SATURDAY 10 JUNE 2023

SAT 19:00 Monty Don's Japanese Gardens (m0002pcx)
Series 1

Episode 2

Monty Don returns to Japan during the fiery blaze of autumn. He begins as he did in spring, at one of 'the three great gardens of Japan' to learn how they protect the garden from the coming winter.

He follows the history of the Japanese garden through the military strongholds of leaders past to the many styles, new and old, of the iconic stroll garden, and discovers a slice of Victorian England in the heart of Tokyo. He learns how the Japanese are weaving nature into their concrete urban jungle.

Monty explores rooftop gardens and takes lessons in the intricate art of bonsai and moss balls, as well as visiting an astounding modern feat of architecture and garden design. He ends his journey by the Sea of Japan at a place that literally makes art out of its gardens.


SAT 20:00 Voyages of Discovery (b0074t3q)
The Making of Captain Cook

Explorer Paul Rose tells the story of one of the greatest ever sea adventures, which transformed Captain James Cook into a national hero and dramatically changed the course of history. Two and a half centuries later, Captain Cook is still a household name, but his achievements are often misunderstood, contrary to popular perception, he did not discover New Zealand and Australia. Intrepid Rose follows his journey down under and uncovers the real story of Captain Cook.


SAT 21:00 Law of Tehran (m001mwb4)
The police relentlessly pursue a drug lord named Nasser Khakzad, but when they finally manage to catch him, he tries whatever he can think of to escape and save his family. Iranian thriller.


SAT 23:05 The Best of Les Dawson (m001mqrz)
Compilation of classic comedy performances by the late Les Dawson.


SAT 23:35 Talking Comedy (b05qt7vj)
Les Dawson

A laughter-filled look back at much-loved deadpan comic Les Dawson's appearances over the years on a selection of the BBC's talk shows.


SAT 00:05 The Many Faces of... (b018nvwc)
Series 1

Les Dawson

Les Dawson was one of Britain's all time great comedy talents, best known as a comedian but also a talented musician, writer and actor. This programme traces his career, with familiar favourite TV clips and some rare gems from the archives. Together with interviews from friends, relatives and colleagues, the programme unpicks the secrets of his enduring legacy nearly 20 years after his untimely death.

After 'discovery' on the Opportunity Knocks talent show in the 60s, he quickly became a regular face on TV, hosting comedy-led variety shows like Sez Les and The Les Dawson Show. His trademarks were short, pithy jokes, usually targeting his wife or mother in law, long verbose monologues and, perhaps most famously, piano recitals that went hilariously off key.

His reputation attracted guest appearances from some unexpected fans like John Cleese and Shirley Bassey, and he created an overweight dance troupe, The Roly Polys.

The programme shows how his career unfolded and illustrates the different facets of his comedy genius. John Cleese remembers their unlikely friendship, modern comedy stars Robert Webb and Russell Kane talk about his inspiration and Dawson's widow Tracy recalls their marriage and his joy at being a father late in life.


SAT 01:05 Voyages of Discovery (b0074t3q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:05 Monty Don's Japanese Gardens (m0002pcx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

SUNDAY 11 JUNE 2023

SUN 19:00 Blankety Blank Classic (m001mwbt)
Series 10

Episode 12

Les Dawson is joined by special guests Peter Dean, Leslie Grantham, Paul Medford, Sandy Ratcliff, Wendy Richard and Gillian Taylforth for the comedy quiz show.


SUN 19:30 Pop Quiz (m001mwbx)
Series 2

Episode 4

Mike Read presents the quiz about pop music. With guests Phil Collins, Robert Plant, Colin Moulding, Bill Bruford, Suzi Quatro and Geoff Deane.


SUN 20:00 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (m001mwbz)
2023

Round 1

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World celebrates its 40th anniversary. The prestigious international competition has launched the careers of a host of leading opera stars, including Karita Mattila, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Bryn Terfel and Jamie Barton.

Sixteen of the world’s most promising young performers were selected to compete in the Welsh capital for this most coveted of titles. Performing in the first of four rounds are singers from South Korea, Canada, England and South Africa, who will need to impress this year’s expert panel of judges if they are to progress through to the final.

The judges are Sir Brian McMaster, former director of the Edinburgh International Festival, Argentinian mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink, Welsh soprano Rosemary Joshua, composer Errollyn Wallen, and returning as chair of the jury, Aidan Lang, general director of Welsh National Opera.

Petroc Trelawny and Josie d’Arby host at St David’s Hall, and their guest for this first round is acclaimed New Zealand-born Samoan bass Jonathan Lemalu.

Featuring music by Mozart, Puccini, Handel and Bellini, the singers perform with the Welsh National Opera Orchestra conducted by Michael Christie.


SUN 21:30 Sacred Music: The Story of Allegri's Miserere (b00g81g7)
Simon Russell Beale tells the story behind Allegri's Miserere, one of the most popular pieces of sacred music ever written. The programme features a full performance of the piece by the award-winning choir the Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers.


SUN 22:00 The Borg v McEnroe Tie-break 1980 (m001n2hc)
The full Borg v McEnroe fourth set tie-break from their classic Wimbledon final in 1980.


SUN 22:30 John McEnroe: Still Rockin' at 60 (m0006hn8)
Sue Barker presents an intimate profile of one of sport’s most famous characters, John McEnroe, who is still controversial as he enters his 60th year.

Sue travels to John’s New York home and meets his childhood friends, brothers Mark and Patrick, daughters Anna, Ava, Ruby and his wife Patty Smyth (the American singer and songwriter). Along with his greatest rival and close friend Bjorn Borg, they all help to unravel the contradictions of the man who could be number one in the world and at the same time public enemy number one.

With unique personal access, Sue witnesses at first-hand the mystique of the dad, husband, coach, rock-star, art dealer and broadcaster. She visits John’s art gallery, attends one of his jam sessions and gets an insight from his rock-star buddy Chrissie Hynde into his passion for music.

This is a man who has become far more than a tennis player, yet at 60 he is still competing, the oldest man on tour. A man at a crossroads in his life, he’s on the brink of retiring from tennis. Sue presents another side to the man who took Wimbledon by storm, shocking and delighting in equal measure, and is still as 'seriously' unpredictable as ever… and a man who eventually won the hearts of Wimbledon.


SUN 23:30 imagine... (b07lswsg)
Summer 2016

DANGER! Cornelia Parker

Imagine reveals the darker side of one of Britain's most original and inventive artists. A sculptor working with found materials, Cornelia Parker creates beauty from acts of brutality - an exploded shed, piles of squashed silver, the charred remnants of a burnt church suspended in time. Born in 1956 to a German mother and an English father in rural Cheshire, Parker always struggled to fit in. Art was her escape. In 2016 she embarked on the most high-profile commission of her career - the roof of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Alan Yentob follows Parker's creative process in a film that sees her delve deep into America's history, cinema and art, as well as her own personal past.


SUN 00:35 Timewatch (b008pyps)
2007-2008

In Search of the Wreckers

In January 2007, the MSC Napoli ran aground, spilling its cargo on Branscombe beach in Devon. The public were delighted, but the authorities were determined to police opportunists. Looters of the Napoli were reviving a centuries' old tradition: 'wrecking'. Author Bella Bathurst discovers the social history of a national crime.


SUN 01:25 Brian Cox's Jute Journey (b00n5pvr)
Hollywood actor Brian Cox is a son of Dundee. The city is the big constant of his life. He grew up amid the clatter of the jute mills, where both his parents began their working lives.

The jute trade, making hessian from India's 'golden' fibre, dominated Dundee for over a century, linking it with Kolkata. It is now fast becoming a memory. Documentary journey into Brian Cox's past, and on to Kolkata in the footsteps of the Dundee jute workers who left to seek their fortunes in India.


SUN 02:25 Neutrino: Hunting the Ghost Particle (m000zwqr)
This is an astonishing tale of perseverance and ingenuity that reveals how scientists have battled against the odds for almost a century to detect and decode the neutrino, the smallest and strangest particle of matter in the universe.

Inside the world-renowned physics laboratory Fermilab, a team of scientists are constructing an audacious experiment to hunt for a mysterious new ‘ghost’ neutrino. If they find it, this could transform our understanding of the nature and fabric of our universe. The problem is, these tiny particles are almost impossible to detect.

Elsewhere, physicists conduct experiments in some of the most extreme environments on the planet: from deep mine shafts in South Dakota to vast ice fields at the South Pole. In these unlikely places supersized neutrino detectors hope to unlock the universe’s deepest secrets. Could neutrinos overturn the most precise theory of particle physics that humans have ever written down? Could they even be a link to a hidden realm of new particles that permeate the cosmos – so called dark matter? Scientists at Fermilab are edging towards the truth.

MONDAY 12 JUNE 2023

MON 19:00 Coastal Path (b07wbzgt)
Episode 5

Paul Rose explores the Jurassic Coast, taking a walk through some two hundred million years of the earth's history. He uncovers prehistoric treasures in Charmouth and greets hatching signets at Abbotsbury Swannery.


MON 19:30 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074mb5)
Mining

In this programme Fred Dibnah takes a look at mining. His tour takes him from Cornwall to Scotland, exploring how tin, slate, lead, and coal were all extracted from the ground. Along the way he visits old mine workings, drives, winding engines, and descends a mine shaft strapped to the top of the cage.


MON 20:00 Ten Pound Poms: The Real Story (m001mwdk)
In 1947, the Assisted Passage Scheme began, devised by the Australian government to bring in white British settlers. For just £10, they could start a new life in a sun-drenched land of opportunity, and over the next 25 years, more than a million people took up the offer. The scheme's pioneers tell their story.


MON 20:50 Coast (b00792ng)
Shorts

Shipwrecks

Nicholas Crane visits the Cornish coastline and discovers the mystery and tragedy behind many past shipwrecks. He hears about the tales told of ships being lured onto the rocks by men with lanterns to be looted for their cargo.


MON 21:00 Britain's Biggest Warship (b0b1z7r6)
Series 1

Out with the Old, In with the New

HMS Queen Elizabeth approaches the climax of her sea trials in the North Sea. The automatic flight deck fire-fighting system is a major innovation on board but must now be tested for the first time. The new super carrier makes a special and poignant visit to Scapa Flow in the Orkneys to mark an astonishing naval centenary - it is 100 years to the day that an aircraft was successfully landed on a moving vessel but with ultimately tragic consequences. Queen Elizabeth then moves at full speed to rendezvous with American carrier USS George Bush and a major battle group of international warships.

In the US we visit the British top gun pilots training on the top-secret F-35B Lightening stealth fighter that will eventually fly off HMS Queen Elizabeth. Commander Nathan Gray, the Royal Navy's top test pilot, is preparing to land the first F-35 on Queen Elizabeth's flight deck in October 2018. Meanwhile, surprising events on board the warship conspire to remind First Lieutenant Bob Hawkins of his past. He recalls bittersweet memories that prompt him to divulge closely held feelings about the modern navy, his shipmates on Queen Elizabeth and his fears about going to war at sea.

Kirsty and Dickie, the captain's stewards, let slip a secret about the captain that his wife must never know about. And Dani Hobbs, a 24-year-old gunnery instructor, amazes the entire ship's company with a hidden talent that lifts everyone's spirits. Eventually, the gruelling sea trials over, HMS Queen Elizabeth heads south for a dramatic and emotional arrival in Portsmouth which will be her home port for the next 50 years. A few weeks later, we are privy to the ship's commissioning by her namesake - Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.


MON 22:00 The Sky at Night (m001mwdn)
The UK Space Race

The Sky at Night team investigates the incredible science and engineering helping the UK to blast into space. We are now one of the biggest satellite building nations in the world, and the race is on to be the first company to successfully launch a rocket into orbit from British soil.

Chris visits Skyrora, a rocket company near Glasgow, to find out how rockets are built and why launches so often go wrong. Skyrora are planning their first orbital launch later this year; Chris learns how each stage of their rocket is designed for a successful lift-off.

Maggie is given a sneak preview of the brand new National Satellite Test Facility. Until now British-built satellites have been shipped abroad for the final tests of whether they can withstand the harsh environment of space. But this is all about to change with the opening of the huge NSTF. Maggie sees how a satellite up to 7,000kg will be vibrated to simulate launch conditions. She steps inside the vacuum chamber where they will be exposed to extreme temperatures. And she sees the construction of the enormous EMC, where communication signals can be tested in secret.

A result of the rapidly expanding space industry is that nearly 900 objects have been launched into space in the last year. Chris meets Professor Andy Lawrence to talk about the impact this is having on astronomy and the images captured by telescopes such as Hubble.

Another key issue is space debris – shrapnel from defunct missions and missile tests. Astronomers are currently keeping track of more than 23,000 pieces of debris larger than 10cm, and this space junk poses a danger to new satellites as well as the astronauts on board the ISS. Radio astronomer Professor Danielle George visits Clearspace, a company hoping to solve the space junk problem with technology designed to gently capture this debris in orbit.

And our in-house stargazing expert Pete Lawrence shows us why June is a great month for solar observing as well as the summer asterisms.


MON 22:30 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (m001mwdq)
2023

Round 2

Petroc Trelawny and Josie d’Arby present coverage of Round 2 of this year’s BBC Cardiff Singer of the World from St David’s Hall. Welsh tenor Jeffrey Lloyd Roberts is their special guest as the 40th anniversary of this competition continues.

Singers from China, Turkey, Croatia and the home nation of Wales compete for a place in Sunday’s final. To succeed, they will need to impress the competition’s jury - Sir Brian McMaster, former director of the Edinburgh International Festival, acclaimed Argentinian mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink, Welsh soprano Rosemary Joshua, multi-award-winning composer Errollyn Wallen, and returning as chair of the jury, Aidan Lang, general director of Welsh National Opera.

With music by Bizet, Donizetti, Verdi and Rachmaninov, the singers perform tonight with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Ryan Bancroft.


MON 00:00 Johnny Kingdom: A Year on Exmoor (b00793d7)
Series 1

My Grand Design

Gravedigger Johnny Kingdom presents a look at the wildlife of the moors and woodlands of Exmoor, meeting local characters and capturing rare footage of red deer, Exmoor ponies, fox cubs, wild boar and a whole variety of birdlife.

It's autumn, and Johnny prepares to build a new badger hide - from it he hopes to film badgers and other wildlife. But the badgers have disappeared from his last hide, built on land owned by his old friend Tony Thorne. He's hoping he'll have better luck with this one.


MON 00:30 Johnny Kingdom: A Year on Exmoor (b00793h9)
Series 1

Masters of the Moor

Gravedigger Johnny Kingdom presents a look at the wildlife of the moors and woodlands of Exmoor, meeting local characters and capturing rare footage of red deer, Exmoor ponies, fox cubs, wild boar and a whole variety of birdlife. It's mid-autumn and the time of the red deer's mating season, and Johnny has some unfinished business with one particular old stag he once got too close to. Johnny's friend Tony Thorne is on hand to diagnose a problem with Johnny's big toe.


MON 01:00 Men at the Barre - Inside the Royal Ballet (m000jjjq)
What is it like to be a male ballet dancer in the modern world? Is there still a stigma for boys who enter what is commonly seen as a female domain? Award-winning film-maker Richard Macer hopes to find out as he gets invited to film with a golden generation of talented young male dancers at the Royal Ballet.

An American TV host got into hot water for ridiculing Prince George for taking ballet at school. But why is that men are still an easy target if they want to pull on a pair of tights instead of kicking a ball around a pitch?

Macer learns that, in the past, the man’s role was just to lift the ballerina into the air. But things have changed. Top male dancers have fan bases that rival those enjoyed by the best ballerinas. And choreography is starting to reflect masculinity in different ways. It is becoming more fluid, mirroring our changing perception of what it is to be man outside in the wider world.

Russian Vadim Muntagirov is considered by many to be the best dancer in the world today. He tends to open most classical ballets (Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake) at the Royal Opera house alongside his world-renowned dance partner, Marianela Nuñez. Matthew Ball, from Liverpool, is a younger principal who has a super fan attend his every performance and even give him notes on how many mistakes he made during the show!

Steven McRae has the biggest following on Instagram but tends to post more these days about his rehabilitation routine than his dancing, since he is coming back from two serious injuries. And then there is Ed Watson who has been at the top of his profession for many years but now, at the age of 42, is contemplating retirement.

We might assume ballet is a genteel, middle-class art form but some of the dancers at the Opera House dismantle this stereotype with personal stories that some viewers might finding surprising, such as that of Marcelino Sambé and Joseph Sissens, who both overcame considerable hardship before arriving in Covent Garden.

Nearly all the dancers Macer talks to share one main inspiration - Rudolf Nureyev. It was not just the Russian’s ability on the stage that struck such a chord with them, but also the aura he created, which transcended ballet and came to represent a new kind of machismo.

What we learn is that male ballet is incredibly competitive, just as it is for the women, with dancers pushing themselves towards a goal of perfection that, rather like utopia, remains always just out of reach. But for the men, there is often an added obstacle on their journey to success, the notion that society still sees ballet primarily as a female activity. So, for our golden generation, they have had to swim against the tide in a way their sisters have not. Perhaps, as Macer discovers, that is why these young men describe their occupation as a ‘calling’.


MON 02:00 Coastal Path (b07wbzgt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 02:30 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074mb5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 03:00 Ten Pound Poms: The Real Story (m001mwdk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

TUESDAY 13 JUNE 2023

TUE 19:00 The Lakes with Paul Rose (b0bbzj2m)
Series 1

Windermere

Explorer Paul Rose digs out his rucksack and heads for Windermere in the first of a four-part series about the Lake District. The National Park attracts 18 million visitors each year, and is now a World Heritage Site. In this episode, Paul joins the crowds and finds out why the early tourists thought the Lakes were one of the most dangerous spots in the country. He plunges into the world of long-distance swimming and helps the staff who run the boats on the lake, before meeting a Holocaust survivor who was airlifted to Windermere in 1945, as part of a mercy mission involving 300 orphans after the Second World War.


TUE 19:30 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074mbm)
Railways

Fred Dibnah visits the North East, which is rich in railway history.

At Bowes Railway he sees an early engineering project by George Stephenson, which was a stationary engine that pulled coal wagons uphill with a rope. At Darlington Railway Museum he admires Stephenson's original Locomotive No 1, the first to run from Darlington to Stockton. At the National Railway Museum, York, he rides on a replica of the Rocket, made by Stephenson's son Robert and at Ffestiniog Railway, he sees how a new locomotive is designed with computer aids and rides on the footplate and stokes the boiler of a Black Five at Llangollen Railway.


TUE 20:00 Hancock's Half Hour (p032kj0z)
The Blood Donor

Hancock decides to donate some blood but is aghast to find out how much he has to give. When he discovers he has a rare blood type he resolves to find out where it will end up.


TUE 20:30 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (b0077jrd)
Series 1

No Hiding Place

Bob and Terry are desperate not to know the result of the England v Bulgaria football match, but with eight hours to go will they succeed in their mission?


TUE 21:00 The Witness Is a Whale (m001mwfg)
A thousand years ago, many millions of whales dominated the sea, with their ancient behaviours vital to the well-being of the oceans. These marine mammals are the ambassadors between one world and another, land and sea, their close communities only now being truly researched and understood. They are still a keystone species in our fragile ecosystem today, with crucial impact on our seas and the life contained within them. But whaling decimated their numbers over the last 150 years, in particular the whaling industry run by the KGB during the Cold War.

In a basement in Odessa, top-secret Soviet whaling reports record the unimaginable number of whales killed. This film tells how surviving members of the Soviet leadership, and original Soviet whalers, uncover these secret records, allowing us to understand the magnitude of historical whale populations and the shocking impact of commercial whaling.

Whale populations are now largely cherished across the world as we begin to understand these amazing animals, their intelligence and their important contribution to the sustainability and health of the oceans.


TUE 21:50 Wild (b0078zg5)
2005-06 Shorts

Water Voles

Documentary presenting an intimate portrait of one of Britain's most charming wild animals, following a family of water voles living on a canal in Derbyshire though a typical year.

The picturesque Cromford canal used to serve the regions cotton mills. Now, having been deserted, it serves as a perfect water vole paradise. For these hyperactive little mammals, a year is nearly a lifetime. They spend their lives in a frenzy of activity, swimming, feeding and breeding - the latter most neccessary, since water voles are becoming a rarity these days.


TUE 22:00 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (m001mwfj)
2023

Round 3

As BBC Cardiff Singer of the World marks its 40th anniversary, four more of the world’s most talented young singers compete for the biggest prize in opera. From South Korea, Sweden, China and South Africa, they hope to impress the judges and make it through to Sunday’s final.

We hear music by Handel, Wagner, Puccini and Mozart in this penultimate round in the competition. The singers perform with the Welsh National Opera Orchestra conducted by Michael Christie.

Petroc Trelawny and Josie d’Arby bring us coverage of Round 3 from St David’s Hall. They are joined by charismatic British soprano Nadine Benjamin.


TUE 23:30 Arena (m000pr2n)
Fela Kuti: Father of Afrobeat

In 1997, over one million people gathered in Lagos for the funeral of Fela Kuti, Africa’s biggest artist, who gave the world Afrobeat, yet was also a thorn in the side of Nigeria’s military regimes - a revolutionary who fought injustice with his music and a libertine who married 27 wives in one ceremony. When he died from a disease that carried huge stigma in Africa, there was fear his legacy would die with him. Exclusive testimony reveals the multifaceted man behind the maverick performer.


TUE 00:55 The Lakes with Paul Rose (b0bbzj2m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


TUE 01:25 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074mbm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 01:55 The Witness Is a Whale (m001mwfg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 14 JUNE 2023

WED 19:00 The Lakes with Paul Rose (b0bc6fg2)
Series 1

Derwentwater

Explorer Paul Rose packs his waterproofs and heads for Derwentwater and Borrowdale in his latest adventure in the Lake District. It's a place that's no stranger to tough weather - Borrowdale is officially the wettest place in England. He meets those who've battled against flooding and have learned to live with extreme weather events. Along the way, he tells the story of Millican Dalton, the professor of adventure, who ran his own expeditions in the Lake District more than 70 years ago. Paul also heads for the summit of Great Gable, one of the Lake's best-known peaks.


WED 19:30 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074mbg)
Ships and Engineering

Fred Dibnah examines the skill of the shipbuilders and machine engineers who turned Britain into a great manufacturing nation.

In Bristol, Fred visits the SS Great Britain and pays tribute to the designer and his hero, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

Fred also travels to Scotland to take a voyage on the paddle steamer Waverley. Back in England, he visits the Windermere Steamboat Museum, the Long Shop Museum in Leiston, Suffolk, and the Kew Bridge Steam Museum.

Plus, Fred drives his pride and joy, the Aveling & Porter steam roller, talking about its history and recalling one rather dramatic crash he had while driving it.


WED 20:00 Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise (b088pcls)
The Central Heartland

In central Thailand's forests, fertile plains and even city streets, nature finds a way of living alongside people. Spirituality can be found in human and animal relationships, both likely and unlikely. This bustling region is known as the nation's rice bowl - but even here, there are magical places to be found.


WED 21:00 Lenny Henry's Caribbean Britain (m0018lpl)
Series 1

Episode 1

Sir Lenny Henry presents a joyous celebration of British-Caribbean life with a host of famous faces from art, music, entertainment TV and theatre. Over two episodes, guests including Jazzie B, Floella Benjamin, Venice Biennale winner Sonia Boyce, David Harewood, Judi Love, Jamal Edwards, Trevor Nelson, Billy Ocean, Andi Oliver, Levi Roots, Benjamin Zephaniah and many more share their stories and experiences of Caribbean culture in the UK.

This celebration and examination is timely for Lenny, as he was told by his mother when he was a child that he had to go out and integrate with the local people of Dudley. He was confused about what that meant for him and his Caribbean-heritage siblings, as their household was ‘very Jamaican’.

Would integrating and ‘fitting in’ mean that he would lose his Caribbean culture? This series follows an older and wiser Lenny thinking about what integration actually means: is it a one-way journey, or does it work both ways? Is it a loss or a gain in cultural identity?

In part one, Lenny looks at the explosion of culture brought from the Caribbean by the post-war arrivals, from the music of calypso and ska to theatre and art. He explores the stories of activism, entrepreneurship and resilience behind these artforms and how the early cultural pioneers laid the foundations for the next generation. Lenny also reflects on his own journey of trying to fulfil his parent’s ambitions to fit in to British society.


WED 22:00 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (m001mwft)
2023

Round 4

Coverage of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World continues with Round 4 of the competition. Three singers have already claimed their place in the final, and now the last four performers, from Ukraine, Colombia, Italy and Scotland, compete to join them. At the end of the programme, the judges announce a fifth singer chosen as their ‘wild card’ to complete the line-up.

They need to impress an expert panel of judges: Sir Brian McMaster, former director of the Edinburgh International Festival, acclaimed Argentinian mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink, Welsh soprano Rosemary Joshua, multi-award-winning composer Errollyn Wallen, and returning as chair of the jury, Aidan Lang, General Director of Welsh National Opera.

Hosts Petroc Trelawny and Josie d’Arby are joined by celebrated Welsh soprano Rebecca Evans.

With music by Handel, Rossini, Puccini and Verdi, the singers will perform with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Ryan Bancroft.


WED 23:30 Andrew Davies: Rewriting the Classics (m0001v0q)
Controversial, witty, irreverent – Britain’s best-known screenwriter, Andrew Davies, has created some of the most iconic small-screen dramas of the past 50 years.

At the age of 82 he is following his smash hit adaptation of War and Peace with another global epic, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.

As he watches the production come to life during 2018, he looks back at the influence of his childhood in Cardiff. And he explores how he boils down and spices up his dramas – transforming our best-loved novels into prime-time television. Contributors include Sarah Waters, Helen Fielding and Dominic West.


WED 00:30 The Lakes with Paul Rose (b0bc6fg2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 01:00 Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age (b0074mbg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 01:30 Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise (b088pcls)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:30 Lenny Henry's Caribbean Britain (m0018lpl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THURSDAY 15 JUNE 2023

THU 19:00 The Sky at Night (m001mwdn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]


THU 19:30 Fred Dibnah's Made in Britain (b0078vy1)
The Source of Iron

Documentary series in which Fred Dibnah travels around Britain in his restored traction engine in search of engineering skills and technology from a bygone age, visiting ancient iron foundries, industrial sites and little workshops. Fred reaches Cumbria where iron ore was once mined on a large scale, and enjoys the Lake District on a friend's steam boat. It's then on to the Florence Mine at Egremont and the Workington Steel Works.


THU 20:00 Meet Me in St Louis (m000qxbt)
Vincente Minnelli's colourful MGM musical about the everyday adventures and romantic entanglements of the Smith family in St Louis, starring Judy Garland.

Among the memorable tunes are The Boy Next Door, The Trolley Song, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and, of course, the title song.


THU 21:50 Around the World in 80 Treasures (b00qg3b0)
Series 1 Shorts

Ethiopia - Ark of the Covenant

Dan Cruickshank visits Ethiopia in search of the Ark of the Covenant.


THU 22:00 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (m001mwgk)
2023

Song Prize Final

Petroc Trelawny and Josie d’Arby present full coverage of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize final. Five singers perform the intimate and demanding discipline of ‘art song’ or Lieder. With just a solo singer and piano on stage, there really is no place to hide.

Tonight’s expert panel of judges are acclaimed Welsh soprano Rosemary Joshua, celebrated Argentinian mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink, leading accompanist Anna Tilbrook, multi-award-winning composer Errollyn Wallen and chair of the jury, John Gilhooly, director of London’s Wigmore Hall.

Petroc and Josie are joined by Irish soprano Ailish Tynan, who won this competition 20 years ago. Who will follow in her footsteps and be the next to claim the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Song Prize title?


THU 00:00 Johnny Kingdom: A Year on Exmoor (b00793lj)
Series 1

The Round-Up

Gravedigger Johnny Kingdom presents a look at the wildlife of the moors and woodlands of Exmoor. The Exmoor pony is one of England's rarest breeds and Johnny is busy filming the pony round-up. It happens in October every year and things get very lively as the herd's owners, the Milton family, try to separate the mares and foals from the stallions. Johnny also heads off to see the salmon jumping.


THU 00:30 Johnny Kingdom: A Year on Exmoor (b00793pl)
Series 1

When Johnny Met Tommy

Gravedigger Johnny Kingdom presents a look at the wildlife of the moors and woodlands of Exmoor. Winter has arrived early and with it a chance to film wildlife in the snow, but Johnny's plans are interrupted by a neighbour who brings him an injured buzzard to look after. He immediately gets to work but the buzzard, which he names Tommy, won't eat. Johnny is also keen to find out what happened to one of the Exmoor foals after the round-up.


THU 01:00 Arena (m000pr2n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 on Tuesday]


THU 02:25 Andrew Davies: Rewriting the Classics (m0001v0q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 on Wednesday]


THU 03:25 Fred Dibnah's Made in Britain (b0078vy1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

FRIDAY 16 JUNE 2023

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m001mwfr)
Lily Savage presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 1 December 1994 and featuring Sophie B Hawkins, Roxette, The Stone Roses, Erasure, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, East 17 and Baby D.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m001mwfx)
Neneh Cherry presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 8 December 1994 and featuring Whigfield, PJ & Duncan, Mariah Carey, Boyzone, Gloria Estefan, EYC, Cliff Richard & Phil Everly, Jimmy Nail and East 17.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b073rgxz)
Peter Powell introduces the pop programme, featuring Linx, Phil Collins, Odyssey, The Specials, Imagination and Smokey Robinson, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (b045nz9n)
Mike Read presents another edition of the weekly pop chart show including performances from Match, McFadden and Whitehead, Edwin Starr, Tubeway Army, Janet Kay, Chas and Dave, Squeeze and Anita Ward. With a dance sequence from Legs & Co.


FRI 21:00 Nina Simone – Live at Montreux 1976 (m001bmml)
An archive performance of Nina Simone playing at the 1976 Montreux Jazz Festival.


FRI 22:15 They All Came Out to Montreux (m001n2mz)
Series 1

Episode 1

The story of the world-famous Montreux Jazz Festival and its inspirational founder, Claude Nobs.

In its early years, the festival hosted performances by Aretha Franklin, Eddie Harris & Les McCann, Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone.


FRI 23:10 They All Came Out to Montreux (m001n2n3)
Series 1

Episode 2

Claude’s vision grows, which sees the arrival of artists including David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Carol King, Muddy Waters, Monty Alexander, Etta James, Gilberto Gil, King Sunny, Talking Heads, Van Morrison and James Brown.


FRI 00:00 They All Came Out to Montreux (m001n2n5)
Series 1

Episode 3

A final exploration of the immense archive and legacy built by Claude at the festival. Artists and friends pay tribute to the man who changed a sleepy village into a world-famous music empire. Featured performances by Marvin Gaye, George Clinton, Buddy Guy, Herbie Hancock, Ray Charles, Miles Davis, Sting, The Roots, ZZ Top, David Bowie, Alicia Keys, Prince and Wyclef Jean.


FRI 00:55 Secret Knowledge (b05wps6k)
Nina Simone and Me with Laura Mvula

Over half a century since she first performed her songs, Nina Simone is more popular than ever. From Sinnerman to Mississippi Goddam, Feeling Good to My Baby Just Cares for Me, she is an artist with an extraordinary songbook that mixes jazz, blues, soul and even classical.

British soul singer Laura Mvula travels to New York to celebrate the Nina songs that mean most to her and explore their musical roots. Performing with a Harlem gospel choir, uncovering the influence of Nina's classical training and meeting Simone's long-time guitarist Al Shackman, Laura presents a personal tribute to the genius of her musical hero.


FRI 01:25 Top of the Pops (m001mwfr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 01:55 Top of the Pops (m001mwfx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 02:25 Top of the Pops (b073rgxz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 03:00 Top of the Pops (b045nz9n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]