugin: God's Own Architect (b01b1z45)
Augustus Northmore Welby Pugin is far from being a household name, yet he designed the iconic clock tower of Big Ben as well as much of the Palace of Westminster. The 19th-century Gothic revival that Pugin inspired, with its medieval influences and soaring church spires, established an image of Britain which still defines the nation. Richard Taylor charts Pugin's extraordinary life story and discovers how his work continues to influence Britain today.
MON 01:30 Britain on Film (b02xgf58)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
MON 02:00 Only Connect (b02xgf5b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
MON 02:30 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b01rd35q)
Norman Ackroyd
'I don't have any grand plan, I just go where instinct takes me.' - Norman Ackroyd.
Norman Ackroyd is one of the country's most celebrated landscape artists. Born in Leeds in 1938, he attended the Royal College of Art in the 1960s. After experimenting with pop art, he gradually turned to his first love, the landscape, and over the last thirty years he has documented some of the most remote corners of Britain.
Norman tells the story of his artistic journey and gives a unique glimpse into his working life. Filmed in the converted London warehouse where he lives and works, we follow Norman as he embarks on the final stages of one of his monochrome prints. From delicate work on the copper plate, through preparation of the aquatint resin that brings shade and texture to the image and the application of the acid which etches the final picture from the copper, the film captures each stage of the process behind his craft.
At the end of the day, without knowing how the piece will turn out, Norman passes it through the printing press, revealing for the first time his latest work, capturing the atmospheric craggy cliff of Muckle Flugga in the Shetland Islands.
MON 03:00 Precision: The Measure of All Things (b02xgf5d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 18 JUNE 2013
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b02xf5lf)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (b02zc3km)
Concerts
Round 1
Petroc Trelawny begins coverage of the international operatic competition as it celebrates its 30th anniversary. With the jury including the competition patron Dame Kiri Te Kanawa it is a daunting prospect for any young singer, but as past winners have gone on to stellar careers in opera this competition really can change lives. In round one there are singers from South Korea, England, China, USA and Croatia, while Petroc's special guest is the artistic director of the Welsh National Opera, David Pountney.
TUE 21:00 Beautiful Thing: A Passion for Porcelain (p0192fqp)
Documentary in which Ros Savill, former director and curator at the Wallace Collection, tells the story of some incredible and misunderstood objects - the opulent, intricate, gold-crested and often much-maligned Sevres porcelain of the 18th century.
Ros brings us up close to a personal choice of Sevres masterpieces in the Wallace Collection, viewing them in intricate and intimate detail. She engages us with the beauty and brilliance in the designs, revelling in what is now often viewed as unfashionably pretty or ostentatious. These objects represent the unbelievable skills of 18th-century France, as well as the desires and demands of an autocratic regime that was heading for revolution.
As valuable now as they were when first produced, Sevres' intricacies and opulence speak of wealth, sophistication and prestige and have always been sought after by collectors eager to associate themselves with Sevres' power. Often the whims and capricious demands of monumentally rich patrons were the catalysts for these beautiful and incredible artistic innovations.
The film explores the stories of some of history's most outrageous patrons - Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, as well as their foreign counterparts like Catherine the Great, who willingly copied the French court's capricious ways. Ros tells how the French Revolutionaries actually preserved and adapted the Sevres tradition to their new order, and how the English aristocracy collected these huge dinner services out of nostalgia for the ancient regime. In fact, they are still used by the British royal family today.
Like the iPads of their day, these objects, ostentatious to modernist eyes, were the product of art and science coming together and creating something beautiful yet functional. Ros reconnects us with the fascinating lives and stories of the artists, artisans, painters and sculptors whose ingenuity, innovation and creativity went into making some of the most incredible and incredibly expensive ice cream coolers, vases and teapots of their day. We also see inside the factory, still open today, and witness the alchemic creation process for ourselves.
Taking us behind the museum glass and into some incredible private collections, the film reveals stories that are as louche, extravagant and over the top as some of the objects themselves. They might be unfashionable or even unpalatable to minimalist modernist tastes right now, but in this documentary we are taken back to a time when these objects were universally loved and adored, when they were the newest and most incredible things that had ever been created.
TUE 22:00 A303: Highway to the Sun (b0116ly6)
The A303 is the road that passes Stonehenge on the way to the beaches of Devon and Cornwall. On the way, it whisks drivers through 5,000 years of remarkable moments in British history. And it is the star of this film made for armchair travellers and history lovers.
Writer Tom Fort drives its 92-mile length in a lovingly restored Morris Traveller. Along the way he has many adventures - he digs up the 1960s master plan for the A303's dreams of superhighway status, meets up with a Neolithic traveller who knew the road like the back of his hand, gets to know a section of the Roman 303, uncovers a medieval murder mystery and discovers what lies at the end of the Highway to the Sun.
TUE 23:00 Britain's Most Fragile Treasure (b0161dgq)
Historian Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of a centuries-old masterpiece in glass. At 78 feet in height, the famous Great East Window at York Minster is the largest medieval stained-glass window in the country and the creative vision of a single artist, a mysterious master craftsman called John Thornton, one of the earliest named English artists.
The Great East Window has been called England's Sistine Chapel. Within its 311 stained-glass panels is the entire history of the world, from the first day to the Last Judgment, and yet it was made 100 years before Michelangelo's own masterpiece. The scale of Thornton's achievement is revealed as Dr Ramirez follows the work of a highly skilled conservation team at York Glaziers Trust. They dismantled the entire window as part of a five-year project to repair centuries of damage and restore it to its original glory.
It is a unique opportunity for Dr Ramirez to examine Thornton's greatest work at close quarters, to discover details that would normally be impossible to see and to reveal exactly how medieval artists made images of such delicacy and complexity using the simplest of tools.
The Great East Window of York Minster is far more than a work of artistic genius, it is a window into the medieval world and mind, telling us who we once were and who we still are, all preserved in the most fragile medium of all.
TUE 00:00 Precision: The Measure of All Things (b02xgf5d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
TUE 01:00 Parks and Recreation (b02w6tc0)
Series 2
The Master Plan
Comedy series set in the parks department of a fictional Indiana town.
Leslie is disappointed when two state auditors put her new park plans on hold. April celebrates her 21st birthday at the Snakehole Lounge.
TUE 01:20 Parks and Recreation (b02w6tc5)
Series 2
Freddy Spaghetti
Leslie is forced to take matters into her own hands when the government is shut down and the parks are closed.
TUE 01:45 A303: Highway to the Sun (b0116ly6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
TUE 02:45 Beautiful Thing: A Passion for Porcelain (p0192fqp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 19 JUNE 2013
WED 19:00 World News Today (b02xf5ll)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (b02zc439)
Concerts
Round 2
Round two in the search for the world's best young opera singer sees Petroc Trelawny present coverage from St David's Hall in Cardiff, where singers from Hungary, Russia, Egypt, Italy and South Africa compete for the coveted prize. Petroc is joined by acclaimed Swedish mezzo-soprano Katarina Karneus, who won the competition in 1995.
WED 21:00 Who Killed the Honey Bee? (b00jzjys)
Bees are dying in their millions. It is an ecological crisis that threatens to bring global agriculture to a standstill. Introduced by Martha Kearney, this documentary explores the reasons behind the decline of bee colonies across the globe, investigating what might be at the root of this devastation.
Honey bees are the number one insect pollinator on the planet, responsible for the production of over 90 crops. Apples, berries, cucumbers, nuts, cabbages and even cotton will struggle to be produced if bee colonies continue to decline at the current rate. Empty hives have been reported from as far afield as Taipei and Tennessee. In England, the matter has caused beekeepers to march on Parliament to call on the government to fund research into what they say is potentially a bigger threat to humanity than the current financial crisis.
Investigating the problem from a global perspective, the programme makers travel from the farm belt of California to the flatlands of East Anglia to the outback of Australia. They talk to the beekeepers whose livelihoods are threatened by colony collapse disorder, the scientists entrusted with solving the problem, and the Australian beekeepers who are making a fortune replacing the planet's dying bees. They also look at some of the possible reasons for the declining numbers - is it down to a bee plague, pesticides, malnutrition? Or is the answer something even more frightening?
WED 22:00 Quick Cuts (b02ykt2s)
Episode 1
Sue chucks Trevor out, Marianne is choosing boobs, Gavin is sick on a pigeon, Becky is stalking her lover and Annie has a blind date with someone with an unusual problem. Trying to juggle all these problems and a shop full of customers is not easy for Sue, especially when a giant chipmunk wearing a fez and holding an axe shows up.
WED 22:30 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (b0077k1l)
Series 1
Storm in a Tea Chest
Terry helps Bob move his most treasured possessions from his old house to the new one, but Thelma refuses to have his junk in their home.
WED 23:00 Up the Women (b02w7hlx)
Series 1
Episode 3
The Banbury Intricate Craft Circle try to win approval to become an official league of the Women's Social and Political Union.
WED 23:30 The Dark Ages: An Age of Light (b01pdt02)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
WED 00:30 Michael Grade and the World's Oldest Joke (b01r3njz)
Michael Grade goes on the trail of the world's oldest joke as he sets out to discover whether jokes come and go with the passing of time or whether we are still laughing at the same things our ancestors did.
WED 01:30 Quick Cuts (b02ykt2s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WED 02:00 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (b0077k1l)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
WED 02:30 Who Killed the Honey Bee? (b00jzjys)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 20 JUNE 2013
THU 19:00 World News Today (b02xf5ls)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (b02zc5kk)
Concerts
Round 3
Petroc Trelawny returns for round three of the opera singing competition with contenders from Lithuania, Portugal, Wales, Ukraine and Belarus seeking to win the coveted title by singing famous arias from Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Handel. Giving his views on their performances is Petroc's special guest, Canadian baritone Gerald Finley.
THU 21:00 Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan (b018l6wz)
Epic account of the early life of Genghis Khan, from the time he became an orphan at the age of nine through to his triumph as undisputed Mongol leader in 1206. Betrayed by his father's clan when still a child, then sold into slavery and imprisoned by the Chinese, he eventually escapes. Only then, through cunning and a series of fearsome, bloody victories in battle does he begin his campaign to unite the warring Mongol clans into a large and fearsome empire.
In Mongolian and Mandarin with English subtitles.
THU 22:55 Beautiful Thing: A Passion for Porcelain (p0192fqp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
THU 00:00 Britain's Most Fragile Treasure (b0161dgq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 on Tuesday]
THU 01:00 A303: Highway to the Sun (b0116ly6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Tuesday]
THU 02:00 The Beach Boys: Doin' it Again (b01p2q5q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:25 on Saturday]
THU 02:55 Fathers and Songs: Music for Father's Day (b02yhsb6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
FRIDAY 21 JUNE 2013
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b02xf5m0)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (b02zc5xn)
Concerts
Round 4
Petroc Trelawny is back in the Welsh capital for the fourth round in the opera singing competition, with contestants from Poland, England, Argentina, South Korea and Italy. Drama will be high as the jury announce the five finalists, which don't have to include the round winners. Petroc's special guest, opera star Tommi Hakala, knows all about the pressure - he didn't win his round in 2003, but went on to take the top prize.
FRI 21:00 Fleetwood Mac: Don't Stop (b00nq7q9)
Fleetwood Mac are one of the biggest-selling bands of all time and still on the road. Their story, told in their own words, is an epic tale of love and confrontation, of success and loss.
Few bands have undergone such radical musical and personal change. The band evolved from the 60s British blues boom to perfect a US West Coast sound that saw them sell 40 million copies of the album Rumours.
However, behind-the-scenes relationships were turbulent. The band went through multiple line-ups with six different lead guitarists. While working on Rumours, the two couples at the heart of the band separated, yet this heartache inspired the perfect pop record.
FRI 22:00 The Ballad of Mott the Hoople (b01r3pmc)
Documentary telling the bruised and battered, but triumphant, tale of one of the UK's most cherished rock 'n' roll bands, Mott the Hoople.
Originating from Herefordshire, the band were thrown together in 1969 and signed to Island Records by the increasingly erratic manager/producer Guy Stevens, in a bid to find a band that would combine The Rolling Stones rhythmic power with the melody and lyricism of 'Blonde on Blonde' era Bob Dylan.
The documentary charts their journey from cult struggling touring band to their successful transformation into 'glam rock players' thanks to the intervention of David Bowie who gave them their biggest hit, 'All The Young Dudes', and their subsequent collapse after the addition of Mick Ronson to their line-up.
Mott the Hoople's story is brought to life through a combination of rare and unseen archive footage, their magnificent music and the testimony of band members Ian Hunter, Mick Ralphs, Verden Allen, Dale Griffin, Luther Grosvenor aka Ariel Bender and various other associates and witnesses, including boyhood fan Mick Jones of The Clash and Queen's Roger Taylor.
FRI 23:00 Totally British: 70s Rock 'n' Roll (b01r3pm9)
1970-1974
Trawled from the depths of the BBC Archive and classic BBC shows of the day - Old Grey Whistle Test, Top of the Pops and Full House - a collection of performance gems from a totally rock 'n' roll early 1970s.
This was a golden era for British rock 'n' roll as everyone moved on from the whimsical 60s and looked around for something with a bit more oomph! In a pre-heavy metal world bands were experimenting with influences that dated back to 50s rock 'n' roll, whilst taking their groove from old-school rhythm and blues. It was also a time when men grew their hair long!
In a celebration of this era, we kick off with an early 1970s Badfinger number direct from the BBC library and continue the groove from the BBC vaults with classic rock 'n' roll heroes like Free, Status Quo, the Faces, Humble Pie and Mott the Hoople. Plus from deep within the BBC archives we dig out some rarities from the likes of Babe Ruth, Stone the Crows, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Man, Heavy Metal Kids and original rockers Thin Lizzy... to name but a few.
Sit back and enjoy a 60-minute non-stop ride of unadulterated Totally British 70s Rock 'n' Roll!
FRI 00:00 Guitar Heroes at the BBC (b00llh2f)
Part III
Compilation of classic archive performances from the guitar gods of the late 60s and 70s. Status Quo appear playing Pictures of Matchstick Men on Top of the Pops in 1968, The Who perform Long Live Rock in the Old Grey Whistle Test studio, Dire Straits play Tunnel of Love and Lynyrd Skynyrd bring a taste of the Deep South with Sweet Home Alabama. The show also features rare performances from George Benson, Leo Kottke, Link Wray and Tom Petty.
FRI 01:00 Fleetwood Mac: Don't Stop (b00nq7q9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:00 The Ballad of Mott the Hoople (b01r3pmc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 03:00 Totally British: 70s Rock 'n' Roll (b01r3pm9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 today]