B4

RADIO-LISTS: BBC FOUR
Unofficial Weekly Listings for BBC 4 — supported by bbc.co.uk/programmes/

SATURDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2015

SAT 19:00 Operation Jericho (b016n2zz)
Actor and aviator Martin Shaw takes to the skies to rediscover one of the most audacious and daring raids of World War II.

On the morning of 18th February 1944, a squadron of RAF Mosquito bombers, flying as low as three metres over occupied France, demolished the walls of Amiens Jail in what became known as Operation Jericho. The reasons behind the controversial raid remain a mystery to this day.

This dramatic documentary investigates the missing pieces of the story, with interviews from survivors and aircrew, and tries to find out why the raid was ordered and by whom.

SAT 20:00 Timeshift (b06csy8c)
Series 15

The Engine that Powers the World

The surprising story of the hidden powerhouse behind the globalised world, the diesel engine, a 19th-century invention that has become indispensable to the 21st century. It's a tortoise-versus-hare tale in which the diesel engine races the petrol engine in a competition to replace ageing steam technology, a race eventually won hands down by diesel.

Splendidly, car enthusiast presenter Mark Evans gets excitedly hands-on with some of the many applications of Mr Diesel's - yes, there was one - original creation, from vintage submarines and tractors to locomotive trains and container ships. You'll never feel the same about that humble old diesel family car again.

SAT 21:00 Beck (b06cstqn)
The Family

When a well-known crime boss is murdered by a sniper in front of his family, Beck and his team are challenged to discover which one of his many enemies could be responsible for the crime.

SAT 22:30 A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley (p01fv0kh)
Detection Most Ingenious

Lucy Worsley explores how real-life crime, science and the emerging art of detection had an influence on the popular culture of homicide during the Victorian Age.

SAT 23:30 Hot Chocolate at the BBC (b06dl1c5)
Errol Brown, who died aged 71 in May 2015, was probably the most famous and ubiquitous black British pop star of the 70s and early 80s. He co-founded Hot Chocolate with Tony Wilson in 1970 and the band went on to have a hit every year between 1971 and 1984.

This compilation of BBC performances and rare interview extracts celebrates Errol and Hot Chocolate, showcasing their Top 10 hits alongside rarely seen early performances and cult fan favourites.

We journey through over 15 years of chart smashes showcasing all the infectious numbers - Every 1's a Winner, Emma, So You Win Again and It Started With a Kiss - and of course, The Full Monty scene-stealer You Sexy Thing, a song that was in the charts in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

There are reminders of just how many Top 10 moments they had, with Girl Crazy and No Doubt About It, the hit that got away - Mindless Boogie - and their first appearance on BBC television with Love Is Life. Hot Chocolate were that rarity, a 70s British pop band who largely wrote their own tunes and arrangements and a mixed race band who perhaps inadvertently helped foster an early sense of British multi-culturalism. In Errol, they had a frontman who was not only a great singer, songwriter and frontman, but also resolutely and undemonstratively always himself, at ease in his own skin.

SAT 00:30 TOTP2 (b007v15w)
Boogie Fever: A TOTP2 Disco Special

Get your dancing shoes on for a show of disco mania as Steve Wright and the TOTP2 team take you back to the dancefloor for some boogie fever. The Bee Gees are here in all their glory, along with Gloria Gaynor, Liquid Gold, Sylvester, The Village People, The Weather Girls and The Three Degrees.

There's classic dance fodder from Chic, George McCrae, Hi-Tension, Heatwave, The JALN Band, Earth Wind and Fire, Tina Charles, The Gibson Brothers and Edwin Starr, disco pop from Blondie, Yazz, Boney M and Linx, while Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Infernal bring the story up to date.

And then there's the Disco Duck. Sorry...

SAT 02:00 Nile Rodgers: The Hitmaker Remastered (b01rk2tm)
The last two years have seen Nile Rodgers launched back into the limelight following the massive success of Daft Punk's single Get Lucky, his distinctive guitar work helping the French dance music duo to one of their biggest hits.

This 2013 documentary has been brought up to date to tell the story of his work with Daft Punk and how his band Chic has been introduced to a brand new audience.

As the co-founder, songwriter, producer and guitarist of Chic he helped define the sound of the 70s, as disco took the world by storm. But the music that had made Chic would also break them, thanks to the 'Disco Sucks' backlash. What could have been the end for Nile Rodgers would actually be a new beginning as a producer, helping create some of the biggest hits of the '80s for the likes of Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna and Duran Duran.

The ever-charismatic Rogers contributes an engaging and often frank interview to tell the tale of how, born to beatnik, heroin-addict parents in New York, he picked up a guitar as a teenager and embarked on a journey to learn his craft as a musician, before becoming one of disco's most successful artists.

In the '70s and '80s he lived the party lifestyle thanks to his success with Chic and as one of the music industry's hottest producers. Drugs and alcohol would become part of everyday life for Nile, contributing in part to the break-up of Chic in the early '80s. The band would reform in the mid '90s, but their return was quickly marked by tragedy with the death of Nile's long-time friend and musical partner Bernard Edwards in 1996.

The film recounts a captivating and moving story of a man who has been making hit music for nearly four decades and has found himself back in the limelight once again.

SAT 03:00 The Joy of Disco (b01cqt72)
Documentary about how a much-derided music actually changed the world. Between 1969 and 1979 disco soundtracked gay liberation, foregrounded female desire in the age of feminism and led to the birth of modern club culture as we know it today, before taking the world by storm. With contributions from Nile Rodgers, Robin Gibb, Kathy Sledge and Ian Schrager.

SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2015

SUN 19:00 Arvo Pärt/Robert Wilson: The Lost Paradise (b06f13wf)
Documentary following celebrated Estonian composer Arvo Pärt as he works with director Robert Wilson on a unique theatre production of Adam's Passion. The work exemplifies Pärt's distinctive style, formed from simple, rich tonal material. The film examines Pärt's methodology and explores the spiritual themes that have preoccupied him throughout his life.

SUN 20:00 The Last Journey of the Magna Carta King (b052hrdd)
Ben Robinson retraces the dramatic last days of King John, England's most disastrous monarch, and uncovers the legend of his lost treasure.

John is famous for accepting Magna Carta, which inspired our modern democracy. But ten days him from ruler of an empire to sudden death and left the kingdom in ruins.

Ben follows in the footsteps of the king's epic last journey, from the treacherous marshes of East Anglia, through Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, to his final resting place in Worcester. He is joined by medieval historian professor Stephen Church.

Together they examine the truth behind the legend that has lived on for 800 years. Did the crown jewels really end up in the mud of the Wash? Was the king poisoned? Does he deserve his reputation as our most disastrous monarch?

Thanks to unique documents, we can tell this epic tale in the king's own words. Not only can we get into the mind of the Magna Carta king, we can reveal in fantastic detail how and where he travelled.

Ben reveals what happened when treasure seekers attempted to find the king's lost jewels with the help of a diviner. And using the latest technology reveals how we can actually see back in time to reveal the landscape as it would have looked when King John made his last journey 800 years ago.

SUN 21:00 Egypt's Lost Cities (b011pwms)
It is possible that only one per cent of the wonders of ancient Egypt have been discovered, but now, thanks to a pioneering approach to archaeology, that is about to change.

Dr Sarah Parcak uses satellites to probe beneath the sands, where she has found cities, temples and pyramids. Now, with Dallas Campbell and Liz Bonnin, she heads to Egypt to discover if these magnificent buildings are really there.

SUN 22:30 Ilo Ilo (b05y06sy)
Singapore, 1998: Pregnant Hwee Leng Lim and her husband Teck hire a Filipino live-in maid for household chores and to help with their son Jiale, whose behaviour has deteriorated since the recent death of his grandfather. Terry has come to the city in search of a better life, leaving behind her baby to be cared for by her sister, but her presence in the house creates a new dynamic which causes tensions and jealousies just as the Asian financial crisis begins to be felt in the region.

In Mandarin, Tagalog, Hokkien and English, with English subtitles.

SUN 00:05 Britain's Most Fragile Treasure (b0161dgq)
Historian Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of a centuries-old masterpiece in glass. At 78 feet in height, the famous Great East Window at York Minster is the largest medieval stained-glass window in the country and the creative vision of a single artist, a mysterious master craftsman called John Thornton, one of the earliest named English artists.

The Great East Window has been called England's Sistine Chapel. Within its 311 stained-glass panels is the entire history of the world, from the first day to the Last Judgment, and yet it was made 100 years before Michelangelo's own masterpiece. The scale of Thornton's achievement is revealed as Dr Ramirez follows the work of a highly skilled conservation team at York Glaziers Trust. They dismantled the entire window as part of a five-year project to repair centuries of damage and restore it to its original glory.

It is a unique opportunity for Dr Ramirez to examine Thornton's greatest work at close quarters, to discover details that would normally be impossible to see and to reveal exactly how medieval artists made images of such delicacy and complexity using the simplest of tools.

The Great East Window of York Minster is far more than a work of artistic genius, it is a window into the medieval world and mind, telling us who we once were and who we still are, all preserved in the most fragile medium of all.

SUN 01:05 Bought with Love: The Secret History of British Art Collections (b037c5gt)
The Golden Age

With Britain's country houses being home to world-class art collections full of priceless old masters and more, this three-part series sees art historian Helen Rosslyn tell the story of how great art has been brought to Britain by passionate collectors and how these same collectors have also turned patron and commissioned work from the cream of their contemporary crop of painters.

In this episode she focuses on the 18th century, the Grand Tour era when aristocrats filled their Palladian villas with masterpieces by 17th-century classical painters. Throwing open the doors of some of our most magnificent stately homes, Rosslyn visits Holkham Hall in Norfolk to view the Grand Tour collection there, before going on to explore the legacy of the Dukes of Richmond at Goodwood House. She also visits Petworth House in Sussex, where the one-time Lord Egremont patronised JMW Turner.

SUN 02:05 Britain on Film (b01qbz9f)
Series 1

This Sceptered Isle

In 1959, Britain's biggest cinema company, the Rank Organisation, decided to replace its newsreels with a series of short, quirky, topical documentaries that examined all aspects of life in Britain. For the next ten years, Look at Life chronicled - on high-grade 35mm colour film - the changing face of British society, industry and culture. Britain on Film draws upon the 500 films in this unique archive to offer illuminating and often surprising insights into what became a pivotal decade.

This episode examines Look at Life's quirky films that documented unusual or eccentric British customs, rituals and traditions. In an era where many Britons embraced change as never before, these revealing and highly entertaining films show that people were determined to preserve the idiosyncratic aspects of our national life.

SUN 02:35 A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley (p01fv0kh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 on Saturday]

MONDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2015

MON 19:00 World News Today (b06dxkcx)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

MON 19:30 Great Continental Railway Journeys (b01rbqn8)
Series 1 - Reversions

London to Monte Carlo: Part 1

Michael Portillo embarks on a railway adventure which takes him across the heart of Europe. Steered by his 1913 railway guide, Michael journeys through a prosperous prewar Europe of emperors, kings, pomp and elegance. This early 20th-century handbook opened up an exotic world to the Edwardian tourist. Leaving London behind, Michael follows the most popular route of the Edwardian traveller through France. His first stop is Paris where he absorbs the atmosphere of La Belle Époque, before travelling south to the Cote d'Azur.

MON 20:00 Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries (b054fmzl)
Episode 3

In the final episode of the series, Dr Janina Ramirez discovers how the immensely rich and powerful monasteries that had dominated British society for 1,000 were annihilated in less than five years.

In the 15th century, 800 monasteries in England owned one-third of the nation's land. Many monks were living in palatial monasteries and were patrons of the finest art and architecture. Janina examines monastery kitchen records and the bones of a medieval monk to discover the truth behind accusations of monastic gluttony and vice. She also explores how the arrival of the printing press put paid to the monasteries' monopoly of publishing and education.

Janina then traces the story of the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell. She explores whether the dissolution was the violent action of a greedy and overbearing monarch or if it was the inevitable 'end of days' for a rotten and outmoded institution.

She uncovers stories of shocking corruption alongside examples of extraordinary pious sacrifice. Although not a single monastery survived the systematic liquidation, Janina shows the lasting impact Britain's millennium of monasteries had on our society and culture.

MON 21:00 The Inca: Masters of the Clouds (b04y4q35)
Clash of Empires

In the concluding part, Dr Jago Cooper argues that it wasn't simply a clash of arms that destroyed the Inca but a clash of worldviews. He travels from Peru to the far north of Inca territory in Ecuador to reveal how the great strengths of the empire suddenly became factors in its rapid demise. The Spanish conquest of the Inca destroyed one of the most remarkable empires in the world, yet the Inca legacy leaves a great deal for modern civilisations to learn from.

MON 22:00 Storyville (b06f146k)
A Syrian Love Story

Award-winning documentary film by renowned filmmaker Sean McAllister, telling the poignant story of a family torn apart by the Assad regime.

When Sean begins filming them in Syria in 2009, prior to the wave of revolutions in the Arab world, Raghda is incarcerated as a political prisoner and Amer is caring for their young boys alone. Raghda is eventually released from prison, but the family is forced to flee the country following the arrest of Sean McAllister himself. In exile, Raghda battles between being a mother or a revolutionary.

Filmed over five years, this is an intimate and deeply moving portrait of a family trying to survive in exile - adapting to their new home, but missing their homeland. For Raghda and Amer, it is a journey of hope, dreams and despair: for the revolution, their homeland and each other.

MON 23:15 Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past (b01gk31g)
Episode 3

Dan Cruickshank and Charlie Luxton uncover the incredible hidden stories behind historic buildings as they are dismantled brick by brick, and meticulously resurrected in new locations.

Every year thousands of ordinary buildings are demolished, smashed down to make way for the new, but some are so special they are snatched from the bulldozers and carefully dismantled. When a new home can be found for them, they are lovingly and painstakingly rebuilt. These are not grand buildings, but everyday buildings that give an extraordinary insight into the lives of the people who lived and worked in them. Deep within their fabric are preserved astonishing stories about how we lived and worked.

Architectural designer Charlie Luxton explores how these vast and hugely complex jigsaw puzzles are pieced back together, trying his hand at the array of ancient crafts required. Meanwhile, architectural historian Dan Cruickshank investigates the building's history, proving that even seemingly humble buildings have incredible stories to tell.

A mysterious medieval building on the quayside at Haverfordwest was dismantled 30 years ago by a team of young apprentices. Charlie helps those same men reconstruct the seemingly fortified vaulted house at the Welsh National History Museum. Dan sets out to discover what the building actually was and uncovers stories of wealthy merchants, pirates and the English invasion of South Wales.

MON 00:15 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.

MON 01:45 Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries (b054fmzl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

MON 02:45 The Inca: Masters of the Clouds (b04y4q35)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 29 SEPTEMBER 2015

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b06dxkdb)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

TUE 19:30 Great Continental Railway Journeys (b01rbrt2)
Series 1 - Reversions

London to Monte Carlo: Part 2

Armed with his 1913 railway guide, in the second part of his journey from London to Monte Carlo, Michael Portillo follows the most popular route of the Edwardian traveller through France. Leaving Paris behind, Michael travels south to the Cote d'Azur to learn why the area attracted the rich and artistic alike, and samples the Edwardian highlife before ending his journey at the gaming tables in glamorous Monte Carlo.

TUE 20:00 Canals: The Making of a Nation (b06829t1)
The Boat People

Presenter Liz McIvor tells the story of the people who operated the canal boats, carrying fuel and goods around the country. Conditions were tough, days were long. Victorian society began to grow suspicious of these 'outsiders' and they gained reputations for criminality, violence and drinking. But was this reputation really deserved? Liz discovers grisly canal crimes, investigates health and welfare onboard working boats, and looks at why canal children were last on the list to be offered safeguards and formal education. The Victorians eventually championed the needs of children who were forced to labour in factories and mines, but the boat children were often ignored. Liz discovers the campaigners who set out to tackle this injustice, including George Smith of Coalville, Leicestershire, and Sister Mary Ward of Stoke Bruerne.

TUE 20:30 Hive Minds (b06f15hq)
Series 1

Mendelians v Pascallywags

Fiona Bruce presents the quiz show where players not only have to know the answers, but have to find them hidden in a hive of letters. It tests players' general knowledge and mental agility, as they battle against one another and race against the clock to find the answers.

Mendelians play Pascallywags in the second semi-final.

TUE 21:00 The Search for Alfred the Great (b03sbp73)
Neil Oliver is given exclusive access to a team of historians and scientists investigating the final resting place of Alfred the Great. Alfred's bones have been moved so many times over the centuries that many people concluded that they were lost forever. Following a trail that goes back over 1,000 years, the team wants to unravel the mystery of Alfred's remains. Travelling from Winchester to Rome, Neil also tells the extraordinary story of Alfred's life - in the 9th century, he became one of England's most important kings by fighting off the Vikings, uniting the Anglo-Saxon people and launching a cultural renaissance. This was the man who forged a united language and identity, and laid the foundations of the English nation.

The film investigates the equally extraordinary story of what happened to Alfred's remains after his death in 899. They have been exhumed and reburied on a number of occasions since his original brief burial in the Anglo-Saxon Old Minster in Winchester. The Saxons, the Normans, Henry VIII's religious reformers, 18th-century convicts, Victorian romantics and 20th-century archaeologists have all played a part in the story of Alfred's grave.

Neil joins the team as they exhume the contents of an unmarked grave, piece the bones together and have them dated. With the discovery of some unexpected new evidence, the film reveals the extraordinary outcome of an important investigation.

TUE 22:00 Treasures of the Anglo Saxons (b00t6xzx)
Art historian Dr Nina Ramirez reveals the codes and messages hidden in Anglo-Saxon art. From the beautiful jewellery that adorned the first violent pagan invaders through to the stunning Christian manuscripts they would become famous for, she explores the beliefs and ideas that shaped Anglo-Saxon art.

Examining many of the greatest Anglo Saxon treasures - such as the Sutton Hoo Treasures, the Staffordshire Hoard, the Franks Casket and the Lindisfarne Gospels - Dr Ramirez charts 600 years of artistic development which was stopped dead in its tracks by the Norman Conquest.

TUE 23:00 The Last Journey of the Magna Carta King (b052hrdd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Sunday]

TUE 00:00 Operation Jericho (b016n2zz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]

TUE 01:00 Canals: The Making of a Nation (b06829t1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

TUE 01:30 Hive Minds (b06f15hq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]

TUE 02:00 The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms (p030s6b3)
Without us noticing, modern life has been taken over. Algorithms run everything from search engines on the internet to satnavs and credit card data security - they even help us travel the world, find love and save lives.

Mathematician Professor Marcus du Sautoy demystifies the hidden world of algorithms. By showing us some of the algorithms most essential to our lives, he reveals where these 2,000-year-old problem-solvers came from, how they work, what they have achieved and how they are now so advanced they can even programme themselves.

TUE 03:00 Britain Through a Lens: The Documentary Film Mob (b012p53d)
The unlikely story of how, between 1929 and 1945, a group of tweed-wearing radicals and pin-striped bureaucrats created the most influential movement in the history of British film. They were the British Documentary Movement and they gave Britons a taste for watching films about real life.

They were an odd bunch, as one wit among them later admitted. "A documentary director must be a gentleman... and a socialist." They were inspired by a big idea - that films about real life would change the world. That, if people of all backgrounds saw each other on screen - as they really were - they would get to know and respect each other more. As John Grierson, the former street preacher who founded the Movement said: "Documentary outlines the patterns of interdependence".

The Documentary Film Mob assembles a collection of captivating film portraits of Britain, during the economic crisis of the 1930s and the Second World War. Featuring classic documentaries about slums and coal mines, about potters and posties, about the bombers and the Blitz, the programme reveals the fascinating story of what was also going on behind the camera. Of how the documentary was born and became part of British culture.

WEDNESDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2015

WED 19:00 World News Today (b06dxkdp)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

WED 19:30 Great Continental Railway Journeys (b01rbrw9)
Series 1 - Reversions

Hungary to Austria: Part 1

Michael Portillo continues his railway adventure which takes him across the heart of Europe. Steered by his 1913 railway guide, Michael journeys through a prosperous prewar Europe of emperors, kings, pomp and elegance.

On this leg Michael explores the once-great empire of Austria-Hungary, domain of the famous Habsburg monarchs. Starting in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, he travels via Bratislava in Slovakia to the beautiful and elegant city of Vienna, where he immerses himself in prewar decadence.

WED 20:00 Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past (b01flvwz)
Episode 1

Dan Cruickshank and Charlie Luxton uncover the incredible hidden stories behind historic buildings as they are dismantled brick by brick, and meticulously resurrected in new locations.

Every year thousands of ordinary buildings are demolished, smashed down to make way for the new, but some are so special they are snatched from the bulldozers and carefully dismantled. When a new home can be found for them, they are lovingly and painstakingly rebuilt. These are not grand buildings, but everyday buildings that give an extraordinary insight into the lives of the people who lived and worked in them. Deep within their fabric are preserved astonishing stories about how we lived and worked.

Architectural designer Charlie Luxton explores how these vast and hugely complex jigsaw puzzles are pieced back together, trying his hand at the array of ancient crafts required. Meanwhile, architectural historian Dan Cruickshank investigates the buildings' history, proving that even seemingly humble buildings have incredible stories to tell.

In this episode Dan and Charlie follow the reconstruction of one of Britain's earliest aviation buildings: Claude Grahame-White's watchtower. Graham-White was a heroic pioneer of early aviation and his watchtower was the nerve centre of the vast aircraft factory he built to supply warplanes for World War I.

WED 21:00 Dark Side of the Greens (b06fpzm7)
Documentary investigating how developers, often working with local officials, are using golf as a smokescreen to build massive luxury resorts with negative effects on the local environment. However, people are fighting back. The programme features appearances from Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin, environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr and real estate developer Donald Trump.

WED 22:00 Horizon (b01rt4c7)
2012-2013

The Age of Big Data

In Los Angeles, a remarkable experiment is underway; the police are trying to predict crime, before it even happens.

At the heart of the city of London, one trader believes that he has found the secret of making billions with maths. In South Africa, astronomers are attempting to catalogue the entire cosmos. These very different worlds are united by one thing - an extraordinary explosion in data.

Horizon meets the people at the forefront of the data revolution and reveals the possibilities and the promise of the age of big data.

WED 23:00 Woolly Mammoth: Secrets from the Ice (b01fkcdr)
Professor Alice Roberts reveals the natural history of the most famous of ice age animals - the woolly mammoth. Mammoths have transfixed humans since the depths of the last ice age, when their herds roamed across what is now Europe and Asia. Although these curious members of the elephant family have been extinct for thousands of years, scientists can now paint an incredibly detailed picture of their lives thanks to whole carcasses that have been beautifully preserved in the Siberian permafrost.

Alice meets the scientists who are using the latest genetic, chemical and molecular tests to reveal the adaptations that allowed mammoths to evolve from their origins in the tropics to surviving the extremes of Siberia. And in a dramatic end to the film, she helps unveil a brand new woolly mammoth carcass that may shed new light on our own ancestors' role in their extinction.

WED 00:00 Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past (b01flvwz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

WED 01:00 The Inca: Masters of the Clouds (b04y4q35)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]

WED 02:00 The Search for Alfred the Great (b03sbp73)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]

WED 03:00 Dark Side of the Greens (b06fpzm7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THURSDAY 01 OCTOBER 2015

THU 19:00 World News Today (b06dxkdv)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b06f16q6)
Mike Read presents hits of the week. Guests include Split Enz, Diana Ross, Ottawan, Shalamar, Linx and the Police. Also features special guests Russ Abbot and Leo Sayer, as well as a dance sequence by Legs and Co and the weekly chart rundown.

THU 20:00 Ian Hislop's Age of the Do-Gooders (b00wwb44)
Sinful Sex and Demon Drink

The pleasures and perils of booze and sex are the focus for the final episode of Ian Hislop's series about Victorian reformers, campaigners and philanthropists. In attempting to wean Britons off alcohol and away from vice, Ian wonders whether the 'do-gooders', despite their extraordinary energy and success in transforming every other aspect of 19th-century society, had finally bitten off more than they could chew.

Ian recovers the hidden histories and remarkable lives of five individuals who gave their all to cure the nation's moral incontinence. But in doing so, Ian also encounters the occasional skeleton in the closet.

Three-times prime minister William Gladstone spent a lifetime touring the streets of London's West End trying to rescue prostitutes. He brought many home to his wife, giving them a meal and a bed for the night. So was this pure philanthropy or something of a darker obsession?

Meanwhile, pioneering sex educator Ellice Hopkins took her efforts to save fallen women one step further, by devoting her life to the thankless task of promoting male chastity.

Joseph Livesey made his home-town Preston the epicentre of the global temperance movement. Thanks to his charisma, many took 'the pledge' of total abstinence. Yet many more continued to take what was known as 'St Monday' to sleep off their hangovers.

The artist George Cruikshank had grown up an enthusiastic drinker but became one of the nation's most zealous temperance campaigners. His masterpiece, The Worship of Bacchus, reveals British society to be corrupted by alcohol from top to bottom. So why did Cruikshank leave a substantial wine cellar to his housemaid turned mistress?

THU 21:00 Oak Tree: Nature's Greatest Survivor (b06fq03t)
George McGavin investigates the highly varied and dramatic life of oak tree. Part science documentary, part historical investigation, this film is a celebration of one of the most iconic trees in the British countryside. It aims to give viewers a sense of what an extraordinary species the oak is and provide an insight into how this venerable tree experiences life.

Filmed over a year, George uncovers the extraordinary transformations the oak goes through to meet the challenges of four very different seasons.

In autumn, George goes underground, digging below an oak tree to see how its roots extract precious resources from the soil. And he sees why the oak's superstrong wood made it the perfect material for building some the most famous ships in naval history, including Nelson's flagship The Victory.

In winter, George discovers the sophisticated strategies the tree uses to survive gales and bitter frosts. He finds out about the oak's vital role in architecture, showing how some very familiar sights, such as the tower of Salisbury Cathedral, are in fact giant oak structures.

In spring, George investigates how the oak procreates, spreading its pollen through the countryside. He discovers the incredibly sophisticated strategies it uses to withstand savage onslaughts from predators hellbent on eating it alive.

In summer, George uses a high-powered microscope to see the hundreds of species that regard the oak as their home. Humans too rely on the oak for their own form of 'sustenance'. Whisky gets its unique flavours from the oak wood barrels in which it's matured.

THU 22:30 Detectorists (b04ld1jd)
Series 1

Episode 3

Club president Terry is keen to help Lance and Andy search the bottom paddock at Bishop's Farm, but only because he's convinced that's where Larry Bishop has buried his missing wife. Meanwhile, Lance is determined to get his ex along to hear him play at the local pub's folk music night.

THU 23:00 Detectorists (b04m9rh2)
Series 1

Episode 4

Terry announces that he is standing down as leader of the DMDC, unleashing a bitter winner-takes-all scramble for presidential power when Andy and Lance fall out over gold. Becky and Sophie are forced to become allies in the Two Brewers pub quiz. Is this Andy's worst idea ever?

THU 23:30 After Life: The Strange Science of Decay (b012w66t)
Ever wondered what would happen in your own home if you were taken away, and everything inside was left to rot? The answer is revealed in this fascinating programme, which explores the strange and surprising science of decay.

For two months in summer 2011, a glass box containing a typical kitchen and garden was left to rot in full public view within Edinburgh Zoo. In this resulting documentary, presenter Dr George McGavin and his team use time-lapse cameras and specialist photography to capture the extraordinary way in which moulds, microbes and insects are able to break down our everyday things and allow new life to emerge from old.

Decay is something that many of us are repulsed by. But as the programme shows, it's a process that's vital in nature. And seen in close-up, it has an unexpected and sometimes mesmerising beauty.

THU 01:00 Top of the Pops (b06f16q6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

THU 01:35 Britain on Film (b01qnnqp)
Series 1

Country Living

The series looking at the culture, economics and society of 1960s Britain turns its attention to one of our great national treasures - the countryside. Drawing on the archive of high-quality colour films produced by the country's biggest cinema company, the Rank Organisation, this film shows how new technologies and production methods were changing the face of agriculture and records how country life was adapting to the new economic and moral realities of a fast-changing nation.

THU 02:05 Oak Tree: Nature's Greatest Survivor (b06fq03t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

FRIDAY 02 OCTOBER 2015

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b06dxkf2)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

FRI 19:30 Leeds International Piano Competition (b06f17bh)
2015

Part Three

Petroc Trelawny introduces the last of three programmes from the final of the Leeds International Piano competition. There are full concertos from two more of the six finalists and the announcement of the winner. With Petroc are international concert pianists Noriko Ogawa and Artur Pizarro, both former finalists at Leeds. There's also an interview with the competition's artistic director and co-founder Dame Fanny Waterman, who's stepping down this year at the age of 95. Young concert pianist Nicholas McCarthy looks at the history of the competition since it was first held in 1963.

FRI 21:00 Biggest Band Break Ups and Make Ups (b05q472d)
Mark Radcliffe presents a look at the highs and lows of band life - the creative tension that produces great music and the pressures that come with success and fame, and pull most bands apart. Radcliffe lifts the lid on the main reasons why bands break up and the secrets of bands that manage to stay together.

FRI 22:00 Music for Misfits: The Story of Indie (b06f17bk)
The DIY Movement

The story of British indie over three musically diverse episodes. Much more than a genre of music, it is a spirit, an attitude and an ethos.

In the 1970s, the music industry was controlled by the major record labels, and the notion of releasing a record independently seemed like an impossible dream. At a time when even The Sex Pistols were on a major label, the true act of rebellion was would be to do it yourself.

It took an independent release from Buzzcocks in 1976 with the Spiral Scratch EP to begin a change in the game. The initial pressing of 1,000 copies was funded by family and friends and sold out immediately. The notion of independently releasing your own music was compelling, and it became a call to action.

Independent record labels began to pop up all over the UK, each one with its own subculture and sound - from Factory in Manchester to Zoo in Liverpool, Postcard in Glasgow and London labels such as Mute, Beggars Banquet and Rough Trade. They were founded by people with no business experience, just a passion for music and a commitment to helping others achieve creative autonomy. These labels were cutting, releasing and distributing the music themselves. Bedsits became offices and basements became studios. This was DIY, and it felt like a countercultural movement set against all that the mainstream had to offer.

These labels were pivotal in getting the new sounds to a generation hungry for change. Queues of hopeful bands waited to drop off demo tapes, and the first wave of indie bands emerged from the newly formed labels. It was a fantastically creative, if somewhat hand-to-mouth time, yet bands also had the freedom to make all the decisions about their image and musical direction themselves. Pioneering music from bands such as Joy Division, Throbbing Gristle, Echo and the Bunnymen, Orange Juice and Aztec Camera is featured in this episode.

These new indie sounds offered a defiantly oppositional stance to prevailing trends in popular culture. With new music exploding out of cities everywhere, it was indie label founder Iain McNay, from Cherry Red, who had the idea for an indie chart - its music spoke to a generation of kids who did not identify with the mainstream sounds on the radio.

FRI 23:00 BBC Music John Peel Lecture (b06f17dw)
2015: Brian Eno

Hosted by Mark Radcliffe and recorded at the British Library, this year's John Peel lecture is delivered by legendary music guru and pioneer Brian Eno. The man behind some of the most memorable sounds in music history, and whose passion to innovate and experiment has kept him at the forefront of music and sound production, speaks about the ecology of culture.

FRI 00:00 Joy Division (b0543ytw)
On June 4 1976, four young men from ruined, post-industrial Manchester went to see a Sex Pistols show at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall. Inspired by the gig that is now credited with igniting the Manchester music scene, they formed what was to become one of the world's most influential bands, Joy Division.

Over 30 years later, despite a tragedy that was to cut them off in their prime, they are enjoying a larger audience and more influence than ever before, with a profound legacy that resonates fiercely in today's heavily manufactured pop culture.

Featuring the unprecedented participation of all the surviving band members, this film examines the band's story through never-before-seen live performance footage, personal photos, period films and newly discovered audiotapes.

A fresh visual account of a unique time and place, this is the untold story of how four men transcended economic and cultural barriers to produce an enduring musical legacy, at a time of great social and political change.

FRI 01:35 Biggest Band Break Ups and Make Ups (b05q472d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

FRI 02:35 Music for Misfits: The Story of Indie (b06f17bk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]

LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)

A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley 22:30 SAT (p01fv0kh)

A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley 02:35 SUN (p01fv0kh)

After Life: The Strange Science of Decay 23:30 THU (b012w66t)

Arvo Pärt/Robert Wilson: The Lost Paradise 19:00 SUN (b06f13wf)

BBC Music John Peel Lecture 23:00 FRI (b06f17dw)

Beck 21:00 SAT (b06cstqn)

Biggest Band Break Ups and Make Ups 21:00 FRI (b05q472d)

Biggest Band Break Ups and Make Ups 01:35 FRI (b05q472d)

Bought with Love: The Secret History of British Art Collections 01:05 SUN (b037c5gt)

Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past 23:15 MON (b01gk31g)

Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past 20:00 WED (b01flvwz)

Brick by Brick: Rebuilding Our Past 00:00 WED (b01flvwz)

Britain Through a Lens: The Documentary Film Mob 03:00 TUE (b012p53d)

Britain on Film 02:05 SUN (b01qbz9f)

Britain on Film 01:35 THU (b01qnnqp)

Britain's Most Fragile Treasure 00:05 SUN (b0161dgq)

Canals: The Making of a Nation 20:00 TUE (b06829t1)

Canals: The Making of a Nation 01:00 TUE (b06829t1)

Cosmonauts: How Russia Won the Space Race 00:15 MON (b04lcxms)

Dark Side of the Greens 21:00 WED (b06fpzm7)

Dark Side of the Greens 03:00 WED (b06fpzm7)

Detectorists 22:30 THU (b04ld1jd)

Detectorists 23:00 THU (b04m9rh2)

Egypt's Lost Cities 21:00 SUN (b011pwms)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 19:30 MON (b01rbqn8)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 19:30 TUE (b01rbrt2)

Great Continental Railway Journeys 19:30 WED (b01rbrw9)

Hive Minds 20:30 TUE (b06f15hq)

Hive Minds 01:30 TUE (b06f15hq)

Horizon 22:00 WED (b01rt4c7)

Hot Chocolate at the BBC 23:30 SAT (b06dl1c5)

Ian Hislop's Age of the Do-Gooders 20:00 THU (b00wwb44)

Ilo Ilo 22:30 SUN (b05y06sy)

Joy Division 00:00 FRI (b0543ytw)

Leeds International Piano Competition 19:30 FRI (b06f17bh)

Music for Misfits: The Story of Indie 22:00 FRI (b06f17bk)

Music for Misfits: The Story of Indie 02:35 FRI (b06f17bk)

Nile Rodgers: The Hitmaker Remastered 02:00 SAT (b01rk2tm)

Oak Tree: Nature's Greatest Survivor 21:00 THU (b06fq03t)

Oak Tree: Nature's Greatest Survivor 02:05 THU (b06fq03t)

Operation Jericho 19:00 SAT (b016n2zz)

Operation Jericho 00:00 TUE (b016n2zz)

Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries 20:00 MON (b054fmzl)

Saints and Sinners: Britain's Millennium of Monasteries 01:45 MON (b054fmzl)

Storyville 22:00 MON (b06f146k)

TOTP2 00:30 SAT (b007v15w)

The Inca: Masters of the Clouds 21:00 MON (b04y4q35)

The Inca: Masters of the Clouds 02:45 MON (b04y4q35)

The Inca: Masters of the Clouds 01:00 WED (b04y4q35)

The Joy of Disco 03:00 SAT (b01cqt72)

The Last Journey of the Magna Carta King 20:00 SUN (b052hrdd)

The Last Journey of the Magna Carta King 23:00 TUE (b052hrdd)

The Search for Alfred the Great 21:00 TUE (b03sbp73)

The Search for Alfred the Great 02:00 WED (b03sbp73)

The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms 02:00 TUE (p030s6b3)

Timeshift 20:00 SAT (b06csy8c)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b06f16q6)

Top of the Pops 01:00 THU (b06f16q6)

Treasures of the Anglo Saxons 22:00 TUE (b00t6xzx)

Woolly Mammoth: Secrets from the Ice 23:00 WED (b01fkcdr)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b06dxkcx)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b06dxkdb)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b06dxkdp)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b06dxkdv)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b06dxkf2)