TUESDAY 30 AUGUST 2016

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b07r2cj1)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


TUE 19:30 Born to Be Wild (b00cwh02)
Coastal Creatures

Series on amateur naturalists follows four intrepid people who study coastal creatures.

The coast is not the easiest place to watch wildlife, but perseverance pays off. One man has been studying sea birds for 30 years, another has galvanised his community into spending hours on the cliff tops, watching for dolphins, and another dives into the depths in search of sea urchins. Finally, one couple's passion for seals is revealing new things about this well-loved animal.


TUE 20:00 Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings (b019jsfg)
What a King Should Know

Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of medieval illuminated manuscripts and shows how they gave power to the king and united the kingdom in an age of plague, warfare and rebellion. She discovers that Edward III used the manuscripts he read as a boy to prepare him for his great victory at the battle of Crecy and reveals how a vigorous new national identity bloomed during the 100 Years War with France (1340-1453).

In the British Library's Royal Manuscripts collection she finds out that magnificent manuscripts like the Bedford Hours, taken as war booty from the French royal family, were adapted for the education of English princes. Dr Ramirez also explores how knowledge spread through a new form of book - the encyclopaedia.


TUE 21:00 All Together Now: The Great Orchestra Challenge (b07rfnc2)
Episode 1

Four-part series looking for the orchestra that best captures the spirit of great British amateur music-making in the UK.

Presented by Proms host and former Strictly Come Dancing finalist Katie Derham, it attempts to get under the skin of the real musical and personal challenges that face five amateur orchestras as they try to truly come together and rise to new musical heights. Can the players master their sheet music while also getting on with their varied day jobs as farmers, supermarket workers, carers and undertakers? Who will rise to the challenge? And who will find themselves dismissed from the contest?

The series begins with five amateur orchestras from across the UK - The Slaithwaite Philharmonic from Yorkshire, The North Devon Symphonia, The London Gay Symphony Orchestra, The Stirling Orchestra and The People's Orchestra from Birmingham.

Each orchestra receives a masterclass from the series judge, world-renowned conductor Paul Daniel, while double-bass maestro Chi-chi Nwanoku mentors each orchestra as they strive to reach their full potential.

This week's challenge is to master that pinnacle of orchestral playing, the symphony. Each of the five orchestras tackle an allotted extract from the likes of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov which they then perform at the BBC's legendary Maida Vale Studios - after which one orchestra will be eliminated from the contest by Daniel.


TUE 22:00 Hidden Histories: Britain's Oldest Family Businesses (b03q0177)
Balson the Butcher

The first of three documentaries following the bosses of some Britain's oldest family businesses as they go on a journey into their remarkable pasts.

Richard Balson's family have been butchers for almost 500 years, since Henry VIII was on the throne. He goes back through centuries of butchery to the origin of the British high street. Along the way he discovers how the Balsons have stayed in the butchery business despite scandal and tragedy.


TUE 23:00 Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank (b0078yvw)
Secrets of the Tomb Builders

Dan visits the magnificent underground tombs in the Valley of the Kings, in search of clues about the unsung heroes of this ancient world - the mysterious community of craftsmen who spent their lives building lavish burial chambers for the pharaohs.

The tombs are wonderful feats of art and engineering and Dan finds a wealth of intriguing evidence about the lives of the supposedly anonymous people who built them. Given rare access to the most complex tomb of all - the 150-room necropolis built for the sons of Rameses II - Dan speculates on the skill of the men who designed and excavated this tomb thousands of years ago.

In the tomb of Thutmosis III, he discovers an unfinished burial chamber, where the intricate process of tomb building was stopped in its tracks, leaving detailed evidence of the techniques of artwork used by these ancient artisans. Across the dry desert hills beyond the Valley of the Kings, Dan visits the village where the tomb-builders lived, explores their homes and reveals their personal lives through unique written records that have survived for thousands of years.

Were the tomb-builders slaves, forced to use their skills to glorify the dead pharaohs? Dan pieces together the truth, and reveals an unexpectedly intimate picture of these ancient artists and craftsmen.


TUE 23:30 Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank (b0078yz1)
The Pharaoh Hunter

Dan traces the unexpected twists and mysteries in the life of Howard Carter, the great British archaeologist who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun, and reveals the hidden legacy of Carter's work. Carter rose from humble origins to become the most famous archaeologist in the world, but despite his spectacular success in discovering Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, Carter was never honoured in this country, and received no official recognition from the British.

Dan travels through Egypt, looking for clues to this mystery as he follows the rollercoaster of Carter's career, from his first visit to Egypt as a teenager hired to copy Egyptian art, right up to the fame of his later years. On the way, Dan finds out that Carter played a crucial role in updating the science of archaeology and unearths his original artwork and his fascinating diary.


TUE 00:00 Planet Oil: The Treasure That Conquered the World (p02gzf9k)
Episode 1

From the moment we first drilled for oil, we opened a Pandora's box that changed the world forever. It transformed the way we lived our lives, spawned foreign wars and turned a simple natural resource into the most powerful political weapon the world has ever known. But when exactly did geology turn into such a high-stakes game?

In this series, Professor Iain Stewart visits the places that gave birth to the earth's oil riches, discovers the people who fought over its control and supply, and explores how our insatiable thirst for oil is changing the very planet on which we depend.

It's a journey that will help us answer a fundamental question - how did we become so addicted to oil in little more than one human lifetime?


TUE 01:00 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.


TUE 02:30 Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings (b019jsfg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]