SATURDAY 01 OCTOBER 2022

SAT 19:00 Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe (b00791y3)
A British Love Affair

Francesco da Mosto enters Tuscany and Umbria to look at the long love affair that Britain has had with the area. He learns how to be the perfect courtier in Urbino, goes grape harvesting in Chianti, discovers the romantic inspiration at the heart of Puccini's operas, travels to Assisi to find out why he was named after St Francis and takes Dame Maggie Smith on a sightseeing tour of Florence.


SAT 20:00 Himalaya with Michael Palin (b0074qqv)
The Roof of the World

Leaving Everest Base Camp Michael Palin takes the high road to Lhasa to see for himself what the Chinese have done to Tibet. From the Potala Palace to the great monasteries of Tashilunpo and Sera he sees that religion is once again tolerated, while at the same time the old Tibetan centre of the city is being torn down and replaced with modern Chinese shopping malls and nightclubs.

Following the pilgrims to the holy Namtso Lake he finally gets warm in an Olympic sized hotspring before learning how to milk a yak with a nomad family with whom he travels to the summer horse festival in Yushu.


SAT 21:00 KaDeWe - Our Time Is Now (p0d0khx2)
Series 1

Lavender Nights

In Berlin, inflation soars, the workforce is starving and KaDeWe is struggling. Despite the worries, Hedi enjoys nights out at an avant-garde club called Eldorado and a liaison with Fritzi.

In German with English subtitles.


SAT 21:50 KaDeWe - Our Time Is Now (p0d0kklb)
Series 1

Cold Withdrawal

Harry realises that he must confront his addiction head-on. Pressure mounts on his sister Fritzi to end her affair with Hedi. In German with English subtitles.


SAT 22:40 Berlin 1945 (m000p9tg)
Series 1

Episode 2

The Battle for Berlin has begun. Step by step, the soon-to-be victorious powers advance. On 30 April, the Red Flag flies over the Reichstag and Adolf Hitler takes his own life. Another seven days pass before the Wehrmacht disassembles. National Socialism is finally beaten, along with Germany and Berlin. But for many, the fall of Nazism spells liberation rather than defeat.


SAT 23:30 Arena (m000kbk6)
I Am Not Your Negro

Narrated entirely in the words of James Baldwin, through both personal appearances and the text of his final unfinished book project, this film touches on the lives and assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr and Medgar Evers. The film brings powerful clarity to how the images and reality of black lives in America today are fabricated and enforced.


SAT 01:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b007c95l)
Series 5

Episode 8

Sitcom. When Bruce and Violet’s constant arguing threatens Hyacinth’s luxury barbecue, she resorts to desperate musical measures to keep her family scandals from public exposure.


SAT 01:30 Ever Decreasing Circles (p00c1k4s)
Series 3

Episode 4

Martin saves a little girl from drowning and is hailed a hero. At first he isn't quite sure how to cope with his new-found fame, but he soon gets to grips with being the centre of attention.


SAT 02:00 Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe (b00791y3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 03:00 Himalaya with Michael Palin (b0074qqv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

SUNDAY 02 OCTOBER 2022

SUN 19:00 BBC Young Musician (m001crv9)
2022

Strings Final Highlights

BBC Young Musician returns to BBC Four, showcasing the most outstanding young classical talent from across the UK. From Sunday to Thursday this week, we will bring you highlights from the five category finals in strings, woodwind, brass, percussion and keyboard. The winners of each will secure a place in the competition’s grand final, which will be broadcast in full on BBC Four on Sunday 9 October.

Presented by saxophonist Jess Gillam, herself a BBC Young Musician finalist, and pianist and composer Alexis Ffrench, the category finals were filmed at the award-winning concert venue, Saffron Hall.

The series begins with the strings final and features violinists Aki Blendis (14), Dawid Kasprzak (16), Edward Walton (16), Clara-Sophia Wernig (16), and viola player Jaren Ziegler (16).

Tonight’s jury includes violinist Jennifer Pike, who made history 20 years ago by becoming the youngest winner of BBC Young Musician, aged just 12, and Philip Dukes, a viola player whose career has spanned over 30 years, including performances at the BBC Proms and an extensive recording history. Chairing the Young Musician jury across the series is organist, conductor, broadcaster and director of music at Pembroke College, Cambridge, Anna Lapwood.


SUN 20:00 The Waiting Game (m001crvd)
Dance so thrilling, imaginative and rich, it packs auditoriums nationwide. Cassa Pancho's hugely popular Ballet Black presents a mixed bill full of lyrical contrasts and beautiful movement.

In this piece, Olivier Award-winning choreographer Mthuthuzeli November contemplates the purpose of life. Expect sensational solos, seductive duos and fiercely dynamic pieces performed seamlessly by the group.

Ballet Black is transforming the dance landscape by giving a platform to artists of Black and Asian descent, as well as to new and established choreographic voices whose unexpected stories and themes come from the heart to resonate with modern audiences.


SUN 20:30 Then or Now (m001crvg)
Dance so thrilling, imaginative and rich, it packs auditoriums nationwide. Cassa Pancho's hugely popular Ballet Black presents a mixed bill full of lyrical contrasts and beautiful movement.

The Royal Ballet’s Olivier Award-winning choreographer, Will Tuckett, blends classical ballet, poetry and music to explore ideas of home and belonging. Expect sensational solos, seductive duos and fiercely dynamic pieces performed seamlessly by the group.

Ballet Black is transforming the dance landscape by giving a platform to artists of Black and Asian descent, as well as to new and established choreographic voices whose unexpected stories and themes come from the heart to resonate with modern audiences.


SUN 21:10 Lost Home Movies of Nazi Germany (m000crf9)
Series 1

Episode 2

Christmas in Germany 1941 is an unsettling time. Food is scarce, the weather is freezing and news from the front line in Russia is causing Germans to realise the war is a very long way from over. The stage is set for the second half of the conflict.

Through the home movies and diaries of ordinary Germans, this film charts Hitler’s dreams crumbling and the moral reckoning the German people must now face. It reveals the stories of people battling to save their families from deportation to the death camps, while others endure the horrors of ever more deadly bombing raids, all set against a backdrop of propaganda and false hope pouring forth from Nazi high command.

In Russia we meet a doctor who throws himself into the firing line at every opportunity, not to win glory but to save his wife and three young children from deportation to the death camps in the east, while in Dresden a Jewish diary writer struggles to deal with ever-mounting restrictions and deportations.

We also meet some of those forced to live under German rule, including extraordinary footage of a group of Jews living in hiding just a mile from Anne Frank, and a family in Normandy enjoying a bucolic summer before they find themselves on the front line when the Allies take on the German troops on the Atlantic Wall.

The film then moves to the endgame of the war, the choices faced as the net tightened and the crazy efforts to fight to the bitter end even as all hope is gone.


SUN 22:10 Stephen: The Murder That Changed a Nation (b0b09dss)
Series 1

The Loss of Joy

Three-part documentary series examining the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

The first episode focuses on the run-up to Stephen's murder and the police investigation that follows. As the suspects remain free, tip-offs from the community worry Doreen and Neville, Stephen's parents, about why the police are not making arrests.

A visit from Nelson Mandela seems to prompt action, but Stephen's friend Duwayne, also a victim of the attack, gets into difficulty with the police. When the charges against the suspects are dropped, Doreen realises she must take action into her own hands.


SUN 23:10 Stephen: The Murder That Changed a Nation (b0b09f62)
Series 1

The System

A second police investigation captures shocking surveillance footage of the racism of the gang alleged to have killed Stephen. With help from their lawyer Imran Khan, Doreen and Neville Lawrence launch the first private murder prosecution in 150 years. When it collapses, questions about the failure of the first police investigation mount.

The Daily Mail stages a dramatic intervention. A public inquiry shines an uncomfortable light on the police and leads to some devastating revelations.


SUN 00:10 Peaky Blinders (m0015041)
Series 6

Black Day

Tommy sets off to North America, where the end of Prohibition brings new opportunities. But he faces new danger from an old adversary who is finally making his move.


SUN 01:10 Peaky Blinders (m00156p5)
Series 6

Black Shirt

Tommy gets involved in a power game with fascists, freedom fighters and Boston gangsters. As the players plan to double cross him, Tommy visits an old ally in Camden.


SUN 02:10 Peaky Blinders (m0015ffr)
Series 6

Gold

Faced with devastating news, Tommy goes on a quest to discover who placed a curse on his family. In Birmingham, Ada takes charge, and Arthur takes on some new recruits.

MONDAY 03 OCTOBER 2022

MON 19:00 BBC Young Musician (m001crx1)
2022

Woodwind Final Highlights

Saxophonist Jess Gillam and pianist and composer Alexis Ffrench bring us highlights of the woodwind final of BBC Young Musician 2022, as five exceptional young players compete for a place in the competition’s grand final.

Performing in this programme are flautists Isaac Skey (14) and Sofia Patterson-Gutiérrez (17), clarinettists Lucas Dick (17) and Alex Buckley (18), and saxophonist Thomas Priestley (18).

The jury features two former BBC Young Musician alumni. Clarinettist Emma Johnson won the overall title in 1984 and is now a hugely successful solo artist, while flautist Karen Jones won this category final in 1982 and has since enjoyed an illustrious career as the principal flute of the London Chamber Orchestra. Chair of the jury across the series is organist and conductor Anna Lapwood.


MON 20:00 Forest, Field & Sky: Art out of Nature (b079ckkf)
Dr James Fox takes a journey through six different landscapes across Britain, meeting artists whose work explores our relationship to the natural world. From Andy Goldsworthy's beautiful stone sculptures to James Turrell's extraordinary sky spaces, this is a film about art made out of nature itself. Featuring spectacular images of landscape and art, James travels from the furthest reaches of the Scottish coast and the farmlands of Cumbria to woods of north Wales. In each location he marvels at how artists' interactions with the landscape have created a very different kind of modern art - and make us look again at the world around us.


MON 21:00 This Cultural Life (m001crx3)
Series 2

Glenda Jackson

Glenda Jackson talks to John Wilson about her most important cultural influences, including the impact of three key figures on her life and career: theatre director Peter Brook, film-maker Ken Russell, and Margaret Thatcher, who galvanised her to give up acting and move into politics.


MON 21:30 Elizabeth Is Missing (m000c6pv)
Eighty-year-old Maud is funny, loyal and endearing. She is also living with dementia, which plays havoc with her memory but hasn’t yet diminished her strong stubborn streak. When her best friend Elizabeth fails to turn up for a shopping trip, Maud is certain something terrible has happened. Turning detective, she sets about trying to solve the mystery of her friend’s disappearance. But with Maud's dementia progressing, it is not easy to hold on to the clues. Despite her meticulous system of recording her discoveries on post-it notes, she can’t shake the feeling that she has lost a crucial clue that would unlock the mystery of Elizabeth’s fate.


MON 23:00 The Wednesday Play (m001crx6)
Horror of Darkness

A play by John Hopkins that takes an original look at the eternal triangle. First broadcast in 1965 as part of the BBC's classic series, The Wednesday Play.


MON 00:10 Peaky Blinders (m0015p1x)
Series 6

Sapphire

Tommy establishes a connection between crime and political power that could alter the course of history. He also receives life-changing news from an unexpected source.


MON 01:10 Peaky Blinders (m0015xjg)
Series 6

The Road to Hell

In the light of extraordinary personal revelations, Tommy takes a course of action that will change everything. Meanwhile, his enemies’ plans start to fall into place.


MON 02:10 Peaky Blinders (m00164dc)
Series 6

Lock and Key

A war veteran who fought in the trenches, Tommy Shelby has been a gangster, an entrepreneur, a captain of industry, a spy and ultimately a Member of Parliament. In the course of this odyssey, he has taken on numerous criminal organisations, business adversaries, foreign insurgents and the British Establishment itself.

Now, in the 1930s, as the clouds of the coming storm gather, he faces the consequences of his experiences and his actions.

TUESDAY 04 OCTOBER 2022

TUE 19:00 BBC Young Musician (m001crw0)
2022

Brass Final Highlights

Coverage of BBC Young Musician continues with highlights from the brass final, filmed at Saffron Hall. Hoping to make it through to the grand final are trumpeters Phoebe Mallinson (16), Florence Wilson-Toy (17) and Sasha Canter (18) and French horn players Daniel Hibbert (17) and Imogen Moorsom (18).

First, they need to impress the jury. Horn player Ben Goldscheider reached the grand final of BBC Young Musician in 2016, and since then has performed internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. Northern Irish trumpeter Anne McAneney has played with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for the past 22 years. Organist, conductor and broadcaster Anna Lapwood is the chair of the jury across all the BBC Young Musician finals.

Presented by saxophonist and broadcaster Jess Gillam and pianist and composer Alexis Ffrench.


TUE 20:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b007c3t3)
Series 5

New Car

Sitcom. When Hyacinth decides that a new car is in order, she aims rather higher than most people - much to Richard's horror.


TUE 20:30 Ever Decreasing Circles (p00c1k6q)
Series 3

Episode 5

Martin achieves a long-held ambition and joins an exclusive local club. Meanwhile, Ann discovers the trials and tribulations of student life at the Open University.


TUE 21:00 Storyville (m001crw2)
Midwives

Hla and Nyo Nyo live in a country torn by conflict. Hla is a Buddhist and the owner of an under-resourced medical clinic in western Myanmar, where the Rohingya (a Muslim minority community) are persecuted and denied basic rights. Nyo Nyo is a Rohingya and an apprentice midwife who acts as assistant and translator at the clinic.

Despite living in the area for generations, Nyo Nyo and her family are still considered intruders. Risking her own safety daily by helping Muslim patients, she is determined to become a steady healthcare provider and resource for the families who desperately need her.

Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing’s remarkable feature debut won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Made over the course of five turbulent years in Myanmar, it shines a spotlight on these courageous women, who unite to bring forth life, despite the risks and challenges of their own, and offers a rare insight into the complex reality of Myanmar and its people.


TUE 22:35 Storyville (m000tpzn)
Collective: Unravelling a Scandal

In 2015, a fire at a nightclub in Bucharest, Romania, leaves 27 dead and 180 injured. Soon afterwards, the burn victims recovering in hospital - from seemingly non-life-threatening injuries - begin dying too. A doctor at the heart of the story acts as whistleblower to a team of journalists, who in turn uncover outrageous corruption in Romania’s hospitals that goes all the way to the top.

One revelation leads to another as the journalists begin to find fraud on a vast scale in the healthcare system. When a new health minister is appointed, the journalists follow his attempts, in the face of monumental obstacles, to reform a system riddled with corruption.

Oscar-shortlisted and Bafta-longlisted for best documentary, Collective: Unravelling a Scandal examines the explosive impact of investigative journalism.


TUE 00:20 Stephen: The Murder That Changed a Nation (b0b09fnz)
Series 1

Corruption and Conviction

Stephen's killers remain free. The public inquiry leads to a change in the law that means that the suspects can be retried. Questions of racism and corruption swirl around the police.

An unconventional detective, Clive Driscoll, takes on the case and, with the help of advances in forensic science, arrests Gary Dobson and David Norris. As justice seems to be done, revelations that the police spied on the Lawrence family start to surface.


TUE 01:20 Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson (m000ngdy)
Series 1

A People Stolen

Samuel L Jackson traces his ancestry to Gabon, visiting the coastal area of Loango National Park to see from where his enslaved ancestors were shipped in their millions to the Americas. But he wants to do more than tell the story of the enslaved who survived. The transatlantic slave trade existed for well over 400 years, involving more than 45,000 voyages from dozens of outposts along the African coast. Over 2 million Africans died en route, and up to 1,000 slave ships ended up as wrecks, with only a handful ever having been identified. Jackson teams up with a group of underwater investigators who view the ocean floor as a graveyard and a crime scene. They dive the English Channel to find the 350-year-old wreck of an unidentified slave ship and discover its secrets. This is the oldest slave ship ever discovered, and deep on the dark ocean floor the divers make a remarkable find.


TUE 02:20 Lost Home Movies of Nazi Germany (m000crf9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:10 on Sunday]

WEDNESDAY 05 OCTOBER 2022

WED 19:00 BBC Young Musician (m001crzg)
2022

Percussion Final Highlights

Percussion takes centre stage as Jess Gillam and Alexis Ffrench bring us highlights from this most energetic and exciting BBC Young Musician category final.

Competing are five exceptional musicians: Eric Zhang (15), Joshua Gearing (17), George Garnett (18), Sophie Warner (18) and Jordan Ashman (18). Tonight’s jury includes Paul Philbert, timpanist with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Beibei Wang, who specialises in both classical styles and traditional Chinese percussion, and chair of the jury Anna Lapwood, an organist, conductor and broadcaster who was recently made associate artist of the Royal Albert Hall and BBC Singers.

The winner of the percussion final will compete in the competition’s grand final, shown live on BBC Four on Sunday 9 October.


WED 20:00 From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature (b09t9txy)
Series 1

Playing with Fire

Dr Helen Czerksi explores the extraordinary science of heat. She reveals how heat is the hidden energy contained within matter, with the power to transform it from one state to another. Our ability to harness this fundamental law of science has led to some of humanity's greatest achievements, from the molten metals that enabled us to make tools, to the great engines of the Industrial Revolution powered by steam, to the searing heat of plasmas that offer almost unlimited power.


WED 21:00 Uprising (m000y3kq)
Series 1

Fire

In the early hours of 18 January 1981, in a house in south London, a birthday party ended in a fire. Thirteen young black British people died. The fire and its aftermath would ignite an uprising by the black British community. This film tells the stories of the young people who were at the party and the events that led up to it.


WED 22:00 Kenneth Branagh Remembers... Billy Plays (m001crzj)
Kenneth Branagh recalls his breakthrough role in Graham Reid’s trilogy of plays set in Belfast.


WED 22:15 Play For Today (b01bscjx)
Series 12

Too Late to Talk to Billy

First in a trilogy of plays about the Martin family.

Billy's parents are estranged, and he and his father Norman find it particularly difficult living under the same roof in Belfast. How can the situation be resolved?


WED 23:40 Play For Today (b01c32mk)
Series 13

A Matter of Choice for Billy

Belfast 1978. The Martin family, one year on.

Norman is away in England, and his eldest son Billy and daughter Lorna are in charge of their younger sisters Ann and Maureen.

How can Billy and Laura square their family responsibilities with their personal lives? An awkward relative, about whom they disagree, is about to descend on them. Ann is a handful, and disturbing news arrives from Norman. Billy and the others must make a choice.


WED 01:05 Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson (m000ngf2)
Series 1

A Precious Cargo

Samuel L Jackson - with journalists Afua Hirsch and Simcha Jacobovici - examines how, for over 400 years, the transatlantic slave trade became the greatest wealth-generating machine the world had known and the engine that drove the global economy. Afua goes to Brazil, once the world’s greatest supplier of sugar, to discover how Europeans' insatiable appetite for this sweetener drove the explosion of the slave trade in the 17th century, leading to a constant demand for the supply of cheap trans-Atlantic labour to work the plantations. She then visits Bristol, revealing how the enormous profits generated by these enslaved Africans built much of the modern world we live in today.

Jackson reveals how slave owners came up with increasingly inventive ways to turn their losses into profits when trafficked Africans were lost at sea. As the economics of the slave trade began to unravel, one infamous British court case ultimately helped paved the way for abolition. Jackson teams up with Diving with a Purpose (DWP), a group of underwater investigators who view the ocean floor as a graveyard and a crime scene. They dive the Suriname river in South America in search of a Dutch shipwreck called the Leusden, scene of a horrific mass murder and a crime largely forgotten for 300 years.


WED 02:05 Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson (m000np5k)
Series 1

Resistance

Samuel L Jackson is joined by journalists Afua Hirsch and Simcha Jacobovici, along with Diving with a Purpose (DWP) – a group of underwater investigators dedicated to restoring their ancestors' lost history. Together, they investigate the individual stories and events that helped bring an end to slavery in the United States.

The slave trade is not just a story of victims, but of the heroes who fought for emancipation, held onto their culture and values and laid the foundations for future generations. The DWP divers explore the cold waters of the Great Lakes to better understand the history of the underground railroad and the freedom boats that helped fugitives flee slavery and cross the water to safety in Canada. Whole families risked the long, perilous journey across the United States, using a network of safe houses, coded messages and supporters to escape the plantations.

Journalist Simcha Jacobovici learns about the legendary Harriet Tubman, one of the most famous enablers on the underground railroad. Simcha also meets historians in South Carolina who reveal the history of black soldiers who served in the Union Army during the Civil War, helping to overturn slavery.

Samuel L Jackson travels to Nashville to hear the Jubilee Singers perform the resistance songs that contained coded messages to help fugitives find safe passage. He also explores the unique cultural legacy enslaved Africans brought to the United States with Grammy-winning musician Rhiannon Giddens in Africatown, Alabama.

THURSDAY 06 OCTOBER 2022

THU 19:00 BBC Young Musician (m001cryd)
2022

Keyboard Final Highlights

In the last of the category finals, we find out who will take the last place in this year’s BBC Young Musician grand final. In a hotly contested competition, five talented musicians perform music by titans of the keyboard repertoire – Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Scriabin and Scarlatti. They are Jacky Zhang (14), Ethan Loch (17), Firoze Madon (18), Duru Erdogan (18) and Dida Condria (19).

Saxophonist and broadcaster Jess Gillam and pianist and composer Alexis Ffrench present the highlights from Saffron Hall in Essex.

Joining them are our judging panel: Tom Poster, who won the BBC Young Musician Keyboard Final in 2000, Daniel Tong, who is head of piano in chamber music at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and chair of the jury, organist and conductor Anna Lapwood.

At the end of the programme, the line-up for this year’s BBC Young Musician grand final will be complete. The five category winners will each perform a concerto with the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth. BBC Four provides full coverage of the final from Bridgewater Hall on the evening of Sunday 9 October.


THU 20:00 A Life in Ten Pictures (m000w0nc)
Series 1

Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali is one of the most photographed men in history. But can just a handful of photos uncover new truths about someone we think we know? This film throws a unique lens onto an extraordinary life, focusing on ten defining pictures, from iconic shots to private snaps, with their secrets revealed by those who were there and those who knew Ali best.


THU 21:00 Ali (m0015gpz)
Stylish biography of boxing and human rights legend Muhammad Ali, from his challenge to the draft into the army as Cassius Clay to his fights for the heavyweight championship of the world.


THU 23:30 Moonlight (m001cryg)
A coming-of-age drama that presents the childhood, adolescence and early adult life of Chiron, born to a drug-addicted single mother in Miami and facing difficulties with his sexuality and identity. His first role model is the Afro-Cuban drug dealer Juan, who takes pity on the bullied youth.


THU 01:15 Enslaved with Samuel L Jackson (m000nwyk)
Series 1

Our People

Samuel L Jackson is joined by journalists Afua Hirsch and Simcha Jacobovici, along with Diving with a Purpose (DWP) – a team of underwater investigators dedicated to restoring their ancestors' lost history. Together, they investigate the events that ended the slave trade and the heritage and identity that was taken from the descendants of the millions of trafficked Africans.

Outrage in Britain at the treatment of captured Africans gained momentum, and by the early 1800s, attitudes had changed. What was once a seemingly unstoppable trade was abolished in 1807. Samuel L Jackson and Afua Hirsh examine the petitions, books, prints and the work of activists that led to the end of 400 years of the slave trade, while the DWP divers explore the tragic history and wreck site of The London, a slave ship carrying slaves who had won their freedom and been re-enslaved.

Having discovered that he is descended from the Benga people, Samuel L Jackson travels to Gabon and is welcomed into the tribe by the king and the elders, who share their traditions and stories. The DWP continue their work to recover the history of the enslaved and piece together this lost heritage. They travel to a community in Costa Rica to help a team of young divers look for evidence to support the stories that their African ancestors escaped from two Danish slave ships.


THU 02:15 From Ice to Fire: The Incredible Science of Temperature (b09t9txy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Wednesday]

FRIDAY 07 OCTOBER 2022

FRI 19:00 Glam Rock at the BBC (b094mcwn)
A spangly celebration of the outburst of far-out pop and fuzz-filled rock that lit up the British charts in the early 1970s. Top of the Pops is our primary arena and its gloriously gaudy visual effects are used here aplenty! The compilation also utilises footage from a selection of BBC concerts as well as from Crackerjack and Cilla. It features classic BBC TV performances from T. Rex, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Alice Cooper, Suzi Quatro, Slade, The Sweet, Elton John, Queen, Sparks and many more.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m001crzw)
Tony Dortie presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 26 August 1993 and featuring Therapy?, SWV, The Sisters of Mercy, Ace of Base, Meat Loaf, Mariah Carey and Culture Beat.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m001crzy)
Mark Franklin presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 2 September 1993 and featuring Carter USM, 2 Unlimited, Tina Turner, Kenny Thomas, Terence Trent D’Arby, Bitty McLean, Cilla Black and Culture Beat.


FRI 21:00 Bowie at the BBC (b0888f7r)
A chronology of clips from the BBC archive giving an overview of David Bowie's extraordinary career from 1964 to 2016. Blending interviews and performances from music programmes, documentaries, news outlets and chat shows, this portrait of Bowie both at his most thoughtful and his most opportunistically promotional is a series of snapshots into a rapidly evolving career across music, films and the theatre.

From a 17-year-old David Jones interviewed by Cliff Michelmore in 1964, on to 1973 when in Ziggy mode Bowie, Ronson and co gave their seminal Top of the Pops performance of Starman, and then to 2000 when Bowie reimagined himself as the cover of Hunky Dory to storm Glastonbury, this is a journey through many Bowies.

The programme includes other classic Top of the Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test and Later... with Jools' performances and looks at Bowie the actor with interviews about his roles in The Elephant Man, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and Labyrinth.

Bowie at the BBC gives an insight into the many ways Bowie chose to present himself at different moments in time, revealing how innovative, funny, surprising and influential he always was.


FRI 22:00 The Old Grey Whistle Test (b014vzy3)
70s Gold

The Old Grey Whistle Test was launched on 21 September 1971 from a tiny studio tucked behind a lift shaft on the fourth floor of BBC Television Centre. From humble beginnings, it has gone on to provide some of the best and most treasured music archive that the BBC has to offer.

This programme takes us on a journey and celebrates the musically mixed-up decade that was the 1970s, and which is reflected in the OGWT archive. There are classic performances from the glam era by Elton John and David Bowie, an early UK TV appearance from Curtis Mayfield, the beginnings of heavy metal with Steppenwolf's iconic Born to Be Wild anthem and the early punk machinations of the 'mock rock' New York Dolls. Archive from the pinnacle year, 1973, features Roxy Music, The Wailers and Vinegar Joe. The programme's finale celebrates the advent of punk and new wave with unforgettable performances from Patti Smith, Blondie, Iggy Pop and The Jam.

Artists featured are Elton John, Lindisfarne, David Bowie, Curtis Mayfield, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Steppenwolf, Vinegar Joe, Brinsley Schwarz, New York Dolls, Argent, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Captain Beefheart, Johnny Winter, Dr Feelgood, Gil Scott Heron, Patti Smith, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Cher & Gregg Allman, Talking Heads, The Jam, Blondie, Iggy Pop and The Specials.


FRI 23:30 David Bowie: Finding Fame (m0002jlw)
This is the David Bowie story you don’t know. The story of how David Robert Jones became David Bowie, how David Bowie became Ziggy Stardust and how Ziggy became immortal, changing the musical landscape as he did so. The story that finally makes sense of one of the greatest icons of the 20th and 21st centuries. Part three of Francis Whately’s Bowie trilogy.


FRI 01:00 Glam Rock at the BBC (b094mcwn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 02:00 Top of the Pops (m001crzw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 02:30 Top of the Pops (m001crzy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


FRI 03:00 Bowie at the BBC (b0888f7r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]