The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
Melvyn Bragg, accompanied by a vintage mobile cinema, travels across the country, to show incredible footage preserved by the British Film Institute and other national and regional film archives, to tell the history of modern Britain.
This episode comes from Osterley Park in Middlesex, the site of the first Home Guard training school, and looks back to the Second World War and a time when millions of ordinary men were prepared to die for their country.
Home Guard recruit Robert Brown comes face to face with his father as a Home Guard company commander, Dad's Army creator Jimmy Perry explains why he signed up to the Home Guard, and Ken Chambers shares his own extraordinary stories from his time in the Home Guard, some of which could have been taken straight from Dad's Army.
In the wake of the swine flu outbreak, virologist Dr Mike Leahy uses over 50 years of BBC archive to explore the history of pandemics - infectious diseases caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites.
Inspired by the Horizon back catalogue, he tells the extraordinary story of smallpox, one of the most violent killers in history, as well as the success of mass vaccination and the global politics of malaria. Through the lens of television the programme charts our scientific progress from the early steps in understanding AIDS to the code-cracking of SARS and deadly predictions of bird flu.
Each pandemic episode tells us something about the world and our place within it. In his journey through the ages Dr Leahy charts science's ongoing battle with nature and questions which one is winning.
Hormones shape each and every one of us, affecting almost every aspect of our lives - our height, our weight, our appetites, how we grow and reproduce, and even how we behave and feel.
This documentary tells the wonderful and often weird story of how hormones were discovered.
Presenter John Wass, one the country's leading experts on hormones, relates some amazing stories - how as recently as the 19th century boys were castrated to keep their pure soprano voice, how juices were extracted from testicles in the hope they would rejuvenate old men and how true medical heroes like Frederick Banting discovered a way to make insulin, thus saving the lives of countless diabetes sufferers.
And hormones remain at the cutting edge of medicine as we try and deal with modern scourges like obesity.
Trying to get the word out about the Harvest Festival, Leslie, Ben and Tom do radio, TV and newspaper interviews. A media storm hits when Ben has to answer tricky questions about his past as a teen mayor. Andy struggles to win back April's heart and Ann summons the courage to discuss her relationship with Chris.
Leslie and Ron drive to Indianapolis to receive commendation for the upcoming Pawnee Harvest Festival. Tom hosts a launch party for a local cologne maker in hopes of pitching him his fragrance 'Tommy Fresh'. Andy and April discover how to have fun without spending any money.
THURSDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2014
THU 19:00 World News Today (b03wcj02)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b03wryq4)
Mike Read presents another edition of the weekly pop chart show, including performances from the Skids, Thin Lizzy, Chic and David Essex. With dance sequences by Legs & Co.
THU 20:00 Ever Decreasing Circles (b036d6l1)
Series 2
A Married Man
Ann and Martin invite Paul and his girlfriend to dinner, but things don't go as smoothly as they'd planned.
THU 20:30 Brushing up on... (b03wsn6r)
Series 2
Miniature Britain
Danny Baker embarks on a Lilliputian odyssey through all things titchy - from model trains to pint-sized cows via the mecca of the miniature, the model village.
THU 21:00 The Brits Who Built the Modern World (b03wctxm)
The Politics of Power
Series looking at how an exceptional generation of British architects, led by Norman Foster and Richard Rogers, conquered the globe with their high-tech vision.
The final episode focuses on the period from the late 90s to the present day, when they were at the peak of their success - building iconic landmarks across Britain and the world - but also faced some of the biggest controversies of their careers. Rogers reveals what went wrong with the Millennium Dome, Foster recalls the wobbles of London's Millennium Bridge and Michael Hopkins explains how his new parliamentary building, Portcullis House, became the most expensive office block in Britain.
Also featured are the stories behind some of Britain's most popular modern architecture - Nicholas Grimshaw's Eden Project and Foster's 'Gherkin' - and a look at this generation's success overseas, including Terry Farrell's success in China.
THU 22:00 Storyville (b03wctxp)
Soccer Coach Zoran and his African Tigers
A gripping story of triumph and failure, set in the world's youngest country.
South Sudan became an independent state in 2011, following almost 50 years of civil war. This documentary follows veteran Serbian coach Zoran Djordjevic as he seeks to forge South Sudan's first national football team. What follows is a fascinating and original portrait of the birth of a nation.
Although still steeped in traumatic memories, the new nation is seeking to make a mark on the international soccer stage under the dynamic and hugely ambitious new coach. The film follows the team over its first year, from the hunt for new players to buying a sheep to be its mascot and the side's first international games. Zoran's aggressive style soon leads to conflict with the chair of the soccer federation. As the euphoria of independence subsides, the team finds itself hit by bitter infighting, malaria and a financial crisis that threatens the state itself.
THU 23:15 Dissected (p01mv2rj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
THU 00:15 Brian Pern (b03wcsfv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Monday]
THU 00:45 Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain (b0394j6q)
A Revolution in the City
Using her 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.
Destruction, whether intentional or circumstantial, often creates a clean slate and demands a fresh outlook in which we come to think the unthinkable. This programme looks at bold, and in some cases shocking, plans to make revolutionary changes to Britain's biggest cities.
In the mid 17th century, the capital was reeling from the devastation caused by the Great Fire of London. But amid the destruction, a huge opportunity arose to completely remodel and modernise London and make it into a very different city than the one we know today.
London was effectively a blank sheet of paper and, within a week of the city being razed to the ground, architect Sir Christopher Wren presented King Charles II with a vision to create a completely new city. Wren wanted the winding streets and old courtyards that had existed almost unchanged since medieval times to be replaced by monumental Parisian-style avenues in a formal grid pattern with large piazzas. This was a unique opportunity to improve on the past but, while Wren's design for St Paul's Cathedral did become a reality, London was reconstructed on essentially the same street plan as before the fire.
Three centuries later, Glasgow was the second city of the empire and the industrial powerhouse of the nation, but was struggling to cope with overcrowding and slum housing. Many believed the only solution was to start again. The city's leading planner, Robert Bruce, proposed demolishing the entire city centre - the celebrated buildings of Mackintosh and Greek Thompson would all have been bulldozed - to create a 1940s vision of the future. The new Glasgow would have been built as a system of regular tower blocks, ringed by a motorway, built in districts according to function. Bruce's justification for these drastic proposals was the creation of a new 'healthy and beautiful city'. Although his plan was not realised in its entirety, many of his ideas were carried out, and the M8 motorway which cuts right through the city centre is probably the most visible legacy of the 'Bruce Report'.
In both plans, destruction was the driving force behind creating a new city on a fresh slate. Separated in time by 300 years, these two radical thinkers, Christopher Wren and Robert Bruce, devised colossal, transformative schemes for their respective cities in a bid to create their very personal vision of the 'perfect city'.
THU 01:45 Top of the Pops (b03wryq4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 02:25 Ever Decreasing Circles (b036d6l1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 02:55 The Brits Who Built the Modern World (b03wctxm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2014
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b03wcj07)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Elgar: The Man Behind the Mask (b00vv0zx)
The composer of Land of Hope and Glory is often regarded as the quintessential English gentleman, but Edward Elgar's image of hearty nobility was deliberately contrived. In reality, he was the son of a shopkeeper, who was awkward, nervous, self-pitying and often rude, while his marriage to his devoted wife Alice was complicated by romantic entanglements which fired his creative energy.
In this revelatory portrait of a musical genius, John Bridcut explores the secret conflicts in Elgar's nature which produced some of Britain's greatest music.
FRI 21:00 Hello Quo (b03hy6vp)
You don't sell 128 million albums worldwide without putting in the graft and Status Quo are, quite possibly, the hardest-working band in Britain. Alan G Parker's documentary Hello Quo, specially re-edited for the BBC, recounts the band's epic story from the beginning - when south London schoolmates Francis Rossi and Alan Lancaster formed their first band with big ambitions of rock 'n' roll domination, quickly adding drummer John Coghlan and guitarist Rick Parfitt.
The film tells the story of Quo's hits from their unusually psychedelic early hit, Pictures of Matchstick Men, followed by a run through their classics from Down Down to Whatever You Want.
The band laughs off the constant ribbing about only using three chords and the film explores how Quo's heads-down boogie defined UK rock in the early 70s. Fender Stratocaster in hand, Quo have stood their ground and never shifted, but they have managed to adapt to scoring pop hits over five decades.
The original members of the 'frantic four' tell their story of a life in rock 'n' roll, alongside interviews from some prominent Quo fans, such as Paul Weller, whose first gig was the Quo at Guildford Civic Hall, to Brian May, who waxes lyrically about the opening riff to Pictures of Matchstick Men, while even Sir Cliff plays homage to the denim-clad rockers.
FRI 22:20 TOTP2 (b03j113z)
Status Quo
TOTP2 pays homage to eternal rockers Status Quo. From their first hit, the band has had 46 years of being perhaps the hardest working band in Britain with over 128 million record sales to boot. TOTP2 has gathered some of Quo's finest Top of the Pops performances - there's 106 of them, from their first TOTP appearance in 1968 with the psychedelic Pictures of Matchstick Men, to their last in 2005 with The Party Ain't Over Yet.
The Quo has gone on to outlive Top of the Pops and this compilation charts their success with many of their greatest hits including Rockin' All Over the World, Whatever You Want, Mystery Song and Living on an Island. Don your double denim and prepare to get Down Down!
FRI 23:05 Classic Albums (b00vlq0y)
Black Sabbath: Paranoid
The second album by Black Sabbath, released in 1970, has long attained classic status. Paranoid not only changed the face of rock music, but also defined the sound and style of heavy metal more than any other record in rock history. The result of a magic chemistry which had been discovered between four English musicians, it put Black Sabbath firmly on the road to world domination.
This programme tells the story behind the writing, recording and success of the album. Despite vilification from the Christian and moral right and all the harsh criticism that the music press could hurl at them, Paranoid catapulted Sabbath into the rock stratosphere.
Using exclusive interviews, musical demonstration, archive footage and a return to the multi-tracks with engineer Tom Allom, the film reveals how Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward created their frighteningly dark, heavy and ear-shatteringly loud sound.
Additional comments from Phil Alexander (MOJO & Kerrang! editor), Geoff Barton (Classic Rock editor), Henry Rollins (writer/musician) and Jim Simpson (original manager) add insight to the creation of this all-time classic.
FRI 00:00 Guitar Heroes at the BBC (b00plj0l)
Part VI
In this sixth and final show to round out the Guitar Heroes series, axe fans get classic riffs from Pete Townshend as The Who play Won't Get Fooled Again, Rod and Ronnie with The Faces doing Miss Judy's Farm at the old BBC TV Theatre, some weird yodel-rock from Dutch prog rockers Focus, folky acoustic numbers from Davey Graham and Ralph McTell, and some flamboyant fretwork from Americans Nils Lofgren and Ted Nugent.
Filmed in the 1970s for shows including Top of the Pops and The Old Grey Whistle Test, these tracks pay tribute to a golden era in rock and to the last of the 70s Guitar Heroes.
Complete line-up:
The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again
The Faces - Miss Judy's Farm
Focus - Hocus Pocus
Man - Day and Night
Chris Spedding - Motor Bikin'
Nils Lofgren - Back It Up
The Cate Brothers - In One Eye and Out the Other
Ralph McTell - Dry Bone Rag
The Runaways - Wasted
The Motors - Dancing the Night Away
Ted Nugent - Free For All
The Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love
Gary Moore - Back on the Streets
Judas Priest - Take on the World
Davey Graham - City and Suburban Blues
ZZ Top - Cheap Sunglasses.
FRI 01:00 Hello Quo (b03hy6vp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:20 TOTP2 (b03j113z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:20 today]
FRI 03:05 Sounds of the 70s 2 (b01h7pzm)
Troubadours – Peaceful Easy Feeling
In the early 70s as the UK got to grips with the new coinage and decimalisation and braced itself for strike after strike, a group of young troubadours were hanging out in Laurel Canyon and the environs of California USA having a ball and creating music that would define a generation. It's time to kick back and relax and enjoy performances from Crosby and Nash, Neil Young, America, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Carole King, The Eagles, and Seals and Crofts.