The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
Many consider the Bristol Channel pilot cutter to be the finest sailing boat design ever. Fast, seaworthy and beautiful to behold, the pilot cutter is the perfect combination of form and function - a thoroughbred perfectly adapted to a life in one of the Britain's most treacherous stretches of water. Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe explores the life of the pilots and sails a perfectly restored cutter to find out just what drove these men and their wonderful machines.
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.
In this first episode, Prof Richard Clay explores how utopian visions begin as blueprints for fairer worlds and asks whether they can inspire real change.
Charting 500 years of utopian visions and making bold connections between exploration and science fiction - from radical 18th-century politics to online communities like Wikipedia - Richard delves into colourful stories of some of the world's greatest utopian dreamers, including Thomas More, who coined the term 'utopia', Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, and Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek.
Richard builds a compelling argument that utopian visions have been a powerful way of criticising the present, and he identifies key values he believes the imagined better futures tend to idealise. He shows how the concept of shared ownership, a 'commons' of both land and digital space online, has fired utopian thinking, and he explores the dream of equality through the campaign for civil rights in the 1960s and through a feminist theatrical production in today's America.
Immersing himself in a terrifying '1984' survival drama in Vilnius, Lithuania, Richard also looks at the flip side, asking why dystopias are so popular today in film, TV and comic book culture. He explores whether dystopian visions have been a way to remind ourselves that hard-won gains can be lost and that we must beware of humanity's darker side if we are ever to reach a better place.
Across Britain, Germany, Lithuania and America, Richard talks about the meaning of utopia with a rich range of interviewees, including Katherine Maher, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols, explorer Belinda Kirk, football commentator John Motson and Hollywood screenwriter Frank Spotnitz.
Is there any way to slow or even prevent the ravages of time? Veteran presenter Johnny Ball looks back over the 45 years that Horizon, and he, have been on air to find out what science has learned about how and why we grow old. Charting developments from macabre early claims of rejuvenation to the latest cutting-edge breakthroughs, Johnny discovers the sense of a personal mission that drives many scientists and asks whether we are really any closer to achieving the dream of immortality.
Series in which Dr David Eagleman takes viewers on an extraordinary journey that explores how the brain, locked in silence and darkness without direct access to the world, conjures up the rich and beautiful world we all take for granted.
This episode begins with the astonishing fact that this technicolour multi-sensory experience we are having is a convincing illusion conjured up for us by our brains.
In the outside world there is no colour, no sound, no smell. These are all constructions of the brain. Instead, there is electromagnetic radiation, air compression waves and aromatic molecules, all of which are interpreted by the brain as colour, sound and smell.
We meet a man who is blind despite the fact that he has eyes that can see. His story reveals that it's the brain that sees, not the eyes. A woman with schizophrenia, whose psychotic episodes were her reality, emphasises the fact that whatever our brains tell us is out there, we believe it.
Visual illusions are reminders that what's important to the brain is not being faithful to 'reality', but enabling us to perceive just enough so that we can navigate successfully through it. The brain leaves a lot out of its beautiful rendition of the physical world, a fact that Dr Eagleman reveals using experiments and street demonstrations.
Each one of our brains is different, and so is the reality it produces. What is reality? It's whatever your brain tells you it is.
The unlikely story of how one man with some ex-WWII army equipment eventually turned a muddy field in Cheshire into a key site in the space race. That man was Bernard Lovell, and his telescope at Jodrell Bank would be used at the height of the Cold War by both the Americans and the Russians to track their competing spacecraft. It also put Britain at the forefront of radio astronomy, a new science which transformed our knowledge of space and provided the key to understanding the most mind-bending theory of the beginnings of the universe - the Big Bang.
WEDNESDAY 09 AUGUST 2017
WED 19:00 World News Today (b090b0s8)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 The Boats That Built Britain (b00sfsqw)
World War Two Landing Craft
Looking more like a skip than a boat, the LCVP, or Landing Craft Vehicle and Personnel, won't win any prizes for beauty. Yet the craft did more to win World War II than any other piece of machinery. There were once over 20,000 of these little boats, but only a handful remain. Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe puts one of them through its paces and finds out how the boat was developed for one momentous day in 1944.
WED 20:00 Fair Isle: Living on the Edge (b083xzhb)
Episode 1
Fair Isle is Britain's most remote inhabited island, situated halfway between the Shetland and Orkney Islands. It's an extraordinary place to live. There's no power at night, no pub and it can be cut off for days at any time of the year. Once home to nearly 400 people, today Fair Isle's population is just 55 - a perilously low number on an island where all essential jobs are carried out by the hard-working community, who are doing everything they can to increase their population and ensure the island's survival.
This intimate two-part series begins with the arrival of a new couple and follows them as they settle in and adapt to island life, and follows a family whose 11-year-old son has to leave home to board at secondary school on mainland Shetland.
WED 21:00 In Search of Arcadia (b090c4f6)
Dr Janina Ramirez goes 'In Search of Arcadia' discovering the origins of the English landscape movement in a 12-mile stretch of the Thames between Hampton and Chiswick with waterman and historian John Bailey.
In the early 18th century this stretch of the river was home to a group of writers, poets, artists and garden designers who were inspired by classical landscapes of antiquity and the ancient idea of Arcadia.
Janina discovers the people and the ideas at the heart of this transformative movement and the landscape of the Thames - Nicholas Poussin's painting Et in Arcadia Ego, the French formal gardens at Hampton Court, Pope's Grotto, Marble Hill House, Chiswick House, Syon Meadows and finally the view from Richmond Hill.
John unpacks the role the River Thames played in their story as he explores the natural riches of its shores. He has time for fishing and contemplation along the way with his guide - Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler.
Janina starts with the most famous of Arcadian paintings, Et in Arcadia Ego by Nicholas Poussin, at Garrick's Temple in Hampton. She explains the ancient concept of Arcadia - a lost paradise where man and nature lived in perfect harmony. It's an idea that emerges in many cultures, but in Britain in the 17th and 18th century this ancient philosophy inspired a revolution in painting, writing, architecture and garden design.
Janina and John set off down the Thames on a traditional Thames wherry. John gives Janina his copy of Izaak Walton's fishing manual The Compleat Angler. Published in 1653 it's a book that has been reprinted over 400 times. John and Janina discover the book is much more than a practical fishing manual. It is also a philosophic treatise in which Izaak Walton first proposed an Arcadian philosophy; a vision of a world where man and nature lived in perfect harmony. He suggested that through the studied contemplation of the landscape, mankind could achieve a higher moral wisdom and virtuous understanding of the universe.
Janina and John arrive at Hampton Court Palace. John experiences Walton's philosophy first-hand, angling with fellow Walton enthusiast Keith Elliott. Janina explores the magnificent but formal Privy Gardens, commissioned by William III in 1702. Janina contemplates how at odds this formal garden is with the idea of a pastoral Arcadia. The formal French garden is beautiful and perfect, but nature is enslaved in it. This is very different to Izaak Walton's idea of Arcadia where man and nature co-exist in a perfect pastoral idyll. Two of Britain's greatest writers and poets, Joseph Addison and Alexander Pope, started a quiet rebellion against this subjugation of nature by publishing satirical articles in the Spectator and the Guardian.
Janina meets Dr Ross Wilson, a professor of English literature, in one of the oldest pubs in Twickenham. He explains why Pope - a writer - is often considered the true architect of the Arcadian movement. Pope built a house and a garden in Twickenham. They were demolished years ago, but one feature of the original estate still remains - Pope's Grotto. This man-made cavern became a retreat for Pope and is often considered the first museum of geology in Britain.
Next is Marble Hill House, home of King George II's mistress Henrietta Howard, a great friend and patron of Pope and the arts. Dr Esme Whittaker explains that Henrietta's patronage helped to accelerate the spread of this emerging cultural movement which sought to recreate classical scenes in the landscape.
Meanwhile, John is at Ham Lands with a group of volunteers restoring an original avenue using 'Arcadian' methods.
Palladian architecture also perfectly matched the emerging taste for naturalised gardens. These ideas were taken to the next level by wealthy and influential patrons including Lord Burlington. At Chiswick, Janina visits his Palladian villa set in one of the last remaining early examples of an English landscape garden. Joined by John Watkins, a specialist in the English landscape movement, she finds out how the ideas first expressed in Pope's garden were translated by others to create the naturalised garden at Chiswick.
Lord Burlington designed these gardens with royal gardener Charles Bridgeman and William Kent, whose famous protege was Capability Brown. And to see how Brown took these ideas to the next level, John heads out on the river with landscape historian Jason Debney to see one of the last remaining 18th-century Arcadian landscapes at Syon Meadows.
Finally Janina and John meet Sir David Attenborough and Kim Wilkie, patron and founder of the Thames Landscape Strategy on Richmond Hill overlooking the only view in Britain protected by act of Parliament. This view inspired JMW Turner to paint his famous landscape Richmond Hill in 1820, and it has barely changed since then. So if you had to sum up Arcadia in a word, a poem, a painting or a view - perhaps this is it.
WED 22:00 Citizen Jane: Battle for the City (b090c4f8)
In 1960, Jane Jacobs's book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, sent shockwaves through the architecture and planning worlds, with its exploration of modern city-planning. Jacobs, a journalist, author and activist, was involved in many fights in mid-century New York, to stop 'master builder' Robert Moses from running roughshod over the city, demolishing historic neighbourhoods in pursuit of his modernist vision.
This film retraces those battles as contemporary urbanisation moves to the very front of the global agenda and examines the city of today through the life and work of one of its greatest champions.
WED 23:20 Scotland's Einstein: James Clerk Maxwell - The Man Who Changed the World (b06rd56j)
Professor Iain Stewart reveals the story behind the Scottish physicist who was Einstein's hero - James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell's discoveries not only inspired Einstein, but they helped shape our modern world - allowing the development of radio, TV, mobile phones and much more.
Despite this, he is largely unknown in his native land of Scotland. Scientist Iain Stewart sets out to change that, and to celebrate the life, work and legacy of the man dubbed 'Scotland's forgotten Einstein'.
WED 00:20 The Secret Life of Waves (b00y5jhx)
Documentary maker David Malone delves into the secrets of ocean waves. In an elegant and original film, he finds that waves are not made of water, that some waves travel sideways, and that the sound of the ocean comes not from water but from bubbles. Waves are not only beautiful but also profoundly important, and there is a surprising connection between the life cycle of waves and the life of human beings.
WED 01:20 Fair Isle: Living on the Edge (b083xzhb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 02:20 In Search of Arcadia (b090c4f6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 10 AUGUST 2017
THU 19:00 World News Today (b090b0sg)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b090tsr6)
Mike Read and Steve Wright present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 3 May 1984. Includes appearances from Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Blancmange, New Order, Kenny Loggins, Jocelyn Brown, Human League and Duran Duran.
THU 20:00 Sword, Musket & Machine Gun: Britain's Armed History (b087llsj)
Cut & Thrust
In the first of this three-part series, Dr Sam Willis charts the evolution of weaponry in Britain throughout the Middle Ages.
Beginning with the Battle of Ethandun in 878, when the future of Anglo-Saxon England lay in the balance, Sam examines the weapons and tactics used by King Alfred to keep the Viking raiders at bay, and gets hands-on experience as he joins re-enactors behind a shield-wall, used by the Anglo-Saxons en masse as an attacking weapon to drive back and defeat the Vikings.
Sam travels to France to examine the famous Bayeux Tapestry, with its depiction of the huge arsenal massed by William the Conqueror for his invasion of England in 1066. With the Norman mounted knight came innovations in weapon technology, chiefly stronger and lighter swords, and Sam is given a lesson in swordsmanship using the earliest known combat manual.
Sam also visits the Chateaux de Tancarville in Normandy to tell the story of William Marshal, said to be the greatest knight who ever lived, and how he forged his reputation using a new weapon - the lance - in the extreme sport of its day, the tourney. To get a real sense of the tourney, Sam watches a display of its later incarnation - the joust.
The increasing number of castles and sieges brought with it a new age of projectile missile weaponry, principally the crossbow. Holed up in a castle tower, Sam gets to test-fire different crossbows and discovers why they became outlawed by the pope as instruments of the devil. Visiting the battlefield sites of Halidon Hill in Northumberland and Crecy in northern France, and again getting hands-on with the weapon in question, Sam examines how King Edward III strategically deployed the traditional longbow in vast numbers to devastating effect against the Scots and the French, and as such how it came to be regarded as the chief weapon of the Middle Ages.
THU 21:00 Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain (b00np25k)
A New Dawn
In the first of a six-part series, Andrew Marr revisits Britain at the dawn of the 20th century. He finds the country mourning the death of Queen Victoria, fighting an intractable war against the Boers in South Africa, enjoying the bawdy pleasures of music hall and worrying about the physical and moral strength of the working class.
There are stories of political intrigue between David Lloyd George and his arch-enemy Joseph Chamberlain, as well as the beginning of the struggle for women's suffrage. Plus an account of the day Mr Rolls met Mr Royce and kicked off a revolution in motoring.
With powerful archive and vivid anecdotes, Andrew gets to the heart of Edwardian Britain. He brings to life Britain's struggle to maintain its imperial power in the world in the years before the First World War.
THU 22:00 Wilde (b0074nq6)
Poignant dramatisation of Oscar Wilde's life, telling the story of the devoted husband and kind father who also happened to be attracted to men - in particular to the spoilt Alfred Lord Douglas, or 'Bosie'. Their relationship outraged Bosie's father, the maniacal Marquess of Queensberry, and led to a sensational trial which spelled Wilde's downfall, vividly highlighting the brutal homophobia of the Victorian legal system.
THU 23:50 Top of the Pops (b090tsr6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 00:20 From Andy Pandy to Zebedee: The Golden Age of Children's Television (b06t3mhm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
00:30 on Saturday]
THU 01:20 Everyday Miracles: The Genius of Sofas, Stockings and Scanners (b04fd6s9)
Home
Professor Mark Miodownik shows us what is so great about stuff. All the things of modern life around us that we maybe take for granted are revealed to be little pieces of domestic magic - everyday miracles - from razor blades to tights, via plywood and foam rubber. On the road and in the lab with explosive experiments, Mark reveals why the everyday, and even the mundane, is anything but.
THU 02:20 Sword, Musket & Machine Gun: Britain's Armed History (b087llsj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRIDAY 11 AUGUST 2017
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b090b0sq)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b090tsv5)
David Jensen and John Peel present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 10 May 1984. Includes appearances from Belle and the Devotions, Queen, The Flying Pickets, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Terri Wells, The Pointer Sisters and Duran Duran.
FRI 20:00 BBC Proms (b090ftl8)
2017
Oklahoma!
Cowboys and farm girls are let loose in the Royal Albert Hall as the John Wilson Orchestra transports us to the Great American Plains in Oklahoma! Rodgers and Hammerstein's first ever musical was an instant hit when it premiered on Broadway in 1943 and it's not hard to see why - it's chock-full of toe-tapping classics, including Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin', People Will Say We're in Love, and of course the title song itself. With a stellar cast, sensational dance numbers and the unique energy of the John Wilson Orchestra, the magic of the original lives on in 2017.
FRI 22:55 Glen Campbell: The Rhinestone Cowboy (b01pwxs8)
In 2011, Glen Campbell announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and that he would be bowing out with a final album and farewell tour across Britain and America. This documentary tells Campbell's remarkable life story, from impoverished childhood in Arkansas to huge success, first as a guitarist and then as a singer, with great records like Wichita Lineman and Rhinestone Cowboy. With comments from friends and colleagues, including songwriter Jimmy Webb and Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees, it is a moving story of success, disgrace and redemption as rich as any of the storylines in Campbell's most famous songs.
The peak of Glen Campbell's career was in 1975, when he topped the charts around the world with Rhinestone Cowboy, but his musical journey to that point is fascinating. A self-taught teenage prodigy on the guitar, by his mid-twenties Campbell was one of the top session guitarists in LA, a key member of the band of session players now known as The Wrecking Crew. He played on hundreds of tracks while working for producers like Phil Spector and Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, including Daydream Believer by The Monkees, You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling by The Righteous Brothers, Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra and Viva Las Vegas by Elvis Presley.
But Campbell always wanted to make it under his own name. A string of records failed to chart until, in 1967, he finally found his distinctive country pop sound with hits like Gentle on My Mind and By the Time I Get to Phoenix. The latter was written by Jimmy Webb, and together the two created a string of great records like Wichita Lineman and Galveston. Campbell pioneered country crossover and opened the way for artists like Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.
By the end of the 1960s, Campbell was the fastest rising star in American pop with his own television show and a starring role in the original version of True Grit. Over the following ten years, he had more success with Rhinestone Cowboy and Southern Nights, but his private life was in turmoil. Divorce, drink and drugs saw this clean-cut all-American hero fall from grace and a tempestuous relationship with country star Tanya Tucker was front-page news.
Despite a relapse in 2003, when he was arrested for drunk driving and his police mug shot was shown around the world, the last two decades have been more settled. He remarried, started a new family and renewed his Christian faith, and was musically rediscovered by a new generation. Like his friend Johnny Cash, he released acclaimed new albums with young musicians, covering songs by contemporary artists like U2 and The Foo Fighters. Therefore the diagnosis with Alzheimer's was all the more poignant, but his dignified farewell has made him the public face of the disease in the USA.
The film includes contributions by many of Campbell's friends and colleagues, including his family in Arkansas, fellow session musicians Carol Kaye and Leon Russell, long-time friend and collaborator Jimmy Webb, former Monkee Mickey Dolenz, broadcaster Bob Harris, lyricist Don Black and country music writer Robert Oermann.
FRI 23:55 An Evening with Glen Campbell (b01pyfht)
A special concert recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in 1977, where 80 musicians played new arrangements of Glen Campbell's hit songs.
FRI 01:15 New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s (b0177bjb)
Prince: A Purple Reign
Film which explores how Prince - showman, artist, enigma - revolutionised the perception of black music in the 1980s with worldwide hits such as 1999, Kiss, Raspberry Beret and Alphabet Street. He became a global sensation with the release of the Oscar-winning, semi-autobiographical movie Purple Rain in 1984, embarking on an incredible journey of musical self-discovery that continued right up to his passing in April 2016, aged 57.
From the psychedelic Around the World in a Day to his masterpiece album Sign O' the Times and experiments with hip-hop and jazz, Prince was one of most ambitious and prolific songwriters of his generation. He tested the boundaries of taste and decency with explicit sexual lyrics and stage shows during his early career, and in the 1990s fought for ownership of his name and control of his music, played out in a public battle with his former label, Warner. Highly regarded as one of the most flamboyant live performers ever, Prince was a controversial and famously elusive creative force.
Contributors include Revolution guitarist Dez Dickerson, Paisley Park label president Alan Leeds, hip-hop legend Chuck D and Prince 'Mastermind' and UK soul star Beverley Knight.
FRI 02:15 Top of the Pops (b090tsv5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 02:45 The Girl from Ipanema: Brazil, Bossa Nova and the Beach (b07mlkzl)
Documentary in which Katie Derham travels to Rio de Janeiro (where her father was born) to explore the story behind Brazil's most famous and enduring song. Written in 1962 by Antonio Carlos Jobim with lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes, and a later English translation by Norman Gimbel, The Girl from Ipanema defines the moment Brazil charmed the world with a laid-back song about a haunting woman.
It's a vibrant musical journey to the stunning beaches, majestic mountains and buzzy clubs of Rio, where Katie meets key musicians and architects of bossa nova, including Carlos Lyra, Roberto Menescal, Joyce, Daniel Jobim and Marcos Valle, witnesses intimate musical performances, and uncovers the genesis and story behind Brazil's most successful musical export.
The Girl from Ipanema is quintessential bossa nova and tracing its roots reveals the fascinating story of this unique musical style. Invented by a gang of young bohemians in Rio in the late 50s, bossa grew into a 60s phenomenon, especially in the US where it became a youth craze and later a significant part of the modern jazz repertoire. The Girl from Ipanema, as sung by Astrud Gilberto with sax from Stan Getz, went top five in the US and became a major international hit in 1964.
Nothing sums up Rio as well as the simple and seductive lyrics to The Girl from Ipanema. What better way to get to understand the city, its people and its mid-60s zeitgeist than through its most famous song?