The BBC Four Thread

Harry Palmr

Did anyone else watch the series India's Frontier Railways?

Fantastic three hours, and frankly the most quietly damning indictment of partition I've seen. You don't need political lectures when you see the practical effects, both micro and macro, of it.

Skid X

The Storyville tonight has an Irish interest ...

10pm My Mother the Secret Baby: Storyville
Documentary in which film-maker Daisy Asquith tells the very personal story of her mother's conception after a dance in the 1940s in Co Clare on the west coast of Ireland. Her unmarried grandmother was compelled to run away to have her baby in secret and handed the child over to nuns, with her daughter eventually being adopted by a Catholic couple from Stoke-on-Trent. The father remained a mystery for another 60 years, until Daisy and her mum decided it was time to find out who he was

Harry Palmr

Before that at 9 is a documentary we'll all be watching from behind the curtains/sofa/our fingers - Drills, Dentures and Dentistry: An Oral History or 500 years of dentistry!

dfx-

Skid X wrote: »

The Storyville tonight has an Irish interest ...

Fantastic documentary

Hotblack Desiato

Only got round to watching that last night but it was very good

The pair in the farmhouse were a howl (And fair play to them for how they dealt with the sudden arrival of a stranger with a family secret and a TV crew in tow.)

There are tens of thousands of stories just like this one, but most will never be told and there are many people alive today who will take their secrets with them to the grave.

Wish I'd seen this thread before now. Apart from sport BBC Four is practically the only channel I watch.

Harry Palmr

SPY alert!

9 PM sees the repeat of Kim Philby - His Most Intimate Betrayal (pt 1 of 2) which is well worth seeing if you like me have a soft spot for spooky shenanigans.

Followed by Htiches North by Northwest, presumably in perfect OAR.

Harry Palmr

BBC Four Goes Slow

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2015/bbc-four-goes-slow

BBC Four will be slowing right down this spring with a selection of programmes giving audiences the chance to sit back, unwind and watch some very unhurried television.

Inspired by the concept of slow TV, when an event is filmed in real time, BBC Four Goes Slow will include a series of three deliberately unrushed programmes celebrating traditional craftsmanship, an uninterrupted two-hour canal boat journey down a historic British waterway and a three-hour tour around the National Gallery devoid of voiceover or added sound effects.

Cassian Harrison, Channel Editor of BBC Four, says: “BBC Four goes Slow is another brilliant example of something only BBC Four would do. This surprising selection of programmes is the antithesis to the general direction much of television is going in. Slowing everything right down gives us the time to really observe things as they happen and this series of programmes celebrates the simple pleasures of life in the slow lane.”

Some somniferous material, including Make which sounds like Hands, RTE well ahead of the curve!

Skid X

This extended Canal Trip is quite soothing.

They could put it on after closedown every night for a few hours.

Harry Palmr

I've recorded everything so far, only seeing the glass blowing film. The ratings are very good. Last nights canal film saw an average of 500k viewers over the two hours peaking at 550k (not sure if that was people turning in for the climax! )

The guardian ran a piece about Slow season in which the BBC Four editor actual expressed concern about the ratings. Talk about having no conviction for ones own channel. Anyway he needn't have worried. 2-2.5% of total market share is pretty much bang on the average for 8-10 PM.

Deathwish4

Skid X wrote: »

This extended Canal Trip is quite soothing.

They could put it on after closedown every night for a few hours.

Loved this. Classic example of why BBC4 is such a terrific channel.

Harry Palmr

10 PM Sunday

Arena: Nicolas Roeg - It's About Time

Profile of the acclaimed director of Don't Look Now, The Man who Fell to Earth, Walkabout and Performance. Roeg reflects on the recurring themes of his work, including perception of time and the difficulty of human relationships. With contributions from actors Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie, Jenny Agutter and Theresa Russell, and film-makers who have been inspired by his work, including Danny Boyle and Ben Wheatley

followed by Walkabout - yes the chance to see Jenny Agutter naked you pervs!

brian_t

"Dan Cruickshank's Civilisation Under Attack"

on Tuesday at 9pm

Dan Cruickshank investigates the destruction of ancient architectural sites by ISIS.

Skid X

Brian Pern is coming back, back to where it all began ...

Brian Pern, the comedy series starring Simon Day as an art rocker, is to return for a third series.

Radio Times confirms the show will be coming back, however it will return to BBC Four, the channel it launched on, rather than being broadcast on BBC Two - the channel that showed Series 2. Insiders told the magazine BBC Four is regarded as a "better fit" for the show.

The new three part series will chart Brian's life in his 45th anniversary year and continue to look back at the history of his band Thotch.

http://www.comedy.co.uk/news/story/000001843/series_3_of_brian_pern_confirmed/

FloatingVoter

^ ah yes, the audience for things Pern is growing more refined and selected.

Michael Kitchen paid me €5 to post that.

Harry Palmr

Brilliant.

Skid X wrote: »

Brian Pern is coming back, back to where it all began ...

http://www.comedy.co.uk/news/story/000001843/series_3_of_brian_pern_confirmed/

Read my IMDb review here (I paid me to post that!) The other guy is clearly tone deaf .

FloatingVoter

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Brilliant.



Read my IMDb review here (I paid me to post that!) The other guy is clearly tone deaf .

Hmmp, well if you must know, Kitchen is promising me a night of bliss with Theresa May in return for starting a flame war on Reddit concerning Pern - The Prenatal Years - Episode VI The Operatic Overdose.

sandycrack

"Dan Cruickshank's Civilisation Under Attack"

I had to switch off I'm ashamed to say. I found it way too upsetting.

Harry Palmr

I saw the last 20 minutes or so on your behalf

It ended with Cruickshank wondering if the ancient artefacts in Western museum will be next in line for IS destruction.

Skid X

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Read my IMDb review here (I paid me to post that!) The other guy is clearly tone deaf .

Well played Harry, the boy Inept sounds like a Barrel of Laughs.

Harry Palmr

Detectorists returns for a new series

http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/detectorists/special/series2/

Mackenzie Crook, who writes, directs and stars in Detectorists says: "To be back in Suffolk filming in the glorious English countryside for a second summer is more than I could have hoped for. I'm thrilled that people warmed to the first series of Detectorists and I can't wait to show them the next installment."

Harry Palmr

Danny Baker is back on BBC Four - alas only repeating as Danny brushes up on various subjects in his sideways er way.

Thursday 30th at 8:30pm

alaimacerc

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Danny Baker is back on BBC Four - alas

Quite.

Skid X

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Danny Baker is back on BBC Four - alas only repeating as Danny brushes up on various subjects in his sideways er way.

Thursday 30th at 8:30pm

Lovely stuff

They also have a few middle of the night repeats of his music shows next week, for some reason.

Danny Baker Rocks The Seventies a Bit - Monday Night/Tuesday Morning 3.30am

Danny Baker Rocks The Eighties a Bit - Tuesday Night/Wednesday Morning 3.30am

Harry Palmr

I imagine this is all building up to Cradle to Grave on BBC Two, which is based on Bakers early life

Skid X

Doc on tonight, might be worth a look if you have an interest in the BBC's history

9pm & 12.30am, repeated Tuesday 10.30pm
BBC: The Secret Files

"Caversham, Berkshire is home to a vast archive of BBC correspondence, featuring letters either written by or concerning everyone from President Roosevelt to Ken Dodd. Penelope Keith looks back at letters begging for work from the likes of Arthur Lowe and Kenneth Williams, as well as the corporation’s lofty responses to some who would later become household names. Enid Blyton, it’s revealed, barely appeared on the BBC for 30 years because they thought so little of her. Entertaining, though it would work just as well on the radio"

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/jul/27/life-in-squares-pennine-way-parks-and-recreation

Harry Palmr

Four Goes Nuclear!

Sunday 9 PM

Storyville
Atomic: Living in Dread and Promise: Storyville

Documentary examining how nuclear power has changed the world in the 70 years since the bombing of Hiroshima. The film is comprised entirely of archive footage, and explores the positive and negative aspects of the atomic age, contrasting protest marches, the Cold War and the Chernobyl and Fukishima disasters with advances in medical science, such as X rays and MRI scanners. With music by Mogwai

Monday 9 PM

Britain's Nuclear Secrets: Inside Sellafield

Physicist Jim Al-Khalili explores the history of the nuclear facility near the village of Seascale in Cumbria, investigating Britain's attempts - past, present and future - to harness the power of the atom. He examines the ways waste and spent fuel rods have been stored there over the past 70 years and looks at the latest attempts to try to clean some of it up, from storage in vast open-air ponds to encasing pieces of old reactors in concrete blocks

Monday 10 PM

The Race for the World's First Atomic Bomb: A Thousand Days of Fear

The story of the people who worked on the Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico during the Second World War. The film examines the personalities of the men and women who created the first nuclear weapon, using first-hand accounts and rare archive interviews to look at their triumphs, failures and world-changing accomplishments

Tuesday 10 PM

War Book

Nine civil servants take part in a regular role-playing game to practise their response to a nuclear explosion, leading to all out nuclear war. Drama, starring Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and Adeel Akhtar

Review http://www.cine-vue.com/2015/08/film-review-war-book.html this is not to be confused with the newly released film with the same title.

Akrasia

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Four Goes Nuclear!

Sunday 9 PM



Monday 9 PM



Monday 10 PM



Tuesday 10 PM



Review http://www.cine-vue.com/2015/08/film-review-war-book.html this is not to be confused with the newly released film with the same title.

They should have shown 'Threads' at some time during the week. Although I'm still slightly traumatised from the last time I watched it.

alaimacerc

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Four Goes Nuclear!

Sunday 9 PM

Thanks for this. But annoyed I didn't notice this earlier... I have Storyville on series link, but UPC being UPC, it just ignores that completely from time to time. Nor does it seems to be getting an early repeat -- no showings in the EPG interval at all, apparently...

Harry Palmr

BBC Four goes slow again this Christmas with a two hours sleigh ride through the sub-Arctic
countryside of Finland.

Harry Palmr

More stuff - Brief History of Graffiti at 9 PM then Sean Connery 85th birthday marked with The Man Who Would Be King at 10 pm.