Saturday 10th March 2012
| The Story of Light Entertainment (3/8) |
BBC2, 7.00pm - 8.00pm
In the 1930s and 1940s the biggest names in entertainment were the stars of the radio and over 60 years later it is still home to some of the biggest names around. But why does radio still appeal to TV stars like Jonathan Ross, Chris Evans, Michael Parkinson, Ricky Gervais and Terry Wogan? Maybe it's because radio is the real hotbed of ideas that television feeds off.
| I'm a Pop Star! (3/3) |
BBC2, 9.00pm - 10.00pm
In the final part of the series it's all about the solo artists as we delve into the psyche of the men and women who go it alone. What drives them into pop single combat ... braving the baying hordes armed with just a microphone, some songs and an unquenchable belief that what they have got to say is worth hearing?
From pioneers like Sir Cliff Richard; to pop Prince Charming Adam Ant; to contemporary leading lights like Will Young and Kelly Clarkson - this is the pop life from the inside looking out.
| The Black Windmill |
ITV4, 11.40pm - 1.50am
Tense thriller in which a secret agent attempts to track down a gang who have kidnapped his son. In return for the boy's life, the abductors demand the diamonds the agent has been holding as bait to trap a dangerous smuggling ring. Can he find his son before the gang lose their patience with the negotiations?
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Sunday 11th March 2012
| File on 4 |
Radio 4, 5.00pm - 5.40pm
In the last two months, three fathers have killed their partners, children and themselves. File on 4 investigates what drives these men to take such drastic action.
The programme talks to relatives, expert forensic psychiatrists and academics to try to find out why they became so-called 'family annihilators'.
It looks at new research into such cases which points to a link to unemployment rates and the levels of gun ownership. It will also ask whether authorities like the health service and police could do more to watch for signs that men are a risk to their families and asks whether new gun licence measures are working.
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Monday 12th March 2012
| Murdoch's TV Pirates: Panorama |
As Rupert Murdoch faces accusations of law-breaking and corruption at his British tabloid newspapers, Panorama reveals fresh hacking allegations at the heart of News Corporation's pay-TV empire.
The investigation examines the role of former senior police officers in recruiting people to break the law - in order to bring down Murdoch's commercial rival.
China: Triumph and Turmoil
Channel 4, 8.00pm - 9.00pm
Niall Ferguson examines the questions and contradictions behind China's ascendancy, and asks what the future holds for the country and its relationship with the rest of the world.
| My Phone Sex Secrets |
Phone sex is one industry booming in the face of recession. This film meets the women paid to talk dirty, like student and first-timer Rosa, old-hand Jenny, and Marnie the dominatrix.
| Britain's First Photo Album (1/10) |
Broadcaster John Sergeant follows in the footsteps of Victorian pioneer photographer Francis Frith who, in the 1860s embarked upon a monumental mission to attempt to document every city, town and village in Britain. John travels the country to discover more about this extraordinary man and his team and the unique record they left behind. John finds out what's changed, what's stayed the same and what has gone forever, and along the way he takes his own photographs inspired by the image taken by a Frith cameraman.
Today, this round-Britain trip begins in London, where John will meet the first ever lady Chelsea Pensioner, find out about the real Eliza Doolittles who inspired My Fair Lady and descend deep under Tower Bridge to witness Victorian engineering at its most impressive.
| Interviews before Execution |
Every Saturday night in China, millions gather around their televisions to watch Interviews Before Execution, an extraordinary talk show which interviews prisoners on death row.
In the weeks, days or even minutes before they are executed, presenter Ding Yu goes into prisons and talks to those condemned to die. Combining clips from the TV show, never-before-seen footage of China's death row and interviews with a local judge who openly questions the future of the death penalty in China, This World reveals a part of China that is generally hidden from from view.
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Tuesday 13th March 2012
Law in Action (4/4)
Radio 4, 4.00pm - 4.30pm
For the last four years, London's family drug and alcohol court has been trying to get drug and alcohol misusing families back on track. It has done so by following a different approach from the traditional, more punitive measures adopted by the mainstream courts. Joshua Rozenberg visits the court to find out how effective its pioneering work has been and what those who use it think of it. He speaks to those involved in the day-to-day work of the court - including the district judge, the principals of the main charity involved in its creation, legal representatives and others with expert knowledge of the problems which the court's family users must tackle to put their lives back in order - and talks to observers of the court who have reservations about its approach. Law in Action discovers how far this innovative - but expensive - legal model is one which can realistically be emulated elsewhere in the UK when public funds are under such pressure.
| Britain's First Photo Album (2/10) |
John Sergeant follows in the footsteps of pioneer photographer Francis Frith and his team who, from the 1860s, took thousands of photographs documenting the rapidly changing cityscapes and landscapes of Victorian Britain.
In this episode, John travels along the North Kent coast from Gravesend to Broadstairs and finds out how much it has changed since Frith was there over a century ago; he also takes his own modern day photographs. He hitches a ride on a Thames sailing barge, finding out what people used to do in their leisure time in the 19th century and drops in on the new owners of Charles Dickens' favourite holiday home.
| Frost on Interviews |
Television interviews seem to have been around forever - but that's not the case. They evolved in confidence and diversity as television gradually came of age. So how did it all begin? With the help of some of its greatest exponents, Sir David Frost looks back over nearly sixty years of the television interview.
| Mark Lawson Talks to Frank Skinner |
Mark Lawson talks to Frank Skinner about a career that has made him one of the most successful and well-paid comedians of his generation. By Skinner's own admission he's a 'nondescript bloke from a working class family in West Bromwich who got lucky'. Lawson explores what drove him to succeed in stand-up, broadcasting,...
| Ruby meets Imelda Marcos |
Ruby Wax visits Manila to interview the former first lady Imelda Marcos.
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Wednesday 14th March 2012
| Britain's First Photo Album (3/10) |
John Sergeant continues his journey around Britain, tracing the footsteps of pioneer photographer Francis Frith and his team who, from the 1860s took thousands of photographs documenting the rapidly changing cityscapes and landscapes of 19th Century Britain.
The Fisherman's Apprentice with Monty Halls (3/6)
BBC 2, 8.00pm - 9.00pm
Marine biologist Monty Halls explores the challenges facing the British fishing industry by living and working as a traditional Cornish fisherman.
| Rights Gone Wrong? |
Anger over votes for prisoners and the release of Abu Qatada shows just what a toxic issue human rights law has become. In this provocative film, Andrew Neil travels to Europe and across Britain to find out why Britain follows these laws and asks can anything be done to restore our faith in them?
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Thursday 15th March 2012
| Britain's First Photo Album (4/10) |
The Victorian photographer Francis Frith spent the best part of his life documenting Britain. His aim was to photograph every city, every town and every village in the land. He and his team took tens of thousands of pictures and left us with an invaluable record of a Britain frozen in time. Now, John Sergeant is attempting to follow in Frith's footsteps, finding out what has changed, what has stayed the same and what has gone forever: he'll be unravelling some of the mysteries of this unique archive and he'll be taking his own photographs.
| The Hidden Art of Islam |
At the British Museum, a collection of artefacts from the Muslim world is on show which tells the history of a journey to Mecca always forbidden to non-Muslims. It features a succession of examples of the rich visual language of Islamic culture past and present, artwork created to reflect the powerful experience for any Muslim making the Hajj pilgrimage to Islam's most sacred city and its most sacred building, the Ka'aba. However, an artform not usually associated with Islam is also on show, a form many believe is prohibited by Islam - portraits, depictions of human figures and whole tableaux showing pilgrims performing the most important pillar of the Muslim faith.
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Friday 16th March 2012
| Britain's First Photo Album (5/10) |
