James May goes off-road to tell the story of how the 4x4 conquered the world. From the wartime jeep to the global struggle between Land Rover and Land Cruiser, the white-knuckle world of rallying and boy racers, plus James conquers Mount Fuji and races through the sun-scorched Mojave Desert to decide which is the ultimate people's 4x4.
Mercury Prize-nominated artist Laura Marling teams up with pioneering strings-based collective the 12 Ensemble for a retrospective journey through her back catalogue, as well as showcasing tracks from her 2020 album, Song for Our Daughter.
In her first Prom as a headliner, Laura will perform an acoustic set accompanied by brand new string arrangements from the unconducted 12 Ensemble. Join Suzy Klein for what promises to be an unmissable evening!
Archaeologist Ben Robinson flies over Wiltshire to uncover new discoveries in the Stone Age landscape. Sites found from the air have led to exciting new evidence about Stonehenge. The discoveries help to explain why the monument is where it is, and reveal how long ago it was occupied by people.
Performance artist Bryony Kimmings loves to make work about her own life. After award-winning work on men and mental health (Fake it 'til you Make it), sexually transmitted diseases (Sex Idiot) and her recent show on the breakup of her relationship and accompanying nervous breakdown (I’m a Phoenix, Bitch), she now turns her unflinching and hilarious gaze onto single motherhood. In collaboration with documentary film-maker Daisy Asquith, she creates a girl gang of brilliantly lovable single mums and takes inspiration from their emotional and hilarious stories to create an opera! A tour of English National Opera’s backstage workings gives Kimmings a crash course in all things operatic, and confirms it is the perfect medium to represent the drama and high-octane intensity of single motherhood.
2016 sees the 200th anniversary of the premiere of Rossini's masterpiece The Barber of Seville, one of the greatest comic operas ever written. In this documentary, internationally acclaimed soprano Danielle de Niese provides a unique backstage pass to her preparations for the role of Rosina in Glyndebourne's 2016 production.
With extraordinary access, this documentary gives an unparalleled insight into how a top opera professional shapes a performance, both musically and dramatically. As well as actuality filming of all stages - from singing to warm-ups to costume fittings, lighting and set building on stage, through to hair and make-up - there are masterclass sessions with director Annabel Arden, conductor Enrique Mazzola and other key cast members to explore key scenes in depth. Danni also visits the Rome theatre where the disastrous premiere took place in 1816.
The film also features interviews with Arden, Mazzola, designer Joanna Parker and other key figures in the production, and footage from the staged version of the opera throughout.
Documentary that surveys a remarkable period in the Metropolitan Opera's rich history and a time of great change for New York. Featuring rarely seen archival footage, stills, recent interviews and a soundtrack of extraordinary Met performances, the documentary chronicles the creation of the Met's storeyed home in 1966, which replaced the original 1883 house on Broadway, against a backdrop of the artists, architects and politicians who shaped the cultural life of New York City in the 1950s and 1960s.
Among the notable figures in the documentary are famed soprano Leontyne Price, who opened the new Met in 1966 with Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, Rudolf Bing, the Met's imperious general manager who engineered the move from the old house to the new one, Robert Moses, the unstoppable city planner who bulldozed an entire neighbourhood to make room for the Lincoln Center, and Wallace Harrison, whose quest for architectural glory was never fully realised.
Shirley's Best of British party preparations start to unravel. Dawn reels when her worst fears become a reality. A crack appears in Jack and Tanya's relationship.
May is loose on the Square and Dawn tries to protect Summer, with explosive consequences. Abi disappears after an argument with Tanya. Ian's the victim of high jinks at the Square's party and things get worse when he makes a shocking discovery about Lucy.
Keith's actions shock everyone as the Square's residents rally to free Dawn and Mickey from their burning house. Bianca worries about her kids as Jack and Tanya reach a new understanding.
MONDAY 07 SEPTEMBER 2020
MON 19:00 Mindful Escapes: Breathe, Release, Restore (m000mf8j)
Series 1
Episode 1
How does connecting with the images and sounds of the natural world help us gain a greater sense of ease, perspective and connection?
This first episode is about breathing. By immersing ourselves in images of jellyfish floating, elephants swimming and lemurs swinging through the rainforest, we learn to focus on our breathing and are reminded that we are not separate from the world around us.
What is the relationship between each breath and mindfulness, and why is breathing so important to becoming still and being in the moment?
MON 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000mf9z)
Series 3
Majestic Mountains
On a clear day, Bob Ross creates an almighty mountain captured by a crystal blue sky – another spectacular masterpiece on canvas.
American painter Bob Ross offers soothing words of encouragement to viewers and painting hobbyists in an enormously popular series that has captivated audiences worldwide since 1982. Ross is a cult figure, with nearly two million Facebook followers and 3,000 instructors globally. His soothing, nurturing personality is therapy for the weary, and his respect for nature and wildlife helps heighten environmental awareness.
Across the series, Ross demonstrates his unique painting technique, which eliminates the need for each layer of paint to dry. In real time, he creates tranquil scenes taken from nature, including his trademark ‘happy’ clouds, cascading waterfalls, snow-covered forests, serene lakes and distant mountain summits.
Many of Bob’s faithful viewers are not painters at all. They are relaxing and unwinding with Bob’s gentle manner and encouraging words, captivated by the magic taking place on the canvas.
MON 20:00 Africa with Ade Adepitan (m0002tdd)
Series 1
Episode 4
The final leg of Ade Adepitan’s epic tour of Africa sees him travelling from the beaches of Mozambique, through South Africa, before ending his entire trip in Zimbabwe.
He begins on the golden sand beaches of Mozambique’s Bazaruto Archipelago, one of Africa’s highlights. At Paradise Island, he finds an abandoned hotel, a visual reminder of Mozambique’s recent history - this place was once a high-end tourist destination, but 25 years of colonial and then civil war put a stop to development. But the local wildlife has benefited from the fact that so few tourists now come here, and Ade is able to snorkel with one of the world’s most elusive sea creatures - a dugong.
Since the wars, Mozambique has struggled to develop, and Ade meets someone for whom life is especially hard – a wheelchair user like himself. In a country where disability is viewed with fear and superstition – and believed by many to be contagious – even catching a bus proves impossible for Castigo. The best thing in his life is exactly the same thing that turned Ade’s life around - wheelchair basketball - and Ade can’t help getting carried away in a game. Along the coast, at one of Mozambique’s largest ports, Ade finds out that China is investing a huge amount in Mozambique – and elsewhere across Africa. The money often comes with strings attached, but a poor country like Mozambique needs financial help, which has to come from somewhere.
Ade’s next stop is South Africa. The country is famous for its wildlife but Ade hears how Chinese influence is having a dramatic impact here – the country’s rhino population has been decimated by poachers, driven by a demand for rhino horn in Chinese medicine. Ade follows rangers with a surprising way of tackling the problem - by cutting off the rhino horn themselves, they hope to deter poachers.
Ade travels to Johannesburg to see how the country is faring 25 years after apartheid ended. On a tour of the city, he is upset to discover that although the black population now have voting rights, they are living in an economic form of apartheid, with 25% unemployed and many squatting on whatever land they can find. In an emotional scene, Ade visits a squatted piece of land, moments after the police have destroyed people’s houses, to hear claims that Mandela’s legacy has been forgotten. Land reform is the big political issue here today, with many calling for a redistribution of land from rich white farmers to the black population.
The final stop on Ade’s African adventure is Zimbabwe – where land reform has already happened, with disastrous results. Ade finds a country still struggling economically. His first stop is the Kariba dam, and a hair-raising boat ride on the vast and stunning Lake Kariba. Ade finds that locals are worried about the stability of the Kariba dam and work has begun to stabilize undermined foundations. The worrying decay of this crucial dam is a sign of how much this country suffered under the rule of Robert Mugabe.
As Ade has seen so often on his trip around Africa, Zimbabwe is a country that should be rich. It has huge quantities of gold – enough, in theory, for the entire population to be a millionaire. But there isn’t the infrastructure of investment to get at it - in a country dogged by poverty and corruption. But the departure of dictator Robert Mugabe brought a new optimism, and Ade meets gold miners who are willing to risk daily exposure to toxic mercury for every scrap of gold they can get and an entrepreneur who believes the industry can be transformed. Despite the return of violence and repression in Zimbabwe, Ade ends his journey on a high, visiting a remote hut that has been turned into the set of a music video. He joins UK indie musician Shingai Shoniwa as she shoots the video for her forthcoming debut single, Coming Home, in a country that she believes is on the up, and deserves a fresh chance.
MON 21:00 Africa Turns the Page: The Novels That Shaped a Continent (m000mf8x)
Africa has become a superpower in the world of the novel. Shortlists for the world’s major literary prizes are packed with African authors, while novelists like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie have become international celebrities. But how did Africa become such a hotbed of literary talent? In this fascinating and insightful film, Nigerian-born presenter and historian David Olusoga explores the incredible story of the African novel.
From the 1950s, as African nations fought for independence, writers such as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Wole Soyinka became the conscience of a continent – often paying a personal price for speaking out against both colonialism and corruption. In their wake, the African novel was to spread around the world - writers of the African diaspora such as Buchi Emecheta and Ben Okri created masterpieces from their adopted home of the United Kingdom. These novelists wrote books that are funny, witty and often tragic. They achieved something that stretched beyond the world of literature – transforming the image of Africa itself.
The programme features interviews with some of the most pre-eminent novelists working today. We hear from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Aminatta Forna and 2019 Booker winner Bernardine Evaristo. The documentary features extraordinary archive of the key novelists and insightful contributions from leading figures whose lives were touched by their writing, including dramatist Kwame Kwei-Armah and MPs Diane Abbott and Kwasi Kwarteng.
MON 22:00 Mexico: Earth's Festival of Life (b08qdxk7)
Series 1
Mountain Worlds
Mexico is a vast country, over 2,000 miles long, dominated by a great chain of mountains, the Sierra Madre. Journey down this rocky spine and discover an amazing diversity of life, from black bears and orchid bees to resplendent quetzals and millions of monarch butterflies. This is a land where giant volcanoes simmer and ancient and modern cultures collide in a festival of life.
MON 23:00 Storyville (b01l8vw7)
The Queen of Africa: The Miriam Makeba Story
A Storyville documentary that takes a look at the life of South African singer and civil rights activist Miriam Makeba. Forced into a life of exile for exposing the harsh realities of apartheid, Makeba was the first African musician to win international stardom.
Always anchored in her traditional South African roots, Makeba's music delivered messages against racism and poverty. Exposing a tumultuous life - Makeba married South African musician Hugh Masekela and Black Panther Stokely Carmichael - this film traces her life and music using rare archive of performances, interviews and intimate scenes.
MON 00:15 Art on the BBC (m000fj9q)
Series 1
Michelangelo: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Michelangelo was not merely a giant of the Renaissance. He was also one of the era’s most controversial personalities. Art historian Sona Datta explores six decades of BBC archive to discover how TV has influenced our understanding of him.
Sona reveals how TV has tried to reconcile Michelangelo’s art with his difficult personality, bringing to life the story of a man who rose from humble beginnings to become the favoured artist of the rich and powerful. He left us with work that was both iconic and divine, but his bitter, jealous temperament earned him more than a few enemies.
MON 01:15 Jigs and Wigs: The Extreme World of Irish Dancing (b06zz7t0)
Series 2
Angela's Athletes
Tyrone native and Irish dance fitness coach Angela Mohan puts her army of athletes through the drill in the lead-up to the world championships.
MON 01:45 Mindful Escapes: Breathe, Release, Restore (m000mf8j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
MON 02:15 The Joy of Painting (m000mf9z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
MON 02:45 Africa Turns the Page: The Novels That Shaped a Continent (m000mf8x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 08 SEPTEMBER 2020
TUE 19:00 Mindful Escapes: Breathe, Release, Restore (m000mf8z)
Series 1
Episode 2
Join mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe as he focuses on change and what we can learn from how animals adapt to changes in the world around them. Why is a chameleon's ability to alter its appearance crucial to its survival and what lessons are there from understanding how elephants grieve?
Learning to be mindful can help us cope with life’s stresses, and Andy shows how focusing on the sights and sounds of the natural world can help us deal with change in our lives and how to live in the moment.
TUE 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000mf91)
Series 3
Evening Seascape
Feel the cool breeze and admire the beauty of turbulent waves, jagged cliffs and dark night skies. Bob Ross paints a west coast seascape.
American painter Bob Ross offers soothing words of encouragement to viewers and painting hobbyists in an enormously popular series that has captivated audiences worldwide since 1982. Ross is a cult figure, with nearly two million Facebook followers and 3,000 instructors globally. His soothing, nurturing personality is therapy for the weary, and his respect for nature and wildlife helps heighten environmental awareness.
Across the series, Ross demonstrates his unique painting technique, which eliminates the need for each layer of paint to dry. In real time, he creates tranquil scenes taken from nature, including his trademark ‘happy’ clouds, cascading waterfalls, snow-covered forests, serene lakes and distant mountain summits.
Many of Bob’s faithful viewers are not painters at all. They are relaxing and unwinding with Bob’s gentle manner and encouraging words, captivated by the magic taking place on the canvas.
TUE 20:00 Woof! A Horizon Guide to Dogs (b01cqrvs)
Dallas Campbell looks back through the Horizon archives to find out what science can tell us about our best friend the dog, and whether new thinking should change the way we treat them. From investigating the domestic dog's wild wolf origins to discovering the remarkable impact that humans have had on canine evolution, Dallas explores why our bond with dogs is so strong and how we can best use that to manage them.
TUE 21:00 How We Tamed the Cat and Dog (m000mf93)
Series 1
Dog Tales: The Making of Man's Best Friend
Dogs have been at our side longer than any other animal in history. They have made us better hunters and better farmers, saved our lives and protected us from harm. And even though dogs may come in all shapes and sizes, they all have one thing in common – they seem to love us. If you were designing the perfect companion for humans, you’d probably end up with something like a dog.
So, how did we get so lucky?
In this show, we unravel the scientific secrets that explain what makes a dog… a dog. We reveal that the emotional bond between human and dog is so profound, it is helping transform the lives of hardened criminals in the US prison system convicted of the most violent crimes.
We examine a 30,000-year-old Belgian wolf skull that some believe marks the first transition from wolf to dog. Many scientists suspect that it is the arrival of us, modern humans, that transformed grey wolves into dogs.
We visit a fox farm in Siberia where a unique selective breeding experiment has been going on for 60 years. This programme helps to explain how the presence of humans transformed the biology, behaviour and appearance of wolves. Some scientists suspect that wolves may have even initiated this process themselves through self-selection.
We go to a dog show to explore the huge variety of shapes and sizes we see in modern dogs and reveal that dogs share a unique ability to vary shape and size by altering just a handful of genes. The Dog Genome Project is discovering that what drove most of this variety was intensive human selection for extreme genes.
We also explore experiments with wolves and dogs at the Wolf Science Centre in Austria, which reveal that the common assumption that our bond with dogs results from selection for intelligence is simply wrong. In fact, recent scientific studies suggest that what makes dogs seem intelligent to us is their unique emotional make-up. It turns out that the secret of our bond with dogs may be love. Not our love for them, but their love for us. MRI scanning of dogs’ brains in Atlanta, Georgia, seems to confirm that dogs genuinely love us.
We visit Callie Truelove, a young girl living with the rare genetic condition Williams Syndrome. This makes Callie extremely loving and sociable. But geneticists have discovered that the same mutations that give Callie her super social nature have also been found in dogs. Some scientists suspect that this is the true secret behind what makes the dog humanity’s best friend.
TUE 22:00 Mexico: Earth's Festival of Life (b08r78bv)
Series 1
Forests of the Maya
The ancient temples of the Maya still tower over the forests of the Yucatan, where jaguars, monkeys and vibrant tropical birds now make their home. It’s a forest full of secrets, with a vast watery underworld that is still being explored and which holds the key to how animals and people survive the dry season.
TUE 23:00 Mexico: Earth's Festival of Life (b08ry3sw)
Series 1
Burning North
Northern Mexico is the country’s driest region, dominated by two great deserts; the Sonoran and Chihuahuan. And as you travel west the conditions get hotter, drier and more challenging. In this film we unravel the forces that have created this arid world and discover that for the animals who live here, from prairie dog and pygmy owls to rare aplomado falcons, overcoming these conditions can bring rich rewards.
TUE 00:00 Cornwall's Native Poet: Charles Causley (b097bcv3)
Charles Causley was one of the great poets of his generation. Born in 1917 in Launceston, north Cornwall, on the edge of Bodmin Moor, the only time he left was for active service in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. His father died when he was a boy as a result of a gas attack in the trenches of World War One and he lived the rest of his life in the same house as his mother. He knew everyone and they knew him. He devoted his life to teaching, poetry and his mum.
Charles Causley said that everything you needed to know about him was in his poetry. He wrote directly from experience about the people of Launceston and the changes in the town, both world wars, his shipmates, local history, myths, animals and God.
TUE 01:00 Mindful Escapes: Breathe, Release, Restore (m000mf8z)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
TUE 01:30 The Joy of Painting (m000mf91)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUE 02:00 Blackadder (p00bf6md)
Blackadder Goes Forth
Plan A - Captain Cook
Edmund cheats to win a competition to be named Official War Artist, thinking it's his ticket out of the trenches. So he's furious when his reward turns out to be going into no man's land to sketch the German positions.
TUE 02:30 Blackadder (p00bf6pz)
Blackadder Goes Forth
Plan B - Corporal Punishment
Blackadder faces court martial for eating a carrier pigeon. With the pigeon's owner Melchett as judge and Darling as prosecutor, Edmund is relying on George and Baldrick to save his skin.
TUE 03:00 How We Tamed the Cat and Dog (m000mf93)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 09 SEPTEMBER 2020
WED 19:00 Mindful Escapes: Breathe, Release, Restore (m000mf8s)
Series 1
Episode 3
Mindfulness is the ability to be present with a clear, calm, curious mind - and feelings of joy can be triggered when this happens. How can watching penguins pinching pebbles, seeing antelope leaping in the air or looking at scenes of summer flowers help us to feel more positive emotionally?
Mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe takes us on a global journey with imagery that will bring feelings of happiness and wellbeing to the viewer as we immerse ourselves in the sights and sounds of the natural world.
WED 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000mf8v)
Series 3
Warm Summer Day
Grab a cold lemonade and follow Bob Ross as he leads you through wooded beauty to a hot summer swimming spot.
American painter Bob Ross offers soothing words of encouragement to viewers and painting hobbyists in an enormously popular series that has captivated audiences worldwide since 1982. Ross is a cult figure, with nearly two million Facebook followers and 3,000 instructors globally. His soothing, nurturing personality is therapy for the weary, and his respect for nature and wildlife helps heighten environmental awareness.
Across the series, Ross demonstrates his unique painting technique, which eliminates the need for each layer of paint to dry. In real time, he creates tranquil scenes taken from nature, including his trademark ‘happy’ clouds, cascading waterfalls, snow-covered forests, serene lakes and distant mountain summits.
Many of Bob’s faithful viewers are not painters at all. They are relaxing and unwinding with Bob’s gentle manner and encouraging words, captivated by the magic taking place on the canvas.
WED 20:00 Digging for Britain (b073b1xn)
Series 4
West
This episode heads to the west of Britain.
Marden Henge: The communal sweat lodges and feasting remains that illuminate the lost rituals of Stonehenge.
Durotriges: A glimpse into the bizarre animal sacrifice rituals offered to their gods by a mysterious Celtic tribe of the first century BC.
Trellech: An enormous lost Welsh city is discovered seven centuries after it disappeared from historical record.
Kent's Cavern: A team swaps trowels for pneumatic drills in a search for the hidden entrance of the site where Britain's earliest human remains have been found.
Jersey: Archaeologists are fighting against mother nature to find the evidence of a Stone Age hunter-gatherer campsite.
Staffordshire Hoard: Conservators painstakingly reassemble the elaborate weaponry of Anglo-Saxon warriors previously not known about.
WED 21:00 Jumbo: The Plane that Changed the World (b03wtnfv)
Documentary about the development of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet. The 747 was a game changer, the airliner that revolutionised mass, cheap air travel. But the first wide-bodied plane was originally intended as a stopgap to Boeing's now-abandoned supersonic jet. This is the remarkable untold story of the jumbo, a billion-dollar gamble that pushed 1960s technology to the limits to create one of the world's most recognisable planes.
WED 22:00 How to Build... (b00t0yx9)
Series 1
A Jumbo Jet Engine
As Boeing's 787 Dreamliner makes its inaugural flight, Rolls-Royce engineers celebrate the performance of its revolutionary Trent 1000 jet engines. They're the latest in a family of sophisticated aero engines that have driven Rolls-Royce to become world leaders in the market for jumbo jet engines.
This is the story of the thousands of people who design, build and test engines at Rolls-Royce's manufacturing plants in Derby and across the UK, making Rolls-Royce a central part of life for the people who work there.
Exploring some of the astonishing technology behind the engines' advanced components, the programme meets the skilled engineers who design and build them, and experience the ups and downs of life on the assembly line.
WED 23:00 Africa Turns the Page: The Novels That Shaped a Continent (m000mf8x)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
WED 00:00 Art of Scandinavia (b074hh79)
Once Upon a Time in Denmark
In episode two of Andrew Graham-Dixon's epic journey through Scandinavian art and landscape, Denmark emerges from modest beginnings to become one of the greatest powers and arbiters of taste in northern Europe - a story of incredible transformation befitting the homeland of the great fairytale spinner Hans Christian Andersen, creator of The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor's New Clothes.
WED 01:00 Carved with Love: The Genius of British Woodwork (b01psbwz)
The Extraordinary Thomas Chippendale
Thomas Chippendale is the most famous furniture designer the world has ever produced, but what about the man behind the chairs? This episode shows how Chippendale worked his way up from humble roots to working for the nobility, but also how he was ruined by the very aristocrats he created such wonders for.
WED 02:00 Mindful Escapes: Breathe, Release, Restore (m000mf8s)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
WED 02:30 The Joy of Painting (m000mf8v)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
WED 03:00 Digging for Britain (b073b1xn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THURSDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2020
THU 19:00 Mindful Escapes: Breathe, Release, Restore (m000mf8f)
Series 1
Episode 4
The natural world offers a constant source of calm and comfort. How do images of hypnotic starling murmurations or macaques relaxing in hot springs in Japan encourage us to slow down? How can we experience more being and less doing?
Mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe talks us through the process and takes us on an immersive journey around the sights and sounds of resting wildlife all over the planet.
THU 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000mf8n)
Series 3
Cabin in the Woods
Enjoy the peace of a calm evening by taking a walk with Bob Ross through the enchanted timberlands of America just before nightfall.
American painter Bob Ross offers soothing words of encouragement to viewers and painting hobbyists in an enormously popular series that has captivated audiences worldwide since 1982. Ross is a cult figure, with nearly two million Facebook followers and 3,000 instructors globally. His soothing, nurturing personality is therapy for the weary, and his respect for nature and wildlife helps heighten environmental awareness.
Across the series, Ross demonstrates his unique painting technique, which eliminates the need for each layer of paint to dry. In real time, he creates tranquil scenes taken from nature, including his trademark ‘happy’ clouds, cascading waterfalls, snow-covered forests, serene lakes and distant mountain summits.
Many of Bob’s faithful viewers are not painters at all. They are relaxing and unwinding with Bob’s gentle manner and encouraging words, captivated by the magic taking place on the canvas.
THU 20:00 BBC Proms (m000mf8q)
2020
Exploring Beethoven’s Seventh
To celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, Tom Service and the Aurora Orchestra present a unique evening in which conductor Nicholas Collon and the orchestra take apart Beethoven’s popular Seventh Symphony and show us the inner workings of the composer’s creative genius, followed by a performance of the work in the orchestra’s signature style - from memory!
Also on the bill at the Royal Albert Hall is a new work by British composer Richard Ayres, whose piece is inspired by Beethoven’s struggle with his loss of hearing.
THU 21:30 Coast (b086v55q)
Series 8 Reversions
Rivers and Seas Collide
Nick Crane explores the wealth of wildlife and industry that are attracted to the Firth of Forth, the might estuary that feeds Edinburgh. Tessa Dunlop reveals how the Victorian zeal for cleanliness turned the Thames into a giant self-flushing toilet bowl. Mark Horton discovers the astonishing struggle to build a rail tunnel deep under the Severn estuary between England and Wales, a challenge that was finally accomplished in 1886.
THU 22:00 Goldstone (b08x19x1)
A tough new case for the indigenous Australian police detective from the Mystery Road film and TV series. Jay Swan's investigation of a young woman's disappearance causes friction in an outback township under a mining company's sway, where local cop Josh is growing used to looking the other way over everyday corruption, while Aboriginal elder Jimmy sees Jay has a deeper link to the territory.
THU 23:45 Opera Mums with Bryony Kimmings (m000mf8c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Sunday]
THU 00:45 The Beauty of Maps (b00s64hx)
Cartoon Maps - Politics and Satire
The series concludes by delving into the world of satirical maps. How did maps take on a new form, not as geographical tools, but as devices for humour, satire or storytelling?
Graphic artist Fred Rose perfectly captured the public mood in 1880 with his general election maps featuring Gladstone and Disraeli, using the maps to comment upon crucial election issues still familiar to us today. Technology was on the satirist's side, with the advent of high-speed printing allowing for larger runs at lower cost. In 1877, when Rose produced his Serio Comic Map of Europe at War, maps began to take on a new direction and form, reflecting a changing world.
Rose's map exploited these possibilities to the full using a combination of creatures and human figures to represent each European nation. The personification of Russia as a grotesque-looking octopus, extending its tentacles around the surrounding nations, perfectly symbolised the threat the country posed to its neighbours.
THU 01:15 Mindful Escapes: Breathe, Release, Restore (m000mf8f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
THU 01:45 The Joy of Painting (m000mf8n)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 02:15 How to Build... (b00t0yx9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Wednesday]
FRIDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2020
FRI 19:00 Young, Gifted and Classical: The Making of a Maestro (b083d749)
Sheku Kanneh-Mason made history in 2016 when he became the first black winner of the BBC Young Musician competition. Sheku has six musically gifted siblings and this film explores their extraordinary talents and issues of diversity in classical music.
We follow Sheku and his brothers and sisters and examine the sacrifices that parents Stuart and Kadie make in order to support their children in pursuing their musical dreams. Told through the prism of family life we get an understanding of what it is that drives this family to be the best musicians they can be.
At the heart of the story is 17-year-old Sheku, and we see him coming to terms with his Young Musician win and the pressures and opportunities it brings. His life is changing dramatically as he now has to learn to deal with the challenges of becoming a world-renowned cellist.
He gets advice from those who have trodden this path already, including international violinist Nicola Benedetti and renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, discovering what it takes to be a famous international solo musician.
The documentary culminates with Sheku's biggest performance to date, playing at the world-famous Royal Festival Hall in London, with Britain's first all-black and ethnic minority orchestra, Chineke!. As the preparations for this groundbreaking concert begin, the film explores what it means to be a young, black, classical musician in today's society.
FRI 20:00 BBC Proms (m000mfbv)
2020
Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason
Superstar siblings Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason take to the stage for their first Prom together to present an evening of chamber music for cello and piano.
Featuring works by Beethoven, Rachmaninov, American composer Samuel Barber and English composer Frank Bridge, the brother-and-sister pairing bring their unique musical chemistry to the Royal Albert Hall.
Join Tom Service and guest Joanna MacGregor for a very special evening.
FRI 21:30 Soul America (m000mfbz)
Series 1
Say It Loud
In the late 60s and early 70s, black America went to war. Inequality, poverty and racism fanned the flames of radical black politics and a harder soul sound: Isaac Hayes, James Brown and the Whitfield-and-Strong-era Temptations. It was the best of soul, it was the worst of times.
1967 was no summer of love for black America. The Detroit riot was one of 159 uprisings across America. When Martin Luther King was murdered the following year in America’s other soul city, Memphis, a tipping point was reached. America burned while James Brown wrote Say It Loud, risking it all to speak out. Stax Records went from being a label built around an integrated house band to become a black-centric business spearheaded by Isaac Hayes’s expansive, flamboyant soul symphonies.
Meanwhile, in Detroit, The Temptations tackled socially aware subjects like the Detroit riot and absent fathers, while Marvin Gaye conceived the epic What’s Going On. This episode also looks at the revolution of black heroes in cinema, inaugurated by Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, a film that led to the blaxploitation genre - a creative sideline for civil rights soul heroes like Isaac Hayes (Shaft) and Curtis Mayfield (Superfly). The film culminates with the Wattstax festival, 1972’s black Woodstock - a truly redemptive and soulful image of the black inner city.
Narrated by Carleen Anderson with contributions from Mavis Staples, David Porter, Al Bell, Otis Williams, Barrett Strong, Fred Wesley, Mary Wilson, Craig McMullen, Willie Hall and William Bell. Expert analysis from Mark Anthony Neal, Nelson George and Emily J Lordi.
FRI 22:30 Motown at the BBC (b00hq4qr)
To mark the 50-year anniversary of Motown in 2009, a compilation of some of the iconic record label's greatest names filmed live in the BBC studios. Visitors from Hitsville USA over the years have included Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops and The Jackson 5.
FRI 23:30 BBC Proms (b093m2wx)
2017
Stax with Jools Holland
Founded in 1957, Memphis-based Stax Records was synonymous with southern soul - a distinctive blend of funk, gospel and R&B that brought listeners across America together at a time of racial conflict and political unrest. In this Late Night Prom, Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra pay tribute to the pioneering label and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stax/Volt Revue's first tour of the UK, in a concert featuring some of the label's greatest surviving artists. Stax legends Booker T Jones and Sam Moore appear alongside Sir Tom Jones, a longtime fan and interpreter of the Stax songbook.
Both Jones and Moore were part of the 1967 tour and join fellow Stax artists William Bell, Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd in this unique coming-together. They are joined by more fans of the Stax sound in Beverley Knight, James Morrison, Nadia Rose & Sweetie Irie and Ruby Turner.
Classic songs performed include the likes of Green Onions, Knock on Wood, Soul Man, Try a Little Tenderness and many more!
FRI 00:50 Gregory Porter's Popular Voices (b09g67l9)
Series 1
Crooners & Co
Soul and jazz star Gregory Porter explores the soft, intimate art of crooning. Born with the arrival of the microphone in the 1930s, crooning was initially about men seducing women and thrived through signature stars like Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra.
But far from disappearing with the advent of rock 'n' roll, the art of crooning gained a new existential edge and was transformed by the likes of Roy Orbison, David Bowie and even Lana Del Rey into a haunting and abiding strain of contemporary pop.
With Iggy Pop, Joshua Homme, George Benson and Beck.
FRI 01:50 Soul America (m000mfbz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:30 today]
FRI 02:50 Young, Gifted and Classical: The Making of a Maestro (b083d749)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]