SATURDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2017
SAT 19:00 Indian Hill Railways (b00qvk99)
The Darjeeling Himalayan 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 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.
SAT 20:00 Ford's Dagenham Dream (b00j0gnm)
Documentary which tells the story of a dream of happy families on wheels that the Ford Motor Company brought from Detroit to Dagenham, then sold to Britain.
From the 1950s onwards Ford revolutionised the cars we drove, producing dream cars for the average British family. In the 60s and 70s Ford sold dreams to boy racers too, but it came at a price. The mass production of motor cars required an army of assembly line workers who did jobs that were infamous for their soul-destroying monotony.
At its peak Dagenham was producing more than 3,000 cars every day and its most popular dream car, the Cortina, sold around five million in Britain alone. But the assembly line workers had a love-hate relationship with the cars they made and for some the dream became a nightmare.
Illustrated with powerful first person testimony and rare archive, this is the story of the rise and fall of Ford's Dagenham dream.
SAT 21:00 Treasures of Ancient Egypt (p01mv1cv)
The Golden Age
On a journey through Ancient Egyptian art, Alastair Sooke picks treasures from its most opulent and glittering moment. Starting with troubling psychological portraits of tyrant king Senwosret III and ending with the golden mask of boy king Tutankhamun, Sooke also explores architectural wonders, exquisite tombs and a lost city - site of the greatest artistic revolution in Egypt's history where a new sinuous style was born under King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti. Along the way Egyptologists and artists reveal that the golden veneer conceals a touching humanity.
SAT 22:00 Easter Island: Mysteries of a Lost World (b03srmm6)
The contrast between the majestic statues of Easter Island and the desolation of their surroundings is stark. For decades Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as the islanders call it, has been seen as a warning from history for the planet as a whole - wilfully expend natural resources and the collapse of civilisation is inevitable.
But archaeologist Dr Jago Cooper believes this is a disastrous misreading of what happened on Easter Island. He believes that its culture was a success story not a failure, and the real reasons for its ultimate demise were far more shocking. Cooper argues that there is an important lesson that the experience of Easter Island can teach the rest of the world, but it doesn't begin by blaming its inhabitants for their own downfall.
This film examines the latest scientific and archaeological evidence to reveal a compelling new narrative, one that sees the famous statues as only part of a complex culture that thrived in isolation. Cooper finds a path between competing theories about what happened to Easter Island to make us see this unique place in a fresh light.
SAT 23:30 Top of the Pops (b08f1d8k)
John Peel and David Jensen present the weekly look at the pop charts, first broadcast on 23 March 1983. Featuring JoBoxers, David Bowie, Orange Juice, Altered Images, Duran Duran and David Joseph.
SAT 00:05 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).
SAT 01:05 Rock 'n' Roll America (b061fdr7)
Whole Lotta Shakin'
As rock 'n' roll took off with teens in 1955 it quickly increased record sales by 300 per cent in America. Big business and the burgeoning world of TV moved in. Elvis made a big-money move to major label RCA instigated by Colonel Tom Parker, an illegal immigrant from Holland who had made his name at country fairs with a set of dancing chickens. Elvis made his national TV debut with Heartbreak Hotel and followed it with a gyrating version of Hound Dog that shocked America. PTAs, church groups and local councils were outraged. Rock 'n' roll was banned by the mayor of Jersey City and removed from jukeboxes in Alabama. Now Ed Sullivan would only shoot Elvis from the waist up.
The conservative media needed a cleaned-up version and the young, married-with-kids Christian singer Pat Boone shot up the chart, rivalling Elvis for sales. Not that this stopped rock 'n' roll. Jerry Lee Lewis again scandalised the nation with his gyrating finger in Whole Lotta Shakin' and the Everlys shocked with Wake Up Little Susie, both 45s being banned in parts of America.
It took bespectacled geek Buddy Holly to calm things down as a suburban down-home boy who, with his school friends The Crickets, turned plain looks into chart success. But by the end of 1958 the music was in real trouble. Elvis was conscripted into the army, Jerry Lee was thrown out of Britain and into obscurity for marrying his 13-year-old cousin and Little Richard went into the church.
Featuring Jerry Lee Lewis, Don Everly, Tom Jones, Wanda Jackson, Pat Boone, DJ Fontana, Eric Burdon, James Burton, Jerry Allison (The Crickets' drummer), Mike Stoller, PF Sloan, Joe Boyd, Jerry Phillips, Marshall Chess and JM Van Eaton (Jerry Lee Lewis's drummer).
SAT 02:05 Rock 'n' Roll America (b0623809)
Be My Baby
In the years bookended by Buddy Holly's death in early 1959 and The Beatles landing at JFK in spring 1964, rock 'n' roll calmed down, went uptown and got spun into teen pop in a number of America's biggest cities. Philadelphia produced 'teen idols' like Fabian who were beamed around the country by the daily TV show Bandstand. Young Jewish songwriters in New York's Brill Building drove girl groups on the east coast who gave a female voice to teenage romance. Rock 'n' roll even fuelled the Motown sound in Detroit and soundtracked the sunshiny west coast dream from guitar instrumental groups like The Ventures to LA's emerging Beach Boys.
In the early 60s, rock 'n' roll was birthing increasingly polished pop sounds across the States, but American teens seemed to have settled back into sensible young adulthood. Enter the long-haired boys from Liverpool, Newcastle and London.
Featuring exclusive interviews with Jerry Lee Lewis, Ben E King, Chubby Checker, Ronnie Spector, Barrett Strong, Eric Burdon and Pat Boone.
SAT 03:05 Sounds of the 70s 2 (b01jk1b8)
Soul: Keep On Keeping On
Imported American soul was big news in the UK in the 1970s. Before the Brits developed their own brand of soul, American performers were here demonstrating how it was done and being appreciated by all and sundry. The series continues with classic performances from the kings and queens of soul, including Aretha Franklin, Billy Preston, The Tams, Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers, The Stylistics, Gil Scott-Heron and The Jacksons.
SUNDAY 19 FEBRUARY 2017
SUN 19:00 Sound of Song (b04y4qpt)
The Recording Revolution
Songs are the soundtrack of our lives and it takes a kind of genius to create a true pop masterpiece. But, as Neil Brand argues, there is more to consider in the story of what makes a great song. Neil looks at every moment in the life cycle of a song - how they are written, performed, recorded and the changing ways we have listened to them. He reveals how it is the wonderful alchemy of all of these elements that makes songs so special to us.
To open the series, Neil investigates how songs were recorded for the first time, the listening revolution in the home that followed and the birth of a new style of singing that came with the arrival of the microphone - crooning. He also looks at the songwriting genius of Irving Berlin and the interpretative power of singers Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby.
SUN 20:00 Life of a Mountain (b08f1cc0)
A Year on Blencathra
The sequel to Life of a Mountain: Scafell Pike sees award-winning film-maker Terry Abraham return to the Lake District to showcase 'the people's mountain' - Blencathra.
This spectacular documentary looks at the lives of local residents, schoolchildren and visitors to the mountain with contributions from comedian Ed Byrne, broadcaster Stuart Maconie, mountaineer Alan Hinkes OBE and record-breaking fell runner Steve Birkinshaw.
Abraham's breathtaking photography and stunning time-lapse sequences of this unique landscape will inspire newcomers and regular visitors alike.
SUN 21:00 Tom Waits: Tales from a Cracked Jukebox (b08g8hj3)
Tom Waits is one of the most original musicians of the last five decades. Renowned for his gravelly voice and dazzling mix of musical styles, he's also one of modern music's most enigmatic and influential artists.
His songs have been covered by Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart and Norah Jones, among many others. But Waits has always pursued his own creative vision, with little concern for musical fashion.
In a long career of restless reinvention, from the barfly poet of his early albums to the junkyard ringmaster of Swordfishtrombones, his songs chronicle lives from the margins of American society - drifters, dreamers, hobos and hoodlums - and his music draws on a rich mix of influences, including the blues, jazz, Weimar cabaret and film noir.
Using rare archive, audio recordings and interviews, this film is a bewitching after-hours trip through the surreal, moonlit world of Waits' music - a portrait of a pioneering musician and his unique, alternative American songbook.
SUN 22:00 The Cult Next Door (b08c3vrx)
This documentary by acclaimed director Vanessa Engle tells the extraordinary story of a strange cult, which came to light in 2013 when a sensational news story broke about three women emerging from a small flat in Brixton in south London after decades in captivity. Tracing the group back to its roots in the 1970s, the film describes how its leader Aravindan Balakrishnan, a student of Indian origin, believed in an international communist revolution and created a tiny political sect that followed the teachings of China's Chairman Mao.
The film features exclusive interviews with two of the women who escaped - Aisha Wahab, a 72-year-old Malaysian woman who was part of Balakrishnan's group for 40 years, and Katy Morgan-Davies, Balakrishnan's daughter, who was born and raised in captivity. The film documents how this left-wing collective evolved into a bizarre pseudo-religious cult, where members were controlled, threatened and brainwashed so that they were too terrified to leave.
SUN 23:00 Phoenix (b06myzbn)
Berlin, 1945: Singer Nelly Lenz returns to Berlin terribly disfigured having survived the concentration camps. After her recovery from extensive plastic surgery, refusing to believe that her estranged husband Johnny could have betrayed her to the Nazis, she resolves to find him in the hope he will still recognise her even though others no longer can.
SUN 00:35 Nelson's Caribbean Hell-hole: An Eighteenth Century Navy Graveyard Uncovered (b01s6gjx)
Human bones found on an idyllic beach in Antigua trigger an investigation by naval historian Sam Willis into one of the darkest chapters of Britain's imperial past. As archaeologists excavate a mass grave of British sailors, Willis explores Antigua's ruins and discovers how the sugar islands of the Caribbean were a kind of hell in the age of Nelson.
Sun, sea, war, tropical diseases and poisoned rum.
SUN 01:35 Order and Disorder (p00ynyl9)
Energy
Professor Jim Al-Khalili discovers the intriguing story of how we discovered the rules that drive the universe. Energy is vital to us all, but what exactly is energy? In attempting to answer this question Jim investigates a strange set of laws that link together everything from engines to humans to stars. It turns out that energy, so critical to daily existence, actually helps us make sense of the entire universe.
SUN 02:35 Life of a Mountain (b08f1cc0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
MONDAY 20 FEBRUARY 2017
MON 19:00 100 Days (b08frj1f)
Series 1
20/02/2017
As President Trump takes office, BBC News teams in Washington and London report on the events that are shaping our world.
MON 19:30 Reel History of Britain (p00jwpc7)
Steel Ships and Iron Men
Melvyn Bragg, accompanied by a vintage mobile cinema, travels across the country to show incredible footage preserved by the British Film Institute and other national and regional film archives, and tell the history of modern Britain.
This episode comes from the site of the John Brown's shipyard in Clydebank, Glasgow and looks back to the 1930s when Britain's shipyards, once the wonder of the industrial world, were fighting to survive.
Charlie Grozier, who grew up just a street away from John Brown's, remembers being 12 years old and watching in awe as the ships his father worked on were launched. At the top of the Titan Crane, historian and shipbuilding expert Anthony Burton talks about the decline of shipyards across the country and Tom Graham explains the impact this collapse had on his home community along with thousands of others.
MON 20:00 The Big Painting Challenge (b08g79zl)
Series 1
Landscape
Mariella Frostrup and the Rev Richard Coles are once more on hand to oversee the battle of the brushes, as the nine remaining amateur artists face their next challenges.
In episode two, the amateur artists are on the English south coast to tackle landscapes, battling the elements in Hastings as they paint outdoors. Their first test is a tricky one, as they must accurately portray the straight lines and diminishing perspective of Hastings' newly refurbished pier.
The next day there is a sea change, and it's four seasons in one day as the meteorological muses throw everything they have at the intrepid artists. This time they are on the pier itself as they face the shoreline to take on the landscape, architecture and beachfront that makes Hastings such an iconic town. Once again the mentors are on hand to help them navigate the challenge to capture perspective, composition and sense of place, but some artists are more receptive than others.
The public panel is made up of Hastings locals, who vote to keep in their favourite for one more week, but it's up to the judges to decide who goes.
MON 21:00 Storyville (b08fsbk9)
Life, Animated
Nominated for an Academy Award, this film tells the uplifting story of Owen Suskind, an autistic young man and his family. After unremarkable early years, at the age of three Owen withdrew and suddenly stopped speaking. Diagnosed with autism, Owen slowly emerged from his isolation by immersing himself in Disney animated films, using them as an emotional road map to reconnect with the wider world.
Owen and his family describe the challenges he faced growing up and the understanding he drew from these stories. Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams tracks how by repeatedly watching these Disney classics, Owen learned to view the world as deep and complex, as well as inspirational and instructive.
Life, Animated is a remarkable insight into Owen's unique way of seeing the world, and an emotional coming-of-age story as he leaves home and takes his first steps towards independence.
MON 22:25 Order and Disorder (b01nj44h)
Information
Professor Jim Al-Khalili investigates one of the most important concepts in the world today - information. He discovers how we harnessed the power of symbols, everything from the first alphabet and the electric telegraph through to the modern digital age. But on this journey he learns that information is not just about human communication, it is woven very profoundly into the fabric of reality.
MON 23:25 Oceans (b00fm9hn)
Sea of Cortez
Series revealing the hidden stories of the deep as a team of four marine experts voyage across the globe to explore our planet's last true wilderness - its oceans.
Over a year, Paul Rose, Philippe Cousteau Jr, Dr Lucy Blue and Tooni Mahto explore how a unique ocean paradise, home to the greatest variety of whales and dolphins in the world, is under threat. They dive stormy seas to investigate how a giant predator, the cannibalistic Humboldt squid, is invading this sea, and search for the threatened hammerhead shark.
In an extraordinary encounter, the team carry out pioneering science on one of the largest carnivores on earth: the 20-metre-long sperm whale. They explore a sunken ship with a tragic human story, and to search for evidence that the Sea of Cortez is still growing, they dive along part of the San Andreas fault line. The dive is above waters heated to near-boiling point by the furnace of the inner Earth.
MON 00:25 Tom Waits: Tales from a Cracked Jukebox (b08g8hj3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
MON 01:25 Apple Tree Yard (b08cbj5q)
Series 1
Episode 1
Dr Yvonne Carmichael seems to have it all - a respected career, a beautiful home and family. However, nothing is ever as it appears, and when she receives an unexpected proposition from an enigmatic stranger, Yvonne is shocked by the passion he awakens in her. But gradually she begins to realise that there is much more to her lover than meets the eye, and she could be playing a very dangerous game indeed.
MON 02:25 Storyville (b08fsbk9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2017
TUE 19:00 100 Days (b08frj3q)
Series 1
21/02/2017
As President Trump takes office, BBC News teams in Washington and London report on the events that are shaping our world.
TUE 19:30 Weird Nature (b0078h7z)
Devious Defences
Series exploring bizarre behaviour in the animal kingdom looks at creatures that employ camouflage, armour and other methods to ward off predators. Discover skunks that handstand, crabs that dress up and fish that are slime monsters. Meet an armadillo that can roll into an impregnable ball, owls and frogs that puff themselves up and a cobra that spits venom. There are fish that can copy a chequered board, octopus that shape-shift and creatures that can turn inside out. There are even birds that use projectile vomit or repulsive missiles and creatures that turn playing dead into a performance to die for. Using new filming techniques and some extraordinary special FX, this is nature as never seen before.
TUE 20:00 Planet Earth II (b084ftll)
Deserts
The world's deserts are lands of extremes that force animals to come up with ingenious ways of coping with hostile conditions, giving rise to the most incredible survival stories on earth.
A pride of desert lions are so hungry they risk hunting a giraffe several times their size, while male sandgrouse fly 120 miles each day to the nearest waterhole and dice with death to collect water for their chicks.
Filmed for the first time, a tiny bat does battle with one of the world's deadliest scorpions, and in Madagascar, a locust swarm of biblical proportions is seen as never before.
TUE 21:00 South Downs: England's Mountains Green (b08fsbtk)
Peter Owen-Jones takes us into the heart of the UK's newest national park - the South Downs. Following the South Downs Way along the spine of the park, from the famous Seven Sisters cliffs to Winchester - the ancient capital of England - Peter experiences an extraordinary year exploring the park's stunning landscapes, rich history, wildlife and people. What emerges is a portrait of one of Britain's most iconic landscapes, described by William Blake as 'England's mountains green'.
TUE 22:00 Russia's Hooligan Army (b08flw2v)
At the 2016 European Championships, violent clashes between Russian and English supporters in Marseille put the spotlight on Russian hooliganism. Russian hooligans injured over 100 English supporters, beating two into a coma, and it raised serious concerns ahead of Russia hosting the 2018 World Cup. Filmmaker Alex Stockley von Statzer travels to Russia to experience the country's football fan culture first hand. Featuring footage filmed in Marseille in 2016, rare interviews with members of some of the most feared firms like the Spartak Gladiators and Orel Butchers, and new footage of an organised fight for wannabe recruits, this show uncovers a world where brutal violence has become a mark of honour and a symbol of newly resurgent Russian masculinity.
Most Russian hooligans have moved away from the English movement that inspired them in the 70s and 80s. Today they are organised in firms that are teetotal, physically fit and trained in mixed martial arts. Police have enacted new laws promising bans and jail for any fans that cause trouble and are heavily policing stadiums. Alex travels to Oryol to speak to the Orel Butchers who violently attacked English fans in Marseille. We hear one hooligan taking relish in describing a merciless attack by a number of Russians who kicked an England fan in the head - an attack that was also caught on camera.
Alex also travels to Rostov, which will host five games at the World Cup, to film an organised fight in the woods. Here he meets with a local firm getting ready to audition for new members. Young men fight in a no-holds-barred brawl against young fighters from another local firm. It's a vicious clash similar to what was witnessed in Marseille and is one of the hundreds of fights that firms arrange all across Russia.
TUE 23:00 Indian Hill Railways (b00qvk99)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
TUE 00:00 What a Performance! Pioneers of Popular Entertainment (b06r7xz4)
Music Hall
Comedian Frank Skinner and music presenter Suzy Klein step out in the first part of this highly entertaining and thought-provoking three-part series which explores a century of popular entertainment from the Victorian age of the music hall, through the golden age of 20th-century variety to the working men's clubs of the 1950s.
The first episode looks at the birth of 19th-century music hall, the colourful and sometimes dangerous world of its entertainers and the audiences whose lives were changed by what was Britain's first mass entertainment industry. Together, Suzy and Frank get under the skin of some of its greatest stars - some of whom, like Marie Lloyd and Champagne Charlie, are household names to this day, while the eccentric Victorian comic Dan Leno, later copied by Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, have fallen into obscurity.
Not only do Frank and Suzy dig into the history of these stars and the world from which they emerged, but they also study their acts and try their hand at performing them at the end of the show.
TUE 01:00 Fig Leaf: The Biggest Cover-Up in History (b00ydp38)
Writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith uncovers the secret history of the humble fig leaf, opening a window onto 2,000 years of western art and ethics.
He tells how the work of Michelangelo, known to his contemporaries as 'the maker of pork things', fuelled the infamous 'fig leaf campaign', the greatest cover-up in art history, how Bernini turned censorship into a new form of erotica by replacing the fig leaf with the slipping gauze, and how the ingenious machinations of Rodin brought nudity back to the public eye.
In telling this story, Smith turns many of our deepest prejudices upside down, showing how the Victorians had a far more sophisticated and mature attitude to sexuality than we do today. He ends with an impassioned plea for the widespread return of the fig leaf to redeem modern art from cheap sensation and innuendo.
TUE 02:00 Apple Tree Yard (b08d4357)
Series 1
Episode 2
In the aftermath of what has happened, a devastated Yvonne shuts down. She feels unable to talk to the police or her husband, but as a campaign of terror is mounted against her, she is pushed to her limits and turns to her former lover, Costley, for advice. They meet for one last time and share a passionate afternoon together, before Costley takes control of the situation and Yvonne is plunged from one nightmare into another.
TUE 03:00 Planet Earth II (b084ftll)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2017
WED 19:00 100 Days (b08frj6x)
Series 1
22/02/2017
As President Trump takes office, BBC News teams in Washington and London report on the events that are shaping our world.
WED 19:30 Reel History of Britain (p00jwpg0)
A Right Royal Knees Up
Melvyn Bragg, accompanied by a vintage mobile cinema, travels across the country, to show incredible footage preserved by the British Film Institute and other national and regional film archives, and tell the history of modern Britain.
This episode comes from Countesthorpe in Leicestershire and looks back to 1977 when a right royal knees-up was taking place all around the country in honour of the Queen's Silver Jubilee.
Jayne Taylor and Linda Leeke relive the day they travelled to London and made the headlines, royal biographer Hugo Vickers reveals how he helped to get the party started and former beauty queen Nicky Grossman comes face to face with her younger self.
WED 20:00 Kew's Forgotten Queen (b07xjghp)
Within Kew Gardens stands an extraordinary gallery, celebrating the work of one of the most prolific botanical artists of the Victorian age. At a time when women barely left their parlour rooms, Marianne North's globetrotting exploits defied convention as she travelled alone at the height of the British Empire. From Borneo and Brazil to Japan, South Africa, Australia and India, she fearlessly navigated the world twice over in her pursuit of capturing every living plant on canvas.
Actress Emilia Fox tells the story of how this Victorian rebel changed the face of botanical research, propelling her to the top of a male-dominated world of science and exploration, gaining the admiration of Charles Darwin and even Queen Victoria. Retracing Marianne's footsteps and her passion for the natural world, Emilia revisits the awe-inspiring locations of some of her greatest experiences.
With exclusive access to Kew Gardens and Marianne's wealth of personal memoirs, letters and paintings, this is a tantalising tale of a visionary who rejected marriage and social convention for a pioneering life of conservation and adventure. Her artistic legacy remains as mesmerising today as it was in 1882 when her gallery opened at Kew Gardens.
WED 21:00 Roots (b07x0drg)
Series 1
Episode 3
Young George - son of Kizzy and slave owner Tom Lea - grows up to become involved in cockfighting. His flamboyancy and impressive bird-training skills earn him the nickname of Chicken George and he wins many fights for Tom Lea, as he starts to dream of becoming a free man one day.
WED 22:40 Wild China (b00brvjx)
Shangri-La
Documentary that showcases pioneering images capturing the dazzling array of mysterious creatures that live in China's most beautiful landscapes. Beneath billowing clouds, in China's far south west, rich jungles nestle below towering peaks. Jewel-coloured birds and ancient tribes share forested valleys where wild elephants still roam. How do these forests exist? Perhaps the rugged landscape holds the key.
WED 23:40 Archaeology: A Secret History (p0109k28)
The Search for Civilisation
Archaeologist Richard Miles shows how discoveries in the 18th and 19th centuries overturned ideas of when and where civilisation began as empires competed to literally 'own' the past.
WED 00:40 Treasures of Ancient Egypt (p01mv1cv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Saturday]
WED 01:40 Apple Tree Yard (b08f05sm)
Series 1
Episode 3
Psychological thriller. Yvonne's life is turned upside down yet again.
WED 02:40 Wild China (b00brvjx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:40 today]
THURSDAY 23 FEBRUARY 2017
THU 19:00 100 Days (b08frj87)
Series 1
23/02/2017
As President Trump takes office, BBC News teams in Washington and London report on the events that are shaping our world.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b08fsfy0)
Steve Wright and Richard Skinner present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 31 March 1983. Featuring New Order, The Style Council, Mari Wilson, U2, Kajagoogoo, Tracey Ullman and Duran Duran.
THU 20:00 Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise (b087vgd6)
The Secrets of the South
Southern Thailand is the Thailand we think we all know. It is a place of both spectacular natural beauty and of wild parties, but behind this well-known image is also a place where spirituality pervades every bit of life. For the animals that live here, this is a natural wonderland.
THU 21:00 Madame Tussaud: A Legend in Wax (b08cgm56)
The remarkable true story of the woman behind the worldwide waxworks empire, Madame Tussaud.
In an astonishing life that spanned both the French and Industrial revolutions, this single mother and entrepreneur travelled across the Channel to England, where she overcame the odds to establish her remarkable and enduring brand. Determined to leave an account of who she was and the times she lived through, her memoirs, letters and papers offer a unique insight into the creation of the extraordinary empire which bears her name.
THU 22:00 The French Revolution: Tearing up History (b042ttxl)
A journey through the dramatic and destructive years of the French Revolution, telling its history in a way not seen before - through the extraordinary story of its art. Our guide through this turbulent decade is the constantly surprising Dr Richard Clay, an art historian who has spent his life decoding the symbols of power and authority.
Dr Clay has always been fascinated by vandalism and iconoclasm, and believes much of the untold story of the French Revolution can be discovered through the stories of great moments of destruction. Who were the stone masons in the crowd outside Notre Dame that pulled down the statues of kings? Why do the churches of Paris still carry all the coded signs of anti-Christian state legislation? What does it mean, and who was carrying this out?
Telling the story of the French Revolution - from the Storming of the Bastille to the rise of Napoleon - as the significant modern outbreak of iconoclasm, Clay argues that it reveals the destructive and constructive roles of iconoclasts and how this led directly to the birth of the modern Europe.
THU 23:00 Nazis: A Warning from History (b0074kpz)
The Wild East
Nearly one in five Poles died during World War Two after the Nazi invasion in 1939 ushered in one of the most brutal episodes of ethnic cleansing the world has ever seen. This film destroys the myth that Poland's Nazi leaders were acting under detailed 'orders' and that the country's Nazi administration was a model of German efficiency. Arthur Greiser and Albert Forster, the two Nazi leaders charged with Germanizing Poland, could not even agree on who should be 'Germanized'.
Featuring interviews with former Nazis, moving testimony from witnesses to SS atrocities in Poland, ethnic Germans and Polish jews, The Wild East provides insights into how the Nazis' reign of terror in Poland was characterised by huge population upheavals, chaos, petty squabbles and sheer bloodlust.
THU 23:50 Top of the Pops (b08fsfy0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 00:25 Sounds of the 70s 2 (b01h7pzm)
Troubadours – Peaceful Easy Feeling
In the early 70s as the UK got to grips with the new coinage and decimalisation and braced itself for strike after strike, a group of young troubadours were hanging out in Laurel Canyon and the environs of California USA having a ball and creating music that would define a generation. It's time to kick back and relax and enjoy performances from Crosby and Nash, Neil Young, America, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Carole King, The Eagles, and Seals and Crofts.
THU 00:50 Sound of Song (b04y4qpt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
THU 01:50 Apple Tree Yard (b08f0979)
Series 1
Episode 4
The murder trial continues, with Costley's lawyer Bonnard basing her defence on evidence that Costley suffers from a personality disorder which would have impeded his ability to react normally during an altercation with Selway. The prosecution attack this claim.
When Yvonne finally takes to the stand, she sticks firmly to her story and confidently holds her own.
THU 02:50 The French Revolution: Tearing up History (b042ttxl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRIDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2017
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b08frjc7)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b08fsgyp)
Simon Bates and Peter Powell present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 7 April 1983. Featuring Dexys Midnight Runners, Culture Club, Joboxers, Twisted Sister, Michael Jackson, FR David, Nick Heyward, Big Country and David Bowie.
FRI 20:00 The Good Old Days (b08fsgyr)
Leonard Sachs chairs the old-time music hall programe, first broadcast on 7th February 1978. With Mike Reid, Wilma Reading, Denny Willis & Company, Sheila Mathews, Michael Darbyshire, Josephine Gordon, Frankie Ferrer and Albert Aldred.
FRI 20:40 Sounds of the Seventies (b01pcwhp)
Shorts
Roxy Music, Queen and Elton John
Glamour with a seventies subversive quality in this selection from the BBC's back pages. Roxy Music operate their Ladytron, Queen are Killer and Elton John is back.
FRI 20:55 Pop Go the Sixties (b00cw0pf)
Series 2
Procol Harum
A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum was one of the 1960s' most popular and most-played songs. It's performed here by the group who first recorded it, on Top of the Pops in 1967.
FRI 21:00 Queen: From Rags to Rhapsody (b06s76l4)
To mark the 40th anniversary of Bohemian Rhapsody, this documentary digs deep into archive to tell the story of Queen as it follows their journey from a struggling band gigging at pubs and colleges to the moment they captured the UK's hearts and minds with what was to become one of - if not the - greatest song of all time.
Queen's formative years have never been explored in such detail. With a wealth of unseen interviews, recently unearthed rushes of Queen's first ever video and outtakes from the recording sessions of Bohemian Rhapsody itself, this is the unique story of early Queen, told by the band themselves.
This documentary completes the final part of the trilogy alongside Days of Our Lives and Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender.
It's simple. It's real. It's raw. It's what happened.
FRI 21:55 Queen: The Legendary 1975 Concert (b00p4hgm)
On Christmas Eve 1975, Queen crowned a glorious year with a special concert at London's Hammersmith Odeon. The show on the final night of their triumphant UK tour was broadcast live on BBC TV and radio, and has become a legendary event in Queen's history.
Featuring stunning renditions of early hits Keep Yourself Alive, Liar and Now I'm Here alongside Brian May's epic guitar showcase Brighton Rock, a rip-roaring version of the then new Bohemian Rhapsody and the crowd-pleasing Rock 'n' Roll Medley, this hour-long concert shows Queen at an early peak and poised to conquer the world.
FRI 23:00 Guitar Heroes at the BBC (b00llh2f)
Part III
Compilation of classic archive performances from the guitar gods of the late 60s and 70s. Status Quo appear playing Pictures of Matchstick Men on Top of the Pops in 1968, The Who perform Long Live Rock in the Old Grey Whistle Test studio, Dire Straits play Tunnel of Love and Lynyrd Skynyrd bring a taste of the Deep South with Sweet Home Alabama. The show also features rare performances from George Benson, Leo Kottke, Link Wray and Tom Petty.
FRI 00:00 When Albums Ruled the World (b01qhn70)
Between the mid-1960s and the late 1970s, the long-playing record and the albums that graced its grooves changed popular music for ever. For the first time, musicians could escape the confines of the three-minute pop single and express themselves as never before across the expanded artistic canvas of the album. The LP allowed popular music become an art form - from the glorious artwork adorning gatefold sleeves, to the ideas and concepts that bound the songs together, to the unforgettable music itself.
Built on stratospheric sales of albums, these were the years when the music industry exploded to become bigger than Hollywood. From pop to rock, from country to soul, from jazz to punk, all of music embraced what 'the album' could offer. But with the collapse of vinyl sales at the end of the 70s and the arrival of new technologies and formats, the golden era of the album couldn't last forever.
With contributions from Roger Taylor, Ray Manzarek, Noel Gallagher, Guy Garvey, Nile Rodgers, Grace Slick, Mike Oldfield, Slash and a host of others, this is the story of When Albums Ruled the World.
FRI 01:25 Top of the Pops (b08fsgyp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 02:00 Queen: From Rags to Rhapsody (b06s76l4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 03:00 Guitar Heroes at the BBC (b00llh2f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 today]