As President Trump takes office, Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping our world.
Discover a lizard that uses a scorpion as a bodyguard, a toad that sets up home with a tarantula, an animal that uses hummingbirds as an air charter, the barber that fish use, a crab that carries living fisticuffs, mutant frogs, a snake that acts as pest controller in an owl's nest, dolphins that co-operate with fishermen, a bird that guides people to honey and an odd farmyard full of strange friendships.
Edward Mannock VC and James McCudden VC rose from modest backgrounds to become two of Britain's greatest fighter aces in World War One.
As the number of their victories grew, so did their chances of dying in flames. Timewatch tells the story of their battle to survive against the odds, and of the 90-year-old mystery surrounding the death of one of them.
Documentary looking at the wildlife of the most stunning mountain range in the world, home to snow leopards, Himalayan wolves and Tibetan bears.
Snow leopards stalk their prey among the highest peaks. Concealed by snowfall, the chase is watched by golden eagles circling above. On the harsh plains of the Tibetan plateau live extraordinary bears and square-faced foxes hunting small rodents to survive. In the alpine forests, dancing pheasants have even influenced rival border guards in their ritualistic displays. Valleys carved by glacial waters lead to hillsides covered by paddy fields containing the lifeline to the east, rice. In this world of extremes, the Himalayas reveal not only snow-capped mountains and fascinating animals but also a vital lifeline for humanity.
Dan Cruickshank explores the mysteries and secrets of the bridges that have made London what it is. He uncovers stories of Bronze-Age relics emerging from the Vauxhall shore, of why London Bridge was falling down, of midnight corpses splashing beneath Waterloo Bridge, and above all, of the sublime ambition of London's bridge builders themselves.
Ada Lovelace was a most unlikely computer pioneer. In this film, Dr Hannah Fry tells the story of Ada's remarkable life. Born in the early 19th century, Ada was a countess of the realm, a scandalous socialite and an 'enchantress of numbers'. The film is an enthralling tale of how a life infused with brilliance, but blighted by illness and gambling addiction, helped give rise to the modern era of computing.
Hannah traces Ada's unlikely union with the father of computers, Charles Babbage. Babbage designed the world's first steam-powered computers - most famously the analytical engine - but it was Ada who realised the full potential of these new machines. During her own lifetime, Ada was most famous for being the daughter of romantic poet Lord Byron ('mad, bad and dangerous to know'). It was only with the advent of modern computing that Ada's understanding of their flexibility and power (that they could be far more than mere number crunchers) was recognised as truly visionary. Hannah explores how Ada's unique inheritance - poetic imagination and rational logic - made her the ideal prophet of the digital age.
This moving, intelligent and beautiful film makes you realise we nearly had a Victorian computer revolution.
Andy Warhol created some of the most instantly recognisable art of the 20th century. But perhaps his greatest work of art was himself - the cool, enigmatic pop art superstar.
In this film, Stephen Smith sets out to discover the real Andy Warhol - in the hour-by-hour detail of his daily life.
Taking a playful approach, mixing archive and entertaining encounters with Warhol's closest friends and confidantes, Stephen pieces together a typical day in the mid 1960s.
By 1964, Warhol had established himself as a famous pop artist and his creative ambitions were exploding in new directions in a creative frenzy of art, films - and even music.
From an early-hours chat with John Giorno, Warhol's lover and star of his notorious film Sleep, to recreating Warhol's intimate telephone conversations with Factory superstar Brigid Berlin, Stephen immerses himself in the round-the-clock whirl of Warhol's daily life.
Visiting the church where Warhol worshipped with his mother, discussing the day-to-day running of the Factory with Warhol's assistant Gerard Malanga, talking to Bibbe Hansen and Jane Holzer, stars of his famous Screen Tests, the film offers a fresh and illuminating new portrait of Warhol.
And from the obsessive desire to document his everyday life to the endless fascination with fame and his own celebrity image, a day with Andy Warhol appears surprisingly familiar to 21st century eyes.
"In his lifetime", concludes Stephen, "some people thought Warhol came from another planet. But in fact he hailed from somewhere equally exotic - the future.".
Comedian and history buff Al Murray is joined by former director of MI5 Dame Stella Rimington, political comedian Matt Forde and film expert Matthew Sweet for a fresh look at the great British spy movie. This round-table discussion looks at the films themselves - not to mention the spies that star in them - and uses them as a lens on the British people, our fear of the world and our changing views of espionage over the decades.
As well as discussing the inevitable moral ambiguity, the limited female roles and general distrust of the intelligence community, we also find out what Dame Stella Rimington, the real M, actually thinks about James Bond, what you really say at a party when someone inevitably asks what you do, the spy gadget she'd really like to get her hands on, and the film that was genuinely used as a training movie when she first joined the service.
Classicist Dr Michael Scott looks at the dramatic decline of Athens and the remarkable triumph and transformation of theatre. During the 4th century BC Athens would lose its Empire, its influence and even its democracy. But theatre, that most Athenian of inventions, would thrive, spreading throughout the Greek world and beyond and giving rise to a new kind of comedy, one so popular and prevalent that it is still at the heart of comedy today.
WEDNESDAY 15 MARCH 2017
WED 19:00 100 Days (b08hz3kc)
Series 1
15/03/2017
As President Trump takes office, Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping our world.
WED 19:25 DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal (b08l2cj0)
Matt Baker presents the DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal.
You can give by calling 0370 60 60 610 (standard geographic charges from landlines and mobiles will apply), Text HELP to 70000 to give £5 or send a cheque payable to DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal to:
DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal
PO Box 999
London
EC3A 3AA.
WED 19:30 Reel History of Britain (p00jwrk7)
Dawn of a New Era
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, to tell the history of modern Britain.
In Manchester, Melvyn looks back to the 1900s and the dawn of a new era, when the invention of the film camera put everyday people in the picture.
Margaret Koppens talks about her grandfather, who was one of the thousands of children who risked life and limb in the cotton mills of Lancashire. Fairground owner Peter Sedgwick comes face to face with his great grandfather, who started the family business back in 1900. Plus, how a discovery of film stock in a Blackburn basement ended up a world treasure.
WED 20:00 Lost Land of the Volcano (b00mq3p1)
Episode 1
Series combining stunning wildlife with high-octane adventure, as a team of scientists and wildlife film-makers from the BBC's Natural History Unit explores one of the last great unspoilt jungle wildernesses on earth.
New Guinea is a rugged tropical island that is home to some of the strangest creatures on the planet. The team is based at the foot of Mount Bosavi, a giant extinct volcano covered in thick and largely unexplored rainforest. With the help of trackers from a remote tribe, they aim to search for the animals that live there - and they make amazing finds.
Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan discovers the nest of the world's smallest parrot, insect expert Dr George McGavin finds a talking beetle, the scientists identify types of frog, gecko and bat that are completely new to science, and adventurer Steve Backshall has to live and sleep underground as he explores a cave system flooded with white water.
The cameras follow the team every sweaty step of the way as they search for the evidence that may help preserve this last great jungle forever.
WED 21:00 Pedalling Dreams: The Raleigh Story (b08j8mvl)
For the last 150 years, Britain has been a nation of bike lovers. And for much of that time, one make has been associated with quality, innovation and Britishness - Raleigh bikes.
Born in the back streets of Nottingham in 1888, Raleigh grew to become the biggest bicycle manufacturer in the world. For over a century, the company was known for its simple and practical bikes, built to last a lifetime. For generations, its designs were thought second to none, enjoyed by adults and children alike.
Now, with wonderful personal testimony and rare and previously unseen archive film, this documentary tells the extraordinary tale of the ups and downs of Raleigh bikes - a beautifully illustrated story full of remarkable characters, epic adventures and memorable bikes.
Meet the people who rode and raced them, the workers who built them and the dealers who sold them. Find out how cycling saved the life of Raleigh's founder, discover the technological advances behind the company's success and join Raleigh bike riders who recall epic adventures far and wide.
Along the way, the programme takes viewers on a journey back to cycling's golden age - rediscover the thrill of learning to ride your first bike and find out what went on inside the Raleigh factory, where the company's craftsmen produced some of Britain's most iconic bikes.
Finally, the documentary reveals what went wrong at Raleigh - the battles it had with its rivals, the controversy behind the design of the Chopper and the effect the closure of its factories had on its loyal workers. This is the extraordinary untold story of the rise and fall of Raleigh bikes.
WED 22:00 Timeshift (b03fv7sl)
Series 13
Full Throttle: The Glory Days of British Motorbikes
Timeshift returns with an exploration of the British love of fast, daring and sometimes reckless motorbike riding during a period when home-grown machines were the envy of the world. From TE Lawrence in the 1920 to the 'ton-up boys' and rockers of the 1950s, motorbikes represented unparalleled style and excitement, as British riders indulged their passion for brands like Brough Superior, Norton and Triumph.
But it wasn't all thrills and spills - the motorbike played a key role during World War II and it was army surplus bikes that introduced many to the joy and freedom of motorcycling in the 50s, a period now regarded as a golden age. With its obsession with speed and the rocker lifestyle, it attracted more than its fair share of social disapproval and conflict.
Narrated by John Hannah.
WED 23:00 Digging for Britain (b084xym3)
Series 5
West
Professor Alice Roberts presents the very best in British archaeology 2016 - filmed by the archaeologists themselves, straight from the trenches, so you can see each exciting discovery as it happens. The teams then bring their best finds - from skeletons to treasure - back to the Digging for Britain lab, to examine them with Alice and reveal how they are changing the story of Britain.
This episode looks at the west of Britain, and archaeologists are in the lab to look at the new finds and what they mean.
Finds include the lost World War I training trenches on Salisbury Plain, Britain's first 'double henge' - discovered just down the road from Stonehenge, where the evidence suggests our ancestors feasted and made sacred offerings as part of a visit to the ritualistic Stonehenge landscape, and luxury foreign goods discovered at Tintagel, the legendary childhood home of King Arthur.
WED 00:00 imagine... (b01p9b9c)
Winter 2012
Jeanette Winterson: My Monster and Me
First shown in 2012, nearly 30 years after her triumphant debut novel, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson returns with Alan Yentob to the scenes of her extraordinary childhood in Lancashire. She was adopted and brought up to be a missionary by the larger-than-life Mrs Winterson. But Jeanette followed a different path - she found literature, fell in love with a girl, and escaped to university. Following her recent memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal, Jeanette Winterson tells the story of her recent breakdown and suicide attempt, her quest to find her birth mother and how the power of books helped her to survive.
WED 01:15 Wild China (b00c5n6g)
Land of the Panda
China's heartland is the centre of a 5,000-year-old civilization and is home to the giant panda, the golden snub-nosed monkey and the golden takin. China faces environmental problems, but the relationship the Chinese have with their environment is deep and extraordinary. We will understand what this means for the future of China.
WED 02:15 Britain on Film (b03c26xf)
Series 2
This Sporting Life
Series in which high-quality 1960s colour footage from the vaults of the Rank Organisation is brought together to offer compelling insights into British life during that seminal decade.
This episode salutes the Rank filmmakers' attempts to reflect our near-obsessive national preoccupation with a range of competitive sports, ranging from golf and cycling to skiing and stock car racing. Featuring vintage prose praising the idiosyncratic appeal of cricket by the incomparable commentator Richie Benaud, as well as rare colour footage of the England football team in training shortly before their greatest-ever triumph in the 1966 World Cup.
WED 02:45 Pedalling Dreams: The Raleigh Story (b08j8mvl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 16 MARCH 2017
THU 19:00 100 Days (b08hz3km)
Series 1
16/03/2017
As President Trump takes office, Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping our world.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b08hzrdx)
Simon Bates and Gary Davies present another edition of the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 19 May 1983. Featuring D Train, New Edition, David Grant, Blancmange, The Beat and Wham.
THU 20:00 Canals: The Making of a Nation (b0685bp2)
The Workers
This is the story of the men who built our canals - the navigators or 'navvies'. They represented an 'army' of hard physical men who were capable of enduring tough labour for long hours. Many roved the countryside looking for work and a better deal. They gained a reputation as troublesome outsiders, fond of drinking and living a life of ungodly debauchery. But who were they? Unreliable heathens and outcasts, or unsung heroes who used might and muscle to build canals and railways? We focus on the Manchester Ship Canal - the swansong for the navvies and hailed as the greatest engineering feat of the Victorian Age. The navvies worked at a time of rising trade unionism. But could they organise and campaign for a better deal?
THU 20:30 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b08j8jj1)
Dougie Wallace
Photographer Dougie Wallace's eye-catching images capture life on the streets of Knightsbridge and Chelsea in all its blinged-up glory - from women dripping in diamonds and designer shopping bags, to men cruising around in gold-plated Lamborghinis.
This film follows Wallace as he finishes Harrodsburg, an acclaimed photography series documenting the super-rich in one of the UK's most wealthy and exclusive postcodes.
The recent winner of a Magnum Award for his work, Dougie's images are bold, confrontational and divisive. But he is unrepentant about his methods and his message: "I'm just showing what's happening, just shining a wee bit of a torch on things, you know? Don't shoot the messenger."
Told at breakneck speed, the film is a rip-roaring, hilarious and provocative portrait one of the world's top street photographers.
THU 21:00 Smile! The Nation's Family Album (b08j8jj3)
In today's digital age, the classic family photo album has become an object of nostalgic affection. But it's much more than just a collection of sentimental snapshots.
Celebrating everyday moments and shared experiences, family photography offers an intimate portrait of Britain's postwar social history. And each generation had a different camera to tell their story.
Discovering how new technologies and evolving social attitudes inspired the nation to pick up a camera, the film charts a journey from the Box Brownie to Instagram, offering a touching portrait of our changing lives, taken not by the professional photographer but on our own cameras.
With increasingly affordable, quick-to-load and easy-to-use cameras, domestic photography became part of family life in the 20th century.
Suddenly we could all now document our family's celebrations, holidays and hobbies, and capture the most fleeting and precious memories, from birth to death.
We became a nation obsessed with taking photos, and tirelessly curating scrapbooks, and filling shoeboxes and albums with pictures that tell our family's own story.
But with the advent of digital cameras, the era of patiently waiting for the holiday snaps to come back from the processor and carefully arranging them in photo albums feels a long way from today's frenzy of digital images, instantly shared and uploaded...
The film features expert voices explaining the impact of different camera technologies, the role of Kodak in helping create an industry of popular photography, the impact of the digital revolution and the way changes in family photography have also reflected shifts in the family dynamic itself. It's no longer just dad in control of the camera, and mobile phones and social media have turned kids into photographers from a young age...
Among the stories featured in the film...
Using her father's Box Brownie as a young girl, then armed with the latest Kodak instamatic in her teens, and now using a digital SLR, Jenny Bowden's photos capture the past 60 years, from the 1950s street parades to the 60s mods, the 70s fashions when she married and started her own family, the various birthdays, graduations and weddings and deaths, and in the past decade the arrival of her own grandchildren, her albums span across her house. Today when her grandchildren visit, they head straight to the shelves as they love to flick through the albums and see themselves as babies.
Besotted and first-time mum Astrid has taken thousands of photos on her iPhone of her son Alexander since his birth eight months ago. Unlike her own mother Terry, whose photos of Astrid as a baby were considered and less frequent due to the costs of 35mm film, Astrid has the luxury of snapping away all day, taking advantage of the ease and low costs of the digital age, as she records her and Alexander's first year together. Proud Astrid spreads the happiness Alexander brings with Terry and other family via WhatsApp and Instagram.
We meet the English eccentric John Dobson, who has 161 carefully annotated scrapbooks - and counting! His careful curating of happy family memories helped him overcome his own childhood spent in a children's home.
We also meet the devoted Yorkshire dad Ian Macleod, who took a photo of his son every single day until his 21st birthday, and the Slight family in Essex, whose larger-than-life characters grew up in a pub and captured an East End way of life that no longer exists.
And we discover the emotional impact of family photos, with a family movingly sharing the very last film taken on a father's camera before he died.
From the extraordinary to the mundane, family photos capture the intimate moments of our lives. Often overlooked in the official story of photography, this film champions the family photo and the unique portrait it reveals of how the nation tells its own story.
THU 22:00 On Camera: Photographers at the BBC (b08jgr3w)
Drawing on the BBC's rich archive, this documentary reveals the working practices, lives and opinions of some of the greatest photographers since the 1950s. From Norman Parkinson to David Bailey, Eve Arnold to Jane Bown, Henri Cartier-Bresson to Martin Parr, for decades the BBC has drawn our attention to the creators of what has become the most ubiquitous, contemporary art form.
Pioneering BBC programmes like Arena, Monitor and Omnibus have given unique insights into the careers of photography's leading practitioners. Through a selection of fascinating clips, this programme brings into focus the key genres - fashion, portraiture, documentary and landscape - and the characters behind the camera who have helped define them.
THU 23:00 We'll Take Manhattan (b01b674s)
Winter 1962, and cockney photographer David Bailey and unknown model Jean Shrimpton are sent to New York for a prestigious Vogue photo shoot. This drama tells the story of a wild week, their love affair, terrible fights with their fashion editor - and how two young people with no such intention happened to change the world of fashion forever.
THU 00:30 Britain's Outlaws: Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues (b06qgh3w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Saturday]
THU 01:30 Top of the Pops (b08hzrdx)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 02:05 What Do Artists Do All Day? (b08j8jj1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
THU 02:35 Smile! The Nation's Family Album (b08j8jj3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 17 MARCH 2017
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b08hz3kx)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b08hzs4m)
Peter Powell and Pat Sharp present another edition of the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 26 May 1983. Featuring Big Country, Hot Chocolate, The Police, New Edition and Forrest.
FRI 19:50 Sounds of the Sixties (b075f7r4)
Reversions
Swinging Sixties 1
Forget Madchester, forget Factory, forget Oasis. Manchester never sounded better than Herman's Hermits and the Hollies, who feature in this archive extravaganza.
FRI 20:00 The Good Old Days (b08hzs4p)
Leonard Sachs presents the old-time entertainment show, first broadcast on 28 February 1978. Featuring Bernard Cribbins, Ian Wallace, Barry Cryer, Marti Webb, Penelope Beavan, Rocky Rendall, Dinardi, Albert Aldred and members of the Players' Theatre, London.
FRI 21:00 Rich Hall's Countrier Than You (b08j8lqb)
Award-winning comedian Rich Hall takes a country music journey from Tennessee to Texas to look at the movements and artists that don't get as much notoriety but have helped shape the genre over the years.
With the help of prominent performers and producers including Michael Martin Murphey, Robbie Fulks and Ray Benson, Rich explores the early origins of country music in Nashville and Austin. He visits the rustic studios where this much-loved sound was born and discovers how the genre has reinvented itself with influences from bluegrass, western swing and Americana.
Rich also explores how the music industries differ between these two cities and how they each generated their own distinct twist on the genre, from cosmic country and redneck country to the outlaw artists of the 1970s. Through Working Dog, a three-minute self-penned soap opera about a collie dog, Rich illustrates how different styles can change.
As he unearths the roots and inner workings of country music, Rich finds it's more than just music - it's a lifestyle.
FRI 22:30 The Shires: New Country (b08j8lqd)
Documentary following the rise of The Shires, the first British country group to have a top ten album in the pop charts, and the band to have spearheaded today's interest in country music in the UK. The programme follows Ben and Crissie both as they launch their second album My Universe and on a working trip to Nashville, where they are signed by leading country label Big Machine. They play the Bluebird, the legendary club where the performances from the TV series Nashville are filmed, and meet with Scott Borchetta, who discovered Taylor Swift. Interviews include Scott Borchetta, Ben Earle and Crissie Rhodes of The Shires, sisters Catherine and Lizzy of Ward Thomas and Thomas Rhett, a rising star of American country music who mixes country with funk, pop and rock.
FRI 23:30 Country at the BBC (b08qgkzv)
Grab your partner by the hand - the BBC have raided their archive and brought to light glittering performances by country artists over the last four decades.
Star appearances include Tammy Wynette, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash and, of course, Dolly Parton. All the greats have performed for the BBC at some point - on entertainment shows, in concert and at the BBC studios. Some of the rhinestones revealed are Charley Pride's Crystal Chandeliers from The Lulu Show, Emmylou Harris singing Together Again on The Old Grey Whistle Test and Glen Campbell's Rhinestone Cowboy from The Val Doonican Music Show.
We're brought up to date with modern country hits from Top of the Pops and Later...with Jools Holland.
FRI 00:30 Top of the Pops (b08hzs4m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 00:55 Sounds of the Sixties (b075f7r4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:50 today]
FRI 01:00 Rich Hall's Countrier Than You (b08j8lqb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:35 The Shires: New Country (b08j8lqd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]