| 41 |
Broken (2017) #1012
TV DRAMA
Special
6x1 hour episodes. BBC. Series 1 1/6 Father Michael helps a vulnerable parishioner while also caring for his dying mother. 2/6 A desperate parishioner and a mentally ill youth both present dilemmas for Father Michael. 3/6 Father Michael helps a police officer. 4/6 Father Michael risks breaking the seal of confession as he tries to help Roz Demichelis. 5/6 Father Michael mediates when Helen's homophobic brother clashes with her gay neighbour. 6/6 Father Michael makes a confession and Chloe wreaks a devastating revenge. |
| 42 |
Who Do You Think You Are? Ruby Wax (2017) #1036
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. Ruby Wax's Jewish parents fled Vienna and the Nazis for America in 1938. 'They took the war with them and brought it to our kitchen,' says the comedian and mental-health campaigner at the start of this remarkable episode. They raised their only daughter in a dramatically dysfunctional household - Ruby's father was volatile and her mother 'hysterical... screaming in the street.' Ruby wonders if her own mental illness had its origins in her upbringing and the trauma her parents went through, or whether it is in her family's genes. Ruby journeys to central Europe, where she learns about her parents' flight and the distressing fate of family who remained in Vienna during the war, and she makes a startling discovery about her great-aunt and great-grandmother, which is both harrowing and surprisingly affirming. |
| 43 |
Let Me Go (2017) #1075
FILM
Main
Directed by Polly Steele. With Juliet Stevenson, Jodhi May, Lucy Boynton, Karin Bertling. Let Me Go is a film about mothers and daughters, it is about ghosts from the past and the impact they leave on the present. Developed from Helga Schneider's true life story, Let Me Go explores the effect on Helga's life of being abandoned by her mother, Traudi in 1941 when she was just four years old. The film is set in the year 2000 following not only Helga and Traudi's journeys but the next two generations and how Beth, Helga's daughter and Emily her granddaughter are confronted with the long-term effects of Traudi's leaving. When Helga receives a letter telling her that Traudi is close to death, it is Emily with whom Helga shares the truth. Emily volunteers to accompany her to Vienna to meet the great-grandmother she thought was dead, and experience the unraveling of the darkest of family secrets. |
| 44 |
Victoria & Abdul (2017) #1112
FILM
Main
Directed by Stephen Frears. With Judi Dench, Ali Fazal, Tim Pigott-Smith, Eddie Izzard. Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim. |
| 45 |
Darkest Hour (2017) #1147
FILM
Main
Directed by Joe Wright. With Gary Oldman, Lily James, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn. In May 1940, the fate of Western Europe hangs on British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler, or fight on knowing that it could mean a humiliating defeat for Britain and its empire. |
| 46 |
Ghost in the Shell (2017) #1189
FILM
Main
Directed by Rupert Sanders. With Scarlett Johansson, Pilou Asbæk, Takeshi Kitano, Juliette Binoche. In the near future, Major Mira Killian is the first of her kind: A human saved from a terrible crash, who is cyber-enhanced to be a perfect soldier devoted to stopping the world's most dangerous criminals. |
| 47 |
National Theatre Live: Twelfth Night (2017) #1258
FILM
Main
Directed by Simon Godwin. With Adam Best, Oliver Chris, Claire Cordier, Imogen Doel. Tamsin Greig is Malvolia in a new twist on Shakespeare's classic comedy of mistaken identity. A ship is wrecked on the rocks. Viola is washed ashore but her twin brother Sebastian is lost. Determined to survive on her own, she steps out to explore a new land. So begins a whirlwind of mistaken identity and unrequited love. |
| 48 |
Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors (2017) #1319
DOCUMENTARY
Special
1 hour. BBC. Lucy Worsley explores the different houses in which Jane Austen lived and stayed, to discover just how much they shaped Jane's life and novels. On a journey that takes her across England, Lucy visits properties that still exist, from grand stately homes to seaside holiday apartments, and brings to life those that have disappeared. The result is a revealing insight into one of the world's best-loved authors. |
| 49 |
The Death of Stalin (2017) #1341
FILM
Main
Directed by Armando Iannucci. With Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Jeffrey Tambor, Andrea Riseborough. Moscow, 1953. After being in power for nearly thirty years, Soviet dictator Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Adrian McLoughlin) takes ill and quickly dies. Now the members of the Council of Ministers scramble for power. |
| 50 |
Shakespeare Live! From the RSC (2016) #511
FILM
Main,Disk
Directed by Bridget Caldwell, Gregory Doran, Robin Mason. With Catherine Tate, David Tennant, Akala, Richard Atwill. A celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, broadcast live at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon. |
| 51 |
Virtuoso Violinists at the BBC (2016) #651
DOCUMENTARY-MUSIC
Main
60 mins. Violinist Nicola Benedetti explores 60 years of BBC archive to celebrate the world of the violin and its most outstanding performers. From Nathan Milstein, Mischa Elman and Isaac Stern to Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman and Nigel Kennedy, Nicola gives us a violinist's perspective on what makes a great performance in a tradition which stretches back to the 19th-century virtuoso Paganini. Filmed at the Royal Academy of Music Museum, London. |
| 52 |
The Joy of Rachmaninoff (2016) #653
DOCUMENTARY
Main
Directed by Ben Whalley. With Vladimir Ashkenazy, Stephen Hough, Steven Isserlis, Vladimir Jurowski. Tom Service takes a cinematic journey through Russia on the trail of the wondrous yet melancholic melodies of Russian giant Sergei Rachmaninoff. 60 mins. Tom Service takes a cinematic journey through Russia on the trail of the wondrous yet melancholic melodies of Russian giant Sergei Rachmaninoff. A celebration of a composer's musical triumph over critical adversity and Soviet terror, with performances and contributions from Vladimir Ashkenazy, Denis Matsuev, Steven Isserlis, Stephen Hough, Vladimir Jurowski, Lucy Parham and James Rhodes. |
| 53 |
A Midsummer Night's Dream (2016) #782
FILM
Main
90mins. BBC. Directed by David Kerr. With Nonso Anozie, John Hannah, Matt Lucas, Maxine Peake. A modern re-telling of the classic fantasy drama by William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream holds a star-studded cast with euphoric effects and melodramatic storytelling. |
| 54 |
The Finest Hours (2016) #784
FILM
Main
Directed by Craig Gillespie. With Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Eric Bana. The Coast Guard makes a daring rescue attempt off the coast of Cape Cod after a pair of oil tankers are destroyed during a blizzard in 1952. |
| 55 |
John Berger: The Art of Looking (2016) #967
DOCUMENTARY
Main
BBC. 1 hour. Art, politics and motorcycles - on the occasion of his 90th birthday, this is an intimate portrait of the late writer and art critic whose groundbreaking work on seeing has shaped our understanding of the concept for over five decades. The film explores how paintings become narratives and stories turn into images, and rarely does anybody demonstrate this as poignantly as Berger. Berger lived and worked for decades in a small mountain village in the French Alps, where the nearness to nature, the world of the peasants and his motorcycle, which for him deals so much with presence, inspired his drawing and writing. The film introduces Berger's art of looking with theatre wizard Simon McBurney, film director Michael Dibb, visual artist John Christie, cartoonist Selçuk Demiral and photographer Jean Mohr, as well as two of his children - film critic Katya Berger and the painter Yves Berger. The prelude and starting point is Berger's mind-boggling experience of restored vision following a successful cataract removal surgery. There, in the cusp of his clouding eyesight, Berger re-discovers the irredeemable wonder of seeing. Realised as a portrait in works and collaborations, this creative documentary takes a different approach to biography, with Berger leading in his favourite role of the storyteller. |
| 56 |
Cunk on Shakespeare (2016) #968
COMEDY
Main
30 mins. BBC. Comedy from Charlie Brooker starring Philomena Cunk, the witless commentator from Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe. Philomena knows absolutely nothing about Shakespeare, but that won't stop her attempting to present a groundbreaking documentary about him. Fresh from her triumphs on Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe investigating time ('It'll always be an unknowable mystery, like how phones work') Winston Churchill ('Imagine how good his tweets would have been'), and Donald Trump ('There's this amazing stuff on his head; it's not hair, it's like a sort of furry gas'), Philomena Cunk has finally been given her own show - about William Shakespeare. Cunk will leave no stone unturned as she gets to the bottom of the Bard, visiting his birthplace, exploring the Globe, studying priceless artefacts and interviewing literally six different experts, including renowned actor Simon Russell Beale, Educating Yorkshire teacher Matthew Burton and top Shakespearean scholar Professor Stanley Wells. Shorter than Hamlet, funnier than King Lear and easier to spell than Cymbeline, Cunk On Shakespeare is absolutely the last word in Shakespeare documentaries. |
| 57 |
Perfect Pianists at the BBC (2016) #1003
MUSIC
Main
1 hour. BBC. David Owen Norris takes us on a journey through 60 years of BBC archive to showcase some of the greatest names in the history of the piano. From the groundbreaking BBC studio recitals of Benno Moiseiwitsch, Solomon and Myra Hess in the 1950s, through the legendary concerts of Vladimir Horowitz and Arthur Rubinstein, to more recent performances, including Alfred Brendel, Mitsuko Uchida and Stephen Hough, David celebrates some of the greatest players in a pianistic tradition which goes back to Franz Liszt in the 19th century. Filmed at the Cobbe Collection, Hatchlands Park. |
| 58 |
Robot Wars (2016) #1006
TV DRAMA
Main
1 hour. BBC. Series 8 Episode 1. Robot Wars launch show presented by Dara O Briain and Angela Scanlon. Forty teams of amateur robot fighting enthusiasts battle it out over a series of rounds in a huge purpose-built arena, aiming to become the Robot Wars champion. It's not just the competition they have to contend with, as the arena is patrolled by four huge House Robots which are geared up to attack anyone who strays into their Corner Patrol Zones. There are also fire, spikes, the Flipper and the Pit, dangerous hazards designed to cause maximum damage to the competitors. In between their fights, teams have time to repair their robots and plan for their next fights in the pits area. In this episode, the most famous fighting robot in history, Razer, faces up against a host of other fighting robots for the chance to become the Robot Wars champion. Eight teams made up of families and friends from across the country put their homemade robots to the test. The winner at the end of this show will go forward to the grand final. |
| 59 |
Classic Cellists at the BBC (2016) #1042
DOCUMENTARY-MUSIC
Main
1 hour. BBC. Julian Lloyd Webber takes an extraordinary musical journey through the BBC archives from the 1950s to the present to celebrate the world of the cello through some of its greatest interpreters. From dazzling performances by legendary masters such as Paul Tortelier, Jacqueline du Pre and Mstislav Rostropovich to some of today's leading interpreters including Yo Yo Ma, Steven Isserlis and Mischa Maisky, Julian gives us a cellist's perspective on an extraordinary virtuoso tradition. |
| 60 |
Young, Gifted and Classical: The Making of a Maestro (2016) #1059
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. Sheku Kanneh-Mason made history in 2016 when he became the first black winner of the BBC Young Musician competition. Sheku has six musically gifted siblings and this film explores their extraordinary talents and issues of diversity in classical music. We follow Sheku and his brothers and sisters and examine the sacrifices that parents Stuart and Kadie make in order to support their children in pursuing their musical dreams. Told through the prism of family life we get an understanding of what it is that drives this family to be the best musicians they can be. At the heart of the story is 17-year-old Sheku, and we see him coming to terms with his Young Musician win and the pressures and opportunities it brings. His life is changing dramatically as he now has to learn to deal with the challenges of becoming a world-renowned cellist. He gets advice from those who have trodden this path already, including international violinist Nicola Benedetti and renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, discovering what it takes to be a famous international solo musician. The documentary culminates with Sheku's biggest performance to date, playing at the world-famous Royal Festival Hall in London, with Britain's first all-black and ethnic minority orchestra, Chineke!. As the preparations for this groundbreaking concert begin, the film explores what it means to be a young, black, classical musician in today's society. |
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