SATURDAY 04 JUNE 2022

SAT 19:00 A History of Ancient Britain (b010j544)
Series 2

Age of Warriors

Continuing his journey into our ancient past, Neil Oliver explores the age of Celtic Britain - a time of warriors, druids, and kings of unimaginable wealth.

Neil encounters a celebrated warrior from 300 BC, owner of the finest Iron Age sword ever discovered. He tries his hand at divination in an effort to discover the power of Celtic priests and searches into his own DNA for clues to Celtic identity.


SAT 20:00 Rick Stein's Long Weekends (b085zmnm)
Palermo

Rick Stein's series of long weekends across Europe continues. Rick visits the fascinating city of Palermo in northern Sicily. Like a vibrant carpet, the city is patterned with echoes of Arab, north African, French, Spanish and Italian influences making its cuisine unique and irresistible. Pine nuts, raisins, almonds and golden breadcrumbs are combined with flavours of local sun-ripened tomatoes, lemons and the finest olive oil to create unforgettable dishes that just have to be replicated at back home.

Palermo is a grand city with rough edges, synonymous with Garibaldi and the setting for one of Rick's favourite novels of all time - The Leopard. He arrives just in time to see locals celebrating a festival in honour of Palermo's patron saint, Rosalia, and even gets a cookery lesson from a real-life duchess. At home, he cooks marsala chicken, a Sicilian classic served in UK bistros since the 1960s.


SAT 21:00 Lullaby (m0018364)
French film thriller. A nanny's care for her charges develops into an obsession. In French with English subtitles.


SAT 22:35 Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage (b00cjs85)
Arrivederci Venezia

Architect and historian Francesco da Mosto embarks on a journey to cross the Mediterranean Sea, retracing the trade routes of his ancestors in a clipper from the 19th century.

But before he leaves his home in Venice, there is research to do for the voyage and new skills to acquire - not least gaining the respect of the crew of the White Swan, with whom he will spend the next few months in cramped quarters and sometimes dangerous situations as he visits the greatest treasures of the Mediterranean.

Before he leaves, Francesco visits the Doge's Palace for reminders of the greatest age of Venice, when the city's empire stretched across the Mediterranean, and he marks the Redentore Festival, a fantastic night of Venetian celebrations and fireworks.


SAT 23:05 Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage (b00cjscm)
Istria and Split

Francesco and the crew of the Black Swan hit the open sea and head down the Croatian coast. The hard life of a working sailor is creating some problems for Francesco, but he is learning the ropes as best he can. His first challenge is to scale the heights of the main mast to hang the Venetian flag aloft. In spite of his best attempt to hide his fear, it's a terrifying ordeal.

Next stop is Pula and the extraordinary amphitheatre, where fights to the death were regular Roman entertainment, as well as the Temple of Augustus and the great Arch of the Sergians. Nearby, Francesco goes in search of the extraordinary fresco of the Dance of Death in the little village of Beram. But here, he has every traveller's nightmare - how do you find the villager who holds the key to the church?

Next up is a stopover at the isolated lighthouse of Porer, which has saved many a Venetian ship navigating these treacherous waters. And then to the beautiful city of Split, with its astonishing palace of Diocletian - the oldest inhabited palace in the world. Only it is not home to anyone rich or royal - after Diocletian moved on, it became home to the biggest collection of squatters a palace has ever seen. And now it is still packed to the rafters with people and their ramshackle conversions with some architectural oddities to show for it.

On the coast of Split, the trip ends with Francesco and the crew playing the oldest ball game of the region - the weird and wonderful game of Picigin, which is a cross between tennis and football, played in the sea. Francesco tries to understand the rules, but it's all Croatian to him.


SAT 23:35 Wogan: The Best Of (b05q003b)
Actors

Sir Terry Wogan remembers some memorable moments from the Wogan show. This episode features some of Britain's finest acting talents, with a cast that includes Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, Bob Hoskins, Pierce Brosnan, Christopher Lee and Kenneth Branagh. There's also music from Sting and Kate Bush.


SAT 00:20 Yes, Prime Minister (b037tb14)
Series 2

The Tangled Web

Jim unwittingly lies to the Commons about bugging an MP's phone. Sir Humphrey decides not to lie to the Privileges Committee on Jim's behalf, but then discovers that he too has something to hide.


SAT 00:50 Keeping Up Appearances (b007b6wc)
Series 3

The Art Exhibition

When Hyacinth gets passionate about art, Daddy decides to join the Foreign Legion. Meanwhile, Mr Finchley has desires of his own for Rose.


SAT 01:20 Rick Stein's Long Weekends (b085zmnm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:20 A History of Ancient Britain (b010j544)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

SUNDAY 05 JUNE 2022

SUN 19:00 Our Classical Century (b0bs6xv8)
Series 1

1918-1936

Our Classical Century brings together the greatest moments in classical music in Britain over the last 100 years in a four-part series that celebrates moments of extraordinary music ambition and excellence, deep emotion and of great pleasure, and the artists who have brought audiences this music. Over the course of the series, viewers see and hear how, over the past one hundred years, classical music has shown dazzling virtuosity and innovation, and how music provided a unifying soundtrack to the times when national identity and destiny was at stake.

Presented by Suzy Klein and Sir Lenny Henry, this first programme captures the profound influence of the First World War on our classical music - how it affected a generation of musicians and composers and how the music they created became a crucial part of the nation’s sense of identity. From the martial might of Mars in Gustav Holst’s The Planets to the pastoral beauty of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ much-loved The Lark Ascending, this film tells the story of the music which brought together the United Kingdom.

Suzy and Lenny reveal the phenomenal popularity of the musical extravaganza Hiawatha by the now relatively unknown Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and examine the enduring impact of the American Jazz Age with George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. They also look at how Hubert Parry’s wartime composition to William Blake’s poem Jerusalem became the anthem of the Suffragette movement and at how the opening of Glyndebourne saw the start of a new chapter for opera in Britain.


SUN 20:00 The Read (m0018372)
Series 1

On the Black Hill

Based on the novel published in 1982 by Bruce Chatwin, On the Black Hill is about identical twin brothers who grow up on a farm in rural Wales and never leave home. They till the rough soil and sleep in the same bed, touched only occasionally by the advances of the 20th century. By depicting the lives of Benjamin and Lewis, and their interactions with their small local community, Chatwin comments movingly on the larger questions of human experience.

On the Black Hill is a novel that portrays themes of unrequited love, sexual repression and confusion, social, religious and cultural repression, hate, and the historic social values of rural Britain.

Narrated by Callum Scott Howells and directed by Luke J Collins, the film combines a performance reading with flashback imagery.


SUN 21:00 Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (m0008rqv)
When legendary writer and adventurer Bruce Chatwin was dying of Aids, his friend and collaborator Werner Herzog made a final visit to say farewell. As a parting gift, Chatwin gave Herzog the rucksack that had accompanied him around the world.

Thirty years later, carrying the rucksack, Herzog sets out on his own journey, inspired by Chatwin’s passion for the nomadic life. Along the way, Herzog uncovers stories of lost tribes, wanderers and dreamers.

He travels to South America, where Chatwin wrote In Patagonia, the book that turned him into a literary sensation, with its enigmatic tales of dinosaurs, myths and journeys to the ends of the world. In Australia, where he and Chatwin first met, Herzog explores the sacred power of the Aboriginal traditions that inspired Chatwin’s most famous book, The Songlines. And in the UK, in the beautiful landscape of the Welsh borders, he discovers the one place Chatwin called home.

Told in Herzog’s inimitable style - full of memorable characters and encounters - this is a portrait of one of the 20th century’s most charismatic writers, which also offers a revealing insight into the imagination and obsessions of one of the 20th century’s most visionary directors.


SUN 22:30 Glastonbury (m000xh3q)
2021

I Am a Mutoid: A Glastonbury Hero

Documentary that tells the extraordinary journey of Joe Rush, Glastonbury’s 'waste alchemist' artist and the Mutoid Waste Company, his underground travelling art and party collective of wild, subversive performers, musicians and artists.

I Am a Mutoid offers a wealth of unseen archive from the Glastonbury Festival, the warehouse party scene, and art installations from London to Berlin.


SUN 23:35 Storyville (b0b9zrhb)
The Ice King: John Curry

One of the greatest ice skaters of all time, John Curry transformed a dated sport into an art form and made history by becoming the first openly gay Olympian in a time when homosexuality was not fully legal.

Directed by James Erskine, this is a searing documentary about a lost cultural icon - a story of art, sport, sexuality and rebellion. Featuring incredible unseen footage of some of Curry's most remarkable performances and with access to his letters, archive interviews, and interviews with his family, friends and collaborators, this is a portrait of the man who turned ice skating from a dated sport into an exalted art form.


SUN 01:00 Secrets of Skin (m000cdzl)
Series 1

Adaptability

Skin is an incredible, multi-function organ that science is still learning so much about. It has adapted to allow animals to conquer virtually every habitat on the planet.

In this episode, Professor Ben Garrod reveals some ground-breaking new science and amazing, specialist, factual insight as he discovers how human skin is an ecosystem in its own right, playing host to demodex mites, that might redefine our understanding of human ancestry. He explores the new science that could pave the way for re-engineering human skin on amputations to make it more robust. And he reveals how keratin, a protein that is a key component of skin and that makes up our hair and nails, has been taken to the extreme by some animals including pangolins and horses.

Skin is the body’s largest organ and all vertebrates share the same basic blue print. Adaptations in the three main layers, the epidermis, the dermis and the subcutaneous fat layers have allowed vertebrates to thrive in virtually every habitat on earth.


SUN 01:30 Our Classical Century (b0bs6xv8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 02:30 The Read (m0018372)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

MONDAY 06 JUNE 2022

MON 19:00 The 15 Billion Pound Railway (m0002jt4)
Under Pressure, Over Budget

Episode 1

With exclusive access, this returning series follows the construction workers of Crossrail as they battle to finish the final stages of the new Elizabeth Line underground railway beneath the streets of London.

Costing over fifteen billion pounds and stretching 120km across the capital, this extraordinary construction project is one of the biggest in Europe and one of the most ambitious engineering feats in Britain since the time of Brunel.

Our cameras follow the engineers, technicians and train staff who are under pressure to complete their section of the project, including building and fitting out ten brand new stations, learning to drive the new fleet of trains, and testing the 21km twin tunnels beneath London, in a bid to make it safe for the public.

We join Danny O’Connell, Crossrail’s testing manager, as he leads a critical operation to launch the very first train into the new Elizabeth Line tunnels under London. Danny is responsible for trialling and testing all aspects of the railway performance – from communications, CCTV and platform doors, to the trains, tracks and signalling systems. If Danny can’t complete all of the hundreds of tests needed to prove that it's safe and reliable, the railway won’t open on time.

We join charismatic project manager Lih-Ling Highe, who is tasked with finishing construction of the new Tottenham Court Road Station - the largest station on the entire line and future gateway to 200,000 passengers a day. Coming from a long line of engineers, construction is in Lih-Ling’s DNA - in this episode, she must lead a team fitting out the station’s three-tonne platform screen doors to prevent passengers from falling under a train.

In the financial heart of London, the Elizabeth Line’s new Canary Wharf Station looks to welcome up to 100,000 passengers a day. In charge of the station’s mechanical and electrical fit out is young engineer Felix Ahatty, whose biggest task is to transport and install three huge 10-tonne ventilation fans. Hauling them through the city at night, and then getting them down through the station levels, is a complex mission - even with the help of cranes, rail systems, and ‘hover’ pads to push it into position.

We also join new recruit Rochelle as she trains to become a driver of the new 200m-long, 90mph trains that will carry up to 200 million passengers a year. We follow Rochelle through each nail-biting step of the course - from simulator training to getting behind the wheel of a real 265-tonne train.


MON 20:00 Earth’s Tropical Islands (m000cs03)
Series 1

Madagascar

Journey across the tropical island of Madagascar and explore the unique and incredible wildlife it has to offer - from its famed lemurs to chameleons.

As the oldest island on Earth, life has had time to evolve, and there are now more unique plants and animals on Madagascar than any other island.

It was formed nearly 90 million years ago when a giant landmass split apart, and Madagascar was cast adrift from east Africa. Braving the 400-mile ocean crossing from Africa, the first castaways arrived on the arid west of the island, and were met with vast deserts.

Ring-tailed lemurs are the direct descendants of one of the very first mammals to arrive, and they are thriving despite the arid conditions. They spend up to eight hours a day foraging in the Spiny Forest. Their plant-based diet includes plants with caustic sap that would burn human skin.

When humans arrived on the west coast, they too faced the hostile desert, high temperatures and droughts that can last a year. In the village of Ampotaka, the people have learnt to use baobab trees to help them survive. The trees grow up to 30 metres high and stores vast quantities of water in their trunks. By hollowing out the inside of the trunk, the people create huge water tanks storing thousands of litres of water, which they can use when times are tough.

Tiny labord’s chameleons are unique to Madagascar and have the shortest lifespan of any land vertebrate – living for just four months. They time their hatching with the start of the rainy season when the going is good, and then the race is on for them to grow, mate and lay eggs before the dry season comes round once again.

One of the most dramatic places in Madagascar is known as the Grand Tsingy – 500 square miles of sharp limestone pinnacles sheltering small pockets of forest. To survive here, Decken’s sifakas must climb these shards of rock, sharp enough to shred human skin, and leap 30 feet between them.

A series of even higher peaks forms a mountainous spine running down the middle of Madagascar. Just a few thousand years ago, human settlers from Asia brought the skills to turn the steep mountainsides into rice paddies. By digging terraces into the slopes, even the steepest gradients can be farmed, producing more than a million tonnes of rice every year. But only if they can keep their crop safe from the devastating plagues of locusts in their billions.

Madagascar’s mountain range defines the islands’ climate. It blocks warm, wet air blown in off the Indian Ocean to the east, creating the arid deserts of the west. But keeping all this moisture to the eastern side of the island makes rainfall high there, and this creates bountiful rainforests.

Most of the island’s incredible wildlife can be found within these tropical rainforests, including tenrecs, Madagascar’s own unique version of a hedgehog. They give birth to more babies than any mammals – as many as 32 in a litter. The streaked tenrec rubs together modified spines on her back to make a squeaking noise to warn all her babies of danger.

The extraordinary pelican spider twangs the threads of an orb web spider to lure it into its giant jaws. The aye-aye is one of Madagascar’s weirdest creatures, found hunting for insect larvae at night. It uses it bizarre 9cm-long middle finger to tap tree branches for hollow bits, before scraping away the bark and deploying its super-sized finger to fish out the grubs.

Madagascar’s unique wildlife has slowly been evolving for millions of years, but since humans arrived the pace of change has been faster than many animals can cope with. As little as 20 per cent of the island’s original forest remains, and 95 per cent of lemurs are now threatened with extinction.

The greater bamboo lemur is a story of how efforts to protect Madagascar’s wildlife can save a species from being wiped out entirely. These lemurs were thought to have gone extinct, thanks to the clearance of the bamboo forests they rely on for food. The bamboo lemurs are now protected and in the last year, a record number of babies were born. Madagascar is at a critical point, but with the right efforts, there is some hope for its wildlife in the future.


MON 21:00 Nature's Turtle Nursery: Secrets from the Nest (b0b7st0z)
Nature's Turtle Nursery: Secrets from the Nest features the extraordinary natural history event of an 'arribada' - the mass nesting phenomenon of olive ridley sea turtles in Costa Rica, Central America.

Dr George McGavin joins a team of international scientists as they investigate the complete story from the moment the female turtles gather offshore, then lay their eggs, to when the next generation are born.

The programme embraces the larger conservation story of these ancient mariners and how they're adapting to our ever-changing world. And in a scientific first, the complete story inside a single turtle nest is revealed, using recent scientific discoveries and the latest technological advances. An egg-to-egg turtle talk is listened in on, adult females on their migration are tracked, and behaviour under the waves is analysed with a turtle shell-mounted camera. How tiny turtles behave as they hatch out of their shells and work together to dig upwards is also revealed.


MON 22:30 Turtle, Eagle, Cheetah: A Slow Odyssey (m0001kwx)
A Turtle's Journey

Ride on board with a green sea turtle as it swims around its spectacular coral reef home of Sipidan in Malaysia. Using only natural sounds and elegant embedded graphics delivering detailed information, this is an immersive journey into the turtles’ world like no other.

The turtle embarks on its daily routine, revealing how they utilise all the different areas of the reef, from the inner shallows to the deep drop-off – introducing us to all the fish and animals that they share one of the richest and most diverse places on our planet with in a mesmerising half-hour.

The turtles were filmed for Blue Planet II and part of an ongoing study into their behaviour for the Marine Research Foundation.


MON 23:00 Turtle, Eagle, Cheetah: A Slow Odyssey (m0001kx4)
An Eagle's Flight

Take a flight on a summer morning with a white-tailed eagle around Scotland's west coast. A falconry-trained sea eagle wearing a specially designed on-board camera is the only way to glimpse the lives of these rare and protected species. From the high tops of Crois Bheinn on the remote Morvern Peninsula, the eagle traverses across beautiful rolling moors and glens, along craggy cliff faces and finally ventures towards the Sound of Mull. With a two-metre wingspan, it is the biggest bird around - but that doesn't stop it being challenged by noisy crows and ravens. After its long flight, the hungry eagle is finally drawn down to the coast by the promise of a fish. Flying through torrential rain, it dives at over 100mph to grab the fish from a coastal pool before being reunited with its handler.


MON 23:30 How to Make (m000hbdk)
Series 1

Headphones

Zoe Laughlin, designer, maker and materials engineer, is fascinated by the science and technology hidden within the everyday objects we take for granted. In this series she dismantles and dissects three classic items to understand the wonders of form, function and material that go into making them, before building her own truly bespoke versions step by step.

In this episode, Zoe explores an item that is extraordinarily intimate and transports us to other worlds – headphones. With 12 pairs sold globally every second, Zoe is on a mission to build her own unique pair. In search of inspiration, she heads to Hull University to discover an exciting new substance that can turn any surface into a speaker, from a wall to a table and even the bone of your skull. In the depths of an anechoic chamber, she experiences the wonder behind directional sound and ear-tracking technology, which creates a personal sound bubble without the need to wear headphones at all.

A trip back through headphone history reveals the stethoscope-style home contraptions of the 19th century and the game-changing 80s Sony Walkman. Zoe also heads to high-end manufacturers Bowers & Wilkins, climbs into a mock aircraft cabin to explore the principles of noise cancellation, and goes on a trip down one of London’s busiest streets with a billboard-style contraption slung across her body, all in the name of material research. Her final headphones raise the bar high, with a distinctive headband to avoid big hair issues, alongside characterful Plasti Dip connections.


MON 00:30 The Beach: Isolation in Paradise (m000n7fc)
Series 1

Episode 5

Film-maker Warwick Thornton’s international success has come at a personal cost. He has reached a crossroad in his life and something has to change.

He has chosen to try giving up life in the fast lane for a while to go it alone, on an isolated beach in Western Australia, one of the most beautiful yet brutal environments in the world, to see if the experience can transform and heal his life.


MON 00:55 The Beach: Isolation in Paradise (m000n7ff)
Series 1

Episode 6

Film-maker Warwick Thornton’s international success has come at a personal cost. He has reached a crossroad in his life and something has to change.

He has chosen to try giving up life in the fast lane for a while to go it alone, on an isolated beach in Western Australia, one of the most beautiful yet brutal environments in the world, to see if the experience can transform and heal his life.


MON 01:25 The 15 Billion Pound Railway (m0002jt4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 02:25 Earth’s Tropical Islands (m000cs03)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

TUESDAY 07 JUNE 2022

TUE 19:00 The 15 Billion Pound Railway (m0002p93)
Under Pressure, Over Budget

Episode 2

With exclusive access, this returning series follows the construction workers of Crossrail as they battle to finish the final stages of the new Elizabeth Line underground railway beneath the streets of London.

Costing over fifteen billion pounds and stretching 120km across the capital, this extraordinary construction project is one of the biggest in Europe and one of the most ambitious engineering feats in Britain since the time of Brunel.

In the final part of the series, our cameras pick up immediately after the shock news that the Elizabeth Line has been delayed by over a year and will cost hundreds of millions of pounds more than planned. The show discovers how engineers, technicians and train staff must pull together - working on borrowed time - to build and fit out ten brand new stations, learn to operate the new trains, and test out the new 21-km twin tunnels under London, before it can open to the public. At stake are the reputation of the engineers, the reputation of the new railway and the reputation of British engineering.

Project manager Lih-Ling Highe is back to lead the installation of thousands of kilometres of vital power cables through the largest station on the Elizabeth Line – Tottenham Court Road. Tottenham Court Road is also expected to be one of the busiest underground stations attracting 200,000 passengers a day. If the cables are damaged or incorrectly wired, the station cannot be switched on and the project will be delayed once more.

At Bond Street Station, beneath London’s most expensive shopping street, Tim Weihen and his team are tasked with installing three 65-metre-long escalators – the longest on the railway – in the tightest of shafts so passengers can get to the trains. In a nail-biting process, the team must lower the bulky escalator sections, weighing up to seven tonnes, over the edge of a 30-degree drop in order to build all three escalators on time.

One of the world’s most famous train stations - Paddington Station – is getting a new Elizabeth Line station hub next door, and site manager Cynthia Myndhardt is in charge of building and fitting it out. The most daring feature of the station is a 130m-long great glass canopy to soar above the site, and help plug it into Brunel’s original grade one listed station – a nerve-wracking feat considering any damage to the historic building could result in a prison sentence. 

The show also meets up with new recruit Rochelle as she continues her quest to become an Elizabeth Line driver. We follow her on her most nerve-wracking challenge to date – driving 1,500 passengers from Shenfield, Essex, to central London - in rush hour. Ahead of her lies 32km of busy track, 73 warning signals and 16 strict speed restrictions to follow, all of which must be intensely monitored along her route.

The episode ends with the a second, shock announcement that the project must delay again and that an even bigger bailout of £2 billion is needed. With station construction, tunnel fit out and train testing still incomplete, the fate of the now £17 billion-pound railway hangs in the balance.


TUE 20:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b0077zlm)
Series 3

What to Wear When Yachting

Sitcom about an obsessive snob. When Hyacinth plans a nautical supper, events take an unexpected turn - and so does the boat!


TUE 20:30 Ever Decreasing Circles (b007bn31)
Series 1

The New Neighbour

Martin is a pillar of the community, an avid chairman of every club committee going, who sees himself very much as lord of his manor. But the equilibrium of his world is disrupted when a suave new next-door neighbour moves in.


TUE 21:00 Prejudice and Pride: The People's History of LGBTQ Britain (p0578x02)
Series 1

Episode 1

Every so often the world changes beyond your wildest dreams. In 1967, the Sexual Offences Act partially decriminalised homosexuality, offering lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people the opportunity to start living openly for the first time.

Presented by Stephen K Amos and Susan Calman, this unique series features LGBTQ people from across the UK as they share the objects that have helped define their lives during 50 transformative years.

In episode one, these crowdsourced treasures range from a rare collection of the first openly gay magazine (featuring a virtually unknown young singer called David Bowie) to letters from worried parents trying to understand their newly 'out' daughters and sons.

Over 20 incredible years, 1967-1987, we meet the fearless revolutionaries of the Gay Liberation Front, a transgender pioneer who almost caused a strike and a woman who faced losing her children when she came out as a lesbian. By the early 1980s, LGBTQ people were starting to build a community, which would be tested to the limit when Aids loomed.

This is the story of ordinary people in extraordinary times - told through their cherished possessions - charting the joys and heartbreaks of just being true to yourself.

Prejudice and Pride: The People's History of LGBTQ Britain is part of Gay Britannia, a season of programming produced in 2017 to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act.


TUE 22:00 Coming Oot! A Fabulous History of Gay Scotland (b06qsv9r)
Celebrating the postwar history of Scotland's gay community which, over 70 years, has seen gay men and lesbians transform from Scotland's pariahs to Scotland's pride. Using a rich mix of eyewitness testimony, jaw-dropping archive and historical research, the documentary charts radically changing attitudes. Scotland was over a decade behind England and Wales in decriminalising homosexuality but now has the best gay rights in Europe: nothing short of a revolution.


TUE 23:00 Queers (p057t5dm)
Series 1

The Man on the Platform

In the first of eight short monologues written in response to the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act, a young man returning from the trenches of the First World War recollects a love that dared not speak its name.


TUE 23:20 Queers (b08zz5pp)
Series 1

A Grand Day Out

In 1994, as the government votes on lowering the age of male homosexual consent, 17-year-old Andrew comes to London for the first time - with unexpected results.


TUE 23:40 Queers (b08zz70k)
Series 1

More Anger

Actors can easily feel typecast. But it's 1987, and with Aids hitting the headlines a promising new part looks like a game-changer for Phil.


TUE 00:00 Queers (b08zz70m)
Series 1

Missing Alice

Alice and her husband share a secret, but with the publication of the Wolfenden Report in 1957 it may not need to be a secret anymore.


TUE 00:20 The 15 Billion Pound Railway (m0002p93)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


TUE 01:20 Prejudice and Pride: The People's History of LGBTQ Britain (p0578x02)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 02:20 Nature's Turtle Nursery: Secrets from the Nest (b0b7st0z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]

WEDNESDAY 08 JUNE 2022

WED 19:00 A Wild Year (m000kl8y)
Series 1

The Pembrokeshire Coast

In the far south west corner of Wales lies Pembrokeshire’s wild and rugged coast. Life on this ancient coastline is defined by the rhythm of the seasons and the power of the sea.

Fishing these fertile waters has long been a tradition here. Every day, local fisherman Jono Voyce heads out from Solva harbour into St Brides Bay to fish for the lobster and crab he supplies to these coastal communities. With the arrival of spring, he will soon be busier than ever, providing for thousands of visitors who flock to this coast every summer for a taste of the sea.

By July, beaches are the playground for countless visitors. But their activity depends on the tides, which give a predictable rhythm to life on the coast. In Pembrokeshire, where the water level rises as much as 30 feet a day, the tides are some of the highest in the world. The sheer force of the water sweeping in has helped forge this ragged coast and formed its rocky foreshore, providing the perfect opportunity for a great British pastime – rock pooling!

As summer drifts into autumn, October sees new visitors arrive on Pembrokeshire’s beaches. Every autumn, up to 2,000 grey seals come ashore to give birth in sheltered coves and bays. It may seem a strange time of year to give birth, when the weather is about to get worse, but it gives the females a whole summer of fattening up in order to feed their pups an especially rich milk. These youngsters have just a month to grow and put on the blubber they will need to keep them warm in the North Atlantic waters.

A thousand miles away across the ocean, the hurricane season has started. The Pembrokeshire coast is the first to feel the legacy of these storms. In anticipation of huge, battering waves, boats are lifted out of harbours for protection. In the town of Tenby, there is no denying the winter gloom, but by celebrating annual traditions, communities bring in some welcome light and warmth!


WED 20:00 The Story of Welsh Art (p097c1qm)
Series 1

Episode 2

Scrambling up the side of one of Wales's highest and most rugged mountains, Huw Stephens retraces the steps of Richard Wilson, an 18th-century artist who changed the course of art history. Bringing harmony and beauty to a terrain previously dismissed as 'God’s rubbish tip', he transformed the way Wales was seen by the world. As Huw discovers, he was not the last to do so – JMW Turner first visited Wales aged 17 and would return many times, painting untamed landscapes filled with romance and emotion.

As the 19th century progressed, a very different Wales became the focus of art. In Merthyr Tydfil, once the iron capital of the world, Huw discovers the work of Penry Williams, a local artist who was commissioned to paint the vast Cyfarthfa Ironworks in all their cathedral-like grandeur and glory. As art and industry collided, the people who did the back-breaking work were depicted for the first time.


WED 21:00 Thatcher: A Very British Revolution (m0005br9)
Series 1

Making Margaret

In the first episode of this series charting the irresistible rise and dramatic downfall of Margaret Thatcher, her inner circle reveals how Margaret Thatcher manages to overcome her outsider status to become a prominent political figure in Britain. After a controversial policy has the press label her the 'Milk-snatcher' her political future is in jeopardy but she survives when prime minister Edward Heath decides not to sack her.

Dismayed by his stewardship of the country in the early 1970s Mrs Thatcher challenges Heath for leadership of the Conservatives. As a woman from a modest social background she appears unlike any of her colleagues but with the help of canny political operators she achieves the apparently impossible and defeats Heath and the party elite who backed him.

Those closest to her at the time describe how as new leader of the Conservatives she begins to support controversial policies that will shake-up the economic and political settlement that has prevailed in Britain since the second world war. She promotes free market ideas, transforming the economy and reducing trade union power.

She also adopts a new political persona taking on the mantle of the 'Iron Lady' given to her by the Soviet press and seeks help from advisors who change her image and her voice as she seeks the support of the British electorate.

As the 1979 election approaches Margaret Thatcher embarks on an energetic campaign to unseat Labour and usher in a new era that will bring turbulent change and division and be dominated by the force of her personality and ideas.


WED 22:00 The Falklands Play (b0074mv0)
Ian Curteis's once-controversial dramatisation of how the Thatcher government went to war against Argentina to regain the Falkland Islands. It charts the backroom manoeuvrings between Thatcher's government and the military, between the British and the Americans, and the Americans and the Argentineans that led to a breakdown in diplomacy, to war and to Britain's eventual victory.


WED 23:30 The Falklands Play Row (m00183b4)
In 1987, the BBC commissioned a play to mark the fifth anniversary of the Falklands conflict. But the play was not shown until 2002. This documentary examines the political furore surrounding the decision not to show it and talks to the main players in the drama.


WED 00:00 Secret Agent Selection: WW2 (b09zg6f4)
Series 1

Episode 1

The students face SOE's demanding selection process. Known as the Student Assessment Board, this intense four-day course puts the students through a series of physical and mental tests, all with the aim of finding out who has the raw talent required to progress to full training. The programme charts the beginning of SOE, which started with a handful of agents, in an organisation determined to find a way back into Nazi-controlled Europe.


WED 01:00 A Wild Year (m000kl8y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 02:00 The Story of Welsh Art (p097c1qm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 03:00 Thatcher: A Very British Revolution (m0005br9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THURSDAY 09 JUNE 2022

THU 19:00 A Wild Year (m000kjrl)
Series 1

The Fens

Hidden away in the most easterly part of the British Isles are the Fens of East Anglia, a landscape of big skies and distant horizons, wild wetlands and fertile farmland.

Water has always been the driving force here - its ebb and flow has shaped the Fens for thousands of years. The ancient wetlands covered hundreds of square miles and overflowed with wildlife. Today, well over 90% has gone, drained over the centuries and converted into farmland. Yet despite these changes, it is still possible to glimpse the richness of those wetlands.

Every winter, thousands of migrating whooper swans return to the flooded pastures of the Ouse washes from their Arctic breeding grounds. Here, they join thousands of other waterfowl in one of Britain’s greatest wildlife gatherings.

On the Welney Wetlands, spring sees ‘mad’ march hares boxing over mates. It was once thought these bouts were male hares boxing for dominance, but it is often the females throwing the punches to fend off the attentions of over-eager suitors.


THU 20:00 Hollywood Greats (m00183bk)
Series 2

Judy Garland

Jonathan Ross tells the tragic story of a life lived in the limelight. The programme includes interviews with Lauren Bacall, Tony Bennett, Janet Leigh and Mickey Rooney.


THU 20:40 Talking Pictures (b06998n4)
Musicals

In this episode, Talking Pictures tells the story of the Hollywood musical, using interviews with stars from the genre's golden age, as well as some of the directors and songwriters who helped create them.

Among the big names remembering their experiences are Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Julie Andrews, Rex Harrison, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli and Judy Garland - and the films under discussion include some of the best-loved in cinema history: Singin' in the Rain, On the Town, My Fair Lady, Funny Girl and The Sound of Music.


THU 21:00 Judy (m0012y9d)
Legendary performer Judy Garland arrives in London in the winter of 1968 to perform a series of sold-out concerts. From BBC Films.


THU 22:50 A Star Is Born (1954) (b0078zpn)
Musical drama in which a famous actor with a drink problem decides to help a budding young singer after hearing her perform. He signs her up with a film studio, where she lands the lead role in a big musical. The two become close and later marry, but while her career continues to blossom, his takes a downward turn.


THU 01:40 A Wild Year (m000kjrl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 02:40 Hollywood Greats (m00183bk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

FRIDAY 10 JUNE 2022

FRI 19:00 Neil Sedaka Says: All You Need Is the Music (b00pwstt)
During a career which was originally designed to make him a classical pianist, the musical achievements and statistics of singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka have made him a compelling figure in contemporary music, with 600 songs written and 20 million records sold. The hits from his early rock 'n' roll days to his later, more lyrical age are all included in this special one-man show from the 1980s.


FRI 19:45 Top of the Pops (b04w0fz1)
1980 - Big Hits

British pop and the BBC's flagship chart show said goodbye to the 70s and trembled on the edge of a new era for the show, for British music and for British society. This meant a continuing love for the nutty boys, Madness, who feature in this compilation with My Girl, and the man with the best cheekbones in pop, Adam Ant, gave us Antmusic.

We get to check out The Pretenders' first number one, Brass in Pocket, alongside Dexys Midnight Runners' tribute to soul legend Geno Washington. There are the early stirrings of new romantic with Spandau Ballet, and it's a veritable mod revival with The Piranhas and 2-Tone with The Beat.

Plus Hot Chocolate, OMD, Motorhead and many more top hits proving the 80s were truly beginning.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m00183ds)
Mark Franklin presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 21 January 1993 and featuring Faith No More, Go West, Sister Sledge, Snap! ft Niki Haris, The Beloved, The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M., Def Leppard and Whitney Houston.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m00183dv)
Tony Dortie presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 28 January 1993 and featuring 2 Unlimited, U.S.U.R.A., West End ft Sybil, East 17, Dina Carroll, Lulu and Whitney Houston.


FRI 21:00 Killing Me Softly: The Roberta Flack Story (b046psxl)
Roberta Flack's Grammy Award-winning song The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face was America's biggest selling single of 1972. The following year her gentle, pure voice charmed middle America once again when Killing Me Softly with His Song reached the top of the charts and ran off with another Grammy for single of the year. In the early 70s Roberta Flack was one of the most successful pop stars in the world.

But Flack was no overnight sensation. She didn't have a hit single till she was 35 years of age. Nor was her success a traditional African-American rags-to-riches story. She came from the black middle class that had been born out of the self-contained hub of segregated America. She studied classical music at Howard University, America's top black university, and probably would have pursued a classical career had that door been open to her in 50s America. Instead, she taught music in Washington's public school system for 10 years while she struggled for her break.

In those race-conscious times, she also had her detractors. While she was singing duets of black consciousness with soul singer Donnie Hathaway, she was married to her white bass player. Also, they said she sounded too white; the gospel-infused voices of Aretha Franklin and James Brown, which came out of the dominant Baptist church, were what real soul singers sounded like. What those critics didn't understand was that there are many musical traditions within black America and Roberta Flack came from the more restrained Methodist one where they sang hymns rather than gospel.

This is the story of the emergence of a different kind of soul singer, set against the turbulent backdrop of America's Civil Rights movement. Contributors include Roberta Flack, Dionne Warwick, Johnny Mathis, Cissy Houston, Imani Perry, professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, musician and critic Greg Tate, musicologist Fredera Hadley and film-maker and critic John Akomfrah.


FRI 22:00 Queens of Soul (b05nhjsx)
The sisters are truly doing it for themselves in this celebration of the legendary female singers whose raw emotional vocal styles touched the hearts of followers worldwide. Featuring the effortless sounds of Aretha Franklin, Roberta Flack, Gladys Knight, Randy Crawford, Angie Stone, Mary J Blige and Beyonce, to name a few.

The Queens of Soul presents the critically acclaimed and influential female singers who, decade by decade, changed the world one note at a time.


FRI 23:00 The Old Grey Whistle Test (m00183dx)
Robert Flack, Mike Absalom, The Rolling Stones, Cream and Buck Ram

A vintage episode of the classic rock programme from 1973, featuring performances in the studio by Roberta Flack and Mike Absalom, plus film of The Rolling Stones and Cream's 1968 farewell concert, and an interview with The Platters' producer and songwriter Buck Ram.


FRI 23:45 I Can Go for That: The Smooth World of Yacht Rock (m00062g8)
Series 1

Episode 2

Katie Puckrik concludes her voyage through a golden era of Los Angeles studio crafted sounds. In this episode, she charts the progress of yacht rock through the 1980s, when it became the soundtrack to America in the Reagan era, and when artists like Toto, Hall & Oates and George Benson created a technicolour second wave of a super smooth sound.

In its day, this music was not identified as a genre, but in the 21st century, in a nod to its finely crafted nature, it has come to be known as yacht rock. In the MTV 80s, the bearded sensitivity that had defined the yacht sound in the previous decade was out and, instead, bigger sounds with bombastic videos were in. Hall & Oates stepped up to the challenges of the video age with hits such as I Can’t Go for That and Private Eyes.

The gleaming yacht sound was, in part, always defined by a group of LA-based session players and composers who worked across a range of yacht bands, informing their specific tone and level of musicianship. Yacht session supremos Jay Graydon and Steve Porcaro reveal how they worked with George Benson, making a surprising addition to the yacht cannon with Turn Your Love Around.

Meanwhile, Porcaro joined other LA session players to form Toto, whose tracks Rosanna and Africa were two megahits of the early 80s. Toto’s Steve Lukather and Steve Porcaro also reveal how they even brought a little yacht magic to the biggest-selling album in history, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, when the latter wrote the song Human Nature for the album.

Meanwhile, actor and writer JD Ryznar takes credit for inventing the yacht badge, when he penned a satirical online drama referencing the key protagonists of yacht. This affectionate spoof contributed to a revival of interest and enthusiasm for these mainstream sounds in the digital era, and Katy’s reappraisal puts the brilliance of this group of musicians firmly back in the spotlight. Other contributors include Robbie Dupree and John Oates.


FRI 00:45 Top of the Pops (m00183ds)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 01:15 Top of the Pops (m00183dv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


FRI 01:45 Neil Sedaka Says: All You Need Is the Music (b00pwstt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 02:30 Killing Me Softly: The Roberta Flack Story (b046psxl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]