Julian Richards returns to the excavation of two early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries to explore the mystery of the Anglo-Saxon invasions that began after the fall of the Roman Empire. In particular, the rich burial of a warrior and his horse offers up fresh clues to some of the very first pioneers.
Shipwrecks are the nightmare we have forgotten - the price Britain paid for ruling the waves from an island surrounded by treacherous rocks. The result is a coastline that is home to the world's highest concentration of sunken ships. But shipwrecks also changed the course of British history, helped shape our national character and drove innovations in seafaring technology, as well as gripping our imagination.
In this three-part series, maritime historian Dr Sam Willis looks at how and why the shipwreck came to loom so large. He begins with the embarrassing story of the top-heavy Mary Rose, the freak wrecking of the Spanish Armada and the terrifying real-life disasters at sea that inspired two of the greatest of all castaway tales - Shakespeare's The Tempest and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.
Barely a month has passed since Livia and Salvo decided to spend some time apart. Salvo is gloomy and confused. While investigating the robbery of some 60 security boxes at a small local bank, he seeks the advice of rival bank manager Stella Parenti, whom he'd met during a previous case. Alluring Stella makes no secret of being taken with Salvo and asks him out. Has Montalbano found a way to eclipse his melancholy thoughts of Livia?
Meanwhile, another case presents itself to the Vigata inspector - a retired doctor is found murdered in his own home. The resulting investigation will echo Montalbano's personal dilemmas about the complexities of love.
Part two of this enlightening series exploring the music business from behind the scenes looks at the music producers. These are the men and women who have created the signature sounds that have defined key periods in rock and pop history. Highlights include Trevor Horn on inventing the 'Sound of the Eighties', Lamont Dozier on Motown, and a TV first with legendary producer Tony Visconti taking us through David Bowie's seminal song Heroes.
The BBC delves into its archive for the best romantic duets performed at the BBC over the last 50 years. Whether it is Robbie and Kylie dancing together on Top of the Pops or Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge singing into each other's eyes on the Whistle Test, there is plenty of chemistry. Highlights include Nina and Frederik's Baby It's Cold Outside, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, Sonny and Cher, Shirley Bassey and Neil Diamond, Peaches and Herb, and a rare performance from Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush.
What makes a great pop album? Danny Baker celebrates the golden age of the analogue, vinyl LP with pop star Boy George, writer Grace Dent and journalist David Hepworth. Opinionated and impassioned, Baker and his guests select their favourite pop albums and discuss how the LPs of the 60s and 70s were produced - and devoured - in quite a different way to their modern equivalents.
Tommy Vance introduces the pop programme, featuring Slade, The Stranglers, Sheila Hylton, Susan Fassbender, John Lennon, The Gap Band, Phil Collins, Madness and Ultravox, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.
Simon Bates introduces the pop programme, featuring Joe Dolce, The Stray Cats, The Passions, Rainbow, Blondie, Spandau Ballet, Cliff Richard, Dire Straits, XTC and John Lennon, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.
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.
SUNDAY 24 JANUARY 2016
SUN 19:00 India's Frontier Railways (b05nhjht)
The Samjhauta Express
Freedom came to the subcontinent in August 1947. The British hastily partitioned British India before they left. Independence was attended by a million deaths and 14 million people were displaced.
Yet despite three wars, Pakistan and Indian railways have established a cross-border train, known as the Samjhauta Express - Samjhauta meaning agreement.
Amongst the passengers on the Samjhauta Express from Lahore to Delhi are Bilal and his father Abiz. Seventeen-year-old Bilal was the victim of an accident which damaged his eye. Unable to source the right treatment in Pakistan, father and son trawled the internet and finally found a suitable clinic. But it was in India. They have never stepped outside Pakistan, so they are a little nervous. Will they be successful in getting Bilal's eye treated?
Also on the train is Rahat Khan, the hockey queen. She's a Pakistan international and a railway hockey champion. She is travelling with her Pakistan girls' hockey team to play a match in India. But not everything goes to plan.
For the Sikh community, the Punjab is home. The golden temple of Amritsar is the holy of holies. But each year, on Guru Nanak's birthday, the railway runs special trains across the border to the guru's birthplace in Pakistan, despite the security concerns.
SUN 20:00 Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley (b06wrgzw)
The Road to Revolution
Lucy Worsley concludes her history of the Romanov dynasty, investigating how the family's grip on Russia unravelled in their final century. She shows how the years 1825-1918 were bloody and traumatic, a period when four tsars tried - and failed - to deal with the growing pressure for constitutional reform and revolution.
Lucy finds out how the Romanovs tried to change the system themselves - in 1861, millions of enslaved serfs were freed by the Tsar-Liberator, Alexander II. But Alexander paid the ultimate penalty for opening the Pandora's box of reform when he was later blown up by terrorists on the streets of St Petersburg.
Elsewhere, there was repression, denial, war and - in the case of the last tsar, Nicholas II - a fatalistic belief in the power of God, with Nicholas's faith in the notorious holy man Rasputin being a major part in his undoing. Lucy also details the chilling murder of Nicholas and his family in 1918, and asks whether all of this horror have been avoided.
Lucy also shows how there was a growing movement among the people of Russia to determine their own fate. She traces the growth of the intelligentsia, writers and thinkers who sought to have a voice about Russia. Speaking out came with a risk - after Ivan Turgenev wrote about the appalling life of the serfs in 1852, he was sentenced to house arrest by tsar Nicholas I. Lucy also shows how anger against the Romanov regime created a later generation of radicals committed to overturning the status quo. Some would turn to terrorism and, finally, revolution.
As well as political upheaval there is private drama, and Lucy explains how Nicholas II's family life played into his family's downfall. His son and heir Alexei suffered from haemophilia - the secrecy the family placed around the condition led them into seclusion, further distancing them from the Russian people. It also led them to the influence of man who seemed to have the power to heal their son, and who was seen as a malign influence on Nicholas - Rasputin.
SUN 21:00 Len Goodman's Dancing Feet: The British Ballroom Story (b01pjqpm)
Len Goodman, the head judge of Strictly Come Dancing, takes to the dance floor to discover the golden age of ballroom and recalls the time when Britain went ballroom barmy.
In the early 20th century millions enjoyed dancing. Graceful movement was everything as we grappled with the waltz, the tango and each other. Len also reveals a surprising world of scandal and outrage - a time when ballroom was considered radical and trendy. What was it about ballroom that people enjoyed so much and why did we eventually turn our backs on what Len considers the greatest dance form of all?
Len visits Blackpool, the spiritual home of ballroom, and demonstrates some popular steps with professional dancer Erin Boag. He discovers how the smart set danced the night away at the Cafe de Paris and returns to a favourite dance hall from his youth, the Rivoli in south London.
Len talks to dancers, singers and musicians who remember the golden age and discovers the people who introduced 'rules' to ballroom - the dance leaders and teachers who were concerned that ballroom was out of control and needed new regulations to govern steps, movement and music.
SUN 22:00 Storyville (b06yrf2t)
The Great Gangster Film Fraud
Documentary about a bankrupt Jordanian entrepreneur and an unemployed Irish actress who hatch a plan to scam £2.5m off the British taxman by faking the production of a £20m movie. But they are found out, arrested and then bailed. While out on bail, they decide to prove their innocence by actually making a film. They hire a former nightclub bouncer, now a self-made micro-budget gangster film director. In 2011, Paul Knight makes their movie for under £100,000 with a cast of soap and gangster movie stars including Danny Midwinter, Marc Bannerman and Loose Women's Andrea McLean. The film's title is A Landscape of Lies. But the cinematic alibi does not convince the jury when the trial runs in 2013. The producers are convicted of tax fraud and given long sentences.
A comic British crime caper and classic heist movie, but in this movie the heist IS the movie.
SUN 23:25 The Mystery of Murder: A Horizon Guide (b0555v7v)
There are about 600 murders each year in the UK. So, what drives people to kill? Are some people born to kill or are they driven to it by circumstances?
Michael Mosley delves into the BBC archives to chart scientists' progress as they probed the mind of the murderer to try to understand why people kill, and to find out whether by understanding murder we can prevent it.
SUN 00:25 The Brain with David Eagleman (b06y8hyr)
What Is Reality?
Series in which Dr David Eagleman takes viewers on an extraordinary journey that explores how the brain, locked in silence and darkness without direct access to the world, conjures up the rich and beautiful world we all take for granted.
This episode begins with the astonishing fact that this technicolour multi-sensory experience we are having is a convincing illusion conjured up for us by our brains.
In the outside world there is no colour, no sound, no smell. These are all constructions of the brain. Instead, there is electromagnetic radiation, air compression waves and aromatic molecules, all of which are interpreted by the brain as colour, sound and smell.
We meet a man who is blind despite the fact that he has eyes that can see. His story reveals that it's the brain that sees, not the eyes. A woman with schizophrenia, whose psychotic episodes were her reality, emphasises the fact that whatever our brains tell us is out there, we believe it.
Visual illusions are reminders that what's important to the brain is not being faithful to 'reality', but enabling us to perceive just enough so that we can navigate successfully through it. The brain leaves a lot out of its beautiful rendition of the physical world, a fact that Dr Eagleman reveals using experiments and street demonstrations.
Each one of our brains is different, and so is the reality it produces. What is reality? It's whatever your brain tells you it is.
SUN 01:25 Blink: A Horizon Guide to the Senses (b01kptcr)
Touch, sight, smell, hearing and taste - our senses link us to the outside world. Dr Kevin Fong looks back through 40 years of Horizon archives to find out what science has taught us about our tools of perception - why babies use touch more than any other sense, why our eyes are so easily tricked and how pioneering technology is edging closer to the dream of replacing our human senses if they fail.
SUN 02:25 Sounds of the Eighties (b0074sk2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
03:20 on Saturday]
SUN 02:55 Danny Baker's Great Album Showdown (b01ql9xk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:55 on Saturday]
MONDAY 25 JANUARY 2016
MON 19:00 World News Today (b06ynpy0)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 Sorry! (p00xch7t)
Series 2
Great Expectations
Mother is out to get Aunt Esme's money for Timothy, and Timothy has encounters with a garage owner and his dogs.
MON 20:00 Natural World (b00tj7j4)
2010-2011
The Himalayas
Documentary looking at the wildlife of the most stunning mountain range in the world, home to snow leopards, Himalayan wolves and Tibetan bears.
Snow leopards stalk their prey among the highest peaks. Concealed by snowfall, the chase is watched by golden eagles circling above. On the harsh plains of the Tibetan plateau live extraordinary bears and square-faced foxes hunting small rodents to survive. In the alpine forests, dancing pheasants have even influenced rival border guards in their ritualistic displays. Valleys carved by glacial waters lead to hillsides covered by paddy fields containing the lifeline to the east, rice. In this world of extremes, the Himalayas reveal not only snow-capped mountains and fascinating animals but also a vital lifeline for humanity.
MON 21:00 Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution (b06yrgvr)
Madagascar: A World Apart
Professor Richard Fortey travels to the rainforests of Madagascar - an ancient island that has spawned some of the most extraordinary groups of plants and animals anywhere in the world. From beautiful Indri lemurs, toxic frogs, and the cat-like giant mongoose called the fossa, to evolutionary oddities like the giraffe-necked weevil and the otherworldly aye-aye, he uncovers the secrets of the evolutionary niche - examining how, given millions of years, animals and plants can adapt to fill almost any opportunity they find.
MON 22:00 The London Markets (b01j73s3)
The Fish Market: Inside Billingsgate
London's oldest wholesale market is on the verge of its biggest change in over a thousand years. Fish merchants are facing tough times. The market is under pressure to modernise and its iconic and ancient traditions are under threat. The job of the licensed fish porter, once a job for life, could be thrown open to all comers. The market is divided: will ancient custom or modern commerce win out?
MON 23:00 The Great War (b0074p97)
We Are Betrayed, Sold, Lost
Definitive film account of the world-shattering events of 1914-1918, originally broadcast in 1964. This episode explores the attempts to rally the French Army for a great spring offensive. Robert Nivelle, the commander-in-chief, promised breakthrough in no more than 48 hours and total victory to follow. But the Germans knew of his plans and turned the packed trenches into slaughterhouses. Now sick of promises, and of death, the once-proud French Army began to openly mutiny - they had finally had enough.
MON 23:40 The Great War (b0074p99)
Right Is More Precious than Peace
This episode of the 26-part classic documentary series looks at two of the most important events of the war in 1917. One was the October revolution bringing the Communists to power in Russia, the other America's entry into Europe's war on 6th April. These two events were to shape not only the outcome of the war, but of the world for the rest of the century.
MON 00:25 Natural World (b00tj7j4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
MON 01:25 This Green and Pleasant Land: The Story of British Landscape Painting (b01173pk)
400 years of art history in 90 minutes? This film takes an eclectic group of people from all walks of life, including artists, critics and academics, out into the countryside to take a look at how we have depicted our landscape in art, discovering how the genre carried British painting to its highest eminence and won a place in the nation's heart.
From Flemish beginnings in the court of Charles I to the digital thumbstrokes of David Hockney's iPad, the paintings reveal as much about the nation's past as they do the patrons and artists who created them. Famous names sit alongside lesser-known works, covering everything from the refined sensibilities of 18th-century Classicism to the abstract forms of the war-torn 20th century with a bit of love, loss, rivalry and rioting thrown in.
Contributions come from a cast as diverse as the works themselves, including filmmaker Nic Roeg, historian Dan Snow and novelist Will Self, who offer a refreshingly wide range of perspectives on a genre of art which we have made very much our own.
MON 02:55 Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution (b06yrgvr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 26 JANUARY 2016
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b06ynpzp)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Sorry! (p00xch96)
Series 2
The Next Best Man
Timothy, after some initial complications, is asked to be best man at his friend Frank's wedding. He ends up in trouble as a result of trying to encourage the idea of marriage in spite of his parents.
TUE 20:00 Donald Campbell: Speed King (b01rrk63)
Donald Campbell is world famous for his speed records on land and water and, of course, that fatal crash in Bluebird on Lake Coniston in 1967. His story as one of the last of the great British boffins, his place in the making of modern Britain and his daredevil feats made him a household name. However, the behind-the-scenes story of a man driven by fear of failure, by a desire to keep both himself and his country at the top of their game, has never been told. Until now.
For the first time ever this film goes behind the carefully orchestrated public image Campbell created to reveal a very different man. Backed by exclusive access to extensive new colour archive that covers his whole life (from private and public collections), Campbell's close family and friends describe his quest for success and ultimate transformation from a man at the top to someone struggling for recognition, to myth after the tragic events of 1967.
TUE 21:00 Scotland's Einstein: James Clerk Maxwell - The Man Who Changed the World (b06rd56j)
Professor Iain Stewart reveals the story behind the Scottish physicist who was Einstein's hero - James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell's discoveries not only inspired Einstein, but they helped shape our modern world - allowing the development of radio, TV, mobile phones and much more.
Despite this, he is largely unknown in his native land of Scotland. Scientist Iain Stewart sets out to change that, and to celebrate the life, work and legacy of the man dubbed 'Scotland's forgotten Einstein'.
TUE 22:00 Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History (b03knrvm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Saturday]
TUE 23:00 Rome's Invisible City (b05xxl4t)
With the help of a team of experts and the latest in 3D scanning technology, Alexander Armstrong, along with Dr Michael Scott, explores the hidden underground treasures that made Rome the powerhouse of the ancient world. In his favourite city, he uncovers a lost subterranean world that helped build and run the world's first metropolis and its empire.
From the secret underground world of the Colosseum to the aqueducts and sewers that supplied and cleansed it, and from the mysterious cults that sustained it spiritually to the final resting places of Rome's dead, Xander discovers the underground networks that serviced the remarkable world above.
TUE 00:00 Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution (b06yrgvr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
TUE 01:00 Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited (b01skwfd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
TUE 02:00 The Viking Sagas (b0110gnv)
Hundreds of years ago in faraway Iceland the Vikings began to write down dozens of stories called sagas - sweeping narratives based on real people and real events. But as Oxford University's Janina Ramirez discovers, these sagas are not just great works of art, they are also priceless historical documents which bring to life the Viking world. Dr Ramirez travels across glaciers and through the lava fields of Iceland to the far north west of the country to find out about one of the most compelling of these stories - the Laxdaela Saga.
TUE 03:00 Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History (b03knrvm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Saturday]
WEDNESDAY 27 JANUARY 2016
WED 19:00 World News Today (b06ynq0b)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Sorry! (p00xchbt)
Series 2
Could Do Better
With Frank 's wedding impending, Timothy sets his cap at bridesmaid Liz. Will our hero get his head out of the railings in time? Will he forget the ring? And if he gets married, will Mother come on the honeymoon?
WED 20:00 The Story of Scottish Art (b06myf12)
Episode 4
The climactic episode of the series explores how, over the last 100 years, Scottish art has wrestled as never before with questions of identity and exploded like a visual firecracker of different ideas and styles. During the last century, Scottish artists embroiled themselves with some of the most exciting and dynamic art movements ever seen - provoking, participating and creating stimulating works of art that have left an extraordinary legacy.
Lachlan Goudie discovers how artists such as William McCance attempted to bring about a Scottish renaissance in the visual arts, while a creative diaspora of artists such as Alan Davie and William Gear would court controversy and play vital roles in the revolutions of postwar art.
Long before the 'Glasgow Miracle', the Glasgow School of Art was responsible for upholding a very different kind of tradition, of which Lachlan's father was proud to be a part. He discovers how artists such as Joan Eardley helped to bring the city to life, just as John Bellany did for the fishing villages of the east coast. Rebels such as Bruce McLean help explain how conceptual art would come to play such a large role in the Scottish art of today, and Lachlan meets one of the world's most expensive living artists, Peter Doig, to delve into the complexities of what it actually means to be a Scottish artist in today's market-dominated art world. He finishes his epic journey on the Isle of Lewis with a powerful call to arms for the continued relevance of Scottish art today.
WED 21:00 A Timewatch Guide (b06z59g7)
Series 2
Stonehenge
Using 70 years of BBC history archive film, Professor Alice Roberts uncovers how the iconic ancient monument of Stonehenge has been interpreted, argued over and debated by some of Britain's leading historians and archaeologists. She reveals how new discoveries would discredit old theories, how astronomers and geologists became involved in the story and why, even after centuries of study, there's still no definitive answer to the mystery of Stonehenge.
WED 22:00 Death Camp Treblinka: Survivor Stories (b01m1l9w)
The dark heart of the Nazi holocaust, Treblinka was an extermination camp where over 800,000 Polish Jews perished from 1942. Only two men can bear final witness to its terrible crimes. Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman were slave labourers who escaped in a dramatic revolt in August 1943. One would seek vengeance in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, while the other would appear in the sensational trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961. This film documents their amazing survivor stories and the tragic fate of their families, and offers new insights into a forgotten death camp.
WED 23:00 Scotland's Einstein: James Clerk Maxwell - The Man Who Changed the World (b06rd56j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 00:00 How Earth Made Us (b00qbvyc)
Deep Earth
Iain Stewart tells the epic story of how the planet has shaped our history. With spectacular images, surprising stories and a compelling narrative, the series discovers the central role played in human history by four different planetary forces.
In this first episode, Iain explores the relationship between the deep Earth and the development of human civilisation. He visits an extraordinary crystal cave in Mexico, drops down a hole in the Iranian desert and crawls through 7,000-year-old tunnels in Israel.
His exploration reveals that throughout history, our ancestors were strangely drawn to fault lines, areas which connect the surface with the deep interior of the planet. These fault lines gave access to important resources, but also brought with them great danger.
WED 01:00 Timeshift (b01mytsg)
Series 12
Health before the NHS: The Road to Recovery
Robert Winston narrates the shocking story of health in Britain before the National Health Service. In the early 20th century, getting treated if you were ill was a rudimentary, risky and costly business - a luxury few could afford. Using rare archive footage and personal testimony, the programme tells how ordinary people, GPs, midwives and local councils coped with a chaotic and ramshackle system as they struggled to deal with sickness and disease in the homes and communities of pre-World War II Britain.
WED 02:00 The Story of Scottish Art (b06myf12)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 03:00 A Timewatch Guide (b06z59g7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 28 JANUARY 2016
THU 19:00 World News Today (b06ynq0h)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b06yrm6x)
Richard Skinner introduces the pop programme, featuring The Pretenders, Barbara Jones, Kelly Marie, Freeez, Beggar and Co, Coast to Coast, Slade and John Lennon, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.
THU 20:00 A Timewatch Guide (b06z59g7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Wednesday]
THU 21:00 The Brain with David Eagleman (b06yrqzh)
What Makes Me?
Series in which Dr David Eagleman takes viewers on an extraordinary journey that explores how the brain, locked in silence and darkness without direct access to the world, conjures up the rich and beautiful world we all take for granted.
This episode explores the question of how the brain gives rise to our thoughts, emotions, memories and personality. We see how the process of becoming 'you' starts at birth. The brain of a newborn baby is not yet fully developed, instead it grows and shapes itself around life experience.
Wiring up begins immediately, and rapidly, as the child's brain starts to adapt to whatever situation - culture, habitat, language - it's born into. This allows humans to flourish in any stimulating environment, but as the story of three Romanian orphans reveals, a lack of social contact and stimulation can result in permanent brain damage as the brain fails to make vital connections in those critical early years.
Tracing the development of the brain - the 'making of you' - through a lifetime, Dr Eagleman tests the social stress levels of teenagers as their brains go through profound changes, meets London cabbies whose intense training to memorise street maps physically alters the shape of their hippocampus, and joins a group of elderly nuns who are defying the symptoms of Alzheimer's by keeping their brains active and building up 'cognitive reserve'.
As we make new memories, learn new skills and have life experiences, the brain is constantly and dynamically rewiring itself. It never stops. Nor do we - the human brain is always changing, and therefore so are we. From cradle to grave, we are works in progress.
THU 22:00 Brian Pern (b06yrqzm)
Brian Pern: 45 Years of Prog and Roll
Episode 3
The original Thotch line-up are forced to reform after they are sued by their former manager Basil Steel for non-payment of royalties. Although Brian refuses at first, when he is informed that guitarist Pat Quid has dementia, he decides to throw in the towel to help out an old friend - but there are problems ahead when former band member and recluse Bennet St John reappears wanting a piece of the action. Brian also runs into trouble with Martin Freeman, who has been assigned to read the audiobook of Brian's autobiography.
THU 22:40 Pop Life (b01dlph3)
I'm a Pop Star!
The final part of the series is all about the solo artists as we delve into the psyche of the men and women who go it alone. What drives them into pop single combat, braving the baying hordes armed with just a microphone, some songs and an unquenchable belief that what they have got to say is worth hearing? From pioneers like Sir Cliff Richard to pop's Prince Charming Adam Ant to contemporary leading lights like Will Young and Kelly Clarkson, this is the pop life from the inside looking out.
THU 23:40 Top of the Pops (b06yrm6x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 00:20 The London Markets (b01j73s3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Monday]
THU 01:20 Len Goodman's Dancing Feet: The British Ballroom Story (b01pjqpm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
THU 02:20 Brian Pern (b06yrqzm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
THU 03:00 The Brain with David Eagleman (b06yrqzh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 29 JANUARY 2016
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b06ynq0n)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b06yrs1d)
Peter Powell introduces the pop programme, featuring Status Quo, Kim Wilde, Madness, Kiki Dee, Coast to Coast, The Passions, Roxy Music and Joe Dolce, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.
FRI 20:00 Pierre Boulez at the BBC: Master and Maverick (b06z66l8)
Tom Service presents 40 years of great BBC archive featuring the French composer, conductor and musical icon Pierre Boulez, who died on 5th January 2016 at the age of 90. Opinionated and challenging, Boulez transformed the way that musicians and audiences all over the world think about contemporary music. With orchestras including the BBC Symphony, he rehearses and performs Debussy, Stravinsky and Bartok, as well as a selection of his own extraordinary compositions. Boulez's relationship with the BBC began in the 1960s and blossomed during his years as chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra - leaving a vivid legacy in the BBC's TV archive.
FRI 21:00 It's Only Rock 'n' Roll: Rock 'n' Roll at the BBC (b063m6wy)
A celebration of rock 'n' roll in the shape of a compilation of classic artists and songs, featuring the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Dion and Dick Dale who all featured in the Rock 'n' Roll America series, alongside songs that celebrate rock 'n roll itself from artists such as Tom Petty (Anything That's Rock 'n' Roll), Joan Jett (I Love Rock 'n' Roll) and Oasis (Rock 'n' Roll Star).
FRI 22:00 Music Moguls: Masters of Pop (p039x5f7)
Myth Makers
Part three of this illuminating series exploring the music business from behind the scenes takes a look at PR, the unseen force behind all the biggest musical acts in the world. With unique revelations, unseen footage and unrivalled access, it tells the story of the rise of PR within the music industry through the eyes of the people who lived it. Highlights include the PR campaigns behind superstars Jimi Hendrix, Taylor Swift and David Bowie.
Narrated by PR Alan Edwards.
FRI 23:00 Rock 'n' Roll America (b0615nmw)
Sweet Little Sixteen
In Cold War mid-1950s America, as the new suburbia was spreading fast in a country driven by racial segregation, rock 'n' roll took the country by surprise. Out of the Deep South came a rhythm-driven fusion of blues, boogie woogie and vocal harmony played by young black pioneers like Fats Domino and Little Richard that seduced young white teens and, pre-civil rights, got black and white kids reeling and rocking together.
This fledgling sound was nurtured by small independent labels and travelled up from the Mississippi corridor spawning new artists. In Memphis, Elvis began his career as a local singer with a country twang who rocked up a blues song and sounded so black he confused his white listeners. And in St Louis, black blues guitarist Chuck Berry took a country song and turned it into his first rock 'n' roll hit, Maybellene.
Movies had a big role to play thanks to 'social problem' films exploring the teenager as misfit and delinquent - The Wild One showed teens a rebellious image and a look, and Blackboard Jungle gave them a soundtrack, with the film's theme tune Rock Around the Clock becoming the first rock 'n' roll Number 1 in 1955.
Featuring Jerry Lee Lewis, Don Everly, Little Richard, Tom Jones, Wanda Jackson, Pat Boone, The Spaniels, PF Sloan, Joe Boyd, Jerry Phillips, Marshall Chess, JM Van Eaton (Jerry Lee Lewis's drummer), Charles Connor (Little Richard's drummer) and Dick Richards (Bill Haley's drummer).
FRI 00:00 Top of the Pops (b06yrs1d)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 00:40 It's Only Rock 'n' Roll: Rock 'n' Roll at the BBC (b063m6wy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 01:40 Music Moguls: Masters of Pop (p039x5f7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 02:40 Pop Life (b01dlph3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:40 on Thursday]