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The Joy of Data (2016) #1181
DOCUMENTARY
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1 hour. BBC. A witty and mind-expanding exploration of data, with mathematician Dr Hannah Fry. This high-tech romp reveals what data is and how it is captured, stored, shared and made sense of. Fry tells the story of the engineers of the data age, people most of us have never heard of despite the fact they brought about a technological and philosophical revolution. For Hannah, the joy of data is all about spotting patterns. Hannah sees data as the essential bridge between two universes - the tangible, messy world that we see and the clean, ordered world of maths, where everything can be captured beautifully with equations. The film reveals the connection between Scrabble scores and online movie streaming, explains why a herd of dairy cows are wearing pedometers, and uncovers the network map of Wikipedia. What's the mystery link between marmalade and One Direction? The film hails the contribution of Claude Shannon, the mathematician and electrical engineer who, in an attempt to solve the problem of noisy telephone lines, devised a way to digitise all information. Shannon singlehandedly launched the 'information age'. Meanwhile, Britain's National Physical Laboratory hosts a race between its young apprentices in order to demonstrate how and why data moves quickly around modern data networks. It's all thanks to the brilliant technique first invented there in the 1960s by Welshman Donald Davies - packet switching. But what of the future? Should we be worried by the pace of change and what our own data could be used for? Ultimately, Fry concludes, data has empowered all of us. We must have machines at our side if we're to find patterns in the modern-day data deluge. But, Fry believes, regardless of AI and machine learning, it will always take us to find the meaning in them. |
| 22 |
National Theatre Live: Les Blancs (2016) #1289
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150mins. by Lorraine Hansberry Adapted by Robert Nemiroff Restored text directed by Joi Gresham. National Theatre at Home: Les Blancs An African country teeters on the edge of civil war. A society prepares to drive out its colonial present and claim an independent future. Tshembe, returned home from England for his father’s funeral, finds himself in the eye of the storm. Yaël Farber (Mies Julie, Nirbhaya) directs the final play by Lorraine Hansberry (A Raisin in the Sun): a brave, illuminating and powerful work that confronts the hope and tragedy of revolution. This play is about imperialism, racism, and colonialism and contains some scenes of racially motivated violence, that some people may find distressing. This archive recording was captured by the National Theatre in 2016. |
| 23 |
Artsnight - Design (2016) #1562
DOCUMENTARY
Disk
60mins BBC. The Brits Who Designed the Modern World Artsnight Series 4 If there were an Olympic league table for design, Britain would be right at the top. Since the Second World War, British designers have revolutionised our homes, our workplaces, our roads and our public institutions. In November 2016, the Design Museum opened its new £83m home in Kensington. To mark this great moment for British design, BBC Arts profiles ten great living British designers. Arts reporter Brenda Emmanus meets and profiles our 'Top 10', to find out what inspires them to make such phenomenal objects. She reveals how designers have responded to society's evolving tastes, from the brash 60s modernism of Margaret Calvert's road signs through to the colourful technology of Rick Dickinson's ZX Spectrum. She also meets Britain's most prolific designer, Sir Kenneth Grange (Intercity 125, bus shelters, the Kenwood Chef...), as well as Andrew Ritchie, who gave the world the Brompton Bike. And we also hear from an illustrious panel of celebrities whose lives have been transformed by British design, including Will.i.am, Jeremy Paxman, Pete Waterman, Ade Adepitan and Jenny Eclair. |
| 24 |
The Duke And The Composer: Monteverdi In Mantua (2015) #662
DOCUMENTARY-MUSIC
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1 hour. A BBC Two documentary, The Duke And The Composer, tells the story of a Renaissance Duke and the composer who worked for him - and how their volatile relationship would create one of the most revolutionary and beautiful collections of music ever published: The Monteverdi Vespers of 1610. The programme is presented by Shakespearean actor and former St Paul’s Cathedral chorister Simon Russell Beale, whose enthusiasm for choral music is matched by his gift for storytelling. Together with conductor Harry Christophers and his virtuoso choir The Sixteen, Simon explores this major turning point in Western Classical Music for the television audience. |
| 25 |
Genius of the Ancient World (2015) #909
DOCUMENTARY
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3x1 hour episodes. BBC. Historian Bettany Hughes travels to India, Greece and China on the trail of three giants of ancient philosophy - Buddha, Socrates and Confucius. 1/3 Buddha. Bettany Hughes travels to India to investigate the revolutionary ideas of the Buddha. 2/3 Socrates. Bettany Hughes is in Greece, on the trail of the influential maverick thinker Socrates. 3/3 Confucius. Bettany Hughes visits China on the trail of Confucius, a great sage of Chinese history. |
| 26 |
Sound of Song (2015) #910
DOCUMENTARY
Main
3x1 hour episodes. BBC. Composer and musician Neil Brand presents a series which explores the magical elements that come together to create our favourite songs. 1/3 The Recording Revolution. How songs were first recorded and the listening revolution in the home that followed. 2/3 Reeling and Rocking. Neil Brand recreates innovative recording sessions by the likes of Elvis and the Beatles. 3/3 Mix It Up and Start Again. In the modern era, song creation was transformed by digital technology and the computer. |
| 27 |
Treasures of Ancient Greece (2015) #926
DOCUMENTARY
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3x1 hour episodes. BBC. Series in which Alastair Sooke explores the riches and unique legacy of Greek art. 1/3 The Age of Heroes. Alastair Sooke explores the surprising roots of Greek art, beginning his journey in Crete. 2/3 The Classical Revolution. Alastair unpicks the reasons behind the revolution that gave birth to classical Greek art. 3/3 The Long Shadow. Exploring the afterlife of Greek masterpieces that changed the course of western culture. |
| 28 |
Dancing Cheek to Cheek: An Intimate History of Dance (2015) #935
DOCUMENTARY
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3x1 hour episodes. BBC. Len Goodman and Lucy Worsley uncover the British love affair with dancing, exploring the nation's favourite dances from the 17th to the 20th centuries. 1/3 The Devil's Work?. How dancing came to be celebrated as an essential social skill in the 18th century. 2/3 Revolution on the Dance Floor. How our dance floors were revolutionised in the 19th century by faster, freer dances. 3/3 The Shock of the New. How the early 20th century saw the most revolutionary change in British dance history. |
| 29 |
Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain: A New Dawn (2014) #673
DOCUMENTARY
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1 hour. BBC. Episode 1. In the first of a six-part series, Andrew Marr revisits Britain at the dawn of the 20th century. He finds the country mourning the death of Queen Victoria, fighting an intractable war against the Boers in South Africa, enjoying the bawdy pleasures of music hall and worrying about the physical and moral strength of the working class. There are stories of political intrigue between David Lloyd George and his arch-enemy Joseph Chamberlain, as well as the beginning of the struggle for women's suffrage. Plus an account of the day Mr Rolls met Mr Royce and kicked off a revolution in motoring. With powerful archive and vivid anecdotes, Andrew Marr gets to the heart of Edwardian Britain. He brings to life Britain's struggle to maintain its imperial power in the world in the years before the First World War. |
| 30 |
Rupert Murdoch - Battle With Britain (2013) #744
DOCUMENTARY
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1 hour. BBC. In the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, Rupert Murdoch has been accused of corrupting British media and contaminating politics. Yet the caricature image of him as the 'Dirty Digger', the sinister head of a global media empire, in fact obscures deeper, more significant truths - not least about Britain itself. Rupert Murdoch can be seen as an agent of change, a revolutionary almost, who has been a vital part of the transformation of Britain over the last 45 years. He rode the wave of social change that swept a gloomy postwar country into the modern world and his ability to understand what people wanted and give it to them made him rich and powerful. Yet his part in this cultural, political and industrial revolution also brought Rupert Murdoch into conflict with the establishment and vested interests in all their guises. It may even have ultimately cost him his life's ambition - to see the business he has built carried on inside the family by one of his children. Steve Hewlett tells the story of Rupert Murdoch's 40-year battle with Britain. |
| 31 |
The Genius of Turner: Painting the Industrial Revolution (2013) #758
DOCUMENTARY
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1 hour. BBC. A film that looks at the genius of JMW Turner in a new light. There is more to Turner than his sublime landscapes - he also painted machines, science, technology and industry. Turner's life spans the Industrial Revolution, he witnessed it as it unfolded, and he painted it. In the process he created a whole new kind of art. The programme examines nine key Turner paintings and shows how we should rethink them in the light of the scientific and Industrial Revolution. Includes interviews with historian Simon Schama and artist Tracey Emin. |
| 32 |
Cloud Atlas (2012) #389
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Directed by Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski. With Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving. An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution. |
| 33 |
Symphony (2012) #939
DOCUMENTARY
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4x1 hour episodes. BBC. Simon Russell Beale presents a radical reappraisal of the place of the symphony in the modern world and explores the surprising way in which it has shaped our history and identity. 1/4 Genesis and Genius. Simon Russell Beale takes a look at the symphonic works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. 2/4 Beethoven and Beyond. Simon Russell Beale looks at the symphonies of Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz and Liszt. 3/4 New Nations and New Worlds. How nationalist voices such as Dvorak and Sibelius took the symphony to wider audiences. 4/4 Revolution and Rebirth. Simon Russell Beale investigates the symphonic works of Shostakovich, Ives and Copland. |
| 34 |
Holst: In the Bleak Midwinter (2011) #643
DOCUMENTARY
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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. |
| 35 |
The Trouble with Tolstoy (2011) #701
DOCUMENTARY
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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. |
| 36 |
Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture (2011) #1369
DOCUMENTARY
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Romancing the Stone: The Golden Ages of British Sculpture: With Alastair Sooke. Alastair Sooke examines three periods in the history of British sculpture and the masterpieces they produced 3x1 hour. BBC. Series which reveals how sculpture communicates our most cherished beliefs and values - the British soul captured in three dimensions. 1/3 Masons of God. A look at how the era's sculpture casts a new light on medieval times in Britain. 2/3 Mavericks of Empire. Alastair Sooke looks at the maverick sculptors working in the 18th and 19th centuries. 3/3 Children of the Revolution. Alastair Sooke looks at the 20th century's mixture of innovation, scandal and creativity. |
| 37 |
The Virtual Revolution (2010) #676
DOCUMENTARY
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4x1 hour episodes. BBC. Virtual Revolution charts two decades of profound change since the invention of the World Wide Web, weighing up the huge benefits and the unforeseen downsides |
| 38 |
The Virtual Revolution (2010) #699
DOCUMENTARY
Main
BBC 4x1 hour episodes. Virtual Revolution charts two decades of profound change since the invention of the World Wide Web, weighing up the huge benefits and the unforeseen downsides. |
| 39 |
Revolution (2009) #465
FILM
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Directed by Michael Rymer. With Billy Campbell, Peter Fonda, Michael Eklund, Maiara Walsh. A drama set on a distant planet, where two families related by marriage are on opposite sides of a Revolutionary War-like conflict. |
| 40 |
School of Saatchi (2009) #669
DOCUMENTARY
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4x1 hour episodes. Charles Saatchi, the powerful art world kingmaker behind the Brit Art revolution, is looking for the next Tracey Emin or Damien Hirst. He will select six unknown artists and set them up in their own east London studio. Here they will be commissioned to make a series of ambitious artworks which will be assessed by Saatchi and a panel of experts. Ultimately Saatchi will select one artist to join his next major exhibition, Newspeak: British Art Now, at the Hermitage Gallery in St Petersburg, and offer them the additional opportunity of their own studio for three years. The series will explore the strange and controversial world of contemporary art and try to discover the substance that lies behind the hype. An esteemed selection panel, consisting of artist Tracey Emin, critic and broadcaster Matthew Collings, art collector Frank Cohen and Barbican curator Kate Bush, whittle down thousands of applicants to 12 artists they think worthy of being seen by Charles Saatchi. In their hunt for artists with real potential, the panel are confronted by the full bizarre array of artists and artwork that constitutes contemporary art. These 12 are then invited to exhibit work for Charles Saatchi himself who, with panel's advice, will pluck six of them from obscurity to enjoy the bounties of his patronage for ten weeks in his art studio. |