Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping the world.
The real side of boat life with Robbie Cumming. Robbie runs aground on the Rochdale Canal - will he make it to Manchester?
Vienna was the capital of the Habsburg dynasty and home to the Holy Roman Emperors. From here, they dominated middle Europe for nearly 1,000 years. In this series, historian Simon Sebag Montefiore describes how the Habsburgs transformed Vienna into a multinational city of music, culture and ideas. Napoleon, Hitler, Mozart, Strauss, Freud, Stalin and Klimt all played their part.
In this first episode, we follow the Habsburgs' rise to power and discover how Vienna marked Europe's front line in the struggle to defend both Christendom from the Ottomans and the Catholic Church from the Protestant revolutionaries that plotted to destroy it.
Danish director Mads Brügger and Swedish private investigator Göran Björkdahl are trying to solve the mysterious death of Dag Hammarskjöld. As their investigation closes in, they discover a crime far worse than the murder of the secretary-general of the United Nations.
In 1961, United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld’s plane mysteriously crashed, killing Hammarskjöld and most of the crew. With the case still unsolved over 50 years later, Danish journalist, film-maker and provocateur Mads Brügger leads us down an investigative rabbit hole to unearth the truth. Scores of false starts, dead ends and elusive interviews later, Brügger and his sidekick, Swedish Göran Björkdahl, begin to sniff out something more monumental than anything they had initially imagined.
In his signature provocateur style, Brügger becomes both film-maker and subject, challenging the very nature of truth by ‘performing’ the role of truth seeker. As Brügger uncovers a major secret that could send shockwaves around the world, we realise that sometimes absurdity and irony are the emboldening ingredients needed to confront what is truly sinister in the world.
Cold Case Hammarskjöld was premiered at Sundance in 2019 and won the Directing Award for World Cinema Documentary.
Rock legend and tour bus aficionado Rick Wakeman takes us on a time-travelling trip through the decades in this first-hand account of rockers on the road from the late 1950s to the 80s and beyond.
It's an often bumpy and sometimes sleepless ride down the A roads and motorways of the UK during the golden age of rock 'n' roll touring - a secret history of transport cafes, transit vans, B&Bs, sleepless roadies and of loved ones left at home or, on one occasion, by the roadside. And it's also a secret history of audiences both good and bad, and the gigs themselves - from the early variety package to the head clubs, the stadiums and the pubs.
This is life in the British fast lane as told by Rick and the bands themselves, a film about the very lifeblood of the rock 'n' roll wagon train. With members of Dr Feelgood, Suzi Quatro, The Shadows, The Pretty Things, Fairport Convention, Happy Mondays, Aswad, Girlschool, The Damned and many more.
After Dan Brown's publishing phenomenon The Da Vinci Code was cleared of plagiarism charges, this documentary explores the climate which has permitted a fictional story to make such an effective challenge to conventional history that it has forced a counter-attack from the Church, the art world and academics. Has Brown cracked the most difficult code of all our 21st-century cultural DNA?
Contributors include Richard Leigh, author of The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, art critic Brian Sewell, novelist Sarah Dunant, columnist David Aaronovitch and Opus Dei director Jack Valero.
Dr James Fox journeys through Japan's mountainous forests, marvels at its zen gardens and admires centuries-old bonsai, to explore the connections between Japanese culture and the natural environment. Travelling around Japan's stunning island geography, he examines how the country's two great religions, Shinto and Buddhism, helped shape a creative response to nature often very different to the West. But he also considers modern Japan's changing relationship to the natural world and travels to Naoshima Art Island to see how contemporary artists are finding new ways to engage with nature.
Comedian, actor and ex-English teacher Greg Davies is a lifelong fan of Barry Hines's classic novel A Kestrel for a Knave, the story of Billy Casper training a kestrel as an escape from his troubled home and school life. In this documentary, Greg goes in search of the book's enduring appeal, travelling to Barnsley, where the book was set and where Ken Loach's famous adaptation, Kes, was filmed.
In a series of encounters with Barry Hines's friends and family, collaborators and admirers, Greg offers a warm, funny and poignant tribute to a book that gave a unique voice to the working-class experience and, in Billy Casper, created a young rebel whose story continues to connect with readers more than 50 years after it was first published in 1968.
In the fish and chip shop young Billy visits in Kes, now renamed Caspers, Greg meets Dai Bradley who played Billy Casper. Together they wonder what might have become of him. 'I think he would have kept that fighting spirit,' says Dai. 'There’s a lot of kids like him out there and the message of the book is that we need to find ways to harness that energy.'
Greg also meets members of the local community in the working men's club, where Barry was a regular, and discovers how many characters in the book were inspired by the people he met there, including the notorious PE teacher.
Ken Loach explains why the book provided such perfect source material for the film. 'The truth of the book shone through: the comedy, the use of language and dialect and, of course, the central image of a boy who is trapped, training a bird that flies free.'
Greg visits the site where Barry Hines's brother, Richard, found his own kestrel, the encounter that inspired the character of Billy and the location used in the film. For the first time in 50 years, Richard flies a kestrel again.
In the Sheffield University archives, Greg is thrilled to discover the original handwritten manuscript of A Kestrel for a Knave. There he meets Jarvis Cocker, another fan of the book, who discusses why the book meant so much to him 'That symbolism of escape was powerful for me growing up,' says Jarvis. 'The desire for escape has been a massive engine for creativity for people from working-class backgrounds. You want to make, write or sing something to help you escape.'
TUESDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2019
TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m000bpkn)
Series 1
26/11/2019
Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping the world.
TUE 19:30 Canal Boat Diaries (m000bpkr)
Series 1
Barton Swing Aqueduct to Liverpool Docks
Life on board a narrowboat with Robbie Cumming. There are engine issues and a leaky boat to fix before Robbie reaches Liverpool Docks.
TUE 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.
TUE 21:00 Inside Porton Down: Britain's Secret Weapons Research Facility (b07hx40t)
Dr Michael Mosley investigates Britain's most secretive and controversial military research base, Porton Down, on its 100th anniversary. He comes face to face with chemical and biological weapons old and new, reveals the truth about shocking animal and human testing, and discovers how the latest science and technology are helping to defend us against terrorist attacks and rogue nations.
TUE 22:00 The Trouble with Naipaul (m000bpkt)
Shahidha Bari, professor at the University of the Arts London, asks if we should stop reading controversial writer Sir VS Naipaul. Is his legacy compromised by his confessions of violence towards women and his controversial views on race?
Sir VS Naipaul, who died in 2018, is arguably one of the most important British writers of the 20th century. Part of a vanguard of postcolonial authors who wrote about the new world being created in the wake of the British Empire, Naipaul’s work was applauded across the globe. He won the Booker Prize for his novel, In a Free State, as well as in 2001 the Nobel Prize for Literature for his body of work as a whole, including his non-fiction publications documenting his various travels through Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Bari meets those who claim Naipaul’s views, today, are difficult to accept - steeped in a colonial mindset that has little resonance in the 21st century. And she talks to others who feel that Naipaul's outspoken views are an essential part of the package and that he still belongs in the canon of great literature.
In Trinidad, Bari learns of the abuse Naipaul suffered as a child and how it affected his relationship with the country of his birth and his work.
Naipaul was the author of more than 40 books and wrote fiction and non-fiction with equal success. His best-known works are the novels A House for Mr Biswas, A Bend in the River and In a Free State.
TUE 23:00 Sleuths, Spies & Sorcerers: Andrew Marr's Paperback Heroes (p040pwl2)
Spies
What is the allure of the classic espionage story? As Andrew Marr argues in the conclusion to his series about the books we (really) read, the British spy novel is much more than a cloak-and-dagger affair. Rather, these books allow readers to engage with some pretty big questions about the human condition - principally, who are you? What or who would you be willing to betray? And for what cause would you lay your life on the line?
To help him decipher the rules of the classic espionage story, Andrew travels to Berlin in the footsteps of master spy novelist John le Carre, whose experience of witnessing the Berlin Wall being erected in 1961 inspired him to write the 20th century's greatest spy novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.
Andrew uncovers the various conventions that have governed the genre since it began. He shows how early spy novelists created a climate of fear, how they introduced the debonair gentleman spy, and how through the works of former secret agents such as Somerset Maugham they translated the often mundane details of espionage into their stories. The tradecraft of spywriting is gleaned from writers Frederick Forsyth, William Boyd, Gerald Seymour, Charles Cumming as well as novelist (and former director general of MI5) Dame Stella Rimington. And Andrew considers the future of the fictional spy in an age when the agent on the ground is being superseded by electronic surveillance.
TUE 00:00 MAKE! Craft Britain (b09xzsmc)
Series 1
Episode 3
Two new sets of students are introduced to the art of mosaic making and perennial favourite, knitting. Meanwhile, origami artist Sam Tsang is on hand to teach how to make a family of paper penguins.
To inspire our budding mosaic makers, their workshop takes place in a very special village hall in Ford Village, Northumberland. Lady Waterford Hall was once the village school and is decorated with exquisite biblical murals painted by Lady Louisa herself over 21 years after the death of her husband in 1860. She is now regarded as one of the most gifted painters of the pre-Raphaelite era.
Picking up Lady Waterford's mantle is Tamara Froud, renowned mosaicist whose works can be seen in public spaces all over the country, and she welcomes eight students to the beautiful space for her two-day workshop.
The students are here to make plaques for the outside walls of their homes. First, they have to master the tools of the trade, and protective glasses are in order as tiles fly and crockery shatters. But soon a more peaceful air descends as Alison recreates the horns of her new prize ram in terracotta tiles, Paul rebuilds Hadrian's Wall against the backdrop of the Northumbrian flag and Cheryl pays homage to a Lowry painting which features the front steps of her new home.
In London, an altogether different workshop is taking place as six students are charged with knitting their very own bobble hat in a single day. Three are complete novices, while three have some experience of knitting but have been put off along the way. Teachers Jen and Jenny are on hand to make it all look simple.
First to finish is Kirsty with her magnificent stripy pom-pom hat, but Luke the undertaker struggles and mid-afternoon his hat goes into 'special measures'. This makes his pride on finishing all the more heartfelt, along with the two other men in the group, neither of whom had ever picked up a pair of knitting needles in their lives.
TUE 01:00 Utopia: In Search of the Dream (b090c2pj)
Series 1
Blueprints for Better
In this first episode, Prof Richard Clay explores how utopian visions begin as blueprints for fairer worlds and asks whether they can inspire real change.
Charting 500 years of utopian visions and making bold connections between exploration and science fiction - from radical 18th-century politics to online communities like Wikipedia - Richard delves into colourful stories of some of the world's greatest utopian dreamers, including Thomas More, who coined the term 'utopia', Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels, and Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek.
Richard builds a compelling argument that utopian visions have been a powerful way of criticising the present, and he identifies key values he believes the imagined better futures tend to idealise. He shows how the concept of shared ownership, a 'commons' of both land and digital space online, has fired utopian thinking, and he explores the dream of equality through the campaign for civil rights in the 1960s and through a feminist theatrical production in today's America.
Immersing himself in a terrifying '1984' survival drama in Vilnius, Lithuania, Richard also looks at the flip side, asking why dystopias are so popular today in film, TV and comic book culture. He explores whether dystopian visions have been a way to remind ourselves that hard-won gains can be lost and that we must beware of humanity's darker side if we are ever to reach a better place.
Across Britain, Germany, Lithuania and America, Richard talks about the meaning of utopia with a rich range of interviewees, including Katherine Maher, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols, explorer Belinda Kirk, football commentator John Motson and Hollywood screenwriter Frank Spotnitz.
TUE 02:00 Revolution and Romance: Musical Masters of the 19th Century (b07d9rwv)
We Can Be Heroes
In the first programme, Suzy Klein tells the story of a creative outpouring unrivalled before or since - the 19th century witnessed the emergence of composers such as Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Chopin, Wagner, Verdi and Liszt, just to name a few of the stellar array whose genius we venerate to this day.
As the aristocracy weakened following the French Revolution, the industrial revolution created new wealth and the middle classes flourished, Suzy shows how it was possible for composers and performers to become the superstars of their age, no longer the servants of kings and princes.
Masters like Paganini and Liszt were idolised, commanded immense fees and had a following as adoring as any of the rock stars and singers of today. Composers tore up the rulebooks, embraced the spirit of Romanticism and poured out their souls in their bold and experimental work. And, freed from the chains of aristocratic patronage, they became entrepreneurs too, organising and profiting from their concerts and winning unprecedented wealth, fame and status.
But with commercial success came a very modern backlash - artistic credibility versus X Factor-style fame. Which would win out? Or could one coexist with the other? As music gained increasing power and influence as the art form of the 19th century, composers started to believe that they could change the world... and remarkably, they really did.
TUE 03:00 The Trouble with Naipaul (m000bpkt)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2019
WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m000bply)
Series 1
27/11/2019
Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping the world.
WED 19:30 Canals: The Making of a Nation (b06829t1)
The Boat People
Presenter Liz McIvor tells the story of the people who operated the canal boats, carrying fuel and goods around the country. Conditions were tough, days were long. Victorian society began to grow suspicious of these 'outsiders' and they gained reputations for criminality, violence and drinking. But was this reputation really deserved? Liz discovers grisly canal crimes, investigates health and welfare onboard working boats, and looks at why canal children were last on the list to be offered safeguards and formal education. The Victorians eventually championed the needs of children who were forced to labour in factories and mines, but the boat children were often ignored. Liz discovers the campaigners who set out to tackle this injustice, including George Smith of Coalville, Leicestershire, and Sister Mary Ward of Stoke Bruerne.
WED 20:00 Sacred Wonders of Britain (b03pr5cm)
Episode 2
Neil is in search of Bronze and Iron Age sites that were sacred to ancient Britons, with water seen not just as a source of life, but also of reverence.
At Flag Fen near Peterborough he discovers a vast ancient causeway built across the fens, with sacred objects placed among its timbers. At Maiden Castle's hill fort in Dorset he unearths evidence of macabre human sacrifices to ward off evil spirits.
Neil travels to Anglesey, where swords, precious artefacts and even a slave chain were ritually deposited. It was home of the druids. Neil learns about their bizarre rituals and dark reputation and how the Romans viewed them as dangerous religious extremists.
Moving on to Bath and its sacred spring, Neil discovers an early version of the habit of throwing coins into water. Once here the Romans recognised the old gods but also brought their own too, making Bath one of the most sacred sites in Roman Britain.
Finally Neil goes to Lullingstone's Roman villa in Kent. Deep in the cellar he finds wall paintings of pagan water deities, while upstairs there are covert messages hidden in the mosaic floor, finally leading to the arrival of Christianity that swept away the old religions, changing Britain forever.
WED 21:00 Digging for Britain (m000bpm4)
Series 8
North
The remains of a Tudor house in Leicestershire were thought to be the childhood home of England’s forgotten queen, Lady Jane Grey. But when archaeologists excavate, they find more than they bargained for. In Northern Ireland, the graveyard of a Victorian workhouse sheds new light on one of the most traumatic periods of modern Irish history, the Great Famine of 1845.
A team from Sheffield University want to understand the lives of people who occupied a village near the famous caves at Creswell Crags in Nottinghamshire. But could the clues - tales of superstition, witches, and the occult - be hidden in plain sight?
Near Lincoln, a return to an Anglo-Saxon site proves rewarding with the discovery of a spectacularly well-preserved bronze and enamel Roman bowl, carefully laid into a grave. And, on Rousay in the Orkneys there’s tantalising evidence of an undiscovered Viking longhouse.
WED 22:00 Vic & Bob's Big Night Out (m000bpm8)
Series 2
Episode 1
Vic & Bob's Big Night Out returns with a bang. Judge Nutmeg dispenses punishment to an unsuspecting audience member, the Ghost Hunters are on the prowl, and Bob takes us back to the 80s with a special performance.
WED 22:30 Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing (b0b7r2kn)
Series 1
Episode 1
Lifelong friends and comedic royalty Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer have more in common than just their love of laughter - on a more serious note, they have both suffered complex heart disease. Paul is an experienced fisherman, Bob a complete novice. Paul thought a tour of the country's finest fishing spots might help Bob's recovery, and along the way maybe they would learn something about each other. In this funny and poignant six-part series, we eavesdrop on their expedition as they reconnect with each other and share their personal experiences of life, while testing the parameters of true friendship.
They also fish, and talk nonsense. A lot.
On soggy riverbanks, they candidly discuss everything from show business to solitude, relationships and romance, while trying to catch some of the most significant species of fish in the country. This is as much an insight into the hearts and minds of two of the UK's best-loved comics as it is about capturing the extreme exhilaration and occasional monotony of one of the most popular pastimes in the UK.
While in Norfolk fishing for tench, Bob tries to impress Paul with his childhood fishing rod - and fails. They share nostalgia for their younger years and reveal how they recently came face to face with their own mortality. After a brief respite in a local brewery, they reluctantly camp down in yurts before fishing again the next day where the elusive tench seems to evade them until the very last minute.
WED 23:00 Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing (b0b8l5w8)
Series 1
Episode 2
Lifelong friends and comedic royalty Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer have more in common than just their love of laughter - on a more serious note, they have both suffered complex heart disease. Paul is an experienced fisherman, Bob a complete novice. Paul thought a tour of the country's finest fishing spots might help Bob's recovery, and along the way maybe they would learn something about each other. In this funny and poignant six-part series, we eavesdrop on their expedition as they reconnect with each other and share their personal experiences of life, while testing the parameters of true friendship.
They also fish, and talk nonsense. A lot.
On soggy riverbanks, they candidly discuss everything from show business to solitude, relationships and romance, while trying to catch some of the most significant species of fish in the country. This is as much an insight into the hearts and minds of two of the UK's best-loved comics as it is about capturing the extreme exhilaration and occasional monotony of one of the most popular pastimes in the UK.
Paul and Bob fish for the mighty barbel in Hay-on-Wye. Passing a graveyard, they muse about the future and chat to a local vicar about death, and their own funerals. To lighten the mood back in their wooden fishing cabin, Bob promises Paul a very special treat if they are successful in their angling efforts.
WED 23:30 Everyday Miracles: The Genius of Sofas, Stockings and Scanners (b04fmg34)
Away
Professor Mark Miodownik concludes his odyssey of the stuff of modern life. This time he looks at how materials have enabled us to indulge our curiosity about the world around us. To go further and travel faster. He looks at how the bicycle suddenly stirred our national gene pool, why we should all be grateful for exploding glass and what levitation has to do with discovering your inner self. On the road and in the lab with dramatic experiments, Mark reveals why the everyday and even the mundane is anything but.
WED 00:30 Utopia: In Search of the Dream (b091gx74)
Series 1
Build It and They Will Come
Utopia has been imagined in a thousand different ways. Yet when people try to build utopia, they struggle and very often fail. Art historian professor Richard Clay asks whether utopian visions for living can ever reconcile the tension between the group and the individual, the rules and the desire to break free.
Travelling to America, he encounters experimental communities, searching for greater meaning in life. Richard visits a former Shaker village in New Hampshire and immerses himself for a day at the Twin Oaks eco-commune in Virginia, where residents share everything, even clothes. He looks back at the grand urban plans for the masses of the 20th-century utopian ideologies, from the New Deal housing projects of downtown Chicago to the concrete sprawl of a Soviet-era housing estate in Vilnius, Lithuania. He also meets utopian architects with a continuing faith that humanity's lot can be improved by better design. Interviewees include architect Norman Foster and designer Shoji Sadao.
WED 01:30 From Scotland with Love (b047lx52)
Made entirely of Scottish film archive, a journey into our collective past, the film explores universal themes of love, loss, resistance, migration, work and play. Ordinary people, some long since dead, their names and identities largely forgotten, appear shimmering from the depths of the vaults to take a starring role. These silent individuals become composite characters, who emerge to tell us their stories, given voice by King Creosote's poetic music and lyrics.
WED 02:40 Digging for Britain (m000bpm4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2019
THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m000bpmv)
Series 1
28/11/2019
Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping the world.
THU 19:30 Canals: The Making of a Nation (b0685bp2)
The Workers
This is the story of the men who built our canals - the navigators or 'navvies'. They represented an 'army' of hard physical men who were capable of enduring tough labour for long hours. Many roved the countryside looking for work and a better deal. They gained a reputation as troublesome outsiders, fond of drinking and living a life of ungodly debauchery. But who were they? Unreliable heathens and outcasts, or unsung heroes who used might and muscle to build canals and railways? We focus on the Manchester Ship Canal - the swansong for the navvies and hailed as the greatest engineering feat of the Victorian Age. The navvies worked at a time of rising trade unionism. But could they organise and campaign for a better deal?
THU 20:00 Wonders of the Solar System (b00rmpqh)
Original Series
The Thin Blue Line
Professor Brian Cox reveals how something as flimsy as an envelope of gas - an atmosphere - can create some of the most wondrous sights in the solar system. He takes a ride in an English Electric Lightning and flies 18 km up to the top of earth's atmosphere, where he sees the darkness of space above and the thin blue line of our atmosphere below. In the Namib desert in south-west Africa, he tells the story of Mercury. This tiny planet was stripped naked of its early atmosphere and is fully exposed to the ferocity of space.
Against the stunning backdrop of the glaciers of Alaska, Brian reveals his fourth wonder: Saturn's moon Titan, shrouded by a murky, thick atmosphere. He reveals that below the clouds lies a magical world. Titan is the only place beyond earth where we've found liquid pooling on the surface in vast lakes, as big as the Caspian Sea, but the lakes of Titan are filled with a mysterious liquid, and are quite unlike anything on earth.
THU 21:00 Wild Weather with Richard Hammond (b04tqghf)
Original Series
Wind: The Invisible Force
Richard Hammond investigates how wind actually starts. He visits one of the windiest places on the planet, walks into the centre of a man-made tornado and creates a 10-metre high whirlwind - made of fire!
Along the way he is part of a world first when he joins up with American meteorologist Reed Timmer and a bizarre vehicle known as the Dominator III. Their aim is to succeed in doing what no one has ever done before, fire a probe into a tornado to measure its speed where it is at its fastest - right next to the ground. As Reed explains, 'near the base of the tornado is one of the biggest mysteries of tornado science and it's also the most important to understand because those are the wind speeds... that cause all the destruction'. To put that right, Reed and his team take The Dominator into the middle of a real live tornado and attempt to fire a probe into the very heart of it.
Richard also visits one of the few places on the planet capable of duplicating a real-life tornado. The Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment Research Institute (or WindEEE for short) in Ontario in Canada hadn't even opened its doors when Richard asked them to take part in an experiment. The $23 million facility is one of the the world's first hexagonal wind tunnels. As Richard says, 'I've got goosebumps. And that's not just because it's cold in here!'
Richard braves the winds and temperatures of -50 degrees Fahrenheit to take a trip outside on top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire. On April 12th 1934, that station measured one of the highest wind speeds ever measured on land - 231 mph.
THU 22:00 Elton John at the BBC (b00vs5c0)
Elton John's career tracked in archive from performances, interviews and news clips.
THU 22:55 Arena (b01flrcl)
Jonathan Miller
Documentary exploring the extraordinary life of Sir Jonathan Miller CBE.
Jonathan Miller is usually described as a 'polymath' or 'Renaissance man', two labels he personally dislikes. But no-one quite like him has made such an impact on British culture through the medium of television, radio, theatre and opera. He has straddled the great divide between the arts and the sciences, while being a brilliant humorist, a qualified doctor and even a practising artist.
With the man himself and a host of distinguished collaborators, including Oliver Sacks, Eric Idle, Kevin Spacey (who owes his first break to Miller) and Penelope Wilton, this Arena profile explores Miller's rich life and examines through amazing television archive - mostly from the BBC - how he makes these connections between the worlds of the imagination and scientific fact.
THU 00:25 Timeshift (b082v57b)
Series 16
Penny Blacks and Twopenny Blues: How Britain Got Stuck on Stamps
Timeshift charts the evolution of the British postage stamp and examines how these sticky little labels became a national obsession. Like many of us, writer and presenter Andrew Martin collected stamps when he was young, and now he returns to that lost world to unpeel the history of iconic stamps like the Penny Black and the Blue Mauritius, study famous collectors like King George V and the enigmatic Count Phillip de Ferrary, and to meet present-day philatelists at a stamp club.
THU 01:25 Utopia: In Search of the Dream (b092sb6f)
Series 1
A Good Place Within
Art historian Richard Clay asks whether utopia is, ultimately, a state of mind. Can we find utopia within? He explores the many ways we have created to immerse ourselves in a perfect moment, of epiphany or transcendence, pushing the boundaries of artistic expression and pleasure.
Seeking answers in a broad range of arts, Richard meets digital games pioneer Sid Meier, Rada improvisation teacher Chris Heimann and opera impresario Martin Graham. He tries to compose a haiku and uncovers traces of the hedonistic medieval carnival tradition in the churches and pubs of his native Lancashire.
Richard also compares and contrasts different musical escapes, interviewing Acid House legend A Guy Called Gerald and the celebrated minimalist composer Steve Reich. This is not about the utopia of the future but about the utopia of the immediate world that we can experience now.
THU 02:25 Wonders of the Solar System (b00rmpqh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRIDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2019
FRI 19:00 Sounds of the Eighties (b0074sjk)
Episode 2
Serious and sincere they may have been, never cracking a smile where a tortured, artistic look would do, but this tranche of 80s pop stars know how to make that look work - Eurythmics, Spandau Ballet, Phil Collins, Fine Young Cannibals, Tears for Fears, Suzanne Vega and Simply Red.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m000bpk6)
Gary Davies and Susie Mathis present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 17 November 1988 and featuring Yazz, All About Eve, INXS, Mica Paris, Tanita Tikaram, Robin Beck and Salt-N-Pepa.
FRI 20:00 Sound of Song (b04z23vl)
Reeling and Rocking
Musician Neil Brand explores the magical elements that come together to create great songs by recreating some of the most memorable and innovative recording sessions in music history - from Elvis's slapback echo in Memphis and The Beatles' tape loops at Abbey Road to Phil Spector's Wall of Sound and The Beach Boys' pop symphonies.
He shows that all this was made possible by the discovery of magnetic tape by an American soldier in the ruins of WWII Germany, the invention that, more than any other, drove the emergence of the music studio as a compositional tool and the rise of the producer as a new creative force shaping the sound of song.
FRI 21:00 Top of the Pops (m000bpk9)
Simon Mayo and Andy Crane present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 24 November 1988 and featuring Tiffany, Bomb the Bass ft Maureen, Deacon Blue, Michael Jackson, Pet Shop Boys, Iron Maiden, Bananarama, Chris de Burgh, Robin Beck and Hithouse.
FRI 21:30 Country Music by Ken Burns (m000bpkc)
Series 1
The Hillbilly Shakespeare (1945-1953)
As country music adapted to the cultural changes of post-war society, Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs transformed traditional string band music into something more syncopated - bluegrass.
Out of the bars and juke joints came a new sound - honky-tonk - with electric guitars and songs about drinking, cheating and heartbreak. Its biggest star was Hank Williams, a singer who wrote songs of surprising emotional depth, derived from his troubled and tragically short life.
FRI 22:20 Country Music by Ken Burns (m000bpkf)
Series 1
I Can't Stop Loving You (1953-1963)
In Memphis, the confluence of blues and hillbilly music at Sun Studios gave birth to rockabilly, the precursor of rock and roll. Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash were at the forefront.
In the recording studios of Music City, country music’s twang was replaced by something smoother - the Nashville sound. Patsy Cline became one of its biggest stars before her untimely death.
FRI 23:15 Country Queens at the BBC (p028vwnv)
Classic female country stars in action on a variety of BBC studio shows and featuring Bobbie Gentry, Anne Murray, Emmylou Harris, Tammy Wynette, Billie Jo Spears, Crystal Gayle, Taylor Swift, Lucinda Williams with Mary Chapin Carpenter and more. A chronological celebration of country queens at the BBC whether on Top of the Pops, OGWT, Later with Jools Holland, Parkinson or their own entertainment specials.
FRI 00:15 Great Guitar Riffs at the BBC (b049mtxy)
Compilation of BBC performances featuring some of the best axe men and women in rock 'n' roll, from Hendrix to The Kinks, Cream to AC/DC, The Smiths to Rage Against the Machine and Radiohead to Foo Fighters. Whether it is The Shadows playing FBI on Crackerjack, Jeff Beck with The Yardbirds, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream's Sunshine of Your Love from their final gig, Pixies on the Late Show, AC/DC on Top of the Pops or Fools Gold from The Stone Roses, this compilation is a celebration of rock 'n' roll guitar complete with riffs, fingerstylin', wah-wah pedals and Marshall amps.
FRI 01:15 Top of the Pops (m000bpk9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 01:45 Sound of Song (b04z23vl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRI 02:45 Tunes for Tyrants: Music and Power with Suzy Klein (b097f2gv)
Series 1
Revolution
In the first episode of this fascinating and entertaining series exploring the politics of music, Suzy Klein takes us back to the volatile years following the Russian Revolution and World War I, when music was seen as a tool to change society.
Suzy explores the gender-bending cabarets of 1920s Berlin, smashes a piano in the spirit of the Bolshevik revolution, and discovers that playing a theremin is harder than it looks. She also reveals why one orchestra decided to work without a conductor, uncovers the dark politics behind Mack the Knife and probes the satirical songs which tried to puncture the rise of the Nazis. Finally, she tells the story of the infamous Horst Wessel song, which helped bring Hitler to power.
Suzy's musical stories are richly brought to life with the help of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and its Chorus, as well as wonderful solo performers. This was a golden age for music, and its jazz, popular songs, experimental symphonies and classics like Rachmaninoff all provoke debate - what kind of culture do we want? Is music for the elite or for the people? Was this a new age of liberal freedom to be relished - or were we hurtling towards the apocalypse?
With music's incredible power to bypass our brains and get straight to our hearts, it can at once invoke the very best in us and, Suzy argues, inflame the very worst. Music lovers beware!