B4

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

SATURDAY 12 OCTOBER 2019

SAT 19:00 Natural World (b078cyg3)
2016-2017

Nature's Perfect Partners

In the animal kingdom, what do you do if you've got an itch you can't scratch, food you can't get your teeth into or you simply need some home security? Well, you find yourself a partner - and not necessarily someone like you!

Hippos are joining forces with fish for a full-body exfoliation. Ravens are inviting wolverines to dinner for some bone-crunching assistance. Bill Bailey introduces these and so many more extraordinary partnerships found in nature.

SAT 20:00 Wild China (b00brvjx)
Shangri-La

Documentary that showcases pioneering images capturing the dazzling array of mysterious creatures that live in China's most beautiful landscapes. Beneath billowing clouds, in China's far south west, rich jungles nestle below towering peaks. Jewel-coloured birds and ancient tribes share forested valleys where wild elephants still roam. How do these forests exist? Perhaps the rugged landscape holds the key.

SAT 21:00 Spiral (m0009dk4)
Series 7

Episode 1

Police Chief Herville is found dead in a Chinese restaurant in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. Gilou must break the news to Laure, who is being treated in a police rehabilitation centre. Now in charge of the unit, Gilou begins investigating with new recruit Ali, who is fresh out of training.

Meanwhile, Judge Roban returns to work from his time off sick only to find he is soon due to take compulsory retirement. And lawyer Joséphine struggles to adapt to life in prison while awaiting trial.

In French with English subtitles.

SAT 22:00 Spiral (m0009dk7)
Series 7

Episode 2

As the police identify that their top priority is to track down Ryan and his gang, Gilou agrees to work with Laure again, but she must find her place now that he and Ali are a team. Meanwhile, Edelman provides legal counsel to Joséphine to help her get out of prison.

In French with English subtitles.

SAT 22:55 Classic Albums (b0bjj623)
Amy Winehouse: Back to Black

Series looking at the creation of some classic rock albums looks at Amy Winehouse's second album, 2006’s Back to Black, and how it transformed the beehived girl from north London into a global star, with hits like Rehab, the title track and Love Is a Losing Game. Back To Black helped launch a wave of soul-influenced British chanteuses including Adele and Duffy and has since sold over 20 million copies.

This film reveals Amy Winehouse the artist, focusing firmly on her lyrics, influences and vocal talents. Using unseen footage from the Miami and New York sessions and rarely seen archive of Amy in interview and performance, producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi and their respective musicians shine a light on the making of Back To Black and offer their first-hand accounts of Amy's genius and her emotional turmoil.

Featuring producers Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi, the Dap-Kings band, Amy's colleagues and friends, Island president and A&R director Darcus Beese and Ronnie Spector.

SAT 23:55 Classic Albums (m0009dk9)
Nirvana: Nevermind

In 1991 Nirvana’s Nevermind, with the songs of Kurt Cobain, changed the music business without compromise, record company hype or media overkill. The album replaced Michael Jackson at the top of the American charts and so began a rapid rise to international superstardom for the band.

This is the story of how Nirvana came to record Nevermind and the effect the record had on the music world and on the band themselves. It offers an insight into the songwriting genius of Kurt Cobain and reveals why Nevermind remains a milestone in rock history.

SAT 00:45 Classic Albums (b07ycbrb)
The Wailers: Catch a Fire

This edition looks at the making of the 1973 Wailers album, Catch a Fire, the album that brought international recognition to Bob Marley.

Already big names in their native Jamaica, it took until this release for Marley and Co to finally go global. It features interviews with key musicians and engineers who helped make the album, as well as record label boss Chris Blackwell, who talks about how the band had song-writing and performing skills in abundance but needed to be put through the equivalent of a "rock blender" to make them palatable to a wider audience. Through first-hand accounts, this programme tells how they did just that.

The programme takes a track-by-track look at the making of the record. In London, the producer Chris Blackwell and original engineer Tony Platt lead viewers through the original multi-tracks of Slave Driver, Concrete Jungle, Stir it Up, Rock It Baby and others. Rabbit Brundrick (keyboards) and Wayne Perkins (electric guitar) tell how they were brought back in to add the rock and roll parts to the songs. It is illustrated with archive footage from the Wailers in concert, early interviews with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, plus television performances and rare home movies - all of which provide a unique insight into the process behind the recording of this landmark album.

SAT 01:45 Top of the Pops (m00095kw)
Janice Long and Mark Goodier present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 4 August 1988. Featuring Kim Wilde, The Funky Worm and Fairground Attraction.

SAT 02:15 Natural World (b078cyg3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

SUNDAY 13 OCTOBER 2019

SUN 19:00 The Women's Football Show (m0009dkf)
2019/20

13/10/2019

Reshmin Chowdhury presents highlights of the Women’s Super League from Tottenham as they take on Manchester United. Both teams were promoted from the Championship last season and currently sit in the top half of the WSL after impressive starts. Also featuring this week will be highlights of Chelsea v Arsenal and all the rest of the goals from across the WSL.

SUN 19:30 Handmade in Bolton (m0009dkh)
Series 1

Rock Crystal Bottle

Oxford historian Dr Janina Ramirez sets ex-forger Shaun Greenhalgh his hardest task yet. Shaun has to carve an Islamic bottle out of rock crystal in the style of the 10th-century Egyptian Fatimids. Rock crystal is notoriously fragile. Sourcing the right quantities of it is almost impossible. The real problems begin, however, when the carving is finished.

SUN 20:00 Britain's Biggest Warship (b0b11bb1)
Series 1

In at the Deep End

After eight years in build, HMS Queen Elizabeth embarks on dangerous sea trials in the North Sea. The 700 sailors on board have to test everything on the ship for the first time - from galleys to guns and from power plants to propellers. What is the supercarrier's top speed? How manoeuvrable is she and how stable in rough waters? Meanwhile, the ship's company start the process of becoming a sea-born community. On board is chef Mohamad Khan, who has to work out how to prepare pork dishes without offending his religion, able seaman Ricky Gleeson, who had 49 convictions before he was 21, and Dave Garraghty, the most senior non-commissioned officer on board, with a passion for car boot sales.

After four days at sea, the first aircraft lands on the flight deck and all seems well, but then there is an explosion in a cooling plant, a fuel leak that sprays everyone with diesel and the ship's rubbish disposal system goes wrong. There are also strange knocking sounds coming from underneath the ship.

SUN 21:00 The Sky at Night (m0009dkk)
Question Time

A one-hour special in which The Sky at Night team face a live studio audience to answer their questions about the mysteries and wonders of the universe.

SUN 22:00 France 1939: One Last Summer (m0009dkm)
Gustave Folcher, a French farmer, wrote in his 1939 diary that the summer had been long and hot. He was not alone. Many other anonymous French men and women wrote of the beauty and warmth of those summer months and how threats of war were far from their minds.

Through home movies, diaries and letters, One Last Summer describes the final weeks of peace in France and the mix of blindness, denial and prophetic clear-sightedness of those facing the war that was about to unfold.

SUN 23:00 Britain's Greatest Generation (b05vrjf7)
Their Finest Hour

We meet one of the last surviving pilots of the Battle of Britain. We hear from men who did some of the most dangerous war work of all - getting the convoys through. And we find out what kept people going when defeat was staring them in the face. This would be the defining moment of Britain's Greatest Generation - when an indomitable spirit helped turn our darkest hour into our finest hour.

The early years of the war between 1940 and 1942 are widely remembered as a time when people from all classes of society - and from all over the country - came together to fight Hitler. Though many deep-seated social problems and injustices remained, Britain's battle for survival came to be called 'the people's war'. Popular memory suggests that there was indeed a strong shared sense of purpose. Britain's young men and women were about to face the biggest test of their lives. They were needed to come to the defence of the realm.

The desperate need for labour opened the doors to women who had before the war been excluded from doing many jobs. Now there were opportunities for them to serve in everything from anti-aircraft gun batteries in London to the steel works of Sheffield.

The terror of the Blitz also brought out the best in men and women in bombed cities all over Britain. During air raids, rescue workers, volunteers and neighbours risked everything to save people trapped in the rubble of bombed houses. It was painstaking work. But there was always hope that loved ones would be found alive.

For many of the last survivors who remember when Britain stood alone, the defiant spirit that brought the nation together remains one of the proudest moments of their life. Britain was not invaded and not defeated, but was now looking across the channel to help liberate Europe.

SUN 00:00 The Sinner (m0001jfc)
Series 1

Episode 3

When Ambrose discovers Cora's secret, it alters the entire course of the investigation. Mason follows his own lead, unaware of the truth.

SUN 00:45 The Story of Skinheads with Don Letts (b07yv0qj)
Documentary in which director and DJ Don Letts looks at a very particular and very provocative British subculture - skinhead. He explores how skinhead has become associated with street fighting, trouble on the football terraces and violent racism in the public consciousness in Britain and around the world, but reveals that its origins lie in a cultural coming together that could not be further from its tarnished image.

Don shows in fascinating detail how the roots of skinhead are in a brilliant cultural collision between the young white working-class kids and their Jamaican counterparts in British inner cities, a moment of multicultural harmony. He traces the history of skinhead from the late 60s to the present, looking at the music and styles of skinhead from the reggae-influenced ska to the punk-influenced Oi. Throughout Don meets people who were committed members of various skinhead scenes, and he considers the conflicts and the contradictions that skinhead has attracted over five decades.

SUN 01:45 Beats, Bass & Bars – The Story of Grime (b0bmq2tq)
Presented by Rodney P, the 'Godfather of British rap', who has been making hip hop with a British accent since the 1980s, this one hour film celebrates the extraordinary story of how Grime rose from the council estates of a few streets in East London to become the most important British musical movement since punk.

Through personal encounters with key pioneers from the last four decades of British black music, Rodney discovers that the success of Grime rests upon the original styles and contributions of previous generations of artists and learns that Grime can only be truly understood when viewed as part of a broader social narrative and ever-evolving musical culture that goes back to the 1980s.

As the first generation of British born black youth came of age in the 1970s and ‘80s, the natural medium for their artistic expression was the sound system culture brought over from Jamaica by their parents and grandparents. The first major breakthrough in the evolution of a homegrown sound came in the 1980s when young reggae MCs started telling their stories in a blend of patois and cockney, reflecting the mixed multicultural environments of the British inner cities they grew up in.

By the time Rodney became a rapper in the mid 1980s the new sound of the streets was American hip hop. Nowadays it would be unthinkable for a Grime artist to adopt an American twang but back then when Rodney’s crew London Posse started rapping in their own south London accents it was a breakthrough, establishing another plank of Grime. In the early 90s, reggae toasting, British accents and sped up hip hop beats came together for the first uniquely British black music genre - Jungle. And as the decade wore on another new sound – UK Garage reflected the aspiration and optimism of Blair’s cool Britannia. But the feel good party music of UKG was never a platform for stories of struggle and hardship, and for the new generation of kids growing up on the grim council estates of east London a harder sound was needed. Made on phones in bedroom studios a new sparser and more aggressive sound emerged. Spread via the networks of illegal pirate radio stations and promoted by underground DVDs in the pre-YouTube era, London at the turn of the millennium saw the arrival of a new grimier sound where tracks were built for MC crews to rhyme over. At first no one knew what to call it but Grime had been born.

Almost 20 years on from those first beginnings, Grime how dominates the charts and the awards ceremonies, and even influences politics. Some of its biggest names are now international celebrities and many of them remain independent, signed to their own labels and controlling their own careers. Grime is now not just a genre, it’s a way of life and, built on the foundations laid down by black British artists over the decades, it represents a defiant spirit and an independent attitude that is here to stay.

SUN 02:45 Britain's Biggest Warship (b0b11bb1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

MONDAY 14 OCTOBER 2019

MON 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m0009dkw)
Series 1

14/10/2019

The latest news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

MON 19:30 Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village (b0bsrqfw)
Series 1

North East

Archaeologist Ben Robinson unlocks the ancient roots of the Northumberland village of Warkworth. With the help of locals, he discovers clues that point back almost 1,000 years to the Norman conquest when the invaders laid the foundations of a planned community, still visible to this day.

MON 20:00 American History’s Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley (m0002706)
Series 1

The American Civil War

In the second programme of this three-part series, Lucy Worsley debunks the myths behind one of the USA’s great historical landmarks: the American Civil War. At the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington DC, Lucy explains that Abraham Lincoln has gone down in history as the saviour of the union, and for ending slavery. He did it at the expense of the bloodiest conflict ever to take place on American soil, a civil war that pitted Lincoln’s ‘free’ North against the slave-owning Confederate states in the South. But Lucy reveals that Lincoln’s personal views, and the behaviour of his troops towards African Americans, were not as noble as they appeared. Then, in the South, after the war, she learns how history was rewritten in a bid to downplay the evils of slavery, and how a 1915 blockbuster film about the Civil War relaunched the Ku Klux Klan with terrifying results. Lucy visits the Georgia countryside of Scarlett O’Hara, but Gone with the Wind’s technicolor depiction of the old South and contented slaves was just part of a continued effort to whitewash history and romanticise a dark past. Back in Washington DC, Lucy meets a historian who explains that the next person to reconsider the Civil War’s legacy was Martin Luther King. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he demanded that the USA honour a ‘bad cheque’ African Americans had been written when freedom was promised at the end of the war. Finally, she travels to Charlottesville, Virginia, and meets locals with differing opinions on a statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee. The statue became a fatal flashpoint in 2017, when Confederate flags mingled with Klan costumes at a mass rally - sad proof, one historian suggests to Lucy, that the Civil War has never really ended.

MON 21:00 The Last Battle of the Vikings (b01p9fwg)
Nowhere in the British Isles was the Viking connection longer-lasting or deeper than in Scotland. Hundreds of years after their first hit-and-run raids, the Norsemen still dominated huge swathes of the country. But storm clouds were gathering. In 1263 the Norwegian king Haakon IV assembled a fleet of 120 longships to counter Scottish raids on the Norse Hebrides. It was a force comparable in size to the Spanish Armada over three centuries later. But like the Armada, the Norse fleet was eventually defeated by a powerful storm. Driven ashore near present-day Largs, the beleaguered Norsemen were attacked by a Scottish army. The outcome of this vicious encounter would mark the beginning of the end of Norse power in Scotland.

Marine archeologist Dr Jon Henderson tells the incredible story of the the Norsemen in Scotland. Visiting fascinating archeological sites across Scotland and Norway, he reveals that, although the battle at Largs marked the end of an era for the Norsemen, their presence continued to shape the identity and culture of the Scottish nation to the present day.

MON 22:00 The Real Doctor Zhivago (b09djrvr)
Dr Zhivago is one of the best-known love stories of the 20th century, but the setting of the book also made it famous. It is a tale of passion and fear, set against a backdrop of revolution and violence. The film is what most people remember, but the story of the writing of the book has more twists, intrigue and bravery than many a Hollywood blockbuster.

In this documentary, Stephen Smith traces the revolutionary beginnings of this bestseller to it becoming a pawn of the CIA at the height of the Cold War. The writer of the novel, Boris Pasternak, in the words of his family, willingly committed acts of literary suicide in being true to the Russia he loved, but being honest about the Soviet regime he hated and despised. Under Stalin, writers and artists just disappeared if they did not support the party line. Many were murdered.

Writing his book for over 20 tumultuous years, Boris Pasternak knew it could result in his death. It did result in his mistress being sent to the gulag twice, but he had to have his say. This is the story of the writing of perhaps the bravest book ever published. It is the story before the film won Oscars and its author, the Nobel Prize. It is the untold story of the real Dr Zhivago - Boris Pasternak.

MON 23:00 The Story of China (b06zyd53)
The Golden Age

This episode tells the tale of what's broadly considered China's most creative dynasty - the Song (960-1279). Michael Wood heads to the city of Kaifeng, the greatest city in the world before the 19th century.

Here in Twin Dragon Alley, locals tell him the legend of the baby boys who became emperors. He explores the ideas and inventions that made the Song one of greatest eras in world culture, helped by China's most famous work of art, the Kaifeng scroll, which shows the life of the city in around 1120. A chef makes Michael a recipe from a Song cookbook, while a guide to 'how to live happy, healthy lives for old people', published in 1085 and still in print, is discussed with local women doing their morning exercises. The Song was also a great era for scientific advance in China. Michael steers a huge working replica of an astronomical clock, made by China's Leonardo da Vinci. Then at a crunch Chinese Premier League match, Michael tells us the Chinese invented football!

The golden age of the northern Song ended in 1127, when invaders sacked Kaifeng, but they survived in the south. At their new capital, Hangzhou, Wood joins locals dancing by the West Lake, while in the countryside he meets Mr Xie with his records of 40 generations of ancestors.

The final defeat of the Song took place in a naval battle in the estuary of the Pearl River in 1279. When all was lost, rather than surrender to the Mongols, a loyal minister jumped into the sea with the young boy emperor in his arms. 'So ended the glory of the Song', Wood concludes, 'but a new age would arise... as in China, it always has!'.

MON 00:00 Milton Keynes and Me (b091gy05)
Is Milton Keynes a soulless place or a utopian dream? It might be famous as the home of roundabouts and concrete cows but it's also one of the most ambitious experiments in social engineering. The famous new town is about to turn 50 and so is documentary maker Richard Macer, who grew up there.

This film brings the two of them back together as Macer returns to the place he left at 18 and seeks to revaluate a town he always felt a bit embarrassed by. These days MK has one of the fastest-growing economies in the country and huge approval ratings from the people who live there. But for many years it's been the butt of the nation's jokes and seen only as a concrete jungle. What's the reality of MK? Is there a chance that Macer might discover a different Milton Keynes to the one he left behind?

Created in the late sixties as an overspill for the inner-city slums of London, the new city was a place of high ideals. People would live in a world that was green and spacious and where according to the masterplan 'no building would be taller than the tallest tree'.

Macer learns that far from being dull and boring, MK was actually a place that attracted some of the best architects of their day and it now boasts the only listed shopping centre in the country. To make the film, Macer returns home to mum and dad who still live in MK and have always loved it. Over the course of a few months he meets key contributors to the MK story: architects, artists and social workers, and pays a visit to his old school which was revolutionary in the sense that all the classrooms were carpeted and you called the teachers by their first names.

MON 01:00 Dwarfs in Art: A New Perspective (b0bgffgg)
This documentary explores the lives of dwarfs through centuries of representations in art and culture, revealing society's shifting attitudes towards people with dwarfism.

Presented by Richard Butchins, a disabled film-maker, artist and journalist, the film shows how people with dwarfism have been seen as royal pets, creatures from a separate race, figures of fun and freaks; and it reveals how their lives have been uniquely intertwined with mythology in the popular imagination, making it it all but impossible for dwarfs to simply get on with their everyday lives.

The film features interviews with artists, like Sir Peter Blake, who saw dwarfs in the circus as a young man and has featured them prominently in his work; academics, like Professor Tom Shakespeare, who has dwarfism himself and feels strongly about how dwarfs are represented in art; and ordinary people with dwarfism who would just like dwarfs to be seen like everybody else. It also features artists with dwarfism who offer us a glimpse of the world from their perspective, revealing the universal concerns that affect us all, regardless of stature.

Taking in relics from antiquity, garden gnomes and some the greatest masterpieces of Diego Velazquez, the film uncovers a hidden chapter in both the history of art and the history of disability.

MON 02:00 Peter York's Hipster Handbook (b081v950)
Eminent social commentator Peter York seeks to understand what he sees as the modern obsession with 'the authentic'. He speaks to craftspeople and expert commentators on his journey to understand the current cultural moment. He also examines where the label of the 'hipster' has its roots and whether it is too general a term for such a broad movement. He demonstrates through his years of marketing and advertising experience that subcultures have always been absorbed and repackaged by the mainstream.

Contributors include Times deputy fashion editor Harriet Walters, the Guardian architecture critic Oliver Wainwright, and Sir John Hegarty. Peter also travels to America to look at parallels between the UK and America.

MON 03:00 American History’s Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley (m0002706)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

TUESDAY 15 OCTOBER 2019

TUE 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m0009dkq)
Series 1

15/10/2019

The latest news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

TUE 19:30 Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village (b0bsrqch)
Series 1

South

The village of Milton Abbas in Dorset perfectly captures our romantic notion of what the idyllic English village should look like. But as archaeologist Ben Robinson reveals, behind it lurks a history of one man's wealth and power. With help from local historians, Ben learns how the local landowner in the 18th century destroyed a nearby town, uprooting its residents, because it ruined the view from his house. The landscape was transformed and a new village was built as part of his showpiece estate.

TUE 20:00 The Big Life Fix (b085z8kq)
Series 1

Episode 2

The Big Fix team use cutting-edge science and technology to find solutions for problems that have so far gone unsolved.

They attempt to tackle one of the biggest rural crimes in the UK and work to find a way to build a BMX bicycle for a young boy who was born with no hands or feet.

Meanwhile, in Peterborough, 56-year-old Graham is suffering from locked-in syndrome, meaning he is almost completely paralysed and unable to speak. Can the team come up with a way for him to have conversations with the medical team around him and, most importantly, his family and friends?

TUE 21:00 Spotlight on the Troubles: A Secret History (m0009dks)
Series 1

Episode 6

Revelations from the Northern Ireland conflict. Loyalists killed more people than the IRA in the closing years of the Troubles. Through an insider in one of the most notorious killer gangs, Mandy McAuley discovers that not only was the Ulster Volunteer Force carrying out more attacks, it was also deliberately targeting families of Irish republicans. Revelations about the murders of two young brothers lead to calls for the investigation into the killings to be reopened.

TUE 22:00 Voyages of Discovery (b0074t6g)
Hanging by a Thread

Explorer Paul Rose tells the story of the USS Squalus submarine which became stranded on the bottom of the Atlantic in 1937. No one had ever been saved from a stricken sub beneath the ocean before, but maverick designer Charles Momsen, who had been ignored by the navy top brass, was suddenly called into action to bring up the crew.

Rose meets the last living survivor from the sub and one of the men, now 103, who helped save him. The rescue kick-started a whole new era of technology, laying the foundation for modern deep-sea diving.

TUE 23:00 Bill Bailey's Jungle Hero (p0160p0s)
Wallace in Borneo

Comedian Bill Bailey heads to the jungles of Indonesia in the footsteps of his hero, Victorian naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, to understand how he came up with the theory of evolution independently of Darwin.

Wallace was a brilliantly eccentric British explorer and, unlike Darwin, he came from a humble background and had to pay his own way by collecting animals. He survived months living in the jungle, man-eating tigers and headhunting tribes to scoop Darwin to the theory of evolution.

Wallace changed the way we see life on earth but has since been written out of history. In the first of this two-part series, Bill retraces Wallace's explorations from the jungles of Borneo to the exotic islands of Indonesia, encountering orangutans, flying frogs and extraordinary bugs, on a mission to understand how Wallace came up with the theory of evolution and to win him the recognition he deserves.

TUE 00:00 Majesty and Mortar: Britain's Great Palaces (b047pdzg)
Inventing a National Style

Dan Cruickshank charts the arrival of a new style of palace that borrowed from ancient Rome and beyond, as the kings and queens of Britain demanded that architecture proclaim their right to rule, and even their divinity. From London's Banqueting House to the birth of Buckingham Palace via Kensington, Kew and a new wing at Hampton Court, the palace became like a bejewelled casket to house the monarch. But disaster was around the corner and Britain learned that a palace could transform into a prison overnight.

TUE 01:00 The Art That Made Mexico: Paradise, Power and Prayers (b09jj0k0)
Series 1

Prayer

In this final episode, Alinka explores how faith has always driven life in Mexico, and how the need for a visual image created a unique blend of Mesoamerican and Catholic faith.

Artists were kept close to the elites in Mexico's ancient civilisations to depict the deities that were the foundations of the society's structures and beliefs. Gods and goddesses were created in the mind's eye of millions, who in turn worshipped the imagery that the artists provided.

When the Spanish imposed Catholicism, the notion of venerating the divine using iconography already existed. And in some of Mexico's most spectacular art, iconography incorporating both Mesoamerican and Catholic belief can be found. This unique hybridity could only exist in Mexico, where art has long been crucial to the personal relationship between believer and the divine. Ex-votos paintings are offerings of thanks to saints and expressions of devotion. They have long been the preserve of poor and rural Mexicans, and depict very personal situations.

Today, one artist is pushing the boundaries of belief, incorporating symbols of secular culture and consumerism with religious iconography. Even as the power of the church wains in Mexico, religious imagery can still be found everywhere.

TUE 02:00 Cinema Through the Eye of Magnum Photos (b095vnk0)
From the day it was created in 1947, Magnum Photos has represented some of the most famous names in photography whose pictures have come to define their times. But Magnum's work also includes more surprising images - pictures of cinema. This film recounts this remarkable collaboration - from Robert Capa's photographs of Ingrid Bergman and Eve Arnold's intimate relationship with Marilyn Monroe through to Paolo Pellegrin's portraits of Kate Winslet, providing an essential history of both cinema and photography.

TUE 02:55 The Big Life Fix (b085z8kq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 16 OCTOBER 2019

WED 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m0009dkc)
Series 1

16/10/2019

The latest news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

WED 19:30 Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village (b0bsrqky)
Series 1

East Midlands

The story of Cromford. A picturesque Derbyshire village at the heart of famous industrialist Sir Richard Arkwright's mechanised cotton mills and a textile revolution. Presenter and archaeologist Ben Robinson discovers it wasn't just an industrial revolution. Cromford became a new kind of village, built to service the enterprise of this powerful man.

WED 20:00 Castles: Britain's Fortified History (b04tt2f9)
Kingdom of Conquest

Sam Willis tells the story of the English ruler who left the most indelible mark on the castle - the great Plantagenet king, Edward I, who turned it into an instrument of colonisation. Edward spent vast sums to subdue Wales with a ring of iron comprised of some of the most fearsome fortresses ever built. Castles like Caernarfon and Beaumaris were used to impose England's will on the Welsh. But when Edward turned his attention to Scotland, laying siege to castles with great catapults, things didn't go so well for him.

WED 21:00 Hollywood's Brightest Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (b09jhrlt)
Documentary about Hollywood wild-child Hedy Lamarr. Fleeing to America after escaping her Nazi sympathiser husband, Hedy Lamarr conquered Hollywood. Known as 'the most beautiful woman in the world', she was infamous for her marriages and affairs, from Spencer Tracy to JFK. This film rediscovers her not only as an actress, but as the brilliant mind who co-invented 1940s wireless technology.

WED 22:25 Sex: A Horizon Guide (b039vj9x)
Sex is a simple word for a very complex set of desires. It cuts to the core of our passions, our wants, our emotions. But when it goes wrong, it can be the most painful thing of all. Professor Alice Roberts looks through 45 years of Horizon archive to see how science came to understand sex, strived to solve our problems with it and even helped us to do it better. Can science save the day when sex goes wrong?

WED 23:25 Sex, Lies and Love Bites: The Agony Aunt Story (b0555vjj)
Psychotherapist and agony aunt Philippa Perry presents a witty and revealing look at the problem page's enduring appeal. In the documentary Philippa picks her way through three centuries of advice on broken hearts, cheating partners and adolescent angst to uncover a fascinating portrait of our social history.

She talks to fellow agony aunts and uncles like the Telegraph's Graham Norton and the Sun's Deidre Sanders about their experiences, as well as exploring the work of advice columnists past, like the 17th-century inventor of the problem page, John Dunton. The advice may change, but she discovers that, when it comes to subjects like love and courtship, the same old problems keep on cropping up.

Through the work of generations of advice columnists Philippa charts the developing battle of the sexes, the rise of the middle classes and a revolution in social attitudes. For much of the 20th century, agony aunts avoided any mention of trouble in the bedroom. Philippa explores the pioneering work of agony aunts like Claire Rayner, who began to offer frank sex advice in the 1960s. Today, sex takes pride of place on the problem page, as Philippa discovers for herself when she takes a starring role in the Sun's photo casebook, which is famous for its real-life problems illustrated with pictures of semi-clad ladies.

At a time when advice is more easily available than ever before, Philippa reflects on why agony aunts are often still our first port of call, and on what makes reading about other people's problems so irresistible.

WED 00:25 Timeshift (b0864zn9)
Series 16

Booze, Beans & Bhajis: The Story of the Corner Shop

What is it about the British and the corner shop? The corner shop has always been there for us, it's a British institution. It was on the front line of what was happening in society from the '40s to the noughties. It saved our bacon during World War II and it has become a rite of passage for new immigrants.

Journalist Babita Sharma, the daughter of shopkeepers, explores the growing and shifting fortunes of the corner shop to discover why this unsung hero has been at the centre of ordinary lives for more than 70 years. With contributions from comedian Sanjeev Singh Kholi and actor Nitin Ganatra, the film uses the shop as a way to explore the social fabric of Britain - from economic change to immigration.

The death of the corner shop has been predicted many times - but still it soldiers on. So just how has it managed to survive?

WED 01:25 Two Types: The Faces of Britain (b0903ppd)
We are surrounded by types, the words on signs, buses, shops and documents which guide us through our lives. Two types in particular are regarded as the faces of Britain - Johnston and Gill Sans. Their story is told by typeface expert Mark Ovenden.

WED 02:25 Hollywood's Brightest Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (b09jhrlt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THURSDAY 17 OCTOBER 2019

THU 19:00 Beyond 100 Days (m0009dkx)
Series 1

17/10/2019

The latest news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

THU 19:30 Top of the Pops (m0009dl0)
Liz Kershaw and Bruno Brookes present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 11 August 1988 and featuring Mica Paris ft Courtney Pine, All About Eve, Breathe, Iron Maiden, Tanita Tikaram, Brother Beyond, Yazz and The Plastic Population, and BVSMP.

THU 20:00 Forces of Nature with Brian Cox (b07kxdr9)
Somewhere in Spacetime

Professor Brian Cox follows Earth's epic journey through space. He takes to the air in a top-secret fighter jet to race the spin of the planet and reverse the passage of the day. In Brazil, a monstrous wave that surges up the Amazon River provides an epic ride of a different kind - chased by a top surfer through the rainforest, this tidal wave marks Earth's constant dance with the moon. Greenland experiences some of the biggest swings in seasons in the world, but despite the deep freeze, the harsh winter brings opportunity to the Inuit people who live there.

All this spectacle here on Earth signals that we are thundering through the universe at breakneck speed. Brian explains why we can't feel it and how understanding motion brings us to understanding the nature of space and time itself, leading to the astonishing conclusion that the past, present and future all exist right now.

THU 21:00 Own the Sky: Jet Pack Dreamers (m0009dl2)
How what began as a passion for the tantalising possibilities of jetpacks became an obsession. Shot over ten years, this documentary chronicles Australian David Mayman's seemingly impossible quest to fulfil his childhood dream to build and fly the world’s first jetpack.

His ambition, which nearly cost him his life and family, culminates in an attempt to make the world's first jetpack flight around the Statue of Liberty.

THU 22:00 How to Build... (b00t0yx9)
Series 1

A Jumbo Jet Engine

As Boeing's 787 Dreamliner makes its inaugural flight, Rolls-Royce engineers celebrate the performance of its revolutionary Trent 1000 jet engines. They're the latest in a family of sophisticated aero engines that have driven Rolls-Royce to become world leaders in the market for jumbo jet engines.

This is the story of the thousands of people who design, build and test engines at Rolls-Royce's manufacturing plants in Derby and across the UK, making Rolls-Royce a central part of life for the people who work there.

Exploring some of the astonishing technology behind the engines' advanced components, the programme meets the skilled engineers who design and build them, and experience the ups and downs of life on the assembly line.

THU 23:00 Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines (p01f51z4)
Pain

Pain has a profound effect on our bodies - when we are experiencing it, millions of nerve cells deep within our brains are firing, telling us 'it hurts' - and for centuries the challenge has been to find something that will lessen or even switch off these sensations to bring us relief. Dr Michael Mosley discovers just what pain is, why we want to control it and how we ultimately did it when the discovery of morphine, the world's first pharmaceutical, at the beginning of the 19th century led to a 200-year journey of scientific breakthrough, discovery and self-experimentation.

THU 00:00 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.

THU 01:00 Peaky Blinders (p01fj94w)
Series 1

Episode 1

Birmingham, 1919. Thomas Shelby controls the Peaky Blinders, one of the city's most feared criminal organisations, but his ambitions go beyond running the streets.

When a crate of guns goes missing, Thomas recognises an opportunity to move up in the world.

THU 02:00 Peaky Blinders (b03bgw2m)
Series 1

Episode 2

Birmingham, 1919. Thomas Shelby controls the Peaky Blinders, one of the city's most feared criminal organisations, but his ambitions go beyond running the streets.

Thomas fixes a horse race, provoking the ire of local kingpin Billy Kimber. He also starts a war with gypsy family the Lees. Meanwhile, Inspector Campbell carries out a vicious raid of Small Heath in search of the stolen guns.

THU 03:00 Peaky Blinders (b03bsw9p)
Series 1

Episode 3

Thomas Shelby plans to go to Cheltenham races in order to get closer to Billy Kimber. Knowing the gangster's appetite for beautiful women, Thomas invites Grace to accompany him.

Meanwhile some IRA sympathisers approach Thomas with an offer to buy the stolen guns.

FRIDAY 18 OCTOBER 2019

FRI 19:00 World News Today (m0009dl7)
The latest news, exploring the day's events from a global perspective.

FRI 19:30 The Live Lounge Show (m0009dld)
Series 3

With Charli XCX

Clara Amfo takes us behind the scenes of the world-famous Radio 1 Live Lounge – showcasing the biggest names in music. Featuring Charli XCX, Mark Ronson and Anderson Paak.

FRI 20:00 Rock 'n' Roll America (b061fdr7)
Whole Lotta Shakin'

As rock 'n' roll took off with teens in 1955 it quickly increased record sales by 300 per cent in America. Big business and the burgeoning world of TV moved in. Elvis made a big-money move to major label RCA instigated by Colonel Tom Parker, an illegal immigrant from Holland who had made his name at country fairs with a set of dancing chickens. Elvis made his national TV debut with Heartbreak Hotel and followed it with a gyrating version of Hound Dog that shocked America. PTAs, church groups and local councils were outraged. Rock 'n' roll was banned by the mayor of Jersey City and removed from jukeboxes in Alabama. Now Ed Sullivan would only shoot Elvis from the waist up.

The conservative media needed a cleaned-up version and the young, married-with-kids Christian singer Pat Boone shot up the chart, rivalling Elvis for sales. Not that this stopped rock 'n' roll. Jerry Lee Lewis again scandalised the nation with his gyrating finger in Whole Lotta Shakin' and the Everlys shocked with Wake Up Little Susie, both 45s being banned in parts of America.

It took bespectacled geek Buddy Holly to calm things down as a suburban down-home boy who, with his school friends The Crickets, turned plain looks into chart success. But by the end of 1958 the music was in real trouble. Elvis was conscripted into the army, Jerry Lee was thrown out of Britain and into obscurity for marrying his 13-year-old cousin and Little Richard went into the church.

Featuring Jerry Lee Lewis, Don Everly, Tom Jones, Wanda Jackson, Pat Boone, DJ Fontana, Eric Burdon, James Burton, Jerry Allison (The Crickets' drummer), Mike Stoller, PF Sloan, Joe Boyd, Jerry Phillips, Marshall Chess and JM Van Eaton (Jerry Lee Lewis's drummer).

FRI 21:00 Top of the Pops (m0009dll)
Mike Read and Simon Mayo present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 18 August 1988 and featuring Aztec Camera, Kylie Minogue, Chris Rea, Status Quo, Van Halen, Big Country, Fairground Attraction, Julio Iglesias and Stevie Wonder, Yazz & The Plastic Population, and Robbie Robertson.

FRI 21:30 Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars (b0b95q4f)
Documentary charting the life of Eric Clapton, widely renowned as one of the greatest performers of all time. But behind the scenes lay restlessness and tragedy. The insatiable search to grow his artistic voice left fans surprised as he constantly quit successful bands, from the groundbreaking Yardbirds to 60s supergroup Cream. His isolated pursuit of his craft, and fear of selling out, served as a catalyst for his evolution as an artist.

Stretching from his traumatic childhood living in a 'house of secrets', to his long struggle with drugs and alcohol, and the tragic loss of his son in a heart-breaking accident, Eric Clapton always found an inner strength and healing in music.

Told through his own words and songs, as well as those of his family, friends, musical collaborators, contemporaries and many heroes - including BB King, Jimi Hendrix and George Harrison.

FRI 23:35 Eric Clapton at the BBC: The Rock 'n' Roll Years (b0074r9l)
A journey through Eric Clapton's performing life at the BBC and elsewhere, from his 60s blues days to his noughties blues days. Clapton has been described as the best guitarist in the world and has a life story and career that would make anyone's hair curl.

By way of extensive BBC archive footage, the programme charts his varied and ever-changing career - from the beginnings with The Yardbirds until he left to join the purist blues of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, to the dynamism and musical synchronisation with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, which produced the turbulent Cream, to Clapton's collaboration with Stevie Winwood that would spawn Blind Faith, to his brief sojourn in the Plastic Ono Band and his unforgettable contribution to Lennon's heroin hell tribute Cold Turkey, to his low-profile spell with rootsy US act Delaney and Bonnie, to the band he formed with Bobby Whitlock, Derek and the Dominoes, that produced one of the most famous unrequited love songs in Layla, and on to his successful solo career since then.

Along the way Clapton has successfully survived heroin and alcohol abuse, been accused of being a racist, stolen his best friend's wife, changed bands as often as his shirt, and lost a son in the most tragic of accidents. Through it all, he has produced some of the best music of the 20th century.

FRI 00:05 The Last Pirates: Britain's Rebel DJs (b096k6g1)
In the 1980s a new generation of pirate radio stations exploded on to Britain's FM airwaves. Unlike their seafaring swinging 60s forerunners, these pirates broadcast from London's estates and tower blocks to create a platform for black music in an era when it was shut out by legal radio and ignored by the mainstream music industry.

In the ensuing game of cat and mouse which played out on the rooftops of inner-city London across a whole decade, these rebel DJs used legal loopholes and technical trickery to stay one step ahead of the DTI enforcers who were tasked with bringing them down. And as their popularity grew they spearheaded a cultural movement bringing Britain's first multicultural generation together under the banner of black music and club culture.

Presented by Rodney P, whose own career as a rapper would not have been possible without the lifeblood of pirate radio airplay, this film also presents an alternative history of Britain in the 1980s - a time of entrepreneurialism and social upheaval - with archive and music that celebrates a very different side of Thatcher's Britain.

Featuring interviews with DJs, station owners and DTI enforcers - as well as some of the engineers who were the secret weapon in the pirate arsenal - this is the untold story of how Britain's greatest generation of pirate radio broadcasters changed the soundtrack of modern Britain forever.

FRI 01:05 Peaky Blinders (b03c58wp)
Series 1

Episode 4

Thomas Shelby's war with the Lee family of gypsies escalates and Campbell puts further pressure on him to deliver the stolen guns. Meanwhile, Thomas's brother John plans to marry a former prostitute, but Thomas suspects that she's still on the game.

FRI 02:05 Peaky Blinders (b03cntw3)
Series 1

Episode 5

Thomas Shelby has to deal with an IRA chief who has come to Small Heath to avenge his cousin's death. Meanwhile, Campbell gets closer to the stolen guns, and Grace has to decide whether her loyalties lie with him or with Thomas.

FRI 03:00 Peaky Blinders (b03dwq3x)
Series 1

Episode 6

As Thomas Shelby prepares to oust Billy Kimber, hidden secrets are revealed and the family have to face up to the problems that have divided them. Meanwhile, Campbell, obsessed with taking down the Peaky Blinders, unleashes one last plan to destroy them.

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

American History’s Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley 20:00 MON (m0002706)

American History’s Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley 03:00 MON (m0002706)

Beats, Bass & Bars – The Story of Grime 01:45 SUN (b0bmq2tq)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 MON (m0009dkw)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 TUE (m0009dkq)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 WED (m0009dkc)

Beyond 100 Days 19:00 THU (m0009dkx)

Bill Bailey's Jungle Hero 23:00 TUE (p0160p0s)

Britain's Biggest Warship 20:00 SUN (b0b11bb1)

Britain's Biggest Warship 02:45 SUN (b0b11bb1)

Britain's Greatest Generation 23:00 SUN (b05vrjf7)

Castles: Britain's Fortified History 20:00 WED (b04tt2f9)

Cinema Through the Eye of Magnum Photos 02:00 TUE (b095vnk0)

Classic Albums 22:55 SAT (b0bjj623)

Classic Albums 23:55 SAT (m0009dk9)

Classic Albums 00:45 SAT (b07ycbrb)

Dwarfs in Art: A New Perspective 01:00 MON (b0bgffgg)

Eric Clapton at the BBC: The Rock 'n' Roll Years 23:35 FRI (b0074r9l)

Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars 21:30 FRI (b0b95q4f)

Forces of Nature with Brian Cox 20:00 THU (b07kxdr9)

France 1939: One Last Summer 22:00 SUN (m0009dkm)

Francesco's Venice 00:00 THU (b0078sny)

Handmade in Bolton 19:30 SUN (m0009dkh)

Hollywood's Brightest Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story 21:00 WED (b09jhrlt)

Hollywood's Brightest Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story 02:25 WED (b09jhrlt)

How to Build... 22:00 THU (b00t0yx9)

Majesty and Mortar: Britain's Great Palaces 00:00 TUE (b047pdzg)

Milton Keynes and Me 00:00 MON (b091gy05)

Natural World 19:00 SAT (b078cyg3)

Natural World 02:15 SAT (b078cyg3)

Own the Sky: Jet Pack Dreamers 21:00 THU (m0009dl2)

Pain, Pus and Poison: The Search for Modern Medicines 23:00 THU (p01f51z4)

Peaky Blinders 01:00 THU (p01fj94w)

Peaky Blinders 02:00 THU (b03bgw2m)

Peaky Blinders 03:00 THU (b03bsw9p)

Peaky Blinders 01:05 FRI (b03c58wp)

Peaky Blinders 02:05 FRI (b03cntw3)

Peaky Blinders 03:00 FRI (b03dwq3x)

Peter York's Hipster Handbook 02:00 MON (b081v950)

Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village 19:30 MON (b0bsrqfw)

Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village 19:30 TUE (b0bsrqch)

Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village 19:30 WED (b0bsrqky)

Rock 'n' Roll America 20:00 FRI (b061fdr7)

Sex, Lies and Love Bites: The Agony Aunt Story 23:25 WED (b0555vjj)

Sex: A Horizon Guide 22:25 WED (b039vj9x)

Spiral 21:00 SAT (m0009dk4)

Spiral 22:00 SAT (m0009dk7)

Spotlight on the Troubles: A Secret History 21:00 TUE (m0009dks)

The Art That Made Mexico: Paradise, Power and Prayers 01:00 TUE (b09jj0k0)

The Big Life Fix 20:00 TUE (b085z8kq)

The Big Life Fix 02:55 TUE (b085z8kq)

The Last Battle of the Vikings 21:00 MON (b01p9fwg)

The Last Pirates: Britain's Rebel DJs 00:05 FRI (b096k6g1)

The Live Lounge Show 19:30 FRI (m0009dld)

The Real Doctor Zhivago 22:00 MON (b09djrvr)

The Sinner 00:00 SUN (m0001jfc)

The Sky at Night 21:00 SUN (m0009dkk)

The Story of China 23:00 MON (b06zyd53)

The Story of Skinheads with Don Letts 00:45 SUN (b07yv0qj)

The Women's Football Show 19:00 SUN (m0009dkf)

Timeshift 00:25 WED (b0864zn9)

Top of the Pops 01:45 SAT (m00095kw)

Top of the Pops 19:30 THU (m0009dl0)

Top of the Pops 21:00 FRI (m0009dll)

Two Types: The Faces of Britain 01:25 WED (b0903ppd)

Voyages of Discovery 22:00 TUE (b0074t6g)

Wild China 20:00 SAT (b00brvjx)

World News Today 19:00 FRI (m0009dl7)