SATURDAY 08 JULY 2023
SAT 19:00 A303: Highway to the Sun (b0116ly6)
The A303 is the road that passes Stonehenge on the way to the beaches of Devon and Cornwall. On the way, it whisks drivers through 5,000 years of remarkable moments in British history. And it is the star of this film made for armchair travellers and history lovers.
Writer Tom Fort drives its 92-mile length in a lovingly restored Morris Traveller. Along the way, he has many adventures - he digs up the 1960s master plan for the A303's dreams of superhighway status, meets up with a Neolithic traveller who knew the road like the back of his hand, gets to know a section of the Roman 303, uncovers a medieval murder mystery and discovers what lies at the end of the Highway to the Sun.
SAT 20:00 Voyages of Discovery (b0074t6g)
Hanging by a Thread
Explorer Paul Rose tells the story of the USS Squalus submarine which became stranded on the bottom of the Atlantic in 1937. No one had ever been saved from a stricken sub beneath the ocean before, but maverick designer Charles Momsen, who had been ignored by the navy top brass, was suddenly called into action to bring up the crew.
Rose meets the last living survivor from the sub and one of the men, now 103, who helped save him. The rescue kick-started a whole new era of technology, laying the foundation for modern deep-sea diving.
SAT 21:00 Beck (p0fqlwff)
Quid Pro Quo
A man is found dead at a flea market in southern Stockholm. It looks like an ordinary robbery gone wrong, but the investigation takes an unexpected turn when the secret police (Säpo) take an interest in the case.
SAT 22:30 Lily Savage's Blankety Blank (m001npyw)
Series 2
Episode 1
Comic game show hosted by the outrageous Lily Savage, as portrayed by Paul O'Grady. Helping the contestants, as they compete for an array of unlikely prizes, are celebrity panellists Barbara Windsor, Ant McPartlin, Roy Barraclough, Roger Black, Jane Danson and Lorraine Kelly.
SAT 23:00 Parkinson: The Interviews (b01hdcb3)
Series 1
Peter Cook
Michael Parkinson looks back at some of his many interviews with the comic genius that was Peter Cook.
SAT 23:40 Hancock's Half Hour (p032kj0j)
The Photographer
Hancock decides to invest in a new camera - which Sid sees as the perfect opportunity to make some money.
SAT 00:10 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (b0077k5h)
Series 1
The Old Magic
Terry is disappointed that Bob has asked someone else to be his best man at the wedding, but eventually agrees to go out for a meal with his friend before he gets hitched. After a few drinks at the restaurant, they start to chat up a couple of pretty girls who are also eating there.
SAT 00:40 Britain's Ancient Capital: Secrets of Orkney (b087vh70)
Episode 1
Orkney - seven miles off the coast of Scotland and cut off by the tumultuous Pentland Firth, the fastest flowing tidal race in Europe, is often viewed as being remote. But recent discoveries there are turning the stone age map of Britain upside down. Rather than an outpost at the edge of the world, recent finds suggest an extraordinary theory - that Orkney was the cultural capital of our ancient world and the origin of the stone circle cult which culminated in Stonehenge.
In this three-part series, Neil Oliver, Chris Packham, Andy Torbet and Dr Shini Somara join hundreds of archaeologists from around the world who have gathered there to investigate at one of Europe's biggest digs.
Chris Packham uncovers the secrets revealed by the DNA of Orkney's unique vole, Neil Oliver explores Orkney's tombs and monuments, Dr Shini Somara experiments to discover how the Orcadians could have moved giant blocks of stone over rough ground and archaeological adventurer Andy Torbet climbs Orkney's most challenging sea-stack to unlock the story of Orkney's unusual geology.
SAT 01:40 Voyages of Discovery (b0074t6g)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
SAT 02:40 Timeshift (b01mytsg)
Series 12
Health before the NHS: The Road to Recovery
Robert Winston narrates the shocking story of health in Britain before the National Health Service. In the early 20th century, getting treated if you were ill was a rudimentary, risky and costly business - a luxury few could afford. Using rare archive footage and personal testimony, the programme tells how ordinary people, GPs, midwives and local councils coped with a chaotic and ramshackle system as they struggled to deal with sickness and disease in the homes and communities of pre-World War II Britain.
SUNDAY 09 JULY 2023
SUN 19:00 Cricket: Today at the Test (m001npy2)
The Ashes 2023
Third Test, Day Four
Highlights of day four in the Third Test of the Ashes series between England and Australia
SUN 20:00 A Midsummer Night's Dream from Shakespeare's Globe (m001npy4)
Shakespeare's riotous tale of love and magic, filmed live at the Globe Theatre in 2016. Emma Rice’s exuberant production fuses music, dance and rich comedy.
SUN 22:45 Britain's Ancient Capital: Secrets of Orkney (b088pnv1)
Episode 2
Orkney - seven miles off the coast of Scotland, and cut off by the tumultuous Pentland Firth, the fastest-flowing tidal race in Europe is often viewed as being remote. However it is one of the treasure troves of archaeology in Britain, and recent discoveries there are turning the Stone Age map of Britain upside down. Rather than an outpost at the edge of the world, recent finds suggest an extraordinary theory - that Orkney was the cultural capital of our ancient world and the origin of the stone circle cult which culminated in Stonehenge.
In the second of this three-part series, Neil Oliver, Chris Packham, Andy Torbet and Dr Shini Somara join hundreds of archaeologists from around the world who have gathered there to investigate at one of Europe's biggest digs.
Andy and some local seafaring volunteers build a boat made of just willow and cow hide and set out to cross the dangerous Pentland Firth as the ancient Orcadians would have done. Neil investigates the extraordinary discovery of some human bones, Chris goes in search of whales and Shini uncovers the powers of the tides.
SUN 23:45 Vienna: Empire, Dynasty and Dream (b0851kfd)
Episode 2
Simon Sebag Montefiore tells the story of Vienna, triumphant after the Ottoman threat receded at the end of the 17th century. No longer an outpost defending the west from Islamic invaders, the imperial capital was to become the most glittering in the world. The Habsburg emperors transformed the city from a fortress into a great cultural capital. Vienna became a city that would define the arts; a magnet for musicians, including Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.
SUN 00:45 Mark Gatiss on John Minton: The Lost Man of British Art (b0bfnlj2)
John Minton was for a time one of the most popular 20th-century British artists, more famous than his contemporaries Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. He has also been something of an obsession for actor and writer Mark Gatiss since he first saw one of his paintings as a teenager at the National Portrait Gallery. Mark Gatiss plunges back into Minton's world to celebrate his remarkable life and work, but also to find out why he remains all but forgotten.
As well as being a central figure in the postwar British neo-romantic movement, alongside the likes of Graham Sutherland and John Piper, John Minton was also one of the leading lights of Soho during the 1940s and 50s - a bohemian enclave where he felt at ease with fellow artists and models. In the only known footage of Minton, he is caught fleetingly, dancing wildly in a club, like a crazed marionette. It is a captivating, poignant glimpse of a man who was once at the very centre of this world.
He was a prolific painter of both landscapes and portraits, and as a gay man, Mark has always been particularly drawn to his sensitive depictions of striking young men. Minton too was gay but struggled with his sexuality during a highly repressive era when homosexuality was still illegal. However, as Mark discovers, it wasn't just his sexuality that plagued Minton, but his very standing as an artist and his desire to be considered first and foremost a painter rather than an illustrator, which is how he really found fame. On a balcony overlooking the same glorious view, Mark explains how Minton's vibrant jacket design for Elizabeth David's A Book of Mediterranean Food in 1950 was really what attracted people to buy it, as the author herself declared. But it was the 1948 publication of Time Was Away: A Notebook in Corsica that really established Minton, and it became something of a cult book for a new generation of illustrators. Following in his footsteps, Mark travels to Corsica and visits some of the original locations captured so vividly by Minton.
As well as discovering unseen photographs of the artist and previously unknown works by him, the film also gives Mark the chance to hear Minton's voice for the first time in a rare broadcast he made for the BBC Third Programme in 1947. The connections deepen further as Mark meets some of those who knew him well - former models such as actor Norman Bowler recall posing for Minton, and fellow artist David Tindle discusses the rivalries between Minton and his contemporaries, particularly Francis Bacon.
Drawing on all these remarkable first-hand reminiscences, Mark explores the reasons behind Minton's fall from grace and the tragic circumstances of his death at the age of just 39.
SUN 01:45 Timeshift (b01n3vq9)
Series 12
Health before the NHS: A Medical Revolution
The Robert Winston-narrated mini-series concludes with the story of hospitals. At the beginning of the 20th century these were forbidding places very much to be avoided - a last resort for the destitute rather than places you would go to get better. Using unique archive footage from an era when infectious disease was virtually untreatable and powerful first-hand accounts from patients, doctors and nurses, the programme explores the extraordinary transformation of the hospital from Victorian workhouse to modern centre of medicine.
SUN 02:45 Vienna: Empire, Dynasty and Dream (b0851kfd)
[Repeat of broadcast at
23:45 today]
MONDAY 10 JULY 2023
MON 19:00 Cricket: Today at the Test (m001npzw)
The Ashes 2023
Third Test, Day Five
Final-day highlights in the Third Test of the Ashes series between England and Australia.
MON 20:00 Attenborough and the Sea Dragon (b09m2kgl)
A remarkable 200-million-year-old fossil - the bones of an ichthyosaur, a giant sea dragon - has been discovered on the Jurassic coast of Britain. David Attenborough joins the hunt to bring this ancient creature's story to life. Using state-of-the-art imaging technology and CGI, the team reconstruct the skeleton and create the most detailed animation of an ichthyosaur ever made. Along the way, the team stumble into a 200-million-year-old murder mystery - and only painstaking forensic investigation can unravel the story of this extraordinary creature's fate.
MON 21:00 The Day the Dinosaurs Died (b08r3xhf)
Ben Garrod and Alice Roberts investigate the greatest vanishing act in the history of our planet - the sudden disappearance of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Experts suspect that the dinosaurs were wiped out after a city-sized asteroid smashed into the Gulf of Mexico causing a huge crater. But until now, they haven't had any proof. In a world first, evolutionary biologist Ben Garrod joins a multimillion-pound drilling expedition into the exact spot the asteroid hit to get hard evidence of the link. The team overcomes huge obstacles as it attempts to drill 1,500 metres beneath sea level to pull up rock from the Chicxulub crater.
Meanwhile, paleopathologist Professor Alice Roberts travels the globe meeting top scientists and gaining exclusive access to a mass fossil graveyard in New Jersey - believed to date from the same time the asteroid hit. Alice also treks by horseback across the remote plains of Patagonia, to see if the effects of the asteroid impact could have wiped out dinosaurs across the world - almost immediately.
Alice and Ben's investigations reveal startling new evidence of a link between the asteroid and the death of the dinosaurs, presenting a vivid picture of the most dramatic 24 hours in our planet's history. They illustrate what happened in the seconds and hours after the impact, revealing that had the huge asteroid struck the Earth a moment earlier, or later, the destruction might not have been total for the dinosaurs. And if they still roamed the world, we humans may never have come to rule the planet.
MON 22:00 The Sky at Night (m001nq00)
Is There Anybody out There?
The Sky at Night team investigates the controversial world of alien communication. The search for life on other planets is one of the most fascinating subjects in science. But what is less reported is the work being done around the world to determine what happens next. If we discover aliens, how would we contact them, what should we say and should we communicate with them at all?
We follow astrobiologist Doug Vakoch on a trip to the UK. Doug runs an organisation aiming to contact extraterrestrials and is here to meet with experts who can help with his mission, including Professor Arik Kershenbaum from the University of Cambridge. Arik is a zoologist who specialises in animal communication and xenolinguistics - the language of aliens. He explains how the common patterns in wolf and dolphin vocalisations can help us to form a message to send to space. Doug also meets Paul Quast, a researcher from the Beyond the Earth Foundation, who is assembling a ‘Companion Guide to Earth’ for future humans and passing aliens.
Exoplaneteer George Dransfield travels to the Jodrell Bank Observatory to meet astrophysicist Professor Tim O’Brien. Tim explains how scientists around the world use radioastronomy to listen for extraterrestrial signals. He demonstrates how we might identify an alien ‘technosignature’ - a sign of an advanced technological civilisation from another planet.
Professor Chris Lintott delves into the history of scientists trying to send messages to aliens, and he asks if we should really be trying to communicate with them at all.
MON 22:30 Planet Dinosaur (b015zmr5)
Original Series
New Giants
This episode focuses on the new giants, the heavyweights of the dinosaur world. It is only in recent years that experts have unearthed the biggest dinosaurs that ever lived.
One monster, the immense argentinosaurus, eclipsed all others, being more than seven times as heavy as the diplodocus. A single backbone was bigger than a human.
For years, these giants were considered immune to attack from any predator - until the discovery of the mapusaurus, a new giant killer whose fate appeared to be inextricably linked to the argentinosaurus.
MON 23:00 Planet Dinosaur (b0167k1c)
Original Series
The Great Survivors
The final episode explores dinosaurs' extraordinary ability to survive. Featured dinosaurs include the bizarre magyarosaurus, which lived in the shadow of the biggest flying animal - hatzegopteryx - and showed an amazing adaptation to island life; and the weird nothronychus, a carnivore that gave up meat eating.
This astonishing capacity to evolve into ever more diverse and bizarre forms meant that dinosaurs not only spread throughout the world, but also dominated life upon it for more than 160 million years. It was only an unprecedented extraterrestrial event that finally saw the end of planet dinosaur.
MON 23:30 Walking with Dinosaurs (p008cmbm)
Original series
Spirits of the Ice Forest
Fifth programme of a six part series in which the lost world of dinosaurs is recreated using computerised animation and animatronic puppets. A herd of Leaellynasaura struggle to survive at the South Pole during the Cretaceous period. They have to cope with predators, rival groups and the perpetual darkness of a polar winter.
MON 00:00 Walking with Dinosaurs (p008cmfz)
Original series
Death of a Dynasty
Last in series which brings back the lost world of dinosaurs using the latest technology. It is the late Cretaceous period and Tyrannosaurus rex is the top predator; but the Earth is poisoned by volcanic activity and a comet strikes.
MON 00:30 Britain's Ancient Capital: Secrets of Orkney (b088pnv1)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:45 on Sunday]
MON 01:30 Attenborough and the Sea Dragon (b09m2kgl)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
MON 02:30 The Day the Dinosaurs Died (b08r3xhf)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
TUESDAY 11 JULY 2023
TUE 19:00 Steam Days (p011w7y8)
Workhorses
Miles Kington looks at freight trains - the workhorses of Britain's railways - and the pattern of their usage before motorways. He examines the role of the British Rail Standard Class 9F steam locomotive, one of the most powerful to run on British railways, and hitches a lift in the cab of 92203 'Black Prince'.
TUE 19:30 Gyles Brandreth Remembers... Hinge and Bracket (m001npvz)
Gyles Brandreth remembers the comedy and musical duo Hinge and Bracket.
TUE 19:45 Dear Ladies (p014fc55)
Series 2
The Time of Our Lives...
The ladies feel themselves drawn into a mid-life crisis and go in search of new hobbies and activities.
TUE 20:15 Hancock's Half Hour (p032khyr)
The Lawyer: The Crown v James S
Hancock is a lawyer and defends Sid, who is accused of theft from a jewellery shop - and a further 57 charges to boot.
TUE 20:45 Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? (b0077kf3)
Series 1
Countdown
Classic 1970s sitcom. Mrs Chambers has grandiose plans for Thelma's wedding to Bob that leaves the men feeling overwhelmed, so they decide to rebel.
TUE 21:15 Babs (b08q8jcy)
Written by Tony Jordan, this is the heartwarming story of Dame Barbara Windsor, the Cockney kid with a dazzling smile and talent to match. Preparing to perform in the theatre one cold evening in 1993, the cheeky, chirpy blonde Babs recounts the people and events that have shaped her life and career over 50 years from 1943 to 1993.
She contemplates her lonely childhood and Second World War evacuation, her decision to go from Barbara Ann Deeks to Barbara Windsor - inspired by the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, her complicated relationship with her father, her doomed marriage to Ronnie Knight, capturing the attention of Joan Littlewood and becoming the blonde bombshell in the Carry On films. Babs, ever the consummate professional, never let her fans down whatever her personal anguish and steps on the stage to rapturous applause.
TUE 22:45 Timeshift (p01k49cg)
Series 13
Bouffants, Beehives and Bobs: The Hairdos that Made Britain
It is said that the average woman gets through around 30 hairstyles in a lifetime, with some changing their look entirely every 15 months. Timeshift takes a loving and sometimes horrified look back at the iconic hairdos and 'must have' haircuts that both men and women in Britain have flirted with over the past 60 years.
And it's some journey... from the meringue-like confections of Raymond 'Teasy Weasy' via the geometric 'bob' cuts of Vidal Sassoon, stopping off to take in the 'big hair' heyday of bouffants and beehives, and not forgetting the mullet, the feather cut and the ultimate 'bad hair day' look of 1970s perms.
Our hair is the one part of our identity we can change in an instant and which speaks volumes about who we are, where we've come from and where we're going. Today, young women are revisiting hair fashions of an earlier generation - big hair and blowdrying are back in demand, whilst many young men sport Edwardian 'peaky blinder' short back and sides.
Narrated by Wayne Hemingway.
TUE 23:45 Origins of Us (p00jjjw4)
Bones
In the first episode, Dr Alice Roberts looks at how our skeleton reveals our incredible evolutionary journey.
Trekking through the forests of our ancient ancestors, she goes to meet the apes who still live there today - chimpanzees. In six million years we have become very different, and what kick-started this can be found in an extraordinary fossil - Sahelanthropus. A single hole where the spine was attached suggests that our ancestors started the journey to being human by standing upright. We take it for granted, but standing up and walking is surprisingly complex - each step involves the co-ordination of over 200 muscles.
Charting the major advances from Australopithecus to Homo erectus and beyond, Alice tells the epic story of human evolution through our body today. New research has uncovered clues in our ankles, waists and necks that show how our ancestors were forced to survive on the open plain - by walking and running for their lives. From the neck down we have inherited the body of our ancestor Homo erectus, who lived on the plains of Africa nearly two million years ago.
Finally Alice looks at probably the most important advance in our evolutionary story. A fortuitous by-product of standing up was freeing up our hands. With pressure-sensitive gloves, she demonstrates how the tiniest of anatomical tweaks to our thumbs and little fingers transformed hands that evolved to grasp branches into ones that could use tools. And with our dexterous hands, our species, Homo sapiens, would change the world.
Erratum:
The fossil cast at
08:40 in the Bones show is in fact KNM-ER 1813 rather than TM266-01-60-1. However, the information stated about the fossil Sahelanthropus is correct.
TUE 00:45 Steam Days (p011w7y8)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:00 today]
TUE 01:15 Dear Ladies (p014fc55)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:45 today]
TUE 01:45 Babs (b08q8jcy)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:15 today]
WEDNESDAY 12 JULY 2023
WED 19:00 Around the World in 80 Treasures (b00qg3b0)
Series 1 Shorts
Ethiopia - Ark of the Covenant
Dan Cruickshank visits Ethiopia in search of the Ark of the Covenant.
WED 19:10 Fred Dibnah, Steeplejack (m001nq0r)
The original 1979 documentary that introduced the world to Bolton steeplejack Fred Dibnah as he goes about his death-defying job demolishing or repairing factory chimneys, steeples and towers.
WED 20:00 New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands (b07mh601)
Wild Extremes
The most extreme and wild parts of New Zealand are in the South Island, which lie towards Antarctica, in the path of the tempestuous 'roaring forties'. This is home to some of the most rapidly rising mountains in the world, the Southern Alps.
From hyper-intelligent parrots to sinister snails with teeth and magical constellations of glow-worms, this is the story of New Zealand's wildest places and its most resilient pioneers, all of whom must embrace radical solutions to survive.
WED 21:00 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.
WED 22:00 Alan Bennett Remembers... An Englishman Abroad (m001nq0t)
Alan Bennett remembers his 1983 television drama, based on the true story of a chance meeting in Moscow between actress Coral Browne and British defector Guy Burgess.
WED 22:10 An Englishman Abroad (b0074pqk)
Alan Bennett's award-winning film drama based on a meeting between Australian actress Coral Browne and British spy Guy Burgess.
When a mysterious Englishman appears in her dressing room, Coral Browne assumes he is attached to the Embassy, but if so, why are his trousers out at the knees? What does he want with her face powder? An invitation to lunch will perhaps explain, though the lunch consists of one tomato.
WED 23:15 Alan Bennett: Dinner at Noon (b00pcbqf)
In the setting of the Crown Hotel in Harrogate, with its leisure breaks and conference facilities, Alan Bennett reflects on the subject of class.
WED 23:55 Timeshift (m000l9vf)
Series 2
The Great British Seaside Holiday
Timeshift presents a bank holiday celebration of the British seaside holiday experience from its Victorian origins and heyday in the 1950s to its slow decline and attempts at reinvention since.
Interviewees including Jonathan Meades, Martin Parr and Bill Pertwee explain the way that the seaside has always been the place we all visit to lose our inhibitions and reveal a different side to ourselves. We look at how our different experiences of the seaside - end of the pier shows, fearsome landladies and holiday camps - have given rise to different traditions and a nostalgia, both working-class and middle-class, for a time when life's pleasures were simpler and foreign holidays were the preserve of the very rich.
WED 00:40 Fred Dibnah, Steeplejack (m001nq0r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:10 today]
WED 01:30 Immortal Egypt with Joann Fletcher (b06vpc9y)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
WED 02:30 New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands (b07mh601)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
THURSDAY 13 JULY 2023
THU 19:00 The Sky at Night (m001nq00)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Monday]
THU 19:30 Fred Dibnah's Made in Britain (m000s4q0)
A Lifetime's Achievement (Part 2)
Fred Dibnah makes one final trip down to London to collect his MBE for services to broadcasting and industrial heritage from the Queen. Once in central London, Fred can't resist having a drive round to look at the famous sights and of course sampling a pint of local ale.
He parks up in Wellington Barracks right next door to the palace and walks across the road to collect his celebrated award - it certainly is a lifetime's achievement.
THU 20:00 Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History (b03knrvm)
Home Waters to High Seas
Shipwrecks are the nightmare we have forgotten - the price Britain paid for ruling the waves from an island surrounded by treacherous rocks. The result is a coastline that is home to the world's highest concentration of sunken ships. But shipwrecks also changed the course of British history, helped shape our national character and drove innovations in seafaring technology, as well as gripping our imagination.
In this three-part series, maritime historian Dr Sam Willis looks at how and why the shipwreck came to loom so large. He begins with the embarrassing story of the top-heavy Mary Rose, the freak wrecking of the Spanish Armada and the terrifying real-life disasters at sea that inspired two of the greatest of all castaway tales - Shakespeare's The Tempest and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.
THU 21:00 Thelma and Louise (m00196f6)
Tired of their daily lives, a housewife and a waitress decide to hit the road in search of adventure, but they soon end up on the run from the police.
THU 23:05 The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (m001ck23)
With only one room still vacant, Sonny dreams of opening a second hotel, but a rivalry with his fiancée’s friend threatens his marriage plans and expansionist ambitions. Meanwhile, the British residents’ predicaments include romantic entanglements, an undercover inspector and a murder plot.
THU 01:00 Talking Pictures (b04jrvv2)
Maggie Smith
Sylvia Smith narrates a look at the life of one of Britain's best and best-loved actresses, with classic archive footage of her appearances on the BBC demonstrating that when it comes to movie stardom, there really is nothing like a dame.
THU 01:40 The Sky at Night (m001nq00)
[Repeat of broadcast at
22:00 on Monday]
THU 02:10 Fred Dibnah's Made in Britain (m000s4q0)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]
THU 02:40 Shipwrecks: Britain's Sunken History (b03knrvm)
[Repeat of broadcast at
20:00 today]
FRIDAY 14 JULY 2023
FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m001nq1m)
Jack Dee presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 5 January 1995 and featuring The Human League, PJ & Duncan, Rednex, Thunder, Boyzone, East 17, Ini Kamoze and Celine Dion.
FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m001nq1p)
Mark Goodier presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 12 January 1995 and featuring N-Trance, The Lightning Seeds, Nicki French, The Almighty, Rednex, Deep Purple, Bill Whelan, Portishead and Simple Minds.
FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m000rgm6)
Anthea Turner presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 12 July 1990 and featuring Elton John, The Stone Roses and Gun.
FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (b074hntc)
Peter Powell introduces the pop programme, featuring Spandau Ballet, Saxon, Dexys Midnight Runners, Third World, Kate Bush, Bad Manners and The Specials, and a dance performance from Legs & Co.
FRI 21:00 In Concert (m001nq1r)
Gladys Knight & The Pips: Concert One
The first of two concerts recorded at The New London Theatre. Included in this programme are some of the group's early hits, The Way We Were, Come Back and Finish What You Started and Midnight Train to Georgia.
FRI 21:30 In Concert (m001nq1t)
Gladys Knight & The Pips: Concert Two
The second of two concerts recorded at The New London Theatre. Included in this programme are some of their more recent hits, Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me, Help Me Make It through the Night and Taste of Bitter Love.
FRI 22:05 In Concert (b0074sny)
Bill Withers
Legendary soul singer-songwriter Bill Withers, at the height of his powers in a live concert for the BBC from 1974, performing hits such as Lean on Me, Ain't No Sunshine and Grandma's Hands.
FRI 22:40 Radio 2 In Concert (b06qrrgy)
Seal
The BBC's Radio Theatre is the venue for a concert from four-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Seal. It was held to mark the 2015 release of his atmospheric album '7' - his ninth studio album, which saw him reunite with producer Trevor Horn.
Seal has had a remarkable career that spans more than two decades and has released a string of hits that included Killer, Crazy and Kiss from a Rose. Expect an evening of old classics and newer material from this specially shot concert for BBC Radio 2, presented by Jo Whiley.
FRI 23:40 Sight and Sound in Concert (m001nq1x)
Curtis Mayfield: 1984
Pete Drummond introduces a concert by Curtis Mayfield from the Marcus Garvey Centre, Nottingham.
FRI 00:25 BBC One Sessions (b007chr8)
Corinne Bailey Rae
Corinne Bailey Rae, backed by a ten-piece string section, in concert at LSO St Luke's in Shoreditch, performing songs from her self-titled debut album, including Like a Star, Put Your Records On and Trouble Sleeping, plus covers of Led Zeppelin's Since I've Been Loving You and Aretha Franklin's Daydreaming.
FRI 01:05 Radio 2 In Concert (b07lkgrp)
Gregory Porter
This evening BBC Maida Vale opens its doors to US singer-songwriter Gregory Porter, whose gift for uniting jazz, soul, gospel and R&B has awarded him a Grammy and worldwide critical acclaim.
Hosted by Jo Whiley, tonight's intimate Radio 2 In Concert features songs from his critically acclaimed back catalogue of work and new music from his recently released fourth album, Take Me to the Alley.
FRI 02:20 In Concert (m001nq1r)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:00 today]
FRI 02:50 In Concert (m001nq1t)
[Repeat of broadcast at
21:30 today]
FRI 03:30 Top of the Pops (m001nq1p)
[Repeat of broadcast at
19:30 today]