A visit to arguably the most famous archipelago on earth, the Galapagos. It's home to a myriad of bizarre and unique creatures endemic to these islands - but how did they get here and what is the key to these extraordinary islands that allows them to thrive? The programme reveals that this key holds not just the secret to life here, but also to how Darwin was able to leave with the ideas that would revolutionise biology.
Sian Williams presents highlights of the National Eisteddfod of Wales at Denbigh in the Vale of Clwyd. The BBC news journalist and current affairs presenter is extremely proud of her Welsh roots but has never been to the National Eisteddfod. It is one of the largest and oldest cultural festivals in Europe, so this will be a completely new and unique experience for her.
Documentary using groundbreaking computer graphics and close-up photography to reveal the inner alchemy that gives four extraordinary hunters the edge, from the moment they detect their prey through to the vital kill.
Soaring above the people of London is the fastest animal on the planet, the peregrine falcon, on a mission to kill for her chicks. Off the coast of South Africa the world's largest predatory fish, the great white shark, has just completed a 7,000-mile journey and is hungry for seal blubber. On the plains of Africa the fastest land animal, the cheetah, struggles to provide for her cubs as her enemies move in. And having survived a drought by entering into a state of suspended animation, the prehistoric Nile crocodile is poised to ambush his dinner.
Brilliant, difficult and politically incorrect, Sebastian Bergman is one of Sweden's leading police profilers. His life and and career are on the skids when he returns to his home town, two weeks late for his mother's funeral but just in time to help the local police solve the brutal murder of a 15-year-old boy.
The celebration of Top of the Pops 1977 continues with a selection of outstanding complete archive performances from Britain's silver jubilee year. 1977 was dominated by funk and punk, with Heatwave's Boogie Nights and The Stranglers' No More Heroes in the top ten. Classic top of the charts hits included Baccara's Yes Sir, I Can Boogie and Angelo by Brotherhood of Man. Some of the enduring heroes to take to the stage that year were David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Queen and Elvis Costello, with rare studio performances from The Jacksons and Bob Marley & The Wailers.
The story of New York's finest - the most successful and enduring band fronted by a woman - Debbie Harry and Blondie. From their Bowery beginnings at CBGB's in 1974 to their controversial induction into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in New York. The band crossed pop with punk, reggae and rap and had no 1s in all styles. With exclusive backstage and performance footage from their UK tour plus in-depth interviews with current and ex-band members and friends Iggy Pop, Shirley Manson, Tommy Ramone, and Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads.
Stars are full of variety - they can be big or little, bright or dim. Our sun is right in the middle - Mr Average - but eventually it will grow old and become a red giant. Lucie Green and Chris Lintott discuss the lives of stars and what is a golden era of exploration on Mars, with Nasa's space rover Curiosity finding out new and exciting things about the planet and which might offer the best chance of life elsewhere in our solar system.
The spacecraft Mars Express is also celebrating a decade at the red planet and Chris Lintott and Lucie Green pick out some of the highlights, including the 'face of Mars'.
Meanwhile Jon Culshaw explores the Moore Moon Marathon with astronomers in Chipping Norton.
SUNDAY 11 AUGUST 2013
SUN 19:00 The Wonder of Weeds (b01224kv)
Blue Peter gardener Chris Collins celebrates the humble and sometimes hated plants we call weeds. He discovers that there is no such thing as a weed, botanically speaking, and that in fact what we call a weed has changed again and again over the last three hundred years. Chris uncovers the story of our changing relationship with weeds - in reality, the story of the battle between wilderness and civilisation. He finds out how weeds have been seen as beautiful and useful in the past, and sees how their secrets are being unlocked today in order to transform our crops.
Finally, Chris asks whether, in our quest to eliminate Japanese Knotweed or Rhododendron Ponticum, we are really engaged in an arms race we can never win. We remove weeds from our fields and gardens at our peril.
SUN 20:00 The Review Show (b038f26f)
Edinburgh Festival: A Review Show Special
Kirsty Wark presents highlights from the 2013 Edinburgh Festivals including interviews with Roddy Doyle on his new book, The Guts, and comic David Baddiel, returning to do his first full show in Edinburgh for 15 years. Plus previews of the International Festival's Beckett and Dance seasons and a look at some of the best theatre on the Fringe.
SUN 21:00 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.
SUN 22:30 Natural World (b00h37zc)
2008-2009
Bears on Top of the World
This moving film reveals the differing fortunes of a mother polar bear, a mother grizzly bear and their newborn cubs, in a rapidly changing world. The shrinking Arctic ice may be making life much tougher for polar bears, but it is offering new opportunities for grizzly bears to the south.
Where once the lives of white and brown bears could not have been more different, in summertime they now meet along shores and islands almost all the way to the North Pole. Amazingly, they have even interbred. This is a remarkable story of how bears, ever intelligent and resourceful, are adapting to a warming world.
SUN 23:20 Alan Whicker's Journey of a Lifetime (b00jnl9f)
California Dreaming
Celebrating a remarkable fifty years on television, TV legend and undisputed travel king Alan Whicker sets off round the world on a journey reflecting his varied life and career.
Whicker looks back at his most famous programmes, including the 1967 film that introduced hippies to a bemused Britain and featured controversial sequences of drug-taking for the first time on British TV.
He also revisits the openly gay church who invited him to one of their same-sex marriages thirty-five years before they were recognised legally, as well as the San Francisco cops who invited him to join them on patrol back in 1979. Also featured is the last-ever interview with the late Peter Sellers.
SUN 00:20 History of the Eagles (b0388tqv)
Episodes 1 and 2
Subtitled 'The Story of an American band', this three hour forensic documentary features rare archival material, concert footage, and never-before-seen home movies that explore the evolution and enduring popularity of one of the world's biggest-selling and culturally significant American bands, chronicling the band's creation and rise to fame in the 1970s through its breakup in 1980.
While personal stories from band members, managers, and music industry luminaries frame the narrative, it's the unexpected moments - recording sessions, backstage interactions, and even a whimsical sequence from the Desperado cover shoot - that convey the extraordinary bond linking the artists, their music, and the times (an era when country-tinged rock and finely homed harmonies spoke to a nation still reeling from unrest) and reveals the personal and professional struggles members faced while the band was apart, chronicling the group's dramatic reunion in 1994, as well as its resurgence in recording and performing throughout the next two decades.
Among the bands many achievements since reforming are its triumphant Hell Freezes Over tour, the 2007 release of Long Road Out of Eden (which sold more than 5.5 million copies worldwide and earned two Grammy Awards), and its on-going ascendance as an international supergroup. More than 25 new and exclusive interviews were conducted with all current band members - Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit - as well as former members Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner and Don Felder. Also featured are new and exclusive interviews with Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Kenny Rogers, Irving Azoff and many other seminal artists and band contemporaries who have been closely involved with the Eagles' history.
SUN 03:25 In Concert (b0074sf0)
The Eagles
Footage of Californian country rockers The Eagles from 1973, performing classic US hits such as Peaceful Easy Feeling, Witchy Woman and Take it Easy.
At the time were they the epitome of the California sound, with a sweet blend of sophisticated country music that took them to the top of the charts in the US.
MONDAY 12 AUGUST 2013
MON 19:00 World News Today (b038cg6n)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places (b01rd37d)
Trees and Mountains
Presenter and Welsh poet Ifor ap Glyn explores the wealth of Britain's extraordinary holy places on a pilgrimage that spans almost 2,000 years of history. Travelling across the breadth of the UK, Ifor uncovers the stories and rich history behind many of our most famous sites, explaining the myths and legends of some of Britain's most sacred places.
Ifor visits trees and mountains as a way of understanding the journey Britain undertook from the old Pagan religion to Christianity. His journey starts in Glastonbury, site of the famous tor and the Thorns, the most holy trees in the country. He discovers how even now these symbols are causing friction and discord.
His journey continues at Knowlton in Dorset, a place where a Norman church has been built right in the centre of an earthen henge. There he meets a druid who explains how Pagan sites were often overwritten in this way by the new Christian religion before they both discover that, at least here, earth magic seems to be making a comeback.
Ifor visits a bleeding yew tree that has divided opinion for 600 years and, in Snowdonia, a mountain where the devil is said to have gone toe to toe with an early Christian missionary. He travels to a rocky Cornish crag where St Michael himself is said to reside before finishing his journey at Pendle Hill, inspiration behind the most stripped down and anti-Pagan religious denomination of all time. But even here, did Christianity really manage to break free of Paganism?
MON 20:00 How It Works (b01fkc5n)
Metal
Professor Mark Miodownik travels to Israel to trace the history of our love affair with gleaming, lustrous metal. He learns how we first extracted glinting copper from dull rock and used it to shape our world and reveals how our eternal quest for lighter, stronger metals led us to forge hard, sharp steel from malleable iron and to create complex alloys in order to conquer the skies.
He investigates metals at the atomic level to reveal mysterious properties such as why they get stronger when they are hit, and he discovers how metal crystals can be grown to survive inside one of our most extreme environments - the jet engine.
MON 21:00 Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain (p01cyrf9)
Glass Houses
Using her investigative skills to uncover long-forgotten and abandoned plans, architectural investigator Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner explores the fascinating and dramatic stories behind some of the grandest designs that were never built.
Technology has always been a driving force behind new ideas. Olivia explores how architects and designers have been inspired by the exciting possibilities presented by new technology to produce groundbreaking and controversial urban plans.
In 1855, visionary designer Sir Joseph Paxton proposed an ambitious plan to build a fantastic, futuristic ten-mile glass girdle circling the centre of London. It had only recently become possible to produce large sheets of cheap but strong plate glass and Paxton was inspired by its potential. With this exciting new technology at his fingertips, Paxton believed he could create a bright and pollution-free environment for Londoners as well as solve the capital's terrible congestion problems.
His spectacular glass 'Great Victorian Way' would connect the city to the West End, link rich and poor areas and cross the Thames three times. Contained in this magnificent glass structure were shops, houses, hotels, a pedestrian walkway, a road for carriages and eight lines of elevated pneumatic railway.
There was huge support for Paxton's scheme and Parliament passed a bill sanctioning construction, but the Great Victorian Way was never built. The 'Great Stink' took hold of London in 1858, spreading a cholera epidemic and so sanitation became the city's most pressing priority. Instead of creating a spectacular crystal boulevard the money was spent on a very different type of technology - the building of London's sewerage system.
A century later, London's congestion problems remained unsolved with the motor car having taken over roads designed for horse and carriage. In 1961, the architect Geoffrey Jellicoe proposed a solution directly inspired by Joseph Paxton's use of glass, in his radical new urban scheme for the green belt around London. Jellicoe took Paxton's idea of transforming the transport infrastructure even further, proposing a 'glass city' in which all cars would drive along rooftops, freeing the ground below for pedestrians.
With both these groundbreaking designs, Paxton and Jellicoe were seeking to harness technology to create bright and light cities, free of pollution and congestion, and utilising the most progressive forms of transport of the day.
Contributors include: Brett Steele, Eric Kuhne, Kate Colquhoun, Isobel Armstrong, Theodora Wayte, Lord Norman Foster, Charlie Burke, David Martlew, John Minnis, Hal Moggridge, Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe and Kathryn Moore.
MON 22:00 Alan Whicker's Journey of a Lifetime (b00jtg0n)
The Americas
Celebrating a remarkable fifty years on television, TV legend and undisputed travel king Alan Whicker sets off round the world on a journey reflecting his incredibly varied life and career.
Alan travels from West to East across America to track down his all-time favourite couple, a prolific Hollywood plastic surgeon and his wife, who also happens to be his favourite patient. When originally shown, they generated the biggest ever postbag of Whicker's career, but after thirty years will they still be together - and what will all the surgery have done to them?
Also in this episode, Whicker explores once more the closed community of the ultra-wealthy ladies of Palm Beach. He revisits the groundbreaking 1960s programme where he filmed the trial of modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, who were both facing the death penalty, and looks back at startling footage of America's first so-called serial killer seconds after his arrest. Whicker also re-examines his extraordinary interview with Haitian dictator Papa Doc, his most critically acclaimed film for which he won the prestigious Dumont Award.
MON 23:00 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 00:00 POP! The Science of Bubbles (b01rtdy6)
Physicist Dr Helen Czerski takes us on an amazing journey into the science of bubbles. Bubbles may seem to be just fun toys, but they are also powerful tools that push back the boundaries of science.
The soap bubble with its delicate, fragile skin tells us about how nature works on scales as large as solar system and as small as a single wavelength of light. Then there are underwater bubbles, which matter because they are part of the how the planet works. Out at sea, breaking waves generate huge plumes of bubbles which help the oceans breathe.
From the way animals behave to the way drinks taste, Dr Czerski shows how bubbles affect our world in all sorts of unexpected ways. Whether it's the future of ship design or innovative new forms of medical treatment, bubbles play a vital role.
MON 01:00 Some People with Jokes (b0381cf1)
Series 1
Some Scousers with Jokes Part 2
More Liverpudlians, more jokes. There must be something in the Mersey...
MON 01:30 Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places (b01rd37d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
MON 02:00 How It Works (b01fkc5n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
MON 03:00 Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain (p01cyrf9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 13 AUGUST 2013
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b038cg6t)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Pagans and Pilgrims: Britain's Holiest Places (b01rk2fp)
Shrines
Presenter and Welsh poet Ifor ap Glyn explores the wealth of Britain's extraordinary holy places on a pilgrimage that spans almost 2,000 years of history. Travelling across the breadth of the UK, Ifor uncovers the stories and rich history behind many of our most famous sites, explaining the myths and legends of some of Britain's most sacred places.
Ifor sets out to understand the appeal of shrines. For those outside the Catholic and Orthodox church there is something vaguely unsettling about shrines. How can venerating the bones of a dead person bring you closer to God?
From the unlikely starting point of Marc Bolan's roadside shrine in Barnes, Ifor embarks upon perhaps his most surprising journey. Along the way he learns that Scotland's largest city only exists because of a shrine and visits the newly-renovated shrine of St David in Wales.
At St Albans Cathedral, he learns that shrines are slowly but surely starting to creep back into the Anglican mainstream and that rather than meeting resistance, they are being actively embraced. After viewing a genuinely shocking relic in Westminster Cathedral, Ifor meets with the Catholic archbishop Vincent Nichols, who has a radical theory about how the return of shrines represents the final chapter of the Reformation, and that is all down to Princess Diana.
Finally, after seeing some of the finest cathedrals in the land, Ifor ends his journey at a tiny church on the fringe of Snowdonia, one which is home to a shrine that many people consider the holiest place in Britain.
TUE 20:00 Archaeology: A Secret History (p0109jny)
In the Beginning
Archaeologist Richard Miles presents a series charting the history of the breakthroughs and watersheds in our long quest to understand our ancient past. He begins by going back 2,000 years to explore how archaeology began by trying to prove a biblical truth - a quest that soon got archaeologists into dangerous water.
TUE 21:00 King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons (b038dbd5)
The Lady of the Mercians
In this second episode, Alfred's children continue the family plan to create a kingdom of all the English.
The tale begins with a savage civil war in a bleak decade of snow and famine, culminating in an epic victory over the Vikings near Wolverhampton in 910. Filmed in the Fens and Winchester, Gloucester, Oxford and Rome, the key figure in this episode is Alfred's daughter Aethelflaed, the ruler of Mercia. Michael Wood recovers her story from a copy of a lost chronicle written in Mercia in her lifetime which, in the film, we hear read in Old English.
One of the great forgotten figures in British history, Aethelflaed led armies, built fortresses, campaigned against the Vikings and was a brilliant diplomat. Her fame spread across the British Isles, beloved by her warriors and her people she was known simply as 'the Lady of the Mercians'. Without her, concludes Wood, 'England might never have happened'.
TUE 22:00 Peter and Dan Snow: 20th Century Battlefields (b007r667)
20th Century Battlefields
1951 Korea
Peter and Dan Snow, through sophisticated graphics, bring to life the forgotten war of the 20th century - the battle for Korea. The Snows journey to the border between North and South Korea which is a military frontline to this day - there is still no peace treaty more than 50 years after war broke out between the Communist north and Nationalist south.
Peter and Dan tell the story of two key moments in the years of fighting that embroiled soldiers from countries around the world. Peter finds out about the challenges faced by the Americans as they set out on one of the largest amphibious attacks in history, the Inchon landings. On the banks of the Imjin river, Dan recounts how, in 1951, a few hundred British soldiers managed to stem the tide against thousands of attacking Chinese.
TUE 23:00 Inside the Perfect Predator (b00rfh1s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Saturday]
TUE 00:00 Nature's Microworlds (b01l2s60)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
TUE 00:30 Seven Ages of Starlight (p00yb434)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
TUE 02:00 Archaeology: A Secret History (p0109jny)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
TUE 03:00 King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons (b038dbd5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 14 AUGUST 2013
WED 19:00 World News Today (b038cg6z)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Top of the Pops (b038dbtf)
David 'Kid' Jensen presents the weekly pop chart show with Bilbo, Blondie, Jilted John, the Motors, David Essex, Hi-Tension, the Jam, the Commodores and dance sequences by Legs & Co.
WED 20:00 She-Wolves: England's Early Queens (b01dc66v)
Isabella and Margaret
In the medieval and Tudor world there was no question in people's minds about the order of God's creation - men ruled and women didn't. A king was a warrior who literally fought to win power then battled to keep it. Yet despite everything that stood in their way, a handful of extraordinary women did attempt to rule medieval and Tudor England. In this series, historian Dr Helen Castor explores seven queens who challenged male power, the fierce reactions they provoked and whether the term 'she wolves' was deserved.
In 1308 a 12-year-old girl, Isabella of France, became queen of England when she married the English king. A century later another young French girl, Margaret of Anjou, followed in her footsteps. Both these women were thrust into a violent and dysfunctional England and both felt driven to take control of the kingdom themselves. Isabella would be accused of murder and Margaret of destructive ambition - it was Margaret who Shakespeare named the She Wolf. But as Helen reveals, their self-assertion that would have seemed natural in a man was deemed unnatural, even monstrous in a woman.
WED 21:00 Britain's Lost Treasures Returned: How Houghton Got Its Art Back (b038md6s)
Dan Cruickshank tells the story of how the first British prime minister Robert Walpole's art collection, one of the finest in the 18th century western world, was sold to Russia in the 1770s and how, for the first time, it is returning to Britain for the summer of 2013 to hang in its original home of Houghton Hall in Norfolk.
WED 22:00 Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain (p01cyrf9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
WED 23:00 Evidently... John Cooper Clarke (b01jcdbc)
Documentary which records and celebrates the life and works of 'punk poet' John Cooper Clarke, looking at his life as a poet, a comedian, a recording artist and revealing how he has remained a significant influence on contemporary culture over four decades.
With a bevy of household names from stand-up comedy, lyricists, rock stars and cultural commentators paying homage to him, the film reveals Salford-born Cooper Clarke as a dynamic force who remains as relevant today as ever, as successive generations cite him as an influence on their lives, careers and styles.
From Bill Bailey to Plan B, Steve Coogan to Kate Nash and Arctic Monkeys front man Alex Turner to cultural commentators such as Miranda Sawyer and Paul Morley, the film reveals the life behind one of Britain's sharpest and most witty poets - a national treasure.
WED 00:00 Top of the Pops (b018zv8d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 on Saturday]
WED 01:00 Top of the Pops (b038dbtf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
WED 01:40 She-Wolves: England's Early Queens (b01dc66v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 02:40 Britain's Lost Treasures Returned: How Houghton Got Its Art Back (b038md6s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 15 AUGUST 2013
THU 19:00 World News Today (b038cg75)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 BBC Proms (b038czgm)
2013
Proms on Four: Orchestras of the World - Santa Cecilia Orchestra
From the Royal Albert Hall, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra and Chorus, based in Rome and conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, bring an authentically Italian touch to a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Verdi's birth.
In a concert featuring his religious works, Italian soprano Maria Agresta makes her Proms debut singing rarely performed settings of Ave Maria and Libera Me. The Prom concludes with Verdi's final work, Four Sacred Pieces, completed a few years before his death in 1901.
THU 21:15 Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe (b00791vw)
The Romantic North
Francesco da Mosto gets romantic in Juliet's home town of Verona, witnesses the birth of western art, has a fashion makeover from Giorgio Armani, is invited into a closed convent to see the tomb of the most notorious woman in European history, and goes deep-sea diving in pursuit of a childhood dream.
THU 22:15 King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons (b038dbd5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
THU 23:15 Peter and Dan Snow: 20th Century Battlefields (b007r667)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Tuesday]
THU 00:15 Britain's Lost Treasures Returned: How Houghton Got Its Art Back (b038md6s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Wednesday]
THU 01:15 Fig Leaf: The Biggest Cover-Up in History (b00ydp38)
Writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith uncovers the secret history of the humble fig leaf, opening a window onto 2,000 years of western art and ethics.
He tells how the work of Michelangelo, known to his contemporaries as 'the maker of pork things', fuelled the infamous 'fig leaf campaign', the greatest cover-up in art history, how Bernini turned censorship into a new form of erotica by replacing the fig leaf with the slipping gauze, and how the ingenious machinations of Rodin brought nudity back to the public eye.
In telling this story, Smith turns many of our deepest prejudices upside down, showing how the Victorians had a far more sophisticated and mature attitude to sexuality than we do today. He ends with an impassioned plea for the widespread return of the fig leaf to redeem modern art from cheap sensation and innuendo.
THU 02:15 Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe (b00791vw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:15 today]
FRIDAY 16 AUGUST 2013
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b038cg7c)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 BBC Proms (b038d07y)
2013
Proms on Four: Friday Night at the Proms - Bach Oratorios
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, one of the pre-eminent exponents of the music of JS Bach, returns to the Proms with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists in two profoundly moving works based on events in the life of Christ, the Easter Oratorio and the Ascension Oratorio. Introduced by Suzy Klein.
FRI 21:00 Punk Britannia (p00s81jz)
Pre-Punk 1972-1976
Narrated by Peter Capaldi, this opener of a three-part documentary series in BBC FOUR's celebrated 'Britannia' strand is scheduled to chime with the 35th anniversary of the Queen's Silver Jubilee and the arrival of punk as national and then international music culture. The film explores the road to punk in Britain, which begins in the early 70s with a young generation already conscious that they have 'missed the 60s party' and are stuck in a Britain heading for economic woes and dwindling opportunities. Meanwhile the music of the day - prog and super rock - seems to ask not for their interest and involvement, but only their awe and their money.
But before the punk generation finally arises to have its say during 1976 come a group of pub rockers, a generation of bands sandwiched between 60s hippies and mid-70s punks who will help pave the way towards the short, sharp shock of punk, only to be elbowed aside by the emergence of the Sex Pistols, the Clash et al.
An unlikely cast of characters set the scene for punk in early 70s Britain. Reacting against overblown super rock of the day and the glam their younger sisters like on Top of the Pops, pub rock set the template for punk. Small venues, fast retro rock 'n' roll and bags of attitude typified bands like Dr Feelgood, Ducks Deluxe, Kilburn and the High Roads and Eddie and the Hotrods. These bands engendered a small London scene which is sometimes forgotten and helped define the Pistols, the Clash and the Damned, both positively and negatively.
Featuring copious unseen archive footage and interviews with John Lydon, Paul Weller, Mick Jones, Wilko Johnson, Nick Lowe, Adam Ant, Brian James and many more.
FRI 22:00 Punk Britannia (b01jmwjd)
Punk 1976-1978
Daydreaming England was about to be rudely awoken as punk emerged from the London underground scene. A nation dropped its dinner in its lap when the Sex Pistols swore on primetime television. Punk had finally found its enemy- the establishment. In Manchester, the Buzzcocks' self-released Spiral Scratch was a clarion call for a do-it-yourself generation, while the Clash's White Riot tour took punk's message across Britain. Moral outrage followed the Pistols around the country, effectively outlawing punk - but there was one refuge for the music. Nestled in the wasteland of 70s Covent Garden, the Roxy was punk's cathedral. Punk interlopers the Jam raised the bar for lyricism, challenging punk's London elite.
Punk also began to extend its three-chord vocabulary through an alliance with reggae, memorably captured by the Clash on White Man in Hammersmith Palais. With their second single, God Save the Queen, the Pistols scored a direct hit at the establishment in summer '77, but a disastrous PR stunt on a Thames barge would mark a turning point. The darker underbelly of the summer of '77 would see race riots in Lewisham. This street turbulence was the backdrop for a rawer, working class sound. If the Pistols and the Clash had been the theory, a second wave led by Sham 69 was the reality.
By '78 punk was becoming a costume - the very pop orthodoxy it had originally sought to destroy. For many punk ended when the Pistols split, beset by internal problems, following an abortive tour of the USA in January '78. Those practitioners who would go on to enjoy sustained success sought to modify their sound to survive, such as Siouxsie Sioux. Punk had shown what it was against, now it was time to show what it was for in the post-punk era.
With John Lydon, Mick Jones, Siouxsie Sioux and Paul Weller.
FRI 23:00 Punk Britannia (b01jv7f2)
Post-Punk 1978-1981
Punk had shown what it was against - now what was it for? In the wake of the Pistols' demise a new generation of musicians would re-imagine the world they lived in through the music they made. Freed up by punk's DIY ethos, a kaleidoscope of musical influences broke three chord conformity.
Public Image Limited allowed Johnny Rotten to become John Lydon the artist. In Manchester, Magazine would be first to record in the wake of the Pistols' split, Mark E Smith made street poetry while Ian Curtis turned punk's external rage into an existential drama. A raft of left-wing art school intellectuals like Gang of Four and Wire imbued post-punk with a sense of radical politics and conceptualism while the Pop Group infused funk with anti-capitalist sentiment in the early days of Thatcher. Flirting with fascism and violence, the working class Oi! movement tried to drag punk from the Kings Road into the heart of the East End whilst Anarcho punks Crass embarked on the most radical vision of any.
In a time beset by dread and tension perhaps the biggest paranoia was Mutually Assured Destruction essayed perfectly by Young Marble Giants' Final Day. Released in the height of Thatcherism, Ghost Town by The Specials marked a parting of the post-punk waves. Some would remain avowedly uncommercial whilst others would explore pop as a new avenue in the new decade. The song that perhaps summed up post-punk's journey was Orange Juice's Rip It Up and Start Again.
With John Lydon, Howard Devoto, Mark E Smith, Peter Hook, Jerry Dammers, The Raincoats, Wire, Jah Wobble, Mark Stewart, Edwyn Collins, Young Marble Giants and many more.
FRI 00:00 Punk at the BBC (b01k1nhx)
An archive celebration of BBC studio performances from the British bands that broke through courtesy of punk, from its pub rock roots with Dr Feelgood to its explosive heyday with The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Damned, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division and many more.
FRI 01:00 Evidently... John Cooper Clarke (b01jcdbc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 on Wednesday]
FRI 02:00 Blondie: One Way or Another (b0074thn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:30 on Saturday]