Victoria Coren Mitchell hosts the series where knowledge will only take you so far. Patience and lateral thinking are also vital.
This round-three game sees the return of the Eco-Warriors and the Inquisitors. They compete to find the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random. So join Victoria Coren Mitchell to find out what connects Boring Ted, Violent Vic, Devout P and Repulsive Od.
The quarter-finals continue when two teams of university students do battle to reach the next stage in the competition.
Radzi Chinyanganya presents further highlights from Pyeongchang, featuring the second day of the team figure skating event and cross-country skiing action from the men's skiathlon.
The dream of sending humans to Mars is closer than ever before. In fact, many scientists think that the first person to set foot on the Red Planet is alive today. But where should the first explorers visit when they get there? Horizon has gathered the world's leading experts on Mars and asked them where they would go if they got the chance - and what would they need to survive?
Using incredible real images and data, Horizon brings these Martian landmarks to life - from vast plains to towering volcanoes, from deep valleys to hidden underground caverns. This film also shows where to land, where to live and even where to hunt for traces of extraterrestrial life.
In October 2017, astronomers made a spectacular discovery - they spotted the first ever object to visit our solar system from outer space. They gave it a suitably exotic name... 'Oumuamua. Its discovery set off a hurricane of press speculation and a major scientific investigation.
To investigate this spectacular astronomical detective story, The Sky at Night goes to Queen's University in Belfast, which has become the centre of scientific research on this cosmic visitor. When they first spotted it, all scientists knew was that it was small, it was travelling fast, and it came from outside our solar system.
Its discovery provoked a host of questions. What did it look like? How had it formed? What was it made of? Where had it come from? To answer these questions, the team pieces together all the clues that scientists have extracted from the small amounts of data collected as 'Oumuamua flashed through the solar system.
This forensic analysis - including exclusive new revelations - means we can now piece together the most comprehensive picture yet of this extraordinary object.
Margherita, a well-known director working on her latest film, suffers an existential crisis when she has to come to terms with her mother's terminal illness and re-evaluate everything she thought she knew about life.
A delve into the BBC archives for an eclectic mix of performances from musicals from the 60s to the present. Featuring the likes of Ella Fitzgerald singing Mack the Knife from the Threepenny Opera, Captain Sensible performing a classic from South Pacific, Jeff Beck going down the yellow brick road of Oz, Jay Z taking on Annie, and all points in between.
Andrew Graham-Dixon explores how royal collecting has changed since the days of Queen Victoria. This is a story of the British monarchy's remarkable survival, while elsewhere the crown heads of Europe crumbled in the face of world wars and revolutions. But it is also an age when women took charge of royal collecting; from Victoria to Elizabeth II, queens and queen consorts have used art to steady the ship of monarchy during this uncertain age.
It's one of the curiosities of the Royal Collection that as the monarchy's power diminished, so too did the objects they collected. Gone were epic canvases, instead came objects of exquisite, delicate and intimate beauty. Andrew marvels at a selection of the royal family's collection of Faberge jewellery - one of the greatest in the world - that includes the Mosaic Egg from 1914. So taken were Edward VII and his wife Queen Alexandria with the works of Peter Carl Faberge, that the jeweller opened a London shop to service the demands of royal clientele.
And then there's Queen Mary's Dolls' House - presented to George V's queen to thank her for her steadfastness during the first world war, the Dolls' House is an astonishing artistic collaboration by over 1,500 people and companies, replete with books containing new stories by authors like Arthur Conan Doyle, tiny champagne bottles filled with real champagne and even mini shotguns that can be broken, loaded and fired. More than just a dolls' house, this is a three-dimensional archive of a vanished artistic age.
The Collection reveals fresh insights into these remarkable women, in particular HM the Queen Mother, who loved art and collected with flair. At Clarence House, Andrew discovers a surprising collection of contemporary British art that she assembled in the 1930s and 1940s, including works by Walter Sickert, LS Lowry, Paul Nash and Augustus John. Andrew traces her greatest commission, a series of 26 paintings of Windsor Castle by John Piper, painted during the Second World War. With Windsor at risk of being bombed, Piper created an eerie dreamscape filled with black skies and foreboding.
Andrew also brings royal collecting up to date. From the outset Elizabeth II's priorities had been focused on preserving and displaying the Collection, and Andrew shows how one of the key events in its recent history - the Windsor Castle fire - was an unlikely catalyst in the reform of the Collection's care. Concluding his exploration, Andrew meets HRH the Prince of Wales to view two of his recent commissions, powerful portraits of veterans of the Battle of Britain and the D-Day landings, and to discuss the continued importance of this remarkable collection.
MONDAY 12 FEBRUARY 2018
MON 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09rjwzn)
Series 1
12/02/2018
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 Railways of the Great War with Michael Portillo (b04dbspx)
On Track to Victory
World War I was a railway war. Michael Portillo finds out how the railways helped to precipitate a mechanised war, shaped how it was fought, conveyed millions to the trenches and bore witness to its end. He takes to historic tracks to rediscover the locomotives and wagons of the war that was supposed to end all war and hears the stories of the gallant men and women who used them in life and in death.
Michael travels through Britain and Belgium uncovering railway stories from the Great War. At Bristol's Temple Meads station he hears a first-hand account from the front line, then in Yorkshire discovers how women took over railwaymen's roles and began to literally wear the trousers. He finds out about the extraordinary exploits of Belgian trainspotters who spied on enemy rail movements, and hears how the end of the war also marked the decline of the railways.
MON 20:00 Winter Olympics Extra (b09s7hvv)
Pyeongchang 2018
12/02/2018
Radzi Chinyanganya presents extended highlights as the medals are won in the team figure skating and women's snowboard slopestyle.
MON 21:00 Robert Rauschenberg - Pop Art Pioneer (b085k35h)
Alastair Sooke celebrates the protean genius of one of America's most prolific and original artists, Robert Rauschenberg. Fearless and influential, he blazed a trail for artists in the second half of the 20th century, and yet his work is rarely seen here in the UK.
Rauschenberg was the first artist to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1964, creating a crucial bridge between the abstract expressionists of the 50s and the pop artists who emerged in the 60s.
Famous for his 'combines' that elevated the rich junk of life to the status of high art, he continued to work right up to his death in 2008, collaborating with dancers, scientists and social activists on a startlingly broad array of projects.
Alastair travels to the east coast of the USA to talk to those closest to Rauschenberg to reveal the boundless curiosity and restless experimentation that kept him engaged till the very end of his six-decade career.
MON 22:00 Mary Beard's Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit (b0797ysr)
Episode 1
In this first episode, Mary Beard reaches back to the myths and legends of the origins of Rome to gain an insight into the deep-rooted psyche of the people of Rome - a city born through fratricide and rape. But from the very beginning, Rome was also an asylum for outcasts and exiles and because of this, it adopted a uniquely inclusive approach towards its neighbours and defeated enemies. The expansion of the city brought territory in first in Italy and Sicily, where Rome first came head to head and eventually defeated her great rival, Carthage.
Mary then travels to Greece, where Rome adopted a complex mix of brute force and cultural cringe, and France, where she finds evidence of war methods akin to outright genocide. In typical myth-busting style, Mary argues that the period of greatest Roman expansion occurred when Rome itself was little more than a provincial backwater, a shanty town of mud and brick. The marble, monumental Rome we know came about because of imperial conquest - not the other way round. And likewise, the creation and possession of an empire transformed the politics of Rome forever, creating the conditions for one-man rule, and ending the centuries-old Roman Republic.
MON 23:00 Chinese New Year: The Biggest Celebration on Earth (b071c3nh)
Migration
The first episode, presented by Kate Humble, Jing Lusi and Ant Anstead, follows the weeks leading up to New Year and is based at the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival - an extraordinary sub-zero celebration in China's far north east. It is an ice wonderland, full of people braving the cold, diving into frozen water and enjoying themselves at minus 30 degrees.
The three of them also experience the New Year transport rush and crush in Beijing, following an Anglo-Chinese family back to China, joining the crush at Beijing's West Station and battling through Beijing traffic.
2016 is the year of the monkey, and Kate goes in search of the extremely rare snub-nosed monkeys of Yunnan. She goes on a poo hunt, looking for monkey faeces to test for their health. Jing experiences the spectacular showers of sparks from ancient fireworks made from molten metal by Mr Xue, the last practitioner of this dying craft, whose only protection is a sheepskin coat and a straw hat. Ant finds out how an entire ice city is made from just frozen river water, sculpted to make full-sized buildings that are illuminated beautifully at night.
Meanwhile, the Hairy Bikers Dave and Si join the largest motorbike flotilla on earth as thousands of migrant workers in Guangdong province head for home as New Year approaches - it is an extraordinary scene as workers from the city go back to their home villages, often for the only time in a year. The Bikers join the volunteers helping the motorcyclists as they head carefully back home on bikes loaded high with people and presents.
MON 00:00 China in Six Easy Pieces (b036r5cx)
For centuries the west has been enthralled by flamboyant blue-and-white ceramics from China but unaware that all the time the Chinese were making porcelains for themselves that were completely different - subtle monochromes for the Imperial court, beautiful objects for the scholar's table and delicate domestic wares.
Ceramics expert Lars Tharp, Antiques Roadshow resident and presenter of Treasures of Chinese Porcelain, has picked his six favourite pieces representing Chinese taste. He goes on a journey through a thousand years of Chinese history, travelling from the ancient capital of Huangzhou in the south to Beijing's Forbidden City in the north, to uncover what these six pieces tell us about Chinese emperors, scholars, workers, merchants and artists.
To him, they are China in ceramic form. But can they help us to understand China today?
MON 01:00 Top of the Pops (b07g8qs0)
Simon Bates presents the pop charts show, first broadcast on 17 December 1981. Includes appearances from Duran Duran, Godley & Creme, the Snowmen, Cliff Richard, Rod Stewart, Status Quo, the Human League and Zoo.
MON 01:30 Top of the Pops (b07g9zmn)
David 'Kid' Jensen presents the weekly pop chart show, first broadcast on 24 December 1981. Includes appearances from Bucks Fizz, Dollar, Roy Wood & Wizzard, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Altered Images, the Human League and Zoo.
MON 02:00 Strike (b093vftv)
The Cuckoo's Calling
Episode 1
Cormoran Strike, an injured war veteran turned PI, and secretary Robin Ellacott seek the truth surrounding the mysterious death of supermodel Lula Landry.
MON 03:00 Robert Rauschenberg - Pop Art Pioneer (b085k35h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 13 FEBRUARY 2018
TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09rjwzv)
Series 1
13/02/2018
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Railways of the Great War with Michael Portillo (b04dbt1w)
Railways and Remembrance
World War I was a railway war. Michael Portillo finds out how the railways helped to precipitate a mechanised war, shaped how it was fought, conveyed millions to the trenches and bore witness to its end. He takes to historic tracks to rediscover the locomotives and wagons of the war that was supposed to end all wars and hears the stories of the gallant men and women who used them in life and in death.
In this final episode, Michael explores the aftermath of this earth-shattering conflict. For four years, the railways had fed the front line with vast numbers of men, munitions and supplies. But even after the armistice had been signed in a railway carriage, the work of the railways was not done. As Britain continued to mourn its dead, the railways played an important part in their remembrance. Michael hears stories of railway war heroes and encounters a remarkable railway wagon used to honour them. He hears how the railways helped give birth to battlefield tourism, and in the cemeteries of Ypres he meets the great-grandchildren of some of the fallen.
TUE 20:00 Winter Olympics Extra (b09s7hzq)
Pyeongchang 2018
13/02/2018
More action from Pyeongchang, with extended highlights of the women's halfpipe final in the snowboarding and the men's individual sprint in the cross-country skiing.
TUE 21:00 The British Garden: Life and Death on Your Lawn (b08xyqcs)
The British back garden is a familiar setting, but underneath the peonies and petunias is a much wilder hidden world, a miniature Serengeti, with beauty and brutality in equal measure. In this documentary, Chris Packham and a team of wildlife experts spend an entire year exploring every inch of a series of interlinked back gardens in Welwyn Garden City. They want to answer a fundamental question: how much wildlife lives beyond our back doors? How good for wildlife is the great British garden?
Through all four seasons, Chris reveals a stranger side to some of our more familiar garden residents. In summer he meets a very modern family of foxes - with a single dad in charge - and finds that a single fox litter can have up to five different fathers. In winter he shows that a robin's red breast is actually war paint. And finally, in spring he finds a boiling ball of frisky frogs in a once-in-a-year mating frenzy.
The secret lives of the gardens' smallest residents are even weirder. The team finds male crickets that bribe females with food during sex, spiders that change colour to help catch prey, and life-and-death battles going on under our noses in the compost heap.
So how many different species call our gardens home? How well do our gardens support wildlife? By the end of the year, with the help of a crack team from London's Natural History Museum and some of the country's top naturalists, Chris will find out. He'll also discover which type of garden attracts the most wildlife. The results are not what you might expect... You'll never look at your garden in quite the same way again.
TUE 22:30 Tornado - the 100mph Steam Engine (b08rb16k)
The new A1 class steam engine Tornado tries to achieve 100mph on the main line. The secret speed attempt will be made in the dead of night. If it tops the ton it will be the first time in 50 years that steam has gone this fast. Tornado was built over two decades and financed by enthusiasts who want to show steam has a viable future on Britain's railways.
TUE 23:00 Chinese New Year: The Biggest Celebration on Earth (b071c4dn)
Reunion
The Hairy Bikers Dave Myers and Si King take us to New Year's Eve in Beijing, following an extraordinary day in China's capital city. They experience life in the mega-city on this special day, from preparations at the bell tower, which can only ever ring on the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, to a Beijing family, the Zhangs, who are getting ready for the biggest family get-together of the year. The whole city comes to a halt as everyone gathers round dinner tables to tuck into the traditional reunion dinner.
Jing Lusi goes behind the scenes at what some call the world's most popular television show - CCTV's Chunwan Gala, watched by 800 million viewers. For the performers, this is a make-or-break opportunity. Kate Humble takes part in a huge flower auction in the warmer Yunnan province as bales of flowers - mostly lucky red roses - are sold to hit the shops in time for new year. Ant Anstead discovers how the spirit baijiu is made in 450-year-old pits and learns the subtle etiquette that surrounds its drinking.
TUE 00:00 Storyville (b052vb0d)
Love Is All: 100 Years of Love and Courtship
A magical and moving archive trip through the universal theme of love, set to a stunning soundtrack by Richard Hawley. It takes us on a journey through the 20th century, exploring love and courtship on screen in a century of unprecedented social upheaval. From the very first kisses ever caught on film, through the disruption of war to the birth of youth culture, gay liberation and free love, we follow courting couples flirting at tea dances, kissing in the back of the movies, shacking up and fighting for the right to love.
This is the celluloid story of love and courtship since the birth of the movie camera, told with spellbinding archive footage and directed by award-winning director Kim Longinotto.
TUE 01:15 Top of the Pops (b07gmrvl)
Mike Read presents the hits of 1981, in a show first broadcast on 31 December 1981. Includes appearances from Adam & the Ants, John Lennon, Roxy Music, Aneka, The Police, The Specials, Joe Dolce, Julio Iglesias, Bucks Fizz, Soft Cell and The Human League.
TUE 01:50 Stories from the Dark Earth: Meet the Ancestors Revisited (b01sgx9m)
Sacred Women of the Iron Age
Archaeologist Julian Richards returns to some of his most important digs to discover how science, conservation, and brand new finds have changed our understanding of entire eras of ancient history. Julian goes back to the excavation of two very different Iron Age woman - the possible sacrifice of a teenage girl from the Cotswolds, and the extraordinary chariot queen whose well preserved possessions are leading to some astonishing new conclusions about Iron Age belief, all because of a mirror and its otter-fur bag.
TUE 02:50 Strike (b093vg07)
The Cuckoo's Calling
Episode 2
Strike makes a breakthrough. Robin is offered a permanent job in HR but is reluctant to take it.
WEDNESDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2018
WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09rjx00)
Series 1
14/02/2018
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Secret Knowledge (b01rml7t)
Bolsover Castle
Lucy Worsley tells the story of Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire. Built in the early 17th century, it became the pleasure palace of playboy Cavalier and ambitious courtier William Cavendish.
Guiding us on a tour of the castle and its remarkable collection of artworks, Lucy brings to life the spectacular masque held by Cavendish to win the favour of King Charles I.
And from within the walls of this eccentric architectural gem emerges a colourful tale, capturing the tensions of early 17th-century England that would eventually lead the nation to civil war.
WED 20:00 Winter Olympics Extra (b09s7j40)
Pyeongchang 2018
14/02/2018
Extended highlights of the short programme in the pairs figure skating and the men's snowboard halfpipe final. Presented by Radzi Chinyanganya.
WED 21:00 Queen Victoria's Children (b01pp9dg)
A Domestic Tyrant
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert shared a passionate marriage. Behind closed doors, royal domestic life often seemed like a battlefield.
In a 60-year family saga this new three-part series explores the reign of Victoria through her personal relationships with her husband and her nine children. It is a story of manipulation, conflict, intimidation, emotional blackmail, and fevered attempts by her children to escape the clutches of their domineering and needy mother.
The series uses a wealth of written material and photos left by Victoria, Albert and their children, including letters, diaries, memoirs and journals, to bring the subject and characters to life.
This episode concentrates on Victoria's relationship with her daughters. It looks at how, after Albert's death, Victoria clung to and bullied them and arranged their marriages. In response the princesses fought back, becoming independent women determined to find love and fresh purpose. From sculpture to medicine, the daughters became champions of women for a new era.
WED 22:00 The Birth of Empire: The East India Company (b042vxzx)
Original Series
Episode 2
By 1800 the East India Company had grown from a tiny band of merchants into a colossal trading empire. But scandal and corruption in the 18th century had led to a curtailment of its powers by the British government. The state now controlled the company's affairs in India and, throughout the 19th century, would chip away at its remaining powers and trading privileges.
The company was transformed from a trading enterprise into the rulers of India, and governed vast swathes of the subcontinent on behalf of the British Crown. Its territory expanded enormously and an empire was born.
As the company traded opium to a reluctant Chinese Empire, in India a dangerous chasm opened up between the British rulers and the Indian people. Alienated and disaffected, significant numbers of the company's massive army of Indian soldiers finally revolted and the company's handling of the mutiny was its final undoing. In 1858 British India passed into Queen Victoria's hands and the Raj was born.
WED 23:00 Chinese New Year: The Biggest Celebration on Earth (b071c4qc)
Celebration
Kate Humble and Ant Anstead present the final programme from Hong Kong, looking at what happens right after New Year. This great port city is a strange mix of ultra-modern and traditional. Kate trains with a top dragon-dancing troupe and discovers that not only is it a highly demanding kung fu-based art, it is also taken very seriously as Hong Kong people sincerely embrace the tradition of lucky lions and dragons at New Year.
Meanwhile, the Hairy Bikers are in Beijing at the Temple Fair, where they explore a tradition from imperial China of the emperor starting the new year by renewing his mandate of heaven.
Ant heads to China's frozen north east to Chagan Lake to discover the ancient art of fishing beneath the thick frozen surface. It is an extraordinary scene as the fishermen use centuries-old techniques to catch fish, a key part of any New Year's banquet.
The culmination of the series is all about fireworks. Their loud bangs are believed to ward off evil spirits at this time of year. Ant goes to Liuyang, the city that produces nearly all of China's fireworks and many of those used in displays in British skies too. They even have a temple here to the inventor of fireworks, where workers still pay homage to the monk Li Tian, who started it all. And back in Hong Kong, we experience one of the most extraordinary fireworks displays on the planet as millions of Hong Kong dollars' worth go off in a blaze of light and colour over the famous harbour.
WED 00:00 Love Songs at the BBC: A Valentine's Day Special (b00ymh70)
It's a time for guilty pleasures, for courtship, for declarations of love, for looking someone in the eye and whispering sweet nothings, accompanied by a compilation of some of the greatest and squishiest love songs from the likes of Celine Dion, Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes, Jason and Kylie, 10cc and Lionel Richie, all from the Top of the Pops era. If Hot Chocolate and Chaka Khan don't get the temperatures rising, then nothing will.
WED 01:00 Top of the Pops (b07h0hg5)
Peter Powell presents the pop chart show, first broadcast on 7th January 1982. Includes appearances from Alton Edwards, Mobiles, Shakatak, the Human League, Jon & Vangelis, Meat Loaf and Zoo.
WED 01:30 Top of the Pops (b07h0j5m)
David Jensen presents the pop chart show, first broadcast on 21st January 1982. Includes appearances from Gillan, the Mobiles, XTC, Jon & Vangelis, Phil Lynott, Meat Loaf, OMD, Christopher Cross, Foreigner, Bucks Fizz and Zoo.
WED 02:00 Strike (b094kxgj)
The Cuckoo's Calling
Episode 3
Long-buried secrets are revealed, putting Strike and Robin in danger as they close in the killer.
WED 03:00 Queen Victoria's Children (b01pp9dg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 15 FEBRUARY 2018
THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09rjx05)
Series 1
15/02/2018
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 The Sky at Night (b09rvpts)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Sunday]
THU 20:00 Winter Olympics Extra (b09s7j8g)
Pyeongchang 2018
15/02/2018
Radzi Chinyanganya presents further highlights from South Korea, including the figure skating pairs free programme, and the men's snowboard cross.
THU 21:00 From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature (b09rzqp3)
Series 1
Frozen Solid
Everything around us - from the tiniest insect on Earth to the most distant stars of the cosmos - exists somewhere on a vast scale from cold to hot. In this series, physicist Dr Helen Czerski explores the extraordinary science of temperature. She unlocks the extremes of the temperature scale, from absolute zero to searing heat of stars - and reveals how temperature works, how deep its influence on our lives is, and why it's the hidden force that has shaped our planet and the entire universe.
In episode one, Helen ventures to the bottom of the temperature scale, revealing how cold has shaped the world around us and why frozen doesn't mean what you might think. She meets the scientists pushing temperature to the very limits of cold, where the normal laws of physics break down and a new world of scientific possibility begins. The extraordinary behaviour of matter at temperatures close to absolute zero is driving the advance of technology, from superconductors to quantum computing.
THU 22:00 Wild Weather with Richard Hammond (b04tqghf)
Original Series
Wind: The Invisible Force
Richard Hammond investigates how wind actually starts. He visits one of the windiest places on the planet, walks into the centre of a man-made tornado and creates a 10-metre high whirlwind - made of fire!
Along the way he is part of a world first when he joins up with American meteorologist Reed Timmer and a bizarre vehicle known as the Dominator III. Their aim is to succeed in doing what no one has ever done before, fire a probe into a tornado to measure its speed where it is at its fastest - right next to the ground. As Reed explains, 'near the base of the tornado is one of the biggest mysteries of tornado science and it's also the most important to understand because those are the wind speeds... that cause all the destruction'. To put that right, Reed and his team take The Dominator into the middle of a real live tornado and attempt to fire a probe into the very heart of it.
Richard also visits one of the few places on the planet capable of duplicating a real-life tornado. The Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment Research Institute (or WindEEE for short) in Ontario in Canada hadn't even opened its doors when Richard asked them to take part in an experiment. The $23 million facility is one of the the world's first hexagonal wind tunnels. As Richard says, 'I've got goosebumps. And that's not just because it's cold in here!'
Richard braves the winds and temperatures of -50 degrees Fahrenheit to take a trip outside on top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. On April 12th 1934, that station measured one of the highest wind speeds ever measured on land - 231 mph.
THU 23:00 Storm Troupers: The Fight to Forecast the Weather (b07cvg9p)
Episode 1
Alok Jha investigates how weather forecasting was transformed from superstition into science.
At the heart of story is pioneering meteorologist, Robert Fitzroy. Driven to prevent disasters at sea - like the wrecking of a passenger ship off the Anglesey coast in 1859 - Fitzroy issued Britain's first storm warnings and came up with the first weather forecast to be published in a newspaper.
Alok explores the knowledge Fitzroy was building on. He investigates weather folklore, asking if sayings such as 'red sky at night, shepherd's delight' have any merit. He tells the stories of the other heroes of meteorology - people like Evangelista Torricelli, a student of Galileo's, who invented the barometer; Luke Howard, who classified the clouds and Francis Beaufort, who came up with the famous wind scale.
Alok also discovers that public complaints about weather forecasts date back to the very first forecasts.
THU 00:00 How We Got to Now with Steven Johnson (b05n7yzb)
Sound
The ability to transport our voices over long distances has been one of the greatest transformations in how we live our lives. Innovation expert Steven Johnson traces the unsung heroes of sound, like the printer in France who first recorded the human voice, the maverick inventor who made radio possible through a mistake and the Hollywood star who used the keys of the piano to inspire encrypted messages. Together they helped set off a chain reaction of innovations which have shaped the modern world.
THU 01:00 Top of the Pops (b07jbqvh)
Simon Bates presents the pop chart show, first broadcast on 28 January 1982. Includes appearances from Tight Fit, Stiff Little Fingers, Elkie Brooks, Alton Edwards, Haircut 100, Olivia Newton John, The Stranglers and Shakin' Stevens.
THU 01:30 Top of the Pops (b07jkwcr)
John Peel presents the pop chart show, first broadcast on 4 February 1982. Includes appearances from OMD, Jets, Soft Cell, XTC, Christopher Cross, Kraftwerk, Theatre of Hate and Zoo.
THU 02:00 Strike (b0959ppk)
The Silkworm
Episode 1
War veteran turned private investigator Cormoran Strike investigates the disappearance of a provocative author. Robin is caught between Strike and Matthew's hopes.
THU 03:00 Strike (b09608pv)
The Silkworm
Episode 2
Delving deeper into the hidden meanings and concealed secrets of Bombyx Mori, Strike and Robin scour all corners of London's literary world to unmask the killer.
FRIDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2018
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b09rjx0b)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b09rmt82)
John Peel and Janice Long present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 11 April 1985. Featuring Tears for Fears, The Rah Band, Dream Academy, King and Philip Bailey & Phil Collins.
FRI 20:00 Winter Olympics Extra (b09s7jcq)
Pyeongchang 2018
16/02/2018
Extended highlights of the men's short programme in the figure skating and the women's snowboard cross.
FRI 21:00 The Story of Skinheads with Don Letts (b07yv0qj)
Documentary in which director and DJ Don Letts looks at a very particular and very provocative British subculture - skinhead. He explores how skinhead has become associated with street fighting, trouble on the football terraces and violent racism in the public consciousness in Britain and around the world, but reveals that its origins lie in a cultural coming together that could not be further from its tarnished image.
Don shows in fascinating detail how the roots of skinhead are in a brilliant cultural collision between the young white working-class kids and their Jamaican counterparts in British inner cities, a moment of multicultural harmony. He traces the history of skinhead from the late 60s to the present, looking at the music and styles of skinhead from the reggae-influenced ska to the punk-influenced Oi. Throughout Don meets people who were committed members of various skinhead scenes, and he considers the conflicts and the contradictions that skinhead has attracted over five decades.
FRI 22:00 TOTP2 (b007v15w)
Boogie Fever: A TOTP2 Disco Special
Get your dancing shoes on for a show of disco mania as Steve Wright and the TOTP2 team take you back to the dancefloor for some boogie fever. The Bee Gees are here in all their glory, along with Gloria Gaynor, Liquid Gold, Sylvester, The Village People, The Weather Girls and The Three Degrees.
There's classic dance fodder from Chic, George McCrae, Hi-Tension, Heatwave, The JALN Band, Earth Wind and Fire, Tina Charles, The Gibson Brothers and Edwin Starr, disco pop from Blondie, Yazz, Boney M and Linx, while Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Infernal bring the story up to date.
And then there's the Disco Duck. Sorry...
FRI 23:30 Bruno Mars: Live in Harlem (b09kkxz7)
Bruno Mars is in Harlem, New York, to fulfil a lifelong dream of performing at one of the most iconic music venues in the world, the Apollo Theatre. Bruno and his band, The Hooligans, take to the streets, singing and entertaining the locals, and giving out tickets to the big show. Featuring never-before-seen performances including Uptown Funk, 24k Magic and an electrifying rooftop performance on the Apollo's marquee, Bruno Mars thrills the crowd with his first ever TV special.
FRI 00:15 Top of the Pops (b09rmt82)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 00:50 The Story of Skinheads with Don Letts (b07yv0qj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 01:50 TOTP2 (b007v15w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]