WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013

WED 19:00 World News Today (b01qypjz)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.


WED 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b00xy9vl)
Series 2

Langley Mill to Melton Mowbray

Michael Portillo takes to the tracks with a copy of George Bradshaw's Victorian Railway Guidebook. He travels the length and breadth of the country to see how the railways changed us, and what of Bradshaw's Britain remains, as his journey follows some of the earliest railways in the country from Newcastle to Melton Mowbray.

Michael learns the secrets of stilton cheese, finds out how trains transformed the traditional British sport of fox hunting and attempts to make an authentic Melton Mowbray pork pie.


WED 20:00 Sissinghurst (b00j6q8d)
Episode 6

Documentary series about the attempts of writer Adam Nicolson and his wife Sarah Raven to bring farming back into the heart of the estate and garden at Sissinghurst Castle in Kent, their historic home which is owned by the National Trust and was moulded into its present form by Nicolson's grandmother Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson back in the 1930s.

It's May and Adam's quest to breathe new life into the Sissinghurst estate is gathering pace. The National Trust has appointed a farmer and there is good news from the vegetable plot as the first delivery of produce is ready for the restaurant. But Adam realises he has got to talk to the staff to try to ease rising tensions. He discovers he is not the only one to have a sense of belonging at Sissinghurst and begins to realise the impact the project will have on the staff on the ground. He changes his tune and starts to wonder whether he himself is becoming National Trust-ified.

Adam and Sarah take their bridge-building efforts a stage further as they lend a hand in the restaurant. Sarah's not sure about being sworn at by Steve the head chef, though.

Adam's research for his book takes him a step further in fathoming Vita and Harold's unusual relationship - in which both of them had numerous gay affairs and yet despite it all remained devoted to each other.

As mid-June and the glory of high summer arrives, it is time for the garden's star attraction to take centre stage: the White Garden comes into full bloom. This tiny garden area is now a design icon of international significance. Adam's sister Juliet reveals that there are now no fewer than 20 such White Gardens in Connecticut alone.


WED 20:30 Nature's Microworlds (b01qyvnh)
Australia's Red Centre

In Australia's red centre, Steve Backshall reveals two-metre-tall kangaroos, the world's most venomous snake and a burrowing toad living among the throng of animals. Parched by the sun, scorched by fire and prone to unpredictable floods, the heart of this island continent is as inhospitable as it gets. Poor soils make vegetation tough and indigestible even to Australia's largest herbivore, the red kangaroo. However, it teems with animals found nowhere else on Earth. The key to the success of this extraordinary place is as surprising as the creatures that make it home.


WED 21:00 Johnny Kingdom and the Bears of Alaska (b01qyvnk)
Johnny Kingdom, the wild man of Exmoor, is back and going further than he's ever been before - the trip of a lifetime to Kodiak Island in Alaska in search of brown bears.

As a lad, amateur wildlife filmmaker Johnny would poach salmon from the rivers on Exmoor with his bare hands, but his lifelong ambition has been to see how the real experts - brown bears - do it, as they fish for sockeye salmon in the remote rivers of Kodiak Island off the southwest coast of Alaska.

It is also the biggest challenge he has faced as an amateur cameraman. In characteristic style, Johnny finds himself struggling to keep his camera still without a tripod and because his hands are shaking so much when faced with a 'hooge' bear less than 30 metres away.

The other challenge he faces, which he cannot control, is the weather. In the summer, although the snow has melted this part of Alaska is plagued by heavy mists and fog, which makes the journey by seaplane to the remote areas where the bears live even harder to achieve.

Fortunately Johnny is able to take advantage of being grounded and heads out on a boat into the rich waters around Kodiak Island to film humpback whales, tufted puffins and an enchantingly close encounter with sea otters.

But it's the bears he's come for and Johnny finally gets the shots he wanted - bears catching salmon. He can hardly believe it.

This is Johnny Kingdom at his best - infectiously enthusiastic, madly exuberant and never less than hugely enjoyable.


WED 22:00 Bob Servant (b01qyvnm)
Independent

Election Day

A reinvigorated Bob and Frank embark on a final push for votes, but a confrontation with Bob's first ever boo boy leaves them on the run from the police. Bob keeps his head held high as they wait for the election results. Surely he can't win?


WED 22:30 ArtWorks Scotland (b01pkjmz)
Andy Stewart - The Man Behind the Kilt

Andy Stewart was one of Scotland's most successful entertainers, at home and abroad. He had hit records all over the world with songs such as Donald Where's Your Troosers and A Scottish Soldier and toured the globe long before it was the rock and roll thing to do. This ArtWorks Scotland documentary takes a nostalgic look at his life and work, from his early days as a serious actor and impressionist to his heyday fronting The White Heather Club. With contributions from Stanley Baxter, John Cairney, The Alexander Brothers, Sydney Devine and Andy's closest family, the film reveals another side to one of Scotland's best-loved icons.


WED 23:00 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.


WED 00:00 Baroque! - From St Peter's to St Paul's (b00j8bwk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday]


WED 01:00 Art of America (b017sryq)
What Lies Beneath

In the final part of his United States odyssey, Andrew Graham-Dixon feels the pulse of contemporary America. Beginning in Levittown - the first mass-produced suburb - Andrew uncovers the dark side of post-war consumerism and the role artists have played in challenging the status quo.

He visits New York's Metropolitan Museum to see the most subversive artwork of 1950s America, Jasper Johns's White Flag. Pop art defined the 1960s and Andy Warhol was its greatest artist. Andrew examines Warhol's soup can paintings, meets his former lover Billy Name and interviews one of the last great surviving pop artists, James Rosenquist.

He travels west down the open road, exploring its art, arriving in Los Angeles, an artificial dream world that has inspired the graphic style of Ed Ruscha and the city's own unique contribution to 20th century design - Googie architecture.

Back east, Andrew visits the home of one of his favourite 20th century artists, the late Philip Guston, and gets a private view of his work. He drops into the studio of Jeff Koons to learn how the enfant terrible of contemporary art continues to challenge the boundaries of American taste. Finally, he explores the impact 9/11 has had on America and how a new generation of artists, such as Matthew Day Jackson, have made sense of this tragic event.


WED 02:00 Nature's Microworlds (b01qyvnh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


WED 02:30 Bob Servant (b01qyvnm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


WED 03:00 Johnny Kingdom and the Bears of Alaska (b01qyvnk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]