SATURDAY 04 MARCH 2023

SAT 19:00 Brazil with Michael Palin (p00z8bp6)
Out of Africa

Brazil in the 21st century has become a global player. With a booming economy and massive social changes, there is a swagger to this once-sleeping giant, but what do we know of it apart from football and carnival? Michael Palin has travelled across most of the globe over the years, but never to Brazil. In this four-part series he crosses the country as big as a continent to find out what makes it tick.

He begins his journey in the north east, where modern Brazil was born. It was here the Portuguese explorers first landed and encountered the native Brazilians. It was here that hundreds of thousands of African slaves were brought to work on sugar and tobacco plantations, and it was here where this mix of races and cultures produced what we now think of as Brazil. Music, food, dance, religion - all of these bear the imprint of this heady mix.

He starts in the city of Sao Luis during the celebration of its own very north eastern festival of Bumba Meu Boi - 'Jump My Bull' - before travelling down the coast to Recife and Salvador. On his way, he drops in on the vaqueros - Brazilian cowboys - who work the massive cattle ranches of the dry interior. His travels also take him to the stunning coastal lagoons of the Lencois Maranheses national park.

In Salvador he learns to drum with the famous Olodum school, experiences the trance and dance of Candomble, the Afro-Brazilian religion, finds out how to cook Bahian-style with renowned cook, Dada, and discovers what lies behind the beguiling moves of capoeria dancers. If you want to know what makes Brazil so vibrant, the north east is the place to start.


SAT 20:00 Brazil with Michael Palin (b01nqm81)
Into Amazonia

Michael Palin travels from Brazil's northern border with Venezuela along the Rivers Branco, Negro, Amazon, Tapajos and Xingu, through the very heart of the Amazonia, before ending up at the capital Brasilia. He visits indigenous tribes like the Yanomami, and talks to their shaman and chief spokesperson Davi about the threats to their traditional way of life.

On the Rio Negro he encounters Elias, one of the last seringueiros, or rubber tappers, and watches the Amazon Philharmonic Orchestra rehearse in the magnificent Manaus Opera House. Travelling by river boat he heads up the Tapajos river to Fordlandia, to seek out what remains of Henry Ford's bold but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to build a rubber plantation the size of Wales in the middle of the rainforest.

In Belem at the mouth of the Amazon, he is dazzled by the exotic Amazonian foods that chef Thiago uses in his kitchen, and learns from music producer Priscilla why Amazonian women like her and her protege singer Gaby Amarantos are such powerful forces.

Travelling ever southwards to the upper reaches of the Xingu river, he is welcomed to the Wauja tribe, one of the most colourful of all the Brazilian indigenous peoples. Anthroplogist-in-residence Emi Ireland helps explain their rich and complex rituals as well as why the Wauja women would like to marry Michael. The threats to their land and way of life from dam building, deemed necessary for the increasing exploitation of Brazil's abundant natural resources, is discussed with Wauja shaman Itsautaku.

In Brasilia, he meets up with rock star and political activist Dinho Ouro Preto who thinks Brazil, despite all its social and environmental problems, is on the brink of fulfilling its destiny as a superpower.


SAT 21:00 Paris Police 1905 (p0f02q0r)
Series 1

Episode 1

Christmas Eve, 1904. Whilst Inspector Antoine Jouin attempts to identify a corpse found in the Bois de Boulogne, the vice squad is given an order by Commissioner Lépine to round up prostitutes for soliciting on this most holy of days. On her way to the chemist for medicine for her sick child, Rosalie Dentremont is taken into custody.

In French with English subtitles.


SAT 21:55 Paris Police 1905 (p0f02rsd)
Series 1

Episode 2

Lépine asks Jouin to remain discreet in his report of a death to avoid a scandal. Marguerite Steinheil prepares for the opening of a new collection of her husband's work, to which she has invited Lépine.

In French with English subtitles.


SAT 22:50 A Bit of Fry and Laurie (p00bzcwp)
Series 1

Episode 4

Jokes and japes with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. A teacher takes a pupil to task over his prize-winning poem, a drug dealer tries to get a bank loan, and there's a discussion about madness.


SAT 23:20 A Bit of Fry and Laurie (p00bzcwy)
Series 1

Episode 5

Another half hour of events designed to make you laugh, with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie. A lawyer cross-examines a witness, an actor reminisces about the people he's worked with over the years, and a couple at a christening can't decide what to name their child.


SAT 23:50 As Time Goes By (p045tlvl)
Series 1

The Copper Kettle

Lionel and Jean spend the day walking around an old town they used to visit when they were young. They find that even though things have changed, their treasured memories remain.


SAT 00:20 Brazil with Michael Palin (p00z8bp6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 01:20 Brazil with Michael Palin (b01nqm81)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:20 The Story of Welsh Art (p097c3k8)
Series 1

Episode 3

In this final episode, Huw Stephens’s journey begins at the dawn of the 20th century with the artists who broke with tradition and depicted Wales in radical new ways. In Snowdonia, he learns how Augustus John and JD Innes led the way, obsessively painting the landscape with a freedom and vibrancy that still dazzles today. Equally bold was the output of Gwen John, whose work is in complete contrast to that of her brother Augustus. At the National Museum Wales in Cardiff, Huw discovers how she used light and tone to paint delicate and hypnotic portraits and interior scenes.

Between the wars, industrial south Wales produced some of the most powerful art of the century. Huw discovers how the work of Evan Walters and Cedric Morris is steeped in their experience of mining communities and the desperate poverty they endured. The lives of striking miners were rarely reflected in art, but Walters’s 1926 portrait of his friend William Hopkins captured his subject with dignity and honesty.

Travelling north, Huw heads out to Bardsey Island off the Llyn Peninsula, a place he first visited as a teenager. The landscape of Wales has long been a source of inspiration for artists and in the 1940s Brenda Chamberlain moved to Bardsey to immerse herself in its isolation. Inside the picturesque cottage where she lived, Huw sees her sketches of island life that she drew on the walls ‘as if they were a giant sketchbook’. At the same time, Kyffin Williams was painting the distinctive, dramatic landscapes of north Wales, establishing himself as the most popular Welsh artist of the 20th century.

Contemporary art in Wales reflects a post-devolution self-confidence that allows it to look both back and forward. In Swansea, Huw meets Daniel Trivedy and learns how his award-winning work Welsh Emergency Blanket took the patterns of traditional Welsh blankets and printed them on to the silver foil coverings given to refugees rescued from the sea. For his final stop, Huw visits Colwyn Bay where he meets internationally renowned artist Bedwyr Williams, whose work draws heavily on Welsh art history using humour and irreverence. It is a unique history, Bedwyr concludes, and one that makes him excited to be living and working in north Wales.

SUNDAY 05 MARCH 2023

SUN 19:00 Come Dancing (m001jvmm)
1977

15/04/1977

Terry Wogan introduces an edition from 1977 of the classic interregional dance contest. Midlands and West compete against Home Counties North at the Locarno Ballroom, Bradford. With commentary by Barri Haynes.


SUN 19:40 Revisor by Crystal Pite and Jonathon Young (m000jjjj)
A performance capture of Revisor, the critically acclaimed dance-theatre production created by award-winning choreographer Crystal Pite and playwright Jonathon Young, based on Nikolai Gogol’s play The Government Inspector.

Young and Pite revise an archetypal comic plot to serve as the basis for a production that blends contemporary theatre and dance. Revisor explores conflict, comedy and corruption in the potent relationship between language and the body.

Revisor reunites the creators of the international theatre hit Betroffenheit (winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production 2017 and named Best Dance Show of the 21st century by The Guardian) with director Jeff Tudor, who won the Rose d’Or (Arts), Golden Prague Czech Crystal, and the Dance Screen and San Francisco Dance Film Festival awards for his capture of Betroffenheit for the BBC.

Revisor was recorded during its run at Sadler’s Wells, London, in March 2020, just days before the production’s world tour was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.


SUN 21:10 Listening through the Lens: The Christopher Nupen Films (m00109wm)
A tribute to Christopher Nupen, who became Britain’s first independent television producer in the 1960s at the dawn of the documentary era. It is also the story of how the talents of a golden generation of artists were forever preserved on film. Nupen came from an unlikely background in South Africa and ‘ticked none of the boxes’, but seizing upon the emerging camera technology and his unique access, he filmed classical music in a completely new and intimate way that broke down the barriers between artists and their public. As a result, this documentary is also an important story about the history of music on television and the great artists who collaborated on the films.

Now 86, Nupen reflects on 75 productions about artists and composers spanning more than 50 years. His body of work convincingly enforces his conviction that television is capable of remembering artists in a way that no other medium can equal. Oxford philosopher and historian Sir Isaiah Berlin described Nupen’s films as being ‘at just about the highest level which television is capable of reaching’.

The programme cherry-picks examples of Christopher Nupen’s best work between 1966 and 2017. When he started, he instinctively blended documentary and musical performance to create a new genre of film. He filmed musicians at close quarters in their natural environment, where they have most to offer. Television picked up the exuberant spirit of the new generation and carried it far and wide. The effects were dramatic and brought countless numbers of people to music for the first time.

A musician himself, Nupen’s musical friends were among the most-renowned artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Capturing their unique talents on film, we relive sublime historical moments with the likes of Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Andrès Segovia, John Williams, Nathan Milstein, Placido Domingo, Itzhak Perlman, Jacqueline du Pré, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Evgeny Kissin and Daniil Trifonov.

As Nupen’s experience grew, he tackled musical ideas and the lives of the great composers. His films represent a single-minded dedication to sharing the power of music that will leave a legacy of lasting value.


SUN 22:40 We Want the Light: Jews and German Music (m00109wp)
What is the complex but fruitful relationship between Jewish people and German music? This award-winning film focuses on a pianist who played over 100 times in the Theresienstadt concentration camp.


SUN 00:10 Clive James (m000frcd)
Postcard from Rio

Clive James visits Rio de Janeiro, where the poor live by their wits in the city's favelas while wealthy Cariocas live in a world that is very different, making contact with their less fortunate neighbours only when a servant is paid or a millionaire is mugged.


SUN 01:00 Victorian Sensations (m0005hhg)
Series 1

Decadence and Degeneration

The 1890s was the decade when science, entertainment, art and morality collided - and the Victorians had to make sense of it all. Actor Paul McGann discovers how the works of HG Wells, Aubrey Beardsley and Oscar Wilde were shaped by fears of moral, social and racial degeneration.

Paul, seated in Wells’s time machine, sees how the author’s prophecies of a future in which humanity has decayed and degenerated highlighted the fears of the British Empire. Paul finds out how these anxieties were informed by new scientific theories based on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Paul learns how Darwin’s cousin Francis Galton sought to improve the genetic stock of the nation, through a project he coined as ‘eugenics’.

Another of the decade’s prominent scientific thinkers – Austrian physician Max Nordau – declared that it was art and culture, and their practitioners – the aesthetes and decadents – that were causing Britain’s moral degeneration, singling out Oscar Wilde as the chief corrupting influence. Paul explains how Wilde sought to subvert traditional Victorian values. Tucked away in one of Wilde’s haunts - the famous Cheshire Cheese Pub on Fleet Street - Paul hears from Stephen Calloway about how Aubrey Beardsley – the most decadent artist of the period – scandalised society, in much the same way as Wilde, through his erotic drawings. Wilde and Beardsley were not alone in being parodied by Punch Magazine. Historian Angelique Richardson shows Paul caricatures of a new figure who had begun to worry the sensibilities of Victorian Britain. Known collectively as The New Woman, this was a group of female writers, who in more than 100 novels, portrayed a radical new idea of femininity that challenged the conventions of marriage and motherhood. However, as Paul discovers through reading a short story called Eugenia by novelist Sarah Grand, some advocated the idea of eugenics through their writing.

For eugenicists, if one means of keeping a ‘degenerate’ working class in check was incarceration, then that either meant prison or, increasingly by the 1890s, the asylum. Some lost their freedom due to ‘hereditary influence’, others to so-called sexual transgression. Paul explains how the ‘vice’ of masturbation was seen as sapping the vitality of the nation. The idea of sexual transgression was to intrude into the Victorian consciousness as never before when, in 1895, Oscar Wilde was found guilty of gross indecency and sentenced to two years in jail.

While Oscar Wilde had made a very public show of defiance, Paul uncovers another leading – and gay - writer of the period, John Addington Symonds, who together with the prominent physician Havelock Ellis, sought to produce a scientific survey of homosexuality. At the London Library, Symonds expert Amber Regis shows Symonds’s rare handwritten memoirs to Paul, which served as a source for the groundbreaking 1897 work, Sexual Inversion. Paul explains how questions of sex and gender also lie at the heart of a very different book, published in the same year - Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Paul explains how Stoker had his finger – or teeth – on the pulse of the 1890s, infusing his novel with many of the decade’s chief preoccupations and growing fears of racial prejudice and immigration.

Paul also meets Natty Mark Samuels (founder of the Oxford African School) reciting a speech by a young West Indian called Celestine Edwards, who took a brave stand against imperial rule and its racist underpinnings. Edwards became the first black editor in Britain, and his pioneering work would be continued by a fellow West Indian, Henry Sylvester Williams, who in 1897 formed the African Association. Outside the former Westminster Town Hall, Paul describes how, in 1900, Williams set up the first Pan-African Conference to promote and protect the interests of all subjects claiming African descent.


SUN 02:00 Patagonia with Huw Edwards (b05xd52f)
Huw Edwards fulfils a lifelong dream to explore Patagonia, and the unique attempt to preserve Welsh culture by isolating a Welsh community in one of the most remote and inhospitable places on earth. A hundred and fifty years after the pioneers arrived, Huw meets their descendants and asks what remains of the culture the forefathers wanted to safeguard.


SUN 03:00 Timeshift (b0803m60)
Series 16

Bridging the Gap: How the Severn Bridge Was Built

2016 saw the 50th anniversary of the Severn Bridge, which completed the motorway link between England and Wales. Timeshift tells the inside story of the design and construction of 'the most perfect suspension bridge in the world', and how its unique slimline structure arose by accident.

MONDAY 06 MARCH 2023

MON 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000d2dn)
Series 11

Newcastle to County Durham

Michael Portillo begins a new series of railway journeys through 1930s Britain, armed with an interwar Bradshaw's guide. He explores an unmistakably modern era of glamorous locomotives, cinema and dance halls but also a time of high unemployment and widespread poverty, when storm clouds gathered across the Channel.

Beginning just outside Newcastle in Jarrow, Michael uncovers the desperation which led 200 men to march 300 miles to Westminster in order to petition the government for work.

In Newcastle, Michael admires the city's iconic railway bridge before heading to Byker, where he discovers a new innovation in greyhound racing. Tips for picking a winner lead to a photo finish.

There's a visit to Durham Cathedral to see the bones of the Father of English History and a chance to fire up the fryer at a coal-powered fish and chip shop frozen in time.

In Spennymoor, Michael meets the son of a Durham miner who became one of the most famous 20th-century artists of the North East.


MON 19:30 Villages by the Sea (m0010cg7)
Series 2

Thorpeness

Archaeologist Ben Robinson uncovers the secrets of the Edwardian village of Thorpeness in Suffolk, the first purpose-built seaside village in the UK.


MON 20:00 Archaeology: A Secret History (p0109jny)
In the Beginning

Archaeologist Richard Miles presents a series charting the history of the breakthroughs and watersheds in our long quest to understand our ancient past. He begins by going back 2,000 years to explore how archaeology began by trying to prove a biblical truth - a quest that soon got archaeologists into dangerous water.


MON 21:00 Art of France (b08d7qlq)
Series 1

There Will Be Blood

Andrew Graham-Dixon explores how art in France took a dramatic turn following the French Revolution that ushered in a bold new world. From the execution of King Louis XVI and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte - a figure who simultaneously repelled and inspired artists of his time - through to the rise of Romanticism and an art of seduction, sex and high drama, Andrew explores artists including Jacques-Louis David - whose art appeared on the barricades and in the streets - as well as the work of Delacroix, Ingres and the tragic but brilliant Theodore Gericault.


MON 22:00 Bent Coppers: Crossing the Line of Duty (m000vc90)
Series 1

Episode 2

The second episode dives into the sleazy underbelly of London’s Soho in the early 1970s, where an explosion of dirty pornographic bookshops provides an open invitation for corrupt cops to be greedy.

With insider interviewers and archive footage, this episode continues to unearth the lawless underworld of 1970s London, audacious levels of police corruption and the birth of the internal force tasked with stopping the rot.


MON 23:00 Big Sky, Big Dreams, Big Art: Made in the USA (b0b618m6)
Series 1

Episode 3

This episode looks at America's most controversial cultural territory - the interstitial America of small towns and trailer parks. As his road trip takes him from Iowa to Tennessee, Waldemar Januszczak discovers how this much maligned territory had an immensely beneficial impact on American art. From the small town brilliance of Grant Wood, to the small town alienation of Edward Hopper, to the spooky Dust Bowl symbolism of Alexandre Hogue, interstitial America inspired much that was great. The film culminates in the brilliant assemblages of David Smith, the leading sculptor of abstract expressionism.


MON 00:00 Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture (b00yvsjd)
Children of the Revolution

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

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

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

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


MON 01:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000d2dn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 01:30 Villages by the Sea (m0010cg7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 02:00 Archaeology: A Secret History (p0109jny)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 03:00 Art of France (b08d7qlq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 07 MARCH 2023

TUE 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000d24m)
Series 11

Kielder Forest to Edinburgh

Steered by his 1936 Bradshaw's Guide, Michael Portillo is in Northumbria en route to the Highlands.

On this leg, he explores Kielder Forest, beginning at the County Show in Stocksfield. Michael discovers what lay behind a national initiative to plant one of the largest man-made woodlands in Europe.

Crossing the border to Scotland, Michael arrives in the weaving town of Hawick to visit Lovat Mill, where, in the 1930s, tweed was big business. A brightly -coloured new design is being prepared.

Boarding the recently-restored Scottish Borders Railway at Galashiels, crossing the Newbattle Viaduct, Michael travels to Edinburgh. In the Scottish capital, he investigates the formation of a new political party during the 1930s and visits the spectacular Scottish parliament building, opened in 1999.

In Morningside, Michael goes to the movies and in the front stalls at the Dominion cinema, he finds out about the father of documentary, John Grierson.


TUE 19:30 Villages by the Sea (m0010ccl)
Series 2

Alnmouth

Archaeologist Ben Robinson visits Alnmouth on England’s north east coast and discovers the village’s historical role in feeding the nation.


TUE 20:00 As Time Goes By (p045tm60)
Series 1

Surprise, Surprise

Jean and Judy pay Lionel a surprise visit at a conference in Norwich, but find him staying with another woman. Meanwhile, Alistair starts to show more interest in Jean.


TUE 20:30 The Mistress (m001jvns)
Series 2

Episode 3

Having stayed at Maxine's while his wife was away, Luke goes into hospital with appendicitis. Can Maxine make Luke's house look lived in?


TUE 21:00 A History of Britain by Simon Schama (b0074lrd)
Series 1

Revolutions

Simon Schama examines the turbulent years in Britain from 1649 to 1689, from Oliver Cromwell's republic to Charles II's restoration and James II's subsequent pro-Catholic rule from which he was quickly deposed. This is the dramatic story of the revolutionary period after the execution of Charles I, when Cromwell ruled with an iron hand and Charles II attempted to restore the lustre of the monarchy.


TUE 22:00 Louis Theroux Interviews... (m001ds7q)
Series 1

Dame Judi Dench

Louis meets Oscar-winning actress Dame Judi Dench. Having graced the stage and screen for over 60 years, including iconic turns as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love and MI5 chief M in Bond, Judi is regarded as one of Britain’s greatest ever actors.

Louis meets Judi at her home in Surrey for a candid and lively conversation about her long career, her passion for theatre and her life away from acting. Judi also speaks openly about her relationship with her late husband Michael Williams and a fierce determination to carry on working.

Louis also accompanies Judi to the Gielgud Theatre in London’s West End and joins her to spend time with her daughter Finty and grandson Sam. They discuss the difficulties of the lockdown and how it inadvertently led to surprise popularity on TikTok, introducing Judi to a whole new audience.


TUE 22:45 Storyville (m000kbnw)
Scandalous! The Tabloid That Changed America

Sex! Gossip! Scandal! Over the course of 60 years, the National Enquirer became the most infamous tabloid in America, pumping out salacious stories, stretching the limits of journalism, blurring the lines between truth and fiction and changing the cultural landscape forever.

With outrageous anecdotes and biting wit, Scandalous traces the newspaper’s aggressive and cut-throat style of journalism across some of the biggest stories of our times - the deaths of Elvis and Princess Diana, the OJ Simpson trial and the Clinton impeachment saga. To satiate their readers’ obsession with the rich and famous, the newspaper poached veteran reporters from the British tabloid scene and allegedly used payoffs and blackmail to get its scoops.

Using rare archive footage, Scandalous is the story of how one American tabloid newspaper’s clear-sighted grasp of its readers’ darkest curiosities garnered massive profits, influence in powerful places and a central role in Trump's presidency.


TUE 00:20 Africa with Ade Adepitan (m0002p4d)
Series 1

Episode 3

The third leg of Ade Adepitan’s epic four-part journey around Africa, a continent undergoing huge change. This leg takes him to the east of the continent, from Tanzania, through Ethiopia and on to war-torn Somalia.

Ade begins in Tanzania, in Selous Game Reserve – a game park the size of Switzerland. He is on the lookout for elephants. But the numbers in this park have fallen by 90 per cent over the last few decades. As well as poaching, one of the big problems is that elephants trample and eat crops – so the locals don’t like them. But a new collaring programme is helping numbers to recover.

Ade’s next stop is Ethiopia’s far north. He travels to the hottest place on the planet where he spends a night with some of the toughest people on earth - the Afar. He joins them doing what their ancestors have done for centuries – hacking blocks of salt from a dried-up salt lake and loading them onto camels. But change is finally coming to this place – thanks to another of its resources, the fertilizer potash. It is a sign of Ethiopia’s development, which Ade sees more of in the capital, Addis Ababa.

Having grown up with images of starving children in the famine-plagued 80s, Addis is nothing like Ade expected. The city is booming. And it is driving Ethiopia’s economy - now one of the fastest-growing in the world. Ade gets a guided tour from perhaps the world’s greatest-ever long distance runner, Haile Gebrselassie. Haile is now a businessman, with investments in coffee and construction
.
The real fuel in Ethiopia’s boom is manufacturing. Asia is still the workshop of the world, but with wages there on the rise, Chinese companies are increasingly looking to countries like Ethiopia to set up factories – as Ade discovers on a visit to a shoe factory.

Leaving Addis, Ade travels on Ethiopia’s new high-speed Chinese built train, which whisks him all the way to neighbouring Djibouti, a vital port for Ethiopia’s export-led economy.

The final stop on this leg of Ade’s trip is war-torn Somalia. He joins the African Union troops on a mission out of Mogadishu and discovers a country in ruins, thanks to decades of conflict with Islamist group al-Shabab. Even in areas ruled by the government conservative Islam dominates and women face restriction on their freedom. Back in Mogadishu, Ade shoots some hoops with a group of women defying the odds by playing basketball. His final encounter is with a female doctor who worked for the NHS for 30 years, and has now returned to Somalia to rebuild her country. She is prepared to give her life, if necessary, in her efforts to provide quality maternity care for new mothers.


TUE 01:20 Great British Railway Journeys (m000d24m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


TUE 01:50 Villages by the Sea (m0010ccl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 02:20 A History of Britain by Simon Schama (b0074lrd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 08 MARCH 2023

WED 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000d2ch)
Series 11

Falkirk to Dundee

Michael Portillo's railway journey through 1930s Britain from Newcastle to Loch Ness reaches Falkirk in Scotland. Here he discovers the Westerglen Transmitting Station, from where they continue to broadcast analogue radio signal to the Scottish borders.

Following the route of the old Caledonian Railway Company, Michael discovers the 'Riviera of the Highlands'. With a daily direct train service to Kings Cross, Gleneagles remains a top destination and is also HQ for the British School of Falconry. Hamish the Harris hawk is ready to fly.

Berry Town, aka Blairgowrie, is Michael's next stop. At the home of the Scottish raspberry industry, which once sent fruit to London daily on board a raspberry special service from Cooper Angus station, Michael learns how to pick this most delicate of berries.

Last stop on this leg is the city of Dundee, home of the three Js: jute, jam and journalism. And waiting for Michael at publisher DC Thomson is a black and red striped comic hero beloved of 1930s children.


WED 19:30 Villages by the Sea (m0010ckg)
Series 2

Staithes

Archaeologist Ben Robinson visits the village of Staithes in North Yorkshire and unearths its role in kickstarting the chemical industry in the north east of England.


WED 20:00 Chris Packham's Animal Einsteins (m000slkq)
Series 1

Masterminds

In this episode, Chris Packham investigates how nature’s masterminds measure up against human brain power. Looking at a variety of animals, such as ravens, crows, bees and starlings, Chris explores how different animals can use tools, solve complex puzzles, recognise themselves in mirrors and even reason like humans.


WED 21:00 Six Wives with Lucy Worsley (b0853mvq)
Episode 1

Documentary series featuring dramatic reconstruction in which Lucy Worsley revisits key events in the lives of Henry VIII's six wives, revealing how each attempted to exert influence on the king and the Tudor court. Lucy delves into records of private moments and personal feelings in the women's lives that ended up shaping the course of history.

This episode follows the emotional and physical struggles of Catherine of Aragon as she strove to give Henry the male heir he so desired. As Henry's eye wandered over the women at court, Anne Boleyn, not wishing to be cast aside as her sister Mary had been, repeatedly rejected the king's advances and insisted on marriage.

Henry set about trying to arrange an annulment, but Catherine was defiant and passionately defended her position.


WED 22:00 The Six Wives of Henry VIII (m001jvp6)
Series 1

Catherine of Aragon

Classic series of historical plays, first broadcast in 1970, each taking as its focus one of Henry VIII's six wives. In this episode, Annette Crosbie stars as Catherine of Aragon.


WED 23:30 The Six Wives of Henry VIII (m001jvpb)
Series 1

Anne Boleyn

Classic series of historical plays, first broadcast in 1970, each taking as its focus one of Henry VIII's six wives. In this episode, Dorothy Tutin stars as Anne Boleyn.


WED 01:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000d2ch)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 01:30 Villages by the Sea (m0010ckg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 02:00 Six Wives with Lucy Worsley (b0853mvq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 03:00 Louis Theroux Interviews... (m001ds7q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Tuesday]

THURSDAY 09 MARCH 2023

THU 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000d2fm)
Series 11

Dundee to Aberdeen

Michael Portillo continues his railway journey from Newcastle to Loch Ness, steered by his 1930s Bradshaw's Guide.

Stopping at Dundee, Michael heads for Glamis Castle, where Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother, grew up. Michael hears about her happy childhood and how she later found sanctuary there, when King Edward VIII abdicated and she and Prince Albert unexpectedly became king and queen of the United Kingdom.

Striking north along the east coast of Scotland, Michael's next stop is Montrose, from where he makes an excursion into the Eastern Highlands. Here he discovers a network of bothies: remote shelters used by hikers and mountaineers to escape the harsh weather in the hills, and indulges in a wee dram.

Continuing on the East Coast Line, Michael arrives in the Granite City of Aberdeen, where research at one of Britain's first institutes of nutrition led to a nationwide programme of free school milk.

On Aberdeen beach, once popular with Glaswegian holidaymakers, Michael investigates the city's art deco Beach Ballroom and learns to foxtrot.


THU 19:30 Villages by the Sea (m0010cbs)
Series 2

Arnside

Archaeologist Ben Robinson discovers how traditional boat building shaped the beautifully preserved village of Arnside on the banks of the River Kent in Cumbria.


THU 20:00 The Blob: A Genius without a Brain (m00103fr)
Not an animal, nor a plant, nor fungus, the blob is one giant single cell whose amazing capacities are leading pioneer scientists to a very new world – that of brainless intelligence.

More commonly known as slime mould, this extraordinary one-billion-year-old organism challenges our understanding of what constitutes intelligent life.

Blending science fiction, the beauty of nature and cutting-edge science, this fascinating documentary follows top experts from Europe, Japan and the US on a scientific investigation into this most surprising organism to explore the very roots of cognition.


THU 20:50 Around the World in 80 Treasures (m0013c7w)
Series 1 Shorts

Japan - Samurai Sword

Dan is captivated by the sword of a Samurai warrior and the artistry employed to make this beautiful instrument of death. By contrast, he finds solace and tranquillity in a Japanese temple and meditation garden.


THU 21:00 The Eagle Has Landed (b00glr88)
All-action World War II adventure. On the morning of 6 November 1943, the military authorities in Berlin receive a simple message - 'The Eagle Has Landed'. In a daring kidnap attempt, a small force of crack German paratroopers are poised to snatch Winston Churchill and return with him to Germany. If they succeed in their mission, it could alter the course of the war. Who can stop them?


THU 23:10 Going in Style (m0010kll)
Visiting his bank to attempt to sort out financial difficulties caused by a hike in his monthly mortgage, Joe Harding witnesses the bank being robbed in broad daylight. Reflecting on his experience of both the robbery and the mistreatment of his account by the bank, Joe and his long-time workmates Willie and Al come up with a plan to take matters into their own hands.


THU 00:40 Talking Pictures (b04y4dsw)
Michael Caine

A look at the life of acting legend Michael Caine, using rarely seen television interviews and classic archive clips to tell the story of one Britain's most successful actors. Narrated by Sylvia Syms.


THU 01:35 Around the World in 80 Treasures (b0078w9h)
Series 1

Homeward Bound

At last, the end is in sight, and Dan's circumnavigation of the globe almost complete. But first there are some of the most brilliant treasures of all to enjoy. Venice, Florence and Rome revive an exhausted but ebullient Dan about to take his 92nd flight of the trip before he sails for home.

His first destination was once the most dangerous place on earth - Mostar and its famous bridge spanning the Christian and Muslim worlds. Destroyed by missiles and now rebuilt. Then on to Athens and the glories of the Parthenon before heading for the ultimate treasure trove of Italy - the beauties of Venice, the splendour of the Pantheon in Rome and the fabulous chapel of the Medici princes in Florence. Then in Spain, Dan is astonished by the unrivalled brilliance of the Alhambra, and echoes of the days when a large part of Europe was under Islamic rule.

At last, it's time for Dan to reflect on the immensity of his journey round the world - how has it changed him and what is he to make of it all? What can we all learn as human beings from the fantastic variety of mankind's creations that Dan has seen? And what single thing more than any other has inspired man to create?


THU 02:35 Great British Railway Journeys (m000d2fm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 03:05 Villages by the Sea (m0010cbs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

FRIDAY 10 MARCH 2023

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m001jvps)
Nicky Campbell presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 28 April 1994 and featuring Ride, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Skin, Eternal, Club House, Level 42, Barbra Streisand, Michael Bolton and Prince.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m001jvpx)
Simon Mayo presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 5 May 1994 and featuring Evan Dando, Killing Joke, The Cranberries, C. J. Lewis, the Manchester United Football Squad, Judy Cheeks, Richard Marx, Stiltskin and Tony Di Bart.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b05nx9zh)
Steve Wright presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 13 March 1980 and featuring The Dooleys, The Police, The Detroit Spinners, Secret Affair, The Vapors, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Gibson Brothers, Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Fern Kinney and Legs & Co.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (b09qrfrq)
John Peel and Janice Long present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 7 March 1985 and featuring Shakin' Stevens, Madonna, Jermaine Jackson and Dead or Alive.


FRI 21:00 My Name Is Ottilie (m001ht97)
Soul singer Dana Masters traces the story of Ottilie Patterson, who for a dazzling few years in the late 1950s and early 1960s was a pioneer of British music.

One night in 1959, a 27-year-old female singer took to the stage at Muddy Waters' renowned blues club in Chicago.

After a stunning set, a member of the rapturous African American audience called out: 'Hey lady, you sing real pretty. How come you sing like one of us?'

The singer was Ottilie Patterson. And she wasn’t black. She wasn’t even American. She was from the small town of Comber, in County Down, just ten miles from Belfast. A rising star of British jazz and blues music, she was the acclaimed singer with the Chris Barber Band who paved the way for bands like The Rolling Stones and The Pretty Things, inspiring their passion for American blues.

Why did Ottilie, who became the UK’s first female blues singer to achieve near pop status and perform with legends like Muddy Waters, Ella Fitzgerald and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, disappear from the story of British music?

Singer-songwriter Dana Masters sees in Ottilie a woman whose story, in many respects, mirrors her own. Not just their shared love of jazz and blues, but how Ottilie travelled from Northern Ireland to find acceptance as a singer in black America, with Dana making the journey in reverse, to build a life and career in Ireland.

Featuring Jools Holland, Jacqui Dankworth, Dick Taylor (The Pretty Things), Stu Morrison (The Chris Barber Band), and blues musician Ronnie Greer, and a revealing, never-before-heard interview with Ottilie Patterson.

Dana discovers the challenges Ottilie faced as a woman in music in the late 1950s and 1960s, and the cost of a career devoted to performance, in a film which reclaims her rightful place in the history of British music.


FRI 22:00 Oscar Peterson: Words and Music (m001jvq1)
Series 1

Ella Fitzgerald

Oscar Peterson hosts his own entertainment showcase of some of the world's foremost jazz musicians. In this edition, he is joined by Ella Fitzgerald. Performances include In a Mellow Tone and More than You Know.


FRI 22:50 In Concert (b0074hkm)
Oscar Peterson

Footage of the internationally feted jazz pianist with his trio at Ronnie Scott's Club in 1974.


FRI 23:20 Jazz Piano Gold (b01cc76p)
A real treat for anyone who loves listening to the tinkling of the jazz piano, with classics from Count Basie, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Abdullah Ibrahim, Stan Tracey and Jacques Loussier to Duke Ellington, Return to Forever and Herbie Hancock. The performances are culled from cult classic programmes such as Jazz 625, Show of the Week, Late Night Line Up, Love You Madly, Birdland, The Late Show and Later... with Jools Holland, and date from 1964 to 2009. Be it bebop, swing or contemporary, Jazz Piano Gold is a must for all jazz piano fans.


FRI 00:20 Top of the Pops (m001jvps)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 00:50 The Capture (m00085sv)
Series 1

What Happens in Helmand

When soldier Shaun Emery’s conviction for a murder in Afghanistan is overturned due to flawed video evidence, he returns to life as a free man with his young daughter. But when damning CCTV footage from a night out in London comes to light, Shaun’s life takes a shocking turn and he must soon fight for his freedom once again. Newly promoted DI Rachel Carey is drafted in to investigate Shaun’s case, and she quickly learns that the truth can sometimes be a matter of perspective. Should she trust Shaun Emery?


FRI 01:45 The Capture (m0008cq8)
Series 1

Toy Soldier

The truth about Shaun Emery's crime isn’t as clear as it first appeared to DI Carey, as crucial CCTV evidence is redacted by a mysterious MI5 officer. This surprise development forces Carey, Flynn and Latif to scramble for more evidence. But with forensics drawing a blank on Shaun's car, Commander Hart offering little support, and weak witness statements, Carey is forced to release Shaun. After a run-in with his ex-partner Karen, who is enraged by his failure to pick up their daughter from school, Shaun is determined to prove his innocence and enlists best mate Mat to help him break into Hannah’s apartment in search of clues. Closely followed by a suspicious Carey on CCTV, and Flynn and Latif on foot, Shaun somehow manages to evade Carey’s watch, forcing her to question an even more problematic issue – the surveillance network itself.


FRI 02:45 The Capture (m0008kgv)
Series 1

Truffle Hog

The stakes intensify for Shaun as he is interrogated by inscrutable US agent Frank Napier at a covert CIA outpost in a Belgravia safe house. While Napier is trying to discover Hannah's whereabouts, Carey is simultaneously attempting and failing to locate Shaun in the Belgravia house she saw him enter on her CCTV watch.