Horizon goes behind the scenes at Nasa as they count down to the landing of a 2.5 billion-dollar rover on the surface of Mars. The nuclear-powered vehicle, the size of a car, will be winched down onto the surface of the red planet from a rocket-powered crane. That's if things go according to plan; Mars has become known as the Bermuda Triangle of space because so many missions there have ended in failure. The Curiosity mission is the most audacious, and expensive, attempt to answer the question of whether there is life on Mars.
With the exciting news that the Philae lander had woken up on comet 67P, Sky at Night reveals the latest results from the Rosetta comet landing. What have they learnt so far from Philae's onboard instruments? What do the stunning images from Rosetta tell us about the formation and structure of comets? And project scientist Matt Taylor shows how Rosetta is measuring the growing tail of the comet as it hurtles towards the sun.
Chris Packham explores the evolution of the great ape's brain to reveal how different parts have been adapted over time by its anatomy, ingenuity and sociability, culminating in one of the most complex brains on the planet. Chris examines how the ability to use two hands asymmetrically sets the great ape apart from other tool-using animals and how social living is linked to the evolution of the amygdala in both humans and our ape cousins. New research reveals how bonobos' peace-loving reputation may have developed through a similar domestication process to that undergone by our pet dogs.
Actor Cillian Murphy, who played the lead role in Ken Loach's Palme d'Or-winning film The Wind That Shakes the Barley, talks to the director at the BFI Southbank about a prolific career dedicated to documenting social and political injustice, the importance of artistic collaboration, the often-overlooked humour in Loach's films, and the impact working with Loach had on his own approach to acting.
Gritty social-realist drama. Determined to have a normal family life once his mother gets out of prison, Greenock teenager Liam devises a plan to raise enough money to buy a new home for himself and his mother.
They are the biggest questions that science can possibly ask: where did everything in our universe come from? How did it all begin? For nearly a hundred years, we thought we had the answer - a big bang some 14 billion years ago.
But now some scientists believe that was not really the beginning. Our universe may have had a life before this violent moment of creation.
Horizon takes the ultimate trip into the unknown to explore a dizzying world of cosmic bounces, rips and multiple universes, and finds out what happened before the big bang.
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.
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.
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.
MONDAY 15 JUNE 2015
MON 19:00 World News Today (b05z28jm)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b01q9yk5)
Series 4
Inverness to Plockton
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.
In this programme, Michael explores the scenery of rural and coastal Scotland, travelling from Stirling to the beauty of the western lochs, ending his journey in John O'Groats. Michael rides one of Scotland's most picturesque railways, visits Scotland's smallest station and learns what went into a Victorian-style spa break.
MON 20:00 Great British Railway Journeys (b01q9z0k)
Series 4
Invergordon to John O'Groats
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 one man's vision helped bring train travel to the Highlands, discovers how farming has changed since Bradshaw's day and hears the remarkable tale of Scotland's Victorian gold rush.
MON 20:30 Secret Knowledge (b05z5hc0)
Thomas Chatterton: The Myth of the Doomed Poet
Poet Michael Symmons Roberts explores the mythic afterlife of the 18th-century poet Thomas Chatterton. With access to rare documents and artefacts, and featuring a surprising interview with Queen guitarist Brian May, Michael explains how Chatterton's tragic early death in his London garret aged just 17 was immortalised by a succession of poets and painters and photographers - most notably by the pre-Raphaelite Henry Wallis in his masterpiece known as The Death of Chatterton - and how these successive images of the young Chatterton have saddled poets ever since with the notion of the doomed young artist suffering and ultimately dying in service to the muse.
MON 21:00 How to Be Bohemian with Victoria Coren Mitchell (b05z5hc2)
Episode 2
In episode two, the journey through bohemian history reaches the early 20th century, when the Bloomsbury Group and others were determined to challenge sexual taboos - sometimes in their work and often in their private lives. They threw off their inhibitions, and frequently their clothes, and set the tone for generations of bohemians who followed. But what did the pursuit of freedom do for these artists, their art, and the people around them?
Victoria considers the very open relationships of the Bloomsbury set, famously known as 'a circle who lived in squares and loved in triangles'. She also visits Charleston, the rural love nest of painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. She explores the story of Edward Carpenter, the poet and proto-hippy who dared to campaign for gay liberation in Edwardian England, and examines the 'King of Bohemia', painter Augustus John, who was alleged to have sired at least 99 children - one of whom Victoria meets.
This episode also features the Bright Young Things - the glamorous, party-loving bohemians of the Roaring Twenties, who provided the inspiration for photographer Cecil Beaton and writer Evelyn Waugh. Victoria discusses them with Stephen Fry, who directed the film of Waugh's novel Vile Bodies. She also uncovers the forgotten life of Nina Hamnett, a painter who spent too much time down the pub to fulfil her early promise. Finally she grapples with the truly shocking sexual conduct of one of the greatest English artists of the century, Eric Gill, whose actions for many embody the most unpalatable excesses of bohemian behaviour, living beyond any boundaries.
Along the way Victoria also meets artists Grayson Perry and Maggi Hambling, and seeks the wisdom of the Rev Richard Coles and author Will Self.
MON 22:00 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b05z5hc4)
Sue Webster
For years, Sue Webster and Tim Noble were the hippest power couple in the art world. Their punk aesthetic - creating modern sculpture from recycled rubbish - and the art they made out of their personal relationship made them a notorious artistic double act. They recently split, but continue to collaborate. This film follows Sue Webster at work on new projects, including a cook book, painting nude portraits of Tim, and talking frankly and entertainingly about past success and her plans for the future as a solo artist.
MON 22:30 Mrs Dalloway (b0078ryg)
An adaptation of the classic Virginia Woolf novel. As society hostess Clarissa Dalloway prepares for another of her legendary parties, she finds herself haunted by figures and scenes from her passionate youth.
MON 00:05 In Conversation (b05z5frg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
MON 01:05 Duets at the BBC (b01c2xwt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:05 on Saturday]
MON 02:05 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b05z5hc4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
MON 02:35 How to Be Bohemian with Victoria Coren Mitchell (b05z5hc2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2015
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b05z28js)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (p02f1pxz)
Main Prize
Round 1
Petroc Trelawny and Angel Blue introduce extended highlights of the international opera competition recorded at St David's Hall in Cardiff. In this opening round there are competitors from South Korea, Norway, Germany, Belarus and Ukraine. Petroc's special guests are soprano Rosemary Joshua and vocal coach Mary King.
TUE 21:00 Monkey Planet (p01s0z7y)
Family Matters
The key to primate success is that, like us, most species live in close-knit family groups. How do you choose your friends, learn from those around you and know who to trust? We explore the complex world of primate social lifestyles.
In Peru, emperor tamarin males are conned into childcare, while vervet monkeys in South Africa have a sophisticated alarm system to warn for predators. Elsewhere, George has a very close encounter with some hunting chimpanzees.
But living in families is not always easy. In Gibraltar, barbary macaques steal babies to impress their boss. Hamadryas baboon males in Ethiopia rule with an iron fist, and in matriarchal ring-tailed lemur societies, the girls have to fight pitched battles with babies in tow.
TUE 22:00 Your Inner Fish: An Evolution Story (b05z5jhp)
Your Inner Reptile
It took more than 350 million years for the human body to take shape. Anatomist Neil Shubin reveals how our bodies are the legacy of ancient fish, reptiles and primates - the ancestors you never knew were in your family tree. Our bodies carry the anatomical legacy of animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago.
Journeying to the Arctic, South Africa, and Ethiopia, Neil uncovers an astonishing story spanning hundreds of millions of years, a tale full of strange facts and remarkable insights. Using fossils, embryos and genes, each of the three episodes focuses on a key transitional moment in the evolution of the human body: moving from the sea to land, relocating from the shore to living in trees, and coming down from the trees to walk upright on two legs.
Episode 2 traces our hair, skin, teeth, jaws and sense of hearing back to reptilian ancestors - from ferocious beasts that ruled the Earth, to a little shrew-like animal that lived 195 million years ago.
TUE 22:55 The Brain: A Secret History (b00x7cb5)
Emotions
Dr Michael Mosley continues his exploration of the brutal history of experimental psychology. Experiments on the human mind have led to profound insights into how our brain works - but have also involved great cruelty and posed some terrible ethical dilemmas.
In this film, Michael investigates how scientists have struggled to understand that most irrational and deeply complex part of our minds - our emotions.
Michael meets survivors - both participants and scientists - of some of the key historical experiments. Many of these extraordinary research projects were captured on film - an eight-month-old boy is taught to fear random objects, baby monkeys are given mothers made from wire and cloth, and an adult is deliberately violent before a group of toddlers.
Michael takes part in modern-day experiments to play his own small part in the quest to understand emotions.
TUE 23:55 The Sky at Night (b05ztytt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Sunday]
TUE 00:25 Light and Dark (p01k4yt6)
Light
Two-part series in which Professor Jim Al-Khalili shows how, by uncovering its secrets, scientists have used light to reveal almost everything we know about the universe. But in the last 30 years we have discovered that far from seeing everything, we have seen virtually nothing. Our best estimate is that more than 99 per cent of the universe is actually hidden in the dark.
The story of how we used light to reveal the cosmos begins in the 3rd century BC when, by trying to understand the tricks of perspective, the Greek mathematician Euclid discovered that light travels in straight lines, a discovery that meant that if we could change its path we could change how we see the world. In Renaissance Italy 2,000 years later, Galileo Galilei did just that by using the lenses of his simple telescope to reveal our true place in the cosmos.
With each new insight into the nature of light came a fresh understanding of the cosmos. It has allowed us to peer deep into space and even revealed the composition and lifecycles of the stars.
In the 1670s, the Danish astronomer Ole Roemer discovered that light travelled at a finite speed, a discovery that had a profound implication. It meant the further one looks out into the universe, the further one looks back in time. And in 1964, by detecting the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the big bang, we captured the oldest light in the universe and saw as far back as it is possible to see with light.
TUE 01:25 Monkey Planet (p01s0z7y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUE 02:25 Your Inner Fish: An Evolution Story (b05z5jhp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 17 JUNE 2015
WED 19:00 World News Today (b05z28jy)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (b05zv3bv)
Main Prize
Round 2
In round two of the search for the world's most promising young opera singer, there are competitors from South Africa, Malta, Wales, South Korea and the USA. Musical highlights include pieces by Mozart and Verdi. Petroc Trelawny and Angel Blue host with special guests tenor John Mark Ainsley and Mary King.
WED 21:00 Timeshift (b03pzsd9)
Series 13
How to Be Sherlock Holmes: The Many Faces of a Master Detective
For over 100 years, more than 80 actors have put a varying face to the world's greatest consulting detective - Sherlock Holmes. And many of them incorporated details - such as the curved pipe and the immortal line 'Elementary, my dear Watson' - that never featured in Conan Doyle's original stories. In charting the evolution of Sherlock on screen, from early silent movies to the latest film and television versions, Timeshift shows how our notion of Holmes today is as much a creation of these various screen portrayals as of the stories themselves.
With contributions from Sherlocks past and present, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Lee, Tim Pigott-Smith and Mark Gatiss. Narrated by Peter Wyngarde.
WED 22:00 Dirk Gently (b00wqfl2)
Drama featuring writer Douglas Adams' holistic detective Dirk Gently, who operates based on the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. An investigation into a missing cat is inextricably linked to a chance encounter with an old friend, an exploding warehouse, a missing billionaire and a plate of biscuits.
WED 23:00 Horizon (b01llnb2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
WED 00:00 How to Be Bohemian with Victoria Coren Mitchell (b05z5hc2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
WED 01:00 Art of Germany (b00wgpnc)
Dream and Machine
Andrew Graham-Dixon continues his exploration of German art by looking at the tumultuous 19th century and early 20th century, and how artists were at the forefront of Germany's drive to become a single nation.
Andrew travels to the north and the coastal town of Greifswald, the birthplace of Caspar David Friedrich, the most influential of the German romantics, to discover how the Baltic coast impacted on his mysterious paintings of the German landscape. He also visits Berlin and explores the art of the powerful Prussian state, which would spearhead the unification of Germany in 1871.
The episode ends with the outbreak of World War I and the attempts of artists Franz Marc and Otto Dix to rationalise the catastrophic experiences of the world's first technological war, a war driven by the innovations of Prussia.
WED 02:00 Dirk Gently (b00wqfl2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WED 03:00 Timeshift (b03pzsd9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 18 JUNE 2015
THU 19:00 World News Today (b05z28kr)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (b05zv49z)
Main Prize
Round 3
The third round shows the competition's global reach with competitors from Turkey, France, Mongolia, USA and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Amongst the arias are favourites by Mozart, Puccini and Verdi. Presenters Petroc Trelawny and Angel Blue welcome special guest Mary King and former winner Inger Dam-Jensen.
THU 21:00 Catching History's Criminals: The Forensics Story (p02l4pjs)
A Question of Identity
Sherlock has his mind palace, Morse his music - every detective has an edge. For most, it's forensic science. This three-part series provides a rare and fascinating insight into the secret history of catching murderers, charting two centuries of the breakthroughs that have changed the course of justice. Surgeon and writer Gabriel Weston explores this rich history through some of the most absorbing, and often gruesome, stories in the forensic casebook - and looks ahead to how forensics will continue to solve the murders of the future.
The first episode looks at the difficulty of identifying the body in a murder case. The question of identity is a crucial start to the investigation. From charred bones to bodies completely dissolved in acid, with each horrific new case science has had to adapt to identify both the victim and the murderer. Investigating four breakthrough cases, Gabriel reveals the scientific innovations that tipped the scales of justice in favour of the detective - and caught the killers.
Firstly, Gabriel investigates the use of teeth and bite marks to identify a victim or murderer, starting with a problematic case at Harvard Medical School in 1849. Next, she traces the use of entomology (the study of insects) to pinpoint the time of death - a crucial piece of evidence that helped identify both the killer and his victims when a gruesome collection of unidentifiable body parts was discovered in a river in Moffat in 1935.
Gabriel meets Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, the geneticist who pioneered the technique of DNA profiling. Initially used to establish paternity in an immigration dispute, the application of this revolutionary discovery to the field of criminal investigation was soon established. In 1986 it led to a world first - a person caught and convicted solely on the basis of DNA evidence.
Taking us right to the cutting edge of forensics, Gabriel then experiments with a new technique in development - molecular face fitting, which uses only a person's DNA to create an image of their face.
THU 22:00 Waking the Dead (b04zm8rx)
Pilot - Part 1
Two-part police drama. DCI Boyd's first task as head of the new Cold Case Squad is to find the killer of a schoolgirl murdered five years ago. But as they begin work, they inadvertently inspire the killer to strike again. And, unbeknown to Boyd and his team, the murderer has a hidden agenda - to take revenge.
THU 22:50 Your Inner Fish: An Evolution Story (b05z5jhp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Tuesday]
THU 23:45 The Code of Life: Great Scientists in their Own Words (b03mpdtq)
Documentary telling the story of some of the most important scientific thinkers of the modern age - an epic tale of men and women obsessed by intellectual challenges but dogged by their human failings - of bitter personal rivalries, clashes of ideology and unlikely collaboration. These are the people who discovered the structure of DNA and worked out how our genes work, who changed our view of life forever. The film is an unvarnished account of the scientists who dared to discover the secret of life - told through fascinating and revealing archive - in their own words.
Contributors interviewed include: Sir Paul Nurse - biologist, Nobel laureate and President of the Royal Society, Professor Lisa Jardine - historian of science and daughter of Jacob Bronowski, who hence knew many of the Cambridge scientists involved with the DNA story as a child and an undergraduate, and Professor Steve Jones, a geneticist at UCL.
THU 00:45 Horizon (b00vdkmj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:45 on Sunday]
THU 01:45 Light and Dark (p01k4yt6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:25 on Tuesday]
THU 02:45 Catching History's Criminals: The Forensics Story (p02l4pjs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 19 JUNE 2015
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b05z28ld)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (b05zv5kk)
Main Prize
Round 4
It's decision time as the judges choose the five finalists. Three singers are already through. One from Switzerland, USA, Belarus, South Korea or Canada will join them, plus a wild card entry drawn from the rest of the competition. Petroc Trelawny and Angel Blue are our guides, joined by acclaimed young tenor Noah Stewart and vocal coach Mary King.
FRI 21:00 Glastonbury Golden Greats (b05zqn68)
The iconic artists that have been booked to play the Glastonbury Festival have often been the talking point each year.
A look back at performances from the likes of Dame Shirley Bassey, Tony Bennett, Neil Diamond, Al Green, Willie Nelson, BB King, Johnny Cash, and 2014's appearance by the queen of country, Dolly Parton.
FRI 22:00 Festivals Britannia (b00wmdqs)
Continuing the critically acclaimed Britannia music series for BBC Four, this documentary tells the story of the emergence and evolution of the British music festival through the mavericks, dreamers and dropouts who have produced, enjoyed and sometimes fought for them over the last 50 years.
The film traces the ebb and flow of British festival culture from jazz beginnings at Beaulieu in the late 50s through to the Isle of Wight festivals at the end of the 60s, early Glastonbury and one-off commercial festivals like 1972's Bickershaw, the free festivals of the 70s and 80s and on through the extended rave at Castlemorton in 1992 to the contemporary resurgence in festivals like Glastonbury, Isle of Wight and Reading in the last decade.
Sam Bridger's film explores the central tension between the people's desire to come together, dance to the music and build temporary communities and the desire of the state, the councils and the locals to police these often unruly gatherings.
At the heart of the documentary is an ongoing argument about British freedom and shifts in the political, musical and cultural landscape set to a wonderful soundtrack of 50 years of great popular music which takes in trad jazz, Traffic, Roy Harper, the Grateful Dead, Hawkwind, Orbital and much more.
Featuring rare archive and interviews with Michael Eavis, Richard Thompson, Acker Bilk, Terry Reid, the Levellers, Billy Bragg, John Giddings, Melvin Benn, Roy Harper, Nik Turner, Peter Jenner, Orbital, amongst others.
FRI 23:30 Nile Rodgers: The Hitmaker Remastered (b01rk2tm)
The last two years have seen Nile Rodgers launched back into the limelight following the massive success of Daft Punk's single Get Lucky, his distinctive guitar work helping the French dance music duo to one of their biggest hits.
This 2013 documentary has been brought up to date to tell the story of his work with Daft Punk and how his band Chic has been introduced to a brand new audience.
As the co-founder, songwriter, producer and guitarist of Chic he helped define the sound of the 70s, as disco took the world by storm. But the music that had made Chic would also break them, thanks to the 'Disco Sucks' backlash. What could have been the end for Nile Rodgers would actually be a new beginning as a producer, helping create some of the biggest hits of the '80s for the likes of Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna and Duran Duran.
The ever-charismatic Rogers contributes an engaging and often frank interview to tell the tale of how, born to beatnik, heroin-addict parents in New York, he picked up a guitar as a teenager and embarked on a journey to learn his craft as a musician, before becoming one of disco's most successful artists.
In the '70s and '80s he lived the party lifestyle thanks to his success with Chic and as one of the music industry's hottest producers. Drugs and alcohol would become part of everyday life for Nile, contributing in part to the break-up of Chic in the early '80s. The band would reform in the mid '90s, but their return was quickly marked by tragedy with the death of Nile's long-time friend and musical partner Bernard Edwards in 1996.
The film recounts a captivating and moving story of a man who has been making hit music for nearly four decades and has found himself back in the limelight once again.
FRI 00:30 Disco at the BBC (b01cqt74)
A foot-stomping return to the BBC vaults of Top of the Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test and Later with Jools as the programme spins itself to a time when disco ruled the floor, the airwaves and our minds. The visual floorfillers include classics from luminaries such as Chic, Labelle and Rose Royce to glitter ball surprises by The Village People.
FRI 01:30 Glastonbury Golden Greats (b05zqn68)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:30 Festivals Britannia (b00wmdqs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]