The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with his copy of Bradshaw's Victorian railway guidebook, he travels the length and breadth of the British Isles to see what of Bradshaw's world remains. Michael is exploring the stunning scenery of rural and coastal Scotland, travelling from Stirling, through the industrial east coast and dramatic Highland landscapes, to the beauty of the western lochs, finally ending his journey in John O'Groats. Michael learns how Victorian whisky trains were raided by robbers, travels along one of Scotland's most impressive viaducts and discovers that life is not always sweet on a shortbread production line.
Professor Mark Miodownik concludes his odyssey of the stuff of modern life. This time he looks at how materials have enabled us to indulge our curiosity about the world around us. To go further and travel faster. He looks at how the bicycle suddenly stirred our national gene pool, why we should all be grateful for exploding glass and what levitation has to do with discovering your inner self. On the road and in the lab with dramatic experiments, Mark reveals why the everyday and even the mundane is anything but.
Timeshift tells the story of how a traditional working-class pub game became a national obsession during the 1970s and 80s, and looks at the key role television played in elevating its larger-than-life players into household names.
Siobhan Finneran narrates a documentary which charts the game's surprising history, its cross-class and cross-gender appeal, and the star players that, for two decades, transformed a pub pastime into a sporting spectacle like no other.
Featuring legendary names such as Alan Evans and Jocky Wilson and including contributions from Eric Bristow, Bobby George, John Lowe and Phil Taylor.
Timeshift turns back the clock to a time when villains wore silver capes, grannies swooned at the sight of bulky men in latex and the most masculine man in the country was called Shirley. In its heyday, British professional wrestling attracted huge TV audiences and made household names of generations of wrestlers from Mick McManus and Jackie 'Mr TV' Pallo to Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy. With contributions from inside the world of wrestling and surprising fans such as artist Peter Blake, this is an affectionate and lively portrait of a lost era of simpler pleasures, both in and out of the ring.
In Uganda few people are willing to talk about mental illness. Those who suffer are frequently isolated, shunned by their community and rejected by their families. Our World meets a man who has broken the silence and is encouraging other psychiatric patients to speak openly about living with mental illness.
Andrew Graham-Dixon begins his exploration of German art by looking at the rich and often neglected art of the German middle ages and Renaissance.
He visits the towering cathedral of Cologne, a place which encapsulates the varied and often contradictory character of German art. In Munich he gets to grips with the earliest paintings of the Northern Renaissance, the woodcuts of Albrecht Durer and the cosmic visions of the painter Albrecht Altdorfer. Andrew also embarks on a tour of the Bavarian countryside, discovering some of the little-known treasures of German limewood sculpture.
They are the miracle pills that shouldn't really work at all. Placebos come in all shapes and sizes, but they contain no active ingredient. Now they are being shown to help treat pain, depression and even alleviate some of the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Horizon explores why they work, and how we could all benefit from the hidden power of the placebo.
THURSDAY 11 JUNE 2015
THU 19:00 World News Today (b05y1crs)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b05yt1c2)
David 'Kid' Jensen presents chart hits of the week. Guests include Liquid Gold, Hot Chocolate, Elton John, Don McLean, Thin Lizzy, Roxy Music, OMD, Jermaine Jackson, Stiff Little Fingers, Mystic Merlin and Lena Zavaroni. Includes a dance sequence by Legs & Co.
THU 20:00 Castles: Britain's Fortified History (b04v85sy)
Defence of the Realm
Sam Willis explores how, by the Wars of the Roses, castles were under attack from a new threat - the cannon - but survived into the Tudor era only to find their whole purpose challenged. What had once been strategic seats of power now had to keep up with the fickle fashions of the court and become palaces to impress monarchs such as Elizabeth I.
Just as castles seemed to have lost their defensive function, the English Civil War erupted. The legacy of that tumultuous period resulted in castles no longer being associated with protection. Rather, their ruins took on a unique appeal, embodying a nostalgia for an age of chivalry that became a powerful part of the national psyche.
THU 21:00 Chris Packham's Natural Selection (b05yt1c4)
Naturalist Chris Packham is joined by two of his heroes - Jeremy Deller and George Monbiot - to discuss art, television and communing with a gorilla.
THU 22:00 The Artful Codgers (b05yxb3t)
The Greenhalgh family from Lancashire conned the art world with a series of fakes sold to museums, galleries and collectors all over the globe, made in the garden shed of their shared council house in suburban Bolton. This highly acclaimed film uncovers the secret world of the most unlikely art forgers in history, interviewing the police who uncovered them, the experts they deceived and their friends and neighbours.
For over 17 years, led by 87-year-old pensioner George, the family systematically deceived the art world, including dealers, auction houses, museums and private collectors. Despite having made hundreds of thousands of pounds from selling dozens of fakes, the family continued to lead a modest existence, totally cut off from the outside world with only themselves and their forgeries for company.
While Shaun was busy carving, casting and painting the forgeries, his elderly father George was the salesman behind the operation. He played the part of the doddery old man to perfection, fooling the various experts that he came across into thinking that he had no idea of the value of what he possessed. But the family had, in fact, carefully researched lost masterpieces in art reference books from their local libraries, and skilfully assembled stories about the fakes' provenances that some experts and auction houses believed.
Finally, in November 2005, their cottage industry in art and antiquities began to unravel when a minor error in an 'ancient' Assyrian tablet his son Shaun had knocked up in their garden shed was spotted by the British Museum. The police raided the Greenhalgh family home and discovered a house littered with fakes, among which were three of Shaun's previous attempts at creating the Amarna Princess, a statue of Tutankhamun's sister purported to be over 3,000 years old, which they had sold for £440,000 to Bolton Council.
THU 22:50 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.
THU 23:50 After Life: The Strange Science of Decay (b012w66t)
Ever wondered what would happen in your own home if you were taken away, and everything inside was left to rot? The answer is revealed in this fascinating programme, which explores the strange and surprising science of decay.
For two months in summer 2011, a glass box containing a typical kitchen and garden was left to rot in full public view within Edinburgh Zoo. In this resulting documentary, presenter Dr George McGavin and his team use time-lapse cameras and specialist photography to capture the extraordinary way in which moulds, microbes and insects are able to break down our everyday things and allow new life to emerge from old.
Decay is something that many of us are repulsed by. But as the programme shows, it's a process that's vital in nature. And seen in close-up, it has an unexpected and sometimes mesmerising beauty.
THU 01:20 Your Inner Fish: An Evolution Story (b05yxzxc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Tuesday]
THU 02:20 Castles: Britain's Fortified History (b04v85sy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRIDAY 12 JUNE 2015
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b05y1cry)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Concerto at the BBC Proms (b01k031g)
Mendelssohn Violin
Another chance to hear a live performance from the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall of one of the most popular and frequently performed violin concertos of all time, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, recorded at the first night of the BBC Proms in 2005. Exciting and versatile violin soloist Janine Jansen performs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductor, Sir Roger Norrington.
FRI 20:00 Dancing in the Blitz: How World War II Made British Ballet (p01s4z2h)
David Bintley, director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, explores how the Second World War was the making of British ballet and how fundamental the years of hardship and adversity were in getting the British public to embrace ballet. Bintley shows how the then Sadler's Wells Ballet Company, led by Ninette de Valois and featuring a star-studded generation of British dancers and choreographers including Margot Fonteyn and Frederick Ashton, was forged during the Second World War.
It's the story of how de Valois and her small company of dancers took what was essentially a foreign art form and made it British despite the falling bombs, the rationing and the call-up. Plus it is the story of how Britain, as a nation, fell in love with ballet.
Using rare and previously unseen footage and interviews with dance icons such as Dame Gillian Lynne and Dame Beryl Grey, Bintley shows how the Sadler's Wells Ballet company survived an encounter with Nazi forces in Holland, dancing whilst the bombs were falling in the Blitz, rationing and a punishing touring schedule to bring ballet to the British people as an antidote to the austerity the country faced to emerge, postwar, as the Royal Ballet.
FRI 21:00 Otis Redding: Soul Ambassador (b020tphg)
Documentary about the legendary soul singer Otis Redding, following him from childhood and marriage to the Memphis studios and segregated southern clubs where he honed his unique stage act and voice. Through unseen home movies, the film reveals how Otis's 1967 tour of Britain dramatically changed his life and music. After bringing soul to Europe, he returned to conquer America, first with the 'love crowd' at the Monterey Festival and then with Dock of the Bay, which topped the charts only after his death at just 26.
Includes rare and unseen performances, intimate interviews with Otis's wife and daughter and with original band members Steve Cropper and Booker T Jones. Also featured are British fans whose lives were changed by seeing him, among them Rod Stewart, Tom Jones and Bryan Ferry.
FRI 22:00 Classic Soul at the BBC (b0074pvv)
A collection of some of the greatest soul performances from the BBC's archive, featuring Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Dusty Springfield, Isaac Hayes, Solomon Burke and Percy Sledge.
FRI 23:00 Pop Life (b01d7k4n)
I'm in a Girl Group!
It is as true today as it was in the early days of rock 'n' roll - a girl group in full sway is an irresistible and uplifting force of nature, while life within the group is a heady and combustible mix of talent, ambition and hairspray. Members of legendary girl groups Bananarama, the Bangles, Sister Sledge, the Ronettes, the Supremes, the Spice Girls and Girls Aloud discuss what it is really like inside these mysterious sisterhoods.
FRI 00:00 Blondie's New York... and the Making of Parallel Lines (b04fmgkb)
Blondie's album Parallel Lines captured the spirit of 1970s New York at a time of poverty, crime and an exploding artistic life, selling 16 million copies. This is the story of that album, that time and that city, told primarily by the seven individuals who wrote, produced and performed it. It was a calculated and painstaking endeavour to produce sure-fire hits - whatever it took.
The film follows Debbie Harry and the rest of the Blondie crew as they head into the studio to record their game-changing album with producer Mike Chapman. It also features commentary from Harry herself about writing music, the media's focus on her appearance and lyrically inspirational ex-boyfriends.
In 1978 the New York band Blondie had two punk albums behind them and were establishing a name for themselves at the club CBGBs on New York's Lower East Side. Then Chrysalis Records exec Terry Ellis saw them and spent a massive $1m buying out their recording contract. He had to ensure that their next album was a hit - there was no room for error. To do this he brought in maverick Australian record producer Mike Chapman, who already had a string of hits under his belt. Mike's job was to turn this crew of New York punks into world stars - but did they have the popular songs which would appeal to a wider non-punk audience?
At a time when rich creativity, grinding poverty and drug abuse were hand in hand on the sidewalks of the Lower East Side, the music and lyrics of Parallel Lines celebrated and captured this vibrant and edgy chemistry, shooting the band to international stardom.
FRI 00:50 Otis Redding: Soul Ambassador (b020tphg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 01:50 Classic Soul at the BBC (b0074pvv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 02:50 Pop Life (b01d7k4n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 today]