It is estimated that 99 per cent of species have become extinct and there have been times when life's hold on Earth has been so precarious it seems it hangs on by a thread.
This series focuses on the survivors - the old-timers - whose biographies stretch back millions of years and who show how it is possible to survive a mass extinction event which wipes out nearly all of its neighbours. The Natural History Museum's professor Richard Fortey discovers what allows the very few to carry on going - perhaps not for ever, but certainly far beyond the life expectancy of normal species. What makes a survivor when all around drop like flies? Professor Fortey travels across the globe to find the survivors of the most dramatic of these obstacles - the mass extinction events.
In episode two, Fortey focuses on the 'KT boundary'. 65 million years ago, a 10km-diameter asteroid collided with the Earth and saw the end of the long reign of the dinosaurs. He investigates the lucky breaks and evolutionary adaptations that allowed some species to survive the disastrous end of the Cretaceous Age when these giants did not.
Documentary series featuring pioneering images that capture the dazzling array of mysterious and wonderful creatures populating China's most beautiful landscapes.
Ancient tea-growing cultures, traditional seaweed-thatched villages, bird-filled wetlands, rare white dolphins, snake-infested islands and futuristic cities jostle along China's fertile eastern seaboard, which marks the front line in the scramble for resources and space between 700 million people and a surprising wealth of wildlife.
A woman is attacked and robbed on her way home late at night, but the case leaves Montalbano wondering whether there isn't more to the story than he's being told. An abandoned cattle shed in the countryside has been boarded up by unknowns and used for mysterious purposes.
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.
Neil Diamond in concert from London's Roundhouse with his six-piece band performing tracks from his 2010 album Dreams, which explores the 60s and 70s songs he loves, and reinventing his classics. This is Neil Diamond stripped down with strings in his most intimate performance for years.
Steve Wright presents chart hits of the week, with performances from Smokie, Paul McCartney, the Cure, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Sky, Sad Cafe, Cockney Rejects, Bad Manners, David Essex, the Undertones, Johnny Logan, Blondie, and a dance sequence by Legs & Co.
SUNDAY 10 MAY 2015
SUN 19:00 Secrets of the Universe: Great Scientists in Their Own Words (b04ndw2j)
Film telling the story of the greatest physicists of the 20th century and the discoveries they made, told in their own words. Men and women who transformed our understanding of the universe, from unlocking the secrets of the atom to solving the mysteries of the cosmos.
Revealing archive provides a unique insight into the lives and personalities of a cast of complex characters, eccentric geniuses and fantastic showmen who had to overcome personal struggles and intense rivalries before they could succeed. The film reveals the human side of scientific endeavour and shows how the great advances in our understanding of the cosmos depended on the character and personality of the scientists who made them, as much as on their intellectual abilities.
SUN 20:00 Horizon (b00nslc4)
2009-2010
Who Is Afraid of a Big Black Hole?
Black holes are one of the most destructive forces in the universe, capable of tearing a planet apart and swallowing an entire star. Yet scientists now believe they could hold the key to answering the ultimate question: what was there before the big bang?
The trouble is that researching black holes is next to impossible. They are by definition invisible and there is no scientific theory able to explain them. Horizon meets the astronomers and theoretical physicists who, despite these obvious obstacles, are attempting to image a black hole for the very first time and get ever closer to unlocking its mysteries. It is a story that goes into the heart of a black hole and to the very edge of what is thought to be known about the universe.
SUN 21:00 Horizon: 40 Years on the Moon (b00llgs8)
Professor Brian Cox takes a look through nearly 50 years of BBC archive at the story of man's relationship with the moon.
From the BBC's space fanatic James Burke testing out the latest Nasa equipment to 1960s interviews about the bacon-flavoured crystals that astronauts can survive on in space, to the iconic images of man's first steps on the moon and the dramatic story of Apollo 13, Horizon and the BBC have covered it all.
But since President Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s was reached, no-one has succeeded in reigniting the public's enthusiasm for space travel and lunar voyages. Why?
On his journey through the ages, Professor Cox explores the role that international competition played in getting man to the moon and asks if, with America no longer the world's only superpower, we are at the dawn of a bright new space age.
SUN 22:00 The Sky at Night (b05vlhgz)
Venus, Earth's Twin
How can two such similar planets have become so different? One is the crucible of life, the other an inferno with a surface scorched by raining acid, yet both began as almost identical bodies. With Venus prominent in the sky in May, the team explores our nearest neighbour, discovering how it formed and how ESA's Venus Express spacecraft has revealed the secrets of its atmosphere.
SUN 22:30 Cosmonauts: How Russia Won the Space Race (b04lcxms)
When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon in 1969, America went down in popular history as the winner of the space race. However, the real pioneers of space exploration were the Soviet cosmonauts.
This remarkable feature-length documentary combines rare and unseen archive footage with interviews with the surviving cosmonauts to tell the fascinating and at times terrifying story of how the Russians led us into the space age. A particular highlight is Alexei Leonov, the man who performed the first spacewalk, explaining how he found himself trapped outside his spacecraft 500 miles above the Earth. Scary stuff.
SUN 23:30 The Joy of the Guitar Riff (b049mtxw)
The guitar riff is the DNA of rock 'n' roll, a double helix of repetitive simplicity and fiendish complexity on which its history has been built. From Chuck Berry through to The White Stripes, this documentary traces the ebb and flow of the guitar riff over the last 60 years of popular music. With riffs and stories from an all-star cast including Brian May, Dave Davies, Hank Marvin, Joan Jett, Nile Rodgers, Tony Iommi, Robert Fripp, Johnny Marr, Nancy Wilson, Kevin Shields, Ryan Jarman, Tom Morello and many more. Narrated by Lauren Laverne.
SUN 00:30 Great Guitar Riffs at the BBC (b049mtxy)
Compilation of BBC performances featuring some of the best axe men and women in rock 'n' roll, from Hendrix to The Kinks, Cream to AC/DC, The Smiths to Rage Against the Machine and Radiohead to Foo Fighters. Whether it is The Shadows playing FBI on Crackerjack, Jeff Beck with The Yardbirds, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream's Sunshine of Your Love from their final gig, Pixies on the Late Show, AC/DC on Top of the Pops or Fools Gold from The Stone Roses, this compilation is a celebration of rock 'n' roll guitar complete with riffs, fingerstylin', wah-wah pedals and Marshall amps.
SUN 01:30 BBC Young Dancer (b05tb26d)
2015
Ballet Final
The BBC turns the spotlight on the UK's best young dancers with a nationwide talent search to find the first BBC Young Dancer. Dancers aged 16-20 were invited to enter one of four categories - ballet, contemporary, hip hop and South Asian dance.
Five talented ballet dancers compete in the last of the category finals, hoping to win a place on the main stage in the grand final at Sadler's Wells.
Mentors are enlisted to help the finalists prepare two contrasting solos and a pas de deux, and there's behind-the-scenes to their preparations in workshops and rehearsals in the run up to the performance at the Riverfront Arts Centre, Newport.
They face a panel of distinguished judges - Dominic Antonucci, ballet master at Birmingham Royal Ballet, Christopher Hampson, artistic director of Scottish Ballet, and judging across all four categories, Kenneth Tharp, chief executive of The Place, a leading centre for contemporary dance.
The ballet category finalists are: Paris Fitzpatrick, Jenny Hackwell, Sayaka Ishibashi, Hamish Scott and Archie Sullivan.
SUN 02:30 The Sky at Night (b05vlhgz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
SUN 03:00 Horizon (b00nslc4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
MONDAY 11 MAY 2015
MON 19:00 World News Today (b05v03tf)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
MON 19:30 Britain's Best Drives (b00j0gsq)
North Cornish Coast
Actor Richard Wilson takes a journey into the past, following routes raved about in motoring guides of 50 years ago.
Richard struggles to get to grips with a retro VW camper van as he drives the coast road from St Ives to Land's End.
He learns of St Ives's 1950s abstract art heyday and meets a 95-year-old painter still at work in Porthmeor Studios. He discovers why DH Lawrence was expelled from the county, hears legends of Cornish mermaids and gets to know his van on a blustery clifftop campsite.
MON 20:00 Medieval Lives: Birth, Marriage, Death (b03f4l0j)
A Good Death
Most of the time we try not to think about death, but the people of the Middle Ages didn't have that luxury. Death was always close at hand, for young and old, rich and poor - even before the horrors of the Black Death, which killed millions in a few short months.
However, for the people of the Middle Ages death wasn't an end but a doorway to everlasting life. The Church taught that an eternity spent in heaven or hell was much more important than this life's fleeting achievements and there was much you could do to prepare for the next life in this one.
As historian Helen Castor reveals, how to be remembered - and remembering your loved ones - shaped not only the worship of the people of the Middle Ages but the very buildings and funding of the medieval Church itself.
MON 21:00 The Comet's Tale (b008d2x7)
Ancient civilisations thought comets were gods. They believed them to be bringers of life or harbingers of doom - strange, magical, mysterious things that moved through the sky, fiery streaks of light that tore across the heavens.
Isaac Newton was the first to make sense of comets and to him they were the key to unlocking the secrets of gravity - nothing to do with an apple. Hundreds of years later, a new breed of space missions are visiting comets, travelling millions of miles to touch down on these tiny balls of rock flying through space at 20,000 mph. The spectacular images we now have are showing us what comets are really made of, where they come from, and their often surprising influence on events on Earth.
What they reveal is that our ancestors may have been right all along and that comets and meteors really are like gods, or at least they can exert tremendous influence over our world. They have brought terrible destruction to the Earth and may one day do so again. But they also may have brought life itself to the planet.
MON 22:00 The Last Explorers (b017hzw2)
Livingstone
Neil Oliver travels down the Zambesi river to reveal how David Livingstone took the faith of his nation to the ends of the earth and exploited his celebrity to end the slave trade. His was a moral mission: to reshape British values and bring commerce, Christianity and civilisation to the African continent.
MON 23:00 Ray Mears Goes Walkabout (b00c310c)
Torres Strait
Ray Mears travels to the Torres Strait Islands to learn how the islanders' lifestyle has helped them retain much of their bushcraft and knowledge. He finds out how these skills helped people survive during the Second World War and tells the story of Barbara Thompson, a young woman who was shipwrecked in the mid-19th century and survived despite the islands' reputation for cannibalism at the time.
MON 00:00 Medieval Lives: Birth, Marriage, Death (b03f4l0j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
MON 01:00 Dan Cruickshank and the Family that Built Gothic Britain (b04m3ljr)
As good as any Dickens novel, this is the triumphant and tragic story of the greatest architectural dynasty of the 19th century. Dan Cruickshank charts the rise of Sir George Gilbert Scott to the very heights of success, the fall of his son George Junior and the rise again of his grandson Giles. It is a story of architects bent on a mission to rebuild Britain. From the Romantic heights of the Midland Hotel at St Pancras station to the modern image of Bankside power station (now Tate Modern), this is the story of a family that shaped the Victorian age and left a giant legacy.
MON 02:00 The Last Explorers (b017hzw2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
MON 03:00 Sex, Lies and Love Bites: The Agony Aunt Story (b0555vjj)
Psychotherapist and agony aunt Philippa Perry presents a witty and revealing look at the problem page's enduring appeal. In the documentary Philippa picks her way through three centuries of advice on broken hearts, cheating partners and adolescent angst to uncover a fascinating portrait of our social history.
She talks to fellow agony aunts and uncles like the Telegraph's Graham Norton and the Sun's Deidre Sanders about their experiences, as well as exploring the work of advice columnists past, like the 17th-century inventor of the problem page, John Dunton. The advice may change, but she discovers that, when it comes to subjects like love and courtship, the same old problems keep on cropping up.
Through the work of generations of advice columnists Philippa charts the developing battle of the sexes, the rise of the middle classes and a revolution in social attitudes. For much of the 20th century, agony aunts avoided any mention of trouble in the bedroom. Philippa explores the pioneering work of agony aunts like Claire Rayner, who began to offer frank sex advice in the 1960s. Today, sex takes pride of place on the problem page, as Philippa discovers for herself when she takes a starring role in the Sun's photo casebook, which is famous for its real-life problems illustrated with pictures of semi-clad ladies.
At a time when advice is more easily available than ever before, Philippa reflects on why agony aunts are often still our first port of call, and on what makes reading about other people's problems so irresistible.
TUESDAY 12 MAY 2015
TUE 19:00 World News Today (b05v03tn)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
TUE 19:30 Britain's Best Drives (b00j8cpm)
The Wye Valley and Forest of Dean
Actor Richard Wilson takes a journey into the past, following routes raved about in motoring guides of 50 years ago.
Using an Austin Cambridge to explore an area that claims to be the birthplace of British tourism, Richard learns about life before the Severn Bridge, finds out why thousands of tourists flocked to the Wye Valley in search of the 'picturesque' and discovers how ancient customs are still practised in the medieval Forest of Dean, with his trip culminating at a renowned viewpoint.
TUE 20:00 The Secret History of Our Streets (b01k6k3m)
Series 1
Caledonian Road
In 1886 Charles Booth embarked on an ambitious plan to visit every one of London's streets to record the social conditions of residents. His project took him 17 years.
Once he had finished he had constructed a groundbreaking series of maps which recorded the social class and standing of inhabitants. These maps transformed the way Victorians felt about their capital city.
This series takes six archetypal London streets as they are now, discovering how they have fared since Booth's day.
Booth colour coded each street, from yellow for the 'servant-keeping classes', down to black for the 'vicious and semi-criminal'. With the aid of maps the series explores why certain streets have been transformed from desperate slums to become some of the most desirable and valuable property in the UK, whilst others have barely changed.
This landmark series features residents past and present, exploring how what happened on the street in the last 125 years continues to shape the lives of those who live there now.
This episode features Caledonian Road, which starts next to King's Cross station and heads north for over a mile. From its beginning, the street has been resolutely working class and when Charles Booth visited he found it a depressing district.
But the people of 'the Cally', as it is affectionately known to residents, have held their community together despite being challenged by powerful outside forces as well as a reputation for being a bit rough around the edges.
Featuring fascinating and often passionate accounts from residents both past and present, the film tells the story of the changing faces of this remarkable street.
TUE 21:00 The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins (b046w2n8)
Documentary telling the story of the most extraordinary experiment in the history of animal science. In the 1960s, a powerful and charismatic scientist flooded a house. He then invited a young woman to live there full-time with a dolphin. Their intention was the ultimate in animal research - they wanted to teach the dolphin to speak English. What happened next would change all their lives. For the first time those involved in the experiment reveal the secrets of the Dolphin House.
TUE 22:00 Britain's Greatest Pilot: The Extraordinary Story of Captain Winkle Brown (b045pbq2)
Captain Eric 'Winkle' Brown recounts his flying experiences, encounters with the Nazis and other adventures leading up to and during the Second World War. Illustrated with archive footage and Captain Brown's own photos.
TUE 23:00 Hidden Histories: WW1's Forgotten Photographs (b03xsrvv)
Documentary telling the extraordinary untold story of soldiers' photography in the First World War. The British and German soldiers marched off to war with secret 'vest pocket' cameras, determined to record what they thought would be a great adventure, but few were prepared for the horrors they were about to witness and photograph. Their photos - many never seen before in public - provide a deeply moving document of their lives in the trenches and their rapid loss of innocence.
With no soldier photographer alive to tell the tale, we join their close relatives on emotional journeys of discovery as they go in search of the secrets hidden within their ancestors' photographs.
This is the war viewed from a new and surprising perspective - through the eyes of the men who fought in it.
TUE 00:00 Rude Britannia (b00sss1g)
You Never Had It So Rude
The final part of a series exploring British traditions of satire and bawdy humour brings the story of a naughty nation up to date and explores how a mass democracy of rude emerged, beginning with the 1960s revolutions and continuing with the today's controversies.
There is a look at how a tradition of rude cartooning came back to life, as cartoonists draw the iconic political figures of the last 50 years: Gerald Scarfe captures Harold Macmillan, Steve Bell does Margaret Thatcher and Martin Rowson depicts Tony Blair.
The rude comic art of Viz is revealed in the characters of Sid the Sexist and the Fat Slags, and the rude theatre of Joe Orton, the rude radio of Round the Horne and the hippy rudeness of underground magazine Oz are also investigated.
And the history of rude television is traced from Till Death Us Do Part to Little Britain via Spitting Image. Finally, there is a look at how rude comedy begins to be seen as offensive in sexist and racist ways.
TUE 01:00 The Secret History of Our Streets (b01k6k3m)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
TUE 02:00 Horizon: 40 Years on the Moon (b00llgs8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Sunday]
TUE 03:00 Britain's Greatest Pilot: The Extraordinary Story of Captain Winkle Brown (b045pbq2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 13 MAY 2015
WED 19:00 World News Today (b05v03tv)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
WED 19:30 Britain's Best Drives (b00jf4jn)
The Trossachs
Actor Richard Wilson takes a journey into the past, following routes raved about in motoring guides of 50 years ago.
For his final drive, Richard returns to the country of his birth in a splendid 1950s Bentley. He drops in on his sister, returns to the original 'Dr Finlay' house, takes to the water to find out how Sir Walter Scott inspired a deluge of sightseers to the region, drives Scotland's most famous road in the company of a bevy of vintage bikers, and discovers just what it is about great vistas that gives us all such a thrill.
WED 20:00 Secrets of Bones (b03x3zfs)
Into the Air
Ben Garrod finds out how the skeleton has allowed vertebrates to do the most remarkable thing of all - take to the air. He discovers why the humble pigeon is such an exceptional flier, uncovers bony secrets as to how the albatross makes mammoth migrations and finds out why some birds have dense bones. Finally, he reveals which surprising flier is his 'ultimate'.
WED 20:30 The Quizeum (b05vcyl8)
Series 1
Episode 8
At the National Museum, Cardiff and the gallery which houses the stunning collection of French art bequeathed by the Davies sisters, the experts being put to the test by Griff Rhys Jones are: historian specialising in European and Chinese ceramics Lars Tharp, author and historian Kate Williams, art historian Jacky Klein, and designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.
WED 21:00 Fighting for King and Empire: Britain's Caribbean Heroes (b05v08b7)
This programme is based on a film entitled Divided By Race - United in War and Peace, produced by The-Latest.com.
During the Second World War, thousands of men and women from the Caribbean colonies volunteered to come to Britain to join the fight against Hitler. They risked their lives for king and empire, but their contribution has largely been forgotten.
Some of the last surviving Caribbean veterans tell their extraordinary wartime stories - from torpedo attacks by German U-boats and the RAF's blanket-bombing of Germany to the culture shock of Britain's freezing winters and war-torn landscapes. This brave sacrifice confronted the pioneers from the Caribbean with a lifelong challenge - to be treated as equals by the British government and the British people.
In testimony full of wit and charm, the veterans candidly reveal their experiences as some of the only black people in wartime Britain. They remember encounters with a curious British public and confrontation with the prejudices of white American GIs stationed in Britain.
After the war, many veterans returned to the Caribbean where they discovered jobs were scarce. Some came back to Britain to help rebuild its cities. They settled down with jobs and homes, got married and began to integrate their rich heritage into British culture. Now mostly in their 80s and 90s - the oldest is 104 - these pioneers from the Caribbean have helped transform Britain and created an enduring multicultural legacy.
With vivid first-hand testimony, observational documentary and rare archive footage, the programme gives a unique perspective on the Second World War and the history of 20th-century Britain.
WED 22:00 Horizon (b00nslc4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Sunday]
WED 23:00 Secrets of the Universe: Great Scientists in Their Own Words (b04ndw2j)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 on Sunday]
WED 00:00 Secrets of Bones (b03x3zfs)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 00:30 The Quizeum (b05vcyl8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
WED 01:00 Sammy Davis Jr: The Kid in the Middle (b04w7wgr)
Sammy Davis Jr was born to entertain. He was a human dynamo who made his debut at the age of five and by the time he was a teenager was wowing audiences across America. A gifted dancer, actor and singer, and a key member of the Rat Pack, Davis is best remembered for his unforgettable rendition of Mr Bojangles and his number one single The Candyman.
However, as a black man, making his way in the entertainment business saw him struggle to overcome racial prejudice, letter bombs and death threats. Davis fought back with his talent and in the 1960s marched alongside Dr Martin Luther King. Despite his reputation as a civil rights campaigner and one of the world's greatest entertainers, Davis remains an enigma. Those closest to him tell of a man never quite comfortable in his own skin, a workaholic and spendaholic who put his career before his family and who died leaving them millions of dollars in debt.
This documentary is Sammy Davis Jr's remarkable life story - his rise and his fall - told by those who knew him best. For the first time his family and friends including Paul Anka, Engelbert Humperdinck, Reverend Jesse Jackson and Ben Vereen share their memories - shedding new light on the legacy of one of the most gifted and loved performers in show business.
WED 02:00 Picasso: Love, Sex and Art (b0543hfx)
At the time of his death in April 1973, aged 91, Pablo Picasso had become one of the 20th century's most influential and prolific artists. Picasso has been painted as many men - genius, womaniser, egomaniac. His reputation is still fiercely debated. Brought up in the Spanish town of Malaga, he would represent himself as the mythological minotaur - half-man, half-bull. The bull craved the women who would feed his life and his art.
Picasso reconstructed the female form - to the point of total abstraction. Many women would find themselves damaged forever by the experience of being his partner. Now, for the first time, the people who knew him best tell the story of those women, giving a new insight into the artist and his work.
WED 03:00 Fighting for King and Empire: Britain's Caribbean Heroes (b05v08b7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 14 MAY 2015
THU 19:00 World News Today (b05v03v0)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
THU 19:30 The Sky at Night (b05vlhgz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Sunday]
THU 20:00 Wild China (b00bybp3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Saturday]
THU 21:00 World War II: 1945 and the Wheelchair President (b05vlzsn)
David Reynolds re-examines the war leadership of American president Franklin Roosevelt.
At the height of war, Roosevelt inspired millions with stirring visions of a new and better postwar world, but it was a world he probably knew he would never see. He was commander-in-chief of the greatest military power the world had known, and yet his paralysis from polio made him powerless to accomplish even the most minor physical tasks. Few Americans knew the extent of his disability.
In this intimate biography set against the epic of World War II, Reynolds reveals how Roosevelt was burdened by secrets about his failing health and strained marriage that, if exposed, could have destroyed his presidency. Enigmatic, secretive and with a complicated love life, America's wheelchair president was racing to shape the future before the past caught up with him.
Weaving together the conduct of the war in Europe and the Pacific, the high politics of Roosevelt's diplomacy with Stalin and Churchill, and the entangled stories of the women who sustained the president in his last year, Reynolds explores the impact of Roosevelt's growing frailty on the war's endgame and the tainted peace that followed.
THU 22:30 The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler (b01p4ss6)
Episode 3
Adolf Hitler seemed an unlikely leader - fuelled by anger, incapable of forming normal human relationships and unwilling to debate political issues. Such was the depth of his hatred that he would become a war criminal arguably without precedent in history.
Yet this strange character was once loved by millions. How was this possible, and what role did Hitler's alleged 'charisma' play in his success?
With the help of testimony from those who lived through these times, film archive - including colour home movies - and specially shot documentary footage, this final episode in the three-part series reveals how Hitler tried to retain the power of his charismatic leadership once the Germans started to lose the war.
The series is written and produced by Laurence Rees who won a BAFTA for his previous series 'Nazis: A Warning from History' and a Grierson award for his 'Auschwitz: the Nazis and the 'Final Solution'.
THU 23:30 The Comet's Tale (b008d2x7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
THU 00:30 The Last Explorers (b017hzw2)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Monday]
THU 01:30 The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler (b01p4ss6)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
THU 02:30 World War II: 1945 and the Wheelchair President (b05vlzsn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 15 MAY 2015
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b05v03v5)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Nigel Kennedy at the BBC (b04w0fyx)
Compilation of performances and appearances by Nigel Kennedy from the BBC archive, following his music development and career from a seven-year-old child on Town and Around to his virtuoso showstopper Czardas from the Last Night of the Proms 2013.
Featuring interviews with him through the years, and demonstrating a versatility of styles from classical to experimental to a jazz duet with Stephane Grappelli.
FRI 20:30 Sounds of the Eighties (b0074sn5)
Episode 6
Rocking out with the loud guitars and manly hair of Motorhead, ZZ Top, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, INXS, The Cult and The Mission.
FRI 21:00 Je t'aime: The Story of French Song with Petula Clark (b05vnhz1)
'I want to make people cry even when they don't understand my words.' - Edith Piaf
This unique film explores the story of the lyric-driven French chanson and looks at some of the greatest artists and examples of the form. Award-winning singer and musician Petula Clark, who shot to stardom in France in the late 1950s for her nuanced singing and lyrical exploration, is our guide.
We meet singers and artists who propelled chanson into the limelight, including Charles Aznavour (a protege of Edith Piaf), Juliette Greco (whom Jean-Paul Sartre described as having 'a million poems in her voice'), Anna Karina (muse of Jean-Luc Godard and darling of the French cinema's new wave), actress and singer Jane Birkin, who had a global hit (along with Serge Gainsbourg) with the controversial Je t'aime (Moi non plus), and Marc Almond, who has received great acclaim with his recordings of Jacques Brel songs.
In exploring the famous chanson tradition and the prodigious singers who made the songs their own, we continue the story into contemporary French composition, looking at new lyrical forms exemplified by current artists such as Stromae, Zaz, Tetes Raides and Etienne Daho, who also give exclusive interviews.
The film shines a spotlight onto a musical form about which the British are largely unfamiliar, illuminating a history that is tender, funny, revealing and absorbing.
FRI 22:00 Shirley Bassey at the BBC (b01psct4)
Forever sequinned, stylish and sassy, Dame Shirley Bassey, one of Britain's all-time great voices, turned 76 in January 2013.
She began her rise to fame as a 16-year-old singer in 1953 and 60 years on she is still going as strong as ever. Join us as we celebrate Dame Shirley's birthday and her remarkable career, taking a trip down memory lane to uncover some of her finest performances from the vaults of the BBC.
From early BBC appearances on Show of the Week, The Shirley Bassey Show, via the Royal Albert Hall, Glastonbury 2007 and right up to her recent jaw dropping show at the Electric Proms. This is a compilation of some of Dame Shirley's classic performances, taking in iconic songs such as The Performance of My Life, Goldfinger, Big Spender and Diamonds Are Forever.
Producer: Sam Bridger
FRI 23:00 imagine... (b00p36t8)
Winter 2009
Dame Shirley Bassey - The Girl from Tiger Bay
Alan Yentob gains an insight into the creative world of Dame Shirley Bassey in a programme first shown in 2009. After a triumphant Glastonbury appearance and a major illness at the age of 72, Dame Shirley tentatively re-enters the ring to confront her life in song.
Some of the best contemporary songwriters, including Gary Barlow, the Pet Shop Boys, Manic Street Preachers, Rufus Wainwright, Richard Hawley and KT Tunstall, along with James Bond composer John Barry and lyricist Don Black, have interpreted her life through song for an album produced by David Arnold.
The songs frame and explore the myth of Shirley Bassey, the girl from Tiger Bay, and the voice and the desire are not found wanting. A backstory profiling Shirley, complete with archive of her greatest performances, tells the story of what makes her the living legend that she is today.
FRI 00:00 Definitely Dusty (b00780bt)
Documentary looking at the life and work of soul and pop diva Dusty Springfield, singer of such classics as You Don't Have to Say You Love Me and Son of a Preacher Man, who was equally famous for her trademark panda eyes and blonde beehive.
Using archive footage and interviews shot in the UK and the US, it charts her progress from plain Catholic schoolgirl to glamorous star and ventures behind the extravagant image to reveal a complex and vulnerable character.
Featuring interviews with fellow musicians from a career spanning four decades, including Elton John, Burt Bacharach, Neil Tennant, Lulu and Martha Reeves.
Dusty's protective inner circle of friends have never spoken about her on camera before. Pat Rhodes, Dusty's personal secretary for her entire solo career, her manager Vicky Wickham, ardent fan-turned-backing singer Simon Bell and others talk about the highs and lows of the woman they knew and loved.
FRI 01:00 Je t'aime: The Story of French Song with Petula Clark (b05vnhz1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:00 Shirley Bassey at the BBC (b01psct4)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 03:00 imagine... (b00p36t8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 today]
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
BBC Young Dancer
01:30 SUN (b05tb26d)
Britain's Best Drives
19:30 MON (b00j0gsq)
Britain's Best Drives
19:30 TUE (b00j8cpm)
Britain's Best Drives
19:30 WED (b00jf4jn)
Britain's Greatest Pilot: The Extraordinary Story of Captain Winkle Brown
22:00 TUE (b045pbq2)
Britain's Greatest Pilot: The Extraordinary Story of Captain Winkle Brown
03:00 TUE (b045pbq2)
Cosmonauts: How Russia Won the Space Race
22:30 SUN (b04lcxms)
Country at the BBC
22:45 SAT (b017zqwb)
Dan Cruickshank and the Family that Built Gothic Britain
01:00 MON (b04m3ljr)
Definitely Dusty
00:00 FRI (b00780bt)
Electric Proms
00:15 SAT (b00vzzsw)
Fighting for King and Empire: Britain's Caribbean Heroes
21:00 WED (b05v08b7)
Fighting for King and Empire: Britain's Caribbean Heroes
03:00 WED (b05v08b7)
Great Guitar Riffs at the BBC
00:30 SUN (b049mtxy)
Hidden Histories: WW1's Forgotten Photographs
23:00 TUE (b03xsrvv)
Horizon: 40 Years on the Moon
21:00 SUN (b00llgs8)
Horizon: 40 Years on the Moon
02:00 TUE (b00llgs8)
Horizon
20:00 SUN (b00nslc4)
Horizon
03:00 SUN (b00nslc4)
Horizon
22:00 WED (b00nslc4)
Inspector Montalbano
21:00 SAT (b03hdm57)
Je t'aime: The Story of French Song with Petula Clark
21:00 FRI (b05vnhz1)
Je t'aime: The Story of French Song with Petula Clark
01:00 FRI (b05vnhz1)
Medieval Lives: Birth, Marriage, Death
20:00 MON (b03f4l0j)
Medieval Lives: Birth, Marriage, Death
00:00 MON (b03f4l0j)
Nigel Kennedy at the BBC
19:30 FRI (b04w0fyx)
Picasso: Love, Sex and Art
02:00 WED (b0543hfx)
Ray Mears Goes Walkabout
23:00 MON (b00c310c)
Rude Britannia
00:00 TUE (b00sss1g)
Sammy Davis Jr: The Kid in the Middle
01:00 WED (b04w7wgr)
Secrets of Bones
20:00 WED (b03x3zfs)
Secrets of Bones
00:00 WED (b03x3zfs)
Secrets of the Universe: Great Scientists in Their Own Words
19:00 SUN (b04ndw2j)
Secrets of the Universe: Great Scientists in Their Own Words
23:00 WED (b04ndw2j)
Sex, Lies and Love Bites: The Agony Aunt Story
03:00 MON (b0555vjj)
Shirley Bassey at the BBC
22:00 FRI (b01psct4)
Shirley Bassey at the BBC
02:00 FRI (b01psct4)
Sounds of the Eighties
20:30 FRI (b0074sn5)
Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures
19:00 SAT (b01bgnmq)
Survivors: Nature's Indestructible Creatures
03:00 SAT (b01bgnmq)
The Comet's Tale
21:00 MON (b008d2x7)
The Comet's Tale
23:30 THU (b008d2x7)
The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler
22:30 THU (b01p4ss6)
The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler
01:30 THU (b01p4ss6)
The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins
21:00 TUE (b046w2n8)
The Joy of the Guitar Riff
23:30 SUN (b049mtxw)
The Last Explorers
22:00 MON (b017hzw2)
The Last Explorers
02:00 MON (b017hzw2)
The Last Explorers
00:30 THU (b017hzw2)
The Quizeum
20:30 WED (b05vcyl8)
The Quizeum
00:30 WED (b05vcyl8)
The Secret History of Our Streets
20:00 TUE (b01k6k3m)
The Secret History of Our Streets
01:00 TUE (b01k6k3m)
The Sky at Night
22:00 SUN (b05vlhgz)
The Sky at Night
02:30 SUN (b05vlhgz)
The Sky at Night
19:30 THU (b05vlhgz)
Top of the Pops
02:20 SAT (b05t9wfw)
Wild China
20:00 SAT (b00bybp3)
Wild China
01:20 SAT (b00bybp3)
Wild China
20:00 THU (b00bybp3)
World News Today
19:00 MON (b05v03tf)
World News Today
19:00 TUE (b05v03tn)
World News Today
19:00 WED (b05v03tv)
World News Today
19:00 THU (b05v03v0)
World News Today
19:00 FRI (b05v03v5)
World War II: 1945 and the Wheelchair President
21:00 THU (b05vlzsn)
World War II: 1945 and the Wheelchair President
02:30 THU (b05vlzsn)
imagine...
23:00 FRI (b00p36t8)
imagine...
03:00 FRI (b00p36t8)