SATURDAY 29 JULY 2023

SAT 19:00 Our Coast (m000f9cm)
Series 1

Anglesey

Adrian and Mehreen arrive on Anglesey – the largest island in the Irish Sea - via the Menai Strait, a stretch of water so tempestuous that Lord Nelson said ‘if you can sail here, you can sail anywhere’.

Mehreen tells the story of the Menai Strait’s magnificent bridges and how – with record levels of traffic crossing from mainland Wales - they could be about to be joined by a third, with an extraordinary design that is literally ‘gigantic’. Meanwhile, Adrian dons a wet suit to meet a local paddle-boarding legend, to find out how she is playing a key role in helping Anglesey become the first plastic free county in the UK.

Other highlights include wildlife expert Patrick Aryee getting up close to the wild ponies of Newborough Warren, local comedian Tudur Owen fulfils a boyhood dream by joining the Holyhead truckers at their brand new truck stop, and weather presenter Lucy Martin explores the Anglesey ship wreck that changed how we forecast the weather forever.

Finally, Adrian and Mehreen visit the family whose factory pays the queen for the right to pump sea water from the Menai Strait so they can extract mineral rich sea salt from it.


SAT 20:00 How the Wild West Was Won with Ray Mears (b045nz9q)
Deserts

Ray Mears looks at how the landscapes of America's five great deserts challenged the westward push of the early pioneers.

As Ray travels through the cold high mountain Great Basin desert and the hot Sonoran desert of southern Arizona, he discovers how their hostile geography and rich geology shaped the stories of fortune hunting and lawlessness in the Wild West, and were the setting for the last wars between the US Army and the Apache warrior tribes.

Ray's journey begins in Monument Valley, whose dramatic desert landscape has become synonymous with the Wild West years. He explores how plants and animals survive in this waterless climate and how the Navajo Indian people adapted to the conditions. In Tucson, he meets up with desert coroners Bruce Anderson and Robin Reineke, who show him how the desert still kills people today.

He explores how the Apache adapted their warfare methods to the desert and how the US cavalry struggled in the hot arid landscape. In Tombstone, he gets to grips with the myths around lawmakers and lawlessness and how it flourished in the remote desert regions of the Old West. He discovers how this forbidding landscape was the perfect refuge for bandits and pursues the outlaw trail to Butch Cassidy's hideout at Robber's Roost. His journey ends with the story of Geronimo's surrender which marked the end of the Indian Wars, and of the Old West.


SAT 21:00 Clean Sweep (p0g00pvp)
Series 1

Done Is Done

Shelly Mohan, a housewife and mother of three, is forced into a desperate act when a man from her past tracks her down. Her husband, Jason, is a detective in the Garda, desperately keen to get an anticipated promotion.


SAT 21:50 Clean Sweep (p0g00rlc)
Series 1

Post-Mortem

Shelly’s husband, Jason, a Garda detective, is delighted to be assigned to the case, with no sense where the trail may lead. While he and his co-worker Fiona focus on a sex worker, Shelly realises she may have left evidence in the dead man’s hotel room.


SAT 22:40 This Is Joan Collins (m00135h7)
A feature-length documentary on the life of one of the last surviving actresses from the golden age of Hollywood – Joan Collins. This epic film is told from the ringside as Joan narrates her rollercoaster life story with her inimitable wit and verve. A worldwide television phenomenon with her decade-defining role in Dynasty, Collins shares her extraordinary archive and never before seen home movie footage, giving an intimate glimpse into one of the world’s most iconic figures.

Against a backdrop of Collins’s own narration, her story showcases the extraordinary life of a woman who has lived through the glitz, the glamour and the enduring moments of Hollywood history, and survived it all with panache.


SAT 00:20 John Le Mesurier: It's All Been Rather Lovely (b01gybpn)
Michael Palin, Clive Dunn and Ian Lavender are among those who contribute to this candid portrait of actor John Le Mesurier, from his turbulent marriage to Hattie Jacques to his life-changing role as Sergeant Wilson in Dad's Army.


SAT 01:20 Hancock's Half Hour (p032khzr)
The Cruise

Hancock and Sid decide to go on a relaxing cruise in search of romance. Hancock becomes convinced the ship is sinking, and the captain has to take drastic measures.


SAT 01:50 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (b0077kqp)
Series 1

End of an Era

The day of the wedding dawns, and the women are racing around getting ready for the big event. Meanwhile, Terry has his hands full looking after a nervous Bob.


SAT 02:20 Our Coast (m000f9cm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

SUNDAY 30 JULY 2023

SUN 19:00 Sir Simon Rattle at the BBC (m000z2d8)
Since his breakthrough in the 1970s, Sir Simon Rattle has performed alongside the world’s leading orchestras and soloists. This collection focuses attention on some of his finest broadcast moments from the BBC archive.

Renowned for interpreting the work of composers such as Mahler, Stravinsky and Gershwin, the programme also features his work at the BBC Proms as well as his love of contemporary music. It is a compilation that highlights the breadth of a career that to date spans five decades and which shows no signs of slowing.


SUN 20:00 BBC Proms (m001p8zl)
2023

Bomsori Plays Bruch at the Proms

South Korean virtuoso Bomsori Kim makes her Proms debut performing Bruch’s ever-popular First Violin Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic in an evening of music inspired by the folk traditions of Hungary. Katya Adler is joined by composer and cellist Ayanna Witter-Johnson to discuss the enduring power of folk in a concert also featuring Brahms’s Hungarian Dances and Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra. And after almost a century, there’s a welcome return to the Proms of the piece that launched the career of Croydon-based British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.


SUN 21:55 Being Beethoven (m000l41g)
Series 1

Episode 3

'We are not in a good state…'

Unfolding chronologically, Being Beethoven grapples with the living, breathing human being often lost behind the myth of the Romantic genius. Beethoven emerges as a man of contrasts and extremes - driven by love, anguish, fury and joy - qualities woven through both his life and his music.

By returning the composer to the context of his own time and place, telling his life story in the present tense, Being Beethoven reveals how the composer’s life frequently appears to follow an entirely different trajectory to his art. What emerges is a complex and often contradictory individual living a life marked by isolation, ill-health and deafness. A man who, despite the frequent wretchedness of his personal circumstances, manages to create musical masterpieces that have enthralled and uplifted the world for 250 years.

Episode 3 finds the composer unmoored and - personally and creatively - desperate to regain control in his every aspect of his life. In 1815, the death of his brother is the catalyst for a long and bitter legal battle for custody of Beethoven's nephew, Karl. What follows is a protracted period during which the composer’s desire for love and family tip over into obsession. Beethoven will, of course, embark on the extraordinary flowering of the late music - the Missa solemnis, the late quartets and the Ninth 'Choral' Symphony - but he doesn’t know that yet.

Musical highlights include Paul Lewis exploring the beauty and brutality of one of the greatest works of the piano repertoire, the Diabelli Variations, and the Takács Quartet playing the sublime Hymn of Thanksgiving.

As well as interviews with Beethoven biographers and scholars such as Jan Swafford and Barry Cooper, the series features contributions and performances from musicians including Iván Fischer, Marin Alsop, the Takács Quartet, Evelyn Glennie, Paul Lewis, Mark Padmore and Chi-chi Nwanoku.


SUN 22:55 The Ascent of Man (m001p8zs)
The Grain in the Stone

Jacob Bronowski discovers the origins of science in the interaction of hand and brain.

'There is a great intellectual leap forward when man splits a piece of stone, a piece of wood, and lays bare in it the print that nature put there before he split it.'

The programme takes architecture as the model for science, from the Inca cities in the high Andes to the Roman aqueducts in Spain, from the great cathedrals of medieval France to modern Los Angeles, as man uncovers the laws of nature in stone.


SUN 23:45 The Ascent of Man (m001p904)
The Hidden Structure

'When Prometheus brought fire to man, he gave him life.'

Fire and flame are the elements of magic and of science as Dr Bronowski examines man's probing of the hidden structure below the visible world.

The programme follows the beginnings of chemistry: from the techniques of ancient metallurgy in China and Japan to the mystical searchings of the alchemists.


SUN 00:35 imagine... (b01rt50j)
David Bowie: Cracked Actor

To mark David Bowie's comeback album and a new exhibition at the V&A, Alan Yentob looks back at his legendary 1975 documentary, Cracked Actor. The film follows Bowie during the Diamond Dogs tour of 1974.

Alan Yentob says, 'I'd caught him at what was an intensely creative time, but it was also physically and emotionally gruelling. Our encounters tended to take place in hotel rooms in the early hours of the morning or in snatched conversations in the back of limousines. He was fragile and exhausted, but also prepared to open up and talk in a way he had never really done before.'

Cracked Actor has become one of the classic rock documentaries of all time, remaining an enduring influence on generations of Bowie fans.


SUN 01:30 How the Wild West Was Won with Ray Mears (b045nz9q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Saturday]


SUN 02:30 Sir Simon Rattle at the BBC (m000z2d8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

MONDAY 31 JULY 2023

MON 19:00 Great Coastal Railway Journeys (m0013x3j)
Series 1

Forvie to Peterhead

Michael Portillo’s Scottish railway journey reaches Aberdeen. From the Granite City, Michael heads straight out to a dramatic piece of coastline 18 miles to its north. Forvie National Nature Reserve is 1000 hectares of protected coastal habitat dominated by grassy dunes. It’s a wild and fantastic landscape, and a perfect place to explore over and over again, since the dunes shift and change all the time.

Returning to Aberdeen, Michael finds out about the languages, dialects and vernacular of Scotland from a young ballad singer, who talks to him in Gaelic, Scots and Doric, and sings him a Scots ballad.

Dyce is Michael’s next stop. It’s the station for Aberdeen airport and the location for many businesses related to Scotland’s global energy industry. It’s an industry Michael knew well as a young special adviser to the energy secretary, and memories of flying out to oil and gas platforms remain with him. If there is an accident, training can make the difference between life and death. Michael is thrown in at the deep end, training for the terrifying scenario of a helicopter making a controlled descent into the sea.

The most easterly town in Scotland is Michael’s last port of call. At Peterhead, they land more fish than any other port in the United Kingdom. Michael is up early to see the traditional shout auction, where the catch is bought and sold, and to find out how the industry is coping after Brexit.


MON 19:30 Secrets of Skin (m000cdz8)
Series 1

Protection

How does a giraffe stay cool? What are different porcupine quills teaching us about medicine? What makes some people more likely to be bitten by mosquitoes than others? All the answers and more lie in the secrets of how skin protects us from a hostile world. When it comes to protecting our delicate insides, skin is like an external suit of armour. Animals have adapted ways of protecting themselves from everything a hostile planet has to throw at them.

Hippos produce their own sunscreen to protect themselves against the dangers of UV rays from the sun. Only recently discovered by science, is the truth behind a giraffe’s spots, a network of blood vessels that they use to cool themselves down in the blazing heat of the African savannah.

Professor Ben Garrod discovers how. He tests the limitations of human skin by plunging himself into a deep freezer to demonstrate how human skin just isn’t well insulated enough to cope with extreme cold. He discovers how human skin is an entire ecosystem for bugs and bacteria as he comes face to face with what is growing on his skin. And he gets bitten by mosquitoes and stable flies as he learns that disease-carrying insects have evolved to pierce everything from human skin to horse hide.


MON 20:00 Treasures of the Indus (b069g53h)
The Other Side of the Taj Mahal

This is the story of the Indian subcontinent told through the treasures of three very different people, places and dynasties that have shaped the modern Indian world.

The Mughals created the most famous and dazzling empire that India has ever seen, from the Taj Mahal to fabulously intricate miniatures of court life.

But in the process, did they bring civilisation to India or tear it apart?

From the moment the first Mughal emperor Babur arrived from Afghanistan the debate began - were the Mughals imposing their own religion of Islam on a Hindu country, or were they open to the religion and art of the country they were conquering?

The artworks the Mughals left behind over their 200-year empire - even the very buildings which have traces of Hindu architecture as well as Muslim - clearly show how this debate played out, and Sona Datta traces how this most spectacular of all Indian civilisations also sowed the seeds of discord.


MON 21:00 Death Camp Treblinka: Survivor Stories (b01m1l9w)
The dark heart of the Nazi holocaust, Treblinka was an extermination camp where over 800,000 Polish Jews perished from 1942. Only two men can bear final witness to its terrible crimes. Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman were slave labourers who escaped in a dramatic revolt in August 1943. One would seek vengeance in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, while the other would appear in the sensational trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961. This film documents their amazing survivor stories and the tragic fate of their families, and offers new insights into a forgotten death camp.


MON 22:00 Shadow of Truth (p0fwd8db)
Series 1

A Dark Overture

Tair Rada is found dead inside a locked toilet stall at her school. The police are under heavy pressure to find her murderer, and a suspect is arrested.


MON 22:45 Shadow of Truth (p0fwd8pr)
Series 1

The Scapegoat

Roman Zadorov retracts his confession, claiming he was coerced into it by the detectives. A month after his arrest, the trial for Tair Rada’s murder begins.


MON 23:30 Catching History's Criminals: The Forensics Story (p02l4pjs)
A Question of Identity

Sherlock has his mind palace, Morse his music - every detective has an edge. For most, it's forensic science. This three-part series provides a rare and fascinating insight into the secret history of catching murderers, charting two centuries of the breakthroughs that have changed the course of justice. Surgeon and writer Gabriel Weston explores this rich history through some of the most absorbing, and often gruesome, stories in the forensic casebook - and looks ahead to how forensics will continue to solve the murders of the future.

The first episode looks at the difficulty of identifying the body in a murder case. The question of identity is a crucial start to the investigation. From charred bones to bodies completely dissolved in acid, with each horrific new case science has had to adapt to identify both the victim and the murderer. Investigating four breakthrough cases, Gabriel reveals the scientific innovations that tipped the scales of justice in favour of the detective - and caught the killers.

Firstly, Gabriel investigates the use of teeth and bite marks to identify a victim or murderer, starting with a problematic case at Harvard Medical School in 1849. Next, she traces the use of entomology (the study of insects) to pinpoint the time of death - a crucial piece of evidence that helped identify both the killer and his victims when a gruesome collection of unidentifiable body parts was discovered in a river in Moffat in 1935.

Gabriel meets Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, the geneticist who pioneered the technique of DNA profiling. Initially used to establish paternity in an immigration dispute, the application of this revolutionary discovery to the field of criminal investigation was soon established. In 1986 it led to a world first - a person caught and convicted solely on the basis of DNA evidence.

Taking us right to the cutting edge of forensics, Gabriel then experiments with a new technique in development - molecular face fitting, which uses only a person's DNA to create an image of their face.


MON 00:30 The Ascent of Man (m001p8zs)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:55 on Sunday]


MON 01:20 The Ascent of Man (m001p904)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:45 on Sunday]


MON 02:10 Great Coastal Railway Journeys (m0013x3j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 02:40 Treasures of the Indus (b069g53h)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

TUESDAY 01 AUGUST 2023

TUE 19:00 Great Coastal Railway Journeys (m00143l4)
Series 1

Inverness to the Cairngorms

Michael Portillo crosses the Culloden Viaduct aboard the Caledonian Sleeper to arrive bright and early in the coastal city of Inverness, from where he heads north on a magnificent scenic adventure to the Orkney archipelago.

On boggy moorland overlooking the Moray Firth near Inverness, Michael explores the battlefield at Culloden, where Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite army fought British government troops in 1746. Today, ponies and cattle help to preserve the character of the landscape as it was 275 years ago. Michael learns to execute the infamous Highland Charge and discovers how the Jacobites’ catastrophic defeat devastated the Highlands for years to come.

Excellent sea and rail links and swathes of lush pine forest in this coastal region have given rise to a strong timber industry. Michael investigates the production of oriented strand board for the construction industry at an Inverness mill, which manufactures 16 million boards annually.

The Highland mainline climbs the Slochd summit to deliver Michael to the village of Carrbridge, home of the World Porridge Making Championships. At stake is a golden spurtle – does Michael’s whisky-flavoured mushroom porridge risotto stand a chance?

At Broomhill, Michael’s dreams come true when he is invited to join the crew of the Strathspey Steam Railway on the footplate of their wonderful locomotive as they puff and pant their way past the River Spey and the Cairngorm mountains along the original main line from Inverness to Perth.

At Aviemore, Michael heads into Cairngorms National Park to admire its epic scenery. On the banks of Loch Morlich, he learns about writer, poet and naturalist Nan Shepherd, who captured the essence of the Cairngorms in her prose.


TUE 19:30 Secrets of Skin (m000cf0y)
Series 1

Communication

Why are male mandrill faces (big bold primates from West Africa) red and blue? How are birds' feathers so colourful? What do ringtail lemurs do to talk to one another? Their skin holds the key. As Professor Ben Garrod explores how animals communicate with one another, he uncovers a myriad more wonderful ways.

Skin has evolved in some remarkable ways to enable animals to communicate with each other, from vibrant displays of colour to skin pouches to amplify sound. Ben shows how animals have evolved to use skin to make themselves heard loud and clear. Birds are notable for their use of coloured feathers to attract mates, show status and as displays of aggression. But, as Ben discovers, long before birds evolved their unrivalled use of colour, it is now believed that their ancestors, the dinosaurs, could well have been using colour to communicate. Ben also uncovers how one species of fish communicates using electricity, and a common British bird has been secretly communicating for years, without us ever knowing.


TUE 20:00 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (m001p8zr)
Michael Crawford and Michele Dotrice Remember... Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em

It’s now 50 years since we first met and fell for accident-prone Frank Spencer and his long-suffering wife Betty in the very first episode of Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em. In all that time, actors Michael Crawford and Michele Dotrice have never sat down together to discuss the programme - until now.

Here, we find them reunited and looking back on one of Britain’s most-loved sitcoms, and the parts they both played in its creation. They reveal how they came to be cast, what it was like to film the series, celebrated stunts and all, the impact the show’s phenomenal success had on their lives and careers, and the point at which they knew it was time to stop.

It’s a conversation glowing with Michael and Michele’s affection for the series and for each other, and fans should find it as enjoyable as its stars clearly have done.


TUE 20:30 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (b0077sgk)
Series 1

Getting a Job

The first ever episode of the classic sitcom. One-man disaster area Frank Spencer becomes a wholesale ironmongery salesman.


TUE 21:00 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (m001p903)
To Be Perfectly Frank

Film cameras take us behind the scenes as Michael Crawford explains the detailed preparations for some of the hilarious but extremely dangerous stunts that are a special feature of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.


TUE 21:30 Royal History’s Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley (m000p3nq)
Series 2

The French Revolution

'Let them eat cake!' is one of the most famous phrases of history and one that everyone associates with the French Revolution. But did Marie Antoinette – the queen of France - really say it? In this film, Lucy Worsley explores some of the myths and fibs swirling around the Revolution of 1789 and the uprising that brought down the French royal family. This violent revolution became the blueprint of many future revolutions across the world. But what happened during this turbulent period is open to historical manipulation and interpretation.

Lucy discovers that Marie Antoinette never said 'Let them eat cake'. This was a fib used by later historians to help explain why the revolution happened. Historian Michael Rapport explains how the revolution was not started by starving peasants as many assume but was in fact sparked by a group of lawyers and property owners. Along the way, Lucy finds out that Maximilien Robespierre wasn’t simply a bloodthirsty revolutionary who relished violence and wanted to execute everyone who disagreed with him. In his earlier years, he stood against the death penalty and slavery and fought for the rights of France’s Jewish population. And the guillotine was invented by the revolutionaries not as a brutal punishment but as a more egalitarian and humanitarian form of execution.

Depending on your politics and your nationality, Lucy finds out that everyone has a very different take on the French Revolution.


TUE 22:30 The Arts Interviews (m001p8h7)
Christopher Nolan

The BBC's Culture editor Katie Razzall talks to Christopher Nolan, one of the world's most renowned film directors and the man behind films such as Memento, Inception and Dunkirk, on the eve of the release of his new film Oppenheimer. They discuss the Hollywood strikes; AI and film; and why British-born Nolan was drawn to the story of J Robert Oppenheimer, the enigmatic Manhattan Project scientist who had a leading role in developing the atomic bomb.


TUE 22:55 Storyville (b00lpk70)
The Trials of Oppenheimer

J Robert Oppenheimer was one of the most celebrated scientists of his generation. Shy, arrogant and brilliant, he is best known as the man that led the Manhattan Project to spectacular success.

As the years progressed he also grew into a scientific statesman, leading a government agency, the Atomic Energy Commission, which was trying to develop ways to avoid a nuclear arms race. His attempts at politics, though, were a lot less successful than his scientific endeavours. As he grew more powerful, he started to make serious enemies amongst the establishment, particularly a friend of President Truman's - Lewis Strauss.

This film tells the extraordinary story of the rise and fall of Robert Oppenheimer. David Straithairn, whose previous recreation of this era in Good Night and Good Luck was Oscar-nominated, plays Oppenheimer trying to defend himself as he was effectively put on trial for being a communist. Re-creation is mixed with expert testimony from a definitive range of commentators, ranging from Oppenheimer's Manhattan Project colleagues to academics like Martin Sherwin and Priscilla MacMillan.

Narrated by Zoe Wanamaker, whose own father experienced the virulent anti-communism of McCarthyism first-hand, it weaves Oppenheimer's biography with the dramatic events of his trial and its tragic aftermath. Emotional and compelling, it is a film that, in a time when non-proliferation is firmly back on the agenda, tells us a lot about the perils of mixing science and government.


TUE 00:25 Death Camp Treblinka: Survivor Stories (b01m1l9w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Monday]


TUE 01:25 Great Coastal Railway Journeys (m00143l4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


TUE 01:55 Patagonia: Earth's Secret Paradise (b06dpmyr)
Fire and Ice

Patagonia invites you into a rarely seen South American wilderness, home to surprising creatures who survive in environments that range from the mighty Andes Mountains to Cape Horn.

Discover the secret lives of pumas and hummingbirds. Soar with condors over glacial peaks and explore monkey puzzle forests from the time of dinosaurs. Ride with extreme kayakers over raging waterfalls, and with Patagonia's cowboys - the gauchos - as they round up wild horses.


TUE 02:55 Royal History’s Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley (m000p3nq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]

WEDNESDAY 02 AUGUST 2023

WED 19:00 Great Coastal Railway Journeys (m001441m)
Series 1

Cullen to Cawdor

Beginning today on the Moray Firth, Michael admires the impressive Cullen viaduct before enjoying a bowl of Cullen skink at a family-run fishmonger of 150 years’ standing. In the factory smokery, he learns from the owner how the famous soup acquires its distinctive taste.

Heading west along the firth, Michael reaches Forres Station and the seaside village of Findhorn, where he meets members of an eco-community founded in the 1960s. At the Findhorn Foundation, Michael discovers spiritual energy, sacred dancing and a history of very large vegetables.

Michael’s next destination is Ardersier and the mighty Fort George, which sits on an isolated spit of land jutting west into the firth. Its huge boundary walls and heavy guns at every approach are an awe-inspiring sight. Michael hears why it was built on this coast in the mid-18th century and the role it has played in Britain’s strategic defence, which continues to the present. He meets members of the Black Watch, part of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, who are based at the fort today. He also listens to a pipe and drum rehearsal and is permitted by Scotty the tailor to try on the regimental sergeant major’s jacket.

Nestled in woods next to the River Nairn, Michael discovers a romantic Scottish tower house, Cawdor Castle. Guided by Lady Cawdor, Michael discovers the castle’s literary connections to a tragic Scottish hero. On the castle lawn, around the cauldron, Michael joins the witches to hail Macbeth, Thane of Cawdor.


WED 19:30 Secrets of Skin (m000cf0t)
Series 1

Defence

What is the most toxic animal on earth? How are porcupine quills helping us in medicine? Why is a rhino armour plated, and it is not to protect them from lions?

Professor Ben Garrod discovers the complex ways, from camouflage to deadly toxins, in which the skin helps defend animals against threats of all kinds. From the barbed quills of the North American porcupine to the battering ram of a rhino’s horn, the skin has developed an impressive armoury of weapons and warnings to keep predators at bay.

With experiments and specialist factual insight, Professor Ben Garrod reveals the toughest and most resilient of animals defend themselves through their skin. One of the most iconic warnings in nature is that of the rattlesnake. Ben takes a teaching sample of a rattlesnake’s tail to the University of Bristol to test just how fast it can vibrate. He uncovers how poison-dart frogs produce their toxins, and how cuttlefish are the masters of disguise when it comes to hiding in plain sight.


WED 20:00 Patagonia: Earth's Secret Paradise (b06fnkr7)
Heat and Dust

Patagonia invites you into a rarely seen South American wilderness, home to surprising creatures who survive in environments that range from the mighty Andes Mountains to Cape Horn.

From the Andes peaks, we follow the path of the relentless wind, sweeping east through Patagonia's dry desert. We discover a weird world of maras - giant guinea pigs - and desert-dwelling penguins, and witness the first faltering steps of baby guanacos - Patagonia's very own camels. People live here too - brave souls who have taken on this arid world and carved out a home.


WED 21:00 Immortal Egypt with Joann Fletcher (b06z8fjn)
Invasion

In the final episode, Joann discovers how Egypt's enemies exploited a country weakened by internal strife, ultimately leading to its destruction.

Joann leaves Egypt and journeys south to Sudan where she finds the remarkable story of the forgotten Nubian kings. For a century, they ruled Egypt from their southern homeland, even building their own pyramids to bury their kings.

Back in upper Egypt, Joann finds the next group of invaders, the Saites, discovering how they had taken the Egyptian tradition of mummification to new extremes by preserving millions of animals. Finally in Luxor temple, she discovers Egypt's saviour and founder of one of the greatest cities on earth - Alexander the Great.


WED 22:00 Martin Amis, Money and Memories with William Boyd (m001p8zv)
Novelist William Boyd looks back on his long friendship with fellow writer Martin Amis, who died in May 2023 at the age of 73. Boyd’s focus is on what many consider to be Martin’s most successful work, 1984’s Money, which introduced readers to the hedonistic would-be film-maker John Self. The character would be portrayed by actor Nick Frost in the BBC’s dramatisation of the novel in 2010, and here Boyd also discusses the challenges of screen adaptation generally, and why bringing Amis’s work to the small screen was always going to be particularly challenging.


WED 22:15 Money (b00sky6j)
Episode 1

Bold two-part adaptation of Martin Amis's cult 80s novel, starring Nick Frost and Vincent Kartheiser.

John Self, a dysfunctional director of commercials, travels to America to make his debut feature film and ends up speeding towards self-destruction. On arrival in the glitz and grime of Manhattan, Self hooks up with hot-shot producer, Fielding Goodney, to charm the money men and cast some major stars.

As Self indulges in a non-stop diet of booze, nightlife and pornography, he is forced to juggle his unstable relationship with slippery girlfriend Selina, his overbearing and money-grabbing dad and a threatening stalker who wants his life.

Meanwhile, bickering between his stars Caduta Massi and Lorne Guyland over proposed nudity in the film threatens to halt production. Surrounded by lunatics and predators, can Self hold it together to achieve the dream or will his lust for money bring him down?


WED 23:15 Money (b00slp7p)
Episode 2

Bold two-part adaptation of Martin Amis's cult 80s novel, starring Nick Frost and Vincent Kartheiser.

John Self reaches an epiphany over his rocky relationship with the seductive Selina, but is he too late? Would he be better off with mild-mannered Martina, who brings out the best in him? Plans seem back on track until a mysterious red-headed woman with an uncanny resemblance to Self's mother keeps appearing. And with his menacing stalker also getting closer, is time finally running out for Self?


WED 00:15 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00sjccw)
Martin Amis

Mark Lawson talks to notorious literary bad boy Martin Amis ahead of the BBC dramatisation of his book Money. In this revealing interview, Amis speaks candidly about his relationship with his father, Kingsley Amis, which survived the breakup of his parents' marriage and his father's disinterest in reading Martin's books. Amis also reveals how his sister Sally was a 'victim of the sexual revolution', whose consequent struggles in life influenced his book The Pregnant Widow.


WED 01:15 Great Coastal Railway Journeys (m001441m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 01:45 Secrets of Skin (m000cf0t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 02:15 Immortal Egypt with Joann Fletcher (b06z8fjn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THURSDAY 03 AUGUST 2023

THU 19:00 Great Coastal Railway Journeys (m00144d2)
Series 1

Invergordon to Tain

Michael Portillo’s Scottish coastal railway journey reaches Invergordon on the Cromarty Firth, the third great inlet on the northeast coast of the Highlands. He arrives on Britain’s northernmost railway, the Far North Line, and heads straight onto the water to explore a former oil drilling rig now moored in the firth. It’s easier said than done; Michael is hoisted into the air by crane as he clings to a 'personnel basket'. The decline of the oil industry since its peak in the 1990s means that rather than drilling wells, this rig now caps old ones, securing them with cement. Michael helps to assemble a pipe that could stretch up to two miles long.

Michael’s next stop is Fearn, from which he heads to the mudflats and saltmarsh of Nigg Bay and its Global Energy Park. Michael hears how both the area and personnel have moved away from oil and gas to renewables and marvels at the colossal scale of the wind turbines he sees being readied for transport offshore. He discovers the blades for one tower are longer than a standard football pitch!

On the shore of the Dornoch Firth, Michael helps to reintroduce his favourite delicacy to the firth’s shallow waters. Oysters were plentiful in this region for thousands of years, but their great popularity during the 19th century led to a catastrophic decline. Now oysters are beginning to flourish again, and Michael joins Herriot Watt University’s team effort to establish 200,000 oysters at Dornoch within the next three years.

Michael’s next stop is the Glenmorangie Whisky Distillery, also located on the banks of the Dornoch Firth. The science and art of whisky production are revealed to Michael as he tours the distillery.


THU 19:30 Secrets of Skin (m000cf26)
Series 1

Sensing

Professor Ben Garrod explores how some snakes can see using heat, how crocodiles feel through their jaws and how some animals use electricity to navigate their world - and it is all only possible because of remarkable adaptations to their skin.

Whether animals live on land, in the sea, or in subterranean communities, skin is critical in allowing them to sense the world around them, be it to find food, navigate harsh environments or avoid danger. Even the toughest of animals, crocodilians, have a surprisingly sensitive side when it comes to the specialised skin sensors they use to detect the tiniest of ripples in the water. Deadly pit vipers use heat sensors to ambush the small rodents they feed on. Professor Ben Garrod puts them to the test with an experiment to see if they will strike a cold or warm ping-pong ball. He also uncovers how the less-than-attractive leaf-nosed bat puts its facial skin to good use as an acoustic lens to echolocate around its dense forest habitat.


THU 20:00 Arena (b01pjlhv)
Screen Goddesses

Documentary about the early female movie stars: Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe - immortal goddesses made by Hollywood to reign over the silver screen.

With the beginnings of Hollywood, the star system was born with an archetypal bad girl - the vampish Theda Bara - and the good girl - the blazingly sincere Lillian Gish. From the 1920s, vivacious Clara Bow and seductive siren Louise Brooks are most remembered, but none made the impact of Marlene Dietrich, an icon of mystery, or Greta Garbo, with her perfect features and gloomy introspection.

From the power of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis to the seductiveness of Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner, Hollywood studios produced their own brand of beautiful, sassy and confident women. But it wasn't to last. The era drew to a close with the supreme fame of Elizabeth Taylor and the tragic death of Marilyn Monroe.

Narrated by Elizabeth McGovern.


THU 21:00 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (m0019tn6)
Classic comedy musical. A transatlantic trip brings romantic problems for showgirls Lorelei and Dorothy, seeking different things from men.


THU 22:30 Brief Encounter (m00041p7)
Classic love story. A chance meeting in a suburban railway station brings together Laura Jesson, a happily married woman, and Dr Alec Harvey - who is also married. They fall in love, but their secret happiness is marred by the furtive way they must carry on the affair and the realisation that eventually a choice must be made.


THU 23:55 The RKO Story: Tales from Hollywood (b00g882n)
Birth of a Titan

Ed Asner tells the story of RKO Pictures through the eyes of the people who worked there from its creation at the start of the talkies in the late 1920s.


THU 01:00 The RKO Story: Tales from Hollywood (b00gdt2j)
Let's Face the Music and Dance

Ed Asner tells the story of RKO Pictures through the eyes of the people who worked there from its inception in the 1920s. He examines the musicals made in the mid 1930s with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Includes interviews with both stars, the producer Pando Berman and choreographer Hermes Pan.


THU 02:00 Great Coastal Railway Journeys (m00144d2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 02:30 Secrets of Skin (m000cf26)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

FRIDAY 04 AUGUST 2023

FRI 19:00 BBC Proms (m001p900)
2023

Dee Dee Bridgewater: Jazz Greats at the Proms

Grammy Award-winning jazz legend Dee Dee Bridgewater joins trumpeter Sean Jones and Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Jazz Orchestra, comprising outstanding young musicians from across the USA, as they make their BBC Proms debut.

Clive Myrie presents an exhilarating concert of big band classics, standards and contemporary works, exploring jazz’s influence on hip-hop, R&B and pop.


FRI 20:15 Top of the Pops (b095fnbp)
Simon Bates and Gary Davies present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 2 August 1984. Featuring Black Lace, Kane Gang, A Flock of Seagulls, Trevor Walters, George Michael and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.


FRI 20:45 Top of the Pops (b060b6d8)
Peter Powell and guest presenter Elton John present chart hits of the week, with performances from The Piranhas, Diana Ross, Hot Chocolate, Kelly Marie, The Gap Band, The Gibson Brothers, Bad Manners, Abba, Odyssey, Olivia Newton John and Don McLean, and a dance routine from Legs & Co.


FRI 21:15 Neil Diamond: Radio 2 in Concert (m001p908)
Neil Diamond performs in a concert recorded at the BBC Radio Theatre in May 2008. At the time of recording, the singer-songwriter, responsible for such pop classics as Sweet Caroline and I'm a Believer, had just released his 29th studio album, Home Before Dark.


FRI 21:45 Elkie Brooks in Concert (m001pj5c)
Part 1

In a performance recorded especially for the BBC at the NEC, Birmingham, Elkie produces a subtle blend of rock numbers and gentle ballads, with hits including Fool if You Think it's Over and Pearl's a Singer.


FRI 22:25 The Old Grey Whistle Test (m001pj5f)
Part 2

In the second part of this concert, Elkie performs new compositions and hits such as Lilac Wine, Don’t Cry Out Loud and Gasoline Alley.


FRI 23:05 6 Music Live (b097sn02)
2017

Robert Plant

Best known as the lead singer and lyricist for the rock band Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant is joined by his Sensational Space Shifters to perform songs from the album Carry Fire ahead of their UK tour, alongside some of his classic tracks.

This is his eleventh album and first full-length release since 2014's acclaimed Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar.


FRI 23:55 The Old Grey Whistle Test (m001p90n)
Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton in concert at the BBC Television Theatre in Shepherd's Bush from June 1977.


FRI 00:55 Radio 2 In Concert (b07xkvj2)
Van Morrison

Sir Van Morrison takes to the stage at the BBC Radio Theatre for a Radio 2 In Concert hosted by Jo Whiley.

The Grammy-winning Celtic soul troubadour has been in the business since the 1960s, fusing R&B, jazz, blues and Celtic folk. Belfast-born Van the Man is among popular music's true innovators and arguably one of the most influential vocalists in the history of rock 'n' roll.

He performs a selection of tracks, old and new, from his revered back catalogue of work to his album Keep Me Singing.


FRI 02:15 Top of the Pops (b095fnbp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:15 today]


FRI 02:45 Top of the Pops (b060b6d8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:45 today]


FRI 03:15 Neil Diamond: Radio 2 in Concert (m001p908)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:15 today]