Ice is one of the strangest, most beguiling and mesmerising substances in the world. Full of contradictions, it is transparent, yet it can glow with colour, it is powerful enough to shatter rock, but it can melt in the blink of an eye. It takes many shapes, from the fleeting beauty of a snowflake to the multimillion-tonne vastness of a glacier and the eeriness of the ice fountains of far-flung moons.
Science writer Dr Gabrielle Walker has been obsessed with ice ever since she first set foot on Arctic sea ice. In this programme, she searches out some of the secrets hidden deep within the ice crystal to try to discover how something so ephemeral has the power to sculpt landscapes, to preserve our past and inform our future.
This film tells the epic survival stories of the world's smallest animals. It really is a big bad world out there. So what happens if you are the little guy?
To make a living, these tiny heroes have evolved extraordinary skills and achieved mind-boggling feats. From the animal kingdom's greatest artist to the tiny creatures that provide so much of the air we breathe, this programme discovers what it takes to be a miniature miracle.
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.
The acerbically witty and severely facially disfigured broadcaster Adam Pearson presents a personal film about genetics. He and his twin brother Neil are genetically identical and both share the same genetic disease, neurofibromatosis 1 (Nf1) - yet they are completely different. Adam's face is covered with growths, whereas Neil has none. Neil has short-term memory loss, whereas Adam is razor sharp.
Adam is on the cusp of a successful film and television career, but the disease has left tumours on his face that are growing out of control, and he could lose his sight. For years, everyone thought Adam's brother Neil had escaped symptoms, but today his life is governed by epilepsy and a mysterious memory loss that suddenly came on during his teens.
Determined to save their future, Adam tries to find out why the disease affects the twins so differently and see if there is anything he can do to stop it from tearing their lives apart.
Classic Bee Gees studio performances from the BBC and beyond including all the big hits, rare 60s performances from European TV, including a stunning I Started a Joke, a rarely seen Top of the Pops performance of World, the big hits of the 70s and some late performances from the 90s, with the brothers Gibb in perfect harmony.
The first episode in the Handmade series, part of BBC Four Goes Slow, is a filmed portrait of the making of a simple glass jug.
Filmed in real time and without voiceover or music, the focus is entirely on the craft process, an absorbing, repetitive process of blowing and rolling as glass designer Michael Ruh delicately teases and manipulates the molten glass into shape.
Ruh is a designer of contemporary glass objects, but the method by which he creates them is essentially ancient.
Glass is heated in a crucible until it becomes liquid. Ruh's task, shared with his assistant, is to keep the glass hot and in constant motion as he breathes into it and gradually shapes the expanding globe into the form of a jug.
In episode two, Dr Janina Ramirez sets ex-forger Shaun Greenhalgh the challenge of making an alabaster carving of the kind mass-produced in Catholic England in the centuries before the Reformation. But the mines in Nottingham that produced English alabaster were closed down long ago, and the destruction unleashed by Henry VIII has left behind precious few examples, so Shaun’s views about how the Nottingham alabasters would originally have looked shock Janina.
Tom Service presents a detailed analysis of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s Graal Théâtre followed by a performance of the work by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ludovic Morlot.
Contemporary composer Kaija Saariaho wrote Graal Théâtre in 1994. A haunting, explosive violin concerto, it has become one of the Finnish composer’s most frequently performed pieces. Before the piece is performed in full by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in the MediaCity Studio in Salford, Tom Service speaks both to members of the orchestra and to Peter Herresthal, the soloist, about this relentlessly electrifying and technically demanding music. Peter demonstrates the techniques involved in producing the crunching strings and distorted effects demanded by the score. We learn how Saariaho, herself a violinist, crafted the work to reflect her own tempestuous relationship with the instrument.
Speaking to other members of the orchestra, Tom sees how Saariaho uses the entire ensemble to create a range of different colours building up to dazzling textures. The extremes of Saariaho’s score see the orchestra interacting both in harmony and in conflict with one another.
Loosely based on medieval tales from Arthurian legend, we explore the importance of these stories to the structure of Saariaho’s piece. Tom also learns of the composer’s tutelage at the French institution IRCAM, an underground labyrinth of electronic and electro-acoustic experimentation beneath the Pompidou Centre in Paris, founded by French composer Pierre Boulez. Saariaho’s time at IRCAM profoundly shaped the unique electronic, symphonic style found in this astonishing work.
MONDAY 06 APRIL 2020
MON 19:00 BBC News (m000hc8n)
The latest international news from the BBC.
MON 19:30 Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage (b00d06g4)
Istanbul
Franceso da Mosto reaches Istanbul, the final stop of his marathon voyage from Venice following the trading routes of the Venetian empire.
Istanbul straddles the Bosphorus as well as two continents. It has been home of both Christian and Islamic civilisations, and Francesco is eager to explore this great city.
First stop is the Palace of Topkapi - centre of power for the Ottoman empire. Most haunting of all is the palace harem, a prison to the sultan's many concubines. Beneath the city is a vast network of underground tunnels dating back more than a thousand years.
Donning hard hat and waders, Francesco enters one of the huge underground cisterns - looking more like a Roman emperor's palace than a water tank. Two giant heads of Medusa lie abandoned in the water.
Istanbul's Grand Bazaar is one of the world's biggest undercover markets and Francesco has a mission in mind. He is going to learn how to sell a Turkish carpet. As he learns the secrets of the trade, he is shown one of the most expensive and beautiful carpets in the city.
A visit to Istanbul would not be complete without the experience of a Turkish bath, however, so Francesco offers himself up for a vigorous soap and scrub. But soon it is time to say goodbye. A final celebration aboard the Black Swan with its long-suffering crew brings Francesco's journey to an end.
MON 20:00 Dynasties (p06mvrwn)
Series 1
Tiger
This episode features a tigress named Raj Bhera who lives in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve in India and holds the perfect tiger territory, with dense jungle, spring-fed ponds and rich grasslands teeming with prey. And now, she has four tiny newborn cubs to care for. They are the future of her dynasty. But the idyllic world that she inhabits is changing.
Rival tigers, seeking their own territory, are encroaching on her hunting lands. One in particular, her adult daughter Solo, is challenging Raj Bhera in the heart of her territory. The powerful tigress must fight to retain control of these hunting grounds while continuing to feed and protect her growing cubs.
Solo's persistence puts pressure on the whole family, until Raj Bhera makes a decision that could end both her life and her dynasty forever.
MON 21:00 Du Fu: China's Greatest Poet (m000h3dq)
Sir Ian McKellen reads the poetry, Michael Wood traces the journey on the ground. Together they conjure up the extraordinary life, times and words of China’s greatest poet, Du Fu.
From the Yellow River to the Yangtze Gorges, and down to the forested hills of Hunan, Michael Wood travels in the footsteps of China’s most-loved poet. Born in 712, the age of Beowulf in Britain, Du Fu lived through the violent fall of China’s brilliant Tang dynasty. As rebel armies sacked the capital, and floods and famine wrecked the country, he was forced to flee, taking his family on the roads as refugees.
But out of these events he produced what Harvard’s Stephen Owen calls ‘the greatest poems in the Chinese language’, words that ever since have been seen as an expression of what it means to be Chinese. ‘There is Dante, there’s Shakespeare, and there’s Du Fu,’ says Owen. ‘These poets create the very standard by which great poetry is judged.' But though in the east Du Fu is an immortal, in the west, even today, few have even heard of him.
In this film, the first to ever be made about Du Fu in the west, Michael follows his tracks by road, train and riverboat. Along the way, he meets ordinary people, dancers and musicians, who help to tell the amazing story of a poet whose words have resonated through the centuries, describing the experiences of ordinary people caught up in war, corruption, famine and natural disasters. ‘I am one of the privileged. If my life is so bitter, then how much worse is the life of the common people?'
In China, poets have always been seen as the trusted chroniclers of the people’s hearts and the nation’s history. And for the Chinese, Du Fu is 'more than a poet,' says Wood. 'For generations he has been the guardian of the moral conscience of the nation.'
MON 22:00 Yellow Is Forbidden (m000h3dv)
Documentary providing an intimate glimpse into an exclusive world of luxury and immense wealth, where global power dynamics, art and commerce meet - a modern-day Cinderella story.
The diminutive and daring Guo Pei dresses China’s new elite but dreams of conquering Paris, the exclusive yet savage capital of haute couture.
MON 22:50 Horse People with Alexandra Tolstoy (b00jt4pk)
Siberia
Alexandra Tolstoy, a passionate horse rider and adventurer, explores very different cultures round the world that all depend on and share a deep love of the horse.
In Siberia, Alexandra spends three weeks living with a group of herders, whose long-haired Yakut horses are specially bred to survive the extreme cold. The horse herders live in basic huts in sub-zero temperatures. Their lives revolve around looking after their horses. While they care for them, ultimately they breed them for food. Alexandra has to face up to the brutal reality of how they butcher their horses, which later up on the dinner plate.
The programme is a remarkable window into a world seldom seen on camera. Alexandra helps prepare horse intestines for tea, but also enjoys riding through snow-covered forests checking the traps for hares and wolves. She discovers the community's belief in horse spirits as she shares in their ceremonies and daily routines.
The series is filmed and produced by Wayne Derrick who has won a BAFTA award for his camerawork on the series Tribe.
MON 23:50 Handmade (b05tpx1l)
Wood
As part of BBC Four Goes Slow, this programme follows the slow and painstaking process of making a classic Windsor chair.
A beautifully simple object, it is in fact anything but. Filmed over five days, the film reveals the complex, time-consuming processes involved in creating the chair, made by Jim Steele in his Warwickshire workshop.
This traditional design features woods chosen for their different qualities - ash, elm and hard-to-source yew.
Jim makes just 12 such chairs each year, using traditional techniques and aided by few modern tools. There are just two screws in the finished chair. From the steam bending of the back to the turning of spindles, the carving of the seat to the planing of the arms, it's a remarkable process to observe.
The bold style of the film, making use of long, static shots with no music or commentary allows the viewer to admire in exquisite detail the painstaking craftsmanship.
MON 00:20 The Secret Life of Books (b06n9khy)
Series 2
Confessions of an English Opium Eater
Performance poet John Cooper Clarke explores Thomas de Quincey's autobiographical classic Confessions of an English Opium Eater, and discovers how his fellow Mancunian's addiction memoir avoids the cliches of modern 'misery-lit' in favour of something much more unsentimental and psychologically complex.
MON 00:50 Bacchus Uncovered: Ancient God of Ecstasy (b09z8d01)
Professor Bettany Hughes investigates the story of Bacchus, god of wine, revelry, theatre and excess, travelling to Georgia, Jordan, Greece and Britain to discover his origins and his presence in the modern world, and explore how 'losing oneself' plays a vital role in the development of civilisation.
In this fascinating journey, Bettany begins in Georgia where she discovers evidence of the world's oldest wine production, and the role it may have played in building communities. In Athens, she reveals Bacchus's pivotal role in a society where his ecstatic worship was embraced by all classes, and most importantly women. On Cyprus, she uncovers startling parallels between Bacchus and Christ. Finally, Bettany follows the god's modern embrace in Nietzsche's philosophy, experimental theatre and the hedonistic hippie movement to conclude that, while this god of ecstasy is worthy of contemporary reconsideration, it is vital to heed the warning of the ancients - 'MEDEN AGAN' - nothing in excess.
MON 01:50 Yellow Is Forbidden (m000h3dv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
MON 02:45 Du Fu: China's Greatest Poet (m000h3dq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 07 APRIL 2020
TUE 19:00 BBC News (m000hcjh)
The latest international news from the BBC.
TUE 19:30 Weird Nature (b0078h4b)
Marvellous Motion
Series looking at strange animal behaviour reveals nature's quirkiest movers and shakers. From dancing seaslugs to cartwheeling caterpillars this is nature at its most weird and wonderful.
In a series of magical sequences, crocodiles gallop, salamanders transform into wheels and bushbabies bounce like rubber balls. Lizards and frogs stage an extraordinary air show, the Mexican jumping bean reveals its fidgety secrets, lemurs pogo and two-legged lizards hunt like dinosaurs. Using new filming techniques and some extraordinary special FX, this is nature as never seen before.
TUE 20:00 Digging for Britain (m000h3dr)
The Greatest Discoveries
Episode 4
Professor Alice Roberts re-examines the key archaeological sites of Anglo-Saxon Britain and finds the evidence of a warrior culture and the enormous wealth of their aristocracy.
TUE 20:30 The Art Mysteries with Waldemar Januszczak (m000h3dw)
Series 1
Cezanne's Card Players
The Card Players is one of Cezanne’s best-known pictures, but it is also one of his most mysterious. Why did the so-called father of modern art paint two old men hunched over a game of cards? What is the picture trying to tell us?
By exploring Cezanne’s puzzling religious beliefs and his passion for Mary Magdalene, the patron saint of Provence, Waldemar Januszczak uncovers the surprising secrets of a haunting masterpiece.
TUE 21:00 Britain Beneath Your Feet (b061v75n)
Series 1
On the Move
Dallas Campbell reveals a fascinating and secret world hidden below Britain. In this episode he explores how what goes on underground keeps our country on the move. He delves into the past to discover how a secret wartime pipeline is now delivering fuel to Heathrow Airport. Extraordinary computer graphics lay bare the underwater engineering genius that allowed the iconic Forth Rail Bridge to be built in the 19th century.
Along the way Dallas meets some of the hidden army of workers that keep Britain running from underground, from the drivers of the largest tunnelling machines in the world to the engineers running a vast power station under a mountain in Wales. In one memorable scene, he helps dislodge a 'fatberg' that's blocking one of London's sewers. And he does some secret filming of badgers that are threatening the foundations of a primary school and helps to relocate the whole sett.
TUE 22:00 Britain's Ancient Capital: Secrets of Orkney (b088pnv1)
Episode 2
Orkney - seven miles off the coast of Scotland, and cut off by the tumultuous Pentland Firth, the fastest-flowing tidal race in Europe is often viewed as being remote. However it is one of the treasure troves of archaeology in Britain, and recent discoveries there are turning the Stone Age map of Britain upside down. Rather than an outpost at the edge of the world, recent finds suggest an extraordinary theory - that Orkney was the cultural capital of our ancient world and the origin of the stone circle cult which culminated in Stonehenge.
In the second of this three-part series, Neil Oliver, Chris Packham, Andy Torbet and Dr Shini Somara join hundreds of archaeologists from around the world who have gathered there to investigate at one of Europe's biggest digs.
Andy and some local seafaring volunteers build a boat made of just willow and cow hide and set out to cross the dangerous Pentland Firth as the ancient Orcadians would have done. Neil investigates the extraordinary discovery of some human bones, Chris goes in search of whales and Shini uncovers the powers of the tides.
TUE 23:00 Horse People with Alexandra Tolstoy (b00jxx23)
Andalucia
Alexandra Tolstoy journeys to the area around Jerez in Andalucia, where she discovers a world behind the tourist image of Spain. She has a lesson in dressage technique, which she says is the best hour she has ever had horseriding, and meets a family who excel in fighting bulls from horseback. Alexandra also learns how artificial insemination and even surrogate motherhood are now used in horsebreeding.
At the Jerez horsefair, she finds herself transformed into a true Spanish lady and finally she undertakes a remarkable horseback religious pilgrimage. The culture Alexandra finds is proud, colourful and traditional - yet full of surprises.
TUE 00:00 Handmade (b05tpw1j)
Metal
As part of BBC Four Goes Slow, this programme follows the forging of a steel knife. From the slow stoking of the fire to the hammering, welding and etching of the metal, the film is an absorbing portrait of the complex processes behind the making of the knife.
Forged in a spectacular industrial space, bladesmith Owen Bush uses a combination of modern and traditional techniques, some of which date to ancient times.
The most time-consuming element of the process is the shaping and blending of a sandwich of steels into a blade which, after polishing, is placed in a bath of acids, revealing an intricate pattern - a technique used by the Vikings and Saxons.
The bold style of the film-making, making use of long, static shots and with no music or commentary, allows the viewer to simply enjoy watching the painstaking and highly skilled craftsmanship.
TUE 00:30 Mark Gatiss on John Minton: The Lost Man of British Art (b0bfnlj2)
John Minton was for a time one of the most popular 20th-century British artists, more famous than his contemporaries Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. He has also been something of an obsession for actor and writer Mark Gatiss since he first saw one of his paintings as a teenager at the National Portrait Gallery. Mark Gatiss plunges back into Minton's world to celebrate his remarkable life and work, but also to find out why he remains all but forgotten.
As well as being a central figure in the postwar British neo-romantic movement, alongside the likes of Graham Sutherland and John Piper, John Minton was also one of the leading lights of Soho during the 1940s and 50s - a bohemian enclave where he felt at ease with fellow artists and models. In the only known footage of Minton, he is caught fleetingly, dancing wildly in a club, like a crazed marionette. It is a captivating, poignant glimpse of a man who was once at the very centre of this world.
He was a prolific painter of both landscapes and portraits, and as a gay man, Mark has always been particularly drawn to his sensitive depictions of striking young men. Minton too was gay but struggled with his sexuality during a highly repressive era when homosexuality was still illegal. However, as Mark discovers, it wasn't just his sexuality that plagued Minton, but his very standing as an artist and his desire to be considered first and foremost a painter rather than an illustrator, which is how he really found fame. On a balcony overlooking the same glorious view, Mark explains how Minton's vibrant jacket design for Elizabeth David's A Book of Mediterranean Food in 1950 was really what attracted people to buy it, as the author herself declared. But it was the 1948 publication of Time Was Away: A Notebook in Corsica that really established Minton, and it became something of a cult book for a new generation of illustrators. Following in his footsteps, Mark travels to Corsica and visits some of the original locations captured so vividly by Minton.
As well as discovering unseen photographs of the artist and previously unknown works by him, the film also gives Mark the chance to hear Minton's voice for the first time in a rare broadcast he made for the BBC Third Programme in 1947. The connections deepen further as Mark meets some of those who knew him well - former models such as actor Norman Bowler recall posing for Minton, and fellow artist David Tindle discusses the rivalries between Minton and his contemporaries, particularly Francis Bacon.
Drawing on all these remarkable first-hand reminiscences, Mark explores the reasons behind Minton's fall from grace and the tragic circumstances of his death at the age of just 39.
TUE 01:30 The Art Mysteries with Waldemar Januszczak (m000h3dw)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
TUE 02:00 Digging for Britain (m000h3dr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
TUE 02:30 Britain Beneath Your Feet (b061v75n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 08 APRIL 2020
WED 19:00 BBC News (m000hcf5)
The latest international news from the BBC.
WED 19:30 Handmade in Japan (p054mclh)
Series 1
Kimono
The second episode takes us to the remarkable island of Amami Oshima in the southern oceans of Japan, to follow the elaborate handmade production of a traditional Japanese kimono. Over five hundred people are involved in producing the island's famous mud-dyed silk which takes many months to produce. The film follows the painstaking process of the silk being bound, hand dyed, woven and finally turned into a kimono by a seamstress. Along the way we not only discover the history of the kimono tradition, but also the many difficulties facing the kimono industry in modern Japan.
WED 20:00 Six Wives with Lucy Worsley (b085zjww)
Episode 2
This episode follows the end of Henry's marriage to Katherine of Aragon, made possible by Henry's rejection of Catholicism and the pope, with him setting himself up as head of the Church of England. He marries his second wife, Anne Boleyn, and she gives birth to a baby girl, Elizabeth.
After rumours spread that Anne has been unfaithful to the king, she is arrested and executed, leaving Henry free to marry Jane Seymour. Jane gives birth to a son, Edward, but Henry's joy is overshadowed by grief as Jane dies 12 days later.
WED 21:00 Secret Universe: The Hidden Life of the Cell (b01nln7d)
There is a battle playing out inside your body right now. It started billions of years ago and it is still being fought in every one of us every minute of every day. It is the story of a viral infection, the battle for the cell.
This film reveals the exquisite machinery of the human cell system from within the inner world of the cell itself - from the frenetic membrane surface that acts as a security system for everything passing in and out of the cell, the dynamic highways that transport cargo across the cell and the remarkable turbines that power the whole cellular world to the amazing nucleus housing DNA and the construction of thousands of different proteins all with unique tasks. The virus intends to commandeer this system to one selfish end: to make more viruses. And they will stop at nothing to achieve their goal.
Exploring the very latest ideas about the evolution of life on earth and the bio-chemical processes at the heart of every one of us, and revealing a world smaller than it is possible to comprehend, in a story large enough to fill the biggest imaginations. With contributions from Professor Bonnie L Bassler of Princeton University, Dr Nick Lane and Professor Steve Jones of University College London and Cambridge University's Susanna Bidgood.
WED 22:00 The Horizon Guide to Pandemic (b00m3z7w)
In the wake of the swine flu outbreak, virologist Dr Mike Leahy uses over 50 years of BBC archive to explore the history of pandemics - infectious diseases caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites.
Inspired by the Horizon back catalogue, he tells the extraordinary story of smallpox, one of the most violent killers in history, as well as the success of mass vaccination and the global politics of malaria. Through the lens of television the programme charts our scientific progress from the early steps in understanding AIDS to the code-cracking of SARS and deadly predictions of bird flu.
Each pandemic episode tells us something about the world and our place within it. In his journey through the ages Dr Leahy charts science's ongoing battle with nature and questions which one is winning.
WED 23:00 Horse People with Alexandra Tolstoy (b00k1x69)
Montana
Montana is a classic 'cowboys and Indians' country. Alexandra sets off to explore the vibrant horse culture of this area and finds that both communities still share a passion for the horse. She lives on a ranch with a cowboy family and joins in the daily tasks including rounding up and branding cattle, and breaking in horses.
Native American Kenny introduces her to bareback riding and the fast and furious world of Indian relay racing. She arrives in time for the Crow Fair - the largest gathering of Native American peoples - and finally faces up to the challenge of taking part in a professional rodeo.
WED 00:00 The Banker's Guide to Art (b07kd109)
Documentary that takes an inside look at the high-stakes, and sometimes murky, world of art collecting.
The value of London's art market has soared to unprecedented heights, driven by the nouveau riche of the financial world, whose money has poured into the bank accounts of dealers, galleries and auction houses.
WED 01:30 Rhyme & Reason: BBC Introducing Arts (m0008z3f)
Poet Lemn Sissay presents a selection of short, vibrant films from a new generation of artists who are inspired by poetry and the spoken word.
This is an opportunity to feel the rhyme and reason of today’s Britain as artists reflect what is important to them, from gender identity to first dates and from the labyrinth of the internet to early morning wake-up calls.
As Sissay notes, ‘When you write a poem, part of the magic is that you never know where it’s going to take you.’ Here is a chance to meet emerging artists who aren’t afraid to say what’s on their minds.
WED 02:30 The Horizon Guide to Pandemic (b00m3z7w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
THURSDAY 09 APRIL 2020
THU 19:00 BBC News (m000hcf7)
The latest international news from the BBC.
THU 19:30 The Wonder of Animals (b04gvbdr)
Foxes
Across the planet carnivores are struggling to compete in a world with a rocketing human population, but one predator is bucking the trend - the fox. Its numbers are increasing and its geographical range expanding.
Chris Packham explores the secrets to its success - its senses, its intelligence and its flexibility. New research reveals how its slit pupils enable it to hunt in the bright desert day; how it may be using the Earth's magnetic field to determine the location of prey during a pounce; and how regular exposure to rotting food is improving the health of the red fox, enabling it to hold its own in an increasingly urban landscape.
THU 20:00 How to Make (m000h3cs)
Series 1
The Toothbrush
Designer, maker and materials engineer Zoe Laughlin explores an item so ubiquitous that most of us don’t give it a moment’s thought - the toothbrush. With 200 milion thrown away each year in the UK, she’s on a mission to find a more sustainable solution.
In search of inspiration, she heads to Sweden’s impressive low-impact mega-factory Tepe, where handles made from sugar-cane-based plastic are ahead of the pack. She explores bespoke production techniques, employing 3D-laser sintering, and dips into the archives of the British Dental Association, revealing the light-bulb moment when the modern brush was hit upon in a prison cell.
Turning to toothpaste itself, pioneering scientists are using bio-active glass to get more fluoride to our teeth. Unconventional options used at Lush Cosmetic’s Willy Wonker-style lab get Zoe's taste buds tingling, before she reveals her final toothbrush and alternative 'paste'. Both are uniquely Zoe - and just a bit bonkers - but they could also provide a very real eco-friendly answer to our daily brushing needs.
THU 21:00 Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema (b0bbn5x8)
Series 1
The Rom-Com
Five-part documentary series. Film critic Mark Kermode presents a fresh and very personal look at the art of cinema by examining the techniques and conventions behind some classic genres: romcoms, heist movies, coming-of-age stories, science fiction and horror. In each episode, Mark uncovers the ingredients needed to make a great genre film and keep audiences coming back for more. How do you stage, shoot and edit a gripping car chase or orchestrate the shock moment in a horror movie? What is the secret to sizzling on-screen chemistry?
Mark begins with one of the most popular genres of all. They are sometimes sneered at by critics, but from the 1930s to the present day, many of our most beloved movies have been romantic comedies.
From Bringing Up Baby and The Lady Eve by way of Annie Hall, When Harry Met Sally and Pretty Woman to Love, Actually (a particular Kermode favourite) - as well as recent hits such as The Big Sick and La La Land - Mark examines the cinematic tricks and techniques involved in creating a classic romcom.
Mark celebrates old favourites, reveals hidden treasures and springs plenty of surprises. Examining films from Hollywood to Bollywood via other gems of world cinema, he reminds us how, much like love itself, the art of the romantic comedy is international.
THU 22:00 Dawn French Live: 30 Million Minutes (b086knj2)
Dawn French in her critically acclaimed one-woman show, 30 Million Minutes. Filmed during its final West End run in October 2016, it takes the audience on a journey through various delights and riches, with the odd irksome tribulation thrown in, as Dawn speaks about the lessons life has taught her and the things she knows to be true. The evidence is there for all to see. She is already three quarters certifiably daft. The other quarter is utterly bewildered. And the remaining quarter simply can't do maths. With a sharp eye for comic detail and a wicked ear for the absurdities of life, this is a true Christmas treat to see the critically acclaimed comedian at her finest.
THU 23:55 Arena (b073rgy1)
Loretta Lynn - Still a Mountain Girl
Legendary country music singer-songwriter Loretta Lynn is loved by fans from across the world. She has sold over 45 million albums worldwide and won more awards than any other female country music star. With affectionate and irreverent contributions from her extended family of self-confessed rednecks, now in her early eighties and still going strong, Loretta looks back at her long and extraordinary life, from being born a coal miner's daughter in Kentucky to receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama in 2013. Featuring Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Jack White, Sissy Spacek and, of course, Loretta herself.
THU 01:25 Smile! The Nation's Family Album (b08j8jj3)
In today's digital age, the classic family photo album has become an object of nostalgic affection. But it's much more than just a collection of sentimental snapshots.
Celebrating everyday moments and shared experiences, family photography offers an intimate portrait of Britain's postwar social history. And each generation had a different camera to tell their story.
Discovering how new technologies and evolving social attitudes inspired the nation to pick up a camera, the film charts a journey from the Box Brownie to Instagram, offering a touching portrait of our changing lives, taken not by the professional photographer but on our own cameras.
With increasingly affordable, quick-to-load and easy-to-use cameras, domestic photography became part of family life in the 20th century.
Suddenly we could all now document our family's celebrations, holidays and hobbies, and capture the most fleeting and precious memories, from birth to death.
We became a nation obsessed with taking photos, and tirelessly curating scrapbooks, and filling shoeboxes and albums with pictures that tell our family's own story.
But with the advent of digital cameras, the era of patiently waiting for the holiday snaps to come back from the processor and carefully arranging them in photo albums feels a long way from today's frenzy of digital images, instantly shared and uploaded...
The film features expert voices explaining the impact of different camera technologies, the role of Kodak in helping create an industry of popular photography, the impact of the digital revolution and the way changes in family photography have also reflected shifts in the family dynamic itself. It's no longer just dad in control of the camera, and mobile phones and social media have turned kids into photographers from a young age...
Among the stories featured in the film...
Using her father's Box Brownie as a young girl, then armed with the latest Kodak instamatic in her teens, and now using a digital SLR, Jenny Bowden's photos capture the past 60 years, from the 1950s street parades to the 60s mods, the 70s fashions when she married and started her own family, the various birthdays, graduations and weddings and deaths, and in the past decade the arrival of her own grandchildren, her albums span across her house. Today when her grandchildren visit, they head straight to the shelves as they love to flick through the albums and see themselves as babies.
Besotted and first-time mum Astrid has taken thousands of photos on her iPhone of her son Alexander since his birth eight months ago. Unlike her own mother Terry, whose photos of Astrid as a baby were considered and less frequent due to the costs of 35mm film, Astrid has the luxury of snapping away all day, taking advantage of the ease and low costs of the digital age, as she records her and Alexander's first year together. Proud Astrid spreads the happiness Alexander brings with Terry and other family via WhatsApp and Instagram.
We meet the English eccentric John Dobson, who has 161 carefully annotated scrapbooks - and counting! His careful curating of happy family memories helped him overcome his own childhood spent in a children's home.
We also meet the devoted Yorkshire dad Ian Macleod, who took a photo of his son every single day until his 21st birthday, and the Slight family in Essex, whose larger-than-life characters grew up in a pub and captured an East End way of life that no longer exists.
And we discover the emotional impact of family photos, with a family movingly sharing the very last film taken on a father's camera before he died.
From the extraordinary to the mundane, family photos capture the intimate moments of our lives. Often overlooked in the official story of photography, this film champions the family photo and the unique portrait it reveals of how the nation tells its own story.
THU 02:25 How to Make (m000h3cs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRIDAY 10 APRIL 2020
FRI 19:00 BBC News (m000hcf0)
The latest international news from the BBC.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m000h3d6)
Anthea Turner presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 29 June 1989 and featuring Holly Johnson, London Boys and Double Trouble with Rebel MC.
FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m000h3d8)
Nicky Campbell presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 6 July 1989 and featuring Sonia, Monie Love and The Beautiful South.
FRI 20:30 Sounds of the 70s 2 (b01jk1b8)
Soul: Keep On Keeping On
Imported American soul was big news in the UK in the 1970s. Before the Brits developed their own brand of soul, American performers were here demonstrating how it was done and being appreciated by all and sundry. The series continues with classic performances from the kings and queens of soul, including Aretha Franklin, Billy Preston, The Tams, Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers, The Stylistics, Gil Scott-Heron and The Jacksons.
FRI 21:00 Kenny Rogers: Cards on the Table (b04pl3kw)
Examining the life and career of the artist who 'knows when to hold 'em and knows when to fold 'em', this documentary chronicles Kenny Rogers's remarkable rise to the top of his game and the golden era of country music he ushered in.
With an exclusive, candid interview from Rogers himself and performance footage gathered on his recent Through the Years tour, this honest and eye-opening film provides a backstage pass to a remarkable 50-year career of performing and recording.
Associates and luminaries provide personal insight into how the poor, music-obsessed boy from Houston, Texas went on to become a superstar with over 120 million albums sold worldwide. Singer, songwriter and producer Kim Carnes recalls how the New Christy Minstrels folk group - of which she and Kenny were members in the late 1960s - was like a 'school on the road' that provided them both with a springboard from which to explore other musical ambitions. Actor and musician Mickey Jones recounts his time with Kenny in the band The First Edition, whose hit single Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) made Kenny an unlikely poster boy for the psychedelic generation. Longtime friend Lionel Richie reveals how a trip to the bathroom played a crucial role in the recording session for Lady, one of Kenny's biggest hits.
Away from music, the programme reveals how Kenny's drive and ambition - what he describes as his 'impulsive-obsessive' nature - led to success in other fields: according to the renowned photographer John Sexton, the country music legend was determined to master the art of photography (Kenny was recently awarded an honorary Master of Photography degree by the Professional Photographers Association).
For over half a century, Kenny has kept us entertained with some of the best-known and best-loved music ever recorded. With a career spanning everything from jazz to folk, 60s psychedelia to R&B, perhaps his real legacy lies in the fact that he introduced a trailblazing pop sensibility to country music.
FRI 22:00 David Cassidy: The Last Session (b0bshqks)
This candid biography explores the life of David Cassidy, the 70s pop idol and TV star. The film includes never-before-heard audio interviews with David from 1976 and a raw and poignantly filmed final recording session shortly before his death.
Cassidy's role as singer Keith Partridge in the 1970s sitcom The Partridge Family brought fame and fortune and made him a global teen sensation. David Cassidy: The Last Session tells the inside story of his explosive rise to fame, his conflicted relationships with his father and his own celebrity, and the legacy he left behind.
FRI 23:25 Sinatra: All or Nothing at All (b066d737)
Series 1
Episode 3
An up-close and personal examination of the life, music and career of the legendary entertainer. In 1971, Frank Sinatra sang his legendary 'retirement concert' in Los Angeles, featuring music which was said to reflect his own life. Told in his own words from hours of archived interviews, along with commentary from those closest to him, this definitive four-part series weaves the legendary songs he chose with comments from friends and family, as well as never-before-seen footage from home movies and concert performances.
An unprecedented tribute to the beloved showman, with the full participation of the Frank Sinatra Estate, the third episode sees Sinatra turn his career around, the birth of the Rat Pack, his connection with the mob and the unravelling of his high-profile relationship with the Kennedys.
FRI 00:25 Gregory Porter's Popular Voices (p05d3p0d)
Series 1
Showstoppers
Gregory Porter explores 100 years of voices on the brink, those that go one note higher, turn it up to eleven and make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.
Starting with the world's first pop star, the legendary Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, Gregory explores the sound and work of his favourite vocal showstoppers - the genius of Ella Fitzgerald, the soul of Mahalia Jackson, the power and stagecraft of Freddie Mercury, the artistry and extravagance of Prince, and the modern melisma of Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. With Dave Grohl, Beck, Adam Lambert, Wendy & Lisa.
FRI 01:25 Music Moguls: Masters of Pop (p039x53y)
Melody Makers
Part two of this enlightening series exploring the music business from behind the scenes looks at the music producers. These are the men and women who have created the signature sounds that have defined key periods in rock and pop history. Highlights include Trevor Horn on inventing the 'Sound of the Eighties', Lamont Dozier on Motown, and a TV first with legendary producer Tony Visconti taking us through David Bowie's seminal song Heroes.
Narrated by master producer Nile Rodgers.
FRI 02:25 David Cassidy: The Last Session (b0bshqks)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]