SATURDAY 20 JUNE 2026

SAT 19:00 Natural World (m0014tv4)
Short Versions

Penguin Post Office

Nature documentary looking at a post office in Antarctica that is surrounded by 3,000 gentoo penguins.


SAT 19:05 Making Life on Earth: Attenborough's Greatest Adventure (m002vzjt)
In 1976, David Attenborough embarked on his most ambitious project ever, Life on Earth. No-one had ever attempted a natural history series on this scale before, and David’s reputation was on the line.

This is the remarkable story behind the BBC’s most famous wildlife blockbuster: a three-year, hair-raising odyssey around the world, travelling to 40 countries and filming over 600 species, including the famous mountain gorillas. First broadcast in 1979 and watched by 500 million people, it launched David Attenborough’s career as the most successful and influential wildlife film-maker of our time.


SAT 20:05 Life on Earth (b01qgr55)
The Infinite Variety

The first ever episode of the landmark natural history series Life on Earth. David Attenborough explores the wildlife and landscape that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.


SAT 21:00 Goolagong (m002xfwn)
Series 1

Episode 1

Evonne Goolagong's Wimbledon debut prompts memories of her rise from Barellan to tennis stardom, while she struggles with the controlling behaviour of her coach Vic Edwards.


SAT 21:50 Goolagong (m002xfwp)
Series 1

Episode 2

Evonne navigates controversy, pressure and the fight for equal pay, while personal loss and burnout drive her to walk away from tennis at the peak of her career.


SAT 22:45 Scrublands (p0gnmkvz)
Series 1

Episode 1

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


SAT 23:35 Scrublands (p0gnmlbt)
Series 1

Episode 2

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


SAT 00:25 Keeping Up Appearances (b007b692)
Series 3

Early Retirement

Count your blessings, they say. For some early retirement can be a blessing - for Hyacinth's Richard, this particular blessing comes very heavily disguised.


SAT 00:55 Making Life on Earth: Attenborough's Greatest Adventure (m002vzjt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:05 today]


SAT 01:55 Life on Earth (b01qgr55)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:05 today]

SUNDAY 21 JUNE 2026

SUN 19:00 Afoot Again in the Past (m002y4wy)
Warkworth Castle, Salisbury Cathedral, Ballrooms

Esther Rantzen finds peace and tranquillity at Salisbury Cathedral, Jack Charlton visits Warkworth Castle in Northumberland and Dora Bryan celebrates the beauty of ballrooms.


SUN 19:15 Timeshift (b068fvln)
Series 15

The Trains That Time Forgot: Britain's Lost Railway Journeys

Timeshift journeys back to a lost era of rail travel, when trains had names, character and style. Once the pride of the railway companies that ran them, the named train is now largely consigned to railway history.

Writer and presenter Andrew Martin asks why we once named trains and why we don't do so any more. He embarks on three railway journeys around Britain, following the routes of three of the most famous named trains - the Flying Scotsman, the Cornish Riviera Express and the Brighton Belle. We reflect on travel during the golden age of railways - when the journey itself was as important as reaching your destination - and compare those same journeys with the passenger experience today.


SUN 20:15 Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (p00xb71l)
Episode 3

Michael Palin continues to trace Hemingway's journey. He arrives in Key West in time for Hemingway's 100th birthday celebrations, where he is given boxing lessons from 83-year-old Shine Forbes, who sparred with Hemingway.

In Uganda, Michael has his hair cut en route up the Nile. At Butiaba, Uganda he visits the site of a plane crash Hemingway was involved in. Finally, Michael reaches Venice in time for the carnival and then tries his hand at duck-hunting in nearby Caorle.


SUN 21:05 Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (p00xb74g)
Episode 4

Michael Palin stays in Ernest Hemingway's favourite Cuban hotel and samples a few of his favourite hangouts, including Bodeguita del Medio and the Floridita in old Havana. He meets 101-year-old Gregorio Fuentes, considered an Old Man of the Sea, and who sits in the sun, smoking cigars.

He peers into Hemingway's Havana house that has now become a shrine where visitors aren't allowed to tread.

Back in West America, Michael attempts to be a cowboy and partakes in some male bonding while visiting Yellowstone Park. He also visits the house in Ketchum, Idaho, where Hemingway died in 1961 and where he was laid to rest.


SUN 21:55 Five to Eleven (m002y8p0)
Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson reads poetry and prose.


SUN 22:00 Sondheim at the BBC (m0012txl)
A celebration of the work of one of the great songwriters and lyricists, Stephen Sondheim, who passed away in November 2021 at the age of 91. A giant of musical theatre, Sondheim first found international fame in 1957 as the lyricist for Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story and would inspire generations from that moment on.

This selection includes some of Sondheim’s finest songs, broadcast on the BBC over a period of 60 years, with performances from a cast of his friends and fans that features some of the biggest names of stage and screen, including Shirley Bassey, Sammy Davis Jr, Michael Ball and Liza Minnelli.


SUN 23:30 Britain's Most Fragile Treasure (b0161dgq)
Historian Dr Janina Ramirez unlocks the secrets of a centuries-old masterpiece in glass. At 78 feet in height, the famous Great East Window at York Minster is the largest medieval stained-glass window in the country and the creative vision of a single artist, a mysterious master craftsman called John Thornton, one of the earliest named English artists.

The Great East Window has been called England's Sistine Chapel. Within its 311 stained-glass panels is the entire history of the world, from the first day to the Last Judgment, and yet it was made 100 years before Michelangelo's own masterpiece. The scale of Thornton's achievement is revealed as Dr Ramirez follows the work of a highly skilled conservation team at York Glaziers Trust. They dismantled the entire window as part of a five-year project to repair centuries of damage and restore it to its original glory.

It is a unique opportunity for Dr Ramirez to examine Thornton's greatest work at close quarters, to discover details that would normally be impossible to see and to reveal exactly how medieval artists made images of such delicacy and complexity using the simplest of tools.

The Great East Window of York Minster is far more than a work of artistic genius, it is a window into the medieval world and mind, telling us who we once were and who we still are, all preserved in the most fragile medium of all.


SUN 00:30 Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (p00xb71l)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:15 today]


SUN 01:20 Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure (p00xb74g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:05 today]


SUN 02:05 Timeshift (b068fvln)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:15 today]

MONDAY 22 JUNE 2026

MON 19:00 University Challenge (m001kkt4)
2022/23

Episode 29

Phase two of the quarter-final stage begins tonight. Two teams who won their first quarter-finals return to play again, looking for the second win that will secure them a place in the semis. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.


MON 19:30 Only Connect (b00qpk0b)
Series 3

Exeter Alumni v Gourmands

Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.

Three former flatmates and graduates of Exeter University pit their wits against a news producer, a civil servant and an IT consultant who share a passion for fine food. Who will win the battle as they compete to draw together the connections between things, which, at first glance, seem utterly random?


MON 20:00 Treasures of the Anglo-Saxons (b00t6xzx)
Art historian Dr Nina Ramirez reveals the codes and messages hidden in Anglo-Saxon art. From the beautiful jewellery that adorned the first violent pagan invaders through to the stunning Christian manuscripts they would become famous for, she explores the beliefs and ideas that shaped Anglo-Saxon art.

Examining many of the greatest Anglo-Saxon treasures - such as the Sutton Hoo artefacts, the Staffordshire hoard, the Franks Casket and the Lindisfarne Gospels - Dr Ramirez charts 600 years of artistic development which was stopped dead in its tracks by the Norman Conquest.


MON 21:00 Andy Warhol's America (p0b5mq8s)
Series 1

Living the Dream

How Warhol both glorified and critiqued American culture on his journey from childhood poverty in Pittsburgh to the A-list of New York society.


MON 22:00 American Visions (p00g6wbm)
The Wave from the Atlantic

Mass immigration at the turn of the century confirmed America as a multicultural society but also brought increased poverty and slum life. Robert Hughes examines how this was often reflected in art.


MON 23:00 Vienna: Empire, Dynasty and Dream (b08651j3)
Episode 3

In the final episode, Simon Sebag Montefiore follows the Habsburgs to their dramatic demise. From his struggles with Napoleon III and Bismarck, and the suicide of his son Rudolf, to the assassination of his beautiful wife Sisi, Emperor Franz Josef found his empire and family impossible to control.

But while the Habsburgs headed for extinction, Vienna blossomed. As the theories of Freud and the sensuality of the secession artists like Klimt and Schiele ushered in the modern age, Hitler and Stalin stalked her streets. It was here that World War I was sparked and World War II was dreamed.


MON 00:00 Only Connect (b00qpk0b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 00:30 Treasures of the Anglo-Saxons (b00t6xzx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 01:30 Britain's Most Fragile Treasure (b0161dgq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 on Sunday]


MON 02:30 Andy Warhol's America (p0b5mq8s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 23 JUNE 2026

TUE 19:00 University Challenge (m001krtk)
2022/23

Episode 30

Phase two of the quarter-finals continues. Two teams return needing a win to stay in the competition, having both lost their first matches in this round. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.


TUE 19:30 Only Connect (b00qvkrm)
Series 3

Insurers v Gamblers

Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.

A team of insurance professionals face off against a trio of committed gamblers. Who will win the battle as they compete to draw together the connections between things, which, at first glance, seem utterly random - such as Prince of Darkness, Bambi, Grocer and Tarzan?


TUE 20:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b007b6dq)
Series 3

Iron Age Remains

Sitcom about an upwardly mobile housewife and her long-suffering husband. Hyacinth has to put her plans for Richard's retirement on hold when Rose starts behaving outrageously.


TUE 20:30 One Foot in the Grave (p008qx14)
Series 2

We Have Put Her Living in the Tomb

Victor and Margaret agree to look after Kylie the tortoise whilst Margaret's god daughter Jennifer goes on holiday.


TUE 21:00 Cumbria's Red Squirrels (m001zqv6)
Cumbria is one of the last major strongholds for one of the British Isles’ iconic native mammals - red squirrels. An endangered species as well as a national favourite, affectionately known as 'red scamps', these beautiful creatures have lived here for thousands of years. Award-winning Cumbrian film-maker Terry Abraham reveals how Lakeland charities, volunteers, businesses and scientists are pulling together to protect these rare animals.


TUE 22:00 The American Revolution (m002wx9k)
Series 1

The Times That Try Men’s Souls (July 1776 – January 1777)

The Revolution, now a war for American independence, faces its toughest challenge yet as General Washington tries to defend New York City from invasion by sea. The resulting Battle of Long Island is a huge defeat for the Americans, who narrowly escape and spend the next several months on the run. In late December, Washington’s army regroups and prepares to attack an outpost in Trenton, New Jersey.

A film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt


TUE 23:00 The American Revolution (m002wx9m)
Series 1

Conquer by a Drawn Game (January 1777 – February 1778)

As America braces for a third year of devastating war, British commanders launch campaigns to take Albany and Philadelphia. General Howe beats General Washington at Brandywine and Germantown, while the Continental Congress flees Philadelphia. But the Americans’ surprising victory over General Burgoyne at Saratoga opens the door for France to officially support the United States.

A film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt


TUE 00:00 American Visions (p00g6wbm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]


TUE 01:00 Only Connect (b00qvkrm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 01:30 The American Revolution (m002wx9k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


TUE 02:30 The American Revolution (m002wx9m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 24 JUNE 2026

WED 19:00 University Challenge (m001kzgf)
2022/23

Episode 31

The quarter-finals continue. Two more teams return for another qualification match; both have won one quarter-final already, and a second win will guarantee a place in the semis. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.


WED 19:30 Only Connect (b00r06j1)
Series 3

Booksellers v Bowlers

Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.

Three senior managers from a national bookstore face off against a team drawn together by their love of London's retro bowling alleys.

Who will win the battle as they compete to draw together the connections between things, which, at first glance, seem utterly random?


WED 20:00 Universe (p09ybxpr)
Series 1

The Milky Way: Island of Light

Professor Brian Cox continues his epic exploration of the cosmos by looking at the faint band of light that sweeps across the night sky - our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The Sun is just one of almost 400 billion stars that form this vast, majestic disk of light, our own home in the universe. We’ve longed to understand our galaxy’s secrets since the time of the ancient Greeks, yet it’s only very recently, thanks to a cutting-edge space telescope, that we’re finally able to reveal the Milky Way’s dramatic history and predict its cataclysmic future.

One mission more than any other has deepened our understanding of the galaxy, the European Space Agency’s Gaia Space Telescope. It painstakingly measures the true position of over a billion stars, producing the most accurate map of our galaxy ever created. But more than mapping stars, Gaia also measures their movement, allowing us to track their positions back through time - to rewind the history of the Milky Way. It has created a new kind of science: galactic archaeology.

Our galaxy started to form shortly after the Big Bang around 13.6 billion years ago. It started out a fraction of the size it is today, and Gaia has revealed how it grew over the eons. Beautifully rendered VFX based on the very latest Gaia data has uncovered the remarkable story of our galaxy’s evolution. As our young galaxy encountered rival galaxies, it experienced a series of violent growth spurts and intense periods of cataclysmic change while battling to survive.

Over billions of years, our Milky Way cannibalised neighbouring galaxies, adding countless new stars and triggering great epochs of creation. Brian reveals we may even owe our own existence to one of these galactic collisions. Each time our galaxy feeds, a new era of star formation begins, fuelled by incoming torrents of fresh gas and energy. The latest evidence suggests that our own star was possibly born in one such event.

We may be small compared to the universe, but we are the consequence of grand events, and there is another collision to come. Another, larger galaxy is coming our way. Andromeda is heading straight for us at a quarter of a million miles per hour. The Milky Way’s long-term fate is in the balance.


WED 21:00 The Nazis: A Warning from History (b01nhsyj)
The Wrong War

Adolf Hitler loved to watch feature films, and he liked one film in particular, the Hollywood epic The Lives of a Bengal Lancer. 'It was certainly his favourite film,' says Herbert Dohring, a member of Hitler's SS bodyguard, 'and he would always talk about it - this huge English empire - how such a relatively small people could establish and manage something like that.' Hitler would later say, 'What India was for England, the territory of Russia will be for us.'

How was it possible then, that in 1939 Hitler found himself at war with a country whose achievements he admired, Great Britain, and allied to his ideological enemy, the Soviet Union? With the help of archive footage and interviews with eyewitnesses, including former diplomats and members of the Nazi party who had never appeared on television before, this film charts the course of Hitler's road to war.


WED 21:50 One Foot in the Past (m002y4wr)
One Foot in the Kitchen

Kirsty Wark investigates how stately homes go about opening up their kitchens and servants quarters to visitors. We go behind the scenes at Erdigg, Ham House and Chatsworth.


WED 22:00 Remembers... (m002y4wt)
Peter Flannery Remembers... Our Friends in the North

Writer Peter Flannery looks back on his experiences creating the acclaimed 1996 drama Our Friends in the North.

Following the lives of four friends from Newcastle over a period of three decades, the series struck a chord with the nation’s viewers and turned its young cast into household names.

In this introduction to the series, Peter shares the behind-the-scenes story of how the drama was made - an epic tale in its own right - and assesses the impact it had on audiences, the cast and those who helped create what is today considered a landmark piece of television.


WED 22:15 Our Friends in the North (p00y8rnc)
Series 1

1964

First episode of a nine-part drama charting 30 years in the lives of four Geordie friends from 1964-1995. While Nicky decides he wants to change the world and Geordie heads for London, Mary and Tosker make a life-changing mistake.


WED 23:25 Our Friends in the North (p00y8s0p)
Series 1

1966

1966: While Harold Wilson and The Beatles rule England, everything has changed for the four from Newcastle.


WED 00:30 Our Friends in the North (p00y8sdr)
Series 1

1967

1967: Geordie flirts with danger in his affair with Barratt's mistress. Mary and Tosker's flat and marriage are both falling apart.


WED 01:40 Only Connect (b00r06j1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 02:10 Universe (p09ybxpr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

THURSDAY 25 JUNE 2026

THU 19:00 University Challenge (m001l5pn)
2022/23

Episode 32

The second round of quarter-finals concludes with an elimination match. Two teams return having lost their first quarter-finals; a second loss here means they leave the competition. Jeremy Paxman asks the questions.


THU 19:30 Only Connect (b00r5ww7)
Series 3

Archers Admirers v Exeter Alumni

Quiz show presented by Victoria Coren in which knowledge will only take you so far, as patience and lateral thinking are also vital.

In the first of the quarter-finals, three fans of the Archers radio series take on the combined knowledge of three flatmates who all met up at Exeter University. They compete to draw together the connections between things, which, at first glance, seem utterly random - from Castor and Pollux to Brahma to Yoshi to Orville the Duck.


THU 20:00 Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies (b01ktflc)
The story of D-Day has been told from the point of view of the soldiers who fought in it, the tacticians who planned it and the generals who led it. But that epic event in world history has never been told before through the perspective of the strange handful of spies who made it possible. D-Day was a great victory of arms, a tactical coup, and a moral crusade. But it was also a triumph for espionage, deceit, and thinking of the most twisted sort.

Following on from his hugely successful BBC Two documentaries, Operation Mincemeat and Double Agent: The Eddie Chapman Story (Agent Zigzag), writer and presenter Ben Macintyre returns to the small screen to bring to life his third best-selling book - Double Cross The True Story of the D-Day Spies. Macintyre reveals the gripping true story of five of the double agents who helped to make D-Day such a success.


THU 21:00 This World (b03sr67n)
The Coffee Trail with Simon Reeve

Adventurer and journalist Simon Reeve heads to Vietnam to uncover the stories behind the nation's morning pick-me-up. While we drink millions of cups of the stuff each week, how many of us know where our coffee actually comes from? The surprising answer is that it is not Brazil, Colombia or Jamaica, but Vietnam. Eighty per cent of the coffee we drink in Britain isn't posh cappuccinos or lattes but instant coffee, and Vietnam is the biggest supplier.

From Hanoi in the north, Simon follows the coffee trail into the remote central highlands, where he meets the people who grow, pick and pack our coffee. Millions of small-scale famers, each working two or three acres, produce most of the coffee beans that go into well-known instant coffee brands.

Thirty years ago Vietnam only produced a tiny proportion of the world's coffee, but after the end of the Vietnam war there was a widescale plan to become a coffee-growing nation, and Vietnam is now the second biggest in the world. The coffee industry has provided employment for millions, making some people very rich indeed, and Simon meets Vietnam's biggest coffee billionaire. But he also learns that their rapid success has come at a cost to both the local people and the environment.


THU 22:00 The Producers (m000x93g)
A struggling producer and timid accountant scheme to make money by putting on a Broadway show they know will flop, so none of the numerous investors will expect their cash back. A tasteless glorification of Hitler and the Nazis looks guaranteed to fail.


THU 23:25 Mel Brooks and Me - by Alan Yentob (m001wm7r)
Alan Yentob looks back on his experiences working with the great Mel Brooks, who was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2024 in recognition of a boundary-breaking career that shocked audiences but always left them laughing too.

Alan reflects on what it was like being a producer encountering the comic genius who created The Producers and how his and Mel’s working relationship quickly developed into something that one newspaper critic once described as nothing less than a love story.


THU 23:35 imagine... (b09srjgv)
Winter 2017/18

Mel Brooks: Unwrapped

At the age of 91, Mel Brooks is unstoppable, with his musical Young Frankenstein opening to great critical acclaim in London in late 2017. Alan Yentob visits Mel at home in Hollywood, at work and at play.

With the aid of BBC archive stretching back decades, together they embark on an unpredictable, irresistible journey through the city of stars, meeting the legendary Carl Reiner along the way. The driver is Mel Brooks - you have been warned!


THU 00:45 Only Connect (b00r5ww7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 01:15 Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies (b01ktflc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


THU 02:15 imagine... (b09srjgv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:35 today]

FRIDAY 26 JUNE 2026

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m002y4wg)
Jamie Theakston presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 7 January 2000 and featuring Vengaboys, Steps, Shania Twain, Artful Dodger feat Craig David, S Club 7, Alice Deejay, John Lennon and Westlife.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m002y4wj)
Jamie Theakston presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 14 January 2000 and featuring Artful Dodger feat Craig David, Pet Shop Boys, Len, DJ Luck & MC Neat, Tina Turner, Dark Star and Westlife.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b08k52y1)
Simon Bates and Peter Powell introduce the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 23 June 1983. Featuring Freeez, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Shakatak, Mike Oldfield, H20 and The Police.


FRI 20:35 Top of the Pops (b046w5p4)
Peter Powell presents the pop chart programmes, first broadcast on 28 June 1998 and featuring Thom Pace, Janet Kay, Thin Lizzy, Squeeze, Tubeway Army, Quantum Jump, UK Subs, Lene Lovich and Gerry Rafferty, and a dance sequence from Legs & Co.


FRI 21:10 Words and Music (m002wxd1)
American Stories 1

American singer-songwriters - including Suzanne Vega, James Taylor, Janice Ian and Shawn Colvin - recall how and when they wrote their signature songs.


FRI 21:50 In Concert (b007rm8l)
James Taylor

A classic concert from 1970 by American singer-songwriter James Taylor.


FRI 22:30 The Old Grey Whistle Test (m0010rlb)
Janis Ian

Bob Harris introduces Janis Ian in concert at the BBC Television Theatre, London, in 1976.


FRI 23:20 Acoustic at the BBC (b0141mz1)
A journey through some of the finest moments of acoustic guitar performances from the BBC archives - from Jimmy Page's television debut in 1958 to Oasis and Biffy Clyro.

Highlights include:

Neil Young - Heart of Gold
David Bowie - Starman
Oasis - Wonderwall
Donovan - Mellow Yellow
Joan Armatrading - Woncha Come on Home
Bert Jansch, Johnny Marr and Bernard Butler - The River Bank
Joni Mitchell - Chelsea Morning
Biffy Clyro - Mountains.


FRI 00:15 Top of the Pops (m002y4wg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 00:45 Top of the Pops (m002y4wj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 01:15 Top of the Pops (b08k52y1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 01:55 Top of the Pops (b046w5p4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:35 today]


FRI 02:30 Words and Music (m002wxd1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:10 today]