SATURDAY 24 AUGUST 2024

SAT 19:00 Raiders of the Lost Past with Janina Ramirez (m0008567)
Series 1

The Sutton Hoo Hoard

Janina Ramirez explores the surprise discovery in a Suffolk garden of the Sutton Hoo Hoard – an incredible Anglo-Saxon ship burial dating from the early 7th century AD and the final resting place of a supremely wealthy warrior-king.

The ship’s ruined burial chamber was packed with treasures: Byzantine silverware, sumptuous gold jewellery, a lavish feasting set and, most famously, an ornate iron helmet.

Now known as Britain’s Tutankhamun, the hoard transformed our understanding of the Dark Ages, revealing that 7th-century Britain was not the primitive place we had imagined, but a world of exquisite craftsmanship, extensive international connections, great halls, glittering treasures and formidable warriors.

The find captured the imagination of a nation on the brink of war, not just as an incredible treasure, but as a symbol of pride and identity, and a representation of the Anglo-Saxon culture Britain was about to fight for.

Yet, as Janina discovers, the story of the hoard's survival and discovery is something of a miracle.


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

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


SAT 21:00 The Promised Land (m0022f75)
Denmark, 1755. Retired army captain Ludvig Kahlen battles the elements, the prejudice of naysayers and the hostility of the local nobility when he resolves to settle on the remote peninsula of Jutland and cultivate its uninhabitable heathland, from which many have failed to yield crops for centuries.

Having obtained official backing from the king, Kahlen is promised a noble title if he should succeed. With no allies other than a young priest, no money other than his meagre army pension and no workers to toil the unforgiving land, Kahlen sets out on his seemingly impossible project regardless.

From Bafta-nominated writer and director Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) comes a powerful Nordic epic starring Mads Mikkelsen (The Hunt, Another Round).

In Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and German, with English subtitles.


SAT 23:00 Parkinson (m0022f77)
Siân Phillips, Denis Healey and Lee Marvin

Michael Parkinson with guests Siân Phillips, Denis Healey and Lee Marvin. First transmitted in 1980.


SAT 00:05 Hitchcock at the NFT (m00226pd)
First broadcast in 1969. In his 70th year, Alfred Hitchcock came to the National Film Theatre in London to talk to fellow director Bryan Forbes and to answer questions from an audience of film enthusiasts.

With scenes from Blackmail (1929), The Lady Vanishes (1938), Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963) and Torn Curtain (1966).


SAT 01:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b01djtdp)
Series 1

Daisy's Toyboy

Sitcom about a snobbish housewife. Hyacinth's social standing at a church function is jeopardised when Daisy tries to encourage Onslow to become more ardent.


SAT 01:30 Butterflies (p00hm2tv)
Series 2

An Attractive Visitor

Susanna, a woman the Parkinsons met on holiday, comes to stay and causes Ria more anxiety.


SAT 02:00 Voyages of Discovery (b0074t3q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 03:00 Raiders of the Lost Past with Janina Ramirez (m0008567)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

SUNDAY 25 AUGUST 2024

SUN 19:00 New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands (b07lp34l)
Cast Adrift

Isolated since the time of the dinosaurs, New Zealand's wildlife has been left to its own devices, with surprising consequences. Its ancient forests are still stalked by predators from the Jurassic era. It's also one of the most geologically active countries on earth.

From Kiwis with their giant eggs, to forest-dwelling penguins and helicopter-riding sheep dogs, meet the astonishing creatures and resilient people who must rise to the challenges of their beautiful, dramatic and demanding home.


SUN 20:00 BBC Proms (m0022f8m)
2024

Holst’s The Planets

Journey through the solar system with Holst’s imaginative musical depiction of the planets, past mighty Mars and glorious Jupiter.

In the first half, we're down on earth. Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo transports us to the Nordics with Sibelius’s depiction of forest creature The Wood Nymph, and Lara Poe’s brand new work Songs from the Countryside, featuring soprano Anu Komsi.

Students from the Royal College of Music Chamber Choir, Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra and the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra come together for this powerful programme.

Presented by Clive Myrie with special guest, space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock.


SUN 21:50 John Mayall: 40 Years of the Blues (b0074tlg)
In 1966, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers were acclaimed by music critics as the most influential blues band in the western world after the release of their Beano album, featuring a guitarist with the name of Eric Clapton.

Mayall created not only a platform for megastar Clapton, but also the springboard for some of the most famous rock musicians of the 20th century, including Rolling Stone Mick Taylor and Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood.

This documentary traces Mayall's colourful and highly influential career, culminating in his 70th birthday reunion concert, when he played with Eric Clapton and Mick Taylor at the Unicef concert in Liverpool, the first time in 38 years they had shared a stage.


SUN 22:50 Holst: The Planets with Professor Brian Cox (m0005prm)
The BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ben Gernon, performs Gustav Holst’s masterpiece, The Planets, at the Barbican, 100 years after its composition. Professor Brian Cox introduces each movement against a backdrop of the very latest in planetary imagery.


SUN 00:20 Stewart Copeland's Adventures in Music (m000dl2n)
Series 1

Episode 2

Stewart Copeland continues his mission to understand how music works by exploring its extraordinary power to tell stories.

His journey includes meetings with film director Francis Ford Coppola, who explains how simple musical devices transformed the most famous scenes in The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, his old friend Sting, who describes the secrets of his songwriting process, rapper Talib Kweli, who looks at the power of music in protest, and the French-Cuban Ibeyi sisters, who show how music has kept the Yoruban tradition alive. Finally, he meets the man who composed one of the shortest but most effective musical stories ever written - the Intel bongs!


SUN 01:20 Stewart Copeland's Adventures in Music (m000dt78)
Series 1

Episode 3

Stewart Copeland explores the transcendental powers of music and how certain sounds have the ability to move us, transport the mind and even help us escape this world - if only briefly.

As a child, Stewart’s path was determined when, despite being raised by strict atheists, he was deeply moved by the massed voices of the Wells Cathedral choir singing Jerusalem. Ever since, he has been fascinated by the ability of music to leave us feeling uplifted.

In this episode, Stewart travels to Morocco to discover the polyrhythms of Gnawa and back to Wells Cathedral to understand the mechanics of choral polyphony. He meets Kanye West collaborator Caroline Shaw to examine melody and the effect of the human voice, CeCe Winans to discuss the roots of gospel, takes a gong bath in New York, and visits minimalist master Steve Reich to unpack the trance-inducing powers of repetition.


SUN 02:20 New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands (b07lp34l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

MONDAY 26 AUGUST 2024

MON 19:00 Fred Dibnah's Age of Steam (b0078l4s)
Driving the Wheels of Industry

Fred looks at the key role that was played by steam power in the extraordinary expansion of industrial Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, and at the continued use of huge stationary steam engines in mills, collieries and steelworks until well into the 20th century.


MON 19:30 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b0135m57)
The Luck of the Irish Sea

Untrained mariner Timothy Spall has spent a fortune on technology for his new challenge - the unpredictable Irish Sea - as he and his wife continue their mini-odyssey around Britain. From Cardiff they head west to Milford Haven at the end of the River Severn and all seems well. However, Captain Spall bungles his departure to Fishguard and ends up going nowhere at full speed due to the turning tides.

Shattered and in the dark of night, they eventually find Fishguard. They also visit Aberystwyth, a return home for his wife Shane, and then the 'discovery' of the trip so far, Porthdinllaen. Here they find the most beautiful cove they have ever seen, a beach pub and a ride in a lifeboat to see the stunning Welsh coastline in its full glory.

'Mr and Mrs Vasco de Gama' are back on their travels in this seductive and heartwarming series.


MON 20:00 The Impressionists: Painting and Revolution (b0133hpx)
Painting the People

Waldemar Januszczak continues his investigation of the impressionists, focusing this time on the people they painted and in particular the subjects of Degas, Caillebotte and the often forgotten women artists. The impressionists are famous for painting landscape, but they were just as determined to paint people.

Looking closely at one of impressionism's finest painters, Edgar Degas, Waldemar reveals how he consistently challenged traditions and strove to record real life as it appeared in the city, from sculpting the contorted movements of horses in motion at the Longchamp race course in Paris to encapsulating extravagant 3D viewpoints of the ballet dancers at the Paris Opera.

Waldemar also uncovers the intoxicating haziness the pastel produced in Degas' work when visiting his supplier Pastels de Roche. He reveals the unusual viewpoints and dramatic perspectives of Caillebotte's paintings from the Place de L'Europe, and the rebellious and revolutionary art of Morisot, Bracquemond and Cassatt, three impressive female artists who were eagerly embraced by the progressive movement of impressionism.


MON 21:00 Call My Bluff (m0022fcx)
Robert Robinson presides over a duel of words and wit between Patrick Campbell, Judy Geeson, Edward Woodward, Frank Muir, Joan Bakewell and Noel Edmonds.


MON 21:25 Going for a Song (m0022g8s)
Max Robertson and resident connoisseur Arthur Negus welcome guest connoisseur Richard Came and customers Madeline Smith and Jack Watling to explore the world of antiques.


MON 22:00 Mary Beard’s Shock of the Nude (m000f8r3)
Series 1

Episode 2

Mary Beard takes on one of the foundation stones of western art - the nude.

Mary gives a deeply personal take on how artists have depicted the naked body, from the ancient Greeks to the taboo-busting painters and sculptors of today. Just why are artists so interested in nudity? And what can art reveal about our own attitudes to the body? Art critics over the centuries have often made lofty claims about the nude – playing down or refusing to acknowledge the erotic and even pornographic nature of some of the great works of western art. Mary argues we must not forget the edgy and dangerous nature of the nude – ultimately the reason it remains a magnetic subject for artists and viewers alike.

In this episode, Mary looks at how artists have challenged the idea of the body beautiful, artistic nudes that provoke viewers to think about the most fundamental questions about being human.

Mary begins with the sculpture Alison Lapper Pregnant. When this figure of a disabled artist by Marc Quinn was installed in Trafalgar Square, it caused a sensation - challenging public expectations about what a nude sculpture in a classical style should be. Mary then examines a nude she argues is rarely seen for what it is – the naked (or nearly naked) body of Jesus Christ, in the company of former British Museum director Neil MacGregor. Together, they look at one of the most surprising images of Jesus you have probably ever seen.

In the Royal Academy, Mary discusses a disturbing trio of work and tells the dark and chilling tale behind their execution. These are casts of flayed bodies of criminals designed as study aids for artists in the 18th century, but to 21st-century eyes they are morbidly gruesome – and Mary discusses how for her they stand somewhere between art, science and sadism.

In Bologna, Italy, Mary sees a female counterpart to these flayed men – the Anatomical Venus. This was a wax model of a young woman, posed to look like a Sleeping Beauty, but whose middle section could be opened up to reveal her exquisitely detailed innards. Mary argues we should see this Venus as anticipating contemporary works by artists such as Damien Hirst and Marc Quinn, who challenge us to think about the relationship between the body’s interior and its exterior.

Nudes in the western canon are traditionally white and living - but not all of them: Theodore Gericault’s masterpiece Raft of the Medusa is an image of torment and misery, with its sweep of dead and dying figures - and it also contains the figure of a black man, very much alive, waving heroically to a distant ship. With the help of Dr Denise Murrell, Mary reveals the importance of this image in the context of so many racially stereotyped images of the black body and discusses how the black nude was reimagined in the 20th century.

The naked body can also represent the inner state of mind - as seen in the works of the extraordinary early 20th-century Viennese artist Egon Schiele. Mary also looks at Lucian Freud, who reinvented the nude in the mid-20th century with his intimate, fleshy portraits of men and women. He has been described by one former model as predatory, and Mary speaks with another, Cozette McCreery, on how she felt about being the subject of his legendary scrutiny.

Mary then enters unsettling territory considering the issues that surround the depiction of the naked bodies of children. She explores the profoundly disturbing work of Eric Gill, who made engravings of his teenage daughter Petra at the same time he was sexually abusing her. Together with artist Cathie Pilkington, who recently co-curated a show of Gill’s work, Mary ponders whether these works can or should still be appreciated, when you know the history behind them.

Finally, Mary looks at what society’s increased awareness that gender is not a binary matter of male or female but a much more fluid concept means for the nude in art. She looks back to classical times, to the ancient hermaphrodite, reminding us that this is by no means a new discovery, before talking with a trans life model about the potential of art to affirm a positive body image. Mary speaks to artist Ajamu, whose work features in the groundbreaking Kiss My Genders exhibition – a glorious celebration of sexual and gender diversity in which the naked body proved without doubt that it still has a central role to play in art.


MON 23:00 Sex and Sensibility: The Allure of Art Nouveau (b01fd4z2)
Vienna

In a story that combines scandal and revolution, cultural correspondent Stephen Smith explores how Vienna's artists rebelled against the establishment in the late 19th century and brought their own highly sexed version of art nouveau to the banks of the Danube.

Looking at the eye-watering work of Gustav Klimt, Smith discovers that Viennese 'Jugenstil' was more than just a decorative delight but saw artists struggle to bring social meaning to the new style. Revealing the design genius of Josef Hoffman, the graphic work of Koloman Moser and the emergence of the enfant terrible Egon Schiele, Smith unpacks the stories behind a style that burned brightly but briefly at the fin de siecle.


MON 00:00 Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture (b00yvsjd)
Children of the Revolution

'Sculpture has changed more in the last 100 years,' says Alastair Sooke, 'than in the previous 30,000.' The third and last episode of the series tells the dramatic story of a century of innovation, scandal, shock and creativity.

It begins with the moment at the turn of the 20th century, when young sculptors ceased visiting the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum and looked instead at the 'primitive' works of Africa and the Pacific islands. The result was an artistic revolution spearheaded by Eric Gill and Jacob Epstein that would climax in the anti-sculptural gestures of Gilbert & George and Damien Hirst.

Yet for all the provocation and occasional excesses of conceptualism, sculpture has never enjoyed such popularity. From the memorials of World War I to the landmarks of Antony Gormley and Rachel Whiteread, sculpture remains the art form that speaks most directly and powerfully to the nation.

The programme climaxes with a series of encounters between Alastair and leading sculptors Damien Hirst, Rachel Whiteread, Antony Gormley and Anthony Caro.


MON 01:00 Timeshift (b0103pnb)
Series 10

Crime and Punishment: The Story of Corporal Punishment

Timeshift lifts the veil on the taboo that is corporal punishment. What it reveals is a fascinating history spanning religion, the justice system, sex and education. Today it is a subject that is almost impossible to discuss in public, but it's not that long since corporal punishment was a routine part of life. Surprising and enlightening, the programme invites us to leave our preconceptions at the door so that we may better understand how corporal punishment came to be so important for so long.


MON 02:00 Mary Beard’s Shock of the Nude (m000f8r3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


MON 03:00 The Impressionists: Painting and Revolution (b0133hpx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

TUESDAY 27 AUGUST 2024

TUE 19:00 Fred Dibnah's Age of Steam (b0078l7l)
Steaming Down the Road

Fred traces the development of steam power. He looks at early experiments in its use for road transport, and at the development of the traction engine.


TUE 19:30 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b013fj45)
Mad about the Buoys

Untrained mariner Timothy Spall has spent a fortune on technology for his new challenge - the unpredictable Irish Sea - as he and his wife continue their mini-odyssey around Britain.

Entering Liverpool means navigating their first big city since leaving London, but reaching dry land can be daunting in a small boat when dodging tankers and ferries. It's even more difficult when the coastguard sends him round in circles because he's on the wrong side of the marker buoys.

On his way to Glasson Dock in Lancashire, Tim is tricked again by another buoy. Misunderstanding his sea chart results in an unplanned dropped anchor in the middle of the Irish Sea, where they have to wait all night before he can enter the port.

Their next destination finds them in the company of royalty - Piel Island near Barrow-in-Furness has the unusual honour of having its own king and queen, a tradition which goes back centuries.


TUE 20:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b018jr9s)
Series 1

The Christening

Sitcom about a snobbish housewife and her long-suffering husband. Hyacinth quite enjoys a family christening - except when it is Daisy's family.


TUE 20:30 Butterflies (p00hm2xt)
Series 2

Lunch with Leonard

Leonard rings Ria and asks her to meet him for lunch as he has something to tell her.


TUE 21:00 The Ruth Ellis Files: A Very British Crime Story (b09w8jp0)
Series 1

Episode 3

In April 1955 Ruth Ellis shot her lover David Blakely dead. It's a case that shocked the nation and it still fascinates today. It has its place in ushering in the defence of diminished responsibility and the eventual abolishment of capital punishment. We all think we know the story, but why, when it was seemingly such an open and shut case, does it still divide opinion on whether Ruth Ellis got the justice she deserved?

Film-maker Gillian Pachter wants to find out. The result is a fresh investigation with fascinating true-crime twists and turns that also shines a unique light on attitudes to class, gender and sex in 1950s London.

In episode three Gillian turns her attention to Ruth's execution and the last-minute attempts to save her life even though Ruth herself was determined to die. Despite this Ruth decides to change her solicitor and Gillian is intrigued as to the reasons why. When Ruth does finally admit that someone else was involved in the murder, her new solicitor races to the Home Office in a bid to stop the execution.

He isn't alone in not wanting to see Ruth hanged. Gillian looks at the hundreds of letters that were sent by the British public to the government asking for Ruth to be reprieved. It's a fascinating snapshot of British attitudes in the 1950s: the letters point to Ruth's mental state, the domestic violence she'd suffered and even the trauma experienced by those who'd lived through the Blitz.

The police are sent to track down Ruth's other lover, Desmond Cussen, who Ruth now claims gave her the gun and drove her to the scene of the murder. But they can't find him and won't take Ruth's word for it. The Home Office decides to press on with the execution; they worry that if they don't follow through on such a high-profile murder case that this will accelerate the abolition of capital punishment.

Ruth is hanged and Gillian explores the role of her case in the introduction of the defence of diminished responsibility in England and its place in the eventual abolition of capital punishment in Britain in 1965. But Ruth's personal legacy is much more tragic as Gillian explores the effects of the events of 1955 on Ruth's family. This takes Gillian to a taped conversation recorded by Ruth's son in the 1980s, where his despair at what happened when he was ten is movingly clear; Andre lost his mother and he lost David, whom he loved. He took his own life in the 1980s and today his ashes are close to his mother's in a cemetery in Hertfordshire not far from where David Blakely was buried. Three victims of a truly tragic set of circumstances.


TUE 22:00 Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? (m0020xx3)
Series 1

Kosovo – In the Name of Our Future

Three years after the civil war in Bosnia, the world looked like a very different place. The Bosnian genocide had been stopped, but Muslim separatists in the Kosovo region rekindled old conflicts that led President Clinton’s White House to consider Serbian President Milošević’s regime a threat to their own civilians. With post-Soviet Russia in crisis, Boris Yeltsin, the Russian president, criticised at home for being 'an American puppet', strongly opposed any western intervention against their old allies in the Balkans. Nato did intervene, but at what cost? Boris Yeltsin is forced to resign, leaving a young and promising KGB officer named Vladimir Putin to take his place.


TUE 23:00 Timeshift (b00djlz9)
Series 8

How to Be a Good President

In a whistlestop tour through the history of the US presidency, journalist and author Jonathan Freedland asks what qualities make a great president and what we can learn from the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, JFK or even Richard Nixon about what it takes to make a mark in the White House.

Freedland is helped by distinguished contributors, including James Naughtie, Shirley Williams, Douglas Hurd, Simon Hoggart and Bonnie Greer, who give frank assessments of some of America's greatest presidents.


TUE 00:00 Barack Obama Talks to David Olusoga (m000q1g1)
In a UK exclusive, former American president Barack Obama meets historian David Olusoga to discuss his long-awaited memoir A Promised Land, his reflections on the volatile racial divide in the US, his steadfast refusal to abandon American ideals, and how the sight of a black president and black first family in the White House may have cast a spotlight on the depth of racial fault lines in America.


TUE 00:30 Inside America's Treasure House: The Met (m00103dc)
Series 1

Episode 3

Autumn, 2020. The Met is open, but in a safe and very limited way. Visitor income helps keep the museum running, so times are hard. Since it was founded, like so many US arts institutions, the Metropolitan has largely been funded by benefactors. We visit Clyde B Jones III, the executive matching modern donors to exhibitions and events as the economy tanks.

Jones explains how hard it is to keep up the social links that the system depends on. He has, nonetheless, found it possible to drum up millions of dollars for the imminent remodelling of the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas galleries. Currently, the need to shade the massive south-facing glass wall that illuminates the rooms means artefacts are not shown to their best advantage. Now he must find the funds to replace those walls.

Some give money, but others donate items from their own collections. We meet curator Jaysen Dobney of the musical instruments department as a rock musician and long-term patron asks for help with his problem, a collection of 403 guitars. Dobney is only too happy to have a promised gift of a 60s Gibson Les Paul TV Special.

Every department is currently calling on its supporters. In Textile Conservation, Head Curator Janina Poskrobko makes breakfast for a visiting professor. We've been with her since dawn, at home in Staten island, saying her prayers. She must find the money for an unfunded project - the rescue of an Ottoman robe. We observe as she subtly raises the issue while showing him a Renaissance cape. The professor is a textile expert and passionate supporter. Might he dig deep?

The Costume Institute is normally funded by stars who pay to attend the famous Met Gala fashion event, but this year they're economising. The 2020 Ball is cancelled, so 2019's proceeds must be used carefully. We follow the building of About Time as the set undergoes construction and the garments are installed.

Meanwhile, fashionable friends are stepping up. In Detroit, America's most flamboyant private collector of couture, Sandy Shrier, opens her home, and her heart, to explain why the Met is so important to her - and why last year she donated 160 garments amassed over seven decades of collecting.

In London, we are with top-end cobbler Georgina Goodman, who has just taken a call from the Met, asking for help bolstering their huge accessories archive. In the mid-2000s, Goodman attracted the attention of couturier Alexander McQueen. Packing up her sketches, the designer reveals how she was charged with interpreting Lee McQueen's footwear visions, including the iconic armadillo shoe. The Met has a pair, but is keen to acquire Goodman's original sketches.

As Covid keeps visitor numbers low, every ticket purchased helps keep the lights on and the building open. With no tourist trade, the Met is back to where it began in 1870, catering for locals. Citizens are not obliged to pay for entry into the museum, but Naqiya Hussein has bought two tickets. She's joining the many young people, newly unlocked but making only tentative outings, on a Met Date. Her scientist beau Cyril and she enjoy the tranquillity of solitude in her favourite galleries, though the camera is ever present. A date here is a litmus test of love. If the million objects on display can't spark a conversation, it's never going to work.

Perhaps the greatest donation is a lifetime of work at the Met - or the possibility at least. We are with Vietnamese-American student Kevin Pham as he visits the medieval department at the Met Cloisters in northern Manhattan. He's one of 120 postgraduate interns, paid through a new $5M donation to study with a view to a possible career in the museum. The Met wants to build a new and diverse staff, and must succeed if it is to remain relevant. As Kevin says, the museum can't be the preserve of bearded old white men.

At Halloween, About Time opens. The annual Costume Institute show is always a blockbuster that draws in the crowds, and now the stakes are high. The newly reopened Met must show that it is still the place for fashion as art. This anniversary year, a mirrored gallery, packed with black garments from across 150 years, points to objects that are timeless in an industry now driven by constant change. We're with fashionistas as they thrill to the show, noting that even on a budget, Curator Andrew Bolton has managed to make a splash.

Philanthropy has always kept the Met alive and vibrant, and as the nights draw in, there's disquiet about the upcoming US election and its effect on giving. A change of administration, or the return of President Trump, might warp the delicate web of tax breaks and write-offs that underpin the whole arts world. With the fall-out of Covid and the tumult of Black Lives Matter in mind, CEO Dan Weiss gives a dark assessment of America's contribution to history. And on the night of the election itself, Head of Communications Ken Weine worries about money, staff and the fate of culture itself.


TUE 01:30 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b013fj45)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 02:00 Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World? (m0020xx3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


TUE 03:00 The Ruth Ellis Files: A Very British Crime Story (b09w8jp0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 28 AUGUST 2024

WED 19:00 Fred Dibnah's Age of Steam (b0078lbl)
Steam on the Water

A look at how steam power revolutionised shipping, from the earliest paddle steamers with screw propellers to more modern vessels like the Royal Yacht Britannia.


WED 19:30 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b013rknf)
The Bit in the Middle

Sea adventurers Timothy Spall and his wife Shane take their barge to three different countries and the Isle of Man.

From Whitehaven, where Tim learns about the pirate John Paul Jones, they steam over to Douglas to visit Tim's son, actor Rafe Spall, who is there to work on BBC Two's The Shadow Line.

Next, they visit a city Tim loves dearly, Belfast, and a special pub he says is 'the finest drinking establishment in the English-speaking world'. Finally, it's across to Portpatrick and Scotland as they clock up some serious nautical mileage in their circumnavigation of the British Isles.


WED 20:00 Pole to Pole (p02jc132)
Evil Shadow

A Zambian witch doctor tells Michael that an 'evil shadow' is hanging over him. As bad fortune and tragedy dogs his journey to South Africa via Zimbabwe, Michael suspects it may be true.


WED 20:50 Wild (b009qj7w)
2007-08 Shorts

A Summer on Golden Pond

Nature documentary. Squam Lake is better known as Golden Pond, the setting of Henry Fonda and Katherine Hepburn's Oscar-winning film. But the lake's real residents are just as entertaining - loons with their crazy laughs, lily-eating beavers and porcupines. With Karlene Schwartz, who has spent half a lifetime here.


WED 21:00 A Timewatch Guide (b071gx2c)
Series 2

World War II

Professor Saul David uses the BBC archive to chart the history of the world's most destructive war, by chronicling how the story of the battle has changed. As new information has come to light, and forgotten stories are remembered, the history of World War II evolves. The BBC has followed that evolution, and this programme examines the most important stories, and how our understanding of them has been redefined since the war ended.


WED 22:00 Wallander (b00fy2zw)
Sidetracked

Swedish detective Kurt Wallander investigates a series of violent and terrifying murders in the beautiful setting of Skane, southern Sweden.

What connects the shocking suicide of a young woman and the vicious murder of a government minister? Inspector Kurt Wallander's investigation uncovers wrongdoing and corruption that extends to the heart of the Swedish establishment.


WED 23:30 Timeshift (b0105r8x)
Series 10

Crime and Punishment: The Story of Capital Punishment

Timeshift digs into the archive to trace the extraordinary story of the ultimate sanction. At the beginning of the 19th century you could still be hanged in Britain for offences such as stealing a sheep or shooting a rabbit. Even children as young as seven were sent to the gallows. The last hanging in this country took place as recently as 1964.

By opting for a dispassionate history rather than staging the usual polarised debate, the programme breaks new ground with its fascinating attention to detail, such as the protocols of the public execution or the 'science' of hanging. With contributions from both sides of the argument, it provides an essential guide to a subject that still divides us.


WED 00:30 Fred Dibnah's Age of Steam (b0078lbl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 01:00 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b013rknf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 01:30 Pole to Pole (p02jc132)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:20 A Timewatch Guide (b071gx2c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THURSDAY 29 AUGUST 2024

THU 19:00 Fred Dibnah's Age of Steam (b0078lf9)
Steam and the Modern Age

Fred looks at the major advance that was made in the application of steam power with the invention of the steam turbine, and at its continued use today for the generation of electricity in both coal-fired and nuclear power stations. He also looks at the way our steam heritage is preserved in museums and by steam preservation societies.


THU 19:30 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b0140vqb)
Scotch Mist

As summer comes to a close, Timothy Spall's trip around the coast of his beloved Britain reaches the halfway mark. He encounters several Scottish ports and islands, mostly in the famous Scottish misty drizzle. Before the weather worsens, he winds his way through the Scottish western islands and takes his barge Princess Matilda back to her roots by venturing up the Caledonian Canal, a shortcut from the west of Scotland to the east, which sets up next year's trip down the east coast and back home to London.

This year, Timothy and his wife Shane have travelled further than in any other of their previous six years at sea. All they need is somewhere to moor up for winter.


THU 20:00 Concorde: A Supersonic Story (b097tvt3)
The life of the most glamorous plane ever built, told by the people whose lives she touched. We uncover rare footage telling the forgotten row between the French and British governments over the name of Concorde that threatened to derail the whole project. On the eve of the opening of Bristol's multi-million-pound aerospace museum, a cast of engineers, flight technicians and frequent fliers tell the supersonic story aided by Lord Heseltine and Dame Joan Collins - and we meet the passenger who shared an intimate moment with The Rolling Stones.

Narrated by Sophie Okonedo.


THU 21:00 The French Connection (b00748sh)
A brutal maverick cop uses unconventional methods to smash a Franco-American drug ring operating in New York. This pacy, gritty thriller deservedly garnered five Oscars, including an award for film editor Jerry Greenberg's cutting of one of the most exciting car chases in cinema history.


THU 22:40 The Poughkeepsie Shuffle: Tracing The French Connection (m0022g59)
Critic Mark Kermode examines the making of classic thriller The French Connection, beginning with the history behind the 1960s drug bust that inspired the film.

Interviewees include director William Friedkin, stars Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider, and former New York cop Sonny Grosso, upon whose exploits the film was based. Mark also revisits the original New York locations which the movie made infamous, and retreads the course of the legendary car and train chase sequence.


THU 23:35 Concorde: A Supersonic Story (b097tvt3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 00:35 Fred Dibnah's Age of Steam (b0078lf9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 01:05 Timothy Spall: Back at Sea (b0140vqb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 01:35 Timeshift (b0105r8x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 on Wednesday]


THU 02:35 Sex and Sensibility: The Allure of Art Nouveau (b01fd4z2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Monday]

FRIDAY 30 AUGUST 2024

FRI 19:00 Cricket: Today at the Test (m0022g47)
England v Sri Lanka 2024

Second Test: Day Two Highlights

Day two highlights from the second Test between England and Sri Lanka.


FRI 20:00 BBC Proms (m0022g49)
2024

Beethoven’s Ninth Unwrapped

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of this extraordinary piece, Aurora Orchestra take to the stage at the Royal Albert Hall with a signature memorised performance, led by conductor Nicholas Collon, as well as a dramatic exploration into the intricacies of the music and the maestro.

The masterpiece was composed in the midst of Beethoven’s hearing loss, illness and personal tragedy. In a Prom like no other, the orchestra dissects and analyses the work, revealing its secrets and demystifying its majesty, before performing it entirely from memory.

Solo vocalists Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Marta Fontanals-Simmons, Brenden Gunnell and Christopher Purves are joined by the BBC Singers and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain to form the chorus for the joyous final movement. Presented by Linton Stephens.


FRI 22:00 Top of the Pops (b01n3xlj)
01/09/77

Tony Blackburn presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 1 September 1977 and featuring Hudson Ford, Elvis Costello, Joe Dolan, David Essex, Steve Gibbons Band, Elkie Brooks, the Dooleys, Nazareth, Yvonne Elliman, the Jacksons, Mink DeVille, Candi Staton and a Legs & Co. dance sequence.


FRI 22:45 Later... with Jools Holland (b03h8qyt)
Later Presents... Elvis Costello in Concert

Jools Holland presents a live studio performance by singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, accompanied by the Attractions, the Brodsky Quartet and a chamber-jazz septet. The set features songs from throughout his career, including classics Pump It Up and Watching the Detectives.


FRI 23:45 BBC Four Sessions (m0022lj7)
Nick Lowe

First broadcast in 2007. At east London's LSO St Luke's, singer-songwriter Nick Lowe performs a set comprising familiar songs from his long and illustrious career alongside new songs from his album At My Age. He's joined by a specially assembled band, including longtime cohorts Robert Treherne on drums and Geraint Watkins on keys, plus a horns section featuring legendary bandleader and trombonist Chris Barber.


FRI 00:45 Top of the Pops (b01n3xlj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 01:30 BBC Proms (m0022g0q)
2024

Beethoven’s Ninth Unwrapped - Signed Version

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of this extraordinary piece, Aurora Orchestra take to the stage at the Royal Albert Hall with a signature memorised performance, led by conductor Nicholas Collon, as well as a dramatic exploration into the intricacies of the music and the maestro.

The masterpiece was composed in the midst of Beethoven’s hearing loss, illness and personal tragedy. In a Prom like no other, the orchestra will dissect and analyse the work, revealing its secrets and demystifying its majesty, before performing it entirely from memory.

Solo vocalists Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Marta Fontanals-Simmons, Brenden Gunnell and Christopher Purves are joined by the BBC Singers and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain to form the chorus for the joyous final movement. Presented by Linton Stephens.