The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
Untrained mariner Timothy Spall has spent a fortune on technology for his new challenge - the unpredictable Irish Sea - as he and his wife continue their mini-odyssey around Britain.
Entering Liverpool means navigating their first big city since leaving London, but reaching dry land can be daunting in a small boat when dodging tankers and ferries. It's even more difficult when the coastguard sends him round in circles because he's on the wrong side of the marker buoys.
On his way to Glasson Dock in Lancashire, Tim is tricked again by another buoy. Misunderstanding his sea chart results in an unplanned dropped anchor in the middle of the Irish Sea, where they have to wait all night before he can enter the port.
Their next destination finds them in the company of royalty - Piel Island near Barrow-in-Furness has the unusual honour of having its own king and queen, a tradition which goes back centuries.
Writer and fisherman Will Millard travels the length of the wild River Taff in South Wales, from its source high in the stunning Brecon Beacons to the Bristol Channel. He explores how the coal industry changed this beautiful landscape and its people forever. The river once ran black with coal dust but is now one of the finest trout and salmon rivers in Wales. Will meets the members of the Lewis Merthyr Colliery Brass Band and fishes for grayling with a former miner who is now a champion fly-fisherman. He visits one of Britain's biggest open-cast coal mines and sees how this spectacular landscape is being reclaimed after centuries of mining.
It's spring and the nesting season is in full swing. While hundreds of dotterel are taking a rest on the Black Mountains during their journey from Africa to their breeding sites in Scotland, peregrines are already nesting in an old quarry in the central Beacons. Next to the largest natural lake in south Wales, water voles are managing their ditches. Iolo Williams explores the most crooked church in Britain and an old gunpowder works and finds that a 300-year-old stone wall reveals the history of this magnificent landscape.
Picking up the birds' progress in July, Adam finds the Shiants colonies to be healthy and the puffins, guillemots and razorbill bringing in great bill-fulls of gleaming silver fish for their chicks. But elsewhere, the sea is failing to provide the birds with the food they need to survive.
In Scotland alone, 40 per cent of the birds have been lost and, further afield in Iceland, Adam sees colonies where nearly all the birds have been wiped out. He discovers how puffin hunters respond to the crisis and talks to both local people and experts about what could lie behind the catastrophic seabird declines. With the help of leading ornithologists and marine scientists, he begins to reveal an unexpected picture of the global forces driving the crisis, and the possible future for our seabird world.
From the Himalayas in the north to the Nilgiris in the south - for a hundred years these little trains have climbed through the clouds and into the wonderful world of Indian hill railways.
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is a line so close to the people that it flows like a river through their lives. The relationship between the train and the people is changing, however, as a new generation of Gurkhas populates these hills, demanding an independent state and fighting for a new identity as they journey into the modern Indian world.
For more than half a century, the film and newsreel company British Pathé documented almost every aspect of everyday life in Britain and around the world. Covering everything from major world events and exotic foreign travelogues to the pageantry of state occasions and gritty social issues, the company amassed a unique documentary record of 20th-century life. This series delves into British Pathé's amazing treasure trove of images, beginning with the work of the buccaneering cameramen behind Pathé's newsreels - men who witnessed pivotal moments in history and created many of the conventions of news programming that we still use today.
The Crown Prosecution Service is often under scrutiny for its decision-making. Now for the first time the CPS has allowed cameras in. Filmed over 18 months with prosecutors in Merseyside, Cheshire and the south east, including the director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, this groundbreaking series goes behind the scenes to reveal how our criminal justice system really works and what it takes to secure a conviction. Each episode focuses on a different part of the process, following prosecutions and those involved in the case from start to finish.
In this episode the prosecutors deal with two violent domestic murders and the victim of an assault who is unhappy that her attacker has not been prosecuted.
In 2014 the police brought prosecutors over 100,000 cases of violence against women to consider. In a quarter of the cases, the CPS decided a prosecution could not go ahead.
Viv Driver-Hart can't remember the details of the assault against her, but a huge chunk of her hair had been ripped out and she'd been knocked unconscious. Now she's written to the CPS to appeal their decision not to prosecute under a new initiative, the Victims' Right to Review.
Chief crown prosecutor Claire Lindley oversees all prosecutions in the Mersey-Cheshire area. The decision not to prosecute Viv's attacker can only be overturned with her approval. But every decision, however difficult, must be based on the evidence.
Proving that the defendant committed the offence they are charged with is essential to secure a conviction. A jury must be convinced that the prosecution team has produced evidence and presented the case so as to leave them in no doubt of guilt.
Prosecutor Richard Riley deals with two murder cases of women who have been killed by someone they know. In both cases there appears to be overwhelming evidence against the defendants. Police find Paul Fox attempting suicide, with his mother dead downstairs, and a note he's written, 'Warning Dead Bodies'. A witness sees David Hoyle leaving the scene with a knife, where his girlfriend has been stabbed. As the cases develop, it becomes clear that securing a conviction is never straightforward.
WEDNESDAY 09 MARCH 2016
WED 19:00 World News Today (b072wsp2)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b013rknf)
The Bit in the Middle
Sea adventurers Timothy Spall and his wife Shane take their barge to three different countries and the Isle of Man. From Whitehaven, where Spall learns about the pirate John Paul Jones, they steam over to Douglas to visit his son, actor Rafe Spall, who is there to work on BBC Two's The Shadow Line. Next they visit a city Tim loves dearly, Belfast, and a special pub he says is 'the finest drinking establishment in the English-speaking world'. Finally, it's across to Portpatrick and Scotland, as they clock up some serious nautical mileage in their circumnavigation of the British Isles.
WED 20:00 Hidden Kingdoms (b03qkcgs)
Under Open Skies
This is the story of two young animals forced to grow up fast.
In Africa's savannah, a baby elephant shrew learns how speed is the secret to survival amongst the largest animals on earth. And in America, a young grasshopper mouse confronts the Wild West's deadliest creatures to stake a claim of his own.
WED 21:00 The Prosecutors (b072wyvj)
Real Crime and Punishment
The Trial
The Crown Prosecution Service is often under scrutiny for its decision-making. Now for the first time the CPS has allowed cameras in. Filmed over 18 months with prosecutors in Merseyside, Cheshire and the South East, including the director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, this groundbreaking series goes behind the scenes to reveal how our criminal justice system really works and what it takes to secure a conviction. Each episode focuses on a different part of the process, following prosecutions and those involved in the case from start to finish.
In the final episode, prosecutors in the Complex Casework units of CPS Mersey-Cheshire and CPS South-East are preparing for trials in separate historic cases.
In 1993, a few days after her 16th birthday, Claire Tiltman was murdered in an alleyway. Since Colin Ash-Smith admitted to other knife attacks in the same area, he has been the main suspect for the crime. In 1996 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for those offences. But without direct evidence, he was not charged with the murder of Claire Tiltman.
Claire's parents died before seeing her killer brought to justice and a group of her school friends took up the campaign to keep the case in the public eye. Now, using a change in the law which might allow the jury to know about Ash-Smith's other attacks and the similarities between them, prosecutor Nigel Pilkington is trying to build a circumstantial case against Colin Ash-Smith.
In Mersey-Cheshire, a non-recent sex abuse case is being prepared for trial. Keith Cavendish Coulson is facing 42 counts of indecent assault on boys in the 1970s and 80s. He says they're lying and that it never happened. The CPS's handling of non-recent sex abuse cases is often highly controversial and Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, is involved in overseeing the case.
Cases committed a long time ago are charged and sentenced according to the law at the time. As Cavendish Coulson's offences were in the 1970s and 80s, they can only charge him under the old law of 1956. Historic cases also present challenges, as the memories of witnesses might have faded and evidence might no longer be available. But moving testimony from Cavendish Coulson's accusers suggests they have far from forgotten these offences.
WED 22:00 Arena (b010t9hz)
Produced by George Martin
Profile of record producer Sir George Martin. He began with Nellie the Elephant, 633 Squadron and Peter Sellers, then came the Beatles and then the golden age of rock. Martin recorded the soundtrack of the second half of the 20th century.
This rich and intimate portrait follows Sir George at 85 with his wife Judy, son Giles, Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Cilla Black, Michael Palin and Bernard Cribbins among the many contributors.
WED 23:30 Ancient Egypt - Life and Death in the Valley of the Kings (p01538p0)
Original Series
Life
Egypt captivates us like few other ancient civilizations - but what was it like to actually live there as an ordinary person 3,500 years ago? Egyptologist Dr Joann Fletcher goes on a fascinating journey in search of people like us, not the great pharaohs, but the ordinary people who built and populated this incredible ancient civilization, creating a remarkable way of life and an extraordinary way of death.
These questions are explored through the histories of Kha and Meryt, an architect and his wife who lived just outside the Valley of the Kings. They left behind a treasure trove of information in their extraordinary tomb, full of objects from their lives and death - everything from make-up to death masks, loaves of bread to life-like figurines, even the tools Kha used at work in the royal tombs. Joann uses this trove to travel into the remarkable world of these ancient Egyptians, both in life and the afterlife.
In the first part of the series, Joann explores how people lived during this time, from the tightly-packed houses and villages of the common people, to the clothes they wore and the food they ate. She discovers the ordinary Egyptians' love of poetry and their enthusiasm for interior design, as well as what it was like working in the most famous cemetery on Earth.
WED 00:30 Hidden Kingdoms (b03qkcgs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 01:30 Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain (p01cyrf9)
Glass Houses
Using her investigative skills to uncover long-forgotten and abandoned plans, architectural investigator Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner explores the fascinating and dramatic stories behind some of the grandest designs that were never built.
Technology has always been a driving force behind new ideas. Olivia explores how architects and designers have been inspired by the exciting possibilities presented by new technology to produce groundbreaking and controversial urban plans.
In 1855, visionary designer Sir Joseph Paxton proposed an ambitious plan to build a fantastic, futuristic ten-mile glass girdle circling the centre of London. It had only recently become possible to produce large sheets of cheap but strong plate glass and Paxton was inspired by its potential. With this exciting new technology at his fingertips, Paxton believed he could create a bright and pollution-free environment for Londoners as well as solve the capital's terrible congestion problems.
His spectacular glass 'Great Victorian Way' would connect the city to the West End, link rich and poor areas and cross the Thames three times. Contained in this magnificent glass structure were shops, houses, hotels, a pedestrian walkway, a road for carriages and eight lines of elevated pneumatic railway.
There was huge support for Paxton's scheme and Parliament passed a bill sanctioning construction, but the Great Victorian Way was never built. The 'Great Stink' took hold of London in 1858, spreading a cholera epidemic and so sanitation became the city's most pressing priority. Instead of creating a spectacular crystal boulevard the money was spent on a very different type of technology - the building of London's sewerage system.
A century later, London's congestion problems remained unsolved with the motor car having taken over roads designed for horse and carriage. In 1961, the architect Geoffrey Jellicoe proposed a solution directly inspired by Joseph Paxton's use of glass, in his radical new urban scheme for the green belt around London. Jellicoe took Paxton's idea of transforming the transport infrastructure even further, proposing a 'glass city' in which all cars would drive along rooftops, freeing the ground below for pedestrians.
With both these groundbreaking designs, Paxton and Jellicoe were seeking to harness technology to create bright and light cities, free of pollution and congestion, and utilising the most progressive forms of transport of the day.
Contributors include: Brett Steele, Eric Kuhne, Kate Colquhoun, Isobel Armstrong, Theodora Wayte, Lord Norman Foster, Charlie Burke, David Martlew, John Minnis, Hal Moggridge, Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe and Kathryn Moore.
WED 02:30 Sounds of the Eighties (b0074sjk)
Episode 2
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.
WED 02:55 The Prosecutors (b072wyvj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 10 MARCH 2016
THU 19:00 World News Today (b072wsp9)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0739zgh)
Simon Bates introduces the pop programme, featuring The Polecats, UB40, Hazel O'Connor, Coast to Coast, Adam & the Ants and Kim Carnes, plus a dance performance from Legs & Co.
THU 20:00 Indian Hill Railways (b00qzzlm)
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway
From the Himalayas in the north to the Nilgiris in the south - for a hundred years these little trains have climbed through the clouds and into the wonderful world of Indian Hill Railways.
The Nilgiri Mountain Railway is a romantic line, popular with honeymooners and driven by love and devotion as well as steam. It chugs through the south Indian jungle up to a hill station, once known as Snooty Ooty.
The current guard is Ivan. Married for twenty years, he is concerned about his friend Jenni, the ticket inspector, because he's still a bachelor - but Jenni has a secret.
In the engine shed, Shivani, the railway's first female diesel engineer, is working on a steam loco. She has to make it look its best, as in the year of filming, 1999, the railway celebrated its centenary. The high point is the Black Beauty competition to pick the best engine on the line, but rains and landslides threaten the proceedings and the tourist business. Will love win out in the end?
THU 21:00 Digging for Britain (b073b1xn)
Series 4
West
This episode heads to the west of Britain.
Marden Henge: The communal sweat lodges and feasting remains that illuminate the lost rituals of Stonehenge.
Durotriges: A glimpse into the bizarre animal sacrifice rituals offered to their gods by a mysterious Celtic tribe of the first century BC.
Trellech: An enormous lost Welsh city is discovered seven centuries after it disappeared from historical record.
Kent's Cavern: A team swaps trowels for pneumatic drills in a search for the hidden entrance of the site where Britain's earliest human remains have been found.
Jersey: Archaeologists are fighting against mother nature to find the evidence of a Stone Age hunter-gatherer campsite.
Staffordshire Hoard: Conservators painstakingly reassemble the elaborate weaponry of Anglo-Saxon warriors previously not known about.
THU 22:00 Ancient Egypt - Life and Death in the Valley of the Kings (p01538rx)
Original Series
Death
What was it like to live and die in ancient Egypt, 3,500 years ago? Egyptologist Dr Joann Fletcher goes on a fascinating journey in search of people like us - not the great Pharaohs but the ordinary people who built and populated this incredible ancient civilisation.
This episode reveals a strange and mysterious world - the ancient Egyptian afterlife. To them life was just a dress rehearsal for the perfect afterlife they were trying to reach. Joann clambers into rarely visited tombs, explores a treasure trove of long-buried objects and examines spectacular mummies to discover just why the Egyptians spent a fortune preparing for death - and what they hoped to find when they got there.
THU 23:00 Planet Ant: Life Inside the Colony (p00scslp)
Ant colonies are one of the wonders of nature - complex, organised and mysterious. This programme reveals the secret, underground world of the ant colony in a way that's never been seen before. At its heart is a massive, full-scale ant nest, specially designed and built to allow cameras to see its inner workings. The nest is a new home for a million-strong colony of leafcutter ants from Trinidad.
For a month, entomologist Dr George McGavin and leafcutter expert Professor Adam Hart capture every aspect of the life of the colony, using time-lapse cameras, microscopes, microphones and radio tracking technology. The ants instantly begin to forage, farm, mine and build. Within weeks, the colony has established everything from nurseries and gardens to graveyards.
The programme explores how these tiny insects can achieve such spectacular feats of collective organisation. This unique project reveals the workings of one of the most complex and mysterious societies in the natural world and shows the surprising ways in which ants are helping us solve global problems.
THU 00:30 Top of the Pops (b0739zgh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 01:05 Doris Day - Virgin Territory (b0074rwd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:45 on Saturday]
THU 02:05 London on Film (b01jzq75)
The West End
From bright lights, showbusiness and shops to riots, sleaze and traffic jams, film-makers have long been drawn to London's West End. Using a rich mix of archive material, this film paints a colourful and surprising portrait of the city's beating heart.
THU 02:40 Digging for Britain (b073b1xn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 11 MARCH 2016
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b072wsph)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b073b5wt)
Richard Skinner introduces the pop programme, featuring Siouxsie & the Banshees, Imagination, Phil Collins, Squeeze, The Jam, Toyah and Adam & the Ants, plus a dance performance from Legs & Co.
FRI 20:00 Virtuoso Violinists at the BBC (b072x1qh)
Violinist Nicola Benedetti explores 60 years of BBC archive to celebrate the world of the violin and its most outstanding performers. From Nathan Milstein, Mischa Elman and Isaac Stern to Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman and Nigel Kennedy, Nicola gives us a violinist's perspective on what makes a great performance in a tradition which stretches back to the 19th-century virtuoso Paganini. Filmed at the Royal Academy of Music Museum, London.
FRI 21:00 Kenny Rogers: Cards on the Table (b04pl3kw)
Examining the life and career of the artist who 'knows when to hold 'em and knows when to fold 'em', this documentary chronicles Kenny Rogers's remarkable rise to the top of his game and the golden era of country music he ushered in.
With an exclusive, candid interview from Rogers himself and performance footage gathered on his recent Through the Years tour, this honest and eye-opening film provides a backstage pass to a remarkable 50-year career of performing and recording.
Associates and luminaries provide personal insight into how the poor, music-obsessed boy from Houston, Texas went on to become a superstar with over 120 million albums sold worldwide. Singer, songwriter and producer Kim Carnes recalls how the New Christy Minstrels folk group - of which she and Kenny were members in the late 1960s - was like a 'school on the road' that provided them both with a springboard from which to explore other musical ambitions. Actor and musician Mickey Jones recounts his time with Kenny in the band The First Edition, whose hit single Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) made Kenny an unlikely poster boy for the psychedelic generation. Longtime friend Lionel Richie reveals how a trip to the bathroom played a crucial role in the recording session for Lady, one of Kenny's biggest hits.
Away from music, the programme reveals how Kenny's drive and ambition - what he describes as his 'impulsive-obsessive' nature - led to success in other fields: according to the renowned photographer John Sexton, the country music legend was determined to master the art of photography (Kenny was recently awarded an honorary Master of Photography degree by the Professional Photographers Association).
For over half a century, Kenny has kept us entertained with some of the best-known and best-loved music ever recorded. With a career spanning everything from jazz to folk, 60s psychedelia to R&B, perhaps his real legacy lies in the fact that he introduced a trailblazing pop sensibility to country music.
FRI 22:00 Country Kings at the BBC (p028vxj4)
Classic male country singers from the BBC vaults, journeying from The Everly Brothers and Jerry Lee Lewis to Garth Brooks and Willie Nelson, and featuring classic songs and performances by Glen Campbell, Charley Pride, George Hamilton IV, Kenny Rogers, Clint Black, Johnny Cash, Eric Church and more. This 50 years-plus compilation is a chronological look at country kings as featured on BBC studio shows as varied as In Concert, Wogan, The Late Show and Later with Jools Holland, plus early variety shows presented by the likes of Lulu, Harry Secombe and Shirley Abicair.
FRI 23:00 Bob Harris: My Nashville (p0293k6w)
'Whispering' Bob Harris journeys to America's country music capital to reveal why Nashville became Music City USA. From the beginnings of the Grand Ole Opry on commercial radio, through the threatening onset of rock 'n' roll in the 50s, right up to the modern mainstream hits of Music Row, this is the story of how music has shaped Nashville and why today it's a place of pilgrimage for musicians from all over the world.
As well as iconic venues on Lower Broadway and the historic hit factories of 16th Avenue, Bob also explores the east Nashville music scene and discovers a rebellious flipside to the country coin. With exclusive performances from the city's top talent, Bob explains why country music owes its enduring success to Nashville's unique nurturing community of songwriters.
Includes interviews with Emmylou Harris, Duane Eddy, Dave Stewart and Rosanne Cash.
FRI 00:00 Top of the Pops (b073b5wt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 00:40 Kenny Rogers: Cards on the Table (b04pl3kw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 01:40 Bob Harris: My Nashville (p0293k6w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 today]
FRI 02:40 Country Kings at the BBC (p028vxj4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]