SATURDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2025

SAT 19:00 Golf: PGA Championship (m002jml7)
2025

Day 3 Highlights

Highlights from day 3 of the European Tour’s traditional flagship event.


SAT 20:00 Miss Marple (b00gf21s)
They Do It with Mirrors

At the insistence of Ruth Van Rydock, an old schoolfriend who is convinced that there is something wrong, Miss Marple agrees to visit 'Stonygates', the country house of Ruth's sister. Edgar Lawson and Lewis Serrocold are heard arguing in the next room whilst everyone else is gathered in the sitting room after dinner. A shot is heard from within the locked room but when the door is opened, Edgar is found sobbing and the revolver is on the floor with Lewis unharmed. However, Christian, Carrie-Louise's stepson by her first marriage, is found dead.


SAT 21:50 Parkinson (m0021l51)
Duke Ellington

Michael Parkinson's special guest is the great American musician, composer and bandleader Duke Ellington.


SAT 22:55 The Good Life (b00783qm)
Series 4

Away from It All

Depressed after a worse-than-expected harvest, Tom and Barbara are persuaded by Margo and Jerry to stay in a luxurious flat in Mayfair for the night to forget their problems. Trouble is, how will Margo and Jerry cope with looking after the Goods' animals while they're away?


SAT 23:25 Yes Minister (b0074qp3)
Series 3

The Bed of Nails

Jim is handed responsibility for developing an integrated national transport policy.


SAT 23:55 Miss Marple (b00gf21s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 01:50 A Timewatch Guide (b051h0gy)
Series 1

The Mary Rose

Historian Dan Snow explores the greatest maritime archaeology project in British history - the Mary Rose. Using 40 years of BBC archive footage Dan charts how the Mary Rose was discovered, excavated and eventually raised, and what the latest research has revealed about this iconic ship and her crew. Dan also investigates how the Mary Rose project helped create modern underwater archaeology, examining the techniques, challenges and triumphs of the divers and archaeologists involved.

SUNDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2025

SUN 19:00 Golf: PGA Championship (m002jmm1)
2025

Day 4 Highlights

Highlights from the final day of the European Tour’s traditional flagship event.


SUN 20:00 BBC Proms (m002jmm3)
2025

Unmissable Moments at the Proms 2025

A feast of show-stopping highlights from the biggest classical music festival in the world. From Mendelssohn to Mahler, Vaughan Williams to Vivaldi, Star Wars to Shostakovich - there's something for everyone in this musical mixtape of the season.

Including performances from Anoushka Shankar, Pacho Flores, Liya Petrova, Nicholas McCarthy, Klaus Makela, Dalia Stasevska, Le Consort Ensemble and more!


SUN 22:00 Jessye Norman at the BBC (m002jmm5)
A superb compilation celebrating the artistry of one of the great sopranos of the 20th century, Jessye Norman, tracing her remarkable journey from spirituals and traditional folk songs to her landmark debut at the London Proms.

Featuring interviews with the star across the decades, this programme showcases the extraordinary breadth of her repertoire, from American Songbook favourites to the grandeur of Mahler’s song cycles.


SUN 22:50 Jessye Norman and the Spiritual (m002jmm7)
Celebrated soprano Jessye Norman presents a concert in speech and song in which she performs a moving selection of spiritual songs and explains their background and historical significance. She is accompanied by pianist Philip Moll and the Ambrosian Singers, conducted by Willis Patterson.


SUN 23:40 Arena (m0019mbl)
River

River takes its audience on a journey through space and time spanning six continents, showing rivers on a scale and from perspectives never seen before.


SUN 00:50 Genius of the Ancient World (b064jf28)
Buddha

Historian Bettany Hughes embarks on an expedition to India, Greece and China on the trail of three giants of ancient philosophy: Buddha, Socrates and Confucius. All three physically travelled great distances philosophising as they went and drawing conclusions from their journeys. With Bettany as our guide, she gets under the skin of these three great minds and shines a light on the overlooked significance of the 5th century BC in shaping modern thought across the world. In this first episode, Bettany investigates the revolutionary ideas of the Buddha.


SUN 01:50 The Story of Welsh Art (m000st2g)
Series 1

Episode 1

Huw Stephens explores what has long been a missing piece in the cultural story of Britain and indeed Wales itself – the story of Welsh art.

Huw starts his journey on the island of Anglesey, where he steps inside a prehistoric burial chamber to witness Welsh art in its earliest form. He sees an exquisite example of Bronze Age artistry in the form of a gold cape, found by chance in a field in North Wales and now one of the prize exhibits in the British Museum.

Religious art delivers some of the most powerful and physically impressive pieces, from towering Celtic crosses standing sentinel in churchyards, to the sleeping figure of Jesse, hewn out of a single piece of oak but also delicately depicted in a rare surviving example of Welsh medieval stained glass.

As artists moved their gaze beyond religion, the rise of portraiture began, with Hans Memling delivering the first-known oil painting of a named Welsh person, John Donne, in the 15th century.


SUN 02:50 Jessye Norman at the BBC (m002jmm5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]

MONDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2025

MON 19:00 Earth's Natural Wonders (b09s8dkg)
Series 2

Surviving with Animals

In many of the earth's natural wonders, there is an abundance of animals. These can be a devastating threat to the people who live there, or they can provide a means of survival, but often at a high price.

In the coastal salt marshes of northern Australia's Arnhem Land, Indigenous Australians still go hunting for the eggs of one of the world's most aggressive predators - the saltwater crocodile. Following a hunting ban, their numbers are recovering well, and the local rangers, like Greg Wilson, are licensed to take a quota of eggs to supply the region's commercial crocodile farms. Despite their ancient hunting skills, this remains a dangerous job - a croc could always be lurking nearby, protecting its nest.

The Yamal Peninsula in northern Siberia is a frozen environment stretching deep into the Arctic Circle, known to local nomadic peoples as the edge of the world. Local temperatures can reach minus 50 degrees Celsius or lower in the depths of winter. Very few animals can live here, but one that can is the reindeer. Adapted to survive on a diet of lichen, the reindeer in turn enable people to survive. For thousands of years, the Nenets people have survived by following these herds, in a symbiotic relationship that benefits both people and animals. For 65-year-old reindeer herder Medko Serotetto, the journey is becoming harder than ever, as climate change makes weather patterns increasingly unpredictable.

Vanuatu is an island paradise in the south Pacific, but life here isn't perhaps as idyllic as it appears. Overfishing has reduced fish stocks, making food harder to come by for the indigenous islanders like 45-year-old Nigasau. The islanders are dependent on fish for their food, as there is little arable land or wildlife on the islands, but the catch is falling further with every year that goes by. Nigasau's 15-year-old son Misakofi is learning his trade as a fisherman and faces his greatest test - freediving at night to catch highly prized lobster. All around the world, as animal populations decline, life is becoming tougher for the indigenous people who depend on them.

In other parts of the world, it is living space that is in short supply. For countless years, elephants of north east India have migrated around the forests in the Himalayan foothills and lived in the plains of Assam. The growth of Assam's famed tea plantations has led to an influx of workers, some of whom have made their homes on the ancient elephant migration routes. Conflict is hard to avoid, especially when the elephants are drawn to the villages by the smells of food and palm toddy. The elephants themselves are a protected species, and it is illegal to harm them, but survival for them too is becoming ever harder.


MON 20:00 Britain's Lost Masterpieces (m000rxmx)
Series 5

Brighton

Bendor Grosvenor and Emma Dabiri visit Brighton Museum to investigate who painted two neglected pictures of religious subjects.

Bendor believes a grubby image of Mary Magdalene repenting her sins may be by a forgotten master of the Roman baroque, Francesco Trevisani. Emma visits the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge to hear how a medieval pope confused the biblical accounts and gave Mary a completely invented personality.

Bendor then travels to Rome to search for traces of Trevisani, while Emma investigates how Brighton’s lavishly decorated Royal Pavilion ended up an empty shell, ransacked and sold to the local council. The second picture is a sympathetic portrayal of Balthazar, a prince and one of the wise men from the Christmas story, which Bendor thinks may be by 16th-century Antwerp master Joos van Cleve. Examination reveals that it was once the left-hand door of a folding altarpiece. Bendor goes on to Edinburgh to see a similar altar, the finest work by van Cleve in Britain. Emma meets the Rev Richard Coles to find out how, despite the lack of any description in the Bible, it became traditional to portray Balthazar as a black African.


MON 21:00 Call My Bluff (m002jmml)
Robert Robinson presents as Frank Muir, Kate O'Mara and Godfrey Smith compete against Arthur Marshall, Victoria Wood and Tim Brooke-Taylor in a duel of words and wit.


MON 21:30 Face the Music (m002jmmn)
Joseph Cooper invites viewers to match their musical wits against Patricia Owen, Brian Redhead and John Julius Norwich. With guest musician James Galway.


MON 22:00 Black and White in Colour: Television, Memory, Race (m002jmmq)
1936-68

A documentary, first broadcast in 1992, that explores the contribution made by black and Asian people to TV. The film combines archive clips with stories of performers like Carmen Munroe and Cy Grant to ask if images on TV over the past 40 years have been portrayal or betrayal.


MON 22:50 Black and White in Colour: Television, Memory, Race (m002jmms)
1968-92

Documentary by Isaac Julien, first broadcast in 1992, that traces and questions the progress made by black and Asian people on British television. Sitcoms such as Till Death Us Do Part gave work to black actors, but were audiences laughing with them or at them?


MON 23:40 The Riviera: A History in Pictures (b01pwtvf)
The Golden Era

Richard E Grant explores how modern art and the Riviera grew up together when France's Cote D'Azur became the hedonistic playground and experimental studio for the great masters of 20th-century painting. With Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso resident on the coast, other artists from Jean Cocteau to Henri Lartigue, Raoul Dufy to Fernand Leger and Francis Picabia to Sergei Diaghilev were drawn to the area.

As transatlantic liners brought America's super-rich to the region, art and celebrity became integrally intertwined as cultural gurus and multimillionaires all partied on the beach. In an era of sunshine and bathing, of cinema and fast cars, of the Ballet Russes and Monte Carlo casinos, Grant discovers the extraordinary output of what became briefly the world's creative hub.


MON 00:40 An Art Lovers' Guide (b0b0g5cj)
Series 2

Baku

In the final episode of the series, Janina Ramirez and Alastair Sooke set off on their most adventurous trip yet - to Baku, capital of Azerbaijan.

A former Soviet state, bordering the Caspian Sea, Baku offers a tantalising mix of the ancient and modern - at the crossroads of east meets west, on the ancient silk trading route. It is also an authoritarian state, where cultural life is tightly controlled. So, not their regular city break...

But it is a city looking westwards, eager to turn itself into a tourist destination. They discover a city for which oil has been both a blessing and a curse. The profits from oil transformed its architecture twice - first in the late nineteenth century, and again in the twentieth.

As a result, Baku is full of buildings that feel like 19th-century Paris, but also gleaming new structures by architectural stars like Zaha Hadid. And all around, the traces of Soviet rule offer other surprising clashes of art and architecture.

Nina and Alastair pick their way through this maze of influences and travel back in time, seeking the roots of Azerbaijani identity. Alastair visits the world's first museum devoted entirely to rugs while Nina marvels at stunning prehistoric rock art on the city's outskirts. Together they wander the medieval old city, discovering the early impact of Islamic culture.

And in the stunning Heydar Aliyev Centre designed by Zaha Hadid, they discover an exhibition devoted to Heydar Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan, whose government exerts a strong influence on the city's art and culture. But Alistair also meets Sabina Shikhlinskaya, an artist with a truly independent voice.

As night falls they discover why Azerbaijan is known as the 'Land of Fire' when they visit Yanar Dag, a spectacular ten-metre long natural gas fire which blazes continuously. And they end their visit to Baku with a performance of Maugham, Azerbaijan's ancient, haunting folk music, as they reflect on their time in a city that has fascinated and surprised them both.


MON 01:40 Britain's Lost Masterpieces (m000rxmx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 02:40 Earth's Natural Wonders (b09s8dkg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

TUESDAY 16 SEPTEMBER 2025

TUE 19:00 Earth's Natural Wonders (b09sqtdw)
Series 2

Surviving against the Odds

In some of the world's most spectacular natural wonders, people push themselves to the limit in order to survive. For those who call these extraordinary places home, survival requires skill, ingenuity and bravery.

In Brazil, the Kamayura people of the Xingu Indigenous Park believe they must appease the spirits if they are to remain in good health. Fail to make the spirit happy, and ill health could follow. At one key festival, an offering is made to a 'bird spirit'. The villagers must dance to please him. The longer and harder the dance, the happier the spirit will be. To make the festival a success, it is down to Perri and his family to organise a massive fishing expedition. The villagers must catch basketloads of fish to sustain the warrior in their hours of dancing. But catching the fish means venturing into the nearby lake, also home to caiman, electric eels and piranha.

In Ethiopia, belief in a higher power leads villagers in the Tigray region to climb a huge, vertiginous mountainside to reach their church. They believe it's vital and beneficial for their children to be baptised here, despite the obvious dangers. Just 40 days after giving birth, Ngisti must climb 400 metres to have her new son Dawit baptised.

Laos is one of the most fertile places on earth. Despite this, life is dangerous for the rice farmers in this beautiful area. During the Vietnam War, the United States dropped an estimated 270 million bombs on this small country and approximately 80 million of them failed to explode, remaining in the ground to this day. Every year, 300 people are killed or injured by them. A group of bomb disposal experts, led by 35-year-old Lumngen, clear fields for a new school. It is painstaking work, and a job that comes with obvious risks.

In the North Atlantic, between Scotland, Iceland and Norway, lie the Faroe Islands. Once a year, people on one island, Skuvoy, scale the sheer-sided cliffs to obtain a traditional delicacy, fulmar eggs. The birds nest hundreds of feet up the cliffs, and islanders reach them using traditional climbing equipment, including woollen slippers and harnesses. It's a death-defying feat, all for the sake of a traditional delicacy.

In Switzerland, millions of people come to the Alps every year and take risks for nothing more than pleasure. The hikers, climbers and skiers who come here are drawn by the mountains, but many of them are injured or killed in the pursuit of fun. The programme joins the Zermatt air rescue team on their helicopters as they patrol the area and attempt to save lives.


TUE 20:00 The Good Life (p02r6yyr)
Series 4

The Green Door

Is Margo having an affair? When she is less than honest about her activities, the Goods can't help thinking the worst.


TUE 20:30 Yes Minister (b0074rm8)
Series 3

The Whisky Priest

Jim, as a former journalist, learns that arms from a government factory are being sold to foreign terrorists, thus giving Jim as a minister a moral dilemma.


TUE 21:00 Oh Doctor Beeching! (p03rdrlz)
Series 1

Talking Turkey

Harry the signalman has fattened up a lovely turkey in time for Christmas, but the turkey seems to have other plans.


TUE 21:30 Dad's Army (b00cyl2y)
Series 4

Mum's Army

It occurs to Captain Mainwaring that much of the valuable time of his unit is taken up with non-combatant activities such as button sewing, brass polishing and office duties. He discusses with Sergeant Wilson a scheme to recruit some women members to the platoon, thus releasing the men for their duties as front line fighting troops. Jones introduces Mrs Fox, Walker brings along his girlfriend and Mainwaring loses his heart to Mrs Gray, an attractive middle-aged widow. As a result, tongues begin to wag in Walmington-on-Sea.


TUE 22:00 The Signalman (b0074ptz)
Charles Dickens's ghost story in which a lonely signalman is haunted by a hooded figure who seems to warn of danger.


TUE 22:40 Murder on the Victorian Railway (b01pjt19)
London 1864. On a Hackney bound train, a guard discovers blood in a first-class carriage - and a body on the railway embankment. For the first time, a murder has taken place on Britain's railways. Over a hundred years later, this single documentary for BBC Two uses the first-hand testimony of the people involved at the time to explore this unique event and how it provoked a huge public outcry and debate.

The story quickly became a news sensation as the dangers of the brave new world of the train were laid bare. Over a hundred years later, the witnesses to this story may be long dead but their words survive in court transcripts, memoirs, letters and vivid journalism. These testimonies are now used to tell the story, taking the documentary deep into the 19th century to meet an extraordinary cross section of real-life Victorian London - from the engine driver who found the body to the detective in charge of the investigation. Who killed Mr Briggs?


TUE 23:40 Timeshift (b01q9vhy)
Series 12

The Joy of (Train) Sets: The Model Railway Story

From Hornby to Triang and beyond, this documentary explores how the British have been in love with model railways for more than a century. What began as an adult obsession with building fully engineered replicas became the iconic toy of 50s and 60s childhood. With unique archive and contributions from modellers such as Pete Waterman, this is a celebration of the joys of miniaturisation. Just don't call them toy trains!


TUE 00:40 Timeshift (b06csy8c)
Series 15

The Engine that Powers the World

The surprising story of the hidden powerhouse behind the globalised world, the diesel engine, a 19th-century invention that has become indispensable to the 21st century. It's a tortoise-versus-hare tale in which the diesel engine races the petrol engine in a competition to replace ageing steam technology, a race eventually won hands down by diesel.

Splendidly, car enthusiast presenter Mark Evans gets excitedly hands-on with some of the many applications of Mr Diesel's - yes, there was one - original creation, from vintage submarines and tractors to locomotive trains and container ships. You'll never feel the same about that humble old diesel family car again.


TUE 01:40 Murder on the Victorian Railway (b01pjt19)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:40 today]


TUE 02:40 Earth's Natural Wonders (b09sqtdw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2025

WED 19:00 Timeshift (b00dzzdc)
Series 8

Last Days of Steam

The surprising story of how Britain entered a new age of steam railways after the Second World War and why it quickly came to an end.

After the war, the largely destroyed railways of Europe were rebuilt to carry more modern diesel and electric trains. Britain, however, chose to build thousands of brand new steam locomotives. Did we stay with steam because coal was seen as the most reliable power source, or were the railways run by men who couldn't bear to let go of their beloved steam trains?

The new British locomotives were designed to stay in service well into the 1970s, but in some cases they were taken off the railways and scrapped within just five years. When Dr Richard Beeching took over British Railways in the 1960s the writing was on the wall, and in 1968 the last steam passenger train blew its whistle.

But while steam use declined, steam enthusiasm grew. As many steam engines lay rusting in scrapyards around Britain, enthusiasts raised funds to buy, restore and return them to their former glory. In 2008, the first brand new steam locomotive to be built in Britain in nearly 50 years rolled off the line, proving our enduring love of these machines.


WED 20:00 Great Railway Journeys (b0074rnh)
Series 3

Crewe to Crewe with Victoria Wood

Victoria Wood makes a round trip to the north of Britain from Crewe, taking in both the east and west coasts.

Along her way, Victoria stops off at Carnforth station, location of the classic film Brief Encounter, where original film extra Elaine Maudsley talks of the film and the demise of the station.

She goes on to the North West Regional Railways service across Morecambe Bay to Barrow, and then up early the next morning for the Cumbrian Coastal line to Carlisle. At Carlisle station, Victoria encounters John Mitton, who teaches her the technique of trainspotting. She then heads over the border to Glasgow and up to Thurso, the most northerly point possible by train.

Heading south, Victoria stops off at Edinburgh, where she takes on the role of 'Vicky, Girl Reporter', examining stories that the Forth Bridge is dangerous and badly in need of repair, and onto Middlesborough, Whitby and York, where the final leg of the journey is broken by a visit to Mel Thorley's home at Adswood, Manchester, to see his collection of trains and station signs on display in the back garden.

Finally, it's back at Crewe where Victoria and the crew are refused permission to film in the station buffet.


WED 20:55 London to Brighton: Side by Side (b00f2zxt)
In 1953, the BBC made a point-of-view film from the London to Brighton train. In 1983, they did the same again. This is a film made of both runs at once, with every bridge, siding, tunnel and station running side by side in unlikely synchronisation.


WED 21:00 Great Railway Journeys (b00f60q8)
Series 1

Confessions of a Trainspotter

Michael Palin, a keen train spotter when young, fulfils his boyhood dream of travelling the length of the country, from Euston to Kyle of Lochalsh.


WED 22:00 Remembers... (m002jmld)
Phil Davis Remembers... The Firm

Phil Davis pays tribute to maverick director Alan Clarke as he looks back on his time acting in the 1989 made-for-television film The Firm.

Phil recalls how he was cast in the role as the sleek, villainous 'Yeti' and how excited he was to work on this powerful and subversive film about football hooliganism. He gets under the skin of the characters, explaining why they were attracted to mindless violence.

The actor also reveals how the cast, including Gary Oldman and Lesley Manville, all relished the opportunity to not only play these divisive roles but to work with Clarke, one of the finest directors of his generation, on what would sadly be his last piece of work.


WED 22:20 Screen Two (p00twtdc)
The Firm

Drama about Bex, an estate agent with a seemingly respectable family life who is also a football hooligan leading a vicious 'firm' of thugs.


WED 23:30 Why the Industrial Revolution Happened Here (b01pz9d6)
Professor Jeremy Black examines one of the most extraordinary periods in British history: the Industrial Revolution. He explains the unique economic, social and political conditions that by the 19th century, led to Britain becoming the richest, most powerful nation on Earth. It was a time that transformed the way people think, work and play forever.

He traces the unprecedented explosion of new ideas and technological inventions that transformed Britain's agricultural society into an increasingly industrial and urbanised one. The documentary explores two fascinating questions - why did the industrial revolution happen when it did, and why did it happen in Britain?

Professor Black discusses the reasons behind this transformation - from Britain's coal reserves, which gave it a seemingly inexhaustible source of power, to the ascendancy of political liberalism, with engineers and industrialists able to meet and share ideas and inventions. He explains the influence that geniuses like Josiah Wedgewood had on the consumer revolution and travels to Antigua to examine the impact Britain's empire had on this extraordinary period of growth.


WED 00:25 Timeshift (b00dzzdc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 01:25 Great Railway Journeys (b00f60q8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


WED 02:25 Britain's Lost Masterpieces (m000rxmx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Monday]

THURSDAY 18 SEPTEMBER 2025

THU 19:00 Steam Days (b00dwflc)
The Fishing Line

First transmitted in 1986, Miles Kington experiences the power of a London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier 'Black Five' on a journey from Fort William across the western Highlands via Glenfinnan to Mallaig.

While observing breathtaking scenery and stunning engineering achievements, including Glenfinnan viaduct, Kington uncovers what the West Highland Line meant to the traditional crofting communities that had been devastated by the Highland clearances.


THU 19:30 The Train Now Departing (p011v8dj)
The Long Drag

Programme from 1988 that examines the events surrounding the proposed closure of the Settle to Carlisle line, one of the most magnificent stretches of railway in England. Over 72 miles long and England’s highest mainline, it was known as The Long Drag by the men who worked it. The film follows the activists, comprised of railwaymen, rail enthusiasts and local residents, who are rallying together to save the line.


THU 20:00 Brief Encounter (m00041p7)
Classic love story. A chance meeting in a suburban railway station brings together Laura Jesson, a happily married woman, and Dr Alec Harvey - who is also married. They fall in love, but their secret happiness is marred by the furtive way they must carry on the affair and the realisation that eventually a choice must be made.


THU 21:30 Remembers... (m002jmmg)
Sarah Churchwell Remembers... The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald's evocative novel of the Roaring Twenties, is full of 'careless people' with voices 'full of money' chasing their versions of the Great American Dream. It is a classic work of the 20th century, which has been adapted and performed many times since first release in 1925.

Sarah Churchwell, a leading academic authority on the novel, looks at its origins, the inspiration behind its plot and characters, and the genius of the writer, who set out to complete not just a novel, but an enduring work of art.


THU 21:45 The Great Gatsby (2000) (m000yp9f)
Dramatisation of F Scott Fitzgerald 's classic novel of doomed love, starring Mira Sorvino and Toby Stephens. In the volatile era of the twenties, flamboyant millionaire Jay Gatsby pursues the seductive Daisy, the love he lost while serving in the First World War.


THU 23:15 Omnibus (m0029lzt)
The Great Gatsby: Midnight in Manhattan

A profile from 2000 of writer F Scott Fitzgerald on the 75th anniversary of the publication of his most enduring achievement, The Great Gatsby. Is it merely 'an entertaining anecdote', or should it be seen as 'the most important novel of the 20th century'?


THU 00:05 Tár (m002jlbb)
The life of celebrated conductor Lydia Tár begins to unravel when allegations about her personal and professional relationships appear in the media.


THU 02:35 Steam Days (b00dwflc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 03:05 The Train Now Departing (p011v8dj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

FRIDAY 19 SEPTEMBER 2025

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m002jmlm)
Jo Whiley presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 12 June 1998 and featuring Mousse T feat Hot 'n' Juicy, Lutricia McNeal, Shania Twain, Alexia, Del Amitri, Mariah Carey, England United and B*witched.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m002jmlp)
Jayne Middlemiss presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 19 June 1998 and featuring Five, Pulp, Des'ree, Silver Sun, Ian Brown, Dario G, Fat Les and Baddiel, Skinner & The Lightning Seeds.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b0bs47xf)
Peter Powell and Stevie Wright present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 18 September 1986. Featuring Eurythmics, Michael McDonald, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Cameo, The Communards and Five Star.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m001d09z)
Mark Franklin presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 16 September 1993 and featuring Radiohead, Motörhead, Pet Shop Boys, Jade, Lenny Kravitz, Chaka Demus & Pliers, Belinda Carlisle and Culture Beat.


FRI 21:00 Jimi Hendrix - Electric Church (m002jmlr)
A documentary that highlights America's last great rock festival and Jimi Hendrix's legendary performance as its headline act on 4 July 1970.

Jimi performed in front of nearly 500,000 people at the Atlanta International Pop Festival - the largest US audience of his career. The film features dynamic versions of signature songs such as Purple Haze, Hey Joe, Foxy Lady and Voodoo Child (Slight Return) and also performances of exciting new songs such as Freedom and Straight Ahead, which he had recorded for his next album. During Jimi's dramatic rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, the festival set off fireworks above the stage, to the delight of the massive crowd.

The film also establishes the significance of the Atlanta festival, the last great pop gathering of its era. More than half a million people descended on Byron, Georgia, a tiny, rural community 100 miles south of Atlanta. Coming just months after Woodstock and Altamont, Atlanta Pop stood as the largest counterculture gathering in middle America.

The interviews include Hendrix himself, members of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, artists such as Leslie West and Gregg Allman, who also performed at the festival, Metallica's Kirk Hammett and more.


FRI 22:30 Guitar Heroes at the BBC (b00dzzv2)
Part I

Concentrating on the 1970s (1969 to 1981 to be exact) and ransacking a host of BBC shows from The Old Grey Whistle Test to Sight & Sound, this compilation is designed to release the air guitarist in everyone, combining great electric guitarists like Carlos Santana, Mark Knopfler, The Edge and Peter Green with acoustic masters like John Martyn, Pentangle and Paco Pena.


FRI 23:25 Guitar Heroes at the BBC (b00lk48h)
Part II

A celebration of Seventies-era axe-men, acoustic virtuosos and thumping riff merchants, in a compilation of guitar-heavy performances from the BBC TV archives.

Guitar gods including Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, Peter Green and Johnny Winter are joined by, among others, flamenco maestro Manitas De Plata, bottleneck bluesman Ry Cooder and straight-up rockers AC/DC and Thin Lizzy.

Everything from Fleetwood Mac's ambient masterpiece Albatross to hits like The Jam's In The City and Free's All Right Now feature along with lesser-known gems like Maid in Heaven by Be Bop Deluxe and Nils Lofgren's Keith Don't Go.

The tracks were recorded in the heyday of BBC shows such as The Old Grey Whistle Test, Top of the Pops and Rock Goes to College.


FRI 00:25 Guitar Heroes at the BBC (b00llh2f)
Part III

Compilation of classic archive performances from the guitar gods of the late 60s and 70s. Status Quo appear playing Pictures of Matchstick Men on Top of the Pops in 1968, The Who perform Long Live Rock in the Old Grey Whistle Test studio, Dire Straits play Tunnel of Love and Lynyrd Skynyrd bring a taste of the Deep South with Sweet Home Alabama. The show also features rare performances from George Benson, Leo Kottke, Link Wray and Tom Petty.


FRI 01:15 Top of the Pops (m002jmlm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 01:45 Top of the Pops (m002jmlp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 02:15 Top of the Pops (b0bs47xf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 02:45 Top of the Pops (m001d09z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]