SATURDAY 15 OCTOBER 2022

SAT 19:00 Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe (b0079238)
The Land of My Mother

Francesco da Mosto visits the south and Sicily, home of his mother's family for more than 500 years. Easter celebrations in the south involve the streets running red with celebrants' blood and the locals indulging in frantic dances to ward off the threat of the tarantula.

On Sicily, the brooding majesty of Etna terrifies Francesco as he stares into the volcano, but there's beauty and art at the Villa Bagheria and an explosion of baroque decadence at Noto. Finally for Francesco, there's an emotional reunion with his family, who have come down from Venice.


SAT 20:00 Himalaya with Michael Palin (b0074qsf)
Bhutan to Bay of Bengal

In Bhutan, Palin finds himself back in the land of yaks for a last look at the high Himalaya. Trekking to Chomolhari base camp he meets a nomad with a penchant for yak songs before heading down to Paro to witness the Buddhist festival or Tsechu. In a bar in Thimphu, he discusses reincarnation and the pursuit of happiness with Benji and Khendum, two of the king's cousins, and en route to Bangladesh is taken by Benji to see the rare black-neck cranes.

On his journey south through Bangladesh, Michael visits the ship-breaking beaches of Chittagong and grid-locked Dhaka. He meets a man who made a fortune in Birmingham in the poultry business, and a woman who lends money only to women. On a 1920s paddle steamer he is serenaded with the words of Bengal's Shakespeare, and he completes his epic Himalayan journey aboard a fishing boat that carries him out into the Bay of Bengal and a westering sun.


SAT 21:00 Wisting (p0d47f9f)
Series 2

Episode 1

Detective William Wisting and his team suffer a terrible blow when a crime scene inspection with serial killer Tom Kerr goes horribly wrong. Wisting’s daughter Line must deal with the fact that her new documentary about the murderer set it all in motion.

In Norwegian with English subtitles.


SAT 21:45 Wisting (p0d47j4c)
Series 2

Episode 2

Wisting tries to unite the team after the tragedy that has struck them. He is forced to cooperate with special investigator Stiller in the hunt for the mysterious accomplice called 'The Other'.

Line has doubts about continuing her documentary when she is contacted by someone very close to Kerr.

In Norwegian with English subtitles.


SAT 22:30 Storyville (m001d059)
Beneath the Surface

In 2014, following a tip-off, a group of journalists exposed a troubled history for indigenous Sámi women, men and children in Norway. It revealed generations of negligence, abuse and suffering, supported by a mass of evidence and previously unseen archival footage.

As the case goes to court, the community remains defiant against a judicial system whose attitudes highlight fissures in the purported equal treatment of all citizens. The community’s battle aims to break a vicious cycle of racism and to achieve meaningful, lasting change for future generations.


SAT 00:00 Prehistoric Autopsy (p00xfdmw)
Neanderthal

Anatomist professor Alice Roberts and biologist Dr George McGavin go on an extraordinary evolutionary journey to meet three of our ancient ancestors. By the end, they will have travelled back nearly four million years.

At the Prehistoric Autopsy HQ in Glasgow, with the help of a team of international experts, each episode follows the rebuilding of one of our most iconic ancient ancestors from the bones up. They start with our closest prehistoric relative - a Neanderthal.

To make the reconstructions as accurate as possible, Alice and George have travelled the globe, gathering evidence from the world's leading scientists. In the lab at the Prehistoric Autopsy HQ, scientists put the latest theories to the test to see how similar or different we really are to our ancient ancestors, while experimental archaeologists look for clues as to how they lived.

All the research has been fed to a team of model makers, who have spent months painstakingly reconstructing skeletons, muscles, skin and hair.

The team reveal the latest research that is casting a new light on Neanderthals - not just in the way they may have hunted, clothed their families and even painted jewellery, but also what they may have sounded like.

Alice and George put their own DNA to the test to see just how closely related we really are to Neanderthals.

And at the end of the programme, our reconstructed Neanderthal is finally revealed as we come face to face with one of our prehistoric ancestors from 70,000 years ago.


SAT 01:00 Keeping Up Appearances (b007btq9)
Series 5

Episode 10

Sitcom. Hyacinth decides to share her undoubted experience of being a perfect hostess and advertises in the local paper.


SAT 01:30 Ever Decreasing Circles (p00c1k8j)
Series 3

Episode 6

The local people are planning a fete to raise funds for the RSPCA. It is proposed that the main event of the afternoon should be a mock battle. Martin fancies himself as a general of the Cavaliers. However, events take an unexpected course.


SAT 02:00 Francesco's Italy: Top to Toe (b0079238)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 03:00 The Secret Life of the Motorway (b007xmbm)
The Honeymoon Period

The second episode in this evocative series about Britain's motorways explores how they have transformed where we live, work and play in Britain over the last 50 years.

From unbelievably glamorous early service stations to contemporary shopping centres with the infrastructure of a small town, this enthralling film is a journey through the wonderful and the weird places motorways have taken us.

Contributors include seminal planner Sir Peter Hall, author Will Self, caravanners, hitchhikers and commuters, all on our eagerness to accelerate down the slip road and the social changes that have followed.

SUNDAY 16 OCTOBER 2022

SUN 19:00 Return to TS Eliotland (b0bn6tr1)
AN Wilson explores the life and work of TS Eliot. From the halls of Harvard University to a Somerset village, via a Margate promenade shelter, he follows the spiritual and psychological journey that Eliot took in his most iconic poems. From The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock to The Waste Land and from Ash Wednesday to Four Quartets, Wilson traces Eliot's life story as it informs his greatest works.

Wilson travels to the places that inspired them, visiting Eliot's family's holiday home on the Massachusetts coast, following the poet to Oxford, where he met and married his first wife, Vivien Haigh-Wood, and on to London. He explores how Eliot's realisation that he and Vivien were fundamentally incompatible influenced The Waste Land and examines how Eliot's subsequent conversion to Anglicanism coloured his later works. Wilson concludes his journey by visiting some of the key locations around which the poet structured his final masterpiece, Four Quartets.

Eliot's poetry is widely regarded as complex and difficult; it takes on weighty ideas of time, memory, faith and belief, themes which Wilson argues have as much relevance today as during the poet's lifetime. And whilst hailing his genius, Wilson does not shy away from confronting the discomforting and dark side of his work - the poems now widely regarded as anti-Semitic.


SUN 20:00 Four Quartets, Starring Ralph Fiennes (m001d7j0)
Inspired by a childhood memory of an old vinyl recording in the family home, Ralph Fiennes revisited TS Eliot’s Four Quartets during the 2020 lockdown, wondering if it could be given a theatrical treatment rather than merely recited.

Theatre producers James Dacre of the Royal and Derngate theatres, and Danny Moar of the Theatre Royal Bath, got behind Fiennes’s idea. Hildegard Bechtler, Chris Shutt and Tim Lutkin created the set and costume design, sound and stage lighting, with Fiennes directing the production, which toured UK regional theatres and ran at the Pinter Theatre, London, in December 2021.

This film, directed by Ralph’s sister Sophie, known for her work with Michael Clark, Grace Jones and les ballets C de la B, was made immediately after the live performances. The set and lighting were transported overnight from the West End and re-rigged in English National Ballet’s production studio. The film was shot on 16mm in three days using one camera by director of photography Mike Eley, preserving the colour and atmosphere of Tim Lutkin’s original design for the theatre.

Eliot’s ambition was to write a poem that would produce the effect of music on the senses. In this performance, Ralph Fiennes’s delivery brings to life what Eliot called the auditory imagination.


SUN 21:25 The Chopin Etudes (b008wmkw)
Op 25 No 7

Freddy Kempf plays Chopin's Étude in C sharp minor, Op 25 No 7, at the Château de Neuville, near Paris.


SUN 21:30 Dangerous Earth (b084n7z7)
Iceberg

Dr Helen Czerski reveals the latest scientific insights into icebergs. From side-scanning sonar that scrutinises the edge of glaciers where icebergs are born, to satellite images that show how icebergs create hotspots for life and eyewitness pictures that give us a unique glimpse of how they transform over time, we can now capture on camera the mysteries of icebergs - and how their lifecycle is intricately linked to our changing planet.


SUN 22:00 Into the Ice (m001d7j2)
An intrepid expedition onto and into the Greenland ice sheet with three of the world’s leading experts as they try to answer the urgent question, how fast is the ice melting? Greenland’s inland ice is hostile, wild and unpredictable, but making observations and taking detailed measurements on the ground is essential to fully understanding what is happening there.

Director Lars Henrik Ostenfeld travels to Greenland with the scientists as they brave storms and climb deeper into the constantly shifting glaciers than anyone before them to gather the precious data that will help predict the future.


SUN 23:25 Prehistoric Autopsy (b01nlz8j)
Homo Erectus

At the Prehistoric Autopsy HQ in Glasgow, anatomist professor Alice Roberts and biologist Dr George McGavin continue their journey back into our evolutionary past.

They are going back 1.5 million years to meet one of the earliest humans. Once again with the help of a team of international experts, this shows the recreation of one of our most successful prehistoric ancestors from the bones up. They walked the earth far longer than any other human species and were the first ancestors to look a lot like we do today. The species is Homo erectus, and the individual being reconstructed is known as Nariokotome Boy.

To make the reconstructions as accurate as possible, Alice and George have travelled the globe, gathering evidence from the world's leading scientists. In the lab at the Prehistoric Autopsy HQ, scientists put the latest theories to the test to see how similar or different we really are to our ancient ancestors, while experimental archaeologists look for clues as to how they lived.

All the research has been fed to a team of model makers who have spent months painstakingly reconstructing his skeleton, muscles, skin and hair.

The team reveal the latest research that suggests Homo erectus were good hunters, were skilled at making stone tools and could probably control fire. They also look at evidence that suggests some individuals were helping those who couldn't help themselves. It may be the oldest evidence we have for something we think of as a human trait - compassion.

And in the end, the carefully reconstructed Narikotome Boy is finally revealed as we come face to face with another of our prehistoric ancestors.


SUN 00:25 Secrets of the Museum (m000g1rv)
Series 1

Episode 5

Inside every museum is a hidden world, and now, for the first time, cameras have been allowed behind the scenes at the world-famous Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Only a quarter of the museum’s objects are on display to the public - the rest lie deep in the stores. Now, after decades at the same site, the museum’s stores are being relocated to a brand new, high-tech home. It’s the job of curator Jane to make sure the 3,000 costumes in the Theatre and Performance collection are fully catalogued before the move.

First on her list is a costume specially designed by Bob Mackie for Elton John’s Jump Up tour in 1982. She also unearths dresses worn by usherettes at the premiere of The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night in 1964.

Meanwhile, hidden in the stores is one item that has been lying dormant for decades and that has now been summoned to star in a new sci-fi exhibition. Frankenstein’s Monster is a rare survivor from one of early cinema’s greatest movies – The Bride of Frankenstein. Curator Keith needs to find out if Frankenstein can be brought back to life. After a series of X-rays, it seems the 85-year-old monster is held together only by a few rusty nails. And Frankenstein’s clothes - originally worn by actor Boris Karloff - have seen better days. After weeks in conservation trying to breathe life back into this six-foot monster, Frankenstein’s future looks uncertain, and Keith is faced with a difficult decision.

An unusual item has been spotted by curator Lucia – a vintage Louis Vuitton trunk that came to the museum merely as a container for a number of haute couture dresses and was then put aside. Lucia is curating a new exhibition called Bags: Inside Out and wants to unlock the trunk’s secrets. She discovers that it was owned by one of America’s most famous mistresses, a woman named Emily Grigsby, who spent millions of her lover’s money on a lifetime of adventure. Curator Lucia believes the trunk deserves its rightful place in the V&A archive.

The V&A holds over a million precious books, from illuminated manuscripts to first editions. Many of these are loaned out to exhibitions around the world, so every effort is made to keep them in pristine condition. One of the most important books in the collection is an original Shakespeare First Folio. It’s been requested for a new exhibition elsewhere, but before it can leave the building, it’s the job of paper conservator Ruth to ensure the tiny tears in the 17th-century paper are repaired.

The museum’s enormous stores contain many extraordinary collections, but one of its most prized is a treasure trove of early photographs. Curator Kate is interested in photographs taken by Lewis Carroll for a new exhibition about Alice in Wonderland. The Alice of the book was based on a real person, and now Kate has invited in her great granddaughter, Vanessa Tait, to help her chose photographs of her great-grandmother for the exhibition.


SUN 01:25 The Art Mysteries with Waldemar Januszczak (m000h3dw)
Series 1

Cezanne's Card Players

The Card Players is one of Cezanne’s best-known pictures, but it is also one of his most mysterious. Why did the so-called father of modern art paint two old men hunched over a game of cards? What is the picture trying to tell us?

By exploring Cezanne’s puzzling religious beliefs and his passion for Mary Magdalene, the patron saint of Provence, Waldemar Januszczak uncovers the surprising secrets of a haunting masterpiece.


SUN 01:55 Return to TS Eliotland (b0bn6tr1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 02:55 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.

MONDAY 17 OCTOBER 2022

MON 19:00 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000hjml)
Series 1 (60-Minute Versions)

Bangkok to Hua Hin

Michael Portillo continues his exploration of Thailand by rail, steered by his 1913 Bradshaw’s guide. He steps into the ring under the guidance of champion trainer Master Toddy to learn muay Thai boxing. Can he perfect the cobra-inspired right hook?

Michael confronts his fear of snakes to assist in a surgical operation on a deadly venomous king cobra. He discovers the life-saving work of Bangkok’s Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute, established at the time of his guide by the royal family after the death of a young princess.

Beginning in the capital, Michael learns how the late-19th-century King Rama V founded the city on the east bank of the Chao Phraya River, built a grand palace and introduced railways to his country. Michael discovers the fine terminus commissioned by the king and meets a historian and designer who shares family roots with the present royal dynasty. Michael learns that King Rama V’s love of steam engines was inspired by Queen Victoria.

At the colossal new station under construction in the city, Michael hears how its four levels and 24 platforms will transform Thailand’s transport infrastructure. He circles the Grand Palace by tuk tuk then boards the 21st-century Skytrain for a wonderful view of the city.

Michael dines on the water in a floating market, where purchases are made from boat to boat. Following in the footsteps of writers such as Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene and John Le Carre, Michael checks into the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, built just before his guide.

Striking south to the resort of Hua Hin, Michael learns the history of the Southern Railway and hears how royal patronage kickstarted today’s Thai tourist industry. He meets the niece of the present king, Rama X, at the Palace of Love and Hope, created by their ancestor, King Rama VI.


MON 20:00 Stonehenge: The Lost Circle Revealed (m000s5xm)
In a world exclusive, 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 Prof Mike Parker Pearson have painstakingly compiled the 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.

From the grand fantasy of medieval Merlin legends, to the chemical signatures in microscopic rock fragments, no stone is left unturned in the search for new evidence. By combining innovative 3D scanning techniques, traditional field archaeology and novel laboratory analysis, the team have discovered when and where the stones for Stonehenge were quarried and where they first stood.

Alice shows how the team discovered that the stones must have been quarried 400 years before they were first erected at Stonehenge. The team then focuses on trying to find out if the same stones had an earlier life.

Alice joins Mike as they put together the final pieces of the puzzle – not just revealing where the stones came from and how they were moved from Wales to England, but also solving one of the toughest challenges that archaeologists face.

Their revelations will rewrite the history of Stonehenge forever – this is the story of Stonehenge’s lost circle.


MON 21:00 Storyville (m001d7lc)
The Fire Within

On 3 June 1991 at 3.18pm, a pyroclastic flow erupted from Mount Unzen in Japan. A cloud of superheated gases and particles descended at more than 100mph from the peak of the volcano, consuming everything in its path.

It instantly killed Katia and Maurice Krafft, volcanologists and film-makers from the Alsace region in France. They were too close. They were almost always too close. On the day before they died, Maurice said in an interview, 'I am never afraid, because I’ve seen so many eruptions in 25 years that, even if I die tomorrow, I don’t care.'

The Fire Within pays homage to the Kraffts, who left an archive of more than 200 hours of footage of their final journey, unprecedented in its spectacular and hypnotic beauty.


MON 22:30 Dangerous Earth (b083bm5m)
Volcano

Dr Helen Czerski looks at volcanoes. With shocking eyewitness footage of eruptions, and new thermal imagery and ultra high-speed photography, we can now capture on camera the complex processes crucial to understanding how and why these forces of nature erupt.


MON 23:00 Dangerous Earth (b0824cw7)
Avalanche

Dr Helen Czerski looks at the anatomy of an avalanche. From shocking eyewitness footage from within an avalanche to detailed CT scans showing the microscopic changes that cause them, we can now capture exactly what happens as snow transforms into a deadly and unpredictable danger.


MON 23:30 Prehistoric Autopsy (b01nlzsh)
Lucy

It is the final day at the Prehistoric Autopsy HQ in Glasgow. Anatomist Professor Alice Roberts and biologist Dr George McGavin continue their journey back into our evolutionary past.

They meet probably the most famous of all our early ancestors. She is called Lucy from the species Australopithecus afarensis, and she lived 3.2 million years ago. Lucy's species had traded life in the trees for life on the ground, but this ability to routinely walk upright came at a price, and it is one we are still paying today.

Once again with the help of a team of international experts, this follows the rebuilding of this iconic prehistoric ancestor from the bones up.

To make the reconstructions as accurate as possible, Alice and George have travelled the globe, gathering evidence from the world's leading scientists. In the lab at the Prehistoric Autopsy HQ, scientists put the latest theories to the test to see how similar or different we really are to our ancient ancestors, while experimental archeologists look for clues as to how they lived.

All the research has been fed to a team of model makers who have spent months painstakingly reconstructing skeletons, muscles, skin and hair.

At HQ, the team studies evidence that reveals how Lucy and her kind walked, what they ate and even how they gave birth. They also examine the fossilised remains of the world's oldest child to see what clues it can reveal about Lucy's species and the origins of childhood.

At the end of this extraordinary evolutionary journey, the team will have travelled back nearly four million years. On the way, they will have come face to face with a Neanderthal, a Homo erectus and finally one of our earliest prehistoric ancestors - Lucy.


MON 00:30 The Art of Japanese Life (b08v8gxj)
Series 1

Nature

Dr James Fox journeys through Japan's mountainous forests, marvels at its zen gardens and admires centuries-old bonsai, to explore the connections between Japanese culture and the natural environment.

Travelling around Japan's stunning island geography, he examines how the country's two great religions, Shinto and Buddhism, helped shape a creative response to nature, often very different to the west. But he also considers modern Japan's changing relationship to the natural world and travels to Naoshima Art Island to see how contemporary artists are finding new ways to engage with nature.


MON 01:30 The Galaxy Britain Built: The British Force Behind Star Wars (m000cdzt)
Superfan David Whiteley celebrates the unsung British heroes behind the first film in the Star Wars’ franchise, 1977’s eponymously titled Star Wars.

The Star Wars saga ends with the release of The Rise of Skywalker in December 2019. This documentary celebrates where it all began. It includes previously unheard stories from the people who made one of the most successful movies of all time, with additional interviews and previously unseen behind-the-scenes footage.

The presenter, Star Wars superfan David Whiteley, who has his own connection to the original film (he was born on May the 4th), tracks down the often modest British talent who brought the galaxy to life.

David explores the contribution of the London Symphony Orchestra and meets Ann Skinner, who was in charge of continuity. As well as seeing her original stills from the set, Ann reveals how she helped Sir Alec Guinness with one of the most famous speeches in Star Wars.

A must for Star Wars fans, this documentary also includes contributions from Star Wars producer, Gary Kurtz, and costume designer, John Mollo.


MON 03:00 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000hjml)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

TUESDAY 18 OCTOBER 2022

TUE 19:00 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000hqt5)
Series 1 (60-Minute Versions)

Ho Chi Minh to Hoi An

Michael Portillo boards Vietnam’s spectacular Reunification Railway to make a 1,000-mile journey from Ho Chi Minh City in the south to the capital, Hanoi. Michael visits the vast container port of Haiphong and finishes in the turquoise waters of Halong Bay.

Michael’s 1913 Bradshaw’s Guide unlocks for him the traumatic 20th-century history of today’s Socialist Republic of Vietnam, a former French colony. On this leg, he braves the streets of Saigon - as locals still call Ho Chi Minh City - on a motorbike, one of 8.5 million to do so daily. He attempts the national sport, da cau, and samples French-Vietnamese fusion food. Michael discovers how to make the quintessential Vietnamese condiment of fish sauce and joins modern Vietnamese people on holiday in a replica medieval French village in the Annamite Mountains, west of Da Nang.

In the tailoring capital of Hoi An, Michael learns how the region’s silkworms feed on the Champa mulberry tree and how the Cham people weave their distinctive brocade. Can he resist a colourful new jacket?


TUE 20:00 Ever Decreasing Circles (p00c1kbb)
Series 4

Episode 1

The stress of continually seeking perfection, and organising others around him with military precision, finally takes its toll on Martin's nerves. Something has got to be done to make him relax - and soon!


TUE 20:30 Ever Decreasing Circles (p00c1kd5)
Series 4

Episode 2

Paul plans to leave the area if he can't find suitable premises for his new venture - putting Martin in a difficult position.


TUE 21:00 Mercury Prize (m001btm7)
2022

Mercury Prize 2022 with Free Now: Album of the Year

Lauren Laverne hosts live coverage of this year’s Mercury Prize Album of the Year from the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London.

2022’s eclectic shortlist, which was announced live on BBC Radio 6 Music in July, is a reflection of the UK and Ireland’s rich musical landscape over the last 12 months. All the shortlisted albums will be reflected through live performance, building to the announcement of this year’s winner selected by the judges, a panel of music experts from broadcasters to industry heavyweights and artists including Anna Calvi, Loyle Carner and Annie Macmanus.

This year's 12 shortlisted albums are:

Fergus McCreadie’s Forest Floor, the third album from the acclaimed Scottish pianist and composer, whose unique blend of jazz and Scottish folk have earned him his first place on the Mercury shortlist.

Welsh native Gwenno also receives a first nod with Tresor, a deeply personal offering exploring the impact of motherhood on the psyche and written almost entirely in Cornish.

Global pop phenomenon Harry Styles, who launched a solo career in 2017, makes the list with his huge No 1 record Harry’s House.

Academy Award-nominated actress and singer Jessie Buckley and previous Mercury Prize winner Bernard Butler, who have teamed up for a unique collection of mesmerising songs entitled For All Our Days That Tear the Heart.

Proud south Londoner Joy Crookes, who released her debut album Skin in 2021. She used the project to traverse familial love, generational trauma, breakups and politics, while paying homage to those who taught her valuable lessons about each of these topics.

Another proud Londoner, rapper Kojey Radical, released his long-awaited debut Reason to Smile in March, which has been dubbed an era-defining Black British work. It features contributions from the likes of Kelis, Wretch 32 and his own mother.

Little Simz returns to the Mercury shortlist for a second time with Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, the rapper’s fourth and most personal offering yet. It covers complex themes of race, womanhood, gang violence, loss, childhood and trauma throughout the album.

Heavy alternative rock renegades Amy Love and Georgia South aka Nova Twins, who have blurred punk, rap, pop and hard rock to create Supernova, their second album.

Continuing the theme of sophomore albums, North Shields’s Sam Fender released Seventeen Going Under in 2021, his second to hit No 1 and what he claims to be his coming-of-age story.

Rebecca Lucy Taylor aka Self Esteem, who has fast become the unapologetic pop star she always wanted to be, makes the list with Prioritise Pleasure, an album that outlines the absurd contradictions of modern womanhood.

Isle of Wight duo Wet Leg rose to prominence last year with their viral single Chaise Longue. Their eponymous debut album, which has been described as ‘sad music for party people’, hit the top of the charts in April.

Completing the 12 is Leeds outfit Yard Act, whose culturally astute record The Overload ties together observations from all walks of modern British life with satirical spoken-word humour.


TUE 22:15 Dangerous Earth (b083dgt5)
Lightning

Dr Helen Czerski examines the hottest natural phenomenon on the planet - lightning. Bolts of lightning five times hotter than the surface of the sun strike our planet over three million times every day - and yet we still know little about this deadly force of nature. Now, specialist photography is revealing how lightning travels through the air, high-speed cameras are unlocking the secrets of upward lightning that's triggered by our urban landscapes, and scientific expeditions are capturing rare images of intense electrical discharges over 80 kilometres wide.


TUE 22:45 Dangerous Earth (b08445rk)
Aurora

Dr Helen Czerski looks at the latest scientific insight into the aurora - dancing lights in the night sky that have fascinated cultures throughout our history. From the networks of cameras now capturing its vast scale, to novel experiments that probe the threat it poses to modern technology, Helen reveals the dramatic transformation in our understanding of the aurora, and the many mysteries that remain to be solved.


TUE 23:15 Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley (b0b5y4zg)
2018 marks 100 years since the first women over the age of 30, who owned property, were allowed to vote in the UK. The fight for the vote was about much more than just the Pankhurst family or Emily Davison's fateful collision with the king's horse. In this film, Lucy is at the heart of the drama, alongside a group of less well known, but equally astonishing, young working-class suffragettes who decided to go against every rule and expectation that Edwardian society had about them.

Lucy explores the actions of these women as their campaign becomes more and more dangerous, while their own words are delivered in simple but strikingly emotive pieces of dramatised testimony. Lucy also tells this story from a range of iconic original locations, from the Houses of Parliament and 10 Downing Street to the Savoy Hotel, and has access to an amazing range of artefacts, from hunger-striking medals to defused bombs and private letters between the government and the press.

In this Edwardian history drama, Lucy and her group of suffragettes from the Women's Social Political Union reveal what life was like for these young women, as she follows the trail of increasingly illegal and dangerous acts they would end up committing. For while they would start with peaceful protests, but they would go from to obstruction to vandalism and finally to arson and bomb making.

Lucy investigates what drove them to break the law, to the prison conditions they experienced, including violent force feedings and the subsequent radicalisation of these women that occurred, driving them to more and more extreme actions. Lucy looks at the ways in which the press responded to the suffragettes and their own use of PR and branding to counteract the negative portrayals - from WSPU postcards to pennants and exhibitions.

The decisive and largely negative role that members of Parliament played is unpacked, as they would throw out numerous attempts to give women the vote. The role of the police is explored, both in the ways in which the suffragettes' demonstrations were handled and the covert and sometimes violent tactics that were used against them.

As the actions of the suffragettes became increasingly extreme, it would take a world-changing event to stop their campaign in its tracks and allow some form of equality at the ballot box.


TUE 00:45 The Art of Japanese Life (p054md5m)
Series 1

Cities

Dr James Fox explores how the artistic life of three great Japanese cities shaped the country's attitudes to past and present, east and west, and helped forge the very idea of Japan itself.

Beginning in Kyoto, the country's capital for almost a thousand years, James reveals how the flowering of classical culture produced many great treasures of Japanese art, including The Tale of Genji, considered to be the first novel ever written. In the city of Edo, where Tokyo now stands, a very different art form emerged, in the wood block prints of artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige. James meets the artisans still creating these prints today, and discovers original works by a great master, Utamaro, who documented the so-called 'floating world' - the pleasure district of Edo.

In contemporary Tokyo, James discovers the darker side of Japan's urbanisation, through the photographs of street photographer Daido Moriyama, and meets one of the founders of the world-famous Studio Ghibli, Isao Takahata, whose haunting anime film Grave of the Fireflies helped establish anime as a powerful and serious art form.


TUE 01:45 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000hqt5)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


TUE 02:45 The Art of Japanese Life (b08v8gxj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 00:30 on Monday]

WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 2022

WED 19:00 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000hy2k)
Series 1 (60-Minute Versions)

Hue to Halong Bay

Michael Portillo continues his thousand-mile journey aboard the Reunification Railway from Ho Chi Minh City in the south to the capital, Hanoi, and on to the vast northern port of Haiphong. He finishes amid the limestone islets in the turquoise waters of Halong Bay.

Steered by his 1913 Bradshaw’s Guide, Michael travels through what was French Indochina and is today the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. En route, he tours the formidable imperial city of Hue and in a village nearby, Michael meets milliner Mrs Ngo, who tries to teach him how to make the iconic conical hat.

Back on track, Michael crosses the former Demilitarized Zone, which once separated North from South Vietnam. A ten-hour journey lies ahead, but the friendliness of fellow passengers and supper on board makes up for the bunk beds, and by daybreak he is in the beautiful province of Ninh Binh.

In the Red River Delta, Michael takes a boat ride to join farmer Mr Vinh to learn how to make a Ninh Binh speciality, com chay.

Approaching Hanoi, Michael passes the famous train street, where the locomotive passes within centimetres of the houses either side of the tracks. Checking into the capital’s famous Metropole Hotel, built at the time of his guidebook, Michael discovers a bunker, where guests sheltered from American bombardment during the Vietnam War. And at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, Michael hears about the nationalist leader and his struggle for independence for Vietnam. Egg coffee is a new experience in the Old Quarter, and a water puppet show is a hit.

At a former Soviet factory which once supplied military uniforms to the North Vietnamese army and Viet Cong, Michael discovers a progressive new manufacturer, which supplies sportswear to the United States Olympic team. Michael works out with the workers.

The vast container port of Haiphong offers Michael an insight into Vietnam’s future. He ends his journey amid the spectacular limestone islets and turquoise waters of Halong Bay.


WED 20:00 Why the Industrial Revolution Happened Here (b01pz9d6)
Professor Jeremy Black examines one of the most extraordinary periods in British history: the Industrial Revolution. He explains the unique economic, social and political conditions that by the 19th century, led to Britain becoming the richest, most powerful nation on Earth. It was a time that transformed the way people think, work and play forever.

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

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


WED 21:00 Uprising (m000y313)
Series 1

The Front Line

After the New Cross fire and the Black People’s Day of Action, tensions between the community and the police escalated when a massive stop-and-search operation was launched, targeting black people on the streets of Brixton. In April, the situation boiled over into one of the biggest riots in British history. Buildings were burned down and hundreds of police injured. Riots then flared up all over the country, from Southall to Toxteth, but by the year's end, the people of New Cross were no closer to knowing who started the New Cross fire or why - and a lack of answers and justice has lingered over the case ever since.


WED 22:00 David Harewood Remembers... A Man from the Sun (m001d7q2)
Actor David Harewood shares his impressions of John Elliot’s game-changing 1956 BBC drama, which explored the challenges and racism encountered by Windrush immigrants from the West Indies, who had come to Britain after being promised work and a secure future.

David discusses the impact A Man From the Sun still holds today, the performances of cast members Errol John, Cy Grant and Earl Cameron, and the context and attitudes of a decade that saw the BBC bring viewers issue-led dramas like this while at the same time creating series such as The Black and White Minstrels.


WED 22:10 A Man from the Sun (b0074nt1)
Groundbreaking docudrama from 1956 exploring the experiences of the then 75,000 West Indians who had newly settled in Britain, and the disparity they found between the mythical country and the real one.


WED 23:10 Dangerous Earth (b084n7z1)
Tornado

Dr Helen Czerski peers into the heart of the storm to find out how advances in technology are giving new insight into tornadoes - the fastest winds on the planet. From the breathtaking footage that capture the extreme weather events that produce them, to the latest experiments investigating their incredible destructive power, Helen discovers how our increasing understanding of the subtle changes deep within a storm is improving our ability to predict when and where these devastating beasts will strike.


WED 23:40 Into the Ice (m001d7j2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]


WED 01:05 The Art of Japanese Life (p054mdmy)
Series 1

Home

In the final episode, Dr James Fox explores the art of the Japanese home. The clean minimalism of the Japanese home has been exported around the world, from modernist architecture to lifestyle stores like Muji. But the origins of this ubiquitous aesthetic evolved from a system of spiritual and philosophical values, dating back centuries. James visits one of Japan's last surviving traditional wooden villages, and the 17th-century villa of Rinshunkaku, and reveals how the unique spirit of Japanese craftsmen (shokunin) turned joinery into an artform - creating houses without the need for nails, screws or even glue.

Exploring some of the traditional arts of the Japanese home (where even food and flower arranging have been elevated to the level of art), James also investigates attitudes to domestic culture in modern Japan, meeting photographer Kyoichi Tsuzuki, chronicler of Japan's crowded cities and tiny apartments.

Other highlights include a performance by calligrapher and artist Tomoko Kawao and a visit to the hometown of Terunobu Fujimori, one of the most singular and playful contemporary architects working in Japan today.


WED 02:05 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000hy2k)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 03:05 The Art of Japanese Life (p054md5m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 00:45 on Tuesday]

THURSDAY 20 OCTOBER 2022

THU 19:00 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000j4bz)
Series 1 (60-Minute Versions)

Jakarta to Borobudur

Michael Portillo’s 2500-mile railway tour of south east Asia reaches its southern most point in Indonesia. Michael's journey begins on the island of Java at the heart of this archipelago nation, the world’s fourth most populous.

In the heaving megacity of Jakarta, the capital, Michael uncovers Indonesia’s colonial past as part of a Dutch empire and its rich history as a port and centre of the spice trade. He negotiates the city’s infamous traffic, takes a ride on the newly launched MRT metro and dines like a local on Jakarta’s famous street food. On a trip out of the city, Michael finds out how Bogor’s Botanical Gardens, now a centre of research and conservation, were developed by Englishman Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, once governor of Java.

Leaving the capital on a seven-hour railway journey past rainforests and paddy fields, Michael heads to the volcanic heart of Java’s central province. He visits the island’s most dangerous volcano, Mount Merapi, and learns how its deadly eruption in 2010 killed over 300 people. Nearby in the village of Bendo, Michael tries his hand at the art of traditional noodle making. This leg of his journey ends at the country’s greatest ancient wonder and Indonesia’s most visited monument, the Borobudur Temple. Michael marvels at how the world’s largest Buddhist shrine lay hidden for centuries under volcanic ash.


THU 20:00 Wild China (b00bwky1)
Tibet

Documentary capturing pioneering images to exhibit the dazzling array of mysterious and wonderful creatures that live in China's most beautiful landscapes.

The vast Tibetan Plateau is one of the world's most remote places and home to chiru antelopes, wild yaks, foxes and bears. It has a remarkable culture shaped by over one 1,000 years of Buddhism, while its mountains and glaciers provide a vital life support system for half the planet.


THU 21:00 Harriet (m001ckxy)
The extraordinary story of Harriet Tubman, chronicling her escape from slavery and transformation into a leading abolitionist fighter, who freed hundreds of slaves in the years before the American Civil War.


THU 22:55 Loving (m000nx4m)
Virginia’s law against mixed race marriage makes criminal exiles of Richard and Mildred Loving in 1958. The risky return to their rural roots comes as civil rights lawyers take up the couple’s case, despite Richard’s misgivings.

Powerful, true-life drama.


THU 00:50 Uprising (m000y313)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Wednesday]


THU 01:50 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000j4bz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 02:50 The Art of Japanese Life (p054mdmy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 01:05 on Wednesday]

FRIDAY 21 OCTOBER 2022

FRI 19:00 TOTP2 (b00874gg)
Hallowe'en Special

To get you in the mood for Halloween, Steve Wright pops out from behind the cellar door to introduce an hour of the spookiest Top of the Pops clips ever. Enjoy the Automatic, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Ray Parker Jr and Bobby 'Boris' Pickett. Hide behind the sofa as we bring you witches, monsters and Michael Jackson.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m001d7qt)
Tony Dortie presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 23 September 1993 and featuring Depeche Mode, The Wonder Stuff, M People, Haddaway, Stakka Bo, Take That with Lulu, and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m001d7qy)
Mark Franklin presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 30 September 1993 and featuring Manic Street Preachers, Belinda Carlisle, Gabrielle, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Eternal, Chaka Demus & Pliers, Spin Doctors and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince.


FRI 21:00 Kings of Soul (b05n2bx6)
Celebrating the men whose vocal stylings have carried the torch for soul across six decades. It showcases the rarely seen but infectious Brenton Wood's Gimme Little Sign and offers the velvet voice of Curtis Mayfield singing Keep On Keeping On. There are groundbreaking artists from the 60s to the noughties, with performances from Billy Preston, Bill Withers, Billy Ocean, Alexander O'Neal, Barry White, Bobby Womack and many more.


FRI 21:55 BBC Four Sessions (b0074pvs)
James Brown

Series of concerts featuring musicians from around the world at LSO St Luke's in London's East End. The late James Brown, aka the Godfather of Soul, is joined by a 19-piece band including two drummers, three backing vocalists, two dancers in hot pants and a brass section.

He performs some of his most famous songs, including Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, It's a Man's Man's World, I Feel Good and Sex Machine.


FRI 22:55 Soul America (m000m7h1)
Series 1

Amazing Grace

Carleen Anderson narrates a three-part series telling the story of how soul music emerged from the world of gospel in the early 1960s to deliver an assertive, integrated vision of black America during the civil rights era, presided over by its own king and queen, Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin.

From the 17th century, slavery drove the economy of the American south for 200 years. Slavery was finally abolished in 1863, but its gospel tradition lived on. As the black American church grew in strength and popularity, so did its singers. A network of black performers and venues emerged known as the gospel highway and in 1950s- in living memory of the Emancipation Proclamation- saw the emergence of soul music’s first generation of stars. Soul came from a higher place, but it would land in the carnal world of Rhythm and Blues. Ray Charles’s What’d I Say crystallised soul, combining Saturday night R&B with Sunday morning call and response.

Episode One travels through the south from Muscle Shoals in Alabama (Aretha, Clarence Carter, Mavis Staples) to Stax in Memphis (Booker T and the MGs, Otis Redding), taking a detour north to Detroit, to argue that Motown’s most soulful achievement was to show the whole world a successful, sophisticated image of black people at a time when Motown musicians themselves were subject to the same treatment as any black American.

With contributions from Mavis Staples, Candi Staton, Duke Fakir, Martha Reeves, Mary Wilson, Otis Williams, The Holland Brothers, Clarence Carter, Al Bell, Steve Cropper and Spooner Oldham. Expert analysis from Mark Anthony Neal, Nelson George and Emily J Lordi.


FRI 23:55 Soul America (m000mfbz)
Series 1

Say It Loud

In the late 60s and early 70s, black America went to war. Inequality, poverty and racism fanned the flames of radical black politics and a harder soul sound: Isaac Hayes, James Brown and the Whitfield-and-Strong-era Temptations. It was the best of soul, it was the worst of times.

1967 was no summer of love for black America. The Detroit riot was one of 159 uprisings across America. When Martin Luther King was murdered the following year in America’s other soul city, Memphis, a tipping point was reached. America burned while James Brown wrote Say It Loud, risking it all to speak out. Stax Records went from being a label built around an integrated house band to become a black-centric business spearheaded by Isaac Hayes’s expansive, flamboyant soul symphonies.

Meanwhile, in Detroit, The Temptations tackled socially aware subjects like the Detroit riot and absent fathers, while Marvin Gaye conceived the epic What’s Going On. This episode also looks at the revolution of black heroes in cinema, inaugurated by Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, a film that led to the blaxploitation genre - a creative sideline for civil rights soul heroes like Isaac Hayes (Shaft) and Curtis Mayfield (Superfly). The film culminates with the Wattstax festival, 1972’s black Woodstock - a truly redemptive and soulful image of the black inner city.

Narrated by Carleen Anderson with contributions from Mavis Staples, David Porter, Al Bell, Otis Williams, Barrett Strong, Fred Wesley, Mary Wilson, Craig McMullen, Willie Hall and William Bell. Expert analysis from Mark Anthony Neal, Nelson George and Emily J Lordi.


FRI 00:55 Soul America (m000mmg6)
Series 1

Sweet Love

How, in the 70s and 80s, a second coming of soul men, led by Teddy Pendergrass, Marvin Gaye and Luther Vandross, offered a black female audience slow jams and sexual healing.

In the early 70s, Memphis was the capital of gospel-infused soul music, thanks to two key labels. One was Stax, the other was Hi Records - a high church of soul presided over by Al Green whose Let’s Stay Together pre-figured a new type of soul man, one who would come to dominate the 70s - a sensitive lover man.

In Philadelphia, a new record label was born that would also soften soul’s hard edges. Philadelphia International Records was home to Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes, from whose ranks Teddy Pendergrass would emerge. PIR was also home to the O’Jays, who embodied Philadelphia’s message of love and togetherness.

Fresh from the monumental success of What’s Going On, Marvin Gaye went to work on his follow-up, shifting focus from the streets to the bedroom with Let’s Get It On. Bedroom soul was also epitomised by the sensitive, thoughtful Barry White, whose deep baritone put both black and white audiences in the mood.

In the mid-70s, disco became a lucrative sideline for female singers who delivered first-hand songs about love, loss and empowerment such as Candi Staton’s Young Hearts Run Free, whilst Millie Jackson did what the soul men did, only more so, telling it like it was.

This episode also looks at the Quiet Storm radio format, conceived by billionaire entrepreneur Cathy Hughes, targeted at a black female audience. The title was borrowed from Smokey Robinson’s 1975 album of laid-back soul ballads, and the genre helped make stars of artists such as Peabo Bryson, whose smooth ballads led the listener discretely to the bedroom door.

The tragic death of Marvin Gaye, on the back of his biggest success - Sexual Healing - and the paralysis of Teddy Pendergrass seemed like bad omens for soul in the 80s. But one artist filled the gap. New York-born Luther Vandross started out as one of the most in-demand backing vocalists before redefining soul with Never Too Much. Luther may have been the 80s soul king, but he did not rule alone. Anita Baker was the queen. Her 1986 hit album Rapture pursued a similar, contemporary yet retro take on soul.

However, Luther couldn’t hold back the tide forever. The birth of hip hop as a political force and the arrival of MTV closed the door on soul, ushering in a new era for black music. The soul epoch may have been over, but the music never went away and, from time to time, it resurfaces in all its glory.

With The O’Jays, Al ‘Fonzi’ Thornton, Marcus Miller, Nat Adderley Jr, Jerry Cummings, Charles Hodges, Candi Staton, Peabo Bryson, Millie Jackson and Cathy Hughes. Expert analysis from Mark Anthony Neal, David Ritz and Nelson George.


FRI 01:55 Top of the Pops (m001d7qt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 02:25 Top of the Pops (m001d7qy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


FRI 02:55 TOTP2 (b00874gg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]