From the 1992 BBC Proms, the premiere of James MacMillan's concerto for percussion and orchestra, Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, composed for Evelyn Glennie. Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
The world's leading classical solo percussionist Evelyn Glennie talks to John Wilson about her career and some of the key influences on her artistic path.
From growing up in rural Aberdeenshire and becoming profoundly deaf at a young age, Glennie traces her route to fulfilling the ambition of becoming the first full-time solo percussionist. She demonstrates the first drum she ever owned, discusses the profound impact of the renowned percussionist James Blades, her teacher at the Royal Academy of Music, and her electrifying 1992 BBC Proms performance of James MacMillan's specially composed percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel.
Katherine Jenkins presents a collection of her favourite songs within the striking setting of Margam Park house and gardens. From her evergreen hit Time to Say Goodbye to Dolly Parton's I Will Always Love You, this intimate concert is not to be missed. Her special guests are Classic Brit Award winners Blake.
In 1970, film-maker Luchino Visconti travelled throughout Europe looking for the perfect boy to personify absolute beauty as the character of Tadzio in his adaptation for the screen of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. In Stockholm, he discovered Björn Andrésen, a shy 15-year-old teenager whom he brought to international fame overnight and, as a consequence, changed the course of the boy’s life. The remainder of Bjorn’s youth was turbulent and intense and took him from the Lido in Venice to London, to a welter of attention at the Cannes Film Festival, and to Japan.
Fifty years after the premiere of Death in Venice, Björn takes us on a remarkable journey back through his life in a film composed of personal memories, cinema history, stardust and tragedy - as he makes a late attempt to reconcile with his past and finally get his life back on track.
The beautiful yet tragic love story between Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen. Their love began on the idyllic Greek island of Hydra in 1960 as part of a bohemian community of foreign artists, writers, and musicians. This film follows their relationship, from the early days on Hydra, a humble time of 'free love' and open marriage, to how their love evolved when Leonard became a successful musician.
It was on Hydra in 1968 that director Nick Broomfield, then aged 20, first met Marianne Ihlen. Marianne introduced him to Leonard Cohen’s music and also encouraged Broomfield to make his first film. She was an enormous influence on him. Marianne and Leonard's was a love story that would continue for the rest of their lives. Along the way the film tells of the tragedy that befell those that could not survive the beauty of Hydra, the highs and lows of Leonard's career, and the inspirational power that Marianne possessed. Marianne and Leonard died three months apart.
The delicious objects of Parisian Art Nouveau are explored by cultural correspondent Stephen Smith. Uncovering how the luscious decorative style first erupted into the cityscape, Stephen delves into the city's bohemian past to learn how some of the 19th century's most glamorous and controversial figures inspired this extraordinary movement.
Revealing the story behind Alphonse Mucha's sensual posters of actress Sarah Bernhardt, looking at the exquisite jewellery designer Renee Lalique and visiting iconic art nouveau locations such the famous Maxim's restaurant, the programme builds a picture of fin-de-siecle Paris.
But Smith also reveals that the style is more than just veneer deep. Looking further into the work of glassmaker Emile Galle and architect Hector Guimard, he sees how some of art nouveau's stars risked their reputation to give meaning and purpose to work they thought could affect social change.
In episode two, Dr Janina Ramirez sets ex-forger Shaun Greenhalgh the challenge of making an alabaster carving of the kind mass-produced in Catholic England in the centuries before the Reformation. But the mines in Nottingham that produced English alabaster were closed down long ago, and the destruction unleashed by Henry VIII has left behind precious few examples, so Shaun’s views about how the Nottingham alabasters would originally have looked shock Janina.
MONDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2022
MON 19:00 Yorkshire Walks (m000brwb)
Series 1
Leyburn to Bolton Castle
With the dawn chorus of bird song in the air, Yorkshire artist Shanaz Gulzar takes time out from the hustle and bustle of life to indulge in Wensleydale and its wonderful vistas. Along her ramble through the dale, Shanaz discovers evidence of an industrial past, and talks to a volunteer worker on the heritage railway line. She walks onwards to the impressive Bolton Castle, the location of Mary Queen of Scots' imprisonment in 1568.
Filming herself and everything around her on a 360-degree-selfie-style-camera Shanaz wanders through the countryside, often deep in thought and stopping only to chat, sketch and reflect.
MON 19:30 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.
MON 20:00 Omnibus (m0014j4j)
William Blake: Singing for England
An Omnibus documentary about visionary British artist and poet William Blake, who wrote Jerusalem and The Tyger, originally broadcast in 2000 to coincide with a major exhibition of his work at Tate Britain.
MON 21:00 The Romantics and Us with Simon Schama (m000mfng)
Series 1
Passions of the People
With contributions from Harriet Walter, Christopher Eccleston, hip-hop artist Testament and French street artist P-Boy, Simon Schama explores the elixir of rebellion and the idea – so powerful in the words and images of William Blake – that imaginative passion can conquer mechanical logic and create an art for the people.
Simon starts by looking at the great icon of popular revolt created by Eugene Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People. Painted after the July Revolution of 1830 in Paris, which finally brought an end to the Bourbon monarchy in France, Simon unpacks the legacy of this universal image of popular revolt across the ages.
The idea of faith in the power of art and the human imagination began with one of the forefathers of romanticism, the visionary poet and artist William Blake, so Simon follows his trail in his native city of London. Looking at his work from the early 1790s, Simon and hip-hop artist Testament explore how Blake’s ideas continue to resonate in our own times.
Simon then retraces the steps of Mary Wollstonecraft in Paris, and Dame Harriet Walter performs extracts from her moving letters, written at the height of the violence. Eventually returning to England, Simon explores how the Terror had enormous consequences for the revolutionary cause as the Tory government waged their own war of terror on revolutionary sympathisers for the next 40 years.
The last part of the film tells the stories of two artists in the next generation of Romantics to take up the revolutionary cause - Percy Bysshe Shelley in England and Theodore Gericault in France. At a time when both France and Britain were turning their backs on the Revolution, the artists – fuelled by injustice and rage – created two of the greatest achievements of Romantic art.
MON 22:00 Desperate Romantics (b00lvyr1)
Episode 1
Drama series set in and among the alleys, galleries and flesh-houses of 19th-century industrial London, following the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a vagabond group of English painters, poets and critics.
Some artists want lasting fame. Some want money. Others want sex. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood want all of it. These ambitious young men - the darkly handsome Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the brilliant and conflicted William Holman Hunt, and the preternaturally talented John Millais - are out to rock the art world with a style of painting that is, according to them, more true, real and heartfelt than anything seen for 300 years.
Unfortunately, the art world isn't much interested in a bunch of young iconoclasts raging against the 'Establishment' of the Royal Academy - particularly when one of that set, the shamelessly arrogant Rossetti, has yet to learn to paint.
The boys need to step up a gear, and so they set out to find a muse to inspire their best work yet. Cue Fred Walters - an aspiring young journo and longtime fan of the boys. Fred spots the dazzling and radiant redhead, Lizzie Siddal, at the back of a hatshop, and introduces her to the boys. They are thoroughly bewitched by Lizzie and before long are squabbling over who'll get to paint her first (and fall in love with her too, of course).
Next, they must find an influential figure to champion their work. Again with the help of Fred, they set about wooing the leading art critic of the day, the great John Ruskin. But given their lack of kudos, can they persuade Ruskin to make an appearance at an exhibition of their work? And, if they can persuade him to come, will their work be good enough to convince him to lend them his weighty support?
MON 23:00 Desperate Romantics (b00lymcs)
Episode 2
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood continue their quest for credibility, celebrity and success.
With the help of their new friend, journalist Fred Walters, they have caught the attention of the pre-eminent art critic of the day, John Ruskin, and they now have to persuade Ruskin to buy their work. The prodigious and impossibly talented John Millais sets about rustling up a masterpiece to show Ruskin. The work is Ophelia, and he chooses Lizzie Siddal to sit for it. Rossetti, who is convinced that he is nothing without Lizzie as his muse, is furious with Millais for taking her from under his nose.
Hunt, meanwhile, attempts a masterpiece of his own, with street girl Annie Miller once again sitting for him. Having lost his virginity to Annie, Hunt remains unable to resist her charms and is cast into turmoil as he battles with his deep-felt religiosity and conflicting sexual desire.
Everything in the Brothers' world comes crashing to a halt when Lizzie falls unconscious with pneumonia while posing as Ophelia in a bath of cold water. Millais, distracted by thoughts of Effie, Ruskin's beautiful young wife, had failed to notice Lizzie sinking into a decline. As Lizzie's life hangs in the balance, so does Millais' masterpiece and thereby the Brotherhood's most promising chance of gaining recognition. However, Rossetti no longer cares about the future of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood as he contemplates a future without the woman he loves.
MON 00:00 Sex and Sensibility: The Allure of Art Nouveau (b01f1959)
British Cities
Britain's art nouveau heritage is excavated as cultural correspondent Stephen Smith unearths the bright, controversial but brief career of Aubrey Beardsley.
On a mission to uncover lesser-known stars of Britain's version of this continental fin-de-siecle style, he explores the stunning work of Mary Watts and the massive influence of department store entrepreneur Arthur Liberty.
In Scotland, he celebrates the innovative art nouveau of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, but looks harder at the extraordinary and influential work of Mackintosh's wife, Margaret MacDonald.
MON 01:00 Handmade in Bolton (m00095jc)
Series 1
Palissy Plate
In episode three, ex-forger Shaun Greenhalgh is set the task of making a Renaissance animal plate of the type invented by the great French potter Bernard Palissy. Palissy’s plates are alive with writhing reptiles, but for Shaun, killing grass snakes in Lancashire is not an option. So how can he source some examples for his moulds? And will it mean journeying back to his dark past as a forger?
MON 01:30 Yorkshire Walks (m000brwb)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
MON 02:00 Fred Dibnah's Age of Steam (b0078lbl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
MON 02:30 The Romantics and Us with Simon Schama (m000mfng)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 15 FEBRUARY 2022
TUE 19:00 Yorkshire Walks (m000bs11)
Series 1
Heptonstall to Stoodley Pike
Shanaz Gulzar steps back in time while walking through the historic village of Heptonstall. Filming on her handheld 360-degree selfie-style camera, Shanaz rambles past Hell Hole, along the canal in Hebden Bridge, before climbing uphill to the peace monument of Stoodley Pike. This is an historic walk that straddles both the north and south sides of Calderdale.
Inspired by the landscape Shanaz stops to sketch and read poetry. This walk is an intimate and personal account of West Yorkshire viewed through an artist’s eyes.
TUE 19:30 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.
TUE 20:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b007brsg)
Series 2
Problems with Relatives
Sitcom about an irrepressible snob. Hyacinth's quest for perfection is somewhat hampered by the dubious antics of the rest of her family.
TUE 20:30 Yes, Prime Minister (b0074rtb)
Series 1
A Real Partnership
Classic political sitcom. The government runs into a financial crisis just as MPs are due for a pay rise.
TUE 21:00 The Secret Life of the Motorway (b007xmdn)
The End of the Affair
When the first motorways opened they did so to national celebration. But after the first 1,000 miles had been built, their impact on both town and country was becoming apparent and people started to protest.
Middle England rose up and disrupted public inquiries to voice their frustration at motorway building, but it continued and over time the frustration gave way to concerns about saving the planet. In the early 1990s that meant young people willing to risk everything to stop the motorways being built. The programme shows how people began to question the promises made by the motorway, and along the way found their voice of protest.
TUE 22:00 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b009ph5z)
Barry Cryer
With a comedy career which kicked off in strip clubs, Barry Cryer became a Windmill regular in the 1950s. A brief foray into musicals and the West End stage followed with Expresso Bongo, before he made his mark on the pop world with a cover of The Purple People Eater, which Barry claims went to Number One in Finland for three weeks.
Barry Cryer talks to Mark Lawson about his days writing jokes for The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise, his enduring role as a panellist on BBC Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, and the eczema that used to plague his life.
TUE 23:00 Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways (b01pz9m7)
Episode 1
From their beginnings as a primitive system of track-ways for coal carts in the early 18th century, railways quickly developed into the driving force behind the industrial revolution and the pivotal technology for modern Britain, and a connected world.
Rapid industrial growth during the early 19th century, coupled with the prospect of vast profits, drove inventors and entrepreneurs to develop steam locomotives, metal tracks and an array of daring tunnels, cuttings and bridges that created a nationwide system of railways in just 30 years.
George Stephenson's Liverpool and Manchester Railway became the model for future inter-city travel for the next century and his fast, reliable locomotive, the Rocket, began a quest for speed that has defined our modern world.
TUE 00:00 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.
TUE 01:00 Handmade in Bolton (m0009dkh)
Series 1
Rock Crystal Bottle
Oxford historian Dr Janina Ramirez sets ex-forger Shaun Greenhalgh his hardest task yet. Shaun has to carve an Islamic bottle out of rock crystal in the style of the 10th-century Egyptian Fatimids. Rock crystal is notoriously fragile. Sourcing the right quantities of it is almost impossible. The real problems begin, however, when the carving is finished.
TUE 01:30 Yorkshire Walks (m000bs11)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
TUE 02:00 Fred Dibnah's Age of Steam (b0078lf9)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUE 02:30 The Secret Life of the Motorway (b007xmdn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WEDNESDAY 16 FEBRUARY 2022
WED 19:00 Yorkshire Walks (m000brtk)
Series 1
Runswick Bay to Whitby
This historic coastal walk takes artist Shanaz Gulzar along a stretch of the 109-mile Cleveland Way. Starting in Runswick Bay, and armed only with a handheld 360-degree selfie-style camera, Shanaz climbs the steep steps to the cliff top before strolling the coastal path, absorbing the beautiful landscape and its industrial past, before finishing at Whitby for sunset.
Meeting fellow walkers along the way, Shanaz finds inspirational spots to sketch and recite poetry.
WED 19:30 Fred Dibnah's Made in Britain (b0078vy1)
The Source of Iron
Documentary series in which Fred Dibnah travels around Britain in his restored traction engine in search of engineering skills and technology from a bygone age, visiting ancient iron foundries, industrial sites and little workshops. Fred reaches Cumbria where iron ore was once mined on a large scale, and enjoys the Lake District on a friend's steam boat. It's then on to the Florence Mine at Egremont and the Workington Steel Works.
WED 20:00 Patagonia: Earth's Secret Paradise (b06gqsqn)
Life on the Edge
Patagonia invites you into a rarely seen South American wilderness, home to surprising creatures who survive in environments that range from the mighty Andes Mountains to Cape Horn.
This is the story of an awe-inspiring coastline 4,000 miles long. From the cold, fearsome waters of Cape Horn, where brave rockhopper penguins overcome huge challenges to raise their young, to the far north, with huge elephant seals battling for position in the heat of the desert. Orcas ram-raid the beaches, grabbing seal pups to feed their young. People gather the sea's bounty too, but these shores are not for the faint-hearted.
WED 21:00 Digging for Britain (m0001kxh)
Series 7
Iron Age Revealed
Alice Roberts follows the excavation of Iron Age Britain’s most spectacular grave. A team of archaeologists in East Yorkshire have uncovered the remains of only the third upright chariot burial ever found in Britain, and the only chariot burial ever found in this country with the chariot harnessed to two standing ponies. This sensational find is the lead dig for the Digging for Britain Iron Age special.
WED 22:00 Storyville (m0014j4m)
Try Harder!
The American college application process can be stressful at the best of times. For the super-smart, mostly Asian-American students at San Francisco’s Lowell High School, it’s emotionally draining. At Lowell, it’s cool to be a nerd – everyone is talented.
This Storyville documentary follows a group of students as they make their university applications, all of them under pressure to get a prized spot at one of the country’s most elite institutions. Try Harder! is a portrait of young adults in the most diverse American generation ever, navigating their way through a quintessential rite of passage.
WED 23:20 Locomotion: Dan Snow's History of Railways (b01q7brf)
Episode 2
In the late 1830s, the railways arrived in London and linked the capital to Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. This was the start of a truly national network - and one of the greatest civil engineering projects in history.
The spread of the railways triggered a mania across Britain. Railway tycoons like Samuel Morton Peto and George Hudson made fortunes as the stock markets boomed around these new developments. Yet the bubble burst in 1847 and shares plummeted. Thousands of ordinary shareholders filled the bankruptcy courts. However as Dan Snow reveals, the legacy of the mania was an incredible rail network for 19th-century Britain and a revolution in the way people lived.
WED 00:20 Yorkshire Walks (m000brtk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
WED 00:50 Fred Dibnah's Made in Britain (b0078vy1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
WED 01:20 Patagonia: Earth's Secret Paradise (b06gqsqn)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
WED 02:20 Digging for Britain (m0001kxh)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
THURSDAY 17 FEBRUARY 2022
THU 19:00 Yorkshire Walks (m000brvk)
Series 1
Bolton Abbey to Simon's Seat
The Bolton Abbey Estate provides the picturesque location for this Yorkshire Walk. Beginning at Bolton Priory, and armed with her handheld 360-degree selfie-style camera, artist Shanaz Gulzar meanders along the banks of the treacle-coloured River Wharfe before climbing up through the Valley of Desolation. She later heads onwards over moorland to Simon’s Seat and its breathtaking views across Wharfedale, Nidderdale and beyond.
Meeting fellow walkers along the way, Shanaz finds inspirational spots to sketch and recite poetry, while discovering Yorkshire’s hidden woodlands and waterfall.
THU 19:30 Fred Dibnah's Made in Britain (b0078w0c)
Castings
Documentary series in which Fred Dibnah travels around Britain in his restored traction engine in search of engineering skills and technology from a bygone age, visiting ancient iron foundries, industrial sites and little workshops.
Fred and his steersman Alf travel up to Scotland, where they marvel at the ingenuity of the Falkirk Wheel and visit one of the few surviving traditional iron works left in the region. After stopping at Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway for a few repairs, they're ready for the off and the traction engine becomes the first to cross the Forth Road Bridge under its own steam.
THU 20:00 Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema (m0002pfq)
Oscar Winners: A Secrets of Cinema Special
As the red carpet season reaches its climax, Mark turns his keen eye and sharp wit on past winners of the most prestigious awards of all. What gave them the edge over their rivals? Mark shows that, despite their apparent differences, Oscar-winning films have more in common than you might think. Certain kinds of film recur, such as war, social justice and the all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza. But, as Mark explains, it’s not just about your choice of subject; it's how you treat it that counts. In a special show that ranges from the earliest awards winners to the most recent victors, Mark reveals the films that laid down the template for cinematic glory, celebrates the classics that have endured and savours some of the movies’ most acclaimed performances.
THU 21:00 Annie Hall (m0008yzt)
In New York, Alvie Myers, a neurotic and self-obsessed stand-up comedian, meets kooky singer Annie Hall and they begin a relationship.
THU 22:30 The Deer Hunter (m000hkbc)
Clairton, Pennsylvania, 1960s. Three close friends from the steelworks, Mike, Nick and Steve, prepare to leave for service in Vietnam, but not before Steve`s wedding is celebrated in grand style. The festivities turn into a painful farewell as the three men become embroiled in a war in which there are no rules but survival, and the enemy have devised a deadly game of Russian roulette for their prisoners.
THU 01:30 Yorkshire Walks (m000brvk)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
THU 02:00 Fred Dibnah's Made in Britain (b0078w0c)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 02:30 Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema (m0002pfq)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRIDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2022
FRI 19:00 An Evening with Nat King Cole (m0014j5r)
A 1961 TV special in which Nat King Cole sings a host of both popular and lesser-known jazz classics, with Ted Heath, the Cliff Adams Singers, Renaud Jones, John Collins, Charles Harris and Leon Petties.
FRI 19:50 Sounds of the Sixties (b051rz0q)
Reversions
The Singer and the Song
Sandie Shaw, Dusty Springfield and Lulu sing much-loved classics in a solo artist-themed episode of the sixties archive pop programme.
FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m0014j5t)
Mark Franklin present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 14 May 1992, featuring Shakespears Sister, The Wedding Present, Del Amitri, Kris Kross, En Vogue, Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson, CeCe Peniston and KWS.
FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m0014j5w)
Mark Franklin and Femi Oke present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 28 May 1992 and featuring Kris Kross, The Future Sound of London, Shut Up and Dance, Bassheads, Don-E and Lisa Stansfield.
FRI 21:00 New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s (b017sw79)
Lionel Richie: Dancing on the Ceiling
Documentary showing how Lionel Richie achieved his dream of becoming 'as big as The Beatles' and how much of what he learnt from his years with The Commodores prepared him for that success. After 15 years of soaring success with the band, Lionel left the group to go solo in what many considered to be a risky move. His first solo album, Lionel Richie, grabbed the world's attention, whilst the follow-up, Can't Slow Down, turned him into a global superstar. But could he maintain sustained popularity without the group he'd known as brothers behind him?
Contributors include: Billboard Magazine editor Adam White, Motown songwriter and producer Gloria Jones, Kenny Rogers, video director Bob Giraldi, songwriter and producer David Foster, general manager at Motown in 1978 Keith Harris, UK soul singer Lemar and Pearly Gates of The Flirtations.
FRI 22:00 Lionel Richie at the BBC (b017sw7c)
A selection of Lionel Richie's greatest moments from the BBC archives, from his first Top of the Pops appearance with The Commodores in 1979 to highlights from his 2009 concert at the BBC's Maida Vale studios.
FRI 23:00 Top of the Pops (b03mpphw)
The Story of 1979
1979 was a unique year for Top of the Pops, which saw the show record its highest audience of 19 million viewers and in which physical format singles sales hit an all-time high of 79 million. 1979 is maybe the most diverse year ever for acts on Top of the Pops with disco at its peak, new wave, 2 Tone, reggae, rock, folk and electro records all making the top five.
Original interviews with Gary Numan, Nile Rodgers, Woody from Madness, Jah Wobble, Chas and Dave, Janet Kay, Linda Nolan, Jim Dooley, Secret Affair, the Ruts, Legs and Co and many others tell the story of an exceptional year.
In the year that the 'winter of discontent' saw continuing strikes black out ITV and TOTP reduced during a technicians strike to a narrator introducing videos, the show also found itself the site of conflict backstage. TOTP's old guard of 70s MOR acts had their feathers continually ruffled by new wave bands, as the Skids spat at the Nolan Sisters backstage and Generation X urinated off the roof onto the Dooleys.
Elsewhere in the corridors of TV Centre, in preparation for playing their single Death Disco, Public Image Ltd demanded their teeth were blacked out in make-up to appear ugly, while Gary Numan remembers the overbearing union presence which prevented TOTP artists moving their own microphones without a union technician and the Musicians Union trying to ban him from the show for his use of synthesizers.
The most popular musical styles of 1979 were 2 Tone, reggae and disco. The latter saw Nile Rodgers, the man of the year, score four hits with Chic as well as writing and producing a further four hits with Sister Sledge, Sheila B Devotion and Sugarhill Gang, who appeared with what would prove to be the first ever rap hit.
Jamaican and UK reggae artists scored continual hits through the year and then watched as the Police notched up three hits with white reggae and the label 2 Tone revived the 60s reggae style known as ska. In November, in what is remembered as the 2 Tone edition, all three of the label's new acts - Madness, Specials and Selecter - appeared on one historic night and took the show by storm, with Madness capping off their performance of One Step Beyond by leading a 'nutty train' conga through the studio.
FRI 00:00 Nile Rodgers: How to Make It in the Music Business (b0992lvw)
Series 1
Episode 3
The final part is almost entirely set in the landscape of the music world today - a world that is near unrecognisable from the one Nile started out in over 40 years ago.
Technology and digital media have revolutionised how we hear music. Digital platforms like YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and others make music instantly available to everyone. Computers and the internet have changed how music is written and composed and, via social media, artists can communicate directly with their fans - they can even release their music to them with a single tweet.
Nile shows us how he has adapted to this new world and why he wants to be a part of it. We discover how, in recent years, he has collaborated with a more diverse range of musicians on a greater variety of music than ever before.
The first collaboration we hear about is Get Lucky with Daft Punk, which became a Grammy-award-winning international hit. Later, we have contributions from singer-songwriter Laura Mvula, who won a Novello award this year for her album The Dreaming Room which Nile worked on. We hear from top country music star Keith Urban - they were both nominated last year at the Country Music Awards. And from Swedish DJ and composer Avicii, who plays to audiences of tens of thousands around the world, we discover the closeness of their musical relationship and learn about their working methods. We discover how Nile's contribution to singer John Newman's song Give Me Your Love came about.
In what is the 40th anniversary of Nile's band Chic, we see him on stage in Glasgow, and at the end of the film Nile reveals that he has just finished recording a new song. Called I Believe In Music, this at present unreleased song sums up Nile's personal philosophy toward the art form that has dominated his life. This film has exclusive access to that song.
FRI 01:00 Top of the Pops (m0014j5t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRI 01:30 Top of the Pops (m0014j5w)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
FRI 02:00 An Evening with Nat King Cole (m0014j5r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
FRI 02:50 New Power Generation: Black Music Legends of the 1980s (b017sw79)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]