SATURDAY 27 MAY 2023

SAT 19:00 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 20:00 Artsnight (b07zc1bv)
Series 4

Michael Palin Meets Jan Morris

Veteran broadcaster Michael Palin travels to north Wales to interview the legendary travel writer Jan Morris. Originally born as James Morris, Jan shot to fame as part of the team that successfully climbed Mount Everest in 1953. She spent the rest of the decade as a journalist travelling the world, interviewing figures such as Che Guevara, and producing reports for BBC Panorama from Hong Kong and Japan. In the 1960s, she turned her attention to writing books about cities and countries, before undergoing gender reassignment in 1972, a process chronicled in her autobiography Conundrum. Michael Palin meets Jan and finds out the secret to her long and happy life.


SAT 20:30 Timeshift (b04z23k9)
Series 14

Battle for the Himalayas: The Fight to Film Everest

Between the 1920s and the 1960s the world's great powers sent vast military-style expeditions to conquer the peaks of the Himalayas, with Everest at their head. This was a great game played - camera in hand - by Imperial Britain, Nazi Germany and superpower America. As a result, Himalayan mountaineering's most iconic, epic and tragic moments didn't just go down in history, but were caught on film - from the deaths of Mallory and Irvine on Everest in 1924, to Everest's final conquest in 1953 by Hillary and Tensing. Using footage never before seen on British television, this is the story how of how film-makers turned the great peaks into great propaganda.


SAT 21:30 Afterglow (p0fg5mh8)
Series 1

Patient Pathway

Ester prepares for chemotherapy, while Arild secretly struggles. Jørund develops health anxiety, and Finn decides it's time to turn his life around.


SAT 22:10 Afterglow (p0fg5mtv)
Series 1

The Wedding

Ester starts undergoing chemotherapy as two of her closest friends tie the knot and her teenage son Lars also falls in love. Still convinced that there must be something wrong with him, Jørund orders a full medical examination.


SAT 22:55 A Little Chaos (b07jqq94)
1680s France. Sabine de Barra's designs for part of the gardens of Versailles cause taciturn landscape architect Andre Le Notre to take an interest in her fresh outlook. Though Sabine is not afraid to get her hands dirty, her introduction to the muddied morality of the royal court of Louis XIV proves much harder work, with secrets and sadness buried just beneath the surface glamour.

Sumptuous historical drama from BBC Films, inspired by true events.


SAT 00:45 As Time Goes By (p0479vfc)
Series 2

The Cruise

Jean’s personal life has become the focal point of conversation between Judy and Sandy. Lionel offers Jean a free cruise holiday, but her response is not what he’d imagined.


SAT 01:15 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (b0077jfw)
Series 1

I'll Never Forget Whatshername

Terry tries to track down some of his old flames, but probing into the past produces embarrassing results.


SAT 01:45 H2O: The Molecule That Made Us (m000zgd9)
Series 1

Crisis

Gaza is a microcosm of a world without access to water. As the planet heats up, droughts may have become more commonplace, but that doesn't mean that water is disappearing.

Storm chasers and photographers track the global changes in giant storms and floods across America. Nasa’s Grace satellites reveal a new map showing global overuse of aquifers. In some places, underground water is being ‘mined’ – finite reserves, which are being used up for profit.

But there are solutions too. New York City uses nature and the Catskill mountains instead of an industrial plant for water treatment, demonstrating a collective appreciation for the importance of water.


SAT 02:35 Himalaya with Michael Palin (b0074qsf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

SUNDAY 28 MAY 2023

SUN 19:00 Queen Victoria: My Musical Britain (m00052ds)
To celebrate Queen Victoria’s 200th birthday, historian Dr Lucy Worsley explores the character and legacy of the famous monarch in a way that has never been attempted before – through music. Lucy reveals how Victoria used music to transform the monarchy from a political power into a benevolent cultural force that brought the country together during a time of great upheaval and change. Lucy also examines the central role music played in Victoria’s own life - as a queen, a private person and in her marriage to Prince Albert.

Victoria and Albert also took an active role in reshaping the musical culture of Britain by establishing institutions like the Royal College of Music and the Royal Albert Hall. Together they laid the groundwork for a musical renaissance in Britain which saw a new generation of great British composers reshape the sound of Britain in the 20th century. To bring the story of Britain’s great musical revolution to life there are performances from Sir Willard White, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Black Dyke Brass Band and many more.


SUN 20:00 Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Yeomen of the Guard (m001mj1s)
English National Opera’s sparkling new production of the much-loved Gilbert and Sullivan classic, set in the Tower of London.

The dashing Colonel Fairfax is under sentence of death. Can his old friend, the Beefeater Sergeant Merryl, save him? And what of Merryl’s daughter Phoebe, who has fallen hopelessly in love with the colonel?

A fast-paced caper with forbidden romances, fantastical plots and unrequited love unfolds, with some surprising twists at the end. Widely regarded as one of Sullivan’s finest scores, the opera is full of delightful tunes, including I Have a Song to Sing, O!, When a Wooer Goes a-Wooing and Free From His Fetters Grim.

The action has been shifted to the 1950s, the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, and the stellar cast includes Tony and Olivier Award-winning stage and screen actor Richard McCabe, who makes his operatic debut in the role of the travelling jester Jack Point, the opera’s comic baritone.


SUN 22:25 Cilla in Scandinavia (m001mf9b)
Cilla Black hosts a show specially recorded in Stockholm on Midsummer's Day and on film locations in Norway, Sweden and Finland. With guest stars Ringo Starr, Sven-Bertil Taube, Basil Brush, Hannu Mikkola and Marvin, Welch & Farrar.


SUN 23:25 Cilla (b00k35l5)
Series 2

Episode 8

Edition of Cilla Black's 1960s TV series. Cilla sings Step Inside Love and Pass Me By, and performs duets with Georgie Fame on For Once in My Life and Dusty Springfield on If You're Ever (Friendship). Dusty and Georgie also take the mic for solo numbers.

Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman and Graeme Garden do a Top of the Form take-off and a ritual Japanese wrestling act, while comedian Tom Ward does a drunk act.


SUN 00:15 Queen Victoria: My Musical Britain (m00052ds)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SUN 01:15 Britain and the Sea (b03lbv22)
Trade and Romance

This third episode traces the crucial importance of the sea to Britain's trade and to individual livelihoods of coastal communities. Joined on this leg of his epic sail by his son Fred, David follows the trade routes of the west coast of Scotland along the monumental channels that cut through the romantic Highlands and brought wealth and prosperity to the heart of Scotland. The journey starts at Craobh Haven and takes David along the Crinan Canal, around the Isle of Bute and up the River Clyde towards Glasgow.

MONDAY 29 MAY 2023

MON 19:00 The Pennine Way (b05q1n6y)
Episode 1

Explorer Paul Rose swaps Antarctica and the world's deepest oceans for the Pennine Way - Britain's first national trail, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2015.

At 268 miles long, the Pennine Way stretches from the Peak District in Derbyshire to the Scottish Borders. Paul discovers how much has changed along the route in the last half-century - and finds out how the Pennine Way owes its existence to the right-to-roam movement in the 1930s.

Paul hears about ghostly sightings along the trail and also meets actor and director Barrie Rutter to explore the literary roots of the south Pennines.


MON 19:30 Fred Dibnah's Building of Britain (b0074n9j)
The Art of Castle Building

Fred Dibnah's Building of Britain continues with the famous steeplejack investigating one of the greatest feats of royal engineering - the constuction of the great chain of castles on the coast of north Wales. Travelling to Harlech, Caernarfon and Beaumaris, Fred reveals the building techniques and revolutionary defensive features that helped Edward I subdue the rebellious Welsh. Fred also charts the achievements of the king's architect Master James of St Georges, a Frenchman who revolutionised castle design in England.


MON 20:00 Italy's Invisible Cities (b08cbkvr)
Series 1

Florence

Using the latest 3D scanning technology, Alexander Armstrong and Dr Michael Scott explore the romantic city of Florence.

They reveal how its wonderful facades and artworks mask a hidden story of intrigue and secrecy, and one powerful dynasty was behind it all - the Medicis, godfathers of the Renaissance. Finally, the scanning team build a virtual reality 3D model to reveal how the city's secret corridors of power were the foundation of its Renaissance glory.


MON 21:00 Britain's Lost Masterpieces (b096m6nx)
Series 2

Glasgow

Pollok House is a country house right in the middle of a Glasgow city park, bordered on one side by the M77 and on the other side by the south side of Glasgow. It is owned by Glasgow City Council and looked after by the National Trust for Scotland. It truly is a house for the people, surrounded by the people. As well as an excellent tea room, Pollok has an impressive collection of Spanish art, the legacy of the man who once owned the house, Sir William Stirling-Maxwell. Unfortunately, some of Pollok's treasures have been placed in storage due to a leaking roof and urgent renovations. But could one of these displaced pictures be a priceless work, lost for centuries, hiding north of the border? It would be international news if it was.

Dr Bendor Grosvenor and Emma Dabiri travel to Glasgow to investigate a long-lost picture of one of the most famous gay men in history, possibly painted by one of the most famous artists in history. The subject of the painting is none other than George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who was the gay lover of James VI of Scotland (James I of England). But how did he end up in Glasgow? While Bendor squares up to a rival portrait in Florence which claims to be the real Buckingham portrait, Emma finds that William Stirling-Maxwell had a secret family in Jamaica and that sugar and tobacco built Glasgow long before shipbuilding was its major industry.


MON 22:00 Britain's Biggest Warship (b0b08zpp)
Series 1

Crewing Up

It is early 2016 and sailors begin to arrive at Rosyth dockyard in Scotland where HMS Queen Elizabeth is still under construction. Captain Jerry Kyd and his 700 sailors assemble to take up their posts on the biggest warship constructed for the Royal Navy. Their mission? To take the prototype warship to sea for the first time on dangerous make-or-break sea trials in the North Sea.

Before sailing, the crew have to undergo rigorous fire and flood training, but suddenly they are faced with the real thing. Has the training paid off? And how will they get the supercarrier out of the dockyard sea gate with only a few centimetres clearance either side? They will also have to sail her under the Forth road and rail bridges - no easy task when HMS Queen Elizabeth is taller than both.

With unprecedented access, this series - three years in the making - tells the behind-the-scenes story of what makes HMS Queen Elizabeth so unique and how her crew are working together to breathe life into Britain's biggest warship.


MON 23:00 imagine... (m000lbqd)
2020

Kate Prince: Every Move She Makes

Kate Prince is a remarkable British dance pioneer whose renowned ZooNation dance company has transformed the profile of hip-hop and street dance. imagine… follows her as she embarks on her latest project, Message in a Bottle, a dynamic new West End production set to the hit music of Sting.

With exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the full creative process, the programme follows the highs and lows of birthing a complex new dance show, from day one in the studio to opening night. Alan Yentob talks to Prince’s key collaborators and family, painting an engaging and surprising portrait of a fascinating creative force while exploring the wider impact of her work and politics on a younger generation of upcoming dancers.


MON 00:05 The Pennine Way (b05q1n6y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 00:35 Fred Dibnah's Building of Britain (b0074n9j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 01:05 Italy's Invisible Cities (b08cbkvr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 02:05 Britain's Lost Masterpieces (b096m6nx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 30 MAY 2023

TUE 19:00 The Pennine Way (b05qt6vr)
Episode 2

Explorer Paul Rose's journey along the Pennine Way takes him to the Yorkshire Dales. In 1965, the Pennine Way was launched in the Dales village of Malham. Paul returns to hear from those who remember the opening ceremony. He also dons his climbing gear to have a crack at the limestone cliff face of Malham Cove, gets a front row seat at a sheep mart in Wensleydale and enjoys a well-earned pint in Britain's highest pub.


TUE 19:30 Fred Dibnah's Building of Britain (b0074n9m)
The Age of the Carpenter

In his mission to uncover the craft and engineering skills that helped to build Britain, Fred looks to the Middle Ages and the transformation of an Englishman's castle into his home.

Carpenters were the great engineers of this time, and Fred visits Stokesey Castle, the oldest moated and fortified house in England, to scale the walls and examine the technique of 'jettying' - making the bedroom a bit bigger. Fred also discovers how massive arched timber roofs were constructed.

At Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire, Fred explores one of the finest examples of timber-framed architecture in England and demonstrates how carpenters of the 15th and 16th century actually constructed these chocolate-box buildings. Fred's journey ends at Harvington Hall near Kidderminster, home to some of finest priest holes in the country, devised by master carpenter Nicholas Owen during the reign of Elizabeth I.


TUE 20:00 As Time Goes By (p0479wdb)
Series 2

The Book Signing

It’s the day of Lionel’s book launch, and Alistair has a new publicity stunt prepared in case sales start flagging.


TUE 20:30 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (b0077jl8)
Series 1

Birthday Boy

Terry feels depressed when everyone, even his mother, forgets his birthday. To make up for it, Bob throws a surprise party, but preparations for the bash don't go according to plan.


TUE 21:00 Close to Vermeer (m001mnbj)
Documentary following renowned Vermeer expert Gregor Weber, curator at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, as he sets up the largest ever Vermeer exhibition.

Weber joins a number of Vermeer enthusiasts and experts who are using the latest techniques to search for what makes a Vermeer truly a Vermeer.


TUE 22:15 Expedition Volcano (b09hv9g1)
Series 1

Episode 2

In the heart of Africa, deep in the Congo, are some of the most spectacular volcanoes on Earth. They threaten the lives of more than a million people, in a region already left shattered by decades of violence.

Now, a team of international and local scientists are here to investigate these rarely visited volcanoes to try and predict when they will next erupt, and to examine how the volcanic forces at work here affect every aspect of life.

For the past week, the expedition has focused on Nyiragongo. Now Chris Jackson and his fellow geologists are heading to the nearby volcano Nyamulagira - one of the most active yet least explored volcanoes on the planet. Few have visited this volcano, for a good reason - the forests that blanket its slopes hide a number of armed groups. The team travel on a UN helicopter flight at treetop level to avoid being hit by groundfire, before landing as close to the active crater as they can. They then have only a few hours to gain as much data as possible to help predict future eruptions.

Beyond Nyamulagira lies a spectacular but dangerous volcanic landscape. The expedition will also explore the hidden dangers and natural wonders contained there - from deadly gases lurking under the vast Lake Kivu, to giant craters left over from sudden explosive eruptions.

Meanwhile, Dr Xand van Tulleken travels across the region to discover how the volcanoes influence every aspect of life here. He sees the legacy of violence created by the volcanic mineral riches. He also explores other natural resources that have the potential to break this cycle of violence, best represented by the mountain gorillas that live on the flanks of the volcanoes. And he meets the people most affected by the ongoing battle to wrest control of these natural resources away from criminal gangs and militias - the widows of park rangers killed in the struggle. Their commitment to protect their natural environment represents the best hope for the future of this troubled region.

Meanwhile, the work the scientists have done will enable local people to better manage the risks of living in such a dangerous part of the world.


TUE 23:15 Britain and the Sea (b03m3x1j)
Pleasure and Escape

Having examined the sea as a source of exploration, defence and trade, David Dimbleby explores how it emerged as a source of pleasure, Punch and Judy and sand sculpture.

Starting at Gorleston-on-Sea, David explores the creation of a seaside holiday culture that remains uniquely British to this day.

Sailing down the Suffolk and Essex coasts and into the Thames, David also shows how the sea became an irresistible subject for our most celebrated artists and architects, before finally docking in the very heart of British maritime power - Greenwich.


TUE 00:15 Storyville (b01l8vw7)
The Queen of Africa: The Miriam Makeba Story

A Storyville documentary that takes a look at the life of South African singer and civil rights activist Miriam Makeba. Forced into a life of exile for exposing the harsh realities of apartheid, Makeba was the first African musician to win international stardom.

Always anchored in her traditional South African roots, Makeba's music delivered messages against racism and poverty. Exposing a tumultuous life - Makeba married South African musician Hugh Masekela and Black Panther Stokely Carmichael - this film traces her life and music using rare archive of performances, interviews and intimate scenes.


TUE 01:30 The Pennine Way (b05qt6vr)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


TUE 02:00 Fred Dibnah's Building of Britain (b0074n9m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


TUE 02:30 Britain and the Sea (b03m3x1j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:15 today]

WEDNESDAY 31 MAY 2023

WED 19:00 The Pennine Way (b05rcysn)
Episode 3

Explorer Paul Rose heads for the North Pennines in the latest stage of his journey along the Pennine Way. He goes white-water rafting down the River Tees and takes in one of Britain's best views at High Cup Nick. Paul also hears about a weather phenomenon unique to the Pennine Way and spends a night at a remote mountain refuge close to the highest point of the Pennine Way.


WED 19:30 Fred Dibnah's Building of Britain (b0074n9q)
Scottish Style

Fred Dibnah is on a mission to uncover and explain the construction skills that went into the building of Britain, and in this episode he travels to Scotland to demonstrate the engineering and design skills that shaped Scottish baronial style.

At Glamis Castle, Fred demonstrates how a simple sandstone tower house was transformed 400 years ago into a great house with more than a passing resemblance to a fairy-tale castle, with the help of stonemasons from Aberdeen and plasterers from Italy.

The House of Dun near Montrose is one of the finest country houses to be designed by William Adam, and Fred gets stuck into some ornamental plasterwork at a specialist manufacturer's. But it was Adam's son Robert who made such an impact on house building that he had an architectural style named after him, and to demonstrate his achievement Fred travels to Culzean Castle on the Ayrshire coast.


WED 20:00 Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise (b087vgd6)
The Secrets of the South

Southern Thailand is the Thailand we think we all know. It is a place of both spectacular natural beauty and of wild parties, but behind this well-known image is also a place where spirituality pervades every bit of life. For the animals that live here, this is a natural wonderland.


WED 21:00 Secrets of Size: Atoms to Supergalaxies (m0017njc)
Series 1

Going Big

In the concluding episode of the series, Jim encounters ever larger cosmic structures to reveal the latest breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe. For example, there’s the heliosphere, a vast cloud of solar plasma that surrounds and protects the solar system. Its unique physics help us understand why life is possible. Larger still, Jim comes face to face with our galactic home the Milky Way, a monstrous structure sculpted by the gravitational forces of dark matter. Jim finds out from pioneering researcher Adrian Fabian about the black hole at its centre, whose strange behaviour includes emitting the lowest note that can be heard in the cosmos.

At an even greater scale, Jim encounters huge structures such as the Laniakea Supercluster, of which the Milky Way is only a tiny part. Then there’s 'the giant arc', a collection of galaxies that account for more than three per cent of the observable universe. Jim learns from its discoverer, British PhD student Alexia Lopez, that this gargantuan structure is forcing scientists to reassess their theory of how the universe evolves and may overturn some of the most fundamental principles in physics.


WED 22:00 Screen Two (m001mfdf)
Series 9

The Long Roads

Poignant love story that follows a cantankerous elderly Highlander and his wife on a journey of discovery. Learning that Kitty is ill with cancer, they set off to visit their children, now geographically and socially miles apart.


WED 23:30 Tails You Win: The Science of Chance (p00yh2rc)
Smart and witty, jam-packed with augmented-reality graphics and fascinating history, this film, presented by professor David Spiegelhalter, tries to pin down what chance is and how it works in the real world. For once this really is 'risky' television.

The film follows in the footsteps of The Joy of Stats, which won the prestigious Grierson Award for Best Science/Natural History programme of 2011. Now the same blend of wit and wisdom, animation, graphics and gleeful nerdery is applied to the joys of chance and the mysteries of probability, the vital branch of mathematics that gives us a handle on what might happen in the future. Professor Spiegelhalter is ideally suited to that task, being Winton professor for the public understanding of risk at Cambridge University, as well as being a recent Winter Wipeout contestant on BBC TV.

How can you maximise your chances of living till you're 100? Why do many of us experience so many spooky coincidences? Should I take an umbrella? These are just some of the everyday questions the film tackles as it moves between Cambridge, Las Vegas, San Francisco and... Reading.

Yet the film isn't shy of some rather loftier questions. After all, our lives are pulled about and pushed around by the mysterious workings of chance, fate, luck, call it what you will. But what actually is chance? Is it something fundamental to the fabric of the universe? Or rather, as the French 18th century scientist Pierre Laplace put it, 'merely a measure of our ignorance'.

Along the way Spiegelhalter is thrilled to discover One Million Random Digits, probably the most boring book in the world, but one full of hidden patterns and shapes. He introduces us to the cheery little unit called the micromort (a one-in-a-million chance of dying), taking the rational decision to go sky-diving because doing so only increases his risk of dying this year from 7000 to 7007 micromorts. And in one sequence he uses the latest infographics to demonstrate how life expectancy has increased in his lifetime and how it is affected by our lifestyle choices - drinking, obesity, smoking and exercise.

Did you know that by running regularly for half an hour a day you can expect to extend your life by half an hour a day? So all very well... if you like running.

Ultimately, Tails You Win: The Science of Chance tells the story of how we discovered how chance works, and even to work out the odds for the future; how we tried - but so often failed - to conquer it; and how we may finally be learning to love it, increasingly setting uncertainty itself to work to help crack some of science's more intractable problems.

Other contributors include former England cricketer Ed Smith, whose career was cut down in its prime through a freak, unlucky accident; Las Vegas gambling legend Mike Shackleford, the self-styled 'Wizard of Odds'; and chief economist of the Bank of England, Spencer Dale.


WED 00:30 The Pennine Way (b05rcysn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


WED 01:00 Fred Dibnah's Building of Britain (b0074n9q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 01:30 Thailand: Earth's Tropical Paradise (b087vgd6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


WED 02:30 Secrets of Size: Atoms to Supergalaxies (m0017njc)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

THURSDAY 01 JUNE 2023

THU 19:00 The Pennine Way (b05sy1ym)
Episode 4

The wilderness of rural Northumberland awaits explorer Paul Rose on the last stage of his Pennine Way journey. Paul makes a remarkable discovery at the Roman archaeological dig at Vindolanda. He also finds out what lies beyond the red flags while on exercise with the Grenadier Guards and why Pennine Way walkers can have a magical experience in the dark skies capital of Europe.


THU 19:30 Fred Dibnah's Building of Britain (b0074n9t)
Building the Canals

Fred Dibnah's search to discover how the work of the builders and engineers of the past helped to shape Britain brings him close to his home town of Bolton, where the mid-18th century saw the building of the first canals and the arrival of the first civil engineers. He travels to Worsley in Lancashire to see where it all started - the labyrinth of 52 miles of underground waterways that carried coal from the Duke of Bridgewater's mines to the canal. Back in his garden, he shows us how the early canal engineers actually went about digging the cut for a canal and making it watertight. He takes a canal boat on the 127-mile-long Leeds-Liverpool Canal, and demonstrates the back-breaking labour and engineering skills that went into building the tunnel that takes it under the highest point on his route.


THU 20:00 A House Through Time (m000jyhw)
Series 3

Episode 3

In this episode, David follows the house’s fortunes from the 1880s through to the end of the First World War, as it slides down the social scale and moves into multiple occupancy. Along the way, David discovers stories of epidemic disease, a backstreet quack doctor and a World War I tragedy.

David begins his journey by investigating a newlywed young couple, Owen and Louisa Pow, who move into the house in the early 1880s. The couple soon have a baby daughter, Emma, but after her tragic death from tubercular meningitis, Owen Pow embarks on a new venture, setting up his own small business as the proprietor of a milk tavern.

Milk taverns like Owen’s were a response to the temperance movement, a mass campaign to control alcohol abuse. However, Owen’s new business falls into trouble within months of opening. An attempt to increase his profits by watering down the milk sees Owen taken to court and prosecuted. The business survives this blow, but then another crisis develops. New scientific research reveals a causal link between milk and tuberculosis, the very disease from which the Pows’ baby died. As the owner of a milk tavern, Owen struggles to keep his business afloat.

By the late 1880s, the Pows have moved on, and their landlord sells the house at Number 10 Guinea Street. The buyers are a sprawling family called the Wallingtons. They live in the house for several years before moving to the countryside and renting out Number 10 to tenants.

Tracing these next occupants proves a difficult task, but David soon finds a clue in a mysterious advertisement in a local newspaper from 1909. It offers an unspecified ‘female remedy’ from a ‘lady specialist’ in 10 Guinea Street, going by the name of Mrs Watson. It appears to be written in coded language, the reason for which soon becomes clear - further advertisements make clear that this ‘remedy’ contains the herb pennyroyal, well known to induce abortions.

Tracking down the person providing this quack remedy proves to be a difficult task, as the name Mrs Watson appears to be a pseudonym. But by putting together the evidence piece by piece, David discovers another trail that leads him to an elderly herbalist named James Stewart, who lives in the neighbouring house. As David soon discovers, Stewart and his family had a sizeable clandestine business dealing in remedies for unwanted pregnancy and sexual dysfunction.

The next residents of 10 Guinea Street are the Curleys, a large and close-knit family who occupy the house for several decades. They are Emily and George, who live here with their four sons and three daughters. David manages to track down a living relative - Emily and George’s granddaughter Jean Chamberlain. Jean is now a sprightly 91-year-old who was born at Number 10 Guinea Street and remembers the older generations well.

Jean’s strongest memories are of her three aunts, Esther, Rosina and Jane Curley. Looking into their records, David uncovers a remarkable story. He first follows the middle sister Jane Curley, who marries in the local church in September 1914, just two months into the First World War. Jane and her new husband Albert spend a year together before Albert leaves 10 Guinea Street for the army. Jane is pregnant when he is sent to the Western Front.

Remarkably, the lives of Jane’s two sisters, Esther and Rosina, follow the same pattern. Both marry local men and see their husbands sent to the Front when they are pregnant or caring for small children. The sisters remain at Number 10, supporting one another while the war rages. David then follows their story through the Battle of Passchendaele, one of the deadliest battles of the war, which changes the lives of Curley family forever.


THU 21:00 Casablanca (m000mmc2)
Classic romantic drama. Rick's Cafe is a centre for criminals, refugees, resistance fighters and Nazis. Its cynical owner takes risks for no-one - until the arrival of Ilsa.


THU 22:40 imagine... (b09wc6kj)
Winter 2017/18

Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words

Widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses of the 20th century, Ingrid Bergman's talent was matched only by her incandescent screen presence. From her infamous performance as Ilsa in Casablanca, to her work with directors Alfred Hitchcock and Roberto Rossellini, her performances won her Oscars, Emmys and Golden Globes, as well as a place in Hollywood history.

Ingrid Bergman in her Own Words is a captivating documentary which paints a portrait of her life away from the film and the theatre. Combining access to Bergman's archives of home movie footage, private diaries and letters, read by Oscar-winning Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, with contributions from her children, including Isabella Rossellini, director Stig Bjorkman reveals Bergman's journey from Swedish schoolgirl to Hollywood icon, in a life lived to the full.


THU 00:20 Expedition Volcano (b09hv9g1)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:15 on Tuesday]


THU 01:20 The Pennine Way (b05sy1ym)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 01:50 Fred Dibnah's Building of Britain (b0074n9t)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 02:20 A House Through Time (m000jyhw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

FRIDAY 02 JUNE 2023

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m001mffj)
Jarvis Cocker presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 20 October 1994 and featuring Michelle Gayle, Let Loose, Oasis, Ultimate Kaos, INXS, Elastica, Tom Jones and Take That.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m001mffl)
Simon Mayo presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 27 October 1994 and featuring Snap!, China Black, Pink Floyd, Rozalla, Sting, Bon Jovi, Green Day, East 17 and Pato Banton.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b0bm6tdn)
Pop chart programme. Simon Bates and Gary Davies present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 5 June 1986. Featuring Cashflow, Simply Red, Pet Shop Boys, Doctor and the Medics, Genesis, Nu Shooz and Jaki Graham.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (b01k6gkp)
Noel Edmonds looks at the weekly pop chart from 1977 and introduces Elkie Brooks, the Muppets, Twiggy, Jesse Green, Hot Chocolate, The Strawbs, Genesis, The Four Seasons, Heatwave, Carol Bayer Sager and Rod Stewart, with a dance sequence from Legs & Co.


FRI 21:00 In Concert (b00z2nc2)
Gordon Lightfoot

A classic concert by Gordon Lightfoot from 1972, accompanied by Red Shea and Richard Haynes. They perform songs including Summer Side of Life, Saturday Clothes, That's What You Get for Loving Me, Affair on 8th Avenue, If I Could Read Your Mind, Steel Rail Blues, Ten Degrees and Getting Colder, Early Morning Rain, Me and Bobby McGee, Minstrel of the Dawn and Canadian Pacific Trilogy.


FRI 22:05 Sounds of the Sixties (b0074qbv)
Original Series

The Folk Revival

A trawl through the BBC's archives for 60s music with an acoustic bent. Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Tim Buckley feature.


FRI 22:35 Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band (m000wn3p)
A confessional, cautionary and occasionally humorous tale of Robbie Robertson’s young life and the creation of one of the most enduring groups in the history of popular music, The Band. It is a moving story of Robertson’s personal journey, overcoming adversity and finding camaraderie alongside the four other men who would become his brothers in music, together making their mark on music history. The film blends rare archival footage, photography, iconic songs and interviews with Robertson’s friends and collaborators including Martin Scorsese, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison and more.


FRI 00:10 Folk America on Later... with Jools Holland (b00h6xmd)
Compilation of performances by artists from the American folk, blues, bluegrass and country scenes that revisits the spirit of the 1920s and beyond with a distinctly Southern flavour.

Including Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Blind Boys of Alabama, Norah Jones, Odetta, Old Crow Medicine Show, Chatham County Line, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris and Buddy Guy and many more.


FRI 01:10 Top of the Pops (m001mffj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 01:40 Top of the Pops (m001mffl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 02:10 Top of the Pops (b0bm6tdn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 02:40 Top of the Pops (b01k6gkp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


FRI 03:10 Sounds of the Sixties (b0074qbv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:05 today]