SATURDAY 11 MAY 2024

SAT 19:00 Simon King's Shetland Adventure (b00qnw1f)
Episode 1

Simon King, wildlife cameraman and Springwatch presenter, sets off on an adventure to live on the Shetland Islands with his family through the changing seasons. Simon has travelled the world for 30 years, but his boyhood dream was to visit Shetland. Now he has the chance to film some of the remarkable wildlife and experience the beauty and the wild weather of Britain's most northerly isles.

Simon captures footage of killer whales coming in to kill a seal, an Arctic tern colony attacked by a bonxie, and a shy otter family. Simon, his wife Marguerite and two-year-old daughter Savannah settle into a remote cottage, but the winter weather and winds of over 100mph make life tough for them.

To celebrate winter, Simon joins the local Shetlanders in their Viking Up Helly Aa festivals, but there is a surprise for him: he is asked to come in drag, dressed as fellow Springwatch presenter Kate Humble. This doesn't stop him enjoying himself or helping to set light to a Viking boat in a genuine Shetland experience.


SAT 20:00 Amazon with Bruce Parry (b00f4zhy)
Episode 6

Bruce Parry reaches the end of his Amazon adventure in Brazil's Para state where huge areas of forest are being cut down for cattle farming. Here the battle for the Amazon is at its most fierce and Bruce sees both sides living with the cowboys and the Kayapo Indians.


SAT 21:00 Spy/Master (m001xgds)
Series 1

The Safe House

As news of a missing diplomat quickly spreads, Victor nervously waits in a safehouse, while Frank attempts to force the CIA’s hand in a risky move. Later, Carmen’s suspicions become a thorn in the side of the German police, and back in Romania, Victor’s daughter Ileana and wife Adela are shell-shocked by news of his disappearance.


SAT 21:45 Spy/Master (m001xgdx)
Series 1

The Trust Test

While Nicolae fumes over reports of a defection, Frank moves Victor under the protection of the US embassy, where his debriefing begins. As Frank tries to get to the truth, Mircea and Carmen attempt to cast doubts on Victor’s motivations. At risk of being exposed herself, Ingrid leverages her last bit of intel, but gets some disturbing news in return.


SAT 22:40 Screen One (p032kj1k)
Series 3

Hancock

A portrayal of the last years in the life of the comedian Tony Hancock. His refusal to accept the limitations of his own genius destroys his two marriages and, eventually, himself.


SAT 00:35 To the Manor Born (b007blcs)
Series 3

Connections in High Places

Stately sitcom. Richard's business empire hits a serious crisis.


SAT 01:05 No Place Like Home (p0hl30z6)
Series 1

Episode 4

Much to Arthur's concern, the family plan a new career for Beryl - but their efforts to achieve this lead to a highly unsuccessful conclusion.


SAT 01:35 Simon King's Shetland Adventure (b00qnw1f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


SAT 02:35 Amazon with Bruce Parry (b00f4zhy)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

SUNDAY 12 MAY 2024

SUN 19:00 Hancock's Half Hour (p032kj08)
The Reunion Party

Hancock decides to hold a reunion for all his old wartime pals - but times change and so do people, much to Hancock’s annoyance.


SUN 19:30 Hancock's Half Hour (p032kj0s)
The Bowmans

Hancock has a part on a long-running radio show but his behaviour is causing alarm and his character is killed off. Listeners demand his return and the producer has an idea.


SUN 20:00 Hancock's Half Hour (p032khzm)
Twelve Angry Men

Hancock and Sid are members of a jury and Hancock alone thinks the suspect is innocent. Sid changes his mind at the thought of cash, and the jury ends up in the dock.


SUN 20:30 Hancock's Half Hour (p032kj0z)
The Blood Donor

Hancock decides to donate some blood but is aghast to find out how much he has to give. When he discovers he has a rare blood type he resolves to find out where it will end up.


SUN 21:00 The Read (m001z96c)
Series 2

The Remains of the Day: The Read with Steve Pemberton

Heartbreak and longing are centre stage as BAFTA-winning actor Steve Pemberton narrates Kazuo Ishiguro’s contemporary classic.

The Remains of the Day is Ishiguro's beautiful and haunting evocation of life between the wars in a great English house, told from the perspective of its stoic head butler, Stevens.

In the summer of 1956, Stevens embarks on a leisurely holiday that will take him deep into the English countryside and deeper into his past. Has tradition and reserve led to aching loss?

Winner of the 1989 Booker Prize and one of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World', The Remains of the Day is a tale of convention, love and regret in an interwar stately home that is both deeply affecting and richly atmospheric.


SUN 22:00 imagine... (m000tqn0)
2021

Kazuo Ishiguro: Remembering and Forgetting

Filmed during lockdown, Alan Yentob invites us into the intriguing world of award-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro. The only living British author to hold the Nobel Prize in Literature, Ishiguro’s novels and short stories have been translated into more than fifty languages. Two of his most popular novels, The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go, have also enjoyed success as star-studded film adaptations.

In this revealing profile, Ishiguro explores the significance of his early life in Nagasaki and the experience of growing up in the aftermath of the atomic bomb. He shares memories of feeling like the only Japanese boy in the home counties of England in the early 1960s, and how this helped to shape his viewpoint as a writer. As a young man, he harboured ambitions to be a singer-songwriter, and he shares his lifelong emotional connection to music and lyrics, and the impact that particular songs have had on his writing.

Alongside contributions from writers Hanya Yanagihara and Bernardine Evaristo, as well as Ai-Da, an AI robot artist, Ishiguro charts the development of his work across the four decades of his writing career. He discusses the recurring themes of memory, history and the redemptive power of love, and reveals how he has turned his gaze to the future for his much-anticipated new book, Klara and the Sun.


SUN 23:20 Mark Lawson Talks To... (b05439vx)
Kazuo Ishiguro

Mark Lawson talks to the Booker Prize-winning writer Kazuo Ishiguro about his life and career.

Ishiguro, who was born in Nagasaki in 1954, discusses the influence of Japan on his early novels A Pale View of Hills and An Artist's View of the Floating World, and the impact of American cowboy series and Victorian novels on his grasp of English as a child.

The author reflects on the book that made his literary reputation, The Remains of the Day, which won him the UK's leading prize for fiction and was made into an Oscar-winning film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. He talks about the importance of first-person narrators and why he is drawn to writing about the past rather than the present.

Ishiguro also reflects on the influence of the pioneering Professor Malcolm Bradbury, who founded the University of East Anglia's MA course in Creative Writing, talks about his early days as a singer-songwriter and explains why his novel The Buried Giant was his first in almost ten years.

Featuring readings from The Buried Giant and from some of the author's previous books.


SUN 00:20 The Secret History of Writing (m000mtmj)
Series 1

From Pictures to Words

We take it for granted, but every time we pick up a pen, we are employing the most powerful technology ever invented: the technology of writing. The invention of writing about 5,000 years ago made civilisation itself possible, and every innovation of the modern world is based on the foundation of the written word. But how and where did writing begin, and who began it? In From Pictures to Words, the first of three films about the history of writing, we uncover the hidden links between all the diverse writing systems in use today and trace the origin of our own alphabet to a turquoise mine in the Sinai Desert and a man riding a donkey whose name was Khebded.

Writing is a recent innovation. Our species has existed for about 300,000 years, and for all but the last 5,000 of them, people had to record and transmit vital knowledge without the aid of writing. At the Moon Dreaming site in the Northern Territory of Australia, Yidumduma Bill Harney, an elder of the Aboriginal Wardaman people, explains how Aboriginal culture has been transmitted down the generations orally, without the need to write anything down. So, why did people eventually feel the need to make permanent records in visual form?

According to Irving Finkel, an Assyriologist from the British Museum, it was in Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, where the need for record-keeping was first felt. Here, about 5,000 years ago, the Sumerians developed the first city states. The city dwellers depended for their sustenance on taxing the surrounding countryside, and Irving produces a clay tablet from this period that is the distant ancestor of today’s spreadsheet: a grid of boxes ruled into the clay, with symbols that represent numbers, and small stylised pictures that represent commodities, such as an ear of barley. These so-called pictograms would be the basis for the first writing systems, and so we owe writing to the first accountants and tax inspectors.

But the language of accountancy is limited. To represent the full vocabulary of the Sumerian people would require a key conceptual leap, a way to use pictures to represent not things but sounds. This is what Irving dubs the giant leap for mankind, something called the Rebus Principle: the idea is that a picture of an ear of barley can represent barley, but it can also be used to represent the sound of the word barley in Sumerian, which is pronounced ‘sheh’. Thus, the word ‘sheh-ga’, which means ‘beautiful’, can be represented by the pictogram of an ear of barley, followed by the stylised picture of a cow’s udder, which stands for milk, pronounced ‘ga’ in Sumerian.

The Rebus Principle is the key that unlocked writing for all the peoples of the ancient near east. Egyptian hieroglyphs, which developed in the same period, are also based on the same principle. The earliest known complete Egyptian text is found beneath a pyramid near Cairo, inscribed on the walls of the tomb of Pharaoh Teti. The Pyramid Texts are a series of elaborate magic spells, designed to raise Teti to eternal life. Hieroglyphs are indeed magic, because like all writing, while they may not be able raise the dead, they do allow them to speak.

In fact, the Rebus lies behind all the ancient writing systems of the world. The earliest known Chinese writing is found inscribed on bones and turtle shells from 3,500 years ago. Chinese is a picture-based script that uses the Rebus Principle to represent sounds with stylised pictures. The same is true of Mayan glyphs, a writing system that developed in Central America about 2,600 years ago. The similarities between these scripts is striking. Is this evidence of a common root for all writing?

In essence, the Rebus Principle is simply a sort of pun, something that could have occurred to a child. Irving Finkel believes that it was invented many times, as a natural expression of a common human sense of humour! The similarities between ancient writing systems are simply due to the fact that we all share the same human mind.

But today, most people write using alphabets – simple scripts with just a few dozen symbols that seem to have no connection to pictures. Here the story is different, because the alphabet was only invented once. In the company of archaeologist Pierre Tallet, we travel to the Sinai to an ancient Egyptian temple perched high above the desert. This is the place where the cultural exchange between Egyptian scribes and illiterate Canaanite migrant workers created a new kind of script. This script also used the Rebus Principle, but in a radically simpler way, adapting hieroglyphic pictograms to represent the sounds of the Canaanite tongue.

Almost every alphabet in use today, from Arabic to the Latin alphabet, can trace its origins to this script. Our letters do not look like pictures, but in fact in almost every word we write lie hidden the ghosts of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.


SUN 01:20 The Read (m001z96c)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]


SUN 02:20 imagine... (m000tqn0)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]

MONDAY 13 MAY 2024

MON 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000w74y)
Series 13

Biggin Hill to Ashdown Forest

Michael Portillo experiences a terrifying ‘victory roll’ in a World War II Spitfire, high above the most famous aerodrome of the Battle of Britain, Biggin Hill. The 80-year-old aircraft, in which so many young men risked their lives for the nation, is one of a fleet intensively maintained by a dedicated team of technicians, and Michael is privileged to be flown by an ex-Royal Navy pilot. Michael learns of the strategic importance of the sector airfield to the defence of the capital and the country.

Back on terra firma, Michael takes the train to East Grinstead on the trail of a bear with very little brain. In Ashdown Forest, he meets a biographer of AA Milne to find out about the author’s much-loved character, Winnie the Pooh. Michael plays a game of Pooh Sticks, then treats himself to a ‘little something’ at Pooh Corner.

Deeper into the forest, Michael discovers Plaw Hatch Farm, 200 acres of community-owned farmland that operates biodynamically according to principles first laid out in the 1920s. Michael helps to pick cabbages in the field and lends a hand with cheese production in the dairy.


MON 19:30 Yorkshire Walks (m000brwb)
Series 1

Leyburn to Bolton Castle

With the dawn chorus of bird song in the air, Yorkshire artist Shanaz Gulzar takes time out from the hustle and bustle of life to indulge in Wensleydale and its wonderful vistas. Along her ramble through the dale, Shanaz discovers evidence of an industrial past, and talks to a volunteer worker on the heritage railway line. She walks onwards to the impressive Bolton Castle, the location of Mary Queen of Scots' imprisonment in 1568.

Filming herself and everything around her on a 360-degree-selfie-style-camera Shanaz wanders through the countryside, often deep in thought and stopping only to chat, sketch and reflect.


MON 20:00 London to Brighton: Side by Side (b00f2zxt)
In 1953, the BBC made a point-of-view film from the London to Brighton train. In 1983, they did the same again. This is a film made of both runs at once, with every bridge, siding, tunnel and station running side by side in unlikely synchronisation.


MON 20:05 The Abbey with Alan Bennett (m001z95w)
Series 1

Whom Would You Like to Be Seen Dead With?

Alan Bennett goes high up into the north transept of Westminster Abbey, wanders along a hidden passage that goes around the whole building, sits in on a meeting of the Dean and Chapter, and visits the tombs.


MON 21:00 Britain's Lost Masterpieces (b07xjsqj)
Series 1

Swansea

The Swansea museum store contains everything from a stuffed pigeon to a police car, but can Bendor and Jacky reveal a multimillion-pound lost masterpiece that will not only become a jewel of Swansea museum's collection, but also rewrite art history? Also, a rare appearance at the museum of a giant painting of local coal miners prompts Jacky to re-examine the life of the man who painted them, the renowned Polish artist Josef Herman. She tracks down those who remember him in south Wales.


MON 22:00 The Sky at Night (m001z95y)
Hiding in Starlight

Total solar eclipses, like the one seen last month in North America, allow us to see details of the Sun that can’t be seen at any other time. So, this month, The Sky at Night team looks at how scientists are creating eclipses on demand and discovering the secrets that can be revealed hidden in that starlight, including habitable planets like our own.

Maggie Aderin-Pocock travels to Belgium, where the European Space Agency’s Proba-3 mission is going through its final testing stages. This groundbreaking mission aims to fly two satellites together in formation, with one satellite acting like the moon during an eclipse, blocking out the central light of the Sun. This allows the other satellite to image the corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere as seen during an eclipse. Maggie meets Dr Damien Galano from ESA, who tells her all about the challenges of the mission and what it hopes to achieve. Maggie then goes on to meet satellite operations test engineer Marie Beeckman, who takes her up close to the satellites to find out how the testing is going.

Meanwhile, Pete Lawrence is out and about in Bristol, meeting a team of scientists and amateur astronomers. He discovers how input from the amateurs was crucial to the discovery of two exoplanets colliding, which had caused the dimming of a star.

Finally, Chris Lintott is in Glasgow meeting Professor Beth Biller from Edinburgh University to discover why it is only by creating eclipses of distant stars that we could potentially find exoplanets more like our own.

And as ever, our resident astronomer, Pete Lawrence, guides us through what can be seen this coming month, with a particular focus on the rewards of viewing in daylight - but as always, he reminds us of the need to take care when doing this.


MON 22:30 Civilisation (b0074r55)
The Light of Experience

Kenneth Clark's story takes him from the Holland of Rembrandt and Vermeer to the London of Wren, Purcell and the Royal Society.


MON 23:20 Civilisation (b0074r5q)
The Pursuit of Happiness

Kenneth Clark reflects on the 18th-century music of Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart and on the way that some of its qualities are reflected in the best of the rococo architecture, the pilgrimage churches and palaces of Bavaria.


MON 00:10 Great British Railway Journeys (m000w74y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


MON 00:40 Yorkshire Walks (m000brwb)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


MON 01:10 The Abbey with Alan Bennett (m001z95w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:05 today]


MON 02:05 Britain's Lost Masterpieces (b07xjsqj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 today]

TUESDAY 14 MAY 2024

TUE 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000w79v)
Series 13

Hassocks to Benenden

Starting in Hassocks, Michael makes his way to the beautiful Sussex village of Ditchling, where, between the wars, a Roman Catholic community of artists made their home. Michael finds out how they made their mark on the village, the capital and the nation’s railways.

In the seaside town of Bexhill-on-Sea, Michael hears of the work of the wartime air raid precautions wardens, immortalised in the BBC series Dad’s Army. He discovers Bexhill was heavily bombed from the air and became a target of the Nazi invasion plan, Operation Sealion.

Michael takes the train north to the village of Burwash, where he finds a magnificent Jacobean house called Bateman’s. Its occupant - until 1936, when Michael’s guidebook was published - was the most famous writer in the country, Rudyard Kipling, author of the Jungle Book. Michael learns about his life and work.

The delightful Kent and East Sussex heritage railway conveys Michael from Bodiam Castle through the scenic Rother Valley to Tenterden. After a tasty on-board snack of Kentish cobnuts, Michael heads for Benenden and the imposing home between the wars of the Reverend Collingwood ‘Cherry’ Ingram. In the beautiful gardens of the Grange, Michael discovers how Ingram is credited today with introducing and preserving rare varieties of Japanese cherry trees in Britain and rescuing them for Japan.


TUE 19:30 Yorkshire Walks (m000bs11)
Series 1

Heptonstall to Stoodley Pike

Shanaz Gulzar steps back in time while walking through the historic village of Heptonstall. Filming on her handheld 360-degree selfie-style camera, Shanaz rambles past Hell Hole, along the canal in Hebden Bridge, before climbing uphill to the peace monument of Stoodley Pike. This is an historic walk that straddles both the north and south sides of Calderdale.

Inspired by the landscape Shanaz stops to sketch and read poetry. This walk is an intimate and personal account of West Yorkshire viewed through an artist’s eyes.


TUE 20:00 To the Manor Born (b0078986)
Series 3

Back to the Manor

Stately sitcom. Audrey's hopes of regaining her position as lady of the manor look like being dashed when Richard's business crisis forces him to sell up.


TUE 20:30 No Place Like Home (p0hl32k3)
Series 1

Episode 5

Arthur arranges alternative accommodation for his sons but his plans misfire and he finds himself left out in the cold.


TUE 21:00 The Last Battle of the Vikings (b01p9fwg)
Nowhere in the British Isles was the Viking connection longer-lasting or deeper than in Scotland. Hundreds of years after their first hit-and-run raids, the Norsemen still dominated huge swathes of the country. But storm clouds were gathering. In 1263 the Norwegian king Haakon IV assembled a fleet of 120 longships to counter Scottish raids on the Norse Hebrides. It was a force comparable in size to the Spanish Armada over three centuries later. But like the Armada, the Norse fleet was eventually defeated by a powerful storm. Driven ashore near present-day Largs, the beleaguered Norsemen were attacked by a Scottish army. The outcome of this vicious encounter would mark the beginning of the end of Norse power in Scotland.

Marine archaeologist Dr Jon Henderson tells the incredible story of the Norsemen in Scotland. Visiting fascinating archaeological sites across Scotland and Norway, he reveals that, although the battle at Largs marked the end of an era for the Norsemen, their presence continued to shape the identity and culture of the Scottish nation to the present day.


TUE 22:00 Storyville (m001z96s)
Praying for Armageddon

Praying for Armageddon is a political thriller that explores the power and influence of American Evangelical Christians as they aim to fulfil the Armageddon prophecy.

The film observes American believers as they prepare for what they call The Holy War and exposes the powerful megachurch pastors who call for the 'final battle' that they believe will trigger the Second Coming of Christ. Completed before the current crisis in Israel and Gaza, it also unveils how politicians driven by faith embrace the State of Israel as the key to their prophetic vision for the end of days.


TUE 23:30 Into the Ice (m001d7j2)
An intrepid expedition onto and into the Greenland ice sheet with three of the world’s leading experts as they try to answer the urgent question, how fast is the ice melting? Greenland’s inland ice is hostile, wild and unpredictable, but making observations and taking detailed measurements on the ground is essential to fully understanding what is happening there.

Director Lars Henrik Ostenfeld travels to Greenland with the scientists as they brave storms and climb deeper into the constantly shifting glaciers than anyone before them to gather the precious data that will help predict the future.


TUE 00:55 Civilisation (b0074r55)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:30 on Monday]


TUE 01:45 Civilisation (b0074r5q)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:20 on Monday]


TUE 02:35 Great British Railway Journeys (m000w79v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


TUE 03:05 Yorkshire Walks (m000bs11)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]

WEDNESDAY 15 MAY 2024

WED 19:00 Women's Super League (m001z975)
2023/24

Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea

Coverage of Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea in the Women's Super League.


WED 21:30 Dangerous Earth (b083bm5m)
Volcano

Dr Helen Czerski looks at volcanoes. With shocking eyewitness footage of eruptions, and new thermal imagery and ultra high-speed photography, we can now capture on camera the complex processes crucial to understanding how and why these forces of nature erupt.


WED 22:00 A Perfect Spy (b008fm97)
Episode 4

Magnus is living in the US and still bailing his father out of trouble, but after an interrogation, he seeks refuge at the seaside.


WED 22:55 A Perfect Spy (b008fm98)
Episode 5

1980s adaption of the John le Carre novel. With Magnus Pym working in Washington with Axel, the heads of GB and US intelligence argue over his loyalty. As Jack Brotherhood doggedly defends him, Pym finds sanctuary in a remote seaside town in England.


WED 23:55 A Perfect Spy (b008h435)
Episode 6

On hearing of Rick's death, Pym and Mary return to Vienna. Pym then rushes off to England but fails to return to Vienna as planned.


WED 00:50 A Perfect Spy (b008h436)
Episode 7

While Brotherhood and his agents search the Vienna house for clues to Pym's disappearance, Axel makes contact with Mary.


WED 01:50 Into the Ice (m001d7j2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 23:30 on Tuesday]


WED 03:15 Dangerous Earth (b083bm5m)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:30 today]

THURSDAY 16 MAY 2024

THU 19:00 Great British Railway Journeys (m000w7bd)
Series 13

Rye to Dungeness

Michael Portillo follows his 1930s Bradshaw’s guide to the unspoilt East Sussex Cinque Port of Rye. On the windswept harbour beach, he hears how, in 1928, a generation of lifeboatmen lost their lives in a tragic rescue attempt at sea. Michael visits the town’s modern day lifeboat station to see how the RNLI’s brave crews train today.

On the beaches at Rye, Michael explores one of 28,000 pillboxes constructed around the British coastline during World War II and hears from a military historian about how the nation prepared for an expected German invasion.

Train heaven beckons as Michael boards the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway to cross Romney Marsh en route to Dungeness. Along the way, he hears about the eccentric inventor of the railway, Count Louis Zborowski.

From Dungeness, Michael heads to the former RAF base of Denge, where he discovers a cluster of giant concrete structures with an intriguing name, Sound Mirrors. The RSPB warden in whose nature reserve they stand explains their history to Michael.


THU 19:30 Yorkshire Walks (m000brtk)
Series 1

Runswick Bay to Whitby

This historic coastal walk takes artist Shanaz Gulzar along a stretch of the 109-mile Cleveland Way. Starting in Runswick Bay, and armed only with a handheld 360-degree selfie-style camera, Shanaz climbs the steep steps to the cliff top before strolling the coastal path, absorbing the beautiful landscape and its industrial past, before finishing at Whitby for sunset.

Meeting fellow walkers along the way, Shanaz finds inspirational spots to sketch and recite poetry.


THU 20:00 A House Through Time (m000zhzm)
Series 4

Episode 1

David Olusoga discovers our house’s first resident - idealistic Victorian lawyer William Bruce, who tries and fails to save the life of a man convicted to hang for murder. Decades later, Bruce is serving as a Leeds magistrate when a similar case comes before him – can he save a young man’s life this time?

Tracking our house forward, David uncovers the remarkable rags-to-riches story of Ann Dawson, who went from working on the factory floor to living in style in Grosvenor Mount. When her husband’s business collapses, Ann looks set to lose it all.

Finally, David learns that our house was home to master builder William Nicholson, founder of a famous dynasty that built Leeds landmarks including County Arcade. William hands his business down to the next generation, but when Leeds train station is destroyed by fire, can William’s grandson ride to the rescue?


THU 21:00 Quartet (b03ftm2k)
An opera star arrives at a performers' retirement home amidst fraught preparations for a fundraising concert. Her presence adds to the tension, but it also offers an opportunity to reunite a successful quartet. The diva's one-time husband is upset to see her, while the two other former members relish the challenge.


THU 22:30 Arena (m001z970)
Tosca's Kiss

Casa Verdi is a rambling mansion in the city of Milan, inhabited by an extraordinary and captivating group of people. It once belonged to the composer Guiseppe Verdi, now it has become a home for retired musicians.

Once-famous divas, composers and singers from the opera chorus are bonded together by old memories and rivalries, their spirit and joy in their music quite undiminished by age.


THU 23:55 The Sky at Night (m001z95y)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 on Monday]


THU 00:25 The Last Battle of the Vikings (b01p9fwg)
[Repeat of broadcast at 21:00 on Tuesday]


THU 01:25 Great British Railway Journeys (m000w7bd)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


THU 01:55 Yorkshire Walks (m000brtk)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


THU 02:25 A House Through Time (m000zhzm)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]

FRIDAY 17 MAY 2024

FRI 19:00 Top of the Pops (m001z96w)
Lee Evans presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 1 February 1996 and featuring QFX, Radiohead, E-motion, The Bluetones, Northern Uproar, Technohead, Dog Eat Dog and Meat Loaf.


FRI 19:30 Top of the Pops (m001z96z)
Julian Cope presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 8 February 1996 and featuring BT ft Vincent Covello, Joan Osborne, Smashing Pumpkins, Lighthouse Family, East 17, Etta James, 3T, Terrorvision and Babylon Zoo.


FRI 20:00 Top of the Pops (m000y2fl)
Bruno Brookes presents the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 16 May 1991 and featuring New Kids on the Block, Dannii Minogue and Jason Donovan.


FRI 20:30 Top of the Pops (b01jcf5f)
David 'Kid' Jensen looks at the weekly pop chart from 1977 and introduces Suzi Quatro, Linda Lewis, Carole Bayer Sager, Tony Etoria, the Jacksons, the Jam, the Bay City Rollers, Joe Tex, Joy Sarney and Rod Stewart, with a dance sequence from Legs & Co.


FRI 21:00 Top of the Pops (b095fm57)
Peter Powell and Richard Skinner present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 19 July 1984. Featuring The Mighty Wah!, Prince, Billy Idol, Blancmange, Divine, Thompson Twins and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.


FRI 21:30 Top of the Pops (b08y3km0)
Richard Skinner and Gary Davies present the pop chart programme, first broadcast on 8 March 1984. Including appearances from Galaxy, The Weather Girls, Sade, Bananarama, Howard Jones, Tracey Ullman and Nena.


FRI 22:00 Bananarama at the BBC (m001q877)
Bananarama are the girl group with more chart entries than any other in the world, and now they are getting the ‘at the BBC’ treatment with this collection of performances from the BBC archives, featuring many of the 25 Top 40 singles they released over their career. It’s a selection that covers those early days when Fun Boy Three first introduced pop fans to the original line-up of Keren Woodward, Sara Dallin and Siobhan Fahey, as well as the end of the 1980s when Siobhan left and was replaced by Jacquie O’Sullivan.

We also bring things right up to date and feature the band’s current status as a duo, with Sara and Keren keeping the flame alive. Over all those years, Bananarama have never claimed to be the greatest singers or dancers, but together they somehow still created pop magic – so fans, settle back and witness how their durability proves beyond doubt that It Ain’t What You Do, it’s the Way That You Do It.


FRI 23:00 1984 at the BBC (m001vp42)
There's more musical time-travelling through the BBC’s archives with this trip back to 1984 which proves that, unlike Orwell’s predictions, this was a truly great year.

Wham! were offering the prospect of Freedom, Frankie were encouraging everyone to Relax, U2 filled us all with Pride, and Phil Collins was battling Against All Odds. And that was just the UK’s biggest chart stars - when it came to American acts, Stevie just called to say he loved us, Madonna was still Like a Virgin and Lionel Richie just offered a simple Hello.

All were huge hits then, and they - and many more - remain some of the best-loved and most familiar songs.


FRI 00:00 The 80s - Music’s Greatest Decade? (m0011gkh)
Series 1

Hip-Hop to House

The 1980s was an era in which a fusillade of new genres emerged, and many are still with us today, such as hip-hop and house. Dylan Jones has mined the archives to select some of the most crucial tracks in the rise of these two genres.

From a young Kurtis Blow making his Top of the Pops debut to the sonic bombardment of Public Enemy and the sampling skills of Bomb the Bass, this episode showcases the evolution in rap and house music across the decade. There are rare archival interviews and stellar performances from Run-DMC, Salt ‘N’ Pepa, S’Express, Cookie Crew and Neneh Cherry, as well as iconic videos from Herbie Hancock, The Beastie Boys, M/A/R/R/S, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, and many more.


FRI 01:00 Bananarama at the BBC (m001q877)
[Repeat of broadcast at 22:00 today]


FRI 02:00 Top of the Pops (m001z96w)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 today]


FRI 02:30 Top of the Pops (m001z96z)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:30 today]


FRI 03:00 Top of the Pops (m000y2fl)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 today]


FRI 03:30 Top of the Pops (b01jcf5f)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:30 today]