The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
Danny Baker considers some tunnel-based archive footage and endeavours to give a quick brush up on these mysterious, subterranean realms.
Freedom came to the subcontinent in August 1947. The British hastily partitioned British India before they left. Independence was attended by a million deaths and 14 million people were displaced.
Yet despite three wars, Pakistan and Indian railways have established a cross-border train, known as the Samjhauta Express - Samjhauta meaning agreement.
Amongst the passengers on the Samjhauta Express from Lahore to Delhi are Bilal and his father Abiz. Seventeen-year-old Bilal was the victim of an accident which damaged his eye. Unable to source the right treatment in Pakistan, father and son trawled the internet and finally found a suitable clinic. But it was in India. They have never stepped outside Pakistan, so they are a little nervous. Will they be successful in getting Bilal's eye treated?
Also on the train is Rahat Khan, the hockey queen. She's a Pakistan international and a railway hockey champion. She is travelling with her Pakistan girls' hockey team to play a match in India. But not everything goes to plan.
For the Sikh community, the Punjab is home. The golden temple of Amritsar is the holy of holies. But each year, on Guru Nanak's birthday, the railway runs special trains across the border to the guru's birthplace in Pakistan, despite the security concerns.
Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Vanessa Redgrave, Sir Trevor Nunn and many others look back at the extraordinary life of Sir Peter Hall, the man who transformed British theatre. In a career spanning seven decades he brought Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter to the London stage and led the Royal Shakespeare Company while still only 29 years old.
This film charts his life from simple beginnings as the son of a railwayman to his huge success in British theatre, through the turbulent years at the National Theatre and his other work directing opera, TV and film.
For more than 100 years steam trains ran Britain, but when steam started to disappear in the 1950s bands of volunteers got together to save some of the tracks and the steam engines that ran on them. Some of these enthusiasts filmed their exploits and the home movies they shot tell the story of how they did it, and how they helped people to reconnect to a world of steam most thought had been lost forever.
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.
In this episode, Dr Eagleman journeys into the future, and asks what's next for the human brain and for our species. Mother Nature has evolved a brain that is able to rewire itself according to its environment. We meet Cameron Mott, who had half her brain removed at the age of four, but was able to develop normally as her brain rewired itself to take over the functions of the missing half. This extraordinary plasticity of the brain opens up all sorts of possibilities for enhancing our reality with new technology.
Dr Eagleman shows us ways in which we'll be able to plug new sensory inputs into our brains and demonstrates his lab's new invention - a vibratory vest which turns sound into patterns of vibration that the brain can learn to interpret. Technology can also allow the brain to control new outputs such as artificial limbs. We meet a disabled patient who can't move her body from the neck down. Electrodes eavesdropping on her motor cortex pick up on electrical signals there and transmit them to an arm across the room.
We may have evolved two arms and two legs, but there is nothing to stop us from extending - and enhancing - our physical selves in the future. These kinds of technological advances are poised to change us - as individuals and as a society - but the biggest game changer as a species would be if we found a way to upload our brains into digital space. Dr Eagleman explores what it would take to do so. We would need powerful computers, and a complete map of the brain's connections, as well as the activity that runs on top.
Dr Eagleman visits the Blue Brain Projects in Lausanne, where scientists are attempting to model a simulation of a working human brain. The chance of success is still many years away, but the possibility leads us to the biggest question in neuroscience - could a simulation of a human brain ever be conscious? Could 'you' exist digitally? And if so, how do we know we are not already living in a simulation?
In episode two, the journey through bohemian history reaches the early 20th century, when the Bloomsbury Group and others were determined to challenge sexual taboos - sometimes in their work and often in their private lives. They threw off their inhibitions, and frequently their clothes, and set the tone for generations of bohemians who followed. But what did the pursuit of freedom do for these artists, their art, and the people around them?
Victoria considers the very open relationships of the Bloomsbury set, famously known as 'a circle who lived in squares and loved in triangles'. She also visits Charleston, the rural love nest of painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant. She explores the story of Edward Carpenter, the poet and proto-hippy who dared to campaign for gay liberation in Edwardian England, and examines the 'King of Bohemia', painter Augustus John, who was alleged to have sired at least 99 children - one of whom Victoria meets.
This episode also features the Bright Young Things - the glamorous, party-loving bohemians of the Roaring Twenties, who provided the inspiration for photographer Cecil Beaton and writer Evelyn Waugh. Victoria discusses them with Stephen Fry, who directed the film of Waugh's novel Vile Bodies. She also uncovers the forgotten life of Nina Hamnett, a painter who spent too much time down the pub to fulfil her early promise. Finally she grapples with the truly shocking sexual conduct of one of the greatest English artists of the century, Eric Gill, whose actions for many embody the most unpalatable excesses of bohemian behaviour, living beyond any boundaries.
Along the way Victoria also meets artists Grayson Perry and Maggi Hambling, and seeks the wisdom of the Rev Richard Coles and author Will Self.
WEDNESDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2017
WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b094jny1)
Series 1
13/09/2017
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Brushing up on... (b01s6h36)
Series 1
British Towers
Danny Baker turns his attention to Britain's towers, those soaring structures that loom loftily above us but about which little is known.
WED 20:00 Everyday Eden: A Potted History of the Suburban Garden (p01t8n4q)
Because it's not grand, the story of the suburban garden has barely been told - and yet eight out of ten people in England live in the suburbs. In this documentary, writer and historian Michael Collins delivers a riposte to the urban intelligentsia which has spent a century sneering at the suburbs. His south London pilgrimage takes him to Bexley and Bromley, Surbiton and the new promised land of Bluewater in Kent to explore what the suburban garden has meant to the UK and to celebrate what one contributor calls 'their little piece of heaven'.
George Orwell famously laid out the icons of English culture as 'solid breakfasts and gloomy Sundays, smoky towns and... red pillarboxes' and Collins shows that the suburban garden very much deserves a place in that canon. South Londoner Collins previously charted the history of the white working class in his controversial book The Likes of Us and explored the rise and fall of the council house in BBC Four's The Great Estate. He tends to admire what critics of suburbia have loathed - its lack of history, the mock and ersatz style of its homes and gardens, and the suggestion that it is a 'nowhere place', neither town nor country but stranded in between.
Collins's journey starts a century ago in Hampstead Garden Suburb, a planned utopia that transformed the lives of its residents fleeing urban squalor, but one that came with off-putting regulations - maximum hedge size, a designated wash-day, and no pub. Suburban sprawl between the wars, when three million new homes were built, couldn't have been more different. 'You could', recalls one contributor from Welling, 'buy a house for 12/6 down and pay 7/6 a week on the mortgage, and suddenly you had a two-up/two-down, front garden/back garden. Those were the days!'
In the 1930s, Wills cashed in on the suburban gardening craze with 50 cigarette cards offering handy tips. But this was also the era that identified a new condition - suburban neurosis. When war broke out, Rita Withers's dad, a veteran of the Somme, was so traumatised he dug a trench right across their lawn, thinking it the only way to protect his family. Wartime 'Dig for Victory', launched by the BBC's first horticultural expert, Mr Middleton, saw flowers sacrificed for vegetables and the war effort.
The Peace Rose ushered in the post-war garden, and contributors fondly remember the ubiquitous swing of the 1950s and 60s, the equally ubiquitous tortoise and the shock of the new as suburbia's new mecca, the garden centre, transformed the 70s garden. This was the era of The Good Life, but a Surbiton couple, the Howes, whose immaculate garden would have impressed Margot and Jerry, are keen to point out the series was actually shot in north London 'because Surbiton was not sufficiently like Surbiton to be worth filming... a kind of oblique compliment.'
Collins's suburban odyssey ends in the spanking new 21st-century purpose-built suburb of Ingress Park in Kent, a dormitory for Europe's biggest mall, Bluewater. Karen Roberts may have bought her astroturf lawn for £700 on the internet, but the appeal of the suburban garden is timeless. 'Ingress Park is dope', she explains. 'I live the dream. I haven't got a lot of money to spend, but I can go snip, snip, I'm doing my garden, I love it.'.
WED 21:00 Andrew Marr's The Making of Modern Britain (b00p7099)
Britannia at Bay
The final film in Andrew Marr's epic six-part series is a vivid account of Britain in the Second World War.
Marr's story of 'the people's war' begins with the defeat that came to define modern Britain's national spirit: Dunkirk. In 1940, Britain stood alone against the might of the German war machine. Churchill produced the words that stirred the Blitz spirit, but a Nazi invasion seemed inevitable. How could Britain fight on? The 'Dad's Army' of the Home Guard was hastily assembled and Britain was forced to pull together in ways it never had before.
Andrew Marr finds some surprising twists to legendary stories; the Battle of Britain was not simply a story of reckless bravery, but also a one of lethally efficient command and control. The Blitz was a devastating attack from the air that everyone had dreaded, yet it didn't break the spirit of the people or dim their humour.
This was also the boffins' war, and Churchill understood the importance of science. He was prepared to give away Britain's most highly classified scientific and military secrets to help bring the Americans into the conflict. This wooing would help bring victory. But it came at a price: a bankrupt nation, a crumbling empire and a US cultural invasion that defines modern Britain to this day.
WED 22:00 Sound Waves: The Symphony of Physics (b08h06tq)
Series 1
Making Sound
Dr Helen Czerski investigates the extraordinary science behind the sounds we're familiar with and the sounds that we normally can't hear.
She begins by exploring the simplest of ideas: what is a sound? At the Palace of Westminster, Helen teams up with scientists from the University of Leicester to carry out state-of-the-art measurements using lasers to reveal how the most famous bell in the world - Big Ben - vibrates to create pressure waves in the air at particular frequencies. This is how Big Ben produces its distinct sound. It's the first time that these laser measurements have been done on Big Ben.
With soprano singer Lesley Garrett CBE, Helen explores the science of the singing voice - revealing in intimate detail its inner workings and how it produces sound. Lesley undergoes a laryngoscopy to show the vocal folds of her larynx. At University College London, Lesley sings I Dreamed a Dream inside an MRI scanner to reveal how her vocal tract acts as a 'resonator', amplifying and shaping the sound from her larynx.
Having explored the world of sounds with which we are familiar, Helen discovers the hidden world of sounds that lie beyond the range of human hearing. At the summit of Stromboli, one of Europe's most active volcanoes, Helen and volcanologist Dr Jeffrey Johnson use a special microphone to record the extraordinary deep tone produced by the volcano as it explodes - a frequency far too low for the human ear to detect. Helen reveals how the volcano produces sound in a similar way to a musical instrument - with the volcano vent acting as a 'sound resonator'.
Finally, at the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, Helen meets a scientist who has discovered evidence of sound waves in space, created by a giant black hole. These sounds are one million billion times lower than the limit of human hearing and could be the key in figuring out how galaxy clusters, the largest structures in the universe, grow.
WED 23:00 Britain in Focus: A Photographic History (b08h95jk)
Series 1
Episode 1
Series in which Eamonn McCabe celebrates Britain's greatest photographers, sees how science allowed their art to develop, and explores how they have captured our changing lives and country.
In the first of three programmes, Eamonn goes back to the 19th century to trace the astonishingly rapid rise of the photograph in British life. Eamonn explores the science behind early photography, and shows how innovative photographic techniques made possible the careers of pioneers like Roger Fenton and Julia Margaret Cameron. He sees how great figures of the age such as Queen Victoria and Isambard Kingdom Brunel were captured on camera, and revisits the Victorians' sense of wonder about the 'natural magic' of photography and the role it played in their lives.
WED 00:00 Hidden Histories: Britain's Oldest Family Businesses (b03q0177)
Balson the Butcher
The first of three documentaries following the bosses of some Britain's oldest family businesses as they go on a journey into their remarkable pasts.
Richard Balson's family have been butchers for almost 500 years, since Henry VIII was on the throne. He goes back through centuries of butchery to the origin of the British high street. Along the way he discovers how the Balsons have stayed in the butchery business despite scandal and tragedy.
WED 01:00 How to Be Bohemian with Victoria Coren Mitchell (b0607p4y)
Episode 3
Are we all bohemian now or are none of us? Just one of the questions Victoria discusses with a colourful array of modern-day bohemians in the final episode of her series exploring unconventional living. This time she runs the postwar gamut from artist, drinker and sexual masochist Francis Bacon to the modern-day, latte-sipping hipster.
The birth of pop music and the sexual revolution spread bohemian values from an arty elite to ordinary folk in the suburbs. But were these watered down with mass take-up in the 1970s, becoming little more than a lifestyle choice, signalled perhaps by a taste for eccentric clothes, recreational drugs and a willingness to talk frankly about sex? Perhaps, Victoria wonders, it was punks who were the true bohemians of their day, because like their 19th-century French predecessors, they set out to shock. And she asks, were the new bohemians those who flamboyantly championed gay rights in the 1980s, then equally shocking to mainstream society?
And what of today? Do today's artists and wannabe artists still identify with either the values or the pose of bohemians past? Or has the idea of the 'alternative' lifestyle, like everything else in our post-industrial culture, become a commodity to such an extent that the concept has been robbed of any value? Does a fine beard really signal a free spirit? Or is the life of the hipster worlds apart from those few daring individuals still determined to plough their own furrow?
Victoria quizzes a range of entertaining and colourful interviewees over the course of the episode - hearing the hedonistic sexploits of artist Molly Parkin, uncovering the punk past of critic AA Gill, and asking former pop star-turned-vicar Richard Coles about his drug and sex-fuelled party years. She also talks to fine artists Grayson Perry and Maggi Hambling, drag artists Jonny Woo and the Virgin Xtravaganzah, poet John Cooper Clarke and writer Will Self. And she visits the squat where the self-styled 'Bohemians 4 Soho' are seeking to prevent corporate redevelopment of one of London's iconic music venues.
WED 02:00 Everyday Eden: A Potted History of the Suburban Garden (p01t8n4q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 03:00 Sound Waves: The Symphony of Physics (b08h06tq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
THURSDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2017
THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b094jny6)
Series 1
14/09/2017
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 The Sky at Night (b094mhbc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Sunday]
THU 20:00 Britain's Outlaws: Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues (b06rfl46)
Rogues Gallery
Few figures in British history have captured the popular imagination as much as the outlaw. From gentleman highwaymen, via swashbuckling pirates to elusive urban thieves and rogues, the brazen escapades and the flamboyance of the outlaw made them the anti-hero of their time - feared by the rich, admired by the poor and celebrated by writers and artists.
In this three-part series, historian Dr Sam Willis travels the open roads, the high seas and urban alleyways to explore Britain's 17th and 18th-century underworld of highwaymen, pirates and rogues, bringing the great age of the British outlaw vividly to life.
Sam shows that, far from being 'outsiders', outlaws were very much a product of their time, shaped by powerful national events. In each episode, he focuses not just on a particular type of outlaw, but a particular era. The series as a whole offers a chronological portrait of the changing face of crime in the 17th and 18th centuries.
In the final episode, Sam looks at urban crime, fraud and corruption in the 18th century, uncovering a fascinating rogues’ gallery of charmers, fraudsters and villains. Charmers like thief and serial escaper Jack Sheppard, so notorious that almost a quarter of a million people turned up to witness his hanging. Almost as controversial in her lifetime was Mary Toft, a fraudster who managed to convince no less than King George I and his surgeon that she had given birth to rabbits, making her, perhaps, the original 'con' artist.
THU 21:00 Mercury Prize (b09560x8)
2017
Album of the Year Live
Lauren Laverne hosts this year's prestigious Mercury Music Prize from the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London. Each year, an esteemed collection of artists, broadcasters and tastemakers decide on what they believe to be the outstanding albums of the year from the UK and Ireland. This shortlist is seen as reflecting and highlighting the diversity of the UK music scene and this year features grime, pop, jazz, rap and indie guitar.
As ever the albums and artists are an eclectic bunch which include previous winners alt-J and The xx, grime star Stormzy, poet Kate Tempest and the interesting choice that has had the critics talking, a certain Mr Ed Sheeran. During this show, all the shortlisted albums will be celebrated through special performances, culminating in the live announcement of this year's winner.
THU 22:25 Indie Classics at the BBC (b06g5jfp)
A look back through the archives at some of the classic tunes from the world of indie music through the 80s and early 90s, including the likes of Joy Division, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, Cocteau Twins, Primal Scream and many more.
THU 23:30 The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill (b04dzswb)
Documentary exploring Kate Bush's career and music, from January 1978's Wuthering Heights to her 2011 album 50 Words for Snow, through the testimony of some of her key collaborators and those she has inspired.
Contributors include the guitarist who discovered her (Pink Floyd's David Gilmour), the choreographer who taught her to dance (Lindsay Kemp) and the musician who she said 'opened her doors' (Peter Gabriel), as well as her engineer and ex-partner (Del Palmer) and several other collaborators (Elton John, Stephen Fry and Nigel Kennedy).
Also exploring their abiding fascination with Kate are fans (John Lydon, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui) and musicians who have been influenced by her (St Vincent's Annie Clark, Natasha Khan (aka Bat for Lashes), Tori Amos, Outkast's Big Boi, Guy Garvey and Tricky), as well as writers and comedians who admire her (Jo Brand, Steve Coogan and Neil Gaiman).
THU 00:30 Music Moguls: Masters of Pop (p039w64c)
Money Makers
Three-part series revealing the secret history of pop and rock from the men and women who pull the strings behind the scenes.
Programme one tells the story of the maverick managers who controlled the careers of megastar artists, from Colonel Parker (Elvis) right the way up to Scooter Braun (Justin Bieber). Along the way are rollicking tales of industry legends like Led Zeppelin's Peter Grant, and Don Arden, who managed The Small Faces, Black Sabbath and ELO.
Narrated by Simon Napier-Bell, it also features contributions from Andrew Loog Oldham (The Rolling Stones), Jon Landau (Bruce Springsteen), Bill Curbishley (The Who), Paul McGuinness (U2) and Jonathan Dickins (Adele).
THU 01:30 I'm Not In Love: The Story of 10cc (b06r14pr)
In celebration of the 40th anniversary of smash hit I'm Not in Love, the original members of 10cc - Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme - reunite to tell their story. The documentary shares the secrets to some of their most successful records, from the writing and the recording to the tours and the tensions.
With contributions from an impressive array of music industry legends including 10cc's band manager Harvey Lisberg, lyricist Sir Tim Rice, broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, legendary producer Trevor Horn, Stewart Copeland (The Police), Graham Nash (The Hollies) and Dan Gillespie Sells (The Feeling), not only does this film highlight the diversity of these four brilliant musicians' songwriting talent, but it also delves into the influence they had, as well as the politics beneath their acrimonious split in 1976, at the height of their fame.
THU 02:30 Britain's Outlaws: Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues (b06rfl46)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRIDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2017
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b094jnyc)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0955wql)
John Peel and Tommy Vance present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 12 July 1984. Featuring Shakatak, Tina Turner, Alison Moyet, Phil Fearon and Galaxy, Echo and The Bunnymen, The Bluebells and Frankie Goes To Hollywood.
FRI 20:00 The Live Lounge Show (b0956jf9)
Series 1
Foo Fighters and More: Live Lounge Special
Clara Amfo takes us behind the scenes of Radio 1's Live Lounge - the biggest live studio showcase in the world.
Live Lounge sessions happen twice a week across the year, attracting an array of some of the biggest and best artists on the planet. In September however, it gets turbo-charged with a performance every weekday across the whole month.
We bring you the very best of the first week of performances and Live Lounge exclusive interviews.
Clara heads to LA to the legendary 606 Studio to host the Foo Fighters in session and to catch up with Dave Grohl. Also in the programme, we bring you live music from Chris Martin, The Script, The xx and 30 Seconds to Mars.
This is live performance with a twist as each artist performs their own track and a cover version. Any Live Lounge listeners will know that the cover version is usually a recently released single, but not this year! To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Radio 1, the cover can be any track from the last 50 years and have we got some treats for you... Foo Fighters cover none other than AC/DC.
FRI 21:00 Marc Bolan: Cosmic Dancer (b094mcwl)
This intimate biography, narrated in Marc Bolan's own words, traces his remarkable journey from Hackney's 'king of the mods' to Tyrannosaurus Rex, as he evolved into the artist known as 'the hippie with a knife up his sleeve'.
With the dawn of the 1970s and the breakup of The Beatles, Bolan became the gender-bending glam rocker whose band T. Rex revitalised the British music scene. But director Jeremy Marre - incorporating unseen movies shot by record producer Tony Visconti and Marc Bolan himself - reveals a far more complex and driven figure whose life was tragically cut short, aged 29.
Featuring those who were closest to Marc, his friends, colleagues, family, partner Gloria Jones and producer Tony Visconti.
FRI 22:00 Glam Rock at the BBC (b094mcwn)
A spangly celebration of the outburst of far-out pop and fuzz-filled rock that lit up the British charts in the early 1970s. Top of the Pops is our primary arena and its gloriously gaudy visual effects are used here aplenty! The compilation also utilises footage from a selection of BBC concerts as well as from Crackerjack and Cilla. It features classic BBC TV performances from T. Rex, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Alice Cooper, Suzi Quatro, Slade, The Sweet, Elton John, Queen, Sparks and many more.
FRI 23:00 Elton John at the BBC (b00vs5c0)
Elton John's career tracked in archive from performances, interviews and news clips.
FRI 00:00 Rod Stewart at the BBC (b03m81n5)
Compilation of Rod Stewart's finest performances at the BBC. We revisit the early 70s with The Faces performing Stay with Me and Three Button Hand Me Down on Sounds for Saturday. The BBC charted Rod's solo success over the years and there are classic performances and interviews that will make you dance, sing and pull on your heartstrings. Songs include Sailing, You're in My Heart, I Don't Want to Talk about It and Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?
We also have Rod's performance from Glastonbury 2002 of the classic Handbags and Gladrags, and we dip into the Great American Songbook with his version of the Dorothy Fields classic I'm in the Mood for Love. Finally, rounding off over five decades in music is a performance from Rod's Radio 2 concert from May 2013.
FRI 01:00 Top of the Pops (b0955wql)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 01:35 Marc Bolan: Cosmic Dancer (b094mcwl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:35 Glam Rock at the BBC (b094mcwn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]