The story of Machli, the most famous tiger in the world. She is a legendary fighter and a wise mother of nine cubs who has founded a vast dynasty of tigers.
She is now in the last season of her life and wildlife cameraman Colin Stafford-Johnson returns to find his old friend one last time. This film shows the extraordinary milestones in Machli's life, all set in the most stunning Indian scenery.
The story of the Robert E Lee, one of the most famous Clydebuilt blockade-running paddle steamers. During the American Civil War, Glasgow shipbuilders and captains made a fortune running the supplies of war to the Confederate South and bringing out valuable cotton. To run the blockade of Union warships these paddle steamers had to be fast and their crews fearless. Glasgow provided both but Britain was neutral and these ships shouldn't have been anywhere near someone else's war.
An unidentified body is found in the remains of a trailer after a fire at a run-down caravan park. The owner of the trailer, a young drug-addicted woman, is missing, but is she really the victim? And what role has the local so-called neighbourhood watch played? Police supervisor Klas Freden decides to go over Martin Beck's head and recruit charismatic Norwegian homicide investigator, Steinar Hovland. The newly-structured Beck group face a power struggle, and Martin struggles to find his way back to his old self.
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.
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.
A special concert recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in 1977, where 80 musicians played new arrangements of Glen Campbell's hit songs.
David Jensen presents the weekly pop chart show, first broadcast on 15 April 1982. Includes appearances from Spandau Ballet, Simple Minds, Bucks Fizz, Dollar, Shakatak, Bardo and Roxy Music. Also includes a dance performance from Zoo.
Nigel Planer narrates the story of the struggle to make programmes for children in the days before everything went digital.
SUNDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2016
SUN 19:00 BBC Proms (b07w93bv)
2016
The Last Night of the Proms from Around the UK
The legendary Last Night, Proms in the Park celebrations from venues around the UK. Diane-Louise Jordan and Anita Rani present a stellar mix of classical and contemporary performances, including Tony Hadley and BBC Young Musician 2016 Sheku Kanneh-Mason in Colwyn Bay; operatic soprano Lesley Garrett, joined by star of musical theatre John Owen Jones at Belfast's Titanic Slipways; KT Tunstall in Glasgow Green; while the sensational sounds of American music legends Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons top the bill in London's Hyde Park. All accompanied by the BBC's acclaimed orchestras.
SUN 20:30 Britain on Film (b01q6pzr)
Series 1
War and Peace
Throughout the 1960s, the Rank Organisation produced hundreds of short, quirky documentaries that examined all aspects of life in Britain. Shot on high-quality colour film stock, they were screened in cinemas, but until now very little of the footage has been shown on television. This series draws on this unique archive to offer illuminating and often surprising insights into a pivotal decade in modern British history.
This episode examines Look at Life's coverage of what was the most important political conflict of the era - the Cold War. With international tensions rising, the series recorded the enormous anti-nuclear protests in London; the experiences of British forces stationed in Berlin; and visited Eastern Europe, to observe everyday life for the people living behind the Iron Curtain.
SUN 21:00 World War Two: 1942 and Hitler's Soft Underbelly (b01ndj09)
The British fought the Second World War to defeat Hitler. This film asks why, then, did they spend so much of the conflict battling through North Africa and Italy?
Historian David Reynolds reassesses Winston Churchill's conviction that the Mediterranean was the 'soft underbelly' of Hitler's Europe. Travelling to Egypt and Italian battlefields like Cassino, scene of some of the worst carnage in western Europe, he shows how, in reality, the 'soft underbelly' became a dark and dangerous obsession for Churchill.
Reynolds reveals a prime minister very different from the jaw-jutting bulldog of Britain's 'finest hour' in 1940 - a leader who was politically vulnerable at home, desperate to shore up a crumbling British empire abroad, losing faith in his army and even ready to deceive his American allies if it might delay fighting head to head against the Germans in northern France.
SUN 22:30 The Magic of Mushrooms (b041m6fh)
Professor Richard Fortey delves into the fascinating and normally hidden kingdom of fungi. From their spectacular birth, through their secretive underground life to their final explosive death, Richard reveals a remarkable world that few of us understand or even realise exists - yet all life on earth depends on it.
In a specially built mushroom lab, with the help of mycologist Dr Patrick Hickey and some state-of-the-art technology, Richard brings to life the secret world of mushrooms as never seen before and reveals the spectacular abilities of fungi to break down waste and sustain new plant life, keeping our planet alive.
Beyond the lab, Richard travels across Britain and beyond to show us the biggest, fastest and most deadly organisms on the planet - all of them fungi. He reveals their almost magical powers that have world-changing potential - opening up new frontiers in science, medicine and technology.
SUN 23:30 The Fantastical World of Hormones with Professor John Wass (b03wctdg)
Hormones shape each and every one of us, affecting almost every aspect of our lives - our height, our weight, our appetites, how we grow and reproduce, and even how we behave and feel.
This documentary tells the wonderful and often weird story of how hormones were discovered.
Presenter John Wass, one the country's leading experts on hormones, relates some amazing stories - how as recently as the 19th century boys were castrated to keep their pure soprano voice, how juices were extracted from testicles in the hope they would rejuvenate old men and how true medical heroes like Frederick Banting discovered a way to make insulin, thus saving the lives of countless diabetes sufferers.
And hormones remain at the cutting edge of medicine as we try and deal with modern scourges like obesity.
SUN 00:30 Voyager: To the Final Frontier (b01nj48v)
This is the story of the most extraordinary journey in human exploration, the Voyager space mission. In 1977 two unmanned spacecraft were launched by NASA, heading for distant worlds. It would be the first time any man-made object would ever visit the farthest planets of the solar system - Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. On the way the Voyagers would be bombarded by space dust, fried by radiation and discover many of the remarkable wonders of the solar system.
Now, at the end of 2012, 35 years and 11 billion miles later, they are leaving the area of the sun's influence. As they journey out into the galaxy beyond they carry a message from Earth, a golden record bolted to the side of each craft describing our civilisation in case of discovery by another. This is the definitive account of the most intrepid explorers in Earth's history.
SUN 01:30 50s Britannia (b01sgbw2)
Rock 'n' Roll Britannia
Long before the Beatles there was British rock 'n' roll. Between 1956 and 1960 British youth created a unique copy of a distant and scarce American original whilst most parents, professional jazz men and even the BBC did their level best to snuff it out.
From its first faltering steps as a facsimile of Bill Haley's swing style to the sophistication of self-penned landmarks such as Shakin' All Over and The Sound of Fury, this is the story of how the likes of Lord Rockingham's XI, Vince Taylor and Cliff Richard and The Shadows laid the foundations for an enduring 50-year culture of rock 'n' roll.
Now well into their seventies, the flame still burns strong in the hearts of the original young ones. Featuring Sir Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde, Joe Brown, Bruce Welch, Cherry Wainer and The Quarrymen.
SUN 02:30 Duets at the BBC (b01c2xwt)
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.
MONDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2016
MON 19:00 World News Today (b07w5z9x)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 Brushing up on... (b01s6h36)
Series 1
British Towers
Danny Baker turns his attention to Britain's towers, those soaring structures that loom loftily above us but about which little is known.
MON 20:00 Life Story (b04q1rwy)
Series 1
Courtship
The competition to breed has created both the most extraordinary beauty and the most violent battles seen in nature. Waved albatross pair for life and spend hours canoodling with each other. But for a male peacock jumping spider one wrong move in his dazzling courtship routine may well prove fatal.
A male flame bowerbird creates a stick sculpture decorated with shells and berries to impress a mate. Even that isn't enough. He then uses it as a backdrop to show off his vivid colours in a dazzling dance. But things don't go to plan as his bower is destroyed by mischievous youngsters and a rival male.
But the most extraordinary display of all is created by a tiny, drab male pufferfish. He builds a spectacular submarine 'crop circle' in the sand. It's the most perfect and complex structure created by any animal. The crop circles were only discovered in southern Japan in 1995 and the fish architect was only identified in 2011.
MON 21:00 Who's Afraid of Conceptual Art? (b07w6gkt)
Dr James Fox has never really got conceptual art. And he's not alone. Conceptual art has been treated with suspicion and incredulity by virtually everyone outside the art world for nearly a hundred years. Ever since Marcel Duchamp first displayed a signed urinal and claimed it was art in 1917. So was he taking the piss? Or was he on to something, creating a whole new approach to art that has now lasted a century?
Dr Fox embarks on an open-minded guide for the perplexed and asks 'What is conceptual art?', 'How should we approach it?' and crucially, 'Why should we care?'. Roaming between the past, present and future he examines a mind-bending selection of the most influential conceptual ideas and artworks, alongside meeting the leading movers and shakers of today. And who knows? In the end, Dr Fox might find himself unexpectedly seduced by this trickiest of art forms.
MON 22:00 The R&B Feeling (b07w6gkw)
1971, and the Los Angeles performance art scene is flourishing. Chris Burden has just ordered a studio assistant to shoot him in the left arm with a rifle, Barbara T Smith is staging provocative interventions at F-Space, and Paul McCarthy is painting his naked body with mustard and ketchup in the name of art. And among them all, Bob Parks: an energetic young artist from the UK, living with his beautiful and interesting San Franciscan wife, Myriam Morales.
Life is perfect, for a time. But when Bob's marriage fails and Myriam leaves for Santa Fe, things fall apart. He walks the streets of Los Angeles for a year in a string bikini and sees his burgeoning art career come to pieces. Having been rescued by the parishioners of a South Central gospel church, and having spent six years worshipping and singing alongside them, Bob finally moves back to the UK to live with his parents in the New Forest.
Despite planning to stay for only six months to finish a series of paintings and gather his thoughts, Bob stays for thirty years. We meet him as he continues to develop his art practice, continues to sing in a gospel church and continues to explore what he calls 'the R&B feeling'. Against this backdrop, Bob attempts to break free of a constraining and mutually dependent relationship with his mother, Miggie, whose health is failing. As time goes on Bob's obsession with his mother - and her impending death - deepens, before reaching a terrible and tragic conclusion.
MON 23:00 Britain on Film (b01q6pzr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Sunday]
MON 23:30 Timewatch (b00785y5)
2008-2009
The Real Bonnie and Clyde
Hollywood portrayed them as the most glamorous outlaws in American history, but the reality of life on the run for Bonnie and Clyde was one of violence, hardship and danger.
With unprecedented access to gang members' memoirs, family archives and recently released police records, Timewatch takes an epic road trip through the heart of Depression-era America, in search of the true story of Bonnie and Clyde.
MON 00:30 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.
MON 01:30 World War Two: 1942 and Hitler's Soft Underbelly (b01ndj09)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
MON 03:00 Who's Afraid of Conceptual Art? (b07w6gkt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2016
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b07w5zb7)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Brushing up on... (b01sbwcz)
Series 1
British Factories
Danny Baker ponders the British factory - the products, the people, the bosses and what happens when the hooter sounds and the tools are downed.
TUE 20:00 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b07g6zpk)
Series 1 - Reversions
Episode 2
In this episode it's the summer and autumn. A fox family is playing below the Carmarthen Fans, lizards bask in the sun on limestone pavements in the upper Swansea valley and hundreds of dragonflies emerge from pools in the uplands near Brecon.
On the Black Mountain foothills, sheep are gathered by shepherds on horseback and a group of dedicated volunteers are trying to repair the mountaintop. The autumn is the season when the landscape is at its most colourful. It's also a time when thousands of fieldfares arrive from Europe to escape the colder continent. Some feed on berries in trees surrounding the smallest church in Wales.
In the Usk valley, bats feed before they hibernate in caves and migrating ducks on Talybont reservoir ready for winter. Underground, cave spiders are lurking and in the rivers, sea trout are heading upstream to spawn.
TUE 21:00 Bricks! (b07w6hdm)
In 1976 Carl Andre's sculpture Equivalent VIII, better known as 'The Tate Bricks', caused a national outcry. 'What a Load of Rubbish' screamed the papers, 'it's not even art'. Worse still, in the midst of a severe economic depression, the Bricks were paid for with taxpayers' money. One man was so outraged he went to the Tate Gallery and threw blue food dye all over at them.
BBC Four marks the fortieth anniversary with award-winning director Clare Beavan's entertaining and revealing documentary looking back at the creation of the sculpture - which consists of 120 fire bricks - and the frenzied outcry that followed. With contributions from some of the key players involved at the time, as well as contemporary artists, historians and critics, Bricks! tells the tale of what happened when modern art and public opinion came up against a brick wall. Did Carl Andre's artwork pave the way for a greater appetite for conceptual art in Britain?
TUE 22:00 Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines (p01f51z4)
Pain
Pain has a profound effect on our bodies - when we are experiencing it, millions of nerve cells deep within our brains are firing, telling us 'it hurts' - and for centuries the challenge has been to find something that will lessen or even switch off these sensations to bring us relief. Dr Michael Mosley discovers just what pain is, why we want to control it and how we ultimately did it when the discovery of morphine, the world's first pharmaceutical, at the beginning of the 19th century led to a 200-year journey of scientific breakthrough, discovery and self-experimentation.
TUE 23:00 The Grammar School: A Secret History (b0192q6y)
Episode 1
The British grammar schools provided five consecutive prime ministers as well as many high fliers in industry, science and the arts. Yet at the height of their success they were phased out.
Featuring David Attenborough and Joan Bakewell amongst many others, this two-part series uses personal stories and rare archive footage to reveal the secret history of some of Britain's most successful schools, whose aim was to give the very best education to talented children - whatever their background.
TUE 00:00 Ian Hislop's Scouting for Boys (b007hfx3)
Robert Baden-Powell's handbook Scouting for Boys, written in 1908, may be largely forgotten today, but it is one of the most influential and best-selling books of all time. In the 20th century, only the Bible, the Koran and the Thoughts of Chairman Mao sold more. But they had fewer jokes, no pictures and were useless at important stuff like tying knots.
In this entertaining and affectionate film, Ian Hislop uncovers the story behind the book which kick-started the Scout Movement - a work which is very eccentric, very Edwardian and very British.
Ian discovers that the book is actually very radical and addresses all sorts of issues that we think of as modern, such as citizenship, disaffected youth and social responsibility. He explores the maverick brilliance of Baden-Powell, a national celebrity after his heroism in the Boer War, and considers the book's candid focus on health and wellbeing - from the importance of what Baden-Powell called a 'daily rear' to his infamous warning on the dangers of masturbation.
Contributors include his grandson Lord Baden-Powell, minister for culture and former cub scout David Lammy, biographer Tim Jeal and Elleke Boehmer, editor of the re-issue of the original Scouting for Boys.
TUE 01:00 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b07g6zpk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
TUE 02:00 The Art of Australia (b03f48np)
Beyond Australia
Edmund Capon explores how, from the 1960s onwards, Australia and its art went global. Transformed into a migrant nation, Australia's dependence on Britain and Europe ended and artists and nation alike turned their attention to America and then Asia. And it was the world's most ancient art form, indigenous art from the heart of the continent, that would become modern Australia's instantly recognisable calling card.
TUE 03:00 Bricks! (b07w6hdm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2016
WED 19:00 World News Today (b07w5zbd)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Brushing up on... (b03wsn6r)
Series 2
Miniature Britain
Danny Baker embarks on a Lilliputian odyssey through all things titchy - from model trains to pint-sized cows via the mecca of the miniature, the model village.
WED 20:00 King Alfred and the Anglo Saxons (b03816y5)
Alfred of Wessex
King Alfred the Great fights a desperate guerrilla war in the marshes of Somerset - burning the cakes on the way - before his decisive victory at Edington. Creating towns, trade and coinage, reviving learning and literacy, Alfred then laid the foundations of a single kingdom of 'all the English'. Filmed on location from Reading to Rome, using original texts read in old English, and interviews with leading scholars, Michael Wood describes a man who was 'not just the greatest Briton, but one of the greatest rulers of any time or place'.
WED 21:00 Gaga for Dada: The Original Art Rebels (b07w6j9h)
On the 100th anniversary of Dada, Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves) goes on an irreverent trip into the world of the influential avant-garde art movement.
Absurd, provocative and subversive, Dada began as a response to the madness of World War I. But its radical way of looking at the world inspired generations of artists, writers and musicians, from Monty Python to punk, Bowie to Banksy.
Jim restages an early Dada performance in Zurich's Cabaret Voltaire, where the movement began. Among those joining him in his playful celebration of the Dadaists and their impact are Armando Iannucci, Terry Gilliam, designer Neville Brody and artists Michael Landy and Cornelia Parker.
WED 22:00 Rome: A History of the Eternal City (b01p65l8)
City of the Sacred
Simon Sebag Montefiore looks at how every event in ancient Rome revolved around religion. From the foundation myth through to the deification of emperors, nothing could happen without calling upon the pantheon of Roman gods. Simon investigates how the Romans worshipped and sacrificed to the gods. He discovers that sacredness defined what was Roman and it was the responsibility of every Roman to play their part in the cult. Even the ancient Roman sewer was holy ground!
WED 23:00 Storyville (b04m3k1q)
Russia's Toughest Prison: The Condemned
With unprecedented access, this documentary looks into the hidden world of one of Russia's most impenetrable and remote institutions - a maximum security prison exclusively for murderers. Deep inside the land of the gulags, this is the end of the line for some of Russia's most dangerous criminals - 260 men who have collectively killed nearly 800 people. The film delves deep into the mind and soul of some of these prisoners.
In brutally frank and uncensored interviews the inmates speak of their crimes, life and death, redemption and remorselessness, insanity and hope. The film tracks them though their unrelenting days over several months, lifting the veil on one of Russia's most secretive subcultures to reveal what happens when a man is locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours every day, for life.
A startling insight into inscrutable minds and the forbidding world they have been condemned to.
WED 00:20 Voyages of Discovery (b0074t6g)
Hanging by a Thread
Explorer Paul Rose tells the story of the USS Squalus submarine which became stranded on the bottom of the Atlantic in 1937. No one had ever been saved from a stricken sub beneath the ocean before, but maverick designer Charles Momsen, who had been ignored by the navy top brass, was suddenly called into action to bring up the crew.
Rose meets the last living survivor from the sub and one of the men, now 103, who helped save him. The rescue kick-started a whole new era of technology, laying the foundation for modern deep-sea diving.
WED 01:20 Clydebuilt: The Ships that Made the Commonwealth (p01n8jf6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Saturday]
WED 02:20 Britain on Film (b01q6pzr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Sunday]
WED 02:50 Gaga for Dada: The Original Art Rebels (b07w6j9h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2016
THU 19:00 World News Today (b07w5zbr)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b07wrm58)
Peter Powell presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 22 April 1982. Includes appearances by Pigbag, Bananarama & the Fun Boy Three, Elton John, Kim Wilde, Haircut 100 and Shakin' Stevens. Also includes a dance performance from Zoo.
THU 20:00 Secret Knowledge (b04tqk1n)
The Living Mountain: A Cairngorms Journey
A forgotten literary masterpiece celebrating the majesty of the Cairngorm mountains is the subject of this documentary presented by travel writer Robert MacFarlane.
The Living Mountain, written by Scottish poet and novelist Nan Shepherd in the 1940s, recounts her experience of walking in the Cairngorms during the early years of the Second World War. When Robert MacFarlane first discovered it he found it to be one of the finest books ever written on nature and landscape in Britain.
This love letter to the Cairngorms instantly challenged his preconceptions about nature writing. Unlike other mountaineering literature that focused on a quest to reach the summit, this remarkable book described a poetic and philosophical journey into the mountain.
Now Robert MacFarlane retraces Nan Shepherd's footsteps, exploring the Cairngorms through her thoughtful and lucid descriptions, in an attempt to discover what she called the living mountain: "So there I lie on the plateau, under me the central core of fire from which was thrust this grumbling mass of plutonic rock, over me blue air, and between the fire of the rock and the fire of the sun, scree, soil and water, grass, flower and tree, insect, bird and beast, wind, rain, snow - the total mountain."
This film brings the story of Nan Shepherd and her little-known work to a new audience, and along the way offers a moving and memorable tour of the Cairngorm mountains, seen afresh through the passion and poetry of her writing.
THU 20:30 Hive Minds (b07w8zbq)
Series 2
Methodologists v Doosras
Fiona Bruce presents the quiz show where players not only have to know the answers, but have to find them hidden in a hive of letters. It tests players' general knowledge and mental agility, as they battle against one another and race against the clock to find the answers.
Methodologists take on Doosras in this edition.
THU 21:00 Timeshift (b04z23k9)
Series 14
Battle for the Himalayas: The Fight to Film Everest
Between the 1920s and the 1960s the world's great powers sent vast military-style expeditions to conquer the peaks of the Himalayas, with Everest at their head. This was a great game played - camera in hand - by Imperial Britain, Nazi Germany and superpower America. As a result, Himalayan mountaineering's most iconic, epic and tragic moments didn't just go down in history, but were caught on film - from the deaths of Mallory and Irvine on Everest in 1924, to Everest's final conquest in 1953 by Hillary and Tensing. Using footage never before seen on British television, this is the story how of how film-makers turned the great peaks into great propaganda.
THU 22:00 The Epic of Everest (b050r7gx)
A remarkable film record of the legendary Everest expedition of 1924, newly restored by the BFI National Archive.
The third attempt to climb Everest culminated in the deaths of two of the finest climbers of their generation, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, and sparked an ongoing debate over whether or not they did indeed reach the summit.
Filming in brutally harsh conditions, Captain John Noel captured images of breathtaking beauty and considerable historic significance, including the earliest filmed records of life in Tibet. But what resonates so deeply is Noel's ability to frame the vulnerability, isolation and courage of people persevering in one of the world's harshest landscapes.
The restoration by the BFI National Archive has transformed the quality of the surviving elements of the film and reintroduced the original coloured tints and tones. The original silent film is brought to life as never before by a haunting new soundtrack composed by Simon Fisher Turner. Revealed by the restoration, few images in cinema are as epic - or moving - as the final shots of a blood red sunset over the Himalayas.
THU 23:25 Natural World (b01nhwyz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
THU 00:25 Life Story (b04q1rwy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Monday]
THU 01:25 The Magic of Mushrooms (b041m6fh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 on Sunday]
THU 02:25 Top of the Pops (b07wrm58)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 03:00 Timeshift (b04z23k9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2016
FRI 19:00 Keith Richards' Lost Weekend (b07wwtvy)
Keith at the Controls
Keith takes over BBC FOUR for three nights of dusk-to-dawn programming, in a pirate broadcast. Replacing the usual channel programming practice or convention we hear Keith's worldviews, life philosophy and survival strategies, as well as all things nocturnal.
FRI 21:00 Keith Richards - The Origin of the Species (b07m8n2v)
A Julien Temple-authored documentary essay film about Keith Richards's postwar childhood and adolescence in Dartford and London. Exploring the cultural undercurrents and transformative thinking which occurred in England between 1945 and 1962 and made possible the worldwide explosion of British rock music during the 60s, in which Keith played such a crucial role.
FRI 22:20 Keith Richards' Lost Weekend (b07wx5gq)
Fame is a Double Edge Sword
Keith takes over BBC FOUR for three nights of dusk to dawn programming, in a pirate broadcast. Replacing the usual channel programming practice or convention we hear Keith's worldviews, life philosophy and survival strategies as well as all things nocturnal.
FRI 22:40 The 39 Steps (b0074t6w)
Classic Hitchcock mystery based on John Buchan's novel. A man is pursued by the police for a murder he did not commit and by an international spy ring for information he does not possess. He finds himself fleeing across the desolate Scottish moors - handcuffed to a beautiful blonde.
FRI 00:00 Keith Richards' Lost Weekend (b07wx5gs)
Midnight Snack
Keith takes over BBC FOUR for three nights of dusk to dawn programming, in a pirate broadcast. Replacing the usual channel programming practice or convention we hear Keith's worldviews, life philosophy and survival strategies as well as all things nocturnal.
FRI 00:25 The Girl Can't Help It (b00778n3)
A classic musical comedy in which a small-time theatrical agent is given the task of turning a glamorous woman, whose boyfriend is an ex-gangster, into a top rock 'n' roll personality, but falls for her in the process.
FRI 02:00 Keith Richards' Lost Weekend (b07wx5gv)
Surfing the Wee, Wee Hours
Keith takes over BBC FOUR for three nights of dusk to dawn programming, in a pirate broadcast. Replacing the usual channel programming practice or convention we hear Keith's world views, life philosophy and survival strategies as well as all things nocturnal.
FRI 02:20 The Sorcerers (b007c0nc)
Sinister story of mind control. Amiable old professor Marcus Monserrat develops a method by which a subject can be hypnotised and have their mind 'captured' so it can be controlled remotely. Marcus and his wife Estelle entice a bored young man, Michael, to their house and use the device on him, discovering that, once he has been processed, they can experience the same sensations he feels. Estelle is immediately hooked and becomes obsessed with the vicarious pleasures she can experience.
FRI 03:40 Keith Richards' Lost Weekend (b07wx5gx)
Welcome to Club Dawn
Keith takes over BBC FOUR from dusk to dawn, in a pirate broadcast. Replacing the usual channel programming practice or convention we hear Keith's world views, life philosophy and survival strategies as well as all things nocturnal.