Lindisfarne’s Geordie Genius: The Alan Hull Story 2021
Brit Award-winner Sam Fender goes in search of a musical hero from another era - the late, great, Alan Hull of Lindisfarne, in this one-off BBC Four documentary.
Brit Award-winner Sam Fender goes in search of a musical hero from another era - the late, great, Alan Hull of Lindisfarne, in this one-off BBC Four documentary.
An all star cast unite to perform a distinctive BBC Wales Television adaptation of Dylan Thomas's radio play, presented in collaboration with National Theatre Wales, to mark the centenary of Dylan Thomas' birth. The plot reveals the innermost thoughts of the residents of the small, Welsh fishing village Llareggub as it delves into the dreams of various townspeople including blind sailor Captain Cat, who is haunted by visions of drowned shipmates, Mog Edwards and Myfanwy Price, who dream of each other, and Mrs. Ogmore Pritchard, who dreams of her former husbands.
Kenneth Williams was the star of the Carry Ons and Round the Horne. Despite his fame, he led a life full of mental torture as he tried to overcome his homosexuality in 1950s Britain. This film follows his life and eventual death based on the many diaries he kept
Short documentary of the making of Antoine Fuqua's King Arthur (2004).
From the MG Midget, much loved by American GIs, through to the more affordable Austin Healey 'frog-eye' Sprite and the E-Type Jaguar, seen by many as the ultimate sports car, this is a tale of how, for a brief time, Britain was home to two-seater heaven.
Drama which tells the story of comedian Tony Hancock's love affair with his friend's wife, and her fight to save the man and his career.
Adrian Edmondson narrates a documentary chronicling the story of Stiff Records, a tiny independent that took music out of the boardroom and gave it back to the fans. Stiff's successes included Nick Lowe, the Damned, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Madness, Tracey Ullman and the Pogues. Contributors include Captain Sensible, Jonathan Ross, Suggs, Shane MacGowan and label founders Jake Riviera and Dave Robinson.
In the years following the American war a young woman from Hanoi teaches in a rural school in the south. There she meets a troubled young man, and they have a brief romance that she recalls wistfully years later in her unhappy marriage.
Documentary following a generation of post-punk musicians who took the synthesiser from the experimental fringes to the centre of the pop stage.
A documentary about Kim Philby, a British member of MI6 who was in reality a spy and defected to the U.S.S.R.
Soft Cell star in this programme about Eighties pop. Drink, drugs, break-ups and breakdowns rewarded Marc Almond and Dave Ball after they conquered the world with Tainted Love. The duo remember the hits and splits.
Ant colonies are one of the wonders of nature: complex, organised… and mysterious. This programme reveals the secret, underground world of the ant colony, in a way that’s never been seen before. At its heart is a massive, full-scale ant nest, specially designed and built to allow cameras to see its inner workings. The nest is a new home for a million-strong colony of leafcutter ants from Trinidad. For a month, entomologist Dr George McGavin and leafcutter expert Prof Adam Hart capture every aspect of the life of the colony, using time-lapse cameras, microscopes, microphones and radio tracking technology. The programme explores how these tiny insects can achieve such spectacular feats of collective organisation. It also reveals the workings of one of the most complex and mysterious societies in the natural world – and shows the surprising ways in which ants are helping us solve global problems.
Public Service Broadcasting – a band who bring wit, invention and multimedia spectacle to the stage – return to the Proms after their previous, staggeringly innovative, 2019 outing, The Race for Space. This time, Public Service Broadcasting join conductor Jules Buckley and the BBC Symphony Orchestra for This New Noise, a world premiere specially commissioned for the BBC’s centenary The band’s use of archive footage, sampling and imaginative musical techniques travels back through a hundred years of broadcasting history, making this a musical event like no other.
Set and filmed at the iconic Maida Vale studios, The Dead Room tells the story of a long-running radio horror series and its veteran presenter and national treasure Aubrey Judd. But times are changing. Tastes are shifting. There’s a new young producer. Whatever happened to the classic ghost stories? The good old days? Aubrey soon discovers that all is not quiet in the eerie radio studio and that elements of his own past are not as dead and buried as he perhaps hoped…
The Secret Policeman benefit shows for Amnesty International brought together comedy grand masters - from Python and Beyond the Fringe - and performers then relatively unknown, like Rowan Atkinson. Narrated by Dawn French, the programme includes interviews with many of the comedians and musicians who took part: John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Michael Palin, Sting, Lenny Henry and many more. The shows and their stars had a huge effect on modern British comedy. There are few comics today whose careers have not been heavily influenced by the anarchic and surreal humour of these events.
Filmed in black and white at the Theater Singer in Laren, The Netherlands on March 25th, 1965, this short concert features the Big O performing hits from the classic catalogue of songs he recorded for the American independent label Monument in the early 60s.
Katherine Ryan presents a celebration of one of the biggest comedy talents to ever appear on the small screens – the razor-sharp-tongued first lady of laughter, Joan Rivers.
David Ireland's award-winning dark comedy about sectarian hatred in Northern Ireland. Eric Miller, a Belfast loyalist, mistakes his five-week-old granddaughter for Gerry Adams.
Materialist scientist Professor Mark Miodownik challenges two-Michelin-star chef Marcus Wareing to the ultimate cookery competition. Over the course of 90 minutes they cook up some of the nation's best-loved dishes, from starter to dessert, in a head-to-head contest to see who can create the most flavoursome food. Marcus has flair, passion, and experience, while Mark an understanding of cooking at the molecular level and access to state-of-the-art technology. Ultimately the question they will try to answer is this: is cooking a science or an art?
Profile of the band who has helped to save Irish traditional music from disappearing, spreading its sound and popularity across the world for more than four decades. Featuring interviews with the current four members - fiddler Sean Keane, vocalist and bodhran player Kevin Conneff, flautist Matt Molloy and band leader Paddy Moloney, who plays pipes and whistle - and tributes from fans including Keith Richards, Sting, Elvis Costello, Sir James Galway and Andrea Corr.