The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
In the first of three programmes showcasing the best of British rock, Danny Baker tees up, with characteristic humour, great performances from the 70s by the likes of The Who, Genesis, Kate Bush and The Specials.
In a journey across the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Sona Datta traces the development of the Hindu religion from its origins as an amalgamation of local faith traditions to its dominant position today. She uncovers this fascinating tale by looking at the buildings in which the faith evolved, moving from the caves and rock temples on the shores of the Bay of Bengal at Mahabalipurem, through the monolithic stone temple at Tanjavur to the vast complex of ornately carved towers, tanks and courtyards at Madurai, where every evening the god Shiva processes around the precincts to visit the bedchamber of his partner Parvati.
Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals how northern Spain has produced some of the most dazzling and iconic art of the modern age. He shows how Spain's turbulent history has shaped its artists, from Francisco Goya and Pablo Picasso to Joan Miro and Salvador Dali. As well as the giants of painting, Graham-Dixon argues that Spanish architecture is the art form taking the nation forward into the new millennium.
Has one of Britain's greatest artists been unfairly forgotten? Waldemar Januszczak thinks so. In this documentary, Januszczak argues that the little known 17th-century portrait painter William Dobson was the first English painter of genius.
Dobson's life and times are embedded in one of the most turbulent and significant epochs of British history - the English Civil War. As official court painter to Charles I, the tragic British king later beheaded by Parliament, Dobson had a ringside seat to an period of intense drama and conflict. Based in Oxford, where the court was transferred after Parliament took control of London, Dobson produced an astonishing number of high-quality portraits of royalist supporters, heroes and cavaliers which Januszczak believes are the first true examples of British art. As he puts it in the film: 'Dobson's face should be on our banknotes. His name should be on all our lips.'
The film investigates the few known facts about William Dobson and seeks out the personal stories he left behind as it follows him through his tragically short career. When he died in 1646 - penniless, unemployed and a drunk - Dobson was just 36.
Among the Dobson fans interviewed in the film is Earl Spencer, brother of Princess Diana, who agrees wholeheartedly that William Dobson was the first great British painter.
Colourful series marking the 200th anniversary of one of the most explosive and creative decades in British history. It presents a vivid portrait of an age of elegance presided over by a prince of decadence - the infamous Prince Regent himself, a man with legendary appetites for women, food and self-indulgence. Yet this was the same man who would rebuild London, carving out the great thoroughfare of Regent Street and help establish the Regency look as the epitome of British style through his extravagant patronage of art and design.
In this first episode, historian Dr Lucy Worsley chronicles the Regency's early years, which culminated in victory over Napoleon in 1815, and explores the complicated character of the Prince Regent, a man with legendary appetites for women, food, art and self-indulgence.
For Lucy, the Regency was an age of contradictions and extremes that were embodied in the person of the Prince Regent himself. She uncovers Prince George's modest childhood; bright and talented, the young George was beaten with a whip by his tutors and it was small wonder that he would later rebel, eventually embracing a scandal-ridden lifestyle that included illegal marriages and discarded mistresses.
So how did this overweight popinjay preside over an age in which art and culture mattered? A tour of his treasures in the Royal Collection shows Lucy that George was a genuine connoisseur, buying up Rembrandts and French furnishings while his excesses were at the same time inspiring satirical caricatures that mocked him as the 'Prince of Whales'. And she investigates George's collaboration with portrait painter Sir Thomas Lawrence, who left the definitive images of Regency society and became George's flatterer-in-chief; Regency wags laughed at how his paintings magically transformed an overweight bald fifty-something into a 'well-fleshed Adonis'.
Meanwhile, the long war with France was having a huge impact on the British psyche; travel and trade with Europe were impossibly restricted. Lucy follows in the footsteps of painter JMW Turner who, unable to travel to the continent, toured the south coast in 1811 and captured startling images of a country at war.
George liked to think of himself as a man of fashion, and Lucy takes us through surviving accounts from his tailors that reveal his shopaholic ways. These were the years in which the Prince's sometime friend Beau Brummell, the famous dandy, ruled fashionable London like a dictator, and Lucy samples a bit of butch Regency style by trying on some of the fashions he popularised, as well as joining Brummell biographer Ian Kelly on a tour of London's fashionable Regency haunts. She also discovers Brummell's spectacular fall from favour, after loudly referring to the Regent as someone's 'fat friend'.
Lucy visits the battlefield of Waterloo and discovers that the site became a prototype of battlefield tourism - Turner, Byron and many others all visited in the years after the battle and Lucy handles some grisly memorabilia purchased by Lord Byron.
The episode concludes with the most spectacular royal art commission of them all - Lawrence's series of paintings in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle, paid for by George to memorialise his victory over Napoleon. Never mind that George wasn't at any of the battles - this was an age in which appearance and reality fused together to create monumental art.
Melting clocks, lobster telephones - the perplexing images of surrealist art are instantly recognisable to millions. But for psychotherapist Philippa Perry the radical ideas which inspired the original artists are often overlooked. In this film, Philippa takes us on a playful journey into the unconscious to discover the deep roots of surrealism in the political upheavals of 1920s Europe and new ways of understanding the human psyche.
Among her surrealist adventures, Philippa sets up her own Bureau of Surrealist Research on the streets of Paris and invites members of the public to tell her their dreams, she uncovers the role of women in the surrealism movement and has a go at being an artist's muse herself, rolls up her sleeves to try some surrealist techniques with art critic Adrian Searle, and puts on a screening of Dali and Bunuel's famous film Un Chien Andalou for a group of unsuspecting art students.
Peter Powell presents the weekly chart show, first broadcast on 2 December 1982. Includes appearances from Dexys Midnight Runners, The Human League, Whitesnake, Bucks Fizz, Modern Romance, Duran Duran and The Jam.
Simon Bates presents the weekly chart show, first broadcast on 9 December 1982. Includes appearances from Shalamar, Soft Cell, Shakin' Stevens, Yazoo, Junior, Lionel Richie, The Jam, Renee & Renato, and David Bowie & Bing Crosby.
The guests on Soldier Island are dying, one by one, according to the rules of the nursery rhyme Ten Little Soldier Boys. As they make plans to combat the killer, the body count continues to rise - and dreadful secrets are teased into the light.
TUESDAY 27 MARCH 2018
TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09x59v2)
Series 1
27/03/2018
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Danny Baker Rocks... A Bit (b03v4hsf)
The Eighties
In the second of three programmes showcasing the best of British rock, performances from the 80s by the likes of The Clash, The Pretenders, Ivor Cutler and Prefab Sprout are saluted by arch-enthusiast Danny Baker.
TUE 20:00 Immortal Egypt with Joann Fletcher (b06z8fjn)
Invasion
In the final episode, Joann discovers how Egypt's enemies exploited a country weakened by internal strife, ultimately leading to its destruction.
Joann leaves Egypt and journeys south to Sudan where she finds the remarkable story of the forgotten Nubian kings. For a century, they ruled Egypt from their southern homeland, even building their own pyramids to bury their kings.
Back in upper Egypt, Joann finds the next group of invaders, the Saites, discovering how they had taken the Egyptian tradition of mummification to new extremes by preserving millions of animals. Finally in Luxor temple, she discovers Egypt's saviour and founder of one of the greatest cities on earth - Alexander the Great.
TUE 21:00 How Quizzing Got Cool: TV's Brains of Britain (b084fs6s)
We all love a good quiz. So here's a question - when did ordinary contestants turn into the pro-quizzers of today? Giving the answers are Victoria Coren Mitchell, Judith Keppel, Chris Tarrant, Mark Labbett, Nicholas Parsons and many more. Narrated by Ben Miller.
TUE 22:00 The Prosecutors (b072wyvj)
Real Crime and Punishment
The Trial
The Crown Prosecution Service is often under scrutiny for its decision-making. Now for the first time the CPS has allowed cameras in. Filmed over 18 months with prosecutors in Merseyside, Cheshire and the South East, including the director of public prosecutions, Alison Saunders, this groundbreaking series goes behind the scenes to reveal how our criminal justice system really works and what it takes to secure a conviction. Each episode focuses on a different part of the process, following prosecutions and those involved in the case from start to finish.
In the final episode, prosecutors in the Complex Casework units of CPS Mersey-Cheshire and CPS South-East are preparing for trials in separate historic cases.
In 1993, a few days after her 16th birthday, Claire Tiltman was murdered in an alleyway. Since Colin Ash-Smith admitted to other knife attacks in the same area, he has been the main suspect for the crime. In 1996 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for those offences. But without direct evidence, he was not charged with the murder of Claire Tiltman.
Claire's parents died before seeing her killer brought to justice and a group of her school friends took up the campaign to keep the case in the public eye. Now, using a change in the law which might allow the jury to know about Ash-Smith's other attacks and the similarities between them, prosecutor Nigel Pilkington is trying to build a circumstantial case against Colin Ash-Smith.
In Mersey-Cheshire, a non-recent sex abuse case is being prepared for trial. Keith Cavendish Coulson is facing 42 counts of indecent assault on boys in the 1970s and 80s. He says they're lying and that it never happened. The CPS's handling of non-recent sex abuse cases is often highly controversial and Alison Saunders, the director of public prosecutions, is involved in overseeing the case.
Cases committed a long time ago are charged and sentenced according to the law at the time. As Cavendish Coulson's offences were in the 1970s and 80s, they can only charge him under the old law of 1956. Historic cases also present challenges, as the memories of witnesses might have faded and evidence might no longer be available. But moving testimony from Cavendish Coulson's accusers suggests they have far from forgotten these offences.
TUE 23:00 Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency (b014b7d2)
Developing the Regency Brand
In this second episode, Lucy Worsley looks at Britain in the wake of Waterloo - and asks how this new, triumphant nation wanted to be seen and how it set about celebrating itself in its architecture and design. Again, the Regent led the way. As he grew fatter, barely able to climb stairs or walk about, architecture became his chief creative outlet - and nowhere more so than in the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. At the start of his reign as Regent, this had been an elegant neoclassical villa, but working with the architect John Nash, George transformed it after 1815 into the most outrageous of palaces. In it, Lucy discovers more about the Regent's tastes, and finds out what he and his chef had in common.
But while the Regent was building away, what were his people doing? Lucy finds out why Waterloo Bridge became the official memorial to Britain's victory, and how it became an obsession for the painter John Constable. She also explores the powerful influence of the Elgin Marbles, purchased for the British Museum in 1816. These broken statues caused a revolution in Regency ideas and taste, and helped to spread the Greek revival in architecture across the British Isles - even if some buildings, like Edinburgh's very own Parthenon, didn't quite get finished.
So who was behind the Regency 'look'? Lucy finds out more about one of the most influential architects of the age, exploring Sir John Soane's strange architectural ideas and discovering some of his more unexpected legacies. But even if, to our eyes, Soane's ideas may be more exciting, it was his rival John Nash who really defined Regency style - and worked with the Regent himself.
At Windsor Castle, Lucy finds remnants of the Regent's lost palace, Carlton House. These were spaces where, increasingly, luxurious informality in design went hand-in-hand with racy lifestyles. In the Regent's world of gilding and pink velvet, anything went. The richest in society indulged in courtesans and soft furnishings in equal measure. And since one dance summed up this new moral climate, Lucy takes the opportunity to learn the then outrageously sexy waltz.
Not that everyone was living this way. Lucy goes in search of her heroine Jane Austen, who dedicated her novel Emma to the Prince Regent. Lucy discovers that Jane put a few political messages into her novels - particularly when it came to the relationship between architecture and upper class morals. She even wrote part of a novel on property speculation.
And for Lucy, speculation is at the heart of Regency architecture. Across Britain, it gave us the quintessential Regency look - the stucco terraces, the black ironwork and white columns. The newest spa town of the Regency - Leamington Spa - is a classic example. But for the most spectacular development of all, Lucy returns to London and the most ambitious project of the Regency - Regent Street. Backed by a Regent who thought it would 'eclipse Napoleon' and a government eager to cash in by developing farmland at Regent's Park, it is perhaps the most visible monument to Regency ambition. As Lucy walks its length, the street reveals itself to be at the heart of the Regency ideal and a telling expression of the Regent himself.
TUE 00:00 Treasures of Ancient Egypt (p01mv16n)
The Birth of Art
In a visual treat taking in Egypt's greatest historical sites, Alastair Sooke tells the story of ancient Egyptian art through 30 extraordinary masterpieces. Tracing the origins of Egypt's unique visual style, he treks across the Sahara and travels the Nile to find the rarely seen art of its earliest peoples. Exploring how this civilisation's art reflected its religion, he looks anew at the Great Pyramid, and the statuary and painting of the Old Kingdom. Sooke is amazed by the technical prowess of ancient artists whose skills confound contemporary craftsmen.
TUE 01:00 Top of the Pops (b086xg81)
David Jensen presents the weekly chart show, first broadcast on 23 December 1982. Includes appearances from The Maisonettes, David Bowie & Bing Crosby, Incantation, Shakin' Stevens, Imagination, ABBA, Keith Harris & Orville, Renee & Renato and Modern Romance.
TUE 01:30 Danny Baker Rocks... A Bit (b03v4hsf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUE 02:00 How Quizzing Got Cool: TV's Brains of Britain (b084fs6s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUE 03:00 And Then There Were None (b06tpxsb)
Episode 3
Cut down to half their original number, the surviving guests of Soldier Island are in danger of losing their minds. With the likelihood of survival rapidly diminishing, they must turn to one another for comfort, and for protection. But trust is in short supply...
WEDNESDAY 28 MARCH 2018
WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09x59v8)
Series 1
28/03/2018
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Danny Baker Rocks... A Bit (b03v4jsx)
The Nineties
With the help of a couple of morris dancers, Danny Baker showcases performances by rockin' Brits such as The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, Radiohead, Happy Mondays and Portishead.
WED 20:00 Metalworks! (b01hdhpy)
The Knight's Tale
Art historian and curator Tobias Capwell celebrates the great age of armour. Referencing the unstoppable rise of the Royal Almain Armoury at Greenwich, he tells the forgotten story of how Henry VIII fused German high technology with Renaissance artistry in the pursuit of one aim - to become the very image of the perfect knight. Using the talents of foreign craftsmen and his court artist Hans Holbein, Henry transformed himself into a living metal sculpture. His daughter Elizabeth I further exploited that image, making her courtiers parade before her in the most innovative and richly decorated works ever commissioned in steel.
WED 21:00 MAKE! Craft Britain (b09x5z01)
Series 1
Episode 2
Rookie crafters discover the ancient arts of silver jewellery-making and cross-stitch, but with a distinctly 21st-century twist. Also demonstrating how making things with your hands can give you an enormous sense of pride, origami expert Sam Tsang shows how to make an origami snack box- perfect for popcorn.
In a converted biscuit factory in the Ouse Valley, home to Newcastle's thriving artistic community, silversmith Lisa Cain welcomes six amateur crafters to her two-day workshop in silverclay jewellery. Each of the students will make two pieces of jewellery to take home or give to a loved one.
Silverclay is a new material, discovered by Mitsubishi in the 1990s, and Lisa has been teaching students how to use it for longer than anyone else in the country. She likes it because it's so accessible for first-timers. Comprising the three parts of silverclay particles, water and binder, silverclay starts off looking like putty. It's malleable to work with and takes all kinds of texture - everything from leaves to lace to latticework - very well. As the water and binder are removed, all that's left is the silverclay and this can then be polished - in a process that seems quite magical - to a fine glossy finish.
Jimmy is a patissier and a perfectionist. He wants to mould a rose similar to the kind he makes out of sugar fondant, but this is an ambitious make for even the most experienced of silverclay artists. Meanwhile, his girlfriend Sara plunges straight in to her model of their whippet, Blue. Jimmy thinks she's being hasty but Sara puts him right - 'Oh Jimmy, I'm not a photocopier' - and goes on to surprise everyone with her creation.
Hampton Court Palace is home to the Royal School of Needlework and it is here that our second workshop is held, taught by visiting lecturer and self-proclaimed 'manbroiderer' Jamie Chalmers, aka Mr X Stitch. Jamie has a huge following and is introducing cross-stitch to a new generation of embroiderers through his workshops and lectures.
Across a single day, six cross-stitch novices learn how to embroider their initials onto a t-shirt, and how to convert their own designs into pixelated cross-stitch patterns. Lena, who has ADHD, claims she has no idea how much time has passed as the students fall into a mesmeric state of flow. Gareth the blacksmith, however, sets himself the near impossible task of recreating a white-hot furnace in cross-stitch as a reminder of his teacher Pete's favourite phrase - keep it hot! He needs time to finish it off at home, and in a touching postscript, travels to Shropshire to give his finished work to Pete who is quite overcome by the gift.
WED 22:00 Carved with Love: The Genius of British Woodwork (b01pyfd2)
The Glorious Grinling Gibbons
Series about great British woodworkers continues by looking at the life and work of Grinling Gibbons. He isn't a household name, but he is the greatest woodcarver the British Isles has ever produced. Working in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London, Gibbons created delightful carved masterpieces for the likes of Charles II and William of Orange. This film explores the genius of the man they called the 'Michelangelo of wood'.
WED 23:00 Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency (b014jbyr)
The Many and the Few - A Divided Decade
In this final programme, Lucy Worsley examines the backlash against the excesses of the Prince Regent and the elite world he represented, as George finds himself in a Britain on the brink of revolution in the closing years of his Regency. This was a moment when the power of the word - in radical writings and speeches - briefly challenged the power of the sword. Percy Bysshe Shelley, and future wife Mary, openly supported revolutionary ideas and Mary's famous novel Frankenstein can be seen as a vehicle for the fears surrounding the creation of an uncontrollable new industrial world.
Lucy reveals that even Lord Byron was not always the snake-hipped seducer of legend. He and fellow writers and poets were active supporters of the grass roots movement for reform. Byron made an impassioned speech in Parliament in defence of Luddite machine-breakers. New industrial cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester were being established yet, under the archaic electoral system of the day, not one returned an MP. The vote was in fact limited to a small land-owning class. The demands for democratic change were to end in tragedy in Manchester with a bloody massacre of unarmed men, women and children at St Peter's Fields - an event dubbed, with bitter reference to the triumph of Waterloo, as 'Peterloo'.
Lucy also describes the technological changes that transformed the Regency landscape and experiences - she enjoys the thrills of a mail coach ride, complete with armed guard; learns how to operate the world's oldest steam engine; and partakes in the Regency craze of balloon flight.
The programme ends with the Prince Regent finally being crowned as George IV at Westminster Abbey in 1821 while his estranged wife Caroline batters the main doors demanding entry. A colourful ending to a decade of elegance and extravagance.
WED 00:00 Treasures of Ancient Egypt (p01mv1cv)
The Golden Age
On a journey through Ancient Egyptian art, Alastair Sooke picks treasures from its most opulent and glittering moment. Starting with troubling psychological portraits of tyrant king Senwosret III and ending with the golden mask of boy king Tutankhamun, Sooke also explores architectural wonders, exquisite tombs and a lost city - site of the greatest artistic revolution in Egypt's history where a new sinuous style was born under King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti. Along the way Egyptologists and artists reveal that the golden veneer conceals a touching humanity.
WED 01:00 Top of the Pops (b087lmbg)
1983 - Big Hits
Compilation of some of the biggest hits of 1983 to sit alongside 'The Story of...' documentary that explores the evolution of this great pop institution in that golden year.
Performances celebrate soul, reggae, jazz, new wave and pop. And the big hits are delivered by Wham!, KC and the Sunshine Band, The Police, Culture Club, Siouxsie and The Banshees, UB40, Duran Duran, The Beat and Bananarama amongst others. Big ballads are performed by Elton John and Bonnie Tyler, while Malcolm McLaren's Double Dutch completes the very best of '83, golden hits from 34 years ago.
WED 02:00 Metalworks! (b01hdhpy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 03:00 The Witness for the Prosecution (b086zdm4)
Episode 1
1920s London. A murder, brutal and bloodthirsty, has stained the plush carpets of a handsome London townhouse - the victim is the beautiful widow Emily French. All evidence points to Leonard, a dashing young chancer who seduced the older woman into leaving him her vast fortune before ruthlessly taking her life. At least, this is the story that Emily's distraught, devoted housekeeper Janet stands by in court. Mayhew, a penniless solicitor, is put in charge of Leonard's case.
Initially treating the suspect with indifference, Mayhew is gradually moved by the young man's case. Leonard is certain that his innocence can be proved by his wife, the enigmatic chorus girl Romaine. The entire case rests on her alibi, and Mayhew is reassured to learn that she witnessed Leonard return at
9.30pm, the time when he supposedly murdered Emily. Will she testify and save her husband, or will his infidelity make her vengeful?
THURSDAY 29 MARCH 2018
THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b09x59vf)
Series 1
29/03/2018
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b09x5z3q)
Gary Davies and Dixie Peach present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 25 July 1985. Featuring Madonna, Feargal Sharkey, The Cure, Dire Straits and the Eurythmics.
THU 20:00 Timeshift (b03p7jh9)
Series 13
Hurricanes and Heatwaves: The Highs and Lows of British Weather
A glorious national obsession is explored in this archive-rich look at the evolution of the weather forecast from print via radio to TV and beyond - and at the changing weather itself. It shows how the Met Office and the BBC have always used the latest technology to bring the holy grail of accurate forecasting that much closer - even if the odd messenger like TV weatherman Michael Fish has been shot along the way.
Yet as hand-drawn maps have been replaced by weather apps, the bigger drama of global warming has been playing itself out as if to prove that we were right all along to obsess about the weather. Featuring a very special rendition of the shipping forecast by a Cornish fishermen's choir.
THU 21:00 The Secret Science of Pop (b08gk664)
Evolutionary biologist Professor Armand Leroi believes data science can transform the pop world. He gathers a team of scientists and researchers to analyse over 50 years of UK chart music. Can algorithms find the secret to pop success?
When the results are in, Armand teams up with hit producer Trevor Horn. Using machine-learning techniques, Armand and Trevor try to take a song by unsigned artist Nike Jemiyo and turn it into a potential chart-topper.
Armand also takes a scientific look at pop evolution. He hunts for the major revolutions in his historic chart data, looking for those artists who transformed the musical landscape. The outcomes are fascinating and surprising, though fans of the Fab Four may not be pleased with the results. As Armand puts it, the hallmark of The Beatles is 'average'.
Finally, by teaming up with BBC research and development, Armand finds out if his algorithms can discover the stars of the future. Can he predict which of thousands of demo tracks uploaded to BBC Introducing is most likely to be a hit without listening to a note?
This is a clash of science and culture and a unique experiment with no guarantee of success. How will the artists react to the scientist intruding on their turf? And will Armand succeed in finding a secret science of pop?
THU 22:00 Britpop at the BBC (b0409s91)
In the mid-90s, Britpop stamped its presence onto the British music scene and made boys wearing eyeliner cool again. What better reason to raid the BBC archives for a rich treasure trove of the joy and the time that was Britpop?
Featuring the girls (Elastica, Sleeper) and the boys (Suede, Menswear) and many of the other bright young things that contributed to five years of Cool Britannia, Blur v Oasis and Camden being the centre of the universe. Britpop at the BBC reminds us all why we were all so proud to be British again in the 1990s.
THU 23:00 ... Sings the Great American Songbook (b00rs3w4)
Presenting the best and most eclectic performances on the BBC from the world's best-known artists performing their interpretations of classic tracks from The Great American Songbook.
In chronological order, this programme takes us through a myriad of BBC studio performances, from Dame Shirley Bassey in 1966 performing The Lady is A Tramp, to Bryan Ferry in 1974 on Twiggy's BBC primetime show performing Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, to Captain Sensible on Top of the Pops in 1982 with his number one hit version of Happy Talk, through to Kirsty MacColl singing Miss Otis Regrets in 1994 to Jamie Cullum with his version of I Get a Kick Out Of You on Parkinson in 2004 and bang up to date with Brit winner Florence from Florence and the Machine performing My Baby Just Cares for Me with Jools Holland on his Annual Hootenanny at the end of 2009.
The Great American Songbook can best be described as the music and popular songs of the famous and prolific American composers of the 1920s and onwards. Composers such as Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Hoagy Carmichael to name but a few... songwriters who wrote the tunes of Broadway theatre and Hollywood musicals that earned enduring popularity before the dawning of rock 'n' roll.
These famous songwriters have penned songs which have entered the general consciousness and which are now best described as standards - tunes which every musician and singer aspires to include in their repertoire.
THU 00:00 Top of the Pops (b09x5z3q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 00:30 Treasures of Ancient Egypt (p01mv1kj)
A New Dawn
Alastair Sooke concludes the epic story of Egyptian art by looking at how, despite political decline, the final era of the Egyptian Empire saw its art enjoy revival and rebirth. From the colossal statues of Rameses II that proclaimed the pharaoh's power to the final flourishes under Queen Cleopatra, Sooke discovers that the subsequent invasions by foreign rulers, from the Nubians and Alexander the Great to the Romans, produced a new hybrid art full of surprise. He also unearths a seam of astonishing satirical work, produced by ordinary men, that continues to inspire Egypt's graffiti artists today.
THU 01:30 Timeshift (b03p7jh9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 02:30 The Beauty of Anatomy (b04gvbdt)
Gray's Anatomy
The world's most famous study of the human body is Gray's Anatomy. The accuracy of the descriptions and the stark beauty of the illustrations made it an instant bestseller. Adam Rutherford tells the story of how, in just three years, Dr Henry Gray and Dr Henry Carter put it together based on dissections they personally performed.
THU 03:00 The Witness for the Prosecution (b086zvll)
Episode 2
Romaine, whose testimony was the one hope to save Leonard from the gallows, has turned on him, leaving Mayhew's case hopeless and Leonard's fatal verdict imminent. Nonetheless Mayhew's firm belief in Leonard's innocence spurs him on with a steely conviction. Mayhew desperately tries to discredit Romaine and even to lay the blame on Emily's obsessive housekeeper Janet, whose word is the bulwark of evidence keeping Leonard behind bars. His efforts stall, leaving Mayhew on the verge of defeat. But there is another, shadowy player in this vicious game, one who turns the entire case on its head and changes both his and Leonard's life forever.
FRIDAY 30 MARCH 2018
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b09x59vn)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b09x5z6f)
Richard Skinner and Simon Bates present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 08 August 1985. Featuring Dire Straits, Princess, Go West, Phil Collins and Amazulu.
FRI 20:00 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).
FRI 21:00 Johnny Cash: The Man, His World, His Music (p0295qy9)
A rare chance to see Robert Elfstrom's 1969 classic film that captures the Man in Black at his peak, the first of many in a looming rollercoaster career. Fresh on the heels of his Folsom Prison album, Cash reveals the dark intensity and raw talent that made him a country music star and cultural icon.
Elfstrom got closer than any other film-maker to Cash, who is seen performing with his new bride June Carter Cash, in a rare duet with Bob Dylan and behind the scenes with friends, family and aspiring young musicians - painting an unforgettable portrait that endures beyond the singer's death in 2003.
FRI 22:00 Arena (b09x60g3)
Bob Dylan – Trouble No More
In 1979, Bob Dylan released Slow Train Coming, an album of strictly devotional songs. He declared he had found God in Christianity. For the following two years, accompanied by the finest musicians and gospel singers, he toured with a repertoire solely of songs expressing his new-found faith.
A film was made of one of those performances, but it was never released. After 37 years, it is broadcast for the first time - but with a twist. The performance is enhanced by a series of sermons between the songs, all specially written for the film and preached by Oscar-nominated actor Michael Shannon.
The result is Bob Dylan's gospel service combining the then of the gig with the now of the message of The Preacher.
FRI 23:00 ... Sings Dylan II (b06nszhz)
A feast of cover versions of Bob Dylan songs from the BBC archives, with classic tracks old and new and some surprises from the 1960s to the present.
From the essential folk queen Joan Baez to punk princess Siouxsie and the Banshees, from The Hollies to Adele, taking in the likes of Julie Felix, Richie Havens, Bryan Ferry and KT Tunstall along the way, the programme reflects Dylan's long career of writing extraordinary songs and the fascination of other artists with them.
Peter, Paul and Mary's sublime The Times They Are A-Changin' rubs shoulders with the close harmony of Cliff Richard and The Nolan Sisters' smooth interpretation of the protest classic Blowin' in the Wind. The Blues Band's energetic 1980s updating of Maggie's Farm contrasts with Tom Jones's powerful rootsy What Good Am I?
A treat for the Dylan fan and the Dylan novice alike.
FRI 00:00 Top of the Pops (b09x5z6f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 00:30 Music for Misfits: The Story of Indie (b06f17bk)
The DIY Movement
The story of British indie over three musically diverse episodes. Much more than a genre of music, it is a spirit, an attitude and an ethos.
In the 1970s, the music industry was controlled by the major record labels, and the notion of releasing a record independently seemed like an impossible dream. At a time when even The Sex Pistols were on a major label, the true act of rebellion was would be to do it yourself.
It took an independent release from Buzzcocks in 1976 with the Spiral Scratch EP to begin a change in the game. The initial pressing of 1,000 copies was funded by family and friends and sold out immediately. The notion of independently releasing your own music was compelling, and it became a call to action.
Independent record labels began to pop up all over the UK, each one with its own subculture and sound - from Factory in Manchester to Zoo in Liverpool, Postcard in Glasgow and London labels such as Mute, Beggars Banquet and Rough Trade. They were founded by people with no business experience, just a passion for music and a commitment to helping others achieve creative autonomy. These labels were cutting, releasing and distributing the music themselves. Bedsits became offices and basements became studios. This was DIY, and it felt like a countercultural movement set against all that the mainstream had to offer.
These labels were pivotal in getting the new sounds to a generation hungry for change. Queues of hopeful bands waited to drop off demo tapes, and the first wave of indie bands emerged from the newly formed labels. It was a fantastically creative, if somewhat hand-to-mouth time, yet bands also had the freedom to make all the decisions about their image and musical direction themselves. Pioneering music from bands such as Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle, Echo and the Bunnymen, Orange Juice and Aztec Camera is featured in this episode.
These new indie sounds offered a defiantly oppositional stance to prevailing trends in popular culture. With new music exploding out of cities everywhere, it was indie label founder Iain McNay, from Cherry Red, who had the idea for an indie chart - its music spoke to a generation of kids who did not identify with the mainstream sounds on the radio.
FRI 01:30 Music for Misfits: The Story of Indie (b06gxxxk)
The Alternative 80s
Episode two explores a time when the independent labels transformed from cottage industries into real businesses that could compete with the majors. It examines the evolution of 'indie' - a guitar-based genre of music with its own sound, fashion and culture.
Independent record labels provided a platform for some of Britain's most groundbreaking artists at this time, including The Jesus and Mary Chain and The Smiths, who would burst onto the scene in 1983 staging a mainstream intervention and starting a small revolution.
In the midst of shiny 80s sounds and shoulder-padded fashion, indie was anti-image and anti-flamboyance. Through many of the indie bands in this period, everyday life was repackaged in melody and poetic lyrics. It's not hard to see why a generation of youth, disaffected from the times they were living in, sought refuge in the poetic haze of early indie. The bands were accessible too, and aspiring music journalists could meet their favourite indie stars at the small and intimate gigs where they performed.
The programme concludes in the late 80s with the Madchester scene, as alternative music crossed over into the mainstream chart. This breakthrough was inspired by a merging of indie rock and the burgeoning acid house culture, and it was led by a new crop of bands such as The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays.
The series is presented by BBC Radio 6 Music's Mark Radcliffe and this episode features exclusive interviews with performers including James Dean Bradfield of Manic Street Preachers, New Order's Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, Shaun Ryder, Suede's Bernard Butler, The KLF's Bill Drummond, Stuart Murdoch of Belle and Sebastian, Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde, The Jesus and Mary Chain's Jim Reid, and Talulah Gosh's Amelia Fletcher.
It also includes interviews with a number of influential music industry figures such as former Happy Mondays manager Nathan McGough, Pete Waterman, Factory Records' designer Peter Saville and journalists Alexis Petridis and Sian Pattenden.
FRI 02:30 Music for Misfits: The Story of Indie (b06hhxr7)
Into the Mainstream
The story of British indie over three musically diverse episodes. Much more than a genre of music, it is a spirit, an attitude and an ethos.
It's 1989 and a new grassroots music craze is sweeping across Britain. Despite the authorities railing against 'the zombification of a nation', acid house and its bed partner ecstasy are influencing a wave of indie bands. On the eve of a new decade while original independent labels struggle in the wake of acid, young indie labels Heavenly and Creation are thriving, signing both Manic Street Preachers and Primal Scream respectively.
By the mid 90s, in a bid to break the stranglehold of American grunge bands, the music press construct Britpop and push two bands, Oasis and Blur, to the top of the pile. The key thing that separates Britpop bands from the previous generation is the mindset. These bands, who grew up in the Thatcher era, want to sell (and make) a million. Bands with an old indie ethos, such as Suede, are still breaking through but will switch from independent labels to majors, thus guaranteeing international recognition.
Indie truly goes mainstream when Noel Gallagher shakes hands with Tony Blair and Oasis fill Knebworth. The spirit of the DIY boom had all but gone and indie becomes a genre rather than an alternative approach to making and releasing music. The late 90s are dark days for indie, but as Rough Trade rises from the ashes with two fresh signings - The Strokes and The Libertines - it feels like a new dawn.
More new completely independent labels emerge. They've learnt from the mistakes of old and are excellent at artist development - labels such Domino, who manage the Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand. We hear why these two bands - who had the majors tripping over themselves to sign them - choose Domino instead.
These bands also heralded a new way in which music was being discovered. It's the fans at a grassroots level, sharing their favourite band via clips on social media, who would be the new A&R - alerting the record labels to new talent.
We finally come full circle to discover just what constitutes indie music now, if there still a need for independent labels and, finally, whether the spirit of rebellion that inspired the DIY movement of the 1970s still exists today.
The series is presented by BBC Radio 6 Music's Mark Radcliffe and this episode features exclusive interviews with performers including Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, Shaun Ryder of Happy Mondays, The Libertines' Carl Barat, Stuart Murdoch from Belle & Sebastian and Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne. It also includes interviews with a number of influential music industry figures such as James Endeacott, formerly of Rough Trade Records and founder of Sony BMG subsidiary record label 1965 Records, Heavenly Recordings' Jeff Barrett, Creation Records' Alan McGee and indie music author Richard King.
FRI 03:30 Top of the Pops (b09x5z6f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]