MONDAY 13 DECEMBER 2010

MON 19:00 World News Today (b00wlrzs)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Ancient Worlds (b00wnmb1)
The Republic of Virtue

How did an insignificant cluster of Latin hill villages on the edge of the civilised world become the greatest empire the world has known? In the fifth programme of the series, archaeologist and historian Richard Miles examines the phenomenon of the Roman Republic, from its fratricidal mythical beginnings, with the legend of Romulus and Remus, to the all too real violence of its end, dragged to destruction by war lords like Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar.

Travelling to Sicily and North Africa, Richard tells the story of Rome's century-long struggle for dominance with the other great regional power, Carthage. It was a struggle that would end with the total destruction of this formidable enemy and the transformation of landlubber Rome into a seapower, and the Republic into an Empire. But with no-one left to beat, the only enemy that Rome had left was itself.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00wlrzv)
Series 4

Alesmen vs Radio Addicts

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

In the second semi-final, three lovers of authentic beer lock horns with the cunning of a team bound by their love of the airwaves.

They compete to draw together the connections between things which at first glance seem utterly random, from Norman Conquest begins to Stella Artois brewery founded to Great Fire of London to ????


MON 21:00 Art of Germany (b00wlrzx)
In the Shadow of Hitler

Andrew Graham-Dixon concludes his exploration of German art by investigating the dark and difficult times of the 20th century.

Dominating the landscape is the figure of Adolf Hitler - failed artist, would-be architect and obsessed with the aesthetics of his 1,000-year Reich. In a series of extraordinary building projects and exhibitions, Hitler waged a propaganda war against every kind of modern art as a prelude to unleashing total war on the whole of Europe.

After the war the shadow of the Third Reich persisted, Germany remained divided and traumatised. How would artists deal with a past that everybody wanted to forget? From the work of Otto Dix and George Grosz and the age of the Bauhaus to the post-war painters Georg Baselitz, Hilla Becher and the conceptual artist Joseph Beuys is a long strange journey, but the signs are there that art has a place at the heart of the new reunited Germany.


MON 22:00 Berlin (b00p5yv4)
Ich bin ein Berliner

Documentary series.

The life and character of Berliners have been defined by a struggle for freedom. In 1963, President Kennedy declared that all free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. But centuries earlier, the rulers of the city offered freedom to the oppressed. Jews moved to the city from Vienna and eastern Europe, and were instrumental in creating the city as it now exists. During the Nazi years, however, Berlin's Jews were driven underground, many unable to leave the city they loved.

When the Russians arrived at the end of the Second World War, Berlin's women found themselves at the mercy of rapists rather than liberators. Citizens became pawns in a global game through the Berlin blockade, and when the Berlin Wall was built, both East and West held themselves up as beacons of freedom. But only when it fell did Berliners attain the freedom that their early rulers had promised them.


MON 23:00 The Joy of Stats (b00wgq0l)
Documentary which takes viewers on a rollercoaster ride through the wonderful world of statistics to explore the remarkable power they have to change our understanding of the world, presented by superstar boffin Professor Hans Rosling, whose eye-opening, mind-expanding and funny online lectures have made him an international internet legend.

Rosling is a man who revels in the glorious nerdiness of statistics, and here he entertainingly explores their history, how they work mathematically and how they can be used in today's computer age to see the world as it really is, not just as we imagine it to be.

Rosling's lectures use huge quantities of public data to reveal the story of the world's past, present and future development. Now he tells the story of the world in 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers - in just four minutes.

The film also explores cutting-edge examples of statistics in action today. In San Francisco, a new app mashes up police department data with the city's street map to show what crime is being reported street by street, house by house, in near real-time. Every citizen can use it and the hidden patterns of their city are starkly revealed. Meanwhile, at Google HQ the machine translation project tries to translate between 57 languages, using lots of statistics and no linguists.

Despite its light and witty touch, the film nonetheless has a serious message - without statistics we are cast adrift on an ocean of confusion, but armed with stats we can take control of our lives, hold our rulers to account and see the world as it really is. What's more, Hans concludes, we can now collect and analyse such huge quantities of data and at such speeds that scientific method itself seems to be changing.


MON 00:00 Art of Germany (b00wlrzx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 01:00 Berlin (b00p5yv4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


MON 02:00 Glamour's Golden Age (b00ndzw0)
The Luxe Experience

Hermione Norris narrates a three-part series on the 1920s and 30s, which creates a portrait of a golden age so daring, so influential, so exciting that it still shapes who we are today.

The decades between the world wars saw a cultural revolution in music, fashion, design and the arts. Mass media, mass production and the resulting mass exposure to an alluring, seductive glamour saw the world changing at a dizzying pace, amid which many of our modern obsessions were born.

The first part looks at how architecture and design both created and reflected the spirit of the time. The fun and frivolity of art deco sat alongside the pure functionality of modernism and helped democratise style. Streamlining followed, making sleek, sophisticated, elegant design part of ordinary people's everyday lives. At home, the radio became a beautiful object. In the urban environment a new aesthetic changed the way buildings looked, while planes, trains and automobiles started to shrink the world.

Featuring photographs of the Hoover Factory, Saltdean Lido, the Midland Hotel, the Savoy Theatre, the De La Warr Pavilion, the New Victoria Palace cinema, plus archive newsreel of the Mallard, the Queen Mary, the Schneider Trophy and Bluebird.


MON 03:00 Julia Bradbury's German Wanderlust (b00wgq81)
The Bavarian Alps

Julia Bradbury takes her boots and backpack to the Continent to explore the landscape of Germany and the cultural movement that made it famous - Romanticism.

The Germans enjoy a relationship with walking that has lasted over 200 years. The exploration of their landscape has inspired music, literature and art, and Romanticism has even helped shape the modern German nation, as Julia discovers. By walking in four very different parts of Germany, she explores river valleys, coastlines, mountains and gorges, following in the footsteps of Richard Wagner, Caspar David Friedrich, Johannes Brahms as well as British Romantics like William Turner and Lord Byron. This is Julia's chance to discover her own sense of wanderlust.

Julia moves to the far south of Germany for her second adventure. The Alps are a famous walking environment and, 140 years ago, were the playground of the famously eccentric Bavarian king Ludwig II. Julia's stunning mountain walk explores the fairytale story of Ludwig's life, his obsession with landscape, Romantic art and literature, and his close friendship with composer Richard Wagner. The walk's highlight is Ludwig's greatest Romantic legacy, the incredible castle of Neuschwanstein.


MON 03:30 Art of Germany (b00wlrzx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]