| 61 |
The Age of the Image (2020) #1247
DOCUMENTARY
Special
4x1 hour. BBC. Documentary series in which art historian James Fox explores how the power of images has transformed the modern world. 1/4 A New Reality. James Fox explores how the power of images has transformed the modern world. 2/4 Power Games. How mass communication and new technology helped image-makers transform society. 3/4 Seductive Dreams. How postwar image-makers created visions of fantasy and desire. 4/4 Fake Views. How images have become more powerful – and less trusted – than ever before. |
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Lee Miller - A Life on the Front Line (2020) #1265
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. When Lee Miller returned to New York from Europe in October 1932, newspaper reporters were waiting to greet her as her ship docked. Disembarking in a smart beret and fur-collared coat, she smiled for the journalist from the New York World-Telegram. When he referred to her as 'one of the most photographed girls in Manhattan', she retorted, 'I'd rather take a picture than be one.' Lee Miller is one of the most remarkable female icons of the 20th century. A model turned photographer turned war reporter, Miller chose to live her life by her own rules. This film celebrates a subject who defied anyone who tried to pin her down, put her on a pedestal or pigeonhole her in any way. It tells the story of a trailblazer, often at odds with the morality of the day, who refused to be subjugated by the dominant male figures around her. |
| 63 |
Anthony (2020) #1312
FILM
Main
Directed by Terry McDonough. With Richard Osman, Toheeb Jimoh, Julia Brown, Bobby Schofield. In July 2005, black teenager Anthony Walker was murdered by two white men in an unprovoked racist attack in a Liverpool park. He was just 18 years old. This film tells the story of how this talented young man's life might have turned out. 90mins BBC. Written by Jimmy McGovern. |
| 64 |
Lemn Sissay: The Memory of Me (2020) #1313
DOCUMENTARY
Main
70 mins. BBC - Imagine with Alan Yentob. Lemn Sissay's writings are a source of inspiration to huge numbers of people around the world. From poems on the walls and buildings of Manchester and beyond to the contemplative dawn verses published each morning on social media, his words bring solace and light to readers everywhere. Following the publication of his new memoir My Name Is Why, he tells Alan Yentob what it was like to grow up as the only black child in a sleepy market town outside Wigan in the 1970s. Before being catapulted into the broken care system at the dawn of the 1980s, he was separated from his foster family at the tender age of twelve and left to fend for himself. His journey since has been one of discovery: learning not just that his name was Lemn, but that his parents were Ethiopian, a country he returns to for this film to find out more about his roots. Featuring contributions from some of the well-known names Lemn has shared the stage with, such as Steve Coogan, Benjamin Zephaniah, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Julie Hesmondhalgh, as well as his close network of friends and supporters from his years in care, this is the story of the boy whose name meant Why. |
| 65 |
The Romantics and Us with Simon Schama (2020) #1319
DOCUMENTARY
Special
3x1 hour. BBC. From popular revolt to the obsession with the self, even to modern nationalism, Simon Schama explores the enduring and powerful legacy the romantics have left on our modern world. 1/3 Passions of the People. Simon Schama explores the artists who created the secular icons of our democratic world. 2/3 The Chambers of the Mind. Simon Schama explores how the romantics became the first explorers of the unconscious. 3/3 Tribes. Simon Schama explores how the romantics created our idea of national belonging. |
| 66 |
The Secret History of Writing (2020) #1321
DOCUMENTARY
Special
3x1 hour. BBC. How the invention of writing gave humanity a history. From hieroglyphs to emojis, an exploration of the way in which the technology of writing has shaped the world we live in. 1/3 From Pictures to Words. Revealing the link between ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and the letters we use every day. 2/3 Words on a Page. How the changing technology of writing has shaped the course of world history. 3/3 Changing the Script. As technology and politics force changes to the way we write, what happens to who we are? |
| 67 |
All Creatures Great and Small (2020) #1322
TV DRAMA
Special
6x45 min episodes. Channel 5. The numerous adventures of a friendly staff at a country veterinarian practice in 1930s to 1940s Yorkshire. A remake of the 1978-1990 series. Taken from the autobiographical books by James Herriot. 1/6 You've Got To Dream. James Herriot follows his dream to become a vet. 2/6 Another Farnon? Helen provides James with a reason to stay in the Yorkshire Dales, and he discovers that there is another Farnon brother with an equally unique personality. 3/6 Andante. Siegfried hopes to become the attending vet at the local racecourse. Meanwhile an encounter with a racehorse threatens to end James's career. Tristan resorts to an unusual method of covering the loss of the surgery's income. 4/6 A Tricki Case. James is alarmed to receive a call from Mrs Pumphrey who fears her beloved dog Tricki Woo might be dying. 5/6 All's Fair. James is as pleased as punch to be the Attending Vet at the Darrowby Show, but Siegfried and Tristan take bets on how long he will last. 6/6 A Cure for all Ills. James saves a cow and gets promotion on his birthday but his love life takes a turn for the worse. Christmas Special: The All Creatures Great and Small Christmas special visits the residents of Skeldale House on Christmas Eve. It's the day before Helen and Hugh's wedding, and James is still heartbroken and masking his pain with a brave smile – and a new girlfriend! |
| 68 |
The Trump Show (2020) #1324
FILM
Special
3x1 hour. Protests, political turmoil, pandemic - the inside story of the extraordinary Trump presidency. Friends and foes tell of his rise from TV star to leader of the free world. |
| 69 |
Resistance (2020) #1325
FILM
Main
Directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz. With Jesse Eisenberg, Clémence Poésy, Matthias Schweighöfer, Félix Moati. The story of mime Marcel Marceau as he works with a group of Jewish boy scouts and the French Resistance to save the lives of ten thousand orphans during World War II. |
| 70 |
Berlin 1945 (2020) #1329
DOCUMENTARY
Main
3x50min episodes. BBC. Journey back in time to Berlin's most fateful year - 1945 - through the eyes and voices of those who experienced it - ordinary German people and the Allies who entered the city. 1/3 At the beginning of 1945, Berlin remains under the spell of the Nazi promise of salvation. 2/3 The Battle for Berlin has begun and defeat for Germany draws closer. 3/3 The British, French and Americans wait to enter Berlin. |
| 71 |
Irresistible (2020) #1346
FILM
Main
Directed by Jon Stewart. With Steve Carell, Rose Byrne, Chris Cooper, Brent Sexton. A Democratic strategist helps a retired veteran run for mayor in a small, conservative Midwest town. |
| 72 |
Pilgrimage (2020) #1354
DOCUMENTARY
Main
Pilgrimage (Series 3) BBC 1 hour The Road to Istanbul Episode 1 of 3 Seven well-known personalities, all with differing faiths and beliefs, put on backpacks and walking boots and, on foot and by road, set out to cover sections of the Sultans Trail - a modern-day, 2,200km pilgrimage across Eastern Europe, which starts in Vienna and ends in the historic city of Istanbul. With only 15 days to complete their pilgrimage, the group begin their adventure in the capital of Serbia, Belgrade. From here, they make their way to Bulgaria, travelling over the mountainous Balkans before arriving in Istanbul. But will this journey of a lifetime change the way they think about themselves and their beliefs? Journalist Adrian Chiles, former politician Edwina Currie, Olympian Fatima Whitbread, comedian Dom Joly, actor Pauline McLynn, broadcaster Mim Shaikh and television presenter Amar Latif live as modern-day pilgrims, staying in basic hotels and often sleeping in shared rooms. Formed just over ten years ago, the Sultans Trail retraces an ancient path taken by the Ottoman armies from late medieval times as they looked to expand their empire into Europe. From their base in Istanbul, armies made it to the city of Vienna twice before being repelled. Now, this former route of war has been turned into a path of peace, designed to promote tolerance between people of all faiths and none. In this first episode, the seven pilgrims arrive in Belgrade, Serbia, and find out for the first time who they are sharing their pilgrim adventure with. Leaving the city behind, they head into the countryside and away from the hustle and bustle. Relying on the Sultans Trail app to help guide them across Europe, Adrian, a converted Catholic, and Mim, a practising Muslim, are the first to plot their way as they look for the fortified Manasija monastery hidden in the hills. As they progress through the Serbian countryside, Amar, who has been blind since the age of 18, leads the pilgrims in the ancient tradition of scrumping. After a 5km hike, they make it to the monastery, which was fortified to protect it from the Ottoman armies. Adrian leads the group in exploring the 15th-century Orthodox Christian church. Inside, Edwina, a non-practising Orthodox Jew, and Mim discuss the existence of God. Meanwhile, outside on the ramparts of the fortress, Dom, an atheist, takes Amar, raised a Muslim, to the very top of the battlements with some nerve-racking moments! They move on and, with the sun setting, the pilgrims arrive at their overnight accommodation, a simple woodland hostel, and, in line with pilgrim tradition, bed down in shared rooms. In the morning, it becomes clear the boys have had a restless night thanks to Dom and Adrian snoring. Mim takes himself off to pray in a field near the hostel before breakfast, where Pauline, an atheist, tells the group about her upbringing as an Irish Catholic. Before they set off, the pilgrims collect their first pilgrim stamp, a record of their journey along the trail. Later that day, the group arrive in the city of Nis, where Dom and Mim explore a 16th-century mosque built during the reign of Sultan Suleiman, after whom the pilgrimage trail is named. Edwina takes Amar and Pauline to a memorial of a more recent conflict, the Crveni Krust concentration camp, a Second World War Nazi camp that held people of Jewish, Romani and Serbian origin. Here, they witness the horrors of religious and cultural persecution. After a challenging day, the group discuss the difficulties with faith and religion in the face of conflict. The next day, the pilgrims head back into rural Serbia, where Fatima, a Christian, takes the lead with the app, but the pilgrims end up lost and separated in a forest as they lose the trail, much to new hiker Mim’s annoyance. After reuniting, the pilgrims pick up the trail again and it brings them to The Church of the Virgin Mary on a special day in the Orthodox Christian calendar, the birth of the Holy Virgin Mary. The Saint’s day is celebrated with a Slava, a day-long festival that comprises of a service and meal. The pilgrims settle into the service but it is not long before Dom decides to leave. Adrian however finds the service comforting, and after it is completed, the group are invited to join the locals’ celebration meal at the priest’s top table. The experience of seeing this local community come together in the name of faith resonates with Amar, while for Mim, being surrounded by people embracing their faith gives him a new outlook on his own. |
| 73 |
An Evening with Peter Alliss (2020) #1360
FILM
Main
1 hour. BBC. A celebration of the inimitable 'voice of golf' Peter Alliss, revealing the man behind the microphone. Renowned for his charismatic and unique style of commentary, Peter was also one of the top golfers of his era and has quietly raised millions for his wheelchair charity. There are anecdotes from the world of golf, celebrities and family members which give an insight into this charming, witty man. Contributors include Peter's wife Jackie, Tom Watson, Gary Lineker, Sir Terry Wogan, Chris Evans, Sir Bruce Forsyth, Darren Clarke, Jimmy Tarbuck, Gary Player, Hazel Irvine and Steve Rider. The programme is narrated by Sue Johnston. There is also a chance to relive top moments from Peter's popular programmes such as Pro-Celebrity Golf, A Round with Alliss and A Golfer's Travels. Alliss was a familiar figure on the BBC before setting the tone for golf commentary worldwide. His voice was iconic in the world of sports commentary, but then so was this golfer, broadcaster and gentleman. |
| 74 |
Hamilton (2020) #1508
FILM
Disk
2h 40m The real life of one of America's foremost founding fathers and first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Captured live on Broadway from the Richard Rodgers Theater with the original Broadway cast. |
| 75 |
A Wild Year: The North York Moors (2020) #1558
DOCUMENTARY
Disk
14mins In the north east of England lies a wild and remote moorland - 550 square miles of windswept heather-clad uplands and deep, sheltered valleys or dales. These are the North York Moors. Over millennia, this spectacular landscape has been shaped by the elements - by water and ice - and more recently by people. Remote farmsteads are dotted all across the high country. On Dale Head Farm, the Barraclough family raise tough swaledale and cheviot sheep, animals bred for the moorland life. They can be left out on the hill year-round because over many generations they have built up an intimate knowledge of their patch - each flock is ‘hefted’ to the land. The flocks are brought down off the moors to the shelter of the dales a couple of times each year - in the spring for lambing and again in the summer to be shorn of their heavy winter coats. The best shearers can clip 300 sheep in a day. |
| 76 |
A Slow Odyssey: The Great Wall of China (2019) #1171
DOCUMENTARY
Main
90mins. BBC. Slow television. A spectacular aerial journey flying over the world’s longest man-made monument, the Great Wall of China. In classic slow-TV style - without commentary and using authentic location sound - fly 2,500 kilometres along the 2,300-year-old wall, from the Yellow Sea in the crowded east, near Beijing, to the remote Gobi Desert in the west. This epic adventure explores 20 location highlights of the UNESCO-world-heritage site, built by the Ming Dynasty between 1368 and 1644, starting at Old Dragon’s Head on the east coast and ending at the extraordinary Jaiyuguan Fortress - once the gateway into China from the ancient Silk Road trading route. With the help of informative captions, witness the classic stone, crenellated walls, ramparts and watchtowers, which rise and fall over the high mountain ranges for the first 500 kilometres of the Great Wall, north of Beijing. Highlights include the famous tourist wall of Badaling, which has seen visits from 500 heads of state, including the Queen and US Presidents Nixon and Obama. It was the first section of the Great Wall to open to tourists in 1957. The middle section explores the rarely seen rammed-earth mud wall, built in provinces with few stone or brick resources, which is much more fragile. More than a third of the entire Great Wall has been destroyed by nature, war and progress over the last three centuries. There is a significant meeting of two Chinese icons as the Great Wall crosses the great Yellow River, known as the cradle of Chinese civilisation. In the final third of the journey, the wall stretches off across desolate floodplains as it starts to border the remote western Gobi Desert. Flying high above one of the last remaining ancient walled towns, its name becomes obvious - Yongtai or ‘Turtle Town’ – as its 17th-century walls and watchtowers resemble the shape of a turtle. The final dramatic climax comes at the Qilian Gorge, 80 metres above a roaring river, with the snow-capped mountains of the Tibetan plateau in the distance. The end tower is just a few kilometres from the impressive double-walled Jaiyuguan Fortress, whose three gigantic temple towers dominate the landscape, brandishing the words: ‘The First and Greatest Pass under Heaven’. This was the intimidating welcome to all new arrivals entering China from the west along the Silk Road. A Slow Odyssey is a TV first, showing The Great Wall as it has never been seen before – entirely from the air. |
| 77 |
Icons (2019) #1172
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. 5th February 2019. ICONS asks you to assess the achievements of the 20th century's most important and influential figures – men and women who helped shape our world today. Seven programmes, starting on the 8th of January, will be devoted to seven different categories of human excellence, and each one will introduce you to four extraordinary individuals. At the end of each show you will be able to vote for your favourite. Ultimately you get to decide who is the greatest icon of them all, as the category winners go head to head in a live final with a public vote on the 5th of February. |
| 78 |
The Brexit Storm: Laura Kuenssberg’s Inside Story (2019) #1180
DOCUMENTARY
Main
1 hour. BBC. Over nine tumultuous months, the BBC’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg takes us inside every twist and turn of the most extraordinary political story of our time – Brexit. Cameras go behind the scenes to follow the political players and Laura as she reports on exceptional events. The film covers Theresa May's efforts to secure backing for her Chequers plan, cabinet resignations and backbench plots. We also see leadership challenges and historic parliamentary defeats, as well as a national campaign for a second referendum which causes splits within parties. With Westminster in crisis and Theresa May grappling to get her deal through, this film reveals the country's most influential parliamentarians as they battle to secure the future they want for Britain – in or out of the EU. This one-hour special takes the viewer into the centre of the Brexit storm in a highly charged and emotional battle for political victory. |
| 79 |
Janet Baker - In Her Own Words (2019) #1187
DOCUMENTARY-MUSIC
Main
90 mins. BBC. In her first documentary for more than 35 years, the great British classical singer Dame Janet Baker talks more openly and emotionally than ever before about her career and her life today. With excerpts of her greatest stage roles (as Dido, Mary Stuart, Julius Caesar and Orpheus), as well as of her appearances in the concert hall and recording studio (works by Handel, Berlioz, Schubert, Elgar, Britten and Mahler), she looks back at the excitements and pitfalls of public performance. She tells the film-maker John Bridcut about the traumatic loss of her elder brother when she was only ten years old, and how that experience coloured her voice and her artistry. She explains why she felt the need to retire early some thirty years ago and discusses the challenges she and her husband have to face in old age. She also gives tantalizing clues to the question her many fans often ask: does she still sing today at the age of 85? Among the other contributors to the film are conductors Raymond Leppard, Jane Glover and André Previn (in one of his last interviews before his death in March), the singers Joyce DiDonato and Dame Felicity Lott, the opera producer John Copley, the pianist Imogen Cooper, and the actress Dame Patricia Routledge. This feature-length film is a Crux production for the BBC, following the award-winning ‘Colin Davis - in His Own Words’ in 2013. John Bridcut has also made film profiles of Herbert von Karajan, Mstislav Rostropovich, Rudolf Nureyev and Jonas Kaufmann, as well as ‘Prince, Son and Heir: Charles at 70’ for BBC One in November 2018. |
| 80 |
Earth from Space (2019) #1194
DOCUMENTARY
Special
4x1hour. BBC. Cameras in space tell stories of life on our planet from a brand new perspective, revealing new discoveries, incredible colours and patterns, and just how fast it is changing. 1/4 Cameras in space tell stories of life on our planet from a brand new perspective. 2/4 Cameras in space reveal the stories behind Earth’s most remarkable patterns and shapes. 3/4 Cameras in space reveal remarkable stories behind Earth’s most intriguing colours. 4/4 Cameras in space show Earth changing rapidly. These images can inspire us to help. |
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