SATURDAY 29 OCTOBER 2022
SAT 19:00 Expedition Volcano (b09hlzbb)
Series 1
Episode 1
In the heart of Africa, deep in the Congo, is one of the most spectacular volcanoes on Earth - Nyiragongo. This spectacular volcano contains a massive boiling cauldron of molten rock - the world's largest continually active lava lake. But it is also one of the most dangerous volcanoes on the planet. It has erupted twice in the last 50 years, most recently in 2002, wreaking havoc and destruction on the people who live in the nearby city of Goma. This region is also dangerous for another reason - it has been racked by war and humanitarian crises for most of the last 30 years, so Nyiragongo is one of the least studied active volcanoes on Earth.
But now, an international and local team of scientists are mounting a major expedition to study the volcano. They are attempting to discover the warning signs that it is building towards a new eruption, so they can alert the people of Goma before it erupts again. The team will take around four tonnes of climbing equipment, scientific instruments and supplies up to the crater rim. Then a small team will descend into the crater itself - 350m down a potentially deadly rockface - to spend a week camping right next to the lava lake. The expedition is led by Belgian scientist Dr Benoit Smets, who is an expert on Nyiragongo. He is joined by British geologist Prof Chris Jackson. Together, they work with the rest of the team using gas-sampling equipment, thermal cameras and sound waves to try and predict when the volcano will next erupt.
But there is another side to this volcano. As well as the threat of eruption, it impacts life in Goma and the surrounding area in many surprising ways. Humanitarian doctor Xand van Tulleken investigates how Nyiragongo has transformed people's lives by looking at the hidden dangers - from deadly disease to suffocating gases. In charge of expedition logistics is former Royal Marine Aldo Kane. It is his job to get everyone in and out of the crater safely. But during the expedition, he will also risk his life to get the team as near to the lava lake as possible.
SAT 20:00 Treasures of Ancient Egypt (p01mv1cv)
The Golden Age
On a journey through Ancient Egyptian art, Alastair Sooke picks treasures from its most opulent and glittering moment. Starting with troubling psychological portraits of tyrant king Senwosret III and ending with the golden mask of boy king Tutankhamun, Sooke also explores architectural wonders, exquisite tombs and a lost city - site of the greatest artistic revolution in Egypt's history where a new sinuous style was born under King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti. Along the way Egyptologists and artists reveal that the golden veneer conceals a touching humanity.
SAT 21:00 Wisting (p0d47rns)
Series 2
Episode 5
A new manhunt for Wisting as he is called to a chilling crime scene in Larvik's town centre. Believing he is on the trail of a ruthless international smuggling gang, Wisting soon hears from an old friend whose help he needs.
SAT 21:45 Wisting (p0d47sgk)
Series 2
Episode 6
A local night fisherman makes a horrifying discovery in his nets, and Wisting thinks it may be linked to his case.
SAT 22:30 The Green Man (p031d01y)
Episode 1
Maurice Allington, landlord of the Green Man, celebrates his fifty-third birthday and meets the ghost of Dr Thomas Underhill.
SAT 23:25 The Green Man (p031d023)
Episode 2
Ahead of his own father's funeral, Maurice attempts to exhume Underhill, who is not finished with him yet.
SAT 00:15 The Green Man (p031d027)
Episode 3
Underhill agrees to a second meeting, at which Maurice presumes the evil doctor will reveal his full powers.
SAT 01:05 Wisting (m000crc0)
Series 1
Episode 1
William Wisting, a widowed senior detective in the Norwegian coastal town of Larvik, leads a murder investigation in which a body is found in snow underneath a Christmas tree. The clothes on the corpse show that the person killed was an American. An FBI team is immediately flown to Larvik and an international hunt for a serial killer begins.
Meanwhile, William’s daughter Line, a journalist, investigates the lonely death of an elderly neighbour for an article. When her twin brother Thomas returns to a usually sleepy Larvik to celebrate Christmas with the family, he finds both William and Line deeply preoccupied with their investigations.
SAT 01:50 Wisting (m000crc4)
Series 1
Episode 2
With FBI agents Griffin and Bantham added to the team, the investigation is making progress, but Griffin cannot adjust to Larvik’s sleepy ways and finds some of her new colleagues unprofessional.
Meanwhile, Line thinks there’s something suspicious about the death she’s writing about, but William is convinced she’s getting ahead of herself.
SAT 01:35 Wisting (m000d282)
Series 1
Episode 3
Wisting’s team continue to search the bottom of wells all over town for more gruesome clues. They realise that the killer could also have been operating across the border in Sweden, potentially multiplying the number of victims.
Line’s investigation is also becoming more complex, meaning Thomas has his work cut out trying to unite the family at Christmas.
SAT 02:20 Wisting (m000d284)
Series 1
Episode 4
Maggie pursues some unpopular, and not very Norwegian, investigative methods. Meanwhile, a discovery is made in the Larvik countryside. It's the breakthrough the investigation needed but also the one they all feared.
Line continues interviewing Viggo’s old schoolmates and meets some interesting local characters along the way.
SUNDAY 30 OCTOBER 2022
SUN 19:00 John Craven's Newsround (b06t3mhj)
Originally broadcast in December 1973, this is another opportunity to catch the pioneering children's news programme. Presented by John Craven, items include North Sea oil, plane spotters in Yugoslavia, dangerous craft kits, and Scottish farmers learning to lasso.
SUN 19:10 Morph TV with Tony Hart (m001dqy0)
Morph discovers some archive episodes of Tony Hart's programmes and decides to set up his own cable TV station. Assisted by his friend Chas, chaos ensues.
SUN 19:25 Blue Peter (b01hz6n0)
A 1974 edition of the children's magazine programme, presented by John Noakes, Peter Purves and Lesley Judd. Items include Petra the dog's twelfth birthday and Bonfire Night in Torrington, Devon.
SUN 19:50 Chineke! Play Coleridge-Taylor and Sowande (m001dqy6)
Chineke!, Europe’s first majority Black and ethnically diverse orchestra, perform the glorious music of two historic Black composers in a special concert filmed live at Birmingham Town Hall.
Two exquisite novelettes by British-born Samuel Coleridge-Taylor are followed by the colourful and energetic African Suite by Nigerian Fela Sowande.
Presented by Linton Stephens.
SUN 20:30 Black Classical Music: The Forgotten History (m000n18w)
Lenny Henry and Suzy Klein celebrate black classical composers and musicians across the centuries whose stories and music have largely been forgotten.
SUN 22:00 SAS: Rogue Warriors (b08f00s0)
Series 1
Episode 1
The Special Air Service is the world's most famous combat unit, with the motto Who Dares Wins, but the story of how it came into existence has been, until now, a closely guarded secret.
For the first time, the SAS has agreed to open up its archive and allow Ben Macintyre to reveal the true story of their formation during the darkest days of World War Two.
With unprecedented access to the SAS secret files, unseen footage and exclusive interviews with its founder members, this series tells the remarkable story behind an extraordinary fighting force.
Episode one tells the story of the founding of the SAS in the heat of the north African desert in 1941. David Archibald Stirling is an aristocratic dreamer who had once held ambitions to be an artist or perhaps a famous mountaineer but now, with the war in the desert reaching its most desperate stage, Stirling has a vision for a new kind of war: attacking the enemy where they least expect it - from behind their own lines. But Stirling is up against the many in British High Command who do not want to see him succeed with his radical new way of warfare. Against the odds, Stirling wins through and helps the Allies towards victory in the desert. The cost is high. In combat, Stirling loses lieutenant Jock Lewes, his right-hand man. With his brilliant training methods and invention of a new weapon, Lewes has proved vital to making Stirling's dream of a crack fighting force a reality. Stirling must soldier on alone.
SUN 23:00 SAS: Rogue Warriors (b08fmysp)
Series 1
Episode 2
With the tragic loss of Jock Lewes, Stirling's second in command is now the newly promoted Captain Paddy Mayne - an officer as unpredictable and dangerous as the new phase of war that is about to begin. Unknown to David Stirling, the Germans are training special units to track, intercept and kill the marauding SAS. The hunters soon become the hunted. The SAS has to adapt if it is going to survive. Disaster strikes when Stirling is captured by the Germans. As the SAS prepare to fight Hitler in Europe, they are without the inspirational leadership of the man who created them.
SUN 00:00 SAS: Rogue Warriors (b08g89l7)
Series 1
Episode 3
Stirling is locked away in Hitler's most secure prison - Colditz. Leadership of the SAS passes to Paddy Mayne, a man who has built his reputation on the battlefield as a warrior of the first rank, but has no interest in charming high command. In 1943, the SAS leaves the desert for Europe to enter a darker and far more complex theatre of war, led by a man who is often drunk and disorderly and prone to acts of savagery. They will face the terror of execution and the trauma of civilian casualties. And they will be the first to witness the nightmare of Belsen concentration camp.
SUN 01:00 Wisting (m000db84)
Series 1
Episode 5
With the help of the Americans and the Swedes, Wisting’s team have found more and more victims, but now Line herself has been kidnapped, and Wisting faces a race against time to rescue her from the man they have been tracking all along.
SUN 01:50 Wisting (m000db86)
Series 1
Episode 6
Wisting and his team are basking in the success of their recent case. But from out of the blue comes an accusation that they, and specifically he, tampered with evidence in a case 17 years ago.
William is fighting for his reputation and his career.
SUN 02:30 Wisting (m000dl25)
Series 1
Episode 7
Wisting is suspended, unable to protect his reputation and, worse still, unable to officially investigate the supposedly wrongful conviction. Is there a killer still on the loose because of what he did 17 years ago?
The rest of the team are determined to clear Wisting's name. But if he didn’t tamper with the evidence, who did?
MONDAY 31 OCTOBER 2022
MON 19:00 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000jbbh)
Series 1 (60-Minute Versions)
Yogyakarta to Surabaya
Michael Portillo’s railway journey following his 1913 guidebook continues in Indonesia. Beginning in Java’s royal city, Yogyakarta, Michael visits the Sultan’s Palace and witnesses the ancient art of shadow puppetry, known as wayang. This revered form of storytelling was instrumental in the spread of Islam across the Indonesian archipelago. Michael traces the origins of batik, a highly decorative and intricate textile technique that has earned it Unesco world heritage status.
Moving north to the town of Ambarawa, Michael boards a scenic heritage line constructed by the Dutch to exploit the natural resources of the island and which is now a restored relic of the colonial era, cherished by Javanese tourists. In the era Michael's Bradshaw’s guidebook was published, Java became the centre of Dutch trade routes across the world and a major gateway for exports. Michael heads for the mountainous interior to find out how the island remains one of the world’s biggest coffee producers today.
At the city of Semarang, the headquarters of the Dutch East Indies Railway company, Michael visits the Great Mosque, whose sheer scale is a reminder that there are more Muslims in Indonesia than in any other country.
Journey’s end is at the port of Surabaya, where Michael hears the story of how Indonesia finally won its independence.
MON 20:00 Immortal Egypt with Joann Fletcher (b06vpc9y)
The Road to the Pyramids
In the first episode, Professor Joann Fletcher goes in search of the building blocks of Egyptian civilisation and finds out what made ancient Egypt the incredible civilisation that it was.
Joann sees how people here changed, in just a few centuries, from primitive farmers to pyramid builders and finds the early evidence for Egypt's amazing gods and obsession with death and the afterlife.
On her search, Joann travels almost 20,000 years back in time to discover north Africa's earliest rock art, she discovers how the first writing was used to calculate taxes and explores one of the first stone structures on earth - Egypt's first pyramid. Joann ends her journey in the largest monument of them all - the Great Pyramid. Here, she explains how Egypt had now reached a pinnacle - the ultimate society, creating one of the wonders of the ancient world.
MON 21:00 In Conversation with Alan Yentob (m001dr0s)
Series 1
Sir Bob Geldof
At BFI Southbank, in the context of a TV festival leading up to the centennial of the BBC, Alan Yentob engages Bob Geldof in a wide-ranging discussion of the personal, musical, technological and political events that comprise the backstory of a defining moment in BBC history – the global TV event created by the Live Aid Concert of 1985.
Galvanised by a BBC News report by Michael Buerk, which focused on a humanitarian crisis of ‘biblical proportions’ as millions starved in Ethiopia, Geldof reveals new details about how luck, serendipity and ferocious willpower coalesced and uniquely brought together for a common cause many of the world’s most acclaimed musicians.
From his awestruck encounters with the likes of Quincy Jones, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen and many other cultural titans, to lunch with presidents and meetings with the heads of spy agencies, Geldof reveals how a network of global satellites, from broadcasters, industry and governments, were enlisted in the cause of one of the most widely watched events in human history.
MON 22:00 Citizens of Boomtown: The Story of The Boomtown Rats (m000jjr5)
With guests including Bono, Sinead O’Connor, Dave Stewart, Jools Holland, David Mallet and Sting, as well as music writers, photographers and historians, this film explores the musical and social legacy of Ireland’s first rock superstars The Boomtown Rats, who changed their own lives, helped to change Ireland and, with Bob Geldof’s Live Aid, changed the world.
In this entertaining, dramatic and absorbing film, director Billy McGrath digs deep into the band’s history and remarkable songbook and highlights the key moments of its huge success and subsequent fall in 1985. And after over 30 years, why did the band regroup in 2013?
MON 23:30 Sight and Sound in Concert (b03czdtl)
The Boomtown Rats
Pete Drummond introduces a 1984 concert by The Boomtown Rats from Goldiggers in Chippenham.
MON 00:30 Wisting (m000dl27)
Series 1
Episode 8
A young woman has gone missing. To Benjamin’s horror, it’s someone who wanted him to file a complaint about her stalker. Can they find her before the worst happens? And is her disappearance connected to the wrongful conviction case that still looks likely to ruin Wisting?
Everyone, including Wisting and even Frank Robekk, is desperate to get to the truth. Meanwhile, Line has made an old connection from her past and Wisting does not approve.
MON 01:15 Wisting (m000dt81)
Series 1
Episode 9
With the investigator still breathing down his neck, Wisting is determined to clear his name, whatever it takes. Line helps him to chase leads that his colleagues cannot follow up. Meanwhile, Hammer and Benjamin have encountered a suspect from a past case while helping with the search for Linnea, and Hammer is suspicious.
MON 02:00 Wisting (m000dt83)
Series 1
Episode 10
The killer is still out there, but Wisting is trapped in prison after being arrested for obstruction of justice. With their quarry still so elusive, and the police being led down blind alleys, Wisting is one of the only people who suspects the truth. He needs to get out. Otherwise, Line will be investigating the case alone.
MON 02:45 Immortal Egypt with Joann Fletcher (b06vpc9y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
TUESDAY 01 NOVEMBER 2022
TUE 19:00 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000jjr3)
Series 1 (60-Minute Versions)
Penang to Cameron Highlands
Michael Portillo’s south east Asian travels reach Malaysia - once a British colony. Michael’s journey begins on the island of Penang, Britain’s first stronghold in the region. Here he rides one of the steepest, fastest and most exhilarating funicular railways in the world and steps into a tropical paradise as he releases exotic specimens at Malaysia’s first butterfly sanctuary.
Travelling on Malaysia’s modern, hi-tech railway network, Michael visits Taiping, known as the wettest town in the country, where betting on the rain is a local pastime. Here Michael learns how the discovery of tin made this land a desirable possession for the British.
Moving south along the Malay Peninsula, the next stop is the regal town of Kuala Kangsar, home to the Sultan of Perak and one of the country’s most prestigious schools, dubbed the Eton of the east. Michael tries his hand at the school’s chosen sport, Eton fives.
Michael learns of Malaysia’s lucrative rubber industry that boomed at the turn of the 20th century due to the demand for car and bicycle tyres. He discovers the skilful technique in extracting rubber from the tree and observes how the material is used today to give railway passengers a smooth ride.
At the cosmopolitan, foody town of Ipoh, Michael helps bake a popular Chinese treat at a famous Malaysian bakery and experiences a dragon dance of epic proportions. Finally, Michael makes for the Cameron Highlands, where the majority of the nation’s tea is grown. At a colonial-era hill station, Michael visits a plantation and tastes this most British staple.
TUE 20:00 To the Manor Born (b00786xl)
Series 2
The New Farm Manager
Richard offers Ned's services to Audrey in Brabinger's absence but Ned thinks it is all a plot to remove him from his tied cottage so that the new farm manager can move in. Audrey decides to take her revenge.
TUE 20:30 Ever Decreasing Circles (p00c1kkm)
Series 4
Episode 5
Martin is incensed when Howard and Hilda are denied their right to use a public footpath by a local farmer. Martin decides to champion their cause and wonders whether he should sort out the country's footpath situation in general.
TUE 21:00 The Young Ones (p0067tyd)
Series 1
Demolition
Rick, Neil, Mike and Vyvyan learn that the council plans to rip down their home. Vyvyan tries to demolish it himself from the inside and Neil wants to commit suicide.
TUE 21:30 Storyville (m001dqx6)
A Story of Bones
In her role as environmental officer, Annina Van Neel learns that Saint Helena’s planned airport sits on top of a mass burial site for 325 African slaves. As part of the development, their remains were exhumed and moved into storage, with no clear plan or timeline as to what would happen to them next.
Haunted by this and her memories of growing up in Namibia under apartheid, and in spite of the opposition of local people who consider her an outsider, Annina fights for a proper memorial for these forgotten victims.
TUE 23:05 A Day in the Life of Earth (m0001vjc)
If you think the Earth takes millions of years to change, it’s time to think again! Presented by Hannah Fry, this TV special reveals how much our planet can change in just 24 hours. A new era of science allows us to watch as the Earth moves, breathes, shrinks and grows right under our noses. The story is driven by scientists and explorers, and harnesses cutting-edge data, newly launched satellites and blue chip CGI to show us the true personality of the Earth… more dynamic than it’s ever been seen before. Every minute new land is born, every hour tonnes of rock arrive from space, before you go to sleep a cloud of dust from the Sahara will have fertilised the Amazon, and while all that was happening, the ground under your feet moved half a metre. As Hannah explains, Earth’s daily changes are all linked in surprising ways, and - more importantly – we would not be able to survive on the planet without them.
We start with the inner earth – the invisible but hugely dynamic system beneath our feet which constantly rebuilds the planet’s surface. On the island of Stromboli, we climb a volcano with geologist Professor Chris Jackson to see how much lava a single volcano can produce on a daily basis and how that lava builds new land. Chris also reveals what powers the inner earth – radioactive decay beneath of our feet, where heavy elements are constantly decaying into lighter ones – a process that produces the equivalent energy of 27,000 Hiroshima bombs every day. This energy is a crucial driver to plate tectonics and therefore volcanic activity. And the speed with which volcanic activity makes land is crucial - if it didn’t create land faster than erosion destroys it, we would have no land to live on and the world would be one giant ocean.
The story doesn’t stop with new land being made. It’s also constantly being moved. We reveal how the moon not only causes huge movements of water in the ocean – which we know as the tides - but also creates waves of solid rock on land, known as 'solid earth tides'; a ceaseless shape change which we never notice. When amateur divers Ramon and Veronica Llaneza found red dust in an underwater cave in the Bahamas, little did they know how far it had travelled to get there. Scientist Charlie Bristow has tracked the source of the dust to the Sahara and worked out how huge quantities of solid mud get airborne and carried across the Atlantic – half a million tonnes of it per day! Much of it ends up in the Amazon, where it helps fertilise the rainforest – the lungs of the planet. Meanwhile, in the polar regions, mountains are also being moved – by glaciers, which grind down rock 24-7 and eventually deposit it in the ocean, where it helps trigger another daily change – this time to life.
In the ocean, we follow the daily growth of phytoplankton – microscopic plant life fuelled by the nutrients put into the ocean by erosion. Five billion tonnes of it grow every day and, like all plants, absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. In fact, there is so much phytoplankton in the ocean that they are responsible for every second breath we take. The explosive growth of phytoplankton triggers another global change and the biggest mass movement of animal life known to science – the daily migration of the zooplankton, which rise up from the depths every night to feed on the plants. In Florida, we get underwater with a group of intrepid divers, who plunge into the pitch-black ocean for a chance to see this global phenomenon up close. We also look at how science is now able to track the growth of plants on land using satellites. If you could put all the growth in all the world’s forests into one imaginary tree, you would get a single tree three km tall in just one day. But with all this growth, there is an inevitable flipside - fire. The film goes behind the scenes with the US Forest Service as they tackle the biggest wildfire in California’s history. Every day an area of forest twice the size of the Grand Canyon National Park is burnt down.
Finally, Hannah Fry gets us to look outwards. The Earth is not a bubble – it’s part of a bigger cosmic system that every day messes with the composition of our planet. We lose atmospheric gases like hydrogen and helium at the rate of 1kg per second to space. And once they’re gone, they’re gone. In fact, when you look at the Northern Lights, you’re actually looking at helium being lost. But Earth does get something back from space. We join a group of amateur astronomers to watch the Geminid meteor shower in the deserts of California. This heavenly light display is actually revealing a process that goes on all day, every day. The Earth is constantly picking up space dust – an estimated 60 tonnes of it every 24 hours. But perhaps the biggest change of all is the one that few of us are even aware of. Our whole galaxy is moving through the cosmos at two million km per hour.
It really is a different planet every day. If it weren’t, we wouldn’t be on it!
TUE 00:05 Peaky Blinders (m0015041)
Series 6
Black Day
Tommy sets off to North America, where the end of Prohibition brings new opportunities. But he faces new danger from an old adversary who is finally making his move.
TUE 01:05 Peaky Blinders (m00156p5)
Series 6
Black Shirt
Tommy gets involved in a power game with fascists, freedom fighters and Boston gangsters. As the players plan to double cross him, Tommy visits an old ally in Camden.
TUE 02:05 Peaky Blinders (m0015ffr)
Series 6
Gold
Faced with devastating news, Tommy goes on a quest to discover who placed a curse on his family. In Birmingham, Ada takes charge, and Arthur takes on some new recruits.
TUE 03:00 Peaky Blinders (m0015p1x)
Series 6
Sapphire
Tommy establishes a connection between crime and political power that could alter the course of history. He also receives life-changing news from an unexpected source.
WEDNESDAY 02 NOVEMBER 2022
WED 19:00 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000jr4c)
Series 1 (60-Minute Versions)
Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru
Following his 1913 Bradshaw’s guidebook, Michael Portillo continues his exploration of the Malaysian peninsula. Beginning in its dynamic and diverse capital, Kuala Lumpur, Michael's railway journey heads to the very southern tip of Malaysia and the historic city of Johor Bahru, the gateway to Singapore.
In KL, as it is universally known, Michael tries the ancient art of pewter smithing and learns how the discovery of tin transformed a muddy estuary into Malaysia’s thriving capital - one of the world’s fastest-growing cities. Michael sees for himself how breakneck development is putting pressure on the city’s historic Malay settlement, Kampung Baru.
Michael heads south to Melaka, whose history as one of the greatest trading ports in the world has resulted in a surprising mix of cultures and faiths. Michael tastes the spicy cuisine of the Kristang community, who are descendants of Portuguese settlers and local Malays.
Continuing to Kluang among some of Malaysia’s most fertile farmland, Michael lends a hand with the pineapple harvest and discovers how the combination of tin cans and tropical fruit played their part in creating a global market in food.
Arriving in Johor Bahru, Michael visits the palace of Sultan Abu Bakar, a canny and well-travelled monarch who became friends with Queen Victoria and used what he learned to modernise his realm. Yet, as Michael discovers, he failed in one thing: his attempt to create Malaysia’s first ever railway was defeated by an implacable foe – the termite!
WED 20:00 Inside Museums (m000ngbs)
Series 1
St Fagans National Museum of History
Arts enthusiast Cerys Matthews is given an ‘access-all-areas’ pass to her favourite museum, St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff for the BBC's #MuseumPassion season.
Home to more than 40 faithfully re-erected historical buildings, it’s one of the UK's most visited heritage attractions and, as a living history museum, it lives, breathes and embodies the culture and identity of Wales. Cerys steps back in time, yet also draws powerful parallels with the present and our current circumstances as we cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.
St Fagans is steeped in Welsh history, yet the buildings and objects that are housed there also have a powerful contemporary relevance. They speak of the vital importance and occasional perils of community life.
In its early 20th-century, miners’ cottages, Cerys discovers how a previous generation coped with the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. Did close-knit community life help, or were there drawbacks?
Community spirit has many strengths, then and now, and grassroots pubs where people gathered to socialise could provide a central support hub, like the Vulcan Pub, built in 1853 in Cardiff. It has been saved from destruction by the museum and is being rebuilt, brick by brick, on the St Fagans site.
Cerys unpacks the stories behind centuries-old buildings and crafts and reveals the secrets of a selection of objects - from a 1950s caravan to the skull of a 6,000-year-old man. But today, museums also capture history as it happens. Cerys meets Curator of Black History Nasir Adam to find out more about some items that were made and, only recently, donated by the public. They will soon form part of a new exhibition.
St Fagans’ ethos is that theirs is a museum made with and by the people of Wales. It is shot through with community strength and spirit. Craft, industry, passion and pride can all be seen here. Their labours continue to bear fruit and their rich history is held in trust for future generations.
Cerys discovers that we can take comforting lessons for the future from time spent in the past. Objects, architecture and human stories that reveal, however daunting the challenges we might face, they can be overcome. Our history shows us that. The people of the past serve as a reminder. And they beckon us onwards and offer us hope.
WED 20:30 Lucy Worsley's Fireworks for a Tudor Queen (b09cfwt4)
Historian Lucy Worsley teams up with artist and materials scientist Zoe Laughlin to explore the explosive science and fascinating history of fireworks, using an original pyrotechnics instruction manual, and other 400-year-old historical documents, to recreate one of the most spectacular fireworks displays from the Tudor era.
Lucy and Zoe are joined by a team of top class pyrotechnicians to replicate a mind-blowing fireworks display especially designed for Queen Elizabeth I - one of the first documented firework displays in England. Lucy pieces together clues from some of the earliest instruction manuals for making fireworks in England, as well as eyewitness accounts of the display laid on in 1575. Armed with this information, the team apply their understanding of cutting-edge pyrotechnics to recreate it in the grounds of Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, where it was originally staged.
Using hands-on experiments to test their designs, the team construct Tudor rockets, firework fountains and a fire-breathing dragon, as well as discovering the secrets of Elizabethan gunpowder.
Throughout the show, Lucy explores the history of the three-week extravaganza laid on by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, in his final attempt to win the queen's hand in marriage - from the elaborate food the Tudor audience would have eaten, to the colours that the set might have been painted in.
She also reveals the important role fireworks had during the Tudor era - from the firework effects used on stage at the Globe Theatre to the pyrotechnical experimentation that took place at the Tower of London, the MI5 of its day.
But not all the clues can be found in England - some of the fireworks described need to be tracked down further afield. Lucy travels to Italy to recreate the mysterious Girandola - a horizontal spinning wheel of fire - whilst Zoe flies to South Korea to witness the ancient, and rather terrifying, rocket box launcher in action.
The danger and technical challenges involved in recreating 400-year-old fireworks creates a real sense of scale and event. And the detective work needed to decipher these Tudor pyrotechnic manuals, and the engineering ingenuity to recreate them, form the narrative spine of the film, culminating in a spectacular recreation of Elizabeth I's mind-blowing firework display at Kenilworth Castle.
WED 22:00 Siân Phillips Remembers... How Green Was My Valley (m001dr5z)
Award-winning actress Siân Phillips takes a look back at the BBC’s landmark 1975 adaptation of Richard Llewellyn’s classic novel How Green Was My Valley.
Siân’s role as Beth, the matriarch and heart of the Morgan family, was crucial to this portrayal of a traditional Welsh mining community during a time of huge upheaval. She recalls how the production came together and what it was like working with her fellow cast, including Welsh icon Stanley Baker in what would be one of his final roles.
As well as some of her favourite personal memories, she also considers the drama’s legacy and explores how it has stood the test of time.
WED 22:10 How Green Was My Valley (m001dr64)
Series 1
Episode 1
Wales at the end of the 19th century. Life is harsh but uncomplicated in the Rhondda. The Morgans are a happy and united family, but as a new century approaches, the younger generation is restless.
WED 23:05 How Green Was My Valley (m001dr6h)
Series 1
Episode 2
Huw can walk again, and Ifor and Bronwen are now married. Ianto devotes himself to his union work, but watches on with interest as Owen's affection for Marged Evans begins to fade.
WED 23:55 How Green Was My Valley (m001dr6k)
Series 1
Episode 3
Huw's first day at school leaves him bruised but undefeated. The mine owner's son Iestyn is openly pursuing Angharad, but earns a blow from Ianto as a result.
WED 00:50 Peaky Blinders (m0015xjg)
Series 6
The Road to Hell
In the light of extraordinary personal revelations, Tommy takes a course of action that will change everything. Meanwhile, his enemies’ plans start to fall into place.
WED 01:50 Peaky Blinders (m00164dc)
Series 6
Lock and Key
A war veteran who fought in the trenches, Tommy Shelby has been a gangster, an entrepreneur, a captain of industry, a spy and ultimately a Member of Parliament. In the course of this odyssey, he has taken on numerous criminal organisations, business adversaries, foreign insurgents and the British Establishment itself.
Now, in the 1930s, as the clouds of the coming storm gather, he faces the consequences of his experiences and his actions.
THURSDAY 03 NOVEMBER 2022
THU 19:00 Great Asian Railway Journeys (m000jy64)
Series 1 (60-Minute Versions)
Singapore
Michael Portillo’s south east Asian railway tour reaches its final stop - Singapore. The island city-state at the southern tip of Malaysia is one of Asia’s biggest success stories.
Travelling on the extensive MRT - or mass rapid transit - rail network to the west side of the island, Michael visits a vast construction site that is to become the world’s largest fully automated container port, which is taking shape on land reclaimed from the sea. The grand project reflects Singapore’s towering economic ambition.
Back in the centre, Michael hears of the nation’s maritime roots and how Englishman Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles established the first port here in 1819. On a boat trip along the Singapore River, Michael discovers how trade flourished under British colonial rule and, at the iconic Raffles Hotel, he takes a seat in the famous Long Bar and treats himself to its signature cocktail, a Singapore Sling.
On his second day in the city, Michael walks the streets of Chinatown with a local artist and uncovers the history of the Chinese community, who make up three quarters of the population here. At the historic Singapore Botanic Gardens, Michael sees how a piece of rainforest that once covered this part of Asia has been preserved for future generations.
In Tai Seng, Michael goes underground to marvel at the world’s largest subterranean rail depot, where self-driving MRT trains are maintained. On Singapore’s south coast, Michael takes a cable car to Fort Siloso, on the island of Sentosa, where he hears of Britain’s worst military defeat in 1942 and Japan’s subsequent brutal occupation.
Downtown, over a coffee with the head of the Singapore Stock Exchange, Michael learns about the island’s astonishing success as a financial centre and, in the residential district of Ang Mo Kio, he visits one of a new breed of urban farms, looking to the future to feed the increasing population by growing fruit and vegetables on a car park roof. His tour ends in the centre of the city at Boat Quay, where he examines the life and achievements of Lee Kwan Yew, who as prime minister for 31 years was responsible for Singapore’s extraordinary growth.
THU 20:00 Wild China (b00bz1cf)
Beyond the Great Wall
A look at the dazzling array of mysterious and wonderful creatures that live in China's most beautiful landscapes.
The extreme landscapes north of the Great Wall have shaped some of China's most colourful people and wildlife. From nomadic tribes hunting with eagles to camel trains crossing the Silk Road, from frozen Siberian wastes to baking deserts of central Asia, life in northern China is always on the edge.
THU 21:00 If Beale Street Could Talk (m0010cr3)
Tish, a newly engaged Harlem woman, races against the clock to prove her lover's innocence while carrying their first-born child. Based on the novel by James Baldwin.
THU 22:50 Woman in Gold (b06v0dsp)
Drama based on a true story. An Austrian-Jewish refugee living in Los Angeles launches a legal campaign to reclaim a Gustav Klimt painting stolen from her family by the Nazis.
THU 00:30 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.
THU 02:00 Wild China (b00bz1cf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THU 03:00 Treasures of Ancient Egypt (p01mv1cv)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 on Saturday]
FRIDAY 04 NOVEMBER 2022
FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m001drbj)
Tony Dortie presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 21 October 1993 and featuring INXS, Cappella, Lisa Stansfield, Chris Rea, Jean-Michel Jarre, Lena Fiagbe and Meat Loaf.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m001drbn)
Mark Franklin presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 28 October 1993 and featuring Bjork and David Arnold, Dina Carroll, Bryan Adams, Phil Collins, David Hasselhoff and Meat Loaf.
FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b08p2kdw)
Peter Powell and Mike Read present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 3 November 1983 and featuring ABC, Donna Summer, Elton John, Status Quo, Madness, Shakin' Stevens and Billy Joel.
FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (m0001jgn)
Peter Powell and Steve Wright present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 6 November 1986 and featuring Bon Jovi, Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, Red Box, Swing Out Sister, Duran Duran, Berlin and The Pretenders.
FRI 21:00 Don McLean and Friends in Concert (m001drbr)
American Pie and Vincent made Don McLean universally known as a songwriter. In this, his first television special, he displays his talents as a performer.
Supporting McLean are The Jordanaires, the first time Elvis Presley's original backing group appeared outside the USA, and Britain's first lady of jazz/rock, Elkie Brooks.
FRI 22:00 Classic Albums (b09hqpzz)
Don McLean: American Pie
The story of Don McLean's second album American Pie. Crowned by its titular overture and the song Vincent, McLean's equally moving tribute to Van Gogh, American Pie is a classic of the folk-rock genre, earning its place alongside Carole King's Tapestry, Joni Mitchell's Blue and Neil Young's After The Goldrush as one of the landmark singer-songwriter LPs of 1971, a year recently celebrated in a book by award-winning journalist David Hepworth as 'rock's golden year'. Don McLean features in extensive new interviews, discussing the intricacies of his songs, the sometimes fraught recording process, and the album's legacy.
Forty-five years after its release, there has never been another album quite like American Pie. While a product of its era pinpointing a precise moment of cultural change in the shattered hopes of baby boomers, its impact continues to reverberate down the years with a poignancy and relevance that hasn't diminished.
The questions it raises about its country's past, present and future are as much a part of our cultural dialogue in Trump's 2017 as they were in Nixon's 1971. "I had most of the album written without American Pie," explains McLean. "But I wasn't happy with that. I knew it wasn't finished. I had more to say. I had this this really big song I needed to get out."
Interviewees include producer Ed Freeman and musician Jake Bugg, whose musical path was initiated when hearing Vincent for the first time on the TV, and a poignant archive performance of George Michael performing The Grave.
FRI 23:00 Sounds for Saturday (m001drbw)
Series 1
Don McLean
Don McLean in a concert performance from the classic 1970s BBC TV music series.
FRI 23:30 Can You Feel It - How Dance Music Conquered the World (b0bkz064)
Series 1
The Beat
House music is now one of the most popular music genres on the planet. The charts are packed with 4/4 tunes made or remixed by superstar DJs. The irresistible and relentless groove of the dance floor fills clubs and stadiums, themes the biggest TV shows and is the soundtrack to mega advertising. You can't escape the beat. But how did we get here?
In the first episode we follow the 4/4 beat from its disco origins through remix culture to house, techno, acid house and the current EDM explosion.
With contributions from disco legends Nicky Siano and Tom Moulton, house pioneers like Marshall Jefferson, Farley 'Jackmaster' Funk and Steve 'Silk' Hurley, Detroit techno inventors Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May and modern DJ superstars such as Pete Tong and David Guetta.
FRI 00:30 Can You Feel It - How Dance Music Conquered the World (b0blhtcs)
Series 1
The Club
This episode celebrates the club. From Studio 54, The Loft and Paradise Garage to Shoom, illegal raves, The Hacienda, Cream and on to the contemporary megaclub brands in Las Vegas and Ibiza.
Telling the story of how club culture went from shady Chicago lofts to desert casinos. Along the way we learn about the pioneering sound systems that powered the clubs that transitioned disco into house.
Studio 54 DJ Nicky Siano takes us to see the last Richard Long system - in a fairground on Coney Island. Paul Oakenfold takes us to the place he considers to be the birthplace of modern day dance culture - a back alley in Streatham, south London. New Order members Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner recall the trip that led to the birth of The Hacienda.
We end with the multi-billion dollar business of modern clubbing where huge dance events dominate and clubbers in Las Vegas can pay $50,000 for a table by the dance floor. Has the corporate dance experience killed the true meaning of clubbing?
FRI 01:30 Can You Feel It - How Dance Music Conquered the World (b0bm6tlp)
Series 1
The DJ
In the final, part we tell the story of the DJ. With a cast that features today's biggest DJ stars alongside house pioneers, we plot the DJ path from invisibility to centre stage. How is it that people who play records are today's highest paid music stars? As Norman Cook says, 'There's two types of people in the world. Those that hear a record they like and have to listen to it over and over again in their headphones. They're called normal people. Then there's another kind that as soon as they hear a record they like, they have to play it to loads of other people. And they're called DJs.
Today the DJ is a major celebrity. Rich, influential and very powerful. As David Guetta says, 'It was impossible to think that we were going to become the biggest musical phenomenon in the world. But we did it'.
We follow the record box from Greg Wilson - demonstrating mixing two records on a 1980s edition of The Tube - through Ibiza vibe-pioneer Alfredo, to Paul Oakenfold's legendary sets at acid house night Spectrum. And we tell the stories of today's megastar mixers. DJs who earn upwards of $50 million a year.
With in-depth interviews with David Guetta, Steve Aoki, Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk, Black Madonna, Moby and Midland, we discover the highs and the inevitable lows of this new brand of music stardom. The sometimes isolated existence of the lone DJ is brought in to sharp focus by the recent tragic death of 28-year-old Swedish House megastar Avicii.
Other contributors include Pete Tong, Jeff Mills, Terry Farley, Fabio and Nina Kravitz.
FRI 02:30 Ibiza: The Silent Movie (m000777b)
A 90-minute feature film that drills into the soul of this extraordinary, magical Island and releases the story of 3,000 years of Ibizan history. Julien Temple’s iconic trademark style sends its audience on the ultimate, emotionally exhilarating and groundbreaking time-travel ride through the psyche of this jewel of the Mediterranean.
This is a story of extremes and the fight for the very soul of the White Island. A story of sensuality, hedonism, spirituality, ancient ways of life and new ways of living. An island, despite wave after wave of brutal occupation, whose free spirit of tolerance and acceptance of others has somehow managed to survive, absorbing, welcoming and sheltering people and cultures from around the Mediterranean and the world beyond. Ibiza’s bohemian heart now faces its strongest challenge yet: to continue to beat strongly in the face of the ever-growing annual invasion of wealthy socialites and the gentrification of the island in the name of progress.
The film re-enacts, with cameo Hollywood performances, forgotten epic moments in the history of the island. From irresistible sirens who seduced and shipwrecked Odysseus with their honeyed songs to the Carthaginians, Romans, Vikings and Moors; from the refugees of Franco's civil war to the McCarthy blacklists of Hollywood; from the early hippy beat paradise of the 1950s to the pan-European free zone that is Ibiza today; from the sexual rites of the Phoenician love goddess Tanit to disco sunrises at super-clubs like Pacha, Space, Amnesia and DC-10, Ibiza has always been out there on the frontier of human experience. This island has seen it all and so will our audience.
Adopted home of Orson Welles, Errol Flynn, Denholm Elliott, Sid Vicious, Joni Mitchell, Robert Plant, Terry-Thomas, master forger Elmyr de Hory, convicted fraudster Clifford Irving and, of course Elle, Naomi and Kate, Ibiza has always proved irresistible to celebrities on the run from themselves. Today’s residents including Jade Jagger and Guy Laliberte (founder and owner of Cirque du Soleil), and regular visitors to the island that include Madonna and Leonardo Di Caprio, all play a part in maintaining the continued fascination of this magical isle.
To match the unique nature of the island itself, the film breaks new ground by delivering the first culture movie for audiences to dance to. The visual feast of original footage and archive, delivered silently with animation, graphics and text to enhance the narrative, combines with a pulsating non-stop soundtrack mixed by some of the world’s top DJs, enabling audiences to immerse themselves both physically and emotionally in the experience.