BBC Two's multi-award-winning Secret History of Our Streets told the story of six London streets, from Victorian times to the present day.
Now, as its people stand at a crossroads in their history, the series travels to Scotland to tell the stories of three archetypal streets in Scotland's three great cities: Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.
Endlessly surprising and not at all what you would expect, the stories of these streets are the story of a nation.
At the mouth of Aberdeen Harbour lie the Fittie Squares, a model housing scheme built for fishermen and their families in 1809.
Tethered to the sea and cut off from the city, the squares developed their own culture. They were a traditional fishing community, untroubled for 150 years, until the day that oil was discovered just a few miles out to sea.
Historian Dan Snow concludes his epic adventure following in the footsteps of the 19th century's last great gold rush - a journey filled with genuine danger and thrilling beauty. Leading a one month expedition, he is joined by polar explorer Felicity Aston and remote environment medic Dr Kevin Fong. Their goal - to strike gold in Canada's frozen wilderness.
The team have just a few dozen miles left to cover of their nearly six hundred mile journey to the gold fields. Following in the footsteps of their 19th-century forerunners, they have crossed snowy mountains, run terrifying rapids and navigated hundreds of miles of water in a replica historical boat.
In this episode, they finally arrive at Dawson City, gateway to Klondike gold. Guided by historical accounts, the team set up a 19th-century style mining camp in the heart of the gold fields. Using traditional methods, they set about the back-breaking work of mining for gold. They have to use both their expertise and muscle to give them any chance of striking it rich. It is not going to be easy - they have just five days to prospect in an area that is already been extensively mined. But in a game where luck can play as much a part as experience, will they walk away having struck gold?
The BBC's Gold Rush Game Maker enables viewers to create their own gold rush adventures inspired by the exploits of Dan and his team.
Cora Tannetti is a young mother who, after being overcome by an inexplicable fit of rage, commits a startling and very public act of violence without understanding why. Detective Harry Ambrose is determined to find the answer.
Cora reflects on her difficult childhood and reveals some secrets from her past.
Documentary which explores how Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris's careers took off in the 1970s with very distinct takes on country before they ended up uniting as close harmony singers and eventually collaborated on 1987's four-million-selling debut album, Trio.
In the 60s country music was viewed by most of America as blue collar, and Dolly was country through and through. Linda Ronstadt's take on classic country helped make her the biggest female star in mid-70s America. Folkie Emmylou learned about country from mentor Gram Parsons and, after his death in 1973, she became a bandleader in her own right. It was Emmylou and Linda - the two west coast folk rockers - who voiced their mutual appreciation of Dolly, the mountain girl singer from Tennessee, when they became early students of her work.
The artists talk about uniting as harmony singers and eventually collaborating on their debut album, Trio. The album helped launch the mountain music revival that would peak with the soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou. In 2012 Linda Ronstadt was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which left her unable to sing, but 2016 saw unreleased songs from their sessions compiled to create a third Trio album. This is the story of how their alliance made them pioneers in bringing different music worlds together and raising the game for women in the country tradition.
Contributors: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Rodney Crowell, George Lucas, Peter Asher, Chris Hillman, Laura Cantrell, Robert K Oermann, John Boylan, Phil Kaufman, David Lindley, Albert Lee, Herb Pedersen, George Massenberg and Applewood Road.
In September 2011 R.E.M., the rock band from Athens, Georgia, decided to call it a day after 31 years. This collection from the BBC archives includes performances of Pretty Persuasion from the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1984, Orange Crush on Top of the Pops in 1989 and special acoustic versions of Losing My Religion and Half a World Away on The Late Show in 1991, along with performances on Later with Jools Holland and Parkinson. Also, vocalist Michael Stipe and bassist Mike Mills reflect on the band ending.
Simon Bates and Steve Wright present the pop chart programme. First broadcast on 16 October 1986, this edition features Pet Shop Boys, Cliff Richard and Sarah Brightman, Boris Gardiner, Marti Webb, Paul Hardcastle, Nick Berry and Status Quo.
Gary Davies presents the pop chart programme. First broadcast on 23 October 1986, this edition features The Pretenders, Midnight Star, Housemartins, Billy Idol, Cyndi Lauper, Nick Berry and The Bangles.
Sitcom set during the Great War. The October Revolution in Moscow produces three appalling results: a ceasefire by Russia, an offensive by Germany and a Charlie Chaplin impression by Baldrick.
Edmund, George and Baldrick join the Royal Flying Corps. However, Edmund and Baldrick are shot down soon afterwards and are taken prisoner by the Red Baron. George persuades dashing pilot Lord Flashheart to mount a rescue attempt, but when they hear what the Red Baron has planned for them, Blackadder and Baldrick are in no hurry to be saved.
SUNDAY 02 DECEMBER 2018
SUN 19:00 A History of Christianity (b00p270g)
Reformation: The Individual Before God
The Amish today are peaceable folk, but five centuries ago their ancestors were seen as some of the most dangerous people in Europe. They were radicals - Protestants - who tore apart the Catholic Church.
In the fourth part of the series, Diarmaid MacCulloch makes sense of the Reformation, and of how a faith based on obedience and authority gave birth to one based on individual conscience.
He shows how Martin Luther wrote hymns to teach people the message of the Bible, and how a tasty sausage became the rallying cry for Swiss Reformer Ulrich Zwingli to tear down statues of saints, allow married clergy and deny that communion bread and wine were the body and blood of Christ. 'Jesus ascended into heaven', declared Zwingli. 'He's sitting at the right hand of the Father, not on a table here in Zurich.'.
SUN 20:00 Tomorrow's World (b0btx2p1)
Spiderman Special
In this special programme the team look at the science behind the 2002 Spider-Man movie. With exclusive access to the new technology used in bringing the superhero to the big screen and interviews with the director and stars, Willem Dafoe, Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.
The programme asks if Spider-Man were real how would science make sense of his powers? Meeting scientists in California who have developed fluorescent mice using a new technique which can transfer genes from species to species. Could this explain how Peter Parker got his amazing abilities?
Tomorrow's World also travels the globe in the search for the holy grail of material science - artificial spiders' silk. And, asks if the superhero's spider-sense - the ability to predict danger before it happens, has a human equivalent.
Spider-Man's co-creator Stan Lee and comic book collector and Spider-Man enthusiast Jonathan Ross are also featured.
SUN 20:30 Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death (b00g8hbw)
Wallace and Gromit have opened a new bakery - Top Bun - and business is booming, not least because a deadly Cereal Killer has murdered all the other bakers in town. Gromit is worried that they may be the next victims, but Wallace does not care, as he has fallen head over heels in love with Piella Bakewell, former star of the Bake-O-Lite bread commercials. So Gromit is left to run things on his own, when he would much rather be getting better acquainted with Piella's lovely pet poodle Fluffles.
But then Gromit makes a shocking discovery which points to the killer's true identity. Can he save his master from becoming the next baker to be butchered? And does Fluffles know more than she is saying? It all adds up to a classic 'who-doughnut' mystery, as four-time Academy Award-winning director Nick Park creates a hilarious new masterpiece in the tradition of 'master of suspense' Alfred Hitchcock.
Featuring the voices of Peter Sallis (Wallace) and Sally Lindsay (Piella Bakewell).
SUN 21:00 Secrets of British Animation (b0btynjg)
Documentary exploring more than a century of animation in Britain, including the creative and technical inventiveness of the UK's greatest animation pioneers.
The defining characteristic of British animation has always been ingenuity. Unable to compete with the big American studios, animators in Britain were forced to experiment, developing their own signature styles. The documentary uncovers the trade secrets of animation legends like Bob Godfrey, John Halas and Joy Batchelor, Len Lye and Bristol's world-renowned Aardman Animations.
Tracing the development of British animation from the end of the Victorian era to contemporary blockbusters, Secrets of British Animation shows the perseverance and determination that are part of the animator's mindset. Focusing on the handmade tradition of animation in the UK, the programme includes newly-remastered early films from the archive of the British Film Institute.
SUN 22:00 Animation 2018 (b0bt8v02)
Osbert Parker introduces Animation 2018
A showcase of top animation from the UK's finest new talents. British animator Osbert Parker presents the TV premiere of exciting short films. All were recipients of grants under BBC Four and the British Film Institute's Animation 2018 initiative, which called out for new and emerging talent from around the country.
The films take a variety of approaches, using styles and techniques ranging from hand-drawn images to live-action puppetry, stop motion, CG, 2D and 3D, covering a diversity of genres from science-fiction to documentary. Though richly varied in tone and content, they have been curated into four groups on the themes of animals, other worlds, obsession and love.
Morris dancing badgers, a noir fairy tale, a heartening tale of love beyond the grave and an alien coming-of-age story are just some of the treats in store from some of the nation's most-imaginative and talented new animators.
SUN 22:03 Animation 2018 (b0btynjj)
The Penguin Who Couldn't Swim
Animation about a disabled penguin who lives on a rocky island in the southern seas, where she feels
isolated from the rest of her colony. She is inventive, resourceful and tough but frustrated about what she cannot do. Until one day she makes a discovery.
A story about disability, made by a disabled animator.
SUN 22:09 Animation 2018 (b0btywt9)
Outside the Box
Tody is a bird who works at a packaging factory, controlled by an oppressive mechanical claw. He desperately wants to escape his lonely work in order to find the one he loves again. One day, when a radio comes along for him to package, it plays a melody that reminds him of his old lover and Isle Azure, the home he's left behind. Determined to escape, Tody takes his chance. But when the claw attempts to stop him, Tody must face his fears before he can find freedom.
SUN 22:13 Animation 2018 (b0btyx1s)
Quarantine
Animation. A post-Brexit pagan dance fantasy about a troupe of Morris-dancing badgers trying to avoid the animal quarantine compound which has been built above their burrow. Living in a border town on the south east coast of England, the badgers are struggling to keep their old folk traditions alive in the face of change. They refuse to acknowledge the plight of their neighbors, the caged quarantine inmates, fearing physical and even ideological contamination, until Frank, a young badger, goes rogue.
Intoxicated by the exotic rhythms drummed out by the resourceful animals on their cage bars, Frank the young badger starts dancing forbidden new steps, risking the wrath of the Morris troupe. But when tragedy strikes, Frank must forge a new friendship inside the quarantine in order to help the Morris troupe survive.
Quarantine is a stop-motion exploration of what it will mean to have a new immigration border in a town with a history of far-right support. Drawing on a rich tradition of British animated films about imprisoned animals - Animal Farm, Plague Dogs, Watership Down and Chicken Run - Quarantine is an allegory for our times which asks what kind of cultural exchange can still occur in post-Brexit Britain.
SUN 22:26 Animation 2018 (m0001jdv)
Intro (2): Other Worlds
A showcase of top animation from the UK's finest new talents. British animator Osbert Parker presents the TV premiere of exciting short films. All were recipients of grants under BBC Four and the British Film Institute's Animation 2018 initiative, which called out for new and emerging talent from around the country. The films take a variety of approaches, using styles and techniques ranging from hand-drawn images to live-action puppetry, stop motion, CG, 2D and 3D, covering a diversity of genres from science-fiction to documentary. Though richly varied in tone and content, they have been curated into four groups on the themes of animals, other worlds, obsession and love.
SUN 22:28 Animation 2018 (b0btywtc)
Childhood Memories
Combining 16mm colour footage of Lagos, Nigeria from the 70s with stop-motion and 2D hand-drawn animation, this multilayered autobiographical animation explores personal memories and the cultural elements of our earliest childhood reminiscences. Often episodic, our recollection of past experiences can emerge from as early as three years old. After the age of five, these memories become elusive. This film goes on a journey, both beautiful and enlightening, back to where it all began.
SUN 22:32 Animation 2018 (b0btywtm)
Meteorlight
In an alien world that is powered by light produced at a foreboding, fortress-like factory, there is a stark difference between the privileged and the disadvantaged. But the child of the factory owner has been brought up ignorant of this division.
When they are finally allowed to visit, they see their world as it really is for the first time, and they discover the dark secret behind the factory's success. Now they have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy - a choice that could change their life and the world they've known for ever. Meteorlight is an epic sci-fi story with universal themes.
SUN 22:42 Animation 2018 (b0btywvq)
Uki
A short stop-frame animation following a lonely Inuit who struggles to survive after an oil tanker leaks oil off the coast of Alaska, killing all the wildlife in the area. A dark comedy about companionship, loneliness and pollution.
SUN 22:48 Animation 2018 (m0001jdx)
Intro (3): Obsession
A showcase of top animation from the UK's finest new talents. British animator Osbert Parker presents the TV premiere of exciting short films. All were recipients of grants under BBC Four and the British Film Institute's Animation 2018 initiative, which called out for new and emerging talent from around the country. The films take a variety of approaches, using styles and techniques ranging from hand-drawn images to live-action puppetry, stop motion, CG, 2D and 3D, covering a diversity of genres from science-fiction to documentary. Though richly varied in tone and content, they have been curated into four groups on the themes of animals, other worlds, obsession and love.
SUN 22:53 Animation 2018 (b0btywvs)
Frank's Joke
Animation about Frank who told a bad joke at his new place of work. Nobody laughed. Now at
3.00am he's unable to sleep as he obsesses and ruminates over this social faux-pas, leading him to ponder on the nature of memory itself. He becomes trapped in a loop, a self-imposed purgatory for what seems like an age as the clock ticks by.
This comedic and surreal look at how our brains can keep us awake at night and the mercurial nature of memory mixes live-action puppetry and expressive hand drawn animation to convey both the physical world and Frank's inner thoughts.
SUN 22:59 Animation 2018 (b0btywvz)
The Three Crow Boys
The setting is London, in the wake of a terrible war. Between mounds of rubble and bomb craters stands the house of a lonely old blind man. Late one night he receives three unexpected visitors and tragedy follows.
This is an original fairy tale, exploring the nature of monsters and madness. Not for the faint-hearted, it follows in the dark footsteps of the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault and Angela Carter and is narrated by Tim McInnerny.
SUN 23:09 Animation 2018 (b0btyww1)
\_sleeper
Set in a dying industrial town, the animation tells the story of Frank, a recluse who wakes each day to a strange anomaly on the horizon. What is it? Who is phoning him? His decision made, Frank takes a trip. The anomaly awaits him.
SUN 23:15 Animation 2018 (m0001jdz)
Intro (4): Love
A showcase of top animation from the UK's finest new talents. British animator Osbert Parker presents the TV premiere of exciting short films. All were recipients of grants under BBC Four and the British Film Institute's Animation 2018 initiative, which called out for new and emerging talent from around the country. The films take a variety of approaches, using styles and techniques ranging from hand-drawn images to live-action puppetry, stop motion, CG, 2D and 3D, covering a diversity of genres from science-fiction to documentary. Though richly varied in tone and content, they have been curated into four groups on the themes of animals, other worlds, obsession and love.
SUN 23:17 Animation 2018 (b0btyww3)
Ladder to You
An octogenarian love story. Eric misses life with his dear wife Elsie. Every moment is a reminder of the love he has lost, and he feels isolated and sad. He can't sleep. Memories are painful. The sweet moments have gone and time is something that he doesn't know what to do with. One day when he loses his precious photo of her, he goes on a desperate chase to get it back and in doing so discovers that true love never dies.
SUN 23:21 Animation 2018 (b0btyww5)
Hair
Mary and Archie are obsessive shavers. Archie hates hair, and Mary loves Archie. By selling their shavings they plan to save up for a more permanent solution - laser hair removal. But when Mary starts to wonder what might happen if she let it grow, it threatens their relationship. And she must make a choice. Hair? Or Archie?
Featuring the voices of Valene Kane (Mary) and Jonathan Aris (Archie).
SUN 23:31 Animation 2018 (b0btyww7)
O, Hunter Heart
Nature and domesticity collide as falling in love forces the hidden animal instincts of humans to rise to the surface. This poetic narrative features voices from documentary interviews recorded around the UK, woven into an evocative soundtrack as stop-motion puppets and live-action footage combine to tell a dark love story.
SUN 23:38 Animation 2018 (b0btyww9)
Slug Life
We follow a day in the life of Tanya, a curious woman who has developed a taste for non-human lovers. This time her bedroom experiments result in the manifestation of a beautiful, talking, giant slug. Has she finally found the formula for total perfection? If so, can such a thing survive in this
gnarly world full of freaks and beefs?
Featuring the voices of Jeanette Bonds (Tanya), Sophie Koko Gate (Caz and Jane), Tom Scotcher (Marcy) and Vincent Oliver (The Sun).
SUN 23:45 Natural World (b04g4qm5)
2014-2015
Attenborough's Fabulous Frogs
As a boy, frogs were the first animals Sir David Attenborough kept and today he is still just as passionate about them. Through his eyes, the weird and wonderful world of frogs is explored, shedding new light on these charismatic, colourful and frequently bizarre creatures.
David reveals all aspects of the frogs' life, their anatomy, their extraordinary behaviour and their ability to live in some of the most extreme places on the planet, as he goes on an eye-opening journey into the fabulous lives of frogs.
SUN 00:45 Addicted to Sheep (b070jj99)
Set in the North Pennines, an intimate portrait of a year in the life of tenant hill farmers Tom and Kay Hutchinson as they try to breed the perfect sheep.
Through the sun, rain, sleet and snow, we watch the Hutchinsons toil away against the stark, stunning landscapes of north east England and witness the hard work it takes just to survive. Their three young children are growing up close to the land, attending the local primary school entirely comprised of farmers' children, all thoroughly immersed in their remote rural world. While the odds often seem stacked against them, the film conveys the importance of a balanced family life and the good humour that binds this tight-knit community together.
An entertaining and subtle reminder of how important farming is to the economy and the social fabric of our communities. Following your passion does have its rewards, although not always financial.
Beautifully observed, this heartwarming film provides an insight into the past, present and future of a way of life far removed from the high-tech hustle and bustle of modern life.
SUN 01:45 John Berger: The Art of Looking (b082qynq)
Art, politics and motorcycles - on the occasion of his 90th birthday, this is an intimate portrait of the late writer and art critic whose groundbreaking work on seeing has shaped our understanding of the concept for over five decades. The film explores how paintings become narratives and stories turn into images, and rarely does anybody demonstrate this as poignantly as Berger.
Berger lived and worked for decades in a small mountain village in the French Alps, where the nearness to nature, the world of the peasants and his motorcycle, which for him deals so much with presence, inspired his drawing and writing.
The film introduces Berger's art of looking with theatre wizard Simon McBurney, film director Michael Dibb, visual artist John Christie, cartoonist Selçuk Demiral and photographer Jean Mohr, as well as two of his children - film critic Katya Berger and the painter Yves Berger.
The prelude and starting point is Berger's mind-boggling experience of restored vision following a successful cataract removal surgery. There, in the cusp of his clouding eyesight, Berger re-discovers the irredeemable wonder of seeing.
Realised as a portrait in works and collaborations, this creative documentary takes a different approach to biography, with Berger leading in his favourite role of the storyteller.
SUN 02:40 Secrets of British Animation (b0btynjg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
MONDAY 03 DECEMBER 2018
MON 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0btc1kn)
Series 1
03/12/2018
Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London return to report on the events that are shaping the world.
MON 19:30 University Challenge (b04ww24b)
Christmas 2014
Episode 7
In the final first round match actors Bernard Hill and John Thomson from Manchester Metropolitan University play BBC news reader Corrie Corfield and singer-songwriter Neil Innes representing Goldsmiths, University of London.
MON 20:00 Hidden Wales with Will Millard (b0bt81bm)
Series 1
Episode 2
In this three part series, writer and adventurer Will Millard discovers the hidden history of Wales by exploring forgotten, secret and usually inaccessible locations that show the country as you've never seen it before.
On an intriguing, exhilarating and sometimes dangerous journey, Hidden Wales with Will Millard offers unprecedented access to places you rarely get to see. Starting in the north and working his way south, Will reveals natural wonders hidden beneath the landscape, the abandoned buildings that tell us where Wales has come from and the modern marvels of engineering that show what the country might become.
In this second episode, Will continues his tour around Wales by moving to both mid-Wales and the west of the country. From a lead mine that's thousands of years old and a beautiful cave with a very scary entrance to an abandoned sea fort and a derelict mental asylum, Will uncovers historical gems that reveal parts of the middle and west of Wales that you never knew existed.
MON 21:00 Treasures of Ancient Rome (b01mmrn5)
Pomp and Perversion
Alastair Sooke follows in the footsteps of Rome's mad, bad and dangerous emperors in the second part of his celebration of Roman art. He dons a wetsuit to explore the underwater remains of the Emperor Claudius's pleasure palace and ventures into the cave where Tiberius held wild parties. He finds their taste in art chimes perfectly with their obsession with sex and violence.
The other side of the coin was the bombastic art the Romans are best remembered for - monumental arches and columns that boast about their conquests. Trajan's Column in Rome reads like the storyboard of a modern-day propaganda film.
Sooke concludes with the remarkable legacy of the Emperor Hadrian. He gave the world the magnificent Pantheon in Rome - the eternal image of his lover Antinous, the most beautiful boy in the history of art - and a villa in Tivoli where he created one of the most ambitious art collections ever created.
MON 22:00 Natural World (b062vth0)
2015-2016
Ireland's Wild River: The Mighty Shannon
Running through the heart of Ireland, the Shannon is the longest river in the British Isles. For locally born naturalist and cameraman Colin Stafford-Johnson, it is also the wildest. Amongst the river's cast are kingfishers and predatory pike, and living on its banks are native red squirrels. On a seasonal journey in his faithful canoe, Colin paddles along the Shannon to reveal its wild treasures.
MON 23:00 Long Shadow (b04lcbdx)
Us and Them
Nowhere was the legacy of the Great War more profound than in the unleashing of nationalist fervour across Europe. David Reynolds argues that the war made national identity a stark either-or issue, a matter of 'us' versus 'them', and he traces the recurrent struggle between nationalist uprisings and empire-building by Hitler, Stalin and latterly the European Union in the century since 1914.
The Great War shattered the old empires that had ruled central and eastern Europe for centuries and, in 1918, nationalist politicians seized their moment. David travels to the Sudetenland in the Czech Republic and to the Palace of Versailles to explore the drastically changed map of middle Europe in 1919. He explores how the new nation states hastily patched together from the ruins of the Habsburg Empire destabilised the whole European continent for much of the 20th century.
Reynolds finds that Britain's experience of the frenzy of nationalism was very different. The British Empire grew after the Great War and bonds with dominions like Australia and Canada, whose men fought heroically in the war, were renewed. England's union with Scotland and Wales, severely strained just before the Great War, was actually strengthened by the conflict and has only very recently been challenged by resurgent Scottish nationalism.
The grim exception in the British story was Ireland. Comparing the troubled relationship between Czechs and Sudeten Germans in interwar Czechoslovakia to Britain's intractable problems in Ireland, David travels to Dublin and Belfast to examine how two blood sacrifices of 1916 - the nationalist Easter Rising and the 36th Ulster Division's terrible losses on the first day of the Battle of the Somme - aggravated tensions that remain to this day.
MON 00:00 Timeshift (b00dzzdc)
Series 8
Last Days of Steam
The surprising story of how Britain entered a new age of steam railways after the Second World War and why it quickly came to an end.
After the war, the largely destroyed railways of Europe were rebuilt to carry more modern diesel and electric trains. Britain, however, chose to build thousands of brand new steam locomotives. Did we stay with steam because coal was seen as the most reliable power source, or were the railways run by men who couldn't bear to let go of their beloved steam trains?
The new British locomotives were designed to stay in service well into the 1970s, but in some cases they were taken off the railways and scrapped within just five years. When Dr Richard Beeching took over British Railways in the 1960s the writing was on the wall, and in 1968 the last steam passenger train blew its whistle.
But while steam use declined, steam enthusiasm grew. As many steam engines lay rusting in scrapyards around Britain, enthusiasts raised funds to buy, restore and return them to their former glory. In 2008, the first brand new steam locomotive to be built in Britain in nearly 50 years rolled off the line, proving our enduring love of these machines.
MON 01:00 Constable: A Country Rebel (b04gv42q)
The Haywain by John Constable is such a comfortingly familiar image of rural Britain that it is difficult to believe it was ever regarded as a revolutionary painting, but in this film, made in conjunction with a landmark exhibition at the V&A, Alastair Sooke discovers that Constable was painting in a way that was completely new and groundbreaking at the time.
Through experimentation and innovation he managed to make a sublime art from humble things and, though he struggled in his own country during his lifetime, his genius was surprisingly widely admired in France.
MON 02:00 Hidden Wales with Will Millard (b0bt81bm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
MON 03:00 Treasures of Ancient Rome (b01mmrn5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 04 DECEMBER 2018
TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0btc1qq)
Series 1
04/12/2018
Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London return to report on the events that are shaping the world.
TUE 19:30 University Challenge (b04ww28t)
Christmas 2014
Episode 8
Series featuring distinguished graduates. The first of the semi-final matches featuring special guests who are graduates from two of the UK's top universities.
TUE 20:00 The Story of Wales (b01dpk03)
A New Beginning
Huw Edwards presents this major television history of Wales, showing our country in ways it's never been seen before.
It's boom time as Wales becomes known the world over for one particular product - Welsh steam coal, the best you can get. In the space of 50 years, 'black gold' builds a new Wales. The coalfield pulls in hundreds of thousands of migrants with a different language and culture, becoming a bustling modern world of its own. Yet no sooner has Wales found itself at the centre of global trade, than the Depression causes an industrial crash with a bitter social fallout.
TUE 21:00 Rise of the Clans (b0bt7wsr)
Series 1
The Bruce Supremacy
Neil Oliver travels back in time to reveal the real life Game of Thrones - the story of Scotland's ancient clans. A blood-soaked saga of battles and feuds, loyalty and betrayal, love and death set against the country's wild mountains and glens. In this first episode, Neil follows the clans as they rallied behind Robert the Bruce in his against-all-odds bid to win Scotland's crown. After their crucial role in crushing the English at Bannockburn in 1314, Bruce rewarded the loyal chiefs with land and titles. They rise to shape the fate of kingdom in the centuries to come.
TUE 22:00 Beyond the Walls: In Search of the Celts (b0bt8w56)
Historian Dr Eleanor Barraclough travels through some of Britain’s most beautiful landscapes – Hadrian’s Wall, the Lake District and Offa’s Dyke – in search of new evidence to reveal the true story of the mysterious ancient British tribes often called the Celts.
According to the official history books, the Celts were defeated and pushed to the edges of Britain by waves of Roman and Anglo Saxon invaders. However, a growing body of evidence suggests this is not the full story.
To help give the Celts back their proper place in our history, Eleanor examines freshly discovered treasures, new archaeological evidence from real photographs and clues hidden in ancient poetry to reveal a fresh narrative - one that suggests the relationship between our ancient British ancestors and those who came to conquer them was much less repressive, and far more co-operative, than we have thought.
TUE 22:30 Britain's Lost Masterpieces (b0992k4v)
Series 2
Arbroath
Hospitalfield House in the fishing town of Arbroath on Scotland's east coast is a Victorian treasure trove. The couple who owned this great house back in the 19th century were obsessed with the decorative arts and Hospitalfield is full of ornate carved ceilings, sculpted fireplaces, exquisite plasterwork and stonework carved by master masons. It's still a place where artists work today and it has a fine picture collection.
Amongst the many Victorian paintings, could a mysterious 16th-century portrait by one of the great Old Master artists lie waiting to be discovered? Dr Bendor Grosvenor and Emma Dabiri travel to Arbroath to investigate what could be a true Old Master painting, obscured by 400 years of dirt and old varnish. Bendor suspects the painting is a lost masterpiece by giant of Dutch art Antonis Mor, court painter to Philip II of Spain. But with no documentary evidence, it's a hard case to prove.
While Bendor travels to Madrid to track down other examples of Mor's work, Emma digs deeper into the double standards of Victorian morals, finds the true story of the couple who made Hospitalfield a haven for artists, and meets the contemporary artists working at Hospitalfield today.
TUE 23:30 Sex: A Horizon Guide (b039vj9x)
Sex is a simple word for a very complex set of desires. It cuts to the core of our passions, our wants, our emotions. But when it goes wrong, it can be the most painful thing of all. Professor Alice Roberts looks through 45 years of Horizon archive to see how science came to understand sex, strived to solve our problems with it and even helped us to do it better. Can science save the day when sex goes wrong?
TUE 00:30 Secret Knowledge (b04tqk1n)
The Living Mountain: A Cairngorms Journey
A forgotten literary masterpiece celebrating the majesty of the Cairngorm mountains is the subject of this documentary presented by travel writer Robert MacFarlane.
The Living Mountain, written by Scottish poet and novelist Nan Shepherd in the 1940s, recounts her experience of walking in the Cairngorms during the early years of the Second World War. When Robert MacFarlane first discovered it he found it to be one of the finest books ever written on nature and landscape in Britain.
This love letter to the Cairngorms instantly challenged his preconceptions about nature writing. Unlike other mountaineering literature that focused on a quest to reach the summit, this remarkable book described a poetic and philosophical journey into the mountain.
Now Robert MacFarlane retraces Nan Shepherd's footsteps, exploring the Cairngorms through her thoughtful and lucid descriptions, in an attempt to discover what she called the living mountain: "So there I lie on the plateau, under me the central core of fire from which was thrust this grumbling mass of plutonic rock, over me blue air, and between the fire of the rock and the fire of the sun, scree, soil and water, grass, flower and tree, insect, bird and beast, wind, rain, snow - the total mountain."
This film brings the story of Nan Shepherd and her little-known work to a new audience, and along the way offers a moving and memorable tour of the Cairngorm mountains, seen afresh through the passion and poetry of her writing.
TUE 01:00 A Day in the Life of Andy Warhol (b067fw3w)
Andy Warhol created some of the most instantly recognisable art of the 20th century. But perhaps his greatest work of art was himself - the cool, enigmatic pop art superstar.
In this film, Stephen Smith sets out to discover the real Andy Warhol - in the hour-by-hour detail of his daily life.
Taking a playful approach, mixing archive and entertaining encounters with Warhol's closest friends and confidantes, Stephen pieces together a typical day in the mid 1960s.
By 1964, Warhol had established himself as a famous pop artist and his creative ambitions were exploding in new directions in a creative frenzy of art, films - and even music.
From an early-hours chat with John Giorno, Warhol's lover and star of his notorious film Sleep, to recreating Warhol's intimate telephone conversations with Factory superstar Brigid Berlin, Stephen immerses himself in the round-the-clock whirl of Warhol's daily life.
Visiting the church where Warhol worshipped with his mother, discussing the day-to-day running of the Factory with Warhol's assistant Gerard Malanga, talking to Bibbe Hansen and Jane Holzer, stars of his famous Screen Tests, the film offers a fresh and illuminating new portrait of Warhol.
And from the obsessive desire to document his everyday life to the endless fascination with fame and his own celebrity image, a day with Andy Warhol appears surprisingly familiar to 21st century eyes.
"In his lifetime", concludes Stephen, "some people thought Warhol came from another planet. But in fact he hailed from somewhere equally exotic - the future.".
TUE 02:00 Rise of the Clans (b0bt7wsr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUE 03:00 Beyond the Walls: In Search of the Celts (b0bt8w56)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 05 DECEMBER 2018
WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0btc1ww)
Series 1
05/12/2018
Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London return to report on the events that are shaping the world.
WED 19:30 University Challenge (b04ww2c3)
Christmas 2014
Episode 9
Series featuring teams of distinguished graduates. The last of the semi final matches in the University Challenge Christmas quiz for grown-ups. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.
WED 20:00 Vikings (b01mxt26)
Episode 2
Neil Oliver heads out from the Scandinavian homelands to Russia, Turkey and Ireland to trace the beginnings of a vast trading empire that handled Chinese silks as adeptly as Pictish slaves. Neil discovers a world of 'starry-eyed maidens' and Buddhist statues that are a world away from our British experience of axe-wielding warriors, although it turns out that there were quite a few of those as well.
WED 21:00 Digging for Britain (b0btx2zs)
Series 7
West
Professor Alice Robert explores this year’s most exciting archaeological finds from the west of Britain. Every new discovery was filmed by the archaeologists themselves, giving us an unprecedented view of each excavation as it happens.
In this episode, we join a team as they undertake the largest maritime investigation since the Mary Rose and reveal the extraordinary story of HMS Invincible. At Silchester, archaeologists investigate a bath house that reveals how the Romans stamped their mark on Britain. A buried military camp in Hampshire shows why German soldiers were key to our security in the 18th century, and archaeologist Raksha Dave goes behind the scenes to tell the tragic tale of individuals from a 19th-century pauper’s graveyard.
WED 22:00 Vic & Bob's Big Night Out (b0btc4b7)
Series 1
Episode 2
Vic debuts his new act for the Royal Variety Performance much to Bob's amazement and the pair of them embark on a ghost hunting experience in a disused toilet.
Fans will be delighted to see the return of folk singing oddballs Mulligan and O'Hare with the classic ditty My Darling Rose and there is a sketch warning of the dangers of wayward fireballs.
There is also an exclusive preview of a new album from Andrew Neil and Professor Robert Winston, as you've never seen them before.
Will Vic be able to fool Bob into thinking he is really part otter and part human - and in desperate need of a toffee crisp to eat before he slips back to the riverbank?
Ending with their uplifting song You Can Do It, you can certainly expect the unexpected from start to finish with Vic & Bob's unique blend of ingenuity and humour bursting out at the seams.
WED 22:30 Inside No. 9 (b05pwfcf)
Series 2
The 12 Days of Christine
Christine Clarke brings a new man back to her flat from a New Year's Eve party, and immediately her life starts to unravel. Who is the terrifying stranger that keeps appearing in the flat at night?
WED 23:00 Nature's Wonderlands: Islands of Evolution (b06yrgvr)
Madagascar: A World Apart
Professor Richard Fortey travels to the rainforests of Madagascar - an ancient island that has spawned some of the most extraordinary groups of plants and animals anywhere in the world. From beautiful Indri lemurs, toxic frogs, and the cat-like giant mongoose called the fossa, to evolutionary oddities like the giraffe-necked weevil and the otherworldly aye-aye, he uncovers the secrets of the evolutionary niche - examining how, given millions of years, animals and plants can adapt to fill almost any opportunity they find.
WED 00:00 An Art Lovers' Guide (b08ps5rd)
Series 1
Barcelona
With sumptuous palaces, exquisite artworks and stunning architecture, every great city offers a dizzying multitude of artistic highlights. In this series, art historians Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke take us on three cultural citybreaks, hunting for off-the-beaten-track artistic treats - and finding new ways of enjoying some very famous sights.
In this second episode, Janina Ramirez and Alastair are on a mission to get to know one of the most popular cities in the world through its art and architecture. Although Barcelona is famous for its exuberant modernista buildings, the Gothic Quarter and artistic superstars such as Picasso, Janina and Alastair are determined to discover some less well-known cultural treats. Escaping the crowds on the Ramblas, they seek out the designs of an engineer who arguably put more of a stamp on the city than its star architect, Antoni Gaudi. Alastair marvels at the Romanesque frescoes that inspired a young Miro, while Janina discovers a surprising collection of vintage fans in the Mares, one of the city's most remarkable but rarely visited museums.
With a behind-the-scenes visit to Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, a session of impromptu Catalan dance and Alastair adding the finishing touches to some Barcelona street art, it is a fast-paced and colourful tour of the city's art and artists, revealing how Barcelona developed its distinctive cultural identity and how the long-running fight for independence has shaped the artistic life of the city.
WED 01:00 Chalkie Davies: Rock Photographer (b05xd4yv)
In the late 70s Chalkie Davies was a photographer at the New Musical Express, taking pictures of bands like Thin Lizzy, the Clash, the Sex Pistols and many more. Now, as his first major exhibition opens at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, and showing as part of BBC Music Day, he looks back on an extraordinary life, and old friends like Elvis Costello reflect on how Chalkie's images are so enduring.
Chalkie Davies was born in Sully just outside Cardiff and his first job was as an engineer at Heathrow Airport. But he was always a keen amateur photographer and when he won a camera club competition in 1973 the door opened onto a career in rock 'n' roll.
He was allowed in to take pictures on the last night of David Bowie's legendary Ziggy Stardust tour and the results were so good he never looked back. Joining the New Musical Express in the mid-70s, he was in the right place at the right time and became a favourite amongst the punk and new wave bands including the Clash, The Specials, Squeeze and Elvis Costello.
Chalkie's pictures summed up the era and many are classics of rock and roll photography. But by the mid-80s he'd become disenchanted with the music business, where image mattered more than music. The death of his close friend Phil Lynott, leader singer of Thin Lizzy, led Chalkie to quit rock music.
For 25 years Chalkie's collection of rock images remained hidden away until an invitation from the National Museum of Wales led him to bring them out for a new generation. This documentary follows Chalkie as he prepares for the exhibition, revisits his childhood haunts and reflects on an extraordinary career.
There are contributions from many of the musicians he photographed including Elvis Costello, Chris Difford of Squeeze, songwriter Nick Lowe, the Specials mainman Jerry Dammers and punk poet John Cooper Clarke.
WED 01:30 Vikings (b01mxt26)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 02:30 Digging for Britain (b0btx2zs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 06 DECEMBER 2018
THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (b0btc21z)
Series 1
06/12/2018
Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London return to report on the events that are shaping the world.
THU 19:30 University Challenge (b04ww2qk)
Christmas 2014
Episode 10
The grand final of the seasonal competition for alumni from some of the UK's top universities - which university will be Christmas University Challenge champions? Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.
THU 20:00 Secret Life of Farm Animals (b0btpf6z)
Series 1
Sheep
It’s springtime on the farm and the focus is on sheep.
We follow the first 12 weeks of a lamb’s life on a Welsh Hill farm.
Along the way we find out that sheep are highly social animals with not only a remarkable ability to recognise each other, but to recognise human faces too. We meet a ram that has befriended a shy four-year-old boy and we take a drone’s eye view of some multi-coloured sheep to show that despite being sociable, flocking is actually all about self-preservation. Other animals we meet on the farm include Charlie, a lonely goose looking for company in his own reflection.
THU 21:00 Operation Iceberg (b01nqc90)
Series 1
Life and Death of a 'Berg
In the second part of this Arctic adventure series, Chris Packham, Helen Czerski and a team of explorers and scientists investigate an iceberg floating out at sea. Their aim is to discover the forces that gradually destroy an iceberg by looking at a massive tabular 'berg 50 kilometres from the Canadian coast.
During the expedition, the team confronts a large number of polar bears - the largest land predator on earth. And while they are working on the iceberg, a large chunk of it actually breaks off beneath their feet. Despite these dangers, the team succeeds in revealing the mysteries of these stunning natural phenomena.
THU 22:00 Gravity and Me: The Force That Shapes Our Lives (b08kgv7f)
Physics professor Jim Al-Khalili investigates the amazing science of gravity. A fundamental force of nature, gravity shapes our entire universe, sculpting galaxies and warping space and time. But gravity's strange powers, discovered by Albert Einstein, also affect our daily lives in the most unexpected ways. As Jim tells the story of gravity, it challenges his own understanding of the nature of reality.
The science of gravity includes the greatest advances in physics, and Jim recreates groundbreaking experiments in gravity including when the Italian genius Galileo first worked out how to measure it.
Gravity science is still full of surprises and Jim investigates the latest breakthrough - 'gravity waves' - ripples in the vast emptiness of space. He also finds out from astronauts what it's like to live without gravity.
But gravity also directly affects all of us very personally - making a difference to our weight, height, posture and even the rate at which we age. With the help of volunteers and scientists, Jim sets out to find where in Britain gravity is weakest and so where we weigh the least. He also helps design a smartphone app that volunteers use to demonstrate how gravity affects time and makes us age at slightly different rates.
And finally, Jim discovers that despite incredible progress, gravity has many secrets.
THU 23:30 Roy Orbison: Love Hurts (b09j0r8s)
Roy Orbison died 29 years ago but he's hardly forgotten. As one of rock 'n' roll's pioneers he achieved superstar status in the 60s, writing and releasing a series of smash singles such as Oh, Pretty Woman, Only the Lonely, In Dreams and Crying. But while his professional life was full of triumph, Roy suffered terrible misfortune in his personal life, losing his wife and two of his children in successive tragedies, rebuilding his life by relying on his music to distract him from desolation.
Roy's legacy as a beloved rock legend and a devoted father is revealed through intimate interviews with Roy's three surviving sons, featuring previously unseen home videos as Alex, Roy Jnr and Wesley Orbison discuss the immense talent and fierce determination that provided the driving force behind their father's incredible success and the dedication to Roy's family that helped create a strong spiritual base to escape the pressures of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.
This is the personal story of the relationship between three children and their father; a father who died when they were young, and who they have reconnected with and come to understand through embracing his life's work. It is not often that one gets to understand the person who is the music phenomenon, but in this film about relationships, family, love, loss and affirmation, we get to see the man behind the ever-present dark sunglasses and brooding loner persona, witnessing his struggle with personal demons, and ultimately redemption and acknowledgement from his peers.
THU 00:30 Beautiful Equations (b00wltbm)
Artist and writer Matt Collings takes the plunge into an alien world of equations. He asks top scientists to help him understand five of the most famous equations in science, talks to Stephen Hawking about his equation for black holes and comes face to face with a particle of anti-matter.
Along the way he discovers why Newton was right about those falling apples and how to make sense of E=mc2. As he gets to grips with these equations he wonders whether the concept of artistic beauty has any relevance to the world of physics.
THU 01:30 The Mystery of Van Gogh's Ear (b07nswft)
It is one of the greatest and bloodiest mysteries in art: what happened on the December night in 1888 when Vincent van Gogh took a blade to his own ear?
Jeremy Paxman joins art sleuth Bernadette Murphy on her amazing quest to discover the truth - what exactly did the artist do, why did he do it and who was the unknown girl he is said to have handed his severed ear to, her real identity kept secret by her family for over a century? It is an event that defines van Gogh, who created his greatest masterpieces including the Sunflowers at the same moment as suffering mental torture, but what are the real facts?
This revealing detective story travels from Vincent's home in the south of France to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and uncovers key evidence hidden in a Californian library that has created an art-world sensation, as we finally solve the mystery of Van Gogh's ear.
THU 02:30 Secret Life of Farm Animals (b0btpf6z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRIDAY 07 DECEMBER 2018
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b0bt77l2)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b0btpkyg)
Janice Long presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 30 October 1986. Featuring Mel and Kim, Berlin, Catherine Stock, Gwen Guthrie, Bon Jovi, Kim Wilde, Nick Berry and Status Quo.
FRI 20:00 The Live Lounge Show (b0btpm1k)
Series 2
The 1975, Mumford and Sons: The Live Lounge Show
Clara Amfo takes us behind the scenes of the world-famous Radio 1 Live Lounge - showcasing the biggest names in music, including The 1975, Mumford & Sons, Ellie Goulding, Rudimental, Tom Walker and Jorja Smith.
FRI 21:00 Barbra Streisand: Becoming an Icon 1942-1984 (b0bt8x6z)
Barbra Streisand grew up in working-class Brooklyn, dreaming of escape from her tough childhood. A stellar student, she resisted the pressure to go to college as her sights were firmly set on Broadway. She was determined to become an actress and landed her first role aged 16, but it was two years later, when she started to sing, that her career took off.
Subverting stereotypes and breaking glass ceilings, this programme looks at her rise to stardom and the remarkable achievements of her early career.
FRI 22:00 Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music: A Musical History (b0bt8x9w)
Documentary exploring the music of rock band Roxy Music, who have a good claim to be one of the UK's most influential bands. Led by charismatic front man Bryan Ferry, their striking style and great songs won them an army of fans who would go on to make their own mark in the world of music.
In this celebration of the music of both Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music, insights and anecdotes are provided by household names from Sadie Frost to Glenn Gregory & Martyn Ware, Gaz Coombes, New Order's Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert, Shaun Ryder and Alan McGee, Ana Matronic and more.
Formed in 1971, Roxy Music was the brain child of art student Bryan Ferry. His advert in Melody Maker gathered the initial line-up which included guitarist Phil Manzanera, saxophonist Andy Mackay, keyboard player Brian Eno and drummer Paul Thompson.
Pioneers of glam, their outlandish fashion sense, songwriting and pioneering use of electronics created a glorious package. Punk, New Wave and New Romantic music owe a huge debt to Bryan and Roxy Music.
Style is one thing, but the substance was reflected in a catalogue of classic songs - combined they create an enduring legacy which is celebrated in a golden hour of their greatest hits.
FRI 23:00 Tom Jones's 1950s: The Decade That Made Me (b0788qph)
In this personal journey through his formative years in south Wales in the 1950s, Tom Jones takes us on a trip through the decade of his childhood and adolescence, the years that shaped his ambition, his talent and his tastes and that witnessed an explosion of popular culture and the sweeping aside of the old order.
Television, the movies, the radio and - most importantly - the music of the first rock 'n' roll years give us a unique insight into both the country and the decade that would shape Tom's talent and, in the 60s, make him a star. Tom Jones's 1950s in Pontypridd are told first hand by the man himself as he travels back to his birthplace.
Tom's take on the decade is amplified and explored by a Greek chorus of contributors who share their account of their 50s. Joan Bakewell, Katherine Whitehorn and Michele Hanson share their experiences both as women and from differing class backgrounds, historians Alwyn Turner, Martin Johnes, Francis Beckett and Tony Russell draw the social and political landscape of a rapidly changing decade, while musicians Bruce Welch, Clem Cattini, Marty Wilde and Tom McGuinness talk of how that decade began their musical journeys and changed their lives forever, all illustrated by a rich seam of archive that captures a decade we mostly saw in black and white.
The result is a rich mix of humour, confession and reflection - all brought to life by Tom Jones himself, our guide through the lives and times of a young generation struggling to find its own voice.
FRI 00:00 Roy Orbison: One of the Lonely Ones (b06t3vb9)
Biography of iconic rock balladeer Roy Orbison told through his own voice, casting new light on the triumphs and tragedies that beset his career. Using previously unseen performances, home movies and interviews with many who have never spoken before, the film reveals Orbison's remote Texas childhood, his battles to get his voice heard, and how he created lasting hits like Only the Lonely and Crying.
The film follows Roy's rollercoaster life, often reflected in the dark lyrics of his songs, from success to rejection to rediscovery in the 80s with The Traveling Wilburys supergroup. It uncovers the man behind the shades, including interviews with his sons, many close friends and collaborators like Jeff Lynne, T Bone Burnett, Bobby Goldsboro and Marianne Faithfull.
FRI 01:00 Top of the Pops (b0btpkyg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 01:30 The Live Lounge Show (b0btpm1k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRI 02:30 Blackadder (p00bf6vt)
Blackadder Goes Forth
Plan E - General Hospital
Melchett orders Blackadder to unmask a spy working in the hospital where George is recovering from a bomb blast. Edmund sets to work, interrogating Darling, seducing a nurse and asking Baldrick to keep an eye on a patient with a pronounced German accent.
FRI 03:00 Blackadder (b0078nnr)
Blackadder Goes Forth
Plan F - Goodbyeee
Sitcom set in the trenches of the First World War. When Blackadder, George and Baldrick are told they are going over the top the next day, Blackadder decides to feign madness.