B4

RADIO-LISTS: BBC FOUR
Unofficial Weekly Listings for BBC 4 — supported by bbc.co.uk/programmes/

SATURDAY 07 NOVEMBER 2009

SAT 19:00 The Sky at Night (b00nqc2f)
Lunar Impact

Observers now know there is water on the Moon, but how much? NASA's new LCROSS probe into the lunar surface will find out. Chris Lintott visits the Palomar observatory in California to witness the probe's impact, while Patrick Moore views it with friends from his home in Selsey. Can the Moon really support life?

SAT 19:35 The Scarlet Pimpernel (b007bh5h)
Series 1

A King's Ransom

The Dauphin is being held prisoner by the Republicans. When he is captured by a masked intruder, Robespierre orders Chauvelin to find the boy before news gets out.

SAT 21:05 Art Deco Icons (b00nqc3l)
Casa Del Rio

David Heathcote goes to spend the weekend at Casa Del Rio - a remarkable Art Deco fantasy house hidden away in rural Devon. He uncovers the story of Walter Price, a baker from Devon who went to visit California in the 1930s and who was so impressed by Pickfair - the glamorous residence of Hollywood stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford - that he decided to create his own Deco mansion back in the Devon countryside, complete with marble staircase built to look like a piano keyboard.

Heathcote explores the house that was the perfect glamorous weekend retreat for Price and his friends and plays with some of the many Deco gadgets that brought glamour into so many people's lives in the 1930s - a perfect toaster, a Bakelite radio and even a cocktail shaker.

The original Pickfair mansion in California was demolished, so Casa Del Rio remains as a rare British example of a Deco fantasy house, built at time when Britain was in love with Hollywood, Art Deco and its glamour.

SAT 21:35 Goodbye Lenin (b0074sym)
Provocative comedy in which a son tries to prevent his mother from learning about the fall of the Berlin Wall when she emerges from a lengthy coma, fearing the shock may kill her. Helped by his friends, he devises some complicated ruses to maintain his mother's ignorance of Germany's reunification and the failure of communism in her beloved East Germany.

SAT 23:30 The Real Cabaret (b00nf012)
Few musicals can claim to capture the mood of a historical period as well as the 1972 classic Cabaret.

Liza Minnelli's unforgettable portrayal of singer Sally Bowles and the film's stylish recreation of the era have become defining images of Weimar Berlin.

In this documentary, actor Alan Cumming explores the truths behind the fiction. He meets many of those closely involved with the original film, including Liza Minnelli, and talks to cabaret artists, among them acclaimed performer Ute Lemper.

Alan explores the origins of the Cabaret story in the writings of Christopher Isherwood and uncovers the story of the real life Sally Bowles, a woman very different from her fictional counterpart.

He talks to the composer of Cabaret about the inspiration for the film's most famous songs and discovers the stories of the original composers and performers, among them Marlene Dietrich. Finally, Alan reveals the tragic fate of many of the cabaret artists at the hands of the Nazis.

The documentary pays tribute to the magic of the original film and explores the fascinating and often shocking reality of the people and stories that inspired it.

SAT 00:30 Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany (b00nf10k)
Documentary which looks at how a radical generation of musicians created a new German musical identity out of the cultural ruins of war.

Between 1968 and 1977 bands like Neu!, Can, Faust and Kraftwerk would look beyond western rock and roll to create some of the most original and uncompromising music ever heard. They shared one common goal - a forward-looking desire to transcend Germany's gruesome past - but that didn't stop the music press in war-obsessed Britain from calling them Krautrock.

SAT 01:30 Romanzo Criminale (b00nq8ns)
Inspired by a true story, an epic crime thriller which follows a gang's wave of violence, terror and corruption from the 1970s to 1990s. When childhood friends Ice, Dandy and Lebanese kidnap a rich man for a huge ransom they decide to spend their profits on taking over Rome's criminal underworld.

SUNDAY 08 NOVEMBER 2009

SUN 19:00 A History of Christianity (b00nrtr8)
The First Christianity

When Diarmaid MacCulloch was a small boy, his parents used to drive him round historic churches. Little did they know that they had created a monster, with the history of the Christian Church becoming his life's work.

In a series sweeping across four continents, Professor MacCulloch goes in search of Christianity's forgotten origins. He overturns the familiar story that it all began when the apostle Paul took Christianity from Jerusalem to Rome. Instead, he shows that the true origins of Christianity lie further east, and that at one point it was poised to triumph in Asia, maybe even in China.

The headquarters of Christianity might well have been Baghdad not Rome, and if that had happened then western Christianity would have been very different.

SUN 20:00 War Grave (b0074mtj)
The graves of those killed in action are something very special. For the families, friends and comrades of those who fell they evoke a unique moment in time - memories of childhood, missed youth or first love. This documentary features personal stories of loss in conflicts from the First World War to the Falklands.

SUN 21:00 The Children Who Fought Hitler (b00ntqq3)
Documentary telling the forgotten story of a heroic battle fought by the children of the British Memorial School to help liberate Europe from the Nazis.

The school served a unique horticultural community of ex-First World War soldiers and their families living in Ypres in Belgium who lovingly tended the war graves. Steeped in ideals of patriotic service and sacrifice, many pupils and ex-pupils refused to surrender to the invading Nazi forces.

Three surviving school pupils tell their extraordinary stories of resistance, illustrated with rare archive film. Elaine Madden dramatically escaped to England where she joined the Special Operations Executive and was dropped into Belgium to work as a spy and saboteur. Jerry Eaton joined the RAF taking on especially dangerous missions over Europe and would later become a wing commander. Stephen Grady joined the French resistance where, as a young teenager, he became adept in sabotage and secret attacks on German troops.

The film is a much deserved tribute to the courage, sacrifice and heroism of the Memorial School children.

SUN 22:00 Screen One (b00ntqq5)
Series 5

A Foreign Field

Nostalgic comic drama in which Cyril and Amos, two veterans of the Normandy landings, return to France to visit the grave of their wartime buddy. They encounter Waldo, an American on a similar mission, and the meeting sparks memories of an old girlfriend from the past. With the mysterious American lady Lisa in their wake, Cyril and Waldo decide to try and track her down.

SUN 23:30 It's Only a Theory (b00nqc0c)
Episode 5

Comedians Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter host a series in which qualified professionals and experts submit their theories about life, the universe and everything for examination by a panel of Hamilton, Hunter and a guest celebrity, who then make a final decision on whether the theory is worth keeping.

The guest celebrity is broadcaster Martha Kearney and the experts are Julian Richards and Dr Peter Thompson.

SUN 00:00 Peter Green: Man of the World (b00k92x1)
Legendary blues guitarist BB King named Peter Green as one of the greatest exponents of the blues, and the 'only guitar player to make me sweat'. If Green had only written Black Magic Woman, his name would still have a place in blues rock history forever.

His three short years leading Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac saw the band established as one of the biggest-selling groups of the 1960s. Yet at the height of their fame Green left the group, with his life spiralling into turmoil as drug-induced mental health issues took control. Rumours of his demise began to spread, and sightings of him became notorious.

After years battling his mental illness, Green wrote and recorded again. Featuring archive performances and interviews with Carlos Santana, Noel Gallagher, founding members of Fleetwood Mac and Green himself, this film tells the story of one of blues rock's living legends.

SUN 01:30 Fleetwood Mac: Don't Stop (b00nq7q9)
Fleetwood Mac are one of the biggest-selling bands of all time and still on the road. Their story, told in their own words, is an epic tale of love and confrontation, of success and loss.

Few bands have undergone such radical musical and personal change. The band evolved from the 60s British blues boom to perfect a US West Coast sound that saw them sell 40 million copies of the album Rumours.

However, behind-the-scenes relationships were turbulent. The band went through multiple line-ups with six different lead guitarists. While working on Rumours, the two couples at the heart of the band separated, yet this heartache inspired the perfect pop record.

SUN 02:30 It's Only a Theory (b00nqc0c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 today]

SUN 03:00 The Children Who Fought Hitler (b00ntqq3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

MONDAY 09 NOVEMBER 2009

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00ntr8k)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

MON 19:30 Tales from the Green Valley (b0078yqr)
June

Series in which five experts, archaeologists and historians, take on the challenge of running a farm for a year as it would have been in the reign of King James I.

It is June, and the team need to give the sheep a good wash in a local stream, warmed by a period potion called sheepwashers' posset. Only then can they start shearing them by hand, a backbreaking task. In the dairy, the girls have a go at making cheese the old fashioned way, and the boys have to catch up with weeding the wheat field.

MON 20:00 The Thirties in Colour (b00cl57m)
A World Away

Four-part series using rare, private and commercial film and photographic archives to give poignant and surprising insights into the 1930s, a decade which erupted into colour as polychromatic photographic technology came of age and three important processes - Dufaycolour, Technicolor and Kodachrome - were patented and brought to the market.

This opening part looks at the work of socialite and amateur film-maker, Rosie Newman, who used her high society contacts to secure extraordinary access to the social elite. Between 1928 and her retirement in the 1960s, Newman criss-crossed the globe and shot some of the most important colour documentary footage of the period.

Some of her colour films have been seen before, but this programme features some of Newman's work that has never been broadcast and has not been seen publicly for over 70 years.

MON 21:00 Michael Portillo: Digging up the Dead (b00ntr8m)
A personal journey for Michael Portillo into a story which may come as a shock to people whose knowledge of Spain comes from taking holidays on the beach.

Lying just beneath the surface of the ground, all over Spain, are the bodies of tens of thousands of people in unmarked and very often mass graves. For most of the last seventy years, since the end of the Spanish Civil War, these were known as the 'Graves of Forgetting'. The country was ruled by a dictatorship until the late 1970s and no-one dared speak out about the dead and the disappeared, of whom there could be as many as 200,000.

It is only now that Spain is getting to grips with its past - recognising the terrible crimes that were committed under General Franco's dictatorship and encouraging people to speak about their memories and the loved ones they lost. Many of the graves are being excavated and the bodies removed for reburial, while others will be turned into memorial parks. One excavation is taking place just moments from the beaches and bars of Malaga.

No Spanish family was untouched by the civil war and the repression that followed, and Michael Portillo's family is no exception. His father supported the democratic government and when Spain fell to Franco, Luis Portillo spent the rest of his life in exile.

As Michael discovers, while his uncles were fighting and dying for Franco, his father fought, unarmed in order to be certain that he could not kill a brother, for the republic. This is a journey into a place we thought we knew so well, but discover, through the stories told by a variety of characters, that we hardly knew at all.

MON 22:00 Storyville (b00ntr8p)
War Heroes - Section 60 Arlington Cemetery

Documentary focusing on Section 60 of the historic Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia - the 'saddest acre in America' - where US service men and women from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are buried.

An intimate look at the impact of lives lost too soon, the film bears witness to the rituals and traditions of the family and friends who come from around the country to visit the graves.

MON 22:55 Sacred Music (b03d09b3)
Series 1

The Gothic Revolution

Documentary series in which actor and former chorister Simon Russell Beale explores the flowering of Western sacred music.

He begins his journey at Notre Dame in Paris, where an enigmatic medieval music manuscript provides the key to the early development of polyphony - music of 'many voices'. Featuring music performed by members of the award-winning choir The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers.

MON 23:55 Sacred Music (b009lvpl)
Series 1

Palestrina and the Popes

Documentary series in which actor and former chorister Simon Russell Beale explores the flowering of Western sacred music.

He uncovers the links between the papal intrigues of Renaissance Rome and the music of the enigmatic Palestrina, whose work is considered by many to be unsurpassed in its spiritual perfection. The art and architecture of the Italian High Renaissance are accompanied by a performance from the award-winning choir The Sixteen, conducted by founder Harry Christophers.

MON 00:55 Sacred Music (b009phyw)
Series 1

Tallis, Byrd and the Tudors

Four-part documentary series in which Simon Russell Beale explores the flowering of Western sacred music. Beale takes us back to Tudor England, a country in turmoil as monarchs change the national religion and Roman Catholicism is driven underground. In telling the story of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, two composers at the centre of England's own musical Renaissance, Beale visits parish churches, great cathedrals and a private home where Catholic music would have been performed in secret.

MON 01:55 Sacred Music (b009s86s)
Series 1

Bach and the Lutheran Legacy

Four-part documentary series in which Simon Russell Beale explores the flowering of Western sacred music. With music performed by The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers, Beale explores how Martin Luther, himself a composer, had a profound effect on the development of sacred music, re-defining the role of congregational singing and the use of the organ in services. Ultimately, these reforms would shape the world of JS Bach and inspire him to write some of the greatest sacred music.

MON 02:55 Michael Portillo: Digging up the Dead (b00ntr8m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2009

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b00ntrjz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

TUE 19:30 Talking Landscapes (b0074lzn)
The Weald

Aubrey Manning sets out to uncover the history of Britain's ever-changing landscape. This edition focuses on the Weald, investigating why so much woodland has survived here when so much ancient forest has been felled elsewhere. A trip to the Mary Rose and Nelson's Victory reveals the full story of the Weald and its valuable timber.

TUE 20:00 Life (p07gj8bp)
Birds

Birds owe their global success to feathers - something no other animal has. They allow birds to do extraordinary things.

For the first time, a slow-motion camera captures the unique flight of the marvellous spatuletail hummingbird as he flashes long, iridescent tail feathers in the gloomy undergrowth. Aerial photography takes us into the sky with an Ethiopian lammergeier dropping bones to smash them into edible-sized bits. Thousands of pink flamingoes promenade in one of nature's greatest spectacles. The sage grouse rubs his feathers against his chest in a comic display to make popping noises that attract females. The Vogelkop bowerbird makes up for his dull colour by building an intricate structure and decorating it with colourful beetles and snails.

TUE 21:00 Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story (b007cllb)
The Carpenters were one of the biggest selling pop artists of the 1970s, but what seemed on the surface as the perfect, wholesome brother and sister duo hid a destructive complex truth that was unknown to the world.

Featuring behind the scenes footage, interviews with brother Richard, family and friends, this documentary traces the story that ended in tragedy with sister Karen's untimely death aged just 32.

TUE 22:00 It's Only a Theory (b00ntrk1)
Episode 6

Comedians Andy Hamilton and Reginald D Hunter host a series in which qualified professionals and experts submit their theories about life, the universe and everything for examination by a panel of Hamilton, Hunter and a guest celebrity, who then make a final decision on whether the theory is worth keeping.

The guest celebrity is Vince Cable MP and the experts are Dr David Bainbridge and Marcus Chown.

TUE 22:30 Children of Glory (b00ntrk3)
During the ill-fated Hungarian revolution of 1956, Karcsi Szabo, star player on the water polo team, is torn between his love for a revolutionary student and his training for the Melbourne Olympics.

TUE 00:25 Hungary 1956: Our Revolution (b0074szd)
Documentary recalling the Hungarian uprising of autumn 1956, which, although it failed and was savagely repressed by the Soviets and their collaborators in Hungary, marked a crucial moment in the history of the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and the Cold War.

It was in many ways the prelude to the events of Prague in 1968 and the Solidarity movement in Poland. The flowering of optimism that moved masses of Hungarians, inebriated by the idea of democratic government and the end of Soviet-backed tyranny, provided a source of inspiration for other dissenters throughout the Eastern bloc.

There was something immensely heroic about Hungary's freedom-fighters, who fought a just war against overwhelming odds and something tragic about their inevitable defeat, once they realised that the West would not come to their rescue and that Khrushchev was determined to not give an inch.

The images of men, women and children climbing on Soviet tanks disabled by skilfully thrown Molotov cocktails, or young 'freedom-fighters' stalking the Budapest streets with machine-guns slung over their shoulders was instantly iconic.

200,000 Hungarians fled to the West, of whom only 40,000 returned. Many people were sent to prison and at least 1,200 executed. The wounds inflicted in those bitter days still fester today.

The film brings together the memories of a varied group of men and women who tell the story of 1956 from a personal point-of-view, evoking the inner and outer drama of the events - how they affected them as people and how they shaped the mood of the city as a whole.

The resulting mix of reminiscences offers a powerful and often deeply emotional account of events, the highs as well as the lows, that have universal significance.

TUE 01:25 Michael Portillo: Digging up the Dead (b00ntr8m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]

TUE 02:25 It's Only a Theory (b00ntrk1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]

TUE 02:55 Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story (b007cllb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 11 NOVEMBER 2009

WED 19:00 World News Today (b00ntrs3)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

WED 19:30 Timeshift (b00nnm7k)
Series 9

The Men Who Built the Liners

Many of the most famous passenger liners in history were built in the British Isles, several in the shipyards along the banks of the Clyde. Timeshift combines personal accounts and archive footage to evoke a vivid picture of the unique culture that grew up in the Clyde shipyards. Despite some of the harshest working conditions in industrial history and dire industrial relations, it was here that the Queen Mary, the Queen Elizabeth and the QE2 were built. Such was the Clyde shipbuilders' pride in their work, and the strength of public support, that in 1971 they were able to defy a government attempt to close them down and win the right to carry on shipbuilding.

WED 20:30 Art Deco Icons (b00ntrs5)
The Orient Express

David Heathcote boards the Orient Express at London's Victoria Station and heads off for Venice, first settling into his perfectly restored sleeping cabin and then exploring the decadent charm and the extraordinary history of the train.

He meets James Sherwood, the man who bought the Orient Express in the 1970s and who decided to restore the old 1930s carriages to their Art Deco glamour. At first, his wife Shirley 'thought he was mad', but she became charmed by the challenge of restoring the Decorative art of a romantic train.

After enjoying the luxury of the dining compartment, Heathcote retires to his cabin and wakes up as the train chugs through the Alps. He is joined by Bevis Hillier, the expert who coined the phrase Art Deco and who describes the remarkable spread of the movement across the world from its origins at an exhibition in France in 1925.

However, it is not all luxury - the train has no air conditioning and the washing facilities are a bit basic. So, at the end of 32 exhilarating hours immersed in Art Deco, Heathcote steps off the train at Venice and heads for a beer and a shower.

WED 21:00 The Children Who Fought Hitler (b00ntqq3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]

WED 22:00 Flight of the Conchords (b0084lc3)
Series 1

Sally Returns

Comedy series about Kiwi folk musicians Bret and Jemaine as they to try to make it big in their adopted home of New York. Bret and Jemaine's ex-girlfriend Sally returns and begins dating Jemaine again, causing tension between Bret and Coco. Features the songs Business Time and Sally.

WED 22:30 It's Only a Theory (b00ntrk1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]

WED 23:00 Wallander (b00g2j7h)
Series 1

Mastermind

Investigating a grisly local murder and the disappearance of a policeman's daughter, Kurt Wallander and his colleagues at the Ystad station begin to suspect the two are connected. As the investigation proceeds it seems that the criminal knows every move they will make and is practically controlling them. So begins a struggle to outwit a master criminal.

In Swedish with English subtitles.

WED 00:35 Storyville (b00ntr8p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]

WED 01:30 It's Only a Theory (b00ntrk1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]

WED 02:00 Timeshift (b00nnm7k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

WED 03:00 It's Only a Theory (b00ntrk1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]

WED 03:30 Art Deco Icons (b00ntrs5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]

THURSDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2009

THU 19:00 World News Today (b00nts5t)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

THU 19:30 Art Deco Icons (b00ntrs5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 on Wednesday]

THU 20:00 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 21:00 A History of Christianity (b00ntrs7)
Catholicism: The Unpredictable Rise of Rome

Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch's grandfather was a devout pillar of the local Anglican church and felt that any dabbling in Catholicism was liable to pollute the English way of life. But now his grandfather isn't around to stop him exploring the extraordinary and unpredictable rise of the Roman Catholic church.

Over one billion Christians look to Rome, more than half of all Christians on the planet. But how did a small Jewish sect from the backwoods of 1st-century Palestine, which preached humility and the virtue of poverty, become the established religion of western Europe - wealthy, powerful and expecting unfailing obedience from the faithful?

Amongst the surprising revelations, MacCulloch tells how confession was invented by monks on a remote island off the coast of Ireland, and how the Crusades gave Britain the university system.

Above all, it is a story of what can be achieved when you have friends in high places.

THU 22:00 Margaret (b00hy18h)
Drama charting Margaret Thatcher's astonishing fall from power, one of the most extraordinary stories of political assassination the world has seen. It took only eleven days for Thatcher to go from being the most powerful woman in the world to the tearful figure in the back of the car. A major tragedy in the true Shakespearean sense, in Margaret we watch a woman lose the one thing she really cares about - power - changing from leader to victim before our eyes.

12th November 1990: As Thatcher prepares for her speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet at the Guildhall, Geoffrey Howe, her quietly-spoken former foreign secretary and chancellor, pens the resignation speech that will stun the country and seal her fate. The next day Howe makes his lethal speech in the Houses of Parliament and the final ten days of Margaret Thatcher's reign begin.

THU 23:55 The Thick of It (b00ntrkp)
Series 3

Episode 3

Nicola Murray is stuck in an Eastbourne hotel bedroom with nothing but a laptop, a printer and a tiny kettle while she and Olly try to finish her speech for the annual party conference. It's not going well.

But Glenn has brought in his secret weapon - Julie Price, tragic widow, people's champion and regional photo opportunity. Is this the breakthrough they need, or the start of a tug-of-Julie with Malcolm Tucker?

THU 00:25 The Armstrong and Miller Show (b00nqd88)
Series 2

Episode 4

Sketch show starring Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller. A boxer and trainer struggle to fill the time between rounds, and the RAF pilots mount an escape attempt from a POW camp.

THU 00:55 A History of Christianity (b00ntrs7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THU 01:55 Michael Wood on Beowulf (b00kpv23)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

THU 02:55 A History of Christianity (b00ntrs7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

FRIDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2009

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b00nts6v)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

FRI 19:30 Transatlantic Sessions (b007yyss)
Series 3

Episode 1

The best of Nashville, Ireland and Scotland come together in an exclusive Highland location and with no audience except one another to make music in what have been called 'the greatest backporch shows ever'.

Paul Brady remembers Louisiana, Karen Matheson astonishes with some Gaelic mouth music and American star Joan Osborne makes her UK television debut.

FRI 20:00 Cambridge Folk Festival (b00n1hwg)
2009

Lucinda Williams

Lucinda Williams shows the Cambridge festival why she is a three-times Grammy winner. Entertaining the crowd with a selection from her extensive and award-winning catalogue, including the classic Car Wheels on a Gravel Road and newer, rockier tracks like Honey Bee, Williams demonstrates why she has established herself as one of music's most uncompromising and fascinating writers and performers.

To music critics Williams is a pretty major star, while to her fans she has elevated herself to near-legendary status. Having released eight albums in 24 years, she is proud of having made it to the top of the music world without sacrificing her integrity or her music. It is this honesty that her fans can connect with, and this attitude that keeps them forever loyal.

FRI 20:30 Sacred Music: The Story of Allegri's Miserere (b00g81g7)
Simon Russell Beale tells the story behind Allegri's Miserere, one of the most popular pieces of sacred music ever written. The programme features a full performance of the piece by the award-winning choir the Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers.

FRI 21:00 Blitz: The Bombing of Coventry (b00n7xky)
On 14th November 1940, the Luftwaffe launched the most devastating bombing raid so far on Britain. The target was Coventry, deep in the heart of England.

In a 12-hour blitz, the Luftwaffe dropped thousands of tons of bombs. Three-quarters of the city centre was devastated, including the ancient cathedral. The Nazis coined a phrase - 'to Coventrate' - to describe the intense destruction.

It was a baptism of fire for Coventry and Britain. For years, the government feared that aerial bombardment could destroy civilian morale. In Coventry, those fears were tested, and in the immediate aftermath of the blitz the evidence was not encouraging. Panic and hysteria gripped the city, and half of Coventry's population fled. However, within weeks - and contrary to all expectations - the city revived. Factories were soon turning out aircraft parts which would be used to avenge the attack on Coventry.

The RAF studied the Nazi bombing techniques and perfected the art of 'Coventration'. In Dresden, Hamburg and Berlin, the Nazis reaped the whirlwind they had sown in their devastating attack.

FRI 22:00 Classic Albums (b00nts6z)
Duran Duran: Rio

In 1981, Duran Duran leapt into the limelight with two hit singles and their first album, but it was the follow-up, Rio, which catapulted the band to global success.

Against a backdrop of Thatcher's Britain, with riots, record unemployment and the Falklands conflict, Duran Duran released this optimistic, celebratory and uniquely visual album. Rio would go on to become one of the most successful albums of the 1980s and paved the way for Duran Duran to become one of the world's biggest bands.

The programme tells the story behind the writing, recording and subsequent success of Rio through interviews, musical demonstrations and archive footage. Original band members Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Roger Taylor are interviewed along with director Russell Mulcahy, former manager Paul Berrow, journalist Beverley Glick, designer Anthony Price and Bob Geldof amongst others.

Rio captures Duran Duran at the height of their powers, with wall-to-wall hits and great videos.

FRI 22:55 Wild Boys: The Story of Duran Duran (b007bqdj)
Duran Duran came out of Birmingham and conquered the world during the 1980s. Originally a New Romantic band in full make-up and cossack pants, they rapidly became bedroom pin-ups for a generation of teenage girls.

Led by Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and John Taylor, Duran Duran dominated the British and American charts in the mid-1980s with classic singles such as Rio, Save a Prayer and Wild Boys. Pioneers of the MTV-style promo video - from the X-rated Girls on Film to Raiders of the Lost Ark spoof Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran were the 80s equivalent of The Beatles in America and outsold Spandau Ballet and Wham! in their pomp.

Sixty million records later, Le Bon and Rhodes are seen touring America with their Pop Trash project from the early 2000s. The documentary reflects on the heady heights of Duran Duran's career, the cracks in their make-up plus the effects of sex, drugs and fame on ordinary boys from working-class backgrounds.

Apart from the key Durannies - Le Bon, Rhodes and John Taylor - the programme also features celebrity interviews with Debbie Harry, Yasmin Le Bon, Duran Duran managers Paul and Michael Berrow, Claudia Schiffer, Nile Rodgers and Lou Reed.

FRI 23:45 We Need Answers (b00hkbc6)
Series 1

Reading

Mark Watson, Tim Key and Alex Horne lead a comic quiz show with a difference, adapted from their award-winning Edinburgh show. Celebrity guests Germaine Greer and Michael Rosen take part 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.

FRI 00:15 Only Connect (b00lw5ck)
Series 2

History Boys v Rugby Boys

Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.

A team of three lovers of history square up to a trio of Welshmen devoted to their national game. They compete to draw together the connections between things which, at first glance, seem utterly random: Mao Zedong, Snow White, Tilda Swinton and Lindow Man.

FRI 00:45 Pop Britannia (b008ptkd)
Two Tribes

Three-part documentary series telling the story of popular music and its place in British culture since the 1950s. This last part looks at the constant struggle between the forces of art and commerce. In the early 80s, punk-inspired art students such as The Human League and ABC took British pop to the top of the world's charts, but from the late 80s onwards, dynasties of star-makers such as Stock Aitken and Waterman have tried to mould British pop into a highly-profitable production line.

FRI 01:45 Pop on Trial (b008s9p2)
1980s

Stuart Maconie puts pop in the dock to decide which has been the most influential musical decade. In the era of New Romantics, rap and the Madchester scene, ABC's Martin Fry, Soul II Soul's Jazzie B and Miranda Sawyer join Stuart to judge the 1980s.

FRI 02:45 Classic Albums (b00nts6z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]

FRI 03:40 Cambridge Folk Festival (b00n1hwg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 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 History of Christianity 19:00 SUN (b00nrtr8)

A History of Christianity 21:00 THU (b00ntrs7)

A History of Christianity 00:55 THU (b00ntrs7)

A History of Christianity 02:55 THU (b00ntrs7)

Art Deco Icons 21:05 SAT (b00nqc3l)

Art Deco Icons 20:30 WED (b00ntrs5)

Art Deco Icons 03:30 WED (b00ntrs5)

Art Deco Icons 19:30 THU (b00ntrs5)

Blitz: The Bombing of Coventry 21:00 FRI (b00n7xky)

Cambridge Folk Festival 20:00 FRI (b00n1hwg)

Cambridge Folk Festival 03:40 FRI (b00n1hwg)

Children of Glory 22:30 TUE (b00ntrk3)

Classic Albums 22:00 FRI (b00nts6z)

Classic Albums 02:45 FRI (b00nts6z)

Fleetwood Mac: Don't Stop 01:30 SUN (b00nq7q9)

Flight of the Conchords 22:00 WED (b0084lc3)

Goodbye Lenin 21:35 SAT (b0074sym)

Hungary 1956: Our Revolution 00:25 TUE (b0074szd)

It's Only a Theory 23:30 SUN (b00nqc0c)

It's Only a Theory 02:30 SUN (b00nqc0c)

It's Only a Theory 22:00 TUE (b00ntrk1)

It's Only a Theory 02:25 TUE (b00ntrk1)

It's Only a Theory 22:30 WED (b00ntrk1)

It's Only a Theory 01:30 WED (b00ntrk1)

It's Only a Theory 03:00 WED (b00ntrk1)

Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany 00:30 SAT (b00nf10k)

Life 20:00 TUE (p07gj8bp)

Margaret 22:00 THU (b00hy18h)

Michael Portillo: Digging up the Dead 21:00 MON (b00ntr8m)

Michael Portillo: Digging up the Dead 02:55 MON (b00ntr8m)

Michael Portillo: Digging up the Dead 01:25 TUE (b00ntr8m)

Michael Wood on Beowulf 20:00 THU (b00kpv23)

Michael Wood on Beowulf 01:55 THU (b00kpv23)

Only Connect 00:15 FRI (b00lw5ck)

Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story 21:00 TUE (b007cllb)

Only Yesterday: The Carpenters Story 02:55 TUE (b007cllb)

Peter Green: Man of the World 00:00 SUN (b00k92x1)

Pop Britannia 00:45 FRI (b008ptkd)

Pop on Trial 01:45 FRI (b008s9p2)

Romanzo Criminale 01:30 SAT (b00nq8ns)

Sacred Music: The Story of Allegri's Miserere 20:30 FRI (b00g81g7)

Sacred Music 22:55 MON (b03d09b3)

Sacred Music 23:55 MON (b009lvpl)

Sacred Music 00:55 MON (b009phyw)

Sacred Music 01:55 MON (b009s86s)

Screen One 22:00 SUN (b00ntqq5)

Storyville 22:00 MON (b00ntr8p)

Storyville 00:35 WED (b00ntr8p)

Tales from the Green Valley 19:30 MON (b0078yqr)

Talking Landscapes 19:30 TUE (b0074lzn)

The Armstrong and Miller Show 00:25 THU (b00nqd88)

The Children Who Fought Hitler 21:00 SUN (b00ntqq3)

The Children Who Fought Hitler 03:00 SUN (b00ntqq3)

The Children Who Fought Hitler 21:00 WED (b00ntqq3)

The Real Cabaret 23:30 SAT (b00nf012)

The Scarlet Pimpernel 19:35 SAT (b007bh5h)

The Sky at Night 19:00 SAT (b00nqc2f)

The Thick of It 23:55 THU (b00ntrkp)

The Thirties in Colour 20:00 MON (b00cl57m)

Timeshift 19:30 WED (b00nnm7k)

Timeshift 02:00 WED (b00nnm7k)

Transatlantic Sessions 19:30 FRI (b007yyss)

Wallander 23:00 WED (b00g2j7h)

War Grave 20:00 SUN (b0074mtj)

We Need Answers 23:45 FRI (b00hkbc6)

Wild Boys: The Story of Duran Duran 22:55 FRI (b007bqdj)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b00ntr8k)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b00ntrjz)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b00ntrs3)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b00nts5t)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b00nts6v)