SUNDAY 16 APRIL 2017

SUN 19:00 Messiah at the Foundling Hospital (b041mbw4)
Handel's Messiah is one of the most popular choral pieces in western music. It has been recorded hundreds of times and contains a tune that is as instantly recognisable as any in music. Yet few people know the extraordinary story of how this much-loved piece came to public attention - or how it helped save the lives of tens of thousands of children.

Historian Amanda Vickery and BBC Radio 3 presenter Tom Service present this one-hour drama documentary which recreates the first performance of Messiah at London's Foundling Hospital in 1750 and tells the heartrending story of how this special fundraising concert helped maintain the hospital and heralded a golden age of philanthropy.

Exploring historical documents and artefacts, Amanda examines the plight of women in Georgian London, particularly how the attitudes of the time led mothers to abandon their babies at the hospital. Tom looks at the momentous trials and tribulations faced by Handel in London and discovers how the composer became involved with the Foundling Hospital alongside another philanthropist of the day, the artist William Hogarth.


SUN 20:00 Darcey Bussell's Looking for Audrey (b04w7mfk)
Behind Audrey Hepburn's dazzling image, Darcey Bussell unravels an epic tale of betrayal, courage, heartache and broken dreams.

For as long as she can remember, Darcey has been fascinated by Audrey Hepburn - style icon, star of Breakfast at Tiffany's and an Oscar winner at 24. Now, Darcey follows in Audrey's footsteps through Holland, London, Rome, Switzerland and Hollywood to find out more. She discovers that Audrey started out as a dancer, risked her life in the Second World War and, although adored the world over, was always looking for love.


SUN 21:00 Shakespeare's Mother: The Secret Life of a Tudor Woman (b05279pq)
Michael Wood tells the extraordinary story of an ordinary woman in a time of revolution. Born during the reign of Henry VIII, Mary Arden is the daughter of a Warwickshire farmer, but she marries into a new life in the rising Tudor middle class in Stratford-upon-Avon. There she has eight children, three of whom die young. Her husband becomes mayor, but is bankrupted by his shady business dealings. Faced with financial ruin, religious persecution and power politics, the family is the glue that keeps them together until they are rescued by Mary's successful eldest son - William Shakespeare!


SUN 22:00 Timewatch (b0078w1y)
2004-2005

The Killer Wave of 1607

At 9am on 20 January 1607, a massive wave devastated the counties of the Bristol Channel. It came without warning, sweeping all before it. The flooding stretched inland as far as the Glastonbury Tor. Two hundred square miles of Somerset, Devon, Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire were inundated. Up to 2,000 people died. Yet for 400 years, the killer wave of 1607 has been forgotten. Timewatch relives the terror and the human tragedy of 1607 and follows the research of two scientists who are increasingly convinced that the wave was not simply a freak storm but a tsunami.


SUN 22:50 The Mystery of Rome's X Tomb (b037vywt)
Historian Dr Michael Scott unlocks the secrets of a mysterious tomb recently discovered in one of Rome's famous catacombs. Found by accident following a roof collapse, the tombs contained over 2,000 skeletons piled on top of each other. This was quite unlike any other underground tomb seen in Rome. They are located in an area of the catacombs marked as 'X' in the Vatican's underground mapping system - hence the name The X Tombs.

Scott joins Profs Dominique Castex and Philippe Blanchard, head of a team of French archaeologists with experience of investigating mass grave sites. Carbon dating the bodies suggest they died from the late 1st century AD to the early 3rd century AD, which would mean these people lived and died during Rome's golden age.

The remains of an early medieval fresco were found on the wall sealing the tomb suggesting this could be the last resting place of a group of unknown Christian martyrs. But the bones don't show the signs of physical trauma you would expect after a violent death.

The bodies were a mixture of men and women, most of them late teenagers and young adults. They were placed in the tombs with great care, packed in head to foot. Further clues suggest they were laid to rest after a series of mass death events. This raises the idea they may have died from disease.

The streets of ancient Rome were like an open sewer and the famous roman baths were also a breeding ground for infection. DNA expert and palaeogeneticist Johannes Krause is called in to try to identify what disease may have killed them.

Meanwhile, the French team uncover further clues to the identity of the people. They find cultural connections with northern Africa. Was this a wealthy immigrant community? Or a select group of ancient Rome's elite?


SUN 23:50 The Story of Maths (b00f3n43)
The Frontiers of Space

Four-part series about the history of mathematics, presented by Oxford professor Marcus du Sautoy.

By the 17th century, Europe had taken over from the Middle East as the world's powerhouse of mathematical ideas. Great strides had been made in understanding the geometry of objects fixed in time and space. The race was now on to discover the mathematics to describe objects in motion.

Marcus explores the work of Rene Descartes and Pierre Fermat, whose famous Last Theorem would puzzle mathematicians for more than 350 years. He also examines Isaac Newton's development of the calculus, and goes in search of Leonard Euler, the father of topology or 'bendy geometry', and Carl Friedrich Gauss who, at the age of 24, was responsible for inventing a new way of handling equations - modular arithmetic.


SUN 00:50 A Timewatch Guide (b052775d)
Series 1

Cleopatra

Using the BBC film archives, historian Vanessa Collinridge explores how our view of Cleopatra has changed and evolved over the years - from Roman propaganda, through Shakespeare's role in casting her as a doomed romantic heroine, to her portrayal in the golden age of Hollywood.

Along the way Vanessa investigates Cleopatra's relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony, her role as a politician, whether she should be seen as a murderer, and her tragic end. Drawing on the views of academic experts, BBC documentaries and drama, Vanessa charts how, throughout history, Cleopatra's image has been subject to myth, cliche and propaganda.


SUN 01:50 Pugin: God's Own Architect (b01b1z45)
Augustus Northmore Welby Pugin is far from being a household name, yet he designed the iconic clock tower of Big Ben as well as much of the Palace of Westminster. The 19th-century Gothic revival that Pugin inspired, with its medieval influences and soaring church spires, established an image of Britain which still defines the nation. Richard Taylor charts Pugin's extraordinary life story and discovers how his work continues to influence Britain today.


SUN 02:50 Timeshift (b08lvtz6)
Series 17

Blazes and Brigades: The Story of the Fire Service

Timeshift looks back on nearly two centuries of British firefighting, and explores how major incidents and the evolution of equipment from manual pumps to motorised fire engines have helped forge the modern fire service.

The founding father of modern firefighting was Scotsman James Braidwood, whose pioneering techniques helped save Westminster Hall when the Houses of Parliament were consumed by fire in 1834. Remarkably, London had no publicly funded fire service at the time - and it was only after Braidwood's death tackling a warehouse blaze nearly 30 years later that the Metropolitan Fire Brigade was created.

The fireman soon became an iconic figure of heroism in Victorian painting and popular literature - but the provision of fire brigades and the standard of their equipment varied widely across the country. Motorised fire engines were available from the beginning of the 20th century, but it took the arrival of World War Two for the fire service to be organised on a national footing. Professional and volunteer firefighters worked side by side to tackle the devastating incendiary bombs dropped on British cities by the Nazis. Doug Lightning, the last surviving firefighter of the Sheffield Blitz in December 1940, recalls his own experience of helping to save key buildings during the attack.

In the post-war years, improvements to the fire service saw the introduction of new equipment, including the state-of-the art Dennis F7 fire engine - we take one of the last surviving examples back on the road in Manchester. Firemen were also called on to help with non-fire-related disasters. Interviewee Brian Sadd recalls the exploits of his father Fred during the floods that hit the east coast of England in 1953. Fred rescued 27 people, was awarded the George Medal and became the star of a comic strip in The Eagle.

A series of tragic incidents in the 1960s raised awareness of the importance not just of tackling blazes but of fire prevention. However, Britain was unprepared for the record hot summer of 1976, when a series of fires swept through the countryside. We speak to Mary-Joy Langdon, who in volunteering to help became Britain's first female firefighter, heralding changes to what was once seen very much as a man's job.

But the service wasn't immune to the industrial unrest of the decade. 1977 saw once tight-knit teams divided by the first national firefighters' strike, the film explores the media and public reaction to this unprecedented event. With the strike resolved, technology and equipment continued to improve in the 1980s, spurred on by a series of high-profile tragedies, culminating in the King's Cross underground station fire of November 1987, in which 31 people lost their lives, including one of the first firemen on the scene.

The King's Cross disaster led to a further overhaul of fire safety regulations. Today there are more than 50 regional fire services in the UK, dealing with nearly 2,000 call-outs a day. Increasingly, fewer of these are to actual fires. Firefighters respond to a range of incidents from road traffic accidents to terrorist attacks and natural disasters, and in recognition of this, in 2004 the service was officially renamed the Fire and Rescue Service.