SATURDAY 04 MAY 2024

SAT 19:00 Rick Stein's Long Weekends (b085zmnm)
Palermo

Rick Stein's series of long weekends across Europe continues. Rick visits the fascinating city of Palermo in northern Sicily. Like a vibrant carpet, the city is patterned with echoes of Arab, north African, French, Spanish and Italian influences making its cuisine unique and irresistible. Pine nuts, raisins, almonds and golden breadcrumbs are combined with flavours of local sun-ripened tomatoes, lemons and the finest olive oil to create unforgettable dishes that just have to be replicated at back home.

Palermo is a grand city with rough edges, synonymous with Garibaldi and the setting for one of Rick's favourite novels of all time - The Leopard. He arrives just in time to see locals celebrating a festival in honour of Palermo's patron saint, Rosalia, and even gets a cookery lesson from a real-life duchess. At home, he cooks marsala chicken, a Sicilian classic served in UK bistros since the 1960s.


SAT 20:00 Amazon with Bruce Parry (b00f2rm2)
Episode 5

Bruce Parry explores the wealth of the Amazon rainforest. He parties with the millionaires of Manaus, the Amazon's biggest city, he lives and works with the illegal gold miners seeking their fortune and he sleeps in the forest canopy with the scientists trying to value the forest in a revolutionary new way.


SAT 21:00 Spy/Master (m001xg91)
Series 1

The Hunting Party

A high-ranking general in Nicolae Ceaușescu’s inner circle, Victor Godeanu finds himself in grave danger amid the Romanian dictator’s growing paranoia and news that his nemesis, Mircea, is gathering evidence to expose him.

In Germany, on a diplomatic mission, Victor takes his chance with the Americans, but his defection is put on hold when his CIA contact, Frank Jackson, gets stonewalled by his superiors.


SAT 21:50 Spy/Master (m001xgb4)
Series 1

The Survival Story

Armed with damning evidence, Mircea outs Victor to Nicolae and his wife, Elena, as the Soviet’s mole. Later, Victor gets troubling information from his old flame Ingrid, who is dangerously close to figuring out his plans, and Frank tries to sidestep official channels when Victor is suddenly called back to Bucharest.


SAT 22:40 Parkinson (m001ylbc)
Elton John, Robbie Williams, Kiki Dee and Ronan Keating

Michael Parkinson in conversation with Elton John, Robbie Williams, Kiki Dee and Ronan Keating.


SAT 23:50 This Cultural Life (m001ytyc)
Boy George

Singer-songwriter Boy George talks to John Wilson about his formative cultural influences.


SAT 00:20 Final Ascent: The Legend of Hamish MacInnes (m000hp3m)
The life of legendary Scottish mountaineer and rescuer Hamish MacInnes.

The legend of Hamish MacInnes began early. At 16 he climbed the Matterhorn, and at 17 he built his first motor car from scratch. He attempted Everest in 1953 with his friend Johnny Cunningham and almost stole the peak before Hillary and Tenzing claimed it. As an explorer, expedition leader and engineer he achieved world fame. As inventor of the all-metal ice axe, author of the International Mountain Rescue Handbook and founder of Glencoe Mountain Rescue, he has been responsible for saving hundreds of lives, perhaps thousands.

However, at the age of 84, his accomplishments could not save him from being institutionalised against his will, suffering from delirium. After a spell in psychogeriatric detainment in a hospital in the Highlands of Scotland, during which he made many escape attempts, he emerged to find his memory had disappeared.

This film tells the story of his life by mirroring his greatest challenge - to recover his memories and rescue himself. He did this by looking at the many thousands of pictures he had taken over the previous 60 years, which were stored in his basement. He was able to look at the many films he had made, both BBC archive and feature films on which he was stunt co-ordinator, such as The Eiger Sanction, Highlander, The Mission and Five Days One Summer. He was able to reabsorb and stimulate his mind using the many books he had written, memoirs of a life spent in the mountains.

The film beautifully mirrors that process, and features testimony from his old friends Sir Michael Palin, Sir Chris Bonington and the American inventor, businessman and environmentalist Yvon Chouinard.


SAT 01:40 Rick Stein's Long Weekends (b085zmnm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 02:40 Amazon with Bruce Parry (b00f2rm2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

SUNDAY 05 MAY 2024

SUN 19:00 Palin on Redpath (p00twwbr)
Michael Palin travels to France in search of the Mediterranean view on his wall, captured by his favourite artist, Scottish painter Anne Redpath. He travels from a London bank, via a chateau in Cap Ferrat and a monastery in Edinburgh.


SUN 19:30 Michael Palin on the Colourists (b0074kys)
Michael Palin explores the lives and paintings of four Scottish artists known as the Colourists: John Duncan Fergusson, George Leslie Hunter, Samuel John Peploe and Francis Campbell Boileau Cadell. Their works hang in 10 Downing Street, but in their own lifetimes their vibrant vision shocked the critics.


SUN 20:30 This Cultural Life (m001z1w3)
Michael Palin

Actor, comedian, presenter and writer Sir Michael Palin talks to John Wilson about his formative creative influences.


SUN 21:00 Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershoi (b007ccc2)
With a passion for art that is rivalled only by travel, Michael Palin combines both in a European journey to discover more about Vilhelm Hammershoi, an enigmatic Danish artist that has fascinated him for years. Curious to see more of Hammershoi's paintings and discover what kind of life the artist lived, Michael searches for clues in London, Holland and Copenhagen.


SUN 22:00 Sunset Across the Bay (p02n9tb6)
An elderly couple realise their dream of retiring to the seaside in Morecambe, only to find that making a life in their new home is much harder than they expected.


SUN 23:10 Talking Heads (b00p90gb)
Series 1

A Cream Cracker under the Settee

A monologue by Alan Bennett, starring Thora Hird as an independent old lady who has a fall that decides her future.


SUN 23:45 Talking Heads (b00pcbtg)
Series 1

Her Big Chance

Drama monologue by Alan Bennett, starring Julie Walters. Lesley is a small-part actress who lands a role in a video set on a yacht, but things are not as they seem.


SUN 00:20 Alan Bennett at 80: Hytner Meets Bennett (b043kx7y)
Sir Nicholas Hytner interviews living legend and playwright Alan Bennett on the eve of his 80th birthday. Ranging across 40 years of his work for stage, television and cinema, it is the first time these long term collaborators (The Madness of King George, The History Boys and more) have engaged in a full-length debate on television about the art of what they do. Includes clips of eight of Bennett's productions from Forty Years On (1968) to The Habit of Art (2009).


SUN 01:20 Michael Palin on the Colourists (b0074kys)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


SUN 02:20 imagine... (m0006wh6)
2019

Faith Ringgold: Tell It Like It Is

Harlem-born artist, author and activist Faith Ringgold painted some of the most truthful and empowering representations of African Americans during the civil rights and women’s movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

At the time, the art establishment dismissed her seminal American People series as political art by a woman, and a black woman at that. Undeterred, Ringgold continued to tell her story using numerous art forms, including traditional quilts which have their roots in the slave culture of the South. Ringgold reinterpreted their function to tell politically charged stories, something she has also done with her illustrated children’s books.

Now in her late 80s, Ringgold is considered one of the most important African American artists, whose work is increasingly relevant today. imagine… spends time with this impassioned feminist, civil rights activist and champion of imagination, following her in her New Jersey studio and in the heart of Harlem as she prepares for her London show at the Serpentine Gallery.

MONDAY 06 MAY 2024

MON 19:00 Coast (b0959vtk)
Series 8 Reversions

All at Sea 3

A group of sea anglers from Zimbabwe chance their hand in the rolling seas off the coast of Yorkshire. On their annual day trip from Whitby, they find themselves all at sea.


MON 19:15 Great Railway Journeys (b0074ltt)
Series 4

Los Mochis to Vera Cruz

The Cornish fish cook Rick Stein crosses Mexico from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.

As a young backpacker, Rick wandered all over Mexico and fell in love with the country and its hot, spicy cooking. He also worked on the railways as a tracklayer before reading English at Oxford and opening a seafood restaurant in Padstow. With such a background, Rick is very much at home travelling on the spectacular rail route through Copper Canyon and the Sierra Madre Mountains.

With Mexico's railway in decline following privatisation, he has to be given his own private coach to complete a journey that takes him to Chihuahua, home of Pancho Villa and the Mexican revolution, Durango, where they used to make the cowboy movies he loved as a small boy, and to Mexico City where he's driven around in an Art Deco Volkswagen Beetle made out of spare parts.

But what makes Mexico tick? Rick thinks it is very like his cooking - an endless improvisation. What really defines the country is its randomness, the way things seem to work without any rules or regulations.


MON 20:05 The Abbey with Alan Bennett (m001z1vg)
Series 1

The Royal Peculiar

Alan Bennett goes behind the scenes at Westminster Abbey, watching the comings and goings in 'the Queen's parish church'.


MON 21:00 Britain's Lost Masterpieces (m000b8ns)
Series 4

Cardiff

Art detectives Bendor Grosvenor and Emma Dabiri travel to the National Museum Cardiff to investigate a badly overpainted Madonna, currently attributed to a follower of Botticelli, that shows signs of being worthy of investigation. Bendor believes the picture is good enough to warrant an attribution to Botticelli’s workshop, and conservation may reveal evidence of the hand of the master himself. Cleaning the picture confirms that a faker had tried to artificially age the panel.

Bendor then travels to Florence to explore the early Renaissance, and the life and work of Botticelli, hoping to find evidence that will support a new attribution. Meanwhile, Emma Dabiri explores the story of the two immensely wealthy Welsh sisters who donated the work to the museum, and discovers how they tried to bring about their own renaissance in the cultural life of their native Wales.


MON 22:00 Civilisation (b0074r4g)
Protest and Communication

Kenneth Clark investigates the Protestant Reformation in northern Europe. He looks at Holbein, Thomas Moore, Erasmus, the printing press and Durer.


MON 22:50 Civilisation (b0074r50)
Grandeur and Obedience

Sir Kenneth Clark presents one of the classic episodes of his history of the civilised culture of the western world. He examines the Catholic world in the 16th Century, especially the city of Rome which blossomed architecturally and sculpturally during the Counter Reformation under the hands of the baroque artist Bernini. This programme features the celebrated and stunning tracking shot through Raphael's Loggia.


MON 23:40 Peter Rice: An Engineer Imagines (m0007zg7)
An Engineer Imagines tells the story of Peter Rice, widely regarded as the most distinguished structural engineer of the late 20th century, and his massive impact on modern architecture. Without his innovations in material and design, and his collaboration with the leading architects of his time, some of the most recognisable architectural buildings in the world would not have been possible. These buildings include the Sydney Opera House, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Lloyds of London building.

The documentary traces Rice's extraordinary work and short life, from his native Dundalk through Belfast, London, Sydney and Paris, to his untimely death in 1992, and explores his lasting legacy, which can be seen today, not only in Europe and beyond, but also in his native Ireland.


MON 00:40 Great Railway Journeys (b0074ltt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 today]


MON 01:30 The Abbey with Alan Bennett (m001z1vg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:05 today]


MON 02:30 Britain's Lost Masterpieces (m000b8ns)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 07 MAY 2024

TUE 19:00 Coast (b08gpbhx)
Series 8 Reversions

Episode 4

We find Britain's only colony of scorpions, and Nick Crane finds out why the sea is salty.


TUE 19:10 Great Railway Journeys (b0074mld)
Series 4

Guantanamo to Pinar del Rio

After more than forty years of Castro's revolution, Cuba's infrastructure is crumbling and the trains no longer run to time. Despite this, comedian Nick Hancock decides to cross the country by rail, only to have his plans disrupted by the arrival of Hurricane George. Stranded at Guantanamo, Nick acts like a Cuban and improvises. Instead of travelling on a fractured inter-city network, he gets around the island on steam-driven freight trains that normally transport sugar, the Hershey chocolate train and a variety of other vehicles such as stretch Ladas and bicycles powered by lawnmower engines.

Along the way Nick meets boxers, ballet dancers, faded divas, fickle dolphins, cigar rollers and revolutionaries old and new. With Cuban sun and salsa music as an almost constant accompaniment, it's an odyssey with a Latin American beat.


TUE 20:00 To the Manor Born (b007blcs)
Series 3

Connections in High Places

Stately sitcom. Richard's business empire hits a serious crisis.


TUE 20:30 No Place Like Home (p0hl30z6)
Series 1

Episode 4

Much to Arthur's concern, the family plan a new career for Beryl - but their efforts to achieve this lead to a highly unsuccessful conclusion.


TUE 21:00 PQ17: An Arctic Convoy Disaster (b03n3297)
Jeremy Clarkson tells the dramatic story of the Arctic convoys of the Second World War, from Russia to the freezing Arctic Ocean.

Accompanied by moving first hand testimony from the men who served on these convoys, Clarkson reveals the incredible hazards faced by members of the Merchant and Royal Navy who delivered vital war supplies via the Arctic to the Soviet Union: temperatures of minus 50 degrees, huge icebergs, colossal waves, not to mention German U-boats and the Luftwaffe. It is no wonder that Churchill described the Arctic Convoys as 'the worst journey in the world.'

Between 1941 and 1945, more than 70 convoys delivered 4 million tonnes of material to the USSR, yet one convoy in particular would come to symbolise the dangers faced by the men who served on them. Codenamed PQ17, this convoy of 35 merchant ships would be described by Churchill as one of the most melancholy naval episodes of the war.

Retracing the route of PQ17 from the Arctic to the Russian winter port of Archangel, Clarkson reveals how, on the night of July 4th 1942, this joint Anglo-American convoy became one of the biggest naval disasters of the 20th century. To make matters worse, the cause of the disaster lay not in the brutal conditions of the Arctic, or the military might of the Germans, but a misjudgement made in the corridors of the Admiralty in London.


TUE 22:00 The Satanic Verses: 30 Years On (m0002thf)
The publication of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses in 1988 sparked a culture war in Britain between those in the Muslim community, who considered the book blasphemous and called for the book to be banned, and those defending it as an expression of freedom of speech.

Protests, which began in the north of England, soon spread across the UK and to the rest of the Islamic world, culminating in February 1989 with Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issuing a fatwa - a death sentence on the writer.

Now, 30 years on, broadcaster and journalist Mobeen Azhar embarks on a journey, starting in his native Yorkshire where the protest first began, to examine the lasting effect the book has had on the Muslim community and how the events of 1989 continue to have an impact today.

Mobeen hears from a range of people who were affected by the so called 'Rushdie Affair' - from the men who took an early stand against the book and organised the original protests to the writer who wrestled at the time of the book's publication with the complex questions of free speech and her own religious beliefs, and a former member of the National Front who claims that the furore over the book became a recruiting tool for them.


TUE 23:00 Chasing the Moon (m0006vrl)
Series 1

Magnificent Desolation - Part 1

After the immediate celebration of 1968’s successful Apollo 8 mission, underlying questions about the space programme emerged with new intensity as politicised young Americans challenged the nation’s priorities. Nasa pushed brashly forward.

After the lunar orbit, competition escalated among the training astronauts. Who would be chosen for the first moon landing? In January 1969, Nasa ended months of speculation and announced the crew for Apollo 11. Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong would be in the craft that landed on the moon. They would be supported by Mike Collins in the command module. As ever, the Soviet Union loomed large over the new Nasa mission, scheduling an unmanned craft to land on the moon at approximately the same time as Apollo 11.

In mid-July, 1969, crowds flooded Cocoa Beach in anticipation of the historic launch and, on 20 July 1969, the biggest television audience in world history tuned in. Audiences watched simulations and listened to audio coverage with baited breath as Armstrong delicately piloted the lunar module, only to discover the landing site was a football field-sized crater. It forced him to hover the craft and look for a new site with just 30 seconds of fuel left. Finally, audiences heard the triumphant words, ‘The Eagle has landed.’ Mission control responded, ‘You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue - we’re breathing again.’

A film By Robert Stone.

A Robert Stone Production for American Experience WGBH/PBS in association with Arte France.


TUE 23:50 Chasing the Moon (m0006vrn)
Series 1

Magnificent Desolation - Part 2

Viewers from around the world watched the flickering black-and-white footage from a camera placed on the module showing Armstrong gingerly stepping down its ladder. ‘OK, I’m going to step off the ladder now,’ Armstrong said. ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.’ Fifteen minutes later, Aldrin followed. Transparent, ghostly images of the suited figures projected back to Earth where crowds cheered, wept and fell speechless at the awe-inspiring sight of their fellow human beings on the moon.

The mission had one remaining hurdle: the ascent stage. With only one chance to fire the lunar module’s engine to safely reach Apollo 11, tension built once more. On 24 July 1969, to the intense relief of all involved, the crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. Despite the public excitement leading up to and immediately after Apollo 11, interest in space vaporised with shocking rapidity. Kennedy’s challenge to the nation, to its scientists and to its pilots had been met - an American had walked on the moon before 1970. Rather than being a spark for further exploration, as von Braun had dreamed, the moon landing was the crowning jewel in the Cold War space race, commanding epic focus, resources and motivation.

A film By Robert Stone.

A Robert Stone Production for American Experience WGBH/PBS in association with Arte France.


TUE 00:40 PQ17: An Arctic Convoy Disaster (b03n3297)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


TUE 01:40 Great Railway Journeys (b0074mld)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:10 today]


TUE 02:30 Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershoi (b007ccc2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Sunday]

WEDNESDAY 08 MAY 2024

WED 19:00 Walk the Line (b04lgnb6)
Series 1

Episode 1

In a new three-part series, Walk the Line, Barra Best sets out to uncover and explore some of Northern Ireland's lost railways. In programme one, Barra discovers County Down's version of Stonehenge, spends a day at the races and hears about a battle of the railways to control Newcastle's growth as a tourist resort.


WED 19:30 Dinosaurs: The Final Day with David Attenborough (m0016djt)
David Attenborough brings to life, in unprecedented detail, the last days of the dinosaurs.

Palaeontologist Robert DePalma has made an incredible discovery in a prehistoric graveyard: fossilised creatures, astonishingly well preserved, that could help change our understanding of the last days of the dinosaurs. Evidence from his site records the day when an asteroid bigger than Mount Everest devastated our planet and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Based on brand new evidence, witness the catastrophic events of that day play out minute by minute.


WED 21:00 Attenborough at 90 (p03qxjzj)
In celebration of his ninetieth birthday, Sir David Attenborough shares extraordinary highlights of his life and career with broadcaster Kirsty Young, including the inspiring people he has met, the extraordinary journeys he has made and the remarkable animal encounters he has had across the globe.

Joined by colleagues and friends, including Michael Palin and Chris Packham, Sir David shares some of the unforgettable moments from his unparalleled career, from capturing unique animal behaviour for the first time to the fast-paced advances in wildlife filming technology, as well as stories of the wonder and fragility of the natural world - stories that Sir David has spent his life exploring and championing.


WED 22:00 Peter Egan Remembers... A Perfect Spy (m001z1vr)
Peter Egan looks back on the BBC’s 1987 adaptation of John le Carre’s A Perfect Spy, one of the writer’s most acclaimed novels, dramatised a year after the book’s publication.

Egan starred as British intelligence officer and double agent Magnus Pym, in a role that was a departure from the comedies he was best known for. Here, he talks about the making of A Perfect Spy, the challenges that came with adapting the work of such an acclaimed writer and what he hopes viewers coming to the drama for the first time will take from their viewing experience today.


WED 22:15 A Perfect Spy (b008bjg1)
Episode 1

The story of Magnus Pym's rise and fall in the intelligence world begins in his youth, as he leaves his troubled family behind to face the trials of boarding school.


WED 23:10 A Perfect Spy (b008d2vn)
Episode 2

1980s adaption of the John le Carre novel. Magnus, sent on an errand to Switzerland, meets two men who will be important in his life as a spy.


WED 00:05 A Perfect Spy (b008d2vp)
Episode 3

1980s adaption of the John le Carre novel. In the years between 1953 and 1959, Magnus betrays his father Rick and renews his acquaintance with Axel.


WED 01:00 Attenborough at 90 (p03qxjzj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 02:00 Dinosaurs: The Final Day with David Attenborough (m0016djt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

THURSDAY 09 MAY 2024

THU 19:00 Coast (b00vdm06)
Series 4 (Shortened Versions)

Brighton's Early Cinema

Neil Oliver becomes a silent movie director as he films a scene from The Mayor of Casterbridge using an antique camera, to reveal how pioneers in Brighton taught the world to make movies long before Hollywood shot a frame.


THU 19:10 Great Railway Journeys (b0074q0w)
Series 4

St Louis to Dogon Country

Hollywood superstar Danny Glover travels along the oldest line in Africa when he takes the Bamako Express from St Louis on the coast of Senegal to Bamako in poverty-stricken Mali. During the course of his journey, he encounters the acclaimed musician Youssou N'Dour, the Senegalese film director Sembene Ousmane and one of the world's oldest and most complex tribal cultures.


THU 20:00 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00p8lgg)
Alan Bennett

Author, actor, humorist and playwright Alan Bennett talks to Mark Lawson about his life and career.


THU 21:00 The Lady in the Van (b06wcqyr)
1970s Camden Town. Writer Alan Bennett's neighbours include the outspoken and unconventional Miss Shepherd, proudly residing in a van parked on the street. Offering space on his front drive for her vehicle begins a bizarre arrangement that he feels guilty about later exploiting in print. Acclaimed comedy drama from BBC Films based on actual events.


THU 22:40 Talking Heads (b00p8lht)
Series 1

Bed Among the Lentils

Alan Bennett-penned monologue in which Maggie Smith plays the vicar's wife who finds a vision of God at the local off-licence.


THU 23:30 Talking Heads (b0077n0t)
Series 2

Waiting for the Telegram

Drama monologue written by Alan Bennett, starring Dame Thora Hird. Violet's long life includes two telegrams, both from the monarch. Awaiting the second, she remembers the first.


THU 00:00 Talking Heads (p032kkzl)
Series 2

Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet

Miss Fozzard has to care for her brother after he has a stroke. However, she doesn't want to leave her job in soft furnishings.


THU 00:45 Parkinson (m001ylbc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:40 on Saturday]


THU 01:50 Great Railway Journeys (b0074q0w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:10 today]


THU 02:40 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b00p8lgg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

FRIDAY 10 MAY 2024

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m001z1vm)
Alan Davies presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 18 January 1996 and featuring The Bucketheads, Sunscreem, Coolio, Lush, Nightcrawlers ft John Reid, Cher, Cast, Solo and George Michael.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m001z1vp)
Lulu presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 25 January 1996 and featuring Shed Seven, Goldbug, Ace of Base, The Saw Doctors, Upside Down, Coolio ft LV, Skunk Anansie, 3T and Babylon Zoo.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m000g6ll)
Bruno Brookes presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 11 May 1989 and featuring Swing Out Sister, Chaka Khan, Yazz, Queen, Hue and Cry, Natalie Cole, Stevie Nicks, London Boys, Kylie Minogue and Stefan Dennis.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (b08h9j0j)
Mike Read and Tommy Vance present another edition of the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 12 May 1983. Featuring Modern Romance, Hall & Oates, Hot Chocolate, Galaxy, The Creatures, Men at Work and Spandau Ballet.


FRI 21:00 Top of the Pops (b09bklkn)
Gary Davies and Janice Long present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 18 October 1984. Featuring Spandau Ballet, Chaka Khan, Julian Lennon, John Waite, Meat Loaf, Ultravox and Wham.


FRI 21:30 Top of the Pops (b096v0jw)
Mike Read and Tommy Vance present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 23 August 1984. Featuring Alphaville, Elton John, Break Machine, Miami Sound Machine, Tracey Ullman, Spandau Ballet, Rod Stewart and George Michael.


FRI 22:00 George Michael at the BBC (m001n431)
George Michael was one of Britain’s best-loved and most acclaimed music stars. With Wham!, the group George formed alongside best friend Andrew Ridgely, he created an 80s phenomenon – heartthrob chart-toppers across the globe and the first Western pop act ever to perform in China. His subsequent solo work took his career to a whole new level, making him one of the key cultural figures of the day.

This collection of George’s solo performances and Wham! classics comes from his appearances on a selection of BBC programmes that demonstrate perfectly why he remains so fondly remembered, featuring hits such as Club Tropicana, Freedom, Faith, Outside and Amazing.


FRI 23:30 Chaka Khan at the BBC (m001kbw3)
Ain’t Nobody quite like Chaka Khan, and the proof of that comes courtesy of the BBC’s music archives, which have been plundered for this celebration of one of the all-time great queens of soul.

This selection of Chaka’s finest BBC moments covers five decades of performing, reflecting a career that started in the 70s with her partnership with Rufus and eventually led to the massive number one hit I Feel for You, which helped bring rap right into the mainstream, and I’m Every Woman, an instant anthem that made her a lifelong female icon.


FRI 00:10 The 80s - Music’s Greatest Decade? (m00117qg)
Series 1

True Originals

Dylan Jones has written books about many musical eras - their shining stars and defining moments - but the time that fascinates him most is the 1980s. It was an exciting, explosive super-decade, in which a dazzling array of new genres emerged while video really did kill the radio star.

It was also an age of innovators and icons, of style and substance. Here, Dylan celebrates some of the stars who created the timeless legacy of the 1980s. From stellar BBC archive performances from the likes of Madonna, Depeche Mode, Sade, Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys and Tina Turner to iconic MTV-era gems from Billy Idol, Eurythmics, U2, Janet Jackson, Prince and many more.

It also features rarely seen archive television footage from the BBC vaults, including Terry Wogan interviewing Grace Jones, Bruce Springsteen on the Old Grey Whistle Test and Adam Ant performing his own stunts in a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Prince Charming video.


FRI 01:10 Top of the Pops (m001z1vm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 01:40 Top of the Pops (m001z1vp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 02:10 Top of the Pops (m000g6ll)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 02:40 Top of the Pops (b08h9j0j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]