SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2024

SAT 19:00 What We Were Watching (m0026cj5)
Christmas 1984

TV critic, writer and 1980s addict Grace Dent unwraps the TV schedules for 1984 and finds it was a case of Orwell that ends well, on another festive fun-packed dash through the BBC’s archives, examining all the small screen content that viewers were glued to four decades ago.

As Grace demonstrates, it was the Christmas that saw Band Aid first ‘Feed the World’, there was another big hit with a new Miss Marple, and we were living in a world where Lycra and leg warmers were fashion essentials, Elton John was married to Renate Blauel, Princess Anne was denying reports that she wanted to be a lorry driver, and super soaps Dallas and Dynasty were enjoying their last few months on top before the imminent arrival of a new programme called EastEnders.


SAT 20:00 Zoë Wanamaker Remembers... David Copperfield (m0026cj7)
Actor Zoë Wanamaker recalls the BBC's 1999 star-studded adaptation of the Dickens classic.


SAT 20:15 David Copperfield (p00x9tqm)
Episode 1

First part of the adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel. Starring a young Daniel Radcliffe.


SAT 21:40 Screen Two (m001vfck)
Series 8

Memento Mori

Adaptation of Muriel Spark's witty and macabre novel set in 1950s London, featuring a distinguished cast that includes Maggie Smith and Michael Hordern.

'Remember you must die,' says the anonymous voice on the telephone. Is it a practical joke or is there a more sinister purpose threatening the lives of the recipients, all part of an ageing coterie of friends who share guilty secrets from the past?


SAT 23:20 Derek Jacobi Remembers... Much Ado About Nothing (m0026cj9)
Sir Derek Jacobi looks back on the filmed version of Franco Zeffirelli’s famous 1960s production of Much Ado About Nothing - a performance that brought together Robert Stephens, in the role of Benedick, and his soon-to-be wife - the late, great Maggie Smith - in the key role of Beatrice.

For years, this recording was considered to be ‘lost’ by Shakespeare fans and TV historians, until a copy was found in the US in 2010 and then restored.

Here, Derek recalls how working under ‘Zeff’ with such an impressive cast made for one of his personal career highlights, helped in no small part by the presence of Dame Maggie onstage and the friendship they enjoyed behind the curtain.


SAT 23:35 Much Ado About Nothing (m0026cjc)
Dame Maggie Smith stars in the 1967 screen version of Franco Zeffirelli's exuberant National Theatre production of Shakespeare's romantic comedy.


SAT 01:45 Dames of Classic Drama at the BBC (b06nxrv3)
Today, they are at the centre of British cultural life and among our greatest exports - the acting dames, an exclusive club of stage and screen greats who were honoured for their services to drama. But, lurking in the BBC archives - from long before their talents were recognised by royal decree - we find the early work and some career defining moments of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren. David Tennant narrates the story of our dames of classic drama, from a golden age of British television drama.


SAT 02:45 What We Were Watching (m0026cj5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

SUNDAY 29 DECEMBER 2024

SUN 19:00 Late Night Line-Up (p00n2npq)
A Child's Christmas in Wales

A film to illustrate the well-known Christmas story A Child's Christmas in Wales, written by Dylan Thomas. Read by Philip Madoc. First broadcast in 1965.


SUN 19:10 Five to Eleven (m0026cjh)
Anne Stallybrass

Actor Anne Stallybrass reads a passage from A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens.


SUN 19:15 David Copperfield (p00x9txv)
Episode 2

David is now a young man about town. Deeply in love with the beautiful but immature Dora, he sets out to woo her. But first he re-acquaints himself with some old friends.


SUN 21:00 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (m0026b2j)
2024: Chris van Tulleken - The Truth About Food

From Taste Buds to Toilet

Dr Chris van Tulleken follows the extraordinary journey food takes through our bodies – from the very first moment we see and smell a potential meal... until it finally emerges at the other end of our digestive tract. Be prepared for plenty of gross moments in this one-hour lecture!

Prue Leith, the nation’s favourite baker, drops by with some very confusing Christmas foods to help Chris crack the mysterious science of taste, and Chris’s baby daughter Indigo is on hand as an expert food taster, to find out if we are born with the concept of disgust, or if we learn it as we grow up.

To get a really personal view of the journey our food takes, Chris’s twin brother, Dr Xand van Tulleken, uses an endoscope inside his own body. Chris then straps Xand to the spinning 'wheel of doom', to test whether it’s possible to eat upside down. He inflates a stomach to discover how much food it can hold, before revealing that the small intestine is really very big, as he spills his guts right across the lecture theatre. He meets a goat that’s powered by trillions of microscopic bugs in its stomach, and finally, Chris enlists members of the audience to find the right ingredients for a perfect poo.

This is the 199th year of the Christmas Lectures. They are the most prestigious event in the Royal Institution calendar, dating from 1825 when Michael Faraday founded the series for children. They have become the world’s longest-running science television series and promise to inspire children and adults alike each year, through explosive demonstrations and interactive experiments with the live theatre audience.


SUN 22:00 The Return of Maria Callas (m001sww2)
Maria Callas sang in London for the first time in over eight years, and BBC cameras were in the Royal Festival Hall, London, for the occasion. She shares the programme with distinguished Sicilian tenor Giuseppe di Stefano, and they are accompanied by Ivor Newton on the piano.


SUN 23:00 The Callas Conversations: Part One (m001swvv)
Maria Callas, Greek opera singer and one of the world's outstanding sopranos, is interviewed in her Paris apartment by Lord Harewood.


SUN 23:50 The Callas Conversations: Part Two (m001sww8)
In the second of two programmes, Maria Callas, the great soprano, talks to Lord Harewood about her approach to the major roles of her repertoire.


SUN 00:35 Maria by Callas (m000qphk)
Documentary film that tells the life story of legendary Greek-American opera singer Maria Callas, completely in her own words. Tom Volf’s account, which took four years of painstaking research to assemble, includes performances, TV interviews, home movies, family photographs, private letters and unpublished memoirs.

Maria by Callas reveals the essence of an extraordinary woman, who rose from humble beginnings in New York City to become a glamorous international superstar and one of the greatest artists of all time.


SUN 02:30 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (m0026b2j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

MONDAY 30 DECEMBER 2024

MON 19:00 Top of the Pops (b0bcvl31)
A look back at the year's TOTP, introduced by Tony Blackburn, first shown on 27 December 1971. Featuring T. Rex, The Tams, Slade, The Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart and The Faces.


MON 19:40 Top of the Pops (b087lmbg)
1983 - Big Hits

Compilation of some of the biggest hits of 1983 to sit alongside 'The Story of...' documentary that explores the evolution of this great pop institution in that golden year.

Performances celebrate soul, reggae, jazz, new wave and pop. And the big hits are delivered by Wham!, KC and the Sunshine Band, The Police, Culture Club, Siouxsie and The Banshees, UB40, Duran Duran, The Beat and Bananarama amongst others. Big ballads are performed by Elton John and Bonnie Tyler, while Malcolm McLaren's Double Dutch completes the very best of '83, golden hits from 34 years ago.


MON 20:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b007c3zx)
Sea Fever

Hyacinth and Richard take to the high seas aboard the QE2. A little luxury amid like-minded, socially acceptable people, the cruise is almost Hyacinth's dream come true. However, some unexpected passengers look set to threaten her enjoyment.


MON 21:00 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (m0026b2n)
2024: Chris van Tulleken - The Truth About Food

How Food Makes Us

In this lecture, Dr Chris van Tulleken investigates how we get energy from our food and how what we eat makes us who we are. He reveals how combustion engines get their energy in a series of controlled explosions – which he demonstrates using a kitchen cupboard of different foods. As the bangs get bigger, it becomes clear that our bodies can’t get their energy in the same way. Luckily, Chris shows us our bodies are much cleverer than even the most advanced engine.

He takes us inside a cell in the human body, to explore the most remarkable power station on the planet: the mitochondria. This extraordinary piece of biological engineering extracts energy from food we eat and turns it into fuel for all the organs in our body. Shockingly, we discover how this process generates an electrical charge equivalent to lightning, inside our bodies!

Our food does more than fuel us – it also builds and repairs us, providing construction material we can use to regenerate almost every cell in our body. Chris attempts to compile all the ingredients that make up a human body – including some rare elements known to be vital, such as the teaspoon of iron that makes our blood red and our snot green. We source many of these elements from our food, so Chris explores what can go wrong with our bodies when our diets don’t supply what we need.

Eating the right things is a delicate balancing act. Experiments show that animals, when given a broad selection of foods to eat, are very good at choosing what their bodies need. Using the results of a unique 100-year-old experiment, Chris asks if we humans might be able to do the same.

He ends his lecture with an important question for many of us: why are humans getting bigger as a species? Is it the food we eat? Or the more sedentary lifestyle we are leading compared to our ancestors? In the best Christmas Lectures tradition, Chris will use gunpowder to demonstrate the surprising answers to these questions.

This is the 199th year of the Christmas Lectures. They are the most prestigious event in the Royal Institution calendar, dating from 1825 when Michael Faraday founded the series for children. They have become the world’s longest-running science television series and promise to inspire children and adults alike each year, through explosive demonstrations and interactive experiments with the live theatre audience.


MON 22:00 Storyville (b008s9l9)
Stranded! The Andes Plane Crash Survivors

In October 1972, a student rugby team boarded a small plane in Montevideo to fly across the Andes for a long weekend of playing rugby and partying in Chile. But they never reached their destination as a storm brought their plane down in the high Andes, leaving the survivors stranded on a remote glacier.

Ill-equipped, with no food and little hope of rescue, the survivors faced extreme hardship and many life-or-death situations, including the agonising decision to eat the flesh of those killed in the crash to stay alive. Thirty years later, those that got down from the mountain relive their 72 days 'up there' to give this extraordinarily powerful, vivid and immediate account of human endurance and heroism.


MON 23:50 Berlin 1933 (p0gjkjzt)
Series 1

Episode 1

As the new year dawns in Berlin, the city is fractured and divided. Street battles intensify, and cracks deepen as the National Socialists have become the strongest party in Germany.

To consolidate power, Hitler aims to eliminate his opponents. When the Reichstag building, Germany’s parliament, goes up in flames, communists are blamed and arrested for arson.


MON 00:45 Berlin 1933 (p0gjkkp1)
Series 1

Episode 2

After being appointed as Reich chancellor in January 1933, Adolf Hitler embarks on a push to consolidate power. He begins to purge government ministries and the civil service, and takes control of the press and radio.

Propaganda messages and broadcasts show a changing Berlin on the verge of a disaster. Thousands of opponents are jailed or disappear, and Jewish professionals and businesses are targeted. Letters to friends and family outside from those living through the gradual stigmatisation of Jewish people illustrate the fear and uncertainty that grew.


MON 01:35 Berlin 1933 (p0gjknnk)
Series 1

Episode 3

Hitler stages a grand celebration at Nuremberg, while Germany becomes increasingly isolated abroad. Political opposition is outlawed, and an incensed Göring takes the stand at the Reichstag fire trial. As the year ends, US ambassador William E Dodd visits a Hitler 'itching for conflict'. Berlin stands in stark contrast to its former self 12 months ago, in the thrall of one political party, one ideology and one Führer.


MON 02:30 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (m0026b2n)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 31 DECEMBER 2024

TUE 19:00 Top of the Pops (b09hm54f)
Lenny Henry presents a review of all of the hits from 1984, first broadcast on 27 December 1984. Includes Spandau Ballet, Neil, Ultravox, Shakin' Stevens, Bronski Beat, Bananarama, Flying Pickets, Black Lace, Slade, Chaka Khan, Paul McCartney, Lionel Richie, Joe Fagin and Stevie Wonder.


TUE 19:30 Top of the Pops (m0005prw)
1988 - Big Hits

As the 1980s draw to a close, Top of the Pops remains a broad church. We celebrate 1988 by cherry-picking the cream of the crop.

The programme includes stand-out hits from Yazz, S’Express and Bomb the Bass, representing the growing popularity of house music, new Australian pop royalty Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, who ruled the charts along with teen stars Bros and Tiffany, soul legends Womack and Womack, the Irish mist of Enya, British reggae from Maxi Priest and the balladry of Everything But The Girl.

Other big hitters representing a year in the TOTP studio include Celtic duo The Proclaimers, Buffalo Girl Neneh Cherry, student queen Tanita Tikaram, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart live in the studio as Eurythmics, Israeli queen Ofra Haza and the chart-topping new authentics Fairground Attraction with Perfect.


TUE 19:50 TOTP2 (m0001vjf)
New Year Special

Steve Wright creates the perfect new year playlist and celebrates with a plethora of performances from the last four decades. Among the featured artists are The Three Degrees, Elton John, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Europe, Blondie, The Nolans, Lionel Richie, The Bee Gees, Madonna and Kylie Minogue.


TUE 21:00 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (m0026b2r)
2024: Chris van Tulleken - The Truth About Food

The Big Food Hack

What did the very first meal on earth look like? To begin his third and final Christmas Lecture in an explosive fashion, Dr Chris van Tulleken takes us back more than four billion years, to the beginnings of life. This was when microscopic bugs first began eating gases and metal, marking the start of an incredible food web which, billions of years later, humans have learned to master.

For tens of thousands of years, we’ve improved and hacked our foods, resulting in an extraordinary range of things we can eat. Chris reveals that we are the only species that processes and cooks our food – and he explores why this has given us more than one evolutionary advantage over other mammals.

Using some ingenious experiments – including making unmeltable ice cream - Chris demonstrates why a drive to make cheaper and more accessible meals has led to a new age of industrially produced foods, including some which can confuse our bodies' feedback mechanisms.

But the modern science of food processing hasn’t only created problems – it also offers solutions. To explore ways to improve our food system, and to wrap up this year’s Christmas Lectures, Chris assembles an expert panel of scientists. With the help of the Royal Institution’s young audience, together they set about finding ways to rediscover just how amazing our food really is.

This is the 199th year of the Christmas Lectures. They are the most prestigious event in the Royal Institution calendar, dating from 1825, when Michael Faraday founded the series for children. They have become the world’s longest-running science television series and promise to inspire children and adults alike each year, through explosive demonstrations and interactive experiments with the live theatre audience.


TUE 22:00 Still Game (b00794nf)
The Party

Festive special of the sitcom about Scottish pensioners. Jack and Victor find themselves holed up in the Osprey Heights Hoist at Hogmanay. Trapped in a lift, Winston recalls the daddy of all New Years, in the dim and distant past when Craiglang knew how to throw a party.


TUE 22:30 Dawn French Is a Huge Tw*t (m001tbnt)
Live (almost) from London’s iconic Palladium theatre, one of the nation’s favourite comedy stars, Dawn French, is about to reveal (almost) all the most excruciating gaffes and howlers she’s made across her 40-year career as a comedian and actress. Dawn likes a laugh, and she likes it best of all when the laugh is on her. Her new one-woman show is more than just stand-up. This is the ultimate ‘Oh my God! You’ll never guess what Dawn did!’ show, as everyone’s favourite fictional lady vicar takes us through her career in comedy while laying bare imperfections through massive landmarks of her life.

Playing to a full house at the Palladium, Dawn weaves together the highs and lows of her life through self-confessed stupid mistakes or misunderstandings. Packed with showbiz anecdotes and celebrity stories, from an epic fail in front of Sir Kenneth of the Branagh, to a toe-curling Abba audition for a once in a lifetime part in Mamma Mia, these excruciatingly buttock-clenching stories give the audience a peek behind the scenes of her glittering career in comedy.

And even though this is a one-woman show, we also get to enjoy a treasure trove of classic clips from Dawn's 40 years in comedy. Featuring early performances on The Comic Strip to unforgettable French and Saunders sketches, as well as an abundance of personal, unseen photographs that take us on a journey through the life and times of this award-winning actor, best-selling novelist and all-round very funny lady.


TUE 23:45 Whisky Galore! (m000f1nk)
In 1943, disaster strikes on the remote Hebridean island of Todday when they run out of whisky. Salvation arrives when a ship carrying 50,000 cases of whisky founders on the island's rocks. But the islanders clash with authority in the shape of Home Guard commander Captain Waggett.


TUE 01:20 Keeping Up Appearances (b007c3zx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]


TUE 02:20 Still Game (b00794nf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


TUE 02:50 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (m0026b2r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 01 JANUARY 2025

WED 19:00 New Year's Day Concert (m0026ck2)
2025 - Highlights

Highlights from the Vienna Philharmonic’s annual New Year’s Day Concert.


WED 21:00 Sykes (p03rdqw0)
Series 3

Holiday in Bogsea

Eric tries to liven up his tedious holiday in Bogsea, but ends up in all kinds of trouble.


WED 21:30 Sykes (b00xxq4t)
Series 1

Stranger

Classic comedy. Eric and Hattie are visited by a mysterious stranger who claims that he has returned to honour a childhood promise.


WED 22:00 Ruth Jones Remembers... Hattie (m0026ck5)
A self-confessed comedy hero to Ruth Jones, Hattie Jacques was a core part of postwar British comedy history. Roles in the Carry On films and TV sitcoms such as Sykes and Hancock cemented her place in the nation’s heart. Yet her off-screen life was just as extraordinary – married to Dad’s Army star John Le Mesurier, she began an unconventional affair with her driver, a scandal that could have ended her career.

Ruth looks back at Hattie, a one-off drama that captures the astonishing story. She discusses the origins of the project and the prep work she did for playing such an icon. She talks of the attention paid to period detail, the loving recreation of classic screen comedies, her joy in the costumes and the astonishing cast. And she tells us how Hattie Jacques was so much more than the larger-than-life persona we saw in the movies, a comic genius and role model who broke the mould.


WED 22:15 Hattie (b00xllyq)
Ruth Jones takes on the role of the larger-than-life Carry On actress Hattie Jacques, revealing how her home life was blown apart by a secret sexual liaison with her handsome young driver while she was married to Dad's Army star John Le Mesurier.


WED 23:40 Beaches (m0026ck7)
A privileged rich debutante and a cynical struggling entertainer share a turbulent, but strong childhood friendship over the years.


WED 01:40 Sykes (p03rdqw0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 02:10 Sykes (b00xxq4t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]


WED 02:40 Dawn French Is a Huge Tw*t (m001tbnt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 on Tuesday]

THURSDAY 02 JANUARY 2025

THU 19:00 Top of the Pops (m000l9th)
Review of the 80s

Mike Read and Paul Gambaccini present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 28 December 1989 and featuring Kim Wilde, Aswad and Band Aid.


THU 20:00 The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (m001ck23)
With only one room still vacant, Sonny dreams of opening a second hotel, but a rivalry with his fiancée’s friend threatens his marriage plans and expansionist ambitions. Meanwhile, the British residents’ predicaments include romantic entanglements, an undercover inspector and a murder plot.


THU 21:55 Gosford Park (b01nhbcx)
Period piece set in the early 1930s with an all-star cast. A weekend shooting party at a country mansion turns into a murder mystery when the host is found dead. It seems that everyone has a motive, from the guests upstairs to the staff downstairs. Among the gathering are cash-strapped relatives of the victim, a Hollywood movie mogul and songwriter Ivor Novello.


THU 00:05 My Old Lady (b055d9vt)
Inheriting a Paris apartment, broke Mathias 'Jim' Gold arrives from America to find the place comes with strings attached - tenant-for-life Mathilde Girard and her defensive daughter Chloe. Desperate to sell, his options limited, he is forced to get to know these women better - even if they drive this recovering alcoholic to drink. Comical, poignant relationship drama from BBC Films.


THU 01:50 Top of the Pops (m000l9th)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 02:50 Top of the Pops (b0bcvl31)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]

FRIDAY 03 JANUARY 2025

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m0026cjl)
Nicky Campbell presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 10 January 1997 and featuring Kenickie, Kavana, Tori Amos, Runrig, Orbital, Terrorvision, Blur and Spice Girls.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (p00fsvjy)
Rhona Cameron presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 17 January 1997 and featuring Lightning Seeds, East 17, Lisa Stansfield Versus Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, No Mercy, Texas, Madonna, Backstreet Boys, Placebo and Tori Amos.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b03pcjh8)
Mike Read presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 4 January 1979 and featuring Generation X, Elton John, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, Olivia Newton-John, Racey, Barry White, Brotherhood of Man, Village People and a dance sequence by Legs & Co.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m0001y8c)
Gary Davies presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 1 January 1987, featuring Status Quo, a-ha, Alison Moyet, Elkie Brooks, Gary Moore, Spitting Image and Madonna.


FRI 21:00 Top of the Pops (m0026cjp)
Noel Edmonds presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 13 March 1975 and featuring The Rubettes, Dana, Duane Eddy, Tam White, Elton John Band - danced to by Pan's People, Johnny Mathis, The Sweet, Fox, Peter Shelley, Bay City Rollers, Gloria Gaynor, Barry White and Telly Savalas.


FRI 21:40 Top of the Pops (m0026cjr)
Tony Blackburn presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 20 March 1975 and featuring Kenny, Guys & Dolls, The Goodies, The Tymes, Barry White - danced to by Pan's People, Average White Band, Cliff Richard, Wigan's Ovation, Lulu, The Moments & The Whatnauts, Mike Reid, Bay City Rollers and The Osmonds.


FRI 22:20 Classic Soul at the BBC (b0074pvv)
A collection of some of the greatest soul performances from the BBC's archive, featuring Aretha Franklin, Al Green, Dusty Springfield, Isaac Hayes, Solomon Burke and Percy Sledge.


FRI 23:20 Gospel According to Mica – The Story of Gospel Music in Six Songs (m000l9tk)
British soul singer Mica Paris was brought up on gospel music and sang in church from an early age. In her teens, she became an international star, singing pop and soul and having worldwide hits. Now though, Mica is curious about the origins of the songs she sang so easily as a child, why some of her contemporaries have returned to their gospel roots as well as thinking about her own faith and her own big teenage decision to leave the church and sing secular music.

Mica revisits her childhood church in Lewisham to start exploring the meaning and origins of these famous gospel songs. She examines songs such as Amazing Grace and discovers the complex reasoning behind the words. She sings with The Kingdom Choir, made famous by the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan, and travels to the cotton fields of America, where gospel was used to make the work of enslaved Africans more bearable.

She meets the choir at Fisk University in Tennessee, who formed just after slavery was abolished and sang for Queen Victoria, and finds herself overwhelmed by her emotions when she finds out how the slavery freedom fighters used gospel to communicate.

Mica also delves into the history of Sam Cooke and Thomas A Dorsey, who both encountered tragedy in and out of the church, and she sings with bluesman Jools Holland to contemporise a favourite gospel tune.

Finally, Mica comes right up to date with the music of current artists, such as Stormzy, who have no fear of church versus secular music, are open about their faith and are combining the two with great success.


FRI 00:20 Top of the Pops (m0026cjl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 00:50 Top of the Pops (p00fsvjy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 01:20 Top of the Pops (b03pcjh8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 01:50 Top of the Pops (m0001y8c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


FRI 02:20 Top of the Pops (m0026cjp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 03:00 Top of the Pops (m0026cjr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:40 today]