MONDAY 08 AUGUST 2011

MON 19:00 World News Today (b0135jzs)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


MON 19:30 Timeshift (b00dwflh)
Series 8

Between the Lines - Railways in Fiction and Film

Novelist Andrew Martin presents a documentary examining how the train and the railways came to shape the work of writers and film-makers.

Lovers parting at the station, runaway carriages and secret assignations in confined compartments - railways have long been a staple of romance, mystery and period drama. But at the beginning of the railway age, locomotives were seen as frightening and unnatural. Wordsworth decried the destruction of the countryside, while Dickens wrote about locomotives as murderous brutes, bent on the destruction of mere humans. Hardly surprising, as he had been involved in a horrific railway accident himself.

Martin traces how trains gradually began to be accepted - Holmes and Watson were frequent passengers - until by the time of The Railway Children they were something to be loved, a symbol of innocence and Englishness. He shows how trains made for unforgettable cinema in The 39 Steps and Brief Encounter, and how when the railways fell out of favour after the 1950s, their plight was highlighted in the films of John Betjeman.

Finally, Martin asks whether, in the 21st century, Britain's railways can still stir and inspire artists.


MON 20:30 Only Connect (b00xygp6)
Specials

Series 3 vs Series 4 Winners Special

Victoria Coren presents a special edition of the quiz show in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital. The Gamblers, the winners of series three, square up to the Epicureans, the winners of series four, connecting such subjects as Nero, Mary Portas, Alan Cumming and Elton John.


MON 21:00 Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words (b0135jzv)
The Grand Experiment

The question of how to run a good society has puzzled intellectuals for centuries. Should we allow governments to secure a better country, or place our trust in the individual?

In the 20th century, political and economic thinkers were able to take to our screens to preach their ideas on how they thought Britain should be run. This film features political and economic thinkers who were united by the belief that, for the first time in history, they'd at last found THE KEY to running a good society. And with the advent of broadcasting, these scholars even became national celebrities.

The series mines the BBC archive for footage of the great minds of the modern age - presenting these thinkers in their own words, and the film reveals these thinkers in a new and surprising light. It shows an emotional Isaiah Berlin describing seeing the horrors of the Russian Revolution first hand, as well as a furious Bertrand Russell raging against the nuclear arms race and previously unseen footage of William Beveridge, founder of the Welfare State.

From the feminism of Germaine Greer to the right-wing economics of Friedrich Hayek, this is a unique opportunity to hear some of the most famous thinkers of our times.


MON 22:00 Women in Love (b00zpdvr)
Episode 1

Adaptation of DH Lawrence's classic novels The Rainbow and Women in Love, focusing on the lives of two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun Brangwen, as they struggle with love, passion and commitment in the build up to the First World War.


MON 23:30 Birth of the British Novel (b00ydj1p)
Author Henry Hitchings explores the lives and works of Britain's radical and pioneering 18th-century novelists who, in just 80 years, established all the literary genres we recognise today. It was a golden age of creativity led by Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Fanny Burney and William Godwin, amongst others. Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels, Tom Jones and Tristram Shandy are novels that still sparkle with audacity and innovation.

On his journey through 18th-century fiction, Hitchings reveals how the novel was more than mere entertainment, it was also a subversive hand grenade that would change British society for the better. He travels from the homes of Britain's great and good to its lowliest prisons, meeting contemporary writers like Martin Amis, Will Self, Tom McCarthy and Jenny Uglow on the way.

Although 18th-century novels are woefully neglected today compared to those of the following two centuries, Hitchings shows how the best of them can offer as much pleasure to the reader as any modern classic.


MON 00:30 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The True Story (b00sjbw1)
This iconic American story was written in 1900 by L Frank Baum, a Chicago businessman, journalist, chicken breeder, actor, boutique owner, Hollywood movie director and lifelong fan of all things innovative and technological. His life spanned an era of remarkable invention and achievement in America and many of these developments helped to fuel this great storyteller's imagination.

His ambition was to create the first genuine American fairytale and the story continues to fascinate, inspire and engage millions of fans of all ages from all over the world. This documentary explores how The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has come to symbolise the American Dream and includes previously unseen footage from the Baum family archives, still photographs and clips from the early Oz films, as well as interviews with family members, literary experts and American historians as it tells the story of one man's life in parallel to the development of modern America.


MON 01:30 My Resignation (b0132xlg)
Through personal testimony, this programme follows the process of resigning: from the initial crisis to taking the decision to resign and handling the timing, to the costs, consequences and legacy of the resignation.

It shows that the honourable resignation is not dead. In all walks of life people grappling with moral issues still take that decision to resign. Consultant anaesthetist Stephen Bolsin felt he could only go public after he had resigned and left the country. Former home secretary Jacqui Smith was determined to do the honourable thing and resign immediately over her expenses, but she was thwarted by a prime minister with any eye on political timing. The honourable resignations of Lord Carrington and Richard Luce were put back on track by a hostile parliament and press.

The programme charts how resignation can act as a social barometer - affairs that were once a fast route to leaving are no longer a career fullstop. Max Mosley talks frankly about how determined he was not to bow to pressure to go after revelations over his extra-marital sex.

Interviewees talk about their experiences and what they have learned. Alastair Campbell describes almost 'lamping' demonstrators outside his house. Greg Dyke can't sleep after his resignation 'deal' with the BBC governors goes wrong. Daily Star journalist Richard Peppiatt is plunged into depression after his plan to publish his resignation letter in the Guardian falls apart.

My Resignation shows that however society changes, resigning remains a personal and often traumatic journey.


MON 02:30 Only Connect (b00xygp6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


MON 03:00 Great Thinkers: In Their Own Words (b0135jzv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]