Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping our world.
With his Bradshaw's guidebook in hand, Michael Portillo journeys from Newcastle up the north east coast to Lindisfarne. He finds out about the world's earliest swing bridge and its inventor, Newcastle engineer Sir William Armstrong, and discovers how the city's Victorian industrial heritage has found a new cultural purpose.
From Seahouses by boat, amid puffins and cormorants, Michael goes in search of a darling of the Victorian press who, with her father, rescued nine people from tumultuous seas.
On the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, Michael explores the lime kilns and finds out how, in the 7th century, Christianity spread from here across northern England.
Dr Michael Mosley ends the series with a look at poisons, exploring the turning points when scientists went from finding antidotes to poisons to applying poisons as cures, and celebrating the eccentrics and mavericks whose breakthroughs were to pave the way for some of the most striking treatments of modern medicine. Of the medicines explored in this series, those that are derived from poisons are perhaps the most extraordinary. The story of turning poisons into medicines encompasses the planet's most deadly substances, in which we turned killers into cures.
The first UK film biography of the world-renowned Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), whose print The Great Wave is as globally famous as Leonardo's Mona Lisa. With Andy Serkis reading the voice of Hokusai, the film features artists David Hockney and Maggi Hambling, and passionate scholars who study, admire and venerate this great Japanese master.
The film focuses on Hokusai's work, life and times in the great, bustling metropolis of Edo, now modern Tokyo. Using extraordinary close-ups and pioneering 8K Ultra HD video technology, Hokusai's prints and paintings are examined by world experts. In the process they reveal new interpretations of famous works and convey the full extent of Hokusai's extraordinary achievement as a great world artist.
Hokusai spent his life studying and celebrating our common humanity as well as deeply exploring the natural and spiritual worlds, using the famous volcano Mount Fuji as a protective presence and potential source of immortality. He knew much personal tragedy, was struck by lightning and lived for years in poverty, but never gave up his constant striving for perfection in his art. Hokusai influenced Monet, Van Gogh and other Impressionists, is the father of manga, and has his own Great Wave emoji.
Girl bands and pop music permeate Japanese life. This film gets to the heart of a cultural phenomenon driven by an obsession with young female sexuality and internet popularity.
Meet Rio - a bona fide Tokyo idol who takes us on her journey toward fame. Now meet her 'brothers' - a group of adult male superfans who devote their lives to following her, in the virtual world and in real life. Once considered to be on the fringes of society, the brothers who gave up salaried jobs to pursue an interest in female idol culture have since become mainstream via the internet, illuminating the growing disconnect between men and women in hypermodern societies.
Tokyo Girls explores the Japanese pop music industry and its focus on traditional beauty ideals, confronting the nature of gender power dynamics at work. As the female idols become younger and younger, the film looks at the veil of internet fame and the new terms of engagement that are playing out in real life around the globe.
As Brexit Britain prepares to draw up new rules on who is welcome here, Ian Hislop takes an entertaining and provocative look at the decades from the Victorian era to the First World War, when modern Britain introduced its first peacetime restrictions on immigration.
The Victorians had a completely open door to foreigners, drawing no distinction between economic migrant and asylum seeker. But as Hislop explores, rising immigration in the late 19th century triggered a fierce - and very familiar - debate fuelled by clashing values, economic anxiety and the media.
When 100,000 Jewish refugees arrived, indigenous working-class hackles rose at higher rents, lower wages and changing inner-city neighbourhoods. Hislop uncovers the surprising case of Mancherjee Bhownagree, an Indian immigrant who stood for parliament in 1895 - and won - on an anti-immigration ticket. Another young MP, Winston Churchill, spoke out against the tough curbs proposed by the 1902 Royal Commission, lambasting it as the work of prejudice and racism. But the 1905 Aliens Act restricted peacetime immigration for the first time.
Ian also examines the role of the press in stoking fear and prejudice against migrants, focusing on Britain's tiny Chinese community which fell prey to a full-scale 'yellow peril' media scare. But he also uncovers extraordinary British generosity towards refugees - telling the story of the unprecedented First World War humanitarian relief effort when ordinary Britons selflessly opened their homes to a quarter of a million Belgians.
Ian discusses attitudes to immigration then and now with former home secretary Alan Johnson, former Tory chair Baroness Warsi and controversial columnist Katie Hopkins. He also takes the temperature of the nation - in animated conversation with native and foreign-born Brits in London, Liverpool and Folkestone.
With the widowhood of Queen Victoria, the glorious life of palaces almost came to an abrupt end. There would be just one final flowering of palatial style just before the First World War, on an imperial scale - the redesign of Buckingham Palace and The Mall. The interwar period was a difficult time for many of Britain's best palaces, forced into a half-life of grace-and-favour accommodation for exiled royalty and aristocracy down on their luck. But more recent times would see restoration and conservation on a new scale and, with it, detective work to uncover palace secrets.
Ellie Harrison and Dallas Campbell reveal the greatest treasures we've ever created.
Dallas braves vicious currents to dive on a shipwreck where gold, silver and 5,000 emeralds have been found. Ellie tells the tale of intrigue and obsession surrounding a jewelled room in Russia decorated with millions of pounds worth of amber. She enters the secretive world of the diamond cutters - each lives with the knowledge that a slip of the hand could cost them millions of pounds.
WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017
WED 19:00 100 Days+ (b08w946n)
Series 1
28/06/2017
Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping our world.
WED 19:30 Great British Railway Journeys (b0517pyg)
Series 6
Pembroke Dock to Swansea
Michael Portillo embarks on a new journey from west Wales to East Anglia. Beginning at Pembroke Dock, Michael visits the dockyard where Queen Victoria's royal yachts were built. He investigates what caused riotous rebels to dress up as women in Narberth and spends the night at an inn in Carmarthen where Admiral Lord Nelson once met Lady Emma Hamilton. After flagging down the steam train to ride on the Carmarthen-to-Aberystwyth railway, Michael pitches in with the volunteers who look after the Gwili heritage line. In Swansea, on the estate of one of the pioneers of British photography, Michael learns how to pose for a photograph in Victorian style.
WED 20:00 Sound of Cinema: The Music That Made the Movies (b03b965y)
Pop Goes the Soundtrack
Composer Neil Brand explores how, in the second half of the 20th century, composers and film-makers embraced jazz, pop and rock to bring fresh energy and relevance to film scores.
He shows how in the 1960s, films as diverse as the James Bond movies, spaghetti westerns and Disney's musicals drew on the talents of pop arrangers and composers like John Barry, Ennio Morricone and the Sherman Brothers to create unforgettable soundtracks. But the role of the film composer would subsequently be challenged by directors like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, who showed that a soundtrack consisting of carefully chosen pop songs could be as effective as a specially written one.
Neil's journey sees him meet leading film-makers and composers including Martin Scorsese and composers Richard Sherman (Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book), Lalo Schifrin (Bullitt) and David Arnold (Casino Royale).
WED 21:00 Spies of Warsaw (b01psbj3)
Episode 1
Classic tale of spying, intrigue and romance, based on the novels of Alan Furst.
A German engineer arrives in Warsaw. Tonight he will be with his Polish mistress, tomorrow at a workers' bar in the city's factory district to meet with Colonel Mercier in a backstreet cafe. Information is exchanged for money.
Mercier loathes the niceties of ambassadorial lunches, cocktail parties and banquets of a world not yet at war, but one in which the drums of war can be heard ever more insistently in the background. However, they take on an altogether more interesting dimension when he meets the enigmatic and beautiful Anna Skarbek.
While secretly observing panzer exercises in the Black Forest, Mercier sees a simple trick performed with a length of pipe strapped across a car and draws his own conclusions about exactly what it is the Germans are planning.
When the Nazis find out what he's been doing, his own life becomes their target.
WED 22:30 The Flying Scotsman: A Rail Romance (b008m6wb)
As it celebrates its 90th birthday, Barbara Flynn narrates the story of the nation's love affair with the Flying Scotsman, the steam locomotive that symbolises all that was great about British engineering.
WED 23:30 Andrew Marr on Churchill: Blood, Sweat and Oil Paint (b06714yz)
Andrew Marr discovers the untold story of Winston Churchill's lifelong love for painting and reveals the surprising ways in which his private hobby helped shape his public career as politician and statesman, even playing an unexpected part in his role as wartime leader.
Marr is himself a committed amateur painter and art has played an important role in his recovery from a serious stroke in 2013. His fascination with the healing powers of art fuels a journey that opens a new perspective on one of Britain's most famous men.
Andrew travels to the south of France and Marrakech, where Churchill loved to paint, and discovers how his serious approach to the craft of painting led to friendships with major British artists of the 20th century. He finds out how a single painting in the 1940s may have influenced the course of the Second World War, and meets Churchill's descendants to discover what his family felt about a private hobby that helped keep him sane through his wilderness years. And he discovers how, 50 years after Churchill's death, his art is being taken more seriously than ever before, with one painting being sold for almost £2 million in 2014.
WED 00:30 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 01:30 Visions of the Valleys (b05p706x)
Kim Howells celebrates 250 years of art in the Welsh valleys, looking at how the place became a magnet for artists drawn by its natural splendour and the spectacle of the industries that grew up there. The former MP and Labour arts minister looks at how the south Wales valleys have been portrayed by artists from the end of the 18th century to the present day.
He begins with JMW Turner, who visited the Vale of Neath in the 1790s to paint the spectacular waterfalls, but soon discovers that it was the drama of industry that attracted the next generation of painters. By the 20th century, artists became more concerned with social issues, showing the despair brought on by the Great Depression. But after the Second World War the mood changed and painters reflected the postwar optimism.
Finally, Kim looks at the current generation of artists, including Valerie Ganz and David Carpanini, who portray the after-effects of industry and the natural beauty that's returned to the valleys.
WED 02:30 The Flying Scotsman: A Rail Romance (b008m6wb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:30 today]
THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017
THU 19:00 100 Days+ (b08w946t)
Series 1
29/06/2017
Katty Kay in Washington and Christian Fraser in London report on the events that are shaping our world.
THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (b08w9n0w)
John Peel and David Jensen present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 2 February 1984. Includes appearances from Musical Youth, Queen, Matthew Wilder, Fiction Factory, Thomas Dolby, Thompson Twins, Juan Martin and Duran Duran.
THU 20:00 Castles: Britain's Fortified History (b04t6n19)
Instruments of Invasion
Sam Willis looks at the history of the castle from its first appearance with the Normans in 1066 to the longest siege on English soil at Kenilworth Castle 200 years later. The castle arrived as an instrument of invasion but soon became a weapon with which unruly barons challenged the Crown. Tintagel Castle, the place where King Arthur is said to have been conceived, is also on the itinerary. It remains one of the most evocative of castles to this day, drawing visitors from around the world with its tales of myth and legend.
THU 21:00 Japan: Earth's Enchanted Islands (p02n9vgl)
Hokkaido
Hokkaido is Japan's northernmost - and wildest - island, a place totally unlike the rest of the country. Every year, it swings from a bitter Siberian winter into the warmth of a Mediterranean-like summer, when the thaw reveals a landscape changed beyond all recognition. It takes tough animals and tough people with real ingenuity to survive, and even thrive, in this ever-changing place.
THU 22:00 Frank Skinner on Muhammad Ali (b08sr6ql)
Frank Skinner goes on a journey to explore the life of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, meeting Ali's family and friends and visiting key locations in his life.
To discover more about his idol, Frank travels around the UK and US, visiting key locations and people in Ali's life. In Ali's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, he meets the neighbour who witnessed the teenage boxer's single-minded dedication to his craft. He meets Ali's younger brother Rahaman, a key figure in the boxer's entourage and his closest confidante, and Ali's wife Khalilah, who was alongside Ali during the turbulent years when he was banned from boxing for refusing to fight in Vietnam and which saw him become an icon of the civil rights movement.
Frank pays a visit to Ali's training compound in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania, somewhere he has always longed to see. This is where Ali and his team prepared for one of his most famous fights of all time - the Rumble in the Jungle. From Ali's business manager, Gene Kilroy, Frank learns how Ali's unshakeable self-confidence and ability to manipulate the crowd were powerful weapons against his opponent George Foreman. He finds out what it was like behind the scenes in the Ali camp by talking to Ali's old sparring partner and friend Larry Holmes, who later faced him in the ring.
Frank also delves into some of the lesser-known aspects of Ali's life, meeting the bare-knuckle boxer from an Oxfordshire council estate who became one of Ali's dearest friends and the actor who played alongside Ali in a little-known musical on Broadway.
THU 23:00 Boxing at the Movies: Kings of the Ring (b01r5mhb)
Danny Leigh explores the elemental drama of the boxing movie. For over 120 years, boxing and film have been entwined and the fight film has been used to address powerful themes such as redemption, race and corruption. Film writer Leigh examines how each generation's fight films have reflected their times and asks why film-makers from Stanley Kubrick to Martin Scorsese have returned time and again to tales of the ring.
Interviewees include former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, Rocky director John G Avildsen and Thelma Schoonmaker, editor of Raging Bull.
THU 00:00 Top of the Pops (b08w9n0w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 00:30 A Brief History of Graffiti (b067fxfr)
Dr Richard Clay goes in search of what it is that has made us scribble and scratch mementoes of our lives for more than 30,000 years. From the prehistoric cave paintings of Burgundy in France, through gladiatorial fan worship in Roman Lyons to the messages left on the walls of Germany's Reichstag in 1945 by triumphant Soviet troops, time and again we have wanted to leave a permanent record of our existence for our descendants. And it may be that this is where what today we call art comes from - the humble scratch, graffiti.
THU 01:35 Castles: Britain's Fortified History (b04t6n19)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 02:35 Japan: Earth's Enchanted Islands (p02n9vgl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRIDAY 30 JUNE 2017
FRI 19:00 World News Today (b08w946z)
The latest national and international news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (b08w9nk3)
Simon Bates and Peter Powell introduce the pop chart programme. Featuring Slade, Thompson Twins, Style Council, Shannon, Matt Bianco and Nena.
FRI 20:00 The Good Old Days (b08w9nk6)
Leonard Sachs presents a 1979 edition of the old-time music hall programme from the stage of the City Varieties Theatre, Leeds. Featuring John Inman, Rita Morris, The Balladiers, John Wade, Julie Royce, Duo Barodies, Raymond Bowers and members of the Players' Theatre, London.
FRI 20:50 Sounds of the Seventies (b00lydy0)
Shorts
The Moody Blues, The Faces and David Bowie
Three vintage rock performances from the BBC archives, featuring The Moody Blues, The Faces and David Bowie originally recorded for It's Lulu, Sounds for Saturday and The Old Grey Whistle Test.
FRI 21:00 Tom Jones's 1950s: The Decade That Made Me (b0788qph)
In this personal journey through his formative years in south Wales in the 1950s, Tom Jones takes us on a trip through the decade of his childhood and adolescence, the years that shaped his ambition, his talent and his tastes and that witnessed an explosion of popular culture and the sweeping aside of the old order.
Television, the movies, the radio and - most importantly - the music of the first rock 'n' roll years give us a unique insight into both the country and the decade that would shape Tom's talent and, in the 60s, make him a star. Tom Jones's 1950s in Pontypridd are told first hand by the man himself as he travels back to his birthplace.
Tom's take on the decade is amplified and explored by a Greek chorus of contributors who share their account of their 50s. Joan Bakewell, Katherine Whitehorn and Michele Hanson share their experiences both as women and from differing class backgrounds, historians Alwyn Turner, Martin Johnes, Francis Beckett and Tony Russell draw the social and political landscape of a rapidly changing decade, while musicians Bruce Welch, Clem Cattini, Marty Wilde and Tom McGuinness talk of how that decade began their musical journeys and changed their lives forever, all illustrated by a rich seam of archive that captures a decade we mostly saw in black and white.
The result is a rich mix of humour, confession and reflection - all brought to life by Tom Jones himself, our guide through the lives and times of a young generation struggling to find its own voice.
FRI 22:00 Tom Jones at the BBC (b00vz5ml)
An archive celebration of Tom Jones's performances at the BBC from the start of his pop career in the mid-60s to Later...with Jools Holland in 2010 and all points in between, including Top of the Pops and The Dusty Springfield Show. A chronological celebration of Sir Tom through the years that is also a history of music TV at the BBC over most of the past 50 years.
FRI 23:00 Dusty Springfield at the BBC (b01qyvw7)
A selection of Dusty Springfield's performances at the BBC from 1961 to 1995. Dusty was one of Britain's great pop divas, guaranteed to give us a big melody in songs soaring with drama and yearning.
The clips show Dusty's versatility as an artist and performer and include songs from her folk beginnings with The Springfields; the melodrama of You Don't Have to Say You Love Me; Dusty's homage to Motown with Heatwave and Nowhere to Run; the Jacques Brel song If You Go Away; the Bacharach and David tune The Look of Love; and Dusty's collaboration with Pet Shop Boys in the late 1980s.
There are also some great duets from Dusty's career with Tom Jones and Mel Torme.
FRI 00:00 Top of the Pops (b08w9nk3)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
FRI 00:25 Tom Jones's 1950s: The Decade That Made Me (b0788qph)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 01:25 Tom Jones at the BBC (b00vz5ml)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 today]
FRI 02:20 Dusty Springfield at the BBC (b01qyvw7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:00 today]
FRI 03:20 Sounds of the Seventies (b00lydy0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:50 today]
LIST OF THIS WEEK'S PROGRAMMES
(Note: the times link back to the details; the pids link to the BBC page, including iPlayer)
100 Days+
19:00 MON (b08w9466)
100 Days+
19:00 TUE (b08w946f)
100 Days+
19:00 WED (b08w946n)
100 Days+
19:00 THU (b08w946t)
A Brief History of Graffiti
00:30 THU (b067fxfr)
Andrew Marr on Churchill: Blood, Sweat and Oil Paint
23:30 WED (b06714yz)
Boxing at the Movies: Kings of the Ring
23:00 THU (b01r5mhb)
Britain and the Sea
20:00 MON (b03k2g3r)
Britain and the Sea
01:30 MON (b03k2g3r)
Castles: Britain's Fortified History
20:00 THU (b04t6n19)
Castles: Britain's Fortified History
01:35 THU (b04t6n19)
Classic Soul at the BBC
01:15 SAT (b0074pvv)
David Attenborough's Zoo Quest in Colour
02:20 SUN (p03qxfsg)
Dusty Springfield at the BBC
23:00 FRI (b01qyvw7)
Dusty Springfield at the BBC
02:20 FRI (b01qyvw7)
Fighting for King and Empire: Britain's Caribbean Heroes
00:30 WED (b05v08b7)
Frank Skinner on Muhammad Ali
22:00 THU (b08sr6ql)
Glastonbury
19:00 SAT (b08w9fzm)
Glastonbury
20:00 SAT (b08w9fzp)
Glastonbury
21:00 SAT (b08w9fzr)
Glastonbury
22:05 SAT (b08w9fzt)
Glastonbury
19:00 SUN (b08w9gw1)
Glastonbury
20:05 SUN (b08w9gw3)
Glastonbury
21:00 SUN (b08xx6qc)
Great British Railway Journeys
19:30 MON (b050mgr4)
Great British Railway Journeys
19:30 TUE (b050mj7y)
Great British Railway Journeys
19:30 WED (b0517pyg)
Handmade in Japan
22:00 MON (p054mcvv)
Handmade in Japan
02:30 MON (p054mcvv)
Hokusai: Old Man Crazy to Paint
21:00 TUE (b08w9lv6)
Hokusai: Old Man Crazy to Paint
03:00 TUE (b08w9lv6)
Horizon
23:20 SUN (b08tj2zr)
Japan: Earth's Enchanted Islands
21:00 THU (p02n9vgl)
Japan: Earth's Enchanted Islands
02:35 THU (p02n9vgl)
Lucy Worsley's Reins of Power: The Art of Horse Dancing
22:30 MON (b06ccpzz)
Majesty and Mortar: Britain's Great Palaces
00:00 TUE (b0488trx)
Natural World
23:30 MON (b0147dw3)
Northern Soul: Living for the Weekend
00:15 SAT (b04bf1lf)
Otis Redding: Soul Ambassador
02:15 SAT (b020tphg)
Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines
20:00 TUE (p01f53b9)
Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines
02:00 TUE (p01f53b9)
Sound of Cinema: The Music That Made the Movies
20:00 WED (b03b965y)
Sounds of the Seventies
20:50 FRI (b00lydy0)
Sounds of the Seventies
03:20 FRI (b00lydy0)
Spies of Warsaw
21:00 WED (b01psbj3)
Storyville
22:00 SUN (b04m3k1q)
Storyville
22:00 TUE (b08w9lvb)
The Art of Japanese Life
21:00 MON (p054mdmy)
The Art of Japanese Life
03:00 MON (p054mdmy)
The Comet's Tale
00:20 SUN (b008d2x7)
The Fantastical World of Hormones with Professor John Wass
00:30 MON (b03wctdg)
The Flying Scotsman: A Rail Romance
22:30 WED (b008m6wb)
The Flying Scotsman: A Rail Romance
02:30 WED (b008m6wb)
The Good Old Days
20:00 FRI (b08w9nk6)
The Treasure Hunters
01:00 TUE (b040zb5q)
Timeshift
01:20 SUN (b00x7c3z)
Tom Jones at the BBC
22:00 FRI (b00vz5ml)
Tom Jones at the BBC
01:25 FRI (b00vz5ml)
Tom Jones's 1950s: The Decade That Made Me
21:00 FRI (b0788qph)
Tom Jones's 1950s: The Decade That Made Me
00:25 FRI (b0788qph)
Top of the Pops
23:40 SAT (b08vxkqb)
Top of the Pops
19:30 THU (b08w9n0w)
Top of the Pops
00:00 THU (b08w9n0w)
Top of the Pops
19:30 FRI (b08w9nk3)
Top of the Pops
00:00 FRI (b08w9nk3)
Visions of the Valleys
01:30 WED (b05p706x)
Who Should We Let In? Ian Hislop on the First Great Immigration Row
23:00 TUE (b08w2cvq)
World News Today
19:00 FRI (b08w946z)