Classic drama, based on A J Cronin's novel, about an idealistic Welsh coal miner's son who uses his education to fight against dangerous working conditions. The young man makes a stand when he discovers lives are at risk, and also finds himself fighting to save his marriage.
Coal had powered Britain's industrial rise, with her mills and furnaces, railways and steamships depending on it. In the peak years a million men laboured in the mines, many in poor and dangerous working conditions like those contributor Dick Martin found when he began as pit boy aged 14.
Miners and managers tell of the poor conditions, insecurity and technical backwardness that helped the case for nationalisation in 1947. But the new NCB over-estimated the future need for coal. After massive post-war modernistaion programme, too much coal was being brought up by too many miners, and with the cutbacks came more conflict.
Adaptation of Pat Barker's prizewinning novel set in a Scottish hospital during the First World War. Eminent psychiatrist William Rivers questions his values and training when charged with treating victims of shell shock, only to send them back into active service at the front. He is particularly challenged when the poet and decorated soldier Siegfried Sassoon is declared mentally ill for making an anti-war statement.
Jeremy Paxman tells the tragic story of World War One poet Wilfred Owen. At a time of jingoism and wartime propaganda, one Shropshire lad was compelled to tell the truth. Jeremy Paxman travels to the battlefields of France to discover how the ugliest and most terrible arena imaginable gave birth to some of the most poignant and powerful poetry in the English language. Wilfred Owen is played by Samuel Barnett.
April 5th 1968, the morning after one of the most catastrophic moments in American history - the assassination of Martin Luther King. America's inner cities had begun to implode and in Boston there is a fragile peace.
The mayor of Boston is about to cancel a long-scheduled James Brown concert to avoid confrontation - a potentially incendiary move - but after warnings he has a change of heart and asks if there is 'something James Brown can do to help'.
This documentary tells the story of that amazing night and features rarely-seen footage of the Godfather of Soul's concert plus personal reminiscences from those in attendance.
Series of concerts featuring musicians from around the world at LSO St Luke's in London's East End. The late James Brown, aka the Godfather of Soul, is joined by a 19-piece band including two drummers, three backing vocalists, two dancers in hot pants and a brass section.
He performs some of his most famous songs, including Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, It's a Man's Man's World, I Feel Good and Sex Machine.
SUNDAY 24 MAY 2009
SUN 19:00 North and South (b007c8sf)
Episode 2
Four-part adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's feisty and passionate story, set across the social divide, in the changing world of Victorian industrial society.
Tensions rise as the workers strike over pay. In the ensuing riot, Margaret is caught between the workers and their employer when she steps in to try and protect Thornton from violence. (2004)
SUN 20:00 A Poet's Guide to Britain (b00kk4n5)
George Mackay Brown
Poet and author Owen Sheers presents a series in which he explores six great works of poetry set in the British landscape. Each poem explores a sense of place and identity across Britain and opens the doors to captivating stories about the places and the lives of the poets themselves.
George Mackay Brown, who died in 1996, was the great poetic voice of the Orkneys and one of the foremost Scottish poets of the 20th century. Sheers travels to the place the locals call the Venice of the North, the Orkney town of Stromness, which was Mackay Brown's home and the backdrop for much of his work, including his great poem Hamnavoe.
In Hamnavoe, the Viking name for Stromness, Mackay Brown takes the reader on a nostalgic and blustery tour of the town in the footsteps of his father, the local postman. Sheers uses the poem as a tour guide to Mackay Brown's Orkney life and work, exploring the narrow streets where George was born and wrote his first poems and taking diversions to the great cathedral of St Magnus, the Norse patron saint of the islands, and the remote island of Rackwick.
The poem opens up a moving story of a father and son and showcases Mackay Brown's exquisite, concise, gem-like writing. With ravishing views of the islands in the distinctive Orcadian light, the programme is a hymn to a unique corner of Britain. It also features, among other friends and fans of Mackay Brown, the contemporary Scottish poet Don Patterson.
SUN 20:30 The Weather (b00jw9z6)
Snow
Documentary series about the weather. This episode looks at snow, that most fleeting and beautiful of elements which endlessly fascinates us.
Using rare footage, we journey into the microscopically small world of the snow crystal, finding out how a snowflake forms and why it is always six-sided.
The science of snow tests British Rail's claim that the snow that crippled their rolling stock in 1991 really was the 'wrong type of snow', and explains how, thanks to a scientific discovery, a British company became the world's leading producer of snow.
SUN 21:30 The Great British Wedding (b00kk4qr)
Mark Benton narrates a step-by-step guide to how the Brits tie the knot. From the stag do to the table plan, from the rings to the first dance, this is a look at how the Brits just about manage to rise to the occasion on one of the most momentous days of our lives - the wedding day.
SUN 22:30 Timeshift (b0074tlm)
Series 6
Wedding Rites: In Sickness and in Health
Documentary, narrated by Caroline Quentin, looking at how and why weddings are on the increase and divorce rates in decline in the UK. It asks if we've rediscovered love and romance or if we're just getting swept along by the hype of celebrity weddings and the marketing powers of the mushrooming wedding industry.
The film charts the evolution of the British wedding and asks if the rise of the wedding super-venue and the demise of the church ceremony will ultimately see the end of traditions and rituals which go back centuries.
SUN 23:30 The Wedding Director (b0082gpk)
Surreal Italian comedy-drama. After ending up in a scenic Sicilian town while trying to avoid his daughter's impending wedding to a devout Catholic, a famous film director becomes inexorably and surreally involved in the nuptials of another beautiful bride-to-be.
Though he tries to keep a low profile, director Franco Elica soon catches the attention of the bankrupt Prince of Gravina, who cordially invites him to attend his daughter Bona's upcoming wedding. As it turns out, Bona was to appear in the director's latest film, a cinematic adaptation of the Italian literary classic The Bethrothed. In the time leading up to the wedding, the smitten filmmaker develops a deep longing for the lovely Bona and commences to do everything in his power to sabotage her marriage to a wealthy lawyer.
SUN 01:10 The Great Contemporary Art Bubble Update (b00kmt51)
Art critic and film-maker Ben Lewis spent two years following the contemporary art market, from its heady peak in May 2008 until the crash and burn in October. Now, in a new and updated version of the film first broadcast in May 2009, he returns one year later, in October 2009, to discover a very different market.
The last five years had witnessed an unprecedented craze for contemporary art, in which works of art by Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, and Mark Rothko sold for record-breaking prices of 30 million pounds upwards. It all climaxed in September 2008, when Damien Hirst sold 111 million pounds' worth of his art at an unprecedented auction at Sotheby's - the very day Lehman Brothers collapsed bringing down the financial markets of the western world. The bubble did not burst the night of the Hirst sale - but it proved to be a last hurrah.
The auctions in October and November 2008 were a disaster, and Ben was there too, filming the art world in shock. By early 2009, the contemporary art auction market was down 75 per cent, auction houses had recorded record losses and were rapidly downsizing.
In October 2009, Ben returns to find out what has been happening.
In this inside eye-witness journey into the art world, Ben visits auction houses, art fairs, galleries and the homes of billionaires across the world, searching for the reasons behind the greatest rise in financial value of art in history. He interviews leading dealers, art collectors and art market analysts and discovers an extraordinary world of unusual market practices, speculation, secrecy and a passionate enthusiasm for art.
SUN 02:10 Timeshift (b0074tlm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
SUN 03:10 The Weather (b00jw9z6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
MONDAY 25 MAY 2009
MON 19:00 Landscape Mysteries (b0074rfb)
The Tower People of Shetland
Professor Aubrey Manning seeks to solve some of the enduring mysteries of the British landscape through clues in geology, archaeology and natural history.
On the remote Shetland Isles, a series of monumental towers, or Brochs, once dominated the landscape. Aubrey sets off to discover what sort of community built the Brochs towers and for what purpose.
The latest clues are coming from a major archaeological site at Scatness in the southern mainland of Shetland. Here the remains of a Broch settlement are helping to build a picture of the life of these ancient Iron Age people. New studies of the foundations of the Broch suggest a much earlier date for the structure than previously thought. It means the Brochs were built centuries before the Romans advanced up the British coast. Their function seems to have been as a home for the elite of the society.
MON 19:30 What the Romans Did for Us (b0074ljj)
End of Empire
The innovations and inventions that the Romans brought to Britain. Sitting in a small rowing boat, Adam Hart-Davis explains that the Saxons were the new invaders following the Romans' departure.
MON 19:40 Timewatch (b007951s)
2006-2007
Hadrian's Wall
It is unique in the Roman World. A spectacular and complex stone barrier measuring 74 miles long, and up to 15 feet high and 10 feet thick. For 300 years Hadrian's Wall stood as the Roman Empire's most imposing frontier and one of the unsung wonders of the ancient world.
Almost 2,000 years after it was built, Hadrian's Wall is proving to be a magical time capsule - a window into the human past. Archaeologists have properly excavated less than 1per cent of it, but they have unearthed extraordinary findings. With presenter Julian Richards Timewatch journeys back through time to unlock the secrets of a lost world.
MON 20:30 A Poet's Guide to Britain (b00kps7f)
Matthew Arnold
Poet and author Owen Sheers presents a series in which he explores six great works of poetry set in the British landscape. Each poem explores a sense of place and identity across Britain and opens the doors to captivating stories about the places and the lives of the poets themselves.
In 1851, a young school inspector and his wife spent a night of their honeymoon in a hotel in Dover overlooking the beach. Standing at the bedroom window and staring out at the moonlit sea, this newly-married man wrote a poem that sent a chill through his own and future generations - a poem that ends with the shocking conclusion that there is no hope, no comfort and no purpose in life.
Sheers goes in search of this poet, Matthew Arnold, and discovers what drove him to write his bleak but tremendous poem Dover Beach. He goes to Rugby School to delve into Arnold's relationship with his father, the great Victorian headmaster Dr Arnold, and visits Oxford to explore the extraordinary impact that the religious thinker John Henry Newman made on so many young people of the age. He also travels to the Swiss lake resort of Thun, where Arnold lost his heart to a mysterious woman called Marguerite.
It's the story of a rebellious young man trying to make sense of the world and includes contributions from Archbishop of Canterbury and poet Rowan Williams and rising poetry star, Daljit Nagra.
MON 21:00 How the Celts Saved Britain (b00kps7h)
A New Civilisation
Dan Snow blows the lid off the traditional, Anglo-centric view of history and reveals how the Irish saved Britain from cultural oblivion during the Dark Ages, in this provocative, two-part documentary.
Travelling back in time to some of the remotest corners of the British Isles, Dan unravels the mystery of the lost years of 400-800 AD, when the collapse of the Roman Empire left Britain in tatters.
In the first episode, Dan shows how in the 5th century AD Roman 'Britannia' was plunged into chaos by the arrival of Anglo-Saxon invaders. As Roman civilisation disappeared from Britain, a new civilisation emerged in one of the most unlikely places - Ireland. Within a few generations, Christianity transformed a backward, barbarian country into the cultural powerhouse of early medieval Europe.
This is a visually and intellectually stimulating journey through one of the least known chapters of British history.
MON 22:00 Storyville (b00kps7k)
The Jew who Dealt with Nazis - Killing Kasztner
After 50 years, will the Jew accused of collaborating with the Nazis during the Holocaust be exonerated?
How much should you negotiate with the enemy? In Israel, the debate over that question evoked fury to the point of assassination. Such was the case of Kasztner.
Dr Israel (Rezso) Kasztner, a Hungarian Jew who tried to rescue the last million Jews of Europe by negotiating face to face with Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann, was gunned down by another Jew who never set foot in Nazi Europe.
After 50 years, his assassin Ze'ev Eckstein breaks his silence on the fateful night he shot and killed Kasztner.
Some people considered Kasztner a hero for his eventual rescue of almost 1,700 Jews on a train to safety in Switzerland. Yet this extraordinary act was later cast as an one of betrayal. After Kasztner moved to Israel, he fought a vicious libel battle in a trial that portrayed him as 'the man who sold his soul to the devil', leading to his assassination in Tel Aviv in 1957.
This documentary re-opens the history books on Kasztner's life and the events surrounding this controversial figure. It follows Kasztner's family and survivors, plagued by a legacy they are determined to change. Ze'ev Eckstein reveals, step-by-step, his transformation into an assassin - the events and passions that turned a young man into an agent of politics and revenge.
Intensely emotional for those still living it, part real-time investigation and part historical journey, filmmaker Gaylen Ross unearths the Kasztner story and its ramifications for his family and his country, exploring the very nature of history itself - who writes it, how it is remembered and what is at stake for the present and the future.
MON 23:30 Storyville (b007mwjw)
How Vietnam Was Lost
Based on David Maraniss's book They Marched into Sunlight, a documentary telling the story of two seemingly unconnected events in October 1967 that changed the course of the Vietnam War.
Whilst a US battalion unwittingly marched into a Viet Cong ambush which killed 61 young men, half a world away angry students at the University of Wisconsin were protesting the presence of Dow Chemical recruiters on campus.
MON 00:50 Storyville (b00hq2vj)
Ghosts of the 7th Cavalry
Powerful documentary from Emmy award-winning director Tom Roberts which explores the profound human consequences of America's frontier wars through the moving personal journey of retired US Major Robert 'Snuffy' Gray, who fought with the controversial 7th Cavalry Regiment.
MON 02:20 A Poet's Guide to Britain (b00kps7f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
MON 02:50 How the Celts Saved Britain (b00kps7h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 26 MAY 2009
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00kps8q)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Landscape Mysteries (b0074rdb)
The Riddle of the Yorkshire Tracks
Professor Aubrey Manning seeks to solve some of the enduring mysteries of the British landscape through clues in geology, archaeology and natural history.
Strange parallel tracks in the rocks on the North Yorkshire coast are the starting point for an investigation which tells a forgotten story from the past. Manning discovers that at the beginning of the 17th century, long before the industrial revolution, the now deserted coastline south of Whitby was dominated by Britain first chemical industry. It produced alum, the vital ingredient which allowed textiles to be permanently dyed.
Prof Manning traces the development of the industry and on the beach at Ravenscar he meets John Buglass, who has placed together a picture of the whole operation. Packhorses brought the barrels of alum down to the beach, carts running in the specially cut rutways then carried the load out to boats that were beached on the rocks.
Manning imagines what this deserted coastline might have looked like two hundred years ago -teeming with ships, horse-drawn carts and thousands of workers servicing an industry which has now completely disappeared.
TUE 20:00 Abdication: A Very British Coup (b0074t58)
Documentary which sheds new light on the greatest crisis to rock the British monarchy in centuries - the abdication of King Edward VIII. Usually, it has been presented as the only possible solution to his dilemma of having to choose between the throne and the woman he loved.
Using secret documents and contemporary diaries and letters, this film shows a popular monarch whose modern ideas so unsettled the establishment that his love for Wallis Simpson became the perfect excuse to bounce him off the throne.
TUE 21:00 The Great British Foreign Holiday (b00k99g2)
Mark Benton has been abroad, he knows all about it: 'The British are an island race - abroad is really abroad, not just across the border but actually over the horizon. It's far away - outlandish, exotic and scary. Frankly, we're terrified of it.'
The Brits, foreign travel and all points in between - how we got there, what we did there and how we got back.
TUE 22:00 We Need Answers (b00hq4fj)
Series 1
Motoring
Mark Watson, Tim Key and Alex Horne lead a comic quiz show with a difference, adapted from their award-winning Edinburgh show.
Celebrity guests Julia Bradbury and Robert Llewellyn take part in a knock-about quiz to find out which one of them is the smartest, the funniest and the best at surreal physical challenges.
All the questions come from the audience members and text-messaging services.
TUE 22:30 Flight of the Conchords (b00kssp5)
Series 2
The Tough Brets
When Bret disses some rappers in a gang he becomes terrified they are going to kill him, so he forms the Tough Brets gang to protect himself.
All the guys from the Australian Consulate start bullying Murray, while Mel paints some 'fan art' for Jemaine.
TUE 23:00 The Armstrong and Miller Show (b008bycn)
Series 1
Episode 4
Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller star in a sketch show in which scratching beneath the surface of po-faced British respectability reveals a wealth of great characters.
TUE 23:30 Make 'em Laugh (b00kq4lv)
Honey, I'm Home!: Breadwinners and Homemakers
Six-part series chronicling over 100 years of American comedy, introduced by Billy Crystal and narrated by Amy Sedaris.
The domestic comedy may be the most American of comedy concepts. The moment that Burns and Allen admitted to their radio audience that they were a married couple, a tradition of laughter on the home front began.
Groundbreaking television sitcoms like the Goldbergs, I Love Lucy, the Honeymooners, the Dick van Dyke Show, All in the Family, the Cosby Show, Roseanne, Seinfeld and the Simpsons reflect the ongoing changes at home and in the workplace. Sitcoms continue to be a consistently humorous barometer of American gender roles and attitudes toward racism and politics.
TUE 00:25 I've Never Seen Star Wars (b00j4dg0)
Series 1
Clive Anderson
Marcus Brigstocke hosts a chat show in which he invites someone to try five new cultural experiences, things they have always avoided, from playing bingo to reading Proust. Journalist and broadcaster Clive Anderson is Marcus's guest.
TUE 00:55 I've Never Seen Star Wars (b00j8cpt)
Series 1
John Humphrys
Marcus Brigstocke hosts a chat show in which he invites someone to step out of their comfort zone and try five new cultural experiences, from playing bingo to reading Proust. Journalist and broadcaster John Humphrys is Marcus's guest in this edition.
TUE 01:25 I've Never Seen Star Wars (b00jks3x)
Series 1
Rory McGrath
Marcus Brigstocke hosts a chat show in which he invites someone to step out of their comfort zone and try five new cultural experiences.
In this episode, Rory McGrath tries watching Fawlty Towers, straightening his hair and going to a ballet.
TUE 01:55 I've Never Seen Star Wars (b00jks96)
Series 1
Emily Maitlis
Marcus Brigstocke hosts a chat show in which he invites someone to step out of their comfort zone and try five new cultural experiences. Broadcaster Emily Maitlis listens to Dolly Parton, watches the Godfather and rides a motorbike for the first time.
TUE 02:25 I've Never Seen Star Wars (b00jqp0r)
Series 1
Hugh Dennis
Marcus Brigstocke hosts a chat show in which he invites someone to step out of their comfort zone and try five new cultural experiences. Comedian Hugh Dennis's tasks include eating road kill and visiting a mine.
TUE 02:55 Make 'em Laugh (b00kq4lv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:30 today]
WEDNESDAY 27 MAY 2009
WED 19:00 World News Today (b00kpsbv)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Masterpieces of the British Museum (b0074snm)
The Lewis Chessmen
Amongst the most appealing objects in the British Museum is a chess set, perhaps made by 12th century Norwegian craftsmen and discovered on a remote beach on the Isle of Lewis in 1831. Each piece is amazingly carved out of whale teeth - some are comic, some pensive and some grand.
WED 20:00 How the Celts Saved Britain (b00kps7h)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
WED 21:00 Feasts (b00kq4m9)
Japan
Series in which food writer and presenter Stefan Gates immerses himself in some of the most extraordinary feasts and festivals on earth. By joining ordinary people in these strange and wonderful distillations of their culture and beliefs, he hopes to gain a revelatory insight into how the world thinks and feels.
Stefan attempts to get under the skin of the traditional Japanese reserve by joining in some amazing feasts and festivals, a journey which culminates with Stefan and 10,000 Japanese men wearing nothing but loin cloths in a drunken rampage at a sacred Shinto temple.
He starts his trip by helping a Shinto priestess carry a six-foot wooden penis around a suburb of Tokyo, as she bemoans how kids today seem to have lost their traditional Japanese reserve, before joining the Baby Sumo festival where parents compete to get their children to cry first, to give them good luck for the rest of their lives.
Finally, he embarks on the most extraordinary event of his life - the Naked Man festival. He meets up with Mr Kosaki, a man from the classic Japanese mould who has never told his wife he loves her, who has forsaken his love of music to become a salaryman, and whose work consumes his life. He is as different from Stefan as anyone could hope to be, until his friends arrive and everything changes.
They get wildly drunk, practically naked, and stuff themselves with sushi. Then those still standing head off on a terrifying, barrier-wrecking festival that finally allows the Japanese man to reveal himself as passionate, expressive and loving as anyone. It is all rooted in centuries of Shinto food-related tradition, but is really a huge primal scream from men who spend their days unable to express themselves.
WED 22:00 The Great British Foreign Holiday (b00k99g2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 23:00 Sylvia (b00cv8m2)
Drama about the life of American poet Sylvia Plath, focusing on her troubled marriage to fellow poet Ted Hughes.
As the tensions in the couple's relationship caused by Hughes's infidelity increase, the growing fragility of Plath's emotional state contributes directly to some of her most acclaimed poetry, but ultimately also leads to her tragic death in her early thirties.
WED 00:50 The Great British Foreign Holiday (b00k99g2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
WED 01:50 Batman (b0087frz)
Series 1
The Joker Goes to School
The Joker plans to undermine student morale and recruit high school dropouts for his gang, the Bad Pennies. The Clown Prince of Crime wires the Dynamic Duo to a slot machine about to generate 50,000 volts.
WED 02:15 Batman (b0087fw4)
Series 1
He Meets His Match, the Grisly Ghoul
Adventures with the Caped Crusader. The Joker's dastardly plots involve poisoned perfume, cheating milk machines, Disko Tech and the Boy Wonder taking up smoking. Can Batman foil the laughable fiend?
WED 02:40 Mad Men (b00j0gfd)
Series 2
Three Sundays
Drama series which takes an unflinching look at the world of advertising in 1960s New York.
Sterling Cooper staffers are called in over the weekend to prepare for their American Airlines pitch. Peggy's family hosts lunch for their church's new priest. Roger Sterling is taken by the 'wife' of a client and wants to see more of her.
WED 03:25 Mad Men (b00j4cwg)
Series 2
The New Girl
Joan finds Don the perfect secretary, while Don finds himself in the middle of issues between TV comedian Jimmy and his wife Bobbie. Don and Peggy bond over each other's secrets and Joan gets engaged.
THURSDAY 28 MAY 2009
THU 19:00 World News Today (b00kpv21)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:40 The New Avengers (b00kssqq)
Series 2
The Gladiators
KGB agent Karl Sminsky is recruiting criminals to train as supremely skilled fighters in order to smash Canada's security system. The Avengers find themselves up against a team of supermen.
THU 20:30 Masterpieces of the British Museum (b0074sm2)
The Sutton Hoo Helmet
The story of the discovery in East Anglia and restoration of the most iconic piece of the Sutton Hoo treasure, Britain's richest ever archaeological find.
THU 21:00 Michael Wood on Beowulf (b00kpv23)
Historian Michael Wood returns to his first great love, the Anglo-Saxon world, to reveal the origins of our literary heritage. Focusing on Beowulf and drawing on other Anglo-Saxon classics, he traces the birth of English poetry back to the Dark Ages.
Travelling across the British Isles from East Anglia to Scotland and with the help of Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney, actor Julian Glover, local historians and enthusiasts, he brings the story and language of this iconic poem to life.
THU 22:00 A Poet's Guide to Britain (b00kps7f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 on Monday]
THU 22:30 Feasts (b00kq4m9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Wednesday]
THU 23:30 Michael Wood on Beowulf (b00kpv23)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THU 00:30 Storyville (b00kps7k)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Monday]
THU 02:00 Feasts (b00kq4m9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Wednesday]
THU 03:00 The New Avengers (b00kssqq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:40 today]
FRIDAY 29 MAY 2009
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00kpvc0)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross (b00kpvc2)
To mark the bicentennial of Haydn's death, Aled Jones introduces a concert featuring his masterpiece The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, from the city of Cadiz where the work was commissioned in 1787.
The concert is performed by Le Concert des Nations under the baton of Jordi Savall in the Oratorio de la Santa Cueva. The piece consists of an introduction followed by seven sonatas. Before each sonata each one of the seven last words of Christ is read in Latin by Padre Guillermo Dominguez Leonsegui, priest of the Santa Cueva.
FRI 20:45 Sounds of the Sixties (b00kst0p)
Reversions
1964-5: Getting in on the Act 4
The Seekers kick off this episode of the sixties archive pop programme. Crosby Stills and Nash precursors The Hollies and The Byrds also appear.
FRI 21:00 California Dreamin': The Mamas and the Papas (b00kpvc4)
Documentary charting the formation, instant rise and success of Californian pop group the Mamas and the Papas. Interviews with the band, coupled with performance and archive footage, show the group in their heyday, and the band give detailed accounts of the writing and recording of their hit songs, as well as their personal responses to (and problems with) instant fame and success.
FRI 22:00 Rock Family Trees (b0077lk1)
Series 2
California Dreamin'
Series charting the musical and human dramas behind some of the best known rock and pop groups of the last 40 years. This programme looks at the stories of the Mamas and the Papas and the Lovin' Spoonful, the classic 60s bands responsible for California Dreamin', Monday, Monday, Summer in the City and Daydream.
FRI 22:50 The Old Grey Whistle Test (b00ksj9q)
Richard Williams presents rock and pop performances from Elton John, Fanny, The Rolling Stones, the Mamas and the Papas, Andy Pratt and Isaac Hayes.
FRI 23:30 Flight of the Conchords (b00kssp5)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 on Tuesday]
FRI 00:00 The Great British Foreign Holiday (b00k99g2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
FRI 01:00 California Dreamin': The Mamas and the Papas (b00kpvc4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:00 The Old Grey Whistle Test (b00ksj9q)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:50 today]
FRI 02:40 The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross (b00kpvc2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
A Poet's Guide to Britain
20:00 SUN (b00kk4n5)
A Poet's Guide to Britain
20:30 MON (b00kps7f)
A Poet's Guide to Britain
02:20 MON (b00kps7f)
A Poet's Guide to Britain
22:00 THU (b00kps7f)
Abdication: A Very British Coup
20:00 TUE (b0074t58)
All Our Working Lives
20:35 SAT (b00j4cwb)
BBC Four Sessions
01:40 SAT (b0074pvs)
Batman
01:50 WED (b0087frz)
Batman
02:15 WED (b0087fw4)
California Dreamin': The Mamas and the Papas
21:00 FRI (b00kpvc4)
California Dreamin': The Mamas and the Papas
01:00 FRI (b00kpvc4)
Feasts
21:00 WED (b00kq4m9)
Feasts
22:30 THU (b00kq4m9)
Feasts
02:00 THU (b00kq4m9)
Flight of the Conchords
22:30 TUE (b00kssp5)
Flight of the Conchords
23:30 FRI (b00kssp5)
How the Celts Saved Britain
21:00 MON (b00kps7h)
How the Celts Saved Britain
02:50 MON (b00kps7h)
How the Celts Saved Britain
20:00 WED (b00kps7h)
I've Never Seen Star Wars
00:25 TUE (b00j4dg0)
I've Never Seen Star Wars
00:55 TUE (b00j8cpt)
I've Never Seen Star Wars
01:25 TUE (b00jks3x)
I've Never Seen Star Wars
01:55 TUE (b00jks96)
I've Never Seen Star Wars
02:25 TUE (b00jqp0r)
Landscape Mysteries
19:00 MON (b0074rfb)
Landscape Mysteries
19:30 TUE (b0074rdb)
Mad Men
02:40 WED (b00j0gfd)
Mad Men
03:25 WED (b00j4cwg)
Make 'em Laugh
23:30 TUE (b00kq4lv)
Make 'em Laugh
02:55 TUE (b00kq4lv)
Masterpieces of the British Museum
19:30 WED (b0074snm)
Masterpieces of the British Museum
20:30 THU (b0074sm2)
Michael Wood on Beowulf
21:00 THU (b00kpv23)
Michael Wood on Beowulf
23:30 THU (b00kpv23)
North and South
19:00 SUN (b007c8sf)
Regeneration
21:35 SAT (b0078pvq)
Rock Family Trees
22:00 FRI (b0077lk1)
Sounds of the Sixties
20:45 FRI (b00kst0p)
Storyville
22:00 MON (b00kps7k)
Storyville
23:30 MON (b007mwjw)
Storyville
00:50 MON (b00hq2vj)
Storyville
00:30 THU (b00kps7k)
Sylvia
23:00 WED (b00cv8m2)
The Armstrong and Miller Show
23:00 TUE (b008bycn)
The Great British Foreign Holiday
21:00 TUE (b00k99g2)
The Great British Foreign Holiday
22:00 WED (b00k99g2)
The Great British Foreign Holiday
00:50 WED (b00k99g2)
The Great British Foreign Holiday
00:00 FRI (b00k99g2)
The Great British Wedding
21:30 SUN (b00kk4qr)
The Great Contemporary Art Bubble Update
01:10 SUN (b00kmt51)
The New Avengers
19:40 THU (b00kssqq)
The New Avengers
03:00 THU (b00kssqq)
The Night James Brown Saved Boston
00:25 SAT (b00kk5yl)
The Old Grey Whistle Test
22:50 FRI (b00ksj9q)
The Old Grey Whistle Test
02:00 FRI (b00ksj9q)
The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross
19:30 FRI (b00kpvc2)
The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross
02:40 FRI (b00kpvc2)
The Stars Look Down
19:00 SAT (b00780s7)
The Weather
20:30 SUN (b00jw9z6)
The Weather
03:10 SUN (b00jw9z6)
The Wedding Director
23:30 SUN (b0082gpk)
Timeshift
22:30 SUN (b0074tlm)
Timeshift
02:10 SUN (b0074tlm)
Timewatch
19:40 MON (b007951s)
We Need Answers
22:00 TUE (b00hq4fj)
What the Romans Did for Us
19:30 MON (b0074ljj)
Wilfred Owen: A Remembrance Tale
23:25 SAT (b0088x0j)
Wilfred Owen: A Remembrance Tale
02:40 SAT (b0088x0j)
World News Today
19:00 TUE (b00kps8q)
World News Today
19:00 WED (b00kpsbv)
World News Today
19:00 THU (b00kpv21)
World News Today
19:00 FRI (b00kpvc0)