SATURDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2023

SAT 19:00 Steve Backshall's Extreme Mountain Challenge (b074c5jk)
Episode 2

Adventurer and naturalist Steve Backshall embarks on one of the most dramatic and dangerous expeditions ever filmed by a BBC crew. His mission: to explore Venezuela's tepuis - ancient, sheer-sided mountains, lost worlds cut off from the jungle below.

The second episode picks up where episode one left off with Steve and the climbing team halfway up the unclimbed, sheer-sided face of a remote tepui, about to make one last desperate attempt to reach the summit. It is then on to a new tepui and the second stage of the expedition.

Joining up with a team of elite Italian cavers, Steve ventures deep within a tepui - inside a newly discovered cave. Within this dark underworld, the team encounter strange creatures, ancient mysteries and the raw geological forces that give the tepuis their unique shape. But nothing can prepare them for an attempt to forge a path into unexplored areas of the cave - a dangerous mission of intense claustrophobia and nerve-shredding tension. And then to end the adventure, Steve reunites with the climbing team for a spectacular finale: an epic abseil alongside the Angel Falls - the highest waterfall on earth.


SAT 20:00 Britain's Outlaws: Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues (b06rfl46)
Rogues Gallery

Few figures in British history have captured the popular imagination as much as the outlaw. From gentleman highwaymen, via swashbuckling pirates to elusive urban thieves and rogues, the brazen escapades and the flamboyance of the outlaw made them the anti-hero of their time - feared by the rich, admired by the poor and celebrated by writers and artists.

In this three-part series, historian Dr Sam Willis travels the open roads, the high seas and urban alleyways to explore Britain's 17th and 18th-century underworld of highwaymen, pirates and rogues, bringing the great age of the British outlaw vividly to life.

Sam shows that, far from being 'outsiders', outlaws were very much a product of their time, shaped by powerful national events. In each episode, he focuses not just on a particular type of outlaw, but a particular era. The series as a whole offers a chronological portrait of the changing face of crime in the 17th and 18th centuries.

In the final episode, Sam looks at urban crime, fraud and corruption in the 18th century, uncovering a fascinating rogues’ gallery of charmers, fraudsters and villains. Charmers like thief and serial escaper Jack Sheppard, so notorious that almost a quarter of a million people turned up to witness his hanging. Almost as controversial in her lifetime was Mary Toft, a fraudster who managed to convince no less than King George I and his surgeon that she had given birth to rabbits, making her, perhaps, the original 'con' artist.


SAT 21:00 Scrublands (p0gnmkvz)
Series 1

Episode 1

Disenchanted investigative journalist Martin Scarsden is told by his boss to write a follow-up piece a year after a mass shooting of five parishioners by a charismatic young priest in the small rural town of Riversend. The townsfolk do not look kindly on yet more intrusion into their still raw lives, but Scarsden begins to doubt the accepted version of events of that tragic day.


SAT 21:50 Scrublands (p0gnmlbt)
Series 1

Episode 2

Martin Scarsden decides to stay on in Riversend to dig deeper into the mystery of Byron Swift, a well-liked priest who suddenly murdered five of his parishioners. He discovers that Mandy Bond is the estranged daughter of Harley Reagan, but when he visits Reagan on his out-of-the-way estate, he comes across two sets of skeletal remains.


SAT 22:40 The Hollow Crown (b07d3ks4)
The Wars of the Roses

Richard III

At Westminster, Richard speaks about his deformity, the evil plots he has laid, and the decadence at court.

George, brother to Richard and the king, is arrested during a birthday feast for Prince Edward and led away to the tower. King Edward takes ill and collapses at the end of the feast. Richard arranges for George's murder in the Tower of London.

King Edward makes one last effort to end family disputes, but Richard interrupts with the news of George's death. After Edward also dies, Richard starts to take control.

Rivers and Grey are executed for treason and Prince Edward and Prince Richard are sent to the Tower for safe keeping. After a council meeting, Hastings is also executed. Buckingham persuades the citizens of London to plead with Richard to take up the throne. Richard is crowned at Westminster Abbey with Anne as his queen. Unrewarded for his efforts, Buckingham distances himself from Richard and his regime. Now, without the support of his main henchman, Richard III hires Tyrell to murder the princes in the tower.

The Duke of Richmond and his supporters join forces to seize the crown and overthrow Richard. In his underground quarters at Westminster, Richard becomes isolated and paranoid. He takes Stanley's son hostage and arranges for the murder of Anne.

Richard is forced to lead his army to confront Richmond at Bosworth Field. Buckingham is executed for desertion.

Stanley joins forces with Richmond and Richard's army is outnumbered. Richmond delivers the fatal blow to Richard in single combat and Richmond is crowned Henry VII.

The Houses of York and Lancaster are united, the white rose with the red.


SAT 00:50 Yes, Minister (b00784q2)
Series 3

Equal Opportunities

Sitcom about a British government minister and the manipulative civil service advisers who surround him. Jim wants to see more women in higher posts.


SAT 01:20 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (b0078k6j)
Series 3

Scottish Dancing

Classic sitcom. When Betty comes home after a dance lesson with their neighbour, Frank becomes suspicious of his intentions and insists on getting involved.


SAT 01:55 Steve Backshall's Extreme Mountain Challenge (b074c5jk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 02:55 Britain's Outlaws: Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues (b06rfl46)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

SUNDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2023

SUN 19:00 Soprano Sundays (m001snn8)
Joan Sutherland

Soprano Joan Sutherland talks to Bernard Levin and sings scenes from some of her most celebrated roles. With the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Erich Gruenberg and conducted by Richard Bonynge.


SUN 20:05 Soprano Sundays (m001snnb)
Joan Sutherland: World Singer

The famous Australian opera singer Joan Sutherland, introduced and accompanied by Gerald Moore.


SUN 20:25 Soprano Sundays (b0864ygz)
Danielle de Niese: The Birth of an Opera

2016 saw the 200th anniversary of the premiere of Rossini's masterpiece The Barber of Seville, one of the greatest comic operas ever written. In this documentary, internationally acclaimed soprano Danielle de Niese provides a unique backstage pass to her preparations for the role of Rosina in Glyndebourne's 2016 production.

With extraordinary access, this documentary gives an unparalleled insight into how a top opera professional shapes a performance, both musically and dramatically. As well as actuality filming of all stages - from singing to warm-ups to costume fittings, lighting and set building on stage, through to hair and make-up - there are masterclass sessions with director Annabel Arden, conductor Enrique Mazzola and other key cast members to explore key scenes in depth. Danni also visits the Rome theatre where the disastrous premiere took place in 1816.

The film also features interviews with Arden, Mazzola, designer Joanna Parker and other key figures in the production, and footage from the staged version of the opera throughout.


SUN 21:25 Soprano Sundays (m0016drh)
La Voix Humaine

The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House presents this new production of Poulenc's short opera La Voix Humaine, featuring soprano Danielle de Niese and shot on location in Paris and London, with music from the Royal Opera House Orchestra conducted by Antonio Pappano.

Originally based on Jean Cocteau's 1928 play, it examines the change that the technology of the telephone was to bring to humans and how they conducted their relationships. Featuring only a single character, the woman known only as Elle, it has been regarded as a career-defining challenge it has attracted many actresses and singers since it was premiered.


SUN 22:25 Soprano Sundays (m001snnd)
Victoria de los Ángeles

Soprano Victoria de los Ángeles sings music with which she is particularly associated and talks to John Freeman. With the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Raymond Cohen and conducted by Georges Pretre.


SUN 23:05 Soprano Sundays (m001snng)
Intimate Celebrity Concert: Victoria de los Ángeles

Gerald Moore introduces an intimate concert given by Victoria de los Ángeles, Anton and Hilde Dermota and Szymon Goldberg.


SUN 23:20 This Cultural Life (m001lmjq)
Series 2

Margaret Atwood

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


SUN 23:50 Hilary Mantel: Return to Wolf Hall (m000g6q4)
Made across six months in the run-up to publication of The Mirror and the Light, the final book in Hilary Mantel’s Booker-winning Tudor trilogy on the life of Thomas Cromwell, this film enjoys exclusive and extensive access to one of the world’s greatest writers, delving into Mantel's life as she describes a vivid imagination active from an early age and recounts with candour a tale of growing up with a dark family secret.

Who could have imagined that Mantel’s working-class anti-hero Thomas Cromwell would come to be so loved across the globe? Five hundred years after his death, the story of Cromwell’s extraordinary rise and sudden fall has been brought back into the light, drawing a vast readership, two Booker wins, a Bafta-winning television adaptation, a West End show and the interpretative gifts of some of the greatest actors.

Intertwining the themes of the Wolf Hall trilogy - power, faith, kingship and Englishness - with stories from her own life, the film also explores how the world of Thomas Cromwell reverberates in our world today. The film follows Mantel as she talks about how and why she embarked on the trilogy and how the writing of it changed her life. This is an artist’s biography in the characteristic style and voice of one of the most singular and brilliant minds of our age. Showing Hilary Mantel in her own world, both real and imaginative, led by the curiosity that drove her from the beginning, this film shows a writer at the peak of her powers.


SUN 00:50 Soprano Sundays (m001snn8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 01:55 Soprano Sundays (b0864ygz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:25 today]


SUN 02:55 Hilary Mantel: Return to Wolf Hall (m000g6q4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:50 today]

MONDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2023

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

Newcastle to County Durham

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

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

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

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

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


MON 19:30 Winter Walks (m000qzmy)
Series 1

Sayeeda Warsi

Accompanied by the gentle soundscape of the great outdoors, Yorkshire peer Sayeeda Warsi takes time out from her political life to seek peace and calm in the Dales.

On her ramble through Wharfedale, the former government minister meets villagers in Kettlewell, a farmer preparing for lambing and a long-distance fell runner.

Sayeeda discovers an other-worldly hidden landscape. Filming herself and everything around her on a 360-degree camera, she wanders through beautiful countryside and finds inspiration along the way.


MON 20:00 Simon Schama's Power of Art (b007cjf6)
Picasso

Documentary series in which historian Simon Schama recounts the high drama in the making of eight artistic masterpieces. He tells the story of Picasso's epic Guernica, looking at both the Nazi bombing massacre that inspired the painting and Picasso's extraordinary artistic response.

The film combines Schama's trademark sassy storytelling with dramatisation to ask what art can do in the face of atrocity.


MON 21:00 Art That Made Us (p0bvgvth)
Series 1

Consumers and Conscience

This episode traces the story of Britain during the 18th century, a period that saw an explosion of creativity and a country with enough money, from trade and conquest, to pay for it. But the money had a dark side: sculptor Thomas J Price visits Harewood House to see the elaborate Robert Adam-designed interiors, Joshua Reynolds portraits and Thomas Chippendale furniture that were paid for by the slave trade.

This was also the great age of mockery, and artist Lubaina Himid reflects on William Hogarth’s scabrous exposure of upper-class hypocrisies, while comedian Stewart Lee analyses the cutting humour of A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift’s bitter satire about the treatment of the Irish poor, with passages performed by actor Jason Isaacs.

An age of exploitation was stirring up a growing social conscience. Emma Bridgewater examines how potter Josiah Wedgwood fought a campaign against slavery with teapots and porcelain medallions, while Martin Rowson analyses his hero James Gillray’s invention of the biting political cartoon, poking fun at all sides. The Georgian era was also a great age of writing, from Olaudah Equiano’s searing account of enslavement to Jane Austen’s classic novels. Sculptor Douglas Gordon explores what Robert Burns, with his distinctive dialect and poems of ordinary life, still means to Scots today.


MON 22:00 The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs (p0glcdwv)
Series 1

1970-79

Israel was not prepared for the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War. Ex-US president Jimmy Carter recalls how, in 1978, he managed to broker the Arab-Israel agreement. Made in 1998.


MON 22:50 The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs (p0glcgcl)
Series 1

1987-1991

The protracted search for peace was repeatedly sabotaged. The deadlock was finally broken by the Intifada - a Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories. Made in 1998.


MON 23:40 The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs (p0glchkh)
Series 1

1992-98

A series of cloak and-dagger manoeuvres sealed a historic first peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israel in September 1993. Made in 1998.


MON 00:30 This Cultural Life (m001227x)
Series 1

Bernadine Evaristo

Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo talks to John Wilson about the formative experiences and cultural influences that have had a profound effect on her work.

Evaristo looks back on her early childhood in south London, the racism she encountered, and how she found her artistic voice attending a youth theatre group. She reveals the influence of a Catholic upbringing on her writing, discusses the influence of works by Ntozake Shange and Dylan Thomas, and explains how a personal relationship had a huge impact on her creativity.

This Cultural Life is a BBC Radio 4 podcast.


MON 01:00 imagine... (b081yqsx)
Autumn 2016

The Seven Killings of Marlon James

2015 was a momentous year for novelist Marlon James. He became the first Jamaican writer to win the Man Booker prize for his magisterial novel A Brief History of Seven Killings, about the events surrounding the attempted assassination of Bob Marley and their aftermath. He also chose to come out as gay in an article for the New York Times - a brave move for a man born in what has been called the world's most homophobic country. Alan Yentob accompanies the charismatic and provocative James back to Jamaica and finds in his three highly praised novels a complex portrait of the turbulent history of his native country.


MON 02:00 Simon Schama's Power of Art (b007cjf6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 03:00 Art That Made Us (p0bvgvth)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 21 NOVEMBER 2023

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

Kielder Forest to Edinburgh

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

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

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

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

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


TUE 19:30 Winter Walks (m000qfw1)
Series 1

Rev Richard Coles

The North York Moors provide a picturesque setting for Reverend Richard Coles on a winter walk through this historic landscape. Departing from the iconic Sutton Bank with its panoramic views, Richard takes the viewer across countryside shaped by centuries of change marked by conflict, mining and religion.

Armed with his handheld 360-degree camera, Richard finds inspiration in the sights and sounds of his walk. Along the way, he shares his
personal reflections.

Finishing at Rievaulx Abbey, Richard guides the viewer around the ruins with thoughtful comment. This was once the site of one of England’s most powerful Cistercian monasteries. Richard ends his journey talking of the need for silent contemplation.

Filmed in February 2020 before Covid restrictions were introduced.


TUE 20:00 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (b007890t)
Series 3

Men as Women

Classic sitcom featuring Frank Spencer - a well-meaning, enthusiastic, one-man disaster area. Frank's grandad arrives from Australia to find his grandson in drag.


TUE 20:35 Yes, Minister (b0074rl4)
Series 3

The Challenge

Satirical political sitcom. Jim Hacker takes part in a television interview on local civil defence - but his interrogator is extremely tenacious.


TUE 21:05 The Australian Wars (p0gjfhg0)
Series 1

Episode 3

The abolition of slavery in the 1830s was a defining moment for the British Empire. Buoyed by their success, the abolitionists looked to the plight of Indigenous people. Their aim: to ensure the foundation of South Australia was done differently and access to land negotiated with First Nations people. But London was literally on the other side of the planet, and on the ground, no such arrangements or treaties were made as settler interests prevailed.

In the final part of this authored series, film-maker Rachel Perkins, who has both European and Indigenous Australian ancestry, follows the frontier conflict as it expands across the continent as the British administration gives way to state parliaments and the federated Commonwealth.

In Queensland, the new government established its own Native Police to help clear the way for the settlers. Designed to move with the frontier, they gradually made their way north. Over 50 years of its existence, it is estimated the Native Police may have killed perhaps 72,000 Indigenous people. Further north and west, the settlement pattern is repeated. Vast pastoral stations are carved out across Indigenous territories, and a process of ‘quietening the blacks’ begins - a process that First Nations people refer to as the ‘killing times’.


TUE 22:05 Days That Shook the World (b0074qf2)
Series 1 (30 minutes)

JFK

Series recalling history's defining moments. The assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963 stunned America and shook the world. This forensic reconstruction is a minute-by-minute dramatisation of the day of the shooting, featuring the family who were the closest eyewitnesses to the president's death; the surgeon who worked to save JFK's life ten minutes after the attack; and the president's assistant press secretary - part of JFK's final motorcade and the man entrusted with informing the nation that their leader had been slain on 22nd November 1963 in Dallas, Texas.


TUE 22:35 Timewatch (m001snnx)
The Mysterious Career of Lee Harvey Oswald

An investigative biography of the man at the centre of the political crime of the 20th century. The programme reassesses the psychological, political and forensic evidence of Lee Harvey Oswald's role in the assassination of President Kennedy and uncovers previously unseen footage, photographs and witnesses.


TUE 00:15 The World's Most Photographed (b0078xvb)
John F Kennedy

John F Kennedy was one of the most popular presidents of the United States of America. At the core of his appeal was his image; Kennedy was highly photogenic. He also understood the power of the photograph and exploited it more effectively than any other politician before him.

Kennedy was a totally new kind of president - glamorous and informal, a patriot with a glittering war record and a loving father and husband. But while he seemed to be exposing his whole life to the camera, he was in fact concealing two secrets - secrets so explosive they had the power to destroy his presidency. This film explores the way that Kennedy used photography to help to promote an image that was at odds with his frail state of health and his compulsive promiscuity.


TUE 00:45 Berlin 1945 (m000p9t9)
Series 1

Episode 1

At the beginning of 1945, Berlin remains under the spell of the Nazi promise of salvation, an illusion at odds with the city’s daily reality. Every day there are bombing attacks, fires to be extinguished and corpses to be buried. Life goes on as the front lines of the war close in each day. Death comes for men, women, the old, the young, the National Socialists and the forced labourers.

In April, the Red Army stands ready outside the city. In a time of uncertainty on the front lines, nobody has a clear view of what will happen. Civilians hiding, SS soldiers shooting deserters, and Red Army soldiers hoping to survive the final days of the war. As the war comes closer and closer to the metropolis, it returns everything to its roots, showing no mercy.


TUE 01:40 Berlin 1945 (m000p9tg)
Series 1

Episode 2

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


TUE 02:30 Berlin 1945 (m000p9tw)
Series 1

Episode 3

The British, French and Americans are waiting to enter Berlin. In the meantime, the Soviets appoint mayors, organise the food supply and go on the hunt for war criminals. The Jewish community, among whom there are few survivors, regroup.

The fate of the city is determined at the Potsdam Conference. Life returns to the ruins, theatres reopen and orchestras play in the open air. By the end of 1945, the bond that held the Allies together is torn apart - and the Cold War begins.


TUE 03:25 Great British Railway Journeys (m000d24m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2023

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

Falkirk to Dundee

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

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

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

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


WED 19:30 Winter Walks (m001226k)
Series 2

Amanda Owen

The 'Yorkshire Shepherdess', Amanda Owen, explores familiar territory as she crosses hills and fields through Wensleydale and Raydale on her Winter Walk. Taking ancient routes first made by the Romans, Amanda meets fellow sheep farmers and exchanges notes on their shared occupation.

As she walks across the Dales with her 360-degree camera, she describes what life is like living and working in this landscape. She takes her time to tune in to the soft sounds and scenes of the rolling hills, finding fossils in the stones below her feet. Crossing over the Dales, she drops down to Semer Water, ending her walk on the pebble banks as the water laps at her feet.


WED 20:00 Earth from Space (p072n7qd)
Series 1

A New Perspective

Cameras in space tell stories of life on our planet from a brand new perspective. Satellites follow an elephant family struggling through drought, reveal previously unknown emperor penguin colonies from the colour of their poo, and discover mysterious ice rings that could put seal pups in danger. Using cameras on the ground, in the air and in space, Earth from Space follows nature’s greatest spectacles, weather events and dramatic seasonal changes. This is our home, as we’ve never seen it before.


WED 21:00 Brian Cox's Adventures in Space and Time (m000x2sy)
Series 1

What Is Gravity?

Brian takes a fresh look at the concept of gravity, revealing it to be far more than just the force that makes things fall to the ground. Recent scientific breakthroughs are challenging physicists’ ideas of the very nature of reality.

He recalls some of his most iconic TV moments: being first on the scene to meet a space capsule returning three astronauts from the International Space Station; demonstrating how a bowling ball and feather fall at the same speed in the largest vacuum chamber in the world; filming in a prison wired up to explode; and standing on a majestic snowy mountain peak to explain the nature of spacetime.

Whilst revisiting his previous programmes, he takes us on a tour of gravity, explaining how Sir Isaac Newton devised a simple formula to describe gravity as a force that governs both how apples fall and how planets move in the heavens. He explores some of gravity’s stranger features, explaining how this comparatively weak force becomes the most dominant in the universe when it comes to the celestial mechanics of the cosmos: sculpting our solar system and even destroying stars.

Using the world’s largest vacuum chamber in Nasa’s Space Power Facility in Cleveland, Ohio, Brian demonstrates how gravity makes objects fall at the same rate, explaining how this led Einstein to his 'happiest thought' and the radical rethinking of the nature of space and time. Brian also explains how our contemporary study of one of gravity’s strangest creations, black holes, is leading us to yet more revolutionary, and in his words 'bonkers', views of the universe we live in.


WED 22:00 Making Out (p0g2yl4h)
Series 2

Episode 1

With no orders and dodgy solvent, New Lyne Electronics struggles under Rex's management, which poses problems for the girls. Meanwhile, Donna goes into labour in the factory lift.


WED 22:50 Making Out (p0g2ysw8)
Series 2

Episode 2

The factory is still in trouble. Bounced wages cheques and a visit from the VAT man only add to Rex's problems. Meanwhile, Rosie has organised a birthday party for Sharon, and Queenie and Chunky get into a spot of bother with a crate load of pythons.


WED 23:40 Making Out (p0g2ytf3)
Series 2

Episode 3

What do you say to your late husband's mistress? Stella faces Carol May.


WED 00:30 Making Out (p0g2yw2l)
Series 2

Episode 4

Donna puts home and baby first, while Jill tries to leave her past behind.


WED 01:20 Days That Shook the World (b0074qf2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:05 on Tuesday]


WED 01:50 Great British Railway Journeys (m000d2ch)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 02:20 Winter Walks (m001226k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 02:50 Brian Cox's Adventures in Space and Time (m000x2sy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THURSDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2023

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

Dundee to Aberdeen

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

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

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

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

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


THU 19:30 Doctor Who (1963-1996) (m001snnz)
Season 1

The Daleks in Colour

It’s time to encounter the Daleks once again, but this time in a way you’ve never seen them before. Originally transmitted in December 1963 to February 1964, the seven original episodes of the first Dalek story have received a cosmic makeover, dazzlingly colourised and weaved together into a 75-minute blockbuster. With brand new sound and a brand new score created by Mark Ayres, The Daleks has been gloriously updated, whilst ensuring the original story remains as thrilling as it was in 1963.


THU 20:45 An Adventure in Space and Time (p01kqt9x)
A special one-off drama that travels back to 1963 to see how Doctor Who was first brought to the screen. Actor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles. Wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry's glass ceiling. Both of them were to find unlikely hope and unexpected challenges in the form of a Saturday tea-time drama. Allied with a team of unusual but brilliant people, they went on to create the longest running science fiction series ever made.

Followed by William Hartnell: The Original, a five-minute documentary looking at how William Hartnell shaped the Doctor and his legacy. Featuring rare archive footage and new interviews with many who worked with him, including Carole Ann Ford, Peter Purves and Waris Hussein, as well as Matt Smith, Peter Davison and Hartnell's granddaughter Jessica Carney.


THU 22:05 Final Cut (m001snp2)
A small film crew shooting a low-budget zombie movie remake for a live broadcast find that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. In French with English subtitles.


THU 23:55 Dark Victory (m0019dx2)
Judith Traherne (Bette Davis) is a free-spirited young socialite whose fortune suddenly changes when she is diagnosed with a brain tumour. Kindly Dr Fredrik Steele (George Brent) takes charge of her care and the two grow increasingly fond of each other. But Judith's negative prognosis casts a shadow over their romance, as she must prepare to face the worst.


THU 01:35 Great British Railway Journeys (m000d2fm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 02:05 The World's Most Photographed (b0078xvb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 00:15 on Tuesday]


THU 02:35 Earth from Space (p072n7qd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Wednesday]

FRIDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2023

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m001snq0)
Michelle Gayle presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 15 June 1995 and featuring Wet Wet Wet, The Outhere Brothers, U2, Bitty Mclean, Edwyn Collins, Paula Abdul, East 17, Robson & Jerome and Michael Jackson.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m001snq6)
Simon Mayo presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 22 June 1995 and featuring Haddaway, Mike & The Mechanics, Baby D, D:Ream, M-People, Amy Grant, Bon Jovi, EMF with Reeves & Mortimer, Robson & Jerome and Menswear.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m000kjmm)
Jakki Brambles and Jenny Powell present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 23 November 1989 and featuring Big Fun, Fine Young Cannibals and The Stone Roses.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (b01pcpl9)
David 'Kid' Jensen looks at the weekly pop chart from 1977 and introduces the Carvells, Bonnie Tyler, Hot Chocolate, Darts, Leo Sayer, Santa Esmerelda, Abba, Wings, the Bee Gees and a Legs & Co dance sequence to Jonathan Richman.


FRI 21:00 Dusty Springfield at the Royal Albert Hall (m001k3s5)
Filmed at the Royal Albert Hall in 1979, this film captures Britain’s greatest pop diva at the height of her career. The show is packed with hits from across Dusty’s career, including I Only Want to Be with You, Wishin' and Hopin’, The Look of Love, Son of a Preacher Man and many more, delivered with all the glitz and panache that were her trademark.


FRI 22:00 Dusty Springfield at the BBC (m001k3s2)
Volume Two

A second chance to explore the BBC’s archives with one of British music’s biggest and best-loved stars, Dusty Springfield. The great soul diva and her haunting voice are captured once again in selection of BBC performances from over the years, including You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, Son of a Preacher Man, and Bacharach and David’s Look of Love. Together, these songs underline why Dusty earned her reputation as one of pop’s great talents, who deserves her ranking alongside fellow singing legends like Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick.


FRI 23:00 Night Music: Roger Whittaker (b011g7g4)
Roger Whittaker stars in a light entertainment special from 1982, with guest singer Dana.


FRI 23:35 Definitely Dusty (b00780bt)
Documentary looking at the life and work of soul and pop diva Dusty Springfield, singer of such classics as You Don't Have to Say You Love Me and Son of a Preacher Man, who was equally famous for her trademark panda eyes and blonde beehive.

Using archive footage and interviews shot in the UK and the US, it charts her progress from plain Catholic schoolgirl to glamorous star and ventures behind the extravagant image to reveal a complex and vulnerable character.

Featuring interviews with fellow musicians from a career spanning four decades, including Elton John, Burt Bacharach, Neil Tennant, Lulu and Martha Reeves.

Dusty's protective inner circle of friends have never spoken about her on camera before. Pat Rhodes, Dusty's personal secretary for her entire solo career, her manager Vicky Wickham, ardent fan-turned-backing singer Simon Bell and others talk about the highs and lows of the woman they knew and loved.


FRI 00:35 Dusty Springfield at the Royal Albert Hall (m001k3s5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 01:30 Dusty Springfield at the BBC (m001k3s2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 02:30 Top of the Pops (m000kjmm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 03:00 Top of the Pops (b01pcpl9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]