The BBC has announced that it has a sustainable plan for the future of the BBC Singers, in association with The VOCES8 Foundation.
The threat to reduce the staff of the three English orchestras by 20% has not been lifted, but it is being reconsidered.
See the BBC press release here.

Radio-Lists Home Now on BBC 4 Contact

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



SATURDAY 17 JULY 2021

SAT 19:00 Treasures of Ancient Greece (b05qqgrr)
The Classical Revolution

Alastair Sooke unpicks the reasons behind the dazzling revolution that gave birth to classical Greek art, asking how the Greeks got so good so quickly. He travels to the beautiful Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, and to the island of Mozia to see the astonishing charioteer found there in 1979, and marvels at the athletic bodies of the warriors dragged from the seabed - the Riace Bronzes.

It was a creative explosion that covered architecture, sculpting in marble, casting in bronze, even painting on vases. Perhaps the most powerful factor was also its greatest legacy - a fascination with the naked human body.


SAT 20:00 Coast (b07zvr1b)
The Great Guide

Our North Sea Coast

Neil Oliver and Tessa Dunlop present their insiders' guide to the North Sea coast, a stretch that takes in two nations and which is book-ended by two huge estuaries, the Forth in Scotland and the Humber in England.

As well as his pick of Coast stories from the last decade in Britain, Neil seeks out new stories for the guide. With exclusive access to an epic military shipbuilding project at Rosyth, Neil voyages to the island of Inchmickery and discovers a bird colony with a difference. From there he explores a tragic tale that still haunts the fishing town of Eyemouth, before taking in the Holy Island of Lindisfarne to make a dramatic archaeological discovery.


SAT 21:00 Beck (p09l2c7r)
Death in Samarra

Beck investigates the murder of a Nobel Peace Prize candidate.


SAT 22:30 The Ruth Ellis Files: A Very British Crime Story (b09w8jp0)
Series 1

Episode 3

In April 1955 Ruth Ellis shot her lover David Blakely dead. It's a case that shocked the nation and it still fascinates today. It has its place in ushering in the defence of diminished responsibility and the eventual abolishment of capital punishment. We all think we know the story, but why, when it was seemingly such an open and shut case, does it still divide opinion on whether Ruth Ellis got the justice she deserved?

Film-maker Gillian Pachter wants to find out. The result is a fresh investigation with fascinating true-crime twists and turns that also shines a unique light on attitudes to class, gender and sex in 1950s London.

In episode three Gillian turns her attention to Ruth's execution and the last-minute attempts to save her life even though Ruth herself was determined to die. Despite this Ruth decides to change her solicitor and Gillian is intrigued as to the reasons why. When Ruth does finally admit that someone else was involved in the murder, her new solicitor races to the Home Office in a bid to stop the execution.

He isn't alone in not wanting to see Ruth hanged. Gillian looks at the hundreds of letters that were sent by the British public to the government asking for Ruth to be reprieved. It's a fascinating snapshot of British attitudes in the 1950s: the letters point to Ruth's mental state, the domestic violence she'd suffered and even the trauma experienced by those who'd lived through the Blitz.

The police are sent to track down Ruth's other lover, Desmond Cussen, who Ruth now claims gave her the gun and drove her to the scene of the murder. But they can't find him and won't take Ruth's word for it. The Home Office decides to press on with the execution; they worry that if they don't follow through on such a high-profile murder case that this will accelerate the abolition of capital punishment.

Ruth is hanged and Gillian explores the role of her case in the introduction of the defence of diminished responsibility in England and its place in the eventual abolition of capital punishment in Britain in 1965. But Ruth's personal legacy is much more tragic as Gillian explores the effects of the events of 1955 on Ruth's family. This takes Gillian to a taped conversation recorded by Ruth's son in the 1980s, where his despair at what happened when he was ten is movingly clear; Andre lost his mother and he lost David, whom he loved. He took his own life in the 1980s and today his ashes are close to his mother's in a cemetery in Hertfordshire not far from where David Blakely was buried. Three victims of a truly tragic set of circumstances.


SAT 23:30 The Killing (b01pcpm6)
Series 3

Episode 7

A new element turns out to play a role of great significance in the investigation. Borch and Lund have a hard time shaking off their Jutland experience, and their working relationship suffers as a result. Robert and Maja harbour hopes that Emilie may still be alive and Zeeland throw all their resources into tracking her down, as a secret is revealed from an unlikely source within the family. Police run checks on Ussing's movements over the last couple of years.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 00:30 The Killing (b01p96ft)
Series 3

Episode 8

A suspect is taken in for examination as the police try to find out more about the notebook they discovered, but things go less than smoothly. The prime minister and his close aids become the focus of police attention, as Karen is also found to be hiding a dangerous secret which could prove fatal for the government. Borch and Lund's trip to Jutland begins to have consequences. Robert Zeuthen intensifies the hunt for his daughter, despite coming under heavy pressure from the Zeeland board. Maja takes sides. A witness turns up who may have important information about Emilie.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 01:30 The Killing (b01phjf8)
Series 3

Episode 9

Sarah Lund is held back in her attempts to make headway with the investigation, but at least the perpetrator finally has a face. Will he lead police and the Zeuthens to Emilie? Prime Minister Kamper is trying to clean up his circle as he attempts to find out what happened to his son. Suspicions arise about a trusted Zeeland figure as Robert Zeuthen considers drastic action.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 02:30 The Killing (b01phjfb)
Series 3

Episode 10

It's election day and the Prime Minister has everything to gain, as long as Emilie's fate remains uncertain. Kamper is still haunted by personal demons, and issues of loyalty from within his own ranks rear their ugly heads once again. Meanwhile, as Lund and Borch start to look ahead, police are led to an undisclosed location in a last ditch attempt to find Emilie before it's too late. They are followed by a now dangerously tense Robert Zeuthen. Will the operation succeed in bringing the girl to safety?

In Danish with English subtitles.



SUNDAY 18 JULY 2021

SUN 19:00 Discovering... (m00062dv)
Series 1

Graal Théâtre - Kaija Saariaho

Tom Service presents a detailed analysis of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s Graal Théâtre followed by a performance of the work by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ludovic Morlot.

Contemporary composer Kaija Saariaho wrote Graal Théâtre in 1994. A haunting, explosive violin concerto, it has become one of the Finnish composer’s most frequently performed pieces. Before the piece is performed in full by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra in the MediaCity Studio in Salford, Tom Service speaks both to members of the orchestra and to Peter Herresthal, the soloist, about this relentlessly electrifying and technically demanding music. Peter demonstrates the techniques involved in producing the crunching strings and distorted effects demanded by the score. We learn how Saariaho, herself a violinist, crafted the work to reflect her own tempestuous relationship with the instrument.

Speaking to other members of the orchestra, Tom sees how Saariaho uses the entire ensemble to create a range of different colours building up to dazzling textures. The extremes of Saariaho’s score see the orchestra interacting both in harmony and in conflict with one another.

Loosely based on medieval tales from Arthurian legend, we explore the importance of these stories to the structure of Saariaho’s piece. Tom also learns of the composer’s tutelage at the French institution IRCAM, an underground labyrinth of electronic and electro-acoustic experimentation beneath the Pompidou Centre in Paris, founded by French composer Pierre Boulez. Saariaho’s time at IRCAM profoundly shaped the unique electronic, symphonic style found in this astonishing work.


SUN 20:00 The Golden Age of Steam Railways (b01p8w38)
Small Is Beautiful

Two-part documentary telling the remarkable story of a band of visionaries who rescued some of the little narrow gauge railways that once served Britain's industries. These small railways and the steam engines that ran on them were once the driving force of Britain's mines, quarries, factories and docks. Then, as they disappeared after 1945, volunteers set to work to bring the lines and the steam engines back to life and started a movement which spread throughout the world. Their home movies tell the story of how they helped millions reconnect with a past they thought had gone forever.


SUN 21:00 World War II: Behind Closed Doors (b00g25st)
Episode 5

Joseph Stalin was a tyrant responsible for the death of millions, yet he was also a vital ally of Britain and America during the Second World War.

How was it possible for Churchill and Roosevelt to deal with one tyrant, Joseph Stalin, in order to help beat another, Adolf Hitler? That's one of the key questions at the heart of this new six part landmark history series.

The series uses dramatic reconstructions - based on extensive fresh research in Russian and Western archives - and extraordinary testimony from witnesses of the time, including former Soviet secret policemen who have not spoken before on camera, in order to tell a 'Behind Closed Doors' history. It's a new way on television of looking at this most vital period, and will change the way you think about the war.

This fifth episode focuses on the dramatic story of the Red Army's fight through Eastern Europe in 1944, as well as the behind the scenes history of the most famous Allied conference of the war at Yalta in the Crimea.


SUN 22:00 Williams: Formula 1 in the Blood (m0002p1x)
In-depth documentary showing an interesting insight into Sir Frank Williams, his career and family. From nothing other than an obsession with speed, Williams builds one of the world's most enduring Formula One racing teams, but a near fatal car accident in 1986 at the height of this success leaves Frank fighting for his life and the future of the team hanging in the balance.


SUN 23:45 James May's Cars of the People (b06z98lc)
Series 2

Episode 1

James reveals the cars that turned postwar Germany and Japan into motoring powerhouses at the expense of Britain and the US.

On his travels he encounters classic E-Types, Mustangs and the German and Japanese upstarts that were to conquer the world.

He also has an unfortunate encounter with an Austin Allegro - the car that helped destroy the British car industry.


SUN 00:45 Discovering... (m00062dv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 01:45 World War II: Behind Closed Doors (b00g25st)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


SUN 02:45 The Golden Age of Steam Railways (b01p8w38)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



MONDAY 19 JULY 2021

MON 19:00 The Joy of Painting (m000mf8n)
Series 3

Cabin in the Woods

Enjoy the peace of a calm evening by taking a walk with Bob Ross through the enchanted timberlands of America just before nightfall.


MON 19:30 Return to... The Cruise (m000y2fs)
Episode 5

Jane McDonald and the cast of The Cruise look back at the 1998 hit. With 2,000 passengers, Las Vegas-style shows and casinos, onboard romances and exotic locations, a cruise ship was the ideal vehicle for a docusoap. But behind the scenes, there was more real life drama and heartbreak than your average soap opera.


MON 20:00 An Art Lovers' Guide (b09yndw6)
Series 2

Lisbon

In the first of a series of city adventures, Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke head to Lisbon, rapidly becoming one of Europe’s most popular tourist destinations.

Winding through the city’s cobbled streets, from its steep hills to the picturesque shore line, the cultural riches they encounter reveal the city's fascinating history.

From a spectacular monument, to the maritime globetrotting of Portugal’s ‘golden age and the work of a photographer documenting the city's large African population, they discover a complex history of former glories and a darker, slave-trading past.

Their journey also uncovers the impact of twentieth century dictatorship on the city's artistic and cultural life, through the work of contemporary artists Paula Rego and Joana Vasconcelos.

And they discover how the city's location on the west coast of Europe, looking out to the Atlantic, has shaped the cosmopolitan spirit of the city: in one of the city's Fado clubs, Alastair and Nina enjoy the popular Portugese folk music, whose beautiful melodies celebrate a yearning for home, once sung by sailors dreaming of their return.


MON 21:00 imagine... (m000y2fv)
Summer 2003

Barbara Hepworth: Shapes out of Feelings

A profile of Barbara Hepworth, the world's first internationally celebrated woman sculptor. Born in Yorkshire in 1903, she had to fight to establish herself in a world dominated by men, and could still wield a chisel in her seventies.


MON 21:45 Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture (b00yml9v)
Mavericks of Empire

By the middle of the 18th century, Britain was in possession of a vast empire. It required a new way of seeing ourselves and so we turned to the statues of ancient Greece and Rome to project the secular power and glory of the British Empire.

The message was clear: Britain was the new Rome, our generals and politicians on a par with the heroes of the ancient world. The flood of funds, both public and private, into sculptural projects unleashed a new golden age, yet it was also a remarkably unorthodox one. The greatest sculptors of the 18th and 19th centuries were those mavericks who bucked prevailing trends - geniuses like John Flaxman, Francis Chantrey and Alfred Gilbert.

Alastair Sooke tells the story of these mavericks and reveals the extraordinary technical breakthroughs behind their key works: carving in marble with a pointer machine and the primal power of the lost-wax technique.


MON 22:45 Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture (b00yvsjd)
Children of the Revolution

'Sculpture has changed more in the last hundred years,' says Alastair Sooke, 'than in the previous thirty thousand.' The third and last episode of the series tells the dramatic story of a century of innovation, scandal, shock and creativity.

It begins with the moment at the turn of the 20th century when young sculptors ceased visiting the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum and looked instead at the 'primitive' works of Africa and the Pacific islands. The result was an artistic revolution spearheaded by Eric Gill and Jacob Epstein that would climax in the anti-sculptural gestures of Gilbert & George and Damien Hirst.

Yet for all the provocation and occasional excesses of conceptualism, sculpture has never enjoyed such popularity. From the memorials of World War One to the landmarks of Antony Gormley and Rachel Whiteread, sculpture remains the art form that speaks most directly and powerfully to the nation.

The programme climaxes with a series of encounters between Alastair and leading sculptors Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread, Antony Gormley and Anthony Caro.


MON 23:45 James May's Cars of the People (b06zn8z9)
Series 2

Episode 2

James May goes off-road to tell the story of how the 4x4 conquered the world. From the wartime jeep to the global struggle between Land Rover and Land Cruiser, the white-knuckle world of rallying and boy racers, plus James conquers Mount Fuji and races through the sun-scorched Mojave Desert to decide which is the ultimate people's 4x4.


MON 00:45 Museums in Quarantine (m000hqml)
Series 1

Warhol

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Alastair Sooke gains privileged access to the Tate Modern for a last look at the Warhol exhibition. Sooke argues that Warhol might just be the most significant artist of the second half of the 20th century. Warhol not only predicted, but in many ways helped to create, the world we live in - one obsessed with hyper-consumption, mass media and celebrity.

Covering works from across Warhol’s career, Sooke explores Warhol’s long-running commitment to experimental film and TV, as well as his fascination with advertising, pop music and commerce. And he delves into the man behind the carefully curated eccentricity, examining the expressions of Warhol’s queer identity in his later works and how his background as the son of eastern European immigrants influenced his art.

In conversation with Gregor Muir, one of the exhibition’s curators, Sooke discovers that one of his aims with the show was to strip away some of the myths about Warhol’s work and broaden the focus away from Warhol’s pop art studies of the 1960s. Finally, he muses on the particularly Warholian irony that this blockbuster show was closed, due to the coronavirus lockdown, almost as soon as it had opened.


MON 01:15 Return to... The Cruise (m000y2fs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 01:45 imagine... (m000y2fv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 02:25 An Art Lovers' Guide (b09yndw6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



TUESDAY 20 JULY 2021

TUE 19:00 The Joy of Painting (m000mmjh)
Series 3

Wetlands

Feel the warm, swampy air and admire the overgrown trees with hanging Spanish moss and velvety bushes. All Bob Ross-style, of course!


TUE 19:30 Coastal Path (b07qb61p)
Episode 1

In this series, explorer Paul Rose sets off on the walk of a lifetime - 630 miles of the South West Coast Path. He'll discover wildlife, wild traditions and wild adventure at every turn on this spectacular peninsula.


TUE 20:00 Yes, Minister (b00785g8)
Series 3

The Moral Dimension

Jim Hacker has to balance conflicting moral demands when he travels to Qumran to ratify a British electronics firm's contract.


TUE 20:30 The Good Life (b00784vj)
Series 1

Pig's Lib

The Goods' garden is now well under way and Tom is managing to barter reasonably successfully. Margo is horrified when she hears of Tom and Barbara's decision to keep pigs in the garden and enlists the help of the local residents' association in an effort to scupper the plan.


TUE 21:00 Hemingway (p09lp3fq)
Series 1

Episode 4

Inspired by the fight against fascism, Hemingway reports on the Spanish Civil War. He also begins a tempestuous romance with Martha Gellhorn.


TUE 21:50 Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (p00xb74g)
Episode 4

Michael Palin stays in Ernest Hemingway's favourite Cuban hotel and samples a few of his favourite hangouts including Bodeguita del Medio and the Floridita in old Havana. He meets 101-year-old Gregorio Fuentes, considered an Old Man of the Sea, and who sits in the sun, smoking cigars.

He peers into Hemingway's Havana house that has now become a shrine where visitors aren't allowed to tread.

Back in West America, Michael attempts to be a cowboy and partakes in some male bonding while visiting Yellowstone Park. He also visits the house in Ketchum, Idaho where Hemingway died in 1961 and where he was laid to rest.


TUE 22:40 Philly DA: Breaking the Law (p09ljg08)
Series 1

Justice for David Jones?

For the first time in 20 years, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office is charging an on-duty police officer with murder. The officer, Ryan Pownall, is accused of shooting an unarmed man, David Jones, three times in the back as he ran away.

The police union supports the officer and pledge to get him back on the force. Tensions erupt once again between Philly’s DA and the police.


TUE 23:35 Philly DA: Breaking the Law (p09ljgkq)
Series 1

We Came to Bring Change

Krasner tours law schools across the States to recruit the next generation of ‘progressive prosecutors’ to work in his office. The activists crucial to Krasner’s election are frustrated by what they see as the too-slow pace of change.

As Krasner and his team continue to fight for change, one young intern catches Larry and his lieutenant, Bob Listenbee’s eye – an ex-policeman, now training to be a lawyer, who represents a new generation wanting real change within the criminal justice system.


TUE 00:30 Timeshift (b08dwxhn)
Series 16

Flights of Fancy: Pigeons and the British

Timeshift ventures inside places of sporting achievement, scientific endeavour and male obsession - the lofts of pigeon fanciers - to tell the story of a remarkable bird. As racer, messenger and even beauty pageant contestant, the humble pigeon has been a steadfast part of British life for centuries.

Pigeons have served in two world wars, flown over oceans and crossed barriers of age, class and race to take their place as man's best feathered friend. Meanwhile, pigeon fanciers have contrived to make them faster and more eye-catching, using backyard genetics to breed the perfect bird.

Popular affection for pigeons has nosedived in recent decades due to a growing distaste at what they leave behind, and legislation has seen them chased out of public spaces. But as this programme shows, dedicated British pigeon fanciers are determined to keep their pastime alive. So what does the future hold for the 21st-century pigeon?


TUE 01:30 Museums in Quarantine (m000hqpj)
Series 1

Rembrandt

Historian Simon Schama takes us on a very personal virtual tour of the Young Rembrandt exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, currently in lockdown. The exhibition charts the first ten years of the Dutch master’s career, when the miller’s son from Leiden became the superstar of 17th-century Amsterdam and was on course to become one of the greatest artists of all time.

For Schama, who was able to see the exhibition before it closed, the coronavirus crisis has given Rembrandt’s work even more impact and resonance. As he says, ‘No artist I think better understood the fragile nature of human happiness; the shocking suddenness with which we can go from riches to rags, wellbeing to sickness, contentment to grief.’

Schama tells the story of the artist’s rise to fame and riches, celebrating the audacity and astonishing technical mastery of many of the works on show. But he also shows us a deeply wise and philosophical artist, who was always aware of the fickleness of fortune, and who was as interested – if not more - in portraying beggars as he was prosperous burghers and kings.


TUE 02:00 Coastal Path (b07qb61p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 02:30 Hemingway (p09lp3fq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



WEDNESDAY 21 JULY 2021

WED 19:00 The Joy of Painting (m000mmk1)
Series 3

Cool Waters

Bob Ross captures the beauty of Alaska on canvas - clear skies, soft cottony clouds, snow-covered mountains and a breathtaking crystal lake.


WED 19:30 Coastal Path (b07tbxp6)
Episode 2

Paul Rose explores the rugged north Cornish coast, taking a grand tour of Tintagel Castle, joining in the hustle and bustle of Padstow's Obby Oss festival and channelling his inner Turner in St Ives.


WED 20:00 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.


WED 21:00 The Planets (p06qj2l5)
Series 1

A Moment in the Sun - The Terrestrial Planets

In this major landmark series, Professor Brian Cox tells the extraordinary life story of our solar system. For four and a half billion years each of the planets has been on an incredible journey, filled with astonishing spectacle and great drama. Using the data from our very latest explorations of the solar system combined with groundbreaking CGI this series reveals the unimaginable beauty and grandeur of eight planets whose stories we are only just beginning to understand.

The first episode traces the development of the four rocky worlds closest to the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Born together, they battled the unbelievable violence of the early solar system to become stable planets. For a while each had a moment of hope when they enjoyed almost earth-like conditions. Yet today Mercury is a scorched barren world. Venus is a runaway greenhouse world with a scorching atmosphere and Mars is a frozen desert. Only on Earth do oceans – and life – persist.

Why has Earth thrived whilst the others have faded away? The most advanced space missions ever mounted allow us to reveal the moments when the fate of each world turned. Mercury was flung across the solar system in a collision of unimaginable ferocity. A young Venus resplendent with oceans was locked in a battle with the sun. And an early wet Mars was robbed of the material it would need to survive.

Only Earth found itself far enough away from the sun for life to hold on. But it can’t last forever. Billions of years from now our world will follow the fate of its sister planets as the sun expands to become a red giant. But as it does other oases may awaken on the faraway moons of the gas giants - like Saturn’s moon Titan. In the far future, it too may enjoy its moment in the sun.


WED 22:00 Storyville (m000y2g7)
Hillsong Church: God Goes Viral

This Storyville documentary details the story of celebrity favourite and globally trending megachurch Hillsong. In a relatively short time it has grown explosively, from small family church to international phenomenon. Gaining rare access to this highly-guarded organisation, director Nick Aldridge follows key church figures and a number of its followers, who tell personal stories of salvation and shed light on the scandals currently engulfing the church.

Fashionably dressed in fedoras, leather jackets, tattoos and skinny jeans, their pastors are next-generation religious leaders. Inhabiting the world of Instagram influencers, they capitalise on the power of social media and popular entertainment to spread their message.

Attracting a congregation of over 150,000 young people a week in 30 countries, Hillsong's services are mostly held in concert arenas, filled with pop music and high-octane, slickly produced performances. The church has attracted celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Kendall Jenner, Selena Gomez, Kevin Durant and Bono, and with six million Instagram followers and over 20 million monthly listeners on their Spotify channels, Hillsong has become one of the fastest-growing churches in the world, generating over $150 million revenue in the process.

While looking back at the church's tainted foundations, this documentary explores the resurgence of spirituality and belief among millennials today. Why are millions of media-savvy young people following a religion whose values do not always align with their own? What does this glossy version of Christianity have to offer, and at what price does salvation and transformation come at Hillsong?


WED 23:40 James May's Cars of the People (b070k3ny)
Series 2

Episode 3

James explores the wilder shores of motoring to discover what happened to the cars of the future that we were promised. From improbable steam cars and ludicrous jet turbines, he reveals how the petrol engine and the power it gave us came to dominate the 20th century. He takes to the waves in an amphibious car, risks his life at the wheel of a notorious electric scooter and takes a hair-raising trip in the fastest driverless car on earth.


WED 00:40 Museums in Quarantine (m000hqmw)
Series 1

Tate Britain

In times of crisis, people often think that art and culture are luxuries. However, in this episode of Museums in Quarantine, Dr James Fox argues, in difficult times such as these, that we need art more than ever. Taking the viewer on a personal tour of some of the most profound artworks from the Tate Britain’s collection, from a self-portrait by 18th-century artist William Hogarth through to the gallery’s 21st-century installations, Dr Fox shows how art has a unique ability both to depict humanity’s suffering and offer us consolation.

Guiding us through the silent galleries of the temporarily closed Tate Britain, Dr Fox argues that great artists’ renderings of war and disaster remind us that we are not alone. Countless others have also lived through, and triumphed over, adversity.

The paintings, by some of Britain’s foremost landscape artists, present a bucolic vision of Britain – one that is deeply reassuring. And art, of course, also allows us a means of creating other worlds in our imagination and an escape from the confines of our own home.

Ultimately, this uplifting film asserts that art has the power to bring us hope and offer us a glimmer of light in the darkness.


WED 01:10 Motherland (p09gv6bk)
Series 3

Episode 3

Mother’s Day leaves Julia feeling ignored while Meg gets spoilt rotten. Amanda endures a passive aggressive lunch with her appalling mother Felicity.


WED 01:40 Coastal Path (b07tbxp6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 02:10 The Planets (p06qj2l5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



THURSDAY 22 JULY 2021

THU 19:00 The Joy of Painting (m000mmj8)
Series 3

Quiet Woods

Let Bob Ross take you on a journey through a majestic forest, where you can smell the sweet aroma of pines and taste cool mist in the air.


THU 19:30 Coastal Path (b07v8bhz)
Episode 3

Paul Rose explores the spectacular South Cornwall coastline where he discovers one of the world's finest stages at the Minack Theatre, tries the high-octane sport of coasteering on the Lizard and fires Tudor cannons at Pendennis Castle in Falmouth.


THU 20:00 Cold Comfort Farm (m000y2f8)
Adaptation of Stella Gibbons's comic novel about an expensively educated young woman who is suddenly orphaned and goes to live with her eccentric relatives in the country. She then sets about reordering the life of the family, who have been cut off from the modern world and kept firmly in their places by her tyrannical yet terrified aunt.


THU 21:40 Coast (b083d820)
Series 8 Reversions

The Secret Life of Sea Cliffs 1

Nick Crane explores some of the most spectacular and scary sea cliffs in Britain.


THU 22:00 Dunkirk (m000qqtl)
An epic wartime action thriller written, directed and produced by Christopher Nolan. Hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops find themselves surrounded by enemy forces in Dunkirk, northern France, during World War II. They face an impossible situation, trapped on the beach as the German troops close in. A quickly assembled British fleet leads the legendary evacuation of over 300,000 Allied military forces.


THU 23:40 Dunkirk: The Soldiers' Story (b0074q1j)
Veterans of World War II describe their experiences of the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940 and the evacuation.

On 10 May the German Army invaded Holland and Belgium. The Blitzkrieg had begun - an entirely new way of fighting war. For the young men aged 18 and 19 who joined up to 'do their bit' it was a terrifying baptism of fire, and for the British Army a shattering blow. Within three weeks it was a crushing defeat, leading to the largest military evacuation in history.

This film is the story, told in their own words, of a group of young men, now veterans, and their first experience of modern mechanised warfare.


THU 00:30 Museums in Quarantine (m000hqq9)
Series 1

British Museum

Art historian Dr Janina Ramirez has lovingly paced the galleries of the British Museum since she was a child. Now, as the museum’s incomparable collections lie shuttered during the lockdown, she has been given permission to curate a highly personal selection of some of her favourites amongst its many treasures and to guide us on her very own virtual tour of its silent, empty galleries.

For Ramirez, no other collection in the world makes it possible to chart the highs and lows of humans across the world, and across time, in quite the same way. Her tour takes her across many different cultures and periods of history, alighting on objects as varied as a decorated Aztec skull, ancient Egyptian cat mummies and an 18th-century tea set. As she says, ‘Whether they provide a glimpse into enduring notions of love, sex and spirituality or catalogue moments of change, power and achievement, the artefacts in this one building show us the eternal and the ephemeral.’

The film is a personal reflection on the solace, wisdom and sense of perspective that the British Museum’s global collections can bring us in a time of crisis. ‘We all matter,’ Ramirez concludes, ‘we all stitch ourselves, even in the smallest way, onto the tapestry of existence. These artefacts show us that each of us leaves our footprints in the sands of time.'


THU 01:00 Coastal Path (b07v8bhz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 01:30 Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture (b00yml9v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:45 on Monday]


THU 02:30 Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture (b00yvsjd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:45 on Monday]



FRIDAY 23 JULY 2021

FRI 19:00 Gregory Porter's Popular Voices (b09g67l9)
Series 1

Crooners & Co

Soul and jazz star Gregory Porter explores the soft, intimate art of crooning. Born with the arrival of the microphone in the 1930s, crooning was initially about men seducing women and thrived through signature stars such as Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra.

But far from disappearing with the advent of rock 'n' roll, the art of crooning gained a new existential edge and was transformed by the likes of Roy Orbison, David Bowie and even Lana Del Rey into a haunting and abiding strain of contemporary pop.

With Iggy Pop, Joshua Homme, George Benson and Beck.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m000y2fg)
Gary Davies presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 9 May 1991 and featuring Seal, Roxette and Beverley Craven.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m000y2fl)
Bruno Brookes presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 16 May 1991 and featuring New Kids on the Block, Dannii Minogue and Jason Donovan.


FRI 21:00 Burt Bacharach: A Life in Song (b06qnnbz)
A unique concert staged at the Royal Festival Hall celebrating the music of the legendary songwriter and performer Burt Bacharach.

Some of Burt's most famous songs are performed by a stellar line-up of artists including Alfie Boe, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Shaun Escoffery, Rebecca Ferguson, Justin Hayward, Michael Kiwanuka, Laura Mvula and Joss Stone. Burt himself also performs accompanied by his band. During the concert Burt chats to Michael Grade about the art of songwriting and shares the stories behind some of his best-loved hits.


FRI 22:30 Arena (b01l4929)
Amy Winehouse - The Day She Came to Dingle

Back in 2006 on a stormy December night, Amy Winehouse flew to the remote, south western corner of Ireland to perform for Other Voices, an acclaimed Irish TV music series filmed in Dingle every winter. Amy took to the stage of Saint James's church, capacity 85, and wowed the small, packed crowd with a searing, acoustic set of songs from Back to Black.

After leaving the stage, a relaxed and happy Amy spoke about her music and influences - Mahalia Jackson, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles and the Shangri-Las to name a few. Arena joined forces with Other Voices and went to Dingle to catch up with some of the people that Amy met on that day, including taxi driver Paddy Kennedy, her bass player Dale Davis and Rev Mairt Hanley of the Other Voices church.

This film showcases not only Amy herself, but the musical geniuses that inspired her to forge her own jazz pop style.


FRI 23:30 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.


FRI 00:30 Amy Winehouse in Her Own Words (p02ty1n4)
A portrait of Amy Winehouse the artist threaded together from extracts from interviews she gave to the BBC for a variety of documentary projects including the Jazz and Soul Britannia series on BBC Four, much of which material is previously unbroadcast, blended with performances from across her career, including some which are also previously unbroadcast and unseen.

Winehouse had a strong relationship with many parts of the BBC from when she launched herself as an artist back in 2004. In her short musical career, the north London native changed the landscape of modern pop culture, won countless awards, achieved critical acclaim and garnered global success before tragically dying at the tender age of 27.

Originally broadcast on the eve of the release of Asif Kapadia's Amy documentary film which explores Winehouse's life and death, here is an exploration of her music and her influences in her own words.

Consisting of performances and interviews entirely from the BBC archives, this film celebrates Amy's music, her influences, her challenges as an artist and her eternal brutal honesty in her own words. Featuring exclusive unseen and rarely seen songs from her triple platinum selling album Frank and revered Grammy-winning album Back to Black, the programme pays homage to the tattooed rebellious rock 'n' roll-spirited songstress who wrote smart, sad, soulful and original pop songs that became instant classics and inspired a generation.


FRI 00:55 Classic Soul at the BBC (b0074pvv)
A collection of some of the greatest soul performances from the BBC's archive, featuring Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Dusty Springfield, Isaac Hayes, Solomon Burke and Percy Sledge.


FRI 01:55 Top of the Pops (m000y2fg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 02:25 Top of the Pops (m000y2fl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


FRI 02:55 Gregory Porter's Popular Voices (b09g67l9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]




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

Amy Winehouse in Her Own Words 00:30 FRI (p02ty1n4)

An Art Lovers' Guide 20:00 MON (b09yndw6)

An Art Lovers' Guide 02:25 MON (b09yndw6)

Arena 22:30 FRI (b01l4929)

Beck 21:00 SAT (p09l2c7r)

Burt Bacharach: A Life in Song 21:00 FRI (b06qnnbz)

Classic Albums 23:30 FRI (b0bjj623)

Classic Soul at the BBC 00:55 FRI (b0074pvv)

Coast 20:00 SAT (b07zvr1b)

Coast 21:40 THU (b083d820)

Coastal Path 19:30 TUE (b07qb61p)

Coastal Path 02:00 TUE (b07qb61p)

Coastal Path 19:30 WED (b07tbxp6)

Coastal Path 01:40 WED (b07tbxp6)

Coastal Path 19:30 THU (b07v8bhz)

Coastal Path 01:00 THU (b07v8bhz)

Cold Comfort Farm 20:00 THU (m000y2f8)

Discovering... 19:00 SUN (m00062dv)

Discovering... 00:45 SUN (m00062dv)

Dunkirk: The Soldiers' Story 23:40 THU (b0074q1j)

Dunkirk 22:00 THU (m000qqtl)

Gregory Porter's Popular Voices 19:00 FRI (b09g67l9)

Gregory Porter's Popular Voices 02:55 FRI (b09g67l9)

Hemingway 21:00 TUE (p09lp3fq)

Hemingway 02:30 TUE (p09lp3fq)

James May's Cars of the People 23:45 SUN (b06z98lc)

James May's Cars of the People 23:45 MON (b06zn8z9)

James May's Cars of the People 23:40 WED (b070k3ny)

Japan: Earth's Enchanted Islands 20:00 WED (p02n9vgl)

Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure 21:50 TUE (p00xb74g)

Motherland 01:10 WED (p09gv6bk)

Museums in Quarantine 00:45 MON (m000hqml)

Museums in Quarantine 01:30 TUE (m000hqpj)

Museums in Quarantine 00:40 WED (m000hqmw)

Museums in Quarantine 00:30 THU (m000hqq9)

Philly DA: Breaking the Law 22:40 TUE (p09ljg08)

Philly DA: Breaking the Law 23:35 TUE (p09ljgkq)

Return to... The Cruise 19:30 MON (m000y2fs)

Return to... The Cruise 01:15 MON (m000y2fs)

Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture 21:45 MON (b00yml9v)

Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture 22:45 MON (b00yvsjd)

Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture 01:30 THU (b00yml9v)

Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture 02:30 THU (b00yvsjd)

Storyville 22:00 WED (m000y2g7)

The Golden Age of Steam Railways 20:00 SUN (b01p8w38)

The Golden Age of Steam Railways 02:45 SUN (b01p8w38)

The Good Life 20:30 TUE (b00784vj)

The Joy of Painting 19:00 MON (m000mf8n)

The Joy of Painting 19:00 TUE (m000mmjh)

The Joy of Painting 19:00 WED (m000mmk1)

The Joy of Painting 19:00 THU (m000mmj8)

The Killing 23:30 SAT (b01pcpm6)

The Killing 00:30 SAT (b01p96ft)

The Killing 01:30 SAT (b01phjf8)

The Killing 02:30 SAT (b01phjfb)

The Planets 21:00 WED (p06qj2l5)

The Planets 02:10 WED (p06qj2l5)

The Ruth Ellis Files: A Very British Crime Story 22:30 SAT (b09w8jp0)

Timeshift 00:30 TUE (b08dwxhn)

Top of the Pops 20:00 FRI (m000y2fg)

Top of the Pops 20:30 FRI (m000y2fl)

Top of the Pops 01:55 FRI (m000y2fg)

Top of the Pops 02:25 FRI (m000y2fl)

Treasures of Ancient Greece 19:00 SAT (b05qqgrr)

Williams: Formula 1 in the Blood 22:00 SUN (m0002p1x)

World War II: Behind Closed Doors 21:00 SUN (b00g25st)

World War II: Behind Closed Doors 01:45 SUN (b00g25st)

Yes, Minister 20:00 TUE (b00785g8)

imagine... 21:00 MON (m000y2fv)

imagine... 01:45 MON (m000y2fv)