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 01 JANUARY 2022

SAT 19:00 New Year's Day Concert (m001347y)
2022 - Highlights

Petroc Trelawny presents highlights from 2022's concert from the golden hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. With a message of hope, friendship and peace, the orchestra is directed by celebrated conductor Daniel Barenboim in an array of polkas, waltzes and gallops by the Strauss family and their contemporaries. Furthermore, there are performances by the Vienna State Ballet in the rooms and grounds of Schönbrunn Palace, and an appearance by the world-famous Lipizzaner horses from the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, performing to the Nymph Polka by Josef Strauss.

The concert ends with the ever-popular By the Beautiful Blue Danube and the foot-stamping Radetsky March.


SAT 21:00 Ultimate Number Ones (b01nwfxv)
From the vaults of the BBC archive comes a selection of hits that attained the toppermost of the poppermost prize and made it to number one in the hit parade. From across the decades, we applaud the most coveted of all chart positions with smash hits and classics from The Bee Gees, T. Rex, Donna Summer, John Lennon, Culture Club, The Spice Girls, James Blunt, Rihanna, Adele and many more.

First broadcast to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the first official UK chart in 2012.


SAT 22:00 Inspector Montalbano (m000ng77)
Beloved Salvo, My Livia

It's high summer in Vigata and the murdered body of a young woman, Agata Cosentino, is found in the municipal archives where she worked. But the building was supposed to be closed for the holidays, so what was Agata doing there?

Meanwhile, Adelina's wayward son Pasquale is engaged in a stand-off with a local security guard, Romildo Bufardeci, a former classmate from elementary school who is now intent on putting a stop to Pasquale’s petty criminality. As chief law enforcer, Montalbano must investigate any wrongdoings while also navigating the rivalry between the two men.

In Italian with English subtitles.


SAT 23:50 Timeshift (m000l9v7)
Series 3

Jet Set

Rich, distant and opulent, the jet set fascinated the public as they waved to us from airplane doorways before winging their way across the skies heading for yachts and exotic locations that the rest of us could only dream of. They were the aristocrats, the high fliers and high earners whose lives and loves fascinated us long before celebrity became a dirty word.

This film looks back at the glamorous heyday of the jet set from the 1950s to the 1970s. Contributors include former Formula One world champion Jackie Stewart, psychologist Dr Martyn Dyer Smith, society columnist Ross Benson, travel writer Simon Calder, Concorde pilot Christopher Orlebar and former women's magazine editor Marcelle d'Argy Smith.


SAT 00:30 How Auld Lang Syne Took Over the World (b03nh35t)
Dougie Vipond will take you on a trip to discover how Scotland's best-known musical export became a worldwide phenomenon. From Ayrshire to Tokyo, via New York City, we'll look at how Auld Lang Syne has been adopted around the world. With some fantastic archive and commentary from well-known faces including Alan Cumming, Sir Cliff Richard and Clare Grogan, we will find out just how Auld Lang Syne became a globe-conquering song.


SAT 01:30 TOTP2 (m000qpmv)
Party Special

Steve Wright presents a TOTP2 party special featuring Ricky Martin, Showstoppers, Hot Chocolate and Robbie Williams.


SAT 02:15 Ultimate Number Ones (b01nwfxv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]



SUNDAY 02 JANUARY 2022

SUN 19:00 BBC Proms (m000ypjn)
2021

The Golden Age of Broadway

Katie Derham presents a dazzling evening of musical hits from the Golden Age of Broadway, including showstoppers from South Pacific, Oklahoma!, Carousel, High Society and Anything Goes!

Stars of the West End and Broadway perform enduring classics alongside the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Richard Balcombe. Neil Brand and Bonnie Langford are Katie’s guests, sharing insight into the glamorous era which rose out of the Great Depression and the Second World War, giving us unforgettable songs such as There’s No Business Like Show Business, Some Enchanted Evening, My Funny Valentine and You’re the Top!.


SUN 21:00 Anything Goes: The Musical (m0012y8y)
Filmed live at the Barbican in London, this major new production of the classic musical comedy features an all-star cast led by renowned Broadway actress Sutton Foster, reprising her Tony-winning performance as Reno Sweeney, alongside the award-winning Robert Lindsay and Felicity Kendal, as well as beloved West End legend Gary Wilmot. A heart-warming romance, featuring spectacular dance routines and some of theatre’s most memorable songs.

When the SS American heads out to sea, etiquette and convention head out of the portholes as two unlikely pairs set off on the course to true love- proving that sometimes destiny needs a little help from a crew of singing sailors, a comical disguise and some good old-fashioned blackmail. This hilarious musical romp across the Atlantic, directed by the multi-award-winning Broadway director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall, features Cole Porter’s joyful score, including I Get a Kick Out of You, You’re the Top and the show-stopping Anything Goes.


SUN 23:20 Timeshift (b00nrtj6)
Series 9

The Last Days of the Liners

Documentary which tells the story of how, in the years following the Second World War, countries competed to launch the most magnificent passenger ships on the great ocean routes.

National pride and prestige were at stake. The Americans had the United States, the fastest liner of all; the Dutch had the elegant Rotterdam; the Italians had the sleek Michelangelo; the French had the France as their supreme symbol of national culture and cuisine; and Britain had the Queens Mary and Elizabeth.

The coming of the jetliner and the 1960s' assault on class and privilege might have swept this world away, but as the film explains, the giant vessels sailed on. Today, more people than ever travel on big ships - liners that have a modern take on glamour and romance.


SUN 00:20 Billy Connolly: Made in Scotland (b0bwzhy6)
Series 1

Episode 1

In British comedy there is a line in the sand and that line is Billy Connolly. Before he found fame on an international level, British comedy was an end-of-the-pier kind of affair - but through sheer talent and force of personality, Connolly ploughed a different and deeply personal yet universal approach to comedy and in doing so he changed the face of British comedy forever.

He has been called the Beatles and Jesus of comedy by his peers and an immature 'manure mouth' by the leader of the Scottish Zion Baptist Church. So say what you like about him but you can't deny everyone wants to know him. And that is what Made In Scotland is about - it is Billy as you have never seen him before - intimate, deeply personal and very funny.

Weaved around personal accounts and interviews from famous faces, Billy's life is revealed in all its glory - a shaggy dog story approach to his work - and one that has turned him from Billy Connolly the welder into Billy Connolly - The Big Yin.

Part one of two one-hour specials features Eddie Izzard, Ross Noble, Micky Flanagan, Lord Grade, Tracey Ullman, AL Kennedy, Val McDermid, Sharleen Spiteri and Eddi Reader. The film shows a true reflection of his far influence and still maintaining his unique but personal approach to comedy.


SUN 01:20 Billy Connolly: Made in Scotland (b0bwzw0f)
Series 1

Episode 2

In British comedy there is a line in the sand and that line is Billy Connolly. Before he found fame on an international level, British comedy was an end-of-the-pier kind of affair - but through sheer talent and force of personality, Connolly ploughed a different and deeply personal yet universal approach to comedy and in doing so he changed the face of British comedy forever.

He has been called the Beatles and Jesus of comedy by his peers and an immature 'manure mouth' by the leader of the Scottish Zion Baptist Church. So say what you like about him, but you can't deny everyone wants to know him. And that is what Made In Scotland is about - it is Billy as you have never seen him before - intimate, deeply personal and very funny.

Weaved around personal accounts and interviews from famous faces, Billy's life is revealed in all its glory - a shaggy dog story approach to his work - and one that has turned him from Billy Connolly the welder into Billy Connolly - The Big Yin.

This final instalment (featuring Eddie Izzard, Ross Noble, Micky Flanagan, AL Kennedy, Tracey Ullman, Val McDermid, Sharleen Spiteri and Eddi Reader) finds Billy back in the Scotland of his childhood, where he reveals that knitted woolly swimming trunks were not a figment of his imagination.


SUN 02:20 The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside (m00080yb)
Series 1

Going with the Flow

As the March Brexit deadline looms, the Eurotunnel teams at both ends of the channel tunnel are on a mission to keep everything moving: getting dog owners home after Crufts, keeping trucks moving despite strikes at French customs, and making sure the trains keep circulating, no matter what, on the world’s busiest and biggest trainset. We see inside Eurotunnel’s mission control centre, a lair any Bond villain would be proud of. And we meet the appropriately named Tash Speed, one of the company’s newest train drivers, who’s already earned the nickname Two Stop Tash for her daily habit of stopping the train just a little too soon. Meanwhile, the once-every-seven-year fan refurbishments at either end of the tunnel are under way. Airflow through the service tunnel, between the two running tunnels, is essential. Without it no trains will run. We find out why high-pressure air has to keep pumping, and how the giant fans at Sangatte in France and Samphire Hoe in England, get overhauled. And why, on the English side, the workers need a good head for heights. Finally, as Brexit rumbles on and deadlines approach and pass, we find out how the tunnel has prepared for the dreaded No Deal Scenario. Is the tunnel really ready?


SUN 02:50 The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside (m00086zf)
Series 1

At the Double

With up to 400 trains a day running on its 62 miles of track, the channel tunnel is the busiest railway system in the world. And doing things at the double is key to its success. Two countries built it. There are two terminals. And there is duplication at both ends. This programme shows how teams of two work on both sides of the channel to keep tourists and truckers moving. But how will preparations for Brexit affect such a well-oiled system of twinning and duplication, finely tuned over 25 years? How will the freight teams cope when car drivers end up in the wrong lanes? How do French cakes keep English teams in shape for handling the kind of chaos that ensues when trucks collide with trains? And is it true that no one chocks better than a channel tunnel chocker?

This episode also explores why two tunnels are better than one. And, although water and electricity are not a good combination, the film follows the catenary team every step of the way as they fix the overhead cables in the 'wet area' of the tunnel. There is also a driver’s eye view of the giant crossover doors that link one tunnel to another in the biggest undersea cave ever built. And the team meet Maurice, the charismatic tunnel travelling bulldog.



MONDAY 03 JANUARY 2022

MON 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vlh5)
Series 12

Oxford to Abingdon

Michael Portillo strikes out on another series of railway journeys, this time through Britain between the world wars, armed with his 1930s Bradshaw’s guide.

He begins with a tour of the Home Counties and beyond, starting in the city of dreaming spires, Oxford, where in 1921 women were awarded degrees for the first time. At Somerville College, Michael finds out about a pioneering crystallographer, Dorothy Hodgkin, the only British woman to win a Nobel prize for chemistry.

Soaking up the glorious sights of the city, Michael is tempted by a fashion trend that reached its height during the interwar period: Oxford bags. At Walters & Co, founded in 1925, he finds just the ticket.

At Garsington Manor, on the outskirts of the city, Michael discovers the risqué activities of a social set centred on the house's owner, Lady Ottoline Morrell, and famous artists and writers of the Bloomsbury Group. Tales of bohemian behaviour, nude frolicking and revelry in the beautiful manorial gardens turned heads as Britain buckled down in the face of impending war with Germany.

Next stop is Culham, en route for Abingdon, where from 1929 the iconic British sports car, the MG, was built. Michael hears about the origins of one of the nation’s best-loved marques and joins the proud owner of a 1938 MG VA for a spin.


MON 19:30 Winter Walks (m000qfrw)
Series 1

Selina Scott

The sound of the countryside fills the air as broadcaster and author Selina Scott enjoys a gentle walk around Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales. Exploring quaint villages, magical waterways and breathtaking landscapes, Selina offers her personal take on this special corner of the Dales.

Filming herself and all that is around her on a 360-degree camera, Selina wanders through the countryside, often deep in thought and stopping only to chat, recite poetry and reflect.

Along the way, she learns of extraordinary philanthropy, meets walkers and a fisherman, and ends her journey drinking local ale in a pub famed for ferret racing.

Filmed in February 2020 before Covid restrictions were introduced.


MON 20:00 Fake or Fortune? (b0612kxh)
Series 4

Lowry

Art detectives Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould return for a brand new series, starting with an investigation into three small pictures by one of Britain's best-loved modern artists - LS Lowry.

Stephen Ames, a Cheshire property developer, has a problem - he's inherited three small oil paintings believed to be by Laurence Stephen Lowry, an artist renowned for his scenes of northern life, but he doesn't have any proof. All he knows is that they were bought by his father Gerald, a self-made businessman with a passion for art, in the early 70s.

The trouble for Stephen is that LS Lowry is probably the most faked British artist, his deceptively simple style of painting making him a soft target for forgers. As a result, the art market has become very wary of newly discovered Lowry works. If he can't find evidence in favour of the pictures, they are worthless.

As they hunt for proof with the assistance of specialist art researcher Dr Bendor Grosvenor, the team encounter unexpected obstacles and extraordinary coincidences, culminating in a groundbreaking scientific discovery that challenges everything we thought we knew about Lowry the artist. But is it enough to prove that the pictures are genuine?


MON 21:00 Art on the BBC (m001348j)
Series 2

The Great Salvador Dali

Art historian David Dibosa examines six decades of BBC archive material to create a television history of Salvador Dali. Often called art's greatest showman and the world's first celebrity artist, Dali shamelessly used TV to promote his art and himself. Dali's striking, dreamlike images made his name synonymous with surrealism, and he shocked the world through film, fashion, sculpture and architecture.

In this account, David hunts through dozens of BBC programmes to try to understand the real Salvador Dali, not just the more familiar eccentric show-off. Taking in films presented down the decades by Robert Hughes, Sister Wendy and Philippa Perry, David's rich dive into the archives, including Dali’s own films, reveals how our understanding of the artist has changed dramatically over the years.

Whatever the era, Dali has always been important to programme makers – so much so that on BBC Four’s launch night in 2002, one of the broadcasts was a star-studded and surreal comic exploration of Dali's early career, featuring Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas and Ewen Bremner. David also delves into Dali's fractured relationship with the surrealists and his own family, and his life-long passion for his wife Gala, who was the engine behind his later career and helped him take America by storm.


MON 22:00 How to Be a Surrealist with Philippa Perry (b08l6qd8)
Melting clocks, lobster telephones - the perplexing images of surrealist art are instantly recognisable to millions. But for psychotherapist Philippa Perry the radical ideas which inspired the original artists are often overlooked. In this film, Philippa takes us on a playful journey into the unconscious to discover the deep roots of surrealism in the political upheavals of 1920s Europe and new ways of understanding the human psyche.

Among her surrealist adventures, Philippa sets up her own Bureau of Surrealist Research on the streets of Paris and invites members of the public to tell her their dreams, she uncovers the role of women in the surrealism movement and has a go at being an artist's muse herself, rolls up her sleeves to try some surrealist techniques with art critic Adrian Searle, and puts on a screening of Dalí and Buñuel 's famous film Un Chien Andalou for a group of unsuspecting art students.


MON 23:00 Life of a Mountain (m000rpmf)
A Year on Helvellyn

This spectacular film features a year in the life of the Lake District National Park’s most popular peak, Helvellyn. Three years in the making, award-winning film-maker Terry Abraham’s photography captures the beauty of the Lakeland fells and wildlife through the seasons and the insights of those that live by, care for and visit the mountain.

Sharing their wide-ranging expertise and passion for the peak, the film’s contributors create a picture of Helvellyn that combines nature, adventure sports, art, survival and history, and features an exhilarating RAF low-level fighter plane flight through its stunning and much-loved landscape.

This is the final instalment in Terry Abraham’s popular Lake District trilogy. His other two films feature Scafell Pike and Blencathra.


MON 00:30 Winter Walks (m000qfrw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 01:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vlh5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 01:30 Art on the BBC (m001348j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


MON 02:30 Fake or Fortune? (b0612kxh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]



TUESDAY 04 JANUARY 2022

TUE 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vljb)
Series 12

Stoke Mandeville to Beaconsfield

Michael Portillo continues his travels through England's Home Counties at Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire, where he discovers the legacy of a German Jewish doctor who fled the Nazis to settle in Britain. Dr Ludwig Guttman’s pioneering treatment for spinal injuries sustained on the battlefields of World War II eventually led to what we know today as the Paralympics. European wheelchair basketball silver medallist Ella Beaumont invites Michael to train with her in a wheelchair.

Michael heads through the Chiltern Hills to Princes Risborough, where an infamous motor sports event took place until it was banned in 1925. Michael joins local petrolheads who have recently revived the Kop Hill climb, now with 21st-century health and safety. Michael braves the ascent in a side car.

In one of the most densely wooded areas of England, Michael discovers a beautiful factory that has produced design classics since its foundation in 1920. The grandson of the company’s Italian founder tells Michael about the origins and success of the Ercol brand, and Michael finds out how the furniture is crafted today.

Beaconsfield beckons to Michael’s delight, as he revisits his much-loved childhood haunt, Bekonscot Model Village. With this miniature world frozen in time in the 1930s, he could wish for no better guide than his 1936 Bradshaw’s.


TUE 19:30 Winter Walks (m000qftx)
Series 1

Lemn Sissay

The picture-perfect setting of Cumbria’s Dentdale is the location for Lemn Sissay’s breathtaking journey into a world of snow-capped hills, blue skies and birdsong.

Starting high on the moorlands above Dent village, and carrying a 360-degree camera, Lemn walks along ancient drovers’ roads and the old postman’s path, with breathtaking winter views in every direction. Meeting locals, including a farmer who collects vintage tractors and a lone bagpiper, Lemn is inspired by the landscape and reflects on the power of being immersed in nature.

After a challenging climb to England’s highest mainline train station, Dent, Lemn reflects that he must find time to walk and explore the countryside more.

Filmed in March 2020 before Covid restrictions were introduced.


TUE 20:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b018jr9s)
Series 1

The Christening

Sitcom about a snobbish housewife and her long-suffering husband. Hyacinth quite enjoys a family christening - except when it is Daisy's family.


TUE 20:30 One Foot in the Grave (b007bbl2)
Series 2

Timeless Time

Victor is unable to sleep, and things get so desperate that he contemplates opening Ronnie and Mildred's Christmas present from last year.


TUE 21:00 Timeshift (b04c36md)
Series 14

Killer Storms and Cruel Winters: The History of Extreme Weather

If you think Britain has recently been on the end of some of the worst floods and storms ever experienced, think again. So says solar scientist Dr Lucie Green, as she takes a journey back through our most turbulent and dramatic weather history.

She finds an 18th-century storm surge that killed over a thousand people working in open Somerset fields, a hurricane that drowned a fifth of the British Navy and winters so bitter that the country came close to total shutdown. But she also explores how our reactions to killer storms and cruel winters helped forge a weather science that today allows us to predict - and protect ourselves from - the worst extremes.


TUE 22:00 Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History (b03knrvm)
Home Waters to High Seas

Shipwrecks are the nightmare we have forgotten - the price Britain paid for ruling the waves from an island surrounded by treacherous rocks. The result is a coastline that is home to the world's highest concentration of sunken ships. But shipwrecks also changed the course of British history, helped shape our national character and drove innovations in seafaring technology, as well as gripping our imagination.

In this three-part series, maritime historian Dr Sam Willis looks at how and why the shipwreck came to loom so large. He begins with the embarrassing story of the top-heavy Mary Rose, the freak wrecking of the Spanish Armada and the terrifying real-life disasters at sea that inspired two of the greatest of all castaway tales - Shakespeare's The Tempest and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.


TUE 23:00 Timewatch (b0078w1y)
2004-2005

The Killer Wave of 1607

At 9am on 20 January 1607, a massive wave devastated the counties of the Bristol Channel. It came without warning, sweeping all before it. The flooding stretched inland as far as the Glastonbury Tor. Two hundred square miles of Somerset, Devon, Glamorganshire and Monmouthshire were inundated. Up to 2,000 people died. Yet for 400 years, the killer wave of 1607 has been forgotten. Timewatch relives the terror and the human tragedy of 1607 and follows the research of two scientists who are increasingly convinced that the wave was not simply a freak storm but a tsunami.


TUE 23:50 The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside (m0008dpr)
Series 1

The Initial Idea

Eurotunnel teams have a quarter of a century’s worth of experience in getting cars and lorries onto trains. It all hinges on a finely tuned system using letters to send the right vehicles to right trains. But when pre-Brexit passport checks cause slow coaches, how will the allocation team in Folkestone keep the endless stream of half-term holiday traffic flowing?

Meanwhile, with the 25th anniversary well under way, there is some extreme painting going on at both ends of the tunnel: two giant murals that will somehow link to each other across the sea. But how will the
painters work around the tunnel entrance when the trains never stop running? Inside the tunnel, those high-speed trains are being slowed down by the air they push in front of them. And the only way to relieve the pressure is with tubes connecting one tunnel to another. So how do those tubes work and what happens when they need to be repaired? Plus we take a trip on the catenary team’s revolutionary new camera van that will transform the way they look for faults and we meet the Tottenham and Liverpool fans heading to Madrid for the Champion’s League final.


TUE 00:20 The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside (m0008ls4)
Series 1

What Goes Around…

After 25 years in business, Eurotunnel is at a junction, with many of its staff facing retirement and new recruits being drafted in. And the next batch of wannabe shuttle drivers has just arrived for the first round of testing. The tests, however, are ruthless, with a 90% fail rate, so who will make it through?

Meanwhile the passenger comings and goings never stop and the summer is the busiest time of all, with super cars arriving in convoy for the Le Mans 24 hour race. But as the French step up their passport controls, and the screens jam at the Terminal Control Centre, will the supercars make it to France on time?

We also find out how the teams cope with “no tarmac day”, the busiest day of the year, when the schools break up and 10,200 cars head for the tunnel. Then we take a rollercoaster ride through the tunnel with train drivers Tash and Steve, who show us why the undersea geology makes the tunnel bend.

Inside the world’s biggest train shed in Calais, we see how maintenance teams keep the locomotives running. Back in Folkestone, we meet the UK team hard at work in the slightly smaller UK shed. Why do they love sheds? How come they don’t want to retire? And why is it that some of the staff are more concerned with Pexit than Brexit?


TUE 00:50 Winter Walks (m000qftx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 01:20 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vljb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


TUE 01:50 Timeshift (b04c36md)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 02:50 Art on the BBC (m001348j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]



WEDNESDAY 05 JANUARY 2022

WED 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vlmh)
Series 12

West Ruislip to Windsor

Michael Portillo heads for leafy Hatch End, where he investigates an illustrator whose work was so popular in the 1920s and 30s that his name entered the English dictionary. William Heath Robinson’s great-nephew talks Michael through some of the mad contraptions the artist used to satirise technology.

Michael’s next stop is Slough, where after World War I, three businessmen established a world first: an out-of-town trading estate with rail connections, power, water and premises. Today, 350 businesses operate from there, and its success has been replicated across the world. Michael meets one long-standing customer, Mars, who have been manufacturing their chocolate bars in Slough since 1932.

Close by, in Stoke Poges, Michael visits a very different 1930s landmark, a unique and beautiful memorial garden comprising woodlands, rockeries and fountains. The Head Gardener enlists Michael’s help to plant a yew tree.

From Slough, Michael makes tracks along the short branch line, which serves two towns, Windsor and Eton Central. At Windsor, Michael surveys the great walls of the castle, chief residence of the British monarch and the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. He looks back at the tumultuous events within those walls, when in 1936, King Edward VIII renounced the throne to marry an American divorcee.


WED 19:30 Winter Walks (m000qd6r)
Series 1

Simon Armitage

A coastal walk is the setting for Poet Laureate Simon Armitage's ramble along Yorkshire’s enchanting and historic frontier with the North Sea.

Starting in Ravenscar, Simon Armitage takes the old Cinder Track - a disused railway line. Carrying a 360-degree camera, he passes former quarries and brickworks before taking a beach walk from Boggle Hole to the picture-perfect Robin Hood’s Bay.

Simon witnesses at first hand the impact of coastal erosion and meets farmers and locals living and working by the sea. He ends his journey with a seaside pint of local ale.

Filmed in January 2020 before Covid restrictions were introduced.


WED 20:00 Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise (b08bg31f)
The Mysterious North

Northern Thailand is dominated by mountains and cloaked in forest. It hides ancient creatures and surprising partnerships. To survive here, both the wildlife and people rely on maintaining the natural harmony of the mysterious north.


WED 21:00 The Windermere Children (m000dtcz)
August, 1945. A coachload of children arrive at the Calgarth Estate by Lake Windermere. They are child survivors of the Nazi Holocaust that has devastated Europe’s Jewish population. Carrying only the clothes they wear and a few meagre possessions, they bear the emotional and physical scars of all they have suffered.

Charged with looking after them is Oscar Friedmann, a German-born child psychologist. He and his team of counsellors have just four months to help the children reclaim their lives. By the lake, in sunshine and rain the children eat, learn English, play football and ride bikes. They yearn for news of their loved ones every day, and meanwhile they are invited to express their trauma through painting. Some locals taunt them but they are embraced by others. A number of the older children steal and they are haunted by nightmares. Nevertheless, it is in this environment that they begin to heal.

Eventually, letters from The Red Cross arrive with the terrible confirmation that for nearly all the children's siblings and parents have been murdered. One child, however, is convinced that his brother survived.

The Windermere Children is the stark, moving and ultimately redemptive story of the bonds they make with one another, and of how the friendships forged at Windermere become a lifeline to a fruitful future. In the absence of relatives, they find family in each other.


WED 22:30 The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words (m000dt7g)
The story of the pioneering project to rehabilitate child survivors of the Holocaust on the shores of Lake Windermere. In the year that marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust, this powerful documentary, which accompanies the BBC Two drama, The Windermere Children, reveals a little-known story of 300 young orphaned Jewish refugees, who began new lives in England’s Lake District in the summer of 1945.

With compelling testimony from some of the last living Holocaust survivors, the film explores an extraordinary success story that emerged from the darkest of times, all beginning with the arrival of ten Stirling bombers carrying the 300 children from Prague to Carlisle on 14 August 1945. The survivor interviews include extraordinary first-hand accounts of both their wartime experiences, separation from their families and the horrors they experienced, but also their wonder at arriving in Britain and their lives thereafter.

The children hailed from very different backgrounds, including rural Poland, metropolitan Warsaw Czechoslovakia and Berlin. Some had grown up in poverty, others in middle-class comfort. Their rehabilitation in England was organised by one charity, the Central British Fund (CBF). Leonard Montefiore, a prominent Jewish philanthropist, used his pre-war experience of the Kindertransport and successfully lobbied the British government to agree to allow up to 1,000 young Jewish concentration camp survivors into Britain. It was decided that the first 300 children would be brought from the liberated camp of Theresienstadt to Britain. And serendipitously, empty accommodation was found on the shores of Lake Windermere in a defunct factory. During the war, it had built seaplanes, but after D-Day the factory was closed, and the workers’ accommodation stood empty. With space to house them and in a truly beautiful setting, it was to prove the perfect location for these traumatised children.

The CBF, however, was in uncharted territory. A project to mass-rehabilitate a group of traumatised children had never been attempted before. But in the idyllic setting of Windermere and with just the right team assembled, the children were given the chance to unlearn the survival techniques they’d picked up in the camps. With the freedom to ride bikes, play football, learn English, socialise with local teenagers and swim in the lake, they began to come to terms with the horrors they had experienced and the fact that their mothers, fathers and siblings had perished.

Despite the fact that the UK government initially only offered two-year temporary visas, with strict immigration policies enforced in other countries and without families to return to, it soon became clear that there was nowhere else for most of the children to go. Many of the 300 stayed in the UK for their entire lives, becoming British citizens and raising children of their own.

Now, 75 years later, the close friendships that were forged in Windermere remain and many consider each other as family. Reflecting on the survivors’ lives after Windermere, the film includes touching home movie footage and remarkable success stories, like Sir Ben Helfgott’s incredible weightlifting career, representing Britain at the 1956 Olympics, only eleven years after arriving in the UK. The documentary also tells the story of the charity they formed, the 45Aid society. With footage of their annual reunions, the documentary gives a sense of the generations of families who all trace their British beginnings to Windermere.


WED 23:30 Life of a Mountain (b08f1cc0)
A Year on Blencathra

The sequel to Life of a Mountain: Scafell Pike sees award-winning film-maker Terry Abraham return to the Lake District to showcase 'the people's mountain' - Blencathra.

This spectacular documentary looks at the lives of local residents, schoolchildren and visitors to the mountain with contributions from comedian Ed Byrne, broadcaster Stuart Maconie, mountaineer Alan Hinkes OBE and record-breaking fell runner Steve Birkinshaw.

Abraham's breathtaking photography and stunning time-lapse sequences of this unique landscape will inspire newcomers and regular visitors alike.


WED 00:30 Winter Walks (m000qd6r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 01:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vlmh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 01:30 Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise (b08bg31f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:30 Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History (b03knrvm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]



THURSDAY 06 JANUARY 2022

THU 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vlpk)
Series 12

Guildford to Aldershot

Michael Portillo resumes his tour of the Home Counties in the picturesque and historic county town of Guildford. His 1936 Bradshaw’s guide commends its 'fine old castle keep' and guildhall but makes no mention of its hilltop cathedral. Michael meets head guide Janet Matthews to discover the origins of the first Anglican cathedral to be built on a new site in the south of England since the Reformation – begun in 1936. He finds splendid architecture and modern materials have combined to produce a gloriously open building full of space and light. Michael climbs its 160 foot tower for a panoramic view of Surrey.

Michael’s next stop is Chilworth, from which he follows his guide to Newlands Corner on the slopes of the North Downs. At this popular beauty spot, the famous crime writer Agatha Christie disappeared, sparking a massive search and a tabloid frenzy. A Christie biographer pieces the puzzle together for Michael.

Heading west across the county, Michael reaches the Georgian market town of Farnham with its 12th-century castle, once home to the bishops of Winchester. Intrigued by his Bradshaw’s reference to a famous Farnham painter, WH Allen, Michael joins the artist’s great-great-niece in the castle’s splendid gardens to learn more about him. A kind Farnham artist encourages Michael to commit the castle to canvas in his own way.

After a luxurious night at the castle, Michael crosses into Hampshire to reach Aldershot. At the home of the British Army, he hears how in the years leading up to the World War II, the town began to receive conscripts for military training.


THU 19:30 Winter Walks (m000qfw1)
Series 1

Richard Coles

The North York Moors provide a picturesque setting for Reverend Richard Coles on a winter walk through this historic landscape. Departing from the iconic Sutton Bank with its panoramic views, Richard takes the viewer across countryside shaped by centuries of change marked by conflict, mining and religion.

Armed with his handheld 360-degree camera, Richard finds inspiration in the sights and sounds of his walk. Along the way, he shares his
personal reflections.

Finishing at Rievaulx Abbey, Richard guides the viewer around the ruins with thoughtful comment. This was once the site of one of England’s most powerful Cistercian monasteries. Richard ends his journey talking of the need for silent contemplation.

Filmed in February 2020 before Covid restrictions were introduced.


THU 20:00 The Sound of Music (b007bgf8)
Classic film version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical. Irrepressible Maria begins to doubt her vocation and leaves her convent to become governess to the seven children of Captain von Trapp, a widower and retired naval officer. She soon turns the captain's orderly life upside down and instils a love of music in the children. Then the Third Reich annexes Austria...


THU 22:45 Viva Las Vegas (b0078tvq)
Lucky Jackson needs money to get an engine good enough to enter his car into the Vegas Grand Prix. He earns the money working as a waiter but loses it again and has to enter the hotel talent contest. His opponent in the contest is the beautiful hotel swimming instructor Rusty Martin. Lucky doesn't just want to win the money; he wants to win her heart.


THU 00:10 ...Sings Elvis (b00pqcg3)
2011 marked the 75th anniversary of Elvis Presley's birth and was celebrated by a host of performances by artists covering the King's classic songs culled from the BBC archives.

Some of Britain's biggest stars were introduced to rock n roll as teenagers via their idol Elvis, and Cliff Richard, Paul McCartney, Tom Jones and John Cale all pay their tribute. The original songwriters of some of Elvis's greatest hits perform their own versions of classic tracks, including Carl Perkins singing Blue Suede Shoes and Mac Davis doing In the Ghetto.

Other artists paying homage from across five decades include The Deep River Boys, the Stylistics, Boy George, Alison Moyet, Pet Shop Boys and Robbie Williams. There will be jumpsuits, pelvic thrusts, brilliant tunes ... and Glen Campbell's Elvis impersonation.


THU 01:10 Winter Walks (m000qfw1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 01:40 Great British Railway Journeys (m000vlpk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 02:10 The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words (m000dt7g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 on Wednesday]



FRIDAY 07 JANUARY 2022

FRI 19:00 Sounds of the Seventies (b00lydy0)
Shorts

The Moody Blues, The Faces and David Bowie

Three vintage rock performances from the BBC archives, featuring The Moody Blues, The Faces and David Bowie originally recorded for It's Lulu, Sounds for Saturday and the Old Grey Whistle Test.


FRI 19:10 The Shirley Bassey Show (m001349k)
Series 1

Episode 1

Shirley Bassey stars in the first of her 1970s series of entertainment shows for the BBC. Her guests are The Three Degrees, Charles Aznavour and The Shirley Bassey Dancers, choreographed by Nigel Lythgoe.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m001349m)
Mark Franklin and Claudia Simon present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 9 January 1992 and featuring Queen, The Sugarcubes, Isotonik, Kym Sims, Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, The Stone Roses and Senseless Things.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m001349p)
Mark Franklin and Steve Anderson present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 23 January 1992 and featuring 2 Unlimited, Shakespears Sister, Curtis Stigers, Genesis, Kylie Minogue, Public Enemy, Mariah Carey and Wet Wet Wet.


FRI 21:00 Electric Proms (b00nn7vx)
2009

Dame Shirley Bassey

Trevor Nelson and Edith Bowman present highlights of Dame Shirley Bassey's special performance for the BBC Electric Proms from London's Roundhouse.

The British icon performs a set packed with classic tracks like Big Spender and Goldfinger and the premieres of songs from her album The Performance, produced by Bond composer David Arnold.

In her first major show after Glastonbury 2007, and her only live show in 2009, Dame Shirley is joined on stage by the BBC Concert Orchestra, with guest appearances by album collaborators David Arnold, James Dean Bradfield from Manic Street Preachers, singer-songwriter Tom Baxter and Sheffield crooner Richard Hawley.


FRI 22:00 Shirley Bassey: I Am What I Am (m001349r)
In a documentary almost as revealing as her dresses,
Shirley Bassey talks about her work and its cost to her family life.

'Success ruins your personal life and relationships, especially for a woman... [it] broke up my marriage and it didn't help my children any,' she says. She also talks about how, after the tragic death of her youngest daughter, she broke down on stage in front of an audience of 10,000 fans. 'There was an anger there and a guilt and I didn't give myself time enough to grieve.'

Filmed in London, Cardiff and Monte Carlo, the documentary includes interviews with some of the star's friends and associates, including her daughter Sharon, her musical director and costume designer. It also gives viewers the chance to peek into Shirley's wardrobe and see some of her most glittering and glamorous gowns.


FRI 22:50 David Bowie: Five Years (b0214tj1)
An intimate portrait of five key years in David Bowie's career. Featuring a wealth of previously unseen archive this film looks at how Bowie continually evolved, from Ziggy Stardust to the soul star of Young Americans and the 'Thin White Duke'. It explores his regeneration in Berlin with the critically acclaimed album Heroes, his triumph with Scary Monsters and his global success with Let's Dance. With interviews with all his closest collaborators, this film investigates how Bowie became an icon of our times.


FRI 00:20 TOTP2 (m000k4c0)
David Bowie

A special compilation of David Bowie's performances on Top of the Pops.


FRI 00:50 Top of the Pops (m001349m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 01:20 Top of the Pops (m001349p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


FRI 01:50 Electric Proms (b00nn7vx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:45 Shirley Bassey: I Am What I Am (m001349r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]




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

...Sings Elvis 00:10 THU (b00pqcg3)

Anything Goes: The Musical 21:00 SUN (m0012y8y)

Art on the BBC 21:00 MON (m001348j)

Art on the BBC 01:30 MON (m001348j)

Art on the BBC 02:50 TUE (m001348j)

BBC Proms 19:00 SUN (m000ypjn)

Billy Connolly: Made in Scotland 00:20 SUN (b0bwzhy6)

Billy Connolly: Made in Scotland 01:20 SUN (b0bwzw0f)

David Bowie: Five Years 22:50 FRI (b0214tj1)

Electric Proms 21:00 FRI (b00nn7vx)

Electric Proms 01:50 FRI (b00nn7vx)

Fake or Fortune? 20:00 MON (b0612kxh)

Fake or Fortune? 02:30 MON (b0612kxh)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:00 MON (m000vlh5)

Great British Railway Journeys 01:00 MON (m000vlh5)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:00 TUE (m000vljb)

Great British Railway Journeys 01:20 TUE (m000vljb)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:00 WED (m000vlmh)

Great British Railway Journeys 01:00 WED (m000vlmh)

Great British Railway Journeys 19:00 THU (m000vlpk)

Great British Railway Journeys 01:40 THU (m000vlpk)

How Auld Lang Syne Took Over the World 00:30 SAT (b03nh35t)

How to Be a Surrealist with Philippa Perry 22:00 MON (b08l6qd8)

Inspector Montalbano 22:00 SAT (m000ng77)

Keeping Up Appearances 20:00 TUE (b018jr9s)

Life of a Mountain 23:00 MON (m000rpmf)

Life of a Mountain 23:30 WED (b08f1cc0)

New Year's Day Concert 19:00 SAT (m001347y)

One Foot in the Grave 20:30 TUE (b007bbl2)

Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History 22:00 TUE (b03knrvm)

Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History 02:30 WED (b03knrvm)

Shirley Bassey: I Am What I Am 22:00 FRI (m001349r)

Shirley Bassey: I Am What I Am 02:45 FRI (m001349r)

Sounds of the Seventies 19:00 FRI (b00lydy0)

TOTP2 01:30 SAT (m000qpmv)

TOTP2 00:20 FRI (m000k4c0)

Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise 20:00 WED (b08bg31f)

Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise 01:30 WED (b08bg31f)

The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside 02:20 SUN (m00080yb)

The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside 02:50 SUN (m00086zf)

The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside 23:50 TUE (m0008dpr)

The Channel Tunnel – Life on the Inside 00:20 TUE (m0008ls4)

The Shirley Bassey Show 19:10 FRI (m001349k)

The Sound of Music 20:00 THU (b007bgf8)

The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words 22:30 WED (m000dt7g)

The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words 02:10 THU (m000dt7g)

The Windermere Children 21:00 WED (m000dtcz)

Timeshift 23:50 SAT (m000l9v7)

Timeshift 23:20 SUN (b00nrtj6)

Timeshift 21:00 TUE (b04c36md)

Timeshift 01:50 TUE (b04c36md)

Timewatch 23:00 TUE (b0078w1y)

Top of the Pops 20:00 FRI (m001349m)

Top of the Pops 20:30 FRI (m001349p)

Top of the Pops 00:50 FRI (m001349m)

Top of the Pops 01:20 FRI (m001349p)

Ultimate Number Ones 21:00 SAT (b01nwfxv)

Ultimate Number Ones 02:15 SAT (b01nwfxv)

Viva Las Vegas 22:45 THU (b0078tvq)

Winter Walks 19:30 MON (m000qfrw)

Winter Walks 00:30 MON (m000qfrw)

Winter Walks 19:30 TUE (m000qftx)

Winter Walks 00:50 TUE (m000qftx)

Winter Walks 19:30 WED (m000qd6r)

Winter Walks 00:30 WED (m000qd6r)

Winter Walks 19:30 THU (m000qfw1)

Winter Walks 01:10 THU (m000qfw1)