SATURDAY 24 APRIL 2021

SAT 19:00 Patagonia: Earth's Secret Paradise (b06gqsqn)
Life on the Edge

Patagonia invites you into a rarely seen South American wilderness, home to surprising creatures who survive in environments that range from the mighty Andes Mountains to Cape Horn.

This is the story of an awe-inspiring coastline 4,000 miles long. From the cold, fearsome waters of Cape Horn, where brave rockhopper penguins overcome huge challenges to raise their young, to the far north, with huge elephant seals battling for position in the heat of the desert. Orcas ram-raid the beaches, grabbing seal pups to feed their young. People gather the sea's bounty too, but these shores are not for the faint-hearted.


SAT 20:00 Snooker: World Championship (m000vklc)
2021

Day 8: Evening Session

Live coverage of the evening session of day eight at the 2021 World Snooker Championship.


SAT 21:00 The Young Montalbano (b06z6470)
Series 2

The Settlement

Barely a month has passed since Livia and Salvo decided to spend some time apart. Salvo is gloomy and confused. While investigating the robbery of some 60 security boxes at a small local bank, he seeks the advice of rival bank manager Stella Parenti, whom he'd met during a previous case. Alluring Stella makes no secret of being taken with Salvo and asks him out. Has Montalbano found a way to eclipse his melancholy thoughts of Livia?

Meanwhile, another case presents itself to the Vigata inspector - a retired doctor is found murdered in his own home. The resulting investigation will echo Montalbano's personal dilemmas about the complexities of love.

In Italian with English subtitles.


SAT 22:55 Rome's Invisible City (b05xxl4t)
With the help of a team of experts and the latest in 3D scanning technology, Alexander Armstrong, along with Dr Michael Scott, explores the hidden underground treasures that made Rome the powerhouse of the ancient world. In his favourite city, he uncovers a lost subterranean world that helped build and run the world's first metropolis and its empire.

From the secret underground world of the Colosseum to the aqueducts and sewers that supplied and cleansed it, and from the mysterious cults that sustained it spiritually to the final resting places of Rome's dead, Xander discovers the underground networks that serviced the remarkable world above.


SAT 23:55 New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s (b0177bjb)
Prince: A Purple Reign

Film which explores how Prince - showman, artist, enigma - revolutionised the perception of black music in the 1980s with worldwide hits such as 1999, Kiss, Raspberry Beret and Alphabet Street. He became a global sensation with the release of the Oscar-winning, semi-autobiographical movie Purple Rain in 1984, embarking on an incredible journey of musical self-discovery that continued right up to his passing in April 2016, aged 57.

From the psychedelic Around the World in a Day to his masterpiece album Sign O' the Times and experiments with hip-hop and jazz, Prince was one of most ambitious and prolific songwriters of his generation. He tested the boundaries of taste and decency with explicit sexual lyrics and stage shows during his early career, and in the 1990s fought for ownership of his name and control of his music, played out in a public battle with his former label, Warner. Highly regarded as one of the most flamboyant live performers ever, Prince was a controversial and famously elusive creative force.

Contributors include Revolution guitarist Dez Dickerson, Paisley Park label president Alan Leeds, hip-hop legend Chuck D and Prince 'Mastermind' and UK soul star Beverley Knight.


SAT 00:55 Sinatra: All or Nothing at All (b06tkbvh)
Series 1 Compilations

Part 2

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 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.


SAT 02:55 Patagonia: Earth's Secret Paradise (b06gqsqn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]



SUNDAY 25 APRIL 2021

SUN 19:00 Lights Up (m000vkk7)
The Winter's Tale

King Leontes rips his family apart with his jealousy, but grief opens his heart. Will he find the child he abandoned before it is too late?

Set across a span of 16 years, from the coronation to the moon landings, this new production of Shakespeare’s play is staged for the screen by the Royal Shakespeare Company and directed by RSC Deputy Artistic Director Erica Whyman.


SUN 21:50 Coast (b00ttmkn)
Series 4 Reversions

Rottingdean and Volks Electric Railway

A look around the coast of the British Isles. Mark Horton visits Rottingdean to look over Rudyard Kipling's garden wall and follow in the footsteps of the Victorian celebrity hunters, before unearthing the history of a unique Victorian electric railway which ran underwater - Magnus Volks' bizarre and beautiful 'Daddy Long-legs'.


SUN 22:00 Between the Lines (m000vkk9)
Series 1

Nothing to Declare

As they try to unravel a tangled web of extortion, drug smuggling and illegal immigration, DCI Clark's team find themselves caught in the crossfire between Customs and Excise and the River Police. Meanwhile, PC Jenny Dean finds herself under investigation over the Carswell case.


SUN 22:50 Between the Lines (m000vkkc)
Series 1

Nothing Personal

A youth dies in police custody. It looks like suicide - but is it? As Clark gets closer to the truth, he learns some uncomfortable facts about his girlfriend, Jenny Dean.


SUN 23:40 Scuffles, Swagger and Shakespeare: The Hidden Story of English (m000b8ny)
The English language is spoken by 450 million people around the globe, with a further one billion using it as a second language. It is arguably Britain’s most famous export. The man often given credit for the global triumph of English, and the invention of many of our modern words, is William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare’s plays first hit the stage four centuries ago, as the explorers of Elizabethan England were laying the foundations for the British empire. It was this empire that would carry English around the world. Language historian and BBC New Generation Thinker Dr John Gallagher asks whether the real story of how English became a global linguistic superpower is more complex.

John begins by revealing that if you had stopped an Elizabethan on the streets and told them their language was going to become the most powerful one in the world, they would have laughed in your face. When Shakespeare began writing, the English language was obscure and England an isolated country. John’s quest to find out how English became a global language sees him investigate everything from what it was like to be an immigrant in Elizabethan Britain to how new technology is transforming our understanding of Shakespeare.


SUN 00:10 Sold! Inside the World's Biggest Auction House (b083s5t6)
Episode 1

The programme goes behind the scenes in London, Dubai, New York and Hong Kong, as staff, experts, advisers and buyers set art trends, prices and records.

However, in 2016, the auction house's 250th anniversary year, there are fears that a downturn in the global economy could have a negative impact on the multibillion-pound industry.


SUN 01:10 Sold! Inside the World's Biggest Auction House (b084kqsg)
Episode 2

In part two of the series following a year in the life of the world's largest auction house Christie's, global president Jussi Pilkannien and his team chart the highs and lows of auctions in London, Hong Kong and Shanghai. It is a story full of drama as we find out if Brexit spooked the art market and if Christie's' big push into Asia is paying off.

With rare access to some of the richest collectors in the world, we find out how and why they buy at Christie's and where they put some of the world's most expensive artworks. We meet the auction experts who find treasure in unexpected places - an umbrella stand that turns out to be worth millions and an exceptional Rubens which has not been seen in public for 150 years. But in a year of turmoil, will such works sell well? What are Christie's doing to make sure the 250th anniversary sale, on which they have staked their reputation, is a success? And what is happening in China that makes Jussi so convinced that it is the future?


SUN 02:10 Rome's Invisible City (b05xxl4t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:55 on Saturday]



MONDAY 26 APRIL 2021

MON 19:00 The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside (m00080yb)
Series 1

Going with the Flow

As the March Brexit deadline looms, the Eurotunnel teams at both ends of the channel tunnel are on a mission to keep everything moving: getting dog owners home after Crufts, keeping trucks moving despite strikes at French customs, and making sure the trains keep circulating, no matter what, on the world’s busiest and biggest trainset. We see inside Eurotunnel’s mission control centre, a lair any Bond villain would be proud of. And we meet the appropriately named Tash Speed, one of the company’s newest train drivers, who’s already earned the nickname Two Stop Tash for her daily habit of stopping the train just a little too soon. Meanwhile, the once-every-seven-year fan refurbishments at either end of the tunnel are under way. Airflow through the service tunnel, between the two running tunnels, is essential. Without it no trains will run. We find out why high-pressure air has to keep pumping, and how the giant fans at Sangatte in France and Samphire Hoe in England, get overhauled. And why, on the English side, the workers need a good head for heights. Finally, as Brexit rumbles on and deadlines approach and pass, we find out how the tunnel has prepared for the dreaded No Deal Scenario. Is the tunnel really ready?


MON 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000vk7v)
Series 4

Indian Summer

Paint along with Bob Ross and discover autumn's beauty unfolding as exotic orange and gold colours appear on the canvas.


MON 20:00 Snooker: World Championship (m000vk7x)
2021

Day 10: Evening Session

Live coverage of the evening session of day ten at the 2021 World Snooker Championship.


MON 22:00 Lights Up (m000vk7z)
J'Ouvert

‘What people do you know who can party through all of the earth’s elements?’

2017. Carnival is here. The streets of Notting Hill are alive with history and amidst the soca, sequins and endless feathers, Jade and Nadine are fighting for space in a world that should be theirs. A timely echo of Caribbean resistance across centuries, J’Ouvert is a joyful and fearless story of two best friends, battling to preserve tradition in a society where women’s bodies are frequently under threat.

Filmed on the stage of the Harold Pinter Theatre, J'Ouvert originated at Theatre 503 in a co-production with Bad Breed and Tobi Kyeremateng.


MON 23:40 Fighting for King and Empire: Britain's Caribbean Heroes (b05v08b7)
This programme is based on a film entitled Divided By Race - United in War and Peace, produced by The-Latest.com.

During the Second World War, thousands of men and women from the Caribbean colonies volunteered to come to Britain to join the fight against Hitler. They risked their lives for king and empire, but their contribution has largely been forgotten.

Some of the last surviving Caribbean veterans tell their extraordinary wartime stories - from torpedo attacks by German U-boats and the RAF's blanket-bombing of Germany to the culture shock of Britain's freezing winters and war-torn landscapes. This brave sacrifice confronted the pioneers from the Caribbean with a lifelong challenge - to be treated as equals by the British government and the British people.

In testimony full of wit and charm, the veterans candidly reveal their experiences as some of the only black people in wartime Britain. They remember encounters with a curious British public and confrontation with the prejudices of white American GIs stationed in Britain.

After the war, many veterans returned to the Caribbean where they discovered jobs were scarce. Some came back to Britain to help rebuild its cities. They settled down with jobs and homes, got married and began to integrate their rich heritage into British culture. Now mostly in their 80s and 90s - the oldest is 104 - these pioneers from the Caribbean have helped transform Britain and created an enduring multicultural legacy.

With vivid first-hand testimony, observational documentary and rare archive footage, the programme gives a unique perspective on the Second World War and the history of 20th-century Britain.


MON 00:40 Colour: The Spectrum of Science (b06pm7t8)
Beyond the Rainbow

We live in a world ablaze with colour. Rainbows and rainforests, oceans and humanity, earth is the most colourful place we know of. But the colours we see are far more complex and fascinating than they appear. In this series, Dr Helen Czerski uncovers what colour is, how it works, and how it has written the story of our planet.

The colours that we see are only a fraction of what's out there. Beyond the rainbow there are colours invisible to our eyes. In this episode, Helen tells the story of scientific discovery. To see the universe in a whole new light, she takes to the skies in a NASA jumbo jet equipped with a 17-tonne infrared telescope.

We can't see in ultraviolet, but many animals can. Helen explores what the world looks like to the birds and the bees. With the discovery of x-rays we could look inside ourselves in ways that previously had only been possible after death. Today those same x-rays allow us to examine life at the atomic level, helping to develop new drugs and better materials. Ultimately, by harnessing all the colours there are, researchers are beginning to image the human body as never before, revealing new ways to treat disease.


MON 01:40 The Joy of Painting (m000vk7v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:10 The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside (m00080yb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 02:40 Screengrabbed: BBC Introducing Arts (m000bt4t)
Janina Ramirez presents a screengrab of inspiring, thoughtful and beautiful stories from emerging and established film-makers and artists with their interpretations of life’s big topics.

How do you know you’re in love? What does it mean to be British? Illustrator and performer Jessie Cave and visual artist Sarah Maple are just two of those who give their refreshing take on some of the urgent issues facing us today. Expect drama, comedy, music and some mayhem.



TUESDAY 27 APRIL 2021

TUE 19:00 The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside (m00086zf)
Series 1

At the Double

With up to 400 trains a day running on its 62 miles of track, the channel tunnel is the busiest railway system in the world. And doing things at the double is key to its success. Two countries built it. There are two terminals. And there is duplication at both ends. This programme shows how teams of two work on both sides of the channel to keep tourists and truckers moving. But how will preparations for Brexit affect such a well-oiled system of twinning and duplication, finely tuned over 25 years? How will the freight teams cope when car drivers end up in the wrong lanes? How do French cakes keep English teams in shape for handling the kind of chaos that ensues when trucks collide with trains? And is it true that no one chocks better than a channel tunnel chocker?

This episode also explores why two tunnels are better than one. And, although water and electricity are not a good combination, the film follows the catenary team every step of the way as they fix the overhead cables in the 'wet area' of the tunnel. There is also a driver’s eye view of the giant crossover doors that link one tunnel to another in the biggest undersea cave ever built. And the team meet Maurice, the charismatic tunnel travelling bulldog.


TUE 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000vkm5)
Series 4

Snowy Solitude

Bob Ross paints a snow-covered winter wonderland that looks just like the real thing. Bob shows you how easy his special way of painting can be.


TUE 20:00 Snooker: World Championship (m000vkm7)
2021

Day 11: Evening Session

Live coverage of the quarter-finals of the 2021 World Snooker Championship.


TUE 22:00 Inside Chernobyl's Mega Tomb (b08650s6)
Documentary which follows the construction of a trailblazing 36,000-tonne steel structure to entomb the ruins of the nuclear power plant destroyed in the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. It films close up with the team of international engineers as they race to build the new structure before Chernobyl's original concrete sarcophagus - the hastily built structure that covers the reactor - collapses.

Built to last just 30 years, the temporary sarcophagus is now crumbling, putting the world at risk of another release of radioactive dust. Radiation levels make it impossible for workers to build the new shelter directly over the old reactor, so engineers are erecting the new megastructure - taller than the tower of Big Ben and three times heavier than the Eiffel Tower - to one side and will then face the challenge of sliding the largest object ever moved on land into place over the old reactor.


TUE 23:00 How to Build... a Nuclear Submarine (b00syt1w)
Fourteen years in the making and costing over a billion pounds, the Astute nuclear submarine is one of the most technologically advanced machines in the world, and for over a year the BBC filmed its construction inside one of the most secure and secret places in the country.

An amazing piece of British engineering or a controversial waste of tax payers' money? This documentary allows viewers to make up their own minds.

Among many of the workers, the film features Erin Browne, a 19-year-old apprentice electrician who wires up the boat; Commander Paul Knight, responsible for the safety of the nuclear reactor; and Derek Parker, whose job involves moving massive pieces of the submarine that weigh hundreds of tons into position before the welding team join them together.

Amazing computer graphics take us inside the construction of the submarine itself, giving a blueprint of the design, the life support systems and the weaponry, and help illustrate the areas that national security precluded filming in.

The story also takes a dramatic turn when an unforeseen event means the submarine has to sail into the open sea - for the first time - during one of the wettest and windiest weekends of the year.


TUE 00:00 David Stratton’s Stories of Australian Cinema (m000jb62)
Series 1

Episode 3

Much-loved film critic David Stratton tells the fascinating story of Australian cinema, focusing in on the films that capture this idiosyncratic nation with drama, emotion and humour.

David played a pivotal role supporting film-makers and helping them to find audiences both locally and abroad. He rose to fame co-hosting a movie review show with Margaret Pomeranz, which the nation religiously tuned in to for almost 30 years.

In this episode, all kinds of families are given a voice, including The Castle’s nuclear, if unorthodox family, a family of faith in The Devil’s Playground, Romper Stomper’s frightening neo-Nazis, and crime families such as those depicted in Ned Kelly and Animal Kingdom.

The series takes us on a thrilling journey across Australian cinema's most moving moments and unforgettable scenes and into the heart of the stories portrayed on the big screen that helped shape a nation’s idea of itself.


TUE 01:00 The Joy of Painting (m000vkm5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 01:30 The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside (m00086zf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


TUE 02:00 Inside Chernobyl's Mega Tomb (b08650s6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


TUE 03:00 How to Build... a Nuclear Submarine (b00syt1w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 28 APRIL 2021

WED 19:00 The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside (m0008dpr)
Series 1

The Initial Idea

Eurotunnel teams have a quarter of a century’s worth of experience in getting cars and lorries onto trains. It all hinges on a finely tuned system using letters to send the right vehicles to right trains. But when pre-Brexit passport checks cause slow coaches, how will the allocation team in Folkestone keep the endless stream of half-term holiday traffic flowing?

Meanwhile, with the 25th anniversary well under way, there is some extreme painting going on at both ends of the tunnel: two giant murals that will somehow link to each other across the sea. But how will the
painters work around the tunnel entrance when the trains never stop running? Inside the tunnel, those high-speed trains are being slowed down by the air they push in front of them. And the only way to relieve the pressure is with tubes connecting one tunnel to another. So how do those tubes work and what happens when they need to be repaired? Plus we take a trip on the catenary team’s revolutionary new camera van that will transform the way they look for faults and we meet the Tottenham and Liverpool fans heading to Madrid for the Champion’s League final.


WED 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000vklh)
Series 4

Desert Glow

Follow Bob Ross as he leads you into the incredible beauty of the dry lands. A unique oval painting for beginners and accomplished artists too.


WED 20:00 Snooker: World Championship (m000vklk)
2021

Day 12: Evening Session

Live coverage of the quarter-finals of the 2021 World Snooker Championship.


WED 22:00 Watergate (p00frf9w)
Series 1

Massacre

The so-called Saturday Night Massacre, the chain of events that unfolded on 20 October 1973, when President Nixon demanded that special prosecutor Archibald Cox be fired.


WED 22:50 Watergate (p00frfb5)
Series 1

Impeachment

President Nixon clings on to the White House as the case against him mounts. The automatic recording system he ordered to be installed in the Oval Office, however, contains damning evidence.


WED 23:40 Handmade (b05tpv83)
Glass

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.


WED 00:10 The Joy of Painting (m000vklh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 00:40 The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside (m0008dpr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 01:10 Lights Up (m000vkk7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]



THURSDAY 29 APRIL 2021

THU 19:00 The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside (m0008ls4)
Series 1

What Goes Around…

After 25 years in business, Eurotunnel is at a junction, with many of its staff facing retirement and new recruits being drafted in. And the next batch of wannabe shuttle drivers has just arrived for the first round of testing. The tests, however, are ruthless, with a 90% fail rate, so who will make it through?

Meanwhile the passenger comings and goings never stop and the summer is the busiest time of all, with super cars arriving in convoy for the Le Mans 24 hour race. But as the French step up their passport controls, and the screens jam at the Terminal Control Centre, will the supercars make it to France on time?

We also find out how the teams cope with “no tarmac day”, the busiest day of the year, when the schools break up and 10,200 cars head for the tunnel. Then we take a rollercoaster ride through the tunnel with train drivers Tash and Steve, who show us why the undersea geology makes the tunnel bend.

Inside the world’s biggest train shed in Calais, we see how maintenance teams keep the locomotives running. Back in Folkestone, we meet the UK team hard at work in the slightly smaller UK shed. Why do they love sheds? How come they don’t want to retire? And why is it that some of the staff are more concerned with Pexit than Brexit?


THU 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m000vklz)
Series 4

Lone Mountain

Travel with Bob Ross and enjoy a spectacular view in a painting that offers a fabulous lesson in creating rugged and rocky natural surfaces.


THU 20:00 Snooker: World Championship (m000vkm1)
2021

Day 13: Evening Session

Live semi-final action from the 2021 World Snooker Championship.


THU 22:00 Being AP (b08g8mpz)
Documentary charting the final season of champion jockey AP McCoy as he attempted to do the almost impossible of riding 300 winners in a single season.


THU 23:35 Great War Horses (b094f4tl)
The horses that provided the backbone of the Australian Light Horse regiments in World War I were popularly known as Walers. Bred for Australia's tough Outback conditions, Walers were well-equipped for the harsh climate and terrain of the Middle East, where the ANZAC forces faced the armies of the Ottoman Empire.

Great War Horses is a powerful, moving account of the men and horses of the Australian Light Horse and the pivotal role they played in World War I at the Battle of Romani (1916), the celebrated Light Horse charge at the Battle of Beersheba (1917) and the capture of Damascus in 1918.


THU 00:35 A History of Art in Three Colours (b01lcz2s)
Blue

Dr James Fox explores how, in the hands of artists, the colours gold, blue and white have stirred emotions, changed behaviour and even altered the course of history.

When, in the Middle Ages, the precious blue stone lapis lazuli arrived in Europe from the east, blue became the most exotic and mysterious of colours. And it was artists who used it to offer us tantalising glimpses of other worlds beyond our own.


THU 01:35 The Joy of Painting (m000vklz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 02:05 The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside (m0008ls4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 02:35 Fighting for King and Empire: Britain's Caribbean Heroes (b05v08b7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:40 on Monday]



FRIDAY 30 APRIL 2021

FRI 19:00 BBC Young Musician (m000vkmc)
2020

Semi-Final

The 2020 edition of BBC Young Musician remained incomplete when we left it last spring. Tonight the story resumes with extensive highlights of the semi-final, which was filmed just days before the first UK-wide lockdown back in March last year. The semi-final sees the winners of the keyboard, strings, brass, woodwind and percussion finals compete for the three coveted places in the grand final.

Organist and conductor Anna Lapwood is our guide to proceedings, and she’s joined by Tim Rhys-Evans - director of music at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama who provides insight and analysis. Josie D’Arby also joins the line-up with interviews with the semi-finalists and Jess Gillam continues her series of conversations discussing the changing face of classical music with visionary conductor Nicholas Collon.

As always, the five talented performers provide a tough challenge for the judges.

The semi-finalists are:
Fang Zhang, winner of the percussion final, oboist Ewan Miller winner of the woodwind final, Annemarie Federle, who won the brass final on French horn, winner of the keyboard final, pianist Thomas Luke, and violinist Coco Tomita, who won the strings final.

Making the all-important decisions are:
Lisa Tregale, director of the National Chorus and Orchestra of Wales, Chi-Chi Nwanoku, acclaimed double bassist and founder, artistic and executive director of the Chineke! Foundation, John Hardy, award winning composer and head of composition at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and Angela Dixon, chief executive of performance space Saffron Hall, and the chair of the judging panel for BBC Young Musician 2020.

The semi-final was filmed at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in March 2020 before the first national lockdown.


FRI 20:30 Snooker: World Championship (m000vkmf)
2021

Day 14: Evening Session

Live semi-final action from the 2021 World Snooker Championship.


FRI 22:00 Ronnie’s: Ronnie Scott and His World-Famous Jazz Club (m000pjcm)
A music documentary that celebrates the legacy of Ronnie Scott and his world-famous jazz club. Featuring previously unseen and unheard performances as well as interviews with some of the most iconic figures in music, the film explores the club’s 60-year history and shines a light on the uncompromising men and women who both built it and who took to its stage.

Named after the late tenor saxophonist who founded the club in London’s bohemian district of Soho in 1959 with business partner Pete King, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club was inspired by the vibrant postwar music scene in New York and quickly became the city’s most famous music venue. Since then the club has consistently played host to the world’s greatest musical legends, including Chet Baker, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Roland Kirk, Buddy Rich, Oscar Peterson and Nina Simone.

Ronnie Scott was among the earliest British musicians influenced by Charlie Parker and became one of the finest saxophone players in Europe. His chief motivation in starting a jazz club was to create a space where he and his contemporaries were free to play modern, forward-thinking music.

Ronnie was beloved by many, from the great and famous who frequented his club to the many hard-up musicians who were often helped by his warmth and generous spirit. However, Ronnie was as complex and colourful as the music played on his stage. In private, Ronnie battled with depression, and when his untimely death occurred in 1996, it left the jazz community bereft of a respected and favourite leader.


FRI 23:45 Jazz 625 (m0004nrl)
For One Night Only

A special 90-minute jazz show that pays tribute to the iconic 1960s BBC Two series of the same name and recreates the look and feel of the original broadcasts.

Recorded live at the 2019 Cheltenham Jazz Festival and hosted by Andi Oliver, the programme features a house band and special guests including Gregory Porter, Charlie Watts from the Rolling Stones, Joshua Redman, Jacqui Dankworth and Cleo Laine.

The programme also includes classic archive performances from the original series and interviews and features looking back at a classic time in jazz.


FRI 01:15 Smashing Hits! The 80s Pop Map of Britain and Ireland (b0bbyy1w)
Series 1

Episode 3

Two 80s icons explore the distinct sounds that came out of different parts of Britain and Ireland in one of pop's golden decades.

Midge Ure, lead singer of Ultravox and one of the men behind Band Aid, and Kim Appleby, who had a string of hits with her sister Mel in the Stock, Aitken and Waterman-produced band Mel and Kim, go on a journey back in time to the 80s to figure out why certain cities produced their own diverse tunes.

It's a fascinating tale. Emerging from the ashes of punk, British and Irish music ripped up the pop rule book in the 80s and topped the charts worldwide. But there was no definitive 'British' pop sound. Innovative chart-toppers were being produced by artists hailing from all over the UK and Ireland.

In this third and final episode, Midge and Kim visit London and Manchester, the two cities that did battle with each other for musical pre-eminence as 80s music turned towards the new sounds of dance.

Star interviewees include Denise Pearson from Five Star, Soul II Soul's Jazzie B, Mark Moore of S'Express, Shaun Ryder from The Happy Mondays and Peter Hook of New Order.

It's a tale of how studio technology changed music, with British bands putting their own unique spin on dance to produce contrasting northern and southern sounds.


FRI 02:15 Jazz Divas Gold (b01sbxqy)
BBC Four explores the archives for the sultry sounds and looks of 'Jazz Divas Gold'! Featured Jazz legends include Ella Fitzgerald, Marion Montgomery, Cleo Laine, Blossom Dearie, Sarah Vaughan, Nina Simone, Peggy Lee, Betty Carter, Amy Winehouse, Eartha Kitt and many more who can be seen from 1965 to 2008 on BBC treasures such as Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life, Show of the Week, Not Only...But Also, Birdland, Parkinson, Later..with Jools Holland, Morecambe and Wise and more...so let's hear it for the ladies!