MONDAY 30 MAY 2022

MON 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000wgs1)
Series 13

Hampstead to Islington

Michael’s Bradshaw’s-inspired rail tour of London continues in Hampstead, where shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, a groundbreaking Jewish doctor found refuge. Sigmund Freud fled the Austrian capital of Vienna by train to escape the Nazis, who branded his work degenerate. Michael hears how the father of psychoanalysis was warmly welcomed in London and sees the famous couch, upon which patients would lie to recount their dreams.

In St John’s Wood, Michael discovers how Britain went on record between the wars at the Abbey Road Studios. He is amazed by the cavernous space in which Sir Edward Elgar and the London Symphony Orchestra played at the grand opening ceremony in 1931, and he's awed by the list of famous names to follow their lead, topped by the Beatles, who immortalised Abbey Road on an album cover. A young violinist brings Studio 2 to life with a tribute to Elgar.

At the Boot pub in Bloomsbury, Michael hears that, during the late 1920s, the National Darts Association set up its headquarters here. The popularity of the game was soaring, and Michael is surprised to hear who delivered a royal boost.

And in Finsbury, Michael learns how a Russian emigre, Berthold Lubetkin, shaped the architecture of the area with bold ideas and socialist principles. Michael visits the extraordinary Finsbury Health Centre, built a decade before the NHS, and tours the innovative and sculptural housing development Bevin Court.


MON 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.


MON 20:00 Earth from Space (p072n8m0)
Series 1

Changing Planet

Cameras in space tell stories of life on our planet from a brand new perspective. At a time when the Earth’s surface is changing faster than ever in human history, watch cities grow, forest disappear and glaciers melt. In the ever-growing grey of cities one man is feeding thousands of parakeets; in Sumatra a female orang-utan and her daughter face life in a forest under threat; while in Tanzania local people use satellites to replant a forest, securing the future for a family of chimpanzees. This is our home as we’ve never seen it before.


MON 21:00 New Elizabethans with Andrew Marr (p07xsk95)
Series 1

Building a New Society

Andrew Marr examines the way Britain went from a rigid, deferential, hierarchical, patriarchal and class-obsessed society in the 1950s toward a more liberal, inclusive, egalitarian society in the latter part of the Queen’s reign. It is the story of the permissive society, of changing attitudes toward homosexuality, sexuality, gender and race, of a breaking down of class barriers and the growing equality won by women in the workplace.

But it isn’t an unfettered story of positivity and progress. Many liberties have been won at a cost and in the face of fierce criticism. This programme takes in both sides of that debate: the liberal victories of the ‘permissive society’ as well as the ferocious backlash of middle England at the perceived erosion of family values.

It is a film that delves into some unexpected stories – all of which shine a light on a society in flux. Andrew sees how Nancy Mitford’s light-hearted guide to the difference between upper-class and vulgar language sounded the death knell of an old world. He sees how a former cavalry officer, who reported the conquest of Everest by Hillary and Tenzing in 1953, proved a harbinger of perhaps the most radical change of the era as James Morris became Jan Morris - historian, journalist and a pioneering transgender role model for the new Elizabethan age.

Andrew also looks at the divergent lives of two women who made us confront our attitudes to gender, sexuality and power - movie starlet Diana Dors and wannabe movie starlet Ruth Ellis, who achieved fame of a completely different kind. And Andrew also sees how social upheaval – breaking class barriers and social/sexual taboos alike – was championed in Westminster by the likes of Roy Jenkins, reflected on our television screens and theatres by performers like Graham Chapman and rejected in the heart of middle England by moral crusaders like Mary Whitehouse.


MON 22:00 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.


MON 23:00 Timeshift (b0105r8x)
Series 10

Crime and Punishment: The Story of Capital Punishment

Timeshift digs into the archive to trace the extraordinary story of the ultimate sanction. At the beginning of the 19th century you could still be hanged in Britain for offences such as stealing a sheep or shooting a rabbit. Even children as young as seven were sent to the gallows. The last hanging in this country took place as recently as 1964.

By opting for a dispassionate history rather than staging the usual polarised debate, the programme breaks new ground with its fascinating attention to detail, such as the protocols of the public execution or the 'science' of hanging. With contributions from both sides of the argument, it provides an essential guide to a subject that still divides us.


MON 00:00 Handmade: By Royal Appointment (b07g9q28)
John Lobb Shoes

In the shadow of St James's Palace is the workshop of shoemakers John Lobb. Since the mid-19th century, they have handcrafted shoes for gentlemen and boast royal warrants from both the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales. It's a rare heritage company still run by the original family and this film follows a day in the life of the shoemakers, who use methods that have barely changed since the company was founded. From pencilled outlines on brown paper to the cutting and stitching of leather, heels hammered on soles to the final polishing, the film follows the meticulous craft process and hears from the shoemakers themselves, many of whom have spent decades working for the company.


MON 00:30 Great British Railway Journeys (m000wgs1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 01:00 Coastal Path (b07qb61p)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 01:30 Earth from Space (p072n8m0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 02:30 New Elizabethans with Andrew Marr (p07xsk95)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]