SATURDAY 09 SEPTEMBER 2023

SAT 19:00 Lost Land of the Volcano (b00mqjx2)
Episode 2

The second part of this exploration series combining stunning wildlife with high energy adventure.

A team of scientists and wildlife film-makers have made base camp on a remote extinct volcano at the heart of the tropical island of New Guinea. Their aim is to search the thick jungle for the weird and endangered animals that hide there. Now they are pushing deeper into the rainforest, and cameraman Gordon Buchanan enlists the help of a tribe to find and film the extraordinary birds of paradise as they perform their bizarre courtship displays.

George McGavin has to manhandle a giant crocodile, and Steve Backshall is living deep underground where he discovers a new cave system never seen by humans.


SAT 20:00 Ray Mears's Northern Wilderness (b00nwv71)
The Unknown Pioneer

Ray Mears goes on an epic adventure into Canada's unforgiving yet stunning wilderness.

For Ray Mears there is one British pioneer who stands above all others in the exploration of Canada. That man is Samuel Hearne. In learning to travel using First Nations skills, he set the template for successful travel into Canada's wilderness.

Hearne's story is defined by hardship and adventure, an inspiring tale made more powerful by the journal he left as a legacy. In a celebration of one of Earth's last great wildernesses, Ray follows in the footsteps of his hero's epic journey of over 1,000 miles.


SAT 21:00 DNA (p0g6my5y)
Series 2

Transylvanian Contractors

Due to Julita’s kidnapping, Rolf travels to France to bring Hania back to Denmark. Rolf and Neel go to Christian Hoxa’s farm, since new evidence links him to human trafficking through EMIDA to Work-Force. Mario’s debt to the traffickers goes up after his escape, and in order to pay off the increased amount, he is forced to take on a new job.

Danish crime drama.


SAT 21:40 DNA (p0g6mzz7)
Series 2

Donor

Mario must pay a high price for his mistakes.


SAT 22:30 Parkinson (m001qg8z)
David Bowie, Victoria Beckham and Clive James

Michael Parkinson in conversation with David Bowie, Victoria Beckham and Clive James.


SAT 23:30 Parkinson: The Interviews (b01gkj72)
Series 1

David Niven

Actor, writer and raconteur David Niven spills the beans about the golden days of Hollywood as he talks about his work, his loves and his autobiographies with the wit and charm that became his trademark in two interviews from 1972 and 1975.


SAT 00:10 Yes, Minister (b007833g)
Series 1

The Writing on the Wall

Jim Hacker's campaign against civil service overmanning is too successful. Now his own department faces closure.


SAT 00:40 The Thick of It (b00p270j)
Series 3

Episode 5

After weeks of trading bitter blows in the press, DoSAC minister Nicola Murray MP and her shadow Peter Mannion MP are invited onto BBC Radio 5Live for a debate on Richard Bacon's late-night phone-in programme.

Director of communications Malcolm Tucker and opposition PR guru Stewart Pearson decide to listen in the comfort of their respective offices, but when some breaking news threatens to make things difficult for the politicians, the programme quickly turns into a phone-in like no other. Malcolm and Stewart are left no choice but to start getting their people over to the studios.


SAT 01:10 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (b0077t7n)
Series 1

The Psychiatrist

Classic sitcom about accident-prone Frank Spencer. Convinced he is a failure, Frank visits a psychiatrist.


SAT 01:40 Ray Mears's Northern Wilderness (b00nwv71)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 02:40 Lost Land of the Volcano (b00mqjx2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

SUNDAY 10 SEPTEMBER 2023

SUN 19:00 Andre Previn at the BBC (b06gxxxh)
Charismatic conductor and composer Andre Previn looks back at some of his greatest television moments, from thrilling performances of orchestral favourites by Mozart and Berlioz to his classic comedy encounter with Morecambe and Wise.


SUN 20:00 BBC Proms (m001qg9k)
2023

Unmissable Moments

Unmissable Moments from the BBC Proms 2023 season. Take a whistlestop tour through eight weeks of world-class music making with standout performances from the spectacular array of superstar musicians who have graced the Royal Albert Hall stage this summer.

This special programme is packed with some of the biggest tunes in classical music. Beethoven's biggest hits, memorable Mozart and a celebration of Rachmaninov sit alongside dazzling performances from the likes of Yuja Wang, Pekka Kuusisto and Isata Kanneh-Mason, while northern soul classics, jazz anthems and music all the way from Bollywood to Hollywood are given the symphonic treatment on the Proms stage. There really is something for everyone.

An ensemble of this year’s Proms presenters brings us this celebration of the best of the best from the world's greatest classical music festival.


SUN 22:00 The Shock of the New (b0074qfl)
Mechanical Paradise

Series on the development of modern art from 1880 to the present, presented by Robert Hughes. The first episode shows how the development of technology influenced art between 1880 and the end of WWI.

Hughes discusses cubism, a movement started by Pablo Picasso and developed by Georges Braque, in which multiple viewpoints of a subject were compressed into a single view. Hughes details how African carvings and Spanish culture had a key influence on works such as Picasso's Demoiselles D'Avignon.


SUN 23:00 The Shock of the New (b0074qfm)
The Powers That Be

Robert Hughes examines the relationship between art and authority by looking at dadaism and the art of political movements such as fascism and Soviet communism. Featuring works by Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Otto Dix and George Grosz.


SUN 00:00 Radio 2 In Concert (m001q7rd)
Michael Bublé

Radio 2 Live features Michael Bublé, recorded in concert with his Big Band at the BBC Radio Theatre.


SUN 00:45 Andre Previn at the BBC (b06gxxxh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

MONDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 2023

MON 19:00 Great Coastal Railway Journeys (m0014l3b)
Series 1

Fort William to Glenfinnan

A ride to remember caps this leg of Michael Portillo’s railway adventure up the west coast of Scotland. Aboard the Jacobite Express, he crosses the awe-inspiring Glenfinnan Viaduct. With their perfect view of the beautiful curve of 21 arches built entirely of concrete, Michael and his fellow passengers are the envy of the crowds waving below.

Spectacular engineering is in store for Michael in the majestic Grampian Mountains at Fort William, where he investigates the Lochaber aluminium works.

In the Nevis range, Michael takes the only mountain gondola in Britain to explore a championship downhill mountain bike track.

At Banavie, Michael operates the charmingly named Neptune’s Staircase, a series of eight locks within a quarter of a mile on the Caledonian Canal, which was built by Scottish engineer Thomas Telford to enable boats to pass from coast to coast.

At Glencoe, Michael learns of a massacre in 1692, when 38 members of the MacDonald clan were murdered by government soldiers they were hosting. Michael joins archaeologists excavating the site to learn more about the lost community.


MON 19:30 The Riviera: A History in Pictures (b01pwtvf)
The Golden Era

Richard E Grant explores how modern art and the Riviera grew up together when France's Cote D'Azur became the hedonistic playground and experimental studio for the great masters of 20th-century painting. With Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso resident on the coast, other artists from Jean Cocteau to Henri Lartigue, Raoul Dufy to Fernand Leger and Francis Picabia to Sergei Diaghilev were drawn to the area.

As transatlantic liners brought America's super-rich to the region, art and celebrity became integrally intertwined as cultural gurus and multimillionaires all partied on the beach. In an era of sunshine and bathing, of cinema and fast cars, of the Ballet Russes and Monte Carlo casinos, Grant discovers the extraordinary output of what became briefly the world's creative hub.


MON 20:30 Royal History’s Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley (m000fzsh)
Series 1

Queen Anne and the Union

Lucy Worsley explores how Queen Anne’s reputation and legacy have been marred by a sustained campaign of historical fibs. When Queen Anne came to the throne in 1702, England looked set to be dominated by France and Spain. But Anne fought bravely to help England become a leading European power. She also helped unite England and Scotland to create Great Britain.

Anne was shy and reclusive. At first, she was supported as queen by her childhood friend and ‘favourite’, Sarah Churchill. However, they increasingly clashed over personal tensions and politics.

When Sarah’s cousin Abigail Masham became a lady-in-waiting, she began to replace Sarah in the queen’s affections. In revenge, Sarah helped pen a bawdy ballad claiming Anne and Abigail performed ‘dark deeds at night’. This led to endless rumours about Anne’s sexuality that persist to this day.

In the end, Sarah was dismissed. Thirty years after Anne’s death, Sarah took further revenge by publishing a tell-all story of her time as the queen’s favourite. Her portrait of Anne, as a foolish and stubborn woman, has been taken on board by most historians. But Lucy finds it is full of fibs.

Hollywood used Sarah’s version of history to create 2019’s The Favourite, destroying Queen Anne’s reputation for a whole new generation. Lucy reveals Anne to have been a smarter, more successful queen than history has ever acknowledged.


MON 21:30 The Sky at Night (m001qg91)
The Very Large Telescope

The Very Large Telescope – or VLT – has been responsible for some of the greatest astronomical breakthroughs of all time, discoveries that have resulted in Nobel Prizes and transformed our understanding of the cosmos. The Sky at Night team travels to the heart of Chile’s Atacama Desert to explore one of the most advanced observatories in the world - a site at the forefront of ground-based optical astronomy.

The Very Large Telescope, or VLT, is located at the Paranal Observatory, in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on earth apart from the North and South Poles, which makes it the perfect place for an observatory because there is little moisture in the air distorting the view of the stars.

The VLT is actually made up of four main telescopes that can be used individually or have their observing power combined. Each telescope contains a huge 8.2 metre mirror at its heart, designed to capture as much light as possible, and the images obtained from the ground are almost as sharp as those obtained in space.

In this episode, Maggie meets some of the scientists, engineers and astronomers working at this extraordinary site. Her journey begins by meeting the head of maintenance, support and engineering, Maxime Boccas. He is leading the operation of something that only happens once every two years – the cleaning of the mirrors. Maxime explains the incredible way these huge and delicate mirrors are cleaned and maintained – including the way aluminium particles are vaporised to create perfectly reflective surfaces.

Someone using the incredible telescopes for their work is astronomer Dr Joe Anderson. Along with other scientists, Joe uses the VLT’s specialised instruments – devices that analyse light from the universe, helping scientists to see and better understand the cosmos. Joe explains that the VLT is the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory, and its huge mirrors and range of instruments mean astronomers can get readings across a broad range of spectrums, which has led to a lot of new discoveries regarding exoplanets, black holes and gamma ray bursts.

The VLT is a huge site in the middle of a desert, so Maggie next meets Vanessa Peidro, the head of logistics and responsible for maintaining not just the buildings and vehicles but also managing food, water and other facilities that cater for 150-160 people on site at any one time.

Maggie then meets physicist Francoise Delplancke-Stroebele and her colleague Frederic Gonte. They are leading the VLT's next upgrade, Gravity+, and explain how the four massive telescopes at the VLT work in unison by combining light waves in a technique called interferometry. This technique is used by astronomer Dr Abigail Frost, who explains how interferometry helped in the recent discovery of a rare so-called ‘vampire star’.

The VLT is still a world-class observatory with cutting-edge research, but the site will soon transform into an even more powerful observatory. The Extremely Large Telescope, or ELT, is currently in construction. Maggie gets a sneak peek at what will be, when it’s completed in five years’ time, the biggest optical telescope in the world. Built on top of a mountain and the size of a cathedral, the ELT has to be one of the most spectacular and complex feats of engineering in the world.


MON 22:00 Edward Heath Remembered by Michael Cockerell (m001qg93)
Award-winning documentary maker Michael Cockerell is a master of the political profile, with a reputation for uncovering the human side of the men and women of Westminster and for really getting under the skin of the great, the good and the not-so-good who have governed postwar Britain.

Here, Michael looks back on one of the most challenging encounters of his long career and recounts what it was like dealing with former Conservative prime minister Edward Heath, the man who took us into the European Union but wanted us all to keep very much out of his private life.


MON 22:10 A Very Singular Man: A Film Portrait of Edward Heath (m001qg95)
Edward Heath was one of the most controversial prime ministers of the 20th century. He took Britain into Europe, but was brought down by the very trade unions he sought to tame. In an intimate portrait, Sir Edward talks about his life and career and of his stormy relationship with his successors.


MON 23:10 Invasion! with Sam Willis (b09j2vwt)
Series 1

Episode 2

Dr Sam Willis tells the story of the Barbary Corsaire pirates, who made their HQ on Lundy Island, and brings together the evidence of the little-known tale of King Louis the Lion. This French king invaded Britain in the 13th century after being invited to do so by plotting nobles. He was even crowned at St Paul's, but politely retreated when asked. Sam also looks at one day in 1687 when a huge Dutch task force sped up the River Medway, and plots the progress of perhaps one of the most audacious attempted invasions ever - by the imposter Perkin Warbeck.


MON 00:10 The Shock of the New (b0074qfl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Sunday]


MON 01:10 The Shock of the New (b0074qfm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:00 on Sunday]


MON 02:10 Great Coastal Railway Journeys (m0014l3b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 02:40 Royal History’s Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley (m000fzsh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]

TUESDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2023

TUE 19:00 Secret Life of Farm Animals (m0001ky3)
Series 1

Pigs

We all think we know about farm animals - that sheep are stupid, pigs are smart and that cows lie down when it is going to rain. But there's a lot more to them than that. In this series we're bringing together some of the country's best farms to create one sun-dappled ideal where we will test animal intelligence, discover unlikely relationships and uncover a side of farm animals you've never seen before.

It is harvest season. We follow a litter of piglets from birth as they grow up in the Brecon Beacons. We test the theory that every piglet always returns to the same teat to suckle, show that pigs love mud to keep cool because they have practically no sweat glands, and we show how intelligent they are with a series of puzzles. We also reveal that they are masters at the art of deception. Pigs tell porkies! Along the way we meet a pair of kunekune pigs raised as domestic pets in the heart of London. We visit a farm that uses llamas to guard its sheep and meet a pet rabbit with a remarkable identity crisis.


TUE 20:00 Great Coastal Railway Journeys (m0014l52)
Series 1

Mallaig to Isle of Lewis and Harris

Michael reaches the terminus of the West Highland Line at Mallaig, from which he follows in the footsteps of Bonnie Prince Charlie over the sea to Skye. The island is renowned for wildlife, and Michael seeks out one of its most spectacular residents, the sea eagle. He is also lucky enough also to spot a school of dolphins.

In the remote village of Uig, Michael discovers how the Gaelic language is in everyday use and part of a wider culture. He learns that Gaelic songs once accompanied daily activities such as spinning, milking or cutting grass and enjoys a solo performance.

Crossing the Minch, a dangerous stretch of water which separates Skye from the island of Lewis and Harris, Michael reaches the Outer Hebrides and its capital, Stornoway. His eye is caught by the island’s most famous export, Harris Tweed. A Hebridean textile artist tells Michael how the island’s traditional cloth has influenced her knitwear and how the wool’s distinctive colours are derived.

On a remote shoreline on the west coast of the island, Michael encounters a mythical creature. She has the head and torso of a woman but the tail of a fish! Captivated, Michael wades into the waves to join her...


TUE 20:30 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (b0077tj1)
Series 1

The Employment Exchange

Classic comedy with one-man disaster area Frank Spencer. The new manager of the labour exchange refuses to believe that Frank is unemployable.


TUE 21:00 Yes, Minister (b0078356)
Series 1

The Right to Know

Sir Humphrey prevents Jim from getting to know too much about how the Department of Administrative Affairs operates and uses badgers in Hayward's Spinney to show him there are things it is better not to know.


TUE 21:30 The Thick of It (b00p5wrm)
Series 3

Episode 6

With the Prime Minister away at a summit in Spain, Malcolm Tucker is left at home to mind the shop. Just as Nicola Murray is about to launch her Fourth Sector Initiative to the media, the media decide that what they really want is someone to launch another leadership contest.

Does Nicola have what it takes and, if she does, can Malcolm take it away from her before she does any damage?


TUE 22:00 Storyville (m001qg9f)
Benjamin, Joshua and The Crown Shyness

When high school ends and adulthood begins, Benjamin and Joshua Israel, two identical twins of Jewish origin, start feeling burdened. While friends and schoolmates are planning a new life, they don’t seem able to imagine their own future. Being in your twenties and having a natural charisma combined with a sassy attitude is not enough if you have an intellectual disability and the world makes it hard for you to fit in. Feeling left out, Benji and Josh confront the limits imposed by others, without fear of smashing right into them. Josh wants to have sex for the first time, while Benji follows the reverie of a new love. Even if the twins are often in conflict with each other, their bond is impossible to break. They will soon learn that growing up also means giving the other space without casting a shadow.


TUE 23:35 The Violence Paradox (m000vsdw)
Series 1

Episode 2

Psychologist Steven Pinker examines the evidence that suggests that the world is becoming more peaceful, including how income equality and personal contact through sport may curb violence in modern societies, and the ways in which 'interrupters' in the USA are treating violence like a contagious disease.


TUE 00:30 Parkinson (m001qg8z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 on Saturday]


TUE 01:30 Great Coastal Railway Journeys (m0014l52)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


TUE 02:00 Invasion! with Sam Willis (b09j2vwt)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:10 on Monday]


TUE 03:00 Secret Life of Farm Animals (m0001ky3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2023

WED 19:00 The Sky at Night (m001qg91)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 on Monday]


WED 19:30 Universe (p09ybpb8)
Series 1

The Sun: God Star

Professor Brian Cox begins his epic exploration of the cosmos with a hymn to the great luminous bodies that bring light and warmth to the universe: the stars.

It is estimated that there are two hundred trillion stars in the universe, each playing their part in an epic story of creation - a great saga that stretches from the dawn of time, with the arrival of the first star, through diverse generations until the arrival of our own star, the sun, and a civilisation that has grown up in its light.


WED 20:30 Voyage to Mars: The Longest Goodbye (p0g5bpg2)
Nasa intends to send astronauts to Mars. To succeed, crew members will have to overcome unprecedented, life-threatening challenges, and while many of these hazards are physical, the most elusive are psychological.

Throughout the expected three-year absence, crew members won’t be able to communicate with Earth in real time due to the immense distance. The psychological impact of this level of disconnectedness and isolation – both from mission control and loved ones – is impossible to predict and endangers the mission itself. Directed to mitigate this threat is Dr Al Holland, a Nasa psychologist whose job is to keep astronauts mentally stable in space.

The Longest Goodbye follows Holland, rookie astronauts Kayla Barron and Matthias Maurer and former astronaut Cady Coleman, among others, as they grapple with the tension between their dream of reaching new frontiers and the basic human need to stay connected to home.


WED 21:55 Coast (b014cq0j)
Series 4 (Shortened Versions)

Whitstable to Red Sands Sea Fort

Beginning at the famous Oyster Festival in Whitstable, Neil Oliver ventures offshore to the remarkable Red Sands Sea Forts. Built as air defences in the Second World War they went on to inspire the design of the first North Sea oil rigs.


WED 22:00 Amanda Burton Remembers... Silent Witness (m001qhtt)
When the BBC’s long-running Silent Witness first combined doctors, DNA and detective work back in 1996, nobody could have known that the show that changed the way death was examined in a crime drama would itself be alive and thriving well over 25 years later. Fundamental to that longevity was Amanda Burton, whose portrayal of the show’s original lead character Dr Sam Ryan helped establish the early success of the series. Here, Amanda takes a scalpel to the show’s early days, remembers what it was like playing Sam for eight years and shares her thoughts on how and why Silent Witness became the television institution that it remains today.


WED 22:10 Silent Witness (p02zy1cj)
Blood, Sweat and Tears

Part 1

A boxer dies from brain injuries mid-bout. A new DSI takes over the team's investigations. Sam and Wyn bury their mother.


WED 23:00 Silent Witness (p02zy1cm)
Blood, Sweat and Tears

Part 2

Sam discovers why Kevin entered a bare knuckle fight, as well as uncovering evidence of more foul play in the boxing circuit.


WED 23:50 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (m001gmt0)
2022: Dame Sue Black

Dead Body

Professor Sue Black has been dubbed the ‘corpse whisperer’ for her role in deciphering the messages hidden within a dead body. In this first lecture in the Royal Institution’s 2022 Christmas series, she is joined by Silent Witness’s Emilia Fox to reveal the secrets of forensic science.

Sue shows how the stories of our lives are hidden in the very fabric of our bodies by examining an archaeological skeleton, using techniques she uses in modern-day forensic investigations. She gradually builds up its identity until a pile of old bones once again becomes a real person. She explains how extraordinary clues in our bones can reveal everything from our age and our sex to our diets and our ancestry – there’s even a bone in our ear that can reveal where our mother lived while she was pregnant.

Professor Black’s investigations into the trauma marks visible in the 1,000-year-old skeleton’s bones reveal where this person died, and how they died. In the process, she tells this individual’s extraordinary life story and sheds light on one of the darkest days in English history.

The Christmas Lectures date back to 1825 when Michael Faraday founded the lectures for children at the Royal Institution. They are the world’s longest running science television series, which today use demonstrations and interactive experiments with the live theatre audience.

With insights from forensic investigations into serious crimes and war zones.


WED 00:50 A Very Singular Man: A Film Portrait of Edward Heath (m001qg95)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:10 on Monday]


WED 01:50 Universe (p09ybpb8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


WED 02:50 The Riviera: A History in Pictures (b01pwtvf)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 on Monday]

THURSDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2023

THU 19:00 Great Coastal Railway Journeys (m0014t44)
Series 1

Avonmouth to Six Bells

Michael Portillo crosses the Severn Estuary to begin a new railway journey along the south coast of Wales. Eschewing the train through the 19th-century Severn Tunnel, he joins maintenance workers on a hair-raising secret railway high above the estuary. The Rapid Access Train clings to the underbelly of the Prince of Wales Bridge, which carries the M4 motorway into Wales. The engineering is magnificent, and the views are spectacular.

From Newport, Michael makes for Caerleon, where he finds the most complete Roman amphitheatre remaining in Britain. Michael learns how the Romans used the arena and discovers how Caerleon's Roman history was eclipsed by the legend of King Arthur and his round table.

Reaching the capital, Cardiff, Michael admires the regeneration of Cardiff Bay and enjoys Welsh cakes before striking inland to Llanhilleth and the valleys that once provided a third of the world’s coal. The pits are now long gone, and in Six Bells, once the scene of a mining disaster, Michael is fascinated to learn how the area is being regenerated. Red paint is being manufactured here from sludge, which is a by-product of mine water treatment. Michael watches as the town is painted red.


THU 19:30 Climbing Great Buildings (b00tv99n)
Blenheim Palace

Dr Jonathan Foyle, architectural historian and novice climber, scales Britain's most iconic structures, from the Normans to the present day, to reveal the buildings' secrets and tell the story of how our architecture and construction have developed over 1,000 years.

The next step of Jonathan's journey celebrating British architecture takes him to the epitome of the English stately home - Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. Built in the early 1700s as a reward for the Duke of Marlborough's defeat of King Louis XIV of France, it's one of the finest examples of English Baroque buildings in the country.

With unprecedented access to Blenheim Palace, aided by champion climber Lucy Creamer, Jonathan scales the building to investigate the innovations and techniques used to construct it and to decipher the stories and propaganda carved all over the building. He climbs over 100 feet to reveal the story of how a bawdy playwright, a brave general and his strong-willed wife combined and clashed to create this most audacious masterpiece. He zips across the courtyard to see how the duke's epic victory is celebrated in stone through flamboyant and satirical sculpture, and he dangles precariously inside the Great Hall trying not to break the lamps, worth 250,000 pounds, to get a view of the spectacular hand-painted ceiling.


THU 20:00 How the Celts Saved Britain (b00ktrby)
Salvation

Provocative two-part documentary in which Dan Snow blows the lid on the traditional Anglo-centric view of history and reveals how the Irish saved Britain from cultural oblivion during the Dark Ages.

He follows in the footsteps of Ireland's earliest missionaries as they venture through treacherous barbarian territory to bring literacy and technology to the future nations of Scotland and England.


THU 21:00 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (b007bfnt)
Terrifying gothic chiller about two sisters, Blanche and 'Baby Jane' Hudson - ageing former movie stars who live together in a decaying Hollywood mansion. When the last of their domestic staff is finally dismissed, Blanche is left at the mercy of the alcoholic, increasingly demented and sadistic Jane.


THU 23:10 Talking Pictures (b09kl57n)
Bette and Joan

Sylvia Syms looks through the BBC archives to tell the story of one of Hollywood's greatest ever feuds - the rivalry between legendary actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Interviews from the 1960s and 70s reveal the mutual loathing that came to a head when, against all expectations, they starred together in the classic psychological thriller Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?.

The programme looks in detail at the making of the film, examines the fallout when Bette and not Joan received an Oscar nomination for her performance, and shows how, despite the hatred, the pair had more in common than audiences appreciated.


THU 23:40 Balloon (m000pyt7)
1979, Thuringen, East Germany. Like many of the country’s citizens, the Strelzyk family are desperate to escape to the west.

Under the watchful eye of the Stasi and the fearsome lieutenant colonel Seidel, they pursue a plan so crazy that most of their neighbours would not believe it if they saw it. With the help of their friends the Wetzels, they try to cross the border in a homemade hot air balloon.

In German with English subtitles.


THU 01:35 Great Coastal Railway Journeys (m0014t44)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 02:05 The Violence Paradox (m000vsdw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:35 on Tuesday]


THU 03:00 How the Celts Saved Britain (b00ktrby)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

FRIDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2023

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m001qgbk)
Bruno Brookes presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 19 January 1995, with Ultimate Kaos, Massive Attack featuring Tracey Thorn, Ini Kamoze, Sleeper, The Human League, Barry White, Celine Dion, The Sweet and Rednex.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m001qgbm)
Eternal present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 26 January 1995 and featuring M.C. Sar & the Real McCoy, Deuce, Simple Minds, N-Trance, Let Loose, Green Day, The Wildhearts, Nicki French, Rednex and The Osmonds.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m000jjj7)
Andy Crane and Simon Mayo present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 14 September 1989 and featuring Tina Turner, Black Box and Damian.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (b0b16s6d)
Mike Read and Steve Wright present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 12 September 1985. Featuring Amii Stewart, Huey Lewis and the News, Maria Vidal, Marillion, Mai Tai, and David Bowie & Mick Jagger.


FRI 21:00 Radio 2 In Concert (b03hj0xn)
Paul McCartney in Concert (2013)

As part of BBC Radio 2's In Concert series, Paul McCartney returns to BBC Maida Vale studios, where he recorded 275 performances with the Beatles between 1962 and 1965. Paul performs classic Beatles and Wings songs including Eight Days a Week, Back in the USSR, Lady Madonna, Hey Jude, Band on the Run and Jet, plus tracks from his solo career and his latest album, New.


FRI 22:00 In Concert (m0014l9q)
James Taylor

Music concert from 1971 featuring American singer-songwriter James Taylor, with a special guest appearance by Carole King.


FRI 22:45 The Old Grey Whistle Test (m001qgbp)
Jackson Browne: 1976

Jackson Browne in a live concert from the BBC Television Theatre, London. Introduced by Bob Harris.


FRI 23:35 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 00:40 Top of the Pops (m000jjj7)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 01:10 Top of the Pops (b0b16s6d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


FRI 01:40 Radio 2 In Concert (b03hj0xn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 02:40 Top of the Pops (m001qgbk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 03:10 Top of the Pops (m001qgbm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]