The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
In one of the port's biggest events of the year, cruise company P&O are gathering their entire fleet of seven ships for a review by the Princess Royal. It is a testing time for cruise and Southampton staff as they juggle passengers, luggage and logistics.
The programme also meets port chaplain Rev Roger Stone and shows how one of the few female stevedores handling cargo deals with getting luxury cars loaded dent-free.
The hidden wonders of India's spectacular natural world are revealed by wildlife expert Liz Bonnin, actress Freida Pinto and mountaineer Jon Gupta.
Experience a village of birds, masks that come alive, the world's greatest mountain range and baby turtles erupting out of the sand.
In the final episode, Dr James Fox explores the art of the Japanese home. The clean minimalism of the Japanese home has been exported around the world, from modernist architecture to lifestyle stores like Muji. But the origins of this ubiquitous aesthetic evolved from a system of spiritual and philosophical values, dating back centuries. James visits one of Japan's last surviving traditional wooden villages, and the 17th-century villa of Rinshunkaku, and reveals how the unique spirit of Japanese craftsmen (shokunin) turned joinery into an artform - creating houses without the need for nails, screws or even glue.
Exploring some of the traditional arts of the Japanese home (where even food and flower arranging have been elevated to the level of art), James also investigates attitudes to domestic culture in modern Japan, meeting photographer Kyoichi Tsuzuki, chronicler of Japan's crowded cities and tiny apartments.
Other highlights include a performance by calligrapher and artist Tomoko Kawao and a visit to the hometown of Terunobu Fujimori, one of the most singular and playful contemporary architects working in Japan today.
In the fourth and final episode, Mary tackles the biggest puzzle of all: why, and how, did the Roman Empire fall? Surveying the massive walls and fortifications of Britain and Germany, she discovers an empire under pressure, struggling to control its borders.
Mary seeks to redefine our understanding of the so-called 'Barbarian Invasions', but also shows that the Roman Empire was facing even greater challenges from within. Maverick emperors upset all the assumptions of right-thinking Romans, while the traditional religion and beliefs of the Roman state came head to head with the absolute conviction of Jews and Christians. Ultimately, Mary asks whether the Roman Empire was transformed rather than destroyed, and indeed lives on in the world we still see all around us - in our institutions and infrastructure, in the aspirations, methodology and symbolism of many empires since.
Professor Catharine Edwards explores the story of the remarkable Livia, wife of the emperor Augustus, mother of the emperor Tiberius and a woman whose influence was felt across the Roman world for over 60 years. But as Catharine explains, imperial women who lacked perfect political judgement would end up not as leaders but as victims. Both Augustus's daughter Julia and his granddaughter Agrippina would die miserably in exile.
Dr Richard Clay goes in search of what it is that has made us scribble and scratch mementoes of our lives for more than 30,000 years. From the prehistoric cave paintings of Burgundy in France, through gladiatorial fan worship in Roman Lyons to the messages left on the walls of Germany's Reichstag in 1945 by triumphant Soviet troops, time and again we have wanted to leave a permanent record of our existence for our descendants. And it may be that this is where what today we call art comes from - the humble scratch, graffiti.
David Jensen presents the weekly pop chart show, first broadcast on 3 June 1982. Includes appearances from Junior, Charlene, ABC, Fun Boy Three, Echo & the Bunnymen, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Adam Ant and Madness. Also includes a dance performance from Zoo.
Simon Bates presents the weekly pop chart show, first broadcast on 17 June 1982. Includes appearances by Natasha, Roxy Music, Echo & the Bunnymen, Duran Duran, ABC, Bow Wow Wow, Queen, Toyah and Adam Ant.
TUESDAY 06 MARCH 2018
TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09tsnjd)
Series 1
06/03/2018
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Sea City (b01pwsxc)
Series 1
Episode 2
The second in a three-part documentary series about the Port of Southampton.
The pilots who guide large ships into Southampton, assisted by the marine staff on patrol and those in the control tower, are at the heart of making the port work smoothly. They are challenged by the danger of ships going aground and by dealing with leisure craft which frequently get in the way of the safest route into Southampton.
Plus the work involved in turnaround day for a cruise ship, and a family on board spring a birthday surprise for dad.
TUE 20:00 Immortal Egypt with Joann Fletcher (b06vpc9y)
The Road to the Pyramids
In the first episode, Professor Joann Fletcher goes in search of the building blocks of Egyptian civilisation and finds out what made ancient Egypt the incredible civilisation that it was.
Joann sees how people here changed, in just a few centuries, from primitive farmers to pyramid builders and finds the early evidence for Egypt's amazing gods and obsession with death and the afterlife.
On her search, Joann travels almost 20,000 years back in time to discover north Africa's earliest rock art, she discovers how the first writing was used to calculate taxes and explores one of the first stone structures on earth - Egypt's first pyramid. Joann ends her journey in the largest monument of them all - the Great Pyramid. Here, she explains how Egypt had now reached a pinnacle - the ultimate society, creating one of the wonders of the ancient world.
TUE 21:00 David Starkey's Magna Carta (b05139m4)
We take our liberties for granted. They seem absolute and untouchable. But they are the result of a series of violent struggles fought over 800 years that, at times, have threatened to tear our society apart. On the frontline was a document originally inked on animal skin - Magna Carta.
Distinguished constitutional historian David Starkey looks at the origins of the Great Charter, created in 1215 to check the abuses of King John - and how it nearly died at birth. He explores its subsequent deployment, its contribution to making everyone - even the monarch - subject to the rule of law, and how this quintessentially English document migrated to the North American colonies and eventually became the foundation of the US constitution.
Magna Carta has become a universal symbol of individual freedom against the tyranny of the state, but with ever-tightening government control on our lives, is it time to resurrect it?
Starkey has a special encounter with an original Magna Carta manuscript at the British Library, one of only four from 1215 to survive. He also examines other unique medieval manuscripts that trace the tumultuous history of Magna Carta, the Article of the Barons listing their demands in June 1215, and the papal bull declaring Magna Carta null and void less than two months after it was sealed.
TUE 22:00 Byzantium: A Tale of Three Cities (b03lyyrc)
Episode 3
Simon discovers surprises in Istanbul as it rose to become the imperial capital and Islam's most powerful city. Visiting the great mosques and palaces built by the Ottoman emperors, he tells the stories behind them - of royal concubines, murderous bodyguards and sultans both the powerful and the depraved. He shows how the Christians, Muslims and Jews of the city once co-existed before the waves of nationalist rebellions brought the Ottoman empire to its knees. In the 20th century the ancient capital was once more transformed by the new secular vision of Ataturk.
TUE 23:00 Dreaming the Impossible: Unbuilt Britain (b0394j6q)
A Revolution in the City
Using her skills to uncover long-forgotten and abandoned plans, architectural investigator Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner explores the fascinating and dramatic stories behind some of the grandest designs that were never built.
Destruction, whether intentional or circumstantial, often creates a clean slate and demands a fresh outlook in which we come to think the unthinkable. This programme looks at bold, and in some cases shocking, plans to make revolutionary changes to Britain's biggest cities.
In the mid 17th century, the capital was reeling from the devastation caused by the Great Fire of London. But amid the destruction, a huge opportunity arose to completely remodel and modernise London and make it into a very different city than the one we know today.
London was effectively a blank sheet of paper and, within a week of the city being razed to the ground, architect Sir Christopher Wren presented King Charles II with a vision to create a completely new city. Wren wanted the winding streets and old courtyards that had existed almost unchanged since medieval times to be replaced by monumental Parisian-style avenues in a formal grid pattern with large piazzas. This was a unique opportunity to improve on the past but, while Wren's design for St Paul's Cathedral did become a reality, London was reconstructed on essentially the same street plan as before the fire.
Three centuries later, Glasgow was the second city of the empire and the industrial powerhouse of the nation, but was struggling to cope with overcrowding and slum housing. Many believed the only solution was to start again. The city's leading planner, Robert Bruce, proposed demolishing the entire city centre - the celebrated buildings of Mackintosh and Greek Thompson would all have been bulldozed - to create a 1940s vision of the future. The new Glasgow would have been built as a system of regular tower blocks, ringed by a motorway, built in districts according to function. Bruce's justification for these drastic proposals was the creation of a new 'healthy and beautiful city'. Although his plan was not realised in its entirety, many of his ideas were carried out, and the M8 motorway which cuts right through the city centre is probably the most visible legacy of the 'Bruce Report'.
In both plans, destruction was the driving force behind creating a new city on a fresh slate. Separated in time by 300 years, these two radical thinkers, Christopher Wren and Robert Bruce, devised colossal, transformative schemes for their respective cities in a bid to create their very personal vision of the 'perfect city'.
TUE 00:00 Two Types: The Faces of Britain (b0903ppd)
We are surrounded by types, the words on signs, buses, shops and documents which guide us through our lives. Two types in particular are regarded as the faces of Britain - Johnston and Gill Sans. Their story is told by typeface expert Mark Ovenden.
TUE 01:00 Top of the Pops (b0807yy5)
John Peel presents the weekly pop chart show, first broadcast on 1 July 1982. Includes appearances from Natasha, Captain Sensible, Visage, Queen, Midge Ure, The Jam and Dollar. Also includes a dance performance from Zoo.
TUE 01:30 Top of the Pops (b080yybr)
David Jensen presents the weekly pop chart show, first broadcast on 8 July 1982. Includes appearances from Captain Sensible, Bananarama, Imagination, Irene Cara, Odyssey, Bucks Fizz and The Steve Miller Band.
TUE 02:00 Fabric of Britain (b03bm1rg)
The Story of Wallpaper
Paul Martin presents the surprisingly compelling story of wallpaper. From its origins in the 16th century to the present day, wallpaper has always had something to say about us and our tastes and aspirations. It's a journey that takes Paul from the grandest of stately homes to the poorest of two-up-two-downs, the height of luxury to industrial grime and infestation. There are some fascinating tales along the way; wallpaper may seem insignificant, but governments have tried to control it, and it's even threatened to poison us.
The programme also reveals the art and craft of wallpaper. Paul learns how to make flock wallpaper, very much a deluxe item in the 18th century, helps to uncover a rare antique piece of wallpapering from a building site, and prints the designs of Marthe Armitage. Along the way, he meets contemporary designers and makers, and tells the stories of such historical wallpaper luminaries as Pugin and William Morris.
TUE 03:00 Becoming a Lied Singer: Thomas Quasthoff and the Art of German Song (b08wzzpd)
Thomas Quasthoff, one of the premier baritones of his generation, presents his personal guide to the love of his life, the German lied song. Drawing on his multiple roles as maestro, teacher and founder of an international lied singing competition, Professor Quasthoff goes on a personal journey into this short, domestic but intensely expressive art form.
Lied means 'song' in the German language and lieder are poems of nature, love, and death set for solo voice and a piano. Quasthoff used to sing these songs around the world and now he has turned from practitioner to teacher, passing on this two-century-old tradition to a new generation of young singers.
With a wide range of contributors, including musicians and academics, there is a focus on Franz Schubert as the first great lieder writer. In the early 19th century Schubert, who died tragically young, seized the new possibilities of the piano and created over 600 songs. Thomas unlocks the factors that then came together to create an explosion of lieder: the rise of the German Romanticism and the role that personal, emotional poetry played in the homes of the growing German middle class, the spectacular popularity of the domestic piano and an emerging philosophical imperative to explore the soul.
Lied is the most intimate music of the great composers and in Hamburg Quasthoff goes looking for Johannes Brahms, a composer he feels a great empathy with, and discovers the grave of an almost forgotten poet who inspired a masterpiece of lied song.
The documentary goes to Heidelberg where Quasthoff chairs the Das Lied International song competition - here 26 young lied singers and their pianists spend five days performing before an international jury, including singers Brigitte Fassbaender, Bernarda Fink and Dame Felicity Lott.
The programme includes rare archive of Thomas Quasthoff before his retirement from the classical stage, performing with pianist Andras Schiff in 2003 as well as a newly restored telerecording of Quasthoff's lied singing hero, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. In the most personal section of the film Quasthoff takes a late night vocal excursion to the island of Sicily.
WEDNESDAY 07 MARCH 2018
WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09tsnjn)
Series 1
07/03/2018
Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London return to report on the events that are shaping the world.
WED 19:30 Sea City (b01q8lf3)
Series 1
Episode 3
Three-part documentary series looking behind the scenes at the Port of Southampton.
The 'C' team from the container terminal at Southampton try and move a record number of containers off a giant ship in a 12-hour shift.
Crane driver Darren White's reputation is at stake as he tries to keep the momentum up while operating in his cab 50 metres up in the air. We also see the wheels come off for thieves trying to smuggle four stolen cars jam packed in a container, while at the Border Inspection Post, the Port Health team are on the lookout for dodgy food coming into Britain.
WED 20:00 The Secret History of Our Streets (b04ck993)
Series 2
Duke Street, Glasgow
BBC Two's multi-award-winning Secret History of Our Streets told the story of six London streets, from Victorian times to the present day.
Now, as its people stand at a crossroads in their history, the series travels to Scotland to tell the stories of three archetypal streets in Scotland's three great cities: Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.
Endlessly surprising and not at all what you would expect, the stories of these streets are the story of a nation.
Duke Street is Britain's longest street, running from Glasgow city centre through the heart of Glasgow's East End. Elegant Victorian tenement blocks line the road to the south of Duke Street. Yet just 40 years ago, those tenements were under threat. This is the story of how a group of pioneering residents took on the Glasgow Corporation in a battle to save their homes.
WED 21:00 Lucy Worsley's Fireworks for a Tudor Queen (b09cfwt4)
Historian Lucy Worsley teams up with artist and materials scientist Zoe Laughlin to explore the explosive science and fascinating history of fireworks, using an original pyrotechnics instruction manual, and other 400-year-old historical documents, to recreate one of the most spectacular fireworks displays from the Tudor era.
Lucy and Zoe are joined by a team of top class pyrotechnicians to replicate a mind-blowing fireworks display especially designed for Queen Elizabeth I - one of the first documented firework displays in England. Lucy pieces together clues from some of the earliest instruction manuals for making fireworks in England, as well as eyewitness accounts of the display laid on in 1575. Armed with this information, the team apply their understanding of cutting-edge pyrotechnics to recreate it in the grounds of Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, where it was originally staged.
Using hands-on experiments to test their designs, the team construct Tudor rockets, firework fountains and a fire-breathing dragon, as well as discovering the secrets of Elizabethan gunpowder.
Throughout the show, Lucy explores the history of the three-week extravaganza laid on by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in his final attempt to win the queen's hand in marriage - from the elaborate food the Tudor audience would have eaten, to the colours that the set might have been painted in.
She also reveals the important role fireworks had during the Tudor era - from the firework effects used on stage at the Globe Theatre to the pyrotechnical experimentation that took place at the Tower of London, the MI5 of its day.
But not all the clues can be found in England - some of the fireworks described need to be tracked down further afield. Lucy travels to Italy to recreate the mysterious Girandola - a horizontal spinning wheel of fire - whilst Zoe flies to South Korea to witness the ancient, and rather terrifying, rocket box launcher in action.
The danger and technical challenges involved in recreating 400-year-old fireworks creates a real sense of scale and event. And the detective work needed to decipher these Tudor pyrotechnic manuals, and the engineering ingenuity to recreate them, form the narrative spine of the film, culminating in a spectacular recreation of Elizabeth I's mind-blowing firework display at Kenilworth Castle.
WED 22:30 Clarissa and the King's Cookbook (b00b6vl6)
We Brits love our cookbooks - every year we buy millions of them and treat our celebrity chefs like royalty. But where did it all begin? Self-confessed medieval foodie Clarissa Dickson Wright tracks down Britain's oldest known cookbook, The Forme of Cury. This 700-year-old scroll was written during the reign of King Richard II from recipes created by the king's master chefs. How this ancient manuscript influenced the way people eat today? On her culinary journey through medieval history she reawakens recipes that have lain dormant for centuries and discovers dishes that are still prepared now.
WED 23:00 The Man Who Shot Tutankhamun (b08h99sb)
Margaret Mountford travels to Egypt's Valley of the Kings to discover the story of an unsung hero of British photography - Harry Burton, the man whose images of the Tutankhamun excavation created a global sensation in the 1920s.
As she explores the spectacular locations where Burton worked, including Tutankhamun's tomb, she investigates how his photographs inspired a craze for Egyptian designs and made the archaeologist Howard Carter an international celebrity. She discovers why Burton's images are still studied today by Egyptologists around the world. And she works with a present-day photographer, Harry Cory Wright, to find out how Burton pushed the boundaries of photographic art to create his extraordinary and influential pictures of the world's most famous archaeological discovery.
WED 00:00 ... Sings Stevie Wonder (b07jlzkd)
Compilation celebrating over 50 years of covers of Stevie Wonder's classic songbook filmed at BBC studio shows over the years. Featuring Cilla Black, Jimmy Helms, Dionne Warwick, The Osmonds, India Arie, James Morrison and a storming performance of Ed Sheeran with Jools and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra taking on Master Blaster (Jammin') on Hootenanny. Expect a special emphasis on Wonder's bank of classic ballads which include Isn't She Lovely, Love's in Need of Love Today, For Once in My Life, You Are the Sunshine of My Life and many more.
WED 01:00 Top of the Pops (b0813nn2)
Peter Powell presents the weekly pop chart show, first broadcast on 15 July 1982. Includes appearances from Hot Chocolate, Dexys Midnight Runners, Cliff Richard, David Essex, Japan, Visage and Irene Cara.
WED 01:30 Top of the Pops (b08200c8)
Simon Bates presents the weekly chart show, first broadcast on 22 July 1982. Includes appearances from The Belle Stars, Madness, Bananarama, The Brat, Trio, Junior, The Stranglers, Dollar and Irene Cara. Also includes a dance performance from Zoo.
WED 02:00 Lucy Worsley's Fireworks for a Tudor Queen (b09cfwt4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 08 MARCH 2018
THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09tsnjt)
Series 1
08/03/2018
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b09twczh)
Janice Long presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 30 May 1985. Featuring Stephen 'TinTin' Duffy, Animotion, Billy Ocean, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Scritti Politti and Paul Hardcastle.
THU 20:00 The Brain: A Secret History (b00x7cb5)
Emotions
Dr Michael Mosley continues his exploration of the brutal history of experimental psychology. Experiments on the human mind have led to profound insights into how our brain works - but have also involved great cruelty and posed some terrible ethical dilemmas.
In this film, Michael investigates how scientists have struggled to understand that most irrational and deeply complex part of our minds - our emotions.
Michael meets survivors - both participants and scientists - of some of the key historical experiments. Many of these extraordinary research projects were captured on film - an eight-month-old boy is taught to fear random objects, baby monkeys are given mothers made from wire and cloth, and an adult is deliberately violent before a group of toddlers.
Michael takes part in modern-day experiments to play his own small part in the quest to understand emotions.
THU 21:00 POP! The Science of Bubbles (b01rtdy6)
Physicist Dr Helen Czerski takes us on an amazing journey into the science of bubbles. Bubbles may seem to be just fun toys, but they are also powerful tools that push back the boundaries of science.
The soap bubble with its delicate, fragile skin tells us about how nature works on scales as large as solar system and as small as a single wavelength of light. Then there are underwater bubbles, which matter because they are part of the how the planet works. Out at sea, breaking waves generate huge plumes of bubbles which help the oceans breathe.
From the way animals behave to the way drinks taste, Dr Czerski shows how bubbles affect our world in all sorts of unexpected ways. Whether it's the future of ship design or innovative new forms of medical treatment, bubbles play a vital role.
THU 22:00 Horizon (b04knbny)
2014-2015
Is Your Brain Male or Female?
Dr Michael Mosley and Professor Alice Roberts investigate whether male and female brains really are wired differently.
New research suggests that the connections in men and women's brains follow different patterns, patterns which may explain typical forms of male and female behaviour. But are these patterns innate, or are they shaped by the world around us?
Using a team of human lab rats and a troop of barbary monkeys, Michael and Alice test the science and challenge old stereotypes. They ask whether this new scientific research will benefit both men and women - or whether it could drive the sexes even further apart.
THU 23:00 Horizon (b08c3v47)
2017
Hair Care Secrets
The Horizon team have gathered together a team of scientists and doctors to investigate the incredible, natural material that is growing out of our heads - our hair. With access to the research laboratories of some of the world's leading hair care companies, including L'Oreal and ghd, the team explore the cutting-edge research and technology designed to push the boundaries of hair and hair care.
Each one of us has a unique head of hair - an average of 150,000 individual hair strands growing approximately one centimetre every month. Over your lifetime, that is over 800 miles. The time and effort we put into styling, sculpting and maintaining this precious material has created a global hair care market worth a staggering £60 billion pounds. With such high stakes, it is inevitable that when developing hair-care products, science and business operate hand in hand. The team reveal how this industry science compares to the rigorous academic standards that they are used to.
These investigations also reveal why we care so much about our hair, and whether or not it is worth splashing out on expensive shampoos. They uncover the magic ingredients found in conditioners and lay bare the secrets of the shiny, glossy hair seen in the adverts.
THU 00:00 Top of the Pops (b09twczh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 00:30 TOTP2 (b04lclfn)
Genesis
Top of the Pops 2 dips into the archives to explore both classic collective hits and smash solo singles spanning 20 early years of Genesis history. From the art-rock Gabriel era of flamboyant theatrics and quirky costumes to their eighties evolution into pop superstars, Genesis are both influential experimentalists and a chart-smashing behemoth.
With solo numbers from Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Mike + The Mechanics, this is an eclectic two-sided playlist featuring everything from I Can't Dance to I Know What I Like, No Self Control to In the Air Tonight, and Many Too Many to The Living Years. So Turn It On Again and tune in, from prog to pop, Genesis to Revelation, the hits are here on TOTP2.
THU 01:15 TOTP2 (b00sl2g5)
Wham! Special
Mark Radcliffe with some classic Wham! performances on Top of the Pops.
THU 01:45 Classic Cellists at the BBC (b084nscd)
Julian Lloyd Webber takes an extraordinary musical journey through the BBC archives from the 1950s to the present to celebrate the world of the cello through some of its greatest interpreters. From dazzling performances by legendary masters such as Paul Tortelier, Jacqueline du Pre and Mstislav Rostropovich to some of today's leading interpreters including Yo Yo Ma, Steven Isserlis and Mischa Maisky, Julian gives us a cellist's perspective on an extraordinary virtuoso tradition.
THU 02:45 POP! The Science of Bubbles (b01rtdy6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 09 MARCH 2018
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b09tsnjz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b09twd7m)
Simon Bates and Richard Skinner present the pop chart programme, first shown on 6 June 1985. Featuring Gary Moore & Phil Lynott, Kool and The Gang, Propaganda, David Bowie, Duran Duran and Paul Hardcastle.
FRI 20:00 Classic Albums (b07ljcxf)
The Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
This edition of the series celebrates the 50th anniversary of the release of Brian Wilson's masterpiece, The Beach Boys' album Pet Sounds. Wilson and the surviving members of The Beach Boys - Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks - guide us through the writing and recording of the landmark album that is consistently voted one of the top three most influential albums of all time.
Featuring exclusive interviews, classic archive and rare studio outtakes from the recording sessions, the film tells the story of the creation of the record that cemented The Beach Boys' reputation as a leading force to rival The Beatles, and Brian Wilson as a songwriting genius.
FRI 21:00 Tones, Drones and Arpeggios: The Magic of Minimalism (b09twd7y)
Series 1
New York
In this episode Charles Hazlewood meets the genre's superstars Philip Glass and Steve Reich.
Across the 1960s these New Yorkers added new orchestral dimensions to compositions based on repetition, transcendence and new technology, and broke into the mainstream in the following decade. Charles explores how breakthrough techniques Reich first explored on tape were transposed for orchestral performance. Glass's experiments with repetitive structures, along with his innovative work in opera - Einstein on the Beach - revealed new possibilities for classical music.
The episode includes excerpts from minimalist pieces, including Reich's Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboards performed by the Army of Generals orchestra. Charles Hazlewood's All Stars Collective performs part of Mike Oldfield's minimalist-inspired Tubular Bells.
The key attributes of minimalism, its reliance on repetition, its mesmerizing transcendent qualities and innovative use of technology are also discussed with broadcaster and writer Tom Service; director of music at the Southbank Centre, Gillian Moore; composers Laurie Spiegel, Nico Muhly, Julia Wolfe, Max Richter and Bryce Dessner; and musicians Jarvis Cocker and Adrian Utley.
FRI 22:00 Tubular Bells: The Mike Oldfield Story (b03cw8g0)
In 1973, an album was released that against all odds and expectations went to the top of the UK charts. The fact the album launched a record label that became one of the most recognisable brand names in the world (Virgin), formed the soundtrack to one of the biggest movies of the decade (The Exorcist), became the biggest selling instrumental album of all time, would eventually go on to sell over 16 million copies and was performed almost single-handedly by a 19-year-old makes the story all the more incredible. That album was Tubular Bells, and the young and painfully shy musician was Mike Oldfield.
This documentary features contributions from Sir Richard Branson, Danny Boyle, Mike's family and the original engineers of the Tubular Bells album among others. The spine of the film is an extended interview with Mike himself, where he takes us through the events that led to him writing Tubular Bells - growing up with a mother with severe mental health problems; the refuge he sought in music as a child, with talent that led to him playing in folk clubs aged 12 and signing with his sister's folk group at only 15; his frightening experience of taking LSD at 16; and finally arriving at the Manor Recording Studios as a young session musician where he gave a demo tape to a recording engineer who passed it along to young entrepreneur Richard Branson.
After the album's huge success, Mike retreated to a Hereford hilltop, shunned public life and became a recluse until he took part in a controversial therapy which changed his life.
In 2012 Mike captured the public's imagination once again when he was asked to perform at the London Olympic Opening Ceremony, where Tubular Bells was the soundtrack to 20 minutes of the one-hour ceremony.
Filmed on location at his home recording studio in Nassau, Mike also plays the multiple instruments of Tubular Bells and shows how the groundbreaking piece of music was put together.
FRI 23:00 Top of the Pops (b00zwrn5)
1964 to 1975 - Big Hits
1964 saw the birth of a very British institution. Spanning over four decades, Top of the Pops has produced many classic moments in pop culture.
Digging deep within the darkest depths of the BBC's archive, this compilation offers some memorable performances from 1964 through to 1975 from the likes of The Rolling Stones, Tom Jones, Status Quo, Procol Harum, Stevie Wonder, Queen and The Kinks, and opens the vintage vaults to rare performances from Stealers Wheel, Julie Driscoll, Peter Sarstedt and The Seekers.
So sit back and witness once again where music met television.
FRI 00:30 Top of the Pops (b09twd7m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 01:00 Classic Albums (b07ljcxf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRI 02:00 Tubular Bells: The Mike Oldfield Story (b03cw8g0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 03:00 Tones, Drones and Arpeggios: The Magic of Minimalism (b09twd7y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]