Michael Portillo continues his railway journey from Newcastle to Loch Ness, steered by his 1930s Bradshaw's Guide.
Stopping at Dundee, Michael heads for Glamis Castle, where Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother, grew up. Michael hears about her happy childhood and how she later found sanctuary there, when King Edward VIII abdicated and she and Prince Albert unexpectedly became king and queen of the United Kingdom.
Striking north along the east coast of Scotland, Michael's next stop is Montrose, from where he makes an excursion into the Eastern Highlands. Here he discovers a network of bothies: remote shelters used by hikers and mountaineers to escape the harsh weather in the hills, and indulges in a wee dram.
Continuing on the East Coast Line, Michael arrives in the Granite City of Aberdeen, where research at one of Britain's first institutes of nutrition led to a nationwide programme of free school milk.
On Aberdeen beach, once popular with Glaswegian holidaymakers, Michael investigates the city's art deco Beach Ballroom and learns to foxtrot.
Bob Ross takes you to a beautiful lake in high country. Catch a glimpse of magnificent mountains, with their mirror images echoed in the crystal clear water below.
Scriptwriter Keith Tutt fell in love with the work of French post-Impressionist painter Edouard Vuillard in his school art class. When a large oval picture of a Parisian café scene said to be by the artist appeared in a provincial auction house, he gambled his savings on it - even though it doesn't appear in the official record of Vuillard's works. To prove it, the team will need to convince some of the most demanding art experts in France... and they've got a tricky history with Fake or Fortune.
The quest for evidence starts in Geneva, where Philip and conservationist Aviva Burnstock compare Keith's picture with a huge Vuillard work called Le Grand Teddy, painted for a French café in 1919. Can science prove that the two pictures were painted using identical materials?
Fiona picks up the provenance trail in France and Holland, unearthing tantalising clues about the picture's past, while a meeting with a pair of British antiques hunters dramatically expands the scope of the investigation. Could there really be another missing oval?
Once the team has marshalled all their evidence, it's time to seek the approval of the Wildenstein Institute in Paris, the body who notoriously rejected a highly credible Monet in the first ever episode of Fake or Fortune. Have the team done enough to convince them that Keith's picture is genuine?
Christmas in Germany 1941 is an unsettling time. Food is scarce, the weather is freezing and news from the front line in Russia is causing Germans to realise the war is a very long way from over. The stage is set for the second half of the conflict.
Through the home movies and diaries of ordinary Germans, this film charts Hitler’s dreams crumbling and the moral reckoning the German people must now face. It reveals the stories of people battling to save their families from deportation to the death camps, while others endure the horrors of ever more deadly bombing raids, all set against a backdrop of propaganda and false hope pouring forth from Nazi high command.
In Russia we meet a doctor who throws himself into the firing line at every opportunity, not to win glory but to save his wife and three young children from deportation to the death camps in the east, while in Dresden a Jewish diary writer struggles to deal with ever-mounting restrictions and deportations.
We also meet some of those forced to live under German rule, including extraordinary footage of a group of Jews living in hiding just a mile from Anne Frank, and a family in Normandy enjoying a bucolic summer before they find themselves on the front line when the Allies take on the German troops on the Atlantic Wall.
The film then moves to the endgame of the war, the choices faced as the net tightened and the crazy efforts to fight to the bitter end even as all hope is gone.
An archaeologist finds a long-lost crown believed to protect the country from invasion. MR James's classic ghost story.
Vivid and heartbreaking stories told by the last Tommies - filmed in their 90s and 100s - remembering life and death in World War I, illustrated with powerful archive.
This episode tells the story of the first years of war in 1914 and 1915, culminating in the Battle of Loos, when the Pals Battalions, who had enthusiastically volunteered to serve, had their first taste of the horror of mass industrialised warfare. We see how the Tommies survived and kept their spirits up in the trenches with death all around them. And we see how families at home faced up to the absence and the tragic loss of husbands, fathers, sweethearts and sons. Yet despite this shock they still had to work incredibly long hours in the munitions factories and 'keep the home fires burning.' War wasn't the glorious adventure that so many had imagined.
Sheila claims ignorance when she discovers Walter's real niece has contacted the solicitor. In order to protect his brother, Max orders Jake to leave the country with Angie promising to sort everything out. Angie has still not shaken off her suspicions of Max and sets about proving to Jake that Max is not looking after his brother’s best interests.
Meanwhile, Max and Angie have their own separate suspicions about Sheila’s real involvement in the night of Walter’s death.
TUESDAY 09 NOVEMBER 2021
TUE 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000d2gj)
Series 11
Elgin to Loch Ness
Michael Portillo is in the Scottish Highlands on the last leg of his rail journey through 1930s Britain. He begins in Elgin's port, the coastal town of Lossiemouth, where James Ramsay MacDonald, the Labour Party's first prime minister was born. Michael meets his granddaughter to visit the family home and discovers what shaped his politics.
On the outskirts of Lossiemouth, Michael finds a remote boarding school established in the 1930s and famous today both for its unusual ideas and its royal former pupils. He hears how the school's founder fled Nazi Germany and joins its fully-working fire service, manned entirely by pupils, for training.
Michael's last stop is the city of Inverness, where first he uncovers the work of female photographer MEM Donaldson. She documented a Highland way of life that was rapidly disappearing at the time of his guide.
Michael's journey ends at one of the most notorious bodies of water in the world, Loch Ness. He joins the Deep Scan research team as they scour the deep for signs of the elusive monster.
TUE 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m0011f24)
Series 5
Winding Stream
Join Bob Ross for a stroll down yonder by the river, relax in the serenity of an expansive yet quiet sky, with proud tall evergreens looking on.
TUE 20:00 The Good Life (b00783m3)
Series 3
The Last Posh Frock
Classic sitcom. Barbara tries to remain a woman, despite her work-worn hands and a ruined dress.
TUE 20:30 One Foot in the Grave (b007cggv)
Series 1
The Return of the Speckled Band
Victor and Margaret are preparing for a holiday to Athens, but first they must cope with Mrs Warboys's bout of food poisoning, a visit from the electricity man and a snake that hitches a ride home with Victor after escaping from its enclosure at the garden centre.
TUE 21:00 Goodness Gracious Me (b0bwpxcy)
20 Years Innit!
Incredibly, it is now 20 years since Goodness Gracious Me first hit our screens and kicked the doors down, introducing British Asian comedy onto mainstream TV. To celebrate the impact the series had on British comedy and culture, the show's stars look back at how it all began and how they created some of the best-loved comedy sketches and characters of the last two decades. From Indian Dad and Mr Cheque Please to the agenda-setting, opening episode classic Going for an English - 'What's the blandest thing on the menu?' - GGM held up a mirror to contemporary British society and appealed to audiences from all cultural backgrounds.
The cast and creators come up with their top ten sketches or characters from the past 20 years - and the public choose its favourite Goodness Gracious Me moment of all - to be revealed at the end of this one-off special.
Originally created by Sanjeev Bashkar, Meera Syal and writer Anil Gupta for Radio 4, the show transferred to BBC Two in 1998. On screen, Sanjeev and Meera were joined by Kulvinder Ghir and Nina Wadia, with a brilliant supporting cast which included Dave Lamb, Amanda Holden, Fiona Allen and Emma Kennedy. Between them, they created over 100 characters, dozens of catchphrases and some of the standout comedy moments of the last two decades, with recurring gags and themes as well as brilliant one-offs and a beautifully observed weekly musical parody - lampooning with an Asian spin everybody from Pulp's Jarvis Cocker to sexist-row chart-topper Robin Thicke.
TUE 21:40 Mark Lawson Talks To... (m0011f27)
Sanjeev Bhaskar
Mark Lawson talks to Sanjeev Bhaskar about his background and how it inspired him to turn the British Asian experience into comedy.
Mark finds out how he made the incongruous leap from the world of marketing to the world of sketch comedy, and he explores how far Bhaskar has come since the early days of The Secret Asians.
TUE 22:40 WWI: The Last Tommies (b0brjy2b)
Series 1
The Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme is an immersive account of one of the most iconic and tragic battles in history, told through its last survivors and through families and communities at home who lost loved ones. When the troops went over the top in June 1916, they imagined this was the attack that would end the war. Instead, it turned into the most costly battle of the entire war, with enormous casualties on both sides.
We tell the stories of the officers and the men, the Tommies who sustained life-changing injuries and the nurses who treated them. We see how whole communities were devastated as the Pals Battalions, each one recruited from a particular town or city, were mown down. With the help of the tank, the Battle of the Somme ended in November 1916. The British and empire casualties totalled 400,000 men. They had advanced just six miles, but they had dealt a devastating blow to the German army.
TUE 23:40 Secrets of Skin (m000cdzl)
Series 1
Adaptability
Skin is an incredible, multi-function organ that science is still learning so much about. It has adapted to allow animals to conquer virtually every habitat on the planet.
In this episode, Professor Ben Garrod reveals some ground-breaking new science and amazing, specialist, factual insight as he discovers how human skin is an ecosystem in its own right, playing host to demodex mites, that might redefine our understanding of human ancestry. He explores the new science that could pave the way for re-engineering human skin on amputations to make it more robust. And he reveals how keratin, a protein that is a key component of skin and that makes up our hair and nails, has been taken to the extreme by some animals including pangolins and horses.
Skin is the body’s largest organ and all vertebrates share the same basic blue print. Adaptations in the three main layers, the epidermis, the dermis and the subcutaneous fat layers have allowed vertebrates to thrive in virtually every habitat on earth.
TUE 00:10 Secrets of Skin (m000cdzr)
Series 1
Moving
What makes sharks built for speed? How do snakes move without limbs? How do sugar gliders fly without feathers? The answer all lies in their skin.
Professor Ben Garrod uncovers the secrets of how skin has evolved to enable animals to solve some of the most remarkable challenges on earth. To do this, Ben heads to the specialist flight centre at the Royal Veterinary College to analyse the way a sugar glider uses its skin flaps to stay aloft. He goes diving with sharks at the Blue Planet Aquarium and discovers that, far from being smooth, sharkskin is incredibly rough. It is covered with thousands of tiny teeth that make a shark hydrodynamic. Ben also finds out how the keratinised scales on snakes' bellies are the perfect configuration to allow them to move over virtually any surface they encounter. Amongst many other wonders of how skin has had an impact on nature.
TUE 00:40 Great British Railway Journeys (m000d2gj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
TUE 01:10 Mark Lawson Talks To... (m0011f27)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:40 today]
TUE 02:10 WWI: The Last Tommies (b0brjshr)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:50 on Monday]
WEDNESDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2021
WED 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000dbpg)
Series 11
St Ives to St Day
Michael Portillo boards the Great Western Railway at the Cornish seaside resort of St Ives. Steered by his 1930s Bradshaw’s Guide, this week he explores the West Country between the wars.
In Britain's first studio pottery, Michael attempts a decorative wax technique and feels the heat of the firing kiln. He discovers a Cornish fisherman, who, although he began painting only in his seventies, inspired established artists from the capital.
Along the Cornish Riviera at Hayle, Michael joins a family on holiday in a railway carriage called Harvey. From Redruth, Michael makes his way to the former mining village of St Day, where Feast Day celebrations are in full flow.
WED 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m0011f45)
Series 5
Tranquility Cove
As the foliage reaches its peak of autumnal beauty, experience the tranquility of a lovely meadow, pond and happy birch trees – all painted the Bob Ross way!
WED 20:00 WWI: The Last Tommies (b0brk21h)
Series 1
The Fight to the End
The Fight to the End tells the story of the terrible battles of 1917 and 1918, and how Britain and her allies turned a looming defeat into victory. As recruitment levels fell, conscription was introduced. One of the conscripts was Harry Patch - here interviewed for the first time - who went on to live to the age of 111, and who survived to be the last fighting Tommy of WWI. These were years when German U-boats attempted to starve Britain into submission and there were serious food shortages on the home front.
We hear dramatic stories of the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 - a battle fought in a quagmire of mud at a terrible cost to soldiers' lives. In the Spring Offensive of 1918, the German army made huge advances and almost won the war. Some of our survivors were taken prisoner and worked as slave labour in Germany. But with the help of the United States, there was a final push to victory.
The sacrifice involved in this total war changed the world forever. We conclude by briefly looking at the effects of the war on some of the characters we have grown to know and love across the series.
WED 21:00 Charley Boorman: Sydney to Tokyo by Any Means (b00n850m)
Episode 2
Charley Boorman embarks on his second series of By Any Means, this time starting his adventure in Sydney and travelling up the Pacific Rim through Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan and eventually finishing in Tokyo, Japan.
Charley arrives in Papua New Guinea, where he goes dirt biking with a group of locals on a previously unridden and dangerous route. This country has one of the worst reputations in the southern hemisphere for hostility, so Charley has to have his wits about him. He heads for the remote village of Gapun, home to an isolated tribe and located in the middle of 30 miles of mangrove, but only accessible by water.
Always heading north with Tokyo in sight, Charley really gets under the skin of this beautiful, unexplored country.
WED 22:00 My Father and Me (m000thyl)
For decades among the foremost names in documentary, Nick Broomfield has often implicated himself in the film-making process with honesty and candour. Yet never has he made a movie more distinctly personal than this complex and moving film about his relationship with his humanist-pacifist father, Maurice Broomfield, a factory worker turned photographer of vivid, often lustrous images of industrial post-WWII England.
These images inspired Nick’s own film-making career but also spoke to a difference in outlook between Maurice and Nick, whose less romantic, more left-wing political identity stemmed from his Jewish mother’s side. My Father and Me is both memoir and tribute, and in its intimate story of one family, it takes an expansive, philosophical look at the 20th century itself.
WED 23:35 Britain in Focus: A Photographic History (b08h95jk)
Series 1
Episode 1
Series in which Eamonn McCabe celebrates Britain's greatest photographers, sees how science allowed their art to develop, and explores how they have captured our changing lives and country.
In the first of three programmes, Eamonn goes back to the 19th century to trace the astonishingly rapid rise of the photograph in British life. Eamonn explores the science behind early photography, and shows how innovative photographic techniques made possible the careers of pioneers like Roger Fenton and Julia Margaret Cameron. He sees how great figures of the age such as Queen Victoria and Isambard Kingdom Brunel were captured on camera, and revisits the Victorians' sense of wonder about the 'natural magic' of photography and the role it played in their lives.
WED 00:35 Britain in Focus: A Photographic History (b08hznbb)
Series 1
Episode 2
Eamonn McCabe explores how British photographers responded to the most important events of the first half of the 20th century and traces the emergence of a new genre of photography - photojournalism. His journey begins at the Daily Mirror's press plant in Watford, which broke new ground with its dynamic coverage of the siege of Sidney Street in 1911, before tracing the footsteps of pioneering female photojournalist Christina Broom and discovering how cheaper cameras enabled British soldiers to become citizen journalists during the First World War.
Eamonn is joined by Mahtab Hussain to discuss the work of Bill Brandt, who in 1937 travelled to the north of England to record landscapes and portraits of working class communities during the Great Depression. Brandt would go on to work for Picture Post, Britain's most popular news magazine, which was launched in 1938. Armed with a period roll film Leica, Eamonn goes on assignment to the fairground to recreate a famous shoot by the magazine that documented almost every aspect of mid-century life in Britain.
He also sees how photographers captured the Second World War, from the Blitz to shocking images of concentration camps; celebrates photographers who pursued the medium as an art form in its own right; learns about the printing techniques of celebrity portrait photographer Alvin Langdon Coburn; and reflects on Cecil Beaton's glamorous work for Vogue magazine.
WED 01:35 Great British Railway Journeys (m000dbpg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
WED 02:05 WWI: The Last Tommies (b0brjy2b)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:40 on Tuesday]
THURSDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2021
THU 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000dbj2)
Series 11
Truro to St Mawgan
Michael Portillo is in Cornwall’s county town, Truro, with his 1930s Bradshaw’s Guide. In the surrounding countryside, he finds the historic estate of Trewithen, whose gardens were stocked from China by professional plant hunters commissioned by its owner.
The Atlantic Coast branch line carries Michael north to Newquay, where he discovers a pioneering surfer and braves the waves on a belly board.
In the nearby village of St Mawgan, Michael is introduced to the ancient Cornish sport of 'wrassling', which surged in popularity between the wars as part of a Cornish Celtic revival. Champion wrestler Johnny Platt is standing by to take Michael on.
At Newquay Airport, he hears about the beginnings of passenger air travel to Cornwall as tourism took off during the 1920s and 30s and finds that future flight could be even faster – in space.
THU 19:30 The Joy of Painting (m0011f6z)
Series 5
View from Clear Creek
Gently rolling mountains make an amazing backdrop for this Bob Ross masterpiece. A winding stream and textured ground vegetation provide the rest.
THU 20:00 Dan Cruickshank's Monuments of Remembrance (b0brk994)
Dan Cruickshank reveals the extraordinary story behind the design and building of iconic First World War memorials and explores the idea behind the creation of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
THU 21:00 The Eiger Sanction (m0011f71)
Dragged out of retirement by his old C2 bosses, ex-intelligence operative turned art teacher, Jonathan Hemlock, reluctantly agrees to carry out two final 'sanctions' - in other words, assassinations. The first 'mark' is an easy target, but the second involves a treacherous climb up the brutal Eiger, one of the most inhospitable mountains in the Swiss Alps, setting up a deadly game of cat and mouse.
THU 23:05 Paths of Glory (m0004pm3)
Colonel Dax, the commanding officer of a platoon of French soldiers, is obliged to defend them when they are accused of cowardice in a court martial during World War I.
THU 00:30 Museums in Quarantine (m000hqq9)
Series 1
British Museum
Art historian Dr Janina Ramirez has lovingly paced the galleries of the British Museum since she was a child. Now, as the museum’s incomparable collections lie shuttered during the lockdown, she has been given permission to curate a highly personal selection of some of her favourites amongst its many treasures and to guide us on her very own virtual tour of its silent, empty galleries.
For Ramirez, no other collection in the world makes it possible to chart the highs and lows of humans across the world, and across time, in quite the same way. Her tour takes her across many different cultures and periods of history, alighting on objects as varied as a decorated Aztec skull, ancient Egyptian cat mummies and an 18th-century tea set. As she says, ‘Whether they provide a glimpse into enduring notions of love, sex and spirituality or catalogue moments of change, power and achievement, the artefacts in this one building show us the eternal and the ephemeral.’
The film is a personal reflection on the solace, wisdom and sense of perspective that the British Museum’s global collections can bring us in a time of crisis. ‘We all matter,’ Ramirez concludes, ‘we all stitch ourselves, even in the smallest way, onto the tapestry of existence. These artefacts show us that each of us leaves our footprints in the sands of time.'
THU 01:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000dbj2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
THU 01:30 Dan Cruickshank's Monuments of Remembrance (b0brk994)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 02:30 WWI: The Last Tommies (b0brk21h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Wednesday]
FRIDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2021
FRI 19:00 Buble at the BBC (b081vcx0)
Claudia Winkleman meets Michael Buble in this entertainment spectacular. Michael performs classic tracks including Cry Me a River and Feeling Good alongside songs from his brand new album, including Nobody but Me.
Michael also goes undercover as a sales assistant at a London department store to surprise a few unsuspecting fans.
FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m0011f4t)
Tony Dortie and Claudia Simon present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 14 November 1991 and featuring Rozalla, Seal, Tina Turner, Altern 8, Sonia, R.E.M., Bassheads, Michael Jackson and Vic Reeves & The Wonder Stuff.
FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m0011f4w)
Steve Anderson and Mark Franklin present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 21 November 1991 and featuring Bizarre Inc, M People, Michael Bolton, Love Decade, Scorpions, Sonia and Michael Jackson.
FRI 21:00 Keith Jarrett: The Art of Improvisation (m0011f4y)
Keith Jarrett is more than ‘just a jazz musician’. This exploration of his life and work, including close encounters with the man himself, offers an exceptional opportunity to examine the contrasting worlds of jazz and classical music. At the same time, the programme presents a fascinating and analytical portrait of a complex but remarkable musician whose interests and influences range from jazz, ethnic and folk music to Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky and Samuel Barber.
The first documentary made with Jarrett’s full co-operation, the film also includes interviews with Keith, the musicians he has played with over the years, and members of his family, tour managers and other close musical and recording associates.
FRI 22:30 Jazz Voice 2021 - from the EFG London Jazz Festival (m0011f50)
Always a highlight of the EFG London Jazz Festival, Jazz Voice returns this year with a host of special guests and a celebration of some of the classic jazz scores written for the silver screen.
English jazz trumpeter and composer Guy Barker is once again at the helm of this musical extravaganza, conducting a specially formed 45-piece orchestra, who take centre stage at London’s Royal Festival Hall.
Hosted by Jumoké Fashola, this year’s guest performers include cellist and vocalist Ayanna Witter-Johnson, Kurdish singer Aynur, neo-soul and contemporary jazz singer Ego Ella May, vocalist and composer Georgia Cécile, singer Sachal Vasandani and saxophonist and spoken word artist Lakecia Benjamin.
This year’s centre piece is a medley of some of the greatest jazz scores ever written for the movies. Arranged by Guy Barker, these include: Ascenseur pour L'échafaud by Miles Davis, I Want To Live! by Johnny Mandel, Alfie by Sonny Rollins, A Streetcar Named Desire by Alex North, The Man with the Golden Arm by Elmer Bernstein, Taxi Driver by Bernard Herrmann, Anatomy of a Murder by Duke Ellington and Round Midnight by various artists.
FRI 00:40 The Old Grey Whistle Test (m0011f52)
The Manhattan Transfer
Bob Harris introduces The Manhattan Transfer, in concert in 1977, from the BBC TV Theatre in London's Shepherd's Bush.
FRI 01:25 Top of the Pops (m0011f4t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRI 01:55 Top of the Pops (m0011f4w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
FRI 02:25 Buble at the BBC (b081vcx0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]