SATURDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 2023

SAT 19:00 Lost Land of the Tiger (b00ty6b0)
Episode 1

Documentary series following a dramatic expedition searching for tigers hidden in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.

With tigers heading for extinction, an international team of big-cat experts and wildlife film-makers are given unique access to the jungles and mountains of Bhutan for what could be the last chance to save this magnificent animal.

Explorer Steve Backshall is joined by sniffer dog Bruiser - together, they hunt for tigers through the dense forest undergrowth. High in the mountains, wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan drives himself to exhaustion tracking tigers that seem as elusive as the yeti. And in a jungle base camp, scientist George McGavin organises a firefly disco, while camerawoman Justine Evans is stuck at the top of a tree during a tropical lightning storm.

For the final team member, big-cat biologist Alan Rabinowitz, time to save the tiger is running out, as he has been diagnosed with incurable leukaemia. Alan bugs the forest with remote cameras to capture whatever secretive creatures are lurking there, but ultimately he needs to find tigers if his ambitious plan to protect them across the Himalayas is to succeed.

We follow the expedition every emotional step of the way as they strive to find evidence that could help to bring wild tigers back from the brink of extinction and safeguard their future.


SAT 20:00 Ray Mears's Northern Wilderness (b00p6r67)
Journey's End

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

Until David Thompson found a route through the Rockies, the west coast was effectively cut off from the rest of Canada. Combined with the unique terrain of the Pacific coast, the result was a different land. The unique cultures, skills and landscape of Canada's far west make it a rich and diverse place - a land of cedar boxes, steam-bent fish hooks and dugout canoes, and a place where totem poles once dominated the landscape and people relied on the sea. Ray Mears explores the area's bushcraft, nature and traditions as he completes his journey across Canada.


SAT 21:00 Black Snow (p0g5jywp)
Series 1

Ezekiel

Rumours spread around the town of Ashford, as suspicion is cast over Isabel’s father, Joe. Cormack continues to interview the now grown-up class of ’94 kids. Some are clearly lying, others have no alibi, others make random claims that are difficult to substantiate. The owner of the blue car that followed Isabel on the night of her murder is tracked down. Is Cormack getting closer to solving the case?


SAT 21:50 Black Snow (p0g5jzbh)
Series 1

The Lost Boys

Cormack investigates the link between Ezekiel’s missing cousins and Isabel’s murder. Recently returned Billy Hopkins has some vital information about the way local mill owner Steve Walcott exerted influence over the local community at the time of these mysterious events, but he is reluctant to share all with the police.


SAT 22:45 Parkinson (m001r3gc)
Sir David Attenborough, Nigella Lawson and Eddie Izzard

Michael Parkinson chats with Sir David Attenborough, Nigella Lawson and Eddie Izzard.


SAT 23:45 Parkinson (m001r3gh)
Hollywood Men

Michael Parkinson looks back at interviews he carried out with legendary Hollywood actors in the 1970s. Those featured include Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon - who both tell stories about Marilyn Monroe - Kirk Douglas, James Stewart, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman and John Wayne.


SAT 00:30 Yes, Minister (b0078366)
Series 2

The Compassionate Society

Political sitcom. Minister for administrative affairs Jim Hacker struggles to cut administrative staff in the Health Service.


SAT 01:00 The Thick of It (b00pd5w4)
Series 3

Episode 8

Award-winning political comedy.

As the election looms and the Opposition eye the prize, the word around the Westminster Village is that Malcolm Tucker is running out of both options and friends. He may have bitten off more than he can chew with Steve Fleming, but when an offer of help appears from an unlikely direction, Malcolm starts to set his finest trap yet.


SAT 01:30 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (b0078m4c)
Series 2

The RAF Reunion

Classic sitcom about a one-man disaster area. Frank attends an RAF reunion and the hidden story of his short but eventful spell in the services unfolds in flashback.


SAT 02:00 Ray Mears's Northern Wilderness (b00p6r67)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


SAT 03:00 Lost Land of the Tiger (b00ty6b0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]

SUNDAY 01 OCTOBER 2023

SUN 19:00 David Tennant Remembers… Hamlet (m001r3gx)
David Tennant looks back on the role he time-travelled into after leaving the Tardis, playing Hamlet in Greg Doran’s award-winning 2008 production for the Royal Shakespeare Company. David’s portrayal was described at the time as ‘athletic, and immensely engaging’, full of ‘vigour and wild humour’ and ‘the best great Dane in years’.

Here, he talks about his approach to the part, performing opposite Patrick Stewart, who played the role of Claudius, and the reaction he got when the production became a hit with BBC audiences when it was screened on Boxing Day 2009.


SUN 19:15 Hamlet (b00pk71s)
David Tennant stars in a film of the Royal Shakespeare Company's award-winning production of Shakespeare's great play. Director Gregory Doran's modern-dress production was hailed by the critics as thrilling, fast-moving and, in parts, very funny.

Hamlet must decide whether to avenge his father's murder at the hands of his uncle Claudius (played by Patrick Stewart), who has married his brother's wife - Hamlet's mother, Gertrude. This visually sumptuous screen version was filmed on location with all of the original stage cast.

BBC Productions in association with Illuminations and the Royal Shakespeare Company.


SUN 22:20 Dame Janet Suzman Remembers... The Wars of the Roses (m001r3h9)
Dame Janet Suzman looks back on her role as Joan of Arc in the BBC adaptations of Shakespeare’s Wars of the Roses.

Under the direction of John Barton and Peter Hall at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Janet delivered a highly acclaimed performance, and here she recalls the challenges she faced playing a figure as iconic as Joan. She explains how these groundbreaking productions brought a modern relevance to conflict between the Houses of York and Lancaster and shares memories of working with fellow cast members, including Donald Sinden and the great Peggy Ashcroft.


SUN 22:35 The Wars of the Roses (m001r3hg)
Henry VI

First part of the RSC's landmark production of The Wars of the Roses, adapted by John Barton.


SUN 01:20 The Shock of the New (b0074qhj)
Culture as Nature

Robert Hughes goes Pop when he examines the art that referred to the man-made world that fed off culture itself via works by Rauchenberg, Warhol and Lichtenstein.


SUN 02:20 The Shock of the New (b0074qhk)
The Future That Was

Robert Hughes slips down the decline of modernism while visiting installations and watching art without substance. Once accepted as the dominant culture, the art of modernism found itself without an avant-garde and without the ability to shock or provoke other than as objects that cost absurd amounts of money. Hughes examines how artists have dealt with this commercialisation. Artists include Bridget Reilly, Joseph Beuys and David Hockney.

MONDAY 02 OCTOBER 2023

MON 19:00 Life (p07gj8bp)
Birds

Birds owe their global success to feathers - something no other animal has. They allow birds to do extraordinary things.

For the first time, a slow-motion camera captures the unique flight of the marvellous spatuletail hummingbird as he flashes long, iridescent tail feathers in the gloomy undergrowth. Aerial photography takes us into the sky with an Ethiopian lammergeier dropping bones to smash them into edible-sized bits. Thousands of pink flamingoes promenade in one of nature's greatest spectacles. The sage grouse rubs his feathers against his chest in a comic display to make popping noises that attract females. The Vogelkop bowerbird makes up for his dull colour by building an intricate structure and decorating it with colourful beetles and snails.


MON 20:00 Leonora Carrington: The Lost Surrealist (b09j0lp9)
British surrealist Leonora Carrington was a key part of the surrealist movement during its heyday in Paris and yet, until recently, remained a virtual unknown in the country of her birth. This film explores her dramatic evolution from British debutante to artist in exile, living out her days in Mexico City, and takes us on a journey into her darkly strange and cinematic world.


MON 21:00 Andy Warhol's America (p0b5mq8s)
Series 1

Living the Dream

How Warhol both glorified and critiqued American culture on his journey from childhood poverty in Pittsburgh to the A-list of New York society.


MON 22:00 Timewatch (b0078yy8)
2005-2006

The Gunpowder Plot

Documentary that re-examines the attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 - one of the most famous yet least understood events in British history. It shows how the plot was almost England's 9/11, and asks why a group of young Englishmen became so radicalised and so hell-bent on terrorism. Computer graphics recreate what the Houses of Parliament looked like in 1605, and show just how close the plotters came to success.


MON 22:50 Story of Ireland (b00z9j2z)
The Age of Revolution

A five-part landmark series, written and presented by Fergal Keane.

Fergal Keane explores how the influx of Scottish Presbyterians during the 17th century Plantation of Ulster changed the make-up of the island and its subsequent history. We also see how revolution in America and France paved the way for Ireland's 1798 rebellion.


MON 23:50 The Culture Show (b01c7wmr)
2011/2012

David Hockney: The Art of Seeing - A Culture Show Special

Andrew Marr interviews David Hockney, widely considered to be Britain's best-loved living artist, about his exhibition A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy, made up of works depicting the landscape of his native Yorkshire.


MON 00:50 Scene by Scene (m001qwq1)
Janet Leigh

Mark Cousins visits Beverly Hills for a revealing conversation with Janet Leigh, star of Psycho, Touch of Evil and The Manchurian Candidate. Leigh talks about her life, including her marriage to Tony Curtis and working with Orson Welles.


MON 01:40 Leonora Carrington: The Lost Surrealist (b09j0lp9)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


MON 02:40 Andy Warhol's America (p0b5mq8s)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 03 OCTOBER 2023

TUE 19:00 Life (b00nxks3)
Insects

There are 200 million insects for each of us. They are the most successful animal group ever. Their key is an armoured covering that takes on almost any shape.

Darwin's stag beetle fights in the tree tops with huge curved jaws. The camera flies with millions of monarch butterflies which migrate 2000 miles, navigating by the sun. Super-slow motion shows a bombardier beetle firing boiling liquid at enemies through a rotating nozzle. A honey bee army stings a raiding bear into submission. Grass cutter ants march like a Roman army, harvesting grass they cannot actually eat. They cultivate a fungus that breaks the grass down for them. Their giant colony is the closest thing in nature to the complexity of a human city.


TUE 20:00 Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (b00787sb)
Series 2

The Public Relations Course

Betty urges Frank to go on a public relations course. As the course progresses, relations begin to deteriorate on a grand scale!


TUE 20:30 Yes, Minister (b007836n)
Series 2

Doing the Honours

Sir Humphrey has to combat Jim's economies, including cuts on profitable overseas students at his old college and linking civil servants' honours with achieving cuts.


TUE 21:00 Horizon (b0bny2mq)
2018

Avalanche: Making a Deadly Snowstorm

In March 2018 an international team of scientists gathered in a remote valley in the Canadian Rockies to conduct a unique experiment - to attempt to see into the heart of a massive avalanche to see if we can find ways to save lives in the future. Avalanches kill hundreds of people every year. Even in the UK 25 people have been killed by these forces of nature since the year 2000. But we know surprisingly little about them - why they happen or how they are able to produce destructive forces so powerful that they can flatten entire villages. Equally disturbing is the fact that climate change means that the pattern of avalanches is changing. They are occurring in places where they have never happened before. Finding out where might be in danger in the future is of vital importance. Answering all these questions could help save lives. The experiment attempts to provide those answers.

The team of experts, gathered from all over the world, includes the programme's presenter Prof Danielle George. Her day job is studying space at Manchester University, but she is also a specialist in the design of experiments. She is even getting personally involved. As part of an experiment to test out safety equipment, Danielle puts on the latest breathing device intended to help you survive being caught in an avalanche. She then agrees to be buried under half a tonne of snow.

The scientists hope to do what no one has ever managed before - to reveal the mysteries of an avalanche's destructive power by finding out what is going on at its very heart. Hitherto, our understanding of avalanches has been based on computer models - but these consistently underestimate the sheer power of these natural phenomena. To try and work out why, the scientists will conduct a range of cutting-edge tests, using the latest technology, including placing a car rigged with sensors right in the path of the avalanche. The plan is to set up the equipment and then unleash the avalanche by dropping explosives near the top of the slope. But the team are in a race against time. They have just three days to rig the mountain before the snow will come down the slope naturally. If they aren't ready in time, all their efforts will be wasted. Even worse, they are working in an active avalanche zone. For some scientists going out on the slopes to install their equipment means risking their lives.

Interwoven with the main experiment are powerful and moving stories from survivors of these violent natural forces. We meet Casey George, whose two children were buried when an avalanche struck the small town of Missoula, Montana, completely out of the blue while they were playing. Their neighbour Fred Allendorf was inside his house when it was completely destroyed. The cataclysm claimed the life of his wife. Missoula had never been struck by an avalanche before. And no one could understand how a well-built house could be utterly demolished.

The film meets British snowboarder Johno Verity, who was being filmed when an avalanche started right underneath him. His story provides clues as to what causes these disasters - a subtle change in the microscopic structure of snow deep beneath the surface. In a unique snow lab, where they can recreate different snow conditions, Danielle discovers exactly how snow can be transformed from something light and fluffy into a potential killer. And there is Elyse Saugstad, an expert skier who, despite years of experience, was caught unawares in an avalanche that killed three of her friends. All these stories emphasise just how unpredictable and devastating these events can be and why we need to understand and so be able to predict them better.

In addition to being buried, Danielle George conducts another experiment into equipment that may help skiers survive being caught in an avalanche. Your chances of living rapidly diminish if you are buried for more than 15 minutes. She conducts a test with an inflatable airbag that is designed to keep you near the surface of an avalanche, making you easier to find.

After two intense days of work by the scientific team, the experiment ends with over 1,000 tonnes of snow rushing down the mountainside. It triggers a whole host of censors and observational equipment. There is then a tense wait for results. But when they come, they are revealing. It seems that the team may have uncovered the first clues to an avalanche's unexplained power. If so, this could one day lead to significant breakthroughs in how we build houses and infrastructure that may lie in an avalanche's path and in how we devise safety equipment for skiers. It could be that this experiment will help save lives in the future.


TUE 22:00 Storyville (m001r3gj)
If the Streets Were on Fire

This is London from an exhilarating, rarely seen perspective. With knife violence rising, social activist Mac creates BikeStormz, a movement for kids across the city to express themselves beyond any threats of violence.

Groups of young people glide through the capital on their bikes, doing wheelies, tricks and death-defying acrobatics, but as they come together and find ways to express themselves through biking - the kind of liberation that surfers and skateboarders eulogise - they are challenged with the threat of arrest by the police and accusations of antisocial behaviour.


TUE 23:10 Una Marson: Our Lost Caribbean Voice (m001dht8)
The extraordinary story of Una Marson, a trailblazing poet, playwright and campaigner, and the first black producer and broadcaster at the BBC.

A Caribbean woman born in the early 1900s, Una defied the limits society placed on her. Joining the BBC’s Empire Service during World War II, she was the first broadcaster to give voice to Caribbean writers and intellectuals, bringing their stories and culture to a global audience accustomed to hearing only English accents.

During her time in London, Una wrote and produced a play for London’s West End, the first black writer to do so. She was also an activist, championing women’s rights, the rights of black people, literacy programmes and the education of children, and working with the deposed Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie.

Una’s writing, letters and her BBC personnel file are used to gain a unique insight into her life and work, while leading academics and her friends consider Una’s life as a black woman in a professional role in Britain at a time when that was highly unusual - and had significant personal costs attached.


TUE 00:10 imagine... (b0bw9d69)
2018

Andrea Levy: Her Island Story

When Andrea Levy's father Winston stepped off the Empire Windrush in July 1948, he had no idea that in time the ship's name would come to describe a group of people betrayed by the British government, or that his daughter would become the voice of that generation. Her best-selling novel Small Island, about the experiences of Jamaican families integrating into post-war Britain, captured the imaginations of readers around the world and picked up nearly every award going upon publication in 2004.

But Andrea's story goes much further back than Small Island. Her earlier books, like Every Light In The House Burnin' and Fruit of the Lemon, explored questions of hybrid identity, providing rich details of a divided Britain in the second half of the twentieth century along the way. And her most recent novel, The Long Song, traced these themes all the way back to 1830s Jamaica, where the abolition of slavery failed to solve the many iniquities of colonisation.

As BBC One prepares to broadcast a new adaptation of The Long Song, with an all-star cast, imagine... profiles Andrea Levy and the journey she has made to become one of Britain's best-loved contemporary novelists. From her childhood in a Highbury council flat to the creative writing classes where she discovered her talent, Andrea tells Alan Yentob about the power of literature to transform lives.

With contributors including Lenny Henry, David Oyelowo, Benedict Cumberbatch and rising star Tamara Lawrance, this is the moving account of one of the most powerful voices of our generation.


TUE 01:25 Life (b00nxks3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


TUE 02:25 Horizon (b0bny2mq)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

WEDNESDAY 04 OCTOBER 2023

WED 19:00 Life (b00p1n00)
Hunters and Hunted

Mammals' ability to learn new tricks is the key to survival in the knife-edge world of hunters and hunted. In a TV first, a killer whale off the Falklands does something unique: it sneaks into a pool where elephant seal pups learn to swim and snatches them, saving itself the trouble of hunting in the open sea.

Slow-motion cameras reveal the star-nosed mole's newly-discovered technique for smelling prey underwater: it exhales then inhales a bubble of air ten times per second. Young ibex soon learn the only way to escape a fox - run up an almost vertical cliff face - and young stoats fight mock battles, learning the skills that make them one of the world's most efficient predators.


WED 20:00 Universe (p09ybycz)
Series 1

Black Holes: Heart of Darkness

Professor Brian Cox continues his epic exploration of the universe with a journey into darkness. The centre of our galaxy is home to an invisible monster of unimaginable power – a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A*. Weighing four million times the mass of the Sun, it’s an object with such an immense gravitational field that nothing can escape – not even light.

For decades, black holes existed purely in the minds of theoretical physicists – the idea was so absurd, scientists thought they couldn’t possibly exist in nature. But recent astronomical breakthroughs have confirmed not only that black holes like Sagittarius A* exist, but that these bizarre invisible objects may be the ultimate galactic protagonists.

Stunning CGI takes us back to witness the fiery origins of our galaxy’s black hole 13.6 billion years ago, when the early universe was home to colossal blue stars hundreds of times more massive than our sun. These stars lived fast and died young, and when they ran out of fuel, they collapsed under their own enormous mass, crushing down into an object so small and so dense it punched a hole in the fabric of the universe. That is how our galaxy’s black hole was born.

The story of Sagittarius A* is a tale of both destruction and creation. Over billions of years, it feasted on nearby gas and stars, and through cataclysmic mergers with other black holes it sent ripples through the fabric of the universe. But Brian reveals that we have recently come to understand how our black hole is also an agent of creation. A breakthrough discovery by Nasa’s Fermi gamma-ray telescope has shown that our black hole once had the power to sculpt the entire galaxy, creating vast bubbles of gas above and below our galaxy that persist to this day. We may even have Sagittarius A* to thank for our own existence.

In a mind-bending conclusion, Brian reveals how our modern understanding of black holes is challenging our concepts of reality to the breaking point. He takes us on a trip inside Sagittarius A*, where we discover that the interior of a black hole is not a tomb but a gateway to the end of the universe. And weirder still, in trying to understand the fate of objects that fall into Sagittarius A*, scientists have come to a stunning conclusion: space and time, concepts so foundational to how we experience the world around us, are not as fundamental as we once thought.


WED 21:00 Charles I: Downfall of a King (m0006p9x)
Series 1

A Nation Divided

The King’s proclamation has been sent around the country. Soon, over 200 MPs will return to Westminster to aid Charles; he simply has to run down the clock.

Pym tries to pass parliamentary bills limiting the King’s power. But in the Lords, the casting votes are held by the bishops, who are loyal to Charles. Pym knows that, in order to succeed, he must remove them.

In mid-December, Pym’s group goes for a political ambush, demanding that the Grand Remonstrance be published. They launch a surprise vote in the dead of night and win. Now the public will read of the King’s supposed misdemeanours. Making matters worse for Charles, rumours spread that the Queen was involved in the Irish rebellion. The royal family now look as if they are in league with the Catholic rebels.

Trying to regain control on 22 December, Charles puts Colonel Thomas Lunsford in charge of the Tower of London. He is a thug, believed ‘fierce enough to eat children’. Soon London goes wild with protests, swarming the Tower. After just a few days, with mobs braying at the palace gates, the King backtracks. This only encourages the rebels, who now see the King as weak and indecisive. Meanwhile, Charles’s backstop of bishops run in fear of the mobs; just two come to the Lords the next day. The King's political frontline is broken. The way for Pym is open.

In a last-ditch attempt to win Pym round, King Charles offers him the top job, chancellor of the exchequer. Will Pym be bought off?


WED 22:00 Cardiac Arrest (p0g20b4b)
Series 3

The Body Electric

Dr Claire Maitland faces an organ donation dilemma.


WED 22:30 Cardiac Arrest (p0g20ct0)
Series 3

Open and Shut

Surgeon Cyril 'Scissors' Smedley finds that his over-confidence backfires with tragic consequences. Meanwhile, Andrew is in the hot seat.


WED 23:00 Cardiac Arrest (p0g20djz)
Series 3

The Practice of Privacy

Claire is accused of being drunk on duty, while Raj enjoys the perks of private practice.


WED 23:30 Cardiac Arrest (p0g20f2c)
Series 3

The Red Queen

Andrew struggles to find beds for patients. Dr Liz Reid is under pressure again.


WED 00:00 Cardiac Arrest (p0g20fbc)
Series 3

Trench Warfare

The doctors are baffled by a difficult diagnosis, while the management decides to crack down on staff whistleblowing.


WED 00:30 Cardiac Arrest (p0g20ftx)
Series 3

Suffer Little Children

There's a staff cricket match, but the medical emergencies and management bullying continue apace.


WED 01:00 Cardiac Arrest (p0g20gyf)
Series 3

The Glass Ceiling

The doctors disagree over the correct treatment of patients, while Claire teases Scissors about his obvious interest in Sister Julie Novac


WED 01:30 Black Snow (p0g5jywp)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Saturday]


WED 02:20 Black Snow (p0g5jzbh)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:50 on Saturday]

THURSDAY 05 OCTOBER 2023

THU 19:00 Life (b00p4rl4)
Creatures of the Deep

Marine invertebrates are some of the most bizarre and beautiful animals on the planet, and thrive in the toughest parts of the oceans.

Divers swim into a shoal of predatory Humboldt squid as they emerge from the ocean depths to hunt in packs. When cuttlefish gather to mate, their bodies flash in stroboscopic colours. Time-lapse photography reveals thousands of starfish gathering under the Arctic ice to devour a seal carcass.

A giant octopus commits suicide for her young. A camera follows her into a cave which she walls up, then she protects her eggs until she starves.

The greatest living structures on earth, coral reefs, are created by tiny animals in some of the world's most inhospitable waters.


THU 20:00 Hidden Wales with Will Millard (m0001jfv)
Series 1

Episode 3

In this three part series, writer and adventurer Will Millard discovers the hidden history of Wales by exploring forgotten, secret and almost inaccessible locations that show the country as you’ve never seen it before.

On an intriguing, exhilarating and sometimes dangerous journey, Hidden Wales with Will Millard offers unprecedented access to places you rarely get to see. Starting in the north and working his way south, over three episodes Will reveals natural wonders and secret stories hidden in the landscape. These include abandoned industrial relics and ruined stately homes that have been lost to history as well as modern marvels of engineering that show what the country might become.

In this final episode, Will completes his tour around Wales in the south of the country. From the resting place of early man to a lost mediaeval city, and from a forgotten prisoner of war camp to an abandoned coke works, Will uncovers historical gems that reveal parts of South Wales you never knew existed.

It could also be your last chance to see some of the Welsh history that is vanishing right in front of us.


THU 21:00 The Fear of God: Twenty-Five Years of The Exorcist (p07r5pwq)
Mark Kermode explores the extraordinary history of The Exorcist with the stars of the film and its creators.


THU 22:20 The Exorcist (m00116dq)
When a charming 12-year-old girl takes on the characteristics and voices of others, doctors say there is nothing they can do. As people begin to die, the girl's mother realises her daughter has been possessed by the devil – and that her daughter's only possible hope lies with two priests and the ancient rite of demonic exorcism.

Based on the novel by William Peter Blatty.


THU 00:15 Ophelia (m0011pn4)
A version of Shakespeare's Hamlet retold through the eyes of his fair love Ophelia.

The motherless Ophelia is picked out by Queen Gertrude and taken on as a lady- in-waiting. Never losing her independent spirit, she catches the eye of young prince Hamlet, but their love seems doomed as the king's brother Claudius sets his eye on the throne of Denmark.


THU 01:55 Life (b00p4rl4)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 02:55 Hidden Wales with Will Millard (m0001jfv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

FRIDAY 06 OCTOBER 2023

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m001r3g6)
Mark Goodier presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 9 March 1995 and featuring The Boo Radleys, Clock, Radiohead, Faith No More, Stevie Wonder, Wet Wet Wet and Celine Dion.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m001r3g8)
Lenny Henry presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 16 March 1995 and featuring Alex Party, The Human League, The Outhere Brothers, Terrorvision, Freak Power, Janet Jackson and Celine Dion.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (b08ndh0r)
David Jensen and John Peel present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 6 October 1983. Featuring Freeez, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, David Grant, The Alarm, New Order and Culture Club.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (b06gxxkv)
Peter Powell presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 9 October 1980 and featuring performances from Status Quo, Diana Ross, OMD, Black Slate, The Nolans, Linx, Gilbert O'Sullivan and The Police. Including a performance by Legs & Co and guest appearances from Dennis Waterman and Paul Jones.


FRI 21:00 Elton John at the BBC (b00vs5c0)
Elton John's career tracked in archive from performances, interviews and news clips.


FRI 22:00 In Concert (b0074sdd)
Elton John

Elton John sings the songs he co-wrote with lyricist Bernie Taupin, including Your Song, Border Song, Take Me to the Pilot and Burn Down the Mission. From 1970.


FRI 22:30 Elton John: Uncensored (m000bql0)
Sir Elton and Graham Norton sit down for a world-exclusive intimate chat, which sees the legendary 'Rocket Man' look back at his extraordinary life and a career spanning more than 50 years.

Shot at his home in the south of France while on a break from his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, this exclusive and revealing 60-minute film sees Elton share many candid, personal and laugh-out-loud stories. including previously unseen footage from the 1970s of Elton performing Rocket Man on Top of the Pops. The pair also revisit many of Elton's interviews, accolades and classic performances, including previously unseen footage from the 1970s of Elton singing Rocket Man on Top of the Pops.

Elton tells Graham about his childhood growing up in Pinner as Reg Dwight and reflects on his rise to global super stardom in the 70s. He also shares musical memories from the 80s and 90s and describes the highs and lows that superstardom brought him. Elton also talks about the important friendships in his life, including how he and Rod Stewart have been laughing both with and at each other for over 40 years. Speaking openly about both his battles with addiction and, more recently, prostate cancer, Elton also talks about the positive effect that fatherhood has had on his life and how he’d like to spend his time in the future, both on and off stage.


FRI 23:30 The Making of Elton John: Madman Across the Water (b00vs4yv)
Documentary exploring Elton John's childhood, apprenticeship in the British music business, sudden stardom in the US at the dawn of the 70s and his musical heyday. Plus the backstory to the album reuniting him with Leon Russell, his American mentor. Features extensive exclusive interviews with Elton, plus colleagues and collaborators including Bernie Taupin, Leon Russell and others.


FRI 00:30 Top of the Pops (b08ndh0r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 01:00 Top of the Pops (b06gxxkv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]


FRI 01:30 Top of the Pops (m001r3g6)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 02:00 Top of the Pops (m001r3g8)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 02:30 Elton John at the BBC (b00vs5c0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


FRI 03:30 In Concert (b0074sdd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]