Dolly Parton is one of the world's great superstars, feted for her figure as much as for her music. Platinum Blonde goes inside her world to discover the woman under the wigs as she returned to the concert stage in the UK in 2002 after an absence of 20 years. Born into grinding poverty in rural Tennessee, Dolly has risen to the top of her tree in music, films and as a businesswoman who owns her own theme park.
Friends, family and colleagues - including Lily Tomlin, Kenny Rogers, Billy Connolly, Dabney Coleman and Alison Krauss - help tell her story, along with the full and frank views of Dolly herself. With cameo appearances from Sinead O'Connor, Norah Jones, Jonathan Ross and Terry Wogan.
The story of six women with big hair and bigger voices who came out of the South and changed America and its music for good. The 60s and 70s were the golden age for this music from the battlefield of marriage - songs about the hurt and pride of raising a family, about standing by your man (or standing up to him), about going crazy with love.
The six are: Patsy Cline, whose weeping ballads made country music modern; Tammy Wynette, her life a chaos of divorce, violence and pills; Bobbie Gentry, who quit recording 35 years ago; Loretta Lynn, the coalminer's daughter who went on to rock with the White Stripes; Tanya Tucker, a teen queen who made country music sexy; and Dolly Parton, who made millions singing of the world she left behind.
Contributors include Billy Connolly, Jack White, LeAnn Rimes, Lauren Laverne, Crystal Gayle, George Jones and Elvis Costello. Featuring rare archive performances.
The 50 Year Argument is Martin Scorsese's latest film, co-directed with his longtime documentary collaborator David Tedeschi. It charts literary, political and cultural history as per the New York Review of Books, America's leading journal of ideas since 1963. The film weaves rare archive material, interviews and writing by icons such as James Baldwin and Gore Vidal into original verite footage, filmed in the Review's Greenwich Village offices with longtime editor Robert Silvers.
While the Victorians confronted the challenges of ruling an empire, perhaps the most dangerous environment they faced was in their own homes. Householders lapped up the latest products, gadgets and conveniences, but in an era with no health and safety standards they were unwittingly turning their homes into hazardous death traps.
In a genuine horror story, Dr Suzannah Lipscomb reveals the killers that lurked in every room of the Victorian home and shows how they were unmasked. What new innovation killed thousands of babies? And what turned the domestic haven into a ticking time bomb?
Documentary chronicling our ever-changing love affair with the British singles chart on the occasion of its sixtieth anniversary. From the first NME chart in 1952, via Pick and Top of the Pops to home-taping the Radio One chart show and beyond, we have measured out our lives to a wonderful churn of pop driven, unbeknownst to us, by a clandestine world of music biz hustle. Featuring contributions by 60 years of BBC chart custodians from David Jacobs to Reggie Yates, chart fans Grace Dent and Pete Paphides and music biz veterans Jon Webster and Rob Dickins.
Serious and sincere they may have been, never cracking a smile where a tortured, artistic look would do, but this tranche of 80s pop stars know how to make that look work - Eurythmics, Spandau Ballet, Phil Collins, Fine Young Cannibals, Tears for Fears, Suzanne Vega and Simply Red.
MONDAY 30 JUNE 2014
MON 19:00 World News Today (b0486gpt)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00yd1pb)
Series 2
Dumbarton to Tyndrum
Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. Portillo travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains, as he journeys up the west coast of Scotland from Ayr to Skye.
Michael explores the historic Dumbarton shipyards that built the Cutty Sark, visits one of Queen Victoria's favourite haunts, Loch Lomond, and goes hunting for gold in Scotland's mountains.
MON 20:00 Jigs and Wigs: The Extreme World of Irish Dancing (b03zq10k)
Series 1
Episode 4
Viva Las Vegas - feising in Las Vegas. In a world where everything is make believe, male Irish dancers live their own fairytale in a pageant to rival anything seen on the Vegas Strip during Gay Pride week.
MON 20:30 Only Connect (b0486px7)
Series 9
Europhiles v Software Engineers
Three Europhiles take on a trio of computer experts in the second of 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: Apollo 14 mission, 1939 'Timeless Test', William Kempe's London-to-Norwich Morris dance and the reign of Lady Jane Grey.
MON 21:00 Len Goodman's Dance Band Days (b03n2sck)
Len Goodman takes a step back in time to the heyday of British dance bands, a golden age of music that laid the foundations for 20th-century pop. In the years between the wars, band leaders such as Bert Ambrose and Jack Hylton were household names and the country danced its socks off. It was a time of radio and records, when Britain absorbed black American music and gave it a unique twist.
Many of the bands played in the posh society hotels of London's West End. Some were making big money and enjoying the high life. They were also keen to broadcast to the nation via the new BBC. Len discovers that 'Auntie' had a tricky relationship with the bands - though they formed a key part of the corporation's entertainment output, during the 1920s and 1930s there were concerns about the influence of American culture, song-plugging and commercialisation.
Crooning was also developed as a new style of singing, thanks in part to the development of better microphones. But this new 'intimate' form of singing did not impress everyone at the corporation. Despite the BBC's concerns the vocalists continued to enjoy huge success and fame, as did the bands. Len follows the story of vocalist Al Bowlly, a man of huge talent who attracted great public adoration. Al was killed in London's blitz and buried in a mass grave - a sad and symbolic moment in the history of dance bands.
Len discovers how we went dance band crazy and asks why, within just two decades, our love affair with this music began to fall flat.
MON 22:00 Edge of Darkness (b0074p8c)
Compassionate Leave
Classic 1980s conspiracy thriller set in a world of obsessive state security and political power play. Ronald Craven, a Yorkshire policeman is investigating a union election scandal when his daughter, Emma, is shot and killed in front of him. Learning of his daughter's involvement in an ecological group and absolutely determined to trace her killer, Craven goes to London to investigate.
MON 22:55 Majesty and Mortar: Britain's Great Palaces (b047pdzg)
Inventing a National Style
Dan Cruickshank charts the arrival of a new style of palace that borrowed from ancient Rome and beyond, as the kings and queens of Britain demanded that architecture proclaim their right to rule, and even their divinity. From London's Banqueting House to the birth of Buckingham Palace via Kensington, Kew and a new wing at Hampton Court, the palace became like a bejewelled casket to house the monarch. But disaster was around the corner and Britain learned that a palace could transform into a prison overnight.
MON 23:55 A History of Art in Three Colours (b01lng0m)
White
In the Age of Reason, it was the rediscovery of the white columns and marbles of antiquity that made white the most virtuous of colours. For flamboyant JJ Wickelmann and British genius Josiah Wedgwood, white embodied all the Enlightenment's values of justice, equality and reason.
MON 00:55 Only Connect (b0486px7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
MON 01:25 Jigs and Wigs: The Extreme World of Irish Dancing (b03zq10k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
MON 01:55 Lionel Bart: Reviewing the Situation (b03kw1rv)
Documentary telling the larger-than-life story of Lionel Bart, the composer of Oliver! - one of the greatest musicals of the last fifty years. Drawing on his unseen personal archive and interviews with Barbara Windsor, Roy Hudd, Cameron Mackintosh, Marty Wilde and Ray Davies, it paints a vivid, poignant picture of the rise and fall of one of Britain's favourite songwriters.
MON 02:55 Len Goodman's Dance Band Days (b03n2sck)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 01 JULY 2014
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b0486gpz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00yd1x4)
Series 2
Oban to Corrour
Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. Portillo travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains, as he journeys up the west coast of Scotland from Ayr to Skye.
Michael discovers how trains spread the word about Oban whisky, hears about the heroic struggle to build a railway across the desolate Rannoch Moor and visits Corrour, one of the favourite shooting estates of the Victorian political elite.
TUE 20:00 Great British Railway Journeys (b00yd2q7)
Series 2
Roybridge to Glenfinnan
Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. He travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed the people of Britain, and what remains of Bradshaw's experiences today, as he journeys up the west coast of Scotland from Ayr to Skye.
Michael investigates one of the great geological mysteries of the 19th century - the parallel roads of Glenroy. Plus, he finds out how the Victorians put a weather observatory on the top of Ben Nevis and takes a steam train across one of the most spectacular viaducts in Britain at Glenfinnan.
TUE 20:30 Commonwealth on Film (b0486px4)
Work
A look at how film-makers over the decades have captured the rich diversity of the Commonwealth and the work that people do, from Trinidad to Australia, Kenya to Barbados, Canada, India and beyond.
TUE 21:00 Rebels Of Oz: Germaine, Clive, Barry and Bob (b0486smr)
Episode 1
Robert Hughes is dead, Clive James is dying, Barry Humphries is on his farewell tour with Dame Edna and Sir Les, and Germaine Greer is still upsetting the proverbial applecart. Now is the opportune moment to reflect on the titanic impact these four Australians made in the cultural milieu of London and New York. With this in his sights, author and unashamed Australia admirer Howard Jacobson, a Man Booker Prize winner who has met all four, sets out on a journey of discovery into how these pugnacious 'Wizards of Oz' left the backwater of Australia and became towering forces in the cultural epicentres of London and New York.
In episode one, Howard focuses on the background of the four rebels. The formation of their formidable intellects and extraordinary cultural knowledge, he argues, was only possible because of their distance from what they saw as the real home of culture - Europe. In intimate and revealing interviews with Clive, Germaine and Barry, he discusses the importance of their fathers, their craving to escape the confines of what they saw as a vulgar and cultureless place, and their time together as part of Sydney's 'Push' movement.
TUE 22:00 Rabbit-Proof Fence (b0074sr8)
Australian drama set in the 1930s about three mixed-race girls who are brutally torn from their Aboriginal mother and sent over a thousand miles away to a training camp for domestic workers as part of a government policy to forcibly integrate them into white society.
Linking the camp and their distant home territory is a vast rabbit-proof fence, which stretches from one coast to another and just might help the girls find their way back.
TUE 23:25 Skippy: Australia's First Superstar (b00qvl9g)
Documentary telling the story of Australia's most cherished TV star, Skippy the bush kangaroo, the crime-busting marsupial who conquered the world in the late 60s and early 70s.
The 91 episodes of Skippy were sold in 128 countries and watched by hundreds of millions. It put Australia on the map and - for those of a certain generation - the heroic marsupial is synonymous with their childhood, often in more profound ways than they realise.
Includes interviews with every surviving member of the cast and some of the key crew - not least those responsible for getting the best performances out of the temperamental star.
TUE 00:25 A History of Britain by Simon Schama (b0074kyy)
Series 1
Dynasty
Henry II built one of the greatest empires the medieval world had seen - only to see his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and his scheming sons tear it all to pieces. He also created the jury system and the first legal statute books, but is best remembered as the man who ordered the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, his best friend turned bitterest enemy.
TUE 01:25 Hidden Killers (b01rp5hh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:40 on Sunday]
TUE 02:25 Commonwealth on Film (b0486px4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
TUE 02:55 Rebels Of Oz: Germaine, Clive, Barry and Bob (b0486smr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 02 JULY 2014
WED 19:00 World News Today (b0486gq4)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00yd34b)
Series 2
Lochailort to Skye
Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. Portillo travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed the people of Britain and what remains of Bradshaw's experiences today.
As he journeys up the west coast of Scotland from Ayr to Skye, Michael discovers how the railways helped train the first generation of commandos at Lochailort in World War II, finds out why langoustines have replaced herrings as the top catch in the fishing port of Mallaig and sails across the sea to Skye to explore the history of the highland crofters.
WED 20:00 She-Wolves: England's Early Queens (b01dpqtx)
Jane, Mary and Elizabeth
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.
Helen looks at what happened when England was faced not just with inadequate kings, but no kings at all. In 1553, for the first time in English history all the contenders for the crown were female. In the lives of these three Tudor queens - Jane, Mary and Elizabeth - she explores how each woman struggled in turn with wearing a crown that was made for a male head. Elizabeth I seemed to show that not only could a woman rule, but could do so gloriously. But at what cost?
WED 21:00 Majesty and Mortar: Britain's Great Palaces (b0488trx)
Opening the Palace Doors
With the widowhood of Queen Victoria, the glorious life of palaces almost came to an abrupt end. There would be just one final flowering of palatial style just before the First World War, on an imperial scale - the redesign of Buckingham Palace and The Mall. The interwar period was a difficult time for many of Britain's best palaces, forced into a half-life of grace-and-favour accommodation for exiled royalty and aristocracy down on their luck. But more recent times would see restoration and conservation on a new scale and, with it, detective work to uncover palace secrets.
WED 22:00 The Queen's Castle (b00792nm)
The Banquet
Three-part documentary series which goes behind the scenes at the Queen's favourite home, Windsor Castle. President Chirac of France and his retinue are coming to stay. Not only must the castle look spectacular, but the kitchens must produce a banquet to impress the first nation of food. On top of all that, the castle is attempting to stage a performance of Les Miserables in one of the state apartments as after-dinner entertainment.
WED 23:00 Swarm: Nature's Incredible Invasions (b00gq43y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
WED 00:00 Caravans: A British Love Affair (b00hw3s0)
Documentary about the love affair between the British and their caravans, which saw the country establish the world's largest caravan manufacturer and transformed the holiday habits of generations of families.
In telling the intriguing story of caravanning in Britain from the 1950s through to the present day, the film reveals how caravans were once the plaything of a privileged minority, but after World War II became a firm favourite with almost a quarter of British holidaymakers.
It explores how changes in caravanning across the years reflect wider changes in British society, in particular the increased availability of cars during the 1950s and 60s, but also the improved roads network and changing attitudes towards holidaymaking and leisure time.
Enthusiasts and contributors include Dorrie van Lachterop from the West Midlands and Christine Fagg from Hertfordshire, remarkable and adventurous women who started touring alone in their caravans during the 1950s.
WED 01:00 Parks and Recreation (b01skwfj)
Series 2
Woman of the Year
Leslie is outraged when Ron wins a Woman of the Year award for a project she started. Tom is desperate to find some money to invest in a local Pawnee club.
WED 01:20 Parks and Recreation (b01skwfm)
Series 2
The Possum
When a possum bites the mayor's dog on a golf course, Leslie is asked to form a task force to catch the pesky animal. Ron is upset when Mark refuses to bend the rules for him.
WED 01:45 She-Wolves: England's Early Queens (b01dpqtx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 02:45 Majesty and Mortar: Britain's Great Palaces (b0488trx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 03 JULY 2014
THU 19:00 World News Today (b0486gq9)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0488tsh)
Weekly pop chart programme presented by David Jensen. Includes performances from The Real Thing, Dave Edmunds, Darts, UK Subs, the Pretenders, The Knack, Sparks, The Boomtown Rats, The Dooleys, ABBA, The Korgis and Tubeway Army. Plus a dance sequence by Legs & Co.
THU 20:00 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.
THU 21:00 A History of Britain by Simon Schama (b0074kzy)
Series 1
Nations
The British history series continues with the story of Edward I - known by many as the villainous king in the Hollywood film Braveheart - who tried to force English rule on Scotland and Wales, but found the resultant slaughter only served to inspire bold declarations of independence. When the king was eventually forced to listen to the parliament of his own people, England would also learn what it meant to be a nation.
THU 22:00 Rise of the Continents (p019bd2j)
Australia
Professor Iain Stewart uncovers the mysterious history of Australia, and shows how Australia's journey as a continent has affected everything from Aboriginal history to modern-day mining, and even the evolution of Australia's bizarre wildlife, like the koala.
Iain begins searching for the platypus - a strange creature that is half mammal and half reptile. 200 million years ago reptile-like mammals were found across much of the world because at this time Australia was just one part of a huge landmass called Gondwana, that dominated the southern hemisphere.
Piecing together evidence from fossils found in a sea cliff outside Sydney and rocks recovered from Captain Scott's expedition to the South Pole, Professor Stewart shows that Gondwana was covered by a forest of now extinct trees called glossopteris. This was the habitat of the ancestors of today's platypus.
To discover the fate of Gondwana, Iain visits an unusual mining town called Coober Pedy where many of the buildings are underground in dug-out caves. The opals that are mined here enable him to recreate the breakup of Gondwana, and also show how Australia's formation led to the creation of a vast underground aquifer. This source of hidden water sustained the Aboriginal people as they criss-crossed the otherwise arid Australian interior.
Iain travels to the cliffs of the Australian Bight to show how Australia was once joined to Antarctica, and how their split led to the evolution of the biggest group of mammals on earth - the filter feeding whales.
Australia's journey away from Antarctica has also left its mark on the koala. Its big, round face and fluffy ears are a result of adaptations to the climate change that Australia has undergone on its northwards journey.
Finally Iain travels to Indonesia to meet the Bajau people of the Banda Sea - sea gypsies who glean almost all they need to live from the waters around them. Contained within these waters is evidence that shows Australia's eventual fate. Over the next 50 million years, Australia will collide with Asia, its isolation will be over, and it will become forested and lush once again.
THU 23:00 Battlefield Britain (b0078ry5)
The Battle of Naseby
Peter and Dan Snow go back 350 years to tell the story of a battle that shook the British royal family to its core. It was the turning point in a civil war that had ripped the country apart for three long years. With the aid state-of-the-art graphics, father and son reveal the crucial moments of a battle that is seen by many as the starting point of British democracy.
Dan Snow experiences at first hand what it would have been like for the ordinary foot-soldiers as they struggled with cumbersome pikes and Peter joins his son on the back of a motorbike, where they try their skills with a sword in a simulated cavalry charge.
THU 00:00 Rebels Of Oz: Germaine, Clive, Barry and Bob (b0486smr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
THU 01:00 Top of the Pops (b0488tsh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 01:40 Precision: The Measure of All Things (b02xgf5d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 02:40 A History of Britain by Simon Schama (b0074kzy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 04 JULY 2014
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b0486gqg)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Symphony (b0170bm6)
Beethoven and Beyond
Simon Russell Beale continues his journey into the world of the symphony with the story of the revolutionary later symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven and their phenomenal impact. We also meet Franz Schubert, whose two greatest symphonies were only discovered after his tragic early death, the obsessive French Romantic Hector Berlioz and the flamboyant pianist turned composer Franz Liszt. The music is performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Halle, conducted by Sir Mark Elder.
FRI 20:30 Sounds of the Eighties (b0074sk2)
Episode 3
Musical memories from the BBC archives. This edition concentrates on the soul and funk artists who found success in the British charts of the 1980s, with performances from Kool and the Gang, The Pointer Sisters, Grace Jones, Cameo, Bobby Womack, Sade, Alexander O'Neal and Whitney Houston.
FRI 21:00 The Richest Songs in the World (b01pjrt5)
Mark Radcliffe presents a countdown of the ten songs which have earned the most money of all time - ten classic songs each with an extraordinary story behind them. Radcliffe lifts the lid on how music royalties work and reveals the biggest winners and losers in the history of popular music.
FRI 22:30 Neil Sedaka: King of Song (b03v2yxt)
Neil Sedaka is one of the most successful American singer-songwriters of the last century. A classically trained musician, he won a scholarship to the Juilliard School at the age of nine and four years later he embarked on a writing career that would see him create some of the most perfect pop songs of all time. Throughout his career he wrote, recorded and sang a number of instantly recognisable and memorable tunes, as well as delivering a string of hits as a songwriter for other artists.
This documentary portrait film tells the story of Neil Sedaka's life and career, in which he had two distinct periods of success. Between 1958 and 1963 he sold over 25 million records, but then his career nose-dived after the Beatles and the British Invasion hit the USA. Leaving his homeland, he found success in the UK in the early 1970s and relaunched his career before returning to the US and achieving new stardom with songs like Solitaire and Laughter in the Rain.
Neil gives great insight into how he created catchy classics like Calendar Girl, (Is This the Way to) Amarillo, Breaking Up Is Hard to Do, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen and Stupid Cupid, amongst many others.
FRI 23:30 Neil Sedaka Says: All You Need Is the Music (b00pwstt)
During a career which was originally designed to make him a classical pianist, the musical achievements and statistics of singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka have made him a compelling figure in contemporary music, with 600 songs written and 20 million records sold. The hits from his early rock 'n' roll days to his later, more lyrical age are all included in this special one-man show from the 1980s.
FRI 00:15 Sounds of the Eighties (b0074sk2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
FRI 00:45 The Richest Songs in the World (b01pjrt5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:15 Neil Sedaka: King of Song (b03v2yxt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
FRI 03:15 Neil Sedaka Says: All You Need Is the Music (b00pwstt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:30 today]