Solo show-stoppers from the world's greatest musicians in a journey through fifty years of BBC Music. From guitarist John Williams and cellist Jacqueline du Pre to trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and violinist Nigel Kennedy, this is a treasure trove of musical treats and dazzling virtuosity.
Whether it's James Galway's Flight of the Bumblebee performed at superhuman speed, Ravi Shankar's mesmerising Raag Bihag or Dudley Moore's brilliant Colonel Bogey March, every performance has its own star quality and unique appeal. Parkinson, Later with Jools Holland, The Les Dawson Show, Music at Night and Wogan are among the programmes featuring instruments ranging from marimba and kora to harp and flamenco guitar.
The Lonely Londoners portrays the experiences of a group of Caribbean immigrants, known as the Windrush Generation, who arrived in London in the late 1940s and 50s searching for work and a prosperous future. Instead, they have to face the harsh realities of living hand to mouth, racism, bleak British weather and bleaker prospects. And though friendships and family flourish among these lonely Londoners, can they learn to survive?
The Lonely Londoners is performed by Danielle Vitalis and directed by Yero Timi-Biu who juxtapose modern imagery and fascinating archive footage to reflect on how Sam Selvon’s 1956 novel shaped the London of today.
Alvin Ailey was a visionary African American artist who found salvation through dance. Using never-before-heard audio interviews recorded in the last year of his life, we experience Ailey’s astonishing journey in his words, starting with the memories of his childhood in Texas living under the Jim Crow laws that legitimised segregation. Raised by a single mother who struggled to provide, Ailey knew hardship, but his life was rich with culture and love. He brings us into his world of blues, gospel, juke joints and church. And he tells us about the blush of young love and the awakening of his gay identity.
Ailey’s story is one of sacrifice. Possessed by his ambitions, he dedicated himself to his company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, which he established in 1958 when he was just 27 years old. He endured racism and homophobia, addiction and mental illness, and the burden of being an iconic African American artist. In 1989, he tragically succumbed to the Aids epidemic.
Thirty years later, Ailey’s dream lives on. While other modern dance companies were built to showcase their founders, Ailey saw his own as bigger than himself. Throughout his rich journey, this film interweaves hip-hop choreographer Rennie Harris’s rehearsal and creative process for a new commission with Ailey’s story to show the enduring power of Ailey’s vision. The result? Ailey comes alive for a whole new generation as well as his faith in the transformative power of dance, his grand embrace and his expression of complete freedom.
Based on the autobiography of Cuban ballet superstar Carlos Acosta. Young Carlos is a happy-go-lucky street urchin until his truck-driving father determines that he is to audition for the Havana State Ballet school.
The Dutch Golden Age saw map-making reach a fever pitch of creative and commercial ambition. This was the era of the first ever atlases - elaborate, lavish and beautiful. This was the great age of discovery and marked an unprecedented opportunity for mapmakers, who sought to record and categorise the newly acquired knowledge of the world. Rising above the many mapmakers in this period was Gerard Mercator, inventor of the Mercator projection, who changed mapmaking forever when he published his collection of world maps in 1598 and coined the term 'atlas'.
The programme looks at some of the largest and most elaborate maps ever produced, from the vast maps on the floor of the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, to the 24-volume atlas covering just the Netherlands, to the largest atlas in the world, The Klencke Atlas. It was made for Charles II to mark his restoration in 1660. But whilst being one of the British Library's most important items, it is also one of its most fragile, so hardly ever opened. This is a unique opportunity to see inside this enormous and lavish work, and see the world through the eyes of a king.
The series concludes by delving into the world of satirical maps. How did maps take on a new form, not as geographical tools, but as devices for humour, satire or storytelling?
Graphic artist Fred Rose perfectly captured the public mood in 1880 with his general election maps featuring Gladstone and Disraeli, using the maps to comment upon crucial election issues still familiar to us today. Technology was on the satirist's side, with the advent of high-speed printing allowing for larger runs at lower cost. In 1877, when Rose produced his Serio Comic Map of Europe at War, maps began to take on a new direction and form, reflecting a changing world.
Rose's map exploited these possibilities to the full using a combination of creatures and human figures to represent each European nation. The personification of Russia as a grotesque-looking octopus, extending its tentacles around the surrounding nations, perfectly symbolised the threat the country posed to its neighbours.
Much-loved film critic David Stratton tells the fascinating story of Australian cinema, focusing in on the films that capture this idiosyncratic nation with drama, emotion and humour.
David played a pivotal role supporting film-makers and helping them to find audiences both locally and abroad. He rose to fame co-hosting a movie review show with Margaret Pomeranz, which the nation religiously tuned in to for almost 30 years.
In this first episode, we learn how Aussie film-makers gained the confidence to tell their own stories with the boldness of Picnic at Hanging Rock and Mad Max, the global success of Crocodile Dundee and Shine, the flamboyance of Strictly Ballroom and the raw authenticity of Samson and Delilah.
The series takes us on a thrilling journey across Australian cinema's most moving moments and unforgettable scenes and into the heart of the stories portrayed on the big screen that helped shape a nation’s idea of itself.
MONDAY 11 APRIL 2022
MON 19:00 Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village (b0bsrqj7)
Series 1
London
Archaeologist Ben Robinson explores London, the ultimate 'city of villages'. Despite many rural settlements like Hornsey and Dagenham being swallowed up by the expanding capital, Hampstead residents successfully fought to preserve their village heritage. And in recent years Londoners have created a new breed of urban villages like Crouch End and Walthamstow.
MON 19:30 8 Days: To the Moon and Back (m0006p5f)
Eight days, three hours, 18 minutes, 35 seconds. That is the total duration of the most important and celebrated space mission ever flown - Apollo 11 - when humans first set foot on the moon. It was a journey that changed the way we think about our place in the universe. But we only saw a fraction of what happened - a handful of iconic stills and a few precious hours of movie footage. Now it is time to discover the full story.
Previously classified cockpit audio, recorded by the astronauts themselves, gives a unique insight into their fears and excitement as they undertake the mission. And dramatic reconstruction brings those recordings to life, recreating the crucial scenes that were never filmed - the exhilarating launch, the first sight of the moon, the dramatic touchdown and nail-biting journey home. Original archive footage from the Apollo programme is combined with newly shot film and cinematic CGI to create the ultimate documentary of the ultimate human adventure.
MON 21:00 Brian Cox's Adventures in Space and Time (m000wtdj)
Series 1
Space: How Far Can We Go?
Brian believes we are at the start of a new age of space travel, where space flight is on the verge of becoming routine. In this episode, he explores the latest science and takes a new look at his old films and asks: how far can we go in our exploration of the cosmos?
Brian begins in Russia’s cosmonaut training facility in the outskirts of Moscow, where he dons a spacesuit to discover what 'the right stuff' is and what it might take to carry out maintenance on the International Space Station in low earth orbit. It is an eye-opening experience that reveals just how physically demanding being an astronaut can be.
He then looks at some of the most extraordinary achievements of space exploration to date. Under the clear sky of the Atlas Mountains, he tells the story of how we started to explore the cosmos from earth. Careful observation of 'wandering stars', now known as the planets, initially led our ancestors to believe that Earth, not the sun, was at the centre of our solar system. But as our knowledge of the cosmos grew, so did our appetite to explore; eventually technology made it possible for us to take our first steps towards the stars. In Russia’s Star City, Brian visits the office of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. At Cape Kennedy Space Centre he marvels at the enormous Saturn V rocket that launched the first men to the moon. Brian reflects on the difficulties of filming this giant machine, and on his encounters with the extraordinary men who flew in it to the moon.
Looking to the future, Brian recalls his meeting with aerospace engineer and visionary advocate of Mars exploration Robert Zubrin. He’s credited with inspiring Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to develop rockets with the aim of making the red planet the next frontier of human space exploration.
Professor Cox concludes that Mars will be the limit of human space exploration in our lifetime – our bodies can’t withstand the demands of travelling much deeper into the cosmos. To explore further, we must send robots in our place. Brian reveals some of his favourite probes to have uncovered the wonders of our solar system. This includes Voyager 1, whose iconic image of Earth from deep space taught us the true value of exploration: perspective.
MON 22:00 The Sky at Night (m0016cbz)
Exoplanets and Antarctica
In a month when the tally of confirmed exoplanets passed 5,000, it’s astonishing to remember that just 30 years ago, the notion of planets outside our own solar system was, well – just a notion. Since the first extrasolar planet was discovered in 1992, a staggering array of other worlds have been identified, including many in solar systems quite unlike our own.
Professor Amaury Triaud (University of Birmingham) studies binary systems - two stars locked in mutual orbit - and the planets that have been found orbiting them. Recently, Professor Triaud was the lead author on a paper describing how we might find many more planets in these solar systems with two suns – places often compared to Star Wars’ planet Tatooine.
Most exoplanets have been discovered using the transit method, where a dip in a star’s luminance is recorded as a planet is observed ‘in transit’, ie passing across the star’s face. Thousands of transits have been observed using Nasa’s Keppler space telescope – the exoplanet discovery equivalent of a fishing trawler, hoovering up its quarry on an industrial scale. But while the transit method is an excellent way of discovering exoplanets, it comes with a serious drawback: the transit must be observed. In other words, the orbit of the planet, its star and the observing telescope must all be aligned in just the right place at just the right time. And in the three-dimensional vastness of space, that comes down to luck.
In binary systems, this eventuality requires even more good fortune. So, Professor Triaud and his team have been using a detection method known as the radial velocity technique. Trickier to pull off, but not reliant on happenstance. The premise of the radial velocity method is that orbiting systems are held together by gravity and will affect each other’s orbits. While a planet is held in place by its star’s gravitational field, the planet’s gravity in turn will also pull at the star, causing its path to deviate. This deviation is tiny, but critically it is measurable. The careful analysis of the degree to which a star ‘wobbles’ will tell you all about its orbiting planets.
For the first time, Professor Triaud has shown that this effect can be measured in complex binary systems using telescopes on Earth. It’s an exciting development. Many more new worlds can be discovered without the need for costly space telescopes and the luck of being aligned ‘just so’ to catch a transit.
The hunt for exoplanets is a major scientific endeavour, not only because it might provide answers to the question of life emerging in other parts of the universe, but also because it also gives us clues as to how planet formation occurs and solar systems emerge. However, it is a high precision game, and the locations for the specialist kit required are rarely the most hospitable.
Professor Triaud’s PhD student Georgina (‘George’) Dransfield recently travelled to Antarctica to work on upgrading the exoplanet hunting telescope Astep at the French Antarctic base, Concordia. George filmed the trip for us and explained to Maggie (who also has experience building telescopes in extreme locations) what the trip involved. Concordia sits 3,200m above sea level, where the atmosphere is dry and thin, making it as near to having a space telescope on Earth as possible. This, combined with the Antarctic winter giving three months of uninterrupted night sky, means it’s a no brainer as a location for a research telescope. Except, of course, its location is one of the most extreme on Earth! George and the team were there to move the telescope to a better, bigger dome, and upgrade its camera to a two-colour receiver rather than the original ‘black-and-white’ version. George was also responsible for designing and installing more advanced data handling techniques for the image-processing system.
All this would be hard enough at the best of times, but the Antarctic climate makes things a lot more challenging. ‘As soon as you step outside, the inside of your nose ices up,’ remembers George, ‘and you know, it sounds ridiculous, but I just wasn’t expecting how cold it would be!’
Back in Birmingham, George is now using the uprated system in her PhD work, and is even nostalgic for Antarctica. ‘If you’d asked me at the time if I wanted to go back, I’d have probably said no,’ she confides, ‘but now, yeah, I’d definitely go back if I had the chance again!’ And if she doesn’t get that chance, there’ll be a permanent reminder of the trip – in the form of a new tattoo!
Also, in an update to last year’s programme about Jupiter, Jonny Nichols (University of Leicester) tells us how the mystery of the gas giant’s aurora has nearly been solved. ‘When I saw the data come in, I nearly fell off my chair,’ he tells Maggie. And, following a lockdown boom in telescope sales, viewer Stacey Downton from Longbridge shows us her telescopes and explains her passion for astrophotography.
MON 22:30 Horizon (b08tj2zr)
2017
Antarctica - Ice Station Rescue
Britain's state-of-the-art Antarctic research base Halley VI is in trouble. Built on the Brunt Ice Shelf, it sits atop a massive slab of ice that extends far beyond the Antarctic shoreline. But the ice is breaking apart and just 6km from the station is a ginormous crevasse, which threatens to separate Halley from the rest of the continent, setting the £28 million base adrift on a massive iceberg.
So Halley needs to move. But this is probably the toughest moving job on earth, and the team of 90 who have been tasked with the mission aren't just architectural or engineering experts. They are plumbers, mechanics and farmers from across the UK and beyond - ordinary men and women on an extraordinary adventure. Their practical skills will be what makes or breaks this move. The rescue mission has one thing in its favour: Halley was built on giant skis that mean it can be moved - in theory. But no-one has actually done it before. Embedded with the team, BBC film-maker Natalie Hewit spent three months living on the ice, following these everyday heroes as they battle in the most extreme environment on earth to move this vital polar research station.
MON 23:30 Tomorrow's Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction (p026c7n7)
Robots
Dominic Sandbrook continues his exploration of the most innovative and imaginative of all genres and gets to science fiction's obsession with robots.
The idea of playing God and creating artificial life has fascinated us since the earliest days of science fiction - but what if our creations turn against us?
Dominic, leading writers and film-makers follow our hopes and fears from the first halting steps of Frankenstein's monster, via the threats of Doctor Who's Cybermen and The Terminator, the provocative ideas of Blade Runner and Battlestar Galactica, to the worlds of cyberspace and the Matrix, where humanity and technology merge.
Among the interviewees are Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner), actor Peter Weller (RoboCop), producer Gale Anne Hurd (The Terminator), Anthony Daniels and Kenny Baker (Star Wars), actor Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica) and novelist William Gibson.
MON 00:30 The Read (m0016cc1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Sunday]
MON 01:30 The Beauty of Books (b00ydj1m)
Ancient Bibles
The British Library in London is home to 14 million books, on shelves that stretch over 600km. Extraordinary vessels of ideas and knowledge, they testify to the love affair we have with books. This series explores the enduring appeal and importance of books from a 4th century bible to present day paperbacks.
The Codex Sinaiticus is the world's oldest surviving bible. Made around 350 AD, it is a unique insight into early Christians and their effort to find a single version of the biblical text that everyone could accept - a bible fit for the Roman Empire. 800 years later, an illuminated bible rich in gold and lapis lazuli and produced in Winchester, recalls a time when bibles were at the centre of the Church's struggle with the State for ultimate authority.
Both of these bibles are works of art and remarkable achievements in book technology. They are also annotations on the political era in which they were created, providing fascinating commentary on the life of Jesus and the murder of Thomas Becket.
MON 02:00 Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village (b0bsrqj7)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
MON 02:30 Brian Cox's Adventures in Space and Time (m000wtdj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 12 APRIL 2022
TUE 19:00 Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village (b0bsrqch)
Series 1
South
The village of Milton Abbas in Dorset perfectly captures our romantic notion of what the idyllic English village should look like. But as archaeologist Ben Robinson reveals, behind it lurks a history of one man's wealth and power. With help from local historians, Ben learns how the local landowner in the 18th century destroyed a nearby town, uprooting its residents, because it ruined the view from his house. The landscape was transformed and a new village was built as part of his showpiece estate.
TUE 19:30 The Yorkshire Dales (m0003yk1)
Series 1
Wensleydale
Adventurer and explorer Paul Rose heads for Wensleydale in this three-part series about the Yorkshire Dales. He starts his journey in the small town of Hawes, where locals now run many of their own services, including the buses.
Paul checks out why cycling is so popular in the Dales and tries to get to the top of the Buttertubs Pass, which is one of Wensleydale’s most difficult routes. Along the way he meets a family of beautiful Dales dormice – and spends time with a man who looks after one of Yorkshire’s most imposing castles.
TUE 20:00 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 20:30 A Life on the Box: Arthur Lowe (b00g50v3)
Terry Wogan presents a compilation programme celebrating the unique talent of Arthur Lowe. Featuring interviews with those who knew him, and footage from both his classic comedy performances and his many straight roles.
TUE 21:15 Gods of Snooker (p09gt3yd)
Series 1
Episode 3
By the mid-80s, snooker was the biggest sport in the country, but two distinct camps had emerged amongst the players. On one side were Barry Hearn’s ‘Matchroom Mob’, including Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis: clean-living, utterly professional and family friendly. In sharp contrast was a group that included Alex Higgins, Jimmy White and Kirk Stevens, who all embraced a more rock-and-roll lifestyle.
With Higgins’s career quickly spiralling out of control, Jimmy White was next in line to take the crown of ‘people’s champion’. But Jimmy also had an insatiable appetite for the highlife and a string of vices – including cocaine and crack - that threatened to overshadow his raw talent and enormous potential.
Twelve years younger than Alex, Jimmy soon realised that Alex’s popularity and ability was at odds with his success in the game, having won only two world championship trophies in a sport many thought he should dominate. Indeed, Steve Davis had quickly become the world number one through practice and discipline and had suddenly become the man to beat. Desperate for success and tempted by the lucrative rewards brought by towing the line, Jimmy joined Barry Hearn in the hope he could be turned into a champion like his new stablemate, Steve Davis.
Jimmy began the 90s clean and well-prepared and got his best opportunity yet to win his first world championship, coming up against a young emerging Scotsman called Stephen Hendry. With White as the hot favourite and with the crowd urging him on, the 1990 final turned out to be a pivotal moment in British snooker and paved the way for what was to come in the next decade.
TUE 22:15 Donald Campbell: Speed King (b01rrk63)
Donald Campbell is world famous for his speed records on land and water and, of course, that fatal crash in Bluebird on Lake Coniston in 1967. His story as one of the last of the great British boffins, his place in the making of modern Britain and his daredevil feats made him a household name. However, the behind-the-scenes story of a man driven by fear of failure, by a desire to keep both himself and his country at the top of their game, has never been told. Until now.
For the first time ever this film goes behind the carefully orchestrated public image Campbell created to reveal a very different man. Backed by exclusive access to extensive new colour archive that covers his whole life (from private and public collections), Campbell's close family and friends describe his quest for success and ultimate transformation from a man at the top to someone struggling for recognition, to myth after the tragic events of 1967.
TUE 23:15 Meet the Romans with Mary Beard (b01gxqgg)
Streetlife
We still live in the shadow of ancient Rome - a city at the heart of a vast empire that stretched from Scotland to Afghanistan, dominating the West for over 700 years. Professor Mary Beard puts aside the stories of emperors and armies, guts and gore, to meet the real Romans living at the heart of it all.
In this programme, Mary descends into the city streets to discover the dirt, crime, sex and slum conditions in the world's first high-rise city. This Rome is not the marble Rome we know, but a vast, messy metropolis with little urban planning, where most Romans lived in high-rise apartment blocks with little space, light, or even sanitation. Forced outdoors into the city streets, she reveals where they went to hang out, get drunk, have sex and get clean. She looks at the Forum as a place of gamblers, dentists and thieves, and she explores the lustiness of Roman bar life and jokes.
Finally, exploring law and order from the bottom up, Mary examines how this city really worked. She meets Ancarenus Nothus, an apartment dweller who lived in fear of the rent collector; 'Notorious' Primus, who wrote about his three great pleasures in life - 'baths, wine and sex'; and 'Unlucky' Doris, a seven-year-old girl killed in one of Rome's many fires.
TUE 00:15 Meet the Romans with Mary Beard (b01hcgn1)
Behind Closed Doors
We still live in the shadow of ancient Rome - a city at the heart of a vast empire that stretched from Scotland to Afghanistan, dominating the West for over 700 years. Professor Mary Beard puts aside the stories of emperors and armies, guts and gore, to meet the real Romans living at the heart of it all.
In this final episode, Mary delves even deeper into ordinary Roman life by going behind the closed doors of their homes. She meets an extraordinary cast of characters - drunken housewives, teenage brides, bullied children and runaway slaves - and paints a more dynamic, lusty picture of Roman family life.
Mary uncovers their preserved beds, furniture and cradles, tries on Roman wedding rings and meets some eccentric wives like Glyconis, praised by her husband for liking a drink or two, and Allia Potestas, who lived in a Roman ménage a trois.
Mary explores Roman parenting, childbirth and children, including Sulpicius Maximus, an 11-year-old schoolboy who was worked to death by his pushy parents, and Geminia Mater, a five-year-old tomboy.
Finally, Mary paints a more nuanced picture of Roman slavery and asks why if it was such a brutal institution did many Romans choose to be buried with their servants - living cheek by jowl in death, as in life.
TUE 01:15 Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village (b0bsrqch)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
TUE 01:45 The Yorkshire Dales (m0003yk1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
TUE 02:15 Gods of Snooker (p09gt3yd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:15 today]
WEDNESDAY 13 APRIL 2022
WED 19:00 River Walks (b0bty0j0)
Series 1
River Lea
Sean Fletcher puts on his hiking boots and heads north east to walk the eight-mile route along the River Lea. He takes in the landmarks of an industrial past and discovers what the future holds for the river in this fast-growing part of the capital.
WED 19:30 The Yorkshire Dales (m0004513)
Series 1
Swaledale
Explorer Paul Rose heads for Swaledale in the latest of his Yorkshire Dales adventures. Swaledale is the wildest of the Yorkshire Dales and Paul joins the farmers who look after rare upland hay meadows. Paul also visits Muker Show and enters the cake making contest using a pressure cooker he’s used on Everest.
He also goes underground to try and find rare industrial artefacts left behind by lead miners in the 19th century. Paul’s journey also includes a meeting with actor Peter Davison who played Tristan Farnon in the All Creatures Great and Small TV series.
He also joins a community choir whose members include 13 farmers.
WED 20:00 Stonehenge: The Lost Circle Revealed (m000s5xm)
Professor Alice Roberts follows a decade-long historical quest to reveal a hidden secret of the famous bluestones of Stonehenge.
Using cutting-edge research, a dedicated team of archaeologists led by Professor Mike Parker Pearson have painstakingly compiled evidence to fill in a 400-year gap in our knowledge of the bluestones, and to show that the original stones of Britain’s most iconic monument had a previous life.
Alice joins Mike as they put together the final pieces of the puzzle, not just revealing where the stones came from, how they were moved from Wales to England or even who dragged them all the way, but also solving one of the toughest challenges that archaeologists face.
WED 21:00 Putin, Russia and the West (b01bptgc)
War
The third episode tells how, in August 2008, Russia went to war with America's ally, Georgia. Russia's president Dmitry Medvedev and Georgia's president Mikheil Saakashvili reveal why each decided it was necessary to make war on the other.
Former American secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and former secretary of defense Robert Gates describe what happened inside the National Security Council as President Bush considered whether to send in ground troops to save Georgia's capital. They reveal just how near to war the conflict brought the two nuclear super-powers.
WED 22:00 Ireland to Sydney by Any Means (b00dhbf2)
Episode 1
Gritty adventurer Charley Boorman goes on one of his most daring journeys, covering three continents, 25 countries and over 20,000 miles from Ireland to Australia.
Charley gets off his bike and on to local means of transport, avoiding commercial airlines wherever possible to travel over land and sea on more than 100 different modes of transport, including container ships, dug-out canoes, solar cars and an elephant.
In the first episode, preparations are underway as Charley plans the three-month expedition. A few knock-backs, several training courses and some minor route alterations later, the three team members - Charley, producer Russ and cameraman Mungo - are ready. Starting from Charley's home in County Wicklow in Ireland, the trio rev the engines of three classic bikes before heading northwards for the shores of Kilkeel and the start of their adventure.
WED 23:00 Ireland to Sydney by Any Means (b00dls64)
Episode 2
Gritty adventurer Charley Boorman returns for his most daring journey so far, covering three continents, 25 countries and over 20,000 miles from Ireland to Australia.
Charley's adventure takes him from the shores of Calais to the shores of Bandar-e Abbas. First, he puts his newly-learnt sailing skills to use and successfully crosses the tempestuous English Channel in a sailing dinghy.
From Calais, Charley and the team navigate their way through France and Italy, across to Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria, before pressing on through far western Asia from Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran. The expedition hinges on whether they can enter Iran and make it to Dubai in time to catch a container ship to Mumbai.
Charley travels the distance on a vast array of transport, taking a luxury train to Venice, riding a Parisian city bicycle, wrestling with a sidecar motorcycle around a hairpin bend in Georgia, hitching a ride on a truck in Iran and onboard a sleeper train.
On the way, he and the team are faced with numerous logistical obstacles including a vintage car with an empty fuel tank, an ex-Soviet jeep with dodgy brakes and a serious bureaucratic hurdle in order to get their visas into Iran.
But Charley's passion for befriending all those around him and his notorious sense of humour means they also taste the flavours and meet the faces of this eclectic part of the world - from Cenk, the Turkish fixer who sings his Dolmus Blues, to a young Croat lady who tells the story of her father's capture and imprisonment in a concentration camp, and sharing hubbly bubbly with locals in a tea room in the Iranian desert.
WED 00:00 Secret Knowledge (b03z08mv)
Hogarth - One Man and His Pug
To mark 250 years since William Hogarth's death in 1764, ceramics expert and self-confessed Hogarth fanatic Lars Tharp is determined to solve a mystery that has consumed his personal and professional life - the case of Hogarth's lost pug.
In this unique shaggy dog story, Tharp explains Hogarth's obsession with this most characterful of breeds and the pivotal role it played in his life and his work. A canine odyssey that only examines one of his most iconic works of art, but leads us into a world of satire, salaciousness and secrets. From harlots and rakes to the shadowy machinations of the freemasons, Tharp's ultimate goal is to lead an appeal to the nation to help him recover a rare piece of long-lost Hogarth memorabilia - a precious terracotta sculpture of his beloved pet pug.
For Tharp, this is the perfect moment in which to pay tribute to a man whom he regards as our greatest and most influential artist - and what better way to explore a man famed for his wit and humour than on the trail of his most iconic and idiosyncratic four-legged companion.
WED 00:30 River Walks (b0bty0j0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
WED 01:00 The Yorkshire Dales (m0004513)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
WED 01:30 Putin, Russia and the West (b01bptgc)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 02:30 Stonehenge: The Lost Circle Revealed (m000s5xm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THURSDAY 14 APRIL 2022
THU 19:00 River Walks (b0bty0pm)
Series 1
The Dart
Jemma Woodman takes a culinary tour of the beautiful River Dart, meeting those who get inspiration and food from this scenic part of the south west.
THU 19:30 The Yorkshire Dales (m0004c12)
Series 1
Wharfedale
Paul Rose’s Yorkshire Dales adventure takes him to Wharfedale. He meets the butchers in Ilkley whose Yorkshire produce is being sold all over the country. Paul also heads for Bolton Abbey and spends time with the Duke of Devonshire. He then takes time out with the Calendar Girls, who shot to fame after their nude calendar became a worldwide sensation two decades ago, and has a close encounter with bats that live along the River Wharfe. Finally, he meets the families from inner-city Bradford who are having their first Dales experience.
THU 20:00 The Remains of the Day (m0012y96)
Mr Stevens is butler to Lord Darlington, who in the years leading up to the Second World War had great sympathy with Germany and hoped to retain the peace between Britain and the Nazis. Overseeing the running of the great house, Stevens is joined by housekeeper Miss Kenton.
In postwar Britain, Stevens gets a letter from Miss Kenton and decides to seek her out. From the Booker Prize-winning novel by Kazuo Ishiguro.
THU 22:10 imagine... (m000tqn0)
2021
Kazuo Ishiguro: Remembering and Forgetting
Filmed during lockdown, Alan Yentob invites us into the intriguing world of award-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro. The only living British author to hold the Nobel Prize in Literature, Ishiguro’s novels and short stories have been translated into more than fifty languages. Two of his most popular novels, The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, have also enjoyed success as star-studded film adaptations.
In this revealing profile, Ishiguro explores the significance of his early life in Nagasaki and the experience of growing up in the aftermath of the atomic bomb. He shares memories of feeling like the only Japanese boy in the home counties of England in the early 1960s, and how this helped to shape his viewpoint as a writer. As a young man, he harboured ambitions to be a singer-songwriter, and he shares his lifelong emotional connection to music and lyrics, and the impact that particular songs have had on his writing.
Alongside contributions from writers Hanya Yanagihara and Bernardine Evaristo, as well as Ai-Da, an AI robot artist, Ishiguro charts the development of his work across the four decades of his writing career. He discusses the recurring themes of memory, history and the redemptive power of love, and reveals how he has turned his gaze to the future for his much-anticipated new book, Klara and the Sun.
THU 23:25 The Sky at Night (m0016cbz)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Monday]
THU 23:55 Brian Cox's Adventures in Space and Time (m000wtdj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 on Monday]
THU 00:55 River Walks (b0bty0pm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
THU 01:25 The Yorkshire Dales (m0004c12)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 01:55 8 Days: To the Moon and Back (m0006p5f)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 on Monday]
FRIDAY 15 APRIL 2022
FRI 19:00 Take Three Degrees (m0016cdd)
The Three Degrees line-up of Sheila Ferguson, Helen Scott and Valerie Holiday sing some of their greatest hits in a BBC TV special, first broadcast in 1982.
FRI 19:45 Top of the Pops (m000crqz)
Big Hits 1989
As the 80s come to a close, the Top of the Pops vaults open once more to offer up the movers, shakers and chart toppers of 1989.
This compilation looks back at performances by established megastars Tina Turner and Phil Collins, all-conquering funki dreds Soul II Soul, dance queen Paula Abdul, northern soul girl Lisa Stansfield and wry vocal group The Beautiful South.
Madchester favourites Stone Roses and Happy Mondays also put in an appearance along with Stock Aitken and Waterman stalwarts Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Sonia, not forgetting Sydney Youngblood, Mike and The Mechanics, Rebel MC and Double Trouble, plus duets from strange bedfellows Marc Almond and Gene Pitney, and Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville.
FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m0016cdg)
Tony Dortie presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 22 October 1992 and featuring Roxy Music, The Farm, Chris Rea, Björn Again, Arrested Development, Take That, The Chippendales and Tasmin Archer.
FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m0016cdj)
Mark Franklin presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 29 October 1992 and featuring Madonna, Go West, Leo Sayer, Felix, Zucchero & Pavarotti, Vanessa Paradis, Rage, Erasure and Boyz II Men.
FRI 21:00 Hello Quo (b03hy6vp)
You don't sell 128 million albums worldwide without putting in the graft and Status Quo are, quite possibly, the hardest-working band in Britain. Alan G Parker's documentary Hello Quo, specially re-edited for the BBC, recounts the band's epic story from the beginning - when south London schoolmates Francis Rossi and Alan Lancaster formed their first band with big ambitions of rock 'n' roll domination, quickly adding drummer John Coghlan and guitarist Rick Parfitt.
The film tells the story of Quo's hits from their unusually psychedelic early hit, Pictures of Matchstick Men, followed by a run through their classics from Down Down to Whatever You Want.
The band laughs off the constant ribbing about only using three chords and the film explores how Quo's heads-down boogie defined UK rock in the early 70s. Fender Stratocaster in hand, Quo have stood their ground and never shifted, but they have managed to adapt to scoring pop hits over five decades.
The original members of the 'frantic four' tell their story of a life in rock 'n' roll, alongside interviews from some prominent Quo fans, such as Paul Weller, whose first gig was the Quo at Guildford Civic Hall, to Brian May, who waxes lyrically about the opening riff to Pictures of Matchstick Men, while even Sir Cliff plays homage to the denim-clad rockers.
FRI 22:20 Status Quo: Live and Acoustic (b052yq1f)
Throughout Status Quo's six decades of rockin' and double denim, they have notched up 65 hit singles, sold over 100m records worldwide and have spent 415 weeks in the British singles chart, so it's no wonder Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt were awarded OBEs in 2010 for their services to music. And now, in a rare departure from their usual heads-down and boogie approach, they've gone acoustic!
Autumn 2014 saw the release of their 31st studio album and, in a complete departure from their usual rock sound, they transformed many of their legendary songs into acoustic, stripped-down versions. To celebrate this unique enterprise, they then performed many of the songs live at north London's legendary Roundhouse. Sitting down!
This concert features many of their classic tracks including Pictures of Matchstick Men, Down Down, What You're Proposing, Whatever You Want, Marguerita Time, Rockin' All Over the World and many more, performed with a string section, percussion, accordion, backing vocals and a front line of five acoustic guitars. Throughout the show Francis and Rick reminisce about taking this bold step and remind us of some of the stories behind some of their classic songs.
FRI 23:20 TOTP2 (b03j113z)
Status Quo
TOTP2 pays homage to eternal rockers Status Quo. From their first hit, the band has had 46 years of being perhaps the hardest working band in Britain with over 128 million record sales to boot. TOTP2 has gathered some of Quo's finest Top of the Pops performances - there's 106 of them, from their first TOTP appearance in 1968 with the psychedelic Pictures of Matchstick Men, to their last in 2005 with The Party Ain't Over Yet.
The Quo has gone on to outlive Top of the Pops and this compilation charts their success with many of their greatest hits including Rockin' All Over the World, Whatever You Want, Mystery Song and Living on an Island. Don your double denim and prepare to get Down Down!
FRI 00:05 Stewart Copeland's Adventures in Music (m000dl2n)
Series 1
Episode 2
Stewart Copeland continues his mission to understand how music works by exploring its extraordinary power to tell stories.
His journey includes meetings with film director Francis Ford Coppola, who explains how simple musical devices transformed the most famous scenes in The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, his old friend Sting, who describes the secrets of his songwriting process, rapper Talib Kweli, who looks at the power of music in protest, and the French-Cuban Ibeyi sisters, who show how music has kept the Yoruban tradition alive. Finally, he meets the man who composed one of the shortest but most effective musical stories ever written - the Intel bongs!
FRI 01:05 Top of the Pops (m0016cdg)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRI 01:35 Top of the Pops (m0016cdj)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:30 today]
FRI 02:05 Hello Quo (b03hy6vp)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]