SATURDAY 08 SEPTEMBER 2018

SAT 19:00 Secrets of our Living Planet (b01kbj0z)
The Secret of the Savannah

Secrets of Our Living Planet showcases the incredible ecosystems that make life on Earth possible. Using beautifully shot scenes in the wild, Chris Packham reveals the hidden wonder of the creatures that we share the planet with, and the intricate, clever and bizarre connections between the species, without which life just could not survive.

Discover previously unknown relationships, like why a tiger needs a crab, or why a gecko needs a giraffe. Each week Chris visits one of our planet's most vital and spectacular habitats and dissects it to reveal the secrets of how our living planet works.

In this episode, Chris reveals how the world's most spectacular grasslands flourish, despite being short of one essential nutrient - nitrogen. As it turns out, the secret lies with the animals. There are the white rhinos of Kenya that create nitrogen hotspots by trimming and fertilising the grass. They are drawn to these particular points by communal toilets or 'fecal facebooks', where they meet and greet each other.

Then there are the fruit-eating maned wolves in Brazil that garden the cerrado grassland; there are the bandicoots and rat kangaroos in Australia that manage the outback and then, across the world, there are the termites. There is not much that has more protein per gram than a termite.

In the whistling acacia grasslands of Kenya, Chris reveals the amazing relationships between termites, geckos, ants, monkeys and giraffes that make these places so rich in wildlife.


SAT 20:00 Lost Land of the Tiger (b00ty6bd)
Episode 2

The second part of the BBC Natural History Unit's wildlife adventure series following an expedition to search for tigers in the Himalayas.

The team strikes out from base camp to track down tigers throughout Bhutan. Kayaker Steve Backshall heads to the eastern jungles and is pushed to the absolute limit when he takes on a mighty white-water river. Big cat cameraman Gordon Buchanan deploys remote cameras far and wide, and he uses a clever fingerprinting technique to identify individual tigers from their unique stripe patterns.

Meanwhile, biologist Dr George McGavin is on a mission to India, where he finally comes face to face with the king of the jungle.

We follow the expedition every emotional step of the way as they strive to find evidence that could help to bring wild tigers back from the brink of extinction and safeguard their future.


SAT 21:00 The Plague (b0bk8k8c)
Series 1

Episode 3

The body of a murdered woman is found in the harbour of Seville. The woman turns out to be Lucina Utrera - the daughter of a sea captain who is away with the fleet on his way home from America. Mateo discovers that the two murders are linked.


SAT 21:55 The Plague (b0bk8k8f)
Series 1

Episode 4

The plague devastates the city. Mateo and Valerio find the missing lover of Ignacio Azuaga, Carmen Galvez. She confirms to them that Ledesma - the Protestants's secret leader - seems to be behind all the murders.


SAT 22:45 Elton John at the BBC (b00vs5c0)
Elton John's career tracked in archive from performances, interviews and news clips.


SAT 23:40 Glam Rock at the BBC (b094mcwn)
A spangly celebration of the outburst of far-out pop and fuzz-filled rock that lit up the British charts in the early 1970s. Top of the Pops is our primary arena and its gloriously gaudy visual effects are used here aplenty! The compilation also utilises footage from a selection of BBC concerts as well as from Crackerjack and Cilla. It features classic BBC TV performances from T. Rex, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Alice Cooper, Suzi Quatro, Slade, The Sweet, Elton John, Queen, Sparks and many more.


SAT 00:40 Sounds of the 70s 2 (b01glwkz)
Arthouse Glam - Get in the Swing

Performances from The Kinks, Roxy Music, Elton John, New York Dolls, Queen, Sparks, Rod Stewart and the rediscovered David Bowie performance of The Jean Genie from January 1973.

Welcome to gender-bending, boys getting in the swing and girls who would be boys and boys who would be girls in this mixed-up, shook-up 70s world.


SAT 01:10 Secrets of our Living Planet (b01kbj0z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 02:10 Lost Land of the Tiger (b00ty6bd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



SUNDAY 09 SEPTEMBER 2018

SUN 19:00 Timeshift (b01q9vhy)
Series 12

The Joy of (Train) Sets

The Model Railway Story: From Hornby to Triang and beyond, this documentary explores how the British have been in love with model railways for more than a century. What began as an adult obsession with building fully engineered replicas became the iconic toy of 50s and 60s childhood. With unique archive and contributions from modellers such as Pete Waterman, this is a celebration of the joys of miniaturisation. Just don't call them toy trains!


SUN 20:00 A303: Highway to the Sun (b0116ly6)
The A303 is the road that passes Stonehenge on the way to the beaches of Devon and Cornwall. On the way, it whisks drivers through 5,000 years of remarkable moments in British history. And it is the star of this film made for armchair travellers and history lovers.

Writer Tom Fort drives its 92-mile length in a lovingly restored Morris Traveller. Along the way he has many adventures - he digs up the 1960s master plan for the A303's dreams of superhighway status, meets up with a Neolithic traveller who knew the road like the back of his hand, gets to know a section of the Roman 303, uncovers a medieval murder mystery and discovers what lies at the end of the Highway to the Sun.


SUN 21:00 Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Monumental Art (b0bjj23v)
In the summer of 2018, on the Serpentine in London's Hyde Park, world-renowned artist Christo created his first public work of art in the UK. Inspired by ancient Mesopotamian tombs, the Mastaba is constructed from 7,506 painted oil barrels and weighs six hundred tonnes. It is the latest work in a career spanning half a century and stretching across the world. His work to date have included surrounding 11 islands off the Florida coast with pink polypropylene and wrapping Berlin's Reichstag and the Pont Neuf in Paris.

This programme charts the creation of the Mastaba - from the first barrels being put on the water to its final unveiling - and paints a portrait of Christo as he looks back on a life spent making provocative works of art with his wife and partner Jeanne-Claude.

Christo reveals how he funds his projects with a unique business model, and how the long, tortuous and often combative process of gaining permissions and winning people over is part of his artistic
endeavour. He also talks about his escape from the communist east and his early work in 1960s Paris.

A cast of friends, fellow artists, collectors and critics lend their voices to the documentary, including performance artist Marina Abramovic, New Yorker journalist and architectural critic Paul Goldberger, former New York major Michael Bloomberg, writer and art critic Marina Vaizey and architect Sir Norman Foster.


SUN 22:00 The Sky at Night (b0bk51hk)
Expedition Asteroid

A look at two missions attempting one of the most difficult feats of space exploration - to collect a rock from another world.

This episode checks in on the US and Japanese attempts to bring a piece of an asteroid back to Earth. The missions have taken decades of planning, but the results will be worth it. We find out how studying these space rocks can teach us about the origins of our solar system and may one day help save Earth from a catastrophic collision.


SUN 22:30 Horizon (b07nsxkk)
2016

Inside CERN

With exclusive behind-the-scenes access, Horizon follows the highs and lows of an extraordinary story in particle physics. In June 2015, teams at CERN started running the large hadron collider at the highest energy ever. Rumours quickly emerged that they were on the brink of a huge discovery. A mysterious bump in some data suggested a first glimpse of a brand new particle that could change our understanding of how the universe works.

A new particle could hint at extra dimensions and help us understand the very beginning of the universe - but first the team has to find it. Horizon follows the scientists as they hunt for the elusive signals that would prove if there is a new particle or if it is just noise from their machine.


SUN 23:30 The Last Explorers (b017hzw2)
Livingstone

Neil Oliver travels down the Zambesi river to reveal how David Livingstone took the faith of his nation to the ends of the earth and exploited his celebrity to end the slave trade. His was a moral mission: to reshape British values and bring commerce, Christianity and civilisation to the African continent.


SUN 00:30 Al Murray's Great British War Movies (b04fmfrg)
Comedian and history buff Al Murray is joined by historian Dan Snow, writer Natalie Haynes and broadcaster and film expert Matthew Sweet for a fresh look at a subject very close to his heart - the great British war movie. This roundtable discussion looks at both the films themselves, from A Bridge too Far to Zulu, and uses them as a lens on British history, cultural attitudes and our changing views on conflict over the decades.

With dozens of clips from classic films such as Where Eagles Dare, The Dam Busters, In Which We Serve, Escape to Victory and The Eagle Has Landed, nostalgic memories of Bank Holiday afternoons in front of the telly and lashings of tea, rousing speeches and stiff upper lips, Al and his guests explore why the British are so obsessed with films about war - and what this says about us.


SUN 01:30 Pappano's Classical Voices (b06154q3)
Soprano

Series in which conductor Sir Antonio Pappano explores the great roles and the greatest singers of the last 100 years through the prism of the main classical voice types - soprano, tenor, mezzo-soprano, baritone and bass. Through discussion, demonstrations and workshops, Pappano explores every aspect of the art of great singing.

Behind every great voice is not just a rock-solid technique, but also a unique personality. As well as specially shot interviews and workshops with stars such as Jose Carreras, Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, Joyce DiDonato, Bryn Terfel, Juan Diego Florez, Christa Ludwig, Thomas Allen, Felicity Palmer, John Tomlinson and Sarah Connolly, Pappano examines key performances from some of history's great operatic icons - Enrico Caruso, Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland - as well as those of singers from the more recent past, such as Luciano Pavarotti, Jon Vickers, Peter Pears and Janet Baker.

Antonio explores such topics as what is going on in a singer's body to produce a great voice; how one 'projects' a Brünnhilde over large orchestral forces; whether great singers also need to be great actors; what is vibrato, legato, staccato; what are chest and head voices - how do they work and when does one use them? He examines passaggio, colorature and support, and shows why a tenor's high C hits can pin you to the back of your seat.

He begins with the soprano - at the heart of nearly every opera, although she isn't always alive come the final curtain. Tragic heroines, warriors, feisty servants, divas - the soprano sings some of the most fabulous roles in opera. But while the prima donna may suffer on stage, she doesn't suffer fools off it. The great sopranos have always been larger-than-life characters, adored by their public and, in the case of Maria Callas, famous far beyond the opera house, her private life of as much fascination to the press as her singing.

But how does the soprano carry off these vocally and dramatically demanding roles? How does the body work to produce the sound, and what techniques are at play? How do you make yourself heard up in the gods if you're competing with a huge orchestra? What is going on in a soprano's throat, indeed her whole body? How does she sing coloratura? What effect does vibrato have on us, the listeners?

To find out, Pappano looks in detail at performances from some of the legendary sopranos of the modern era - Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, Birgit Nilsson, Leontyne Price, and Renata Tebaldi. And sharing their secrets are some of the leading sopranos of today - Anna Netrebko, Barbara Hannigan, Carolyn Sampson, Diana Damrau, and Eva-Maria Westbroek.


SUN 02:30 A303: Highway to the Sun (b0116ly6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



MONDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2018

MON 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0bk8p9r)
Series 1

10/09/2018

Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping the world.


MON 19:30 Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage (b00cwkbf)
The Dodecanese

Francesco da Mosto has been at sea for two months now as he travels from Venice to Istanbul. He approaches the last group of the Greek islands - the Dodecanese.

Rhodes was home to the legendary crusader knights of St John. Over the centuries, it was repeatedly caught up in fighting between the Christian and Islamic worlds, and even today it has the feel of a fortress island.

Next stop is the exotic Turquoise Coast. The coast is too shallow for the Black Swan to explore, so Francesco swaps boats and heads for the extraordinary Dalyan Tombs - great classical burial temples carved out of the high clifftops. They were deliberately carved high in the mountains so the spirits of the dead had less far to travel to heaven. On the way he encounters the huge loggerhead turtles of the region, which enjoy nothing more than crunching their way through the shells of giant crabs.

One of the most unexpected islands of the area - and an uncomfortable reminder for Francesco of his country's recent past - is the island of Leros. Mussolini redesigned Leros as a launch pad for his dreams of a Fascist empire that would dominate the Mediterranean. He rebuilt the main town as a military town with wide straight boulevards for army parades.

Next stop is Patmos, where St John the Divine is said to have experienced his revelations that make up the Book of Revelation in the Bible - foretelling the end of the world and the final struggle between God and Satan. The Cave of the Apocalypse on Patmos is said to be the actual site, and Francesco sees the crack in the roof of the cave out of which apparently the voice of God emerged.

And, at last, a surprise for Francesco renders him speechless.


MON 20:00 South Pacific (b00kjjnx)
Ocean of Islands

The South Pacific islands are the most remote in the world. Their extraordinary isolation has created some of the most curious, surprising and precarious examples of life found anywhere on Earth; from giant crabs that tear open coconuts, to flesh-eating caterpillars that impale their prey on dagger-like claws.

Human culture is different too. The men of Pentecost Island celebrate their annual harvest by leaping from 20-metre high scaffolds, with only forest vines to break their fall. And on the tiny island of Anuta, possibly the most remote community of people on the planet, the locals survive entirely on what they can grow and catch.

The South Pacific's innumerable islands look like pieces of paradise, but the reality of life here is sometimes very different, with waves the size of buildings, brutal tropical storms, and, in the far south, even blizzards. This is the real South Pacific.


MON 21:00 Oceans Apart: Art and the Pacific with James Fox (b0bjj2r6)
Series 1

Australia

James Fox tells the story of Australia's indigenous culture, the oldest continuous culture anywhere in the world, and the disaster of its contact with the West.

He traces how Aboriginal peoples were almost destroyed by the impact of European colonization, but held on to their art to survive, to flourish and ultimately, to share their culture with the world.

James Fox begins by exploring the ancient rock art of Arnhem Land, Northern Australia, depicting fish and animals in an 'x-ray' style developed over 8000 years. The arrival of Captain Cook in Botany Bay, he argues, changed everything. Over the following centuries Aboriginal peoples were destroyed or marginalized as the new nation of Australia developed. Yet, in the 20th century, through works such as the watercolour landscapes of Albert Namatjira or the dot painting style of the Western desert, art has enabled Aboriginal people to re-imagine an Australia of their own.

Australia might long have been colonised but now, James Fox argues, Aboriginal people are recolonising it with their imaginations.


MON 22:00 Handmade in the Pacific (b0bjj2r8)
Series 1

Yidaki

In Arnhem Land in the remote tropical north of Australia, the Gurruwiwi family of the Yolngu Aboriginal people, reveal the world of the 'yidaki', a sacred instrument better known to outsiders as the didgeridoo.

Believing the yidaki can heal people, control the weather, and summon ancestral spirits, the Yolngu place great importance on the making and playing of this instrument. The yidaki is a key feature of local ceremonial life and is used to play 'songlines', the stories of ancestors that the Yolngu communicate through music and dance.

Beginning with a 'hunt' for suitable stringybark trees, the tree is then hollowed out, shaped, and given sacred ceremonial paintings with ochres. The film culminates in a 'bunggul', a ceremonial dance where the yidaki is given its first outing.

Many of the beliefs expressed by the Gurruwiwi family have remained unchanged for tens of thousands of years. Yet, the modern world has definitely arrived.


MON 22:30 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b06wkqyn)
Series 1

Winter

Iolo Williams explores the magic of the Brecon Beacons over the seasons in this stunning new series. He braves a blizzard on the high peaks, yet the lowlands can still be sunny. On the snowy slopes, foxes look for food, while a great grey shrike, a ruthless hunter from Scandinavia, looks for animals to eat. Cormorants congregate to fish on reservoirs, some birds are already breeding on the River Usk and red deer hide away in secluded gullies in one of the wildest locations in the Beacons. It's a magnificent diverse landscape with huge caves, stunning waterfalls, ancient woodland and canals.


MON 23:00 Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture (b00ydp2y)
Masons of God

Alastair Sooke reveals the astonishing range of our medieval sculpture, from the imposing masterpieces of our Gothic cathedrals to the playful misericords underneath church stalls.

He shows how the sculpture of the era casts a new light on medieval Britain, a far more sophisticated, fun-loving and maverick place than we in the modern world commonly believe. But despite the technical and emotional power of these works, the notion of a 'sculptor' did not even exist; most carving of the time was done by teams of itinerant masons and artisans working for the Church. The names of some, like William Berkeley, are known but most are lost to history.

This first golden age came to an end with Henry VIII's Reformation of the Church, unleashing a wave of destruction from which it would take centuries to recover.


MON 00:00 Timeshift (b04z23k9)
Series 14

Battle for the Himalayas: The Fight to Film Everest

Between the 1920s and the 1960s the world's great powers sent vast military-style expeditions to conquer the peaks of the Himalayas, with Everest at their head. This was a great game played - camera in hand - by Imperial Britain, Nazi Germany and superpower America. As a result, Himalayan mountaineering's most iconic, epic and tragic moments didn't just go down in history, but were caught on film - from the deaths of Mallory and Irvine on Everest in 1924, to Everest's final conquest in 1953 by Hillary and Tensing. Using footage never before seen on British television, this is the story how of how film-makers turned the great peaks into great propaganda.


MON 01:00 The Story of Scottish Art (b06kq6nz)
Episode 3

Artist Lachlan Goudie explores how, at the turn of the 19th century, Scotland's artists challenged the traditions they had inherited and, embracing new ways of seeing and painting from the Continent, revolutionised Scottish art.

From the Glasgow Boys' intimate rural realism, to Arthur Melville's brilliantly experimental watercolours; from Hill House, Charles Rennie Mackintosh's 'total work of art', to JD Fergusson's pioneering Scottish modernism, this generation transformed the way we saw Scotland's landscape and identity.


MON 02:00 Timeshift (b03pzsd9)
Series 13

How to Be Sherlock Holmes: The Many Faces of a Master Detective

For over 100 years, more than 80 actors have put a varying face to the world's greatest consulting detective - Sherlock Holmes. And many of them incorporated details - such as the curved pipe and the immortal line 'Elementary, my dear Watson' - that never featured in Conan Doyle's original stories. In charting the evolution of Sherlock on screen, from early silent movies to the latest film and television versions, Timeshift shows how our notion of Holmes today is as much a creation of these various screen portrayals as of the stories themselves.

With contributions from Sherlocks past and present, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Lee, Tim Pigott-Smith and Mark Gatiss. Narrated by Peter Wyngarde.


MON 03:00 Oceans Apart: Art and the Pacific with James Fox (b0bjj2r6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



TUESDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2018

TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0bk8rlh)
Series 1

11/09/2018

Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping the world.


TUE 19:30 Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage (b00d06bk)
The Dardanelles

Francesco da Mosto reaches the outer limits of the old Venetian empire on his voyage from Venice to Istanbul. Now he enters Turkish waters, the Strait of the Dardanelles, gateway to the east.

First stop are the haunting beaches of Gallipoli - scene of one of the worst massacres of the First World War. It was here that the Anzac forces of New Zealand and Australia were decimated as, alongside British troops, they tried to retake the Dardanelles.

After the bumpiest of bus rides inland, Francesco arrives at the city of Edirne, which boasts Turkey's finest - and biggest - mosque. The incredible acoustics of the giant dome are demonstrated by a local imam with the biggest pair of lungs in town.

In Edirne the most popular sport is wrestling. Naked, except for skin-tight leather trousers and covered in olive oil, the local wrestlers are giants of men. The sport is a severe trial of strength and the rules uncertain - it's even acceptable to put your hands down your opponent's trousers. Francesco is forced to give it a try.

The White Swan embarks on its final lap to Istanbul. But one detour is irresistible - to Bursa, birthplace of the doner kebab.


TUE 20:00 Andrew Marr's History of the World (p00xnvx6)
Original Series

Age of Extremes

In the final episode of this landmark series charting the history of human civilisation, Andrew Marr brings the story right up to date with the twentieth century.

Marr suggests that humanity found itself propelled forward by our technological brilliance but limited by the consequences of our political idiocy. Democracy confronted communism and fascism, and two world wars would underscore our political failures more than ever before.

But our achievements were also astonishing, especially in the fields of science and technology. We invented machines of awesome speed and power, and reached beyond the limits of our planet. Now, more of us live longer, healthier and wealthier lives than our ancestors could ever have imagined.

But Marr argues that with seven billion of us on the planet, and rising fast, either we manage the earth's natural resources better or we risk global catastrophe. The decisions we make in the next 50 years, he argues, may well decide our fate. For Marr, the most interesting part of human history lies just ahead.


TUE 21:00 Timewatch (b00jcgpm)
2008-2009

Captain Cook: The Man Behind the Legend

In the late 18th century, Captain James Cook led three great voyages of discovery which pushed the borders of the British Empire to the ends of the earth. In just over a decade, his ability as a navigator and chartmaker would add one-third to the map of the known world. For many he was the greatest explorer in history, but for others he was a ruthless conqueror.

While the exploits of Captain Cook are well documented, much less is known about James Cook the man. Presenter Vanessa Collingridge sets out on her own voyage of discovery - travelling in his footsteps to uncover the forces that drove him to success, and ultimately to his own death.


TUE 22:00 Tales of Tudor Travel: The Explorer's Handbook (b0bk2k1x)
A remarkable travel guide compiled from first-hand records of Tudor seafarers in the 16th century.

Professor Nandini Das explores Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, which records accounts of ventures in search of lucrative spices and dyes. It is a prototype for today's travel guides with advice, warnings, descriptions of remarkable people and a list of vocabulary to converse with foreigners. It became a book that all English seafarers kept on board ship. But the descriptions of encounters with foreigners also lay the foundations for later colonialism and conquest.


TUE 22:30 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b06wrhn5)
Series 1

Spring

It's spring and the nesting season is in full swing. While hundreds of dotterel are taking a rest on the Black Mountains during their journey from Africa to their breeding sites in Scotland, peregrines are already nesting in an old quarry in the central Beacons. Next to the largest natural lake in south Wales, water voles are managing their ditches. Iolo Williams explores the most crooked church in Britain and an old gunpowder works and finds that a 300-year-old stone wall reveals the history of this magnificent landscape.


TUE 23:00 Hidden Histories: Britain's Oldest Family Businesses (b03q0177)
Balson the Butcher

The first of three documentaries following the bosses of some Britain's oldest family businesses as they go on a journey into their remarkable pasts.

Richard Balson's family have been butchers for almost 500 years, since Henry VIII was on the throne. He goes back through centuries of butchery to the origin of the British high street. Along the way he discovers how the Balsons have stayed in the butchery business despite scandal and tragedy.


TUE 00:00 Tales from the National Parks (b016dr0x)
The Lake District

The National Parks are Britain's most treasured landscapes, but they are increasingly becoming battlefields. They were designated 60 years ago as places for everyone, but is that still the case? In this series the award-winning film-maker Richard Macer spent a year amid conflicts in three different parks, on a journey to discover who they are really for.

In each park the stories are very different, but there is something that unites them all - fiercely divided communities who are prepared to fight in order to preserve their right to enjoy the countryside. In each film, Macer has secured access to the National Park Authority - an organisation which looks after the landscapes and decides upon planning matters. In all of these stories the Park Authorities have a key role to play in trying to find amicable solutions to the problems which confront them.

In the Lake District, entrepreneur Mark Weir wants to build a giant zip-wire ride from the top of a beautiful, remote mountain. But does it have any chance of getting permission when there are over 400 objectors to it? Unfortunately a tragic accident during filming means that Mark will never see if his zip-wire becomes a reality.


TUE 01:00 Narnia's Lost Poet: The Secret Lives and Loves of CS Lewis (b03jrw5j)
CS Lewis's biographer AN Wilson goes in search of the man behind Narnia - best-selling children's author and famous Christian writer, but an under-appreciated Oxford academic and an aspiring poet who never achieved the same success in writing verse as he did prose.

Although his public life was spent in the all-male world of Oxford colleges, his private life was marked by secrecy and even his best friend JRR Tolkien didn't know of his marriage to an American divorcee late in life. Lewis died on the same day as the assassination of John F Kennedy and few were at his burial - his alcoholic brother was too drunk to tell people the time of the funeral. Fifty years on, his life as a writer is now being remembered alongside other national literary heroes in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner.

In this personal and insightful film, Wilson paints a psychological portrait of a man who experienced fame in the public arena, but whose personal life was marked by the loss of the three women he most loved.


TUE 02:00 Armando Iannucci in Milton's Heaven and Hell (b00ksjzj)
Milton is often considered too difficult and obscure for today's reader, but to Armando Iannucci Paradise Lost is a thrilling work of creative genius that we ignore at our peril.

In this film, Iannucci journeys through Milton's life and his great poem, taking in everything from Satan and the start of spin to farting angels and the questioning of God's existence, offering his own passionate and illuminating response to Paradise Lost.

Along the way, he talks to schoolchildren, politicians and former prisoners to build up a picture of what Milton was like, and why his art may have turned out the way it did.


TUE 03:00 Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Monumental Art (b0bjj23v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]



WEDNESDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2018

WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0bk8tvf)
Series 1

12/09/2018

Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping the world.


WED 19:30 Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage (b00d06g4)
Istanbul

Franceso da Mosto reaches Istanbul, the final stop of his marathon voyage from Venice following the trading routes of the Venetian empire.

Istanbul straddles the Bosphorus as well as two continents. It has been home of both Christian and Islamic civilisations, and Francesco is eager to explore this great city.

First stop is the Palace of Topkapi - centre of power for the Ottoman empire. Most haunting of all is the palace harem, a prison to the sultan's many concubines. Beneath the city is a vast network of underground tunnels dating back more than a thousand years.

Donning hard hat and waders, Francesco enters one of the huge underground cisterns - looking more like a Roman emperor's palace than a water tank. Two giant heads of Medusa lie abandoned in the water.

Istanbul's Grand Bazaar is one of the world's biggest undercover markets and Francesco has a mission in mind. He is going to learn how to sell a Turkish carpet. As he learns the secrets of the trade, he is shown one of the most expensive and beautiful carpets in the city.

A visit to Istanbul would not be complete without the experience of a Turkish bath, however, so Francesco offers himself up for a vigorous soap and scrub. But soon it is time to say goodbye. A final celebration aboard the Black Swan with its long-suffering crew brings Francesco's journey to an end.


WED 20:00 How the Wild West Was Won with Ray Mears (b044jl70)
Mountains

Ray Mears looks at how the landscapes of America's three great mountain ranges - the Appalachians, the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada - challenged the westward push of the early pioneers.

As Ray travels through each landscape he discovers how their awe-inspiring geography, extreme weather, wild animals and ecology presented both great opportunities and great challenges for the native Indians, mountain men, fur traders, wagon trains and gold miners of the Wild West.

Ray begins his westward journey in the Appalachians where he explores how their timbered slopes fuelled the lumber industry and provided the fuel and building material for the emerging nation. Native Appalachian Barbara Woodall and lumberjack Joe Currie share their family history with him, and he gets to grips with the rare 'hellbender' salamander.

Further west, in the high jagged peaks of the Rocky Mountains, Ray goes mule trekking with modern-day mountain man Stu Sorenson and he has close encounters with beaver, elk and black bear.

Finally, in the desert mountains of the Sierra Nevada, he explores the tragic story of the Donner Party wagon train whose members allegedly turned to cannibalism to survive. His journey ends as he pans for gold with modern day gold prospector John Gurney, and explores the boom and bust story of ghost town, Bodie.


WED 21:00 Ian Hislop's Olden Days (b040rqjm)
Heroes for All Times

Ian Hislop explores perhaps the most distinctive, peculiar and deep-seated trait of the British, our obsession with the past. Over three films he reveals how and why, throughout our history, we have continually plundered 'the olden days' to make sense of and shape the present.

This opening episode reveals how, ever since 1066, we have harked back to the Dark Ages. In particular, Ian turns his gaze on two of our most inspiring kings - King Arthur and King Alfred - one quite possibly entirely fictional, the other entirely historical, and yet each the stuff of legend.

On the trail of legendary King Arthur, Ian visits Tintagel Castle, the fantastic Round Table at Winchester and even the sacred 'burial place' of Arthur and Guinevere at Glastonbury Abbey. He finds out how this storybook king has changed, from wild Celtic warlord to chivalric hero; from piously questing king to national totem of Victorian Wales. Ian also discovers why the king of Camelot inspired Henry VIII as much as today's New Age druids.

King Alfred repelled the Vikings, reorganised the army and was an educational pioneer... not, Ian notes wryly, as exciting as pulling a sword from a stone, but rather more useful. And yet, peeling away the evidence, there is more fiction involved in this 'historic' king than meets the eye - manipulated to suit the diverse purposes of tricksy mediaeval lawyers, a Tudor archbishop for whom we have the cake-burning story to thank, and even a Georgian prince of Wales, he gradually becomes blessed with almost every virtue. By Victorian times, Alfred the Great, has evolved into 'the most perfect man in history', one-man embodiment of everything that is great about Great Britain.

Winston Churchill summoned up the spirit of Alfred to inspire the nation in the dark days of 1940. Meanwhile Arthur reigns supreme today in movies, TV series and even online gaming. Ian even gets to meet Arthur Uther Pendragon, self-declared reincarnation of King Arthur himself, to find out what is on Arthur's mind in the 21st century.

The multiple historical makeovers of these Dark Age kings provide a fascinating insight into the evolution of our sense of national identity. Thoroughly forensic, always curious and witty, this is an exploration of high and low culture over 1,000 years. As ever with Ian Hislop's cultural histories, it focuses on the 'story' bit of history and holds up a most revealing mirror to ourselves.


WED 22:00 Strangeways: Britain's Toughest Prison Riot (b05px4sk)
Nearly 30 years after the biggest riot in British penal history, this film brings together the ringleaders of the trouble with the prison guards they battled with over three weeks of anarchy that brought Strangeways to its knees.

The events are told through unparalleled access to the people at the heart of the riot, including the governor Brendan O'Friel, who was faced with the task of trying to regain control of his prison.

Former prisoners describe the explosion of violence that erupted on 1 April 1990, when 1,600 angry inmates escaped from their cells and ran amok through the prison. Many were seeking revenge and reform for what they saw as years of suffering under an archaic and sometimes brutal regime in the overcrowded Victorian prison.

In the bloody mayhem that followed, prison officers describe fearing for their lives as they were driven out of the building, leaving prisoners to settle scores and hunt down sex offenders, showing no mercy whilst the prison burned around them.

Candid testimony from ex-inmates, prison officers and the governor himself creates a compelling story of the struggle for power between the authorities and the hardcore prisoners who ultimately took their protest onto the prison roof. The stand-off that followed is documented until the final moments, when the siege was ended in a dramatic takedown in front of rolling news cameras.


WED 23:00 Queen Victoria's Letters: A Monarch Unveiled (b04p1vx1)
Episode 1

Examining the first half of Queen Victoria's life, biographer AN Wilson goes in search of a monarch too often misunderstood as the solid black-clad matron and reveals a woman who was passionately romantic and who spent her years as a child and young queen fighting the control of domineering men.

Queen Victoria was one of the 19th century's most prolific diarists, sometimes writing up to 2,500 words a day. From state affairs to family gossip, she poured out her emotions onto paper. Those close to her were afraid her more alarming opinions might escape in written form, causing havoc. In fact much of her writing was destroyed after her death and her personal journals edited by her daughter. But what survives frequently reveals a woman quite different to the one we think we know. AN Wilson reads her personal journals and unpublished letters and discovers the factors that shaped the queen's personality. From the tortured relationship with her mother, to the dominant men she clung to in search of a father figure and the powerful struggle that made her marriage to Prince Albert a battleground, Queen Victoria was always a woman in search of intimate relationships. As a daughter, a wife, a mother and the queen of a growing empire, as friends and family came and went, her pen remained her constant companion and friend.

Queen Victoria's journals and letters are read by Anna Chancellor throughout.


WED 00:00 Britain's Deadliest Rail Disaster: Quintinshill (b05vqx7v)
On 22 May 1915, a collision at the Quintinshill signal box, near Gretna, became Britain's deadliest ever rail crash. Involving a military train filled with troops - most of whom were from Leith - heading for Gallipoli and two passenger trains, the crash claimed an estimated 226 lives and left hundreds more injured.

The duty signalmen, George Meakin and James Tinsley, were found responsible for the disaster and were both jailed on the charges of culpable homicide.

Neil Oliver explores the series of mistakes that may have caused the collision, the part played by the train companies and the government, and determines whether the investigation would have come to the same conclusions if it were carried out today. Dramatised reconstructions add to this compelling account of a tragedy which had a profound effect on several communities in Scotland, and remains the deadliest in the annals of Britain's railways.

Britain's Deadliest Rail Disaster: Quintinshill is a Finestripe Productions programme for BBC Scotland.


WED 01:00 Akala's Odyssey (b09sc141)
Writer and hip-hop artist Akala voyages across the Mediterranean and beyond to solve some of the mysteries behind Homer's monumental poem, the Odyssey. Travelling between spectacular ruins, such as the sacred shrine of Delphi or the Greek colonies on Sicily, Akala's journey culminates on the small island of Ithaca, where he ponders the theory that this is the destination which Homer had in mind as he composed the epic.

Along the way, he finds out what Homer's works may have sounded like to their first audiences, discovers how the rhythm of those ancient words connect to the beats of modern hip-hop and comes face to face with the characters from the masterpiece. He also investigates how this epic poem became the cornerstone of Western literature and how his own experiences as an artist have been impacted by a 3,000-year-old classic. Akala has undertaken this quest as part of his mission to compose his own response to the Odyssey - a new hip hop track called Blind Bard's Vision, which turns the tale on its head all over again. This is Akala's Odyssey.


WED 02:00 Handmade in the Pacific (b0bjj2r8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]


WED 02:30 Tales of Tudor Travel: The Explorer's Handbook (b0bk2k1x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]


WED 03:00 How the Wild West Was Won with Ray Mears (b044jl70)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



THURSDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2018

THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0bk8vv8)
Series 1

13/09/2018

Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping the world.


THU 19:30 The Sky at Night (b0bk51hk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]


THU 20:00 The Marvellous World of Roald Dahl (b07m8n2q)
Fighter pilot, inventor, spy - the life of Roald Dahl is often stranger than fiction. From crashing his plane over Africa to hobnobbing in Hollywood, and his remarkable encounters with everyone from Walt Disney to President Roosevelt - this is the story of his greatest adventures, and how his real-life escapades find expression in his most famous books, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Matilda.

Through a vast collection of his letters, writings and archive, the story is told largely in his own words, with contributions from his last wife Liccy, daughter Lucy and biographer Donald Sturrock. Long-term collaborator and illustrator Quentin Blake also creates exclusive new drawings for the film which are specially animated to bring Dahl's marvellous world to life.


THU 21:00 The Day the Dinosaurs Died (b08r3xhf)
The Day the Dinosaurs Died investigates the greatest vanishing act in the history of our planet - the sudden disappearance of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

Experts suspect that the dinosaurs were wiped out after a city-sized asteroid smashed into the Gulf of Mexico causing a huge crater. But until now, they haven't had any proof. In a world first, evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod joins a multimillion-pound drilling expedition into the exact spot the asteroid hit to get hard evidence of the link. The team overcomes huge obstacles as it attempts to drill 1,500 metres beneath sea level to pull up rock from the Chicxulub crater.

Meanwhile, paleopathologist Professor Alice Roberts travels the globe meeting top scientists and gaining exclusive access to a mass fossil graveyard in New Jersey - believed to date from the same time the asteroid hit. Alice also treks by horseback across the remote plains of Patagonia, to see if the effects of the asteroid impact could have wiped out dinosaurs across the world - almost immediately.

Alice and Ben's investigations reveal startling new evidence of a link between the asteroid and the death of the dinosaurs, presenting a vivid picture of the most dramatic 24 hours in our planet's history. They illustrate what happened in the seconds and hours after the impact, revealing that had the huge asteroid struck the Earth a moment earlier, or later, the destruction might not have been total for the dinosaurs. And if they still roamed the world, we humans may never have come to rule the planet.


THU 22:00 Timewatch (b008pyps)
2007-2008

In Search of the Wreckers

History Series. In January, the MSC Napoli ran aground, spilling its cargo on Branscombe beach in Devon. The public were delighted, but the authorities were determined to police opportunists. Looters of the Napoli were reviving a centuries' old tradition: 'wrecking'. Author Bella Bathurst discovers the social history of a national crime.


THU 22:50 Arena (b00dqv1z)
Philip Hoare's Guide to Whales

Arctic

Acclaimed author and whale-watcher Philip Hoare takes us into the world of Arctic whales. From the whaling port of Whitby, we follow the historical trail of the whale hunters to the frozen seas of the North Pole and the worlds strangest whales - the bowhead, nearly hunted to extinction and now known to be the longest-lived mammal; the white beluga whale, so-called canary of the sea; and the tusked narwhal, whose existence gave rise to the legend of the unicorn.


THU 23:00 Horizon (b04b763n)
2013-2014

What's Wrong with Our Weather?

Over the last few years, our weather in Britain has become more extreme.

The winter of 2013/14 was the wettest ever recorded, as deadly storms battered the country for weeks on end. But previous winters have seen bitter lows of -22, as Britain was plunged into a deep freeze.

Everyone wants to know why our weather is getting more extreme, whether we can expect to see more of it in the future, and if it has got anything to do with climate change.

Physicist Dr Helen Czerski and meteorologist John Hammond make sense of Britain's recent extreme weather and discover that there is one thing that connects all our recent extreme winters - the jet stream, an invisible river of air that powers along 10km above us. What's worrying is that recently it has been behaving rather strangely.

Scientists are now trying to understand what is behind these changes in the jet stream. Helen and John find out if extreme winters are something we may all have to get used to in the future.


THU 00:00 Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession (b00s96gn)
Mapping the World

In the last of a three-part series about the extraordinary stories behind maps, Professor Jerry Brotton uncovers how maps are snapshots of a moment in history and offer visions of distant lands, tempting explorers to plunder and conquer.

However, adventurers first had to tackle the great challenge of mapping the globe onto a flat surface. There is no perfect solution, but the father of geography, Claudius Ptolemy, had some clever ideas.

Explorers like Christopher Columbus sailed into the unknown in search of riches and discovered a whole new continent that would become the most powerful on earth, while Amerigo Vespucci gave it his name.

Sir Walter Raleigh's treasure map of El Dorado in South America ultimately lost him his head. But the myth of El Dorado lived on, sending hundreds of men to their death in fruitless attempts to find the golden city.

As navigation became easier, maps enabled nations and enterprises like the Dutch East India Company to plunder far-off territories for spices, natural resources and gold. Even today, a project to map the North Pole is the flashpoint for the so-called 'Cold Rush' - the dash to exploit oil, gas and mineral reserves as the Arctic ice melts.


THU 01:00 Arena (b08t9yvk)
American Epic

The Sessions

The machine that introduced the sounds of America to its people has been lovingly reassembled and, in the heart of Hollywood, in a perfect recreation of the atmosphere and conditions of America's first-ever recording studios, today's music superstars roll the epic on.

Elton John, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Alabama Shakes, Jack White, Nas, Ana Gabriel, Beck, Los Lobos and Steve Martin are among the artists who test their skills against the demands of the recording machine that literally made American music. There are no edits, no overdubs and no retakes, and the disc only allows for three minutes of recording time.

Despite these limitations, today's recordings for American Epic have one advantage - the freshly recorded sound is crystal clear and of an astonishing depth, transporting us vividly into the past - and the future.


THU 03:00 The Marvellous World of Roald Dahl (b07m8n2q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



FRIDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2018

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b0bjj620)
The latest news from around the world.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0bk8y65)
Gary Davies presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 17 April 1986. Featuring Big Country, Falco, A-ha, Janet Jackson, It's Immaterial, George Michael and Whitney Houston.


FRI 20:00 Queens of Soul (b05nhjsx)
The sisters are truly doing it for themselves in this celebration of the legendary female singers whose raw emotional vocal styles touched the hearts of followers worldwide. Featuring the effortless sounds of Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Gladys Knight, Randy Crawford, Angie Stone, Mary J Blige and Beyonce, to name a few.

The Queens of Soul presents the critically acclaimed and influential female singers who, decade by decade, changed the world one note at a time.


FRI 21:00 Classic Albums (b0bjj623)
Amy Winehouse: Back to Black

Series looking at the creation of some classic rock albums looks at Amy Winehouse's second album, 2006’s Back to Black, and how it transformed the beehived girl from north London into a global star, with hits like Rehab, the title track and Love Is a Losing Game. Back To Black helped launch a wave of soul-influenced British chanteuses including Adele and Duffy and has since sold over 20 million copies.

This film reveals Amy Winehouse the artist, focusing firmly on her lyrics, influences and vocal talents. Using unseen footage from the Miami and New York sessions and rarely seen archive of Amy in interview and performance, producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi and their respective musicians shine a light on the making of Back To Black and offer their first-hand accounts of Amy's genius and her emotional turmoil.

Featuring producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, the Dap-Kings band, Amy's colleagues and friends, Island president and A&R director Darcus Beese and Ronnie Spector.


FRI 22:00 BBC One Sessions (b007cl28)
Amy Winehouse

Another chance to see a 23-year-old Amy Winehouse at Porchester Hall where, hot from her triumph at the 2007 Brits, she gave a special one-off concert. Crowned 2007's Best British Female, Amy performed songs from her Back to Black album and her 2003 Mercury Music Prize nominated album, Frank.


FRI 22:50 Arena (b01l4929)
Amy Winehouse - The Day She Came to Dingle

Back in 2006 on a stormy December night, Amy Winehouse flew to the remote, south western corner of Ireland to perform for Other Voices, an acclaimed Irish TV music series filmed in Dingle every winter. Amy took to the stage of Saint James's church, capacity 85, and wowed the small, packed crowd with a searing, acoustic set of songs from Back to Black.

After leaving the stage, a relaxed and happy Amy spoke about her music and influences - Mahalia Jackson, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles and the Shangri-Las to name a few. Arena joined forces with Other Voices and went to Dingle to catch up with some of the people that Amy met on that day, including taxi driver Paddy Kennedy, her bass player Dale Davis and Rev Mairt Hanley of the Other Voices church.

This film showcases not only Amy herself, but the musical geniuses that inspired her to forge her own jazz pop style.


FRI 23:55 Top of the Pops (b0bk8y65)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 00:25 Music Moguls: Masters of Pop (p039x53y)
Melody Makers

Part two of this enlightening series exploring the music business from behind the scenes looks at the music producers. These are the men and women who have created the signature sounds that have defined key periods in rock and pop history. Highlights include Trevor Horn on inventing the 'Sound of the Eighties', Lamont Dozier on Motown, and a TV first with legendary producer Tony Visconti taking us through David Bowie's seminal song Heroes.

Narrated by master producer Nile Rodgers.


FRI 01:25 Queens of Soul (b05nhjsx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 02:25 Classic Albums (b0bjj623)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]