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501 Modern Masters: Dali (2011) #618 DOCUMENTARY Main
60 mins. BBC.

Salvador Dali was art's greatest clown, but was he also one of its great geniuses? Journalist Alastair Sooke traces the life and work of the popular surrealist artist, travelling throughout Europe and America. From his origins in turn-of-the-century Spain, to his high jinx in New York in the 1970s, Sook reveals this artist's fascinating life story and explains the thinking behind and impact of his most famous works.

Talking to Dali fans from Mighty Boosh comedian Noel Fielding to contemporary artist Jeff Koons, Sooke reveals the pervading influence of Dali and his brand of surrealism. Featuring testimonies from film giant Alfred Hitchcock and excerpts from the film Dali made with Walt Disney, Destino, as well as looking at contemporary advertising, this programme shows how the hand of Dali has touched almost every aspect of popular culture.
502 BBC Proms: Hooray for Hollywood (2011) #623 MUSIC Main
A celebration of the Golden Age of Hollywood film musicals featuring Annalene Beechey, Charles Castronovo, Matthew Ford, Sarah Fox, Caroline O'Connor, Clare Teal, the Maida Vale Singers, John Wilson Orchestra and John Wilson (conductor).

The appearances of John Wilson and his hand-picked, high-octane orchestra have been among the most sensational Proms events of recent years. Joined by a formidable line-up of today's vocal stars, they give what one critic has described as 'the auditory equivalent of a steam-clean' to another cache of show-stoppers.

'Hooray for Hollywood' takes us from the dawn of the talkies and the birth of the movie musical through to the 1960s. An extended sequence pays special tribute to the RKO films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, who was born 100 years ago.
503 Imagine: Simon and Garfunkel - The Harmony Game (2011) #627 DOCUMENTARY Main
In Jennifer Lebeau's film, Simon and Garfunkel: The Harmony Game, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel talk openly and eloquently about an extraordinarily creative period in their career - the making of Bridge Over Troubled Water. The story behind what was to become their final album has long been shrouded in rock and roll mythology and is told in gripping detail in these rare interviews. Archive footage is used to reveal technical breakthroughs and the emotional feelings the two artists had for each other.
504 Tony Bennett's 85th Birthday Concert (2011) #628 MUSIC Main
The truly legendary American singer celebrates his 85th birthday in fine style, with a special concert at the historic London Palladium. Accompanied by his quartet, Tony Bennett moves effortlessly through a repertoire spanning 60 years, with songs such as Steppin' Out With My Baby, The Good Life, Smile and his favourite, I Left My Heart In San Francisco. He is joined for two unique duets, by stellar British singers Cleo Laine and Leona Lewis.
505 Carmen (2011) #639 MUSIC Main
Directed by Gary Halvorson. With Trevor Scheunemann, Barbara Frittoli, Roberto Alagna, Keith Miller. It's a familiar story: Act 1, boy meets girl, goes to jail for her. Act 2, boy is out of jail, girl rewards him with special favors. Act 3, girl is bored already, moving on. Act 4, boy kills girl for ruining his life. We've all been there. Metropolitan Opera, New York.
506 Carmen (from Barcelona) (2011) #642 MUSIC Main
From the Gran Taetre del Liceu, Barcelona. In this prestigious production at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, would-famous and highly controversial stage director Calixto Bieito, admired for his raw and evocative stagings, sees in Carmen the embodiment of the mythical gypsy and touches upon sensitive issues such as racism, xenophobia and right-wing politics. Bieito conjures up a sensual and realistic atmosphere full of powerful symbolism. An outstanding quartet of vocal stars, led by a 'splendid and sensual' (El Periódico) Béatrice Uria-Monzon in the title role, delivers one of the most exciting Carmens in recent years: Roberto Alagna as Don José, Erwin Schrott as Escamillo and Marina Poplavskaya as Micaëla.

See: http://www.roh.org.uk/products/bizet-carmen-dvd-liceu-2011
507 Holst: In the Bleak Midwinter (2011) #643 DOCUMENTARY Main
Directed by Tony Palmer. With Tony Palmer, Gustav Holst, Imogen Holst, Michael Tippett.
2 hours 20mins. BBC.

The first ever full-length film about Gustav Holst, composer and revolutionary - a man who taught himself Sanskrit; lived in a street of brothels in Algiers; cycled into the Sahara Desert; allied himself during the First World War with a 'red priest' who pinned on the door of his church 'prayers at noon for the victims of Imperial Aggression'; hated the words used to his most famous tune, I Vow to Thee My Country, because it was the opposite of what he believed; and distributed a newspaper called the Socialist Worker. Holst's music - especially the Planets - owed little or nothing to anyone, least of all the English folk song tradition, but he was a great composer who died of cancer, broken and disillusioned, before he was 60.
508 The Trouble with Tolstoy (2011) #701 DOCUMENTARY Main
BBC 2 x 1 hour episodes: 1 At War with Himself, 2 In Search of Happiness.

Alan Yentob takes an epic train ride through Tolstoy's Russia, examining how Russia's great novelist became her great troublemaker.

In this first of two programmes, he reveals a difficult and troubled youth, obsessed with sex and gambling, who turned writer while serving as a soldier in Chechnya and the Crimea. His experiences on the frontline eventually fed into War and Peace, a book now recognised as, 'the gold standard by which all other novels are judged'. They also triggered his conversion to outspoken pacifist.

Alan's expedition takes him to the Tatar city of Kazan, where Tolstoy was a teenager, the siege of Sevastopol on the Black Sea and Imperial St Petersburg, as well as the idyllic Tolstoy country estate, the writer's cradle and grave, and home throughout his passionate but brutal 48-year marriage to Sofya - a marriage that began with rape, produced 13 children and ended with desertion and denial.

In the second episode... The success of War and Peace brought Tolstoy fame, wealth and a massive mid-life crisis. Alan follows the writer through the tortured second half of his life as he transformed himself from aristocrat to anarchist and turned his back on his novels, his possessions and finally his wife of 48 years.

Alan travels east into the remote emptiness of the Russian steppe, through the dark pages of Tolstoy's great romantic novel Anna Karenina, on to the small town where Anna takes her life, and then on the pilgrimage to the spectacular monastery where Tolstoy's spiritual quest began.

Using extraordinary early film of Tolstoy, we witness the tumultuous events of Tolstoy's final years and his passionate relationship with his disciple Chertkov, the man his wife called 'the devil incarnate'.

Finally, Alan retraces Tolstoy's flight from home at the age of 82, a journey that ended in a remote railway station. Heartbreaking archive footage shows his wife Sofya being turned away from the deathbed of her husband. So great was Tolstoy's influence at the time of his death that the government feared the news would spark revolution.

Contributors include Tolstoy's great great grandson Vladimir Tolstoy, AN Wilson and author of a Tolstoy biography, Rosamund Bartlett.
509 America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine (2011) #737 DOCUMENTARY Main
Life was an iconic weekly magazine that specialised in extraordinarily vivid photojournalism. Through its most dynamic decades, - the 40s, 50s and 60s - Life caught the spirit of America as it blossomed into a world superpower. Read by over half the country, its influence on American people was unparalleled. No other magazine in the world held the photograph in such high esteem. At Life the pictures, not the words, did the talking. As a result, the Life photographer was king.

In this film, leading UK fashion photographer Rankin celebrates the work of Life's legendary photographers including Alfred Eisenstaedt and Margaret Bourke-White, who went to outrageous lengths to get the best picture - moving armies, naval fleets and even the population of entire towns. He travels across the USA to meet photographers Bill Eppridge, John Shearer, John Loengard, Burk Uzzle and Harry Benson who, between them, have shot the big moments in American history - from the assassination of Robert F Kennedy, the Civil Rights struggle and Vietnam to behind the scenes at the Playboy mansion and the greatest names in Hollywood.

These photographers pioneered new forms of photojournalism, living with and photographing their subjects for weeks, enabling them to capture compelling yet ordinary aspects of American life too. Rankin discovers that Life told the story of America in photographs, and also taught America how to be American.
510 Frozen Planet (2011) #773 DOCUMENTARY Main
3x1 hour episodes. BBC.
2/7 Spring arrives in the polar regions, and the sun appears after an absence of five months.
3/7 Summer: Polar animals race to rear their young during times of plenty under the midnight sun.
4/7 Autumn brings epic journeys for polar wildlife as most hurry to escape the refreeze.
511 Frozen Planet (2011) #774 DOCUMENTARY Main
With David Attenborough, Alec Baldwin, Chadden Hunter, Ted Giffords. Focuses on life and the environment in both the Arctic and Antarctic.
2x 1 hour episodes. BBC.
5/7 Winter: The story of the few extreme survivors who remain in the polar regions during winter.
6/7 The Last Frontier: What draws humans to the coldest and most hostile reaches of our planet?
512 The Life of Muhammad (2011) #780 DOCUMENTARY Main
3x1 hour episodes. BBC.
1/3 The Seeker. Rageh Omaar investigates the Arabia Muhammad was born into, beginning in Mecca.
2/3 Holy Wars. Key events in the Prophet's life, including the eight-year war with the Meccan tribes.
3/3 Holy Peace. Rageh Omaar analyses the introduction of the Sharia moral code and the concept of jihad.
513 Imagine: Books - The Last Chapter? (2011) #786 DOCUMENTARY Main
With the rise of electronic books, is the final chapter about to be written in the long love story between books and their readers? Will the app take the place of the traditional book?

Alan Yentob discusses the subject with writers Alan Bennett, Douglas Coupland, Ewan Morrison and Gary Shteyngart, publisher Gail Rebuck, agent Ed Victor and librarian Rachael Morrison. They also smell books, making precise notes about the distinctive aroma of each.
514 Faster Than the Speed of Light? (2011) #804 DOCUMENTARY Main
1 hour. BBC. In September 2011, an international group of scientists has made an astonishing claim - they have detected particles that seemed to travel faster than the speed of light. It was a claim that contradicted more than a hundred years of scientific orthodoxy. Suddenly there was talk of all kinds of bizarre concepts, from time travel to parallel universes.

So what is going on? Has Einstein's famous theory of relativity finally met its match? Will we one day be able to travel into the past or even into another universe?

In this film, Professor Marcus du Sautoy explores one of the most dramatic scientific announcements for a generation. In clear, simple language he tells the story of the science we thought we knew, how it is being challenged, and why it matters.
515 Natural World: Animal House (2011) #805 DOCUMENTARY Main
1 hour. BBC. Sir David Attenborough tells the stories of the world's best animal architects. There are house-proud bower birds, who only find a mate if they decorate their homes perfectly. There are hornets, who build electric central heating systems, and the star-nosed mole, whose house is designed so well that worms, his favourite meal, literally drop in for dinner. From larders to nurseries and from high-rises to subway systems, Attenborough shows that the animal architects have designed it long before humans.
516 Horizon: Are You Good or Evil? (2011) #806 DOCUMENTARY Main
1 hour. BBC. What makes us good or evil? It's a simple but deeply unsettling question. One that scientists are now starting to answer.

Horizon meets the researchers who have studied some of the most terrifying people behind bars - psychopathic killers.

But there was a shock in store for one of these scientists, Professor Jim Fallon, when he discovered that he had the profile of a psychopath. And the reason he didn't turn out to be a killer holds important lessons for all of us.

We meet the scientist who believes he has found the moral molecule and the man who is using this new understanding to rewrite our ideas of crime and punishment.
517 The Conspiracy Files: 9/11 Ten Years On (2011) #806 DOCUMENTARY Main
A decade after the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, the Conspiracy Files looks at why some people still question what really happened on 9/11. Conspiracy theories continue to evolve and now question every aspect of the official account. Why, they ask, was the hole in the Pentagon so small? Why did the World Trade Centre buildings collapse as if being demolished by explosives? Why did one skyscraper fall when it was never hit by a plane? And why was the world's greatest military power so unprepared and so slow to react when warnings had been received?

The death of Osama Bin Laden might have been expected to put an end to the conspiracy theories, but the failure to release any pictures of Bin Laden's death and the hasty disposal of his body in the Arabian Sea, has instead given these theories a new burst of life.

Featuring key witnesses, CIA and FBI interviewees and leading sceptics, the programme analyses the evidence and looks at what makes conspiracy theories so persistent and so powerful.
518 Who Do You Think You Are? Emilia Fox (2011) #807 DOCUMENTARY Main
1 hour. BBC. Celebrities trace their family trees to reveal the lives of their ancestors. Emilia Fox, who was heavily pregnant while filming this episode, was intrigued to find out what family traits her baby might inherit. Part of the Fox theatrical dynasty, Emilia wants to find out just how far back the family's acting roots go.

Emilia also discovers, in an extraordinary tale of rags to riches, that her great-great-grandfather Samson Fox made one of the most important inventions of the 19th century. Born into an impoverished family, Samson started work in a Leeds textile mill when he was just eight years old, but ended up becoming one of the richest men in Victorian Britain. As Emilia investigates further, she discovers how her illustrious ancestor was later touched by scandal.
519 Imagine: Ai Weiwei - Without Fear or Favour (2011) #810 DOCUMENTARY Main
1 hour. BBC. Arts documentary, first broadcast before Ai Weiwei's arrest by the Chinese authorities in April 2011, and his subsequent release after being detained for 11 weeks.

Architect, photographer, curator and blogger, Ai Weiwei is China's most famous and politically outspoken contemporary artist. Alan Yentob explores the story of Ai Weiwei's life and art, and reveals how this most courageous and determined of artists continues to fight for artistic freedom of expression while living under the restrictive shadows of authoritarian rule.
520 All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (2011) #811 DOCUMENTARY Main
With Adam Curtis, Stewart Brand, Peder Anker, Tord Björk. A series of films about how humans have been colonized by the machines we have built. Although we don't realize it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers.
3x1 hour episides. A series of films about how humans have been colonised by the machines we have built. Although we don't realise it, the way we see everything in the world today is through the eyes of the computers

1/3 Love and Power. Exploring the idea that humans have been colonised by the machines they have built.
2/3 The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts. This looks at how the idea of nature as a self-regulating ecosystem is a machine fantasy.
3/3 The Monkey in the Machine and the Machine in the Monkey. Why do humans find the machine vision so beguiling - does it excuse our failure?

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