The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. In a series of four epic journeys, he travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains.
His journey takes him from Buxton along one of the first railway routes south to the capital, London. This time, Michael visits the oldest working factory in the world at Cromford, explores the country's first public park in Derby and finds out why Burton's beer is said to be the best.
Fergal Keane tells the story of the World War One from a unique new aerial perspective. Featuring two remarkable historical finds, including a piece of archive footage filmed from an airship in summer 1919, capturing the trenches and battlefields in a way that has rarely been seen before. It also features aerial photographs taken by First World War pilots - developed for the first time in over 90 years - that show not only the devastation inflicted during the fighting, but also quirks and human stories visible only from above.
Classic tale of spying, intrigue and romance, based on the novels of Alan Furst.
Warsaw 1938. French military attache Colonel Jean-Francois Mercier is also a spy on a mission, one which takes him undercover to Czechoslovakia on the trail of the elusive Chaika, a man who can lead him into the heart of the Nazi war machine.
Back in Warsaw, his erstwhile mistress Anna Skarbek is devastated by news of her ex-lover and political refugee and journalist Max Mostov. Heartbroken, she flees to Spain on a League of Nations mission of mercy.
As the Nazi storm clouds gather over Europe, dashing Polish Colonel Anton Pakulski undertakes his own mission, a mission that goes to the heart of protecting the very future of Poland itself.
The British fought the Second World War to defeat Hitler. This film asks why, then, did they spend so much of the conflict battling through North Africa and Italy?
Historian David Reynolds reassesses Winston Churchill's conviction that the Mediterranean was the 'soft underbelly' of Hitler's Europe. Travelling to Egypt and Italian battlefields like Cassino, scene of some of the worst carnage in western Europe, he shows how, in reality, the 'soft underbelly' became a dark and dangerous obsession for Churchill.
Reynolds reveals a prime minister very different from the jaw-jutting bulldog of Britain's 'finest hour' in 1940 - a leader who was politically vulnerable at home, desperate to shore up a crumbling British empire abroad, losing faith in his army and even ready to deceive his American allies if it might delay fighting head to head against the Germans in northern France.
Writer and broadcaster Stephen Smith uncovers the secret history of the humble fig leaf, opening a window onto 2,000 years of western art and ethics.
He tells how the work of Michelangelo, known to his contemporaries as 'the maker of pork things', fuelled the infamous 'fig leaf campaign', the greatest cover-up in art history, how Bernini turned censorship into a new form of erotica by replacing the fig leaf with the slipping gauze, and how the ingenious machinations of Rodin brought nudity back to the public eye.
In telling this story, Smith turns many of our deepest prejudices upside down, showing how the Victorians had a far more sophisticated and mature attitude to sexuality than we do today. He ends with an impassioned plea for the widespread return of the fig leaf to redeem modern art from cheap sensation and innuendo.
Luxury isn't just a question of expensive and the beautiful objects for the rich and the powerful. It has always been much more, and much more important, than that, especially in the ancient and medieval worlds.
This first episode follows the debate about luxury which convulsed ancient Greece from the beginning of the classical era. In Athens, it explores the role of luxury in the beginnings of democracy - how certain kinds of luxury came to be forbidden, and others embraced. A simple luxury like meat could unite the democracy, and yet a taste for fish could divide it. Some luxuries were associated with effeminacy and foreigners. Others with the very idea of democracy.
Yet in Sparta there was a determined attempt to deny luxury, and the guilty contradictions of this eventually brought what had been the most powerful state in Greece to its downfall. When Sparta was replaced by the Macedon of Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, the absolute luxury of his court set new standards for luxury as political propaganda. Yet the guilty anxiety of ancient Greece could not be suppressed and still affects our ideas of luxury today.
The art colony of St Ives in Cornwall became as important as Paris or London in the history of modernism during a golden creative period between the 1920s and 1960s. The dramatic lives and works of eight artists who most made this miracle possible, from Kit Wood and Alfred Wallis to Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson, are featured in a documentary which offers an alternative history of the 20th century avant-garde as well as a vivid portrayal of the history and landscapes of Cornwall itself.
THURSDAY 17 JANUARY 2013
THU 19:00 World News Today (b01pwmxj)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b01pznzn)
05/01/78
Peter Powell introduces the weekly pop chart programme featuring performances from Eddie & the Hot Rods, Terry Wogan, Long Tall Ernie, the Babys, Tonight, the Brotherhood of Man, Julie Covington, Bob Marley & the Wailers, Wings and Legs & Co.
THU 20:00 She-Wolves: England's Early Queens (b01dc66v)
Isabella and Margaret
In the medieval and Tudor world there was no question in people's minds about the order of God's creation - men ruled and women didn't. A king was a warrior who literally fought to win power then battled to keep it. Yet despite everything that stood in their way, a handful of extraordinary women did attempt to rule medieval and Tudor England. In this series, historian Dr Helen Castor explores seven queens who challenged male power, the fierce reactions they provoked and whether the term 'she wolves' was deserved.
In 1308 a 12-year-old girl, Isabella of France, became queen of England when she married the English king. A century later another young French girl, Margaret of Anjou, followed in her footsteps. Both these women were thrust into a violent and dysfunctional England and both felt driven to take control of the kingdom themselves. Isabella would be accused of murder and Margaret of destructive ambition - it was Margaret who Shakespeare named the She Wolf. But as Helen reveals, their self-assertion that would have seemed natural in a man was deemed unnatural, even monstrous in a woman.
THU 21:00 Carved with Love: The Genius of British Woodwork (b01pyfd2)
The Glorious Grinling Gibbons
Series about great British woodworkers continues by looking at the life and work of Grinling Gibbons. He isn't a household name, but he is the greatest woodcarver the British Isles has ever produced. Working in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London, Gibbons created delightful carved masterpieces for the likes of Charles II and William of Orange. This film explores the genius of the man they called the 'Michelangelo of wood'.
THU 22:00 Lost Kingdoms of South America (b01pwtqy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
THU 23:00 The Riviera: A History in Pictures (b01pwtvf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Tuesday]
THU 00:00 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.
THU 01:00 Guilty Pleasures: Luxury in... (b012cnkx)
The Middle Ages
Luxury isn't just a question of expensive and the beautiful objects for the rich and the powerful. It has always been much more important than that, especially in the ancient and medieval worlds.
This second episode follows the clash between luxury and Christianity which convulsed medieval Europe. Luxury was a roadblock on the road to heaven, so the church was quick to condemn the jewellery, gorgeous weapons and pattern-welded swords of the early medieval world. Yet the church also had its own form of luxury, in the form of spectacular manuscripts designed to do the work of God through astonishment and display. And to some extent it worked, as by 1200 medieval boys' toys like warhorses and tournaments came to be suffused with Christian ideas of chivalry and gentility.
But by that time the growth of trade had brought new luxuries to Europe, condemned in turn by the church, like exotic spices from the East. Spicy food led to spicy conduct, said the preachers, and to the sin of lechery. But soon the Black Death paradoxically liberated luxury from the church by initiating a new world of relative luxury and consumerism - the luxury world we inhabit today.
THU 02:00 The Perfect Suit (b012cnww)
A witty exploration of the evolution of the gentleman's suit. Alastair Sooke only owns one suit, but he is fascinated by how the matching jacket and trousers has become a uniform for men. Over the last 100 years the suit has evolved from working man's Sunday best to the casual wear of royalty.
For many 'the suit' is synonymous with all that is dull. But tailor Charlie Allen, Top Man chief designer Gordon Richardson and Sir Paul Smith show Alastair that the suit can be a cutting-edge fashion item and 'armour' to face the world.
THU 03:00 Carved with Love: The Genius of British Woodwork (b01pyfd2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 18 JANUARY 2013
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b01pwmxp)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Angelic Voices: The Choristers of Salisbury Cathedral (b01f6tb8)
Child choristers have been singing at Salisbury for 900 years. This film - an observational portrait, history and musical immersion in one of Britain's most distinctive and beloved cultural traditions - follows Salisbury Cathedral's choristers over Easter and through the summer term of 2011.
Salisbury Cathedral's separate boy and girl choirs each contain 16 of the most musically gifted eight- to 13-year-olds in the country. Their role, now as always, is to sing some of the most sublime music ever written in one of Britain's most beautiful buildings. Indeed there are many who believe the chorister's pure, clear, treble voice is the finest instrument in all music.
The film spends four months with the choristers as they go about their day-to-day lives, discovering their own history and singing some of the most loved music from a sacred canon spanning six centuries from medieval plainsong to the present day. Under the direction of indefatigable choir master David Halls, they rehearse and perform works by Sheppard, Byrd, Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Stanford, Parry, Alcock and Rutter.
Lining up in his black cloak, ten-year-old Alex says he feels like Harry Potter while Freddie, 12, admits, 'Other children think we are weird and actually we are not.' Yet few children perhaps have the poise or conviction of Susanna, 10, who explains, 'Singing for choristers is part of them. If you said to me "You're not allowed to sing anymore", it would be just like me telling you that you can't see your child anymore.' It is doubtful that Salisbury's early choristers, often so hungry they were forced to beg for bread, thought so fondly of their work. But when plainsong turned to polyphony the choristers' plight was transformed - with the top cathedrals in the late middle ages known to pay Premiership-style transfer fees for the most musically gifted boys, some of whom were even kidnapped by rival cathedrals.
Today's top trebles at Salisbury are seen competing for one of the most famed solos in a chorister's repertoire. Will Finnbar, Freddie or Noah be picked for Stanford's Mag in G?
FRI 21:00 Glen Campbell: The Rhinestone Cowboy (b01pwxs8)
In 2011, Glen Campbell announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and that he would be bowing out with a final album and farewell tour across Britain and America. This documentary tells Campbell's remarkable life story, from impoverished childhood in Arkansas to huge success, first as a guitarist and then as a singer, with great records like Wichita Lineman and Rhinestone Cowboy. With comments from friends and colleagues, including songwriter Jimmy Webb and Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees, it is a moving story of success, disgrace and redemption as rich as any of the storylines in Campbell's most famous songs.
The peak of Glen Campbell's career was in 1975, when he topped the charts around the world with Rhinestone Cowboy, but his musical journey to that point is fascinating. A self-taught teenage prodigy on the guitar, by his mid-twenties Campbell was one of the top session guitarists in LA, a key member of the band of session players now known as The Wrecking Crew. He played on hundreds of tracks while working for producers like Phil Spector and Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, including Daydream Believer by The Monkees, You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling by The Righteous Brothers, Strangers in the Night by Frank Sinatra and Viva Las Vegas by Elvis Presley.
But Campbell always wanted to make it under his own name. A string of records failed to chart until, in 1967, he finally found his distinctive country pop sound with hits like Gentle on My Mind and By the Time I Get to Phoenix. The latter was written by Jimmy Webb, and together the two created a string of great records like Wichita Lineman and Galveston. Campbell pioneered country crossover and opened the way for artists like Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.
By the end of the 1960s, Campbell was the fastest rising star in American pop with his own television show and a starring role in the original version of True Grit. Over the following ten years, he had more success with Rhinestone Cowboy and Southern Nights, but his private life was in turmoil. Divorce, drink and drugs saw this clean-cut all-American hero fall from grace and a tempestuous relationship with country star Tanya Tucker was front-page news.
Despite a relapse in 2003, when he was arrested for drunk driving and his police mug shot was shown around the world, the last two decades have been more settled. He remarried, started a new family and renewed his Christian faith, and was musically rediscovered by a new generation. Like his friend Johnny Cash, he released acclaimed new albums with young musicians, covering songs by contemporary artists like U2 and The Foo Fighters. Therefore the diagnosis with Alzheimer's was all the more poignant, but his dignified farewell has made him the public face of the disease in the USA.
The film includes contributions by many of Campbell's friends and colleagues, including his family in Arkansas, fellow session musicians Carol Kaye and Leon Russell, long-time friend and collaborator Jimmy Webb, former Monkee Mickey Dolenz, broadcaster Bob Harris, lyricist Don Black and country music writer Robert Oermann.
FRI 22:00 An Evening with Glen Campbell (b01pyfht)
A special concert recorded at the Royal Festival Hall in 1977, where 80 musicians played new arrangements of Glen Campbell's hit songs.
FRI 23:20 Country at the BBC (b017zqwb)
Grab your partner by the hand - the BBC have raided their archive and brought to light glittering performances by country artists over the last four decades.
Star appearances include Tammy Wynette, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash and, of course, Dolly Parton. All the greats have performed for the BBC at some point - on entertainment shows, in concert and at the BBC studios. Some of the rhinestones revealed are Charley Pride's Crystal Chandeliers from the Lulu Show, Emmylou Harris singing Together Again on the Old Grey Whistle Test and Billie Jo Spears's Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad from the Val Doonican Music Show.
We're brought up to date with modern country hits by kd lang, Garth Brooks, Alison Krauss and Taylor Swift, plus a special unbroadcasted performance from Later...with Jools Holland by Willie Nelson.
FRI 00:50 Glen Campbell: The Rhinestone Cowboy (b01pwxs8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 01:50 An Evening with Glen Campbell (b01pyfht)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 03:10 BBC One Sessions (b007cj5l)
Paul Simon
The legendary American singer-songwriter with his six-piece band in an intimate concert from LSO St Luke's in London's Shoreditch. Simon plays songs from throughout his solo career and his 60s heyday with Simon and Garfunkel including You Can Call Me Al, The Only Living Boy in New York, The Boxer and Still Crazy After All These Years, alongside songs from his gold-selling album, Surprise. The band sing jawdropping harmonies, play everything from penny whistle to baritone sax and accordion while Simon sings, plays guitar and conducts the band in front of 250 fans.
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 Art in Three Colours
20:00 SAT (b01lcz2s)
A History of Art in Three Colours
03:00 SAT (b01lcz2s)
An Evening with Glen Campbell
22:00 FRI (b01pyfht)
An Evening with Glen Campbell
01:50 FRI (b01pyfht)
Angelic Voices: The Choristers of Salisbury Cathedral
19:30 FRI (b01f6tb8)
Art Deco Icons
20:00 MON (b00npm4g)
Art Deco Icons
02:15 MON (b00npm4g)
Art Deco Icons
03:30 WED (b00npm4g)
BBC One Sessions
03:10 FRI (b007cj5l)
Birth of the British Novel
00:00 THU (b00ydj1p)
Borgen
21:00 SAT (b01pznyh)
Borgen
22:00 SAT (b01pznyk)
Borgen
23:00 TUE (b01pznyh)
Borgen
00:00 TUE (b01pznyk)
Carved with Love: The Genius of British Woodwork
01:15 MON (b01psbwz)
Carved with Love: The Genius of British Woodwork
21:00 THU (b01pyfd2)
Carved with Love: The Genius of British Woodwork
03:00 THU (b01pyfd2)
Country at the BBC
23:20 FRI (b017zqwb)
Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency
20:00 TUE (b014b7d2)
Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency
01:00 TUE (b014b7d2)
Fig Leaf: The Biggest Cover-Up in History
00:00 WED (b00ydp38)
Glen Campbell: The Rhinestone Cowboy
21:00 FRI (b01pwxs8)
Glen Campbell: The Rhinestone Cowboy
00:50 FRI (b01pwxs8)
Great British Railway Journeys
19:30 MON (b00qbnj1)
Great British Railway Journeys
19:30 TUE (b00qgypx)
Great British Railway Journeys
19:30 WED (b00qgyv4)
Guilty Pleasures: Luxury in...
01:00 WED (b0126vdc)
Guilty Pleasures: Luxury in...
01:00 THU (b012cnkx)
Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings
22:00 TUE (b0192nrg)
Illuminations: The Private Lives of Medieval Kings
02:00 TUE (b0192nrg)
Leaving
22:00 SUN (b0163067)
Legends
01:20 SUN (b0074t24)
Lost Kingdoms of South America
21:00 MON (b01pwtqy)
Lost Kingdoms of South America
02:45 MON (b01pwtqy)
Lost Kingdoms of South America
22:00 THU (b01pwtqy)
Lost Land of the Tiger
19:00 SAT (b00ty6bd)
Mark Lawson Talks To...
21:00 SUN (b01pz88g)
Mark Lawson Talks To...
02:50 SUN (b01pz88g)
Only Connect
20:30 MON (b01pwtqw)
Pop Charts Britannia: 60 Years of the Top 10
23:00 SAT (b01nwfxs)
She-Wolves: England's Early Queens
20:00 THU (b01dc66v)
Shirley Bassey at the BBC
23:20 SUN (b01psct4)
Sir Patrick Moore: Astronomer, Broadcaster and Eccentric
20:30 SUN (b01psbjf)
Sounds of the 70s 2
02:30 SAT (b01gymg9)
Spies of Warsaw
23:45 MON (b01psbj3)
Spies of Warsaw
21:00 WED (b01pwvxb)
Storyville
22:00 MON (b01pzz69)
The Art of Cornwall
02:00 WED (b00wbn80)
The First World War from Above
20:00 WED (b00vyrzh)
The Joy of the Single
01:30 SAT (b01nzchs)
The Perfect Suit
02:00 THU (b012cnww)
The Riviera: A History in Pictures
21:00 TUE (b01pwtvf)
The Riviera: A History in Pictures
03:00 TUE (b01pwtvf)
The Riviera: A History in Pictures
23:00 THU (b01pwtvf)
The Sky at Night
19:00 SUN (b01pzyjp)
The Sky at Night
19:15 SUN (b01pzyjr)
The Sky at Night
20:00 SUN (b00p1crz)
The Sound of Petula
02:20 SUN (b01pvc6y)
Top of the Pops
19:30 THU (b01pznzn)
Ultimate Number Ones
00:30 SAT (b01nwfxv)
World News Today
19:00 MON (b01pwmx1)
World News Today
19:00 TUE (b01pwmx6)
World News Today
19:00 WED (b01pwmxc)
World News Today
19:00 THU (b01pwmxj)
World News Today
19:00 FRI (b01pwmxp)
World War Two: 1942 and Hitler's Soft Underbelly
22:30 WED (b01ndj09)
imagine...
00:20 SUN (b00p36t8)