SATURDAY 29 APRIL 2023

SAT 19:00 Sahara with Michael Palin (b0074p4m)
Destination Timbuktu

Series charting Michael Palin's trek across the Sahara Desert. Leaving the desert behind, Michael briefly savours the delights of cosmopolitan Senegal - jazz clubs, wrestling competitions, dance troupes and the queen of the Senegalese soaps, Marie-Madeleine.

Joining the so-called Bamako Express, he endures two days and nights on the train, but in the process gets to know a schoolmistress who is nothing if not forthright about the disadvantages of polygamy.

In Bamako he finds renowned kora player Toumani Diabate and delights in a master class before heading off to Dogon country.

The Dogon people have one of the most distinctive and celebrated cultures of West Africa and they nearly kill him with a combination of excessively complex origin myths, an exploding flintlock and boiling hot millet.

Celebrating the Muslim 'Tabaski' feast in the beautiful city of Djenne with a man called Pygmy and securing a passage on a cargo boat with a Norwegian missionary called Kristin, the rest of the journey down the Niger River to Timbuktu seems plain sailing, until the boat runs aground a day from its destination.


SAT 20:00 Himalaya with Michael Palin (b0074qn6)
North by Northwest

Intrepid adventurer Michael Palin embarks on an epic journey. He travels through Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, starting on the Khyber Pass and ending five miles from K2 on the Pakistan/China border. He passes through Darra, visits a street dentist in Peshawar, goes bull racing with a Pakistani aristocrat and is almost trampled to death, and finally crosses over the Lowari Pass into the buffer state of Chitral.


SAT 21:00 Lost: Those Who Kill (p0f48kkh)
Series 1

Episode 7

Louise tries to get closer to Jon. Alberte becomes jealous and challenges Louise’s cover story. Meanwhile, Frederik discovers that one of Jon's old friends, who also owned Breidablik, perished in a mysterious fire.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 21:45 Lost: Those Who Kill (p0f48kw1)
Series 1

Episode 8

Louise and Frederik put pressure on Jon to accept responsibility for his actions, but once again he takes advantage of his relationship with Alberte. Louise decides to confront the past.

In Danish with English subtitles.


SAT 22:30 Ripping Yarns (b0074s84)
Series 1

The Curse of the Claw

The story of a man who dabbled in the dark mysteries of the Orient, and lived to tell the tale. Or did he? An unexpected visit by the Bhutan-bound Captain Merson and his band of native bearers to the Maidenhead home of recently bereaved Kevin causes him to relive a ripping story of fear, tragedy and terror. It is the story of a claw. A claw with a curse.


SAT 23:05 Ripping Yarns (b0074s8t)
Series 2

Whinfrey's Last Case

A knockabout tale of international intrigue. Dashing, debonair Gerald Whinfrey saves his country twice a week. But in 1913 a German plot - to start the First World War without telling anyone - coincides with his Cornish fishing holiday. Where will Whinfrey's loyalties lie?


SAT 23:35 Peter Sellers: A State of Comic Ecstasy (m000j4c1)
Peter Sellers was one of the 20th century's most astonishing actors. His meteoric rise to fame - from his beginnings with Spike Milligan on BBC Radio's The Goon Show in the 1950s to his multiple Oscar nominations and status as Stanley Kubrick's favourite actor - is equalled only by the endless complexities of his personal life - the multiple marriages, the chronic health problems, the petulant fits of rage, the deep insecurity, the unwise career choices and the long decline in his later years.

This film explores the life of this peerless actor and comedian, featuring interviews with family, friends, colleagues and critics, many of whom have never spoken out before. The film charts Sellers's formative years backstage as part of his parents' itinerant music hall revue group, his wartime service in India and Burma and his journey to global superstardom, where tales of his life backstage with the likes of Sophia Loren, Orson Welles and Alec Guinness were often more unbelievable than the roles they were playing out before the cameras. This is the story of the man who could play any role, apart from one - himself.

With contributions from family members, including second wife Britt Ekland and his daughters Sarah and Victoria, as well as former friends and girlfriends such as Sinead Cusack, Nanette Newman and Janette Scott, the film explores the life of Sellers with candour and affection. Colleagues like director Joe McGrath and actor Simon Williams recall tales of Sellers's extravagant behaviour onset, and famous fans like Michael Palin, Steve Coogan and Hanif Kureishi reveal why they hold Sellers in such high esteem.

This is a film about family and how Sellers's mercurial temperament has affected the generation that followed. His two surviving children Sarah and Victoria recall the challenges of growing up alongside his tempestuous mood swings, while his grandson Will explores the troubled legacy his grandfather left behind.


SAT 00:55 Dawn Chorus: The Sounds of Spring (b05ttkx2)
The birdsong of sunrise in all its uninterrupted glory, free from the voiceover and music of traditional television.

With the first glimmers of sunlight, the birds of Britain's woodland, heathland and parkland burst into song. This is an opportunity to sit back and enjoy a portrait of three very different habitats and the natural splendour of their distinctive chorus.


SAT 01:55 Sahara with Michael Palin (b0074p4m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 02:55 Himalaya with Michael Palin (b0074qn6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

SUNDAY 30 APRIL 2023

SUN 19:00 Around the World in 80 Treasures (b00qg8jb)
Series 1 Shorts

Mali - Dogon Art

Dan Cruickshank visits the Dogon people and sees some masks and wall paintings.


SUN 19:10 The Queen's Realm (m001lllr)
Wales

Siân Phillips introduces an aerial tour of Wales in the year that the Queen celebrated her silver jubilee.


SUN 20:00 Dance Passion Liverpool: Find the Feeling (m001lllw)
From high-energy Afrodance to beautiful ballet, energetic hopak to vibrant vogueing, experience a day in the life of Liverpool through exhilarating dance.

Dancers, choreographers and troupes, both professional and enthusiast, use pavements and landmarks as their stage to perform exciting work and showcase the beating heart of the city.

Kicking off with a unique dawn commute, three dancers from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts - founded in 1996 by Sir Paul McCartney - dance their way to school from the famous Mersey ferry to the city centre.

Matthew Ball, Liverpudlian and principal dancer at the Royal Ballet, returns to his hometown with fellow principal and dance partner Mayara Magri to perform a premiere of his own choreographed piece, (Re)Current, at the iconic St George's Hall.

Local choreographer Alyx Steele takes a break from her tour with the Sugababes and brings her style of poppy commercial street-dance to the city’s River of Light festival.

Liverpool-born Jane Tiplov and her Ukrainian husband Anton step off the Riverdance stage to perform a high-speed traditional Ukrainian hopak dance on Liverpool's famous Hope Street.

Taking the ferry across the Mersey, the industrial beauty of Birkenhead’s Hydraulic Tower becomes the stage for Sheetal Maru's haunting blend of Indian and contemporary dance in a premiere of her dance film, Onus.

Inside another iconic building, a group of male dancers aged 50 plus take over the bell tower of Liverpool Cathedral, telling the story of the men behind the building; and at the Vogue Ball, House of Suarez curate a night of high-energy fashion, dance and vogueing, received with wild enthusiasm by the crowd.

Jamaican-born contemporary dancer Akeim Toussaint Buck takes dance to the people of Liverpool, performing a specially choreographed piece set to original music and poetry written for the programme, from St Luke’s Bombed Out Church to St George's Hall.

Manchester-based contemporary dance group Company Chameleon bring their trademark brand of outdoor performance to the brutalist architecture of the Metropolitan Cathedral with their new piece Umbra.

Liverpool's own Afrodance Academy rev up the BPM with their exciting mix of dancehall and Afrofusion on the Pier Head.

And fittingly, the programme closes with Robert Carter of the legendary Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo - the world's foremost all-male comic ballet company - dancing the Dying Swan, a uniquely humorous and moving take on a ballet classic.


SUN 21:00 The Prince and the Composer (b0bsqtf3)
Sir Hubert Parry is simultaneously one of Britain's best-known and least-known composers. Jerusalem is almost a national song, regularly performed at rugby grounds, schools, Women's Institute meetings and the Last Night of the Proms, while Dear Lord and Father of Mankind is one of Britain's best-loved hymns. Everyone knows the tunes, yet hardly anyone knows much about the man who wrote them.

In this film, made in 2011 by award-winning director John Bridcut, the then Prince of Wales, a longstanding enthusiast of Parry's work, sets out to discover more about the complex character behind it, with the help of members of Parry's family, scholars and performers.


SUN 22:00 David Copperfield (p00x9txv)
Episode 2

David is now a young man about town. Deeply in love with the beautiful but immature Dora, he sets out to woo her. But first he re-acquaints himself with some old friends.


SUN 23:50 The Price of Everything (m000hqmq)
Documentary that explores the labyrinthine art world of the 21st century and examines both the place of art and artistic passion in our money-driven, consumer-based society.

Featuring collectors, dealers, auctioneers and a rich range of artists, from current market darlings Jeff Koons, Gerhard Richter and Njideka Akunyili Crosby to one-time art star Larry Poons, the film exposes deep contradictions as it holds a mirror up to the values of the modern era, coaxing out the dynamics at play in pricing the priceless.


SUN 01:25 For Folk's Sake: Morris Dancing and Me (m0003vhz)
What’s the best way to save the ageing breed of male Morris dancer from extinction? Richard Macer infiltrates the endangered world of bells, beer and beards to discover an unlikely saviour of this ancient masculine tradition in the form of women.

The Morris Ring, the oldest Morris organisation in the country, has voted to admit women dancers for the first time with the hope that its member sides - as the teams are called - might stem the tide of declining numbers. But there are hardliners who believe females will dilute the very essence of what makes men’s Morris great. So, is Morris better when danced just by men or are women and mixed sides just as good?

During this journey, Macer is invited to join his local side the Manchester Morris Men, where the average age is over 70. Macer might represent an injection of youth to this team but does he have the talent to perform at one of the biggest festivals in the Morris Ring calendar?

What emerges during a long hot summer of folk dance is a bitter conflict as one of Britain’s most enduring traditions tries to reconcile itself to the modern world of gender equality. It also becomes a fascinating meditation on the nature of masculinity in a society in thrall to the idea of political correctness. And there is a personal development too for Macer, which sends his journey off in an unexpected direction.


SUN 02:25 The Queen's Realm (m001lllr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:10 today]

MONDAY 01 MAY 2023

MON 19:00 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000f94w)
Series 1

Yogyakarta to Ambarawa

Michael Portillo’s rail tour of south east Asia resumes in the southern archipelago of Indonesia. Michael is in Java’s Central province, travelling east towards Surabaya. Beginning in Java’s royal city, Yogyakarta, Michael visits the Sultan’s palace and admires the ancient art of shadow puppetry known as wayang.

Struck by the colourful patterned fabrics in the city’s markets, Michael investigates the process of batik, a Unesco world heritage textile, and is tempted by a saucy sarong. Moving north to Ambarawa, Michael boards a scenic heritage line constructed by the Dutch with carriages dating from the time of his Bradshaw’s guidebook. Today, this restored relic of the colonial era is cherished by Javanese tourists.


MON 19:30 Canal Boat Diaries (m001lmjn)
Series 4

Sheffield to Keadby

Robbie Cumming begins his 300-mile boating adventure across the north of England and the Midlands. He is forced to make a running repair to his narrowboat, the Naughty Lass, and on the Tinsley lock flight in South Yorkshire, he cruises beneath Conisbrough’s magnificent viaduct and must wait for an unusual sliding railway bridge to open on the Stainforth and Keadby Canal.


MON 20:00 Inside the Bat Cave (m000nx12)
A remarkable journey into the secret world of one of the most endangered and least understood animals on earth – bats. With cutting-edge night-vision cameras and ultrasonic detectors, this programme follows a greater horseshoe bat roost for four months during the summer of 2019, capturing the hidden life of the colony as never before. Witness the birth of a new generation of pups and follow their progress towards their perilous maiden flight outside the roost.


MON 21:00 An Art Lovers' Guide (b08ps5rd)
Series 1

Barcelona

With sumptuous palaces, exquisite artworks and stunning architecture, every great city offers a dizzying multitude of artistic highlights. In this series, art historians Dr Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke take us on three cultural citybreaks, hunting for off-the-beaten-track artistic treats - and finding new ways of enjoying some very famous sights.

In this second episode, Janina Ramirez and Alastair are on a mission to get to know one of the most popular cities in the world through its art and architecture. Although Barcelona is famous for its exuberant modernista buildings, the Gothic Quarter and artistic superstars such as Picasso, Janina and Alastair are determined to discover some less well-known cultural treats. Escaping the crowds on the Ramblas, they seek out the designs of an engineer who arguably put more of a stamp on the city than its star architect, Antoni Gaudi. Alastair marvels at the Romanesque frescoes that inspired a young Miro, while Janina discovers a surprising collection of vintage fans in the Mares, one of the city's most remarkable but rarely visited museums.

With a behind-the-scenes visit to Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, a session of impromptu Catalan dance and Alastair adding the finishing touches to some Barcelona street art, it is a fast-paced and colourful tour of the city's art and artists, revealing how Barcelona developed its distinctive cultural identity and how the long-running fight for independence has shaped the artistic life of the city.


MON 22:00 This Cultural Life (m001lmjq)
Series 2

Margaret Atwood

John Wilson talks to award-wining author Margaret Atwood about the experiences that shaped her writing.


MON 22:30 Dressing Up for the Carnival: A Portrait of Carol Shields (m001lmjs)
Programme following the late Canadian novelist Carol Shields at home in Canada, on tour in the UK and undergoing treatment for breast cancer, of which she died in 2003.


MON 23:20 Novels That Shaped Our World (m000b8mf)
Series 1

A Woman's Place

Ever since Samuel Richardson's novel Pamela, published in 1740, the novel has been a predominantly female literary form, offering far more opportunities to women writers than any other and consistently turning a powerful lens on the full range and depth of women's lives. Yet novels that explore women's stories, characters and emotions have often been attacked as frivolous – and sometimes by women themselves. But they are only frivolous to people for whom love, sex, friendship, family and one's own prospects in life are trivial matters. And there have been plenty of very serious female novelists too, from George Eliot and Middlemarch to Virginia Woolf and Orlando.

Women's rights have always been at the heart of the novel. Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid’s Tale has long been a famous rallying cry for feminism. The battle for women's suffrage is the subject of the propagandist novel No Surrender, written by Constance Maud in 1911. Works like this were forgotten until imprints like Virago republished them in the 1970s. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is another case in point - now seen as an icon of African-American women's writing, its reprinting was promoted by one of the most significant novelists of the last few decades, Alice Walker, author of the lacerating The Color Purple. The episode brings the discussion right up to date with a novel from 2019 by a black British writer and about a black British woman, Candice Carty-Williams' Queenie.


MON 00:20 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000f94w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 00:50 Canal Boat Diaries (m001lmjn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 01:20 Craftivism: Making a Difference (m000rxn0)
Can you use craft to help make the world a better place, one stitch at a time? Writer, comedian and art lover Jenny Eclair meets people doing extraordinary things with knitting, cross-stitch, banners and felt to change hearts and minds.

Hearing stories from craftivists around the UK and beyond, Jenny visits Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire to see how miniature knickers are discreetly placed around the town to encourage screening for cervical cancer, and learns how felt 'graffiti' has a wellbeing message for visitors to a London park.

From banners at Liverpool Football Club's Anfield Stadium to a huge memorial quilt remembering those who lost their lives to Aids, the initiatives all have one thing in common: a painstaking, thoughtful and beautiful way to get heard.


MON 02:20 The Prince and the Composer (b0bsqtf3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]

TUESDAY 02 MAY 2023

TUE 19:00 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000f99x)
Series 1

Ambarawa to Surabaya

Steered by his 1913 Bradshaw’s guidebook on a 2,500-mile rail tour of south east Asia, Michael Portillo is in Indonesia, today one of the biggest coffee producers in the world. In the mountainous interior of Java, Michael discovers how coffee was first brought to the island for cultivation and learns about production today.

In the city of Semarang, headquarters of the Dutch East Indies Railway Company, Michael visits the Great Mosque, whose sheer scale is a reminder that there are more Muslims in Indonesia than in any other country.

Journey’s end is at the port of Surabaya, second largest city in Java, a port bursting with local traditions, produce and culture. Michael learns the story behind its proud moniker, “City of Heroes”.


TUE 19:30 Canal Boat Diaries (m001lldy)
Series 4

Keadby to Kiveton Park

Robbie Cumming tackles the fast-flowing tidal River Trent and is invited to join a night-time illuminated boat parade. However, his journey is hampered by a damaged wall in Worksop and a water shortage on the picturesque Chesterfield Canal. Will he make it by boat to Kiveton Park?


TUE 20:00 As Time Goes By (p0479tfw)
Series 2

Why?

As the book launch draws near, Lionel gets more and more pessimistic about its success and begins to question Alistair’s constant enthusiasm.


TUE 20:30 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (b0077j3b)
Series 1

Cold Feet

Bob is deeply involved in preparations for his forthcoming wedding to Thelma, completing a period of courtship that started in form 4B at Park Junior School. But Terry's return has caused Bob to have doubts, especially when Terry teases him that his fate was sealed long before their 11-plus.


TUE 21:00 King Arthur's Britain: The Truth Unearthed (b0bkvw8v)
With exclusive access to a major new excavation, Alice Roberts pulls together all the latest evidence to reveal what Dark Age Britain was really like. In the 5th century, the future of Britain hung in the balance. After four centuries of straight roads and hot-and-cold running water the Romans upped and left, called back to support their own ailing empire. The country quickly descended into chaos, plunging the native population into poverty and instability as their livelihoods - many dependent on the Romans - disappeared almost overnight. The nation was vulnerable and it didn't take long for Anglo-Saxon invaders to take advantage, a vast bloodthirsty army quickly overran the country, killing the locals and settling down to change the history of the British Isles forever.

At least, that is what the fragmentary historical texts record, but the truth is we don't actually know what happened. There is no reliable written account of events and for two whole centuries sources provide the names of less than ten individuals. This pivotal moment in our national history has been shrouded in mystery until now.

Alice Roberts uses new archaeological discoveries to decode the myths and medieval fake news, piecing together a very different story of this turning point in Britain's history. The story begins with exclusive access to the excavations of an unprecedented stone palace complex on the Tintagel peninsula in Cornwall. Long known to have been a Dark Age settlement the new evidence reveals that Tintagel was also a seat of power, but who ruled there? The rocky outcrop has mythical connections with the legendary King Arthur, but there has never been any evidence found that he actually lived there or even existed.

Alice explores the link between the Arthur legend and the location, tracking down the early sources for the period and the first written reference to King Arthur. She discovers the story of a divided Britain - bloodthirsty conquering Anglo-Saxons in the east and embattled Britons in the west. Into this great divide the legend of King Arthur was born, a heroic defender of the native population against the invading Anglo-Saxon hordes, but is there any archeological evidence that the written accounts are true?


TUE 22:00 Storyville (m001llf2)
Attica: America’s Bloodiest Prison Uprising

A Storyville documentary about the violent five-day standoff between inmates and law enforcement which gripped America in 1971.


TUE 23:50 Colour: The Spectrum of Science (b06pm7t8)
Beyond the Rainbow

We live in a world ablaze with colour. Rainbows and rainforests, oceans and humanity, earth is the most colourful place we know of. But the colours we see are far more complex and fascinating than they appear. In this series, Dr Helen Czerski uncovers what colour is, how it works, and how it has written the story of our planet.

The colours that we see are only a fraction of what's out there. Beyond the rainbow there are colours invisible to our eyes. In this episode, Helen tells the story of scientific discovery. To see the universe in a whole new light, she takes to the skies in a Nasa jumbo jet equipped with a 17-tonne infrared telescope.

We can't see in ultraviolet, but many animals can. Helen explores what the world looks like to the birds and the bees. With the discovery of x-rays, we could look inside ourselves in ways that previously had only been possible after death. Today, those same x-rays allow us to examine life at the atomic level, helping to develop new drugs and better materials. Ultimately, by harnessing all the colours there are, researchers are beginning to image the human body as never before, revealing new ways to treat disease.


TUE 00:50 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000f99x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


TUE 01:20 Canal Boat Diaries (m001lldy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 01:50 King Arthur's Britain: The Truth Unearthed (b0bkvw8v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 03 MAY 2023

WED 19:00 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000f9cf)
Series 1

Penang to Kuala Kangsar

Michael Portillo’s 2,500-mile rail tour of south east Asia reaches Malaysia.

On the island of Penang, Michael traces the origins of the former British colony in Georgetown, rides one of the world’s steepest funicular railways and is enchanted by exotic specimens at Malaysia’s first butterfly sanctuary.

Travelling on Malaysia’s hi-tech railway network, Michael visits the wettest town in the country, Taiping, and learns how the discovery of tin made this land a prized possession for Britain.

Next stop is the regal town of Kuala Kangsar, home to the Sultan of Perak and to one of Malaysia’s most prestigious schools, known as the ‘Eton of the East’. Michael joins pupils in a game of Eton Fives.


WED 19:30 Canal Boat Diaries (m001ln0w)
Series 4

Lincoln to Nottingham

Autumnal fog and an overheating engine prove to be problems for narrowboater Robbie Cumming as he navigates a Roman waterway and the fast-flowing River Trent. It’s a journey of many challenges as he runs aground and breaks down in Nottingham.


WED 20:00 Around the World in 80 Days - 20 Years On (b00gd3hz)
Michael Palin goes in search of the crew of the wooden dhow Al Shama, featured in his series Around the World in 80 Days. The eight-day voyage across the Arabian Sea to Bombay filmed in 1988 has become a TV classic.

Michael's search begins in Dubai, which has been transformed since he was last there 20 years ago. He soon moves on to what is now Mumbai. There, a helpful freight broker tells him what has befallen Al Shama. But there is better news of Captain Hassan Suleyman, and Michael books himself onto the Kutch Express, which will take him far to the north, close to the Pakistani border. There he hopes that his long search will be crowned with a reunion with men with whom he forged a special bond, and on whom his life depended 20 years ago.


WED 21:00 Michael Palin's Quest for Artemisia (b06t3w73)
Curious about a powerful but violent painting that caught his eye, Michael Palin sets off on a quest to discover the astonishing story of the forgotten female artist who painted it over 400 years ago. Travelling to Italy in search of Artemisia Gentileschi's tale, Michael encounters her work in Florence, Rome and Naples.

Michael unearths not only her paintings but a complex life which included her rape as a teenager and the ensuing indignity of a full trial, her life as a working mother and her ultimate success against all odds as one of the greatest painters of the Baroque age who transformed the way women were depicted in art and who was sought after in many courts across 17th-century Europe.


WED 22:00 Screen Two (b0074p41)
Series 3

East of Ipswich

Michael Palin's nostalgic comedy about a family holiday at a Suffolk seaside resort. Richard Burrill, a 17-year-old, is reluctantly dragged to Southwold with his parents, where he meets Edwin, another teenager who has very definite ideas about how to enjoy himself, and a young Dutch girl with an eye for the boys.


WED 23:15 Victoria & Albert: The Royal Wedding (b0bvxj28)
Lucy Worsley restages the wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Each detail is brought back to life in a spectacular ceremony as Lucy reveals how this event saved the monarchy and invented modern marriage.

Aided by a team of experts, Lucy recreates the most important elements of the ceremony and the celebrations, scouring history books, archives, newspapers and Queen Victoria's diaries for the details. She reveals how every moment was brilliantly stage-managed for maximum effect. Like every good marriage celebration, the film is a heady mix of fine food, fabulous clothes, music, emotion, gossip and intrigue. From the white dress to the massive tiered white cake, from the music sung by the choir to the moment rings were exchanged, each element has been carefully researched and remade for a grand staging of the big day itself.

The experts include food historian Annie Gray, clothing expert Harriet Waterhouse and military historian Jasdeep Singh. Woven into the recreation of the wedding day is the story of Victoria and Albert's courtship and engagement, and its political importance. Lucy unpacks and explores the hidden iconography and symbolism of this hugely significant wedding, and reveals new insights into Victoria and Albert's relationship; both public and private.

The film sheds new light on the wider implications of the wedding and reveals how this one extraordinary event helped to invent modern marriage.


WED 00:45 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000f9cf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 01:15 Canal Boat Diaries (m001ln0w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 01:45 Dressing Up for the Carnival: A Portrait of Carol Shields (m001lmjs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 on Monday]


WED 02:35 Around the World in 80 Days - 20 Years On (b00gd3hz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

THURSDAY 04 MAY 2023

THU 19:00 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000fjq9)
Series 1

Kuala Kangsar to Cameron Highlands

Michael Portillo’s rail exploration of south east Asia continues in Malaysia. His journey resumes in Kuala Kangsar, where he taps into the source of the lucrative rubber industry that boomed at the time of his 1913 Bradshaw’s Guide, when Malaya was a British colony. Michael learns how rubber engineering today ensures railway passengers enjoy a smooth ride.

In the cosmopolitan foody town of Ipoh, Michael bakes a popular Chinese treat at a famous Malaysian bakery and enjoys a dragon dance of epic proportions.

At a colonial-era hill station in the Cameron Highlands, Michael discovers how the British made themselves at home as he visits a tea plantation by a golf course to taste this most British staple.


THU 19:30 Canal Boat Diaries (m001ln54)
Series 4

Loughborough to Braunston

On the last leg of his 300-mile journey across the north of England and the Midlands, Robbie Cumming faces issues with ice on the Grand Union Canal, takes on Foxton’s famous lock flight in Leicestershire, and completes his journey in the picturesque village Braunston, Northamptonshire, regarded as the spiritual home for narrowboaters.


THU 20:00 Great Railway Journeys (b00f60q8)
Series 1

Confessions of a Trainspotter

Michael Palin, a keen train spotter when young, fulfills his boyhood dream of travelling the length of the country, from Euston to Kyle of Lochalsh.


THU 21:00 A Fish Called Wanda (b00lrpfr)
Offbeat black comedy in which a con artist uses her female charms to steal a stash of jewels from her gangster boyfriend, taking advantage of his henchman and a lawyer - with whom she later falls in love - to realise her cunning plan. The group's various criminal escapades are often complicated by the presence of a hapless mobster, whose mission to kill an elderly witness proves increasingly hard.


THU 22:45 Blue Murder at St Trinian's (m000j4df)
Comedy. With their headmistress under lock and key in her majesty's prison, the St Trinian's girls find themselves under the protection of the army. However, when the sixth form take a fancy to winning a trip to Italy through means fair or foul, the army discover this is one battle they can't win. Let loose in Europe, it is not long before St Trinian's have succeeded in endangering European relations.


THU 00:10 Talking Pictures (b06nxhkc)
Great British Comedies

Sylvia Syms looks back on the great British comedy stars who over the years have had cinema audiences rolling in the aisles with laughter. Featuring rarely-seen interviews from the BBC's archives, the programme starts with the great George Formby and the early days of British cinema, and works its way forwards in time, exploring, amongst others, the classic Ealing comedies, the much-loved Doctor series, the saucy postcard humour of the Carry On films, Peter Sellers and the Pink Panther series, and the ground-breaking movies of Monty Python.


THU 00:50 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000fjq9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 01:20 Canal Boat Diaries (m001ln54)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 01:50 Great Railway Journeys (b00f60q8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

FRIDAY 05 MAY 2023

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m001ln6k)
Bruno Brookes presents the pop chart programme, first shown on 18 August 1994 and featuring China Black, Oasis, Tinman, Eternal, Soundgarden, Youssou N’Dour & Neneh Cherry, Sophie B Hawkins, Boyz II Men and Wet Wet Wet.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m001ln6m)
Claire Sturgess presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 1 September 1994 and featuring Blur and Phil Daniels, Sean Maguire, Terrorvision, Youssou N'Dour and Neneh Cherry, Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey, Children for Rwanda, Boyz II Men, Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories, and Wet Wet Wet.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b01hzglr)
Noel Edmonds presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 5 May 1977 and featuring appearances from Bay City Rollers, Delegation, Mac and Katie Kissoon, Joy Sarney, Frankie Valli, Mr Big, Rod Stewart, Leo Sayer, Tavares and Deniece Williams, with a dance sequence from Legs & Co.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (b090tsr6)
Mike Read and Steve Wright present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 3 May 1984 and featuring appearances from Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Blancmange, New Order, Kenny Loggins, Jocelyn Brown, The Human League and Duran Duran.


FRI 21:00 Fanny: The Right to Rock (m001ln6p)
The untold story of a California garage band, co-founded in the 1960s by Filipina American and queer teenagers, which morphed into the ferocious rock group Fanny, the first all-female band to release an LP with a major record label (Warner/Reprise, 1970).

Despite releasing Top 40 hits and five critically acclaimed albums between 1970 to 1974, counting David Bowie as one of their most vocal fans and touring extensively with bands like Chicago, Steely Dan, Slade and other major groups, Fanny's groundbreaking impact in music has been lost in the mists of time… until bandmates reunite 50 years later with a new rock record deal and a chance to right the wrongs of history.

Fanny's brave present-day journey and fascinating backstory is illuminated by rare performance archival footage, photography and celebrity interviews with music legends including Bonnie Raitt, Todd Rundgren, The Go Go's Kathy Valentine, The Runaways’ Cherie Currie, The B52's Kate Pierson, Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastien, Def Leppard's Joe Elliott, David Bowie's guitarist Earl Slick and bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, Charles Neville and Steely Dan's Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter.

Fanny blasted glass ceilings of racism and sexism back in the 1960s and 70s, with the lesbian bandmates told to either hide their LBGTQ identity or leave the band, and with their new album, these feisty women, now in their 70s, challenge the stigma of ageism as well.

Through the captivating lens of rock 'n' roll, this film raises critical questions about identity, perseverance, love, family and the elusive alchemy of pursuing the American Dream.


FRI 22:30 Girls in Bands at the BBC (b06mxpjc)
Compilation celebrating some guitar band performances at the BBC that feature some of the best female musicians in rock. Beginning with the oft-forgotten American group Fanny performing You're the One, it's a journey along rock's spectrum from the 1970s to now.

The selection includes the powerful vocals of Elkie Brooks on Vinegar Joe's Proud to Be a Honky Woman, the mesmerising poetry of Patti Smith's Horses and the upbeat energy of The Go-Go's on We Got the Beat.

Mighty basslines come courtesy of Tina Weymouth on Psycho Killer and Kim Gordon on Sugar Kane, whilst we trace the line of indie rock from the Au Pairs through Lush, Elastica and Garbage to current band Savages.


FRI 23:30 Rock Goes to College (m001ln6r)
Siouxsie and the Banshees

Pete Drummond introduces Siouxsie and the Banshees in concert at Warwick University.


FRI 00:00 Radio 2 Live (p08p5mbq)
At Home Performances - 2020

Pretenders

Stomping rock from Chrissie Hynde and company.


FRI 00:25 Top of the Pops (m001ln6k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 00:55 Top of the Pops (m001ln6m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 01:25 Top of the Pops (b01hzglr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 01:55 Top of the Pops (b090tsr6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


FRI 02:25 For Folk's Sake: Morris Dancing and Me (m0003vhz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 01:25 on Sunday]