B4

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

SATURDAY 21 MAY 2016

SAT 19:00 Francesco's Venice (b0078sny)
Beauty

Documentary series telling the story of the birth of Venice, one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in the world, presented by Francesco da Mosto. The golden age of art and architecture arrived and it was the moment the Venice we know today emerged - when wooden houses transformed into stone and marble palaces covered in gold and jewel-encrusted palaces lined the Grand Canal.

The fishermen of early Venice were changing, turning into princely merchants who traded throughout the east and west to become some of the richest patrons of art. Fine paintings and sculpture came to adorn every home as Venetians vied to impress.

This was the age of Venice producing the world's most famous artists and most heroic buildings as Titian and Palladio transformed the look and reputation of the city.

Meanwhile, a calamity hovered over the city, threatening to engulf it and ultimately take Venice to the very brink of disaster - the plague. No one, rich or poor would escape and the city would be left in ruins.

SAT 20:00 The World's Most Expensive Stolen Paintings (b03n2yzh)
Art critic Alastair Sooke delves into the murky world of art theft. Despite the high stakes - and often daring - involved, many cases are shrouded in mystery and go unnoticed by the media.

Around 47,000 works of art are reported missing each year, yet it is only the heists involving the world's most valuable paintings that hit the headlines. But high-profile or not - once gone, the works are rarely recovered.

SAT 21:00 Hinterland (b07chvkq)
Series 2 (BBC Four)

Episode 5

A burnt body on the dunes embroils the team in a long-standing family feud with a connection to the murder of a young mother 13 years earlier. Mathias is convinced the young woman's murder holds the answers, but Prosser isn't keen on Mathias delving into the past.

SAT 22:30 BBC: The Secret Files (b076yvyv)
Episode 2

Penelope Keith looks into the BBC's secret dealings with some of the 20th century's most intriguing figures, including Winston Churchill, Tony Hancock and Alec Guinness.

SAT 23:30 Rod Stewart at the BBC (b03m81n5)
Compilation of Rod Stewart's finest performances at the BBC. We revisit the early 70s with The Faces performing Stay with Me and Three Button Hand Me Down on Sounds for Saturday. The BBC charted Rod's solo success over the years and there are classic performances and interviews that will make you dance, sing and pull on your heartstrings. Songs include Sailing, You're in My Heart, I Don't Want to Talk about It and Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?

We also have Rod's performance from Glastonbury 2002 of the classic Handbags and Gladrags, and we dip into the Great American Songbook with his version of the Dorothy Fields classic I'm in the Mood for Love. Finally, rounding off over five decades in music is a performance from Rod's Radio 2 concert from May 2013.

SAT 00:30 Radio 2 Live (b06pf5dw)
Hyde Park Headliners

Rod Stewart Live at Hyde Park

On a sunny day in September 2015, Rod Stewart took to the stage in London's Hyde Park to bring to a close BBC Radio 2's annual Festival in a Day. In front of 50,000 people, Rod delivered not his usual stadium set but a bespoke selection of hits from his back catalogue spanning his career, including Gasoline Alley, Angel, In a Broken Dream and The Killing of Georgie (Part 1 & 2), plus Faces classics such as Ooh La La and the blues standard Rollin' and Tumblin', a number that Rod used to perform with Long John Baldry back in the day. To close the set, Rod brought on his old pal guitarist Jim Cregan to help him perform his 1978 hit I Was Only Joking.

All in all, a memorable and unique concert that is unlikely to be repeated anytime soon.

SAT 01:30 Top of the Pops (b07c3ywt)
Weekly pop chart programme presented by Mike Read, first broadcast on 1 October 1981. Includes appearances from The Tweets, Toyah, Altered Images, Gidea Park, The Creatures, Bad Manners, Dollar and Adam & The Ants, plus a dance sequence by Legs & Co.

SAT 02:10 Top of the Pops (b07c433m)
David 'Kid' Jensen presents the TOTP hits of the week, first broadcast on 15 October 1981. Includes appearances from BA Robertson & Maggie Bell, Squeeze, Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin, This Year's Blonde, Toyah, The Creatures and Bad Manners. Also includes a dance sequence by Legs & Co.

SAT 02:50 Rod Stewart at the BBC (b03m81n5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 today]

SUNDAY 22 MAY 2016

SUN 19:00 Karajan's Magic and Myth (b04tfvwp)
Over twenty-five years after his death in July 1989, the controversial Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan remains an enigma. He was the most successful conductor in the history of classical music. Many of those recordings - of Italian opera, of Wagner and Richard Strauss, of Sibelius, Beethoven and Brahms - are treasured by music lovers around the world. Yet, even at the peak of his fame, his performances were variously criticised for being too opulent, too manicured, lacking warmth or spiritual depth.

This musical profile explores the many paradoxes in the life and music of this controversial figure, who forged his international reputation in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra shortly after the end of the Second World War and went on to reign supreme in the classical music world during his three decades with the Berlin Philharmonic. The film also examines Karajan's belief in the visual power of music, and his determination to leave behind a substantial legacy of music on film.

Karajan was famous not only for his music, but also his glittering off-duty moments on the ski slopes, piloting his own jet, sailing his yacht and driving top-of-the-range fast cars. Yet, at the same time, he was a solitary man with few friends, who drew his strength from long walks in the Austrian mountains.

In this feature-length profile, the first ever made about Karajan for BBC Television, those who worked closely with Karajan, including singers Placido Domingo and Jessye Norman, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, conductors Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Sir Neville Marriner and flautist Sir James Galway, speak of his almost magical power as a conductor and the reality that lay behind the Karajan myth.

SUN 20:30 EastEnders: Iconic Episodes (b07cz86b)
Den & Angie

The classic two-hander between Den and Angie Watts, directed by Antonia Bird. Den’s demands for a divorce lead to a dramatic revelation from Angie – but is she telling the truth? This episode was first broadcast on 16 October 1986.

SUN 21:00 From EastEnders to Hollywood: Antonia Bird (b07chwf7)
The British director Antonia Bird blazed a trail from the radical hotbed of the Royal Court Theatre in the 1970s, via the ground-breaking early days of EastEnders and Casualty in the 80s, all the way to Hollywood in the 90s.

She won four Baftas, nurtured some of our greatest actors, and became the first British woman to direct a Hollywood movie. Yet, less than three years after her early death in 2013, her name is little known, and her work largely forgotten.

This documentary aims to put that right - the first to examine her legacy and to place Antonia Bird where she belongs, among the most important British directors of the past 40 years. Filmmaker Susan Kemp reveals the secrets behind Antonia's greatest films - such as Safe, Priest, Face, Ravenous, The Hamburg Cell and Care - through intimate interviews many of her closest collaborators, including actors Robert Carlyle, Anita Dobson, Kate Hardie and Steven Mackintosh, and writers Irvine Welsh, Ronan Bennett and Kay Mellor.

Antonia's career was a long fight to get her voice heard, and to give voice to the powerless and the abused, the misfits and outcasts left behind our society and let down by its institutions - homeless teenagers, kids in care, criminal addicts in recovery, priests struggling with their sexuality, even the 9/11 hijackers and cannibals in the Old West.

Yet her politics and her gender meant she was often blocked. This documentary brings to life the battles - the victories and defeats - of this shy but passionate woman.

This is also the story of Britain over the past 40 years, a period of convulsive and painful transformation.

SUN 22:30 Care (b0074pzs)
Drama about a young man struggling to piece his life together after years of abuse in a children's home and how he learns, despite his best efforts, that he can never escape his past, nor a crusading media determined to uncover it.

SUN 00:15 Horizon (b0148vph)
2011-2012

The Core

For centuries we have dreamt of reaching the centre of the Earth. Now scientists are uncovering a bizarre and alien world that lies 4,000 miles beneath our feet, unlike anything we know on the surface. It is a planet buried within the planet we know, where storms rage within a sea of white-hot metal and a giant forest of crystals make up a metal core the size of the moon.

Horizon follows scientists who are conducting experiments to recreate this core within their own laboratories, with surprising results.

SUN 01:15 POP! The Science of Bubbles (b01rtdy6)
Physicist Dr Helen Czerski takes us on an amazing journey into the science of bubbles. Bubbles may seem to be just fun toys, but they are also powerful tools that push back the boundaries of science.

The soap bubble with its delicate, fragile skin tells us about how nature works on scales as large as solar system and as small as a single wavelength of light. Then there are underwater bubbles, which matter because they are part of the how the planet works. Out at sea, breaking waves generate huge plumes of bubbles which help the oceans breathe.

From the way animals behave to the way drinks taste, Dr Czerski shows how bubbles affect our world in all sorts of unexpected ways. Whether it's the future of ship design or innovative new forms of medical treatment, bubbles play a vital role.

SUN 02:15 Karajan's Magic and Myth (b04tfvwp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

MONDAY 23 MAY 2016

MON 19:00 World News Today (b07chv7p)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

MON 19:30 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b06wkqyn)
Series 1

Winter

Iolo Williams explores the magic of the Brecon Beacons over the seasons in this stunning new series. He braves a blizzard on the high peaks, yet the lowlands can still be sunny. On the snowy slopes, foxes look for food, while a great grey shrike, a ruthless hunter from Scandinavia, looks for animals to eat. Cormorants congregate to fish on reservoirs, some birds are already breeding on the River Usk and red deer hide away in secluded gullies in one of the wildest locations in the Beacons. It's a magnificent diverse landscape with huge caves, stunning waterfalls, ancient woodland and canals.

MON 20:00 Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British (b07c645b)
The Cottage

We would all love to live in a cottage. It is the national fantasy - thatch on the roof, roses over the door, fire in the grate. Dan is in Stoneleigh in the beautiful Warwickshire countryside. The village has barely changed in 500 years, its cottages perfectly preserved. But even better, there is a treasure trove of documents in the local abbey which reveal centuries of daily life in extraordinary detail. Whether it is the pub owner fined for serving poor beer, the widow told to pay for her new home with her best chicken, or the first glass windows in the village, this film charts the cottage's transformation from humble medieval hovel to modern dream home.

MON 21:00 Storm Troupers: The Fight to Forecast the Weather (b07cvg9p)
Episode 1

Alok Jha investigates how weather forecasting was transformed from superstition into science.

At the heart of story is pioneering meteorologist, Robert Fitzroy. Driven to prevent disasters at sea - like the wrecking of a passenger ship off the Anglesey coast in 1859 - Fitzroy issued Britain's first storm warnings and came up with the first weather forecast to be published in a newspaper.

Alok explores the knowledge Fitzroy was building on. He investigates weather folklore, asking if sayings such as 'red sky at night, shepherd's delight' have any merit. He tells the stories of the other heroes of meteorology - people like Evangelista Torricelli, a student of Galileo's, who invented the barometer; Luke Howard, who classified the clouds and Francis Beaufort, who came up with the famous wind scale.

Alok also discovers that public complaints about weather forecasts date back to the very first forecasts.

MON 22:00 David Attenborough's Zoo Quest in Colour (p03qxfsg)
Thanks to a remarkable discovery in the BBC's film vaults, the best of David Attenborough's early Zoo Quest adventures can now be seen as never before, in colour, and with it the remarkable story of how this pioneering television series was made.

First broadcast in December 1954, Zoo Quest was one of the most popular television series of its time and launched the career of the young David Attenborough as a wildlife presenter. It completely changed how viewers saw the world, revealing wildlife and tribal communities that had never been filmed or even seen before.

Broadcast ten years before colour television was seen in the UK, Zoo Quest was thought to have been filmed in black and white, until now. Using this extraordinary new-found colour film, together with new behind-the-scenes stories from David Attenborough and cameraman Charles Lagus, this special showcases the very best of Zoo Quest to West Africa, Zoo Quest to Guiana and Zoo Quest for a Dragon in stunning HD colour for the very first time.

MON 23:30 The Dark Ages: An Age of Light (b01pdt02)
The Men of the North

The Dark Ages have been misunderstood. History has identified the period following the fall of the Roman Empire with a descent into barbarism - a terrible time when civilisation stopped.

Waldemar Januszczak disagrees. In this four-part series he argues that the Dark Ages were a time of great artistic achievement, with new ideas and religions provoking new artistic adventures. He embarks on a fascinating trip across Europe, Africa and Asia, visits the world's most famous collections and discovers hidden artistic gems, all to prove that the Dark Ages were actually an 'Age of Light'.

In the final episode, Waldemar looks towards the north of Europe. The Carolingians saw themselves as successors to Rome, reflected in their art. Elsewhere, the Vikings were constructing long ships with intricate decoration and marking their territory with powerful rune stones. And on the British Isles, the Irish and Anglo-Saxons were creating unique works of manuscript illumination and remarkable jewellery.

MON 00:30 Order and Disorder (b01nj44h)
Information

Professor Jim Al-Khalili investigates one of the most important concepts in the world today - information. He discovers how we harnessed the power of symbols, everything from the first alphabet and the electric telegraph through to the modern digital age. But on this journey he learns that information is not just about human communication, it is woven very profoundly into the fabric of reality.

MON 01:30 Bullets, Boots and Bandages: How to Really Win at War (b01bs9gb)
Stealing a March

Historian Saul David explores how wars are really fought - in the backroom of military planning. He shows how generals have met the challenge of moving armies.

MON 02:30 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b06wkqyn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

MON 03:00 Storm Troupers: The Fight to Forecast the Weather (b07cvg9p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 24 MAY 2016

TUE 19:00 World News Today (b07chv83)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

TUE 19:30 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b06wrhn5)
Series 1

Spring

It's spring and the nesting season is in full swing. While hundreds of dotterel are taking a rest on the Black Mountains during their journey from Africa to their breeding sites in Scotland, peregrines are already nesting in an old quarry in the central Beacons. Next to the largest natural lake in south Wales, water voles are managing their ditches. Iolo Williams explores the most crooked church in Britain and an old gunpowder works and finds that a 300-year-old stone wall reveals the history of this magnificent landscape.

TUE 20:00 Storm Troupers: The Fight to Forecast the Weather (b07cvg9p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]

TUE 21:00 Storyville (b062mbng)
Last Days in Vietnam

Documentary which combines astonishing footage from Saigon in April 1975 with contemporary reflections from those who were there. During the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as the panicked South Vietnamese people desperately attempt to escape. On the ground, American soldiers and diplomats confront the same moral quandary - whether to obey White House orders to evacuate US citizens only - or to risk punishment and save the lives of as many South Vietnamese citizens as they can.

The events recounted in the film mainly centre on the US evacuation of Saigon, codenamed Operation Frequent Wind. Vividly annotating one of the most haunting images of the Vietnam War, that of dozens of South Vietnamese struggling to climb the steps to a rooftop helicopter as Saigon fell, Last Days in Vietnam is a moving and visceral insight into this key moment in history.

TUE 22:35 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.

TUE 00:05 The World's Most Expensive Stolen Paintings (b03n2yzh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday]

TUE 01:05 The Dark Ages: An Age of Light (b01pdt02)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 on Monday]

TUE 02:10 The High Art of the Low Countries (b01rxpy1)
Daydreams and Nightmares

Following a brief period of decline, the entrepreneurial and industrious region of the Low Countries rose again to become a cultural leader in the modern age. Despite its small and almost insignificant size it produced important forward-thinking artists like van Gogh, Mondrian, Magritte and Delvaux, who changed the face of art forever.

Andrew's journey takes him to a remote beach in north west Holland that inspired Mondrian's transition to his now-renowned abstract grid paintings. Andrew digs deep into the psychology and social history of the region, exploring how the landscape of the past has informed the culture and identity of the Low Countries today and the impossibility of the Dutch drive to turn the philosophy of Mondrian's geometric order into a way of living.

TUE 03:10 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b06wrhn5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

WEDNESDAY 25 MAY 2016

WED 19:00 World News Today (b07chv8d)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

WED 19:30 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b06wyxfx)
Series 1

Summer

It's the busy summer season. A fox family is playing below the Carmarthen Fans, lizards bask in the sun on limestone pavements in the upper Swansea valley and hundreds of dragonflies emerge from pools in the uplands near Brecon.

Iolo Williams is on the Black Mountain foothills as sheep are gathered by shepherds on horseback and a group of dedicated volunteers tries to repair a mountain.

Ancient botanical cures for ailments and old steam railways are two of many hidden histories.

WED 20:00 Hidden Killers (b07chyly)
The Post-War Home

Dr Suzannah Lipscomb explores the time when British people embraced modern design for the first time after years of austerity and self-denial. The look and feel of the postwar 1950s home - a 'modern' world of moulded plywood furniture, fibreglass, plastics and polyester - had its roots in the innovative materials discovered during World War II. In fact, no other war before or since has had such a profound effect on the technologies of our current life. This bright new era encompassed a host of social changes including higher living standards and improved technologies, but - as Suzannah discovers - there were also unexpected dangers lurking throughout the changing home.

WED 21:00 Going Going Gone: Nick Broomfield's Disappearing Britain (b07chym0)
Two iconic British buildings are threatened with demolition and the intrepid Nick Broomfield is on the case. In a pair of documentaries, Broomfield profiles the Wellington Rooms in Liverpool and the Coal Exchange in Cardiff.

The Wellington Rooms, built in 1815 by Edmund Aikin, was originally the social hub for the super-rich, slave traders, businessmen and the elite. The prime minister William Gladstone's family, themselves wealthy slave owners, invested heavily in this magnificent building with the most intricate detailing and proportions. A Wedgwood ceiling and sprung dance floor, with classical columns, create a building of love and light.

Despite the depression in Liverpool's fortunes, it's a building that has brought enormous happiness to many different people over a couple of centuries. Countless people seem to have fallen in love and met their future partners in the assembly room. Now in a rundown state of faded glory, the question is - what to do with the Wellington Rooms?

The Coal Exchange in Cardiff, built in 1883 by Edward Seward, is a magnificent celebration of the industry of coal and its immense wealth. A glass-ceilinged exchange room with galleries on three floors and a unique lowered floor are a remarkable monument to this time.

Now in serious neglect, the whole building, the size of a city block, faces demolition. It signifies the serious lack of resourcefulness on the part of Cardiff Council to celebrate and regenerate not only this building but the whole area. The once great Butetown Docks and the magnificent buildings surrounding the Coal Exchange have also been allowed to crumble and disintegrate. Rather than redevelop the docks in a way that they have been so wonderfully done in Liverpool, the docks in Cardiff have been filled in. Magnificent warehouses have been torn down, and the whole history of coal and the uniqueness of this area have been almost obliterated.

WED 22:00 Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails (b00drtpj)
Ian Hislop brings his customary humour, analysis and wit to the notorious Beeching Report of 1963, which led to the closure of a third of the nation's railway lines and stations and forced tens of thousands of people into the car and onto the road.

Was author Dr Richard Beeching little more than Genghis Khan with a slide rule, ruthlessly hacking away at Britain's rail network in a misguided quest for profitability, or was he the fall guy for short-sighted government policies that favoured the car over the train?

Ian also investigates the fallout of Beeching's plan, discovering what was lost to the British landscape, communities and ways of life when the railway map shrank, and recalls the halcyon days of train travel, celebrated by John Betjeman.

Ian travels from Cornwall to the Scottish borders, meeting those responsible and those affected and questioning whether such brutal measures could be justified. Knowing what we know now, with trains far more energy efficient and environmentally sound than cars, perhaps Beeching's plan was the biggest folly of the 1960s?

WED 23:00 Natural World (b03c7vb4)
2013-2014

Orangutans: The Great Ape Escape

Leonora is no ordinary orangutan; she is a pioneer. With her three-year-old son in her arms, she is about to set off on an epic journey back to the wild - the great ape escape. It is a long way from what she is used to. After being orphaned as a baby, she has spent the majority of her life in a rescue centre. She is leaving behind 600 other orangutans, all of whom are relying on her for their chance at freedom. If Leonora can make it, they could too.

WED 00:00 BBC: The Secret Files (b076yvyv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 on Saturday]

WED 01:00 From EastEnders to Hollywood: Antonia Bird (b07chwf7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]

WED 02:30 The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams (b06wyxfx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

WED 03:00 Hidden Killers (b07chyly)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

THU 19:00 World News Today (b07chv8p)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b07ckwvv)
Simon Bates presents the weekly pop chart show, originally broadcast on 29 October 1981. Includes appearances from Altered Images, Trevor Walters, Haircut 100, Squeeze, Olivia Newton John, OMD, BA Robertson & Maggie Bell, and Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin. Also includes a dance sequence by Legs & Co.

THU 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.

THU 21:00 Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British (b07ckwvx)
The Terrace

Dan Cruickshank explores our love affair with the terrace - the home that more Britons live in than any other. We love it because it has proved brilliantly adaptable, encompassing the Victorian parlour and modern open-plan living with equal ease.

Dan is in Toxteth, Liverpool 8. Famous for the riots that ripped it apart in the 1980s, Toxteth has a far richer and more varied history than that one tragic episode. Liverpool was the ultimate Victorian boom town, turned by trade and industry from provincial powerhouse into the second city of empire. 100,000 terraced houses were built to accommodate its vast workforce, with huge numbers in Toxteth. From a high of Victorian industry and immigration to a low of postwar decline, Toxteth's terraces have seen it all - even the 2015 Turner Prize, awarded for their remarkable 21st-century regeneration.

THU 22:00 Going Forward (b07ckwvz)
Episode 2

One family, three days, countless events. Welcome to the Wilde family, Kim, Dave, sister Jackie, kids, dog (Carpet), and their ailing mum. Kim and Dave are the sandwich generation couple who've put their lives on hold for the sake of others. She's a care worker, he drives limos, they live outside London and life is all right, I suppose. Until Auntie Jackie has an idea.

Time's passed by, the bungalow has been sold and the money split, but with mother's health taking a turn for the worse Kim and Jackie have had to put their escape plans on hold. Worse follows as the true cost of mum's stroke emerges and the dreaded question of care costs are raised. With Jacks in tow as she does her rounds, Kim opens her sister's eyes to a less-than-rosy life of drip stands and incontinence pads as she rushed to keep up with her appointments.

At the airport, Dave and Tel enjoy a more leisurely way of life as they kill yet more time waiting for clients and putting the world to rights. Kelly's missed spelling bee offers mixed blessings, with Dave left in a dilemma and Iraq back on the agenda. The satnav has the final word.

THU 22:30 A Very British Airline (p01yyhgg)
Episode 1

British Airways is one of the UK's most visible brands, selling Britishness as a mark of quality. But in the last decade, the business has faced financial crisis and today more people fly Easyjet than BA. As the airline reaches a turning point, the BBC's cameras have been allowed unique access to its inner world, from top level decisions to the daily challenges of a global operation.

This episode explores how the airline tries to persuade people to spend more to fly, revealing the world found behind the 'millionaire's door' at Heathrow Terminal 5 - a lounge, restaurant, spa and champagne bar reserved for those select few who are happy to part with small fortunes to fly in the airline's first class.

Also this episode, a look at how the airline is playing catch-up with some of its rivals as it brings its first A380, the world's biggest passenger plane, into service. Plus, the programme follows 18 anxious new recruits on their journey to become cabin crew with British Airways. With exacting standards of dress, behaviour and knowledge, not all of them will make it through the six-week training course designed to uncover who is - and who is not - BA.

THU 23:30 Francesco's Venice (b0078sny)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]

THU 00:30 Top of the Pops (b07ckwvv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

THU 01:05 Storyville (b062mbng)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]

THU 02:45 Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British (b07ckwvx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

FRIDAY 27 MAY 2016

FRI 19:00 World News Today (b07chv8v)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b07cl0cn)
Peter Powell presents the weekly pop chart show, first broadcast on 5 November 1981. Includes appearances from The Dukes, Jets, ABC, Modern Romance, The Police, Rush, Julio Iglesias, Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin, and The Four Tops.

FRI 20:00 The Good Old Days (b07cl0cq)
Leonard Sachs presents an edition of the old-time music hall programme, filmed in 1973 from the stage of the City Varieties Theatre, Leeds. Guests include Charlie Drake, Wilfred Pickles, Lorne Lesley and Hugh Paddick.

FRI 20:45 Sounds of the Sixties (b051rz0q)
Reversions

The Singer and the Song

Sandie Shaw, Dusty Springfield and Lulu sing a few classics in this solo artist-themed episode of the sixties archive pop programme.

FRI 20:55 Pop Go the Sixties (b00cvzhf)
Series 2

Dusty Springfield

A colourful nugget of pop mined from the BBC's archive. From her own series recorded in 1967, Dusty Springfield performs the Bobby Hebb classic, Sunny, which had been a hit in the UK for Cher and Georgie Fame.

FRI 21:00 Tales from the Tour Bus: Rock 'n' Roll on the Road (b05rjc9c)
Rock legend and tour bus aficionado Rick Wakeman takes us on a time-travelling trip through the decades in this first-hand account of rockers on the road from the late 1950s to the 80s and beyond.

It's an often bumpy and sometimes sleepless ride down the A roads and motorways of the UK during the golden age of rock 'n' roll touring - a secret history of transport cafes, transit vans, B&Bs, sleepless roadies and of loved ones left at home or, on one occasion, by the roadside. And it's also a secret history of audiences both good and bad, and the gigs themselves - from the early variety package to the head clubs, the stadiums and the pubs.

This is life in the British fast lane as told by Rick and the bands themselves, a film about the very lifeblood of the rock 'n' roll wagon train. With members of Dr Feelgood, Suzi Quatro, The Shadows, The Pretty Things, Fairport Convention, Happy Mondays, Aswad, Girlschool, The Damned and many more.

FRI 22:00 Totally British: 70s Rock 'n' Roll (b01r3pm9)
1970-1974

Trawled from the depths of the BBC Archive and classic BBC shows of the day - Old Grey Whistle Test, Top of the Pops and Full House - a collection of performance gems from a totally rock 'n' roll early 1970s.

This was a golden era for British rock 'n' roll as everyone moved on from the whimsical 60s and looked around for something with a bit more oomph! In a pre-heavy metal world bands were experimenting with influences that dated back to 50s rock 'n' roll, whilst taking their groove from old-school rhythm and blues. It was also a time when men grew their hair long!

In a celebration of this era, we kick off with an early 1970s Badfinger number direct from the BBC library and continue the groove from the BBC vaults with classic rock 'n' roll heroes like Free, Status Quo, the Faces, Humble Pie and Mott the Hoople. Plus from deep within the BBC archives we dig out some rarities from the likes of Babe Ruth, Stone the Crows, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Man, Heavy Metal Kids and original rockers Thin Lizzy... to name but a few.

Sit back and enjoy a 60-minute non-stop ride of unadulterated Totally British 70s Rock 'n' Roll!

FRI 23:00 Totally British: 70s Rock 'n' Roll (b01r7hk5)
1975-79

A romp through the BBC archive library from 1975 to 1979 has unearthed some seldom-seen performances of the rarely explored genre of pub rock and other late 70s rock 'n' roll gems from classic music programmes like the Old Grey Whistle Test and Top of the Pops. Before the DIY culture of punk took hold there was a whole breed of real musicians who honed their craft in the backrooms of pubs. And towards the end of the 70s men's hair was starting to get shorter too.

This compilation has uncovered rarely seen footage from the likes of Canvey Island's Dr Feelgood, original pub rockers Ducks DeLuxe, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Elvis Costello, Meal Ticket, Steve Gibbons Band, Dave Edmunds and chum Nick Lowe, a pre-Mike & the Mechanics' Paul Carrack in his first band Ace, a post-Faces Ronnie Lane, The Motors, the first TV performance from Dire Straits, Graham Parker and the Rumour and many more.

FRI 00:00 Top of the Pops (b07cl0cn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

FRI 00:40 Tales from the Tour Bus: Rock 'n' Roll on the Road (b05rjc9c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

FRI 01:40 Totally British: 70s Rock 'n' Roll (b01r3pm9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]

FRI 02:40 Totally British: 70s Rock 'n' Roll (b01r7hk5)
[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)

A Very British Airline 22:30 THU (p01yyhgg)

BBC: The Secret Files 22:30 SAT (b076yvyv)

BBC: The Secret Files 00:00 WED (b076yvyv)

Bullets, Boots and Bandages: How to Really Win at War 01:30 MON (b01bs9gb)

Care 22:30 SUN (b0074pzs)

Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British 20:00 MON (b07c645b)

Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British 21:00 THU (b07ckwvx)

Dan Cruickshank: At Home with the British 02:45 THU (b07ckwvx)

David Attenborough's Zoo Quest in Colour 22:00 MON (p03qxfsg)

EastEnders: Iconic Episodes 20:30 SUN (b07cz86b)

Francesco's Venice 19:00 SAT (b0078sny)

Francesco's Venice 23:30 THU (b0078sny)

From EastEnders to Hollywood: Antonia Bird 21:00 SUN (b07chwf7)

From EastEnders to Hollywood: Antonia Bird 01:00 WED (b07chwf7)

Going Forward 22:00 THU (b07ckwvz)

Going Going Gone: Nick Broomfield's Disappearing Britain 21:00 WED (b07chym0)

Hidden Killers 20:00 WED (b07chyly)

Hidden Killers 03:00 WED (b07chyly)

Hinterland 21:00 SAT (b07chvkq)

Horizon 00:15 SUN (b0148vph)

Ian Hislop Goes off the Rails 22:00 WED (b00drtpj)

Karajan's Magic and Myth 19:00 SUN (b04tfvwp)

Karajan's Magic and Myth 02:15 SUN (b04tfvwp)

Natural World 23:00 WED (b03c7vb4)

Order and Disorder 00:30 MON (b01nj44h)

POP! The Science of Bubbles 01:15 SUN (b01rtdy6)

Pop Go the Sixties 20:55 FRI (b00cvzhf)

Radio 2 Live 00:30 SAT (b06pf5dw)

Rod Stewart at the BBC 23:30 SAT (b03m81n5)

Rod Stewart at the BBC 02:50 SAT (b03m81n5)

Sounds of the Sixties 20:45 FRI (b051rz0q)

Storm Troupers: The Fight to Forecast the Weather 21:00 MON (b07cvg9p)

Storm Troupers: The Fight to Forecast the Weather 03:00 MON (b07cvg9p)

Storm Troupers: The Fight to Forecast the Weather 20:00 TUE (b07cvg9p)

Storyville 21:00 TUE (b062mbng)

Storyville 01:05 THU (b062mbng)

Tales from the Tour Bus: Rock 'n' Roll on the Road 21:00 FRI (b05rjc9c)

Tales from the Tour Bus: Rock 'n' Roll on the Road 00:40 FRI (b05rjc9c)

The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams 19:30 MON (b06wkqyn)

The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams 02:30 MON (b06wkqyn)

The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams 19:30 TUE (b06wrhn5)

The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams 03:10 TUE (b06wrhn5)

The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams 19:30 WED (b06wyxfx)

The Brecon Beacons with Iolo Williams 02:30 WED (b06wyxfx)

The Dark Ages: An Age of Light 23:30 MON (b01pdt02)

The Dark Ages: An Age of Light 01:05 TUE (b01pdt02)

The Good Old Days 20:00 FRI (b07cl0cq)

The High Art of the Low Countries 02:10 TUE (b01rxpy1)

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

The World's Most Expensive Stolen Paintings 20:00 SAT (b03n2yzh)

The World's Most Expensive Stolen Paintings 00:05 TUE (b03n2yzh)

Top of the Pops 01:30 SAT (b07c3ywt)

Top of the Pops 02:10 SAT (b07c433m)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (b07ckwvv)

Top of the Pops 00:30 THU (b07ckwvv)

Top of the Pops 19:30 FRI (b07cl0cn)

Top of the Pops 00:00 FRI (b07cl0cn)

Totally British: 70s Rock 'n' Roll 22:00 FRI (b01r3pm9)

Totally British: 70s Rock 'n' Roll 23:00 FRI (b01r7hk5)

Totally British: 70s Rock 'n' Roll 01:40 FRI (b01r3pm9)

Totally British: 70s Rock 'n' Roll 02:40 FRI (b01r7hk5)

World News Today 19:00 MON (b07chv7p)

World News Today 19:00 TUE (b07chv83)

World News Today 19:00 WED (b07chv8d)

World News Today 19:00 THU (b07chv8p)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (b07chv8v)

World War II: 1945 and the Wheelchair President 22:35 TUE (b05vlzsn)